Welcome so much to my blog =D The things you’ll read here will be quick and dirty, raw and unedited 1st drafts of the things that I think and write about. The thing I want you to know up front is I do not plan to edit or censor anything. Please be forewarned that the contents are mature in nature and oftentimes will be entrenched within the realms of the unsettling. Please feel free to stay awhile, look around & leave a comment or two. Have fun!
From the Mind of Master Imaginationist Crystal Connor ~"A Trusted Name in Terror."
The Darkness, Artificial Light, In The Valley of Shadows
Do you want to double,
triple your speed on the treadmill by running from Zombies in your workout?
Do you want to be so afraid
of the dark that you don't even want to close your own eyes?
Well thanks to the
award-winning imagination of Wordsmith Crystal Connor and the amazing voice of K.
Richardson now you can!
Now you too can be up in
the middle of the night wandering the well lit corridors of your home with a
flashlight and a shotgun for the low, low price of FREE!
But wait! There's more!
Are you terrified of
children? You will be after you meet Bryannah, Robby, & Kim!
Do you have an
insatiable urge to explore dark, cramped places like attics and basement's? I got
just the cure for that!
Download your copy today!
It's finally here! My anthology
is now available as an audio book! The free version is available on podiobooks the deluxe version is coming soon. It has
bonus features that you won't hear on the free version. I'm so super excited
that I have an audio book for And They All Lived Happily Ever After! because
due to the lay out and because of the graphics there is no way to convert it to
Kindle/Nook but the cool thing about the audio version because it doesn't have
the layout and graphics that's in the book it's a completely different
experience than reading the book.
This project was just
amazing all the way around, here is the link for the version. I hope you enjoy
it! Thanks again for all your support
Things you never see
black people doing in horror movies: Thing # 9
Lean over the body to
check to see if the killer is dead.
On Aug 20th, 2014, after
arriving home after celebrating her little sister's birthday Crystal Connor
noticed an email with the subject line: Since you wrote The End is Now and loved
I'm Not Jesus Mommy... Intrigued she opened it and found a Hulu link. Sitting at
her computer wrapped in a fleece blanket, she clicked the link. For the next 81 minutes her
neighbors were subjected to screaming, crying, and expletive outburst...
This is the unedited
journal chronicling the harrowing experience her neighbors were forced to
endure as she watched, Matt Dunnerstick's 2013 The Custom Mary
Reader discretion is Advised
Entry 1:
Oh my God I love the narrator's voice.
Entry 2:
Ok, when a preacher says 'we alone read the exact page of His purest word'
that should be the equivalent of a HUGE neon bridge out ahead sign and you need
to pay more than just attn to the shit he says next.
Entry 3:
OMG she is so adorable!
Entry 4:
Oh hell no! The Order of the who?!
Entry 5:
See! That's why you need to know your bible.
Entry 6:
Mary listen to that voice that's screaming in your head right now.
Entry 7:
Which bible are you reading?!
Entry 8:
What did they just do to her?
Entry 9:
Spelling casting? You just fucked it up for everyone
Entry 10:
He just said 'If we can clone a lamb, we can clone the Lamb of God, no
problem.'™ What the fuck?
Entry 11:
Ok so that whole Mark 13:32-33 thing really doesn't matter?
Entry 12:
You just gonna let them perform a medical procedure on you in a grown man's
bedroom who still lives at home w/his Mamma?
Entry 13:
Your going to Hell on a scholarship program
Entry 14:
Right!
Entry 15:
It's too late now
Entry 16:
The baby is black!
Entry 17:
Oh my God they just left her
Entry 18:
Where's Joseph? Ok, there he is
Entry 19:
omg they are the cutest parents
Entry 20:
That's what you guys fucking get
Entry 21:
Yeah she does
Entry 22:
Oh my God
Entry 23:
That's so fucked up
Entry 24:
Really?!
Entry 25:
You need to go find her
Entry 26:
She is not about to spend 40 days/40 nights wandering around Victorville
Entry 27:
She's gonna die out there
Entry 28:
Did she die?!!!
Entry 29:
That's a hellofa vision
Entry 30:
There can only be one but you've clone 11
Entry 31:
It's your own fault, if you had read the bible for yourself and not listened to
some charlatan you would be in this situation. None of you would.
Entry 32 :
HOLY SHIT!!!
Entry 33 :
Oh my God
Entry 34 :
Wow
Plotline:
"The story of The Custom Mary involves two preachers and a scientist, who
discover two drops of Jesus Christ's blood. They use this material to clone
Christ and to impregnate the young Mary with Christ's DNA. Along the way, Mary
becomes involved with a lowrider mechanic named Joe, but their relationship is
tested when Mary's pregnancy does not go as planned. Mary undergoes a
transformation of faith, while finding new relationships on the dangerous
streets of East Los Angeles." - Written by Josh Taubensee
for IMDb
Scariness Factor: This is not a horror film, I would say its religious based science fiction, but if you give
yourself a moment to think about the implications of what they're doing, its
terrifying
Gross-out Factor: N/A
High Points: This is an urban story, and the two main actors are speaking an urban
language and its authentic! There's none the overly exaggerated stereotyping
that reinforces the negative images and assumptions about people living in the
inner city. I was so impressed by that, that I paused the movie to look up the
writer and was surprised to see that it's a white guy. The diversity and the
complexity and depths of the characters of color was welcoming &
refreshing
I loved how each chapter
of the movie was indicated by graffiti art that was drawn right on top of the
moving picture. There's tons of symbolism which allows the movie to convey a
lot of information without dialogue.
Speaking of dialogue,
another thing that was masterfully done is the metaphorically use of words. The
Joseph in this story is a mechanic and the way he talks about his car to
explain the things in the world sounds biblical. There is another character in
the movie that looks like a 'Our Lady of ...' icons, the things she says are
profound, but she works on cars too so her spiritual advice is mechanical as
well. Your gonna have to see it for yourself because I cant explain the
awesomeness.
There are so many layers
to this movie that I am going to watch it again, but the thing that stayed with
me was how these powerful men preyed on the faith of the believers.
Complaints: None.
Overall:
I think watching horror movies should be an 'interactive'€™ activity (which is
why I watch them alone) and the more I yell at the people on the screen the
more fun I'm having. I'm a tough customer and I can be pretty unforgiving when
it comes to the myopic way in which I prefer to be entertained. And OMG this
movie was fucking amazing!
Ok, let me back up a
bit. Vaughn Juares 2010I'm Not Jesus Mommylanded on my top five list and has
stayed there for the last four years. It's a low budget indie that has plenty
to complain about, despite this, the story is so strong it overcomes all of the
things that a lot of indie films can't help. It's a testament that fans will
forgive anything if the story is compelling.
I have to say that Matt
Dunnerstick's 2011 The Custom Mary has rudely rearranged my entire top 10 list
Stars:
5 solid stars!
Where I watched it : Hulu
Oh, before I forget get, The End is Now reference is for one of the books I co-wrote w/paranormal romance & dark fantasy author Lori Titus under the pen name of Connor Titus. Here is the Amazon link if you wanna check it out.
Ok, Even though I read
all of my fan-mail I usually don't respond especially when they are upset over
a character or stunned to anger over an ending that they didn't see coming. The
most recent question I was asked is a really good one and totally threw me for
a loop so I thought I'd answer the email it here. But before I can answer it I
need to share the question that was asked by a 17 year old black girl living in
Denver€¦.
'You have a black woman
on the cover of The Darkness, both main characters are black women but the magic
in the story is European. There isn't a person on the cover of In The Valley of
Shadows but there is a lot of African mythology in that book and Middle Eastern
too. You tell us about legends that I had never even heard of before. Did you
do this so that white readers would read the entire trilogy?'
Wow. That's a hellofa
question. And the answer is no. The reason African mythology and folklore aren't
mentioned that much in the 1st two book, is, like you, I had never
heard these stories before.
About a third of the way
through Artificial Light I became a member of the Black Science Fiction Society
and through that association I met authors like Milton Davis and artist like James
C. Lewis and I was shown glimmering flashes of my ancient history. Excited I
dug for more, and while looking for something else I stumbled upon a site
called Fuck Yeah! African Mythology and basic the flood gates opened from there.
And even then I wasn't
really sure if I'd be able to incorporate any of the stuff I was learning into
the trilogy, not until the very end. It was so much fun being discovering these
stories and being able to retell them in my own words.But because of the way the story of Inanna
unfolds, if I had known then what I know now I still would not have been able
to fold in so much African mythology and folklore until the very end.
But don't worry, as
always, I have something simmering on the back burner
So And They All Lived
Happily Ever After! is making the rounds again, thanks you guys I am so super
stoked about that, I was even spotlighted this week, see? =D
But with a new batch of
fans comes a new batch of complaints, which is fine, you can't please everyone
and I don't even try, however this newest complaint has gotten to the point
that it needs addressing because quite frankly I don't like the implication.
Let's take a sec to talk
about diversity and what it means to be all inclusive.
The Lazarus Antidote
feats a biracial couple
Best Friends Forever
revolves around the madness of a woman attempting to break up w/her girlfriend
There's a story where a
15 year old boy makes a pretty drastic decision to protect his big brother who
is still in the closet
And then we have The
Apple, which seems to be the source of the problem for some. Why? Apparently
over the derogatory use of the word fag. I find it quite breath taking that,
after reading the stories listed above that some of you have the audacity to
send me emails accusing me of being homophobic. That's fucking laughable.
Diversity needs to be
all inclusive, even when, especially when you don't like it. Take a look around
you, there are people who are still very uncomfortable with the idea of gay
people. That's just a fact of life. Deal with it.
I'm not writing to
ignite social change or spark some type of awareness, I just write. If my
characters are gay, they're gay. If an extra uses the term fag when talking
about gay men in a story, then she uses the term fag. Simple as that. To
suggest otherwise it stupid.
Ok, so now that that's
out of the way¦
DUDES! Your never gonna
believe it … I now review indie horror/sci fi movies for HorrorAddicts.net! I
know right! The one thing I know that
will be challenging for Horror Addicts is that sometimes I will be reviewing
films that I didn't really like. The 1st review I did for HA was for
a movie that I would have never watched on my own and OMG it was so fun, here's
the link. The 2nd movie looked really good, but it wasn't what I
expected. I hate writing luke-warm reviews, which is why I stopped reviewing
movies I didn't like here. But the guys over at HA said the 2nd review is still good so...whew!
I'm going to be posting the
links to my HA at the bottom of my DVD pick of the week reviews so from now on
you will always get two reviews at once. Oh! And guess what! That's
not even all! Horror Mansion started following me on Twitter¦ ME! Plus in Oct
they are gonna be hosting a book giveaway contest featuring...you guessed it! Me
=D
Speaking of which, Oct
is going to be super busy, And They All is going back on tour, I will be
speaking as a guest in Portland with the founder of Evil Girlfriend Media, and
if everything works right The Darkness will also be going back on tour as well.
Well that's it for now, other
than that I am working two books. Its going a bit slow but I plan to move
things along starting in Sept. Ok you guys have a good one! Talk to you all
soon <3 span="">
TRUTH: GETTING PUBLISHED DOESN’T EQUAL END OF RAINBOW
It’s extraordinarily hard to get published. It’s just as difficult to STAY PUBLISHED. Most writers do not live a Stephen King life. They hold other jobs or find other avenues to make money.
Aspiring-to-be-published authors often burn the candle at both ends. They work hard to continue to EXIST in the world, and they make the time to write and submit and pray and hope that their literary dreams will come to fruition. Once they reach the pinnacle of their success, GETTING A DEAL, some – as Niles states – find their writing careers killed as quickly as they began. The reasons? Burnout and what Niles calls “The Vacuum”.
Many published authors have careers outside of writing; once they get that initial deal, they now have TWO careers. It’s easy to get tired. To avoid that, Niles suggests that writers remember to HAVE A LIFE, which to her means “read, talk with friends, go places (near and far), do things, feel things, and sometimes…just…put the writing away for awhile.” Don’t forget that writing is not your WHOLE life; it’s merely a facet. If you lose yourself, you will lose the inspiration to write.
In regards to “The Vacuum,” Niles states that “In vacuum-afflicted writers, this is the emptiness that follows a first sale. Some call it the curse of the three-book deal. Many writers focus on their project exclusively for so many years that once it is out, there is nothing left.”
Unfortunately, most of us can think of that one debut novel we loved and then the emptiness that followed when the author didn’t have any more books come out. It’s important to KEEP WRITING, even while trying to publish the current “love of your life.” Focusing on that one Great American Novel will deflect from your creativity and keep you from writing. Niles suggests that writers should always keep creative files full of story ideas, interesting characters, and snippets of dialogue. If necessary, consider a co-writer. But first and foremost, keep writing…start on the next project while wishing and praying for publication of the one before it.
Shon Bacon is an author, editor, and educator, whose biggest joys are writing and helping others develop their craft. She has published both creatively and academically and interviews women writers on her popular blog...
