The Mysterious Quakertown Pyramids

When I was a kid and visiting my aunt’s farm in Quakertown, I recall passing the strange stone pyramids located on a rural stretch of road and always being intrigued by them. As I grew up and became curious about occult topics, I learned that the site was connected to the Rosicrucians, which only deepened the mystery for me. Just last week, I visited the area and soon found myself drawn, once again, to Clymer Road. George Clymer was one of the three founding members of the brotherhood in the American colonies, whose good company also included Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine. The organization, which appears to comprise a good section of the road, is still active today. The website, soul.org, is worth a look, even if it obfuscates as much as it reveals about the mystical religion with ties to Free Masonry and Theosophy.

The Rose-Croix brotherhood was founded in the early 1600’s in Europe after the several “inflammatory tracts” were published proclaiming the existence of a secret society led by one Christian Rosenkreuz, by most accounts a fictitious creation. But according to some legends, the mystery school goes back much further, beginning in AD 46 with an Egyptian sage and mystic called Ormus (meaning light) who claimed possession of secret mysteries from Atlantis. This “underground stream” of arcane knowledge was passed through the secret brotherhood, including famous members the likes of Frances Bacon, Goethe, and even Abraham Lincoln. But what exactly is this path to illumination? Perhaps the symbol of the rose offers the best clue. The many petals indicate an ongoing process of initiation. To quote Manley P. Hall (The Secret Teachings of All Ages) on the subject: “Only to him who has found his life by losing it is the mystery comprehensible.”

This might exclaim why I’m still quite baffled by this unlikely shrine in the woods of Quakertown. You may view my recent visitation near the end of this video. If you have anything to add to help illuminate me and my readers on this topic, please drop a comment below.

Book Worms – New Horror Zine

Book Worms, a new mail-order only horror zine, is now available for purchase online and at selective indie book stores. If you like old-school fan zines, check out Book Worms for only $5 an issue (USA shipping cost included). In Book Worms you’ll find engaging articles, reviews, short stories, puzzles, art, and all kinds of (cheap) horror fun!

SCAN CODE to BUY or click
on image to access link!

Write for Book Worms!

Currently accepting submissions for our Halloween issue.

Deadline: September 15, 2023

Payment is 8 cents a word.

No reprints or multiple submissions please. Exclusive rights for six months after publication.

Mail new horror fiction and essays (Halloween themes please) under 1500 words to:

La Regina Studio/Grundy Commons/925 Canal Street/Bristol, PA 19007

Acceptance notices are sent through email so no need to include self-addressed, stamped envelope. Please include your email address on your submission.

Check out our new Book Worms Horror Writing Podcast!

I Feel Sorry for Madonna

Anyone who knows me personally knows I’m not a fan of Madonna. That’s putting it mildly. I can’t stand her–the pop star, not the person, although I’m sure she’s as gross in person as she appears in interviews. Does anyone remember how rudely she treated her childhood friend in her 90’s “film verité” Truth or Dare? I do. Not to mention in the same film, when Madonna’s brother (his book is fun, by the way) informs her that a female crew member suspected she’d been drugged and raped the previous night, the pop star’s first instinct is to burst out laughing. When someone shows you who they are…

In a word, she’s ghastly and always has been. And yet she remains the most successful pop star of all time, a fact I must acknowledge.

Even though I blame her for destroying my generation’s pop music and pounding another nail into rock and roll’s coffin, I will concede that Madonna produced some interesting, even ground-breaking, videos back in the day. She had a knack for appropriating the avant-garde and underground New York art scene and repackaging it for mainstream consumption. She deserves credit for that and her tireless work ethic. I also wouldn’t mind borrowing a few items from her Take a Bow era closet. But that’s it! That’s all the charity I can muster for the lady. And yet, when I saw her face–what had become of it–plastered all over the media the day after the Grammys, after an initial flush of schadenfreude, all I felt for her was intense pity. She finally passed the point of no return with the–ahem–surgical “enhancements” she’d indulged in throughout her career, erasing her fresh-faced beauty into something else, something creepy, inhuman even. She had become the shape-shifting lizard and it honestly made me sad.

About a decade ago, I wrote a screenplay that I then turned into a novel called UNMASKED. It wasn’t based on Madonna–wouldn’t want the material girl to sue me–but I’d be lying if I said she wasn’t an inspiration. UNMASKED is about an aging pop star who will stop at nothing to enhance her fading looks. At that time, I predicted in my prose that said pop star would so destroy herself with bad plastic surgery that she’d lose her mind and go murderously berserk in an attempt to regain what was lost forever. I had great fun writing those scenes of Grand-Guignol mayhem. I confess I’d sometimes pump Madonna’s most monotoned songs through my headphones to fuel my writing sessions. What came out of it was a story that’s won many screenwriting awards and continues to garner good reviews. It’s my first novel, showing some flaws, but I’m still proud of that story. It certainly was inspired.

When Elton John famously ripped on Madonna and her “disastrous” career, bitchily claiming that “it couldn’t happen to a bigger c***,” I howled with laughter. But after this most recent revelation, I’m shedding a few tears. And it’s not because I’m buying Madonna’s feel sorry for me statement about ageism and misogyny. Other stars have played that routine to a packed house and played it better. It’s because I realize, with a knife twist to my gut, that the reason Madonna looks the way she currently does is not about trying and miserably failing to stay young and beautiful. It’s because the devouring beast inside her- some demon that long ago took hold of her soul- will do ANYTHING to get noticed, stay “relevant,” and keep people talking about her. When youth, beauty, and giving water bottles blow jobs no longer work, try self-destruction in real-time. Ah! What a glorious spectacle. When she quotes Beyonce (giggle), declaring, “You won’t break my soul,” I honestly believe it’s the demon inside her talking. It’s taken over, and no amount of crucifixes around her neck will save her.

Eureka! I found the plot for the sequel to UNMASKED. Madonna, I appreciate you after all. Here’s praying that stuff in your cheeks “settles” and you deliver a stunning and glorious third act. If you pull that one off, even I may be a bitch and bow down.

You can find UNMASKED on Amazon for only 99 cents or download if for FREE on Smashwords.

Book Review – Gothic by Philip Fracassi

Cemetery Dance – Feb. 2023

Tyson Parks, a washed-up horror writer huffing the last fumes of his former successes, endures a humiliating meeting with his editor. His new novel is crap, unacceptable. Why can’t he produce the hits like he used to? Tyson promises a rewrite but knows he doesn’t have it in him. Worse, he’s already spent the advance. Pushing sixty, bordering on alcoholism and debt, how long can Tyson hang on to the comfortable life his fading talent secured for him? Desperate men are dangerous in fiction. So are long-suffering women who only want to help.

Enter his live-in girlfriend Sarah, a woman of taste with money of her own, whom Tyson worries will any day now see him for the fraud he is. But Sarah hasn’t given up on Tyson. In fact, she surprises him with a gift for his 59th birthday: a valuable antique to replace his worn-out writing desk. This piece of Gothic artwork, an 18th-century occult altarpiece, may give him the inspiration he needs. Of course it does, but as in all good horror fiction, there is a heavy price to pay. Flush with his second-act success, Tyson becomes a willing vehicle for an ancient, unspeakable evil.

Fracassi’s Gothic is awash in familiar horror tropes: the Faustian bargain, the cursed object with a dark history. I was instantly reminded‑gleefully so‑of In the Mouth of Madness, Trilogy of Terror, and Rosemary’s Baby. Even the setting feels like something out of an Ira Levin story, evoking the simple pleasures of a bygone New York: jaunts through the Strand bookstore and Met museum, martini-fueled power lunches, sparkling cocktail parties at tony townhouses. The novel’s historical section, brief but effective, references M.G. Lewis and Horace Walpole with its damp subterranean crypts, dripping vaulted ceilings, and creaking iron gates. The altar, black basalt stone with unusual carvings, is the creation of a powerful magician who has an equally powerful adversary. Back in the present, a mysterious woman is desperate to retrieve her family’s lost artifact before its evil can be released into the world. Words have power, we are reminded, and destruction can be communicated through the latest bestseller—that is, if the public even reads anymore. We can only hope.

Horror fans will appreciate the homages to King and Poe, among others, but the winks and elbow nudges never eclipse the spine-tingling suspense or moments of glorious gross-out gore. Built on a solid structure, Gothic holds up the weight of its more giggling-inducing moments with aplomb. I laughed at the climax, but in a good way—the laughter at the final bend in the roller coaster. I know a book is good when I want to start the ride all over again. Minor characters are skillfully drawn, padding out a believable world in which I was happy to lose myself for a few days. I can easily see Gothic made into a blockbuster movie, bolstering my faith that classic horror can always be revived. Five enthusiastic stars!

Free Christmas Story!

Hi friends, I was hoping to write a new Christmas-themed horror story, but I’m still reading and responding to my over 600(!) Book Worms submissions. So, this year, I’m resurrecting last year’s humorous werewolf story, Ho Ho Howl!

Click the cover below and read for free. Have a wonderful holiday and do check out my latest BookTube video where I discuss the three Black Christmas movies.

Seeking Submissions!

For New Horror Zine

Book Worms is a new mail order only zine launching in 2023 (6 issues planned).

Deadline is December 1, 2022

Seeking original short fiction 500 – 3000 words.

Payment is .08 per word.

No reprints, exclusive rights for one year from publication.

Simultaneous submissions okay. English language only. No multiple submissions.

Open to all HORROR sub-genres. No romance or erotica.

Create something new and cool! Be brave!

Only properly formatted stories will be considered.

Submit your story as an email attachment labeled like this LASTNAME_STORYTITLE along with a brief cover letter using the subject line Book Worms Submission to exlibrisregina@gmail.com

I’m also looking for original artwork, so if you’re interested, send me a brief email along with a link to your portfolio or samples. Payment varies.

*Tip: Be really old school and mail your submission to:

La Regina Studio/Grundy Commons/925 Canal Street/Bristol, PA 19007

Happy Vamptember!

My vampire novel CODE RED is now for sale on Amazon.

I will probably be selling it on other platforms too, but for now, you may buy it in ebook and print. Also, if you’re on NetGalley, you may download a free copy through October. I proud of this book which began as a Wattpad story and ended up winning a Watty award in 2020. Here’s the premise:

The Vampires are Running the Asylum!
Wormwood Asylum, a private mental hospital located in Southwest Virginia, specializes in treating adolescent psychoses, including Renfield’s Syndrome, an obsession with drinking blood. But when a young man is committed to Wormwood because he believes he’s a vampire, it turns out he wasn’t lying, and soon rapacious revenants are running rampant through the rural mountain community. To fight the blatant bloodsuckers, the local sheriff teams up with a candy striper and her moonshiner grandpa, who just happens to have an arsenal of war-grade weapons stored in his prepper bunker, for a bloody country hoedown of epic proportions.

To celebrate my take on vicious vamps, I thought I’d share my favorite vampires in lore and legend. Not the most original list in the world, but here goes.

Barnabas Collins

Like many from my generation, Dark Shadows, was part of our daily routine. A soap opera fully steeped in campy Gothic tropes, the show lasted for a good chunk of my childhood. The feature film based on the series, The House of Dark Shadows, was the first horror film I was allowed to see when I was a kid and it scared me to bits–in reality, I was a bit young for it, but I’ll be forever grateful for my older sister who dragged me along and turned me into a horror fan forever chasing that first high. Just the other day, I discovered a Dark Shadows book and comic bonanza at my local antique mart and rejoiced at adding to my collection. Perhaps one day I’ll happen upon the elusive Dark Shadows Cookbook we decimated as children, now selling for hundreds on eBay. As far as I’m concerned the Tim Burton travesty doesn’t exist.

Carmilla

I’m late to Carmilla, having only read it last year, but man, it did not disappoint! Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella about an ancient aristocratic vampire with Lesbian tendencies has a titillating premise, but to be fair, the sexuality is as subtle as a cool whispered breath on a fluttery bosom. What I enjoyed most about the story was its slow burning Gothic atmosphere. Its influence on Stoker’s Dracula is quite obvious. This is a creepy story I will return to each fall while spending a holiday at a haunted Austrian castle or at least a misty morning in my neighborhood graveyard.

Lestat

I discovered Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire when it became a paperback sensation in the 80’s and I immediately fell in love with the seductive Lestat de Lioncourt (as did Batilda). I was less impressed with Tom Cruise’s performance in the film adaptation. It wasn’t his fault he was miscast, but his performance and the film has grown on me with subsequent viewings. In the decades since I discovered this classic, I’ve been slowly working my way through The Vampire Chronicles. Rice’s lush, meandering prose can prove frustrating at times, but what an incredible character she created in Lestat. His seductions are immortal.

Dracula

All roads lead back to Drac, but which incarnation is best? I confess, it took me two reading to appreciate Stoker’s novel. Now, it shares a shelf with Frankenstein, the fraternal twins of Gothic literature. There have been so many film and television adaptations, from the ridiculous to the sublime, but I think the original silent Nosferatu comes closest to doing the Count justice. He’s a weirdo, and not as seductive as some renditions–Frank Langella’s coifed 70s styling comes to mind–would suggest. In truth, I love each portrayal for different reasons, with a particularly fondness for Gary Oldman’s seductive count, but now when I read Dracula, it is Max Schreck’s version I envision. His is a different kind of seduction. Not quite human, here is a monster whose talent for inspiring fear and fascination can never be matched.

Do you have any favorite vampires? Please comment below and let’s share notes. Vamp on!

Flowers in the Attic: The Origin

Like many of us, I have my unique “critter comfort” media that I love but wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. I learned my lesson back when I was a teenager and recommended the drive-in horror flick, Dead and Buried to someone and never heard the end of it. The same could be said for the original Phantasm or dozens of other beloved “cheesy” horror and Lifetime movies. I love “camp,” and I always have, but I realize I’m in the minority, and I’m okay with that. Camp aside, I recommend Lifetime’s newest VC Andrews’ inspired series, Flowers in the Attic: The Origin, to anyone who enjoys a good family drama that’s well-acted and directed. The writing is excellent, and the settings and costumes bring the series to life.

Yes, there are changes from the book it’s based on, Garden of Shadows, the final book in the Dollanganger series penned by Andrews Neiderman from VC Andrews’ notes. The most significant casting addition is Foxworth Hall’s maid Nella. What could have been just a throw-away character to add padding to the four-part series greatly enriches the story thanks to good writing and performance by T’Shan Williams–a mostly musical theater performer. Well, she has found a new fan in me because I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. Some of the other changes included a “forbidden” gay relationship and a sub-plot concerning a mix-up of poisonous herbs and marijuana, which worked for the most part, although the animal slaughter scene was a bit over the top, even for me.

I’ve also developed a serious crush on Max Irons who plays the devious and dastardly Malcolm Foxworth. Discovering he was Jeremy Irons’ son only deepened my obsession. This is a series I will return to many times.

Unlike the cringe performances, clunky dialogue, and anachronistic costumes of former VC Andrews’ fair, it’s clear that money was spent on this production. I’m happy to see it, and I hope Lifetime continues to produce such excellent VC Andrews content. A little bird told me the Cutler Series is in the works. I can’t wait!

Check out my video review of the series. Have you watched it yet? If so, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

For the Love of Trash!

I recently had the pleasure of being a guest on Shawn D. Standfast’s BookTube series, Desert Island Books (watch it here), where I was tasked with choosing eight books to read, presumably for eternity. It was challenging, and except for Wilderness Survival for Dummies, the list comprised mostly of classics I’ve read and reread throughout the years. It makes sense that in my island isolation I would include some old friends–and good books certainly are–in my survival kit. I also included Tolstoy’s War and Peace with the understanding that being on the island would force me, at last, to read it, perhaps telling me something about my time management. Interestingly, to me anyway, was that there was no room on my list for my beloved V.C. Andrews among the Shakespeare, Wilde, and Wordsworth. When confronted with the dark night of the soul, I quickly converted to old-time literary religion.

But since I’m still living in the “real” world of distractions, a good portion of my library is devoted to the aforementioned V.C. Andrews, gothic romances, and paperbacks from hell. I call it pulp and do so proudly. But trashy books are a different matter. In my opinion, as expressed in the video below, trashy books are frequently sexual in nature and may elicit enough shame to disguise with a discreet dust jacket. A personal favorite, Jaqueline Susann’s Once is Not Enough definitely fits that bill. Even as a young teen, I found that tome hilariously entertaining for the depths it was willing to plunge.

So, in the spirit of the #GarbAugust reading challenge currently making the rounds on Booktube, I’ve added a few new-to-me trash books to my August TBR, including a recently acquired vintage copy of Riders by Jilly Cooper. I’m hoping the book lives up to this wonderfully trashy cover. The only shame I feel is that it’s taken me so long to read it.

Shame aside, it’s comforting to know I’m not the only one who appreciates good trash. Do check out booktuber CriminOlly videos to learn more about the fun challenge and follow #GarbAugust If you have any favorite trash books, please leave your true confessions below.

One Year on Kindle Vella

Is it worth it?

Kindle Vella’s first anniversary has rolled around to little fanfare. Do readers even know about it? I probably wouldn’t if I didn’t have stories on the platform. I rarely participate as a reader–yet. That could change. Before Vella launched, I deleted my Wattpad account despite being one of the platform’s “star” authors and winning a Watty award. That decision was complicated, but mostly I closed shop on Wattpad because it was holding me back as a writer, meaning it was time to stop giving away my work for free and take a more robust leap into earning money for my creative efforts. In that respect, Vella has paid off handsomely. I’ve made thousands of dollars on the stories I transferred from Wattpad to Vella, however, most of these earnings came from Amazon’s bonuses, not organic readers. That score has been pitiful, as I imagine has been the case for most writers crowding onto that platform. The top performers on Vella either already have a solid readership base eager to follow their stories anywhere–I recognize a few famous names among them–or have a hell of a PR campaign. There may also be some organic growth there, especially among the evergreen romance genres. My epic fantasy story, Starlex, was one of the first of its kind on Vella and had a great launch, which unfortunately lost steam as more authors jumped on the bandwagon. If Amazon is encouraging uploads to grow its content base, it appears to be working.

I won’t attempt to decipher the Amazon algorithm, but based on the bonuses I’ve received, it seems to reward frequent uploads over organic reads. Completed stories become quickly dead in the water, which leads to the question of how best to promote them. Sales savvy authors will figure out a way, but most of us seemed to have drifted to the usual Facebook groups where “promotion” boils down to “I’ll read yours if you read mine.”

There is a fine line between showing another indie author “support” through authentic reads and scrolling through their content, marking each episode with a thumbs up, and posting a screenshot to prove you’ve “read” it. Authors can undoubtedly be readers of other indie works–I certainly am–which is where the fine line comes into play. I welcome another indie’s opinion of my work and am happy to do the same, but I don’t want someone “unlocking” my episodes in exchange for the same. I want readers who actually read my episodes and enjoy them. The practice seems very much like review swapping, which is not only against Amazon’s policy, but also pretty tacky. That’s not the way to find readers.
Vella’s future is difficult to predict. Amazon seems to have modeled some of Vella’s designs after Wattpad–the token system in particular, but their interactive features are lacking. The poll never works when I try to implement it, and I do miss Wattpad’s social interaction and direct contact with readers and other writers.

Has it been worth it? For the money I’ve earned, I suppose so. It will be interesting to see how Vella will develop and how many authors will drop out once the bonuses stop. I plan to finish up my fantasy series on Vella–I’m currently on book two–and maybe write some romances under a pen name as an experiment.
Do you have a story on Kindle Vella, or do you use the platform as a reader? I’d love to hear about your experience, so please leave a comment below.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Red Masquerade

by R. Saint Claire

Giveaway ends July 25, 2022.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway