Monks... not the religious kind. A best friend kind...

Joe to the left, Pamela to the right.

Joe Monks is a libertarian, but not the kind that  thinks everyone needs a gun and use it, not the kind that needs to wear a tinfoil hat. He has ideas, and intellect, and uses it, in the limited government ideals he believes in.  I begin there because most people don't get him, or don't like what he says, when he is speaking in the ideal. Joe Monks writes about crime and horror, and does so in a non rated movie version that often gets so bloody social media posts need to be tailored to fit the sensitivity triggers of the morons who run social media. He isn't violent. He is honest and when writing about dark subjects, he doesn't step back from the line of too much. 

 

He writes honestly so he crosses the line, often. He has to, writing the subject matter, makes it a requirement. Now, this sounds like I am saying he is gratuitous in his violence. I think anyone writing about a murder, a shoot out, a mauling, a stabbing, a monster killing you or anything similar, is actually giving you less of a story by not telling the whole story. We met doing an interview, and he was great. Through email thereafter he has been funny, open about his tastes and traits. He made me laugh so hard I cried more than once. And as I've said about him on social media, Joe Monks has never said a thing to me that was vile, he never wished violence upon anyone not convicted of a terrible crime, and he has been honest about everything he ever said.  And he is the funniest human I've ever known.  He has a loving heart towards his animals, and all dogs and cats. He isn't mother Theresa but hey, by that same reasoning, she wasn't him.  Oh, and did I mention that he is blind.  

 
He wrote, directed, and did many other aspects in the creation of his film THE BUNKER. I promise, it isn't a fairy tale, fun princess tale, it is dark. But it tells a story and leaves you, the viewer, whole in the end. The movie had many areas open for exploitation. Instead he used that space to expand the story.  A blind movie writer and director. You think your job is hard? It isn't that hard compared to his. During my cancer run, starting in January, soon to end, whether I make it or not. And Joe Monks was perhaps the most ardent of supporters, and those who threaten. You see, he and I have projects together, and he said if I didn't beat cancer, he was going to kick my ass. Sometimes people give you hearts or sweet kind words. He gave me that, but he also made me feel needed, a partner in a very fun project, and someone who was talented and someone, more than one, wanted me to work with them, for a reason other than charity. I promise to reveal more when I can. But, I want to be there at the finish line. With Joe, and all my creative friends, family, and all my friends.   Someone asked me how Joe could be such a good guy if he writes such dark books. I said, Every utopia in reverse is a dystopia.  Only someone who wants a good world could write such dark work, because they know the fear of the darkness of the evil world in the reverse.

Pamela Hazelton is lovely bright woman who is Joe's wife. I love her for being Joe's eyes when needed, and caring for him. Because I love Joe. He is my brother. And dark as he might be, he never lets me end a conversation with anything looking at the dark side of my problems.  He knows how dark life can be, he refuses to let others wallow in it.  And he has helped save me. I have said in public before that I have tried to commit suicide twice. Very recently I became so despondent, I told my wife, I might just as well finish the work and cut my wrists and let death come and Azrael give me that kiss of death. Joe Monks is someone who constantly tells me that that is bullshit that needs to stop.

I am blessed that he is my friend.  Deeply so. Find him and Pam at Fright Unseen