“Once upon a gloomy morning” does not cut it in a contest with “Once upon a midnight dreary.” Midnight is the witching hour, the time when MONSTERS roam. Personally, I always think mornings are pretty scary. Back in my corporate days I was at the gym at 6am. But that was then and this is now, and any vestige of my early-to-rise persona has been quashed by freelance work. Of course freelance writing is all about another scary time — deadlines! Deadlines are always looming. Deadlines ARE monstrous ticking beasts. Midnight IS Monster time. The definition of midnight is the
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The More Things Change
The more things change, the more they stay the same. That incredibly old adage came back to haunt me when I saw the new Broadway production of Ibsen’s classic “Enemy of the People.” The play is about politics, money, greed, pollution, jobs, taxes, community and human nature. If the tannery spilling toxic chemicals into the water at the town’s new spa baths is replaced by any one of a number of contemporary political/economic/scientific questions where the balance of “truths” shifts as fast as 30-second TV spots, the play could take place right now and not in 19th century Norway. The
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Monster Sounds
I love this time of the year. September in New York is beautiful. Yes, it does rain and there’s the usual hurricane threats and the unusual tornado watches, but… The heat and humidity of summer in the city is replaced by blue skies, moderate temperatures and an entirely different set of city sounds… Sounds? Yes. The ever-present hum of air conditioners is suddenly gone. I’m not a big fan of air conditioning. It’s not that I actually like the horrible heat of August; it’s more that I don’t like the cycle of freezing and sweating that is impossible to escape
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The Monster in the Cave
Last week I went to NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World to see an exhibit called “Echoes of the Past.” This show managed to combine new technology and ancient art. What a great mix! The ancient art was from the Xiangtangshan (mountain of echoing halls) Buddhist cave temples from the Northern Qi dynasty. The Buddhas, bodhisttvas, disciples, stone walls with inscriptions and giant hands in mudras (specific gestures) are all spectacular — timeless and beautiful beyond any religious or historic significance. That universal beauty nearly doomed the caves and their contents when, in the early 1900’s photographs
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Stumbling into Inspiration
I’m still working on MONSTER number three, my Edgar Allan Poe-inspired novella, but I’m also in that very exciting RESEARCH phase for Candy’s Monster number four — my updated and completely original take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic about what it means to be human: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Stevenson wrote about the dual nature of individuals at a time before Freud, Jung, Skinner and Prozac. His good doctor Jekyll knows that he harbors a dark side — or at least some relatively dark inclinations — and believes that if he can split them off,
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Murder, Mystery & Art in New York
I went to “The Murder of Crows” at the Park Avenue Armory and then on to see Lin Tianmiao’s “Bound Unbound” at the Asia Society. She is a major artist from China and this was her first big solo show in New York. “Murder” is a sound installation by Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller with 98 speakers in the gigantic central drill hall of the Armory. It was amazing and numbing at the same time, with choral music, spoken words, Tibetan prayers, orchestral music and sound effects. The sounds — floating, running, pounding, playing, dancing, purring, humming, screeching and
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The Monster Factory Never Shuts Down
It’s tempting to picture a factory floor with MONSTERS hard at work at each station, manning (or monster-ing) heavy machinery, but this monster factory has one employee — me. My cat pitches in, occasionally. His contributions are very cat-oriented. “Meow, you need a break, play with me.” “Purrrrrrr… that laptop computer is nice and warm. I shall sleep on it.” “No, you cannot use the printer right now. It is now mine.” His influence is apparent at odd moments in some of my stories, including the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired Monster-in-Progress. The movements of the mysterious black cat are drawn from
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Super Powers of Monsters
The magical powers of MONSTERS are often what draw us to monster stories. Supernatural strength, extraordinary size and peculiar physiognomy, are all compelling, but the other powers are even more intriguing. The ability to fly, change shape, telekinetically move objects, read minds, pass through solid walls, time travel and become invisible, are all super-deluxe/super-monstrous powers. There’s another one that I’d definitely call a super-deluxe, although it is subtle and is often associated with non-monsters. It’s the ability to influence others. Vampires are said to “glamour” their human prey. They manipulate with a magically enhanced form of hypnotism. Charismatic human individuals
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Final Diet
I rarely post more than a snippet of my novellas, largely because it’s so hard to chose that one little bit of text that represents the work in its entirety. The folks at Mardibooks have done me a favor. Not only have they introduced all seven of my stories in “Unexpected Tales from the Ends of the Earth,” but they’ve selected a short excerpt from one of the stories, “The Final Diet,” to share on my Mardibooks author page. I hope you’re intrigued! Click the link below for my Mardibooks Author Page and a taste of “Unexpected Tales” From The
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