MICHAEL F. HOUSEL has authored several novels for Airship 27 Productions, including THE HYDE SEED, MARK JUSTICE'S THE DEAD SHERIFF: PURITY & THE PERSONA TRILOGY, with his short stories appearing in THE PURPLE SCAR, THE PHANTOM DETECTIVE & RAVENWOOD, STEPSON OF MYSTERY. He is also a faithful contributor to Eighth Tower Publications' DARK FICTION series, various popular-culture periodicals and a frequent associate producer for MR. LOBO'S CINEMA INSOMNIA.
Showing posts with label Michael F. Housel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael F. Housel. Show all posts
As reported earlier this month, an upcoming volume of Eighth Tower's Dark Fiction series will feature stories inspired by David Cronenberg's Videodrome.
My contribution is called "Anomaly Drone." (Per Eighth Tower's mastermind, Raffaele Pezzella, Martin Loomis is editing the fable at this pivotal point.) I can't reveal too much on the tale's content (as is the tradition with the early phases of any Dark Fiction project), but I can say that it deals with parallel realities (adjacent to what one finds in the movie) and uses a hand-like formation as one of its catalysts.
As fans of Videodrome will recall, the hand motif prevails throughout the plot, though in the case of my tale, the angle is a trifle different. In fact, I've tapped several, macabre sources to make my anomaly's frightful fingers snap (ahem).
This post features imagery from those influences. Indeed, the common thread is evident, would you not agree?
Further details on this bold, new, Dark Fiction anthology will be forthcoming. Stay tuned✌
The next, Eighth Tower Dark Fiction curation (after the in-the-pipeline, Blind Dead anthology) will be based on the alternate-reality concepts of David Cronenberg's Videodrome.
My story is entitled "Anomaly Drome," and deals with two alternate realities (loose variants of what's featured in the film) and a strange, animated formation that resembles a hand, a blue hand, to be precise. The anomaly "befriends" a gent named Robert "Bob" Riddance, and all seems cool and comfy between them, but then ... well, I don't wish to spoil the outcome, but it gets bizarre, damn bizarre.
There's no release date set on this Videodrome derivative, but what's brewing does show enormous potential and should more than hold its own with Dark Fiction's best and strangest offerings.
I'm often asked if I listen to music when I write. I do on occasion, though during such sessions, it's more classical/soundtrack and/or ambient constructions that I favor, such as Michael Ferentino's Bedtime for Robots, Tangerine Dream and various experimental, Eighth Tower examples, where transcendental draws persist, prompting my words to bounce in a sublime succession.
For the interludes (the lead-ups that prompt my actual composing), I lean on the Moody Blues. Through the band's compositions, I'm able to calm down and then dream and aspire, allowing any number of ideas to flourish.
The Moodies have the same impact on lots of folks. In this respect, it's obvious why they're revered (inducted, no less, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), but at the same time, they've never received the fullest degree of respect they deserve. That the Moodies exist, or have existed, is more than enough cause to express endless jubilation and exaltation and yet ...
The peculiar, understated passings of John Lodge and Ray Thomas epitomize the problem. When the two left this Earth, the mainstream media turned a blind eye. It was heartbreaking (maybe more so, infuriating) for me (and a legion of fans) to learn of their departures months after the fact.
Despite this unpardonable injustice, the Moodies' mind-expanding flights have enchanted generations of listeners, pulling them from their oppresive doldrums time and again. For example, I've been revisiting To Our Children's Children Children, but then I tend to do so (for whatever pensive prompt) whenever autumn approaches. It's a welcome tradition, and I'm all the better for it.
I'll be attending a Justin Hayward concert this September. I saw the Moodies perform at the Philadelphia Spectrum in 1986 (with another underrated but excellent band, the Fixx); the impact of that event has never left me. The Haywood concert will be a marvelous way to bookend the inspiring stretch.
Well, I hope my little, creative-catalyst share enlightens your mood, as much as the magnificent Moodies have enlightened mine.🎵
Eighth Tower Publication's CEO, Raffaele Pezzella, is gearing up for the next, Dark Fiction volume: a tribute to writer/director David Lynch, with emphasis on his specialized storytelling featured in Twin Peaks.
Some of you have already gotten a taste of the anthology's ingredients through Pezzella's sneak-peek of my fable, "The Greater Goo," revealed in the Eighth Tower Magazine, which does, in fact, contain several, Twin Peaks tropes.
"The Greater Goo" centers on a globular entity (man-made in the Frankenstein/factory vein, or rather like those defecating, little "chickens" served in Eraserhead). The titular creature befriends a bullied adolescent, who it wishes to absorb in a collective-soul manner. Young Ellie just so happens to be the ideal candidate to command its stored doppelgangers, but the process proves more contentious than not.
In addition to myself, authors Chris McAuley (also the edition's editor), Simon Bleaken and John Buja are contributing to the upcoming volume. There's no doubt that the writers will bewitch readers with their concepts, considering their impressive track records.
Bizarrechats will supply further updates on this strange, new release as soon as such is available.
As I mentioned in January, a new Purple Scar/Miles Murdock volume is on the way from Airship 27 Productions. It will consist of two novels, one from Gene Moyers and one from me, both being illustrated by Aiden Belcher, who created the interiors for my opus, The Persona, Vol 3: Silver Skin.
I also have a Purple Scar story featured in Vol 4, called "Golem Clay," which holds a weird, supernatural angle, based on Hebrew legend. The tale grew from an unpublished one I penned decades ago, but was discouraged to do anything with it, thanks to a big-time, discouraging know-it-all. ("Golem Clay" is, in truth, a manifestation of vindication and comeuppance for me, and this goes well beyond its angst-ridden plot.)
The Purple Scar Vol 4 also features stories from Mr. Moyers, Felix Cruz and Fred Adams Jr., which do well by the Scar's eerie legend.
Why not check out Vol 4 (or even the earlier lead-in, Airship 27 volumes) before Vol 5's release?
I wish to thank my friends at Planet Fitness for purchasing another batch of my newest novel, The Persona, Vol 3: Silver Skin, published by Airship 27 Productions.
Silver Skin pits Michael Mansford, the Persona, against a shimmering "outer space demon," who invades the Amazon, with plans to consume the rest of Earth via strange, terraforming techniques.
The novel's interiors are fashioned by Aiden Belcher, the front cover by Michael Youngblood and the back cover by Rob Davis.
Though the book is, by all accounts, selling well, it never hurts to sell even more. With this in mind, please visit the following to secure yours:
Raffaele Pezzella just dropped the second half of my Dark Fiction, David Lynch-inspired story, "The Greater Goo" for Eighth Tower Magazine through Patreon. (See February 1 post regarding Part 1.)
"The Greater Goo" references storylines and concepts found in Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead and The Elephant Man. It features a strange entity (a "goo," if one will) inspired by both the Eraserhead baby and "the Arm" from Twin Peaks: The Return. The creature absorbs (rather like the Blob), collecting and cultivating flesh, but also the thoughts that swarm around it. (For the record, there is, in fact, a smidgeon of Todd Solondz's Welcome to the Dollhouse in the tale, due to the goo's friend, a downtrodden lass.)
As Raffaele Pezzella gears up for a new volume of Dark Fiction, while revitalizing past ones, he's offering a sneak peek at my David Lynch/Twin Peaks story, "The Greater Goo" through Patreon.
"The Greater Goo" centers on Lynch's visionary works (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man ... Eraserhead), with aspects of such seeping into our reality. The phenomena springs from a factory-spawned creature that "magnetizes" what surrounds it, including people.
One can read the initial segment at the below links. (BTW: The second half of "The Greater Goo" will be released soon. Stay tuned.)
Ah, here we go again with another know-it-all denouncement. Alas, an uptown snob has accused me of ripping off 28 Years Later. He claims that a portion of my novel, The Persona: Silver Skin, steals from Dr. Kelson's majestic bone temple, since my story features antagonists who devour their victims and then pile their bones about a desolate village.
I wrote Silver Skin more than a year before 28 Years Later hit theaters. My story's bone "sculptures" don't hold the same significance as Kelson's. Mine are more incidental (mere remnants) than not.
Something along these lines happened decades ago, when Don Coscarelli was accused of ripping off George Lucas' Jawas for the Tall Man's dwarfs. Coscarelli explained that he had envisioned his "little, brown and low to the ground," Phantasm creatures well before Star Wars was even a thing, and of course, his dwarfs hold quite a different designation than the Jawas. Still, the silly comparison stuck for a substantial spell among the haughty hardheaded.
There's nothing that I can say to change my accuser's myopic mind, so why even try? I've only chosen to document the matter for historic record and in that sad event that other pantomaths may feel so compelled to promote the ludicrous notion.
At any rate, feel free to judge for yourself. The Persona: Silver Skin and 28 Years Later can be purchased at
I'm happy to report that my alternate-reality novel, The Persona, Vol 3: Silver Skin, is selling quite well, but hey, I'd be pleased as Punch if it sold even more.
Though the book became available to merchants in December, its freshness makes it as much a 2026 submission: a New Year entry, for sure. As such, its momentum (to quote the good ol' Carpenters) has "only just begun."
For this submission, Mike Mansford ends up in the Amazon Rainforest with his betrothed, Stacey Standish, only to face an extraterrestrial invasion, led by the silver-skinned Sentinel Sifer. It's Sifer's intent to consume Earth through terraforming methodology. Mansford, of course, won't stand for it, and to break the infestation, he summons his ever reliable alter-ego, the Persona.
The novel is illustrated by Aiden Belcher, with a front cover by Michael Youngblood (a homage to a famous, Creature from the Black Lagoon photo), with a verdant back-shot by Rob Davis.
Folks tell me that they find Silver Skin to be lots of fun, even if gruesome. Perhaps you can give it a whirl and judge for yourself. (BTW: The volume contains a bonus story entitled "Dark Waves": a sequel to both Silver Skin and The Persona, Vol 2: Green-Fleshed Fiends.)
The Persona, Vol 3: Silver Skin can be purchased at
