Game Over - Part One

Note: All excerpts are posted in accordance with U.S copyright law, which allows such excerpts to be used for the purposes of, amongst other things, commentary and critique.

Since Nicky has been whining a lot lately about GAME OVER, I thought it might be fun to take a further look at this supposed masterpiece. Here are the opening two sentences (which should actually be three sentences):

Magazine deadline comes soon and not enough submissions, Eugine Verner ran a magazine which publishes everything and anything under the sun. He often shunned the idea from doing a genre mag, but he geared to the Gothic just not the blue collar kind though .

What a stunning example of grammatical beauty. Not. And who spells Eugene as Eugine? Nicky, apparently. I'm surprised that he manages to spell his own name correctly. Oh wait.... "Ablert". Anyway, the story continues:

He tends to like the elegant side but something ate at him, the deadline was ticking as a dark beast brooding in. The day was coming that he had to get it done. He had blue collar writers asking to be featured in the magazine but he usually ignored their requests. One blue collar writer actually invited him to contribute to a publication he ran, the response was one that was rather cold.

Someday Nicky is going to figure out how to keep one verb tense through an entire story, and it will shock the hell out of me.

The above passage is also where it becomes apparent that this is going to be another Gary Stu story where someone resembling Nicky takes revenge on someone resembling a conglomeration of several people that Nicky hates.

It continues:

Eugine was DJ on the north side of Chicago that spun EBM and refused to read Stephen King or Robert Bloch. The writers he turned down were the ones that were trying to kick down the doors were just those kind of writers.

Gary Stu for sure. This is Eugine talking about the writers he doesn't like:

“Some of these writers are just sick, but they refuse to touch the stuff I publish. I want PVC not denim clad, someone who spells alternative. Not these damned blue collar takes of Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits – Rod Serlings with long hair and listen to Metallica,”

Does that sound like the real-life rangtings anyone we know? Yep. As the story continues, we learn that the hero - the previously mentioned Eugine Verner - has a girlfriend who reads the magazine, In the Depths, which put out by the villain. The villain is described thusly:

...the editor is often hospitalized for some physical condition. They would say he drinks blood twice a year to keep himself healthy. He's always pictured wearing a black Lord's Gym hooded sweatshirt because he's a Christian....

...The editor amassed a controversial reputation because he's driven by his faith in the direction of the magazine he went from publishing blasphemous yarns to being more faith based with Gothic Horror yarns...

...the magazine is helmed by some god-mother-fucking-damned religious fanatic! No wonder why it's so disturbing. He doesn't publish erotic yarns in the mag, but in some way it's more disturbing than anything out there today...

Hahahahaha. Does Nicky write any stories these days that don't feature him as one of the characters? Although in this story, the Nicky character is the villain. Do you suppose that is a sign Nicky is becoming aware of what a jackass he really is?

Finally - for today's post - here is Eugine's co-editor Jerry talking about contributors to the villain's magazine:

“Many of the writers of In The Depths are well versed with heavy metal music and one of them read the book The Great God Pan while another was well versed with The King In Yellow. They did a story which made references to Victim Of A Higher Space. ”

Well, tomorrow we'll continue with the critique. More excerpts will follow. Maybe I'll even let Todd Hollins and Seth Miles have a go at it...when they're done with "Apt #2W" that is.