Oscar Night

 
So the Oscars are today! There's been a lot of (totally justified) complaints about the lack of diversity in this year's nominees, with movies like Straight Outta Compton, Creed, Tangerine, and Carol getting some major snubs because of a voting block that always prefers to err on the side of Driving Miss Daisy.

But what this narrative completely overlooks is that the 2016 list of nominees is perhaps the strongest group of Oscar movies since the best picture list was expanded in 2010. In other words, there's absolutely no Blind Side, no Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in the bunch! And that, my friends, is definite room for celebration. All of these movies are good, and some of them are great.

This is honestly the first year in my memory where I won't be disappointed if any of the nominated films wins Best Picture. Of course, in a perfect world, Mad Max would win everything it's nominated for, or (barring that) at least Spotlight (the second best movie of the bunch).

I have a creeping suspicion that The Revenant will have a very good run tonight, which is only disappointing in comparison to all the other, slightly worthier movies in the running. Either way, I'd be perfectly happy to live in a world where the Oscar for best picture goes to a movie about a guy who crawls inside a dead horse so he won't freeze to death. Why not?

So I'll be satisfied with whatever happens tonight... Unless, of course, Inside Out loses the best cartoon award, in which case I'll never forgive myself for this blind optimism. But that won't happen.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the awards, too. And in the meantime, you can check out some of my latest movie reviews over at Slickster Magazine. We have:

Kung Fu Panda 3: The Repetition
"if you're a fan of the first film, just watch that instead"

The Visit
"at least as good as Signs or The Village"

Hail, Caesar!
"a disappointing Coen Brothers movie that happens to have some of the best scenes they've ever done"

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
"the idea is better than the execution"

None of these movies are horrible, so check them out if you're at all interested. But whatever you do, don't watch this movie:

Ugh.

Night Walkers Be Walkin' the Night

So apparently I'm a "new master of the dark," whatever that means. Aside from the slight hyperbole of the cover, this anthology is pretty cool. My short story is called "Fat Guy on the Bus" and it is probably the most experimental thing I've ever written. Despite the cover image, it does not involve wolves. Or coyotes.

But you should check it out anyway. Trust me. I'm a New Master of the Dark (tm).

Evan's Adventures in an African Literary Journal

   

So I've been published in a lot of random places (Australian horror magazines, H.P. Lovecraft collections, red hot romance publications...), but now I can check off an item on my bucket list that I didn't even know was there:

Publication in a Nigerian literary magazine.

You read that right. My slightly tragic, slightly political, slightly bugnuts short story "Green and Yellow, Red and Blue" is now a featured story in Sub-Saharan Magazine, The Nigerian Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. My story is more fantasy than sci-fi, and actually more horror than fantasy, but it's very much written from the perspective of someone who's living and working in Africa.
  

  
For those of you who don't know, I've been in Zanzibar, Tanzania, for half a year now, and it is the coolest, craziest, most exciting experience of my life. (And I've been to Dracula's Castle!) Hopefully, just a little of that cool, crazy excitement comes across in my story (which is free to the public, soooo... No excuses.)

Check it out. And feel free to comment. I know this is a boring, ol' website, but I would like to hear from some of you reading this.
   

Killer Toys

 
New anthology alert!

Okay, so there's a horror collection through Thirteen O'Clock Press (the guys behind Arachnophobia and One Hell of a Christmas) that's all about a toybox full of killer toys. When I heard about the premise, I knew that I just had to be involved. I mean... Chucky is my spirit animal. I love anything related to killer toys.

To give some variety to the anthology, each writer cooked up a story about a different killer play thing. Teddy bears. Jack-in-the-Box clown heads. All that stuff. So take a wild guess which toy I chose for my very special, very spooky entry...

Silly Putty? Nope.

Stretch Armstrong? Sorry. Try again.

A Yack Pack? No. I don't even know what that is.

You guys! It's a rubber snake! I wrote a scary story about a rubber snake. And let me assure you, this story is not at all what you expect. Don't trust me? Check it out for yourself. I'm not playin' around.