Category Archives: Horror

Time for the Next Novel

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Well, the query letter has been composed, the synopsis written and once they have survived the sweetie-wife’s sharp eye for error I will climb back into the query trenches and The Wolves of Wallace Point will begin seeking representation and a home.

The best thing to do once a writing project is done is move on to the next project. My next novel, also a horror, will combine the sentiments of a 70s disaster flick, large cast, dispersed storylines, not plot armor for anyone, with my favorite style of horror, the ghost story.

I have no working title for this piece, but I have discovered one important thing about it. I cannot write this one by the ‘pants,’ as I did with Wolves. It’s going to end up too intricate, with multiple points of view and interweaving narratives. There are authors who could writ that without an outline, but I am not one. So, for this next novel I return to my usual process and will begin with a 5-act structure outline, but in this case one that breaks down the five acts among the five plots.

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Quick Review: Suitable Flesh

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Suitable Flesh is a 2023 adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s tale The Thing on the Doorstep of a body-swapping wizard and the pair of friends entangled in the madness.

Shudder Films

Scriptwriter Dennis Paoli has gender swapped the leads roles with Heather Graham playing Dr Elizabeth Derby, a psychiatrist who through a troubled patient, Asa Waite (Judah Lewis) comes to the wizard’s attentions and Barbara Crampton playing Elizbeth’s best friend and fellow psychiatrist Dr Daniella ‘Dani’ Upton. Directed by Joe Lynch in a manner to recall the bonkers insane cinema of Stuart Gordon Suitable Flesh ultimately fails both as a horror film in its own right and as a pastiche to Gordon’s movies of the 80’s.

The script’s greatest weakness, and it has more than one, is that the story is told from the wrong Point of View. Centered on Graham’s Dr Derby the story is flat because Elizabeth is a reactive character, responding to events around her and not driven the narrative forward. Dr. Upton would have been a far better choice for the film’s point of view as she would have had a mystery to solve, a fantastic truth to uncover, and a dear friend to save. The second largest mistake is telling the story though the device of a flashback. The framing of a film as a flashback can be a powerful tool see Double Indemnity as an example, but it required a skill beyond Paoli’s current talents, draining the movie of all tension and suspense.

In addition to the weakness of the script, and I did not list all the ways I thought the writing needed further works, the film is hampered by lackluster performances. With the exception of Barbara Crampton and Judah Lewis every actor feels as though they were simply sleepwalking through their parts, presently nothing that felt like real live-in characters. The flat performances ultimately undercut the attempt to pay homage to Stuart Gordon’s films such as Reanimator where the actor give grand expansive presentations of arch characters.

While I had looked forward to this movie arriving on streaming for months, Suitable Flesh, screening on Shudder proved to be a disappointment.

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Inconvenient Inspiration

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So, last night I went to bed and started drifting off to sleep. Somewhere I had heard or read that in order to sleep your heartrate has to drop below 60 beats per minute and mine was slowing, approaching that moment when cognitive systems shut down and slumber would take over.

As I drifted my minds began recalling carious Tabletop Role Playing Games in the horror genre I had run for my friends. When I run a horror themed games I like to do it as a ‘one off,’ just that set of characters and events. Horror repeated becomes adventure. One of the games I recalled had been a massive game made up of several sessions instead of the customary single night of game play. I had borrowed the structure of the classic film Citizen Kane with the characters investigating aspect of someone life searching for the key that would unlock the nature of their life.

My heartrate shot up from the gentle slowing and sleep fled from my presence.

I hadn’t thought about that game in years and years now grasped a new purpose for it, a novel.

Now that particular story, much of which I do not recall, but the structure. That would make a fine way to approach a horror novel that would be both grand in scope and focused on a single character. Much more of what the plot might entail flooded into my brain like a river washing away the Black Riders chasing after Frodo. Even more concepts fell into place. I adore the five-act structure and each act could encompass one of the historical aspects of the investigation; a character introduced in the epilog of my werewolf novel could be the point man in this one.

It took quite a while for my thoughts to cease racing, for my heartrate to once again begin to slow, but that sudden inconvenient flash of inspiration still burns this morning.

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Godzilla Minus 1.0; the Best Godzilla Movie

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It is quite a feat to dethrone Gojira that King of Godzilla and Kaiju features but in my personal opinion that is exactly what 2023’s Godzilla -1.0 achieved. To justify this position I will have to spoil some of each feature.

Toho Studios

1954’s Gojira, known in the US primarily by the 1955 re-edit Godzilla; King of the Monsters, is an outstanding piece of cinema ruminating on the atomic age and the trauma of the atomic warfare unleashed on Japan and its civilians. (We will not discuss the moral, ethical, military, or political aspect of the twin atomic bomb attacks. That is not the purpose of this essay.) From its opening scene with the hapless fishing trawler blasted by the unseen Gojira, deliberately reminiscent of the ill-fated tuna boat Lucky Dragon 5 and the terrible radiation poisoning its crew suffered from the first hydrogen bomb test, to the film final moments depicting Godzilla reduced to a skeleton by another monstrous super weapon, Gojira is about the atomic age and its ramifications. Co-inhabiting the film with this theme is the story of a love triangle between two men, Ogata and Dr Serizawa and the woman they love Emiko. There simply isn’t enough screen time to develop the triangle into a powerful story line nor does it tie in directly with the theme of the film. Only Serizawa’s research and development of the ‘Oxygen Destroyer’ which provides the means to end Gojira’s rampage provides thematic connection and resolution to the separate storylines.

Gojira (1954) is an amazing feat of budget constrained film making that invented a new genre and that remains thematically relevant 70 years later. It is a great film and until 2023 rules undisputed as the best of the franchise and the entire Kaiju genre.

Toho Studios

Godzilla Minus 1 opens with our main character, Shikishima, a kamikaze pilot who has abandoned his suicidal mission. Landing on Odo island with ‘mechanical troubles’ he witnesses the first appearance oof Godzilla and along with a single mechanic, Tachibana, survives the monsters rampage but earn the wrath of Tachibana. With the war’s ending Shikishima returns to a Tokyo destroyed by firebombing and the contempt of his neighbors for having survived the war. Years later, still suffering from survivors guilt for not pointlessly dying in the war and with an assembled found family, Shikishima’s life is thrown into chaos when Godzilla reappears, even larger than before, and devastates the area. Drawn into the plots and plans to destroy the monster he sees the opportunity to ‘fulfill’ his kamikaze mission in the intricate plan to deal with Godzilla. Reunited with Tachibana to restore an aircraft for the attack Shikishima receives absolution from the mechanic for his action on Odo island and ‘permission’ to live.

Throughout Godzilla Minu 1.0 the theme is about survival, the waste of lives in war, the importance of the government to respect the lives of its people. Shikishima’s emotional arc is tied directly to the ‘war’ against the monster. At its heart this film is the story of one man, his terrible burden surviving where so many others did not, and his finding of peace, love, and absolution. A powerful story with a single compelling character to drive it make Godzilla Minu 1.0 simply the best Godzilla movie ever.

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TV Review: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Apple TV+

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Set in the American Kaiju-verse, (Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla vs Kong (2021), the series by use of a split timeline narrative, explores both the founding of the Kaiju hunting organization Monarch and the bureaucracy that had become ossified over the decades.

The founding storyline centers on Keiko, a Japanese scientist, Bill, an American Cryptozoologist, and Lee Shaw, an American Army officer assigned as security to Keiko. Together that discover the threat of the Kaiju, which the series names ‘Titans’ and battling the headwinds of racism and national security driven paranoia establish Monarch.

The ‘current’ storyline follows Cate, a traumatized survivor of Godzilla’s battle in San Francisco and granddaughter of Bill and Keiko, Kentaro, an artist from Tokyo and another grandchild of the founders of Monarch, May, a computer scientist on the run with a mysterious past. The siblings, along with May, search for their missing father with the aid of an elderly, but with an unexplained vigor, Lee.

To bridge the twin timelines with the character Lee, the producers cast actual father and son actors Kurt Russell as the elder Lee and Wyatt Russell as the younger version of the character.

The series does a decent job of balancing the doubled plot threads, though the choice to tell the historical timeline out of narrative order can lead to some confusion as that cotemporary timeline, aside from a flashback or two, is presented in a standard linear fashion. The characters and performances in both threads are decent and engaging with more Kaiju action presented that what might be expected from a television series. The big man himself, Godzilla, is not held back for a guest appearance in the series’ finale but is utilized, sparingly, as needed throughout the first season. The show has enough mystery and character to carrying interest without ever forgetting that this is set in a world where gigantic monsters exist. If you are looking for non-stop Kaiju wrestling then the series is likely to disappoint but I found it fun, entertaining, and with just enough character to make it worth the watch.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters streams on Apple TV+

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Quick Novel Update

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So, 3 out of 5 acts have been proofed so I am nearing the point where I will be looking for beta readers for ‘The Wolves of Wallace Point.’

I often hear about writers who detest their first drafts, but I am not one of those. Sure, sometimes the draft fails, and I didn’t get to my target. But it’s never detest or I can’t stand reading it as I edit and revise. This novel was no different even though it was written without an outline. There were elements that need minor adjustment because as things became clearer to me near the end earlier scenes had to be adjusted to ensure a consistent continuity.

As I wait for my sweetie-wife to complete her pass on the final two acts I have begun actual writing on the next horror novel. I may need to put something else as the opening scene however as this sequence is so dark and troubling it may be more of a turn off that an enticing opening.

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A Late Christmas Gift

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A gift my sweetie-wife ordered from the UK arrived this weekend, a six-disc collection of the BBC’s Ghost Stories For Christmas. A series of television productions, many which are adaptation of stories by M.R. James, that we have been wanting to watch for some time.

We have started in on any of them yet because we are completing the annual marathon of the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings. Man, 20 years old but they still hold up. After that we will be exploring the spooky, uncanny, and horrifying.

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2023 A Personal Review

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The year, as we in the west number it, is coming to a close and that is a time for reflection. This year has seen triumph and tragedy in my personal life, much like the years that preceded it and that will follow.

In January I began the world building work for my next science-fiction novel, a dystopic and cynical story set on the corporate cities of Mars under the thumb of a once brilliant billion now degenerated into madness and paranoia. With it set only a hundred years into the future that required lots of research and planning to keep from making myself appear too foolish. This month also saw a dear friend of nearly 40 years struck with a terrible wasting degenerative neuro-muscular disease.

February saw the released of a pair of films that I thoroughly enjoyed, Megan a fun take on the killer doll cliche and Cocaine Bear which delivered precisely what was labeled on the tin.

In March I continued the work on my Mars novel and endured the lackluster Antman and The Wasp: Quantum Mania and the even less enjoyable 65 but was treated to the spirited and fun Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

April saw the historic event of a former President of the United States charged with crimes and his party lash themselves to the mast of his sinking ship. Sadly, nothing in the intervening 8 months changed and they remain devoted to his insurrection and criminality. April was also when I began thinking seriously that the time was right for someone to revisit the werewolf as presented in 1941’s The Wolf-Man with particular attention to the fascism in the subtext.

May was a birth month, a celebration if you wanted of my own and the experimental scene I wrote for a very vague and unformed concept of a werewolf novel. After its reception at my writers group and with their encouragement I continued on past that scene and unwittingly started writing a novel without a prepared outline.

In June I watched Asteroid City a strange almost poetic film nearly devoid of any traditional plot and yet strangely compelling. All world building work ceased as the werewolf novel took over all of my creative CPU cycles.

July was a very good month for movies with the release of Oppenheimer and Barbie both film outstanding in their quality with resonate themes of deep importance. My sweetie-wife and I finished the TV series Silo and agreed it had been a waste of time and talent as had Marvel’s Secret Invasion. It was about this time that I began to seriously consider that my unplanned novel was not going to crash and burn and might actually get finished.

In August The unplotted novel passed 40,000 word and my sweetie-wife and I discovered the delightful Australian murder/comedy series Deadloch a real hidden treasure on Amazon Prime.

September witnessed the passing of that dear friend diagnosed in January and once again the hard terrible lesson of life is that it ends. The movies of this month, A Haunting in Venice, and The Annual secret morgue of genre films, did little to mitigate the sadness of that period.

With October I became confident enough in my werewolf novel to reach out to a former editor and pitch him the book. He expressed an interest but also cautioned I would need a pen name for it. The Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) for Medicare Advantage enrollment started and the day-job became more stressful and busier but work on the novel continued.

November was a pleasant month. Two enjoyable features at the theater, The Marvels and Next Goal Wins provided comfort cinema, the annual sf convention LosCon provided friends and geek infusions as well as seeing to completion of the novel first draft.

That brings us to December, I closed out in theater film watching with the fantastic Godzilla Minus 1, abandoned the series The Crown as the Charles and Diana story held little interest for me, and turned my manuscript over to my darling sweetie-wife for her red pen of corrections.

As I said at the outset, 2023 held triumph and tragedy and now onto 2024.

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Series Review: Ultraviolet (1998)

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Several weeks ago, spurred by a discussion of the HBO series The Wire I decided that I wanted to rewatch and earlier television series with Idris Elba Ultraviolet.

Starring Jack Davenport, that many people will recognize as Norrington from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the series follows Detective Inspector Mike Colefield (Davenport) who upon investigating the disappearance of his best friend that night before that friend’s wedding stumbles into the knowledge that vampires are real, and that a secret organization has been fighting them for centuries. Teamed up with a war veteran Vaughn Rice (Idris Elba), a physician Angela Marsh (Susannah Harker) and a former priest Pearse Harman (Philip Quast) Mike tries to uncover what really happened to his best friend, dodge the determined prying of the jilted fiancĂ©, and help the organization discover what grad scheme the vampires have sudden launched.

My sweetie-wife originally exposed me to this series as she had the program on VHS tapes. Much of the vampire lore has been jettisoned. While the vampires are immortal, ageless, and possess fantastic strength and speed, they do not have the ability to enthrall, assume animal or gaseous forms but remain invisible to mirrors and all form of electronic imagery and recording.

While the series is far from perfect, the fiancĂ© character is far too annoying and Mike’s attraction to her indicates to me that this marriage would have been in serious troubles without vampiric intervention, it is quite enjoyable and a nice take on ‘modern vampire hunting.’ These undead creates are not the romantic seducing lovers of modern fantasy but intelligent deadly predators. The entire story is told in six self-contained episodes. They can currently be streamed on Tubi for free. (You just have to endure the bloodsucking of adverts.)

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The Journey in Writing a Novel Without an Outline

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On May 3rd without any preparation or planning I started out writing what would become my first horror novel. All of my previous attempts in horror had been of the short fiction variety and all of my previous novels had been written from carefully created detailed outlines. I had low expectations of success thinking that I would most likely lose the thread of whatever it was I was writing before I had managed 10,000 words.

About seven thousand words into the project, I felt I had a fairly good grasp on what I wanted to do with the characters, settings, and themes. Enough so that I drafted a one-page act breakdown that listed possible events in each of the five acts. While the novel had no outline, I am still very much a writer that believes in structure, and I have become quite devoted to a 5 Act format for my works.

Over the Thanksgiving Weekend I completed the first draft of ‘The Wolves of Wallace Point,’ a novel with a far higher ‘on-screen’ body count than any of my previous works. Now a week before Christmas I have completed my revisions to the first draft. Despite flying blind without little set-in stone about the plot very little of the manuscript required any form of major change. Once my sweetie-wife has completed her pass to catch my spelling and grammar sins it will be ready to hand off to the beta readers.

I am uncertain if I actually did manage to hit the target tone of horror and I may have landed adjacently in the ‘adventure’ genre. Then again, I know I can be very picky about horror and being so close to the work may have in fact blinded me to its nature. That is why beta readers are so vital in this process.

The entire experiment took just over six months from the first scene to completion surprising me in just how smoothly the writing actually went. Thematically ‘The Wolves of Wallace’ point is in conversation with a few prior works of fiction, principally 1941’s The Walk-Man from which nearly all of everyone’s conception of werewolves descend and an episode of the original series of Star Trek‘The Savage Curtain,’ which badly explored the difference between good and evil.

I have learned many things about myself as a writer over these last seven months. That I can trust my sense of plot and structure even when I am fumbling in the dark. That I can trust my sense of character and let some simply walk on without a need to construct carefully erected backstories. And that theme can provide an essential guidance when nothing else is really known.

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