Dear Friends,

I'm really sorry Fear Zone is ending, and I know you are, too. My biggest regret will be not being able to work on it anymore with Greg Lamberson, who's a prince of a guy. But at least he and I have another thing continuing together, his great new movie SLIME CITY MASSACRE, which I'm executive producing. And a hats off to Charles Sommer, the owner of the site, without whom Fear Zone wouldn't have been possible at all. As a former publisher, which is similar, I know what that takes, as well.

Now, let me clear my Fear Zone desk, as it were, and if you'll be so kind, of columns I thought of, but didn't write, or finish. Because writers, damn us if need be, at least want to get their notes out there, as witness the "Writer's Notebooks" that have been published from time immemorial.

"My Most Outre Movies." This was to treat of films in the following categories: Mother-Son Incest (yep): CLASS. TADPOLE. SPANKING THE MONKEY. MA MERE. Underage Sex (yep, too, and somehow it got into "mainstream"): PRIVATE LESSONS. PRETTY BABY. What I call the "Go for It, Girl, Trilogy": KISSED (necrophilia). MAY (body parts). TEETH (vagina dentata). Miscellaneous: FREAKS. LITTLE CIGARS. SECRETARY. CRASH (the one with Spader etc.). "So Bad It's Good" (or "So Good but Odd It's Good"): SHOWGIRLS. FASTER, PUSSYCAT. KILL, KILL! BOOGIE NIGHTS. THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT.

"What a Wonderful World." (And you'll gather that not all of these projected columns were Humor Zone!): This was to explore man's inhumanity to man, as I'd discovered it in historical records that even rival those of the Holocaust. For example, during the sack of Carthage in the 5th century A.D., the victors applying glowing plates of iron to the breasts of naked women. And, during the Roman Empire (even during the reigns of the "good" Caesars!), "entertainment" having included naked women being dragged behind chariots and hounds set on them. And, even in the 20th century, in the Spanish Civil War, the bodies of long-dead nuns having been ripped from their coffins, and a fee charged to beat them with a stick.

"So Who's Crazy?" This column was to advance the theory that even the most extreme writers and filmmakers in the horror genre are just reflecting what we see on the news every day. I have a collection of clips: "Police: Austrian Kids Locked in Basement, Never Saw Sunlight" (the exploits of Josef Frizl, who had seven children with his own daughter over 24 years). And one about a female suicide bomber who killed 31 by pretending to be pregnant, but with a bomb, not a baby, as her swollen belly. And, though I have dozens more, I'll rest my case with: "Texas Death Row Inmate Pulls Out Own Eye, Eats It" (and he'd previously done the same with his other one!). P.S. I sketched out another, somewhat related, column, about how horror writing isn't "evil" (as some say), but that instead it just reflects the real evil in the world.

"Some Mistakes That Beginning Writers, and Aspiring Writers, Make." This was to poke gentle fun at, but with the hope of correction of, such as the following: People who think that the market will conform to them (as in, just one example, "I submitted a 50,000-word novel though they said 80,000, but it's so good I'm sure they'll make an exception"). Or, who pay an agent to represent them, when of course that's a scam. Or, as to aspiring writers, the good folks who captivate people at cocktail parties by saying they're going to write a book (or make a movie), and that when they do, it will be a best-seller (or win an Oscar). Of course these people are nuts.

"Writing Erotic Paperbacks for Fun, Profit, and More." Okay, here I was going to "come out of the closet" that, in the 1990s, I sold 20 "porno" novels to Beeline, that I believe they contain some of my best writing, that their slick covers were posed for by leading porn stars, that my editors were women (so much for "PC"), etc., etc. But no detail now, though the closet door has been opened.

And last, but certainly not least, I've been trying, over the two-year run of Fear Zone, to figure out how I, as a high-level Freemason, could tell you the real truth about the Craft. But it has to suffice now to say, that despite what you've read anywhere (and especially in Dan Brown's new book), you don't even have the half of it.

All the best to you all, and "keep on truckin'",

John