Friday, January 30, 2015
Prompt
What should I write about? I have about 5 different ideas for stories but nothing has captivated me. I need some new idea or fascination. Thoughts?
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Hiking adventures
So pumped ever since I got into a doctorate program! Now I can write and work towards the Ph.D and in the meantime, hike!
A flooded-in mine shaft.
Machinery for the saw mill that was abandoned during the Great Depression (1929-1932).
Every hike needs great sandwiches for the halfway point.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Let's Make 2015 Count!
I just got accepted to the University of Houston for a graduate program in European Labor History! Originally I had applied for a masters since the Ph.Ds are highly competitive but due to academic excellence they offered me the Ph.D program and strongly encouraged I go straight for my doctorate! All the hard work paid off, now let's make 2015 count.
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Does Horror Need Reviving?
An open question. I read a horror novel a little while back and the word 'bland' is too exotic for it. The more I hear about the horror genre it's just monsters, ghosts and predominantly serial killers. Is this what really scares people? I don't think so I don't think most people are afraid of serial killers or the supernatural.
I think there are quite a few more rational things people are afraid of. For example, I just finished a new story entitled 'Dark Spirit.' Despite the title it has nothing supernatural about it. It's about a successful young lawyer, Anthony, who is about to propose to his girlfriend when he gets a call from his mother telling him that his older brother is in the hospital after having a mental breakdown. As Anthony watches his brother slip into insanity he begins to panic; this is my brother. "We share the same genes. Older siblings are guinea pigs for their younger counterparts, developing genetic disorders and mental problems before them. What's to keep me from following him? Losing my grip on sanity and losing my job at the firm and my fiancee and ending up chained to a bed like him?" Anthony's losing struggle to fight the madness in his brother becomes a struggle to retain his own sanity.
The last story I wrote 'Malvore' did involve the supernatural, but it wasn't about the monsters but a mother's grief. One night I was struck by the idea of a woman out in the woods in a cabin, sitting on a chair facing an open door, staring at the dark with a shotgun in her hand and her baby in the other room crying and I thought, "this would be a great horror story." It took a few changes but I eventually made it.
So yes. Madness, insanity, the dark nature of humans, but not the in cliched, "I'm a serial killer and I will kill you because I am so ridiculously evil, I love to cackle." None of that bullshit that doesn't scare anyone. Self-destructive madness. It's what we all have, and it certainly scares me.
But the problem is obvious isn't it? Whenever horror is actually good people label it 'drama.' Like how Silence of the Lambs and Gone Girl were both horrifying but because critics have a disdainful view of horror they just lump all the good horror into the drama category.
Well I say it needs to be saved! I am going to take it on myself to try to Lovecraft it up and pull the genre in a direction away from monsters and Dr. Lecters and into psychological horror. In fact, I am in the process of writing an obsessive love story.
And on a completely unrelated note, I just finished writing a humorous story about a comedian who lives in a world of superheroes. But while some people are gaining powers and others are getting useless party tricks, he is turning into an octopus. The story follows his attempt to continue his life as a public figure and headlining satirist while turning into a cephalopod.
Cross fingers, hope to be published, will keep everyone updated on all that.
I think there are quite a few more rational things people are afraid of. For example, I just finished a new story entitled 'Dark Spirit.' Despite the title it has nothing supernatural about it. It's about a successful young lawyer, Anthony, who is about to propose to his girlfriend when he gets a call from his mother telling him that his older brother is in the hospital after having a mental breakdown. As Anthony watches his brother slip into insanity he begins to panic; this is my brother. "We share the same genes. Older siblings are guinea pigs for their younger counterparts, developing genetic disorders and mental problems before them. What's to keep me from following him? Losing my grip on sanity and losing my job at the firm and my fiancee and ending up chained to a bed like him?" Anthony's losing struggle to fight the madness in his brother becomes a struggle to retain his own sanity.
The last story I wrote 'Malvore' did involve the supernatural, but it wasn't about the monsters but a mother's grief. One night I was struck by the idea of a woman out in the woods in a cabin, sitting on a chair facing an open door, staring at the dark with a shotgun in her hand and her baby in the other room crying and I thought, "this would be a great horror story." It took a few changes but I eventually made it.
So yes. Madness, insanity, the dark nature of humans, but not the in cliched, "I'm a serial killer and I will kill you because I am so ridiculously evil, I love to cackle." None of that bullshit that doesn't scare anyone. Self-destructive madness. It's what we all have, and it certainly scares me.
But the problem is obvious isn't it? Whenever horror is actually good people label it 'drama.' Like how Silence of the Lambs and Gone Girl were both horrifying but because critics have a disdainful view of horror they just lump all the good horror into the drama category.
Well I say it needs to be saved! I am going to take it on myself to try to Lovecraft it up and pull the genre in a direction away from monsters and Dr. Lecters and into psychological horror. In fact, I am in the process of writing an obsessive love story.
And on a completely unrelated note, I just finished writing a humorous story about a comedian who lives in a world of superheroes. But while some people are gaining powers and others are getting useless party tricks, he is turning into an octopus. The story follows his attempt to continue his life as a public figure and headlining satirist while turning into a cephalopod.
Cross fingers, hope to be published, will keep everyone updated on all that.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
In the Interim
Just a'waitin' to hear back from publishers. In the meantime, more photos of my pets.
A little video of Sophie emerging from the darkness.
Sophie and Tanner have a pretty adversarial relationships so she travels with as many treats as she can stuff in her mouth. So she looks like FDR a lot.
A little video of Sophie emerging from the darkness.
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