Confessions from the Think Tank

Confessions from the Think Tank

The book, brought to you by Dark Moon Rising Publications, is an anthology of psychedelic, dystopian sci-fi horror. 23 pieces from 18 authors. Each of these tales could be its own episode of…I want to say The Twilight Zone, but these are a lot more brutal than anything producers could show on television back then. Some of the stories are actual confessions, others of them could be, as if what you’re reading would later become one of those confessions, something you’d hear over booze if you knew someone who worked for a government-funded scientific agency. What’s a think tank? I explain that in the introduction at some length, but in a nut (which we all love) a think tank is, classically, a place where Big Thinkers chosen by the Powers That Be go to decide how to shuffle you all into demographics, after which they can much more easily advertise goods (and life choices) to you—the algorithm was conceptualized in a think tank. The first tank was made to conceptualize the nuclear bomb and mitigate the disaster that dropping one would cause—mutually assured destruction. Are you old enough to remember the Moral Majority? That was conceptualized in a think tank. So was Facebook. Hell, this country, you could argue, was formed by a think tank. You can do the rest of the math, I’m sure.

In our first confession, we watch as The Writer is molded into, essentially, a law-abiding square through MKUltra-style means that would have pleased Dr. Mengele immensely. Extreme psychological and physical torture. Debasements. Forced drugging. And a thing too horrible to describe, but if you read between the lines, you’ll figure out what it is. This is one of those I dare you to read it stories, and it is brought to you by Splatterpunk sensation David L Tamarin. No period after the L. He wants you to know that. You should probably listen…thus sayeth the Writer. Finally, I posit that—because you’re probably thinking its full of blatant torture porn…absolutely not. This story shows, in a very brutal fashion, what society does to not only the Writer, but the Artist on the Whole…all of them, be they writers, sketchers, painters, musicians, the list goes on. YOU are belittled until you give up and become what they want you to become—an obedient consumer.

Megan Guilliams takes you through the timelines of a demented man. Allison Armstrong gives you God’s Own slow descent into experimental madness. Neil Sanzari introduces you to a thoughtful Skinwalker, and later, takes you on a trip through a triumvirate of stories that make you wonder who the Puppetmaster of reality is…John Lennon will help you. Go with Rocky Colavito to the greasy spoon at the edge of the galaxy, which is found, and there might be some very real argument for this, in the Southwestern US of A. Laugh at the hubris-driven inner workings of a basement troll as he chases after his dream of a vampire lover with J.C. Macek III. Let your heart go out to average Joe as he watches his far more heroic friend be taken down by an invasion of body-snatching triffids with Walter Wiseman. Dawn Colclasure takes you on vacation to the great outdoors, only thing is, there are aliens and G-men coming along for the trip, and they’re not whistling The Fishing Hole. Taste great minds with Tom Folske’s unsettling version of an otherworldly Thomas Edison, who has found that the best way to steal an idea is to simply eat it while it is still in storage. Watch as your favorite conspiracy theories are tied together like quantum shoestrings by Dr. Garret J. McColl, member of DARPA and black magician, complicit in the alien apocalypse. Edgar Wells will make you wonder if it isn’t true. Trip the Mandela Effect and soak in the magic of the Appalachian Mountains with Kasey Hill…and if you see something that looks like you, run. Supervise from lofty towers of steel and glass as a group of mercenary street-sweepers cleans the city of violent, toxic zombies with Ed Radmanich. You’ll go everywhere when you trip these Confessions. And I haven’t told you everything. There’s a talking mannequin head. Lizzie Borden is here. Soft, silent scientists are also here. Deadly tracking devices. Invasive spore storms. Bouncing alien babies. Dystopian Freedom Fighters joining forces with gangsters in the battle of the schizophrenics and the psychopaths. Interdimensional drugs. Blood. Grime. Touches of hope. A few black mirrors, as dark social commentary is now called.

I did my best to curate stories that had the same effect on me (and I believe will on you) as say, an etheric baseball bat might, or maybe, a spell you didn’t think would work—science fiction, psychological fiction, gore, purely batshit characters—all the things I used to find fun when I read books as a kid. Clive Barker. Lovecraft. King. Bradbury. Lustbader. Huxley. And of course, Burroughs. The whole time I was doing this I was thinking Kirby McCauley’s Dark Forces! Okay. I know I’m not the first dude who thinks he can edit to think that in the horror community, but I did think it, and I did my best to try and measure up. This is great fiction, and for as much as I, the Editor, can be taken seriously—many think it bad form to blog about your own anthology—oh well—here I go—and with the exception of a novella a la The Mist, I do believe I achieved what I set out to do, for this is full of authors who I feel deserve to be well-known if not famous and even taught in schools. Why the hell not? Goddamn, this guy’s pretentious, you might say—yeah, I’ve been accused of that once or twice. Can’t say I agree. Why not fearlessly love what you create as long as you do your best not to be a stuck-up douchebag about it, even while you self-pimp. I’m going the long way around to say—if you enjoy cerebral things—science things—dystopian things, which is a nice way of saying lunatic hyperbole that has a way of becoming fucked-up reality—this book is for You.

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Confessions from the Think Tank