‘When Felix Brewer finally gets the video camera he has been coveting, he discovers a button on the lens housing that isn’t in the manual. Once that button is pressed, the viewfinder shows him glimpses of a nightmarish world living in symbiosis with ours, and reveals his girlfriend, Audrey, to be a frightening creature; her face a burning mass of melting light and distortion. Seemingly alone in his visions, Felix relies on the support of strangers both dubious and intriguing to make sense of it all… and hopefully protect him from the dark creatures that want to brutally silence him. Has Felix discovered a disturbing world no one else can see or is he barreling toward a tragic end through a haze of inherited insanity?

A TEAR in the VEIL – the stunning debut novel from Patrick Loveland.’

It’s been a long road… This novel is based on a screenplay I wrote over a decade ago now. I did many things after finishing said script, but after finishing my second screenplay (unrelated), I decided I was possibly cutting out more than just darlings to get my bigger stories down to acceptable screenplay page count. I decided to try out novel writing and adapted my first script into the longer, messier version of what’s readable here.

To nutshell the rest, dealings with April Moon Books (who will very soon have put out four of my published short stories, and the first three that were published at all) while struggling to get some published shorts out there were very positive and I realized that was where I should focus my efforts on getting this novel published.

And here we are. The jumping-off points for a lot of what’s in this ‘genre-bending’ story are personal, but mostly more as captured and re-processed emotions than many specifics. The rest is all in the interest of good old weird fun.

pml

P.S. it’s tear as in torn. 😉

Order a copy at April Moon Books

or amazon

Gravillis Inc.

Okay, so I was genuinely worried about this one. I’ve waited a long time for it, and I knew it could go either way—as the last film with a similar throwback to practical creature effects at its core and such I got attached to didn’t live up to my expectations. I won’t be unkind, but even with the best intentions all around, it was very much a letdown.

So, I’m relieved to say that—while not without its flaws—The Void more than delivered in the arenas I was most concerned about—atmosphere, scares, and messy, gruesome practical effects I could take seriously.

The flaws weren’t even glaring. The performances were good to great—the main villain wins just for his frequent perfectly done voice work after a certain point. The mains were strong, and I really enjoyed the main deputy actor. I think he was maybe the guy who died in the shower in the first Final Destination, but I’d have to check—and that goes against the forced spontaneity of this mini-impressions review series, right? ha

(UPDATE: It wasn’t. Still liked him ha)

Some of the writing is trope-y as was expected but rarely dipped into the painfully cliche.

Atmosphere was very pleasantly reminiscent of a few things for me. The shrouded cultists really gave their understated all as something like the almost-ghostly gang members in the original Assault on Precinct 13 and more than provided enough motivation for the characters to stay in the increasingly weirder hospital. Obviously there were elements of  The Thing‘s loving approach to amorphous nastiness, as was expected and more than paid off. Also, I really enjoyed a great sequence with maximum gore and creature showpieces, one of which reminded me—in a good way—of one of the main loping monstrosities in a personal favorite Lovecraft film adaptation, The Resurrected—directed by Dan “ALIEN” O’Bannon himself, and an adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

I’d make a Baskin comparison as well, but I think they were produced in parallel, so I don’t think there was any actual influence. Could be wrong, I know. Either way, being able to compare something to Baskin at all is a compliment, I feel.

Also, what seemed to be an homage to The Beyond, which I loved.

And last thing I’ll say since these are just for first impressions is that I was very happy with it and want to watch it again without the anxiety of is-this-going-to-be-good-at-all? in my head.

If you were attracted to this specifically for its practical effects, grimness, and loving, deliberate Lovecraft fondness, I think you could do a looot worse than The Void.

pml

P.S. My wife Vv says it reminds her of Beyond the Black Rainbow, aesthetically.

P.P.S. I see what she means.

P.P.P.S. Also a good thing to be comparable to, in my opinion-ation

So, another free ezine I have a short story in for your enjoyment ( I hope ). This story sat around for a few years in my head. I’d kicked it around here and there, but never committed to actually writing it. I almost did write it a couple Halloweens in a row—and once almost as a ‘drabble’—then I realized the Sirens Call Ezine was the perfect spot for it. They were having a special Hween issue and everything.

This is another piece that cheekily fits into my personal universe, but it’s focused enough that the connection is unimportant, and I feel like it’s a great little standalone, as-is.

It’s also fun to have a Halloween story to share again and again ( until I think of another one to write ha ). 😉

Sirens Call Ezine #29 ( my story: “Not Cavities” )

P.S. this is also the story I narrated and put up on youtube, just FYI. It’s one of the earlier posts on this page, in fact. That is its own experience, but I think I did an okay job, for a first try at least. ha

Not Cavities, A #halloween #horror tale written & narrated by Patrick Loveland @PMLoveland

I’m still working up to getting a better account where I can fully customize and set up a place for checking out the books I have stories in (and soon I will have one all to myself) and such. For now, there are two stories I have totally free in the fantastic Sirens Call Ezine put out by Sirens Call Publications.

This one has a semi-interesting origin. It was actually written for an anthology about the Wu-Tang Clan. That’s a long story. I enjoyed that version… but it really came together when it wasn’t selected for that project and I decided to absorb it into my own personal fledgling mythos. I’m very happy with the result. It won’t change lives, but I think it’s a fun, quick piece.

So, this is a lot of fiction, poetry, and art for the lovely price of Free.99, and also includes the story I’ve just described.

Sirens Call Ezine #28 ( my story: “R-Day for Mr. D” )

I’d been out of the mental ward four days when I opened my throat on the left side, going for the jugular but I guess just cleaving through lesser veins on the way to it. After a debridement surgery weeks later, the surgeon had told me there were definite scratches and thin gouges on the artery, but all the veins around it got it way worse. I’d used a box cutter—wasn’t the best piercing tool. Hey, it was the only thing in my room, and not leaving that room was sort of the point. Not leaving in my body, anyway. At the time, I was so disappointed and mad at myself that I’d gotten to the jugular, only to fuck up by slicing everything but that. Typical me.

Continue reading “My Favorite Failures” →