Ciao, amici! If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know I kind of have a thing about serial killers. My WIP has a totally twisted one, and I used to have a feature about them right on this site (but I don’t have the time to do that anymore). If you came here today hoping to get your “serial killer fix” — and isn’t that just a bit disturbing? let’s not dwell on that — you won’t go away disappointed. I’ve got the perfect post for you.
Today, I’m SO HAPPY to welcome Sue Coletta back to talk about her upcoming nonfiction release, Pretty Evil New England. I’ve long considered myself among her biggest fiction fans. (Have you read her Mayhem and/or Grafton County series? If not, you really should. ) Now I’m a fan of her true crime writing, too.
It wouldn’t be October without horror movies in the theaters and all over television. Some gleefully spend every night indulging in this genre. Others may avoid them because they don’t like being scared or find the overall concept rather ridiculous. It always seems like characters are idiots in horror movies because they make mistakes all the time. I get into this debate with a friend all the time. He texts me when he watches a horror movie and gets annoyed with the characters. I can’t say I blame him . . . or them.
Before I get to the questions, I’m going to point something out. We laugh or yell at horror movie victims because they do stupid things. Splitting up, checking out the dark basement, avoiding the most obvious escape route, etc. Yet, we tend to forget one important fact. The audience is able to comfortably take in the scenario with the knowledge that it is a horror movie. The characters don’t enter the story knowing that they are in a horror movie. Legends are shrugged off because that’s what we would do in real life. So, imagine you are in a horror movie without being told beforehand.
What is the big ‘mistake’ that you know you would make in a horror movie?
Do you really think you would survive? Why?
What is the one horror movie villain that you hate to meet the most?
War of Nytefall: Lost is a book that keeps pulling my mind in a specific direction in terms of music. Weird and a little silly. This is entirely because of Lost and how she is a rather chaotic character. The story is about how she appears and is searching for her father, but also leaving accidental messes in her wake. The Princess General of Nytefall has gotten her act together in later books, but not entirely. Of course, this one requires we all have some fun.
As I said, these songs are here because they are kind of odd, especially when you add the music video. I caught this one on the radio and didn’t think much of it for the first week that I was hearing it. Not sure what finally had me put my full attention on it, but it was rather catchy and made me think it would be on Lost’s playlist. Only way it could be 100% for her is if it was ‘Dance Bunny’.
As I said, a song about a rabbit is totally Lost. Being about ‘Alice in Wonderland’, it touches on her mentality as well. Not insane or crazy, but there is a level of child-like randomness to her actions. Wonderland makes sense to their denizens and Lost’s thoughts and ideas make sense to her. Doesn’t matter that other people are left scratching their heads.
Keeping up with the quirkiness, but this one actually turned up on Pandora a lot of time as I wrote the book. I can imagine Lost trying to act out everything she is listening to in this song too. It’s oddly soothing even though it has some odd imagery, which has an innocent feel to it instead of going dark crazy.
Hello, SE readers. In my prior post, I wrote about inspiration. Today I continue along that same path and compare how one experience might spark inspiration for either a memoir or a novel.
In a sense, all writing is fiction because memory is never totally accurate. For example, when police consider the accounts of everyone at an accident scene, the differences are notable. Even the most obvious detail, such as the color of the cars, can vary wildly. The smaller details, of license plate numbers or the year and make of the car, are rarely consistent.
Perhaps a simple story will help clarify my point. Here goes. Imagine sitting at an outside table of a busy neighborhood bar. There is much laughter as toasts are offered, drinks held high. Then suddenly everything changes.
Two cars collide in front of the bar. When the police arrive, most folks have dispersed but…
Another rough one in the books. Thursday and Friday were days that ended with me barely able to stay awake long enough to watch an episode of D.Gray-Man. Many might say that I should have just passed out and gotten extra sleep. Unfortunately, falling asleep early was resulting in me waking up early. It’s a horrible cycle that I can’t break until the weekend when I can go back to sleep after 30 minutes of cursing my brain. A good breakfast and coffee lunch helped get me to the end, but I’ll admit that this week pushed me to a limit. There were a few days when I had free periods and I didn’t know what to do with myself. By the end of the week, I had moments where I would just stand there wondering if I should be doing something. It’s a 3-day weekend, so I’ll recover and next week should run smoother.
It wasn’t just the work side of life, which might have been the milder part. There were some issues with my son and remote learning. Depending on technology runs the risk of problems that cannot be fixed, which we ran into. So, I’d come home to a slight bit of chaos. He was also nervous about a bunch of things. Felt like I’d leave work and come back to the third act of a either a horror or comedy. That 15 minute shower I take once I get home was the only sense of quiet I could get. We made it through everything, but I’m certainly limping along. My plan to get some War of Nytefall: Eulogy writing in didn’t happen.
I’m SO close too!
If things run smoothly, I can get 4 chapters of War of Nytefall: Eulogy written before my son comes back. This brings me 2 chapters away from the end. Not just of the book, but the entire series. I’d really like to get Clyde’s story done by the end of October, which seems fitting. I mean, he’s a vampire and this is the Halloween season. I’d spend the rest of the year working on Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips) and outlining the next big series. With the former being written in a blog format, I can get a lot done in a weekend. Thinking 3-4 pages for each topic. Hoping this makes it stand out and keeps info rather precise.
I have been using my free periods to outline, but I hit an odd moment. I had to stop before designing the last set pieces and monsters for a spin-off book that will consist of 6 short stories. The next project is a second collection of short stories that connects to the same main series. I keep wanting to just finish it, but I can’t get my brain to focus at work for some reason. I get into conversations or stare at the page. Might finish off the set pieces and monsters over the weekend because I think that’s what is tripping me up. It’s just so small that it’s hard to do it during a 40-minute window.
Nothing else to really talk about . . . I think. Well, there’s the silly thing. Not me getting pizza tonight because I damn well earned it. I’m restocking my liquor supply since I only have half a bottle of rum. I haven’t done this since the beginning of the summer, so don’t start thinking I’m a lush. This could carry me through fall and winter since I plan on getting about 12 bottles of stuff. Writing this Friday night, so I might have already done it and picked the stuff up. I’ve been building a Wish List at the local wine place for the last 2 months and I’m just going to clear it. I know nothing about wine, so we’ll see how this goes since I grabbed anything that said ‘strawberry’. You think the gross Strawberry Rose Vodka would have taught me a lesson, but I’m a sucker for anything strawberry. Isn’t my life exciting?
Going back to the exhaustion thing, it has made it harder to keep up with social media. A part of this is that I have to wake my son up earlier, so I don’t have a lot of quiet, personal time in the morning. Just enough to shower and make breakfast. By the time I get to work, I’m off and running. So, my activity is certainly taking a hit, which is terrible since I was barely functioning to begin with. I’ve hit a point where I need my attention grabbed really hard to react because I’m rushing through everything.
Hmmm . . . About 30 episodes away from finishing ‘D. Gray-Man’. I think I’ll watch Seasons 1 & 2 of ‘The Boys’ afterwards, but someone I follow on Instagram already posted a BIG PICTURE of something that happens in the newer episodes. I rarely rush into watching things even before streaming. I’d make sure I had the time and energy to savor what I was getting into. So, the big ones like ‘The Boys’ that get everyone talking and come out one episode at a time tend to get spoiled. Unless I abandon social media for 2 months, I get hit by it. This sucks and means I pay less attention when I get to it, but I’m coming to accept that. Seems a lot of people use these shows to help boost their own projects and social media profile. Makes sense, but a snail watcher like me will inevitably get some of the fun surgically removed. Oh well.
Goals of the week:
Write 4 chapters of War of Nytefall: Eulogy. (I’ll even be happy with 3.)
Rest this weekend.
Order wine.
Have pizza.
Bike all 3 weekend days to pretend to be healthy.
Laundry.
Watch more D. Gray-Man. (Start ‘The Boys’ if I can.)
Puzzle time!
Work time! (This is down here because it’s a given)
Welcome back to the Monster Maker lab. Today, we have 3 beasties donated by the esteemed John W. Howell. Well . . . Let’s get into it.
Sergannexera
Also known as the ‘Bearded Moose’, this large deer is found in rocky deserts and travels in small herds. Sergannexera get their nourishment from cacti and shrubs, which they will eat down to the roots. Water is gained thanks to their antlers, which are able to pivot on joints that give its head a rather bulbous appearance. At night, dew gathers in the bowl-shaped antler and they turn them in the morning to have the pools flow down grooves directly into the mouth. During the day, the antlers are adjusted to give their hairless bodies enough shade to keep cool. A tail that can flare out like a fan helps and the Sergannexera take turns being in the front of the herd where one can’t be cooled off in such a way. You may be wondering where the ‘bearded’ part comes from if they are hairless. Since the desert gets cold at night, they sprout thick fur similar to that of a yak as soon as the sun goes down. Part of this change is a beard that goes down to the ground. It is believed that the beards are used by males and females to choose mates since these deer don’t shed their antlers.
Twipp
A pesky insect that gets its name from the sound it makes when it bites a larger animal for food. Instead of taking blood as a whole, they jab into the animal quickly to catch platelets, which they can sense through the skin. Twipps are lean like a dragonfly, but they have the nose of a mosquito and eight legs like an arachnid. The reason it is still called an insect is because one pair of legs is actually their genitalia. Because of this, an animal may quickly find a male Twipp arrives right after a female has landed to eat. The fertilized eggs are eventually washed off and they hatch in the water instead of on the animal’s skin. Compared to their body, the Twipp’s wings are very small and move very rapidly, so it appears that they are flying without them. Due to their diet, they are used by natives to locate and breakdown blood clots. It is not uncommon to find these villages surrounded by aromatic lanterns that are designed to attract the insects.
Whannaterexes
Nobody is really sure what this creature can be categorized as, which is why it has the name. Part of it is because it is believed to be able to change shape and live in nearly every environment. When first encountered, it had taken the form of a Sergannexera that was trailing behind the rest of the herd. Observers thought it was injured because it walked with a limp, but it soon became clear that the others were uncomfortable with its presence. They lost track of the herd overnight, but found it again in the morning to see that the limping animal was missing along with one of the others. Similar incidents have happened across the globe, which is why the Whannaterexes is considered an ambush predator of communal beasts. It disguises itself as its prey and stays nearby before attacking, but this is a guess since nobody has ever seen it finish a hunt. Aside from a limp, the other signs that an animal may be one of these mysterious is that they stay on the outside of the group, there is always a circular patch of discoloration on their body, never drinks even when at a source of water, and is avoided by other predators. These signs aren’t much, which is why scientists are still leery to say without a doubt that the Whannaterexes even exists.
I’m so pleased to welcome to the blog today the fabulous Jill Weatherholt. Many of you know her and love her. She’s here to talk about her latest Love Inspired novel, A Home for Her Daughter, which was published on August 25.
Here’s the synopsis:
One little girl could change her mom’s mind about love…To give her daughter a brighter future…she must leave the past behind. Inheriting a house, money and a camp is the fresh start Janie Edmiston has been praying for. But the will stipulates Janie must work with her childhood friend—and crush—Drew Brenner, to get the camp running…or lose it all. The newly divorced mother and the widower aren’t looking for love, but sometimes it takes a child to show two broken hearts the way forward…together.
Since Jill is known for her Would you rather . . .? interviews, I decided to use…
