tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19999561190754628832024-02-07T14:23:01.287-08:00Eric R. JohnstonThe realm of fear, fantasy, and science fiction!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-65948020396981283792018-12-08T18:53:00.004-08:002018-12-08T18:53:41.978-08:00A Phenomenon in Children's LiteratureGoosebumps is well-known book series that launched during the summer of 1992, pioneered by R.L. Stine and his wife, Jane Waldhorn, a co-founder of Parachute Press. This was a series for kids, aged 8 to 12, of scary, but fun, stories, that resembled something of <i>The Twilight Zone</i> for kids, living ventriloquist dummy included (see below). <div>
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Each book had an amazing cover; relateable, yet thin, characters; and most had a twist ending or no real ending at all, which are the best kind of endings in my opinion.<br /><div>
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<img alt="Image result for welcome to dead house" 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" /> <img alt="Image result for the haunted mask" 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" /></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Each book had a unique cover illustrated by Tim Jacobus</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div>
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I remember the first time I saw W<i>elcome to Dead House, </i>the first Goosebumps book, in the Scholastic book order the fall of 1992. I just had to get it. My mom, I think, was beyond ecstatic that I found something I liked to read. While always a good reader, I was, admittedly, a bit reluctant. I read short books on the presidents, on animals, but nothing else unless I had to. I didn't realize, not until this cover grabbed me, that, for me, scary stories was where it was at. I bought the book, devoured it until it literally fell apart, then bought a new copy so I could devour that one as well. </div>
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And they all included the famous tag line on the bag--"Reader Beware, you're in for a scare. Coming soon [or "also available," depending on whether or not you have a first edition] from R.L. Stine: [the next book]." Then a preview of the next one was included, like a sneak peak.</div>
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Although Goosebumps is remembered today as a monthly book series, it wasn't monthly until the following spring, 1993, with the release of the seventh book in the series, <i>Night of the Living Dummy</i>. The first two books, <i>Welcome to Dead House </i>and <i>Stay Out of the Basement, </i>were released simultaneously in July of 1992, with <i>Monster Blood</i> following in September, <i>Say Cheese and Die! </i>in November, <i>The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb </i>in January, and <i>Let's Get Invisible!</i> in March.</div>
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In my experience, I assumed Goosebumps was going to be a four-book series, as I had <i>Monster Blood</i>, book three, which advertised the upcoming <i>Say Cheese and Die! </i>For some reason, I had a bit of a delay in picking up<i> Say Cheese and Die!</i>, and actually had trouble finding it, so I assumed the series died a silent death and there would only be the four books. But in March of 1993, my mom came home from the store with three books, S<i>ay Cheese and Die!, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb,</i> and <i>Let's Get Invisible! </i> I was beyond ecstatic. A mummy book! No way! Awesome! And not to mention that the back of <i>Let's Get Invisible! </i>advertised the upcoming <i>Night of the Living Dummy</i>. Just like in <i>The Twilight Zone, </i>which was a show I loved.</div>
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<img alt="Related image" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSoeiAJ24eCj_yUopjNU_oR7tGIHvbByZFexU7EIBxGleJpc72T" /><img alt="Image result for night of the living dummy" 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" 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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GVyCqUHYuY"><span style="color: red;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GVyCqUHYuY</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The concept of Slappy from Night of the Living Dummy bears a strong resemblance to The Twilight Zone episode "The Dummy."</span></div>
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So there were more books than I realized, and the series appeared to be alive and well. But then it became a monthly series. But why did it become monthly? Because kids just couldn't get enough of them! Which is funny because upon their initial release, <i>Welcome to Dead House </i>and <i>Stay Out of the Basement </i>existed only to take up shelf space. They didn't sell. No one, it seemed, was interested in children's literature. Kids read what their parents and teachers forced on them, and that was it. Children's literature, especially horror literature, was not a money maker.</div>
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That is until it was. For a reason R.L. Stine claims is a mystery, the books began flying off shelves (which could be why I had trouble finding <i>Say Cheese and Die!</i>). Kids discovered it and started telling other kids, thus proving that kid-driven interests could produce sales in the publishing industry, which would eventually lead Scholastic, a few years later, to take a chance on an unknown writer named J.K. Rowling and her <i>Harry Potter</i> series, a series that would likely have never seen a publishing contract without the doors Goosebumps opened. (On an ironic note, <i>Harry Potter </i>brought about its own changes in children's publishing that all but killed the Goosebumps series for a decade).</div>
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There is a vast history here worth exploring, with many new series under the name Goosebumps, in addition to the original 62 books, as well as the resurgence in recent years. Some of it is nostalgia, some a genuine renewed interest in fun, creepy stories. And with the movies, we're reminded just how fun these books were.</div>
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Well, that's it for now. Comment below with your experience with this series. </div>
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In my next post, next week, I will cover the first ten books of the original series, my impressions from childhood and my thoughts now, as well as some background on the author, starting with the fact that R.L. Stine, though known by some as the Stephen King of children's literature, started his writing career in comedy. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-44882386320903339982017-12-31T13:55:00.001-08:002017-12-31T13:55:34.956-08:00Year in Review: Novels in Progress and Books ReadMy reading list for this year is light. Normally I average between 60 and 80 books read in a year, but in 2017 I completed a mere 14. I was able to choose a couple favorites, one fiction and one non-fiction.<br />
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I did not complete a novel this year. I usually complete at least one book a year, but my 9-5 (actually my 4:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.) has kept me too busy this year from indulging in anything resembling a hobby or side job--sorry, fans, for not releasing anything in 2017. Not being able to write every day makes it nearly impossible to complete a novel because the narrative knife you're using to carve out your story becomes duller with each minute of inactivity.<br />
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READING<br />
This year my fiction pick goes to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I loved it; struck me as something I would write, which is always a plus in my book.. I know this novel is several years old, and I'm quite late jumping on the Peculiar Children bandwagon, but once I got there, I loved every minute.<br />
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On the non-fiction end, my favorite for the year is called The Devil in Dover, which dealt with the school board of Dover, Pennsylvania illegally replacing the district's science curriculum with religion. Once inevitably sued, all members of the school board lied in their depositions, which necessitated a trial where Judge John E. Jones III made the Dover school board look like the fools that they were.<br />
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WRITING<br />
I'm still slugging away at a few projects. My time these days for actually writing anything is quite limited, probably somewhere around two hours a month. With the new year, I am aiming to correct this severe imbalance in my writing versus work schedule. But as I noted above, I am working on a few projects.<br />
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First, the sequel to In the Pale Moonlight, working title "Moonlight 2." It's coming along, and will be the first of the group I finish.<br />
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Behind the Cold, which I am co-authoring with British novelist Serina Hartwell, is a unique spin on the vampire genre.<br />
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Then a novel I've been working on for several years under the working title "All I Want in Life." This is about a kid with a different perspective growing up in a world he doesn't understand.<br />
<br />
Next--man, I sure am writing a ton of things here. Finish something, already!--is a novel I was calling "The Cure" until I discovered another novelist had written a book dealing with a similar concept titled "The Cured." This a post-zombie apocalypse story. In other words, the zombies have all been neutralized and it's time to rebuild society.<br />
<br />
I'm also working on a book called Zyanya's Children, which is just a straight out horror blood fest. Can't wait until I can work on this one full time.<br />
<br />
And finally, I have an untitled novel complete in first draft. As is, it sucks. It's terrible. I hate it. This book defines the termed "shitty first draft." So my twin brother, who is a writer himself, is taking it over for rewrites--fresh set of eyes and all that.<br />
<br />
With any luck, 2018 will be a busy year in both reading and writing, and with a lot of luck, I'll be able to write novels full time.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-53677173433886169962017-08-05T15:47:00.001-07:002017-08-06T15:58:11.568-07:00The Dark TowerAfter years of failed attempts, a Dark Tower movie is here. For better or worse, we finally have a movie. Is it everything readers were hoping for?<br />
<br />
Before I dive into that, let me put this movie in context. Before a movie could even be developed, the daunting task of engaging a movie audience with something adapted from 22 novels (8 main series books and 14 tie-ins) totaling a minimum of 10,000 pages seemed an insurmountable hurdle. Many have called the Dark Tower "unadaptable" for this reason. There is just too much material to cover, and to grab an audience with the first movie of a potential long-running franchise, many of whom have never read a single Stephen King book and, therefore, wouldn't be familiar with any of the mythos that connects them, would be impossible (unless they, you know, just adapt a book at a time, you know, like they do with other book series with extensive and complex stories). How do you convince a movie goer to invest the interest, the emotion, really anything into a story that will require many hours of effort for the eventual pay off? One answer is to not even try. Take elements from these 22 novels, make an entirely new story out of it that requires only an hour and a half of the viewer's time, and call it a day. And that seems to be what they went with. Although, this approach plays into the story itself, and if marketed properly, could have really paid off among the fans.<br />
<br />
You see, part of the problem that lies with The Dark Tower is in the expectations it set for it's audience to know what they were doing while simultaneously advertising something else entirely. Inquisitive readers know this wasn't meant as an adaptation but rather a sequel to the series as a whole and, therefore, requires a familiarity with the books to really understand it. The marketing campaign completely missed this fact about the movie. A common complaint among the professional reviewers is they were unfamiliar with with the books so confusion abounded, and therefore, it's the movie's fault. Has it happened before in cinematic history that a sequel is blamed for confusing the viewer when said viewer is unfamiliar with what came before it? Although the question is rhetorical, I suspect the answer is no. And, in part, sums up the total weirdness of the project. Movies can be sequels or continuations of a TV series with no problems, and that happens all the time. A movie that is a sequel to a book series, though? Added into that a confusing ad campaign and a movie tie-in cover for the one book in the series that the movie is least based on? That's going to cause a lot of head scratching for those who are only slightly familiar with the material if at all or don't pay attention too closely on these type of things.<br />
<br />
How is The Dark Tower movie a sequel? Roland Deschain and his nemesis, The Crimson King (the Man in Black is merely a henchman of the Crimson King), are trapped in a time loop. Every time Roland defeats the Crimson King, reaches the Tower, and climbs to the room at the top, he is transported back in time and space to where the reader first meets him the the Mohaine Desert on the trail of the Man in Black. The movie is supposed to be the journey to the Tower following the book series and is purported to be the journey in which he finally breaks the cycle. Roland is completely unaware he's made repeated trips to the Tower, but the Crimson King knows he's imprisoned by it, thus his desire to destroy it.<br />
<br />
As a combination sequel and loose adaptation, I think The Dark Tower succeeds, but as it was marketed as a direct adaptation of the Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger, it fails. That's almost like putting out Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them under the title Harry Potter (no subtitle) and claiming it's based on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. As far as The Dark Tower can be called an adaptation, it's best described as an all-new tale that takes elements (the barest of elements) from The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger, The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, The Dark Tower V: The Wolves of the Calla, The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, Black House, Hearts in Atlantis: Low Men in Yellow Coats, among others.<br />
<br />
The movie, although an enjoyable summer movie, cannot succeed without audience buy-in, and the failed, confusing marketing has all but shot dead any chance of that.<br />
<br />
Let me know what you think below.<br />
<br />
As an additional note, and to set up the next few topics for this blog, I've listed below all the books officially considered entries in The Dark Tower series. They are listed in order of publication.<br />
<br />
'Salem's Lot<br />
The Stand<br />
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger<br />
The Talisman<br />
Skeleton Crew<br />
It<br />
The Eyes of the Dragon<br />
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three<br />
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands<br />
Insomnia<br />
Rose Madder<br />
Desperation<br />
The Regulators<br />
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass<br />
Bag of Bones<br />
Hearts in Atlantis<br />
Black House<br />
From a Buick 8<br />
Everything's Eventual<br />
The Dark Tower V: The Wolves of the Calla<br />
The Dark Tower VI: The Song of Susannah<br />
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-8185224056722834972016-07-03T08:24:00.000-07:002016-07-03T08:26:21.704-07:00A Rant on Serial CommasTo my parents, Ayn Rand and God.<br />
We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin.<br />
<br />
What do these two statements have in common? They don't mean what they say and don't say what they mean because they are both missing an essential comma.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
The meaning here, of course, is clear--that Ayn Rand and God are the parents to whom the dedication is written, and JFK and Stalin are the invited strippers. Yet, it's not that simple. In fact the dedication is meant for three different entities--parents, Ayn Rand, and God. And, no, JFK and Stalin are not strippers; they were invited in addition to strippers.<br />
<br />
So what happened? How can there be such a clear discrepancy between what is written and the intended meaning?<br />
<br />
Punctuation. More specifically a comma--the serial comma, the Oxford Comma, the Harvard Comma, etc. Just adding another comma after JFK or Ayn Rand makes the difference between one referent and three distinct entities.<br />
<br />
It's so clear, so obvious but what complicates matters is different forms of writing utilize different writing guides, while different countries tend to have different standards. In the United States, the standard for most forms of formal writing is to include the serial comma. With that said, a major American Style Guide--The Associated Press Manual of Style--forbids the use of this last comma unless you have a construction where two or more separate items in the list are combined with "and" or "or." So an example, according to AP, you would use the final comma in this construction, "My family brought over games, pizza and breadsticks, and fireworks," but not in this one, "My family brought over games, food and fireworks." This exception to AP's rule is so problematic for reasons I will discuss below that they need to abolish their prohibition on the serial comma.<br />
<br />
Before I do that, however, I need to be upfront. I've always been taught--from my earliest years--that the final comma in a series is required, never once hearing even a hint from any educator throughout my primary, secondary, and post-secondary years that this comma could ever be considered optional under any circumstances outside of newspaper articles (AP Style) that cut all the essentials to save space.<br />
<br />
When I started editing novels a few years ago, I noticed that many writers tended to leave out the serial comma when writing their books. This, I must admit, baffled me. And it still does. Why were they adopting newspaper rules for their novels? Why were Americans adopted British, Austrailian, and Canadian rules when submitting to an American publisher? Where did this trend come from? When did it start? And why does it seem to be so prevalent among amateur writers?<br />
<br />
I don't have an answer for these questions, but we can take a step back and ask, where did this serial comma come from in this first place? When was its use first recommended? The serial comma has been in use for a while, first included in a style guide by some guy named Collins in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Generally speaking, that's how "rules" happen. Some guy (historically a guy anyway) says it's so, writes it down, and--<i>viola!</i>--the commandment is set in stone!<br />
<br />
The rule goes something like this. Say you describe the American flag's colors. Is it red, white, and blue? Or red, white and blue. Collins argued these two phrases mean entirely different things. "Red, white, and blue" indicates that the flag has red, it has white, and it has blue. Each color is enumerated separately, so they are separate colors--red, white, and blue. "Red, white and blue," on the other hand, means the flag is red with a white and blue mix accompanying it--say a light blue--which is indicated by the fact that white and blue are not enumerated as separate entities in the list. They are not equal to the red individually, but only together.<br />
<br />
Yet, when it comes to grammar, nothing is set in stone, nothing is agreed upon forever, and everything is dynamic. That's the way it is; that's the way it should be. Language evolves, language changes, and how we express that change must be reflected in our writing. So is there something worthwhile to this trend to eliminate what has been for a hundred years considered required punctuation?<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, there just isn't. Not that I can see anyway. The "red, white and blue" example above is a clear reason, but let's revisit the original examples for a moment. To my parents, Ayn Rand and God. We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin. These are meant to be lists, yet because of the missing comma, they are appositions. "JFK and Stalin" is a noun phrase that refers to "strippers." "Ayn Rand and God" is a noun phrase that refers to "my parents." That is the way it is written, and that is the way it is read, so any reader would have no reason to think otherwise. If the reader meant something else--such as three entities instead of one--there is an error on the author's part that s/he would need to correct.<br />
<br />
AP's exception to their rule is problematic. In the event that it clarifies meaning, you should use the comma (specifically when "and" or "or" play other roles in the list in addition to signifying the end). This standard, however, makes little sense because it creates more problems than it solves. It creates an inconsistency in what lists look like. The way you create a list should be the same throughout a piece of work. Not changed willy-nilly to resolve problems caused by omitting a necessary punctuation mark. Since there has never--that I have found--been a compelling or worthwhile reason put forth to cut serial commas, I argue the best approach is to stop this madness and go with what makes sense, which is to include every comma in a series.<br />
<br />
To conclude this rant, I'll say I'm willing to examine my views on everything grammar, not only as a writer but as a reader, and I have, but my study of this topic only reinforces my lifelong view that all the commas in a series--including the serial comma--are essential. I'm all for cutting commas that can make writing seem cluttered or choppy, but I would argue--strongly--that the serial comma <i>is the one comma </i><i>that should never be cut under any circumstances </i>provided the series construction requires any commas at all.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-50051581150083424142015-11-11T10:14:00.001-08:002017-01-20T16:09:21.540-08:00License to Kill: Genre Conventions and 007I am probably the only person in history who has never seen a James Bond movie or read one of the books. James Bond is ubiquitous in our culture, yet I have somehow managed to avoid it. Of course, I've viewed the Austin Powers movies with delight, but that was because I thought they were funny, not because the genre<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span>and it does seem to be a genre unto itself<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span>did anything for me.<br />
<br />
I mention this because I took to my Facebook page to ask for input into my next blog. The idea was to get a taste of what people might request of a writer if given the chance. One response I got was James Bond fan fiction. It really got me thinking about conventions of genre and how if I were to write a James Bond-esque story, there would be next to no way I would get it right. But then I thought, why? Why would my story have to be anything like what it's supposed to be based on? Why do I have to copy what came before?<br />
<br />
As I was thinking about this, I came across one of those internet cheat sheets on writing. It contained some useful information about things to look for while you are revising, but one thing struck me and I thought I should say something about it. The sheet advised you make sure you have followed your genre's conventions.<br />
<br />
I have a hard time describing the genre of my novels, usually saying fantasy, horror, sci-fi, with a dash of romance and thriller. That's because, as useful as the strict conventions of genre are to some writers and readers, I personally find them next to useless. Genre, to me, is a starting point. After you let loose and let the words fly, you should let it take you where it wants to go, no restrictions, no strings attached, no commitments, no labels.<br />
<br />
So, if I were to write James Bond fan fiction, even as just a mimicry of the genre, I would write with a license to kill the genre's conventions. That's the only way I care do it, and it is the only way I will do it.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-4600153645591524592015-11-08T12:26:00.001-08:002017-01-20T16:16:51.202-08:00Writing Well Through IntuitionIn Stephen King's book <i>On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, </i>he states, "Fiction writers...don't understand very much about what they do<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span>not why it works when it's good, not why it doesn't when it's bad." This isn't to say writers are ignorant of their craft or don't know good/bad writing when they see it. Far from it. It simply means that a writer's skills cannot be enumerated into a set of prescriptive rules, principles, etc. Bad writing can't be corrected by a cheat sheet or a writing class. Writing is an intuitive skill that you either have or you don't.<br />
<br />
That isn't to say that someone can't learn to write well, but writing well isn't about memorizing by rote the aspects of good writing or having a cheat sheet nearby, just as having a thesaurus handy doesn't give someone a large vocabulary. And like those who overindulge in a thesaurus, you can tell the difference between the truly gifted and those relying on a crutch.<br />
<br />
So how do you internalize the aspects of good writing that will improve your own writing? In other words, how do you get to the point where intuition is all you need?<br />
<br />
Read, and read a lot.<br />
<br />
When you read regularly, you pick up on what makes good and bad writing. You'll learn about voice; organization; plot; story; character; you increase your vocabulary; learn punctuation; and, most importantly, you learn to distinguish between worthwhile advice and pure bunk--because it will be offered to you whether you want it or not. Intuiting what makes writing great<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span>even if you can't <i>explain </i>it<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span>is far more effective than rote memorization of the facts of why it works or doesn't work.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, this intuitive aspect of writing is often overlooked in our education system. Everything needs an explanation, everything needs a prescriptive rule, everything needs a reason. Which is fine, <i>but </i>I think these things are elevated to undeserved heights.<br />
<br />
The problem with prescriptive rules is most of them fall into one of three categories: First, they can and should often be broken (no, you should <i>only </i>write in complete sentences); second, they are only taught in order to prevent students (inexperienced writers by definition) from falling into common pitfalls but are otherwise made-up bunk (the world will not end if you begin a sentence with <i>and. </i>In fact, sometimes you have to!); third, they are just pure useless, made-up garbage that is not based on anything (if someone tells me you can't end a sentence with a preposition one more time!!!)<br />
<br />
Good writing has a variety of sentence structures. Sentence lengths. Sentence fragments are a perfect way of providing a pacing cue for the reader. Well-written action scenes tend to mix in sentence fragments, and so does well-written dialogue. No one speaks in complete sentences all the time. Besides, bending grammatical rules helps you give a distinctive voice to your narrative, especially if you are writing in the first-person.<br />
<br />
Students are often taught never begin a sentence with the word "and." And I know exactly why, although this is a bogus rule. But ("but" falls into the same category) I know why they are taught this. Starting a sentence with a conjunction can be tricky business and should only be done by professionals. Nah, I kid. In fact, this is what a good writer says. If the sentence structure causes confusion that can be alleviated by just creating a new sentence, go for it. It's perfectly fine. In this case, clarity is king. Really, in <i>all </i>cases, clarity is king.<br />
<br />
Students are also sometimes taught never to begin a sentence with "because." Because this bogus rule is so common, I feel I need to destroy it here. Does anyone object to the second sentence of this paragraph? I didn't think so. Students are taught this in order to avoid the dreaded incomplete answer. "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Because he had a death wish? No, no, no. Write, "The chicken crossed the road because he had a death wish." Write a complete sentence! (This is my interpretation of "the other side" the chicken is supposedly trying to get to).<br />
<br />
The Made-up Rules: And, finally, the made-up rules.... I gave the example above concerning the prohibition on sentence-ending prepositions, which is just a piece of garbage some guy with bug up his ass made up as he attempted to make English more like Latin. And people just repeated it. He made it up.<br />
<br />
But I want to address another item that we often repeat and never think about. The paragraph, something we are taught is a clearly defined group of sentences that include a topic sentence and three to five supporting sentences.<br />
<br />
I'd hate to go against my teacher brethren on this, but that definition of a paragraph is pure crap. Writing like this is dry, formulaic, and boring. In other words, it's not natural and I don't like it.<br />
<br />
But wait a minute, isn't this definition of a paragraph useful though? For the most part, I've stuck to the basic premise of that idea of a paragraph throughout this blog. But that's the point. The basic premise of the idea is <i>useful</i>, but a paragraph is not <i>only </i>a topic sentence followed by several supporting sentences. Although I categorized this definition of a paragraph as made-up bunk, it can also fall into the category of useful but not necessarily true rules that keep students (or other inexperienced writers) from falling into certain traps.<br />
<br />
A well-written paragraph can look like anything. From one sentence--hell, it can even be a single word--to many sentences.<br />
<br />
But none of this negates the fact that there is nothing in the English language that says writing needs to be broken up into paragraphs at all.<br />
<br />
So then why do we chunk our sentences into groups called paragraphs?<br />
<br />
To help the reader. Nothing more, nothing less. And how to appropriately divide those groups is another example of the intuitive writing. There is no prescriptive rule that can teach you more than intuition. I recently heard about an experiment where several highly skilled writers were each given the same written passage that had all of its paragraph breaks removed. They were to break the passage up into paragraphs on their own. Hopefully, I've primed you well enough for you to know already that each writer inserted paragraph breaks in different places. Which should prove to you that paragraph breaks are largely arbitrary.<br />
<br />
I saw a chart online yesterday that detailed when to change paragraphs when writing fiction. It seemed useful, but, as I said before, rote memorization and cheat sheets can only get you so far without a good intuitive sense. When a new character speaks, when a new idea is introduced, when time passes, etc. are all there, but none of these should be followed 100% of the time. Why? Because depending on the context in which any of these fall, it may be better to keep the same paragraph or two break up paragraphs in ways that might contradict these rules.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
For example, I could write a scene where a character wakes in a hospital and is hearing all kinds of voices spoken by different people: "Eric opened his eyes but saw nothing but stark blackness. 'He's awake,' a deep voice said. 'Someone get the doctor'--a woman. 'Eric! Eric! Can you hear me?!' someone else-- was it his wife? A roar of other voices rose: Eric! Hey! Can you hear us! Please don't leave me!" This is a perfect example of not switching paragraphs with multiple speaks. And it is perfectly fine because of the effect it creates.<br />
<br />
I hope I've convinced you that memorizing prescriptive rules is not enough. There are too many instances where they are either completely wrong or do not apply to every circumstance. To write well, you are best served to arm yourself with a good intuitive sense of what makes good writing, and you do this by reading. Reading a lot. Reading every chance you get.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-62980131961349188152015-08-30T09:17:00.000-07:002017-02-09T07:40:33.740-08:00Why Do I Write?<div class="m-2365364025691690556gmail-msonormalCxSpFirst" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222;">I asked my
youngest daughter today if she was going to be a writer like me. She looked up
at me with the beautiful round eyes and a smile, so I knew what she was going
to say even before it came out her mouth: "Nooooooo!" Then she
laughed as if it was the most ridiculous question I could've asked. Maybe
asking a three-year-old her aspirations for the future is a little silly, if
not premature, but it got me thinking about just why I write.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="m-2365364025691690556gmail-msonormalCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222;">Of course,
I can't speak for them. We all have our reasons. Some of the fortunate do it
because that's how they earn their living. For others, it's something they like
to do in their spare time or retirement. And I would guess many are hoping to
hit the big time, to be the next Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, or James
Patterson.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="m-2365364025691690556gmail-msonormalCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222;">I work at a
middle school, and I don't often talk about my writing with the students. I
have only one novel out of six that I feel is really appropriate for the age
group. Plus, I don't want to create the impression I am using my position to
promote my writing sales. But several kids found out I’m and author, and one
came up to me and said, "Mr. Johnston, why don't you tell everyone who
you <i>really </i>are?" My confused look must have given away
the fact that I had no idea what he was talking about, so he went on, "I
know you're rich and you only teach here as research for your next book."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="m-2365364025691690556gmail-msonormalCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222;">And I
thought I had the active imagination!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="m-2365364025691690556gmail-msonormalCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222;">The
stereotype of the rich writer that only works a day job as research for his/her
next novel is a pleasant enough one, but it isn't true—I would imagine—in most
cases. Few writers make enough to live exclusively on their art, but that is
the nature of working in the arts, and that's okay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="m-2365364025691690556gmail-msonormalCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222;">So what is
my real motivation to write? Is it the feeling of accomplishment? That moment
when I am holding a book I wrote in your hands, shuffling through the pages,
reading random pieces of prose that are so brilliant there is no way I could
have written them—except I did! Or, is my motivation one where I know if I keep
at it, my hard work will pay off financially?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="m-2365364025691690556gmail-msonormalCxSpLast" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #222222;">Or perhaps there
is another option: my love of reading. When I have an interest in reading a
book that doesn’t exist, it’s on me to write it—and it’s a burden I will gladly
shoulder every time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-42924338835356837132014-12-13T18:06:00.002-08:002017-01-20T16:42:24.077-08:00Revival by Stephen King: A Terrible Sermon<br />
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I finished <i>Revival</i> last weekend and have thought about it since then, playing it over in my mind, trying to figure out where it went wrong. The novel is narrated by Jamie Morton (an unsympathetic heroin addict and guitar player in every cover band in the state of Maine from the 1970s until now), who was telling the story of his former pastor's fall from grace. Although the story is ostensibly about the pastor, Charlie Jacobs, we see very little of him, as the story takes place over a five-decade period in which Morton sees him for only the briefest of intervals. The story is really about Morton's self-indulgence, and, let's just say it, how he is a complete loser, lacking in anything resembling a redeeming quality. All because of Jacobs and the "Terrible Sermon."<br />
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There are spoilers ahead. That is the only warning I am giving, so if I haven't yet convinced you the novel isn't worth reading, you may want to stop.<br />
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Jacobs and Morton form a tight bond as soon as they meet. Jacobs is a little quirky, having a strange obsession with electricity, but nothing too bad. That is until he loses his wife and son in a horrible traffic accident. That's when he turns away from religion and delivers what becomes known in town as the "Terrible Sermon."<br />
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This plot point is where the book really begins to unravel for me. Jacobs, a person of great faith, turns away from God due to a horrible circumstance in his life. The cliche alarm is going off. This just didn't sit right with me. Yes, the loss of his child and wife is tragic, but this motivation is not a compelling one. It's cliche, and, frankly, it is an egregious simplification of how real people go about belief and non-belief and how they may at points in their lives drift from one view to another. But more than that, the way Jacobs goes about declaring his break with faith is, to me, not well done at all.<br />
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The "Terrible Sermon" isn't really that terrible. Jacobs likens religion to an insurance scheme, where you pay your premiums every month, but when you need to use it, you discover the insurance company doesn't even exist. Sure, maybe something like that would lead to a reprimand, a firing, or perhaps even get you run out of town with pitch forks and torches, but this "Terrible Sermon" destroys the religion of the community, as they never replaced Jacobs, and service attendance drops to literally nothing in the next few decades, leaving behind nothing but a boarded-up church. I don't think I need to say the worst thing about the "Terrible Sermon" is how the reader has to suspend disbelief quite a bit to accept that it was as "terrible" as King wants us to believe.<br />
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Jacobs comes off as a simpleton, yet we find out, based on what he is able to achieve with his electricity experiments later, he is far from a simpleton. It is clear he was never able to get over the loss of his family, which motivates his experiments with electricity. This motivation, the electricity, what exactly he is trying to do, all of it would have made for a far more compelling case for losing his faith. And, a "Terrible Sermon" that reveals what exactly he is doing and the "truths" he is hoping to uncover would have been a far more terrible "Terrible Sermon."<br />
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Heck, another spoiler warning for you. Here is the ending and what this whole shin-dig is about, along with an account of what I would've done differently.<br />
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Charlie Jacobs is trying to find out what's on the "other side." He devises an experiment with electricity, which he believes will bring a recently deceased person back to life long enough to describe the afterlife. He succeeds (sort of), but also gets a glimpse, as does Jamie, of this afterlife, which is far worse than the heaven he was envisioning. The afterlife resembles a dark, destroyed city inhabited by large ant creatures that enslave humanity for eternity. Imagine if this was his impetus for leaving his faith, such as "Do you guys really know what we are worshiping?! Ant creatures that just wait for us to die and enslave our souls!" Now, that's what I would call a "Terrible Sermon"!<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-74082449078547787662014-05-31T10:13:00.001-07:002017-01-20T16:22:01.140-08:00Harvester: Ascension, Revision and BackstoryThis June will see the official relaunch of <i><span style="color: red;">Harvester: Ascension</span></i>, a novel I have rewritten over the past six months.<br />
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The original version of this story was written between October of 2009 and August of 2010, with most of the writing completed in July of 2010. When it found its home with a publisher, I couldn't be happier, but much of the original message and intent were lost through the editing process, as the original editor on this piece had an entirely different vision than I of what it should be. This left me ultimately unhappy with that edition. It didn't at all resemble what I had wanted, so when the contract expired, I decided to rewrite it from scratch, and republish it under my own brand<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span>Darkness Press.<br />
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Ultimately, <i><span style="color: red;">Harvester: Ascension</span></i> is a battle between a jealous and petty "god" and a loving one. Taking elements from our cultural mythology, including stories from both the Old and New Testaments, I portrayed one being, the villain, as more akin to the God of the Old Testament<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span>with destruction of places and people, concerned more about being worshiped than forgiveness and love; while the protagonist is the God of the New Testament, the God of love who sacrifices Himself for His people--of course, this "god" in the novel is female. Before I get hammered too heavily on this point, I should point out that I have taken quite a few liberties in order to tell my story, so this portrayal is not intended to be 100% true to the source material, but more of an approximation.<br />
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The backstory in <i><span style="color: red;">Harvester: Ascension</span></i> is often referenced but never fully explored. This is because it is a story that will be told in the sequel, which I am now calling<i> Harvester 2: The Creation</i>. The Father, which is to represent the Highest Power, is the creator of the universe, but soon afterwards assigns his children--the two named in <i><span style="color: red;">Harvester: Ascension</span></i> are Torqa and Moria, but there are more than these two--to be guardians over the planets that are destined to bear life. One of the Father's commandments is to never allow themselves to be worshiped. Moria is the guardian of Earth, a goddess who sometimes refers to herself as Gaia, while Torqa is the guardian of a distant world known as Oraplax.<br />
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The inhabitants of Oraplax, a species called the Q'Thiel, were a war-torn, yet proud people, who eventually came together to solve their energy crises by building what they called The Harvester, which was a huge--about the size of the moon--orbiting station that collected energy directly from their sun, which they called Alsar. This Harvester was able to collect the radiation like a super solar panel, as well as being able to collect actual material from the star. What the Q'Thiel didn't intend was to infuse the mind of the machine with Torqa, their guardian, whose existence had only been known as a part of long-ago myth.<br />
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Over the next few centuries, many of the Q'Thiel forgot they themselves had built the large orbiting station and began worshiping it as a god. Torqa loved this worship, despite the Father's orders not to allow this to happen, and demanded more, eventually forcing the Q'Thiel into submission. Meanwhile, the scientists that worked aboard the Harvester knew exactly what it was, yet were surprised that it had somehow developed sentience, not realizing that the mind was infused with their planet's guardian. Fearing the mind was unstable, and the danger that posed, the scientists encoded the genetic information of all Oraplaxian species and stored them on the Harvester, creating a kind of Noah's Ark, which, later, Torqa aimed to take full advantage of to reintroduce the Q'Thiel race.<br />
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Eventually, Torqa grew tired and jealous of the Q'Thiel and used the Harvester's powers to destroy the entire solar system, which was an event it soon came to regret. When it found Earth untold eons later, it claimed Earth for it's own, choosing to eradicate all life on the planet and replace it with that from Oraplax.<br />
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This dichotomy of gods--what seems to be two different gods within the Judeo-Christian tradition--is something that has always interested me. I'm satisfied with this new version of the novel, and I am looking forward to completing the sequel.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-11644419284467317972013-11-20T18:05:00.003-08:002013-11-20T18:05:54.646-08:00End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by James SwansonLast week I spoke a bit about new angles, featuring two books I had recently read that attempted to make something new out of something old. This week, I will be hitting on the same idea, but, unlike last week, this week's book, <em>End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy</em> by James Swanson, doesn't quite succeed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOfbgXnMvLTGMR9X6uriyimdMvo_ztxLxhyphenhyphenLfQTckRxQ3_nnVNyJbSdIZ1Ya-FeS0LQYkyg-6gT4ihtLmK2q03cFnm_iRAWQKPYfiXLA2zcBDHNn6HktOfVtaamYVOXI7N1KzH6oxtC0h/s1600/817PhzDvCaL__SL1500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOfbgXnMvLTGMR9X6uriyimdMvo_ztxLxhyphenhyphenLfQTckRxQ3_nnVNyJbSdIZ1Ya-FeS0LQYkyg-6gT4ihtLmK2q03cFnm_iRAWQKPYfiXLA2zcBDHNn6HktOfVtaamYVOXI7N1KzH6oxtC0h/s320/817PhzDvCaL__SL1500_.jpg" width="213" /></a>This week marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most horrific events in American history, the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. I was born in 1982, 19 years after the assassination, so growing up, this was the singular event that "grown-ups" would talk about. What they were doing when they found out. My father, for instance, was in school--Kindergarten or first grade--and his teacher came in the room crying and informed the class what had just happened. Others have similar stories.<br />
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As we all know, conspiracy theories abound when it comes to the JFK assassination, although all the evidence points to the fact it happened in only one way--that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy and he acted alone. You can forgive the people in the days and weeks afterward for suspecting a conspiracy, because all the facts weren't commonly known, and the technology was relatively limited. The Warren Commission, whose findings have been sustained through many subsequent investigations, and whose central findings--Oswald did it and he acted alone--have been supported by all available evidence and all reexaminations of evidence using modern technology. So, I think it is safe to say unequivocally, Oswald did it and he acted alone in the same or simile scenario as described in the Warren Commission report. They got it right.<br />
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James Swanson, author of <em>Manhunt: The 12-day Chase for John Wilkes Booth, </em>has authored a book that is intended to tell the story of the events as they really happened, as almost a response to the conspiracy theorists. There is a problem with this approach. A few years back, in 2007, Vincent Bugliosi, who served as the prosecuting attorney in the televised mock trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (a trial which was conducted in 1986 as if it were a real trial with the real witnesses, real evidence, real law enforcement, real judges, a real jury, etc. etc. etc. and Oswald was found guilty...and the jury was asked to also consider the question of whether or not Oswald acted alone. They determined that he had) published a book called <em>Reclaiming History: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy, </em>which really is the last word on the official story. It is divided into two parts--Part 1 is titled "What Happened" while Part 2 is titled "What Didn't Happen." You can imagine part one deals with the facts, while part 2 rips apart all the conspiracy theories.<br />
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The first chapter of Part 1, titled "4 Days in November" creates a problem for James Swanson's attempt. This depiction is so detailed and so readable, as well as heavily sourced, there doesn't need to be another accounting of the events in themselves...because, overall, this is a fairly simple, open and shut case.<br />
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Vincent Bugliosi, in several interviews promoting his magnum opus<em>,</em> said of the JFK assassination: "...at its core, this is a very simple case, and remains a simple case to this very day. Within hours of the shooting in Dealey Plaza, virtually all of Dallas law enforcement knew that Oswald had killed Kennedy, and when they found out what an incredible kook he was, that he had acted alone." He goes on to say that it is the conspiracy literature that has made this a complex case, but not one of the conspiracy allegations are founded upon any evidence. This creates a problem for writers like James Swanson who want to tell the real story but, because this was a simple, quickly solved case often erroneously treated as a mystery, it is difficult to come up with a new way of telling it.<br />
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In my capstone history course at the University of Michigan, the first thing my advisor asked me about was how my paper, my research, my writing could uncover something new, or be a needed addition to the literature on the topic. This is a concept that is required of all writers of history.<br />
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Swanson makes what seems to me a couple of half-hearted attempts at a new angle, but ultimately falls back to the essentially simple and familiar story of a crazy communist with a rifle and delusions of grandeur taking aim at the president's motorcade as it passed his place of employment.<br />
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The first chapter shows Oswald attempting to take the life of right-wing extremist, retired general Edwin Walker. Swanson told this story as if it were a chapter in a novel. A novel featuring Oswald as the main character. To me, if he had kept with this approach, it would have been fresh, something a bit different, something to make it different enough from Bugliosi's work as to not be crushed by it. Unfortunately, he leaves this approach behind and makes it into a standard history of the events, that was well told, but not nearly as well done as Bugliosi. <br />
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The final chapter we see the events post-funeral from Jackie's perspective. This made me think that I would have liked to see more of that. Maybe the whole history of the event from Jackie's perspective, not just bits and pieces. Make this a kind of novelization, but from the perspective of Jackie Kennedy. That would have been fresh as well.<br />
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No, we see just these unique flourishes that read like they were put in there just to be able to say the book is different enough to warrant publication. Instead of making it different, however, it makes obvious the glaring problem with the book--it is just a rehash of what has come before and what has been done better.<br />
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As stated above, <em>End of Days </em>is ultimately a "response" book. Meaning it was written in response to the multitude of conspiracy theories out there. Sometimes I feel like historians and others who evaluate facts objectively feel compelled to write these books to say, "No, this is the way it happened" as a counter to the conspiracy-related garbage that's out there. At this point, I would advise that the conspiracy community should be ignored. Responding to them, even acknowledging the conspiracy theories, gives them a credibility they do not deserve.<br />
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So, is this a must-read? I would say it is a good, informative read, but I would instead recommend Vincent Bugliosi's work as the must-read account on JFK's assassination.. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-22743151881821873172013-11-15T15:21:00.003-08:002017-01-20T16:29:19.126-08:00Looking for New Angles; Featuring Revolutionary Summer and Bloody CrimesThis week, I will be discussing the idea of using two or more unrelated topics/ideas to tell familiar stories in new ways or to develop original stories. I studied both American History and American Literature at the University of Michigan, two fields I find complimentary of each other. The true stories we tell<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">—</span>the histories<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">—</span>need to, in my opinion, follow the same rules as a novel. You need character, conflict, story, and a new, original angle.<br />
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Two books I will discuss briefly and endorse, both of which are history and present their otherwise familiar stories in new way are <em>Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence </em>by Joseph J. Ellis, and <em>Bloody Crimes: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Chase for Jefferson Davis</em> by James L. Swanson.<br />
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While <em>Revolutionary Summer </em>is Joseph Ellis's latest release, published this past June, <em>Bloody Crimes </em>has been out for a couple of years, published in 2011, but I wanted to include it in a discussion with <em>Revolutionary Summer </em>because they do something similar, which is pertinent to this discussion, and, ironically, that is what makes them both unique.<br />
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<em>Revolutionary Summer's </em>claim to relevance is that it takes what is happening on the battlefield and what is happening in congress during the summer of 1776 and combines them into one story, where what is happening on the battlefield is directly influenced by what is happening in congress and vice versa. Joseph Ellis contends--and I have no reason to doubt this based on my own review of the literature--that the war and the politics, what happened on the battlefield and what happened in congress, are often related as completely separate events, seemingly having nothing to do with each other. Ellis argues this approach misses the mark.<br />
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One specific example is the devastating Battle of New York, in which the Continental Army was almost completely wiped out. It was only because of William Howe's (the commander in chief of the British forces) desire to receive an American surrender rather than destroying the American army completed was George Washington able to find an opportunity to escape. This devastating battle, and Howe's motivations, led to Howe attempting to negotiate (whether he had the authority to or not is debatable) a peace settlement with no further bloodshed (on the battlefield anyway), with honor intact. These "negotiations" were discussed in congress and a delegation was sent to more or less tell Howe to go to hell (of course, that is an oversimplification of what happened, but for our purposes here, it's close enough).<br />
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In other words, events on the battlefield affected events in congress. These are two parts of the same story that only makes sense told as one.<br />
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Likewise, with <em>Bloody Crimes, </em>which starts with the fall of Richmond, the Confederate capital, with Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America, on the run. This is April 1, 1865, near the end of the Civil War. Then on April 15, with the death of Abraham Lincoln, we see the autopsy, funeral arrangements, the death pageant, which involved Lincoln's decomposing body traveling the route he took in 1861, only in reverse, on his journey from Springfield to Washington, DC. He would be heading home to where he would be entombed in Springfield. Also on this journey was his son Willie, who had died in 1862. They would be entombed together.<br />
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Lincoln's death, coinciding with the fall of the confederacy, put Davis and the South in a bad position. The South specifically because the new president Andrew Johnson would be far less lenient, compassionate to the traitors than Lincoln promised to be. And, more pertinent to our story here, although Jefferson Davis had nothing to do with Lincoln's death, no one knew that for sure at the time, and in fact were convinced he ordered the assassination, which put a price on his head. Lincoln had implied that he didn't care if Jefferson Davis was ever caught as he fled the confederate capital...but after Lincoln's murder, and the possibility that Davis was involved, there was a strong desire not only to catch him, but to see him hang.<br />
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These two books got me thinking about my own approach to storytelling. Authors are often asked where they get their ideas. For me, a simple answer would be "a brief moment of inspiration combined with a lot of thought." A more complex answer would explain what I mean by "a brief moment of inspiration." My novels--from <em>Harvester: Ascension </em>to <em>An Inner Darkness, 9111 Sharp Road, </em><em>Children of Time, </em>and my current work-in-progress<em> All I Want in Life... </em>were conceived in a moment where, in a moment of clarity, I saw the before unseen connection between two or more unrelated ideas.<br />
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<em>Harvester: Ascension </em>was born out of two ideas.... The rise of the Tea Party as a result of the American people's rejection of the conservative agenda in the 2008 election. The Tea Party, for those unfamiliar, is a political off-shoot of the most conservative wing of the Republican Party that believes all economic regulation is bad, but all in-the-bedroom regulation is good. In other words, anarchy in the streets, but heavy regulations in your pants.<br />
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With a modern-day anarchist group trying to hammer away at our nation's guarantees, we see grid-lock that has never been seen before. Although I developed the story for <em>Harvester: Ascension </em>in 2009, I think recent events are relevant because they played out just as was predicted. We recently saw a government shutdown, caused, championed, and hosted by one of these congressional Tea Party members, a man by the name of Ted Cruz, who abused his power in congress to bring the government to its knees, attempting to destroy it from the inside if he didn't get his way.<br />
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<em>Harvester: Ascension </em>largely deals with a possibility of a situation like this but combined with a more traditional alien invasion story. In a way, <em>Independence Day </em>meets the Tea Party. In <em>Harvester: Ascension </em>we see Speaker of the House Cameron McDonald all but take over the U.S. government during a crisis.<br />
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<em>An Inner Darkness </em>and its sequel <em>A Light in the Dark </em>dealt with a combined idea of tradition vs independent thought and good vs evil, in which neither were clearly defined. The tradition was, paradoxically, independent thought, but the recent life had become more conservative, while the villain is all but rejected by his followers because they don't believe him to be as truly evil as he should be or as they are.<br />
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I suppose through all of this, through the discussion of a couple of historical narratives, a discussion of my own novels, and other thoughts, I want to say that it really is hard to find a truly novel idea on its own. American independence has been chronicled countless times, as well as Lincoln's death and Jefferson Davis's life. The novelty comes in the execution and the way you think about it and what ideas work together to create something new out of something old. So take from that what you will. <br />
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Until next week...when I will discussion James L. Swanson's latest release, among other things.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-30602983968021398202013-11-11T16:02:00.003-08:002017-01-20T16:53:25.067-08:00Doctor Sleep: Psychic Children and the Dark Tower series<em>Doctor Sleep</em>, the unexpected (until Stephen King announced plans in 2009 to write it, anyway) sequel to <em>The Shining</em>. It became one of the most highly anticipated books of the year, especially after it's 8 or 9 month delay. So does it meet the expectations?<br />
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Now, I could state the obvious and mention how writing a sequel to a beloved masterpiece is walking a thin line between danger and insanity, but that has been noted by too many bloggers and reviewers to count. I could say there is no way he could top what he accomplished with his story about a haunted hotel, about the struggles involving alcoholism, about being a child who is much too bright and too inquisitive for his years, and a woman who desperately wants to save her family from a ticking time bomb of a husband. The Overlook Hotel so adequately served to give the characters the isolation they needed to face their demons and, in the case of Jack Torrance, be destroyed by them. <em>The Shining</em> was far from a perfect novel. Most notably, for me anyway, were the pacing issues, but it got the job done, and there has been nothing but nostalgia growing over this work in the past 30-some years since its publication, combined with many fans conflating scenes from the Stanley Kubrick movie with the book, scenes that became iconic in their own right. For example, "Heeeeerrrrreeeee'ssssssss Johnny!" is the movie, not the book. Jack swinging an ax around is the movie, not the book; in the book Jack has a roque mallet. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is the movie, not the book. The hedge maze is the movie, not the book; the book features moving topiary animals. Jack freezing to death and shown as being part of the hotel history is the movie, not the book. In the book the hotel burns to the ground, Jack along with it.<br />
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So, Stephen King wrote a sequel to a book that has grown in our collective consciousness into something that it never was, so the curious thing is how could its sequel possibly live up to expectations?<br />
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I've been a Stephen King fan almost since I could read. The first of his novels I read was <em>Pet Sematary, </em>followed by <em>It, </em>then <em>Cujo. </em>But it wasn't until I hit upon the Dark Tower series did I fully understand what his creative work was all about. This was in the early 1990s. The only Dark Tower proper novels (I refer to Dark Towers 1-7 as Dark Tower proper because most of King's books are part of the Dark Tower series in some fashion) out were the first three. But I could see the connections between the stories developing.<br />
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But when <em>The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass </em>was released in 1997, it became very clear that all of King's novels were one long work, with the Dark Tower tying them together into a single comprehensive story.<br />
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With that said, the answer concerning <em>Doctor Sleep </em>comes from being familiar with Stephen King's work as a whole.<br />
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The basic premise of<em> Doctor Sleep</em> is that a tightly knit group of vampires called the True Knot are scouring the country for children who have the psychic power Dick Hallorann called "the Shining." Instead of blood, these vampires feast on what they call "steam," which is the substance released from these special children when they die. Throughout the bulk of <em>Doctor Sleep's</em> story, the True Knot are perilously low on steam and, as a result, are susceptible to illness and death. <br />
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The leader of the True Knot, a horrid woman known as Rose the Hat, discovers the presence of a very powerful source of "steam," a girl named Abra Stone, who has a "shine" brighter than they have ever seen. If they can just find her and harvest her "steam," it will solve their problems for the foreseeable future.<br />
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So that's the basic concept. <em>The Shining</em> dealt with a similar idea. The ghosts of the Overlook Hotel wanted to harvest Danny Torrance's powers for their own benefit, but if that was the last time we saw this same plot in a Stephen King novel, I wouldn't comment further, but it isn't.<br />
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We have actually seen this <em>exact</em> story at least twice before<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span>in <i>Black House </i>and <i>The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla.</i><br />
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<em>Black House </em>(a Dark Tower tie-in novel and "sequel" to <i>The Talisman</i>) is about a demon kidnapping a boy with a gift remarkably similar to "the Shining" in order to use what must be his "steam" to feed the psychic abilities of "the breakers," psychics (with another version of "the Shining," I assume) enslaved to "break" the beams holding the Dark Tower in place. <em>Wolves of the Calla</em> tells the story of the same creatures from <em>Black House</em> stealing kids with psychic powers from a town called Calla Bryn Sturgis for the same reasons. <br />
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While Stephen King has confirmed many of his books are part of the Dark Tower series ('<em>Salem's Lot, The Stand, The Talisman, It, The Eyes of the Dragon, Insomnia, Rose Madder, Desperation, The Regulators, Bag of Bones, Black House, From a Buick 8, Hearts in Atlantis </em>(specifically the novella "Low Men in Yellow Coats," among several others), he never, to my knowledge, included <em>The Shining </em>in that list, although I always suspected it had to fit in there somehow, and <em>Doctor Sleep</em> is a way for King to do that, but based on my reading of it,<em> Doctor Sleep</em> never directly touches on the Dark Tower, although all the elements are there in an unrealized fashion, which is, in my opinion, either a failure of the imagination or a catering to those who are only familiar with <em>The Shining </em>and no other King works.<br />
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So how does <em>Doctor Sleep</em> work as a sequel? It works fine enough, but as I've been dancing around in this post, such a question misses the mark. The real question readers should be asking is how does it function in the scope of the rest of his work. Unfortunately, for me, it comes too close to the edge of Dark Tower territory without actually crossing over, leaving a huge narrative hole that could have elevated this story from simply an entertaining rehash to an important read.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-41460630887988582522013-06-15T08:00:00.001-07:002013-06-15T13:39:06.573-07:00Man of Steel Review (Spoilers aplenty)I don't write many movie reviews, but I felt compelled to do one here because of the darker tone Man of Steel takes. I like dark. Dark is what I write, where I live. So what is my take on the newer, darker Superman? <br />
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Note: Because this is a movie, and comparing books (or in this case, comic books) to movies is apples and oranges, I will not reference the written source material, but only comment on other live action versions.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image courtesy of: </span><a href="http://d1fgn7wex1bhjn.cloudfront.net/assets/tarantulaV2/article_images/1360670074_ManOfSteelWallpaper30.jpg"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://d1fgn7wex1bhjn.cloudfront.net/assets/tarantulaV2/article_images/1360670074_ManOfSteelWallpaper30.jpg</span></a></div>
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This is without a doubt the best movie version of Superman. But, full disclosure, I never cared for the previous attempts at bringing Superman to the big screen. Superman 1 and 2, although enjoyable movies in themselves, were aimed at children. Therefore, they didn't hold my interest for long. Superman 3 was a Richard Pryor comedy thinly disguised as a Superman movie, one in which Superman is delegated to a supporting role. Superman 4 was a propaganda piece about nuclear weapons, and Superman Returns (Superman 5) bizarrely sought to continue the Richard Donner franchise twenty years after its previous film was dead on arrival.<br />
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Superman Returns deserves a special kind of criticism here. That movie did one thing right. It pretended that Superman 3 and 4 never happened. Other than that, it was complete garbage. First, any Superman movie seeking to continue the Richard Donner franchise twenty years after the previous movie (actually twenty-five years after because it pretends 3 and 4 never happened), while acting as if only a few years went by, is a questionable move at best. So, Superman leaves Earth after the events of Superman 2 to find Krypton and comes back to Earth a few years later, only to find that technology has advanced twenty-five years--everyone has a cell phone and phone booths are few and far between--while the people have only aged five years or so. Yeah, makes a lot of sense.<br />
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In addition to that, it came out in 2006, at the height of Smallville's popularity. A logical Superman movie at the time would have been a Smallville-related film. Smallville was a good series that went overly long. What should have been five seasons went for ten, and 2006 was when it was in it's fifth season. A smart move would have been to complete the television series that season and put out a Smallville movie in which Tom Welling's Clark Kent finally donned the blue suit and cape. Barring that, they should have abandoned any Superman film ideas until Smallville was off television. Two different Superman TV/film franchises running simultaneously, having nothing to do with each other, is the epitome of stupid. At least the Smallville producers knew such a thing would be a bad idea. They had the sense to abandon plans to include Batman in their series after Batman Begins came out in 2005 for this reason.<br />
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Now, Man of Steel...<br />
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What did I think of it as a movie in itself? The darker tone is definitely appealing, and I loved the scenes taking place on Krypton. I thought some of it was a little rushed, however, like they were trying to a fit a lot into a short timeframe. In fact, every part of the movie that was about story and character had that feeling, while the action scenes (like the battle with the Kryptonians in Smallville and Superman vs Zod in Metropolis) were over the top and drawn out, taking up two or maybe three times the amount of screen time as they should have. Drawn-out action scenes are forgivable if it is clear the story needed padding, but this one didn't. This had the story, but the most compelling parts of that story were cut short to make room for the special effects extravaganza, which was disappointing. This left the relationship between Lois and Clark only half realized and the fatherly wisdom from Jonathan Kent to come off as hackneyed at best.<br />
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With that aside, I have one very serious criticism, and this is related to the all-out action sequences. The fight in Smallville where they demolish the entire town in the process, as well as the fight in Metropolis where Superman willingly fights within the city limits, causing billions of dollars in destruction and, more importantly, what has to be the deaths of thousands upon thousands of innocent bystanders really hurts the idea that Superman holds human life sacred. At the end, when Superman is preventing Zod from frying those four (I think it was four) people with his heat vision, resulting in Superman having to kill him (and crying in anguish for being forced to kill), I kept thinking "I don't believe this. You had to have killed so many innocent people during the fight, but this has you screaming?"<br />
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Juxtapose the battle scenes I referred to with the scene in which Jonathon Kent is killed. A tornado appears in front of them, causing untold destruction. Clark watches as it wipes his adoptive father off the face of the Earth. Whatever destruction this tornado caused, it was nothing compared to the destructive force of the Kryptonians, and Superman just let it happen. He let them determine the rules and theater of engagement. A logical plot point, and this would have been able to add to Superman's character while providing action, would have been to have Superman working to take over those rules and change the theater. Instead, we got a destructive slugfest that, in my opinion, does not fit with the character and what he supposedly believes in.<br />
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With that aside, I loved the new take on Clark Kent. Christopher Reeve played Clark Kent as a bumbling fool, making Clark the disguise while Superman was who he really was; Dean Cain (in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) played Clark Kent straight while Superman was the disguise; Tom Welling's "The Blur" (a precursor to Superman) was an icon while his Clark Kent was the real person. Man of Steel seems to take it somewhere in between. He is both Clark Kent and Superman, one and the same, just doing what he can to avoid alerting the world of the presence of an alien life form. By the end of the movie, when he decides to try to live a normal life but in a way where he can be in the thick of trouble without causing suspicion--i.e. as a news reporter--he finally adopts the glasses, but I never got the impression that he was trying to change who he was, just trying to be a normal person when he isn't flying about, almost no different from how differently someone behaves while they are on the job or not.<br />
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Another vast improvement in this film above all other incarnations is that Lois Lane knows from the start that Clark Kent is Superman. You don't have to suspend your disbelief that this Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter is so stupid that she can't see that her partner is also the Man of Steel. Good job on that one. It's about time that storyline was scrapped. When Clark lands the job at the Daily Planet at the end, I got the impression that Lois, in future films in this franchise, will do more to hide the fact that Clark and Superman are one and the same than those glasses do. This makes a little more sense.<br />
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An additional thing this movie did well was making the fact that Clark is an alien more realized. You see in detail the world he came from, the culture, and the problems his people suffered. Clark is the first natural birth in generations on Krypton. Everyone else in the previous 100 years was artificially bred to serve a specific purpose in life. Zod, for instance, was bred to ensure the safety of Kryptonians, no matter what the cost, a fact that led to his crazed coup attempt on Krypton and his determination to conquer Earth to build a new Krypton. Clark, being naturally bred, has a more complex character, more compassion, and is not single-minded like other Kryptonians, making him the ideal person to preserve all that was worth preserving from that civilization.<br />
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Overall, despite the problems, I loved this movie. I am glad to finally have a movie version of Superman that is worth watching. I would give this 3 out of 4 stars.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-27370208904876426802013-04-13T11:20:00.004-07:002013-04-13T11:20:44.254-07:00Children of Time<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">May 15, 2013 will see the release of my new novel <em>Children of Time. </em>Part exploration of meta-fiction, part dark and dirty fantasy horror, part heart warming (or heart <em>wrenching</em>) love story. Whatever you're looking for in a novel, you'll find it here.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><em>Shawna McCullough is enjoying a quiet evening with a book when her six-year-old daughter, Alexis, awakens and talks of dreaming about her own death, describing it in vivid detail. They fall asleep next to each other, but when Shawna wakes up just after midnight, instead of her daughter, she discovers a strange man in her bed. She also now has two daughters, neither of them Alexis, and she’s nine months pregnant.</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><em>This is only the beginning of the strangeness as she discovers the man is just as confused as she is. He is Mark LaValley, a police officer who claims to have been killed in this same house years earlier while answering a domestic dispute between her and her husband, a dispute that led to his death. Except in this reality, he is no longer a police officer but a substitute teacher.</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><em>It isn’t long before Shawna and Mark realize they have been entrusted with guarding “the children of time,” as a demon known as Zuriz Falcon, who has been exiled to another realm, sends his henchman to kidnap the girls, including the one she’s pregnant with. Only with the powers of these three “children” and that of a collection of unique books can Falcon be released from the dark realm to unleash his evil upon the world.</em></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-81196777656565671302012-12-10T17:23:00.003-08:002012-12-10T18:23:31.110-08:00The Town of Orchard Hills<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/9111-Sharp-Orchard-Hills-ebook/dp/B009DKTYDW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1355187104&sr=1-1&keywords=9111+sharp+road"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWN_PHjB9o4oej9NCH0kFs_4bu-BOEfzdiZjkFMo-T78aAVDd7f4jrzNAV58q5zZza0DhfDPzJ8FtcHnV5zkwJSbo11QIHHChTUWV2ZNPXAXthDRbMWKC84fuW-C03ul_fP5h3-yPisMGa/s320/9111_Sharp_Road_Cover_for_Kindle.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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Orchard Hills is a strange little town that exists just outside of reality, a place where evil lurks just under the surface. Nothing looks quite right, and it's home to the strangest of creatures. The whole town is a graveyard with one road passing through it--Sharp Road--that has a single large house, reminiscent of the Victorian Era. A house that holds many mysteries.<br />
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We are first introduced to Orchard Hills in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/9111-Sharp-Orchard-Hills-ebook/dp/B009DKTYDW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1355187104&sr=1-1&keywords=9111+sharp+road"><span style="color: #cc0000;">9111 Sharp Road</span></a></em>, when 11-year-old Amanda Gates moves there and begins living in the big house on Sharp Road. There is a long history here that Amanda can only begin uncovering, but she knows something isn't right. It isn't long before these mysteries overwhelm her.<br />
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The overall story-arc of the series is open, with the main goal to be to uncover all the strange happenings in Orchard Hills. The next book, which I am currently working on, is tentatively titled <em>My Sister Is A Ghost. </em>Its beginning coincides with the ending of <em>9111 Sharp Road, </em>taking up with a character named Little Jimmy Rogers, who has led a difficult life that is about to get a whole lot harder.<br />
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<em>My Sister Is A Ghost, </em>like <em>9111 Sharp Road, </em>is a self-contained story, but also tells the overall narrative of Orchard Hills in a jig-saw fashion. Only when the reader reads all the books together, however many there may be, will he or she have an answer to the most confounding questions. <br />
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Now, will you join me at the gates of Orchard Hills? The entry fee is only <a href="http://www.amazon.com/9111-Sharp-Orchard-Hills-ebook/dp/B009DKTYDW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355188993&sr=8-1&keywords=9111+sharp+road"><span style="color: red;">99 cents</span></a><span style="color: red;">.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-60083127696715984882012-10-16T08:49:00.000-07:002012-10-16T15:33:00.559-07:00A Halloween Treat: 9111 Sharp Road, A Haunted House As Never Seen Before<a href="http://www.amazon.com/9111-Sharp-Road-ebook/dp/B009DKTYDW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1350402262&sr=1-1&keywords=9111+sharp+road"><span style="color: red;">9111 Sharp Road</span></a>, a tale of a haunted house, a haunted school, a haunted town, a haunted family, but most importantly, a haunted little girl.<br />
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Amanda's life changes when her father dies, but she doesn't anticipate the horrors she must confront after moving in with her gramma in the small town of Orchard Hills. The entire town is a cemetary, for one. For two, her new home has to be 150 years old, if not older, with many, many creepy things about it, like the strange door on the second floor that leads directly outside to a deadly fall. She thinks maybe the door once led to a balconey that has decayed and fallen over the years. That is until she hears ghostly cries from the other side of it, cries saying, "Please, Amanda, let us out!"<br />
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The horror only increases as strange humanoid bats look in at her as she sleeps.<br />
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What is going on? And does it have anything to do with how her dad really died?<br />
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Available for a short time for 99 cents as a kindle ebook, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/9111-Sharp-Road-ebook/dp/B009DKTYDW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1350402262&sr=1-1&keywords=9111+sharp+road"><span style="color: red;">9111 Sharp Road</span></a> is the treat you will want for yourself this Halloween season. <br />
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Here is the first Chapter of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/9111-Sharp-Road-ebook/dp/B009DKTYDW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1350402262&sr=1-1&keywords=9111+sharp+road"><span style="color: red;">9111 Sharp Road</span></a>:<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Chapter 1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Not long after Dad died, Mom told us we had to go live with Gramma. She said we couldn’t afford our house anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Gramma lived in a big, old house in a far off village I had never heard of called Orchard Hills. Gray—just like in an old photograph—two stories tall, big windows that looked like giant eyes, and a foundation of mortar and stone, it was the creepiest house I had ever seen. Just something about it made me think there was something strange lurking behind every window, things even older and creepier than Gramma herself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">We weren’t that close to Gramma. In fact, my six-year-old sister, Lori, and I had never even met her. Mom always said she had a few screws loose, that maybe she wasn’t all there in the head, perhaps suffering from dementia and was possibly dangerous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">But we had nowhere else to go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Coming into Orchard Hills on our moving day, the first thing I noticed was there didn’t seem to be anything in this village that was separate from the cemetery. There were tombstones as far as the eye could see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Mom,” I asked from the passenger seat, “is this entire town just one big grave yard?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">She began crying, but didn’t answer me. I assumed she was thinking about Dad. This was going to be tough. I really missed Dad, and I was going to miss all of my friends. I could feel the tears beginning to well in my eyes. I looked away to hide my face.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Mom,” Lori said from the backseat, “Amanda’s crying.” Sometimes I just wanted to punch her little face in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“I’m going to kill you!” I screamed, unbuckled my seatbelt, and turned around. Tears were streaming down my face, my eyes, swollen. I couldn’t see, but that fact didn’t stop me from trying to land a punch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Help me! Help me!” Lori cried and undid her own seatbelt. She was trying to open the backdoor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“You’re not going anywhere!” I screamed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">And then I was flung against the dashboard, my head cracking into the windshield. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Listen, both of you!” Mom yelled, crying. “I am not having this. You two will behave yourselves or else. You got it?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">We never pushed Mom to be specific with her “or else” threats. It used to mean “or else Dad is getting involved.” Now it meant “or else you’ll have to live with the fact you made me cry.” Both Lori and I shut up, turned around, and sat back in our seats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">We continued going up the road in silence. This road seemed to be as close to Main Street as anything, in fact, I think it was probably the only road in this entire town. According to a sign we passed, it was called Sharp Road.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Eventually we came to the house as the gravestones thinned out. “Ninety-one eleven Sharp Road,” I said, reading the house number. “That’s our new address. Sounds creepy.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The day was stormy, with rain threatening to wash us out as we ran our stuff from the car to the house. The lawn appeared as though it hadn’t been mowed in decades, perhaps centuries, making the trek between the car and the house difficult. The weeds literally reached up to my chest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The front door opened up into a dining room with wooden floors and white, plaster walls. Directly to my left, I saw something most peculiar. There was a toilet and an old-fashioned bathtub in what looked like a closet not ten feet from the dining room table. How odd. The thought of an open bathroom next to where we were expected to eat our meals made me want to hurl.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Come in, come in,” the woman I assumed was my gramma greeted us, wearing, strangely enough, what looked like sheepskin died pink. She grabbed me in a tight squeeze, pushing the breath from my lungs. The perfume she wore stunk worse than anything I had ever smelled before. I tried to push her away, but my hands just pushed into rolls of fat and sweat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Nice to meet you, Gramma,” I grunted through a flabby arm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">She finally released me and looked at me in the queerest fashion. “Amanda, you look just like your father.” Everyone said that. I had long brown hair just like my father.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Mom, what room is mine?” Lori shouted from behind me. She was carrying a pile of pillows and blankets that were taller than she was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Whoa, Lori, what are you doing?” Mom said, rushing in from behind her. She managed to save the falling tower of pillows just before they spilled over everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Good save, Mom,” I said, finally managing to pull away from Gramma. I immediately went to her aid. Not because I wanted to help her, but because I just needed an excuse to get away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“What room is mine?” Lori asked again. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Before we could venture off to find bedrooms, Gramma bounded upon us with arms wide open, “Come here. I wanna hug you both. How are my grandbabies?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Get ready for round two, </span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">I thought as I braced myself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">She swept us both into a fanatical hug, squeezing tightly, and seeming to offer no hope she would ever let go. “I could just eat you both up.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">For a second, I thought she was actually going to make good on her “threat.” Maybe my mind was just playing tricks on me, but for a second, I was sure she had my entire ear in her mouth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“We’re good,” I grunted. Mom wasn’t exaggerating. This woman was loony tunes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">She squeezed us a bit harder, pushing my face into her armpit. It was disgusting. All that flab with its disgusting taste of sweat laced with salt and bacteria. I couldn’t breathe. Lori struggled too, but she was smaller, so she managed to duck out from under Gramma’s beefy arms. I cried for help, but my voice was muffled by jelly rolls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Mom, can you let her go, please?” Mom asked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Gramma held on to me for another few seconds and then finally let go. I breathed heavily, as if I had just finished a five-mile sprint. “What a couple of lovely, delicious children you have here.” Her choice of the word “delicious” concerned me a bit, especially when I looked into those crazed eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Mom and Gramma began talking about things I had no idea, nor any interest in learning, about. While they talked, I walked in the family room off to the left of the dining room. There was what looked like a wood-burning stove to my left, with a couple of rocking chairs in front of it, and a rack full of logs beside it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">There were at least fifteen deer and coyote heads mounted on the walls. Disgusting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Mom,” I called back to her, “this place is weird.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Honey, your gramma and I are talking.” Her voice was somber and lonely. I really wished Dad were here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Across from the stove was a doorway that led to a set of stairs heading up to the second floor. Mom had said on the way here that our rooms would be on the second floor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">There really wasn’t any point in going up to my room empty-handed. “I, uh, need to go get more stuff,” I said under my breath and headed out the front door.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The car didn’t have a lot in it. Moving into a house where someone already lives creates the issue of excess furniture. Mom insisted we leave most of the stuff at our old house, so there were mainly just boxes of books, some video games, and clothes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Gramma and Mom were still talking as I came back in. Lori was standing there with pillows and blankets in hand, having recovered them after hugging Gramma. She looked like she was waiting for directions to our bedrooms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">I told Lori to just follow me upstairs, that we would just choose our own rooms, since I was sure Mom wouldn’t be in the mood to help us, and I wanted to stay as far away from Gramma as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">We went up the staircase. Walking up those steps produced the most amazing sort of echo; the sound of light, but heavy-sounding steps down an empty hall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">It just sounded so cool, yet it made me a little uneasy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The upstairs was a rather large, L-shaped corridor with five rooms off of it. It looked as though Gramma hadn’t been up there in years, if ever. Cobwebs filled every corner; dust coated the floor. There was even a door that led directly outside, not onto a balcony, just outside to a thirty-foot fall and a broken leg or two.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Is that the door to the hospital?” Lori asked, dead serious.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“What? No, it’s….” And then I realized she was joking. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Door to the hospital, ha, very funny, Lori.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Yeah, because if you walk through it, you’re going to the hospital.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“I know, Lori, I get it.” I had to admit that it was a pretty funny joke, especially for a six-year-old. “I guess we’ll just have to call this ‘the door to the hospital, eh?’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Huh?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Never mind. It was your joke. If I lost you, that’s your own fault. Hey, why don’t you take that room down there?” I pointed to our left past what must have been the smokestack from the wood-burning stove.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The room I chose was at junction of the L, just past that “door to the hospital,” or as I would think of it, “the door to nowhere.” It had green wall paper covering broken plaster. I had never seen a house this old, and I had no idea before moving in there just how strange old houses could be. The windows, too, were strange. Everything looked wavy, as if the glass was defective.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">I threw down my bag of clothes. There was a bed set up in the room already, and by the looks of it, it had been in there for quite a while. The covers were neat, the pillows fluffed, but a cloud of dust billowed into the air as I sat on the bed. Gross, but tolerable, I supposed. I laughed out loud as I thought about how disgustingly awful it was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">I could hear footsteps coming to my door. They were a bit lighter, so naturally, I assumed they were Lori’s. “Lori, check this out.” I stood and went to the door, but there was nobody there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Strange. I felt hairs sticking up on my head and my neck, and my heart started beating faster. I wouldn’t exactly say I was scared, but….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Amanda, hey look at this!” Lori said, jumping out of her room directly to my right. The smokestack blocked most of my view of her room.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Lori, you scared the bejeebies out of me. Is there anyone else up here?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“I don’t know, but you gotta look at what I got in my room!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">My heart-rate slowed a bit as I entered her room. It was a lot like mine, except with pink walls instead of green. But most noticeably, there was a white pipe running from the floor to the ceiling. Lori jumped on it as if it were a fireman’s pole and attempted to climb it. She managed only a foot or two, but then slid back down. “Isn’t this awesome?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“I wonder what it is,” I said. “Looks like some sort of plumbing.” I thought for a second. What room was directly below this one, where that pipe might have come from? Being so new to this house, it took me a second to remember that it was the bathroom. “Lori, you know what that is?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“What?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“It’s the main pipe for the bathroom.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“It is? Ew. Does that mean there’s poop and pee in it?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Sure thing. Also has farts.” I heard from Mom later that day that it was a vent stack, sometimes called a stink pipe, that carries gases from the septic system to the outside so that it doesn’t back up into the house. These pipes were usually in the walls, not jutting up from the floor in the middle of the room.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“That’s gross. I don’t think I want this room anymore.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Tough luck, chum. You gotta play the hand you’re dealt.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Huh?” she said with an exaggerated look of confusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“I don’t know. Just sounded good.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">I turned to leave Lori’s room but paused as I saw a dark shape walk past the door. “Lori, did you see that?” I cried. It wasn’t your regular shadow. This had more substance to it. “It was like a—”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">“Ghost!” Lori screamed, finishing my sentence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">I don’t know what came over me, but before I knew it, I was rushing out into the hall to get a better look at whatever it was. There was a man walking away from me, toward that strange door to nowhere, as if he aimed to walk through it. He was dark, almost impossible to see, but I could barely make out his clothing. He was wearing one of those hats you see all the men wearing in old movies, as well as a matching suit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">And then he was gone.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 22.5pt;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">If you enjoyed this first chapter of 9111 Sharp, you can download the rest<a href="http://www.amazon.com/9111-Sharp-Road-ebook/dp/B009DKTYDW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1350402262&sr=1-1&keywords=9111+sharp+road"> <span style="color: red;">here</span></a> for 99 cents.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-47264065409902583422012-10-02T00:36:00.003-07:002012-10-02T00:36:41.997-07:00Spotlight Interview: A Light in the Dark<a aria-controls="uownnib1" aria-haspopup="true" aria-hidden="true" aria-owns="uownnib1" class="actorPhoto lfloat" data-ft="{"type":60,"tn":"\u003C"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=100000143808437" href="https://www.facebook.com/ShahSight" id="js_27" tabindex="0"><img alt="" class="_s0 profilePic _rw img" src="https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/186690_100000143808437_172555032_q.jpg" /></a><br />
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<span class="userContent"><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=1326493048" href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.johnston.946">Eric Johnston</a>, Thanks for joining Spotlight, how are you today, you may want to tell us about the things we know about you and the things we don't, so everybody gets a feeling of you as a person please?</span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1326493048" href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.johnston.946" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287536631347933}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Eric Johnston</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287536631347933}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287536631347933}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287536631347933}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287536631347933}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]">I am the author of three novels that are currently available through World Castle publishing. I write primarily science fiction and fantasy, usually with dark, horror elements added. In addition to writing, I am also an editor as well as a teacher of English and Social Studies.</span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1326493048" href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.johnston.946" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287537554681174}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Eric Johnston</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287537554681174}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287537554681174}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287537554681174}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287537554681174}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287537554681174}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0].[0]">My most recent release is called A Light in the Dark, which is the sequel to my novel An Inner Darkness. It starts 18 years after An Inner Darkness. That book left off with a reall</span></span><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287537554681174}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287537554681174}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287537554681174}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[0]">y nasty cliff-hanger, but A Light in the Dark starts off 18 years later, and you end up finding out much of the story, what had happened in the presceding 18 years, in almost a reverse order. It's really interesting the way I have it presented. Keeps the readers on the edge of their seat.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=100000143808437" href="https://www.facebook.com/ShahSight" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287538088014454}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Shah Fazli</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287538088014454}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287538088014454}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287538088014454}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287538088014454}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]">Talking about the reader, why do you think your reader will enjoy this book, tell us about it as a reader of your own book please?</span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1326493048" href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.johnston.946" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287539624680967}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Eric Johnston</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287539624680967}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287539624680967}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287539624680967}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287539624680967}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287539624680967}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0].[0]">My reader would enjoy this book because the character are developed in a way that they feel like they could be real people. My main character in A Light in the Dark, Julian, has al</span></span><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287539624680967}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287539624680967}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287539624680967}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[0]">l the flaws and insecurities of your average person, but he is thrust into this situation where he has to question everything he had ever known, including his religion, who his parents are, whether or not they are even still alive...these things may differ for the everyday person in specifics, but the average reader will be able to identify with the feeling of being unsure about his or her place or purpose. In addition to that, the reader will find a combination of events and characters that will keep them on edge--from the truly horrifying scenes with zombies, werewolves, and other creatures--to travelling into other time periods. There is a lot going on. In addition, there is a villain that everyone will love to hate. All that being said, the ending is an exact mirror image of the beginning of the first book, something I'm sure readers will love.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a aria-controls="uoy02rd1" aria-haspopup="true" aria-owns="uoy02rd1" class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1326493048" href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.johnston.946" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540501347546}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Eric Johnston</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540501347546}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540501347546}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540501347546}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540501347546}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540501347546}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0].[0]">To quote a review from amazon.com: "A Light in the Dark is the most intense sequel out there. Most sequels drag on and on about the first book, where this one picks up from the end</span></span><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540501347546}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540501347546}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540501347546}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[0]"> of An Inner Darkness. The characters are just as vivid and life like as the first and never dulls in any of the chapters. This is a book that could be enjoyed by the teenagers or the busiest of mothers. I read this book in 2 days, I cannot wait till the next one! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!"</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=100000143808437" href="https://www.facebook.com/ShahSight" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540868014176}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Shah Fazli</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540868014176}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540868014176}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540868014176}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287540868014176}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]">Tell us about the dark side, werewolves, zombies, please?</span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1326493048" href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.johnston.946" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287542324680697}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Eric Johnston</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287542324680697}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287542324680697}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287542324680697}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287542324680697}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287542324680697}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0].[0]">One of the plot points of the two novels together features a collection of entities called "The Darkness" or "The Chaos" depending on who is referring to them. This novel takes pla</span></span><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287542324680697}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287542324680697}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287542324680697}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[0]">ce an unspecified amount of time in the future in the aftermath of a war with these dark creatures. Humanity is devastated, but there is a savior among the humans, a man named Ragas who leads whats left of humanity to victory. He forms a place called Noremway Parish, which is where humanity happens to survive and thrive....but after a few thousand years of relative peace, the darkness has returned. In addition to just being horrible creatures, these things have the ability to transforms humans into a variety of monsters from wolves, werewolves and zombies. In A Light in the Dark, the rats in the parish become infected with the darkness, and anyone they bite becomes a zombies. There is a seen that is an all out zombie riot that the main characters have to survive.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1326493048" href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.johnston.946" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544164680513}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Eric Johnston</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544164680513}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544164680513}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544164680513}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544164680513}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544164680513}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0].[0]">Thousands upon thousands of dark creatures, from raving wolves, to giant humanoid pigs are marching toward a hill, on top of which a man holding a sword is fighting off anything th</span></span><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544164680513}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544164680513}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544164680513}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[0]">at comes near him. As you get a closer look at him, you see who that he isn't who he appeared to be at all. And as he dies upon that hill, he feels a combination of satisfaction and betrayal [fade to black] This scene is one of the more interesting scenes, and it is described in far more detail in the book, obviously, but one of the points of it is a big reveal of one of the major things that is really going on.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=100000143808437" href="https://www.facebook.com/ShahSight" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544701347126}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Shah Fazli</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544701347126}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544701347126}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544701347126}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287544701347126}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]">Thanks, I might be asking hard questions, can you imagine us in your story and make us feel horrified by a scene please?</span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1326493048" href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.johnston.946" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287545961347000}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Eric Johnston</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287545961347000}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287545961347000}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287545961347000}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287545961347000}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287545961347000}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0].[0]">You're standing in Peyton's Pub, the local tavern, drinking a hard cider called Morgan's Delight. It's really the greatest drink there is. The piano is playing a familiar tune, peo</span></span><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287545961347000}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[1]">...</span><a class="SeeMoreLink fss" href="http://www.blogger.com/null" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287545961347000}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[2]">See More</a></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1326493048" href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.johnston.946" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Eric Johnston</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0].[0]">It had been eighteen years since Tomias Waterman and his wife, Lynn, were killed by wolves in the field outside the Mayor’s Residence, a large, antiquated “Gothic Revival.” Those w</span></span><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[0]">ere days long gone, and the current mayor, Franz Phoenix, did what he could to ensure that nobody missed the former leader and his wife. </span><br id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[1]" /><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[2]">As part of a nightly ritual, a game of Texas Hold ‘em was underway. After the river card was dealt—the last card in the hand—Franz flipped his pocket cards to reveal. “Royal flush,” he said. He swept the large pile of chips toward him. There were five others playing the hand in the Mayor’s Residence, including Chancellor Joe Carne, Sheriff Brian Forbes, and the future friar, Julian Morgan.</span><br id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[3]" /><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[4]">Julian flipped his cards. “Quad aces,” he cried with a mixture of joy and frustration. The rest of the table laughed. “The only time I’ve ever gotten four-of-a-kind aces, the mayor has to get a royal flush!” He was indeed frustrated, but he quickly joined his companions in laughing about the bad run of good luck. </span><br id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[5]" /><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[6]">“I think I’m going to go,” Julian said, standing up. The rest of the group was still laughing and didn’t notice him standing, nor did they hear him, so he just walked away and headed to the door. He was nervous about tomorrow, when he would officially become Noremway Parish’s newest friar. It was something his mother, Rita Morgan, had encouraged him to do all his life. “Good men must come and lead. You are a good man, Julian,” she had said.</span><br id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[7]" /><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[8]">His long, red hair flowed over his shoulders almost like a woman’s, but he didn’t mind the comparison, or the jokes. He was secure in who he was, but the one thing that did bother him was that he was, and had been, on a road to becoming the friar and supreme religious leader of all of Noremway Parish, but didn’t know a damn thing about the religion they practiced. He received lessons in the holy word from his mother, but where did she get her information? Some of the things she taught him couldn’t possibly be more than sheer fantasy. </span><br id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[9]" /><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[10]">“Hey, Morgan, where you going?” Franz called. “The night’s only just begun.”</span><br id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[11]" /><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[12]">“Nah, I should get home. Hit the sack, you know? Big day tomorrow.” He continued to the door.</span><br id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[13]" /><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[14]">“Friar Julian Morgan. Brother Julian. I kind of like that, don’t you guys?” Brian Forbes said, holding up a glass of beer—an apple concoction sometimes referred to as “Morgan’s Delight.” The others around the table raised their glasses too and let out a loud shout. Despite the good cheer, Julian detected a hint of mockery in Brian’s voice, as was to be expected, he supposed. Brian’s girlfriend, Nora Plague, was absolutely in love with Julian, but since he was to be friar they couldn’t be together. No man liked being the backup plan. No man liked his girl loving someone else, either.</span><br id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[15]" /><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287546731346923}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[16]">Despite the accolades—fake or not—he wasn’t happy about becoming the next friar. Preaching a gospel he’d never read first-hand seemed to him a precarious circumstance, but not one that anyone else in Noremway Parish seemed at all concerned about. Why was this? The Book of Ragas, he had been told, was not to be read. “It is too sacred,” Rita Morgan had told him. How would they know if they had never read it themselves?</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=100000143808437" href="https://www.facebook.com/ShahSight" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287547064680223}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Shah Fazli</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287547064680223}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287547064680223}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287547064680223}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287547064680223}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]">Thanks, if you were book was to be adopted as a movie, how it would come out you think, any thoughts on that please?</span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1326493048" href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.johnston.946" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548081346788}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Eric Johnston</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548081346788}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548081346788}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548081346788}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548081346788}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548081346788}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0].[0]">Of course I would love any movie adaptation that would increase sales and bring in money...but I worry that most of the main ideas, the real thoughtful aspects of the story, such a</span></span><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548081346788}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548081346788}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548081346788}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[0]">s the character's motivations, the statements about life in a small village, etc--would be lost in a gory bloodbath of a typical B-horror flick. Do I think there is potential for a good movie here? Definitely, but I worry that the more commercial aspects will overshadow the quality of the story if adapted into a movie.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=100000143808437" href="https://www.facebook.com/ShahSight" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548628013400}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Shah Fazli</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548628013400}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548628013400}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548628013400}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287548628013400}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]">Thanks, what else do you want to say about your book for us please?</span></span></span></div>
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<div class="UFICommentContent" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549468013316}..[1]..[1]..[0]">
<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1326493048" href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.johnston.946" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549468013316}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Eric Johnston</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549468013316}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549468013316}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549468013316}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549468013316}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549468013316}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0].[0]">The two novels--An Inner Darkness and A Light in the Dark--form a story in themselves, but the way I write, all of my work takes place in the same universe, and this is a HUGE stor</span></span><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549468013316}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549468013316}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549468013316}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[0]">y in that universe...so all novels I am working on now, and have plans for in the future, will touch on this story in one way or another. Whether it's the inclusion of "The Darkness," a brief mention of a character here or there, or a visit to that place of hope, Noremway Parish, the setting of these books.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<div class="UFICommentContent" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549848013278}..[1]..[1]..[0]">
<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=100000143808437" href="https://www.facebook.com/ShahSight" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549848013278}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Shah Fazli</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549848013278}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549848013278}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549848013278}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287549848013278}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]">Give us a few tips on writing please?</span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1326493048" href="https://www.facebook.com/eric.johnston.946" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287550874679842}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Eric Johnston</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287550874679842}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287550874679842}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287550874679842}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287550874679842}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287550874679842}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0].[0]">The best tip I can give is to write a lot and read a lot. Like anything, you need to do it to get good at it. And if you read a lot you get familiar with language rules and how sto</span></span><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287550874679842}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]"><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287550874679842}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287550874679842}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[3]..[0]">ries are constructed, as well as getting a clear idea of what type of thing you want to write about. Don't get discouraged if you can't hammer out a beautiful line of prose like your favorite writer. It will come with practice...just keep at it.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=100000143808437" href="https://www.facebook.com/ShahSight" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287551498013113}..[1]..[1]..[0].[0]">Shah Fazli</a><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287551498013113}..[1]..[1]..[0].[1]"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287551498013113}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287551498013113}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]."><span id=".reactRoot[350].[1][2][1]{comment287536138014649_287551498013113}..[1]..[1]..[0].[2]..[0]">Thank you so much Eric, we enjoyed every minute. Hope to see you again soon.</span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-90639689327394329842012-09-18T19:08:00.002-07:002012-09-18T19:11:03.426-07:00Week 14: The Next Big ThingThanks for tagging me, <a href="http://ramblingsofamadsouthernwoman.blogspot.com/"><strong><span style="color: blue;">Ashley Fontainne</span></strong></a><strong><span style="color: blue;">,</span></strong><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:<br /><br />What is the title of your book?</h3>
<em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/A-Light-Dark-ebook/dp/B009BA8WFK/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1348019904&sr=1-5&keywords=a+light+in+the+dark"><strong><span style="color: blue;">A Light in the Dark</span></strong></a> </em><br />
<h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_fSVwlvuUO6ExyEycAQiENII8lGxQ7NcSJO-eC4NvR-WxY9ESG8qQKuUry2Plz6S38lEwXhcoJn61EOznrF9Hh03f2nrxnp1Yr5oXM9-5WTSPqfZq7rETFzzFixTMwOtKfEuyK0i240Y/s1600/ALightintheDark+1800x2700.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_fSVwlvuUO6ExyEycAQiENII8lGxQ7NcSJO-eC4NvR-WxY9ESG8qQKuUry2Plz6S38lEwXhcoJn61EOznrF9Hh03f2nrxnp1Yr5oXM9-5WTSPqfZq7rETFzzFixTMwOtKfEuyK0i240Y/s200/ALightintheDark+1800x2700.jpg" width="133" /></a>
Where did the idea come from for the book?</h3>
<em></em>The idea came from a video I saw on youtube about conjoined twins who were separated shortly after birth and desired nothing more than to be reattached. I thought that was a really cool concept for a story. I started writing this with that story in mind, but it soon expanded into something far more, spanning 150,000 words and two novels. <br />
<br />
<h3>
What genre does your book fall under?</h3>
Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Dark Fantasy...any of these categories are appropriate.<br />
<h3>
<br />Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?</h3>
<br />
Scarlette Johansen would be a great Teret Finley, Christian Bale would be a great Decon Mangler...Ian Somerhalder would be a good Julian.<br />
<h3>
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?</h3>
<br />
Julian has to disregard everything he grew up believing to survive.<br />
<h3>
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?</h3>
<br />
It is published by World Castle Publishing<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?</h3>
<br />
The first draft took about a month for the first draft and 4 or 5 months of rewrites<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?</h3>
The best novel(s) I can compare this to is Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Like the Dark Tower, <em>A Light in the Dark </em>takes place in a rundown, post-apocalyptic world.<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
Who or What inspired you to write this book?</h3>
After Andrew Utley and I finished writing <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harvester-Ascension-ebook/dp/B007TKP2AW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1348020287&sr=1-1&keywords=harvester+ascension"><strong><span style="color: blue;">Harvester: Ascension</span></strong></a></em> together, I immediately started on <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/An-Inner-Darkness-ebook/dp/B007GTCZTC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1348020317&sr=1-1&keywords=an+inner+darkness"><strong><span style="color: blue;">An Inner Darkness</span></strong></a></em><span style="color: black;">,</span> the book this novel is sequel to. Not only did I have a great idea, but I also needed to know I could write a book on my own. I think I have certainly proven that.<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?</h3>
This book concludes the original story in what I'm calling The Series of Darkness, but all of my books touch on this story in some way.<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Now go check out what <a href="http://eseckman.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue;">Elizabeth Seckman</span></a> has to say on her blog!</strong><br />
<h3>
</h3>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-64920315008253755522012-09-04T19:43:00.002-07:002012-09-04T20:27:19.304-07:00Deleted Scene From Harvester: AscensionAll novels, movies, TV shows have scenes that are cut for whatever reason. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harvester-Ascension-ebook/dp/B007TKP2AW/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1346812828&sr=1-1">Harvester: Ascension</a> is no different. Here is a scene that did not make the final cut, but it is one that Andrew and I think is worth sharing.<br />
<br />
Note: You do not need to have read<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harvester-Ascension-ebook/dp/B007TKP2AW/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1346812828&sr=1-1"> Harvester: Ascension</a> to enjoy the following scene.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 20.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1.75in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span> </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 20.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Samuel
Sewall was an unhappy, yet complex, man. Here is his story:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It was May 2006, six years before, Petty Officer Sam Sewall, United
States Navy, woke with a start. The early morning sun burned his eyes. His
mouth was dry and his head hurt. He attempted to stand, but a wave of nausea
rushed over him as he suddenly realized he was wearing a gas mask. Doubling
over he vomited. A mixture of stomach acid and Heineken from the night before
filled his mask. Breathing in the noxious fumes, he had a moment of clarity in
which he thought about the irony of choking to death on fumes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">because</i> he was wearing a gas mask.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 20.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">His hands slipped on the mud-covered straps as he tried to loosen them.
As his vision was fading to black he pulled the mask off and breathed a breath
of fresh air that had a hint of manure. He was standing in a cow pasture, and
he had no idea how he’d gotten there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 20.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">His last memories took him back to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Orchard</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Tower</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
better known as “The Four Floors of Whores,” containing four floors of various
bars and massage parlors. Other than looking like a second-rate shopping mall, it
was a great place to party. He and his buddies got smashed until late in the
evening. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 20.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">He was sitting at table in the middle of the room. A juke box, lined with
neon blue and red tubing, blasted American heavy metal. The room was dimly lit,
the only light coming from the juke box and the scattered overhead lamps. He
just loved how all these countries they’d been to during this deployment seemed
to want to be <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country>.
Even <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Singapore</st1:place></st1:country>.
American music, American dress, American movies. It was almost like not really
leaving home. And he dug Asian women. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Eventually a woman in a purple dress that showcased her large bust
stepped up behind Sam. Jose looked up as she put her hands on Sam’s shoulders
and started rubbing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I can give massage. Hundred dollar
massage?” the woman said in a thick Singaporean accent. She continued to rub
Sam’s shoulders. “I can make real special. You like? I give hundred dollar
massage.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sam said, “I could really use a
massage. Hell, I have a hundred dollars.” He turned to the woman to ask her what
makes it worth a hundred dollars and then he saw her face. “Ugh!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“You no like?” she said, downtrodden.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Dude, your face looks like ass. Where are your teeth?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Hundred dollar massage?” She gave his shoulders another strong rub.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Get your hands off me and get out of here. I’ll need fifty more of these
before I pay for you,” he said holding up his Heineken. The woman in the purple
dress left and went back to the massage parlor that she operated across the
floor from the bar. “Damn, a hundred dollars for a massage?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“You do realize she’d be rubbing more than just your back.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Right, as if I hadn’t missed the obvious connection between
scantily-clad Asian women and an outbreak of gonorrhea. But she’s as ugly as
a…and you just sat there looking at her rubbing all on me. Bastard.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Jose laughed and ordered another round of beers. “Shit, dude. That was
hilarious. Did you see she had just one tooth?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“To be fair, I counted three.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Either way, holy hell! Ha!” The beers were quickly delivered and Jose
paid the waitress. Another example of Americanization of these small Asian
countries: they accepted American currency. Five minutes later the woman came
back into the bar. Jose said, “Oh look who’s back. And she changed her dress.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Sam turned around and saw her approach. Instead of purple, she was now
wearing red. She smiled, exposing the gaps between her remaining teeth. “Lady,
you can put on as many dresses as you like, but no color’s going to change your
face. No definitely means no tonight.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Hundred dollar massage? Also throw in blow job. No extra,” she said.
Jose gave Sam a look that said “your choice, it’s your dick.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“You know, I’m flattered, but do I look like someone who has to pay for a
blow job from a toothless troll? If I was desperate enough to pay, my buddy
Jose would just suck it for me. Save me a little cash.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Jose said, “Yeah, just waiting for them to repeal ‘Don’t ask, don’t
tell’.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Wow, that’s not completely awkward,” Sam said and Jose responded with a
wink.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Hundred dollars?” she said again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Oh shit, we gotta get back to the ship,” Jose said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“I’m too drunk to be going anywhere,” Sam said and slammed the Heineken
on the table. “I want another one.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Too bad. We gotta get back to Vandy. It’s 0130. We gotta be back by
0200.” Looking at the woman in the red dress, he said, “Get lost, toots. We got
another lady to ride.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Goddamit. Where is Vandy anyway? Can’t she come get us?” “Vandy” was
their nickname for the USS Vandegrift, a Navy Frigate out of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 20.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Dude, I hate how stupid you get when you drink sometimes. Vandy isn’t
your wife. And she ain’t coming to get your drunk ass.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 20.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“No shit.” They stumbled their way out of the bar, leaning on each other
for support. Unfortunately they were on the upper-most floor of the “Four
Floors of Whores” so they both inevitably stumbled down each escalator on the
way down. Sam was still swilling a bottle of Heineken as he did so. “Oh shit…”
Sam said as they neared the first floor. The escalators were making the entire
place spin before him, all the sights dissolving into a blurry mess. “One too
many, man, one too many.” Sam had, in fact, drank over a dozen beers in the
several hours they were out. “One too many” didn’t cover it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 20.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">They left the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Orchard</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Tower</st1:placetype></st1:place> and worked a slow,
meandering path back toward the ship. “Where are yoooou?” Sam howled as they
neared where they thought the port had been.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“You know, dude, I’m gonna look for Vandy over this way,” Sam said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Suit, yourself, but I’m sure the port’s over here,” Jose replied,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 20.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Nah, me and Vandy’s tight. I’ll find her.” And Sam stumbled off in the
darkness and somehow ended up in a cow pasture. At least he had had the
presence of mind to wear a gas mask if he was going to sleep in manure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Now he was awake, but still drunk and nauseas. Since he had never made it
back to the ship he would be considered UA and would likely have to face the
Disciplinary Review Board when he finally found the ship. That wouldn’t be
good. This would be his second appearance before the Board. The last time had
been an Unauthorized Absence due to the effects of alcohol as well. This
wouldn’t be something they would take lightly, and probably would end up being
a permanent mark on his service record. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But before dealing with the board he still had to find the ship. Sam
managed to find a mashed down trail in the tall grass surrounding the pasture
and worked his way back toward town. Soon a Frigate—the USS Vandegrift—appeared.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The next night, as he slept in his rack, a loud knocking rang throughout
the chamber, woke him up, and (out of habit) brought him to attention. “Open
the damn door, Sewall! Senior Chief needs to see you!” Without thinking, he
opened the door and started rushing to get to the DRB. This was a make or break
for him. He was either going to get a black mark on his record, half-pay for
two months, and get demoted, or just a slap on the wrist. Either way, he was
too focused on the pending review to realize he had just walked out completely
naked. “Put some clothes on, Sailor! Don’t think you’re going to be able to
impress anyone out of this shit with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that
</i>thing.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Senior Chief Annie Peters walked around the sailor, sizing him up,
studying his bearing, and his uniform when he entered the DRB room. “You are a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fucking </i>slob. You realize that? You
think you can walk around this ship looking and smelling like shit? Do you take
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">any </i>pride in yourself? Do you think
this is your mother’s house? And where the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hell
</i>were you last night? You were UA! That is your second unauthorized absence.
If we had a brig I’d throw you in it for the rest of the deployment. What have
you got to say?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Senior Chief. My apologies, Senior Chief. I got drunk last night and
then got lost while trying to find Vandy—”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 20.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Stand at attention before you speak! You are one pathetic sailor! Just
one of those screw ups that somehow flew under the radar. But you’ve been here
before, and, what was it last time? Alcohol! Again! You wanna know what? I can
have your ass kicked out of the Navy by the end of the week.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 20.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Sam stood at attention to speak, looked up, and his eyes met the Senior
Chief’s. “Really? That’s fantastic!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 20.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Excuse me? The United States Navy is the finest navy in the world. And
you are a disgrace. I suggest the first thing you do when your ass lands on a
street in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Detroit</st1:place></st1:city>
is find a street corner to beg on because that’s the only thing you will ever
amount to. Get out of my sight.” And that was the end of the DRB.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Sam went back to his quarters and dropped onto his narrow cot and reached
into the footlocker beside it, drawing out a battered Captain <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country> trade
paperback. Sam used comics as a brief escape from the harshness and monotony of
military life, and admired the Captain for the wholesomeness and simplicity of
his character. Cap knew what was wrong and what was right and spent his life
defending the good things in life from the bad guys who would take them from
us. However, even if Captain <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country>
screwed up, everyone thanked him and said he’d done his best. Oh, not in the
real military. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Senior Chief made good on her promise. Sam Sewall was out of the
Navy. And a week after that he landed a job as an accountant for the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Detroit</st1:place></st1:city>. Not too bad for
an alcoholic.<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span> <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-55694610465046259362012-09-02T11:42:00.002-07:002012-09-02T11:57:17.189-07:00Interview with Eric R. Johnston: A Light in the Dark<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Troy McCombs, author of novels <em>The House on Mayberry Road </em>and <em>Darkworld,</em> recently interviewed me for his blog, <a href="http://tmhorror.blogspot.com/">Combs' Lair</a>, concerning my upcoming release, <em>A Light in the Dark</em>. This interview can also be found on his blog.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Troy McCombs:</strong> Tell us a little about yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Eric R. Johnston: </strong>I
live with my 8-month-old daughter, my fiancée, and her two daughters, who are
11 and 7. I received a BA in History and English from University of
Michigan-Flint, and subsequently received a certification in secondary
education from there as well. I have been writing my whole life, but I
seriously began tackling this passion in the fall of 2009 when I began the
novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harvester-Ascension-ebook/dp/B007TKP2AW/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346612107&sr=1-1&keywords=harvester+ascension">Harvester: Ascension</a> </i>with my
friend, Andrew Utley. Upon completion of that work, I wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/An-Inner-Darkness-ebook/dp/B007GTCZTC/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346612150&sr=1-1&keywords=an+inner+darkness">An Inner Darkness</a>, </i>a novel started my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Series of Darkness </i>books.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"><strong><span style="font-size: small;"></span></strong></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"><strong><span style="font-size: small;">TM:</span>
</strong></span></span>Tell us a little about your book.<o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>ERJ:</strong> The book I
have coming out September 15, 2012, is called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com/author-eric-r-johnston.html">A Light in the Dark</a>, </i>and is the second book in my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Series of Darkness. </i>It is the direct
sequel to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Inner Darkness. </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I used the term “direct sequel” because this
series will not necessarily go in a strict chronological order. Meaning, there
will be books later on in this series that can be read before these beginning
volumes. For example, I am nearly complete with a novel called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">City of Darkness </i>that is the third book
in the series but can be read before the first two with no problem.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A Light in the Dark </span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">takes place 18 years after the events in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Inner Darkness. </i>The twins from the previous book are now adults.
Julian, the one who was raised in Noremway Parish, knows there is something
mysterious about his life that no one is telling him, that no one is willing to
talk about. Not only that, but he discovers that almost everything he was
raised believing was a lie.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">This novel is
really about someone who isn’t sure about his place in the world, who he is, or
who he can trust. It is this journey of self-discovery that makes this novel
worth checking out. All of us have, at one time or another, felt like Julian.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><strong></strong></span><br />
<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><strong>TM:</strong><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>What writer has inspired you the most through your
career?<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>ERJ:</strong> More than any
other writer, Stephen King has influenced my work. His <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Tower </i>series is really the inspiration for my fantasy-based
writing. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Stephen King’s work is all
really one big story all connected together with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Dark Tower </i>series right at the center, holding them all
together. It is King’s use of a reoccurring villain—Randall Flagg, who is the
villain in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Stand, The Eyes of the
Dragon, </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Dark Tower series </i>(SPOILER:
Walter O’Dim (i.e. The Man in Black) and Marten Broadcloak—who that is really
the inspiration behind my character Falcon, the villain of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Inner Darkness. </i>His status as villain in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Light in the Dark </i>is somewhat debatable however, but he will be
back in full power for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">City of Darkness</i>.
I will not ruin anything for anyone, but I can tell you, those who have read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Inner Darkness </i>know that Falcon may
not be in the best possible position as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Light in the Dark </i>begins, and he embarks on a journey of his own, exploring
his feelings of inadequacy and experiencing for the first time what it feels
like to love.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>TM:</strong> What’s your advice for beginning writers?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>ERJ:</strong> Many people
give up just when it gets hard or because someone puts them down. Just keep at
it.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Rejection is
part of the game, so don’t get discouraged. You may end up writing something
you think will win you the Pulitzer, but it will get rejected and rejected and
rejected. It may be that your Pulitzer-prize-winner really is junk, or it could
just mean that your novel didn’t make the cut, whether in luck, quality, or
what have you. Yes, luck does play a factor in getting published and selling
well.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Think of
rejection this way. Stephen King got numerous rejections; so did J.K. Rowling,
and many other successful writers. The Beatles also got rejected for record
contracts, believe it or not. Although The Beatles aren’t novelists, the idea
is the same. You can have the potential to be the greatest thing the world has
ever seen, but you may still face rejection. Art is subjective, and those who
make those decisions aren’t clued in to some divine sense of what’s good and
what isn’t. They are just regular, fallible human beings who make mistakes.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">So don’t give
up. Keep cracking at it, and don’t let a form rejection, that implies by its
coldness that your manuscript was never even read, bring you down. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><strong>TM:</strong><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>What’s your all-time favorite novel and why?<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
<strong>ERJ:</strong> <em>The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass. <o:p></o:p></em><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It came out
in the fall of 1997, just when I was starting high school and really embarking
on a journey of self-discovery. I started listening to music that wasn’t
necessarily what my parents listened to, and reading more challenging books,
including novels, history, and heavy-handed science. We had just moved into an
old farmhouse that was spacious enough for me to have a place to be alone. I
come from a large family, and it was the first time I’d ever had my own room. I
have many pleasant memories of cranking up Metallica and reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wizard and Glass, </i>while going on this
journey of self-discovery.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the novel,
Roland Deschain details his own journey of self-discovery as a
fourteen-year-old boy. I wholly identified with that. It was the perfect book
for me at that time, and it will be with me always. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><strong>TM:</strong><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Where do you see yourself and your writing career in
the next few years?<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In addition to my current writings and series, I am trying
something different now than I have ever done before. I am trying my hand at
some middle-grade fiction, and finding that I really enjoy it, even more so
than the adult-oriented novels that I have been writing. One of my favorite
type of stories as a kid was that of the haunted house. I am trying my hand at
my own version of that type of story.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Depending on
how this book does, I may primarily focus on this audience in the future. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">TM: </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Care to share any favorite quotes?</span></b><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>ERJ:</strong> Stephen King
said something to the effect that if you don’t have time to read, you have
neither the time nor the tools to write.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><strong>TM:</strong><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>How about you share a few passages from your
new/upcoming book…<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Prologue
to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Light in the Dark<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">It had been eighteen years since Tomias Waterman
and his wife, Lynn, were killed by wolves in the field outside the Mayor’s
Residence, a large, antiquated “Gothic Revival.” Those were days long gone, and
the current mayor, Franz Phoenix, did what he could to ensure that nobody
missed the former leader and his wife. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">As part of a nightly ritual, a game of Texas
Hold ‘em was underway. After the river card was dealt—the last card in the
hand—Franz flipped his pocket cards to reveal. “Royal flush,” he said. He swept
the large pile of chips toward him. There were five others playing the hand in
the Mayor’s Residence, including Chancellor Joe Carne, Sheriff Brian Forbes,
and the future friar, Julian Morgan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Julian flipped his cards. “Quad aces,” he cried
with a mixture of joy and frustration. The rest of the table laughed. “The only
time I’ve ever gotten four-of-a-kind aces, the mayor has to get a royal flush!”
He was indeed frustrated, but he quickly joined his companions in laughing
about the bad run of good luck. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“I think I’m going to go,” Julian said, standing
up. The rest of the group was still laughing and didn’t notice him standing,
nor did they hear him, so he just walked away and headed to the door. He was
nervous about tomorrow, when he would officially become Noremway Parish’s
newest friar. It was something his mother, Rita Morgan, had encouraged him to
do all his life. “Good men must come and lead. You are a good man, Julian,” she
had said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">His long, red hair flowed over his shoulders
almost like a woman’s, but he didn’t mind the comparison, or the jokes. He was
secure in who he was, but the one thing that did bother him was that he was,
and had been, on a road to becoming the friar and supreme religious leader of
all of Noremway Parish, but didn’t know a damn thing about the religion they
practiced. He received lessons in the holy word from his mother, but where did
she get her information? Some of the things she taught him couldn’t possibly be
more than sheer fantasy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“Hey, Morgan, where you going?” Franz
called.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The night’s only just begun.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“Nah, I should get home. Hit the sack, you
know?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Big day tomorrow.” He continued to
the door.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“Friar Julian Morgan. Brother Julian. I kind of
like that, don’t you guys?” Brian Forbes said, holding up a glass of beer—an
apple concoction sometimes referred to as “Morgan’s Delight.” The others around
the table raised their glasses too and let out a loud shout. Despite the good
cheer, Julian detected a hint of mockery in Brian’s voice, as was to be
expected, he supposed. Brian’s girlfriend, Nora Plague, was absolutely in love
with Julian, but since he was to be friar they couldn’t be together. No man
liked being the backup plan. No man liked his girl loving someone else, either.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Despite the accolades—fake or not—he wasn’t
happy about becoming the next friar. Preaching a gospel he’d never read
first-hand seemed to him a precarious circumstance, but not one that anyone
else in Noremway Parish seemed at all concerned about. Why was this? The Book
of Ragas, he had been told, was not to be read. “It is too sacred,” Rita Morgan
had told him. How would they know if they had never read it themselves? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Franz Phoenix stepped around the table and
blocked his way out the front door. “You aren’t leaving. There’s still more to
do before tomorrow. You’ve more training.” The other men around the table
laughed and cheered in their drunkenness. Julian was uncomfortable, but he sat
back down and played another hand, all the while sipping on the sweet beer that
he only drank because water wasn’t available. The drought was five years old
and counting. It appeared the harvest rains had finally left this region of the
Earth for good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">What did that say about the future of Noremway
Parish? Indeed, what did that say about its past? As of tomorrow, he would be
the friar, keeper and preacher of all things religious and historical (with the
exception of the parochial vicar, who shared some of these responsibilities)
within the parish.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“All right, Franz, I’m in for another couple of
hands.” Applause went up around the table. “But only a couple more. I seriously
need to get some rest.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“Lighten up, Julian,” Franz said. “You’re
starting to sound like your mother.” Julian smiled in spite of himself. He knew
Rita Morgan was hard to swallow sometimes. She didn’t hold an official position
in the parish, but she did operate the only orchard, something that she never
failed to remind her fellow parishioners despite the fact that the orchard
tapped into the already heavily taxed water supply.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“You calling or folding, Jules,” Joe Carne said.
He hadn’t noticed cards had been dealt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Julian looked at the two cards in front of him:
a seven of hearts and a two of clubs. “Folding.” He tossed his cards in, not
really caring about the game. “You know, I think I’ll just stretch my legs. You
mind if I take a look around? There’s a lot of history in this house.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“Be my guest,” Franz said. “There is most
definitely a lot of history here, but don’t go just anywhere you like. If a
door is closed, it’s probably closed for a reason. Got it?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“Of course, what do you think I am?” He walked
away from the table. The cigar smoke hung heavily in the air. He just needed to
get away…he needed to breathe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“Just don’t take too long, because you’re not
done here tonight.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Sure he wasn’t. Since he’d turned eighteen a few
weeks before, all Franz Phoenix wanted to do was hang out with him. It was
getting a bit infuriating because he was preparing to be an adult with real
responsibilities, and he ended up spending many of his nights drinking, smoking,
and playing poker. It was not something he enjoyed, and it wasn’t his idea of
being a responsible adult.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">The house was large, the largest within Noremway
Parish. As he wandered away from the card table, he immediately saw that most
of the doors (in the immediate vicinity anyway) were closed. There was nowhere
he could go in this historical exploration. That was the story of his life. He
could never learn on his own, find anything out for himself. He’d had to rely
on others for all the information he had ever learned. Was this a good thing?
Likely not. As he grew up, he matured and didn’t want to have to rely on
everyone else for his learning. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate the
knowledge his elders could share, but they all seemed to be telling the same
story, a story that he wasn’t sure he believed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">He’d learned that Noremway Parish was founded by
Ragas Moliere, a man of great power, a man they all should worship. Life in the
parish was peaceful until Friar Decon Mangler, Brother Decon, forged an alliance
with the evil that saturated the world, bringing about death and destruction
over much of the parish.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">It all happened on a night nearly eighteen years
before. Decon Mangler raped and murdered the parochial vicar, Teret Finley, and
then murdered the chancellor, Ghora Urey, while taking others with him
including, but not limited to, Ortega Gool and Rita’s own husband, James. Decon
Mangler had been publicly executed by hanging, and as he swung on the noose,
his neck broken, he shouted to all who were watching, “The Darkness comes! You
cannot escape!” before expiring. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">The story, although something he had believed
his whole life, seemed to make no sense to him at all. He didn’t even have a
clear understanding about what “the Darkness” was. It was something often
talked about but never explained. When he pressed his mother about it one day,
she seemed to tighten up, a frightened look of guilt washing over her, and then
told him they would talk about it when he was older, that he was too young to
understand. Even now that he was eighteen years old and to be sworn in as the
Friar of Noremway Parish, she still treated him as if he was nothing more than
a child incapable of understanding the world’s harsher realities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">These thoughts were always on his mind,
especially now as he observed every closed door in front of him. Doors were
closed to him both metaphorically and literally. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">He walked through the foyer and stood in front
of a door that he believe probably led to a parlor. It was closed just like all
the others. What was behind this door? He tried to imagine it. His imagination
had kept him company throughout his life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">The doorknob turned and unlatched quietly, but
the low creak of the hinges was clearly audible. The door mysteriously began to
creak open ever so slowly. He stood there, knowing that the door couldn’t
possibly have been opening of its own accord. The deeply engraved oak door
swung away from him to reveal darkness. Musty, stale air rushed out. It smelled
as though fresh air had not entered this room in ages.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“You have finally found me,” said a voice in the
dark. The door continued to swing open, revealing a figure draped in a grey
cloth. She was female, but her features were indiscernible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Fear struck at his heart, and he tried to cry
out but couldn’t find his voice. She raised a scarred hand to her lips in a
gesture of silence and shook her head. “Find the book. Find the answers.” Then
the phantom woman was gone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">When he saw the apparition, the initial fear
dissipated as a feeling of warmth swept over him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was someone he knew, someone he loved,
even though it was no one he knew and no one he loved. The feeling was eerie,
odd. She was so familiar he must have known her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Either way, she was gone now, a circumstance
that was at once bizarre and comforting. He stood outside the room for several
moments, perhaps longer, before entering. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">He walked into the parlor and saw several
bookshelves and an old piano beyond where the apparition had been. The room was
dark, with no lanterns lit inside. He seized one from a large hook on the wall,
lit it, and examined the books on the middle shelf. Newly made books and paper
were very rare in the parish these days, so it was clear on the outset that
these books were old. Paper used to be made from the yellow grass that had also
been a staple crop, but those days were long gone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">He knew the house was old, but this had to be a
collection stretching back to its construction. It was a miracle that some of
the older ones still looked intact. A particular one caught his eye; a red
leather-bound tome, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Life and Moral
Teachings of Ragas Moliere of Noremway Parish</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“The Book of Ragas,” he said in awe. He’d been
told no copies of this book still existed, that the only teachings of the great
Ragas Moliere came down through oral histories; that all copies of the book had
been destroyed by the enemies of the parish, those enigmatic beings that
wandered the vast expanse of desert outside the parish wall. The
Caravan-Folk…the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ujimati</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">He removed the book from the shelf and leafed
through it. The book was certainly old, but the condition was perfect, as was
expected, he supposed, in air as dry as this. There was no water vapor to
corrode the paper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">A small piece of paper fell out of the book as
he opened it. He picked it up and read the contents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">We have our own story to tell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">—The Chaos of the Outer Dark <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">What
is this about</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">? he thought. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Chaos</i>? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Outer Dark</i>?
These were phrases that had been thrown around his whole life as something that
he never had to fear. Ragas had vanquished these devils about 2,000 years ago,
but there would always be signs of their presence, “because of that Decon
Mangler,” his mother had always told him. “He tried to bring the Darkness back,
but we stopped him. It’s sad that my precious daughter, your sister Abigail,
lost her life as a result of his devilry.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">But there was more. He could see a faint line
scratched over that message, and a new one written below it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">The story will be revised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">What did this mean? He didn’t think about it for
long before he saw there was writing on the back of the paper and flipped it
over: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Julian, my son, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Please do not despair. Do not listen to anything
anyone tells you. They all lie. The knowledge you seek is in the book. A
revision is underway, and some things may not make sense to you now, but I
assure you, in time they will. Do not give in to the darkness around you. Look
within and find salvation. Do not trust Franz Phoenix. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">—Teret Finley, Parochial Vicar, your mother<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Teret Finley? Parochial Vicar? Mother? One of
the victims of Decon Mangler’s wrath?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“My son?”
he said under his breath. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Am I her son</i>?
“Teret Finley was my mother?” He was confused and scared, needing to take this
back home, to think this over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Slipping The Book of Ragas into his cloak, he
left the room and saw Franz Phoenix still playing Texas Hold ‘em with the other
guests. “Mayor Phoenix, I think I’ll be heading out. I really don’t feel well,”
Julian said. He didn’t have to feign illness. He truly felt sick to his
stomach.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“No,” Phoenix said. “I insist you join us for
another hand.” So he did. One hand turned into three, which turned into nine,
and so on until the sun thrust its first light into the morning sky.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-6774063798476596112012-05-21T14:52:00.001-07:002012-12-11T03:20:40.906-08:00An Inner DarknessAfter finishing <em>Harvester: Ascension </em>in August of 2010 (Andy continued writing on it until October, filling in some of the gaps that I left for him), I immediately began a novel called <em>An Inner Darkness </em>(previously known as <em>The Twins of Noremway Parish). </em>I began this novel in September of 2010 and wrote non-stop until November before realizing I had a major problem: the novel was going to be way too long. So I decided to break the novel into two. The second part is titled <em>A Light in the Dark</em>.<br />
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<em>An Inner Darkness </em>covers the story of Decon Mangler, a friar in Noremway Parish, a bastion of humanity after a devastating war with something called "The Darkness." He and his colleague, parochial vicar Teret Finley, shared a sexual attraction, something strictly forbidden for them to act on. Who doesn't like a little bit of sexual tension? Their semi-cozy world is disrupted when the evil returns in the form of a child, ripped from his mother's womb by the teeth of a wolf-like creature. The parish doctor, Bartholomew Plague, and Decon Mangler, rush this child to the Cathedral, completely bypassing the infirmary because there would be no way the child could survive. Their first priority was to ensure the child's well-being in the hereafter. But all is not as it appears. The child dissolves completely when his skin touches the holy water, leaving nothing behind but a pool of blood. A few hours pass with no answers, but as Decon researches in his office, the holy fountain, which is decorated with the image of two children wrapped together in a pair of angel wings, cracks open, revealing a pair of conjoined twins. Who, or what, are these twins? And what happened to the original child? These are the mysteries throughout the novel, and it is a mystery that draws Decon and Teret closer together. The answers will come, but not until the sequel. <br />
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What became the first draft of <em>An Inner Darkness </em>was essentially written in a two-week period. The rest of the material I had written would eventually become <em>A Light in the Dark. </em>And that was the original idea. <em>A Light in the Dark </em>was the original story I meant to tell, but the dynamic between Decon and Teret caught my attention in a way that I hadn't anticipated. And, in addition to length, the two halves didn't seem to be part of the same novel, but more like different entries in a series. <br />
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I finished writing <em>An Inner</em> <em>Darkness </em>in June of 2011, and <em>A Light in the Dark </em>was completed in December 2011. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-31028258726343787712012-05-21T11:05:00.001-07:002012-05-21T11:11:03.621-07:00Politics in Fiction--Harvester: AscensionI'll just come right out and say it. <em>Harvester: Ascension </em>is a political statement. That isn't to say that those who aren't into politics won't enjoy it. Quite the contrary. This is an action-packed sci-fi thriller. But what I do want to lay down for you here, is some of the groundwork that went into the novel, how current events have influenced the book's writing, and what it all means.<br />
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<em>Harvester </em>began with a concept. When European powers "discovered" other cultures, they attempted to either exterminate them or convert them to their way of living. In other words, their intentions were hostile, so if we were to encounter alien life, would we try to convert them to our culture, religion, government? Or would they do the same to us? It seemed like one or the other would be inevitable. What if we were forced to give up our heritage and worship some alien god, and follow some strange form of government?<br />
<br />
Andrew and I discussed the concept, and put it in outline form, but little of what went into the outline went into the final novel. The reason: that strange form of government seemed to be at our doorstep already, and we let the real world influence us, using that as a form of living outline. <br />
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An extremist group, calling themselves "The Tea Party," after the Boston Tea Party, but more accurately described as a wannabe Shay's Rebellion, came on the scene in 2009, espousing ideas that made no sense whatsoever to anyone with more than two brain cells. On one hand, they claimed to love the constitution, but on the other hand, they derided it completely, declaring it (without specifying they were talking about the constitution, because they seemed to be too ignorant of American history to know this) one of the worst things ever created by the hand of man. Basically a political group that advocated scrapping the constitution and reinstating the Articles of Confederation was gaining an enormous amount of political power because they had control of most of the media outlets.<br />
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Congressman stating and signing pledges that their first goal was to ensure Obama was a one-term president, political hacks like Rush Limbaugh saying he hopes Obama fails, and other seditious ravings made me think: there is a novel in this. So, the question guiding the novel transformed into this: what if aliens invaded, their primary target being America, during a time that the tea party, or people with a similar attitude toward American government, were in power? Answer: you get <em>Harvester: Ascension.</em><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1999956119075462883.post-21439132982309992182012-04-20T17:55:00.000-07:002012-04-20T17:55:01.808-07:00WelcomeFans, readers, critics,<br />
<br />
Welcome to my blog, the only place where you will see the inner workings of my mind--unless, of course, you read my books. Currently I have two published: <i>The Twins of Noremway Parish </i>and <i>Harvester: Ascension</i> (co-written with Andrew Utley). <i>The Book of Ragas,</i> the sequel to <i>The Twins of Noremway Parish</i>, will be out in due time. Be patient my dear readers, for the conclusion to this epic tale is forthcoming.<br />
<br />
For my first blog, I will conduct an interview with myself. I hope questions I ask myself provoke interesting answers. <br />
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<b>Why do you write the kind of books you do?</b><br />
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Those of you who have read either Twins or Harvester know that my novels tend to careen toward the creative edge of fiction. As I write, voices shout at me from the corners of my apartment, from under the bed, the closet, the toilet, anywhere, telling me to write this or that. Seriously though, I look at the world a bit differently than most, and I think my fiction reflects that. I am passionate about my writing, and I think I would be doing myself a disservice if I don't try pushing envelopes wherever I can.<br />
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<b>Who are the twins in the title of <i>The Twins of Noremway Parish?</i></b><br />
<i><b> </b></i><b><i> </i></b><br />
<b> </b>To answer this question, I would be giving away a large part of the plot, but this is what I can tell you: in the first book of this two-book series, the twins set everything in motion. Without the twins, Decon and Teret would never have realized or acted on their love for one another. They appear mysteriously in the parish cathedral. Who they are and how they appeared--where they came from--is revealed in <i>The Book of Ragas.</i> <br />
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<b>Why did you ask yourself a question you didn't want to fully answer in this interview?</b><br />
That's just how I roll, I guess.<br />
<b> </b><br />
<b>Indeed. If you could name one reason why someone should pick up <i>The Twins of Noremway Parish </i>today, what would you say?</b><br />
<br />
It has a very compelling love story. Decon Mangler and Teret Finley are in positions of authority in Noremway Parish that require them to swear an oath of celibacy. When these children come into their lives, it seems reasonable on the surface to allow Decon and Teret to care for them, but as they do, their feelings for each other come out in full form. Some in the parish will do anything to prevent any type of sacrilege from happening, even if it means destroying Decon and Teret's lives. It really is a statement about morality in the way that some people define moral behavior so strictly, that they lose a sense of what it is to be human.<br />
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<b>Why the strange title? And...parish?</b><br />
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I had a rhythm in my head for what the title should be. And I fit words into it. Noremway was something I made up. I wanted three syllables. I was going to call it The Twins of Noremway Village, or The Twins of Noremway Derby. But I settled on "parish" because of the religious undertones, and every religious term in the book is purposely misapplied. So I thought why not do that in the title as well?<br />
<b> </b><br />
<b>Is there anyone living or dead that you would like to have a conversation with? Who and why?</b><br />
<br />
John Lennon. I love this man. He was murdered before I was born, so I never knew a world in which he lived, but everywhere I look, I see his influence. In music...and to a degree in my own writing. Lennon was a phenomenal writer--mainly of songs, but he wrote a couple of books too. He was a brilliant wordsmith. Listening to him in interviews, you can see this man was a genius. He wasn't afraid to speak out against an unjust war, and he wasn't afraid to follow his heart.<b></b><br />
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In 2004, I went to New York City, and after seeing Ground Zero and observing a moment there, I needed to go to the Dakota to observe a moment at the sight of another tragedy, the place where Lennon was shot.<br />
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<b>Now I want to ask you about <i>Harvester: Ascension</i></b><b>: Why did you co-author a novel?</b><br />
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I always wanted to be a writer. I'd been writing stories since elementary school, but I eventually bought into all of the discouraging remarks about how it was a pointless endeavor. It probably didn't really hit me to write an actual novel until I was reading a bestseller and thought, <i>I can write better than this crap! </i>(I might have been reading <i>Twilight, </i>I can't remember<i>). </i>But I didn't know how to start.<br />
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One day, I was drinking with my buddy, Andy, and we decided to make up a wikipedia page. We created this character--I forget what it was now--and wrote this biography about him and posted it as if he were a real historical figure. That was fun, but more importantly, I discovered that Andy could write. We got talking about writing and how we were both trying to write novels but weren't sure how exactly to go about doing it.<br />
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So in October of 2009, writing on the novel that would become <i>Harvester: Ascension</i> commenced. Although <i>The Twins of Noremway Parish </i>was published prior to <i>Harvester, Harvester </i>was my first novel.<br />
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<b>What is the experience of co-authoring a novel?</b><br />
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Frustrating... a lot of disagreements, banging your head against the wall, and did I mention frustrating? But it was an awarding experience. Without input from both of us, the story, for better of worse, would have been something entirely different.<b> </b><br />
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<b>What do you have coming up?</b><br />
<b> </b>Andy and I will be finished with <i>Harvester: Evolution </i>within a few months. <i>The Book of Ragas, </i>the sequel to <i>The Twins of Noremway Parish, </i>will be published shortly. I am also writing two other novels: a science fiction thriller called <i>Temporal Winter...</i>and a horror/fantasy called <i>Orchard Hills.</i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07717381517112303247noreply@blogger.com0