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Readings and Reviews!

I’m pleased to share the latest review for On the Night Border from book blogger, Bark at the Ghouls:”Do yourself a favor and read this one if you need some fiction that’ll transport you to another world for a little bit. I don’t think you’ll regret it.” Read the full review here.

In case you missed, back in April, reader extraordinaire, S.D. Vassallo (https://twitter.com/diovassallo) read an excerpt from my story “What’s in the Bag, Dad?” in On the Night Border and posted a video over on Twitter. It’s an awesome treat to hear my work read by others, especially when it sounds so good. Much gratitude to S.D.! You should follow him on Twitter for excellent reviews and recs for authors and books.

https://twitter.com/diovassallo/status/1245722965356040193
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A New Review for On the Night Border!

Reviews are nice. Good reviews are even nicer. Great reviews nicer still! But the best kind of review, the kind authors love to see are thoughtful reviews that dig in deep to the book and give readers a glimpse of the heart of the book without giving away any of the secrets and surprises within. That’s the kind of review of On the Night Border Becky Spratford recently posted on her blog RA for All: Horror.

One of my favorite comments from the review:

The best part of this excellent collection is that Chambers’ joy for writing horror shines through in each story. He is good at writing, yes, but it is also clear that he is thoroughly enjoying himself. And that joy makes reading this collection even better experience.

And if that isn’t enough in the way of kind words, the stories in On the Night Border are also compared favorably to the work of John Langan, Stephen Graham Jones, and Carmen Maria Machado. Good company, indeed. Click through for the full review.

As a bonus you also get Becky’s review of Kathleen Kaufmann’s new folk horror novel, Diabhal.

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Clockwork Chaos Reviewed at SFRevu

Sam Tomaino has kindly reviewed Clockwork Chaos, edited by Neal Levin and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, over at SFRevu. It’s a nice, thorough, story-by-story review. About my tale, “Cat’s Cry in Pluto’s Kitchen,” he writes:

Morris Garvey, who made a fortune with his business, Steam Sweeps and Machinations Sundry, and Detective Daniel Matheson of the New Alexandria police force are trying to solve the crime of the theft of Brazilian virtuoso Felipe Sandeman’s violin in time for him to play it at the closing of the World Expo. The case gets stranger and stranger and involved the cult of Bast, the feline god of the Egyptians. We are led on a merry chase with lots of twists and turns in another great story in this book.

Sums it up nicely. This anthology is full of great writers so click over to the full review for his thoughts on the other stories. Or pick up a copy of the book on Amazon.

I’ve got one more Machinations Sundry story due for publication this year. I’m planning to write one more, and I suspect there’ll be another one after that. I do believe this Morris Garvey fellow, his home city of New Alexandria, and all his friends and enemies have become my new series.

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Reviews for Deep Cuts

Reviews have started popping up for the recently released Deep Cuts, including one from Darkeva’s Dark Delights and another from Word Blurb. Many thanks to Dark Eva for calling out my story as “one of the most disturbing.” Deep Cuts is unlike any other anthology in which I’ve been published, a collection of new fiction that directly acknowledges the accomplishments and influence of women horror writers. With more than 60 concise blurbs for great horror written by women, it’s also a road map to some of the best short fiction that has shaped the genre. I’m incredibly proud to be part of it and happy to see it receiving some thoughtful commentary.

 

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Z-7 Reviews The Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon

Self-appointed expert on strange pulp and literature, Timothy L. Mayer has reviewed The Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon on his blog. After a quick recap of DL’s pulp history, he goes onto say lots of nice things about the book and its authors, including this about my contribution: The best story in the collection is “The Devil, You Know” by James Chambers. Not only does Chambers give us a Chinese-American diamond fence named Lee who dresses and talks like a cowboy, but he has The Domino Lady captured by a band of Satanists. Taken to a yacht off the coast, the Domino Lady is recruited by their sinister leader and forced to watch obscene rituals. It has all the sleaze factor you might expect from the shudder pulps, including a naked Amazon whipping men to death. Off course, The Domino Lady is a little too smart for her captors.

Drop by Z-7 Headquarters to read the full review and check out the rest of Timothy’s blog, which is full of great posts about pulp fiction both classic and new. The Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon, published by Moonstone Books in 2009, is available on Amazon.

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Dragon’s Lure Review

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My story, “He Who Burns,” appeared in the anthology, Dragon’s Lure.  It was one of a number of stories I’ve written where I’ve managed to surprise myself. A dragon story wasn’t on the horizon for me in any form until I was asked to contribute to this anthology. What I came up with was a definite change of pace for me, one I enjoyed writing, and one that seems to have gone over very well with readers. Most recently Dragon’s Lure garnered some kind words from the You Gotta Read Reviews blog, which said, “…each of these tales were a delight which isn’t often the case in anthologies.” My story features Max Toth, forensic alchemist in New Alexandria, a city with a salamander problem.