Julie Jansen: science fiction and horror writer

The Day the Sun Stopped Shining Blog Tour

2011-12-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

My blog is participating in The Day the Sun Stopped Shining Blog Tour.

To find out how you can win a copy of the WTF!? Anthology, a copy of the short story The Laundress of Silver Lake, and an apocalypse mini survival pack read on...

Corrective surgery gone wrong, punk rockers abducted by aliens, zombie sharks, dead matadors, exploding ice cream factories, and dwarfs obsessed with pomegranates are just a few of the things you will find in this anthology. From the quirky to the serious to the surreal, whatever happens in these stories is bound to leave the reader wondering WTF?!

Featuring 37 original stories by A.A. Balaskovits, James S. Dorr, A.A. Garrison, Erik T. Johnson, KJ Kabza, D.C. McMillen, Douglas J. Ogurek, D. Harlan Wilson and a whole bunch of other writers who don't use initials in their pen names.

A short story from the Untreed Reads Orbits sci-fi/fantasy line. In a future world of deadly solar flares and cloned dinosaurs, an investigative journalist sets out to uncover the truth about an urban myth: the Laundress of Silver Lake. As he wanders the banks of the lake he discovers some mysteries are better left unsolved.

Just what you might need if the sun suddenly stopped shining: a flashlight, a 7-in-1 multi-function tool complete with a flat head and phillips screwdriver, a bottle opener, a knife, and an LED light, a cool silver emergency blanket, and a box of Ho Ho's.

December's Schlock Magazine is the Apocalypse issue.

My flash fiction piece Literature in Zero Gravity is in this issue, and is about a group of friends from the office who band together the day time and space decide to go on hiatus.

For a chance to win a copy of the WTF!? Anthology, a copy of the short story The Laundress of Silver Lake, and an apocalypse mini survival pack, read Literature in Zero Gravity by clicking HERE.

Leave a comment at the Literature in Zero Gravity link then come on back here and leave a comment that includes your email address.

**Two winners** randomly chosen, will win the grand prize:

An eletronic copy of the WTF!? anthology, an electronic copy of The Laundress of Silver Lake, and an apocalypse mini survival pack.

**Three additional winners** will win an electronic copy of the WTF!? Anthology and an electronic copy of The Laundress of Silver Lake.

The Day the Sun Stopped Shining Blog Tour has over 50 participating authors. Each author's site has a contest to win books, gift cards, and more from December 26 through December 31, 2011.

CLICK HERE to return to the list of participating authors or click the direct links below to enter more contests during this amazing blog tour!

Thank you for visiting my site!

***Please note that the survival packs won't be sent until the weekend of 1/14/2012*** If you're the winner, it'll come, just a little late. Happy New Year, everyone! :)

LIST OF PARTICIPATING BLOGS

Alesha Escobar	http://www.aleshaescobar.com/
Amanda Haulk Taylor	http://www.backwoodsauthor.wordpress.com/
Andrea Pearson	http://andreapearsonbooks.blogspot.com/
Andrew Bell	www.flightofman.com
Andy Holloman	www.andyholloman.com/
Axel Howerton	http://www.axelhowerton.com/
Brian Johnson	http://fatherthunder.blogspot.com/
Caitlin Hopper	http://caitlin-thefreelancingwriter.blogspot.com/
Cecilia Robert	http://cecereadandwrite.blogspot.com/
Charles Jones	http://bizzarofiction.blogspot.com/
Davida Green-Norris (Dicey Grenor)	www.diceyblog.wordpress.com
Diane Hartsock	http://diannehartsock.wordpress.com/
Edward Owen	http://dangerunfilteredcontent.wordpress.com/
Eileen Clemens Granfors	http://www.authoreileengranfors.blogspot.com/
Georgina Kamsika	http://www.kamsika.com/
James L. Hatch	http://cookinwithmisshavana.blogspot.com/
Jason McKinney	http://jasonmckinney.wordpress.com/
Johanna K. Pitcairn	http://themanicheans.blogspot.com/
Joseph Pinto	http://josephpinto.wordpress.com/
Julia Antione	http://juephraime1.blogspot.com/
Julie Jansen	http://juliejansen.blogspot.com/
Keith Weaver	http://www.aboutkeithweaver.com/dream-weave-blog.html
Kelly DeWitt - Raven c.s. McCracken's books	http://ravencsmccracken.com/
Kim Koning	http://kimkoning.wordpress.com/
Lindsay Edmunds	http://writersrest.com/
Marie Harbon	www.marieharbon.com
Marissa Farrar	http://www.marissa-farrar.blogspot.com/
Matthew C Wood	www.sunstoppedshining.wordpress.com/
Micheal Rivers	http://michealrivers.com/blog/
Michelle Franklin	http://thehaanta.blogspot.com/
Nadina Boun	http://nadinaboun.wordpress.com/
P.R Mason	http://agirlwithacomputer.blogspot.com/
Qwantu Amaru	http://qwantuamaru.com/
Rae Lori	http://raelori.blogspot.com/
Renee Pawlish	http://tobecomeawriter.com/
Sheila Lamb	http://sheilarlamb.com/
Shelley Workinger	http://bookfare.blogspot.com/
Tim Ward	www.timothycward.com/

Holiday Hop! and 12 Days of Creepfest!

2011-12-12T23:22:00.000-08:00

It's December 25. Merry Christmas!

Time to announce the winners!

GRAND PRIZE WINNERS:

1. Rebecca Treadway

2. Red Tash

3. Cherry Blossom Rain

RUNNERS UP:

1. Craig Smith

2. Paul Dail

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS!

And a big THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by!

Ghosts.

We all know somebody who's got one or seen one.

My parents have one.

He likes to appear at Christmas time.

He inspired a story I wrote called Santa's Bones releasing this holiday season through Muse It Up Publishing.

Read to the end of my blog to find out how to win an electronic copy of Santa's Bones, a hard copy of the WTF!? anthology by Pink Narcissus Press, an electronic copy of Living Dead at Zigfreidt & Roy by Axel Howerton, a string of gnome holiday lights, and a stocking full of candy...

My parents' ghost is a dark shadow that walks up and down the hall.

Sometimes he peers at you from a doorway. He plays tricks like turning the tv or lights on and off, turning objects around, causing drafts, making the senile cat chase after him...usual ghost stuff.

He also does something I've never heard of a ghost doing. At night, if you wake up in the wee hours and open the bedroom door to step into the hall, you'll see a shower of sparks. It's like you've startled him and he's run off.

I think the ghost becomes more active at Christmas because of the children that run through the house. The ghost gets all riled up. He's cranky. Children disturb his peace and quiet.

It's also because of the visitors. My mom entertains a lot during the holidays.

The ghost doesn't like all the commotion. And he especially doesn't like the children. That's why I think the ghost might be my great uncle.

My great uncle was a loner who lived in a secluded cabin on a river in Oregon. My dad would bring me with him when I was little to visit my great uncle.

I wanted to go because there was a wildlife park nearby where ostriches would tap on the window of your car as you drove through and because you could find fossils on the river in the summer when the water level dropped. I liked the snakes in my uncle's woodpile. He'd dangle worms in front of the crevices between the logs and the snakes would slither out.

But my great uncle wasn't ever really sure what to do with a little girl around. He enjoyed my dad's company, but if I came along, or my sister, we kind of got the evil eye the entire time we huddled near dad in the dark cabin. My great uncle wanted to visit with my dad.

Not with me or my sister.

There's one other thing the ghost does that I've never really heard of ghosts doing. Sometimes the ghost gets into your head.

He does this when you're sleeping. You'll be dreaming the shadow man's next to you and that he's reaching his hand into you and trying to pull your insides out. Only it's not really your insides he's trying to get. It's more like your soul.

You feel out of breath and sometimes wake up screaming.

It's pretty rare he does that, but when he does, it's like a few of us have the same or a similar dream around the same time. Maybe one day I'll have the dream and two days later my dad will have the dream.

We've wanted to have a psychic come to the house to find out what the ghost wants.

But my mom refuses.

She's afraid the ghost will get scared and leave.

It doesn't seem to bother her that some of us get scared and never want to spend any significant amount of time at her house, especially after dark.

I asked my friend, author Axel Howerton, for advice on the matter.

JJ: I thought I'd bring up a creepy holiday situation... ask for your advice. Do you believe in ghosts, Mr. Howerton?

AH: I've had some kind of spectral shenanigans in pretty much every place I've ever lived, some more troubling than others. One of the weirdest was when I was nine or ten and had this terrible lucid nightmare about someone coming into our house and slaughtering the entire family. In the dream I had barely escaped and ran outside to a park around the corner, where an old man beckoned me over and told me to be calm and that everything was fine, none of it was real and that he would always be there if I needed him. I remembered that old man's face vividly for years. Several years later I was in Toronto for Christmas and my great-grandmother showed me a picture of my great-grandfather, who had died decades before I was born, and whose picture I had never seen. It was the very man from my dream. Later still, I discovered that he was a well-known psychic and had helped police find a child-killer in the 30's. His "talents" apparently made him a miserable, hateful man and a raging alcoholic, which ostracized him from much of the family. I suppose, in a way, that all formed a lot of my interest in the occult and macabre and my predilection for spookiness.

JJ: We’ll be spending a lot of time at Christmas with my folks at their place on the other side of town. Mom and Dad have a ghost that always becomes more active at the holidays. I think the ghost gets irritated when there's a lot of commotion in the house. It doesn't seem to be especially fond of children. I try to put myself in the ghost's shoes. If I were trying to mind my own business when some little kid barged into my room and disturbed me in the middle of whatever ghostly daily activity I was used to, I might get a little bent out of shape. Don't ask me to explain why I think this, but I'm pretty sure the ghost is a grumpy relative from my dad's side of the family.

AH: The spirits I've been around have all been fairly benevolent. We had some pretty nasty negative energy going in the place I'm currently living, especially when our second son was born, but after a cleansing or two it seemed to dissipate. Of course now #2 son would probably have the ghost of Ghengis Khan running for a quiet corner of Hell.

JJ: Everyone in the family has seen the ghost. Some visitors too. It's a shadow figure, tall and thin. Besides usual ghost stuff he does a couple weird, spookier things. If you happen to get up to use the restroom at night and open the bedroom door to step into the hall, you'll sometimes see a shower of sparks, like you've startled someone or something and they've taken off in a panic. This makes me wonder what Uncle Jerome is up to. The other thing is that he shows up in dreams. In fact, sometimes we have the same dream. The dream: the dark shadow figure hovers above you while you're sleeping and reaches out to you. It grabs you and tries to get you to come with it.

AH: I hate those dreams. I've had those my whole life. Bloody ghost creepers, always trying to climb up on you in your sleep. I mean, I'm sleeping, man. You're an incorporeal shiftless mass of energy. What do you really think you're going to accomplish here? I'm no Barbara Hershey. This isn't some lurid 80's "horror" movie. Fuck off and let me rest, you bastard.

JJ: The ghost sometimes plays tricks on little children. It got to one of my nieces a couple years ago when my sister and the girls spent the night at my mom's house. It freaked my sister and my littlest niece out so bad, my sister took off with the girls in the middle of the night. While the little one could only explain it in her words, I think she was a victim of the dream. The situation keeps my sister from ever wanting to spend the night with my parents. She'll come down for an afternoon visit, but that's about it.

AH: As I mentioned, my kids are hellascary, and I've taught them the Ghostbusters lingo. There's a toy weed whacker in their room that looks just like a proton accelerator pack. They ain't afraid of no ghosts. That's my suggestion for little ones in an active haunt zone. There is nothing more terrifying than a kid with no fear. If they think they're tougher than that ghost, well, I would get your class three free-roaming vapor ass outta dodge if I was you, Casper.

JJ: I've talked to my mom about having a medium come and try to connect with the ghost, to find out what the hell its problem is, but she won't do it. She says she worries if someone comes to the house, it'll scare the ghost and make it leave. She kind of likes having it around. Any thoughts on how to convince my mom it's a good thing to have this checked out by a non-ghostbusting psychic professional?

AH: Oh, sure. Now that I've already dropped all of these Ghostbuster references.

So...time for the contest rules.

Two people will win an electronic copy of Santa's Bones, a hard copy of the WTF!? anthology by Pink Narcissus Press, Axel Howerton's Living Dead at Zigfreidt & Roy, a string of holiday gnome lights, and a stocking full of candy (and maybe an extra goodie if you're lucky)...

Three runners up will win an electronic copy of Santa's Bones, an electronic copy of the WTF!? anthology, and an electronic copy of Axel Howerton's Living Dead at Zigfreidt & Roy.

How to win?

Comment with your thoughts on this ghost situation. Give me some sort of idea on how to figure out what my great uncle's ghost wants, why he's so grumpy, and how to make him enjoy the holidays with us (without calling ghostbusters per my mom's wishes). And if you have any idea what the heck the sparks are about (and the creepy dreams) please let me know your thoughts.

The people with the most creative and interesting answers have the best shot at the prizes.

Winners will be announced Christmas Day!

There are many more contests going on during the Holiday Hop! and 12 Days of Creepfest. Just click on Holiday Hop! or 12 Days of Creepfest to visit the other participating authors' sites for more chances to win cool books and other stuff!

Happy Holidays!

Literature in Zero Gravity

2011-12-08T07:25:00.000-08:00

My little flash piece about a group of office workers linked together during the apocalypse by a chain of printer cables is in this month's Shlock Magazine.

I'd love to know what you think!

http://schlockmagazine.net/2011/12/05/literature-in-zero-gravity/

I killed Santa

2011-11-18T06:45:00.000-08:00

Santa's dead. In a future world of global warming, Santa has passed on, victim of a tropical respiratory disease. When rising ocean waters threaten his grave at the North Pole, his skeleton's exhumed. And Santa's ghost is none too pleased!

In Santa's Bones, Christmas spirit takes on a whole new meaning.

Artist Delilah Stephans sent me the cover to Santa's Bones yesterday! I'm so excited. My story, Santa's Bones, will soon be released by Muse It Up! Publishing.

I'll post again as soon as it's available :)

The Versatile Blogger Award

2011-11-14T18:10:00.000-08:00

Carole Gill, gothic horror writer, passed on the Versatile Blogger Award to me!

Thank you, Carole!

I got to know Carole's work during The Coffin Hop this past Halloween. One flash piece of Carole's has stuck with me for weeks now. It's a creepy little piece about a serial killer who called the Northwest his home for a period of time. You can find it here: Dead Reckoning. She has a story called "The Devil's Work" in the Satan's Toybox: Demonic Dolls Anthology.

A recipient of the Versatile Blogger Award has some rules they must follow. I have to pass on the Versatile Blogger Award to up to fifteen bloggers I'd like to recognize. I also have to share seven facts about myself.

First...the facts.

1. I met the Dalai Lama in 1990 in Antwerp, Belgium, shook the man's hand, and had no idea who he was!

2. I have a model totem pole collection.

3. I drive an electric car.

4. I count the syllables of peoples' words when I listen to them talk.

5. My favorite flower is the daffodil (there are so many different kinds!)

6. One of my relatives was married to Kim Philby, which means I'm sort of related to a spy.

7. I don't like truffles (the mushroom kind).

And now, I'm passing on the Versatile Blogger Award to:

Axel Howerton (my Coffin Hop partner in crime and fellow fan of coffee and Twin Peaks)

and

Lauri Martin (my good friend and writing group buddy)!

Because you guys are bloggers extraordinaires!

:)

2011-11-11T07:28:00.000-08:00

Mourning the passing of a great cat, Edison.

Edison came into my life about twelve years ago when I lived in Florida. He was a stray wandering around the neighborhood near a creepy lake full of gators and snakes. He was the world's best mouser, and sometimes caught rats almost as big as he was.

Nicolas Caesar did this drawing of me with Edison.

To Edison: if you want to come home for a visit, you're always welcome. The ax I'm holding is for firewood, not ghost cats.

Zombie Love at ZomBcon...a writer researches a story

2011-10-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

The Coffin Hop Horror Blog Tour

http://www.coffinhop.blogspot.com/

The winner(s) are:

1. Craig Smith

Craig has won Twit Publishing's PULP Anthology Summer/Fall 2011, a Coffin Hop mug and magnet, and zombie finger puppets!

Two runners up have won Coffin Hop magnets:

Anne Michaud and April Denton!

Thank you to everyone who entered my Coffin Hop contest! I hope you had a spookily wonderful Halloween!

Zombie love. Eew. Gross. Yuck. Gag me with a lobo.

However creepy it may sound, I’m writing about it. At least I’m starting to write about it. I intend to submit a zombie love story to an upcoming anthology. I headed to ZomBcon in Seattle, Washington to gain inspiration for my story this past weekend.

Here I’m having a makeup artist from Bandersnatch Studios in Seattle design a zombie scratch on my cheek. www.bandersnatchfx.com

October 21-23, 2011 was the second annual ZomBcon. It was a weekend full of zombies, as well as many non-zombie attendees including authors, actors, special effects artists, photographers, comic book artists, directors, and publishers.

Jason, Scott, Norman Reedus of The Walking Dead, and Drake at ZomBcon.

There were panels, a costume contest, movies, and video games.

Renee Pinzon and Julie, bloodied but still human.

Only a few steps behind the zombies were the zombie hunters, zombie researchers, zombie survival weapon specialists and suppliers, and so much more.

There were even zombie gnomes!

I started the ZomBcon experience at a lecture by Bradley Voytek, PhD, a neuroscientist sponsored by the Zombie Research Society. I wasn’t sure if the subject of zombie love would come up but was pleasantly surprised when it did. When a certain part of the brain is stimulated, it causes a rage reaction. When tested on cats, it triggers a primal response mixed with rage I wouldn’t call love, but in fiction we can stretch that idea a bit. I won’t stretch it here.

Brad Voytek, PhD, neuroscientist, http://blog.ketyov.com/

Next we moved to Artist Alley, which was more like author and vendor alley. I picked up my frame-able Every Zombie Eats Somebody Sometime lyrics from A Book of Zombie Love Songs by Michael P. Spradlin and we hummed along to the pun on Dean Martin’s original tune while talking with authors Jonathan Maberry (http://jonathanmaberry.com/), Jason Kristopher (http://www.greygeckopress.com/2011/author-1-example/), and Abi Post (http://starkfairweather.com/).

A zombie combat seminar included two brilliant authors, an amazing Fangoria moderator, and an obnoxious actor who’s never appeared in any zombie film or show I’m aware of. I learned to wrap carpet around myself to protect from zombie bites (tip from Jonathan Maberry) and to fight, if possible with something like a piece of metal pipe, a bat, or a sword. You want to have something light enough to carry around. Guns are heavy. Plus for guns you need bullets. Those are bound to run out.

Why sit in on a panel about combat when researching a story about zombie love? I’m thinking that zombie love won’t be entirely gentle. And it won’t necessarily involve two zombies. If there’s a non-infected human in the mix, there’s bound to be some fighting. The obnoxious actor on the panel took the idea of zombie love a step further. He seemed not to mind the idea of hooking up with a supermodel zombie. Yuck.

While not researching zombie love, I stumbled upon a great place for zombie toys, like these little finger puppets sold by Todd at Zombies & Toys (www.zombiesandtoys.com).

And these zombie cupcakes!

Did I find inspiration for my zombie love story at ZomBcon?

Yes.

This zombie’s mother loves her.

We’ll see what happens come submission time!

As a Coffin Hop Horror Blog Tour participant, I'm offering a prize to one lucky winner. The winner will be announced November 1, 2011.

To win zombie finger puppets (pictured above), a Coffin Hop mug, a Coffin Hop magnet, and a hard copy of Twit Publishing’s PULP! Anthology that includes my story Radon’s Daughter, all you need to do is leave a comment that includes your email address and follow my blog by no later than end of the day October 31, 2011.

Good luck!

To return to the Coffin Hop site, click here.

Thank you for stopping by and have a Happy Halloween!!!

Alda Teodorani: Italian horror author

2011-10-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

During the summer, I read an article about Italian horror and came across Alda Teodorani’s name. From Massa Lombarda, Italy, Teodorani now lives in Rome. She’s part of a wave of Italian writers called the “young cannibals” (described by some as bringing a “punk meets horror splatter sensibility” to fiction). In addition to works of horror she's known for her gialli (thrillers) and erotic fiction. She’s sat on panels with Dario Argento, had introductions to her novels written by Valerio Evangelisti, and thrived in a male-dominated genre.

There aren’t too many women known for writing horror in Italy. As a writer myself, I was curious to read Teodorani’s work. I entered a contest she had going and was lucky to win one of her books. When her novel Belve arrived I cracked it open and dove inside. I entered a strange, wild world where Cinecittà (the major Italian film studio in Rome) is a settlement governed by corrupt politicians in a post-apocalyptic world where alien creatures prey on humans, and so do vampires like Marilyn Monroe, and some noteworthy others.

Alda Teodorani was kind enough to answer a few questions about being a woman horror writer in Italy and some other questions about Italy and Halloween.

JJ: In my opinion there’s not much difference between men and women who write horror. As a woman horror writer, what do you think, Alda?

AT: I feel the same, that there’s not much difference. Probably because a woman who writes horror, something that’s not so common at least in Italy, has a different point of view on writing from women who write in other genres, granted that there is a difference in masculine and feminine writing. But it’s not about using muscle. My writer friend, Patrizia Pesaresi in her classes presents stories written by both men and women to her students. She challenges students to guess which are the stories written by men and which are the ones written by women. All the students make mistakes. Even I guessed wrong!

JJ: Many women in the U.S. feel it’s more difficult for women to publish horror. Some use pen names to mask the fact they’re women. In Italy I imagine it’s even more difficult possibly because culturally Italy still holds onto strong patriarchal family values. Has it been more difficult for you as a woman in a sea where most of the writers are men to publish your work?

AT: No, I’d say the opposite. There’s a lot of sympathy and curiosity towards a woman who writes in the horror genre, a genre usually reserved for male writers. In the past, pen names were used by the writers of gialli (thrillers). But so many years have passed and it’s no longer like that. If we wanted to talk about rivalry amongst writers, that’s not a question of gender!

JJ: I read your novel Belve (Wild Beasts) in which the main characters are extraterrestrials. They’re like immigrants who’ve arrived on a foreign planet. They have a werewolf feel. But they aren’t creatures like werewolves. They’re more like cats, at least on the outside. Inside they’re pretty darned human. How did you think of the idea for the alien creatures?

AT: I actually dreamed about these two aliens, two creatures who come from another planet. I believe the dream came from my love of cats! The idea of immigrants in Belve is seen more in a social sense. They don’t arrive on the Earth by chance. They come after civilization’s practically wiped itself out. As a writer, and as a writer of very powerful, “uncomfortable” themes (even today one publisher says that my book is too disruptive, too edgy, to be published with other books in their line), I feel a little bit like the extraterrestrial character Brin, a bit different, a bit “foreign,” and my voice and intentions a little difficult to understand. But my readers encourage me to keep on writing.

JJ: Cats in the U.S. have nine lives. In Italy they only have seven lives. I always wondered what was up with the difference. Do you have any ideas about that?

AT: Well…in the U.S. everything’s bigger and more modern. Maybe with technological progress we should start adding lives to cats because they deserve many more than seven!

JJ: Halloween will be here in a couple of weeks. It’s my favorite holiday. In Italy I know you don’t traditionally celebrate Halloween. But November 1 and 2 are important days in Italy (November 1: tutti i santi. November 2: tutti i morti). How do Italians usually celebrate the first and second of November? Does your family have any customs you celebrate during that time?

AT: My family has never had customs as far as holidays go. We’ve all always been allergic to celebrations even though I wouldn’t know how to explain why. As far as Halloween goes, it’s such a fun holiday, so much so that in Italy, where traditionally it never existed, we’ve adopted it. I’ve dedicated a part of my book Incubi (Nightmares) to Halloween. In Italy for the first and second of November Italians pay respect to relatives who’ve passed away by visiting cemeteries, usually in their hometowns, and so there are some vacation days from school. I take advantage of this time and go to visit my family in Massa Lombarda, near Imola.

JJ: Your writing hasn’t been translated to English. In the future will we see some of your work translated for those who don’t read Italian?

AT: I’d very much like an English-speaking audience to be able to read my work, but for an author who finds it difficult to compromise like me, it’s hard to work with the larger publishers who export their books to foreign countries.

But I do believe that electronic publishing and e-books are a means of being read in other countries. Like how you found me through Facebook. My story Naples is available in English that my friend from NewYork, Renzo Balducci, translated.

JJ: Thank you, Alda Teodorani, for being my guest!

For a chance to win a copy of Alda Teodorani’s short story Naples, all you have to do is leave a comment! Be sure to include your email address.

If you’re interested in learning more about Alda Teodorani, please visit her website at http://www.aldateodorani.it/, and find her author page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/ALDA-TEODORANI/59639996984

Congratulations to winner, Dora Dee!

Tracy Saveria talks about the things that live inside us...and inside the finger holes of bowling balls

2011-09-29T18:12:00.000-07:00

JJ: Hi Tracy!

TS: Hello!

JJ: We’ve known each other since we were what, five-years- old?

Tracy

Julie

TS: I think so. Mrs. Hashimoto’s kindergarten class. My mom recently sent me a copy of my kindergarten report card. It stated I was very opinionated and not very coordinated with scissors.

JJ: We lost touch for a good twenty years and somehow the stars aligned to bring us back together. I went my Italian way and you went way scientific. I conjugate verbs and you dissect microscopic organisms. So, what is it exactly that you do?

TS: Technically my job title is the generic appellation of “post-doc.” It just means that as a scientist, I’ve completed my doctoral training, but I am still more or less the pond scum of academia, though slightly higher on the ladder than a grad student. I work in a lab whose focus is malaria so I get to do all kinds of neat lab things to try to figure out ways to fight the disease. I play with DNA, protein, sometimes RNA, E. coli, and many stinky chemicals.

DNA helix

JJ: I remember a couple years back you telling me you’d gone to Africa to help with vaccinations against malaria for pregnant women. Can you talk a little bit about that project?

TS: The time I spent in Africa was mostly to help co-teach a workshop for East African scientists. It was focused on infectious disease and took place at one of our field sites in Tanzania. We have a lab there that is located in a hospital compound where they are able to process fresh samples from malaria patients who have agreed to take part in our studies. Most of my work on that project takes place in Seattle, after they ship the (no longer fresh) samples our way. Unfortunately, I didn’t spend much time in the lab when I was there, which I really would have liked. But I did get to visit one of the animal parks where I saw elephants, giraffes, warthogs, zebras, and a bunch of other things I’d never seen before. And I might be a bit strange, but I actually thought the swarming tsetse flies were pretty cool.

JJ: Hopefully you observed the flies from afar...Where else have you worked on similar projects? Can you explain one of your most vivid memories from one of those projects?

TS: I use the word “work” very loosely in these situations, but I did have the opportunity to go to Brazil a few years back to observe public health professionals in their efforts to control Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that can attack organs (in the case of visceral Leishmaniasis) or skin (cutaneous Leishmaniasis). The organ-targeting variety is more deadly but the skin variety is more visually gruesome as the parasite causes gross boils and festering skin lesions, horribly stigmatizing for the victims who are often scarred for life. One of the more interesting parts of this project was going out at night in chicken coops to collect sand flies, the insects that transmit the parasites. The flies love to feed on chickens so the coops were just swarming with them. Of course, the most “exciting” part of sand fly collection was being attacked in the dark by very large angry roosters who did not want us in their coops. One of them actually bruised me.

Leishmaniasis
(all these microorganism pictures remind me of candy...Nerds, anyone?)

JJ: You deal with some spooky little bugs that float around in our environment that can wreak havoc in humans. What’s the virus (or parasite or other nasty little creature) that scares you the most? Why?

TS: Hmm. My first reaction would be to say something like Marburg or Ebola. Very disgusting nasty painful death from either, but at the same time, not very likely to happen here in Seattle (at least I hope!). Just the thought of hemorrhagic fever gives me the creeps, no matter how unlikely I am to face that. When I think of either of those diseases, it conjures up pictures of that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where they open the ark and all their faces melt off. I’d really hate for that to happen to me.

Ebola....(or close up of Nerds Rope?)

JJ: A movie was released not long ago called Contagion. Have you seen it? If so, what did you think about it?

TS: Yes, just last week! I actually think they did a pretty good job of describing what an outbreak like that would be like. There are so many microbes out there whose existence we are completely oblivious to and the rate at which viruses can mutate is a little disconcerting. I mentioned above that Ebola gives me the creeps, but it’s much more likely that I’d face an outbreak of Influenza or some other as yet unknown virus in my lifetime. With the way people travel now and the way we so eagerly shake hands, touch door handles, cough without covering, or do just about anything in public, it’s bound to happen one of these days. Speaking of all the gross things we touch, one of my micro professors told us about a study that was done on everyday common objects that people touch and what nasty things they might contain. You known the finger holes in bowling balls? Apparently they are loaded with fecal matter. Which has pretty much ruined my Big Lebowski nights (though I will still enjoy the Caucasians until I purchase my own bowling ball).

JJ: How many families might live within our own family?

TS: Oooh, I love this question! I don’t know exact numbers off the top of my head, but I’ve heard it said that if you were to take away all of the cells that make each of us uniquely us and leave just the microbes living on us as commensals, you’d still be able to recognize your best friend.

JJ: Very interesting. On that note, how many of those organisms living in one human or one human family are beneficial? How many are nasty?

TS: Most of the microbes living on us are beneficial thank goodness! They help keep the nasty ones in check by outcompeting them for resources. An example of this might be that when you take an antibiotic, even if you are killing off the bad bacteria that might be making you sick, you are also killing off the good bacteria and can become more susceptible to say, yeast infections because the good bacteria have been keeping the yeast from overgrowing.

An example of a good/bad guy is E. coli. We have tons of the bacteria in our guts, helping us in the digestion process. But we can also become severely ill from an E. coli infection. This is because there are many strains of E. coli, some of which are pathogenic, and every once in a while, we come across one that is resistant to antibiotics and able to thwart our own natural defenses. Consider the case of an average American feedlot of cattle being raised for human consumption. We inject them with antibiotics, force them to live in cramped conditions where they often have to wallow in their own crap, and feed them corn which is not part of their normal diet. Cows are grass eaters and although grass and corn are both vegetables, these plants have different types of Carbon backbones so they are digested a bit differently by the body and this actually makes a difference in the pH of the cow’s digestive system. Particularly due to our overuse of antibiotics, but also due to other factors (such as a change in pH), we’ve sort of invited antibiotic resistant bacteria to pop up once in a while. If some of these bacteria get out of the feedlot and into the food chain (either by direct meat contamination or contaminating other things near a feedlot, like vegetables growing nearby), then we can get an outbreak. So always overcook your meat and wash your veggies. Actually, even that’s too risky. Just eat Twinkies J.

E. Coli....(or good n' plenty?)

JJ: Does your job ever freak you out?

TS: Yes, but not for the reasons you’d think. I’m pretty ok working with parasites and bacteria because I know how to protect myself and I don’t work with any that are too lethal. It’s when I do something like accidentally knock over a beaker of ethanol into a Bunsen burner that I really scare myself. And yes, I’ve done that. Almost caught the whole bench on fire.

JJ: As a superhero battling a fire-breathing zombie virus cloud from outer space, what would your superhero outfit be? Weapons of choice? Anything in particular you’d do to protect those endangered by this villain?

TS: Tricky question. Louis Pasteur once said “the microbes will have the last word.” So if it ever came to that, I’d probably just admit defeat, put on a comfy pair of jeans and an old t-shirt, and hope that at some point in human evolution, a mutant was selected to be resistant to this particular virus and I somehow inherited that trait. And of course, I’d definitely wear a sturdy pair of shoes. You never know what you might step on when the zombie apocalypse comes and it’s very important to protect your feet so you can run fast when needed. Or at least faster than your companions.

JJ: Mr. Pasteur (and Mr. Hashimoto) would be proud of you, Tracy Saveria. Thank you for being my guest!

Get ready for the October 1, 2011 Launch of Musa Publishing!

2011-09-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

Contact Elspeth McClanahan

Phone 919-877-0375

Email Promotions@MusaPublishing.com

Ebooks,Penumbra eMag, and so much More

Musa Publishing Opens its Electronic Doors

After months of editing, designing, contracting, and formatting Musa Publishing launches on October 1, 2011. The E-publisher opens with a large catalogue including Penumbra Speculative Fiction eMag, new works by three bestselling authors, and the full backlist of Aurora Regency, featuring traditional Regency romances and historical fiction.

Penumbra eMag

Penumbra's inaugural issue is a collection of speculative fiction stories that encompass the arts--the arts we love and revere. Some of these stories deal with the arts we're familiar with. Some create arts we haven't thought of and some resurrect arts buried in the depths of the past. And yet, all of these offerings celebrate the creative process, which makes them a fitting theme to launch Penumbra--an enterprise that will showcase the creative work of speculative fiction authors each month with a new collection of works within the genre.

New Works by

Gini Koch

The Martian Alliance 1: The Royal Scam

Things aren’t what they seem to be when Princess Olivia of Andromeda jumps aboard a spaceship to escape a loveless marriage.

Join the crew of the Hummingbird as they take on the rich, famous and sleazy of the galaxy. They're also on a long-term secret mission, so it's a good thing they're the best con artists, spacers, and roughnecks in the Milky Way, because they need all their skills to pull off this particular Royal Scam.

Cindi Myers

West with the Wind

More than gold awaits two lovers at the end of the trail.

Mariah Tate and her dog, Worthy, persuade veteran guide Campbell Jefferson to let them join his expedition headed to California. Camp can't say no to the beautiful widow, but his need to protect her soon clashes with her need to keep secrets. Mariah left more than bad memories behind in Pennsylvania and her growing attraction to the stoic but surprisingly sensitive Camp forces her to face up to the consequences of the choices she's made. Camp doesn't know what Mariah's hiding, but he's determined not to let the only woman who ever made him want to settle down get away. He pursues her across the prairies, through stampedes, Indian raids, desert drought and mountain snows. In the gold camps of California, Camp will discover Mariah's secret, and prove the love she wants most isn't out of reach.

And the return to writing after five years for USA Today Bestselling Author

Sharon De Vita

The Estrogen Posse

"The Estrogen Posse is a hoot! I laughed, I cried, I couldn't put it down! For every woman who needs a pick me up, this is the book for you!"
Janet Evanovich, NYT bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum mystery series

Once upon a time Ellie Briotti had a quiet life as a suburban housewife.

Until…she confronts her wealthy husband Nicky about doing the pecker polka with another woman, and Nicky tosses Ellie out of his life like some misbehaved household pet.

Until…Gram Crackers, her dotty mother begins passing out house keys to homeless bums.

Until…Joey, her eleven-year old son starts on a new career path: breaking and entering.

Until…Rina, her best friend, a single, successful, entrepreneur learns she's about to become a mother.

Until…Candi, Nicky's 22-year-old mistress turns up murdered with traces of furniture polish on her bare backside!

A rip-roaring ribald mystery about a woman’s journey to discover what she really wants in life. Now, if Ellie can keep her son from becoming a second-story man, while trying to hide everything from the gorgeous cop who’s started sniffing around, Ellie might be able to get a new life.

That is—if she doesn’t go to jail for murder first!

Aurora Regency

Musa has acquired Aurora Regency and Aurora Regency Historicals. Within the next month over forty books in this line will be available to Regency and Historical Romance buffs to enjoy.

Stop by www.MusaPublishing.com check out the books already for sale as well as those coming soon. Over the next few weeks, Musa will offer literature geared for every reader's tastes. Musa aims to offer well writing, interesting stories, all at a price that doesn’t bite into your check book.

“Hearts set upon song, spirits free from care”~ Hesiod

# # #

If you'd like more information about Musa Publishing, please contact Elspeth McClanahan at Promotions@Musapublishing.com or go to our blog http://musapublishing.blogspot.com/

2011-09-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

The winner is: Cassandra!

Autumn Harvest: Fall Between the Pages Blog Hop Tour (September 19-26, 2011)

TOUR RULES:

1) HAVE FUN!!!

2) INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!

3) THIS TOUR STARTS: Monday, September 19, at Midnight (Arizona Time)

THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, September 26, at Midnight (Arizona Time)

Winners will be drawn and posted September 27th! ***

4) MEET AND MINGLE WITH ALL THE AUTHORS AND BOOK PAGES! EXPERIENCE A NEW PARTY DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY BLOG CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!!

5) PARTICIPATION AT ALL BLOGS IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT REQUIRED. REMEMBER, THE MORE BLOGS YOU HOP, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING PRIZES. EVERY AUTHOR AND BOOK PAGE IS WAITING TO MEET AND INTERACT WITH YOU, SO PLEASE BE SURE TO SHOW EVERYONE SOME LOVE!

6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE FUN? WHOO! HOO!! HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOO!

***Authors have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification ofwin, whichever comes first. Anyone who participates in this blog hop tour is subject to these rules***

For me, a spooky fiction writer living in the Pacific Northwest, the dark, gray, rainy days of autumn mean retreating indoors, curling up in my favorite chair with my laptop, and writing scary stuff.

Autumn is the time of year I cook a lot too, and as bonus parent to my partner’s two boys who are anti-vegetable kind of kids, I like to devise ways of sneaking veggies into their food.

Sneaking green matter into food was in part how I came up with the idea for The Ginger Men, a short story about a little boy whose mother cooks something creepy when a neighbor sells her some very special spices. The tale’s a Pampered Chef meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers sort of story and it was picked up by a magazine called One Buck Horror and published in their first issue this past summer.

One Buck Horror is a monthly collection of short horror stories. The stories are good quality, old-fashioned, spooky tales that don’t rely on a lot of violence or blood and guts to give readers the heebie-jeebies. Since The Ginger Men in Volume One, I’ve become a big fan of the magazine.

I had a chance to ask the founders of One Buck Horror, Kris Matsumura Hawkins and Chris Hawkins a few questions.

JJ: Hello Kris Matsumura Hawkins and Chris Hawkins of One Buck Horror!

OBH: Hi Julie, thanks for interviewing us!

JJ: How did you guys come up with the idea for One Buck Horror and for publishing a horror magazine?

OBH: We're both avid readers with horror being one of our favorite genres. Chris writes horror stories and works in web development professionally. Merging all these things just came naturally earlier this year. I think we were also partly inspired by the Kindle Chris got for Christmas last year. Looking at the offerings in the Kindle store made us feel like we were looking at the beginning of the Gold Rush or the dotcom era.

JJ: What was your reasoning for creating an e-publication rather than a print one?

OBH: Cost and ease of production, mostly. With print, there is a whole host of issues, including printing costs and the lead time for getting copies in the hands of your readers that just doesn't exist with e-publications. The market for e-books is growing so quickly that we knew we could offer a unique and high-quality product to a larger audience, and do it faster than we could with print.

JJ: You’re a husband and wife team. What’s it like working together on One Buck Horror? Do you have separate tasks, or do you share the duties? Is it just the two of you, or do you have additional editors who help out?

OBH: It's been a lot of fun! There are times when we disagree, of course, sometimes quite loudly. However, that's really due to our passion for both writing and horror (not to mention our mutual bent towards being stubborn). :) As far as division of labor, Kris reads all stories first. Chris works on all technology including our awesome website. We both work on social networking and we both make final decisions on what stories are published. At this time we don't have anyone else working with us, but we've discussed this for our future.

JJ: How many story submissions do you receive in a month?

OBH: We went and did a quick tally! So far in the just over five months we've been open for submissions, we've received an average of 183 submissions per month! Considering our acceptance rate of about 3.3 percent and a monthly publishing schedule of 4-6 stories, we don't anticipate ever closing our submissions.

JJ: One Buck Horror is a monthly publication. Readers can purchase an issue for 99 cents. Is there a reason you decided to let readers buy an issue each month rather than making it an annual subscription-type of magazine?

OBH: This is something we hope to do in the future, assuming that we can find a good way to do it. We're dependent on distribution channels like Amazon, and they don't offer subscriptions, at least not in a way that makes sense for what we're doing. And at the moment, we're still refining our publishing schedule. We hope to continue with the monthly releases, but we might switch to bi-monthly depending on how many stories we have in our acceptance queue.

JJ: One Buck Horror offers professional pay to its authors. Recently you sent a note that writers published in the magazine are eligible to become members of the Horror Writers Association. Chris, I know you’re a member of the Horror Writers Association and that you chose to offer professional pay to your authors so they’d have the opportunity to join the HWA. Why do you think it’s important or beneficial for horror writers to join that association?

OBH: It's important for writers to network, and the HWA is a great place to do it. They have a mentor program for up-and-coming writers, as well as members-only seminars and anthologies. They're also the group behind the Bram Stoker Awards, and they have lots of resources for self-publishing and traditional publishing authors alike. It's a great organization.

JJ: Is One Buck Horror the only project the two of you are currently working on together?

OBH: We're also working daily on what we assume will be a decades-long project to civilize our two children. We refer to each of them as "Young Lord Greystoke" on a regular basis.

JJ: For writers hoping to submit to One Buck Horror, do you have any tips? A theme calendar?

OBH: There's no theme calendar at the moment, but we're definitely open to doing more themed issues in the future, like our upcoming One Buck Zombies (shameless plug). As for tips...probably the number one reason why stories get rejected in the first round is because they are not horror. I know, crazy, right? It's even part of our name, but we get a surprising number of stories that are just not scary. The number two reason we reject stories is because they're not effectively written. And even then, we still reject a lot of perfectly good stories for subjective reasons. The best advice we can give is to read an issue or two to see the kinds of stories we accept, and go from there.

JJ: Here’s the tough two part question:

If you were the main characters in a horror story and had a choice, would you prefer to face a blob-like monster evolved from a petroleum by-product or a family-turned-poltergeist from Enterprise, Alabama?

OBH: Definitely the blob-like monster evolved from a petroleum by-product! We've seen Poltergeist and we've seen what happens to people who try to fight poltergeists. It's not pretty and your house implodes in the end.

JJ: Good answer. Good reasoning. Now that you’ve decided on your monster, how would you battle the petroleum by-product blob?

OBH: We've hit on a two-part solution: we'd first hit the monster from the air with massive quantities of Dawn dishwashing detergent, which is the most environmentally friendly option. Second, we'd lure whatever is left into a Tupperware container and FedEx it to Kim Jong-Il.

JJ: Terrific! Or horrific, I should say. But you’re being environmentally and politically friendly. Another reason to love you guys.

Thank you so much for being my guests! I can’t wait to read the One Buck Zombies issue!

Thank you for visiting my blog during the Autumn Harvest: Fall Between the Pages Blog Hop Tour!

The winner of the contest is: Cassandra!

Twit Publishing's Chris and Craig Gabrysch

2011-09-09T07:49:00.000-07:00

Twit Publishing is run by Chris and Craig Gabrysch. Based in Dallas, Texas, the team of brothers puts out a collection of short stories twice a year, their PULP! Anthology. I had the opportunity to talk with Chris and Craig about Twit Publishing and about battling mermaids and dragons.

Julie: Hello Chris and Craig Gabrysch of Twit Publishing!

Chris: Hey, Julie.

Craig: Hi, Julie.

Julie: Twit Publishing is an independent publisher. How did Twit Publishing come to be and how’d you come up with the name?

Craig: We originally started off with an idea for doing digital comic books on the iPhone in mid 2009. I’d written scripts for three issues, and gotten to the point where we were looking for an artist to actually start the illustration process. And we stalled. Every artist we talked to fell through or charged too much money.

One of the ideas we’d kicked around was doing an anthology of short stories that were strictly digital. After the road blocks on contracting an artist, we decided to go with plan B because we figured it’d be easier. It morphed from doing digital only, to covering print and digital.

Chris: Well, for the name, I wanted to use another word, where you replace the “I” with an “A,” but that’s pretty profane, but rolls off the tongue, like “moist.” Couldn’t use it, obviously, so we went with twit. Our mother used to call us a couple of twits when we were younger, too, so that helped. We can both be pretty sarcastic at times, so it fits our personalities. In fact, we have a definition of the word set up like an old dictionary entry on the back of our business cards. We purposely duplicated the old typesetting of a leather-bound Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary from the late sixties that I’d lifted from my dad when I went off to college. That was before the internet was popular, so I did actually use it.

Julie: You publish a solid, kick ass anthology twice a year. It’s your Pulp! Anthology, a collection of fifteen stories that range from science fiction to fantasy to even a little horror. Is this a new breed of pulp fiction? I noticed a blog entry one of you made about dieselpunk/new pulp. Is that what you had in mind when selecting stories for the latest anthology?

Chris: Thank you. I love the series, of course, because I get to pick the stories! We’ve always thought of them as a “work horse” publication. Something that will always bring steady money to the company without too much experimentation involved. I hate correcting you, Julie, but we only put out fourteen stories in Summer/Fall 2012 and the rest are twelve. We plan to keep them at twelve; I hate odd numbers, especially thirteen. I’m not superstitious, mind you, just a little OCD.

Craig: He lies. He is superstitious. We really don’t set out from the get go to pick a “theme” for each book. Chris gets the stories, and if he likes them, they go in. It just so happens that we sometimes end up with a theme of sorts, and a good mix.

As far as the new pulp/dieselpunk thing goes, we’ve never really intended to start or support new genres. We started the anthologies well before we even knew about either movement. Chris and I would just sit around and discuss different literary movements and genres, and we agreed that pretty much all genre fiction came out of the old pulps. When we discussed doing an anthology that covered all these genres, we settled on PULP! as the title. I’m not going to go into who thought of the name first because this is, like most half-remembered things between brothers, a point of contention. Extreme contention.

Chris: Basically, I pick stories I like. Good stories I’d like to read over and over. I’m the one who reads them over and over and has to edit them, so they better be damn good. The genre of pulp is so broad, that it includes most stories that I get.

Julie: What made you jump into the world of publishing?

Craig: Honestly, we’d been looking at the comic book stuff for my original idea, and I just thought to myself: “This can’t be that hard, can it?” One of my good friends told us that he’d give us the seed money . . . which didn’t really amount to much money, to tell you the truth. Chris and I split the legal fees for incorporating and the cost of a desktop printer. I already knew how to use Indesign for layout, and Chris was familiar with Photoshop. He’d already edited a book for an acquaintance of ours, and got back in the habit of proofreading and copyediting. And that was that. We put out a call for short stories and had the first PULP! a few months later.

Chris: The anthology idea was a great starting point. Craig and I were at a comic book convention looking and pricing artists, when I just said to him, let’s publish a short story anthology and figure out the kinks of publishing early on as an experiment. It worked well for us, we put out a semi-yearly publication that created a quick catalog for a start-up publisher. I have a BA in English, and why the hell should I not use it?

Julie: You’re brothers. What’s it like working with a sibling?

Craig: Yes. I’m the younger brother. Working with a sibling is awful and wonderful at the same time. We have the same general ideas about most things, which makes completing a project pretty easy. But we really get into it about the small stuff. It took us almost four scream-filled hours to write a paragraph. Mind you, it was an important paragraph, and, when we were finished, it was a great paragraph, but we still were at each others throats for four hours over the damned thing.

Chris: I agree with Craig fully, which will be probably one of the few times I do. We’ve got a difference of five and a half years between us, so there’s the age dynamic, but we also like a lot of the same things, especially music, art, and literature. It can be quite infuriating at times, but when it comes down to the bottom line, we both have the best interests of the project at heart. Basically, we’re both passionate people. We also know each other very well and know which buttons to push. I hate and love him, but I also know he hates and loves me just the same. We have good chemistry together and play off each others weaknesses and strengths. To tell you the truth, he’s the best creative and business partner I’ve ever worked with.

Julie: And what’s it like working with a sibling as independent publishers in Dallas, Texas?

Craig: By the way, we do live together. But, I don’t think there’s much difference between being a publisher here and being a publisher somewhere else. It’s not like we get stopped on the street or anything. It’s cool when I see one of our stickers in the back window of someone’s car, and people have actually heard our names. But, it’s about what you would expect: a hard slog where you’re fighting for every sale and trying to get a book out there.

Chris: Yeah, I stick our stickers up around the Greenville area of Dallas where we live, but I have no clue if it matters. It’s nice being in a major city, we get the high traffic for conventions and all, but does it matter? Nope, not at all. Publishing has become a global industry along with everything else. We’re available through Amazon and the “word of mouth” advertising does always help, but I don’t know if it helps that much. I would like to think that it does, but what do I know.

Julie: Do you have distinct separate tasks? Or do you share responsibilities?

Craig: I do the layout, run the finances, act as a sales rep, and manage the website. I blog, too, after Chris harangues me enough about it. I know it sounds glorious and all, but it’s really not.

Chris: I do the editing, select out of the many stories we have coming in, harangue Craig, come up with pretty covers, and layout ideas for the books. It’s funny, but I think he could probably do a half-ass job of the stuff I do without me. I’m sure he’d agree.

Craig: Yup.

Julie: If you had a choice, would you, as brothers, battle a school of vampire mermaids or a metal-scaled fire-breathing alien dragon?

Craig: The mermaids are a no-go. Chris and I don’t get along when it comes to women. I’m going with the metal-scaled fire-breathing alien dragon.

Chris: We’ve tried the “wingman” thing and it’s always failed furiously, like an airplane crashing into the ground, go figure. I would prefer the mermaids, because it seems easier, but we’d probably just argue too much in front of them and get killed before we knew it. Metal-scaled fire-breathing alien dragon would probably be the best bet, but I think we’d be over-matched, even though we both smoke and have thick skin.

Julie: How would you defeat them (weapon of choice, game plan, etc)?

Chris: I’d go with me engaging them in an intellectual argument about religion, and Craig running around the back and stabbing them.

Craig: I’d use my dual-classed level 20 fighter/mage. He has an AC of 35 or -10 depending on the edition you’re going with. He’s faster, stronger, smarter, and has better rolls than any space-dragon out there.

Chris: Nice, I never played role playing games as much as Craig, so, of course, I’m not a complete nerd.

Julie: I noticed you’re putting together the next Pulp! Anthology. Will the stories have a certain theme? Or will it be another exquisite collection of bizarre pulpy tales?

Craig: Bizarre pulpy tales. The mix is the best part of our anthologies. Chris, tell her about the girl we had at one of our conventions.

Chris: Yeah, I will. She loved the stories. She told me that she’s never read anything like them before. She was a youngun who’d grown up on Twilight and was surprised that Anne Rice had ever existed. She was a sweetheart. Loved her and I appreciated the impact that I made on her, especially because when I talked to her I had sold her a book two hours before and saw her reading them in a hallway. It was one of the greatest feelings I felt as a publisher. It was like, “They really love me!” I even told her to go back to Craig and have him sign it, that he won’t bite.

I never have a theme. I always pick the best stories, and hopefully, they fit together. Exquisitely . . . they are always a bunch of great stories that I try to put into an order that flows. Hopefully it works.

Julie: For writers out there looking to submit to Twit Publishing, do you have any tips?

Craig: Edit. Edit. Edit. Edit. Edit. If your grammar is poor, it comes through in your word choice. I hear Chris. It matters.

Chris: It does matter. I can always tell when a writer has edited thoroughly. Craig has heard plenty of times that I’ve bitched about writers that don’t review their writing. When they do, I can tell that they actually care about the writing process. Working as an editor, I do review every single submission for our publications. I love great twist endings and love great original stories from authors.

Julie: Thank you, Chris and Craig! I love the stories in the anthologies and can’t wait to read the next one!

For a chance to win a hard copy of Twit Publishing’s latest PULP! Anthology, all you have to do is post a comment.

The winner is Ash! Congratulations!

Frank Sjodin talks about his space western "A Stranger in Ferrview"

2011-08-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

JJ: Hi Frank.

FS: Hello Julie!

JJ: We got to know each other because we both have stories in Twit Publishing's Summer/Fall 2011 Pulp! Anthology. Yours is called A Stranger in Ferrview. It's science fiction, a space western. How'd you come up with this idea?

FS: Oddly enough, I based the story on typical themes in mythology that appear all over in fiction, but especially in space operas and westerns. Star Wars, The Seven Samurai, and several westerns have themes the same as a myth - monster shows up, destroys crops, eats people, normal citizens are helpless and military doesn't help for reason A, B, or C. Hero from outside society shows up, leaves the realm of normal society, kills the monster, then wanders on his way. His is glorified by some, feared by some, and generally an outcast of society. This isn't a coming-of-age myth either, with gatekeepers, growth to adulthood and an elixir to improve society. Think Heracles and his labors. Anyways I took that theme and basically added aspects of my favorite other genres. I also love listening to old people recall tales and kids make up stories so I decided to frame it as a combination of the two. As a kid I loved to imagine living in different places: my family stuffed in a jungle tree house, or on a space station, ice-fishing on Pluto, climbing Olympus Mons or other ridiculous scenarios.

JJ: I see a lot of influences in A Stranger in Ferrview from The Hobbit to Star Wars to Godzilla. I'm assuming you're a fan of all three of those I've mentioned. Tell us a little bit about how you came up for the idea of the monster in A Stranger in Ferrview.

FS: I'm a big Tolkien fan, and I was raised on Star Wars. I honestly can't remember ever having not seen the original Star Wars Trilogy. I also enjoy a good monster flick, particularly of the Rodan/Mothra/Godzilla era. I wanted the monster to be first off, able to fit the description of a dragon in the western sense, a la Smauge and his ilk: a giant reptile specializing in fire-breathing, flying, and terrorizing. I also wanted it to be of unclear origins, so that the people could come up with different theories about what it was as they were terrorized by it. After all, I came up with several ideas about how a space-dragon could exist: by magic, hoax, technology, alien biology, genetics or any combinations thereof. My favorite idea was a being that had some kind of supernatural ability so that I could tie it back to the myth theme. For example, the Nemean Lion had a hide that could not be pierced by any weapon.

JJ: I love the dragon. I also like the character of “the stranger,” a man who comes to town and promises to rid the town of the alien critter. The people even go so far as to give him their luxury rations to be rid of the thing! Tell us about "the stranger" in your story.

FS: You'll get a kick out of this. I got the idea for his character ages ago when I was a kid in Boy Scouts, of all places. There was a kid in my troop who, honest to God, was named Shane Gunlock. Now Shane was not a bad-ass tough-guy kid in any way, but his name reeked of space-cowboy bounty hunter. So I created this character and came up with stories about his adventures, background, et cetera, but I'll spare you the details of stuff I wrote as a kid. Basically, when I had my idea for my myth story, I thought, hmm, of all the characters in my mind's little toy box, which one best fits into a mythic space western? And so I updated Shane into "the stranger." Sticking to the childhood nostalgia of Shane Gunlock just didn't make sense, since Shane is such a western icon. Plus, he's more mysterious without a name, and referring to him as the stranger stresses his place outside society…as if it wasn't clear enough.

JJ: You've also had a story published in Twit Publishing's Winter/Spring 2011 Pulp! Anthology, isn't that right? And the story's quite different from A Stranger in Ferrview. It's about a gnome hiding in a bucket during a council meeting of demons.

FS: Yes, it's a fantasy humor piece titled Whatever Happened to the Dark Lord? It's set in a sword and sorcery world in which a war between good and evil has been going on for ages. The Dark Lord has the ability to return from death, and has threatened the forces of good for generations. Sound familiar? Anyway, this is the tale of a spy who witnessed the last meeting of the Dark Lord's mightiest servants, the Blacksouled Knights. There's a good mix of parody, intrigue, romantic humor, and some good ole fashioned fart jokes.

JJ: Where else have you been published? Can we read any of your other stories?

FS: I did some of the writing for an online sci-fi radio serial, Our Fair City (www.ourfaircity.com) which you can listen to for free and I also do a character voice. Season One is complete and we're recording the last episode of Season Two, so it should start in September or October. Season Two involves reanimated corpses and a certain stranger who might be recognizable to all you old school horror fiction fans out there. But my writing was only in season One. I have a few short story submissions out there now. Waiting to hear back.

JJ: Where do you get your writing ideas?

FS: Mostly by first developing a character, setting, or event and forcing a plot around it, which I admit is not the most effective writing style. I have written a few pieces based on dreams or nightmares, a couple parodies, but mostly stories involving characters that I have defined and used in other writing, role-playing, acting, or other creative endeavors.

JJ: You mention role-playing and acting. You're a writer, but you do many other things. Tell us about a typical day in the life of Frank Sjodin.

FS: I’m mainly an actor, and a lot of my work is performing for children. I haven't worked a regular day job since I was in college, and I kind of do whatever artistic work I can find, which is mostly acting. Right now, since it's summer, my primary income comes from street performances and birthday parties as a clown. I also do a bit of film, some voice-over stuff. I build puppets, build sets, write, and occasionally get a week or so of temp work doing oddball stuff like holding ropes for guys who wash skyscraper windows or greeting French doctors at O'Hare Airport. I guess my typical day is get up, eat, search for audition postings, check email, read webcomics, then suit up and clown for the lunch hour, come home and eat, relax for a bit and either go to rehearsal for whatever show I'm doing, or go perform. Or if I'm not in a show, clown the evening.

JJ: You're a clown?? Frank, I have to admit, I think clowns are creepy.

FS: What? No way! I walk four blocks to the square where I perform, and every kid on the block knows me and my puppets by name. It helps that I don't wear makeup, or at least when I do it's just a drawn on mustache.

JJ: That doesn’t really change my idea of clowns, but that’s good that you’re not scaring the kids in your neighborhood. J

I posted a link to Axel Crow. That's a great horror short film. You're not a clown in this film, you're a creepy masked villain. Can you tell us a bit the film? How did you become involved? And you're pretty good with twirling a knife. Did that take practice?

FS: That was a super fun short to film. We did it all in one night. Juan, who plays the cop, had arranged for us to use the laundromat all night. Michael, the director, got us a bunch of snacks and pop, and we shot from like 7 or 8 PM until I think 3 or 4 AM. I don't get a chance to play a villain very often, but I have done a bit of mask work in theatre. It was fun to do a unique role that was defined so much by physicality, which is in fact similar character creation techniques used by clown and mask experts. On the street I juggle tools like hammers, wrenches, and sometimes even hatchets, so the knife trick was just an extension of those skills.

JJ: You’re a hatchet-twirling clown??!! (Julie emits a silent scream).

Do you have any other upcoming or past acting projects we can see?

FS: I just finished a fun short with I Love That Show Productions. The film is called Game Freak.

And if you liked Axel Crow, Michael Ramova just finished shooting a short about zombies during the Viet Nam War, in which I play not just a soldier, but several zombies, some as puppets. The film, 8mm Nam will be done in Sept but it's going to a competition so I'm not sure when it will be up on YT.

And...my clown troupe runs a You Tube channel.

JJ: Have you written any horror/scifi stories about clowns?

FS: What? No! It may be fashionable to fear clowns, but I as a clown, I don't want to support people (especially kids) being afraid of me!

JJ: The clown wouldn’t necessarily have to be the villain, Frank. But, I'll admit I wouldn't mind reading a horror story about clowns, because they're scary.

FS: Maybe clown with lots of makeup that get in-your-face, but not classic comedian clowns, Shakespearean servants, or silent film masters like Chaplin or Keaton!

JJ: Ok, Frank. I’ll stop teasing you about being a clown. Your story A Stranger in Ferrview is amazing and you're a super talented guy. I hope you let me know when those other stories you've submitted are published. I'd love to read them!

Thank you so much for being my guest!

For a chance to win a copy of Twit Publishing's Summer/Fall 2011 Pulp! Anthology (version for Kindle or Nook), all you need to do is post a comment...your name will then be thrown into a hat, clown style. One winner will be selected on Friday, September 2, 2011. :)

***The winner is Craig Garrett!***

Upcoming interview with author Frank Sjodin

2011-08-27T06:50:00.000-07:00

This coming week I'll be interviewing author Frank Sjodin. Frank has a brilliant science fiction story in Twit Publishing's Summer/Fall 2011 Pulp Anthology, A Stranger in Ferrview.

Frank's also an actor amongst the many other things he does.

The video above gives a little taste of Frank Sjodin. He plays the masked, knife-wielding villain in the short film by Michael Ramova, Axel Crow!

Interested in checking out Twit Publishing's latest pulp anthology? Click on the title of this blog for more information.

The winner of "Blind Hunger" is...

2011-08-22T06:12:00.000-07:00

Anne Johnson

Anne's won a copy of Blind Hunger by Araminta Star Matthews.

Congratulations, Anne!

Win a free copy of Blind Hunger!

2011-08-16T23:46:00.000-07:00

What if George Romero directed 1985’s The Breakfast Club instead of John Hughes? Mr. Romero, the godfather of all zombies, would most certainly have replaced Molly Ringwald’s bento box lunch with a gourmet tapenade of genetically altered tomatoes.
Those tomatoes would have carried a rapid-spreading zombie-making virus.

The teenagers wouldn’t have been running from their detention monitor with the threat of expulsion from school, they would have been running from a zombie detention monitor for fear of losing their lives.

If Romero had a hand in any part of The Breakfast Club, we may have ended up with Blind Hunger. But he didn’t. Araminta Star Matthews penned this young adult gem of zombie fiction.

In Blind Hunger a group of kids ranging in age from 9 to 17 band together when the adults of their sleepy New England town go zombie. They start the day going about their normal everyday lives. But everything changes once they get to school.

The kids are from different backgrounds and different cliques: Max, the nerdy misfit, Rachel, the princess, Kiley, Rachel’s sharp-tongued younger sister, Bryan, Rachel’s jock boyfriend, and Sage, at 9, the youngest and the brain.

Hormones play a part in the book (Of course they would, we’re dealing with mostly teenagers!). But not necessarily in the way one might think. You see, hormones factor in as to whether you’re going to turn zombie. Once the testosterone or estrogen starts flowing through the veins, you’re destined to become one of the living dead.

There’s definitely a “don’t mess with mother nature” theme. Humans try to take on the role of earth mother in their attempt to eradicate world hunger. They take nature into their own hands, fabricate an unnatural reproductive process in plants that results in “zombie fruit.” And as the old saying goes, we are what we eat.

Blind Hunger concludes with the characters all growing up, fast, over the course of one horrific day of chaos. The team of zombie-fighting kids emerges “graduated” from their school, having survived the labyrinthine halls and the zombie obstacles around each bend. They accept their differences and bond together for survival. But the zombie adults will never see them as anything more than food. The kids are the heroes. The adults are the villains. Plain and simple.

The child protagonists are all ticking time bombs. Eventually they’ll become adults, and therefore become zombies. But I don’t have any doubt they’ll give Mother Nature a run for her money. The kids bonded together to battle zombies in Blind Hunger but each will have a personal battle down the road: to fight off the infection before becoming one of the living dead.

I had the chance to ask Araminta Star Matthews about her book and about zombies in general. Here are her answers to a few of my questions:

*In Blind Hunger a group of kids band together after all the adults in their world turn zombie. Do you think a group of kids without parents reflects a societal issue we have today when children at times seem to be left without many adult figures?

I think parents do the best they can with what they have. At least, I hope most do. I know better than to speak in generalizations. I also think kids really do grow up "faster" with each new generation. When I was growing up, we didn't have cell phones and the internet was just an infant to us. I could spend hours alone in my neighborhood without being bothered or feeling unsafe. I once walked the railroad tracks for miles with my friends completely without supervision or a way to call home (though my parents would have been so angry if they'd known). So, I guess I'm not sure this is societal issues of today. I think they've always been there.

The fact that sometimes kids really do have to fend for themselves without an apocalypse coming along is all too real, I'm afraid. Kiley is myself as a teen, wit as sharp as an obsidian knife and a sarcastic remark for everything. Bryan is a bit like that kid in school who always got medium-good grades and was good at sports. And all four of them really were survivors long before the apocalypse. Bryan surviving life without a mother and with a load of guilt. Kiley surviving her angst-addled years wildly misunderstood. Max surviving abuse and neglect. Sage surviving the social isolationism that comes with being gifted well beyond your years. Of course they'd find each other, and of course they'd make it. They may well be the only ones who would.

I’m doing a lateral serial for Dark Moon Digest (which will be 20,000 words on Sage's friend, Bekah's, story) and the sequel (to Blind Hunger). I also think children are a lot more capable and powerful than adults realize. We have this tendency to silence children. We don't listen to them and we certainly don't validate their ideas, when the truth is, the best paradigm-breaking progress comes out of the mouths of babes. Children are resilient, complex, brilliant personalities. I've gotten some criticism from reviewers and editors that my children (in the story) are not realistic, that no child could be that smart or insightful or skilled, but I forcefully disagree with that assessment.

*Do you feel there are different reasons as to why the zombie genre is popular in both young adult and adult fiction?

The whole aspect of this fixation with zombies is not entirely new. There were zombies in The Epic of Gilgamesh and hints of them in religious texts. I think the idea of a zombie echoes our innate fear of death, or perhaps more accurately, what comes after we die. Do we lose our consciousness, travel to a heaven, ressurect, become mindless creatures, and essentially lose all that makes us, us? In addition, zombies represent the mindless in general.

I've witnessed desensitization when there are so many people about, no one does anything to help someone being hurt or in need. I've cringed at the dismal voting turn-outs, or the profound lack of interest many people have in helping each other grow. At the oceanside this summer, I spent every weekend staring or swimming in salty water and I was amazed at how many people were just texting, so completely absorbed in technology that they never once looked at the water the whole vast number of hours we were there. Technology seems to zombify us a little bit.

*The proceeds of Blind Hunger go to a very special cause. Tell us a little about this.

Before the book published, I agreed to donate a portion of the proceeds to The Literacy Volunteers of Androscoggin County partly because I'm on the board and really believe in what we do there. After the book published, my little niece, Riker Star Dresser, was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a diagnosis very rarely given to infants. She was just three months old at the time. Her mother is my oldest and closest friend. She's one of the people I walked those railroad tracks with.

I'm a trustee of The Riker Dresser Benefit account and I'm raising money and awareness of her situation to ensure a smooth transition home after my little Star gets her bone marrow transplant.

A portion of my proceeds will go to help her and the family deal with what faces them.

You can read more about Riker at the website we created for her: rikerstardresser.com

And you can read more about Araminta Star Matthews at www.aramintastar.com

Would you like to win a free copy of Blind Hunger?

Simply comment on this blog and send me your answers to the following zombie trivia questions at : contest has ended.

Whoever answers all correctly will have their name placed into a drawing that will take place Sunday, August 21, 2011, at 10 PM PST. The winner will be announced Monday, August 22, 2011, and their name will be posted on my blog.

Ready? Set? Go!

1. What is a zombie's favorite food? (looking for a particular human organ here)

2. Who is known as the godfather of all zombies?

3. World War Z's author Max Brooks is the son of which Hollywood comedy legend?

4. To kill a zombie, it's best to:

a.) Drive a wooden stake through its heart.

b.) Shoot it with a silver bullet in the foot.

c.) Decapitate it.

5. Where is Blind Hunger author Araminta Star Matthews from? (www.aramintastar.com)

Good luck!

Stephen King Retro Reviews

2011-08-04T07:46:00.000-07:00

August is Stephen King month at Dark Moon Digest's Last Writes Blog.

Each week a retro review of one of King's earlier works will be posted.

Check out my review of Carrie.

"Radon's Daughter" in Twit Publishing's Summer/Fall 2011 Pulp! anthology

2011-07-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

Twit Publishing’s Summer/Fall 2011 Pulp! Anthology is available through Amazon, Smashwords, or directly from Twit, in print or digital format. It contains 14 stories by authors like Frank Sjodin, Robert Preston, Davin Kimble, and DL Chance and is packed with wonderful weird science fiction and supernatural mystery.

My story “Radon’s Daughter” appears in this anthology. “Radon’s Daughter” is a mystery involving Detective Amerika Weatherford and a time-bending Russian pinball machine.

Detective Amerika Weatherford is a beautiful, brilliant single mother to a baby girl. When Weatherford’s on a case, it’s always some bizarre, out-of-this-world scenario. I’ve written several stories with Detective Weatherford. Her cases include a serial killer linked to a witch who moonlights as a bartender, a voodoo-tastic gypsy ring that pledges allegiance to an ancient god, and vampiric teenagers born from medical experiments gone bad.

I created Detective Amerika Weatherford many years ago. She’s a character inspired by so many women I’ve encountered who struggle to make it in today’s world while raising children. She’s those women, warped and twisted into a character controversial, imperfect, and shocking. She’s a woman who won’t sacrifice her dream job because she’s a mother. She brings her daughter along on her investigations no matter how dangerous they may be. She rarely sleeps. She smokes and drinks. Detective Amerika Weatherford drags the monsters out of the closet. And she lets them roar in her baby girl’s face.

Why would a woman do this? Why would a woman expose an innocent child to so much danger?

Many would say she’s a terrible mother who makes poor choices.

I disagree.

Detective Amerika Weatherford exposes her child to monsters just as we all expose our children to monsters. Weatherford’s villains can be compared to our processed food, medication side effects, bullies, and unlimited screen time. We can attempt to shelter our children by killing our tvs, buying organic milk, and enrolling kids in so many after school activities there’s no way they’ll have time to get into trouble. But sooner or later a monster will find its way through the door. If our children don’t experience just a little bit of our poisoned world, how will they learn to protect themselves and future generations from these monsters, and the children of these monsters?

No, I don’t mean modern mothers should feed their kids a diet of corn dogs and Mountain Dew while pumping second hand smoke through the ventilation system. But shielding them from all dangers isn’t the answer either. By doing that we create a generation ill-prepared to defend themselves when they reach adulthood and venture out into the world.

Detective Amerika Weatherford, like the creatures and strange elements of her stories, is pure fiction. But Weatherford’s situation is one many of us can relate to. Detective Amerika Weatherford is on the front line battling her world’s demons as a courageous, intelligent, compassionate, and imperfect mother and hero. She teaches her daughter to face the monsters and that they can be defeated.

"The Ginger Men" in One Buck Horror. 5 great stories for only $1!

2011-06-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

On 6/27/2011 One Buck Horror releases their first issue. My story "The Ginger Men" is one of the shorts included in the edition.

I always try to weave everyday life into my stories. My idea for "The Ginger Men" was born this past Christmas. My friends Tami and Kat baked me some cookies. They were gingerbread cookies. And they were special gingerbread cookies. When the cookies came out of the oven and Tami and Kat tried to transfer them to a plate, they broke apart. The cookie men lost their arms and legs, sometimes even their heads.

Because Tami and Kat know I like zombies, they decided, even though the gingerbread men were "broken", that I'd appreciate them all the same. So they decorated them with tons of bloody red icing.

Those cookies were delicious and so much more interesting with the "blood"!

As I started making my own Christmas cookies for friends and neighbors (just boring old Italian recipes :) ), and pulling out all the kitchen gadgets: cookie sheets, icing squirter things, whisks, wooden spoons, measuring cups, and sifters, I realized that a lot of these things I'd bought from a friend when I hosted a Pampered Chef party. And I remembered how stressed out I was that day preparing for that party.

So, in the story, I figured, why not have an evil kitchen gadget saleswoman who takes care of the neighborhood's family "problems" with some "special" ingredients.

Voila: "The Ginger Men" was born.

One Buck Horror's first issue also includes stories by Elizabeth Twist, Ada Hoffman, Mike Trier, and Mark Onspaugh.

I hope you'll check it out tomorrow and let me know what you think!

Turning everyday occurrences into scifi, fantasy, and horror

2011-06-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

It’s a Monday morning. The alarm goes off. You wake up, make your way to the bathroom, glance at your bloodshot eyes in the mirror. You shuffle into the kitchen, start the coffee…

This is everyone’s Monday morning. And, not to be rude, but, it's boring.

As readers of scifi, horror, and fantasy fiction we don’t want to hear about our own yawn-inspiring routine. We want to escape, to jump into the life of someone else, where maybe the alarm isn’t really an alarm, the bathroom isn’t a bathroom, bloodshot eyes aren’t bloodshot eyes, coffee isn’t coffee…at least not the kind we’re used to. Or maybe the morning a character wakes up something big and risky is going to take place.

In The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, reality tv is taken to an extreme, when a gladiator-style program is broadcast to the country where children fight each other to the death. The children aren’t willing participants. They’re names are picked at random. If a child is chosen, that child knows, just like their families, that chances are, they won’t come home. At least, not alive.

The book begins with the day of the reaping, when two children from the main character’s district will be chosen for the hunger games. It’s a normal day for the character otherwise. She wakes up and knows she must hunt to provide for her family, just like she’d do on any other day. But she also knows she has to stand with the rest of the community and listen to the names that will be chosen for the games. Will it be her? Or her sister? Or someone she knows? Well…

In The Hunger Games, reality television we commonly watch when we plop down on the couch and turn on the tv at night is portrayed as the trashiest, most extreme kind of tv show imaginable. A child you know is bound to be on the sickening show you’re forced to watch, and they’re probably going to die.

It’s not another boring episode of the same old reality show we watch every Tuesday. This is intense, twisted, our culture regressing into the Dark Ages. In a world where we wonder where our society is headed, a book like The Hunger Games makes us stop and think. Maybe my Monday morning isn’t so bad and I shouldn’t take for granted my snoring husband, my fresh ground coffee, and the fact that I don’t have to run into the forest and kill a squirrel for breakfast. And the children won’t be unwilling participants in a deadly reality show. But in The Hunger Games we root for Collins’s main character. I couldn't stop turning the pages. We want her to win, to return to her family. We want her to find a way to fix her world and make a better future for children.

So what kind of amazing story can you dream up about a Monday morning?

Tenebrific tension in horror and science fiction

2011-06-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

When a story gives you the creeps, when it makes you afraid to turn off the lights at night, a horror writer’s done their job. Creeping a reader out involves building tension, getting that spooky vibe travelling along a reader’s spine until it makes them shiver with fear.

On a recent road trip, I listened to the audio version of Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, one of my favorite books. It’s a science fiction tale that crosses over into the realm of horror. Even though written in the 1950’s, the book still has creep power. Finney achieves this not through blood and guts, but by increasing tension chapter by chapter. And tension is timeless. It’s why Finney’s Body Snatchers is still popular in 2011.

Finney begins with the protagonist, the town doctor Miles, receiving an unexpected visit from a girl concerned about her cousin. The cousin’s convinced her father isn’t really her father. There’s something not quite right about her dad she can’t put her finger on. We feel the initial chill that something in Mill Valley is amiss and its icy tenebrous fingers start to creep through our veins.

When we’re introduced to the long gray seed pods that burst open and form white mannequin- type molds of humans, we’re freaked out. This isn’t just a psycho-social anomaly. This is terrifying: a being we’ve never encountered before, a monster from another planet.

Finney furthers the tension by breaking down trust. Longing to count on each other, believe in each other, help each other as humans when the going gets tough is shattered in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Most of Mill Valley’s population is a replica of their former selves. What the people perceive as themselves is really not. They want to trust but how can they when they don’t know who’s on their side? When the monster becomes not just an alien human-absorbing seed pod, but could be your mother, brother, neighbor or boss, Finney’s pulled our nerves taught. He’s played with us, using an everyday human social element, relevant in the 1950’s the same way it is in 2011. In doing so, he’s succeeded in amping the tension. We can’t wait to turn the page, to find out what happens next.

I won’t give you Finney’s ending, and will only say it’s a good one. But will suggest a couple other books and stories I’ve read that terrify us through use of tension:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons

The Elementals by Michael McDowell

“Family” by Joyce Carol Oates

Horror writing: it gets the black out

2011-06-05T21:54:00.000-07:00

"You're such a sweet girl. Why do you write horror fiction?"

This is a question I've gotten from friends and relatives shocked the first time they read one of my stories.

My answer to anyone who asks: "It gets the black out."

My life is hectic. There's the day job, the night job, the bonus children, the writing and editing, housework, friends, family, and all the other things that fall in between. Often times, at night, I can't sleep because of all I'm trying to organize and remember and prepare myself for. When I do finally fall asleep, there are nightmares, or any little sound wakes me up and I wind up the next morning, a zombie.

For me, writing down what's bothering me or stressing me out helps me to make sense of it all. Because my mind happens to be an imaginative one, just writing things down as they happen isn't enough. My mind twists and warps life situations, so that they turn into pure, fun fiction...even if the stories are sometimes pretty darned creepy.

Dealing with the transition day when my partner's boys come home to us from their mother's, cantankerous and poisoned by high fructose corn syrup, turned into "Fairy Lust and Pixie Dust" (http://www.stateofimagination.com/), the horrors of illness and my fear of hospitals became "Sucker Punch" (http://www.fearandtremblingmag.com/), and the stresses of hosting a Pampered Chef party turned into the soon to be released "The Ginger Men" (http://www.onebuckhorror.com/).

My advice to anyone dealing with the complexities of modern day life is: write it down. Who knows what might come out? Putting the pen to paper might help spark the answer to a problem you've been having. You might get more relief by crumpling that piece of paper up and throwing it in the trash. Or maybe, just maybe, you can turn the horrors of the world into fiction, spill the black from your mind and start your fingers plunking the keys of your laptop. You might wind up with a pretty good spooky tale, keep your nightmares or insomnia at bay, and keep someone else awake at night, afraid to turn out the light.