Communist Vampires

Several horror icons whom I admire have died these past several months. I just now learned that David J. Skal (1952 - 2024) died after being hit by a drunk driver in Los Angeles. I first encou...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2024/01/david-j-skal-rip.html

Every year Halloween (and Christmas) starts earlier. For some time now, my first Halloween sightings have been around mid August. But this year, Halloween began in July. On Saturday, July 22, I ...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2023/07/first-halloween-sighting-in-2023-on.html

Today I received the following email: Members and Friends, With the effects of the Covid-19  pandemic being felt in many sectors, we are not immune I'm sorry to say. The fallout of these ef...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2020/06/loscon-47-canceled-due-to-covid-19.html

Come this November, I will once again be returning to Loscon , Los Angeles's premiere science fiction & fantasy convention, to host a screening of select horror films on the night of Friday,...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2019/10/horror-film-screening-at-loscon-46.html

British actress Lysette Anthony has announced that she too was raped by producer Harvey Weinstein. According to the Daily Mail : > British actress Lysette Anthony has told police th...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2017/10/harvey-weinstein-raped-horror-actress.html

Princess Diana died 20 years ago today in a car accident. Unless you were alive at the time, you can't imagine the mass hysteria that swept the British public over her death. I never understoo...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2017/08/remembering-mass-hysteria-over-princess.html

The term "politically correct" is bandied about so much as to have become meaningless. But what really does it mean? Here's a history of the term (as best I know it). "PC" has gone through fo...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2017/07/historical-origins-of-term-politically.html

News outlets are reporting that actor Stephen Furst has died. According to JD Knapp at Daily Variety : Stephen Furst, best known for getting his start in “Animal House,” has passed away ...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2017/06/actor-stephen-furst-rip.html

New York City's famed subways were famously horrifying during the 1970s and even the 1980s . I know, because I rode the subways back then. I even memorialized the experience it in my novel, Ma...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2017/05/new-york-city-subways-deteriorating-to.html

In Fahrenheit 451 , American author Ray Bradbury predicted that progressives (not conservatives) would enforce censorship in the United States, beginning with books deemed "insensitive" to m...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2017/02/publishers-hire-sensitivity-readers-to.html

I guess it's nice to be quoted in a major publication like The Huffington Post , even if they do misspell my name (something I've lived with since childhood -- Why is it so hard to spell Sipos?)...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2017/02/huffington-post-quotes-me-misspells-my.html

Sometimes it takes a while for reality to catch up to satire. I first wrote Manhattan Sharks as a screenplay in 1987, later turning it into a novel. Nearly 30 years ago. Manhattan Sharks is...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2016/06/food-cart-vendor-turf-wars.html

As in most years, I'll be attending the World Horror Convention . This time it's being held in Provo, Utah. It seems it's held in Utah every four years. It was in Salt Lake City in 2008 and a...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2016/04/as-in-most-years-ill-be-at-world-horror.html

I'll be participating in several events at the 2015 World Horror Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, over the weekend of May 7 to 10, 2015. * On Friday, and again on Saturday, (May 8 and 9), f...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2015/04/ill-be-participating-in-several-events.html

The 2015 Academy Awards once again exposed Hollywood's hypocrisy on diversity. The film industry has a long history of promoting diversity on screen -- but only as a message, not as an actual p...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2015/03/hollywood-witches-skewers-liberal.html

It's that time that of year again, time for Thanksgiving -- and Loscon ! As usual, Los Angeles's annual science fantasy convention will be convening over Thanksgiving weekend, at the LAX Marri...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2014/11/tabloid-witch-award-screenings-at.html

Does self-publishing a book make one into a real writer? That is, professional author? Or is a self-publisher merely a vanity author? The outside world may not care about such definitions, bu...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2014/01/self-published-authors-its-not-about.html

As an Amazon Vine Voice, I take pride in my Amazon reviews. I am thus especially disgusted by bogus "reviews for hire." I found the below ad on Criagslist, which takes bogus reviewing to new d...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2014/01/bogus-amazon-reviews.html

Canadian writer Mark Wegierksi interviewed me for the Quarterly Review, during which I mostly discuss the creative process and themes behind my novels.  You can read Wegierski's article her...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-quarterly-review-interviews-me.html

I'll appear on five panels at Loscon 40 , on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the Thanksgiving Day weekend, in Los Angeles, CA. Although Loscon is a mostly science fiction/ fantasy convention, ...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2013/11/my-horror-panels-at-loscon-40.html

Small, independent bookstores in U.S. have long complained that publishers grant deeper discounts to bookstore chains and to Amazon.com, because the latter buy more books. The chains and Amazon ...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2012/06/france-bans-book-discounts.html

I've written before about my problems with Verizon Wireless and how much they suck ... and suck ... and suck and really and truly suck . Most (though not all) of my problems with Verizon we...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2012/06/verizon-wireless-truly-sucks.html

I discovered Ray Bradbury in a trash can. On my way home from grammar school, I saw that someone had discarded some yellowed, worn 1970s paperbacks. I salvaged all the true ghost stories and hor...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2012/06/ray-bradbury-my-st-patricks-day-pen-pal.html

Back before Kindle , before print-on-demand even, the public derided self-publishing as vanity publishing. Vanity books were not real books. Vanity authors were not real authors. To be publi...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-does-it-mean-to-be-published.html

I'm not a big admirer of the New Age. My Hollywood Witches satirizes, among other targets, La La Land flakes and their silly infatuations with New Age make-believe. The New Age movement is a...

http://communistvampires.blogspot.com/2012/04/celestine-prophecy-old-socialism-for.html