Finding Words

Sometimes I struggle to find the words for the ideas in my head. Not in the sense of a lack of vocabulary, hell, I wouldn't try to write if I didn't HAVE the words. More in the sense that sometimes I feel the words aren't doing the story justice. I must type and delete more paragraphs than I actually keep. I wonder if I'm doing right by my characters. Am I giving them the flesh they deserve, the organs to keep their blood pumping or are they only skin with hollow bones.

I write horror, but I never intend to give chills. I honestly believe it's damn near impossible to frighten or disgust anymore, not with computer effects and the heights to which both film and reality have taken our imaginations these days. No, monsters aren't scary anymore cause we've seen them. They're known. I don't find the ghost in the haunted house scary anymore. It's the ghosts in the man's head that lead him to drink obsessively and neglect his loved ones that are really terrifying. That's what I try to capture. Life is horror and when you can grab it and twist it just right, well hell, you can make someone shudder and look at the people around them a little differently and that's true horror. My opinion anyway. Not to take away from those writers that still create those beastly creatures that haunt dreams. More power to them. It's just not my cup of blood.

Vampires are sexy. Werewolves are hip. Mummies, well, mummies are dead. We've split more zombie heads than George Romero and buried more bones than the neighbors dog. Ghosts get hunted on the sci-fi channel by plumbers. What's left? Serial killers? Please, they belong in the movies and on CSI: Miami. It's the little horrors that I like. The kid at school with the pistol in his backpack, the mother who doesn't love her child enough, the man who's so tired of losing he'll go to any length for a victory, even if it means someone gets hurt. And even though we see them everyday, we never truly SEE them until it's too late. And that's scary.

On a more personal note, "Sweet Sherry" was a no go over at 52 Stitches. Oh well, the editor there got a different perspective than I was going for when reading it and that's totally my fault. The story was a bit rushed so I shelved it for now. I'm working on shooting another one at them entitled "One Cup of Safari Punch" which I hope will be more to their liking.

The Northern Haunts anthology over at Shroud is moving along. Mr. Tim Deal says it's coming in at over 300 pages and at least two of them will be mine. (probably even 4 pages) The soft cover will be out soon and the hard cover is looking to hit before Christmas this year.

My story "The Choice" is still slated to appear in Black Ink Horror Magazine early next year. If you haven't checked them out please do, I like what Tim Manning/Tom Moran is doing over there. He's really putting together a quality publication.

Well, I better get back to doing something...constructive. Maybe I'll build a fort.