The Power of 8: Horror Films

It's Halloween! Not quite sure what that means for everyone else, but for me, it's a chance to explore some dark(er) history, and enjoy some good ol' Horror flicks. Now, before I move forward with this list, let me just say that, as with most any story, I enjoy Horror movies that make me think. I prefer my Horror to be more than just a bunch of stupid teenagers running around in circles while some maniac chases them with various sharp objects. That said, off we go.





8. Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Yeah, this one probably won't be popular with most people, but to me, the third Halloween, beyond the first one, was the most daring and outgoing of the franchise. The reason it failed to perform was because the fans of the day only wanted more of the same, and when another Halloween came out and didn't have Michael Myers, they freaked. Which is a shame, because it was one of the few films to delve into the roots of the holiday. 

The anthology series the creators wanted to make would have been beautiful. If Halloween III had been successful, the next movie would have been a ghost story, and every film after would focus on new themes and characters, all set on Halloween. But no, instead we got Slasher after Slasher until the series became a parody of itself and died off ... then was further ruined by Rob Zombie a few years later....

Since this is one I don't think as many people have seen, I won't go into the plot, but it's something that should be experienced by any true Horror fan.


7. Scream 1&2

I typically don't like Slashers very much, but when they're played as smart as the first two Scream movies were, I make an exception. Instead of relying on the same, tired tropes, Scream dared to call out those tropes. Yes, some are still followed, but it blazes trails in other areas. The characters are all unique and well-written, and Sydney Prescott is easily among the strongest female protagonists in Horror cinema. But, in Wes Craven films, strong female leads have come to be expected.

The film starts out simply enough, with a young girl sitting down to watch Horror movies. She gets a phone call that starts innocently enough, then takes a quick turn for the worse as the voice on the other end threatens her. After watching her boyfriend gutted in front of her, she's chased down and murdered by the killer. Like I said, simple. After that though, as the body count rises, a particular movie buff starts to see a pattern and tells everyone what to watch out for to survive.

For me, the killings pretty much being called out by Randy before they happened added another layer of tension. You start to think maybe, since it's been so blatantly called out, that character has a chance to survive. And the whodunit element in the first two movies made them both even more fun to watch.

I recommend the first two films to anyone. Especially if you like watching strong female leads beat the crap out of their tormentors. The climax on the second movie will always make me cheer. After all the torment Sydney's been through, she fights back with a vengeance. It's what I always wanted to see in a Slasher flick. Now, I can't really recommend the third Scream, because, even though it gets off to a pretty strong start, the ending falls completely flat and ruins it. I can't speak for the fourth, because I haven't seen it yet, but the first two are worth watching either way.


6. John Carpenter's The Thing

A remake of 1951's The Thing From Another World. I prefer it to the original (even though both are great in their own right) because Carpenter's focuses more on the trust issue of the story. The Thing could be anyone, even the guy right next to you who seemed fine five minutes ago. That element is what made the movie so terrifying to me. If you can't trust the guy next to you when you're up against something so big and scary, what are you supposed to do? You can't even adequately fight against The Thing, because you HAVE to constantly watch your back unless you want it to take you too.

The special effects in this movie also deserve a gold star. They might be dated now, but for 1982, they were fantastic and gruesome and wonderful. The head-spider scene always comes to mind when I think of think of The Thing, and if you've seen the film, you know exactly what I mean.

Needless to say, this should be on your watch list tonight. Just don't watch it alone ... or maybe it would be safer that way. Can you really trust the person next to you?


5. Horror of Dracula

In 1958 we got our first taste of Christopher Lee's Dracula, thanks to Terence Fisher and Hammer Films. But more importantly, we got Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, and that's what gets this movie on the list. Not only did Horror of Dracula put an interesting twist on the story at the beginning, but it also gave us a Dracula film with a lot of blood, which was, sadly, kind of rare at the time, even for a movie about the "original" vampire.

The story is basically the same on the whole, but the actors in this version gave us something special. Peter Cushing is the best Van Helsing ever put on film, and throughout the Hammer Dracula films, he always performed like he was shooting for an Oscar, long after Christopher Lee stopped trying. So, if you want a good vampire movie to check out, and you want to see Cushing in action, give Horror of Dracula a shot. You won't be sorry.


4. House of Usher

No Horror list would be complete without at least one Vincent Price film. I love the man far too much to put into words, but I'll try to keep my gushing to a minimum.


The story starts with a young man approaching the House of Usher, searching for the love of his life. She ran off because she was ill, and her overbearing brother (played by Price) says it's a family curse. Our "hero" doesn't buy it, and thinks that she can be helped with the right doctors. As you might expect, overbearing brother is against her leaving and does everything in his power to keep her there, even going as far as to bury her alive in a coffin.

House of Usher features one of Price's best performances. You can feel the pain of his disease as he describes it in one of the earlier scenes. There are a lot of Price films I'd like to have on this list, but for the Halloween season, this one seems to fit best.


3. A Nightmare on Elm Street

Before the series descended into ... what it descended into, Wes Craven crafted one of the most clever Slashers of our time. The subtext of the movie, if you care to dissect it like that, is really thought-provoking. But, I won't get into all that right now.

The movie starts with a young girl being chased in her dreams by some creepy guy with a burned face and a claw on his right hand. What's that you say? Oh, you thought this girl might be your lead? Too bad she gets killed shortly into the movie!

Enter Nancy, played by Heather Langenkamp, you're real lead. Her parents are divorced, forcing her to live with her alcoholic, neglectful mother. Of course her mother doesn't believe her when she says Freddy Krueger is the one killing the Elm Street kids. Understandable, seeing as Nacy's parents were among the group who burned Krueger alive years prior for, you guessed it, killing children.

This was before Freddy was being played for laughs like in the later movies. He still had personality, but wasn't throwing out one-liners every three seconds. And what made him even more scary was where he attacked you. Your dreams are supposed to be a safe haven, where you don't have to worry about death or pain. Freddy took that away from you, forcing you to think twice every night before you drifted off to sleep.  


2.  Dracula

This 1931 Universal masterpiece still holds up today, especially if you watch it with the updated score by Phillip Glass. Bela Lugosi gives a brilliant performance as Dracula here, and gave every Dracula that came after a template to follow. Dwight Frye also deserves praise for his portrayal of Renfield, specifically after he's enthralled by Dracula and driven insane.

Unlike the Hammer films, this is one you watch for Dracula and not for Van Helsing, although Edward Van Sloan makes a solid Van Helsing. But what really sells this movie for me is Lugosi's eyes. The shots where the camera zooms in on his eyes are downright entrancing.

I'm sure almost everyone has seen this one by now, but it's always worth another look. And if you've never watched it with the Phillip Glass score, do yourself a favor and find it. (It's on youtube as we speak.)


1. Wes Craven's New Nightmare

I finally got my wife to watch this one with me for the first time a few months ago, and throughout the movie she kept saying "This is so meta!" And she was right. New Nightmare is anything but your standard Horror film, and in case you haven't figured it out, it's pretty darn meta!

Any time of the year I can sit down and watch this movie, and it seems like I get something new out of it every time. Just like in the first Nightmare, Freddy isn't played for laughs here; he's a terrifying creature Wes Craven has kept trapped by making movies. But now that a new movie hasn't been made for awhile, the demon is breaking into the real world, and so Wes Craven (playing himself in the film) is writing a new script, and it starts coming true as he writes it. Heather Langenkamp is forced to take on the role of Nancy one last time, because she's the only one Freddy sees as a threat.

It's a really smart story with good special effects and an ending to remember.



Honorable Mentions

Like I said before, there are some other films I would've loved to put on the list, but there just wasn't room. So here are a few honorable mentions.



Freddy vs. Jason
I don't really consider this one a Horror movie, or even a good movie for that matter, but I laugh so hard every time I watch it, I have to recommend it.



Masque of the Red Death
Another Vincent Price gem. In this one he plays a Satanist leader who thrives on cruelty and the suffering of others. Worth watching, especially on Halloween.

Halloween, Halloween II and H20
The first Halloween was terrifying not because of what you saw, but what you didn't see. The second one wasn't as good, but it was a decent conclusion to the story.

H20, while most people hate it, I find entertaining because of one particular scene. Laurie has been forced into hiding for twenty years, constantly looking over her shoulder, so when she finally confronts Michael, she's had enough, and proceeds to let him have it. Even at the end when everyone else thinks he's dead, she knows better, and steals the ambulance he 's being carted off in.  She's not going to let him come back this time; she pins him to a tree with the ambulance and cuts off his head with an axe. Yeah, she finally got her revenge. I like to pretend this is the true ending of the series, and the abysmal Resurrection never happened.






And that's about it. Hope you guys enjoyed this little list. Happy Halloween!

The Horror! The Horror!

Well guys, we're on the back-end of October and Halloween is almost on top of us. With that in mind, I thought it'd be a good time to explore a topic near and dear to my heart: Horror.

Now, unlike most people I know, I didn't have a love for Horror growing up. For one, I was never allowed to watch it growing up, and other than a passing curiosity, I never cared enough to explore it. Instead, my love of the genre came in around the time I turned 20. 

At first my approach was very slow. I'd read Frankenstein and Dracula growing up, and those were a very different kind of Horror than I was about to dive into. Those books were more social commentaries than straight Horror, I think. Yes, I still consider them Horror, but those elements seems to only be a backdrop for the issues the authors wanted to explore. But I digress.

Anyway, after Frankenstein and Dracula (both wonderful books, by the way) I decided that Horror was maybe more than I'd been told all my life. If these books were any indication, the genre wasn't all mindless smut used as an excuse to show as much gore as possible. The Horror genre could be used as a vehicle to explore things that no other genre readily allows you to. As a writer, that idea fascinated me, and I couldn't wait to see what else I could dig up.

Stephen King was the next logical step for me. Again, this was a writer that my family had convinced me was not only a, most likely, devil-worshiping, goat-sacrificing, "spiritually disturbed" mess of a human being, but also just another drone in the Horror machine that perpetrated the smut I referred to earlier. First of all, not only is Stephen King a Horror writer, (even though that's how he's generally labeled) but also a brilliant Fantasy writer ... and a Pulp writer ... and Drama.... You see my point? The man writes a little bit of everything, and even though not all of it's to my taste, I admire his ability to jump from genre to genre like that. It's something a lot of writers today can't do. But, a constant theme in his work is the everyman overcoming the unspeakable evil. He likes to play with hard good and evil contrasts, whereas a lot of writers today tend to place their villains in a moral gray area. There's nothing wrong with that, but it gets a little tiresome when that's ALL you see. King's evil is the sort that makes those gray area-dwellers piss themselves, and I find that entertaining.

But, to keep things moving, I'll go ahead and move on to the main point of this post. You see, once I moved on to Clive Barker, then into Wes Craven and John Carpenter films, then the horrendous slasher cliche's like Friday the 13th, I realized that Horror was arguably the most primal, personal form of storytelling in existence. The horrific parts of the stories weren't always the blood-soaked killings, but rather the personal issues the characters were forced to face. The Silent Hill series of video games (specifically the second one) excels at this, and I'll say until the day I die that Silent Hill 2 is the single most terrifying fictional story I've ever been exposed to. Had that been a first person shooter series, the story Silent Hill tried to tell would have been impossible. You weren't a one man army slaughtering hoards of demons on mars, you were just some guy with a dark past unlucky enough to step into the fog. From there, you couldn't escape until you, literally, faced your personal demons (both literal and figurative) and overcame them.

So, for me at least, Horror is one of the most essential form of fiction we have. And yes, it gets a bad rap because of your Friday the 13th ripoffs (which were bad ripoffs themselves) but I maintain that those aren't even really Horror. Seriously, when was the last time you watched a Friday the 13th film without laughing hysterically at the repeatedly dumb decisions made by the protagonists, or the over-the-top deaths, like when Jason caught someone completely zipped up in their sleeping bag and beat them against a tree while they were stuck in it? Even Freddy vs. Jason, which is a guilty pleasure of mine, is much more comedy than Horror. With the Scream films, at least Wes Craven and company were aware of those stereotypes and poked fun at them in-film while still crafting a well done story that kept you guessing and gave you chills.

When you dissect some of the truly great Horror stories, you find things you might not expect. The easiest example would be Freddy Krueger, who represents loss and neglect, and according to Robert Englund himself in reference to the second Nightmare film, homosexual repression. And that's just the monster; try really taking a look at Nancy in Nightmare 1, 3 and New Nightmare. And so we've come full circle with that. Just like Dracula and Frankenstein, the best Horror has something to say. It can be much more subversive than those novels, but the thrills and chills, and the very nature of the Horror structure allow so much freedom for writers. Fear and Love are two of humanity's strongest drives, both of which Horror can handle like no other genre could ever hope to.

And there you have it. That's what Horror is to me. I hope I covered all my bases well enough and didn't make any of that too confusing. I'd also like to hear from everyone else about what Horror means to them.

Until then, it's Halloween guys. Read some Clive Barker, watch some Wes Craven, and have fun. It'll be a real scream!

The Power of 8: Influences

Well, here we are again. Another day, another blog post, and the pinky toe on my left foot feels like it's about to fall off (after a run-in with the threshold of the bathroom door this morning.) Yeah, it's been a fairly rough morning, but I'm still alive and (mostly) in one piece, and that means it's time to run through this Top 8 list!

First off, this idea came to me a couple of weeks ago, and I decided to get some of my fellow Writers in on it. What we'll be doing here is making a list of our Top 8 Literary Influences, and explaining a little about how each one has impacted us and helped mold the way we write. The only exception to that is my pal Sean Taylor, who already made a long list on his blog a few years ago, which I'm just going to link to here.

Now, shall we begin?



First off, John Durden, Author of Melatonin.

•         Number Eight

◦       Richard Dawkins

▪       I know that a strictly scientific author may seem a bit odd as a source of inspiration for an author as myself who writes primarily fiction, but this is my list and I intend to explain. Before I first read Dawkins, I always struggled trying to explain how I came to different conclusions, whether it be in life or on paper. Dawkins to me always over analyzed anything and everything he talked about in The Greatest Show On Earth, however, in the end I saw why he went to such great lengths to describe everything so intricately. The way he took the time to bridge his findings to the tiniest difference of an organism taught me how important it is, whether I decide to include the fully expounded thought in the final text or not, to take each and every little idea, digging into every minute possibility, and open it wide as far as my mind could fathom, before being satisfied with the final product. This has helped me develop deep, strongly plot driven material using the most minute of characters to proactively tell the story through the actions and interactions within their own lives

•        Number Seven

◦       Franz Kafka

▪       For those who have heard of Kafka, he is probably most well known for his work Metamorphosis as it was a highly popular required reading for the people of my generation. It was interesting to say the least, as the reader is faced with a man that within twenty-four hours has his life transformed quite literally. Though this giant bug of a tale has been a long time favorite, I am more a fan of his work A Report to an Academy in which the person speaking in the beginning turns out to be someone (or rather something) that you would never expect. It was this author that taught me how to take outrageously erroneous circumstances that shock the reader and compare them to the grotesque actualities of daily occurrences.

•        Number Six and Five

◦       Stephen King and Alexander Gordon Smith

▪       I read Smith well before I ever read King, which might be shocking to hear. I grew up watching various movie spinoffs of King's works and they left a lasting impression in my mind for being simply chilling. Later on I came to the conclusion that a majority of King's works dealt with highly possible real life scenarios that sought to make you uncomfortable in any way possible. It was that aspect that pulled me in and captivated my attention, specifically one of the most recent works I have read (Apt Pupil). However, before I even picked up a book by King, a friend recommend Smith to me. She had first discovered an audiobook for his first work Escape from Furnace: Lockdown, and gave a wonderful description of it, sparking my interest. I immediately went out and bought the paperback. I finished it quickly and began to devour the rest of the books in the series. What captivated me most, in this case, was not the fact that it dealt with a common day scenario, but that it dealt with a “what if?” scenario that to the modern reader is highly unlikely, but at the same time is something that many, including myself, feared as a child. The series is filled with imprisoned delinquent children, scary gas mask being armored with syringes, silver-eyed serpent men that watch your every move, and SPOILERS Nazis! This paired with the plot of Apt Pupil gave me more than enough material to dwell upon as I worked (and continue to work) on my series.

•        Number Four

◦       Dan Wells

▪       I owe my passion for fantasy to this wonderful man. It seems strange to think that I could pull fantasy from a series about a boy who constantly struggles with the reality of slowly becoming a serial killer. I never cared for fantasy growing up and being born in the late eighties I saw what could be seen as the teen years of fantasy which included works by Terry Brooks and Robert Jordan which to this day I can't stand to read. As a primarily nineties kid, I enjoyed the movement of cool cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series and short books like R.L. Stine's Goosebumps horror series. It wasn't until about three years ago that I was introduced to Wells. He has a style of writing that grabs your attention. He uses the disturbing things he knows you'll like to lure you in and stabs back with biting dialogue and inner monologue that will keep you reading for hours on end. He even manages to introduce monsters and extraterrestrial beings without being overly fanatic. This is what caught me and introduced me to the idea that there is a perfect type and amount of fantasy for all readers.

•        Number Three

◦       Christopher Moore

▪       I couldn't possibly complete this list without include a comedy writer, and a damn good one at that. He takes everyday scenarios, finds the humor in them, stretches that humor to it's limit, and throws in awkward monsters and giant sentient lizards. From Fool to Practical Demonkeeping, Moore's stories followed the lives of one pathetic character after another. His world is like no other I have ever seen before and will forever be the basis for how I judge life in California. He is a huge inspiration for my writing style, especially the dialogue that I use. My idea for the demon in my series spawned from the demon Catch that first appeared in his debut novel Practical Demonkeeping. It was his work that reignited my passion for reading and enjoying what I read, and is now what drives my ability to tell a story.

•        Number Two

◦       Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

▪       I struggled with this one and the one that I chose as the most influential person for my work. My love for mystery is built around this man and the invincible Sherlock Holmes. If anyone had critical thinking skills it was Doyle. Not only did he have to think like Holmes, he also had to NOT think like Holmes. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense at first, but when you think about it you can surely deduce the meaning. In the world he created, Sherlock was the end all be all to the story. He knew all he needed to know and if he didn't, he knew how to get the answers. Most other characters in the story aside from Watson had a single clue. They way Doyle manages to balance the differences between Sherlock and the common citizen or police force, as well as between Sherlock and Watson, astound me even to this day. His many works following the rather-not-be hero give me insight and confidence in my own writing and proper balancing of characters.

•        Number One

◦       Lois Lowery

▪       When I was younger, the last thing I wanted to do was read. To me, reading was absolutely boring and a waste of my time. Sure, I grew up with Goosebumps and was involved in my local library reading program, but eventually I grew tired of reading all those books for such stupid prizes. It was really the only reason I did it, even though, as it turns out, I actually enjoyed some of the books I read. When I grew out of the program, I saw no reason to read again until about my freshman year of high school. Our first assigned book was The Giver by Lois Lowery. I wasn't really happy about having to read anything, but the book was relatively small compared to the monstrous books I had to take home every day. It was an easy and enjoyable read nonetheless. I fell in love with the book instantly. It was that draw to something that I couldn't have that I was determined to get, regardless of the consequences. I was Jonas throughout his entire journey. I desperately wanted Rosemary to follow me, but she just couldn't got through the pain again. Defeated I took Gabriel with me, determined to make a new world. I laughed at the oddities and cried in joy when I escaped to a house at the bottom of a snowy hill, filled with the warmth and joy of Christmas Eve. It opened up my heart and unlocked my passion for reading once more. I couldn't get enough after that and ever since it has grown along with my passion for story telling.

****

  And now, a word from Anna Smith. 

"This was really difficult for me. I generally don’t follow authors—I pick what to read based on jacket copy and first line tests more than anything. Apart from that, I can’t really say what writers “made me want to write,” because I’ve literally written stories since I could write. My best shot is below.

My eight literary influences (in no particular order)"

1.      S.E. Hinton

When I was in eighth grade, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton was on our list of required reading. It was easily the bets of the books we read that school year. We spent a lot of time that year reading books set in World War II—memoirs of Holocaust survivors, a book about a German prisoner brought to a small American town. The Outsiders was told on a much smaller scale than the rest of these books. It didn’t deal with global problems. It focused on the inequalities in one town and on personal relationships rather than international ones. And it delved into social issues without preaching.

But the big thing about the book—the thing that impressed me the most—was that S.E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders when she was sixteen. I started trying to write my first novel the day after I heard that. I mean, if she was able to do it, maybe I could?

Hinton’s writing is simple. She doesn’t bother with big words or complex sentences. She just tells the story. Whenever I feel like I’m trying too hard with a story, I flip through The Outsiders. Seeing a story told without flourish always helps me figure out where to tone back.

The other thing that sticks with me about Hinton’s writing is her ability to write relationships. I cared about what happened to the characters because she showed me how deeply the characters cared about each other. The way that Hinton wrote the characters’ relationships in The Outsiders definitely informs how I write the ways that my characters interact.

2.      Lynne Truss

Lynne Truss has written a bit of fiction—a handful of novellas, including a new one called Cat Out of Hell that I’m going to have to procure. Mostly, though, my favorite Lynne Truss writing is her non-fiction. You might have heard of a book that she wrote about punctuation called Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Truss’s writing is, above all things, smart. And not smart in an academic sense, but witty and informative. Reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves, you’ll learn about punctuation, yes, but you’ll also laugh. A lot. Lynne Truss is definitely who I shape the tone of a great deal of my nonfiction work around, and there are some characters that I write that draw on Truss’s wit.

Apart from her wit and her amusing and informative nonfiction writing, I appreciate Lynne Truss’s fiction for one important reason: she always writes about whatever the hell she wants. Publishing is a business, as writers are constantly reminded. Sometimes your fantastic book or story can’t find a home because of nebulous “market reasons.” To account for this, writers sometimes let the market decide what they write more than they do. Truss has never done this. Admittedly, she’s protected by her successful non-fiction work and her fame in journalism, but she was still willing to write a book about Alfred Lord Tennyson and Julia Margaret Cameron living it up in Victorian England (and by “living it up,” I mean being frustratingly posh). People didn’t buy it, but Truss still refers to it as her baby. The willingness to tell the story that you want to tell and not the story that the numbers tell you will sell is something that I admire as a writer and something that I strive for myself.

3.      J.K Rowling

My 90s might be showing here, but Harry Potter was a huge part of my childhood and was the series that got me into genre fiction. My next door neighbor handed me the first book when I was eleven years old and promised to lend me the second one when she finished it. After about the third book, I was one of those fans that was at the midnight release every time. I’d stay up all night reading the books—in part because those were the early days of the internet, and the phrase “spoiler alert” wasn’t really in most people’s vocabulary, but mostly because I couldn’t leave the characters or their world. Yes, the earlier books were rough around the edges, but even so, the woman knew how to hook a reader.

One of my favorite things about the Harry Potter series was that nothing was done accidentally. Things that wouldn’t be plot points until book six were worked into the narrative in book two. Someone who wouldn’t be significant until book three was mentioned a handful of times in book one. This, to me, is something of a lost art in YA series fiction. There’s a thought that these subtleties will be lost on younger readers, but I don’t think that’s the case. I know I appreciated those things—and I was always really excited when I was able to read the clues to guess a plot point.

More recently, I’ve been impressed with her writing as Robert Galbraith. I’ve always loved a good murder mystery (I blame it on all of the episodes of Matlock my mom made me sit through), and The Cuckoo’s Calling was everything I would have asked for in one. Rowling shows her versatility with this book—a versatility that I myself long for.

4.      Sylvia Plath

This is probably as dark as this list will get. Most of Plath’s work was essentially a chronicling of her own mental breakdown, and Plath ultimately took her own life in 1963. Though her ability to use her writing to cope was, admittedly, questionable, Plath was the first writer who introduced me to the notion of writing through the pain. Plath’s writing is dark and deeply personal. She didn’t write to be loved or to be famous—in fact, a reading of The Bell Jar indicates that she wasn’t really built to handle fame. But she wrote from herself. That’s her blood you’re seeing on the page—it’s her life.

While my inner demons have never been as dark or as strong as Plath’s must have been, I’ve taken a leaf from Plath’s book, as it were, and used my writing to work through my own problems and pains. Since reading The Bell Jar, I pour more of myself into what I write. My work isn’t about me, but it is the way that I negotiate my own feelings.

5.      Truman Capote

The first page of In Cold Blood is some of the best writing I’ve ever read. That book is one of my all-time favorites. It’s also the last novel Capote ever completed. What I learned from reading Capote and from researching his life is about the process of writing. It can be unforgiving. It can tear you apart from the inside. Capote was broken. But Capote was brilliant.

Apart from his beautiful prose, Capote inspires me to keep myself in check. I am a writer—but I’m more than what I write. Capote and others like him—Williams, Plath, Hemmingway—remind me that art comes at a price, but I get to determine what that price is for myself. I would love to write like Capote, but I don’t want to live like him.

6.      Harper Lee

Harper Lee only wrote one book, but she made it count. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite novels. Lee manages to recreate the racial tensions in the South and illustrates how innocent lives get destroyed by the rampant prejudice that was (and still is) the norm in our society. She only wrote the one novel, but she said some very important things with it.

I also appreciate that she was able to make such important commentary in a book that was told through the eyes of children. Every time someone says that children can’t handle serious material or that books for or about children can’t tell important stories, I come back to this book. I write YA. I also write about class conflict, the dangers of conflating “progress” with “improvement,” the failing of the mental health and correctional systems in our society. Lee reminds me that young people and serious issues don’t have to be kept separate.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic, well-loved and respected book. It’s also, as I recall, the first “important” (in the school system’s opinion) book that I read that was written by a woman—and a woman from Alabama at that. I don’t know if other Southern writers feel this way, but hearing the way that the media tend to shit on everyone living in this particular corner of the country is sometimes hard to rise above. There are plenty of Southern writers I think of when I start feeling held back by my roots—one is mentioned above, in fact—but Harper Lee is always the first to my mind. 

7.      Christopher Moore

I like to laugh as much as the next person, but I generally find books that are explicitly comedy to be sort of lacking on the storytelling. Something in the effort to be funny takes away from weaker writers’ ability to keep the plates spinning on a story. Christopher Moore flips that trend the bird. Moore’s work is irreverent, wildly imaginative, and incredibly well research. He parodies Gaelic myth, but he demonstrates thorough knowledge of the myths and characters. He sets a fantasy farce in turn-of-the-century France, using historical figures and hits the nail on the head with their mannerisms and works.

Comedy is work. Comedy doesn’t have to mean stupid. No one does a better job of meshing storytelling, comedy, and research than Christopher Moore. I don’t know that I manage to tie those threads together too well, myself, but reading Moore’s work definitely makes me want to.

8.      Greg Rucka

Rucka is mainly a comic book writer, but he has written novelizations for a few of his comics. He’s written some of my favorite comic book characters—Huntress, Question, Wonder Woman—but he’s also created some amazing characters of his own. What I love about Greg Rucka is that every character he writes is so complete. Male protagonists are just quietly angst-ridden death machines. Female protagonists aren’t just fighting fuck toys. Each character has a complete story. Rucka reminds me with everything that he writes that it’s important to write not just strong stories, but strong characters as well. As someone who’s always hungry to see a well-written female protagonist, Rucka is an inspiration to me. He knows the secret—write strong characters, male or female.

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 And now Jonathan French, Author of The Exiled Heir, Book 1 of the Autumn's Fall Saga. And this one's in video format, for your viewing pleasure.

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Well, I guess that just leaves me. This is by no means an easy list for me to make, considering how many different writers have influenced me, literary or otherwise. That said, I'm gonna tackle this full-force, and we'll see where it goes. Now, for those of you who might have seen my Top 10 Authors of All Time list from last year, this isn't a straight repeat of that list. While I do consider that lot of Authors to be the best, not all of them have had the strongest influence on me like the ones in the list I'm making here. Now, here we go.


8. Luo Guanzhong

Guanzhong's way of taking prominent historical figures and making them larger than life had a big impact on me as a kid. Through Dynasty Warriors 4 on PS2 when I was 12 or 13, I was first introduced to Guanzhong's work. Granted, the games aren't 100% accurate, but it was my front door into the world of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

When I say Guanzhong's characters are larger than life, I'm not exaggerating in the least. Lu Bu, already a well-known and feared warrior in history, was turned into a practically unstoppable force on the battlefield that NO ONE could best in single combat. Then, moving on to his horse, Red Hare ... well, according to Guanzhong this horse to gallop a thousand leagues in a single day and not break a sweat. Yeah, I know, crazy....

More importantly, Guanzhong is one of the earliest writers I've found that managed to build standout characters. No two of them are the same, and it's really fun watching the way they interact with each other.

For anyone who wants to get an idea of the world, but doesn't want to dive into the dense text of Romance, you have another option. Red Cliff, a movie by John Woo, does a really good job of blending some of Guanzhong's more exaggerated scenes with the more historically accurate ones. I also recommend watching the Extended Cut, if you have 6 hours to kill. It's a cinematic masterpiece that deserves to be enjoyed fully.


7. Tad Williams

The first book I ever read by Williams was Caliban's Hour when I was around 16. I'll never forget that experience as long as I live. It took me years after to track down my own copy, and I ate up every word all over again.


Williams is more well known for his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, and his Shadowmarch series, but Caliban is where it all started for me. Williams' way with characters and distinct voices is nothing short of amazing, and ever more mystifying is the way he managed to write a teenager in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Yes, other Authors have written interesting teenage characters over the years, but Williams is, so far, the only one who I've read that accurately described the thought process of a teenage boy. Which is almost nonsensical, by the way.

I could say more, but I think Jonathan already described Williams well enough in his video.


6. Peter Tomasi

A comic book writer on the list? Why yes, yes there is. And I promise you there's no other comic book writer more deserving to be on this list than Tomasi. He taught me, better than anyone, how to pace a story. He also taught me a lot about character interactions and how, sometimes, a character's tone and personality can change a bit, depending on their location and who they're talking to. Looking back now, it seems pretty obvious, but reading his Nightwing run was the first time it really dawned on me.


Even now, I consider him one of the best voices in the comic book industry. I just wish he could break away from the garbage that is DC's New 52 line. I'd like to see him do more original work like The Mighty, and if you can manage to track down those 12 issues, I highly recommend you do so. You won't be sorry.


5. Joss Whedon

Yeah, you knew he had to be on this list. Without Joss Whedon, my dialogue would be flat and uninteresting. I don't think you can find anyone in any industry right now that has a better grasp of dialogue than Joss Whedon. If you read a line of dialogue from any of his characters without any attribution, you'd still be able to tell exactly who was saying it.


In addition to that, I admire his willingness to mess with the formula. In the middle of a very serious season of Buffy, you'd come out with a fun, zany episode like Once More With Feeling. And somehow, it never felt out of place. That takes on awful amount of skill to pull off, and Joss has an amazing track record for pulling it off.


4. Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is the person I have to thank for my sense of wonder. Few people can manage to instill that sort of feeling in literature without it either feeling forced or idiotic, but he nails it in everything he writes.


I was first introduced to him, like a lot of people my age, through The Sandman comics. It amazed me how he was able to transition from a straight Horror comic to a beautiful Dark Fantasy unlike anything ever written.

In recent years though, he's moved primarily out of comics and into novels and screenplays. It impresses me how easily he's able to transition from stories like Sandman and American Gods to children's stories like Coraline and The Wolves in the Walls, among others. That's a rare talent, and one I envy.


3. Stephen King

For years when I was growing up, I thought Stephen King was a dime store Horror novelist with nothing else to contribute to the literary world (yeah, I was a bit of a literary snob as a kid.) Not only have I drastically changed my mind about Horror fiction since then, but I realized that Stephen King is so much more than a scare-junkie.


Stephen King transcends a lot of genres and styles, yet anything you read by him is instantly recognizable as his. He's written Horror, Fantasy, Pulp, Drama, etc. Yes, Horror is usually his best work, but even his Horror is unlike anything else on the market. His ideas are so "out there" sometimes that it's nearly impossible to figure out how his stories are going to end until you hit the climax. And the one thing you'll find out pretty quickly is that King isn't always afraid to end on an off note. He want you to keep wondering long after you've turned the last page, and that's something I've become really attached to.




2. Amy Hennig

  While Amy's work is exclusive to video games, I consider her to be among the best writers of this generation. Not only is she a woman in what's always been considered a male-dominated field, she's easily the best writer in the video game industry, by a mile at least.

Here's a quote from the wikipedia article on Amy:

"Hennig believes that the creative direction of a script holds more importance than the graphics of the game. She has been called one of the most influential women in the video game industry by Edge magazine, and has been cited as an example of how more women are becoming involved in a previously male dominated field."

So yeah, you've got morons like Cliffy B in the industry praising their graphics and their chainsaw guns above actual story and gameplay, then you have someone like Amy, who likes to focus on the more important aspects of the game. In my old Characters post, I talked a lot about Raziel from The Legacy of Kain series. Well, my love for Raziel, and every other richly detailed character in that world, stems directly from Amy. She's the one that gave those characters their voices, and managed to craft a plot that was so engrossing that it still stand out, to this day, as the greatest vampire story ever told. But heck, even if you don't care for vampires and demons, there's still so much here to dig into. Hennig's story's are so meaty and full of life, you'll desperately devour every morsel until you reach the end, then you'll be begging for more.


Amy's sort of an oddball on this list, but she's had a huge impact on me. And I can say with confidence that she'd be number one on this list if it wasn't for....


1. Robert Jordan

Anyone who's known me for five minutes probably knew this was going to be the number one slot, and for good reason. Without Robert Jordan, I wouldn't be an Author. Are there other High Fantasy writers who've made a bigger mainstream impact? Well, yes, a lot of them in fact. Is it as marketable outside of literature as other Fantasy series? Not really. Does it have more heart than any other Epic Fantasy out there? You bet your sweet ass it does.


I still remember walking back from the library early in the week on day, a stack of books under my arm, eager to get back and crack open the first of them. You see, I was determined to branch out in my reading. At 11 I'd read The Odyssey and Hamlet for the first time, and Beowulf shortly after. Outside of Beowulf and The Odyssey, I hadn't found anything in the years after that captured my imagination quite the way those stories had. Don't get me wrong, I'd read some really god stuff, but none of it had the same magic. So at 15, I finally decided to grab a bunch of different books from different genres and see where things took me. One of those books happened to be The Eye of the World.

I'd had an odd fascination with The Wheel of Time for a good year or two at that point, but in the stores, I only ever found copies of the later books, with the cover for Book 7 really catching my eye. I can't tell you how many times I almost bought it, but with it being so late in the series, I thought I'd be too lost to get through it (and I was completely right.) So, that day at the library I saw some cover art that looked similar, picked up the book, and sure enough, it was the first book. I smirked, satisfied, and added it to my stack.

But, the tricky part came when I had to choose which book to read first. So, I decided to read the first chapters of all of them, then pick the one I liked best and go from there. I started with one of the Drizzt books, and it was good enough that I thought nothing was going to top it. But, just to be fair about it, I continued on and cracked open The Eye of the World for the first time ... and from the first page I was captivated. I carried all the other books back the next day and started ordering the next copies in the series that my library didn't have. These books were magic, with characters that I could relate to and a setting more diverse than any I'd ever read.

Another three books in, I realized that I wanted to be like Robert Jordan. I wanted a shot at giving other people the same joy he'd given me, and that day, I became a Writer. I didn't just want to write, I NEEDED to write. I needed to craft characters like Jordan's that lived, breathed and more importantly, changed as their world around them changed.

Nothing has ever captured my imagination like Jordan's work, and I doubt anything ever will.


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Well everyone, thanks to the lot of you that made it this far, and I hope you enjoyed hearing these Authors ramble on about their influences. I'd like to think that some of you either found something insightful, or you'll at least have a couple of new books to check out.

I'd also like to take a second to remind everyone that you can currently find my first book, Electus, on Amazon, in both print and ebook format. Please, feel free to check it out and leave a review. Reviews help upcoming writers more than you know.

Also, a quick thanks to everyone who participated in this post. I appreciate the time you guys put in, and I look forward to maybe sharing more posts with you in the future.

Letting Go

As I sit here, waiting another 30 minutes or so before I have to go to work, (and, by the way, I really don't wanna) I can't help but reminisce over a certain series of characters I've been writing since 2010.

It occurred to me a few months ago that, once I finish these last two projects, (one of them being a short story collection, and the other being the final part of the core trilogy) I'll be done with these characters. And, even though I'm more excited right now than I've been for this series since the beginning, I'm also sad. Once I type the last paragraph, and whoever might be left alive have their stories closed, that's it; I'll never see these guys again. I love every one of these crazy, dark, sometimes foul-mouthed, tortured people. Saying goodbye to this group is going to be the single hardest thing I've ever had to do as a writer, I think.

But, I digress. The main question I have here goes out to all my writer friends specifically: Have you ever found it so hard to let go of a cast of characters after living with them for an extended period? Maybe even to the point where you considered purposely extending your story or series so you can keep them around, even though it's past their time? And if so, why?

For me, I know I'll be able to let go of Avice, Destiny, Terrence, Nadia, Gideon, Gabriel and Vlad. But, I also know it's going to be like sacrificing my firstborn. Yes, even the sick, twisted little Gabriel is going to be missed on some level. (And yes, guys. He'll be back in book 3. Bwahahahahahahahaha!)

It's strange, this feeling of excitement for new things, coupled with a sense of loss over these good friends I've gotten to know over the last four years. I've never had this kind of attachment to the characters I've written, and maybe that's precisely why this series has gone as far as it has. I've created characters that people both love and hate, depending on who you talk to. And it's always a strong reaction on either side, never in-between, and I love that.

So, again, to my writing friends:

Have you ever had a hard time letting go of a character or setting?

Have you ever tried to draw a story or series out (or thought about doing so) just to keep your darlings around?

For you, what makes a character/setting get to that point, in your eyes?

Looking forward to seeing what sort of responses I get from this.

Melatonin (Interview with Author John Durden)

What's up, guys?

Today, I thought I'd do something a little different and jump into an interview with a local author from Alabama. I've known this guy for several years, and he just released his first book last week.

A lot of people often wonder what goes through a writer's mind when they're crafting their next big story, so here's your chance to get in on the ground floor!

So, I made what I thought to be a decent list of questions and fired away at him. For the sake of the interview,  I told him to treat the questions as if they were being asked by a random interviewer he'd never met.

Here's what he had to say:



So, how long have you been writing, exactly?

JD: I started writing at about 10th grade in High School. So, about 10 years, give or take. I used to just sit in class and write, when I didn't have anything else to do.

Would you say you have a specific Writing Style?

JD: Well, a lot of it is Discovery-Writing. I usually have an idea about what type of story I want to do, like Horror, Parody, etc. But beyond that I just sit down, let my mind go, and let the story take care of itself.

Would you say Discovery-Writing is superior to Heavy Outlining?

JD: I wouldn't say it's superior. I know a lot of writers that use outlines for their stories and the end product is a great read. I think it really depends on the type of person you are. Some people need heavy outlines to stay on track. For me, most of my work is spur of the moment, so I don't need a heavy outline.

What writers have had the biggest influence on your style?

JD: Definitely Voltaire. He was the first person to get me interested in writing. His first work, Candide, was the first book I ever knocked out in one sitting. He helped me understand that you have to be a great reader to be a great writer. Also, a lot of my humor comes from both him, and Christopher Moore. And lately, although I thought it would never happen, Stephen King has had a rather big influence on me. The way he develops his characters is brilliant.


If you had to choose, which writer would you consider to be your mentor?

JD: When I think mentor I think on a very personal level. But, really as a mentor, I have to say Cam Crowder. I'd given up on writing for a long time before I met him. Then, one night, while we were out having drinks he looked me in the eye after I told him about an old story I'd never followed through on because of an old rejection letter and he said "You're an idiot. Go finish your damn story or you'll regret it for the rest of your life." So, without him, I wouldn't be writing at all.


What are you reading right now?

JD: I'm reading Stephen King's Different Seasons. Specifically, Apt Pupil, and I have to say it's the most psychopathic, gore-filled story I've ever read. (Think I might even use it for inspiration for my 2nd book.)


Knowing that your first book has been out for about a week now, how does that feel?

JD: Well, initially, I was excited and terrified, but so far I've gotten nothing but a lot of positive feedback. I've given out a lot of copies, had someone come up almost immediately and tell me how great it was. For awhile I didn't even want to put anything out because I was scared, so this has been kind of refreshing. I'm sort of a local celebrity right now, and it feels pretty good.


Can you give us a brief description of your first book?

JD: I think I give a different answer for that question every single time. *laughs* It's set in two different worlds, and at first you think the two main characters can't possibly be related, but they are. Then there's this demon, who happens to be my favorite character, who starts getting involved in both their lives, and you start to see how they're connected.


And this is the first in a trilogy, correct?

JD: It is. That wasn't the plan at first, but when  I wrote the last chapter, I knew I had to keep going. I'm super excited to be working on the second book, and it's coming along pretty well so far.


For those who might have already read the first book, what can they expect in book 2?

JD: They'll definitely see a lot more of Joel, and a lot more deception. You can also look forward to a lot more emotional and mental anguish, which I personally enjoy, and I hope you do, too. *grins* Oh, and if you like the old man that appears in the first book, he might be working his way back into the pages, but I can't say when or where.


Is there a message in your books that you want readers to grasp?

JD: I think the overall message is really gonna be: bad things happen, and sometimes there's no justice. Sometimes there's always going to be hell to pay. Also, don't let go of the things you cherish most, or you might never get them back.

Any advice for other writers starting out?

JD: I'll tell you what all the author interviews I watched told me: Read a lot and write a lot. Some people say they're afraid to read someone else while they write because it influences them too much. But that's OK!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you should plagiarize, but reading other authors sparks your imagination and opens your mind to new ideas. Everyone has their own style, and odds are you're going to have some traits of the writers you read the most, same thing with the movies you watch, but you still have your voice.

Also, writing is something that should always be fun, and if you're just in it to make money, give up now. Put your pen down and just stop, because you'll never make it. You have to focus on it because it's what you love, not just another check.

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