Edmund Lester

Have a new bunch of film reviews under consideration for Murky Depths. Films in questions are - Saw: The Final Chapter (yeah I know a little late) - Alien vs Ninja - Prowl Will try to get some more film watching in this weekend so I can keep up the pace... ..recovery is going well I think

New Myths have accepted a review from me - for Stefan Petucha's Blood Prophesy. And turned down the review for A. Lee Martinez's Monster. 50% is an acceptance rate I'll take. And I'll post the Martinez review on here soon. Oh and I've sent in another 3 articles to them - fingers crossed.

Just found out another six short film reviews of mine will be appearing on the Murky Depths website soon. These will be for - The Bleeding Burke & Hare Devil's Playground Husk Let Me In Little Big Soldier You don't have to wait to visit them, go check out their site anyway - http://www.murkydepths.com/

Okay, if you read this blog (hey, someone might) you may hvae noticed a distinct lack of any activity whatsoever in recent times. Sorry! I'm afraid I've been a little unwell of late and really haven't been in the mood to type in blog entries - or to do much of anything to be totally honest. I finally gave in to the fact I was feeling like crap and went to see someone about it. Result is I was diagnosed with severe depressive disorder - clinical depression in old money. It's fun let me tell you. (Yes, I'm lying) So I was put on pills to alleviate the symptoms. First citalopram and then fluoxetine. Neither of which seemed to do me much positive good and both of which came with a whole host of side effects that made me feel crappier. I'm now off meds and trying to deal with things (unless doc advises I go on other meds - we'll see). I'm hoping to find enough strength to start getting my life back - and hopefully developing some new coping strategies for the...

A while ago I began posting reviews of books that had, for one reason or another, never been sold. It seemed to go well, I gained a couple of blog followers and got generally good comments. Well the time I feel has come to revisit this idea in a slightly changd format. I was lucky enough to encounter a horror/dark fiction ezine called nossa morte when it launched in 2007. I sold to their very first issue. In fact I sold to every single issue they did - at least one review in each with three in one issue. They are defunct sadly - been that way for more than a year now and the site is no longer on the net. So I thought I should recycle the reviews I wrote for them and post them here. Tonight I will (shortly) be posting the review for Tim Waggoner's Nekropolis, a sublimely brilliant comic dark fantasy.

Okay, it's been a while since my last post. I could claim one excuse or another for not posting to this blog more often. And in reality the reasons I would give are not just excuses but true. I mentioned in an earlier post my mother dying over Christmas. This has left a lot of processing - sorting out her house, funerals, cancelling paper deliveries, chaning utilities etc. And then there's the emptying of her house... On top of all this there is the flu that has been plaguing my life since Christmas Day, one week of feeling really ill then lurking in the background with occasional ickiness repeats. And then there's the fact I've been trying to concentrate on writing a novel, which isn't going too badly - up to 14,500 words and an aim to get over 80,000 by the end of March - yeah I know it's tight but I need to set deadlines so I will get on with it. But some things have been happening I wanted to post. Firstly there's some news on my reviews being released/p...

Just received my copy of Murky Depths #13 in today's post. It's a really good looking magazine and I'm looking forward to giving the stories a read later. But I wanted to post a quick little blog entry about it as the issue contains three of my short (c. 250 word) reviews. There are two book reviews (for Dean Koontz's Relentless and Ronald Malfi's Snow) as well as a film review (for Stag Night). If you feel like taking a look at their site - and preferably considering buying a copy of this fine mag (and I'm not just saying that because it features me) - then their website can be found at http://www.murkydepths.com/ Oh and the site currently has the cover for #14 (really great cover too) which is available for pre-order and which I will also have reviews in. You could go buy both. Enjoy!

My review of Harry Turtledove's Hitler's War has just been posted to sf website New Myths. If you want to check it out you can find it at http://63.64.44.120/index.pacq?id=278&tier=2

The third of my recent batch of Dark Scribe Magazine reviews (and fifth in total) has been posted. This one for George Mann's Ghosts of Manhattan, a 1920s Batman style story with steampunk stylings. Not a bad read. Anyway you can find my review at http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/reviews/

Dark Scribe Magazine has posted my review of Edward M Erdelac's novella Red Sails - a bit of a pirate adventure piece. You can find it at http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/reviews/

My review of Robin Becker's Brains: A Zombie Memoir has been posted on the horror website Dark Scribe Magazine. You can find them at - http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/ The reviews section is accessible from the link on the right hand side of the screen, or you can get to it direct by clicking - http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/reviews/

I received email this evening that horror website Dark Scribe Magazine will be featuring another three of my reviews. These are for Robin Becker's Brains: A Zombie Memoir, George Mann's Ghosts of Manhattan and Edward M. Erdelac's Red Sails. I'll post links when the reviews are live

UK sf/horror site Murky Depths have posted another ten of my reviews Book Reviews Ray Garton's Scissors Stephen King's Blockade Billy Lavie Tidhar's The Bookman Film Reviews Alice in Wonderland Bikini Girls on Ice Daybreakers Resurrecting the Street Walker Vampire The Wolfman You can find all of these at - http://www.murkydepths.com/

New Myths ( http://www.newmyths.com ) has bought another two of my book reviews - for Harry Turtledove's Hitler's War and Tim Waggoner's Dead Streets. I think this makes it to eight that I've sold to them - in addition to the three articles. But on the short story side I've had two rejections - from Daily Science Fiction and Black Ink Horror. Ah well, I'll keep trying.

About a month ago I sent in a review to Plutonian Times - and they rejected it. Guess the run couldn't go on and on unbroken. Still, I hope to find that review a home somewhere, the paperback has yet to be released in the USA so it's still current.

I'm rather happy to be able to let you know that Murky Depths have posted another two of my reviews on their website - for the new Sherlock Holmes film and for Ramsey Campbell's Creatures of the Pool. As always you can find their site at http://www.murkydepths.com/ That brings my total on their site to nine - three movie reviews and six book reviews. Not to mention the four reviews (three books, one movie) that I've had in the magazine itself. Just having a happy moment

Guess I should have waited another day (following last night's post about a sale to the Murky Depths print mag). today found out they have accepted two more film reviews and a book review for the Snack Reviews on their website. Films are Valhalla Rising and Mutants, book is Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing. If you want to read them, pop over to their site (URL below) and click the link top left. http://www.murkydepths.com/

UK sf/horror mag Murky Depths (becoming my most regular home for writing) has accepted another of my reviews - of the recent DVD release Stag Night. The review will appear in the next issue of their magazine - not on the website. I still have another couple of reviews with them so maybe I'll be able to let you know some more news soon.

Much as I have been a lifelong sf fan and the majority of my past reading being sf I have always had a soft spot for decent horror. And of late with the fact most of my writing seems aimed at horror zines I've read more horror than not (unless you can call a history of English cricket horror in which case it's been exclusively horror). And I have to say I've been thoroughly enjoying doing so. I've read a number of damn fine novels of late and just wanted to let you know some thoughts on them and on just how many sf themes are running through these stories (okay if you read any of my reviews some of this might be familair but hey... Nate Kenyon's Sparrow Rock is the first I'll mention. At it's core it has a classic 1950s sf theme - nuclear war - and the action takes place in or around a nuclear bunker. Okay a lot of the actual action and detail is horror flavoured but the concept of an atomic explosion leading to mutated creatures is pure old school sf. But f...

The fourth of my reviews to appear on the Murky Depths website has just been posted - for Nate Kenyon's latest novel Sparrow Rock. If you want to read it pop over to their website (URL below) and click the link top right. You'll find the review of this book in the list... http://www.murkydepths.com/