"Sweet Tomb" by Trinie Dalton

I’ve foreseen my death since the day my Mom named me: Candy. It will happen after I’ve binged on my gingerbread walls, eaten the frosted windowpanes, and chewed hunks off the peppermint fireplace. The cause: Sweetheart Attack, a.k.a. Sugar Overdose. It’s a classic witch affliction. After all, a witch’s house isn’t solely built to lure starving children. They design them with their favorite treats, with tips from the Witch’s Home Journal. The magazine runs a column called 'Houses To Nibble At.' Last month’s winning house had the following caption beneath its photo: This devilishly delicious Witch’s House, with its broken candy glass path, cookie graveyard, licorice barbed-wire fence, and spooky hilltop shack with graham cracker roof, will delight a crowd of 20. I took the graveyard suggestion and have been busy baking tombstones to give my family some recognition. Everyone I’m related to is out back, mostly in the form of scattered ashes.
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In Sweet Tomb, Trinie Dalton tells the story of Candy, a candy-addicted witch who resents her inherited lifestyle. After a fire burns down her gingerbread house, she leaves the forest and ventures out in search of the excitement of a more urban environment. Along the way she encounters a self-mutilating puppet, tastes meat for the first time, and falls in love with Death, a skeletal woman with a shoe fetish.

Trinie Dalton is the author of the story collection Wide Eyed, an installment in Dennis Cooper’s 'Little House on the Bowery' series for Akashic Books, and of the novella A Unicorn is Born. She is also the co-editor of Dear New Girl or Whatever Your Name Is, an art book of confiscated notes from high school students, and the editor of MYTHTYM, a collection of essays, artwork, and miscellany on a variety of mythological and horror-related subjects.

For more information, or to purchase Sweet Tomb, visit Trinie's Web site here.

Watch out or the Trekkies might just "Klingon" to your limbs

As Kris and I anticipate our first *ahem* trek to Monster-Mania 15, I have been extremely dorky the past couple of days with my reading Batman comics and watching nostalgic films and TV shows like TailSpin, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Back to the Future. So, while applying for an internship (which is not dorky), I came across the novel Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stallon on Quirk Book's Web site.

I've never been a fan of Star Trek; just never watched it. However, I've always respected Trekkies and their devotion to the deep-space phenomenon. However, I am a fan of horror, zombies being one of my favorites, so I can't wait to read this. The cover, in the style of a Hardy Boys (side note: look at this!) or Nancy Drew novels, is particularly striking. Who doesn't love dead Spock holding an arm doing the Vulcan salute (yes, I had to look that up)?

 The Facebook fan page has this to say about Night of the Living Zombies:

"This sci-fi/zombie/comedy/adventure follows a group of rag-tag Trekkies getting together for the fifth annual GulfCon (billed as the 'largest Starfleet Convention in the western Gulf Coast region').

"Of course you don't understand. You don't have the brains to understand.  All you have is printed circuits...and I'll eat them, too!"

Our heroes are dressed in homemade uniforms and armed with prop phasers-but soon find themselves defending their hotel and convention center against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Suddenly, all of their useless knowledge about particle physics and old Star Trek episodes has genuine real-world applications! And while hotel employees and regular civilians are dying left and right, our Trekkies summon strength and courage by emulating their favorite starship-voyaging characters.

Packed with hundreds of gags referencing Star Trek, Star Wars, comic books, and fan conventions, Night of the Living Trekkies reads like the strange lovechild of Galaxy Quest and Dawn of the Dead. Journey to the final frontier of zombie science-fiction satire!"

"Live long and prosper...but not for long!"

 

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