Being Chased by White Warriors & Awesome Holiday Horror Movies

More AI art this week. This represents Barry in Call for Obstruction, when he’s being chased by white warriors. Don’t forget that the eBook is $1.99 through the end of the year. If you have no idea what a white warrior is, I’ve added Barry’s first encounter with one below.

Let me start by mentioning that I watched the 1974 version of Black Christmas this week for the first time. It’s one of those I can’t believe I haven’t seen. I probably don’t have to tell you it was great!

Also watched The Nights Before Christmas (2019) about a one-eyed psycho Santa with an ax and various other ways to make you bleed and suffer. It’s another poorly rated holiday horror movie at 3.8, but I loved it. I personally thought Simon Phillips (Santa) and Sayla de Goede (Mrs. Claus) were awesome in their roles as the crazies. Despite most of the reviews being 1 and 2 stars, there are quite a few 10 star reviews. That says there is an audience as demented as me for this one. If you’re like me and love indie horror movies, watch this one.

Barry’s Introduction to White Warriors

Two hours south of Denver, I feel as though I’ve been on the road half the day. Even fifty-five dollars an hour can’t make up for this much boredom. I’ve thought about ditching the van, but every time I do, I let out a dusty fart.

An unmistakable hacking cough echoes throughout the cab. “Margery?” It’s like she’s in my head, but not in my head.

“Yeah, Honey, it’s Margery.”

I jump in my seat and look around. “Where the hell are you?” A light on the radio catches my eye. It flickers like it’s on the fritz. Is that the source of her voice? I turn the only knob on it, but it doesn’t seem to do anything.

“Wanted to let you know a few of the drivers have encountered a flock of those birds I warned you about. They’re just south of Pueblo. Close to your current location.”

“Those things really exist?” I shift in my seat and look skyward.

“Why would I warn you about something that doesn’t exist?”

“I’m not a zoologist, but who would take man-sized birds that attack speeding vehicles seriously.”

“If you’re finished, Mister Smarty-pants, you’re in one of the new vans. The damage should be minimal.”

“Damage?” I squeeze tight on the steering wheel and talk at the radio. “Wouldn’t it be better to get off the highway? Wait for them to clear?”

Her voice fills the cab. “You’ll do no such thing. You’ll get that cargo to Trinidad ASAP.”

“It’s my first day.” My heart races faster.

“You have two options.” She lets out a long sigh that’s more of a growl. “Keep on the road or hide in a gas station restroom and shit out your intestines.”

Something tells me I’ll shit my pants either choice I make. I mumble, “Bitch.”

Considering today’s been nothing but clear blue sky, I doubt the white mass off to my right is a cloud. It enlarges as it descends. “I think I see them.”

“And they see you, Honey.”

“I’m not ready for this.”

“Too bad,” she says. “Keep it on the road and don’t stop. They can’t hurt you unless you stop.”

With wings that flap at a twelve-foot span, the birds swoop in. The first one dives straight at the windshield and hits the passenger side like a cannon ball. At least twenty more dive-bomb behind it.

The van rocks and swerves, but miraculously none of the birds break through.

I lean forward in my seat and hover over the steering wheel, struggling to keep the van on the road. My chin trembles. “This isn’t happening.”

“It sure is, Honey.”

“Stop calling me Honey.”

Margery hacks a laugh so hard she could hyperventilate.

“Shut up. This is not funny.” I floor the gas pedal, not that this van could outrun them, but it’s worth a try. “Shit! This is The Birds movie on steroids.”

“Stop talking and concentrate or you’ll end up bird feed.” Margery continues to bark out directions, but only half of what she says is discernible amid the screeching birds and flapping of wings against the windshield.

My neck whips backward as a ghostly white, human face head-butts the windshield. The monster snarls and punches the glass, which shatters, but just as quickly, the cracks fuse back into one clear sheet.

“They’re not birds,” I whisper at first, then reiterate for Margery’s benefit as loud as my voice allows. “They’re not birds.”

Outside the driver’s side window, another monster has a tight grip on the mirror. It bares sharp teeth and violently yanks at the door handle.

My body tilts to the right. The steering wheel rotates the same direction through clammy hands. “Ah!” I slam on the brakes to force the thing off the van. The vehicle goes into a tailspin before skidding to a stop.

Margery barks like a drill sergeant, “What part of ‘keep moving’ did you not understand?”

My foot forces the gas pedal to the floor even though my view is obstructed. “I’m trying. I’m trying,” I keep saying. I skid back around to head south and somehow manage to drive back onto the pavement.

“Hold it steady,” Margery says. “Help’s arrived.”

“Thank God.”

“Honey, God’s got nothing to do with this mission.”

Darkness descends over the van. A few of the toothy bastards break away, replaced by black wings and deafening squawks from a murder of crows. A pecking and clawing war between black and white commences overhead.

Blood rains down on the windshield, blocking my sight. My stomach turns as I fiddle with the dashboard controls. The wipers come on and jets of blue cleaning fluid squirt onto the gory mess.

The white creatures retreat back into the sky, a black veil in pursuit. Maybe I’m safe, but that doesn’t stop the full body shivers or loosen my tight chest. “Margery, help! Can’t…breathe. Having…heart attack.”

“Don’t be silly. You’re in shock?”

Shock. This is…not shock.” A bead of sweat streams down my forehead.

“When’s the last time you were pummeled by a flock of giant birds?”

“Those were not birds.” I pound my fist on my chest and white-knuckle the steering wheel with my other hand. “Seriously. Call an ambulance.”

“I don’t have time for this nonsense. Pull yourself together and finish your run to Trinidad.” There’s silence. Margery’s gone.

Buy Call for Obstruction on Amazon!

Margery the Demon According to AI Image Generation

This AI’s version of Margery the Demon. Pretty damn good likeness except for the hair, which is my fault. I didn’t include troll doll hair in the description. I’ll have to try for her demon form next. Did this in Adobe Firefly last week. I had been given beta access and through I might have more fun with it than I have. I’m still finding it easier to search for stock images.

Speaking of Angels Dark and Dumb, the eBooks are on sale for $1.99, except for Fall for Freedom, which is $0.99, until December 1st. Go to angelsdarkanddumb.com for links to purchase books on Amazon.

Have you seen Wolf Like Me? I just finished the first season and loved it. Can’t wait to start the next season. Such a great ending to the first. It’s reminding me how much I’ve loved werewolves over the years, but I’ve been neglecting them for a number of years. I used to read books with werewolves, but the genre got too saturated with urban fantasy romance books. Just for the heck of it, I paused from writing this post and searched Amazon for “werewolf comedy,” and it took pages to find what I thought I might read.

On to some more complaining. I watched Nutcracker Massacre on Tubi (where there’s a good selection of holiday horror) for my 1st new holiday horror viewing pleasure, and there was nothing but pain. Slow, boring torment to be exact. If you’ve read my movie reviews in the past, you know that I watch movies willy-nilly. This is because I tend to love really bad horror movies. This one was an exception though. I don’t look up reviews until after watching, so I was surprised that Nutcracker Massacre didn’t get a score lower than it’s 3.1. There was a really good idea or plot behind it, but it’s like no one bothered to develop either. My biggest complaint was the speed of the movie. Since I started watching a bunch of newer indie horror movies, I’ve noticed a trend. A really bad trend toward slow torturous kills, which this movie delivered from start to finish. While this sounds like a good thing in the horror genre, it’s more eye rolling with a deep sigh. The characters are stiff and dumb and boring. And at the one point I was hoping to laugh out loud with the nutcracker cracking real nuts, I just shook my head at how poorly the irony was presented. Yeah, don’t waste your time with this one, unless you have a lot of email to check.

That’s all this time. Have a great week.

A Few Weeks Later

I’ve had an incredibly busy few weeks, reason #1 why I skipped out on blog posts the last few weeks.

I did have time to put together this collage. A zombie walk of sorts. I’ve been doing a lot of work in Photoshop lately. Also finished up some illustrations for a book by another author and am trying to format the book with the best illustration sizes and such. Trying to figure out images in eBooks has been my latest challenge. Sure it sounds easy, but getting them a small and readable size is not the easiest, especially considering how illustrations or photos are so different depending on how they are created.

Now that I’ve bored you, let me bore you some more. I added a new blog post to the ArmLin House blog. Note that my editor and artist (non-horror related.) name is Wendy Spurlin. How to Standardize the Punctuation in a Manuscript Before Submitting or Formatting Your Book is all about what it says. It’s a pet peeve of mine to read a book and find all different types of punctuation like straight quotation marks vs slanted, the later being the correct format for a published book.

I watched Five Nights at Freddy’s, and it’s a fun horror movie for kids as well as adults. I added kids because I found it very light horror, and one of the main characters is a child. I’ve decided to continue watching horror movies I haven’t seen because the holiday season has begun and there will be plenty of themed horror movies to watch. Finding new ones will be challenging though!

Sorry, nothing new on Angels Dark and Dumb other than chapter 2 was handed over for critique. It needs a lot of work. I thought about doing NaNoWriMo this year, but I’m in the middle of too much with ArmLin House, so it didn’t happen.

All I got for ya this time. Have a great week!

Crazy Weird Horror Collage, Horror movies/shows & Dumping X (Twitter)

Sharing a horror collage I created recently. I love the way this one turned out and could stare at it for hours. Despite my moving to Photoshop, I did this one quickly in Canva. Like I say, it’s funny how something you throw together can work so well.

Wanna quickly mention that I’ve quit using X (Twitter), and the link has been removed below. At the same time, I added my GoodReads profile page, so you can go there and follow me. I try really had to keep that page updated.

Now on to the movies and programs I watched this week. First there’s the shorts. The Infernal Cauldron is a 1903 colorized short set in a dungeon, and women were dumped in the scalding cauldron. It was funny more than anything, and the special effects for the time were impressive. The other was Culpa, about guilt, but I didn’t really see the theme playing out as I had expected. It’s not rated the greatest, so I’ll leave it up to you whether you watch it.

The Hole in the Ground was okay. Very dark as it should be. It was really slow, so I checked email while it was on. In case you don’t know me, I partially gauge my reviews of horror movies by the number of times I do work while watching. The Pyramid was bad, which is probably why it has a 4.6 on IMDB. I did appreciate that the story was about a found pyramid that delved into Egyptian myth. The last movie I watched was The Black Phone. It was release last year, and it was my favorite of all of them. I remember seeing a trailer for this movie in the theater and wanted to see it there. Loved the story line, with a kidnapped kid getting clues from the boys who had previously been kidnapped and killed. You should definitely see this one.

There were a few reality TV shows I watched. Devil’s Road: The True Story of Lorraine & Ed Warren is good if you love the paranormal and want to know about the leaders of ghost hunting. As a trained psychic, I never get enough of shows like Dead Files and Ghost Adventures. And I started watching The Ghost Town Terror, and it’s pretty cool so far.

Reminder that Fall for Freedom is free through Halloween. Below is the first section of the book to entice you to download it. Otherwise, have a great week and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Fall for Freedom Free through Halloween

Greetings from the hellhound in Call for Obstruction. A character Barry encounters in the later half of the book.

I’m sharing this piece this week to let you know that Fall for Freedom is free from October 27th through Halloween. Below is the first section of the book to entice you to download it.

The Set Up

September 1995 – Walsenburg, Colorado

Driving a van four-hundred miles a day for Satan sucks bad enough. Add a tailgater in a black pickup for the last few miles, and I’m ready to exit the highway and head for the nearest bar.

Then the van lurches forward. Hit from behind. My dark, slick-back hair falls to my forehead, partially veiling my view of the pavement and sunflowers that dot the dry Colorado landscape. With a shaky grip on the steering wheel, I snap my bulging eyes to the passenger-side mirror. No surprise, the jerk to the rear is closer than he appears.

I floor the gas pedal and swerve into the right lane, jarring awake the demon possessing me. In his whiny voice, he says, I don’t bother you when you’re sleeping.

Of course he does, but most times I’d rather poke my eyes out than argue with him. “It wasn’t my fault,” I say. “We were rear-ended.”

White warriors? Boss says. Why would they bother us now? We’ve already unloaded the evil energy tanks in Trinidad.

Fall for Freedom

“It’s not God’s Army.”

Who then, Mister Smarty-pants?

Again, I glance at the side view mirror. “If you were awake a minute ago, Mister Pain in My Ass, you’d have seen our friend is driving a black vehicle, not the usual heavenly white.” A comment I instantly regret when his demon essence, merged in with my spine, sends a shot of hot, sharp discipline up my back. I groan. “I’m trying to drive here.”

Hee, hee, hee. Boss’ laugh sounds like a dog munching on a squeaky toy.

The pickup’s engine revs, and with the next hit the van swerves toward the ditch. “Boss, help me, please,” I say while fighting to stay on the road.

Chill out, he says. Probably some moron out for a joyride. Besides, he can’t hurt us unless you stop.

“Like if the van flips next hit?” I shake my head and call out for Hell’s useful level of support. “Margery, you there?”

As our dispatcher and the head demon who protects the evil cargo we haul, normally her voice would pipe in over the AM radio. She barks orders through it anytime, anywhere. So when she doesn’t answer, I squirm in my seat and stare skyward for a murder of crows. They’re one of Satan’s fiercest defenses against attacks. But there’s no reprieve in sight. “Where are the birds?”

Duh! Clear blue sky. Try Margery again.

I lean toward the radio and say louder, “Hey, I’m in trouble here. How about a little assistance?”

“After what you did,” Margery replies in her gruff New York accent, “you’ve got a lot of nerve, taking one of my vans.”

“What do you mean?” I stammer. “I’m driving back to Denver like I do every afternoon.”

“Don’t act stupid. I know you sabotaged the hellhole.”

“What?” I ask. “I haven’t been near the hellhole for years.”

“Tell it to the mercenary on your ass. I hired him to take off your head.” Her deep inhale and crackling cigarette resonate in the background while the shocking news sinks in. Heat rushes up my spine, telling me Boss is equally surprised.

Wow, that’s the thanks you get after fifty years of brown-nosing.

Boss, go back into your coma. Then I tell Margery, “I’m your most loyal driver. Why would I turn on you?”

“You tell me.” Phlegm gurgles in her throat as she adds, “We were so close to opening the Gates of Hell, and now we have to start over. You have any idea what will happen to me when Satan finds out what you did?”

“C’mon. Please. Call off the mercenary. Give me a chance to prove I didn’t do it.”

She blows out a long exhale, ending in a hacking cough.

“Margery, listen to me. I would never—”

“Too late. You’re on your own.” She cackles. “And good luck. There’s no protection hex on your van. I give that mercenary less than five minutes before he runs you off the road.”

This can’t be happening. My hand trembles as I smooth my hair back into place. All I can think is one of my shady co-workers must have set me up. “Margery! I’m innocent!”

No answer.

Dude, we are so fucked.

The van jolts and my gut smashes into the steering wheel. A twenty-ounce cola in the center console flies to the floorboard under my feet, spraying foamy liquid onto my cowboy boots and jeans. “Dammit!” I reach to pick up the bottle.

Leave it, Boss squeals. Give that mercenary half a second, he’ll lop off your head and use it as a bowling ball.

“No kidding.” I swallow hard around the knot in my throat.

Fifty years ago, Margery granted me immortal life in exchange for a few strokes of a pen on a satanic contract. There’s no chance a mercenary will take it away with a stroke of a sword across my neck.

I’m in no hurry to go back to the demon pool to wait for a new host, Boss says, even if you are short, gassy, and afraid of women.

“Cut the insults. We need sanctuary.” I push the accelerator to the floor. “Find us an escape route.”

Take the next exit, he says. There’s a Purgalator coffee shop connected to the Conoco station.

As a haven for otherworldlies, it’s our only hope for survival.

I swerve onto the Walsenburg off ramp and descend the hill. The pickup roars along behind me. At the red light, and halfway into a hard left, the van tilts and skids through the intersection, cutting in front of a semi-trailer. From behind, wheels screech and a deep horn blares.

You trying to decapitate yourself and save him the trouble?

“Hey, I bought us some time. Can’t believe I did it in an unprotected vehicle.”

And surprisingly without soiling yourself, he says.

I race into the gas station lot and park. The black truck’s engine amplifies as it closes in. I jump from the van, run past a dumpster, and blast through the Purgalator’s door.

You do realize, there’s nothing stopping the mercenary from following us inside.


If you enjoyed what you read, pop on over the Amazon and start the series for free. Fall for Freedom is free from October 27th through Halloween. ENJOY!