International Review: Undead Vol. 3

Well, in the U.S. it's all about the poetry these days, but today's vanity-googling turned up a very nice review of Undead Volume 3: Flesh Feast from HorrorScope, a horror website based in Australia. The good news is, they LOVE me down under!

Scott Standridge’s ‘If You Believe’ is a chilling tale that may have you blocking up your chimney this Christmas. It begins gruesomely, and gets worse. Ramsey Campbell would appreciate the sense of dread with which the author manages to imbue one of our beloved festive icons.

I admit I get a really big thrill from the idea of ANYBODY reading what I wrote and liking it, but that thrill is augmented even more by knowing the person enjoying my writing is on the other side of the world--I feel like I'm really reaching out, I guess.

So thanks to my Australian friends--I love your beer!

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Woohoo! New Undead Review!

Well, new to me, anyway--who knows how long it's actually been posted. I hadn't Googled the Zombie Anthologies in a while, and doing so today what should I turn up but a nice mention for my story "If You Believe" in Flesh Feast: The Undead Vol. 3 at the wonderfully-named site Bookgasm:

With a delightfully delirious EC edge is “If You Believe.” Scott Standridge opens this holiday number with a mall Santa Claus skydiving to the shopping complex parking lot, but splattering on the pavement when his chute fails. A little girl witnessing it is traumatized, thinking Christmas won’t come because Santa is now dead. Her father reassures her it will, if she only believes. Given the book’s theme, you can guess the ending; in a less specific collection, the coda would come as more of a surprise, but the story is still a highlight.

You hear that--a highlight! Thank you sir, I'll take it!

As a writer long frustrated by attempts to get my stories into print, it's both gratifying and a little surreal to discover that there are people out there who aren't related to me actually reading my stuff, and what's more, enjoying it. Yay!

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Yet Another Undead Review

FlamesRising.com, which published a great review of my story in Undead 3: Flesh Feast, has doubled back to review Undead 2: Skin & Bones, and while they didn't go quite as far into detail as in the previous review, they did still have something nice to say:

Scott Standridge’s ’til The Lord Comes is one of the stranger stories included in this anthology. The author never lets you know what to expect, making this an odd but nevertheless satisfying read.

I wouldn't have thought mine was one of the "stranger" stories (given that one is about an undead dinosaur and another about an evil disembodied finger), but I'll take it as a complement. :) More reviews as my google searches reveal them!

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New Year, New Reviews

Wow, it's 2008 and people are STILL reading The Undead anthologies?

I kid. I'm glad they're creeping across the country like a zombie plague, and I'm even more glad that people are still saying nice things about my stories in them. Like this one, from SkullRing.org:

Scott Standridge’s “’Til the Lord Comes”- A touching tale about a mortuary assistant who is either blessed or cursed with having to talk the dead back onto the slab in time for their funerals. If this bittersweet tale of caring and loss doesn’t get to you, then you have no heart.

You hear that, YOU HEARTLESS BASTARDS? :)

It's become more and more clear to me over the past several months that what I really want, out of writing, out of love, out of sex, out of anything, is an external validation of my personal worth, which I don't get internally because of my extremely impaired self-image. Is that sad and pathetic, or is that pretty normal for artistic types? I'm working up an essay on this subject, though whether I post it or not remains to be seen.

Anyway, happy new year!

Please like me.

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Another Undead review...

And another rave!

Dr. Pus, the eccentric host of the zombie-centric podcast Library of the Living Dead, has been doing story-by-story reviews of the zombie anthologies, and this week in episode 29 he looked at my story, "Till the Lord Comes," from The Undead vol. 2: Skin & Bones.

The podcast is rather large--okay, HUGE, 111MB--but if you're interested and have broadband, he talks about my story at around the 31:47 mark and has some very nice things to say about my protagonist Timothy, the plot ("just an incredible take on the zombie genre...a creepy-as-hell tale"), and my madd writing skillz ("Standridge is absolutely wonderful...just a riveting story").

I could transcribe more, but I'm too modest. :)

Anyway, you can stream the 2-hour podcast at the above link, or download it and skip ahead to the 3-4 minutes about yours truly. Or you can send me an email and I'll burn you a cd.

Hey, if I don't promote myself, who will? :)

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Undead 3 is out and the first reviews are in

After what seems like years--wait a sec, it HAS been years! ;) --the zombie anthologies that accepted a couple of my stories are finally out from Permuted Press, marking the first time I have appeared in an honest to god, ISDN-numbered BOOK. Two of 'em, even! In case my legion of fans wants to get hold of several boxes to distribute as gifts to loved ones, here they are on Amazon:

The Undead vol. 2: Skin & Bones - Containing "Till the Lord Comes" by Scott Standridge
The Undead vol. 3: Flesh Feast - Containing "If You Believe" by Scott Standridge

Also, Flames Rising has posted a review of vol. 3, and while the reviewer doesn't mention author names, he does give a run-down of each story, separating them into Great/Good/Not Good categories, and I'm happy to say he puts "If You Believe" in the top division:

If You Believe: Let's face it, in an anthology about the undead you know - pretty much - what's going to happen in any given tale. Even so I don't want to spoil this one for you as it is a goody with a lot to say about childhood innocence (or lack thereof) and the dangers of religion. Even though this is more of a straight horror tale I felt it deserved a top-spot mention for just being so damn good.

Thank you sir, I'll take it! :) Nice to feel validated. Anyway, with Halloween coming up, what better treat than a horror anthology? Esp. one with Zombies? And me? Order yours today!

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