ABORTION

That’s right, everyone.  I’ve started some preliminary writing on the final installment of the Twilight Gardens trilogy.

The tentative front cover art for the darker second installment, Moonlight's Requiem.

The series, one of much frustration and joy for me since the latter part of ‘06, has been on a hiatus of sorts for nearly eight months now as I’ve gone back and gone through a rigorous editing process on the first two entries, Twilight Gardens and it’s much darker successor Moonlight’s Requiem.  Now, with less than eighty pages left of editing the latter work, I’ve began the arduous task of re-entering the perilous world of Montgomery Ferguson and his friends as they face the final chapter of their story.

I haven’t fully devoted myself to the story as of yet though.  I’m still working on some side projects.  The main one at the moment is a short story entitled “Bed Bugs,” a tale about one family’s fight for survival against vicious killer ants… and when I say killer, I do mean it in every sense of the word!

My newest stories are definitely new editions in the story universe I’ve already established.  That’s right: they also fall in the same mythology as the trilogy.  Although the events are related and stand on their own as individual stories, locations and even characters are mentioned or seen in several of these tales.  “Aborted” and “Memoria,” for instance, involve a shady apartment building called The Studio, which was mentioned in Moonlight’s Requiem at one point.  “Bed Bugs” sees the return of one of the characters from “Memoria” in a supporting role sometime after the events of that story.

As for the Twilight Gardens series, many people don’t know what it is.  For those individuals, let me give you a brief rundown.  The story mainly follows Monty Ferguson, a seemingly ordinary young man who, as it turns out, has limited extrasensory abilities and the ability to slip into another world.  This is not some alternate reality or other version of Earth, but a full-fledged world wholly separate from our own where the siblings he never had in our world are alive and well… and, in one case, very angry.  Unbeknownst, he has attracted the attentions of an evil force that becomes bent on his destruction.  In order to slowly rip his life apart around him, it manipulates four souls to become its messengers, and each of them represent a different trial for Monty and his circle of friends.  As fate would have it, Monty’s role in these events is far beyond his own comprehension, but before long he will begin to discover a horrible truth… and may have to sacrifice far more than he bargained for in order to do what is right and necessary.

The tentative cover art for the third installment, Hollow Isles.

Of course, there is a love story in the tale involving Diana Llewellyn, the girl that got away, and as events unfold, Monty’s relationship with her affects the lives of him and his friends in ways no one would have been able to foresee.

And so the third book, Hollow Isles, is underway.

God, I hate to do these things.

Generally, I finish a book. If I buy it, if I invest the time to start it, then dammit, I’m going to finish it. It’s got to be really, really, really god awful for me to not make it. Rarely is a book so bad that I can’t stick it out, because I’m a quick and persistent reader.

One such book in recent memory was this book “Y2K” that I picked up at that YMCA booksale I went to in college with my friends and professors. It was so obviously written by a novice, by someone who had no idea how to handle exposition or characterization, and who couldn’t plot or foreshadow worth a damn, and certainly couldn’t write any dialogue. Worse yet, it had these horrible annoying Christian overtones. “He had lost his wife, but he knew God would steer him toward a new woman soon.” What the ever loving fuck?

Anyway. And another such book I sadly have to add to that list now is “The Singular Adventures of Mr. Sherlock Holmes” by Alan Stockwell. Which I really, really hate to do, because I’m desperate for some Holmes love, the book was expensive, and it seemed to have such good reviews and praise that I thought it worthy. But my god, it’s not.

Maybe I’m spoiled by the canon, or by the work of Nicholas Meyer, or by “The Whitechapel Horrors,” or by the superb Granada series and even the so-so Rathbone/Bruce movies, or maybe just because I’ve found some really, really good fanfic writers who do Holmes slash superbly. Whatever it is, I guess I’m a bit picky. I want more Holmes, I need more Holmes (or his modern incarnations *coughpendergastcough*), but goddammit, I want GOOD Holmes.

This is not good Holmes.

Oh, I gave it a valiant effort. Three and a quarter stories. I tried really, really hard. But no. Fail. I finally through in the towel with “The Blue Silk Underwear.” Oh yes. And the titles just get worse from there. There are so many grievous errors here that I think Stockwell should be drawn and quartered. I want my money back, Amazon. I want to erase this filth from my brain.

The most terrible of errors might be that his Holmes is just stupid. He’s just not that smart. He’s too oblivious to things. For fuck’s sake, even I know who Punch and Judy are, and I’m not an 1890s Brit. And the whole knickers thing? Are you shitting me? What, are you trying to make him cute? Ignorance is cute? That doesn’t even make sense. Stupid Holmes is just plain wrong.

The second most terrible error is that Stockwell’s mysteries are just not good. They’re too simple and straightforward, they’re poorly plotted, and worst of all, they’re just too obvious. The first one commits the cardinal sin of identical twins. For fuck’s sake, man, I don’t even write mystery and yet even I know you don’t do identical twins. It isn’t done. The second, a suicide set up like a murder, was easily solved by me as well. The third a case of mistaken identity–also solved within the first five pages.

I’m not that good at mysteries. I really am not. I like them, in moderation, but I don’t really do a good job solving them. That’s sort of the point of the mystery novel and short story, isn’t it? To keep your reader guessing, to make it solvable but not easily solvable? I didn’t suddenly get fantastic at figuring these things out, you know.

So the plots are very simple and not worthy of the great detective. They’re not worthy of these modern-day idiots who drool over TV dramas. (Damn you anyway, “Law and Order,” some day I’ll figure out why that Stabler guy pushes my buttons.) They’re certainly not worthy of me.

The writing is also quite bad. It’s not even close to Doyle’s style. Look, here’s how it works in pastiches, okay: You imitate, you make it sound authentic, but you make it your own story. Meyer does this quite well. (Okay I’m just smitten with drug habits, what can I say. I am not worthy enough to judge the man who directed “Wrath of Khaaaaaaaan.”) I have to believe that this is Watson writing the story. I have to believe that maybe Doyle wrote this. But it has to be different enough that it’s not just a rehash of the canon. Yes, it’s tricky, yes, these are lofty expectations, but dammit, I’m paying you.

Stockwell’s mistake in the writing might be his over-reliance on dialgoue. Yes, the Doyle canon is very heavy on the dialogue. Most, but not all, of the action takes place that way. But Doyle also was very big on setting and some big chunks of exposition by Watson, who was very in to describing the surroundings. In Stockwell’s tales, the dialogue is just sort of floating around in space, not attached to any place whatsoever. We’re not grounded, we’re lost. As much as I love dialogue–I am very much a dialogue reader and writer, as you can probably tell from my narrative voice on this blog–I need setting too. I need space and time, and a little action. You have to be able to envision the characters standing around having these conversations. I can’t in these stories.

Thus, the speech of both Watson and Holmes is entirely unbelievable. It just doesn’t sound like them. Can’t really put my finger on that, but I know they aren’t. Watson in particular is off. The side characters, therefore, don’t stand a chance. I can’t envision them either, and if I can’t do that, there isn’t much hope for the story.

Related to that, the dialogue doesn’t sound like 1890s Brit dialogue. The diction and the sentence structure doesn’t work. I can’t explain that either, but I know it when I see it, and I know it when I don’t see it.

And Stockwell thinks he’s being clever by lifting some lines from the canon and changing them slightly. Oh I know what you’re trying to do, Stockwell. You’re either trying to create in-jokes for people familiar with the canon (and god help you if you are, it’s merely pandering and insulting and very poorly done) or you’re trying to make it sound like the canon, by lifting a few actual lines from the canon and thinking “See my readers will find that a realistic line that Doyle may have written so it sounds authentic.”

No.

So “Singular” just falls apart on all levels: characterization, plot, dialogue, setting. Everything here is a massive fail. Which really, really fucking sucks, as I really want to read more Holmes stuff, but bad pastiches like this make me wary. Maybe I should just stick to my smut. Reading this makes me think the upcoming RDJ movie at Christmas might be good. Or at least, better than this shit. (In fact, I completely renounce my misgivings about that movie upon learning, to my utmost horror, that Will Ferrell is doing a Holmes movie as well. I goddamn hate Will Ferrell, and to even picture him in a Holmes film, much less playing the title character…it makes me want to slit his wrists. Not mine. His.)

So sigh. I won’t count this one in my book queue, as I only made it about 50 pages, but I really can’t force myself to continue it. I’m still very wary about picking up anything else in my queue, however, as I’m afraid of getting something awful again. “Night Gardener” was no good, and then this travesty. Where have all the interesting, well written books gone? Maybe I’m just wrapped up with Child and Preston, or maybe becuase I’m thinking about my own work, but I just have little interest in starting something new. I’ve got to get out of that funk and get to reading again, or I’m not going to meet my 50-in-one-year goal.

ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE in the summer of ‘95, the world witnessed the birth of a new horror: the Belgian hacksquad ABORTED has emerged from the depths of this corrupted & filth bulging cuntry… The band was founded by Gurgloroth Sven. IT TOOK TILL THE SUMMER of ‘97 to find some serious & motivated butchers in Niek (bulging sick string mayhem) & Steven (percussive holocaust). In this line-up some gigs were done with several foreign acts such as: Deranged, Vomitory,… AFTER THIS the band saw the cumming of Koen (bassturbations); which led to the recording of the first offering called: “The Necrotorous Chronicles” which sold out (+300 copies) in 4 months; this lead to a deal with Burt of Uxicon records for the first full length…

A SHORT TIME PASSED & Christophe was recruted as second string raper & new tunes were excoriated.SOME MORE CONCERTS were done with: Deranged, Defaced Creation, Dying Fetus, Enthroned, Ectopia, Goddes of Desire, Impedigon, Houwitser, Length of Time, Liar,.. A NEW CHAPTER STARTED with the replacement of drummer Steven by the inhuman death scourge Frank, due to a huge lack of motivation…

THE CHAINSAW MANIACS entered the CCR studio’s in February ‘99 for the recordings of the first slab of gore: ” The Purity of perversion” & was unleashed upon mankind in may 99. So far reactions were really great & sales are optimal.RIGHT BEFORE ENTERING the new millenium, the hacksquad entered the infamous CCR studios once more to record 3 new excuisitly brutal & sick gorehymns for a split CD with Christ Denied…

THIS NEW OFFAL is regurgitated under the flag of SOULREAPER records, out in March 2000 for global termination… This split release got the band a deal for 3 more albums with the french based LISTENABLE RECORDS. The first step in this co-operation has been released in late June 2001 as the bands second full length saw light under the title of ‘ENGINEERING THE DEAD’. FOR THIS SECOND ALBUM the boys again went into the CCR studio to record, but with a better budget & this can be heard on the Engineering disc. 2002 promises to be a very busy year for the band as new songs are in the works for a split CD on Bones Brigade with Brodequin/Drowning & more, the boys are also out in September on a big european tour with VADER/CRYPTOPSY/DYING FETUS/KATAKLYSM/CATASTROPHIC to spread the infamous sounds that are ABORTED.

One year after the release of ENGINEERING, the limb tosseres proceeded with recording some tunes for the 4way split on bones brigade, and shortly before the recordings on the 3rd fullength ‘GOREMAGEDDON’ guitarist Niek & Bassist were releaved from their duties due to the huge amount of personal problems. Bart & Fre were recrueted as new members and with the new blood the composing began for this 3rd opus of splatter galore.

GOREMAGEDDON marks its release in march 2k3 and displays aborted in its more mature and grim form, in support of this album, lots of gigging has been scheduled and abroad gigs have been arranged as well as tours. This album is the first to see a license to the US and not just any label, but CENTURY MEDIA sublabel OLYMPIC recordings will issue this slab of gore in august 2K3, be warned GOREMAGEDDON IS COMING FOR YOU!!

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ABORTED DISCOGRAPHY:

1997 * The Necrotorous Chronicles
1998 * The Splat Pack
1999 * The Purity of Perversion
2000 * Eructations of Carnal Artistry
2001 * Engineering the Dead
2002 * Created to Kill
2003 * Deceased in the East/Extirpated Live Emanations
2003 * Goremageddon: The Saw and the Carnage Done
* The Haematobic EP
2004 * The Archaic Abattoir
2005 * Slaughter & Apparatus: A Methodical Overture 2007
2008 * Strychnine.213

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Members:
* Sven “Svencho” de Caluwé
* Sebastien “Seb Purulator” Tuvi
* Peter Goemaere
* Sven “Svenchi” Janssens
* Dan Wilding

Former members:
* Matty Dupont
* Jess Moyle
* Stephane Soutreyard
* Bart Vergaert
* Thijs De Cloedt
* Christophe Herreman
* Niek Verstraete
* Olivia Scemama
* Frederik Vanmassenhove
* Koen Verstraete – bass
* Gilles Delecroix – drums
* Frank Rousseau – drums
* Steven Logie – drums
* Ariën van Wesenbeek
* Étienne Gallo
* Dave Haley
* Dirk Verbeuren
* Matan Shmuely

Ruby Lee Medina, 31, and Javier Gonzalez, 37 of Texas were going to have a a baby. She was 7 months pregnant when they decided they did not want to follow through, so Ruby swallowed some pills and aborted the baby.

Simple, right?

Maybe not so much….

These two winners decided they needed to flush the baby down the toilet….cause thats what people do when they change their minds about having kids, right? Well, a 7 month old fetus is a bit much for septic systems in mobile homes so they went on to plan B. They cleaned the baby up and wrapped her in a gift box and put her under the Christmas tree.

They called an ambulance after Ruby started to bleed, but she just could not remember where she had put the baby. Thankfully, somebody did and placed a call to police on Thursday.

The “parents of the year” have been charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. Bond was set Monday at $20,000 each.

Hopefully, more charges will be forthcoming and these two will sit in jail as Santa decides what to get them this year. May I suggest a tubal ligation for her and a little snip-snip for him?

(I have no idea of the sex of the baby, but chose to say she instead of “it”)

Source

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah 11:6-9

The brunt of the curse in the world is vividly seen and felt in the ways sin and death affect children.  The war between the seed born of woman and the serpent rages each day as 16,000 children die of starvation.  Approximately 1.8 million children die annually as a result of disease caused by unclean water and poor sanitation.  An estimated 1.2 million children both boys and girls are trafficked each year.  There are 145 million orphans and vunerable children in the world today.  On top of this, thousands of unborn children are violently destroyed daily through the abominable act of abortion.  And yet, there is a day coming when such destruction along with the destroyer will be turned on it’s head.

Isaiah 11 describes a day when the Prince of Peace will come and judge the world in righteousness. Justice will dominate and the wisdom of Christ will cover the world as the waters cover the sea. As flowers of peace choke out thorns and thistles, the least of these – the abandoned, abused, and aborted – will rise up and assert authority on the earth.

In this passage, God mocks the serpent by describing the way in which the child, the snake once sought to kill, will scoff as he fearlessly waves his hand over the impotent snake’s hole.

We must make peace with and for the child now by serving the orphan and seeking justice for the defenseless.  As we see them suffer, we must not shirk from joining them in their battle against the wicked one understanding they will win.  Victory will be declared when they stand with the One not ashamed to call them brothers, as well as, co-rulers.

Here is a sermon I preached this Sunday from Isaiah 11, “So this is Christmas“