Yes, I’ll admit it. I like Halloween. I’ve always liked it. Costumes, scary movies, shopping bags filled with candy, silly parties — what’s not to like? Last year Halloween in New York City was a casualty of Hurricane Sandy. The annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade and the New York City Marathon simply had to be canceled. At the time, those cancellations were the least of my worries, as I live in the part of the city left without power (no lights, heat or hot water) for five days. But now, I’ve got a residual yen for a particularly Happy Halloween.
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Size Matters: Monsters Large and Small
One of the qualities of MONSTERS is size. Giants are BIG and the word monster — as in monster storm, monster party, monster problem — is synonymous with huge. But there are tiny monsters. Swarms of bees, colonies of fire ants, a sofa on the street filled with bedbugs (yeeeech!)… Marching hordes of anything — however tiny — is a terribly monstrous idea. Although one little bee is easy to ignore, (not only is it easy, it’s smart) when they act in concert they are very, very scary. After hearing a few bedbug reports, I’m doing my best not to
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A Break from Monster Meditations
Today’s post is a break from my usual Monster Meditations and musings about storytelling, writing and language. I have two things to talk about right now and there’s nothing like “breaking news” to cause a change of plans. One — “Unexpected Tales from the Ends of the Earth” is FREE on Amazon until September 25. I have seven stories about murder, greed, crime and people committing monstrous mischief in this world lit collection from Mardibooks, so download your copy while it’s free and tell me what you think. You can leave a comment here, but I’d also really appreciate it
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Paranormal Cable TV
Let’s start with a disclaimer — I’m not a believer. I LOVE ghost stories, but my personal experience with hauntings is limited to an occasional eerie feeling and the firm belief that I carry part of my grandmother with me in the form of memories of our very close bond. I have friends who believe in ghosts — friends who swear they grew up on haunted houses and who have been visited by the shadows of dearly departed or of previous inhabitants of an old house. Not me. That being said, I really do love a good ghost story and
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Mirror, Mirror
“Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all?” I bet you think I’m going to tackle the beautiful monster problem — the inside (horror) with an outside yummy, candy coating of attractive persona. But not today — today I’m focused on the mirror itself. I recently read “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” — Susanna Clarke’s massive, 1,000-plus page novel set in a fantasy, alternative, magic-infused version of 19th century England. The magicians of the title repeatedly use mirrors and reflections as passageways and windows into distant places and alternative faerie lands. Late in the novel, a
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Machines Gone Wild — Mechanical Monsters
Sometimes, when the auto correct on my iPhone goes mad and alters my text messages beyond recognition, I ponder the intelligence of creating intelligent machines. We’re well on our way to transforming passive screens into screens that measure our responses (pupil dilation, etc.) to the images and words they project; refrigerators that tell us when the milk is going sour; 3-D printers that can spew out their own spare parts; and cars that do the driving without our interference. Machines that talk are already among us. I opted against having my phone talk to me, especially after an update in
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Ask Not for Whom the Bell Tolls… Scary Sounds!
Sound effects in film are powerful emotional triggers. The key jiggling in the lock, the hiss of a piece of paper sliding under the door, and an ominous melody (thank you JAWS) all inspire fear. Of course this is true in real life and some people — and some fictional characters — are particularly sensitive to the psychological suggestions of sound. I’m going to count myself among them and I’m conscious of how this informs the fears of some of my characters. The following anecdote is true and slightly embarrassing. I’ll start with the caveat that I had not slept
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Waiting for It… Waiting for It…
Suspense is all about time and timing. Waiting for the other shoe to drop, the door to open or the protagonist to turn around and see the monster. Sometimes the scariest moments are when time itself is “suspended.” We’ve all experienced time seeming to speed up or slow down. Concentration and involvement make time fly; disenchantment and boredom makes time crawl. In life, nothing is longer than the minutes before the answer to an important question. It’s true in fiction too — especially if the answer solves a mystery or reveals the truth. “And the killer is (pause)….” Right now,
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Words You Can Touch: Adding Texture to Text…
Some words have weight — they add gravitas to dialog and descriptive text. Other words are shrill or hushed or pound a fist on a table with emphatic power. The other day I was trying to write a scene in a novel involving dancing. You’d think this would be very easy for me. I go out Tango dancing a few times a week, take at least one Zumba class a week, have been known to show up at a Swing dance and I’m always looking for a good belly dancing class — but writing about dancing is something else. I’m
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