Blood, Guts, & Story
“The first time I had sex,” she said, “I was nineteen”
"That’s not too scandalous.”
“Well, it was with me uncle”
These opening lines are not only a disgustingly wonderful way to find a spot in our infamous DOA series, they were also my introduction to Kristopher Triana. By the time Joe and I finished reading his submission “The Devouring”, we knew that not only was it going into D.O.A. II, it had to be the opening story!
Eight years later, I am pleased to have found an author I truly love working with as well as a friend. Although he can write in multiple genres, I feel Triana excels in extreme/splatterpunk horror and if you have any doubts check out Body Art or Toxic Love so you can experience first-hand what extreme horror should be. And I stress should be. Most extreme horror sucks in my opinion. There, I said it. The bulk of the genre is poorly written, full of static characters, boring dialogue, and repetitive descriptions of body parts and inflicting damage on said body parts with little motive. As a result, all publishers and authors of extreme horror have gotten a bad rap and struggle to be recognized for their work.
Yes, the stories should be filled with graphic sex and creative deaths, that is the crux of the genre after all. In fact, I believe it is a badge of honor for these authors to create the most bizarre methods of extermination for their characters. Triana’s short in DOA III involves an air pump and a man’s urethra; I’ll let your imagination fill in the rest. However, if there isn’t more to your manuscript than torture, you have missed the mark. When I worked with John Skipp on his story for D.O.A. III, he said there must be a message with the gore. It can be a subtle and subversive message, but without it, you are not a splatterpunk author. And as Joe is fond of saying here at BBB, we want Blood, Guts, & Story.
Triana is one of the greats because of his powerful character development, the intriguing scenarios his cast find themselves trapped in, and a hell of a lot more than I can praise in a short blog. It’s these factors surrounding the sex and death scenes that attracted me to extreme horror in the first place. If all I wanted was shitty plotlines and sex, I’ll watch porn. There’s always a hot, bratty stepsister or a pizza delivery man choosing to have graphic sex for no apparent reason. And if it’s mindless torture I need to assault my visual senses, there’s plenty of Guinea Pig-type movies to choose from.
I must not be the only one who thinks highly of his writing either, because Triana was nominated for a Splatterpunk Award for Full Brutal. I haven’t actually read this novel yet, but if you’re curious about splatterpunk, if you’ve burned money on extreme horror in the past, I invite you to take a chance on Kristopher Triana. In fact, Blood Bound Books is so sure you’ll be back for more, that we are discounting all of his work with us to only .99 cents on Kindle. The man has to eat, so this sale won’t last long, but take the chance. You’ll be happy—and a bit disgusted—that you did.
