From the Mind of Master Imaginationist Crystal Connor ~"A Trusted Name in Terror."

The Darkness, Artificial Light, In The Valley of Shadows

Monday, May 31, 2010

See Officer, what had happened was….



Daniel P. Coughlin’s 2008 Farmhouse is such a kick ass hell of a ride that while I was watching it my neighbor feared for my safety and called the police.

I tend to scream warnings to the people on my TV…things like: NOT to go into the cellar, NOT to open the door, and ask them questions like: “Why are you just standing there, fucking run!

It was in one of these interactive parts of the film my next-door neighbor knew beyond all doubt that my life was in grave danger because I was advising the victim to “just fucking shoot him, you stupid son of a bitch! What the hell is wrong with you fucking shoot him!”

After explaining to the city of Des Moines police officers that yes I was in fact safe and not under the seize of a home invasion, I returned to my DVD.

I was completely (and pleasantly) surprised when Farmhouse did not turn out to be another cliché about travelers breaking down on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and spending the night in the home of deranged idiots.

It has an amazing back-story and even if you’re looking thru the Hubble Telescope, you don’t see the ending coming. I haven’t been so pleased and entertained by a DVD since I reviewed The Collector. It’s a hell of a ride and I’m giving it 5 stars
5 out of 5 Stars

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Super fun, unconventional author’s bio with the help of a few friends =D Draft 1

Crystal Connor grew up telling spooky little campfire style stories at slumber parties. Living on a steady literary diet of Stephen King, Robin Cook, Dean R. Koontz and healthy doses of cinema masterpieces such as The Birds, Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone it surprises no one that she ended up writing a horror novel!

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“Crystal is the perfect example of a friend, honesty & creativity and is a positive role model for both my son and me.”
--Christina Blodgett, The Evil Redheaded Angel who’s whispering in Crystal’s Ear.

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Crystal Yvonne Connor was born on the Fort Lewis Army post in Washington State, on August 28th 1970. After graduating from Victor Valley Senior High School in Victorville Ca, she too joined the military. She served her country in the United States Navy working as a boiler technician on board the USS McKee AS-41 assigned to the 7th fleet.

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“Crystal is a very creative and resourceful person who stands up for what she believes in and isn’t afraid to speak her mind. She is a joy to be around and always has better jewelry than everybody else.”
--Starre Ashley Lanton, Chief Enforcer for Crystal’s International Criminal Enterprise.
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While deployed at various ports-of-call throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East Crystal began to learn about other cultures’ monsters and nightmares and she uses her world travels and experiences to take the reader on a journey they might not otherwise be able to afford or brave enough to undertake.

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“Like all black Goddesses my sister is both creative and talented. Now that she is a rock star I just have three words: Bitches. Be. Ware.”
--Amani Darby, Crystal's Principle Partner in Crime & Literary Rival.
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Crystal Y. Connor, now living in Seattle has been writing short stories specializing in Urban Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror genres and poetry since before Jr. high School. Crystal’s latest short stories can be found both on her blog and website at:

http://wordsmithcrystalconnor.blogspot.com
www.thewordsmithcrystalconnor.com

Crystal belongs to both the Authors Anonymous and The Seattle Women’s writing groups and is an active member of The Critters Workshop. The Darkness, Crystal’s first full length novel, is published by Bennett and Hastings. Crystal’s current project, Artificial Light, the sequel to The Darkness will be released in 2011.

Monday, May 10, 2010

But that's why God created editors!


I just left a lunch meeting with Rebecca who was my 1st editor for The Darkness and the reason I am soon to enter the realm of “published writers.” We spoke last week over the phone and she wanted to know how Artificial Light was coming along and wanted to know if she could read what I had so far.

So I gathered the 1st 28 chapters, every notepad, sticky note and straightened out every piece of balled up paper that had anything to do with Artificial and headed out to lunch. You should have seen her face lol…it was priceless. It’s really hard for editors to work with me because my spelling is atrocious and my written grammar is worse and when I submit pages that used to be crumbled up and out of order it pushes them to the edge. I’ve gotten way better but still I know it’s not easy.

On another note a few months ago we we’re auditioning voice actors for the audio book for The Darkness. We were really excited about one of the readers we auditioned, but as I shifted from a single reader to a full scale audio drama the working relationship between the original voice actor and I fell apart and it was decided that we would not be able to continue a working relationship, and as some of know you, I was really upset about it.

But like they say, everything happens for a reason, and now it looks like I will be working with a production team called Necropolis Studio Productions for the production of my audio book…and get this; they are a non-profit organization! Which means I will be within budget on this project because they’ll be doing it for free. WhooHoo!


Check em out! www.necropolisstudioprod.com

For those of you who do not know what an audio drama is, it’s basically like listening to movie on the radio, the way stories were told before the invention of the television. This is such a big deal because The Darkness needs to be rewritten as a screenplay, which means The Darkness will have to be almost completely rewritten because a screenplay does not read like a novel. In a novel you can write anything but in a screenplay you can only write what can be seen or heard. And NSP is doing this for free.

I think the translation with be beautiful because I am such a descriptive writer but at the same time I am very excited to work with this production team and see and hear their adaptation of The Darkness.

I know I am not posting as often as I used to, but I have so much to do as things the launch date gets closer, and I am writing another book and still have a company to run, so to not overwhelm myself I have cut back on updating and posting on my blogs, but I will try to check in at least once a week. Signing off for now, thanks for stopping by.