demons

Let’s Bring Objective Morality Back to Horror

October 3, 2016 by David Dubrow 3 Comments

sas-dub-3 On the terrific website Scifi and Scary, I wrote a guest post on God and supernatural horror:

Supernatural horror has turned away from its roots, replacing the traditional battle of Good vs. Evil with Us vs. Evil. In large part this is reflective of cultural trends; mainstream writers and movie makers tend to take their thematic cues from the less-religious metropolitan areas of the East and West Coasts, which drive culture more than flyover country. The replacement of an objective power of Good with expedience, the need to survive, has dulled the effectiveness of the genre of supernatural horror, reducing vampires to fanged superhumans and Hell-born demons to savage mutants.

Read the rest at Scifi and Scary!

The Nephilim and the False Prophet: An Excerpt

September 14, 2016 by David Dubrow Leave a Comment

What follows is an excerpt from the second book in my Armageddon series, The Nephilim and the False Prophet. You won’t find it in the Look Inside feature of the Amazon product page; this chapter is from later in the novel, when Bill learns the price of denial. If you haven’t read the first book in the Armageddon series, The Blessed Man and the Witch yet, you may want to hold off on reading this.

Chapter 15: Bill — Teamwork

The latest in the longest string of baseless lawsuits ever brought to a courtroom by the hardest-working ambulance chaser in Los Angeles has been put on hold by a judge yesterday in L.A. County’s Superior Court of California. The butt of all the worst lawyer jokes you’ve ever heard, George Smolla, is suing every company that has ever used the Happy Guy logo on any piece of clothing, artwork, or other paraphernalia, digital or physical. His client claims to have drawn the symbol ten years ago in her basement, which makes it an open-and-shit case (no, that’s not a typo). It’s pretty much impossible to find a place that doesn’t have the Happy Guy splattered somewhere, so basically he’s suing the entire world. If Smolla can get a settlement on a nuisance case from someone with deep pockets, more power to him…

You’ve Been Oversued Blog, 10/02/2016

“Come on, grandma. At least drive the speed limit,” Bill muttered. All he could see through the rear windshield of the car ahead were knuckles on the steering wheel and fluffy white hair peeking above the headrest.

What is it about COEXIST bumper stickers that make people think they can drive like assholes? Figures it’s not a Happy Guy sticker. Grandma here doesn’t qualify—

His phone rattled in the center console.

“Hey, Mo,” he answered.

“How’s it going? You still at the office?” Maureen asked.

Bill had to slow down even more when the old lady started riding the brake. “On my way home. Just gotta get gas.”

“Okay, cool. How’d it go today?”

With a humorless chuckle he said, “Great. None of the fumblefucks shot themselves or anyone else, so we’re playing with house money. Most of ‘em didn’t really hit the target either, but Homeland Security’s not about accuracy. Just there to get the participation certificate, and then right back to sniffing panties at bus stops on the government tit. Another standard work day.”

A brief pause. “I guess I’m glad I didn’t put the phone on speaker,” Maureen said dryly. “Jonah’d learn all sorts of new words.”

“How’s my little man doing?”

“Good. He’s had a good pain day, actually.”

Nodding, Bill said, “Good deal.” Fucking stigmata. Thanks for that, Heck. Thanks, Blessed Man, wherever you are. “I’ll try to be home by his bedtime. He watching Doc McStuffins?”

Maureen snorted into the phone. “What else? He wants to see the Nice Man.”

“Still fixated on that, huh.”

“Well…” Maureen said, drawing the word out, “I think he sees the dad as a TV version of you. Sort of.”

Putting a smile into his voice, Bill replied, “Kind of a stretch, seeing that I’m an old white man and Doc’s dad is a black guy, but sure, I can see that.”

“Maybe he misses Tim, then.”

He’s not the only one. Thanks for that too, Heck. “Could be,” he said, took a deep breath to settle himself, and added, “Anyway, I’ll be home in a few minutes. If the world don’t end before I get there.”

“Har de har har. See you soon.”

“Yup. Bye.” He hung up and hit the turn signal when he saw the green 7-11 sign. Even though they irritated her, his end-of-the-world jokes had become habitual since the Occupy Riots. She still believes in that Armageddon crap, even though it was all bullshit. The world’s still turning. A little more fucked up, but still—

[Read more…]

The Blessed Man and the Witch: An Excerpt

September 12, 2016 by David Dubrow Leave a Comment

What follows is an excerpt of the first book in my Armageddon series, The Blessed Man and the Witch. You won’t find it in Amazon’s Look Inside feature on the product page; this chapter is from the middle of the novel, where Diego gets a closer look at his employers, though at a distance.

Chapter 25: Diego – Theater

Cain spoke to Abel in the field, and when they were alone in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and slew him with a club fashioned from a cypress tree.

Then the Lord said unto Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?”

Cain said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

And the Lord said, “What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood doth cry to me from the earth. And now thou art cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thine own hand.”

(Genesis 4:8-11—The Holy Bible, New Kingdom Version)

Diego rocked back and forth on the bus seat with his hands between his legs, biting his lip bloody to keep from screaming. That bitch! That fucking bitch! He punched the air five times before he could stop himself. This was the last bus of the night and if he got kicked off he wouldn’t make it back to Boulder on time. The only other passenger was an old lady who sat in the front as far away from him as you could get and not be hanging out the window. Fuck ‘em. Let ‘em try to kick me off this piece of shit bus. And if Gerald leaves without me, then fuck Occupy, too. FUCK YOU ALL. He might have said that last part aloud, but he wasn’t sure.

A terrible, sick pain throbbed from his taint to his bladder as though someone had kicked him in the nuts over and over again. He was afraid to see what it looked like down there. She must know some kind of women’s empowerment kung fu or something. That PMSing cunt! Hearing himself hissing curses out loud, he bit his lip again to stop it. The fucking driver kept looking in the mirror at him and had sniffed audibly when he’d gotten on board. Shithead’s obviously looking for an excuse to kick me off. Thinks I’m high or drunk or something. Judgmental cocksucker.

It took him several seconds to notice that the bus was already a block past his stop. Taking his hands from his groin, he yanked on the red wire and yelled, “Stop, STOP!” After hopping off he flipped the departing bus both birds. “Fuck YOU!” The Occupy camp was two blocks away. You know, fuck this whole road trip secret mission bullshit. Fuck it. FUCK. IT. Micah with his little flag pin and twitchy-ass Gerald can both eat shit and die.

He was stomping over to Micah’s tent to tell him that when he saw Gerald sitting in front of it on that orange milk crate of his, smoking something in a glass pipe. The butane lighter he used to keep it hot flicked off, and at Diego’s approach he proffered the tube with a quivering hand.

The bitter, plastic odor of the smoke told Diego it was meth. He took the pipe, drew in the smoke, held it for a medium-slow three-count, and let it out. If you held it too long it fucked up your lungs and made you cough. If you didn’t hold it long enough you were wasting it. As he handed it back the pain in his crotch lessened. “Uh, thanks, man.”

Gerald shook his head and held out the lighter. “It’s yours. Feeling better now? You were looking a bit…peaked.”

The constant facial tics made Gerald’s expression almost impossible to read, so Diego just nodded and accepted the lighter. “Yeah. I do, a bit.”

“Good.” Gerald nodded in the direction of Walnut St. “Time to go. You’re driving. Anything here you want to bring with?”

Diego considered going to the tent he shared with the endlessly-coughing Hanlon and grabbing his duffel, but shook his head instead. “Nah. Just this,” he said, lifting the pipe. Fuck it. A new start. I can always find what I need on the way.

Chuckling, Gerald led the way to a white Chevy Tahoe. “It’s a hybrid,” he told him. “Good for the environment.”

The keys were already in the ignition. Diego burned off the last of the meth, put the pipe in the center console, and started the car. “Where to?”

“East. Go east, young man. We’re going to Kansas.”

[Read more…]

Armageddon Giveaway!

June 3, 2016 by David Dubrow Leave a Comment

Now, as in right now, at this very minute, my novel The Blessed Man and the Witch is available free from Amazon! School’s out for Armageddon, so now’s your time to pick this book up, the first in my Armageddon series.

Of course I think it’s a good deal, but here’s what a few impartial reviewers said about The Blessed Man and the Witch:

Dubrow’s writing is sharp, giving us real pictures of people to whom some truly strange things happen. He adds a dose of realism to each person involved, writing them to vivid life through the myriad little details thrown in. I was engaged from the beginning, enjoying each perspective and caught up in the myriad connections to the central figure of The Blessed Man. The story bobs and weaves like a boxer swift on his feet, the pace driven but not forceful. —Andrea Houtsch

To tell a story of this nature and not seem cheesy and recycled is worth the read. Sure, we all heard and read stories where Armageddon is coming and a New Earth is about to emerge. Somehow, David Dubrow wrote something special here: he fused Old World (The Bible and Magic) with New World (Modern Day goings on, i.e. drugs, turf wars, nightlife, and the like) pretty seamlessly to tell a story that is NOT convoluted. —Andrew Boyd

f you enjoy fantasy and apocalyptic tales of a future America then you will find this novel compelling reading. Not since Stephen King’s THE STAND has an author taken on the end times with such a tale of horror, violence, social commentary, fast-paced action and what Harlan Ellison would call a “dangerous vision.” —Raymond Lyman

It’s difficult – nay, impossible to get a better deal than this, and the giveaway ends at 11:59 PM on Saturday, June 4. Get your free copy today!

And while you’re at it, why not spring for the sequel, The Nephilim and the False Prophet? Only $2.99 for 374 digital pages of pure entertainment.