No. 29 - The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe

by Valerie I.J. Flint

Started: July 30
Finished: August 15

Notes: I picked this up a couple of years ago in a New Age shop in Columbus, Ohio. I was in the store and I kind of felt like I had to buy something, so this was among the books I picked up. I'm not a New Ager, but I've found a lot of the small, non-chain shops can have plenty to offer speculative fiction writers. I've been slacking on my non-fiction reading this year, so I thought I'd get around to this one now. Besides, it also ties in well with historical studies on religion and magic, an important element in the world of my trilogy. I've also gained interest in mixing horror and fantasy (something I believe Neil Gaiman is the king of, though Stephen King did a pretty good job with his "Dark Tower" series), and this book might help me some there.

Mini review: Thank the Lord I am finished with this book. It was most interesting, but quite dense. But, what can you expect from a British collegiate textbook? I learned a lot, but the tedious part was the amount of information the author provides in an attempt to prove her point, or at least to suggest her point is worth further study. Basically, the writer is suggesting the early church did not deal with magic (and, by association, paganism) nearly as harshly as the later church, and that the early church did not always try to stomp out magic and paganism, but in some cases tried to hijack magic, renaming the church's version of magic "miracles." In Dungeons & Dragons terms, the church tried to wipe out arcane magic while creating/promoting divine magics. I personally don't agree or disagree with the writer's point, but found the whole subject interesting. Whether she is correct or not, I guess there's no definitive answer, though she did back of her arguments quite strongly.

Thoughts on Horror, part II

I don't care much for horror as "morale tale." An example of this would be the early "Friday the 13th" movies. Teens smoke some pot and have sex. Teens get hacked up by a goon in a hockey mask. It's simple. If you sin, bad stuff will happen to you.

It's also stupid. And oversimplifies our existence. It's also so over the top as to almost be funny. If kids smoking a joint or two and having sex means they deserve to be tortured, mutilated and murdered ... well, without getting all religious on you, let's just say there's not a lot of hope for humanity. Maybe there's not anyway. I don't know.

On the flip side, though, I can understand an author who delves into some pretty dark and/or taboo subjects for his or her own peronal reasons. Over the years I've written at least a couple of such short stories, one called "The Second Judas" and the other simply titled "Sins." "The Second Judas" isn't worth printing because I've never gone back to clean it up beyond the first draft, and it does indeed need a lot of work. "Sins," on the other hand, has had a lot of work done to it, and it is probably pretty close to being ready for publication, though I'd like to give it one more quick line editing. Both of these stories are pretty old, "Sins" originally going back to 1994 and the other to 1997.

Here's the thing though ... both stories are so dark, touching upon subjects that are so taboo to general society, that yeah, I would fear some of the backlash. And I don't even mean from the general public, or general readers. I mean even from friends and fellow writers.

"The Second Judas" doesn't bother me nearly as much, because it's mostly dealing with religion ... and religious nuts I'm used to. I ran into enough of them as a newspaper editor ("Yer goin' ta HELL fer publishin' that there story about them gays and abortionists and anti-gunners!" which generally was answered with, "Oh, yeah? Well, you wouldn't even KNOW to be mad at the damn story if I hadn't run it!").

Not that friends of mine are religious nuts, but I don't feel any qualms about discussing religion with most of my friends. That's why they're friends. If I couldn't talk to them about something like religion without it turning into a screaming match, they likely wouldn't be friends of mine.

But the story "Sins" ... yeah, that one bothers me. And the matter of it is, it's a story of art imitating life. As a newspaper editor, over the years you read lots and lots of weird, quirky and sometimes downright horrific stories. Usually these are Associated Press stories about events that have happened in another state or country. Every once in a while they hit close to home.

But "Sins" came out of my mental/emotional struggle of trying to make sense of something horrible that happened to a family in one of those AP stories I read on the newswire. It was so horrifying that I couldn't let it go for a few weeks. Then I wrote "Sins." I still don't fully comprehend how someone could do such terrible things, but writing the story did help me some. But that's been 13 years ago. I still break the story out every few years, clean it up a little more, maybe send it out to a magazine or two that supposedly runs really dark stuff. Usually I get back something like "Sorry, but this is too dark to publish." I think one of the reasons it's too dark to publish is because it isn't about some monster, or aliens, or bigfoot, or whatever, terrorizing someone. It's about everyday people doing the most godawful stuff to one another. And I promise you, whatever you are right now picturing in your mind, whatever horrible image you conjure while trying to guess what my story is about ... the real story is worse. I don't say that to brag. I say that because ... well, because I know my mind couldn't have come up with something as horrible on my own, no matter how many horror novels I've read and movies I've watched.

My point is: Sometimes horror can be a bit like therapy. Maybe not for the reader, but maybe for the writer.

I don't know if "Sins" will ever be published, but that doesn't matter. It was my little way of dealing with a part of the world.

Thoughts on horror

Once upon a time, this writer had dreams of being a horror novelist. That was long ago, in the heydays of Stephen King in the 1980s and early 1990s. I read tons of horror stories, watched loads of horror movies and studied the occult, serial killers, the supernatural and anything else odd, twisted or that was in some other way related to the horror genre.

That dream didn't necessarily die, it just got expanded over time. In my pre-horror days, I was big into fantasy, and for the last several years I delved back into fantasy again ... thus my current trilogy. It has also come about that most of my writer friends, online and in the real world, tend to be fantasy writers.

But I've felt a bit of a draw to horror again lately. I think it started last year when I read Max Brooks' "World War Z," a collection of realistic stories about human survivors of a worldwide zombie outbreak. Brooks is somewhat known for his comical side, and "World War Z" does have some comedy, but it also has much, much more. Before I go any further, just let me say that I believe "World War Z" was the best new book I read last year (okay, okay ... "Starship Troopers" was the best old book I read last year).

Alright, back to my original point. I think one reason I lost interest in horror for so long is that I became disgusted with ... not the genre, but with some of the people behind the genre, certain writers and film directors and the like. It got to the point that the only point to horror was ... well, the horror, the blood and guts and body counts.

Now, I freely admit, the horror genre has been accused of such negativism for a long time. And some of that criticism is valid. I myself can't stand the series of "Saw" movies because, to me, there's no point other than watching humans being tortured in more and more sadistic manners. There's not much plot, there's not much conclusion ... it's just pointless.

For me, the best horror has never really been about horror. The best horror has been about one of two things, either the power of the human spirit to overcome tragedy and overwhelming odds, or the failure of humanity to overcome such.

I'll go back to Stephen King. One of King's strengths is his characterizations, because you learn to care for his good characters or to loathe/love his villains. Either way, you care what happens to his characters. His plots aren't just about grossing you out, or showing you new ways to use sharp instruments, but about humanity.

Maybe I'm just turning into a softie as I get older. I don't care so much about "breaking boundaries" because I feel like they've all already been broken. Once you've seen a dozen decapitations or impalings or disembowelings ... you've seen 'em all.

Give me will. Give me strength. Give me character. Give me love. Or show me the failings of such things. We are more than bodies and blood. The best horror tales show that.

Apex Digest

I haven't seen much talk about this magazine at my usual online writing haunts, so I wanted to let everyone reading this to know about Apex Digest. It's a science fiction and horror magazine, and it just so happens to have its home right here in my hometown.

I haven't met the editor, Jason Sizemore, but we've talked several times through e-mails. I'm doing a few book reviews for him, so hopefully they'll be included in the next edition; if not, well, then eventually.

Apex is currently closed to submissions, at least until September, so don't flood Jason with stories, at least not yet.

And for those of you who don't know, Apex Digest is a pretty well respected publication. They've published short stories by the likes of Joe Konrath, Neil Gaiman, Christopher Rowe and others.

Give them a look.

A writer's dilemma

Years ago, when I suffered from writer's block, one of the problems I suffered was that I thought of everything in short story form. I wanted to work on a novel, but I felt helpless to do so because every story I came up with worked better as a short story.

Long story short, then I started screenwriting, which helped me work my way to novels.

Nowadays, I suffer from the exact opposite problem I used to have. I think of everything in the terms of a novel.

I'm still busy working on ye ole trilogy, plus a few side projects, so I've got plenty of work. But I keep having ideas that I want to make into a short, but those stories keep expanding and expanding and expanding. For instance, I've got an idea for a character, his environment and the basic plot. But then I start thinking about the character's past, how he got to what he is and where he is at. I start thinking about certain relationships he has with other characters, and I know his far past as well as some of the things to happen to him in the future.

And then I'm lost. I've got too much in my mind for a short story.

Lucky me. Yet another novel idea. No, no. It's even better. Another idea for a series, or another trilogy.

Damn thinking like a novelist!

No. 28 - The King of Elfland's Daughter

by Lord Dunsany

Started: July 25
Finished: July 30

Notes: I've never read any Dunsany, but he's been recommended by several authors I appreciate. So, here goes.

Mini review: Lyrical, musical prose. A decent plot, with a good (but kind of mixed) ending. Unfortunately, I was bored almost the entire time I was reading this. There was nearly no dialogue and I don't need to read repetitive page after page of description ... and it's not even really description, more of a tone setting. But 200 pages of tone setting? Sheesh. I can't say it was all bad, and I'm glad I read this one, but I don't think I'll be reading any more Dunsany soon.

I'm still around

Okay, I know I've not been blogging much lately. I've also not been hanging out at my usual online haunts lately.

Here's why: My PC has died on me.

My Mac still works fine (I use it for most of my writing), but it's old and I can only get dial-up on it, which suuuuuuuucks. So, I can get on the Web at home, but it's so slow it's hardly worth fooling with. What little posting I've done of late has been at my part-time newspaper job, and most of the security measures there and some older technology limit what I can do.

So, I haven't forgotten anyone. I'm not dead or anything.

As for my writing ... I'm still editing the third book of the trilogy. I'm also working on updating a few old short stories. And I'm working on a few book reviews for a spec fiction magazine (more on that at a future point ... like when my first review is published/posted so I won't look like a complete fool if this falls through for some reason).

Love to all my homies.
Darkbow, out!