It's not about Dark Shadows, alas, but Horror Library has posted an interview with yours truly -- mostly about the good old days of Deathrealm. Now, I did run a Dark Shadows feature in Deathrealm way back when, so by way of Rainey's Theory of the Transitive Property of Irrelevance, it could be considered on-topic, but then only just.

Regardless, I've got a new interview up at Horror Library, conducted by Ed Schubert, editor of Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. Somebody messed up the italics in the article, but it wasn't me.

The Horror Library Interview

...in a Post Rice Krinkles commercial? Sure looks like him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9gVA01U34k

Dark Shadows: The Labyrinth of Souls can now be picked up here, as a free PDF:

http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey/dslabyrinth.htm

There be spoilers here.

In and of itself, S. E. Hinton's HAWKES HARBOR is not a bad book; as an entry in the DARK SHADOWS novel series, it would have been a flop.

I enjoyed Hinton's prose, and she developed a convincing background for Jamie (Willie Loomis) Sommers. It's easy to envision Karlen in the role and Dennis Patrick playing Kellen (Jason McGuire) Quinn in flashback fashion, particularly in their travels around the world. Her delving deeply into Jamie's psyche, the devastation he feels being a victim of a vampire, is masterful, and that rich character development is what keeps the novel going.

The other characters, however, are a complete bust. I have no idea how much she altered them to make HAWKES HARBOR a stand-alone novel, but the character of Grenville (Barnabas) Hawkes is so far removed from anything Jonathan Frid would have portrayed that one -has- to forget the novel's origin as an entry in the DS series -- not so easy when you consider that Jamie Sommers and Willie Loomis are virtually interchangeable. Mind you, in some scenes, I can see Ben Cross delivering Grenville's lines, but even that becomes a stretch after a while. I honestly don't know if Hinton purposefully worked the dialogue so that there'd be no real resemblance to Barnabas or if it was due to a lack of understanding of the character; given her sharp portrayal of Jamie/Willie, the latter seems doubtful.

Louisa (Julia Hoffman) Kahne bears some slight resemblance to her television counterpart, though she tends to be more sharp-tongued and self-centered than the "real" Julia. While most of the other characters are recognizable as Collins family members and Collinsport townspeople, none of them are developed to any great extent. While both Grenville and Jamie are quite smitten with Katie (Maggie Evans) Roddendem, apart from an "unusual" moment of sex with Jamie, she's almost a non-entity, generally in the background, occasionally intruding on the main characters' thoughts.

(There is a blooper already discussed around here, in which Roger Collins and the Collins Shipping Co. are mentioned by name.)

Structurally, the book tends to be a little disjointed, due to scenes occuring in non-linear fashion, an aspect that works when there's a point to it, but if there is one in this case, it's fairly muddled. Action and suspense there is none (with the possible exception of a few scattered moments during Jamie and Kellen's sea voyages). I think even fans who care less about DARK SHADOWS' occasionally over-the-top action than its rich characters would be disappointed by HAWKES HARBOR's -very- sedate pace and lack of adrenalin-inducing moments.

I give it a marginal recommendation as a novel of dark fiction, with a nod to Hinton's stylistic prowess.

--M
http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey

I don't believe I've ever plugged it here, but there's a blog called "Storytellers Unplugged," in which a different pro writer posts an essay each day out of the month. Contributors include Lucius Shepard, Elizabeth Massie, Brian Keene, Tim Lebbon, Thomas Sullivan, Richard Steinberg, and a host of other dark fiction authors. My slot is the 29th, and my current entry (posted a wee bit early), titled "Sam Lion's Trail," features a little mention of DS. It's just a reference in passing, but is personally meaningful.   Feel free to drop by.

www.storytellersunplugged.com

HorrorWorld has just put up a new message board for yours truly, and to kick it off, I'm going to run a little contest. It's... a Dark Shadows-related contest!

Easy stuff for you folks, and if you're interested in perhaps winning a free copy of my novel, The Lebo Coven, give it a look.

http://tinyurl.com/868dd

 

I caught The Norliss Tapes, starring Roy Thinnes and Angie Dickinson, on the Plex movie channel yesterday. Hardly one of Dan Curtis's crowning achievements, but it was fairly appealing as a piece of early 70s cheese. I would have sworn I had seen this as a teenager, but not one frame in the movie struck me as familiar, so I'm guessing I must not have.

It's basically Kolchak without the wit or chemistry. Never  did a movie beg so plaintively for an acerbic newspaper editor to yell "CAAAARRRLLLL!!!" at every opportunity. Bill (Logan's Run) Nolan is credited as the writer for this movie, but it's so derivative that I'm betting he had little to do with the actual outcome. Happily, the familiar face of George DiCenzo makes a brief appearance, and Claude Akins once again plays an incredulous sheriff, as he did in The Night Stalker. Looks like this was supposed to be the pilot for an ongoing series, but sans any of the charm of Kolchak, it's easy to see why it went no place instead.

--M
http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey