6/13/26
Most of yesterday was spent installing air conditioners — three upstairs and two downstairs. Then my son and I had to take a drive to my sister’s house, which is about 90 minutes away. And then on the way home I had to get the grocery shopping done. So today is going to be spent writing, and therefore, let’s make this quick, because I also still have to get tomorrow’s newsletter started.
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Watched Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die last night, and it is wonderful. A quirky, funny, smart science-fiction comedy that hit all of my favorite things. If you like movies such as 12 Monkeys, Brazil, or Time Bandits then I highly recommend this one.
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Women In Horror Year: Day 57
The Home by Judith Sonnet
THE HOME
In the early '60s, in a seemingly more "innocent" time, a group of teenagers were lured into a supposedly haunted house. The place on Sycamore Lane has a morbid history, but that's just hearsay and rumor, isn't it?
THE HOME
His name was Robbie Miller, and he was a killer. Driven mad by the THING that lived in The Home, he now exists to serve. He'll do whatever the creature that calls itself Mr. Friendlyman asks . . . He'll even become a ghost . . .
THE HOME
Now, decades later and much older, they are returning to The Home. A retired fantasy writer, A doting grandfather, and a mysterious old woman who seems to know things she should not . . .
THE HOME
A dark storm is brewing over this wicked house. A storm that will break down the very fabric of reality. A storm that demands blood and sacrifice, and feeds on the ghosts of anyone who dies within it's premises.
In the space of a very short time, Judith Sonnet carved a swath through the ranks of Extreme Horror, rising to the top as one of the most popular writers in the subgenre, and deservedly so. Her work in that regard is relentless, repulsive, and so far over-the-top that she makes Edward Lee’s stuff read like a Disney storybook. She also gave the stories serious emotional stakes and realistic characters, on par with Wrath James White. She earned the accolades and praise ten-fold. For some writers, that would be enough. She could have eventually built up an Extreme Horror backlist and made a decent living or at least had a reliable secondary income stream giving the people what they want.
But Judith — like myself and J.F. Gonzalez and Nate Southard and Bryan Smith before her — wasn’t content to just write one thing or one style over and over again. Her more recent works are beginning to branch out into other territories, and shift more toward a mainstream sensibility. It’s a path and journey that I am intimately familiar with. The Home is a step down that path, and — to my reading — proves that she’s going to be just fine on that journey. The Home is a work of a more mature author, one who is now in full command of her gifts, and comfortable with her voice, and firing on all cylinders — passionate about the art she’s crafting. And that’s something to celebrate.
The Home is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook from Madness Heart Press.
