This was a good read, but of average originality -- needed more work, plus an additional 300 words. Characters were not too well delineated either. It also contained much less humorous viewpoints, so I was not too entertained, and thus subtracted one point. Yet the ending was uplifting, so all is forgiven. Please write more frequently and larger books, Bill! People who liked this story will like James Herbert's "The Others" much better. (BTW, Herbert's novel has nothing at all to do with that lame ghostie movie by the same title.)

Bill Spencer is a master of prose and storytelling. I have had the pleasure of sitting with him, sharing a couple of Cokes and talk about the struggling of just trying to get published and gain an ounce of recognition. Bill writes for the love of it. And if you ever met the man you would find him sheer pleasure. He is an open, honest human being that expels his wit onto the page.

Irrational Fears is only another fine work by Bill. I happen to work in the Criminal Justice field and have an understanding how drug and alcohol abuse programs work. He obviously draws from some strong source to write this book, and throws a bit of demonic rage into the mix. It's a great book filled with things you'd never expect. Read it.

Rivalling "Resume With Monsters," William Browning Spencer's newest novel, though brief, skewers much of the new-age mumbo-jumbo of recovery programs while giving a nod to the traditional tough love approach of AA.

The hapless and sometimes hopeless residents of Hurley Memorial Hospital's detox unit include a paranoid possible former spy, an aspiring poet and nihilist 18-year-old beauty, and Jack Lowry, narrator and ex-college professor. Together they battle a hostile counselor, a drug-controlled group of recovery guerrillas called The Clear, and something slimy and tentacled straight from the pages of Lovecraft. Add a man-eating toilet and a telekinetic zombie and you have "Irrational Fears."

Spencer's trademarked blend of horror and humor recalls the Jonathan Carroll of "Outside the Dog Museum" and Joe Lansdale's (also a Texan) Hap and Leonard series. The characters come alive through sparkling and honest dialogue. They are quirky but not cliched, and nearly everyone of them is someone you might meet but probably wouldn't like.

One of Spencer's most brilliant devices is the blend of dream, DTs, and supernatural events that keep both readers and characters guessing as to what is real and what exists only the mind of the recovering alcoholic Lowry. We are drwn into the most surreal occurrences through Lowry's clear and natural voice, and while 1st-person narration takes some of the suspense out of a horror novel, Spencer manages to make us care about the secondary and even tertiary characters enough that we are pulled along to the end. And we want to know what he'll come up with next. Highly recommended.

Harry Gainesborough was a successful writer of children's books until the death of his daughter. Now an obsessed fan who is convinced the worlds Harry created are real has gotten hold of his last novel, and attempts to enlist Harry's help in saving the world. So begins a hallucinatory journey that turns quest fiction on its head.
Not quite as good as 'Resume with Monsters', 'Zod Wallop' is still a fascinating read. Spencer has a great writing style, one I would compare to Neil Gaiman's. I just think the plot could have been a little tighter.

Harry Gainesborough's life is more depressing than a country-western song. His daughter has died, his wife has divorced him, and he's spent a stint in a psychiatric institute as a result of a botched suicide attempt. Now, he just wants to be left alone. Only, the monster that's just eaten the paint off his car has other ideas. . . This book is for anyone who likes dark fantasy, particularly fans of Jonathan Carroll. "Zod Wallop" is "Bones of the Moon" on illegal substances. The line between fantasy and reality constantly wavers, and frequently disappears, as Harry Gainesborough and his . . . friends? abductors? careen across America on a voyage of madness, mayhem, and monsters . . . with, just possibly, the chance to change the world at the end

This book is one of the few that has made me cry - it happens every time I pick it up and come to those last few pages. Call it a ride through Harry Gainesborough's broken soul, if you will, still wounded from the death of his daughter... you can feel his pain as vividly as if it were your own. William Browning Spencer has crafted a masterwork - a novel that penetrates through to the heart. As an aside, I've had three copies of this book 'permanently borrowed' by friends - everyone that I've exposed to the world of Zod Wallop has been affected by the power of it.

Anyone who has read much of Lovecraft and his "family" of writers (August Derleth, Lin CArter, Henry Kuttner, Robert Bloch, etc.) is very familiar with the formulaic plot of "inherit/discover something, cross-reference with Abbie Hazred's 'Who's Who of Bad-Moods-With-Tentacles', and end by going mad and die gibbering in an asylum or becoming 'liquiescent horror,'" to the point that it becomes very difficult to surprise the reader any more with the denoument. Mr Spencer, though, has taken the familiar concepts and beasties of the vaunted Cthulhu mythos and woven them into an engaging, truly enjoyable tale. And he does an excellant job of utilizing the old mainstays, such as Yog-Sothoth and ghouls among others, in a way that re-introduces them, rather than re-hashes them. He also does quite well in showing interaction between society at large and one who has come to accept the "truth" of the Old Ones. And while the reading is light, even campy at times (especially the epilogue), it is one of the most intriguing mythos tales I have read. It is this type of writing that is going to keep the mythos fresh and alive.

Darrell Schweitzer's blurb for this book reads, "If Woody Allen had ever written a Cthulhu Mythos novel, it might have come out like this." Pithy, short, moderately funny, interesting, and entirely wrong. Yes, there are Cthulhu references here, and yes, Spencer can write with humor, but this is not "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about the Necrinomicon (But Were Afraid to Ask)." If we must resort to comparing Spencer to other writers, Resume with Monsters owes the most to Philip K. Dick rather than H.P. Lovecraft.

The main character is Philip (what a giveaway, eh?) who works at Ralph's One-Day Resumes in Austin, Texas. He moved there to find his girlfriend Amelia, who ran away from the high-tech company Micromeg that they had both worked at previously because of an accident which Philip crazily attributes to the workings of the Great Old Ones. Amelia attributes insanity to Philip, likely brought on by his obsession with the characters of H.P. Lovecraft, and manifested in the magnum opus of a novel that Philip is constantly revising entitled The Despicable Quest. Philip claims that the novel is the only thing keeping Yog-Sothoth at bay.

Is Resume with Monsters funny? Yes, but it is in its incongruities, the warped reality of what Philip sees and how others react. The strength of the novel is wrapped up in the ambiguity of Philip--we recognize him as an unreliable narrator, but, as in Philip K. Dick's novel, the question is not whether to trust the narrator, but how much one can trust the world. Spencer handles this well, and there are quite a few plot twists to make things interesting, including having Philip's consciousness flung back in time to relive the Micromeg incident, the zombie co-workers, and a management recruitment program straight out of Dilbert (well, if Scott Adams worked for Nyarlathotep, Inc.). Resume with Monsters is not as well done as Spencer's latest, Zod Wallop, but is well worth checking out, especially for fans of both Dick and Lovecraft.

H.P. Lovecraft always intended his Cthulu mythos to live through other authors' pens. If Lovecraft were alive today he would certainly find William Spencer Browning's treatment most entertaining. In "Resume with Monsters," Browning artfully welds together the infinite horrors of Lovecraft's Old Ones with the modern banalities of life in the corporate world. The result is a book loaded with hilarious dialogue, humorous scenes, and a good deal of light horror.

Philip has a big problem. He sees monsters at work, behind every filing cabinet, around every corner, in the eyes of his fellow co-workers, and in motivational pamphlets handed out in his paycheck envelope. In order to maintain his slipping sanity, Philip spends his free time constantly rewriting his sprawling 2000 page book called "The Despicable Quest," a Lovecraftian tome full of references to Azathoth, Yog-Sathoth, and other unpleasant beings from beyond space and time. Philip is aware that spouting off about monsters from dimensions beyond our own tends to alarm people, which brings in Lily, an aging psychologist who promises Philip she can help him through his troubles.

Philip probably would not have many problems with his demons if he gave up trying to save his ex-girlfriend Amelia. Philip's relentless quest to expose the monsters coupled with the undying devotion to his book infuriated Amelia, spurring a rancorous split. When she moves to Texas Philip follows her, desperate to convince Amelia that he once saved her from eternal doom when the two worked at MicroMeg, a giant international corporation (the details of which can be found in the section of the book hilariously entitled, "The Doom that Came to MicroMeg). Philip drifts from one low paying job to another, always on the lookout for the reemergence of the evil ones. Not only does Philip see potential evil at his own jobs, there seems to be something seriously astray at Pelidyne, a big company where Amelia just started a new job. It looks like Philip will have to return once again into the belly of the beast.

Spencer really has a grasp of Lovecraft's horrific intentions. His style does not reflect Lovecraft's ornate use of the English language, but many of the adventures Philip embarks on mirror a trip through a Lovecraft novel: the weird bending of time and space, the strange rituals of the Old Ones, and the feeling of helplessness one gets when confronting an evil beyond the comprehension of the human mind.

I suspect there is a lot of the author in this story. My copy has a painting on the front cover of a man who looks suspiciously like the picture of Browning on the back cover. The detailed descriptions of corporate stupidity and the shrieking mindlessness of working a low paying job tell me that the author spent many years working in the same type of jobs as Philip does in the novel. Anyone who has ever worked in a boring job with high pressure jerks as bosses will recognize and sympathize with Philip's plight. Ultimately, that is the greatest horror in "Resume with Monsters": the pressures of a job in today's world are worse than seeing monsters with dripping scales falling out of a time rip in the ceiling.

The comical aspects of the book abound throughout the story. Everything from Philip's confessions about the evil ones to the motivational pamphlets is gut bustingly funny. Be sure and pay attention to the group sessions during Philip's stay in the mental hospital. These scenes are some of the funniest in the book.

"Resume with Monsters" is essential reading for Lovecraft fans. Those who are unfamiliar with Lovecraft may want to read at least one collection of his stories before settling into this book because the references to particular entities are meaningless unless you understand the mythos. I am placing Spencer's book in my top five list of books read this year, and I hope you will too.

I really love W.B. Spencer's work -- I first found RESUME WITH MONSTERS, then ZOD WALLOP, then RETURN OF COUNT ELECTRIC, and IRRATIONAL FEARS is waiting to be read. MAYBE I'LL CALL ANNA is an interesting story from his early career and good in its own right. Definately a worthwhile read.

I have read all of Spencer's other books except for Irrational fears. "Maybe I'll Call Anna" was as fantastic as the others. It doesn't have any fantasy/horror elements like "Zod Wallop" or "Resume With Monsters" but it has genuine characters that come to life just like the other books and a killer plot that wont let you put the book down. If you like his other works read this one.

From these short stories I got the feeling that William Spencer is good game for taking the place of Ira Levin in popular fiction: Great premises, underdeveloped plot and characters, and plain jane prose.

The man CAN write, I'll admit to that. He drops ingenuous metaphors and literary references. But the stories hardly feel as a whole, just some witty tidbits tied together in a bundle.

Frankly, Spencer sets the trap for himself with his introuction, where he analyzes the state of short fiction as a playground for writers, where stories are used as prose exercises of preciousist writing, with little fun in the tale to tell. He admits by the end that some of his own stories can be held for having the same (un)qualities... but it seems they had a lot more of it than he expected.

So, this is my scorecard:

"The Entomologists at Obala" is, arguably, the most enjoyable of this stories. A minimalist reworking of Romeo and Juliet, with young lovers fighing through family feuds over exotic insect and aracnid species.

"Looking out for Eleanor" is a psychological suspense story, and the lenghtiest story in the book. That may be key to its success, for it allows the characters to develop their traits and the plot to move at a pleasurable pace.

Spencer adds three literary exercises in character description through metaphor: "The Wedding Photographer in Crisis", "Pep Talk" and "Snow". They may need to be read more than once to sink in, because they somehow feel flat.

There are also three tales I could envision featured in "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", exercises in twist ending: "Haunted by the Horror King", "The Return of Count Electric" and "Best Man". Sadly, by the time the twist came I was expecting it, and failed to shock me.

Lastly, there are "Graven Images", "A Child's Christmas in Florida" and "Daughter Doom", tales where several elements are left intentionally obscure, and which I found to be the most disappointing from the whole lot.

As I said, Spencer can write, and this book may keep you entertained as you read it. But you shouldn't be surprised if, like me, you finish it feeling nothing really happend while you were at it.

This guy is really funny and dark at the same time. His style flows and is really easy to read. I don't usually like stuff that's this 'normal' but I plan on reading everything this guy has. By normal I don't mean boring I mean there were no 'fantastic' elements in it like magic or monsters, just people and situations. I thought almost all the stories were very original but the last two were definitely the worst. I think I will like his novels even more than his short stories.