Tag: Seamus Dever

Creature Feature (Audiobook) by Steven Paul Leiva, Seamus Dever, and Juliana Dever ★ ★ ★ ★ A 1950s Monster Movie Comes to Life in a 1960s Midwest Town

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Creature Feature

Creature Feature

by Steven Paul Leiva, Narrated by Seamus Dever and Juliana Dever

Unabridged Audiobook, 4 hrs. 23 min.
2021

Read: June 8, 2021

What’s Creature Feature About?

It’s the early 1960s and Kathy Anderson has put her aspirations of Broadway stardom on hold in favor of a steady paycheck for a few years. She’s spent those years as Vivacia, the Vampire Woman—Chicago’s version of Vampira/Elvira, Mistress of the Dark—hosting monster movies on a local television station. But she’s had enough of that, it’s time to get back to being a serious actress. She quits and plans to head to New York and get back to the career she dreamed of.

But first, she heads home to Placidville. She plans on spending some time with her parents and the people she grew up around. When she arrives, her parents are acting a bit strange—actually, everyone (literally everyone) in town is acting strange. And everyone from her parents, to her parents’ friends, to random people she meets on the street, to the town’s hunky new mayor are major Vivacia fans. It’s almost too much for Kathy—but what puts her over the edge is her best friend’s dorky brother who keeps showing up to insist that something is wrong, and only he can help her see it.

The next thing that Kathy knows, she’s in the middle of something reminiscent of one of the movies from Vivacia’s House of Horrors, struggling to survive and hopefully saving the world as we know it.

Judging by the official description, that’s really all that I feel free to say—I had a few other notes along those lines, but…I don’t want to give anything else away. That’s enough of the setup, though, to pique your interest, I think. The tone is a tricky one—the threat is real, Kathy is in serious trouble—but the whole thing is told in a comedic tone. You’re supposed to find it silly while you’re hoping that Kathy susses out what’s going on, you chuckle when she’s running for her life.

The Audiobook Experience

As this post is part of the Audiobook tour, I should focus on that for a little bit. Which is great—because this is a great match of material and medium. I’d have no problem believing that this was written as an audiobook exclusively, it’s perfectly fitting.

A lot of that is due to Seamus Dever’s narration. He hits the tone just right—he’s close to going over-the-top without ever slipping into parody. It’s clearly funny material, but he plays it straight. Still, he sounds like he’s having fun—and it’s hard not to join in. And Juliana Dever nails the character of Kathy (and her alter ego).

At the same time, the approach to this audiobook still feels odd. Seamus handles almost all the voice duties—narration and every character’s dialogue that isn’t Kathy/Vivacia. Juliana handles only Kathy/Vivacia’s dialogue (and announces the chapters). I haven’t come across this way of dividing the duties before and it struck me as odd. But—after the first couple of minutes I got used to it, and it works.

I’m not sure that the special effects added much to the experience—maybe even detracted from it. In particular, the reverb/echo effect added to Juliana’s voice when she was reading Kathy’s thoughts, just got on my nerves. It’s only done a few times and doesn’t hurt things much, but it was distracting.

So, what did I think about Creature Feature?

I think maybe the easiest way to think about this is as a short novel written by Ed Wood. But where Wood would be earnest and sincere in telling this story, Leiva is going for laughs. It’s a Classic B-Movie Monster story but told in a way where the goofiness is intentional and designed for laughs, not as a scare that misses its mark.

The characters are probably a bit more fleshed out than the genre requires, the setting is great, the execution is really well done—both with the text, but especially in audio production. I think if I’d read the print version, I’d be handing out 3 Stars for this, but the Devers took this to another level.

In the end, either version is going to keep you entertained for a few hours and make you curious about other things that Leiva has written. Give this one a shot folks, I think you’ll be glad you did.


4 Stars

My thanks to Let’s Talk Promotions and Psst…Promotions for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including a copy of the audiobook) they provided.

Lizard Flambe: An EXCERPT from Creature Feature by Steven Paul Leiva

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Earlier this morning, I talked about the book, and now I get to give you a little taste—I hope it hooks you the way it did me.


from Creature Feature by Steven Paul Leiva

Those who survived the calamity-that-almost-was entered into a conspiracy of silence. No—let me rewrite that, ‘conspiracy’ is too jaundiced a word. They entered into a pact of silence for fear of causing mass hysteria, and worldwide panic, and general consternation, and rampant indigestion.

But now is the time to finally reveal the truth so long hidden from you. And now is the time to speak of the hero and heroine (if I may not be too politically incorrect in using the feminine) who in the summer of ‘62 not only saved our bacon—but the whole damn pork enchilada. And only I can do that because only I know the whole story.

And as it is a story of black and white, put on your black and white specs and take a good look as we……enter deep into a dark swamp thick with bald cypress trees standing on their cypress knees as murky and mucky water flows around and all the cormorants and whooping cranes and anhingas have run, flown, or darted away; all the ducks have ducked underwater; and even the bald eagles and various hawks have lit out for safer territory as monumental hand-to-hand combat between a good-looking, well-muscled, male human hero in khaki clothes and a nugly, giant, two-legged lizardman of some exceptional martial skill, disturbs the usual peace of the swamp. A high-pitched scream is heard as a gorgeous blonde with perfect makeup and a blouse missing some buttons, fears for the life of the male human she may or may not have had carnal relations with and, not incidentally, her own life as well while clinging to the knee of a bald cypress tree.

Finally, the male human hero gets the upper hand and manages to push the lizardman into a shallow part of the swamp with strange gasses hovering close to the water’s surface. From his belt, the hero grabs a flare gun and does not hesitate to send a flare straight into the water, right between the lizardman’s legs. Hellfire explodes all around the lizardman. It is a fire that one knows is red and yellow with white-hot heat, but here it is only illuminated shades of gray. The lizard‐man, confused by the searing heat and pain lets out an unearthly howl as he slowly cooks to death. The good-looking, well-muscled, male human hero in khaki grabs the gorgeous blonde with perfect makeup and a blouse missing some buttons, and holds her tight as three-dimensionally looking letters in two dimensions fly up from nowhere and smack against the screen spelling out ATTACK OF THE LIZARDMAN and THE END and MADE IN HOLLYWOOD U.S.A.

The broadcast of this early 1950s horror flick being over, the small studio at Chicago’s WAGO-TV station bustled and burst with color (colorful set, colorful language from frustrated technicians) as they switched to live to finish this episode of Vivacia’s House of Horrors. The beautiful Vivacia herself—pale of face framed by long raven’s wing (what else?) black hair and wearing a slinky and slick ebony satin dress with a plunging neckline (or décolletage if we want to bring a little lift to the thought)—lounged sensually on her huge, round bed with blood-red silk sheets (the producer had gotten the idea from Chicago native Hugh Hefner).

She looked directly into camera number one and held up what looked exactly like a barbecued lizard on a stick and said in her deep, silky voice, “Oooooooo—lizard flambe!” With a ravenous, anticipatory smile, Vivacia parted her lips, brought the lizard flambe to her mouth, and took a generous bite full of sexual subtext. She chewed, savored, swallowed, then said, “I love it!”

A snort and a whimper came from her side as a little hunchback man with a twisted face bounced on the bed next to her. “Would you like a little bite, Grossie?”

 


Read the rest in Creature Feature by Steven Paul Leiva–or listen to the audiobook Narrated by Seamus Dever and Juliana Dever–to see what happens from here.

Thanks to Let’s Talk Promotions and Psst…Promotions for this excerpt!

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Creature Feature (Audiobook) by Steven Paul Leiva, Seamus Dever, and Juliana Dever

Today I welcome the Book Tour for the audiobook for Creature Feature by Steven Paul Leiva and narrated by Seamus Dever and Juliana Dever. Following this spotlight post, I have an excerpt (from the text version) here in a bit, and then I’ll be giving my take on the audiobook. But let’s start by learning a little about this here book, okay? Oh, and be sure to check out the Giveaway of the audiobook below!
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Book Details:

Book Title: Because You’re Mine by Luna Miller
Narrators:
Publisher: Magpie Press (print edition)
Release date: September 21, 2020 (print edition), April 13, 2021 (audiobook)
Format: Paperback/Ebook/Audiobook
Length: 158 pages; 4 hours and 23 minutes
Creature Feature

Book Blurb:

THERE IS SOMETHING STRANGE HAPPENING IN PLACIDVILLE!

It is 1962. Kathy Anderson, a serious actress who took her training at the Actors Studio in New York, is stuck playing Vivacia, the Vampire Woman on Vivacia’s House of Horrors for a local Chicago TV station.

Finally fed up showing old monster movies to creature feature fans, she quits and heads to New York and the fame and footlights of Broadway.

She stops off to visit her parents and old friends in Placidville, the all-Ameican, middle-class, blissfully normal Midwest small town she grew up in.

But she finds things are strange in Placidville.

Kathy’s parents, her best friend from high school, the local druggist, even the Oberhausen twins are all acting curiously creepy, odiously odd, and wholly weird. Especially the town’s super geeky nerd, Gerald, who warns of dark days ahead.

Has Kathy entered a zone in the twilight? Did she reach the limits that are outer? Has she fallen through a mirror that is black? Or is it just—just—politics as usual!

About Steven Paul Leiva:

Steven Paul Leiva
A Scribe award-winner, receiving the praise of Ray Bradbury and the Oscar-winning film producer, Richard Zanuck, Steven Paul Leiva is no stranger to the business of telling a good story. Author of several novels, and with a writing-style that lays hard on the satire, this Hollywood-escapee doesn’t pull punches when it comes to politics.
Need to know more? Follow him on Amazon or Goodreads, or check out his blog here: http://emotionalrationalist.blogspot.com/p/about-steven-paul-leiva.html

About Seamus Dever:

Seamus Dever
Seamus Dever is best known to television audiences as Detective Kevin Ryan on ABC’s Castle. He played Sherlock Holmes in the Audie Award-winning “Hound of the Baskervilles” with LA Theatre Works and has 10 other radio plays with them and the BBC. He is the voice of the villain John Seed in the hit video game “Far Cry 5” and originated the DC Comic’s bad guy Trigon on “Titans.” Dever has performed in over 80 plays and has 300 hours of television to his name. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Juliana.

About Juliana Dever:

Juliana Dever
Juliana Dever is a professional actor, writer, and world traveler. She’s best known for her role as Jenny Ryan on the globally popular show Castle. Recently you may have seen her brilliant performance in “Stalked by My Husband’s Ex” on Lifetime. Having traveled to over 60 countries, her award-winning travel blog CleverDeverWherever.com (named Best Independent Travel Blog in North America) helps readers find unexpected experiences in unusual places. She curates adventures through former communist countries and Frommer’s listed her tours as a trend that will shape travel.


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My thanks to Let’s Talk Promotions and Psst…Promotions for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including a copy of the audiobook) they provided.

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