What Fresh Hell is This? Oh Dear God, its the 'Number One Fan'

Thanks to my online buddy Denny Upkins aka the black Clark Kent, once again I've became aware of another author, this time a game developer, who has decided to quit her job because of death threats not only to her, but to her children.

Her children.

Children.

This concept of a fan controlling the way a writer ends a book, even if by torture and death threats was unsettling enough when Stephen King created Annie Wilkes and poor Paul Sheldon but compared to what is happening in real life to real authors makes King's portrayal of Annie Wilkes seem virtuous.

This has become so common that if you ask ten different people about the last artist they heard was aggressively harassed online or threatened with death you would most likely get ten different names.

As a fan, who the fuck do you think you are? What the hell is going through your mind when, masked in secrecy and armed with a keyboard you threaten the life of someone who was brave enough to step out on to the public platform to chase a dream and share what they are most passionate with the rest of us? 

Yes I have recv'd one star reviews, I get hate mail all the time over the way The Darkness ended, and yes The Darkness was burned but people who email me upset over an ending, to debate the authenticness of a fictional world w/fictional characters & that church group have leagues more integrity than the people threatening Jennifer Helper, Charline Harris,  Hajime Isayama, Dan Slott, Kathy Sierra, and others and here's why.

The hate mail, though sometimes directed at me, is for the most part addressing the actions of a character. The following video is an example of acceptable hate mail:

The Church group was protesting the content of my book, they accused me of blaspheming, called me a heretic and worse. But what they did NOT do was attack my family or post my address with detailed accounts of my personal schedule. 

Remember that blog spot that you, as fans, were all rallying around a few months ago entitled 'Readers Don't Owe Authors Sh*t?' 

Incidentally, that happens to be a two way street, we as creators, do not owe you your prefect ending. If you loved the way a book ends, are head over heels about the new female warrior in your favorite game, or are ecstatic that a mainstream horror movie has a gay male hero with a realistic believable female lead that's great, but like the author of that post so eloquently states:

As a fan I hope you find your bliss. But we as creators don't owe it to you.

We don't owe you shit.

And for those of you pissed off at me for this post, here is some more helpful 'how to' material for your reading pleasure: 5 writing tips for people who want to send me death threats

Fridays unfortunate fortune:

You are incredibly methodical, continually checking your sources and verifying where your information is coming from. This trait will come in especially handy once you begin your career as a sorcerer. Black magic, after all, can seem harmless to someone hungry for power.

Ah, the perils of a day sleeper...

Happy Friday guys! You might be wondering why I'm up so early, lol, trust me I'm asking myself that same question. See, what had happened was...
The new owners of my bldg hired a pro landscaping team to come and clean things up. Its much needed because I've never seen it done since I've been here and its been a few yrs. Because I'm a day sleeper the noise doesn't bother me too much but what woke me up, besides Ceaire angrily barking at the workers to be quiet, was the smell. It smells like Xmas! I'm not sure which bush is doing this but my bedroom is fill full of the sent of a Xmas wreath. Its nice. It's not even noon so I'm taking the dog out and am going back to bed =D

Just a quick note to wish you all a happy Friday and a super safe weekend!
ttyl <3
Sent from the digital pen of The Wordsmith.

A lot has happened since the last time you heard from me and not all of it was good.

21 Things You’ll Never See Black People Doing in Horror Movies #7

Explore the inside of an active volcano.

 For longer than I would like to admit I’ve been lost in a long dark tunnel. I am usually a good judge of character, and I am pretty selective of those I allow in my inner circle but in Dec. I was completely. You’ve heard it all before: tall, dark & handsome  and charming of course but it didn’t take long before things took a turn for the worse. I know that hindsight is 20/20 but I saw the signs and knew what they were when I 1^st saw them and quite frankly I find it inexcusable and reprehensible that I ignored them. I knew better. I know better. I did this to myself.

It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and though it lasted longer than it should, thank God it was relatively brief .When it was finally over I felt so…fucking…stupid and ashamed. And of course I didn’t talk to anyone about it because I made my own bed. I just told myself to sleep it off and cry it out but I ended up staying in bed for almost a month. I wasn’t sleeping very well, I wasn’t eating very well, and I didn’t want to be around anybody because I was in such a bad mood all the time and would start crying for no reason. I wasn’t even writing and when I finally realized that I tried to snap myself out of it. I write for several hours every day so it’s even startling now that it took me so much time to notice I wasn’t.

My saving grace, my guiding light at the time was my Yorkie Terrier Munch. I had joint custody but she was spending a lot of time with me, more than usual, and I know for sure things wouldn’t have turned out the way that they did if it weren’t for her. I got out of bed and made it all the way to the couch, started writing again and was beginning to think that things would be ok. Munch spent time over a long holiday weekend camping…

The ‘official story’ is that on Friday eve she was snatched off the trail by a hawk. I had no idea that she was dead until late Monday night/early Tuesday morning.

When I read it on Facebook.

Back into the pitch I went.

Something went wrong inside of me. I was so livid, consumed by it completely, so much so that I was afraid of myself. I really thought that I was going to really hurt someone and at that point I didn’t care. I was existing in this state of blackness, red around the fringes. My chest was hurting all the time. My hands were trembling, the slightest thing pissed me off but the truth of the matter is that I was already mad. I was praying to God but I didn’t mean it so naturally there was no relief.

One day my sister stopped looking at me like a sister and started seeing me thru her physiatrist eyes and I knew that just one more outburst and she was going to have me held for a 48hr observation. Then just one day out of the blue I just said ‘please’ and that time I meant it.

I went to bed and actually got some restful sleep. When I got up I started digging around the want ads looking for another dog. Right away an ad popped up that grabbed my attention. An older lady had a puppy she couldn’t handle anymore due to their age differences. She was 84 and the dog (a yorkie/terrier mix ?) was a ‘puppy’ free to good home.

When I called her we talked for a while and I found out that her grandson helped her post the ad and that she took the picture of the dog down because over one hundred people had called and she felt bad that the operators at bell were so busy just because of her. We were on the phone for an hour actually and she said that out of all the people she had talked to she knew her dog would be safe and loved by me. Whatever was wrong with me I felt it break when she said that. She gave me her address and I panicked because it was a two hour round trip and my car needs to go to the shop. But with a wing and a prayer I made it there and back.

The yorkie/terrier mix puppy turned out to be a beautiful 15pound 3year old  extremely active Rat Terrier named Ceaira. I fell in love with her instantly and so did my family. She’s the perfect fit for my life. Even though I still need to deal with how I feel about allowing the wrong person in my life and the grief of losing a dog she’s  helped me get back on track.

I have no idea how I got anything done these last few months but I did. The Spectrum Trilogy is complete and In The Valley of Shadows is in the rework process as we speak. The current book I’m working on which has nothing to do with the trilogy is moving along nicely. With 42,676 words and 139 ‘book pages’ I completely changed my mind and want to explore a different direction but it’s easy enough to change so I am not stressing over it.

The one year anniversary  for my anthology is coming up here pretty soon, sales have slowed down a bit but I am gearing up to tour for the month of Oct. I’m gonna lit a fire under my but for the DVD pick of the week, I’ve seen some really good ones lately but until then, here is the cover for Shadows.

Have a super good day you guys, ttyl 

Oh! I almost forgot...I lost 11 pounds!

Science fiction doesn't equal atheism.

Horrorscope: Misfortunes for April 23^rd.

Your thirst for knowledge can only be quenched by reading as many volumes as you can get your hands on. But just as curiosity killed the cat, your investigation could also prove dangerous. Remember, when an ancient text warns about an incantation that will raise the dead, put the book back on the shelf.

Speaking of reading is it just me or is it extra hard to write an awesome review for a story that knocks you off your feet? I have no idea how I was privileged enough to land on an ARC list but I did. I've read this story three times and all I can come up with is Oh. My. E'ffn God!! I've won awards for my writing ...why is this so hard, why is this story so awesome. Ok let me try this again.

What I enjoy most about being a writer while reading is the subtle transformation from reading for enjoyment to being shown what it is to be a master storyteller while reading the words of others: Stephen King, Nalo Hopkinson, Joyce Carol Oates, Terry Pratchett, and now Eden Royce.

The 1st time I read anything from Eden Royce was when both of our the stories were accepted for publication in the anthology Strange Tales of Horror put together by Norgus Press. Her contribution is a poem entitled Devil's Playground. A short story is really hard to to tell but it takes the utmost skill to write horror themed poetry. The Devil's Playground is breathtaking and after reading it three times I found her on facebook to tell her so.  

Containment is a futuristic science fiction story that reads like a classic with religious undertones. In the world created by Royce Containment Crews stand next to families in hospitals waiting for their loved one to die because the renewable energy source that powers this City are the souls of the dead. You can’t help but wonder how bad things got for a society to allow such a thing to become acceptable; and the detached, matter-of-factly way in which Feast, a city employee, tells this story only serves to make the tale that much more unsettling ... and heartbreaking.

A question posed by Feast is “What’s the point of living when your eternity isn’t your own.” It’s a chilling question and it’s the exploration of this concept of fate and density that drives this atmospheric, unforgettable, and haunting story. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did and I cannot wait to read the second book.

Containment hasn't been released yet, but rest assured I will be letting you know when it does!

Speaking of release dates....I know, I know...but I can explain. I few months ago while I was rereading what I had wrote so far I made the decision that chapter 46 thru 70 of In The Valley of Shadows had to be scraped. Of course that basically threw the release date right out of the window. The minute I did that it's been slow going because I started to listen to the part of the conversation that I was having with myself telling me that there was no way that I was going to be able to pull this off, that there would be no way that this 3rd and final book would be as good as the first two. And because I started to believe me I tied up my own hands. After I reread the new chapters it became apparent that I wasn't telling myself the truth.

According to me the chapters I wrote last night are so awesome that it prompted me to set a tentative deadline with my editor so it feels like I am back on track. 

Now as far as the diet is concerned...well not so much lol.

Here are the links for Eden. Have a super safe rest the week guys and I promise not to be so distant.

The Website!  

For the tweets...

Her Author's Page

DVD Review of the Week: The Yellow Wallpaper

How to survive a horror movie tip #88
If you rent a fully furnished home and while cleaning you find a trunk full of dirt, please for the love of God don’t sift thru it.

Word of the day:
Subjugate
Pronunciation (SUHB-juh-gayt) Verb: To bring under control or make submissive

I can’t not count the times I’ve stood on a soapbox proclaiming that I will never again watch a book to film, or a foreign to American remake of a movie, and as of late I’ve also bemoaned the remaking of American movies that were perfectly perfect the way they are. I guess Sissy Spacek’s portrayal Stephen King’s of Carrie just wasn’t good enough and in the height of my hysteria a director comes along who gives me pause.

Logan Thomas has produced a film called The Yellow Wallpaper. Yes, that Yellow Wallpaper and just as I was about to go on a murderous rampage I read:

“The Yellow Wallpaper is an ‘Origins Myth’... rather than a direct adaptation of the famous Charlotte Perkins Gilman story. Drawing from the original short story and a number of Gilmans' other gothic works (The Giant Wisteria, The Unwatched Door, etc.), The Yellow Wallpaper is an original narrative of events that unfold around the actual writing of "The Yellow Wallpaper.”

I had to put my axe down and read that part again. And then again. And finally I decided to give it a go.



Plotline: In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story we watch the main character go mad as she is locked in a bedroom while suffering from postpartum depression. In Logan Thomas’ story the main character, her husband and sister are grieving the lost of the main character’s child who died in a fire. Homeless with very little money the trio moves into a big house that’s unreasonably affordable.

Scariness Factor: N/A

Gross-Out Factor: N/A

Complaints: The 1st thing that started to bug me was that this most of this movie is shot completely in the dark. I understand that during that time not everyone could not afford electricity, but for some reason even during the day the residents favored the parts of the house furthest from the windows, so they were always roaming around in the shadows. The other thing that irritated was the use of “scary” music when there was nothing scary going on.

High Points: All three people are struggling to find a way to live after the little girl dies and even though Charlotte is worse off than the others, they all try to comfort each other in the best way they can while at the same time dealing with their own personal feelings of guilt and varying degrees of depression.

Personal Commentary: Like with all movies where the house is as much a character as the cast it’s a slow build; and like with all movies where the house is as much a character as the cast the people living it ignore the signs letting them know that something may be wrong with/inside their new home.

After a series of strange noises & unexplained sightings, they enlist the help of a medium and of course the entity that shows himself is evil. The decision is made to leave in the morning. When they all wake up in the afternoon the physic missing. John takes his wife and sister-in-law outside forbids them to go back inside and leaves to go into town and rent a horse and carriage to take them away. Up to this point The Yellow Wallpaper is just another little haunted house movie but then things take a turn for the worse…

As John is walking to town out of nowhere there’s a cameo appearance of some tall blonde in armor and chain mail. John wanted to know if he came to stop him from going to town and if he was already dead, and the armored blond says ‘No I am.” Ok…

Meanwhile back at the house the sister’s find the physic dead in a shallow grave, and then all of a sudden wolves show up and chase them back into the house (don’t ask I’m just as confused as you are)

When John gets back home he can’t find his wife or her sister but who he does encounter is the very 1st owner of the house from 100 years ago. John demands how can this be and low and behold we find out the owner is still alive because he is a vampire. After being attacked John wakes up to find the landlord there who explains that Charlotte is now a vampire and it’s now John’s job to feed her. Fast forward to today and John is the new landlord and he is renting the house at an unreasonably affordable rate.

Stars: 2 1/2 out of 5 stars

Where I rented it: The Yellow Wallpaper is available to watch online for free.

The Next Big Thing...Starring Me!

How to survive a horror movie tip# 12
Don’t fuck around with recombinant DNA technology unless you know what the fuck you’re doing … and if you do know what you’re doing, please for the love of humanity stop.

Word of the Day:
Wakerife
Pronunciation: (WAYK-ryf) adjective: Wakeful; alert

So a few years ago I stumbled upon an audio horror anthology called All Kinds of Things Kill by Robert R. Best I was so blown away by that anthology that I spent the next few days looking all over the inernet for his contact info & once I found it I began stalking him! I think the very 1st email I sent him in the subject line was something I am your Annie Wilkes...creepy right? But he responded! But now apparently he's grown tired of seeing me parked outside his house peering inside binoculars and has decided to give me something else to do...lol

What is your working title of your book?
In The Valley of Shadows, it’s the 3rd book in my Spectrum Trilogy

Where did the idea come from for the book?
The idea came when I wrote the 1st book The Darkness, I was about half way through it when I realized it was going to be a trilogy

What genre does your book fall under?
I would say it’s Science Fiction that’s been built on the foundation of Horror and held in place with pillars of Fantasy

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I would want up and coming actors so that viewers watch the movie for the movie without the expectations that comes with big name actors.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
“Within the shadows of darkness two women clash in a vicious battle that has been fought since the days of King Solomon – the fight over a child.” This is actually from the blurb from the 1st book The Darkness but it pretty much sums of the entire trilogy.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Self published

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I am about 7mths in and am hoping to have it done early next year.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I don’t know. I have been compared to other author’s but as far as the actual story goes I haven’t read one that I can compare it to and so far, no one who has reviewed the 1st two books, has compared it to another story either.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
The 1st book, The Darkness, was written as a short story, however I was advised by another writer by the name of Mike Jones that The Darkness was not a short story and he was right. I will always be grateful to him for pushing me to write a full length novel, because if he hadn’t I’m not sure I’d be here today.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
That it’s a little different than anything you’ve read before.

Five people in the industry I think you should get to know:
Producer/Author Lori Titus
Actor/Director/Author/Narrator, Kay Richardson
Horror/Sci-fi/Fantasy Critic Andy Angel
Freelance Editor, Stephanie Gianopulos
Illustrator/Author RL Treadway

Thanks again Robert for tagging me for The Next Big Thing, this was fun...

How to survive a horror movie tip # 109:

If your child or infant seems especially bright, beautiful, AND has piercing blue eyes, kill it immwdiately. If you can't do it have a priest or a horror writer such as your truly to do it for you.

Word of the day:

Doyen

Pronunciation: (doi-EN, DOI-uhn) noun: The senior member of a group, profession, etc.

Hello peoples! I know I'm updating my blog, the end must really be near...lol. Happily Holidays guys I hope everyone is ready for Xmas and all the other things we celebrate this time of year =D

So my blog tour with Juniper Groove Book Solutions went really well, ...And They All Lived Happily Ever After! was well recv'd and the reviews were awesome. I was really worried about the feedback for The Lazarus Antidote because even though its a zombie story it doesn't have any zombies in it, so I was kinda worried that I would be slammed by hard core zombie fans but so far everyone who read it likes it. (Whew!) Here is the archived link to the tour if you wanna stop by all of the awesome blogs that hosted me and see what people had to say about my antho.

The Blog Tour!

Do you guys remember last year when a blogger claiming to be a reviewer contacted me by email and requested a review copy of The Darkness and she turned out to be a church blogger and she posted pix on her blog of The Darkness buring in the fireplace? Well I decided to beat her to the punch...laughter is the best medicine but sometimes its good revenge!

This guy did an amazing job and I'm hella happy w/it. I am going to play this on a loop at the cons ;p Well that's all for now, going to grab dinner and then pick up my pen, I'm super happy with the way  In The Valley of Shadows is turning out so far. Enjoy the day,

~Crystal