BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD Has Been Nominated For a Rondo Award!

The nominations for the 20th Annual Rondo Awards have now been announced! I'm honored to be included among the nominees for "Best Classic Horror Fiction" (for my 2021 novel, BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD) alongside the likes of such luminaries as Grady Hendrix (THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP) and Stephen Graham Jones (MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW)! Please consider voting for BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD... and while doing so, always remember....

"When you get home tonight, and the lights have been turned out, and you are afraid to look behind the curtains — and you dread to see a face appear at the window — why, just pull yourself together and remember that, after all, there are such things as vampires!"

 

YOU CAN VOTE FOR BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD IN 3 EASY STEPS....

1. Copy-and-paste the ballot below into an e-mail.
 
2. Choose BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD in the BEST CLASSIC HORROR FICTION category.
 
3. Then email to David Colton (taraco@aol.com) by midnight on April 17th, 2022.

Don’t forget to include your name in the e-mail!

--START COPYING--

BEST CLASSIC HORROR FICTION:
— BELA LUGOSI’S DEAD, by Robert Guffey (Macabre Ink, softcover, 264 pages, $17.99). A search for the lost Lugosi test footage from Frankenstein leads to an impossible choice.

--END COPYING--

CRYPTOSCATOLOGY ON COAST TO COAST!

NEWS FLASH!!!: I’ll be discussing CHAMELEO, my recent NEXUS MAGAZINE article "Invisible Predators," and related matters with George Knapp on the COAST TO COAST AM radio show later tonight (Feb. 20/Feb. 21) from midnight to 2:00 A.M. Tune in, Cryptoscatology mavens! 

For further info regarding the show, click HERE.

 

This would probably be a propitious time to mention that my latest book, OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP, is available for pre-order (at a 15% discount) from OR Books right HERE.

BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD IN SCARY MONSTERS MAGAZINE #125!

In case you haven't gotten around to reading my latest novel, BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD, you can check out an excerpt from Chapter One in the most recent issue of SCARY MONSTERS MAGAZINE (#125), which is available at Barnes & Noble and other well-stocked newsstands. This issue features articles about the work of Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. You'll also find articles by such genre film historians as Deborah Painter, Bryan Senn, and Frank J. Dello Stritto! If you want to order a copy of SCARY MONSTERS #125, click HERE.

What are the critics saying about BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD?

“Blending intertextual rampage through the horror-movie canon with engrossing noir mystery and a backdrop of Hollywood esoterica, Robert Guffey serves up an intoxicating pulp cocktail that will leave you wanting more. A crepuscular treasure from a fascinating author.”

--ALAN MOORE, author of V FOR VENDETTA and WATCHMEN

“In Robert Guffey's latest and greatest novel, dreams of old movies and nightmares of classic horror rack into sharp focus through the lens of a brave film historian, one determined to squint clearly at fleeting grains of film through the shifting sands of time. Never has the truth of Hollywood been so well revealed through fiction. As a result, BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD delightfully and definitively proves that Bela Lugosi isn't dead.” 

--GARY D. RHODES, author of LUGOSI and TOD BROWNING'S DRACULA

"[H]orror fans will delight in how Guffey cleverly immerses movie monsters in the real world. Film buffs and monster enthusiasts will relish the supernatural characters brought to life in this atmospheric celebration of monster mayhem."

--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"The sensation [of reading BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD] is like being led deep underground while your flashlight grows dimmer and dimmer, until you’re left in total darkness. That’s when the lights of a subterranean crypt flash on to reveal that you’re not where you expected to be, and where you are is far worse than you could have imagined. The result is an ending that left me chilled and took me a few days to fully process. As shocking as it was, everything was set up from the beginning. I know, I went back and checked, and have to give Guffey credit for pulling off a literary sleight of hand that caught me by surprise. I won’t spoil it with more, except to say that like the frog in water that’s warmed so slowly it doesn’t realize it’s coming to a lethal boil, Guffey’s readers face an equally stunning conclusion."

--TERENCE TAYLOR, NIGHTMARE MAGAZINE

If you don't want to read the print version of the book, why not try the unabridged Audible Audiobook? It's brilliantly read by the talented SAMUEL E. HOKE. Hoke was so dedicated to nailing the audio version that he contacted me before he began narrating the novel to make sure the accent of a particular character was exactly correct. He also went out of his way to research some of the films and documentaries about the real people and events upon which the novel is based. If you're interested, you can listen to a sample of the audiobook right HERE!

Remote Control Dogs

From Andrew Whalen's 12-7-18 NEWSWEEK article entitled "How the CIA Used Brain Surgery to Make Six Remote Control Dogs":

Newly released files from "behavior modification," or mind control, projects conducted as part of the infamous Project MKUltra reveal the CIA experimented in more than controlling humans with psychotropic drugs, electrical shocks and radio waves—they also created field operational, remote-controlled dogs.

The documents were provided under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by John Greenewald, founder of The Black Vault, a site specializing in declassified government records. In one declassified letter (released as file C00021825) a redacted individual writes to a doctor (whose name has also been redacted) with advice about launching a laboratory for experiments in animal mind control. The writer of the letter is already an expert in the field, whose earlier work had culminated with the creation of six remote control dogs, which could be made to run, turn and stop [...].

Attached to the letter is the writer's final report from his earlier research, published in 1965, titled "Remote Control Behavior with Rewarding Electrical Stimulation of the Brain," with the principle investigator's name redacted [...].

At least by 1967, when the letter was written, it seems unlikely that remote-controlled dogs were ever used in the field, as the letter writer outlines some of the limitations and challenges to any follow-up program going forward.

"Behavioral control was limited to distances of 100 to 200 yards, at most," they write in the letter. Other concerns are more mundane, such as the letter's speculation regarding where the CIA might find a "suitable open field" nearby.

Still, the prospect of a potential new laboratory seems to fire the letter writer's imagination, who describes potential experimentation on "a range of species," should they want to move past "basic research, i.e., rat work."

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Business Insider on China's "Brain-control' Weapons

From Stavros Atlamazoglou's 2-14-22 BUSINESS INSIDER article entitled "Warnings About 'Brain-control' Weapons Reflect Growing US Concern About China's Military Research":

In late 2021, the US government sanctioned several Chinese entities for their involvement in the creation of biotechnology that includes "purported brain-control weaponry."

As an aspiring superpower, the Chinese Communist Party has doggedly pursued economic, technological, and military supremacy, often through illegal or questionable means.

The US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security now says the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences and 11 of its research institutions have been involved in the research and support of biotechnology, including brain-control weaponry, that the Chinese military intends to use to gain a battlefield advantage.

In a notice to the Federal Register published in December, the Commerce Department added 34 China-based entities to its blacklist, accusing them of "acting contrary to the foreign policy or national security interests of the United States" [...].

According to the Pentagon's most recent report on the Chinese military, Beijing has been exploring "next-generation operational concepts for intelligentized warfare, such as attrition warfare by intelligent swarms, cross-domain mobile warfare, AI-based space confrontation, and cognitive control operations."

Cognitive control operations, using so-called brain-control weapons, would suit an autocratic regime that seeks physical and digital oversight of populations under its control, and they would have domestic and foreign applications.

Translated Chinese military reports obtained by The Washington Times suggest Beijing is looking to create weapons that could subdue enemy forces and reduce the amount of force needed to defeat them. Such weapons would disorient or confuse enemy forces, making them easy game for Chinese troops.

The Pentagon's report said that the Chinese military has continued its campaign to become a global innovation power by mastering advanced technologies, which aligns with previous Chinese Communist Party statements about the "intelligentization" of future warfare by using emerging and disruptive technologies, including artificial intelligence, quantum, biomedical, autonomous systems, and cloud computing.

What Beijing can't create or invent, it has stolen.

Last year, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center came out with a report listing five technology sectors it said were essential to US national and economic interests, and which foreign powers, including China and Russia, were attempting to influence or purloin secrets from.

"These sectors produce technologies that may determine whether America remains the world's leading superpower or is eclipsed by strategic competitors in the next few years," the agency said.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

WUFO WATCH

From WUFO WATCH (a Wednesday Night UFO Watch Club):

According to the great John Keel, the best time to see a UFO is on any Wednesday night at 10 PM (Mothman Prophecies, pp 143-144). Based on Keel’s research, we decided to form an official Wednesday UFO Watch club! It is 100% open, free, and you can even participate virtually/remotely!

What is the purpose of this, you may ask? The goal is to get as many folks as possible to simply look up – gather some snacks, chairs, lights and make an event of it. This club is 100% open to everyone and is 100% free.

The Wednesday UFO Watch will occur every Wednesday night, at 10 PM (your local time, according to Keel)....

For more information about WUFO, click HERE. 

THE BIRDS

From Jon Levine's 2-12-22 NEW YORK POST article entitled "Dozens of Yellow-Headed Blackbirds Mysteriously Drop Dead in Mexico":

Social media sleuths are trying to solve the mystery of why dozens of birds crashed to their deaths in the Mexican state of Chihuahua [...].

The birds — later identified as yellow-headed blackbirds — were discovered lifeless on sidewalks by residents of Cuauhtémoc City, the Spanish-language El Heraldo de Chihuahua reported.

The migratory fowl arrived from northern Canada and had been wintering in Mexico. The cause of the mass death remains unclear....

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Dozens of birds mysteriously died today in a small town in Chihuahua, Mexico:

Al Hidell, R.I.P.

The other day, Joan d'Arc (the former editor of PARANOIA MAGAZINE) posted the following announcement on Facebook:

My good friend since we met three decades ago, David McGuirl, passed away on February 5, 2022 after a battle with AS. Dave and I met at the Providence Conspiracy League at Newspeak Bookstore, and we co-founded Paranoia Magazine in 1992. He wrote under the pseudonym, Al Hidell, a tip to the “other” I.D. found in Lee Harvey Oswald’s wallet. Together with a great team of artists and writers, Paranoia enjoyed an international following, publishing 52 issues and several books between 1992 and 2011. A talented graphic artist, Al Hidell designed many of the magazine’s provocative covers, inside illustrations, and stellar layouts. He penned the highly-anticipated Paranotes section—inventive narratives that tied curious events together synchronistically. There could not be a better friend or business partner in the world. Al Hidell will be missed by his family, friends, and dozens of team members from his twenty years in the “conspiracy” business.

Al Hidell's stunning design work was half of what made PARANOIA so eye catching and professional looking--several cuts above every other zine in existence in the 1990s and beyond. Yes, indeed, it's a dark day in Conspiracyland! Ring the bells! Ring the bells!

 

Dave McGuirl (AKA Al Hidell), Rest In Peace

ANNOUNCING... OPERATION MINDFUCK!

It's time! If you want to pre-order my new book, OPERATION MINDFUCK, simply click HERE!!!

Mind control. Satanic rituals. Unspeakable sexual perversions. Supervillains eating children’s brains. A divine mandate to keep Donald Trump in the White House, no matter what.

This surreal combination of horror-movie shocks and fascist marching orders is the signature of QAnon, which emerged from the dark corners of the internet in 2017 and soon became the galvanizing force behind Trump supporters, both during Trump’s presidency and in the volatile, ongoing aftermath of the 2020 election. But despite the strange pervasiveness of QAnon, its origins remain obscure. Who is behind QAnon’s messaging, and what do they want? And why do they pair their extreme political agenda with such obviously made-up, phantasmagorical beliefs?

In Operation Mindfuck, Robert Guffey argues that this is not as mysterious as QAnon’s anonymous “drops” of cryptic directives seem to be. Drawing on an encyclopedic knowledge of conspiracy theories and mixing deep-dive research, political analysis, and firsthand notes from QAnon’s underbelly, Guffey insists that we’ve seen it all before.

Unraveling QAnon’s patchwork quilt of recycled material, from pulp-fiction spook stories to Hunter S. Thompson-style pranksterism to Nixon-esque dirty tricks, Guffey diagnoses QAnon as a highly engineered ploy, calibrated to capture the attention and lock-step loyalty of its audience. Will its followers ever realize that they’ve been had? Can this new American religion be dispelled as a cult like any other? The answers, Operation Mindfuck reveals, are hidden in plain sight.

Richard Schowengerdt Obituary

Richard Neal Schowengerdt's obituary is now available to be seen on the Dignity Memorial website. To read it, simply click HERE.

Richard's daughter, Maria, has asked all of his friends to leave a comment of remembrance there if you choose to visit the site.

SEPTEMBER 20, 1930 – DECEMBER 24, 2021