Coffin Bell Journal, the quarterly online journal of dark literature that recently featured my crime/horror short story, Trick Roller, has posted an interview with me online in which I discuss my writing career, my views on how to go about writing, suggestions for novices, and writers that I admire among other topics. My sincere thanks to Editor-in-Chief Tamara Burross Grisanti and Associate Editor Sarah Saint for taking an interest and providing me with this opportunity. If you’re interested in reading the interview, please click the link below:https://coffinbell.com/interview-with-mark-mellon/
The ancient Greeks and Romans believed the Lord of the Dead was the richest of the gods since all the hidden treasures of the earth were his, gold, silver, gems, etc. That’s why I made sure he has plenty of bling. His Greek name, Hades, is traced to an archaic word meaning the Unseen in one suggested etymology. Ancients thought it a decidedly bad, unlucky thing to mention Hades by name so they used a euphemism instead, the Rich One, Plouton in Greek, Pluto in Latin. The latter word is the root of “plutocrat.” This makes sense since plutocrats do seem quite dead inside.Upon arrival, Plouton sheds a single tear for each dead soul. This is the limit of his mercy.
As promised, my short story about plutocrats run amuck, The Yacht As Big As Manhattan, is now up at Tall Tale TV, both in podcast and print format. A big kudos to Chris Herron for a high quality, very professional presentation and reading. This got my Monday off to a terrific start. It’s available on YouTube, Facebook, in MP3 podcast, and directly from the TTV website. Please give the yarn a listen or read, whatever is most convenient. Learn of the mysterious Arkadin family’s dysfunctional adventures aboard a ship the size of old Peter Von Stuyvesant’s island! Website http://talltaletv.com/the-yacht-as-big-as-manhattan/ YouTube https://www.facebook.com/TallTaleTV/posts/1955894294534500 MP3 https://pinecast.com/listen/ffc12c55-d04a-43e7-9207-0172712817b8.mp3
Chris Herron, the entrepreneurial proprietor of Tall Tale TV, an SF and Fantasy podcast site, has been good enough to inform me he’ll read The Yacht As Big As Manhattan this upcoming Monday, August 24. Yacht is a satirical SF story about a boy from a snotty prep school in the near future who gets way more than he bargained for when he goes on spring break with the son of the richest man in the world. The story was very loosely inspired by my favorite F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, The Diamond As Big As The Ritz, one of his few speculative fictions along with The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. I’m very much looking forward to Chris’s reading. I’m sure he’ll do the yarn justice and I’ll let everyone know when the reading’s available online.Thanks again to Chris for the acceptance!
This is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in years, a true screwball comedy for the early 21st century about two slackers who break into vacation homes in the Catskills and ransack them. Doomsdays plays like a Hope & Crosby Road picture only with sociopathic criminals as the rascally ne’er-do-wells who charm their way into your heart. To carry the Road analogy further, the straight Crosby role is played by Dirty Fred (Justin Rice), a wisecracking, booze guzzling pickup artist with the manner and appearance of an extremely scruffy grad student, and the Hope role by Bruho (Leo Fitzpatrick) who looks and acts like an escapee from an asylum for the criminally insane, a deeply antisocial personality with a penchant for slashing tires and trashing cars (all for a very altruistic reason) and a hidden kink that plays an important part in the plot. The dynamic between these two alone provokes steady entertainment as they drift from one empty resort home to another. They break in, get caught yet talk their way out of it, and trash every place they visit, making sure to drink all the decent alcohol and carry off any good drugs they find. The action kicks up further when an acolyte joins, Jaidon, a kid they find passed out after a riotous party who follows them, intrigued by their footloose, glamorous lifestyle. Brian Charles Johnson gets big yuks from the role, consummately playing a chubby putz with a burning desire for a life of action and danger. The group is completed by Reyna (Laura Campbell), a bright, lively young woman who Dirty Fred chats up at a party (that he crashed, natch). Reyna throws over her conventional lifestyle and joins the wild and groovy housebreaking scene. She quickly proves more adept than the men, effortlessly talking their way out of being caught. This character adds sexual tension to the plot with shifting relationships between Reyna, Dirty Fred, and the initially hostile Bruho. The film did drag a bit during the last half hour as the relationships played themselves out, yet this did lead to a satisfying conclusion I won’t give away. The lull in the last third is easily forgiven, given the frantic pace of the first two thirds as the gags fly hot and heavy. There is a lot of really funny dialogue, most voiced by Dirty Fred, with his perpetually sardonic, unflappable, been there, done that manner. There are so many jokes, the film warrants a second viewing to catch stuff you missed the first time. I found this film amusing for personal reasons since I’ve vacationed in upstate New York a lot (a really beautiful part of the country), but Doomsdays should appeal to just about anyone, so long as they like their humor black. Sword and sandal fans rejoice! The June 2020 issue of Swords And Sorcery Magazine is now out, featuring my story Melkart In The City Of The Dead. This is the second published tale to feature the exploits of the Phoenician powerhouse. The first, Melkart The Herdsman, appeared in Mythaxis, a UK magazine, in 2018. A third story, Melkart The Castaway, will appear later this year in Cirsova, Magazine Of Thrilling Adventure And Daring Suspense, In City, Melkart voyages to mysterious Khemi and the city of Inbu-Hedj, where the dead are more welcome than the living, on a dangerous quest to save his master, Abibaal, Lord of Tyre, from a maleficent curse and a doomed afterlife. Learn more and read for free by clicking the first link below: Melkart In The City Of The Dead: http://swordsandsorcerymagazine.com/melkart-in.html Melkart The Herdsman: https://mythaxis.co.uk/16issuev21.htm Cirsova Magazine https://cirsova.wordpress.com/cirsova-magazine/
Disclaimer: My crime story, The Rag, appears in this and won’t be reviewed. Instead, I’ll focus on the other authors. Blue Room Books, a small press located in Decatur, GA, has published a fiction anthology that focuses on the “South” with a bifurcated approach; the first third features humorous stories on the general theme of Southernness while the second part deals with crime. I’ve chosen to review the latter stories due to humor being so subjective. A good crime yarn just seems easier to recognize. These are my thoughts with a caveat to my fellow authors that this only reflects my personal opinion and shouldn’t be taken to heart.
I recommend this anthology to anyone interested in crime fiction, the South as a literal location or a figurative one, and small press supporters. https://blueroombooks.com/upcoming-anthology-southern-humor-southern-crime/ https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Southern-Humor-Crime-Anthology/dp/1950729044
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