Tag Archives: Julie Lynn Hayes

Wednesday Briefs: July 5, 2023

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Here is a list of all the authors flashing this week, along with a brief snippet from their latest free work. Click the link after the snippet to be taken to the complete story on the author’s home page.

Bad Karma and the Family Plan #79 (16.3) by Julie Lynn Hayes

“What were you mad about?” Ethan asked cautiously. I didn’t look up, afraid to be seen as staring at Ethan’s brother. I wasn’t even sure he’d want to answer the question. But his comment seemed like a cry for help almost. I don’t think I’d ever seen Joey so…what was the right word? Vulnerable. Human, even.

“A lot of things.” Joey sighed. I noticed he never stopped stroking Benny. Not that our pup was likely to complain. He seemed pretty comfortable right where he was. “You. Sarah. Mom. Dad. Heather.” He paused for a moment, and no one broke the silence. “Maybe me most of all, I dunno.”

Wow, that was candor I never expected

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Saturday is Horror Day #120 – Predestination

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

Predestination

The Barkeep (Ethan Hawke) isn’t the bartender he seems to be. He is actually a temporal agent, who plans to retire…but first he has to catch the one criminal who has managed to elude him for years. And he has to do it before he kills more people than ever before. Known as the Fizzle bomber, he has chased him through time. Of course, the Barkeep has the advantage of knowing when in time to find him. But so far, all his efforts have been for naught.

As a bartender, it’s his job to meet many people, and it’s not surprising that he strikes up conversations with many of his customers. While speaking to one person, he learns that he writes under the title of The Unmarried Mother (Sarah Snook). But The UM says he has a even more surprising story to tell. The Barkeep is skeptical, so they place a wager, and the tale begins. The Barkeep is shocked at the first words, as the UM says “When I was a little girl…”

Predestination is a story about time travel. I won’t go into any more detail, because I don’t want to give

spoilers. This film should be appreciated without any forehand knowledge. I will say this about that – Predestination blew my mind…multiple times. I didn’t see the twists coming, and I’ve never seen anything like this before.

This movie is well-written and directed, but I have to give the greatest kudos to Sarah Snook for her performance.

I honestly went into this with few expectations, didn’t really know what it was about other than time travel, not a particular fan of Ethan Hawke, but I came away a believer. This film definitely warrants a second look at least, and I’ll be glad to do that. See for yourself and let me know if you agree. I give this film 4.5 Stars.

Wednesday Briefs: June 28, 2023

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Here is a list of all the authors flashing this week, along with a brief snippet from their latest free work. Click the link after the snippet to be taken to the complete story on the author’s home page.

Newberg: A Small Town Anthology – Prologue by J Ray Lamb

I decided to chronicle the story of the people who lived in Newberg: the public lives lived and the private lies hidden. Newberg is just like every other amalgamation of people. It has gossip, scandal, and intrigue. I was a resident of Newberg for twenty years – a native son born to outsiders. I would grow up, have my morals shaped and broken, and learn valuable lessons of the duplicity of human existence. When I left, I swore I would never return. Never is a powerful word that often doesn’t mean what it says on the tin. Now, some five decades…

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Book Review: Annabel by Kathleen Winter

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Annabel       

Author:  Kathleen Winter

Publisher: Black Cat Press

American release date:  January 4, 2011

Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/Coming of Age Fiction/480 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★★

Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

In March of 1968, Treadway and Jacinta Blake welcome a child to their home in rural Labrador. But this child is different from other children, having been born with both male and female genitals. Jacinta’s friend Thomasina warns her to watch out for what her husband might do with the child. She was right to worry. Having seen what there is to see, while Jacinta puzzles out what do to, Treadway decides  for them. He names the child Wayne, and he has doctors sew up the female part of him, although he never forgets it is there.

Treadway is a trapper, and he spends a great deal of the year out in the wilderness. Nonetheless, he is a good husband and father, better than a number of the other men where they live. Even so, he refuses to deal with the truth about Wayne, so Wayne grows up unaware of his dual nature, and life goes on. Thomasina watches over Wayne carefully, and she is the one to recognize that something is wrong when Wayne reaches puberty, and a certain part of his body reacts the way girls’ bodies have reacted from time immemorial. She does what she knows needs to be done, acting in his best interest as his teacher. Nonetheless she has broken the rules and must pay the price.

Wayne doesn’t truly know what the many pills he has to take are for, or how much they cost his parents. He doesn’t have any friends to speak of until he meets Wally Michelin, and they become fast friends. Wally’s real name is Wallis, named for the woman for whom a king abdicated his throne. They spend a lot of time together, Treadway’s chagrin,  and one day Wayne asks his dad about building a bridge. Treadway is enthusiastic, having done so as a boy, but he and Wayne have different ideas of what a bridge should be. Wally has dreams too, of singing and music, and a particular vocal piece by Faure. But not all dreams work out.

Annabel is an amazing debut novel from Kathleen Winter, about a child born intersex (what was once called hermaphrodite, said to be inspired by the story of Hermaphroditus, the child of Hermes and Aphrodite). It is beautifully written and engaging, as we fellow the life of Wayne Blake, wondering if he will ever discover his true nature and what he will make of it. The characters are beautifully written and engaging, while the prose is simply beautiful. There is a great depth to the story, as Wayne navigates a world in which he is different from the people that he sees, but he does the best he can. One can’t even fault his father, knowing he means well. There are definitely some heart-breaking moments here. I think what everyone should take away from this book is that people are people, and not to be defined by their body parts. A wonderful read, can’t say enough good things about it. I highly recommend this book.

Book Review: Assassination Classroom, Vol 10 by Yusei Matsui

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Assassination Classroom, Vol 10       

Author: Yusei Matsui

Publisher: Viz Media

American release date:  June 7, 2016

Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/Action Adventure Manga/192 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★★

Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

A nationwide surplus of eggs leads to a brilliant idea by Kayano! Rather than throw the eggs away, she will buy them and make a giant flan, which is a weakness of Koro Sensei. She will rig a bomb to be hidden at the bottom with hidden anti-sensei bbs. She enlists the aid of the others and they all brainstorm their way through the problems of creating such a large eggy dish. Koro Sensei will be pleased with the custardy offering and will never suspect Kayano, as she has always taken a back seat in assassination attempts. But now is her time to shine!

Karasuma plans to teach Class 3E advanced assassination techniques this semester, including explosives and parkour, or free running. Koro Sensei notices the parkour training and has an idea for a game – Cops and Robbers. They can have a 3D game of tag using the entire mountain! Per his idea, he and Karasuma will plays the cops to the students’ robbers. If they can’t catch all of the robbers within the hour, the students win. As a handicap, Koro Sensei will play the part of the jailer and stay in one position on the field. Hewon’t make his own move until the last minute. Sounds like a good game! But will Koro Sensei prove to be his own worst enemy?

Someone is stealing lingerie in Kunugigaoka City, and a description of the thief sounds suspiciously like Koro Sensei! His students are disappointed in him and he is mortified. The only way to prove his innocence is to capture the actual thief!

Itona and Shiro have returned, and Shiro is determined to use Itona to assassinate Koro Sensei – even at the price of his own life! Shiro abandons his student and now time is not on their side as they have to remove Itona’s tentacles, or face the consequences!

Itona has come up with a great idea for how to kill Koro Sensei – a high tech little tank. His ex-mentor is warned not to involve the students in his assassination attempts any more, and he reveals that there is a worse monster than Itona in that class.

The students are growing and developing at such a rate! And so creative! Who would have thought of using flan as a weapon? I’m glad we’re rid of Shiro, at least for the foreseeable future, and that Itona has calmed down a great deal, to more tolerable levels.  Looking forward to the next volume!

Wednesday Briefs: June 21, 2023

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Here is a list of all the authors flashing this week, along with a brief snippet from their latest free work. Click the link after the snippet to be taken to the complete story on the author’s home page.

Bad Karma and the Family Plan #78 (16.2) by Julie Lynn Hayes

Nothing was said at first, we simply sipped our sweet tea and stared out into the backyard, where the laundry floated gently on the breeze. Benny raced about the yard like a madman. He’d spotted a rabbit and, despite the fact the little fella offered him no harm, insisted on chasing it. But the bunny managed to keep well out of Benny’s grasp, to our amusement. I wasn’t worried that our boy might actually catch and harm the rabbit. I think the fun lay in the sheer physicality of the chase.

“I always wanted to have a dog,” Joey broke the silence. That surprised me. I just couldn’t imagine him being interested in another living creature that wasn’t him. Of course, he’d obviously been married, but I’d never seen him

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Saturday is Horror Day #118 – Amusement

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

Amusement

Shelby’s (Laura Breckenridge) boyfriend Rob (Tad Hilgenbrink) is fascinated with the concept of being part of a convoy, so when the opportunity presents itself while they are on a road trip, he goes for it, despite having no idea who the other people are. Shelby sleeps intermittently while Tad drives but wakes enough to see a girl’s face at the back of the semi they are following. Wait a minute, didn’t he say he’s alone? Tad tells her not to worry, but then a moment later, a girl’s body is flung onto their windshield. Tad tries to get the trucker’s plates as he tears off into the night, but worse is in store for them when Shelby is kidnapped.

Tabitha (Katheryn Winnick) agrees to watch her two young cousins, but oddly enough, when she arrives, the babysitter she expected to see is nowhere to be found. The boys assure her that the girl left, but they seem far too amused by the situation. Tabitha shrugs it off, but when she goes to the guest room where she’ll be staying, she finds the clown motif a bit much. Especially the life-sized one in the rocking chair. When her aunt calls, she tells her how creepy it is, but her aunt is confused. She doesn’t have a clown like that. Kidnap Victim #2.

Lisa (Jessica Lucas) doesn’t believe her best friend Cat (Fernanda Dorogi) just went to a hotel with a random dude, that isn’t like her. But when Lisa approaches the decrepit-looking place, she is informed that all the beds are taken. Concerned, she sends her boyfriend Dan (Reid Scott) to find out what’s going on, using his authority with the health department. Hours later, he hasn’t returned, so Lisa sneaks into the hotel herself.

*****SPOILERS*******  I am going to spoil this because this movie is so bad, I’m going to save you the trouble of watching it. The three young women are all childhood friends who haven’t seen each other in years. The guy behind all this mayhem and murder is another child they knew, one with a sick and twisted sense of humor that they never found funny. He calls himself The Laugh (Keir O’Donnell). He kidnaps the first two girls and sets them up in a pseudo diorama resembling one he did as a kid that they thought was sick (spoiler alert – it was).

The only people I recognize in this film are Katheryn Winnick, who played Lagertha in Vikings, and the psychiatrist played by Rena Owen, who was Helen in Siren. This movie looked like it was written by a child and was left over from a fever-riddled dream, only half remembered, and making no sense. It is horrible. Not scary, not creepy, just bad. The best thing about it was that it was only an hour and a half long. Even Katheryn Winnick can’t save horrible. I’m going to give this film 1 Star, just for her, but I recommend you avoid it entirely.

Wednesday Briefs: June 14, 2023

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Here is a list of all the authors flashing this week, along with a brief snippet from their latest free work. Click the link after the snippet to be taken to the complete story on the author’s home page.

Bad Karma and the Family Plan #77 (16.1) by Julie Lynn Hayes

Joey managed to give us a look that was both sullen and apologetic, but he didn’t say anything, simply stood there.

“Why are you spying on us?” Ethan demanded. “What are you up to?”

“I wasn’t spying on you,” Joey insisted, but I wasn’t very convinced, and I was pretty sure Ethan wasn’t buying his act either.

Ethan folded his arms across his chest,

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Book Review: Zombie-Loan, Vol 2 by Peach-Pit

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Zombie-Loan, Vol 2     

Author: Peach-Pit

Publisher: Yen Press

American release date:  February 13, 2008

Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/Fantasy Manga/192 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★★

Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

The Sister is missing, but life goes on, and even changes a little when Michiru says she won’t be getting the girls’ lunches anymore. Chika and Shito applaud her for standing up for herself, even if Chika still calls her gofer. But when he catches her eating bread crusts for lunch, because she can get them for free, he is appalled, because he believes that women need to eat food with fat so they can bear healthy babies. Unfortunately, being short of money for food, Michiru also has no place to live. Shito and Chika have an idea and return to Z-Loan where they tell her to go with a mysterious little girl, who will help her get a place to stay. She turns out to be Shimotsuki Kuze, chancellor of Holy Kurou Campus. Michiru ends up in the school’s old monastery, which has been turned into students dorms. But students must meet two criteria in order to stay there. First, the student must have a living arrangement problem as the result of a family issue.

Before Michiru can learn the second condition, a cheerful girl named Koyomi arrives, and the Chancellor tells her to show Michiru around and then leaves herself without offering an explanation. The condition of the dorms is less than ideal, but Michiru is thrilled to have her own room, with a window, even though it opens onto the cemetery. Shito and Chika and Koyomi throw her a small welcome party, which is when Michiru learns of her debt to the two boys. The only way to pay this debt is to work with them. After the party, Michiru also learns of Koyomi’s secret. The boys are delighted to learn that they can use Michiru to bring out that secret, naturally to benefit them.

Chika takes Michiru to his second job at a convenience store and makes her help him with his work. There he runs into an old acquaintance, Shiba, and the two boys instantly bond. Michiru thinks she’s never seen Chika so happy. However the situation turns dire when the three find themselves faced with a large number of rats!  Shiba’s solution to the problem surprises both Chika and Michiru. Afterward, when Shinba follows them to Z-Loan, things get tricky. Everyone is working together to solve a recent murder, and Shiba proves surprisingly helpful. So Ferryman offers him a job, to Shito’s chagrin. Believing Shito to be jealous of Chika’s relationship with Shiba, Michiru is set straight by Shito, who explains how things really work with him and Chika and why they appear to be so close.

Lots of secrets going on – some revealed, some not. We meet some new characters, including the personable Shiba, whom I suspect will be around for a while. Is he as nice as he appears to be, or does he contain a secret self? Only time will tell. The revelation regarding Chika and Shito is not totally surprising, as we saw evidence in the first volume, it’s simply been corroborated now. I like the artwork as well as the story and look forward to reading more.

Saturday is Horror Day #117 – Rigor Mortis, Otis

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

 Rigor Mortis


A washed-up actor at the end of his rope moves into a dilapidated tenement building. Feeling he has nothing to live for, he attempts to take his life, but a neighbor intervenes. A woman who cannot deal with the death of her husband discovers a way to bring him back to her, thanks to a practitioner of the dark arts. But he warns her to never remove his mask. A child seeks the attention of his neglectful mother. Twin girls seek revenge for what happened to them in life. 

 

Living here will not be easy…

This beautifully filmed and well-acted movie will give you the chills. Chock full of spirits, who run the 


gambit of Chinese mythology, this is a must-see for those who love horror. Maybe even more than once, to catch everything.

Pay close attention to the special effects and the sound track, which are crucial to the setting of each scene.  I highly recommend this and give it 4.5 Stars.

 

Otis


A classic high school story – boy meets girl, boy loves girl, boy asks girl to be his date at the prom…except this is no boy, this is an obsessed 40 year old serial abductor/killer by the name of Otis (Bostin Christopher) who keeps kidnapping pretty girls. He chains them up in his specially equipped torture chamber, forces them to go by the name of Kim, and then wants them to relive with him a time of his life that never existed.

The Lawsons are a somewhat typical dysfunctional family, led by parents Will (Daniel Stern) and Kate 


(Illeana Douglas). Riley (Ashley Johnson) is the golden girl who can do no wrong while son Reed (Jared Kusnitz) is the fuck-up who can’t be bothered to do anything he should. He and a friend get caught making a video of Riley in her underwear in the privacy of her bedroom, and the parents are incensed. However, their video attracts Otis’ attention, and he begins to peep on her himself. Luckily, the parents aid in his plans by ordering pizza from the pizza parlor where he works as a delivery driver. The game is on!

When Riley comes outside to pay him for the pizza, he kidnaps her and introduces her to his secret room. Meanwhile, the FBI have been called in and the investigation is being led by an obnoxious agent, Ralph Hotchkiss (Jere Burns), who is more hindrance than help, and doesn’t let a little matter of truth get in his way.

 

The savvy Riley knows the only way to survive is to “play along” with Otis, answer to the name of Kim, and pretend they are on a date. Unbeknownst to her, Otis has a brother, Elmo (Kevin Pollak), who is thoroughly disgusted with the way Otis lives and who is unaware of his brother’s extracurricular activities. When Otis tries to speak about Kim, Elmo warns him to never speak his wife’s name again…ever.

 

 

Riley manages to escape, and even remembers the address where she is held. But when she tells her mother, Kate tells her to tell no one else, especially Hotchkiss. She and Will and Reed have plans for Mr. Otis….

Otis is a dark horror/comedy, but mostly a horror film, which will keep you wondering from beginning to end how everything will plan out. You’ll remember Daniel Stern from the Home Alone films, where he was one of the bad guys terrorizing Macaulay Culkin. This film feels like a bit of a twist in that he is defending something/someone, not the other way around. Jere Burns is wonderfully obnoxious as the FBI agent you can’t wait to hate, and I also loved the stoner son who stood up when it counted. Hooray for family solidarity!

 

Remember this is ultimately a horror movie, and does get graphic. There is an alternate ending which is quite different than the original. All in all, a good watch. I give this film 4 Stars.