Next up: a nasty little book about the real events of the Lindbergh kidnapping/murder

*Soon many (most) of my titles will be in audio. I am very thrilled to be working with some amazing narrators who are unbelievable.

Heart, Mouth and Life, Deed is out in ebook and print. It's a tribute to Richard Laymon and literally wrote itself as I followed the characters while remaining true to the master. With an almost fully female cast, it moves fast and follows the women as they are hunted by cannibals. The cage on the cover is a big hint to Laymonites. 

Josh Gates just did a great investigation for the Dyatlov mystery. I knew it was going to happen so I was under pressure to get my book (and my theory) out  there first so that I couldn't be accused of basing my thoughts on his work. Actually, I felt that he might go with a different theory than I would. I used diaries and photos and autopsy reports to decide what I thought happened on that cold mountain and developed a theory with the help of experts who added more information. I also managed to get some equipment that allowed me to see the conditions. I am thrilled that Josh refuted the same theories that I had and came to the same conclusions as did I!  We cheered and celebrated that the new investigation confirmed my research and investigations. Josh Gates thrilled me with his way of thinking. The book is available in ebook and print.

Finally, Polar Knights is available in all forms. The lost Franklin expedition is fascinating and the Arctic a perfect place to write about. I've long been interested int his case and spent a huge amount of time researching and mapping (based on new findings) and once I saw the true timeline and looked at official interviews, a new picture of the case came to light. Although it's true and there are no monsters, nature is more terrifying than anything I could have dreamed up.

*If you have read this far then you will find out there is a sister-book to Polar Knights that is 1/2 finished and tells another side to the Arctic that is based on Native legends and fact. It's a fun look into a slightly more monstrous land of ice and human error.

*After this, there will be a few books that need to be released and only lack some good edits and a bit of time.  Virgil McLendon will show up in a book that is the most shocking of all. 

     Once I was afraid that I had lost my ability to write. Then we moved, my shoulder healed, and my husband told me that I had one job: to write. Why  was I ever worried? The ideas come faster than I can write. Here is where I am: Heart and Mouth Deed and Life is available (a Laymonish tribute novel). The 9th Virgil McLendon mystery (Of Vices and Sacrifices) is about to be released. Dyatlov 9 is available.  That's 3 in four months. 
     What is on back-burners: a zombie novella (13 and Bodies), some sci-fi,  creepy tale of a ship wreck (Lilith Awakes), some cannibalism (All of Us, Food) and Land of the Blind.  Those are all partially written.
     What I am scampering to finish now: Cold Hunger (with DA Roberts!!!!!) is about to be released and is about a wendigo and the Donner Party. Also, a big release will be Polar Knights: The Lost Franklin Expedition which is dear to me and about the ships Terror and Erebus.  It's coming very soon. The companion book is in the works and is about a team in the arctic who are researching the Franklin Expedition. Poseidon was the name of the ship's dog on Terror. I am also considering allowing Vigil to solve the murders in Texarkana (This became the movie The Town That Dreaded Sundown) I also have an interest in the cannibalism in the Andes plane crash. I don't think I'm finished with the ice and am looking at Everest for a novel. AND I want to return to Titanic.
     Busy, huh?
     There's kind of a joke about me lately. I am doing 2 things. First, I am writing about ice/snow/mountaineering. I am writing what I know.  Secondly, I am moving more into historical horror. That isn't a new area because I have always added science and history to my works. Helen of Sparta, Wild Boys, Titanic, Dyantlov 9, and the arctic books, Cold Hunger, etc. have all been historical. 
     I intend to finish the books on the back-burner as possible novellas, but then I am pretty much finished with mainstream horror. SHOCK!  I'll add to the Virgil McLendon series a little at a time. But I am evolving into an historical-horror writer for now and  hope that fans embrace the change. In a year or two, I may switch again and return to the general horror or find a new challenge. The main thing is that I am writing at a frenetic pace and couldn't be happier!
​     Stay tuned.

It's been a long time. Since I last wrote, I have moved with my family back home in Texas, lost pets, etc.  J Ellington Ashton Press keeps e busy as does the renovations to our new home! Paint, boxes, flooring...ugh!  But we are happy.

Being There: A Commentary on Extreme Horror
by Catt Dahman
I am all over the horror writing scene as a writer, an editor, opinion-giver, and more. I watch trends and try to predict them, but at no time have there ever been so many variables. Some may feel we are zombie/vamp swamped, but while those are still favorite topics, there are more sub-genres than ever before. It reminds me of the 60s-70s influx of new horror.
 
There is some badly written material, I agree, but there is just as much badly written horror from those who are with huge presses as those who self-publish. I don’t see the difference, except for the ones who are getting paid enormous sums for shlock. I also don’t want to talk about the B-horror/ commercial writing (that many of us have done to support the other writing we wish to do). It has a place if we trust in Sharknado 2 (it is entertaining and I still indulge), but I want to talk about the rest.
 
I had to get the rest off my plate to get here, to the trends I am seeing in horror that are interesting. One is the splatter-punk/ splatter-gore/ extreme horror genre. I like it. I describe it in a book’s forward as not shooting tequila, but snorting it. Occasionally, it’s fun to read those types. I prefer them, actually. Why? Again, some are bad, some are B-list, and so on, but I like those that are spot-on, well written, and brutal. They get a bad reputation because they often contain explicit sex (and sex is so bad, right?), and because they have gore, and because of the unconventional, profane themes.
 
That is the real kicker. The other elements, we can set aside, and maybe complain about, but the themes are what bother us. Extreme horror magnifies the themes. I love the subtlety of The Lottery or in Frankenstein; I get the social and personal over tones, but sometimes… There are times I want to snort the tequila.
 
Some of the extreme horror stories I have read recently are raunchy, profane, and rough. They are also very honest, and they hit some disturbing themes harder than the more subtle pieces can. One, recently, blew me away. Pubienne Tueur de Cheveux by Scott Pratt has given me nightmares. It reads as a piece that contains sex, language, and a mature theme. It seems just a simple, extreme piece, and all would be fine if that were the end. Instead, it bothered me deeply as a social piece of writing. Within, hidden very well, are some ideas that are disturbing.
 
Pratt discusses a woman’s place, treatment of sexual abuse victims, legal politics, sexual preferences, and the difference in power/strength/bitchery that some face. The story may be wrapped in a nice package of sexual overtones, gore, and offensive (but honest and real) action, but the real horror is within the very theme.
 
I am fascinated with these types of stories. How clever is it that the writers hide deep commentary within the fancy gift-wrapping? The stories are so honest and they cut so deeply, that they simply must be hidden within a special means of dispersal. What else but the horror genre can cover the deeper meanings? To me, that is a new trend of horror that I am in love with. I am enjoying reading the stories, but have mixed feelings.
 
Several other presses have rejected these that I have been pouring over. Why? Oh, the themes mainly, of course, because they are shocking.  If the acquisitions editor who read them was not a deep-thinker, then the stories were tossed back for the content (sex, gore, language). I get amused. I get scared. That is, I get amused and scared when I read the stories and when I consider the fact that I am going to release them.
 
I am a writer of commercial horror (read B-shlock), thrillers, zombies, and some more classic type, literary horror. I have one or two extreme books as well. Of 35+ books, I have found the shlock and the extreme sell the best. That was kind of what got me here, to being the editor who might release stories that no other press will touch. Why do those of mine sell the best? What is the trend?
 
Honesty.
 
In my commercial works and in the extreme, I am free to be as honest and brutal as I please. I can hit home the ideas we don’t want to always think about: abuse, intolerance, bad parenting, and my favorite: bad family traditions. I get to say what I feel, but wrap it up in a pretty package of gore and violence, and hide my social commentary. I hide the honesty within the sex. I put the real fear behind the shadows of some foul language. In this way, I can deliver my story, nicely tucked into something that seems like fun, but is in no way light. Does this make sense? I hide the real fear and horror behind a story of pretend horror that is overdone and extreme. And guess what? It sells and people love those pieces the most.
 
Some don’t get it. A few rant and rave and call me on the fake horror. That makes me laugh. They don’t get it. A few do get it, and they love what I have said. They are also scared by both the real and the fake. That’s when I have hit it out of the ole ball park, when I get them and then they get the message behind the horror.
 
I get it. I really get it. So when I read one of these schlocky, profane, or bizarre stories, I know what the author is truly saying. I get the real message of sheer terror that is hidden in gossamer layers and tied with silken bows. Those stories really scare me. They really are, at times, like snorting tequila. They hurt.
 
I like the trend, but not everyone does or will. It’s way too much for some.  The smart readers sometimes don’t see that the stories are written for them. It’s a sub-genre that kicks those that it is aimed at, but isn’t that the idea? Kick and hit? Gut-punch and eviscerate?
 
Horror will always be fun and have the B-list, commercial fun stuff. It will always deliver the books that are excellent, classic and literary, but there is room for a new sub-genre. There is a place for the intelligently profane. It may take a while to be recognized for brilliancy, but it’s strong in a (fitting, very apt) hidden subculture of writers and readers. It’s the Jimi Hendrix, the Kurt Cobain, Elvis, Jim Morrison and the Janis Joplin of the literary world. They were once considered “dangerous to the youth” and only admired by a few. Today, they are viewed as revolutionary. Motown was once thought to be a bad influence. None of those musical giants harmed music, they changed it for the better.
 
I feel the intellectual profane horror will do the same. It will take a while, but in time, names we may not know now ( Goforth, Misura, Fisher, Johnson, Woods, Pratt, and more) will be whispered about. They will be called revolutionary or so emulated that they may be forgotten, but I am thrilled to say I was there. No, I didn’t get to see Hendrix play live at Woodstock, but I am getting to see a few as they begin the revolution, and to me, brother, that is big time.
 
Horror is a’changin'
 
And the best part, is, I get it. And I am there this time.

 

The waters of the world erase all but the mountaintops; within hours, few are left alive. The Trident, a hotel resort styled to look like a cruise ship, sits at the top of the Ouachita Mountains and may be one of the last dry places left on earth. Survivors discover that besides having no hope of rescue, they must face growing desperation and violence as supplies begin to dwindle. Different groups struggle to take control while right and wrong become blurred. A doctor, a undisciplined Marine, a divorced police officer, a little girl, a blue-haired pole dancer, and a Heavy-Metal playing bartender are among the few who will try to stay alive, unsure of what the future holds. Religious fiends, cannibals, and newly formed gangs fight back, but the seas are not finished dealing misery as legends and heroes wage war. 
The Trident is the ultimate battle between good and evil as sorrow, hope, and dreams take unfathomable directions. While there appears to be no real future, many are not giving up. They’ll fight Poseidon himself to control the hotel and escape. ​

5.0 out of 5 starsA Great Post-Apocalyptic Novel
By xxxx on February 14, 2016
Verified Purchase
I have been a huge fan of Melanie (Catt) Dahman's works since reading her page-turning thrillers "When We Were 8" and "Circle Jerk" in one sitting each. As great as those two masterpieces of psychological terror are, she might have outdone them with "The Trident". The same high level of suspense is there; the same development of intriguing, complex, sympathetic characters, the same proficiency at tight, imaginative plotting. However, "The Trident" offers a much broader canvas and wider imaginative sweep for her authorial skills.

"The Trident" is a post-apocalyptic novel in which a flood of biblical proportions covers the earth including most of the mountaintop resort known as The Trident up to the seventh floor. Perhaps two thousand survivors are trapped in the top several floors above the high water level. As might be expected, a chaos of deteriorating hygienic conditions, good and evil factions battling for power and control of the provisions, and general moral and ethical decline in the residents ensue. Add to that the rise of a schizophrenic self-proclaimed profit and his murderous devotees, and you have the ingredients for a page-turning thriller.

The descriptions of the differing floors of the resort - each with their unique micro-societies - are so descriptive and sensual, that the reader gets to know them by their sights and sounds and smells and differing hostility levels. As a reader, I almost came to feel that I lived there. I found myself charting out areas where it was safe and not safe to venture, and quite often pleading with the viewpoint characters to turn around and go back before something evil and nightmarish happens to them. Too often, they didn't listen to me!

Author Melanie Dahman's great strength of placing a diverse group of characters in high stress situations resulting in interactions and reactions that are perfectly consistent with what we would expect of each character is fully at work in The Trident. The characters are typically complex and intriguing, the tension is high and the suspense continually mounts, there is a coherent and compelling story line, there are many powerful and moving scenes - several of which left me with tears in my eyes. This is a rich, deep, fully engaging work of the imagination.

Especially exceptional are the succession of dilemmas, challenges and catastrophes that successively test the ethics and moral fiber of the protagonists. The degenerating hygienic situation in the huge flooded hotel spirals downward at the same rate as the ethics practiced by the residents erodes. There are many powerful scenes that stick with me - they've burrowed their way into my psyche and I remember them with the same level of intensity as when I first read them. A good apocalyptic novel provides potent social commentary, and The Trident delivers in this respect as well. As time marches on and conditions deteriorate, it becomes harder to distinguish the actions of the right-minded protagonists who have seized power from the actions of the self-serving, and in some cases outright evil, factions who are striving to wrest the power away. When the protagonists realize this, they begin to question their own motives and suffer their own ethical dilemmas. In this respect, think of The Trident as an expanded version of The Lord of the Flies. The Lord of the Flies on steroids!

There are many wonderful, memorable characters in this book. If I would comment on them individually I would double the size of this review. Suffice it to say that The Trident is an amazing, rich, albeit rather bleak, experience, as the best of the post apocalyptic novels are supposed to be. I consider The Trident to be one of the very best post apocalyptic novels that I've read in years. And that is saying something, because there have been plenty of good ones published in this timeframe. Highly recommended!