Dr. Horrible — sounds pretty MONSTROUS and the image is just this side of completely creepy, but it’s a blog award and I’ve been nominated. As they say, it’s an honor just to be nominated, so…. Today’s post will focus on blogs and the corner of the blog world that I’m carving out for Candy’s Monsters. Step One: Thank the nominating committee… Thank you Meeka of Meeka’s Mind for nominating me and my Candy’s Monsters for the Dr. Horrible. Since we connected on LinkedIn, you have introduced me to a group of wonderful Australian bloggers — tons of fun from
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I know I’m not the only one who grew up watching Vincent Price in Roger Corman’s B-films on TV. They were great — wonderfully creepy and ghoulish. They just didn’t have all that much in common with the original stories by Edgar Allan Poe. That’s not a negative critique; it’s just a statement of fact. The Poe originals are subtle, secretive and gothic, with layers of language and imagery beckoning the reader into the minds of Poe’s paranoid characters. It’s apples and oranges and I happen to like fruit salad; so I like both. I first read Poe’s stories when
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Most fairy stories have a dark side. The good ones put the protagonists in genuine jeopardy with a true threat of violence. The original Grimm Brothers stories are truly grim and very, very bloody. A while back I bought a collection called “Grimm’s Grimmest” with the bloodiest and scariest stories you NEVER heard as a child. It included stories from the 1812 and 1822 editions that never made it into the fairy story collections we all grew up with. (Chronicle Books, 1997 with illustrations by Tracy Arah Dockray and an introduction by Maria Tatar) I thought about those fairy tales
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With near-record high temperatures and a cloudless sky, yesterday was a parasol day. I collapsed it down to tiny umbrella size and shape before I got a seat on the number 6 train uptown. There’s a general impression about New Yorkers never talking to one another; it’s not true. We enjoy the illusion of private space, but chatting with strangers isn’t uncommon. The woman sitting next to me said, “Boy you’re a pessimist with an umbrella on a day like today.” “It’s a parasol. A friend got for me in Hong Kong.” “Does it really work?” “Oh, I get my
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There’s nothing like doing a little research during the final phase of manuscript preparation. It can make you question your storytelling choices or laugh out loud. I decided that I needed a little touch of oddball menace on page nine of my new Candy’s Monster — Bram Stoker’s Summer Sublet — so I put a few “coffin corners” in the stairway of the old building where the story takes place. I first heard about coffin corners when I worked in a 19th century house in Brooklyn. The building was rundown, but still charming. The little niches in the stairway walls
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A friend took a photograph of me through the window of the coffee bar where I stop on the way home from the gym most mornings. My image, coffee mug in hand, floats in the mirror reversed reflections of New York street life — a couple of trees, a car, the sign for a parking garage, scaffolding, buildings, a van with a ladder and pedestrians. I like the photo because I appear to be less solid than the reversed objects on the other side of the glass. It’s as if I’m a ghost hovering in space. Haunted photos have been
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I’m readying the next Monster manuscript for e-publishing at the end of this month. Two friends have already proofed the manuscript and found some wonderful little monster typos. PEAK instead of BEAK would have been particularly embarrassing as the character is talking about a parrot. I’m wondering if my third proofreader will find anything the other two have missed. Proofreading is a tough job! I’m pretty good at it when working on someone else’s text, but my own is another thing entirely. It’s just too easy for the eye to glaze over an obvious mistake THEN for THAN, IT’S for
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I went to see an HD screening of the National Theater’s play — Frankenstein. It was amazing! There is nothing like a monster on the big screen of a Times Square Movie Theater. Although I really would have preferred flying to London to see it live…. back to reality… Benedict Cumberbatch (yes, the actor playing Sherlock in the new series) and Jonny Lee Miller (who was on Dexter as a scary serial killer a couple of years ago) alternate playing Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster. My friend and I saw Benedict Cumberbatch as the cold and withdrawn Victor Frankenstein. He
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Last week I went to a Tango music concert. Given the amount of time I spend dancing Tango it doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but it was a lovely concert in a tiny venue. (It was at Caffee Vivaldi where I heard Roger Davidson with Raul Jaurena and Pablo Aslan, followed by Fernando Otero). For a couple of hours I left my desk and just listened to the music. It’s also remarkable because when I first started dancing, I wasn’t hooked on the music. I was enchanted by the dance. I was captured by the movements, by the
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I’m hard at work prepping the next Candy’s Monster novella for e-publishing. So what to do I do for distraction? I write a short monster story. It’s the story inspired by the monster holidays (May 20) and rum punch ramblings (May 25) on this blog. Short story, novella, novel the process is basically the same with multiple drafts, notes, reviewing, editing and trying it again. Sometimes it’s like Goldilocks and the third bowl of porridge is just right, but sometimes it takes more effort. Yesterday, I was talking to a friend who knits. She made me a marvelous pair of
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