The high concept for the novel is simplicity itself: A spineless magazine employee, Davey Owen, loses his girlfriend, and in a combination of curiosity and despair, he visits a New York Times Square peep show called “Live Girls.” The performers at the peep show are vampires though, and they have big plans for Davey. The repercussions of Davey’s new “relationship” with the illicit vampire-run sex business affect the other people in his life. He meets a few new folks too.

Besides Davey, Live Girls includes the following characters: Walter Benedek is a newspaper reporter whose sister and niece have been killed by Vernon, Walter’s brother-in-law. (Vernon became involved with the vampires at Live Girls before Davey.) Beth is Davey’s ex-girlfriend, who has left him because she prefers to get beat up by her junkie boyfriend.  Chad Wilkes is Davey’s nemesis at the office, who gets the promotion that Davey deserves. And Casey is Davey’s loyal friend, co-worker, and would-be lover.

The other characters in Live Girls are more minor, like the obnoxious boss-lady who sexually harasses Davey, and the owner of a gun store who has helped Davey research some magazine articles in the past. The vampires also have unique personalities, but I’d prefer not to spoil the novel by going into any detail about those characters.

The horror in the book is unabashedly erotic and gruesome. If you’re offended by graphic sex scenes put to paper, this isn’t the right book for you. If you’re squeamish about blood and violence, stay away. If you’re looking for sympathetic vampires who sparkle in the sunlight or who long to have their unnatural lives ended, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

On the other hand, if you like vampires who are evil, and heroes who are overpowered by the forces of darkness, Live Girls is a gem of a book. Ray Garton is a fine craftsman and a compelling storyteller. Live Girls maintains enough suspense and the characters are interesting enough that the book will be a short read for most horror fans, because they likely won’t put it down until they’ve finished reading it.

Live Girls is now one of my favorite vampire novels, largely because of the strength of the characterization and the smooth, competent writing style.

1. The Crazies Blu-ray Review – Matt Fini reviews the release of the recent remake of George Romero’s The Crazies on Blu-ray. I’m not as big a fan of the original movie as the reviewer, but he makes some good points about how the new version could have been improved. His review of the actual quality of the Blu-ray itself was a welcome addition also.
2. Summer Horror Reading

1. The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks – Even though it came out in 2003, The Zombie Survival Guide is still a best seller. Do my customers know about an impending zombie apocalypse or something? Probably not. The popularity of this book probably has more to do with the clever idea and the good writing. But if you’re ordinary person who is worried about what to do during a zombie outbreak, then you’ll find this book useful And Max Brooks is Mel Brooks’s son.
2. World War Z by Max Brooks – This isn’t really a novel. It’s actually a collection of short stories set in a single setting where the zombies rose and were eventually more-or-less defeated in the titular war on zombies. It’s an excellent follow-up to Brooks’s first zombie book, and the writing is outstanding. The audio version of World War Z is also well worth listening to, with readings from notables like Alan Alda and Rob Reiner, among others.
3. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth-Grahame Smith – 85% of the text in this book is the same as the text in Austen’s original novel Pride and Prejudice. But oh what a difference the other 15% makes. We read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as a horror book club selection one month, and it was well-liked by all our members. (And yes, we do have members who love Jane Austen.) Beware of the many attempts to cash in on the popularity of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; they’re not all of the same high quality. Although Seth-Graham Smith’s new book, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, is likely a worthy successor.
4. The Walking Dead – The paperback collections of Robert Kirkman’s excellent comic book series The Walking Dead fly off the shelves as soon as they come in. Each edition collects six issues of the comic book, which is a zombie movie as an ongoing series with no ending. We expect sales of this one to continue to grow, especially now that AMC is creating The Walking Dead as an ongoing television series. (And Frank Darabont’s in charge of this one, so it should be great.)
5. ZEO: How to Get A(Head) in Business by Scott Kenemore – This isn’t the first book about zombies that Scott Kenemore has written. The Zen of Zombie is also a popular seller at the store. But ZEO seems to be more popular. Is it possible that people are really so desperate for good advice on how to run a business that the only real wisdom they can find is in a spoof book? I think so. The career advice in this one actually made more than a little bit of sense to me. What that says about me, I’m not sure.
6. Marvel Zombies by Robert Kirkman – The collected editions of these comics still sell out constantly. In case you’re not familiar with the series, it takes a look at what would happen in the Marvel Universe if a zombie apocalypse happened there. So we get treated to zombie versions of the Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and all of the other Marvel superheroes. I think this would make a great movie (definitely better than either of the dull Fantastic Four movies I sat through, anyway).
7. The Best of All Flesh by James Lowder – Before zombie anthologies became common, James Lowder was editing collections of short fiction as a companion to Eden Studios’ roleplaying game All Flesh Must Be Eaten. These anthologies are all out of print now, but this collection picks out Lowder’s favorites from the three volumes. RPG companies are not always known for the high quality of their fiction publications, but The Best of All Flesh stands head and shoulders over most other zombie short fiction anthologies.

Visit us Eerie Books, 205 N. Ballard, Wylie, TX between 2pm and 6pm in order to buy any of these tiles. We’d love to meet you.

For more information about zombies and zombie books, check out some of these resources:

• All Things Zombie
• “Night of the Living Wonks”

That’s all for today. Will blog more tomorrow.

In addition to that site, Mr. Clifton has also done some work on another new microsite of ours, Stephen King Movies. This is only a one page site right now, but as far as we know, it’s pretty close to a complete list of all of the movies and tv shows that have been based on the works of Stephen King. This new site is the kind of site we could probably expand on indefinitely, but we’re going to see how well it does as a really highly-focused, narrow content, one page website first before expanding on the content. Mr. Clifton does include his opinions on some of the best and some of the worst Stephen King movies, and I tend to agree with him on those too, thinking that Kubrick’s version of The Shining is one of the most effective horror movies ever made.

And if you’re looking to buy some horror stories to read, or if you’re interested in Stephen King’s new novel, Under the Dome, then we can help you out there at the store. Just come on by. We’ve been matching the Wal-mart $9 price as an unadvertised special there in the store, and the book has been flying off the shelves. I’ve already finished it, and I think it’s possibly one of Stephen King’s best novels ever.

I also recently finished reading The Rising by Brian Keene. It’s a brutal experience, one of the goriest and most disgusting books I’ve ever read. I loved it. If you like gruesome horror, then this is a book that will not disappoint you.

1. Local independent bookstores offer a better selection of books than Wal-mart. I operate a small, niche bookstore with only about 1000 square feet of space, but I’d estimate that we carry 5000 different titles. (And we’re an all-horror bookstore.) A typical Wal-mart carries only about 200 titles.
2. The employees at your local independent bookstore have usually read some of the books on their shelves. I won’t hire someone to even help me part-time at the store without insisting that they read at least one book a month. Most independent bookstore owners are probably more strict than that. Some of the folks working at Wal-mart might be very well-read indeed, but I wouldn’t go there looking for a book recommendation, because I think that number is probably relatively small.
3. You can actually find a customer service person to talk to at your local independent bookstore. Depending on the size of your local independent bookstore, you’ll probably be receiving customer service directly from the manager or owner of the store. If not, you’ll be dealing with someone who reports directly to the manager or the owner. But in either case, you’ll be able to find someone to talk to about what you need almost immediately. Have you ever tried finding an employee at Wal-mart when you need one?
4. Local independent bookstores tend to be quiet and not crowded. I hate noise. I hate crowds. I’d prefer not to suffer through both at Wal-mart in order to buy my books. Does that mean I might pay a little bit more? Well, yeah, maybe. But on the other hand, books (even at full price) are the cheapest entertainment you can find.
5. Local independent bookstores offer programming related to books. When’s the last time your local Wal-mart hosted a lecture from a visiting author? Or a book club meeting? How often does your local Wal-mart offer storytime for the kids? Or open mike poetry night? Or writing workshops?
6. Some local independent bookstores offer used and new books. You can’t buy used books at Wal-mart, but at my bookstore, I have all of our used paperbacks on special for $1.50 per copy. You can buy a copy of Stephen King’s The Stand for $1.50, and you’ve got commercial free entertainment every night for a whole week. That’s not even 20 cents per night. Compare that with the cost of going to the theater, renting a movie, or even paying your cable bill.
7. Staff picks can provide you with lots of ideas for new reading. Almost all independent bookstores have a section in their store where the staff’s favorite books are featured. Personalized recommendations like this aren’t available at Wal-mart. And if you come to my store, and tell me that you really enjoyed reading The Rising by Brian Keene, then I’m going to suggest that you take a look at Monster Planet by David Wellington. Wal-mart probably doesn’t even carry those two titles, much less have employees who can make the connection between what you already like and what you might also like.
8. Local money stays local. I live and work in the same place, and when you buy books from me, you’re helping to support the local economy. And I also buy local as much as I possibly can, which also helps keep money circulating through our town’s economy. Buy from Wal-mart if you want to support the Bentonville, Arkansas economy.

There are my 8 reasons to buy books from your local independent bookstore instead of from Wal-mart. Can you think of some reasons I missed that we should add to this list?

On a related, but different, subject, we’re reading Some of Your Blood for next month’s book club meeting. Theodore Sturgeon wrote the book ages ago, but it’s available in a beautiful edition from Millipede Press. We have several copies now available at the store. Our reading of My Work is Not Yet Done has been postponed until the November meeting, but that’s going to be a pretty special one for us, as we’re going to have autographed copies of the book available. And Thomas Ligotti autographs are not easy to come by.

Also coming in November is a Christmas zombie book called It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies. The book isn’t in stock yet, but it will be next month, and it looks funny. If you enjoyed Zombie Haiku or Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, then it should be right up your alley.

And if you haven’t read The Walking Dead series of graphic novels yet, you’re really missing out. It’s consistently our top selling book, month-in and month-out.

Finally, if you want to discuss horror books and horror literature, we do have a sister site with a horror literature forum. Come talk to us about what you’re reading there.

If this is the first you’ve heard about Death Troopers, here’s the skinny: Death Troopers is the first adult Star Wars horror novel. Joe Shreiber wrote the novel, and the plot concerns an Imperial prison ship and a virus where the dead return to life. That’s right–it’s a zombie novel set in the Star Wars universe. Reminds me of peanut butter and chocolate: two great tastes that taste great together.

Please drop by the store to pick up your $15 copy of Death Troopers. For a limited time, I’m also going to take orders for the book online. Email me at randyray at gmail dot com if you’re interested in having a copy shipped directly to your home or office. We don’t normally offer online ordering, but in the case of Death Troopers, we’re making an exception.

• Any of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books – get ‘em while they last!
• Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris – this one retails for $25.95 in hardcover, but we’re selling it for $19.99.
• The Tenant by Roland Topor is normally $13, but it’s on sale now for just $9.99.
• The Face That Must Die by Ramsey Campbell retails for $14, but it’s on sale for just $11.99.
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman retails for $17.99, but we have it on sale for $13.99.
• Criminal Macabre by Steve Niles retails for $12.95, but we’re making it available for $9.99

We have other horror books on sale throughout the store. We’re also making all of our gaming products available at a discount of 20% off too.

Come get your discounted books while they last.

Eerie Books New Store Hours

Eerie Books is now open Tuesday through Saturday from 2pm to 6pm. We just weren’t seeing enough business in the mornings and late in the evenings to warrant staying open later than that. Now, with that being said, if you can’t make it to the store during those hours, I’ll come in and meet you at almost any time you like. So really the new Eerie Books store hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 2pm to 6pm or by appointment.

Horror Book Club

The book club is still going strong and meeting on the first Thursday of each month. Our next meeting will be on Thursday, October 1 at 6:30pm. We’re reading and discussing Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box, which is a terrific novel from the son of Stephen King. We’ll serve pizza and drinks, and we’ll visit the Ranch House for karaoke afterward. (Karaoke is optional, of course.)

Wylie High Rollers Fantasy Football League

We had our fantasy football draft at the Ranch House this weekend. It was very cool Thanks to Sammy and crew for being the official drinking establishment for Eerie Books.

Cool New Horror Books

We’ve recently received shipments of some really cool new horror books. One of my favorites is Z.E.O.: A Zombie’s Guide to Getting A(Head) in Business. While it’s tongue in cheek and from the same folks who wrote The Zen of Zombie, it actually does offer some reasonably good business advice for people who want to climb the corporate ladder. One piece of advice I enjoyed is that you should never hurry, but never rest either. (Just like a zombie, see?)

Upcoming Horror Books

Under the Dome by Stephen King is one of our most anticipated upcoming horror books. We’ll have copies for sale on November 10, 2009. Under the Dome tells the story of Chesters Mill, Maine, which is a small town inexplicably cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field.

Death Troopers by Joe Shchreiber is the first horror novel to be placed in the Star Wars universe. It’s set just before or just after A New Hope, and it’s basically a zombie novel in space, set on a prison ship belonging to the Empire. Death Troopers will be available for purchase at the store on its release date, October 13, 2009.

Dark Delicacies III from Del Howison is now available, and we have copies on the way. (They should be here by Friday.) Dark Delicacies is the only other all-horror bookstore in the country, and they publish an occasional anthology of horror fiction edited by proprietor Del Howison. The first two volumes are excellent, and we expect the latest one to be just as good. Dark Delicacies III includes short fiction from Clive Barker, Chuck Palahniuk, and David Morrell, among others.

Vampire Haiku by Ryan Meclum is a sequel of sorts to his earlier book, Zombie Haiku. We’ll have copies available by Friday of this week. If the book is anywhere near as good as its predecessor, then it will be a real treat.

Eerie Books: You once said that the secret to writing a good novel was to write ten bad ones. What’s the worst novel you’ve ever written?

David Wellington: Oh, man, that’s an embarrassing one. Maybe it was the one about the zen buddha in a New Jersey suburb? That just did not work. Or the one about the satellite repairmen. For some reason I thought it would be really interesting to write about guys who go into space so they can fix glorified toasters. When I hear an idea like that, I think, it could be good, if it was about a bunch of working class astronauts and what they get up to in their off-work hours. But no, it wasn’t like that. It was about making sure you had the right kind of socket wrench before you went up to fix the Hubble telescope. It was fascinating stuff to me at the time but no one else, ever, is going to want to read it. That’s the point, though. You have to learn from your mistakes, and learn what other people want to read.

EB: 23 Hours: A Vengeful Vampire Tale will be out on June 23rd of 2009, and it’s the fourth book in the series which started with 13 Bullets. What’s in store this time around for everyone’s favorite vampire hunter, Laura Caxton?

DW: Well, anyone who read Vampire Zero, the third book, will know Laura’s in trouble. Spoiler alert–she got arrested at the end of that book. And because her life can never be good, it seems, she gets sent to jail. So it’s Laura Caxton in women’s prison. Which would be enough for a pretty good book right there–but then the vampires show up, and everything goes to hell.

EB: You started writing at the age of six, and you were first published almost 30 years later. Would you say patience is one of your virtues?

DW: Ha! It’s easy to be patient when you have nothing else to do. No, I was very impatient for most of that time, fuming away in obscurity, writing all the time because I had something to prove. I would show them, I vowed, I would show them all! "Them" in that sentence referring to all the very nice, very patient editors who had taken the time to send me hand-written rejection slips. No, it wasn’t patience that got me through those thirty years. It was mostly stubbornness. People constantly told me to give up writing, or to treat it like a hobby. I knew there was nothing else I wanted to do, so I kept plugging away at it.

EB: When you first started publishing Monster Island online, what was the experience like? Did you find yourself checking online every hour to see if readers had left feedback, and how did you react to the blunt criticism any writer is bound to face on the internet?

DW: I didn’t know what to expect, and in fact I didn’t think anyone would read it. When the hit counter broke the double digits, I was excited, because I didn’t know some of the people who were dropping by to read the book. Then it just started snowballing. For about two years there wasn’t five contiguous minutes when I didn’t check to see if there were new comments, new hits, new feedback. I got a lot of nasty flames and hate mail, but that just confused me, when so many other people were raving about the book. My emotional state was tied directly to numbers on a screen, and every waking thought was about how I responded to the opinion of someone I had never met, someone whose real name I didn’t even know. It’s no way to live–but it is an incredible learning experience. I learned more in those two years about writing than I had in the twenty-eight years before.

EB: In a previous interview, you mentioned that your mother was a voracious reader of horror novels back in the ’70s. Has she read your novels, and, if so, has she given you any advice or feedback?

DW: Oh, she loves them. She tried to give me in-depth critiques of the books at first, which is what she used to do for my stuff that didn’t get published–she was my first proofreader, actually. Now, though, when she starts telling me that one of my characters feels two dimensional or that a given plot point isn’t working I say, "Mom, relax, I have people who are paid to do that." Which doesn’t stop her, of course. It just makes me feel guilty that I talked back to my Mom.

EB: With the recent mass appeal of the Twilight movie and the True Blood television series, do you think aspiring writers might have an easier time breaking into the business with a vampire manuscript?

DW: Actually, I think it just makes it harder. The stakes are that much higher and when that happens the editors, the showrunners, the comic book publishers all panic. When a given property is making zero money, there’s no risk involved, so they’re pretty low key and open to new ideas. Right now, though, anyone trying to sell a vampire story that is new or fresh is going to hear one sentence over and over again: "This needs to be more like Twilight." If you’re honest with yourself and you have any talent at all, that sentence will crush your heart right inside your chest. I guess one reason zombies are so popular with beginning writers is because there isn’t one gigantic mega-hit in the zombie world. You can still do something different, something interesting with zombies, and have a chance of getting published.

EB: What advice do you have for someone who wants to be a writer?

DW: Stop. Go do something else for a living. There’s no money in it, and a lot of discouragement. There. Now, if you’re reading this and thinking to yourself, up yours, Wellington, I’m going to do it anyway… then you are probably a writer. You need that willingness to do it no matter what anyone says. You need to be willing to head-butt a lot of brick walls before one of them falls down. In the meantime, write. Write a lot. Every word you write makes you a better writer. Every sentence is better than the one before it. When you’re ready, try to get published. Expect to be rejected. Expect to try again, and again, and again…

EB: Do you keep up much with the horror genre in general? If so, are there any particular horror movies, horror books or horror comics which have captured your imagination in recent times?

DW: I’m actually doing a column on AMC’s Horror Hacker blog where I run down upcoming horror movies (at http://blogs.amctv.com/horror-hacker/horror-power-ra-1/), which I kind of inherited–I like horror movies, but I hardly consider myself an expert. Now I have to keep up with them, it’s my job. As for capturing my imagination… there’s a property called I, Frankenstein that’s a comic book they’re making into a movie. It looks awesome. Of course, if you put Frankenstein’s monster into just about anything, it makes it more awesome (as long as you don’t take it all too seriously). I’m also looking forward to the Nightmare on Elm Street remake, for pure nostalgia reasons. That was the slasher franchise my friends and I got behind when we were kids. The new version looks like they’re stripping out all of Freddy’s campy, goofy one-liners and making it all about a guy with a horribly deformed face and knives for fingers. That sounds pretty scary, if you ask me.

EB: You’ve listed Frankenstein’s Monster as the horror character you’d most like to write. Is there something about this tragic character which most appeals to you?

DW: He’s alone. He has nobody to tell him what’s right or wrong, no one to tell him what he’s for or what he’s worth. He has to figure those things out for himself. I often feel like my generation had the same problem. We knew not to trust the government, but the counterculture was pretty suspect as well. Our parents were busy making money in Reagan’s America and had very little time to teach us what actually mattered in life. So I feel like we’re a generation that raised itself, that taught ourselves everything. That’s a very painful place to be, so, yeah, I get his tragedy.

EB: Frostbite: A Werewolf Tale will hit stores in October of 2009. Can you give our readers an idea of what they should expect?

DW: A whole lot of awesome. This book was serialized online, but it’s been heavily updated and expanded from that version. It’s one of my favorite stories, and it has some of my best writing in it. My fans will not be disappointed.

EB: When you’re writing, do you have any particular music to get you in the mood for horror and keep you there?

DW: I can’t have music. I need silence–I need to be entirely inside my own head.

EB: You’ve described your books as "action horror novels." When it comes to writing action scenes, do you have any major sources of inspiration?

DW: I grew up reading a lot of pulp novels. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber. The stories were thin in what some people think matters in writing–theme, character development, "depth"–but they were so much fun. Utter fun to read, and they must have been fun to write, too. Because Monster Island wasn’t supposed to be a "serious" work, it was just something I was writing about zombies, I didn’t worry about writing a great novel. I just had fun with it. It turns out that’s the best way to write something entertaining for others, as well. I’m inspired by a lot by movies, as well. My action scenes play out in my head, I just imagine a really cool scene from an (imaginary) movie and then I describe it on the page.

EB: Since you’ve written extensively on the subject, do you think you’re adequately prepared for the coming zombie apocalypse?

DW: Not at all. Nobody can really be prepared–something always goes wrong at the last minute, or we make emotional decisions that leave us in the wrong place at the wrong time. Have zombie movies taught you nothing? Seriously, I hear from people all the time who tell me they’ll get by just fine when the zombies rise. All I can think is, wow, it almost sounds like you want that to happen. If it happened for real I think I would just shut down in total terror.

EB: In your vampire novels, the bloodsuckers aren’t really the fanged romantics depicted in so many other works of horror fiction. What made you decide to take them in a more savage direction?

DW: I read too many paranormal romance novels. That was the direction horror was headed, it was very clear, so I forced myself to read a bunch of books about vampires that don’t bite people, that want to take them on dates. You know what happens when I force myself to read bad books? It makes me itch. It makes me tap my foot on the floor in impatience. It makes me want to write a good book. So that’s what I did.

EB: What’s next for David Wellington?

DW: Lunch. Of course, I have to write two chapters before I can eat.

EB: Thanks so much for taking time to answer my questions. Any last words of wisdom for our readers?

DW: Thanks for your patience! I know I got long-winded up there. If you’re interested in reading some of my books for free, to see if you might like them, please drop by my website, www.davidwellington.net.