5.0 out of 5 stars: “I want more.” May 21, 2013
By windigo98
This review is from: The Matriarch (Paperback)
Like usual when I find a book I want to read and enjoyed, I want more. The story was engaging. I couldnt put it down! Great character building. Good reasearch, background, and forshadowing. Loved what was done with the villian and humor. It leaves me wanting more. Pick it up now you can be like me waiting for the author to put out his next book!
I use music – often an entire playlist – to create a mindset and mood when I construct a scene.
At the beginning of the story, the main character is angling to fix or finish an on-again, off-again romance. When I first heard “Come Along” by Vicci Martinez and Cee Lo Green, it immediately struck me as a seduction, someone taking the lead and yearning to move past whatever the roadblock is in their relationship, all without assigning blame.
Come along now, come along and you’ll see
What it’s like to be free
Come along now, come along with me
And I’ll ease your pain
Come along, come along with me
And lets seize this day
Oh, come along with me
It has a hopeful, eclectic, sexy yet laid back sound with a bit of a country twang. I didn’t own this song when I originally wrote the chapter I’ve paired it up with, but I did have it while editing.
I use music – often an entire playlist – to create a mindset and mood when I construct a scene.
The boyfriend/best friend often pops up in stories where the female main character is struggling and may need support. Sometimes they step up and sometimes they drop the ball, but the most they can hope for is to help in only a small way because, frankly, it isn’t their story. That said:
I know your life is empty
And you hate to face this world alone
So you’re searching for an angel
Someone who can make you whole
I can not save you
I can’t even save myself
So just save yourself
Stabbing Westward’s “Save Yourself” is a great step-up-and-believe-in-yourself anthem because help isn’t coming. Is it ironic that this is my supporting character’s favorite song or am I just being cruel?
I use music – often an entire playlist – to create a mindset and mood when I construct a scene.
The opening chapter to The Matriarch was actually one of the last I wrote into the first draft. “Fly On the Wall” by Thousand Foot Krutch was what I was thinking of as I wrote about a solitary old man who took it upon himself to do the only thing he still could: exactly what he was told.
If I could just see it all, Just like a fly on the wall
Would I be able to accept what I can’t control?
And would I share what I saw? Or just sit back and ignore
Like nothing never happened, I haven’t seen you before?
To me, the song suggests a struggle between standing against something wrong or living with the regret of deciding to do nothing about it. How would you feel knowing something terrible happened because you didn’t act? And before anyone points it out, yes, that’s Spider-Man’s back story and not Batman’s, and no, you don’t get to become a superhero as a result.
First printing of The Matriarch books arrive.
Supernatural horror thriller, mature content.
A present-day college student becomes the target of an immortal, a killer linked to a century-old ghost story.
279 print pages. Published April 2013. ISBN: 9780615803449
Availability: Kindle – $3.99 and Paperback – $12.95
Vampires don’t believe in ghosts.
Every October, the freshmen at Glenville State College are told stories about Sis Linn, the local ghost who haunts Clark Hall and the graveyard where she’s buried. Murdered in 1919, she was beaten beyond recognition, the target of a brutal killer who was never caught.
Present-day student Janiss Connelly is about to find out that the stories are wrong – and that there are greater things to fear in life and in death than ghosts.
Read more about The Matriarch…
“Kevin A. Ranson knows sinister entertainment. Cloaked -literally- in his alter ego Grim D. Reaper, he has made it a labor of dark love and his eerie career for many years via his popular movie review site MovieCrypt.com. Now an author of unique YA/children’s books as well as intriguing mainstream dark fiction, Mr. Ranson brings his prodigious knowledge of what chills and thrills us to the literary world. And the shadowy corners of our book shelves are illumined for the better by the spectral glow of his writing.” ~ K.L. Nappier, author of the Full Wolf Moon Trilogy
Hasn’t everything been said about vampires already?
Frankly, no.
I love these creatures because they are us and yet they are not us. The most evil forsake their humanity while the noble struggle to retain it, but the idea of becoming the monster – by choice or by fate – and a need to prey on what it once was in order to survive is a very human story: the stuff of legend.
Not to slight any book or movie, but I’ve grown tired of stories about inner city vampire wars against other paranormals that paint the vampire as one among many; they are kings of the night, the ruling class of the darkness. I wanted Dracula-level ubervamps for my own novel, alphas that don’t put up with rivals or need to swear fealty to some Italian governing committee.
A true vampire should be royalty itself and treated as such; I believe this is one of the reasons Bram Stoker’s title character remains so popular today. A modern vampire should be like a Bond super-villain: lairs and minions and secrets and plans. This was the template for my own bloodsuckers, and a castle in the countryside (even if it isn’t recognized as such) is so much cooler than the penthouse of a skyscraper.
WTF Books has published The Matriarch!
Get it now on Amazon Kindle and compatible apps. More options coming soon. Enjoy!
From WTF Books:
“In The Matriarch, Kevin Ranson interweaves real and fictional horror into a tale that is part mystery, part supernatural – and entirely hypnotic. Full of rich characterizations and settings, Ranson draws an original picture of the vampire – one that reveals its secrets as it plays on your senses and sympathies.”
Book Synopsis:
Every October, the freshmen at Glenville State College are told stories about Sis Linn, the local ghost who haunts Clark Hall and the graveyard where she’s buried. Murdered in 1919, she was beaten beyond recognition, the target of a brutal killer who was never caught.
The stories are wrong.
When present-day student Janiss Connelly stumbles upon the truth, she inherits a unique opportunity to end a century of bloodshed… even if it’s already too late for her.
Read more about The Matriarch…
WTF Books has accepted The Matriarch for publication in the very near future. “WTF” doesn’t mean what you think it means, so check out their site to find out who they are and what they have to offer!
From WTF Books:
“In The Matriarch, Kevin Ranson interweaves real and fictional horror into a tale that is part mystery, part supernatural – and entirely hypnotic. Full of rich characterizations and settings, Ranson draws an original picture of the vampire – one that reveals its secrets as it plays on your senses and sympathies.”
Book Synopsis:
Every October, the freshmen at Glenville State College are told stories about Sis Linn, the local ghost who haunts Clark Hall and the graveyard where she’s buried. Murdered in 1919, she was beaten beyond recognition, the target of a brutal killer who was never caught.
The stories are wrong.
When present-day student Janiss Connelly stumbles upon the truth, she inherits a unique opportunity to end a century of bloodshed… even if it’s already too late for her.
Read more about the upcoming novel, The Matriarch…
Kevin A. Ranson 