MY HALLOWEEN GUILTY PLEASURES

ACK! ACK!



HORROR WITH HUMOR AND HEART



HORROR WITH HEART AND AN ALL STAR CAST



A BLIND SOLDIER FIGHTS HIS LAST BATTLE WITH DIGNITY AND COURAGE



TWO GOOD OLD BOYS FIND HUMOR AMIDST THE HORROR



I LIKE THIS FOR THE FRIENDSHIPS IN THE NATIONAL GUARD UNIT PITTED AGAINST WEREWOLVES



AND OF COURSE ...

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR HALLOWEEN GUILTY PLEASURE MOVIES TO WATCH?

MONSTER

He remembers their first meeting,  She so shy.  He pretending not to be.

He remembers their last embrace, the final touch ... with nothing more to say, nothing more to say.

No need for words for in this dark all words have long since lost their meaning.

He was so good with words ... once.  The crowd loved him ... once.  No more.  No more.

Still, her first words whisper in his ear.  He tries to read between their lines.  

But what he sees in the dark, feels in his heart blurs in ghosts of yesteryear.

All his dreams.  All his lies.  He can no longer tell them apart.

He watches his final hour bleeding while the bunker clock ticks away his life.

He studies its hands.  He sees them turn, each click a tsk of reproach.

Oh, for a breath of spring once more.  But no breeze in this cement haven. 

 Only silence.  When she took the pills not a single word was spoken.

Now that she is dead, the silence seems a scream of accusation.

The doctor spoke truly.  The pills acted quickly, so quickly.

He ignores his own pills like lice upon the scalp of the table, the gun beside them a grim sentinel.

He reaches out to gently stroke her still warm cheek. He frowns at his trembling fingers.  

When had he become so frail, so old?

His fingers turn to the pills.  The shadows look on.  He hears their mocking whispers:

"Should we cry for your sake?  Should you sleep in our arms?"

He hates those shadows, for the shadows see all, and they never forget.

"We never forget!" they mock.  "Every dream that you had, every act you should regret."

He puts the pills in his mouth, swallows the stale, tepid water.  He chokes, spitting them out.

He picks up the gun.  He feels the cold pressure of its barrel against his temple.

What will his people, the world think when they speak his name?  Or will they speak it at all? 

 In the years to come will any remember the name ... Hitler.

 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B016JNFUAQ

WHEN YOU WRITE ABOUT YOURSELF...

... few take the time to read.

 Haven't you noticed that Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads is awash with frantic authors trying to get your attention?

Chrys Fey had an interesting post 

about easy ways to market without turning off everyone within your sphere of influence:

http://writewithfey.blogspot.com/2015/10/

One method that struck me as fascinating 

was to create snippets from your new book against the backdrop of images you own.

And since I would like all of you to Halloween treat yourself to my collection of short stories,

 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B016JNFUAQ

 I followed Chrys' advice --

So?  

What do you think of my creative snippets to my latest book?  

Do they tease enough to arouse curiosity?

WHY IS HALLOWEEN STILL SO POPULAR?

The National Retail Federation reckons that Americans will pay

a record $3 billion-plus this season on hairy spiders, blowup Draculas and plastic maggots that glow in the dark.

Millennials are characterized by a desire for a prolonged adolescence so it is no surprise that they cling to the idea of dressing up.

In fact, two in three adults feel Halloween is a holiday for them and not just kids.


But I think it goes deeper:

The books and then movies in the 50's of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and WHO GOES THERE? (THE THING)

did not just tap into the paranoia of the Cold War

but also the paranoia of adulthood when aging children realized that their parents, their leaders, and those around them were not who they posed as being:

In essence those children lost their innocence in that they realized they were surrounded by people wearing masks ...

and that the real monsters lay BENEATH those masks.

Especially since September 11, 2001, the Boston Marathon Bombing, and endless school shootings,

it seems all too easy to imagine a murderer sitting in the aisle next to you.


Of course, that is not the only reason for the surging popularity of Halloween --

There’s no stress to it. You don’t have to travel or deal with relatives. There’s not the holiday pressure to find a date if you are single.

You can wear whatever you want and not be judged. There’s the fantasy, role-play element.

 If you think about it, it’s surprising that 90% of people don’t feel it’s their favorite holiday.


My friend, Darren Comeaux,

tells me that Halloween is quite an even in Japan, a country from which he has just returned.

In Japan, Halloween is not simply an end-of October event.

1.)  It is celebrated more in the form of masquerade parties and parades for adults.


2.) Halloween season in Japan runs for quite a long time.

 In amusement parks like Disneyland, Halloween-themed performances start from early September.

In schools and offices, Halloween parties and related events fill up their calendars for two months.


(While in American Politics, Trick or Treat lasts all year!)


3.) Halloween is still a growing market in Japan.


DEVIL'S NIGHT

Devil's Night is a name associated with October 30, the night before HALLOWEEN in Detroit, Michigan

(a city that both Victor Standish and I have highly violent memories of)

Devil's Night dates from as early as the 1930's.

Traditionally, city youths engaged in a night of mischievous or petty criminal behavior, usually consisting of minor pranks.

However, in the early 1970s, the vandalism escalated to more destructive acts such as arson.

The crimes became more destructive in Detroit's inner-city neighborhoods, and included hundreds of acts of arson and vandalism every year.

The destruction reached a peak in the mid- to late-1980s,

with more than 800 fires set in 1984, and 500 to 800 fires in the three days and nights before Halloween in a typical year.


ANGEL'S NIGHT

Let us resolve to counter-act the darkness a bit and make of Halloween season a time of Angel Nights where we do random acts of kindness.

Now, that's a real treat to a night of tricks, right?

Look for my collection of Halloween tales later on today (the lucky 13th!)

 

HAS AMERICA GOTTEN WORSE OR HAVE WE JUST GROWN UP?

There was much that was wrong in the era of Eisenhower/Kennedy

 but can you imagine audiences watching 

Jackass or The Bachelor, 

shows which consist of penis jokes or swallowing the sham of 20 women claiming to have a "connection" with a single, Ken-like playboy? 

Can you imagine millions of dollars being made by audiences flocking to movies like Saw or Hostel?


Which is worse?  Game of Thrones or the culture that adores it?

No, GOT is not realistic.  

Yes, rape and torture existed in the truly Dark Ages, 

but where are the deaths from influenza, or child birth, or infected gums? -- much less the lack of hygiene or teeth. 


Game of Thrones allows the viewer to revel in depravity from afar. 

 No one likes being called a voyeur, especially a voyeur of human depravity. 

 Yet, few nobles of Westeros are killed by influenza, alcohol poisoning, or being thrown from their horse. 

Every one of Mr. Martin's unmarried female characters is raped (or barely escapes it).



Barbarous and violent as they may be, the Iliad and the early books of the Old Testament present a wider array of emotions and human motivations 

than can be found in all of the Song of Ice and Fire books combined. 

This is why they are still read all these millenia later. 

 They capture enough of the human condition to resonate across centuries. 

This is an achievement I believe Mr. Martin's shallow world of vice-driven characters can never hope to attain.


 Why the audiences of GOT think it is realistic is the great mystery.

Have we reached a point where a story will not be hailed as authentic, deep, and “real” if it is not also dark, gritty, and violent?

Why is a world of grisly barbarity the only setting for moral drama modern audiences find acceptable?


Is that why Atticus Finch being revealed as a bigot after all made SET A WATCHMAN so popular?

Do we want to subconsciously justify our own desire to be shabby this way?

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

WHY WON'T ZOMBIES JUST DIE?

The zombie craze is much like the zombies themselves:

Just when you think they’re finished, 

they get up again and shamble towards you moving faster.

Even Victor Standish deals with zombies in the beginning of CARNIVAL OF THE DAMNED.


In Danny Boyle’s 2002 hit 28 Days Later the mindless cannibals weren’t called zombies 

− they were simply ‘the infected’ − 

but they were close enough to remind the film industry that there was money to be made.


 By the time Brad Pitt’s World War Z was released, it seemed it was several years late to the party. 

Surely there was nothing new to be said about the undead? 

 Instead, it went on to rake in $540m, making it one of 2013’s ten biggest blockbusters.


In The Walking Dead, the rule of law ceases to exist. 

Humanity’s last survivors are forced to forage for food in a dystopian desert, 

while trying to avoid becoming food themselves.


 It can’t be a coincidence, then, that zombies are in vogue during a period 

when banks are failing, when climate change is playing havoc with weather patterns, 

and when both terrorist bombers and global corporations seem to be beyond the reach of any country’s jurisdiction.

Stephen King says 

that zombies represent the terrorist in modern parables.  

Just like zombies, terrorists cannot be reasoned with or threatened -- they can only be killed.

 Zombie stories give people the opportunity to witness the end of the world they’ve been secretly wondering about 

while, at the same time, allowing themselves to sleep at night because the catalyst of that end is fictional.

 Zombies embody the great contemporary fear 

 that we’ll soon be surrounded by ravenous strangers, with only a shotgun to defend ourselves. 

Compared to that, facing a werewolf or a vampire is a breeze.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Midnight keeps curled up by the autographed
poster of IRON MAN 2

Now I know why:
 

OCTOBER 9TH -- MY BIRTHDAY

What is in a day?

“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. 

And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.”
- Maya Angelou



Denise Covey & Alyssa McKendry are two with whom I share a birthday.  

Have you ever wondered what people share your birthday?


What are their hopes, their dreams, their life situations, their locations on this war-torn world?

Would one of your "bad" days be Heaven to them?  

Did they go to bed hungry or swallow bitter tears before fitful sleep swept them up?


"Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time."
- Jean Paul Richter

"The old age of an eagle is better than the youth of a sparrow."
- Greek proverb


On this day in 1849, Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" was published,

just two days after his death from mysterious causes and in odd circumstances, even for him --

 theories include political thugs, rabies, brain lesion, or the most likely, 

a final binge either chosen or forced upon him by brothers of his newly-betrothed, who viewed Poe's interest in their sister as opportunism.

Oddly enough, Edgar Allan Poe is a major character in my THE RIVAL 

with Alice Wentworth the inspiration for Annabel Lee:

  
Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim was published on this day in 1900. 

During a pause in Chapter 13, a French officer muses,  

“Mon Dieu! how the time passes!”; this prompts a reflection by Marlow, Conrad’s narrator: 


"It's extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts.

 Perhaps it's just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome."


 In her Common Reader (First Series),  Virginia Woolf cites the above passage as representative of Conrad’s lasting worth:

"His books, with their air of telling us something very old and perfectly true, which had lain hidden but is now revealed, stir the mind…. 

Complete and still, very chaste and very beautiful, they rise in the memory as, on these hot summer nights, in their slow and stately way first one star comes out and then another."


Will any of our books touch the reader in a like way?  Should we strive to be a touchstone for the person holding our book?


Enough wool-gathering.  Let us end with George Burns' and Mark Twain's thoughts on birthdays:

“I was brought up to respect my elders, so now I don't have to respect anybody.”
- George Burns

"Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually age to 18."
- Mark Twain 

And don't forget:

 Victor Standish's latest novel can be purchased in Kindle format here.