No this month’s book is not “an exercise in youthful blasphemy,” but that’s what H.G. Wells once called The Island of Doctor Moreau, and I find this a delightful descriptor. When one gets into horror at a young age, it can feel a bit like an exercise in youthful blasphemy (in a good way)!
Speaking of youthful blasphemy and The Island of Doctor Moreau, I was reminded of a story I wrote eons ago and which was published in an anthology from a now-defunct small press in 2013. The story was called “The Island of Doctor Moldovan,” and it took place in an alternate world in which Vlad the Impaler (AKA Vlad Dracula) actually was a vampire and went on to conquer Europe under the flag of the Wallachian Empire. Now, 500 years later, he holds an enormous amount of power as an immortal emperor. In the story, the American Navy is plotting a course through the Mediterranean up to the Black Sea to invade the empire’s capital, but two men go overboard and end up on a blood-soaked island peppered with impaled victims. It turns out the island is run by a mad doctor conducting gruesome experiments on people to try to create his own vampires. Things… don’t go well for the characters.
The premise is fun, and I enjoyed creating the world (which at one point I had considered expanding for longer works with a sort of Medieval punk style), but the writing—well, my writing has improved considerably since 2013. I re-read the story the other day, and yes, I cringed. It was, indeed, an exercise in youthful blasphemy!
But this month’s book recommendation is not, in fact, The Island of Doctor Moreau. It’s a recent book by a well-known writer in horror and dark fantasy, and it’s much better than my own foray into Moreau-territory! I also think it makes for a great summer beach read.
But if you’re looking for a good ANTI-BEACH READ? May I direct you to my short story “Beach People,” published in Black Static issue #69. The issue is available on Kindle for $4.99. Sip on a Mai Tai while reading—or chug some warm Bacardi you found in the back of a cabinet, your choice. (That’ll make more sense after you read the story)
In addition to our book and drink recommendation, I have a fair amount of writing news to share this month, so I hope you’ll scroll to the end to see what I’ve got coming out and to vote in the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Readers’ Choice Awards, as When the Night Bells Ring is on the ballot! Speaking of youthful blasphemy—there’s a bit of that in my upcoming short stories (see the Ghost anthology below).
Cheers!
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
Silvia Moreno-Garcia took the horror world by storm with Mexican Gothic, and while this recent novel isn’t horror (it’s more like historical science-fantasy gothic), I thoroughly enjoyed the read. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is beautifully-written, making it easy to keep compulsively turning pages. It is a lush slow-burn that revels in the sultriness of its setting in the Yucatan, though this slow and peaceful atmosphere is also set against the backdrop of the Caste War, when the native Maya people rebelled against the Mexican and European-descended population. This conflict simmers behind the novel’s central events, adding to the sense that things are always balanced precariously between peace and violence. Like Mexican Gothic, this novel also uses the context of colonialism to explore issues of power and autonomy.
Carlota has been living at Yaxaktun all her life, with her scientist father and all his creations—but the reader quickly learns it isn’t the animal-human hybrids who are to be feared here, but rather the greed, violence, and follies of men.
All of the characters feel lived-in, and all are flawed. If you know me, you know I love flawed characters and all their juicy issues! One of the more interesting characters in the book is Montgomery, who comes to work for Carlota’s father when she is just a child and grows quickly fond of the girl. Montgomery has run all the way to Mexico to escape the trauma and loss he experienced in England, and he struggles with alcoholism. He cares deeply about people but can also be rather prickly.
The characters, the setting, and the beautiful, seemingly-effortless writing style are what kept me entranced while reading. A perfect summer read!
She recalled what Ramona had said, that Yaxaktun was the end of the world. And she thought that yes, this man was here because he believed that was the case, that he had reached the end of the world and he was simply waiting for the annihilation of all things.
Pairs best with…
Aguardiente Sour
Montgomery’s drink of choice in the book? Aguardiente. You can find him drinking the stuff straight in many of his scenes, and it just seemed like the perfect choice to pair with this book.
Aguardiente roughly translates to “fire water” and refers to several variations across Central and South America. In Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil (called cachaça there), aguardiente is a liquor made from sugar cane and is typically anise-flavored.
The aguardiente I got (Cumbé) is smooth with a creamy mouthfeel and a mild sweetness. I’m honestly not the biggest fan of anise (I don’t even like licorice), but the flavor is not at all overpowering here. Normally if I’m going to drink a spirit straight, I like it to be chilled or on the rocks, but this was perfectly drinkable neat. I do not, however, recommend sucking this stuff down like Montgomery does in the book. Everything in moderation!
While I don’t ordinarily make drinks with raw egg, I wanted to mix a traditional sour for this book, with all the body you get from shaking it with the egg white. The result was sweet and a bit sour, deliciously creamy, with just a perfectly delicate hint of that anise flavor. Yum!
Ingredients
2 oz aguardiente
3/4 oz lemon juice
3/4 oz simple syrup
1/2 egg white
1/2 cup ice
Directions
Add all ingredients (except the ice) to a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously for about 30 seconds.
Add the ice and shake for another 15-30 seconds.
Strain into a glass. Garnish with a lemon slice, if desired.
Note: You might as well just make two at a time rather than trying to split an egg white in half! Double the recipe, double your fun. Or, to err on the side of food safety, you can use liquid egg whites which are guaranteed to be pasteurized, or an egg white alternative.
Class is now in session!
Speaking (earlier) of my story “Beach People,” I was lucky enough to get to talk to a class about this story recently. I have a colleague who teaches a horror-focused class, and they read the story and invited me for a Q&A on Zoom. It was such a treat, with a lot of insightful questions, but one of the most interesting, perhaps, was a question about the choice not to show the aftermath of a horrific moment. After all, in a horror story, isn’t that the point?
A quick summary: After her brother’s death in a car accident, Camilla’s parents drag her to her aunt’s cabin on Lake Superior for family bonding time, but Camilla refuses to go onto the beach. She watches from the cabin as a strange girl with long black hair periodically comes out of the water to sit beside the other people, of whom there are fewer and fewer as the gray days pass. What is going on? Where are they disappearing to? Her parents find her difficult and won’t listen to her, but Camilla senses something isn’t right. One night, she wakes up and sees the girl out there. She goes out and finds something in the sand:
Wishing she had brought a flashlight, Camilla crouched down before one of the nests, curious at what this creature had been gathering. It looked like weeds and driftwood, after all. She looked out again to the water just as the figure’s head sank beneath, and she watched the silvery surface in its hypnotic rhythms for a while before planting her hands on the ground to push herself to her feet.
When she did, the moon suggested that the driftwood wasn’t really wood at all. She reached into the pile of debris, imagining Jordan was daring her to reach inside, but it took her a long, stupid moment to realize that what she had taken for pieces of wood were bones.
There is a break after this, and the story picks up the next morning, with Camilla anxiously trying to convince her parents there’s something weird about the beach. The student asked why I didn’t show her react in terror at having found bones: why didn’t I follow her as she screamed and ran back to the cabin? Why didn’t we have a scene of her trying to call the police or wake her parents? That would have been fun to see!
I didn’t even realize the answer myself until I said it, but it was largely a craft choice. Ending on that somewhat shocking moment in which she discovers that these weird nests contain bones allows the reader to experience that moment of shock alongside the character. Rather than watching the character react, the reader is able to react, and at the same time they can imagine well enough what Camilla’s reaction might be. We don’t need to see her reaction; if the scene has done its job, then the reader can feel it.
There’s also a character element here, and what I hope is a human element. We all like to think that, when confronted with something horrifying, we would act in the most logical way (i.e. call an authority such as police or parents). But that’s not necessarily how people actually react in such situations. Camilla (16) is already at odds with her parents in the story, and it seems quite likely they wouldn’t even believe her if she told them there were bones on the beach—after all, they’ve been out there and they didn’t see any bones. Camilla is disgruntled with the authority figures in her life, so would she really go to another authority figure in calling the police? My guess is no. It’s not the most logical course of action, but it feels to me like the most honest one.
It’s such a small moment, but it’s in these small moments that stories operate at their most powerful levels. And it was a wonderful experience to articulate these things to the students! In teaching writing, I’ve discovered how to articulate certain choices or strategies that may seem intangible, ambiguous, or subjective in ways that students can understand and apply in their own work. Clearly explaining why certain choices are effective—even if they may not be the most immediately satisfying (you can imagine how satisfying it might be to see Camilla run screaming over the beach!)—is one of the things I’ve gotten good at in teaching writing, and one of the things I love about my job.
So, here are my tips for those little moments in a story:
Utilize scene breaks during moments that allow the reader to react to what is happening, rather than just reading about the character reacting to what is happening.
Aim for honesty, rather than logic, in character reaction. People are generally not as logical as they like to think they are.
Writing Update
I’ve got a number of stories coming out this month, or already out! Who knew July was such a big horror month?
July Short Stories
First, the stories that are already out:
You can find “The Feed” in the July issue of Cosmic Horror Monthly, available now. After breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, Jenna moves into a new apartment with a strange roommate whose real life seems at odds with the persona she displays online. As unsettling secrets come to light, Jenna soon discovers something is taking over her digital life, too, posting pictures of her she never took, pictures that can’t possibly exist…
Also available now is my story “To Dust You Shall Return,” inspired by Ghost’s song “Mummy Dust,” in Tales from the Clergy: Stories Inspired by Ghost. Henrietta has lived all her life in small-town Depression era Indiana with her harsh, religious father. When a traveling preacher comes to town with a mysterious yet powerful dust, which he claims to be the ashes of Christ, she wonders if he may be her ticket out of here. Youthful blasphemy, indeed!
Coming July 25: Horror Library Volume 8 arrives later this month but is currently available for pre-order! This volume includes my story “Broodmare.” Born and raised in a remote cult, one girl must confront what it really means to carry the future of her people. Is it a Blessing... or a Curse?
Coming July 28: The second in the Unleashed series (after the well-received Classic Monsters Unleashed) is Shakespeare Unleashed. Shakespeare reimagined as horror! What’s not to love? This includes my story “Something Is Rotten,” in which a psychic medium and two scientists are brought to Elsinore by a mysterious benefactor to investigate the haunting of Hamlet’s castle.
More stories (and a poem) to come later this year!
Vote for Night Bells in Readers’ Choice Awards
Voting for the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Readers’ Choice Awards is now open! You can vote for up to 10 works, but you can only vote once. Voting closes July 25. If you liked When the Night Bells Ring, please consider making it one of your choices. Also on the ballot is Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga, in which I have a short story called “The Space Between the Trees.” Vote now!
About Me
Jo Kaplan is the author of the horror novels IT WILL JUST BE US and WHEN THE NIGHT BELLS RING. Her short stories have appeared in Fireside Quarterly, Black Static, Nightmare Magazine, Vastarien, Horror Library, Nightscript, and a variety of award-nominated anthologies (sometimes as Joanna Parypinski). Find her at jo-kaplan.com.