Coming up on the two-year birthday at Horror Drive-In, I’ve decided that it’s time to make some changes. It’s been a good run so far and I’ve gotten lots of wonderful feedback and a pretty respectable number of hits to the site.
But I can’t manage it alone anymore. A year or so ago, I asked at the forum if I should have other reviewers here and the majority said that I should stick to doing them myself. I appreciate that vote of confidence, but on the other hand…
I’m getting more offers of review items and while I want to accommodate everyone, it just hasn’t been possible. My day job has been insanely demanding for these past two months and I have a family that also requires a lot of my time and attention. I want to read ARCs and other books that come my way, and I do try. There are a lot of books that I want to read for my own pleasure too. Some of them I review, many I don’t.
I made what name I have in the community as a message board moderator. I’m told that I do a good job of it and the ones I’ve been involved with have been very successful. In some cases, too successful.
The Horror Drive-In forum is where I spend most of my online time. I like the group there a lot and I consider it to be a positive force in the genre. People gripe, of course, and I encourage it. For it is only with communication that things can be changed or improved upon. And mostly, we share our passion for books and movies. Often in agreement, but also in good-natured, but emphatic, disagreement.
I decided to take on a couple of reviewers for the site. Mark Tyree will be covering horror and crime fiction and Trever Palmer will focus his poison pen on exploitation films.
Both of these guys are Old School. Like me. We’ve all been fanatic followers of horror for decades and we’ve all seen the trends come and go. And often come back, go again and so forth. We’ve all been around the block more than a few times and we all know a hell of a lot about the stuff we write about.
Mark Tyree is one of my oldest online friends. He’s a rabid fan of fiction and despite a rather rough-and-tumble demeanor, he has the soul of a poet. He’s got some damned good short stories behind his belt too. He’s one of my best friends and I encourage you to read his reviews and, if you get the chance, have a few beers with him.
I thought I knew a lot about slasher films, but Trever Palmer makes me seem like a normal person in comparison. Well, almost. This guy is a fount of information about the slasher subgenre and he’s no slouch when it comes to other types of drive-in movie knowledge. The guy has seen almost everything. And, like Mark Tyree, Trever is a writer of fiction who is getting his feet wet in publishing. If you see his name on a contents page of a magazine or anthology, give the story a shot. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
And for those that have been kind enough to flatter me in regard to my own reviews, I am not going anywhere. I’ll still be posting reviews of both books and movies. These guys will be helping me fill in the blanks.
So, give the lads a hearty welcome!
Trever Palmer:
Mark Tyree:
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