Well call me crazy.

Now I know I’m crazy. I’m not stupid but I’ll openly admit to being somewhat crazy. Apparently I’m psychic as well. The last blog was about mind control and a preacher who used it or attempted to in Inherit the Wind. It seems it’s rearing it’s ugly head again. I just heard about the President paying a visit to the school kids next week via the television. If he’s going to use that as a medium for mind control he’s picked a great way to do it.

Before pronouncing sentence on him for wanting to encourage young people to work hard, study, do their best at whatever it is they wish to try or excel at let’s take a look at what the other side has to say.

Seems that parents or at least some, stirred by the talk shows, which by the way are excellent for presenting both sides of an issue, do not wish him, the President, to corrupt those young minds and, as I heard, “Brain wash” them toward his way of thinking. All right, I would say to those parents, don’t send your children to school. Let them sit a home and watch cartoons or something else but be sure you turn off the set when the advertisements come on. After all you don’t want to have your child brain washed into begging and pleading and bombarding you with requests for whatever product Madison Avenue has dreamed up to sell now do you? After all it’s on TV isn’t it. I would presume you all monitor what the kids watch on the Internet as well. Oh and those XBox and Play Station games,. You know, the one’s with all the violence that drills killing into the kids heads. But then those aren’t used for brain washing, are they? Nope. Those are just games. Harmless games where people, not mice or fairies or turtles get beaten up and then get up without a scratch. No those are games depicting people getting shot and blasted by guns then getting up as if nothing has happened. But that’s not brain washing. That’s just play. If you say so.

There is a point here or more a question for you to ponder. What do you want your child to learn? If he has to be brain washed, would you rather have him be brain washed into buying some super sweet, artificially flavored, box of whatever that may in all probability explode him into some obese tub with high blood pressure, clogged arteries, heart problems, diabetes and a host of other things, OR would you rather he be brain washed into thinking he may amount to something: that he might be able to do something great or achieve something for himself; that with some hard work he could achieve his dreams whatever they might be. That’s something you may wish to think about before the President addresses the schools.

And while I’m on the subject of brain washing, what about you? Are you being brain washed? If so who’s putting the ideas in your head? Who’s telling you this particular President has a socialistic agenda to take away all of your freedoms? Not that the past administrations have attempted brain washing. Anyone recall the Patriot Act? You’re for it or you’re UN-American. Then there was the Red Menace. Joe McCarthy and his witch hunts. My apologies to any Wiccan who happen to read this. I’m actually on your side. While we’re at it, let’s not forget the cigarette companies. We all know that some cigarettes tastes good like cigarettes should. Did I mention in that little jingle that cigarettes kill your cells? Well that would be brain washing if i said that I suppose.

Come on people, take off the horse blinders. Take a look around you. Open your mind and THINK! These are your children and this is your country. Look at all the sides to this and at least think before you pass judgment. Take a minute to question the motives, both pro and con, then decide. I’m not here, spouting off to get you to change your mind. I’m here to get you to THINK before you make up your mind.

Then again why should I care at all. I’m a simple writer of horror fiction, lost in my own little mind and world of the unreal and unimaginable.

Maybe I care BECAUSE I am a writer of horror and I CAN imagine the unimaginable that I care. But that’s a question for another day. For now, if you’ll all excuse me, I’m going back to the Dark side where it’s safe.

The Mind is a dangerous place…

I was watching Inherit the Wind the other night, thoroughly enjoying Spencer Tracy and Fredrick March banter back and forth during the courtroom scenes. After all, these were two fantastic actors playing opposite each other. It was something to watch. Now I’ve seen this movie several times before so the outcome was never going to be a surprise but what did surprise me was how I looked at the secondary characters.

Take the Reverend Jeremiah Brown, apparently the only religious leader in the entire town of Hillsboro. A very religious man to be sure but a zealot to the “N”th degree on top of that Given the location of the story, the Bible Belt of America, this isn’t really a surprise.

Ok he’s a bit over zealous in his pursuit of his faith but so what?

He has a daughter,Rebecca, who just happend to be the fiancee of Bert Cates, the poor school teacher who decided to teach evolution instead of creationism in the local school, disregarding the state statute the said only creationism could be taught. So what’s Reverend Brown’s stake in all of this? His daughter is of age and although Bert Cates did break the law, it doesn’t really affect the preacher directly. Or does it?
In fact Cate’s breaking of the law is never shown to directly affect anyone in any adverse physical manner. There’s the rub for Reverend Brown. Cates has dared to attack the preachers beliefs about his God and the creation. Can it be all that simple? Religion is a powerful force and any attack on it by any one will create conflict. This conflict seems to be more personal though.

Reverend Brown exerts a great deal of control over the community. He can whip up a crowd like some cooks whip up a souflee. His stake in this is the mind control over those he lives with. He stands to lose control over his daughter, Rachel, to her fiancee’ Cates. And he could lose control of his parishioners if they start believing Darwinism over the, until now, absolute teaching of the Bible. That’s a lot to swallow for someone use to having his own way.

That brings me to the point about dark characters and dark thinking. Not all dark characters need to be ominous outwardly. Not all dark thinking needs to be about murder or mayhem. A preacher certainly isn’t at first glance. A school teacher probably wouldn’t be either nor would a mother of 3 small children but don’t preclude them from the possibility. The mind holds secrets that few get to see until it may be too late.

In the case of Reverend Brown, he shows his true self through his unchristian actions of bigotry and prejudice. Those feelings and thought have been sent throughout the community in his sermons as well as his orations. He is exercising a great degree of mind control over people who, under other circumstances, might rebel at the thought of what he is saying. It isn’t necessary to have a gun to someone’s head to convince them they need to follow or comply. Often, words will do much more simply because words, unlike a loaded revolver, will remain lodged to the side of one’s brain and that fear will remain.

In the movie William Jennings Bryan has the same zeal and it’s shown very well but it would not be as convincing if he were the only one with this point of view. It takes something else to add that kind of power to the story.

As a final thought about mind control…you may now resume your regularly scheduled activities until the next entry when you will return to me to lavish praise on this blog.

Death-to Die or not to Die, that is the question.

Death, now there’s a dark subject. I don’t think I’ll do it though. Several reasons for that. First it’s been done before and I hate doing something someone else as already done. Second, no one who hasn’t done it wants to talk about it so I can only conclude it’s not worth talking about and why waste my breath. Either that or the reason for not talking about it is it’s just not exciting so again why bother doing it. And last, but certainly not least, there have been a huge number of people who have done it and to my knowledge not one has really come back and given anyone any insight as to what it’s all about so, again, it must not be worth the time to deal with it. Therefore I see no reason to do it. Dying is a waste of time and energy it would seem. Those that have done it don’t talk about it. Those who haven’t don’t seem interested in doing it. I won’t rock the boat.

BUT if I WEREgoing to rock the boat with dying, what if dying isn’t some dark mystery? Suppose it’s just another dimension. Suppose when you take that step across the line the only thing you lose is the package you’re wrapped in. You know, the body. I wonder how many would be interested in taking that trip?

So what makes death so bad anyway? Like most horror it’s an unknown. Too many questions that are unanswered and that in itself for humans is a fear creator. As writers we deal with the end result. Death as a finish to a story or a character but suppose it was only the beginning?

The characters and their motives are dark and ominous enough when there are alive but what about when they’re not? That’s really opening up Pandora’s Box. No restrictions on what or how. No restrictions on getting caught. Jeffery Dahmer would weight about 800 pounds by now.

Death isn’t always tangible. It can be unseen or unfelt physically. It can be in only one mind or in ten thousand minds. Death isn’t always splattered in blood across the wall of a motel room either. It could be splattered across the interior walls of the eyes, seen only by the possessor of those eyes. Imagine waking every day, opening your eyes to the drippings of blood oozing across your vision no matter where you looked. Limit that if you prefer to blood running FROM those family members you see. Again the character is the only one who can see the blood. Terror? Horror? Reality or not? Does it even matter if it’s what haunts the character. Would you long for Death or run from it?

I hope this gives you a little something to think about when you’re searching for a new theme. I’ll be back with some other suggestions in the near future. Until then…pleasant dreams.

QUIET!

SILENCE! SHUT UP! God I can hardly hear myself think with all this noise and racket going on around me.

Now I don’t suppose anyone has ever said that before.

We get bombarded day after day after day with noise to the point that all we want is some peace and quiet…quiet being more the operative word than peace. But have you ever given consideration to the world around you IF there were no sounds? Suppose you could hear and then it was all taken away. There were no sounds around you, no screaming kids, no honking horns or thundering jets overhead. This is difficult to imagine for most people but I had the opportunity to experience it first hand while living in Wyoming.

I was traveling the back roads one day just puttering along with my camera. I got to a secluded spot and I wanted to do a little closer examination of the area so I shut off the truck, grabbed my camera and a tripod and got out of the truck. While standing there, looking around for a direction to explore I became acutely aware of something or lack of it would be more to the point. There wasn’t a sound around me except the wind. Almost total silence. It was one of the eeriest feelings I can recall. At first my ears hurt for want of some sound. Anything was better than what I was going through. The trill of a Meadowlark or even the gentle uttering of a cow, (no pun intended), was better than the pain in my ears.

Sometimes what isn’t there is more painful than what is there. Deprivation of the senses came be far darker than the loud constant clatter that we experience and have learned to tune out. Plug up the ears, add a blindfold and suspend someone and you have terror first class. Throw in a soft feathery touch to a sensitive area and you have a horror you can barely imagine. It’s darker and more suspenseful that hacking or slashing some poor teen while she’s at summer camp.

Fear

Have you ever been afraid of something? I mean really afraid? I suppose most people have had some degree of fear but where they really afraid of what was happening or about to happen? Probably not.

I think fear comes in degrees. I’m afraid I won’t make it to work on time or I’m afraid this report won’t be good enough. Those are common fears and they’re more in line with anxiety. There is a dread inside but it’s passing and is easily dismissed with some rationalizations.

Then there’s that fear that hangs on for a while. I’m afraid I have cancer. I’m afraid of the dentist drill or I’m afraid to fly. Those usually hang on for some time. The dread is there even if it’s not rational and it’s not likely to be rationalized away. I have a fear of dying from a heart attack. I know it’s possible but I’ve had check ups and the heart is sound or at least as good as it can be for me. Yet that fear persists. But again is it fear or anxiety?

Then there’s the fear that consumes every part of you. Your hands sweat, your heart doesn’t just beat inside your chest, it throbs and pounds with the intensity of a blacksmith pounding an anvil with his hammer. It echos in your ears and makes them ring and blot out every other sound around you. You can’t catch your breath. Every nerve in your being is alive and they all jangle at the same time. Every whisper becomes a scream; every noise a thunderous clamor; every breath a gasp for air. And the worst part is there is no escape from it because that fear is lodged inside you. It’s in your heart; it’s in your head.

That is a fear that few people ever really experience and live to tell about it. It comes with death or at least the threat of death. It also comes with something unknown, unseen; something that lurks just inside the shadows of the mind, waiting patiently for you to close your eyes and drift off into that daydream.

Now fear isn’t always the result of impending violence either. Imagine that “dark and stormy night” if you will. Maybe you’re curled up with a good mystery or thriller or even a beautiful romance novel when the lights flicker. They don’t go out, they just flicker. There was no sound from the storm that could have cause it so what did?

Probably some car hitting a power line or maybe a small animal that got caught and ended up as a crispy critter. Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was something else. No probably not. So you go back to reading and several minutes later, there’s a slight creaking coming from somewhere in the house. Now that flicker begins to loom larger and your imagination begins to take over.

Still you know you’re alone and safe. Or so you tell yourself. But just to be on the safe side you put the book down and go to the kitchen with the pretense of getting something to drink. Along the way you stop, peek into the bedroom or den or any other room close by. Just as you thought. Your mind was playing trick on you. So back to that easy chair and your book.

Simple, yes? At least until the next noise comes from upstairs or the basement or the window you can’t see. Or maybe it’s nothing more than a whisper of air brushing over your hair. Perhaps it’s an errant moth that fluttered inside when you opened the door earlier. But now you know there is something inside with you. It’s no longer just anxiety. You can’t simply whisk it away with some rationalization. It’s embedded in you and until morning comes …

Fear comes in all shapes and sizes. It doesn’t need to be the threat of a slasher or even something physical. What it does need, however, is to be unexplained.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back . Sleep tight tonight

Dark Emotions

I am by my nature not a violent person. I usually don’t get mad. That’s not to say I don’t get even but it’s not in an immediate physical manner. I usually take my time, maybe go over and over what happened and what would be the best course to follow for whatever I may like. That being said, I’d like to relate something that happened that gave me a personal chiill.

I was helping someone close after I was asked to help. At the same time I was dealing with another person about a totally different matter. Person A, the one I was helping, took exception and rather harshly to a suggestion I had made. I wasn’t trying to force an issue but was offering a suggestion or was about to when the party exploded and I got the force of the explosion. To say I’m not use to that would be somewhat of a lie so I didn’t react openly. I simply kept my suggestion to myself.

Now at almost the same time, person B, decided to go off on me about a perception they had gotten some time ago and never let it go even though I had tried to correct the perception repeatedly. Apparently that didn’t work.

Both incidents left me stunned emotionally since I had no bad intentions but that didn’t matter. To say it was a kick in the stomach would be putting it mildly.

After a short time I regained some composure. I was clam when this next feeling hit. There was no rage nor any storming or rattling of sabers, only a feeling of cold, hard and harsh indifference to both parties. The emotions were open and raw and completely without concern as to what I could do or would do regardless of the relationship I had with each person. There was a void gaping inside me I had not felt before.

Now you’re probably wondering what does this have to do with the dark side? I thought I had some grasp of a villian’s psyche. I was wrong.

When writing about someone who has no remorse for things done or no feelings what so ever about what they can do to another, whether it’s physical or emotional, you have to feel that cold, uncaring, calm. There are no second thoughts, no rampages that spur the villain onward. There is nothing but a calm, cold, calculating thought process that moves them forward.

Edward stood motionless, almost rigid except for his eyes. Where ever she moved they followed the way the eyes in a portrait never leave you no matter where you walk. His skin was ashen, dull and gray, bloodless and nondescript. He wasn’t human; he wasn’t alien; he wasn’t anything but there, watching calmly as she stared back at him.

As she backed away he followed in slow mechanically programed steps, one foot lifting as the first descend to the floor. She could almost hear the grinding of metal against metal grating in his joints as he moved. This was not the man she fell in love with. Not the warm, caring, person who cuddled and soothed her when she ached. This was a killer, cold, ruthless, unfeeling, intent on only one thing…her destruction.

When you consider your villain, you need to get into his or her head and find out which personality type you’re dealing with. A, fly off the handle, “I want to kill that son of a bitch” person or the quiet, cold, calculating and secret vengeful person who will stop at nothing to get even.

So until next time, sleep well while you can. You never know who may be watching you tomorrow .

Seeing

There are any number of people who tell you to write what you know. Now that’s all well and good but suppose you’re like me and you delve into the dark recesses of the mind? What are you going to do then, commit the crime to see how you feel about it?

The other night I watched a movie called. “A Cabin By the Lake“. It was about a writer who was writing about a serial killer who “planted” his victims at the bottom of the lake his cabin was near. He committed the killings himself then disposed of the girls at the bottom of the lake so he could write about it and KNOW what the killer felt. That’s a little extreme if you ask me but it was a good movie regardless.

So how do you see and feel what the character sees and feels? We’ve all had numerous life experience that could lend themselves to knowing. Sometimes all it takes is those images, feelings and reactions.

The other day I was at a small recital, all strings. I don’t usually go to recitals but this was suggested by my wife AND it was a freebie so why not. When the group began playing, being a visual person, I watched each member to see how they moved or reacted to the music. I got very little from that so I switched gears and closed my eyes, simply listening to the music. Mind you this was classical to begin with, not an overwhelming favorite of mine.

It was funny how I could pick out each individual instrument. I shut off one sense and another became acute. As the recital progressed the senses picked up more and more until I could pictures a scene or location I should say.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. There was a piece from the movie Pocahontas. At a certain point in the piece I began to picture a battlefield in Gettysburg I had been to some years before and as the piece continued the image became clearer until I actually shed a few tears. The feeling of sadness swept over me very quickly. I could see the battlefield littered with bodies both Blue and Grey. Tattered flags dangling from broken shafts, and an eerie, deathly silence hovering over the ground. I hadn’t remembered Gettysburg for some time but it was very clear in my mind at this point. Now that image is fixed with me.

The point here is that doing something as simple as closing your eyes and listening to the world around you, it’s possible to recall things that can be useful in your story. It’s not necessary to plant a dozen young girls in the lake to know how a serial killer feels or what the girls are feeling as their life is dragged from them.

The Dark Side

What is the dark side anyway. Spielberg had Darth Vader join the Dark Side. Did he have to pay dues or fill out an application? Was he a guest of someone? Did he just Google the Dark Side then join up with his email?

Then long before Darth Vader came into power in a galaxy far far away there were the Tales from the Dark Side. Those tales came right into the home through a small box with thin sticks protruding from the top of it.

Mary Shelly thought it was a grotesque man sewn together from parts of dead men. That’s not so dark now since there are limb and organ transplants taking place all the time.

Count Dracula was a dark undead creature but today we don’t really believe a creature like that exists. There were werewolves, creatures from a lagoon, blobs that resembled a mass of strawberry jam, and creatures from outer space.
All of those were, at one point in time, considered to be dark in nature. They all came from man’s imagination, however.

That leads me to one conclusion. The real dark side lies within us. It may be hidden deep inside the mind and never see the light of day or it may lurk just beneath the surface and slither out at night. But it isn’t something that is far off. It’s within each of us and it isn’t fictional.

Since I deal with horror I frequently get ideas from the news. Maybe a single word will trigger my dark side.

I read recently that a man, after his wife died, had her made into a coffee table. I don’t mean she was cremated and poured into the molten glass and then added. She WAS the coffee table. Apparently he couldn’t bare the pain of her death so he decided to keep her around. Now he had to get his own drinks but she was always there to keep them ready for him when he wanted one. Funny and bizarre at the same time I suppose not to mention one hell of a conversation starter when guests arrived.

So let’s suppose he was a taxidermist. I don’t think I need to pursue that idea too far for anyone to get where it could lead.

Then there are ideas that on the face of it seem to have no dark side at all. Religion is a perfect example. Any religion fits this simply because it requires a belief that can’t be proven. Therefore it lurks in the mind, either close to the surface or deep within it and is largely a product of man’s imagination.

There have been more atrocities committed in the name of religion than most people care to think about. From the burning of witches to killing abortion doctors by right to lifers, religion has played a major role in many of the worlds dark horrors.

Let’s not forget our inner dark side. What makes men tick? Men includes you girls too. Power and greed are the simple and most obvious answers. Power to control others. Power to do whatever pleases. Power to gain material possessions. Greed. Greed for more money. Greed for a bigger boat. Greed for another woman OR man. We don’t get enough. We feel we have to have more than we could possibly spend or use or cope with in a hundred lifetimes Power and greed top the list of the dark side, with out a doubt.

So as the song says…“…open up your mind, let the fantasy unwind in this darkness that you know you can not fight…”

On a personal note now, I dropped this little tidbit here today not because it was a Sunday sermon. No I have an ulterior motive. My own dark side. Care to guess what it is?

That’s it for now. Feel free to explore YOUR dark side when you can. Drop me a line and let me know what you discovered. I’m always open to exploration.

The Darkside of Weather

The dark side of weather? Who’s he kidding?

Actually I’m not kidding. Weather, if you stop to think about it, has a dark ominous side. Not just those “dark and stormy night” types of weather but those middle of the day types as well. So let’s take a look at the weather and see what is so dark about the middle of the day.

Right now as I’m writing this it’s about 9 AM. That wouldn’t seem to be anything ominous unless at 4PM you were going to die or get married. So for the sake of argument let’s forget about the marriage thing until some time later and look at the weather between 9 and 4.

The temperature is in the upper 80’s. The radio is on and the weatherman spouts off about it looking like another HOT ONE. Well it already IS another hot one so the real question is where is it going to stop?

Considering the temperatures usually don’t peak until 4PM this could be more than a little uncomfortable. How about that sudden burst of heat from the wind that sparks the temperature to soar? Hot, dry, blistering heat driven by winds from the South. Feeling a little uncomfortable yet? No?

Ok let’s suck the moisture out of the air. I know, it’s a dry heat so it’s not as bad as heat with humidity. Wanna bet? First thing that happens as that temperature rises is the air dries. Next what ever water is in the lakes, rivers and streams evaporates. And then…it’s YOUR turn.

Your body is mostly water in case you’ve forgotten. It evaporates like any other water when the temperatures rise. Need more?

The temperature is rising steadily at a rate of 10 degrees an hour. Everything around you is loosing moisture. Wood begins to buckle, popping like rifle shots when it snaps. Then there’s that explosion of lightning caused by the heat and presto, a lightning strike onto tinder dry ground. FIRE! And there you are, sitting under a wooden porch roof, enjoying the summer.

Everything has a dark side. Villains aren’t confined to the living or the dead. Monsters don’t just exist as some hideous creature or some mad scientist.

Next time you’re looking for a villain take a good look at your surroundings. Villains lurk everywhere.

So until next time I think I’ll turn on the fan, grab a pitcher of cold lemonade and go sit on the porch until it cools off.

Villains–learn to love ‘em.

That’s ok, don’t get up.  I can find a seat all by myself.  You have just got to love modern technology …when it works.  When it doesn’t it’s not worth much more than a pencil and a piece of paper but enough about my internet connection.  Today I’d like to talk about a favorite of mine, the villain.  Snidley Whiplash , Hannibal Lecter,  the Alien Bitch, Bret Farve who seems to have more lives than Michael Myers or Jason, Lizzie Borden  These are not the most lovable people in the world with the exception of Brett that is.  So how do  you make then lovable?

We use the same things it takes to make a hero lovable.  Character, class or lack of it, strong points and weaknesses, something that would endear us to him.  I mean if you take a look at all the most vile villains, real or imagined, there are things we like about him.

Hannibal Lecter is vile at the very least.  Anyone who enjoys liver and Chianti has two strikes against him going in as far as I’m concerned but the way he seems to win over Clarice is admirable.  He’s smooth, cunning, suave and perceptive.  Put those traits into someone else and you have a lovable to die for hero.  Well Hannibal IS to die for but in a different sense.

…..down the steps, a tall, dark and seductively handsome figure approached…..“My name is Ethan Morris. May I be of service to you?” His voice was soft, soothing, even lulling, yet very deliberate as he spoke….

Seductive, handsome, smooth talking.  Just don’t let him get you alone.

The villain of the story doesn’t need to be so apparent either.  Hannibal is a bad guy from the beginning but the little old grandmother who makes those fabulous meat pies wouldn’t seem like a villain unless you read the ingredients.  In fact she didn’t start out as  a villain.

…..Summer blushed as she stared into his deep blue eyes. Stammering as she spoke seemed to upset her as much as the collision with him as he left the dance floor….

A shy retiring girl who isn’t very self assured, right?

Physical appearance and mannerisms don’t necessarily tell the whole story.  Get into their head.  What makes them tic.  What buttons need to be pushed to trigger a response?

Villains, like heroes, take time to develop and grow.  Their deeds grow with them as well.  They need to have the same weaknesses but maybe they haven’t the strength to get past those faults so they compensate by taking a different road.  Give them time to develop and grow.  Know them as well as your hero if not better.  The more despicable the villain, the more rewarding it will be to dispose of him.

Now if you’d like an exercise in villain creation, take a relative, any relative at all and turn them into the opposite of what your perception of them is right now. Aunt Lulu maybe your favorite aunt who showers you with presents OR she may be that ONE relative who pinches and squeezes you until your eyes are ready to pop but in either case, reverse her role. Look for those good OR bad traits and then apply them to that favorite relative and see how it play out.

Good luck.

I’ll be back like it or not!