#larry mike garmon

[twistedtummies2]

Count-Down: Number 21

Welcome to Count-Down! All throughout the month of October, I’m counting down my Top 31 favorite portrayals and reimaginings of the King of the Vampires, Count Dracula! For today’s Dracula, the old phrase “Next time, get it in writing” comes to mind. Number 21 is…The Version from “Return of Evil.”

Today’s entry is special for a couple of reasons. First of all, this is the only NOVEL to make it into the actual countdown; we had “Anno Dracula” in the Honorable Mentions, of course, but this is the only book – a non-illustrated, normal, paperback book – to make it to the actual Top 31. Obviously, this book has to be pretty interesting, right? Well, that leads to the second reason: the main reason this book is of interest to me isn’t even the book itself. It’s my relationship with it. Believe it or not, this is what I consider to be my “official” introduction to Dracula. How is that so? Well…I’ll get to that in a bit. First, let’s discuss the book proper, which won’t take long. “Return of Evil” was part of a series of teenager-oriented books simply called “Universal Monsters.” (How original.) The series focused on various popular characters from the titular franchise ending up in the modern, real world, and the havoc they would then wreak. Fittingly, Dracula – being the first of the Monsters to show up in sound, and the King of the Vampires – was chosen to spearhead this takeover in the very first book of the series. I’ve only read two books from the series; namely, the first two. (“Return of Evil” and “Bad Moon Rising,” the latter of which features the Wolfman. That’s another story for another time.) I read these back when I was in Junior High School; at the time, I actually didn’t have that much experience with Dracula, unless you counted things like Scooby-Doo, The Count from Sesame Street, and Count Chocula. I knew who Dracula was, so to speak, but I didn’t know the story or how the Count could be taken as a serious character. Still, when I saw “Return of Evil” – with its blood red cover depicting the Count’s unearthly face – I became interested. What I read in its pages was one of the scariest books I had read up to that young age, and – I kid you not – I IMMEDIATELY went and rented the original Bram Stoker novel from my school library on the next visit. I HAD to know more about this character, I HAD to see what the original story was like. And it wasn’t too long after that I started looking at different film versions of Dracula…serious (or, you know, “serious”) film versions, that is – actual adaptations of the story. I would not have even met Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee if it weren’t for this book. So my adoration of Dracula – who I had previously seen as a fanciful figure of fun – can be COMPLETELY blamed on this story. Now, the thing is, after I left middle school…I never saw the book again. It wasn’t until I was planning to make this list that I decided, “You know, I should see if I can track that book down; maybe it’s not as good as I remember…or, perhaps, it’s even better than I remember!” So, I did exactly that, and re-read it. And, quite honestly? I think the book is…EXACTLY as good as I remember it. Neither more nor less. Which was probably the result I was least expecting. XD The teenaged protagonists of the story are nothing too special; they aren’t bad characters, but they’re not particularly unique among the crowd of similar types. The plot is also pretty standard: Dracula arrives, kills and turns a few people, and our heroes have to stop him before he enacts his ultimate plan. However, there are a few twists to the formula – a vampire cult, for instance; not something you’ll see in most short novels like this – but where the story TRULY succeeds is the way it handles Dracula himself, and, tied to that, the TONE of the piece. These books wanted to prove something: that the Universal Monsters can be just as scary today as they were back in their own time, provided you realize how that works. Keep in mind, a lot of what makes the Monsters “hokey” by today’s standards in so many people’s eyes is movie magic: in the reality of the story, Dracula turns into a bat, but what we perceive is a rubber bat on a string. If Dracula, as played by Lugosi, came into our world, he wouldn’t simply be an over-the-top ham, as so many like to joke. He’d be a real threat. The novel does its job well: the book is legitimately scary and more gory than one would anticipate. Dracula’s physical description matches Lugosi, but the character is something new: he is a paradox, a villain who will kill innocent people seemingly for sport and thoroughly enjoy it…but also a tragic immortal whose greatest goal is to be reunited with the person he believes to be his long-lost love. He is a monster, but he is a monster with a heart, shriveled and blackened as it is. The result is a unique interpretation, paying homage to the classic version but also taking new twists and modernizing the character in a way that allows him to be more terrifying. Part of this, too, comes with the descriptions of the character, which always manage to make him sound quite impressive and sinister: that’s the power of writing. However, much like Lederer, the OVERALL product is…okay. It’s not a BRILLIANT novel, but it achieves what it sets out to do, and I have a lot of nostalgia here; I think it does its job better than “Return of Dracula,” despite being from a different medium, but it’s not enough to nail it a slot in the Top 20, possibly because novels – by their very nature – have a more subjective way of being interpreted. Still, it’s a version very close to my heart, and, if only because of what it’s done for me, I feel it deserves at least a little bit of credit. Tomorrow, the countdown continues! Hint: “Shall We Dance?”

[ksstradio]

Obituary – Rosa Lee Chamberlain

Obituary – Rosa Lee Chamberlain

Rosa Lee Chamberlain A funeral service for Rosa Lee Chamberlain, age, 77, of Sulphur Springs, Texas, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, January 29, 2022, at First Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs with Dr. Jeff Gravens and Rev. Gary Thompson officiating. Interment will follow at Restlawn Memorial Park with Nolan Garmon, Jordan Tyler, Larry Horton, Jimmy Mangus, Mike Allen, Hunter Allen, Harrison,…

[atlantic-riona]

@archiveofidentityconstellations it's the last book of a series I read in elementary school that stuck with me for a long time - three teens accidentally free all of the Universal Studios monsters from the movies, and have to put them back. I vaguely remembered it, mostly because one of the main characters gets targeted by the Mummy because he thinks she's his love reincarnated, and at one point he kisses her (while, you know, being a dead mummy, which was pretty horrifying to read about). The scene stuck in my head, but I couldn't find it for a long time. Then the other day, I googled it for the heck of it, and found it!

Unfortunately, it's obscure enough that the closest library that has the books is, like, the Library of Congress 😂 I didn't remember whether the series was actually any good or not, so I didn't want to buy them without reading an excerpt at first, but there weren't any ebook versions anywhere. So I ended up going to archive.org and finding online versions of three of the books in the series. I read one last night and another today (the one that had the Mummy kiss, I recognized the prose immediately 😂).

It's the kind of book that's a fun read, and has some great characters. I think it's the kind of story that would be a fantastic movie—the dialogue, action, and pacing are perfect for the big screen.

The series is called The Universal Studios Monsters series, by Larry Mike Garmon (Goodreads link here). You might have better luck finding it in a library near you, but the first five books can be bought for under five dollars from most places. For some reason, the cheapest you can buy the sixth and final book is $45 dollars, and it only goes up from there. It's the same bookstore on all the sites I've found that's doing it too - idk why, because it's a cheap mass market paperback! It probably cost eight dollars to make!! I'm not even buying it new!

randomly remembering bits and pieces of a book you read and liked as a kid but the details are hazy:

finally finding and reading the book and it's like you're ten again, enamoured with everything about the book:

[lmgswain-blog]

Empty Bed Blues

Fast Food Fiction ® 26 October 2018 © Larry Michael Garmon Swain All Rights Reserved For reprint permission, email Mike@LMGSwain.com

1313

Empty Bed Blues

by

LMG Swain

“She’s not coming back, Bobby. She’s not in love with you. Hell, you’re still in love with her, even now. Even after what she dumped your ass, you’re still in love with her. Face it, friend, she’s been with Travis for three years.…

[veryfestivalpainterdiplomat-blog]

I'm doing a major revision of my 2007 alternative world novel "The Calamari Code--An Agatha Pixie Mystery" and am seeking ten beta readers to read and evaluate the novel. Written under my pseudonym Larry Mike Garmon and originally published in July 2007, the novel is described as "Lancelot Link" meets "Murder, She Wrote". Hard to pigeon hole this into any set genre or category, much like Richard Brautigan or William Burroughs (the "Naked Lunch" Burroughs, not the other dude). Still, it's a fun romp parodying the hard-boiled mysteries of the 30s and 40s and using anthropomorphic characters on a planet called Zu in a metropolis nicknamed the Big Gaggle. And, yes, I still subscribe to the belief that someone at Disney/Pixar read about Agatha's adventures in Zuopolis and re-purposed my story as Zootopia. At least, that's what my healthy artistic writer's ego tells me. So, if you're interested in reading a 244 novel about a feline detective named Agatha Pixie and her admin assistant Shirley Dachshund and their cohorts Edgar Allen Crow, Arthur Conan Dales, Micky Spiney (turtle) et al who must solve the mystery of the Ooma Lisa, then send me an email to Mike@LMGSwain.com with your mailing address. Of course, those of you who get the puns and play on words without reading the novel are the ones who should read this tale. You'll get an Advance Reader's (Hard) Copy along with a critique form and other instructions. I only need ten beta readers who can commit to reading the novel within 30 days of receiving their hard copies and sending me feed back no later than mid-July 2018. Thank you. OWFI Famous Authors​ Yukon Writers' Society Group​ LMGSwain-Maker of Tales & Weaver of Dreams​ The Lawton GrapeVine​ Lawton Grapevine​ Oklahoma City Writers, Inc (OCWI)​ Oklahoma Writers Forum​