Are you in the mood for a ghost story? I am. I’ve often wondered why people like to be scared by ghost stories. Perhaps it’s the thrill of the unknown. That little sound in the corner of a dark bedroom that causes the hair on the back of your neck to stand up. The flicker of something in the corner of your eye. A whisper of air on the back of your neck. It takes you out of the day-to-day and pushes you into the...what if?
So, I may be opening myself up here for ridicule, but I thought I’d share some photos I took several years ago. At the time, I belonged to a photographer’s site wherein the challenge was to post a photo a day. That particular day, I decided to visit a local cemetery and take some photos of the memorials there. One in particular stood out for me, The House of Memory. The memorial was dedicated to North Carolina soldiers from the Revolutionary and Civil wars. The cemetery was filled with “Unknown" soldiers, actually, and wandering the grounds made me quite sad. My father is a MIA from Vietnam and it hit home, I guess. Anyways, I decided to take several photos of The House of Memory and came home with these. They are completely SOOC (straight out of the camera).
In the second photo, note the white blob in the center doorway at the top. It changes shape in each frame and I didn’t see it when I was taking these photos. I posted all four on the photographer site and nobody could come up with an explanation.
Lighting? Nope, it was clouded over that day. Lens? Nope, all of my other photos turned out fine. I have no explanation. I'll let you come to your own conclusions.
Please join me on my other blog, The Writing Wenches for a guest post with Vonnie Hughes!
Take a peek at her new release, Lethal Refuge, a spine-tingling suspense story set in New Zealand.
Hobbies, those things you do before you have children. Most of my hobbies took a back seat after my kiddos were born. They were replaced by (in chronological order) washing cloth diapers and making baby food, cleaning up after Polly Pockets and My Little Ponies, scheduling play-dates, and acting as a taxi service to-and-from martial arts classes and swim lessons. Now that my daughters have hit that ‘tween age however, my hobbies have been creeping back, one by one. Here are some that I’ve managed to start up again.
1. Ballet
I’ve taken over 20 years of dance and I can safely say; I think, live and breathe ballet. If I’m listening to music—I’m choreographing in my head. If I have a writer’s block—I work on my pliés. I manage one class a week when I’m not in the throes of writing.
2. Fencing
Swords—how can you go wrong? In college, I joined the fencing team. I was the only girl at the time, which was good and bad, but loved it. I still fence but don’t have anyone to practice with these days. My neighbors probably snicker at me when I’m practicing in our back yard, but hey, it’s a great stress-buster.
3. Photography
My husband is the real “photographer” in the house. He can tell you about apertures, shutter speeds and all that technical stuff. A couple of years ago, he jokingly challenged me to join Project 365 (an online community wherein you post a photo a day), which I did. A year later, I had over 1000 followers and found that I LOVED taking pictures. I still can’t tell you what an aperture is, but oh well, I take pretty pictures.
4. Taking in Strays
Do you want one? We have plenty. Haha. As a kid, I was never allowed pets because we moved around so much. In fact, I remember bringing home a half-dead cockroach. I named it Sticky. My mom was thrilled. Good thing I had a pet rock as a back-up plan.
5. Herb gardening
I wish I had a green thumb, I really do. I over-water everything which means I’m continually replacing my basil plant with a “bigger and better” plant that Can’t Possibly Die. My dream is to have a fully-stocked herb garden growing in my kitchen. As of now, I have a very soggy-looking peppermint plant and working on the death of basil plant #4.
6. Running with my dog
Three years ago, we adopted a very hyper Rottweiler/shepherd at the local shelter. I love him to pieces but he needs exercise…constantly. We’ll come back from an hour-long run and a minute later, he’s forgotten and wants another.
7. Coffee drinking
Hey, it’s a hobby. Peet’s Sumatra: creamer, no sugar. I have to keep up with my dog somehow.
8. Vegetarian cooking
I used to do more of this before kids. Now, I’m at the mercy of their taste buds. Green vegetables receive little love in my house, even when they’re hidden in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And yes, that’s worked for me…once. My kiddos make their own sandwiches now and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why.
9. Trampoline
I love my trampoline. Nothing beats that feeling of flying up in the air.
10. Reading
The hobby of hobbies. What did you expect? Mythology is my favorite genre but I read everything from classics by Gustave Flaubert and Theodore Dreiser, to fantasy/horror from Neil Gaimen and Brom.
I leave you with a sample of my Photography Portfolio If you're here, you already know about my books!
This week I've been having computer issues. On top of that, our internet was down for two days.
While I'd love to say that being disconnected from the internet lent an epiphany of how reliant upon my computer I am, I can't. It sucked.
There are so many times I found myself wanting to look up a question that popped into my head, "How would one banish a demon and close a portal?" or needing to help my daughter with her 5th grade math homework, "How DO you write a variable expression where 48 is decreased by W?" (Really? WTH?), or even just feeling the need to check the weather forecast. And I couldn't do any of that.
Which gave me the screaming mee-mees.
I'll admit it, I'm reliant upon my computer for information. It's like my own little library. Not that I don't use the library, because I do. But the computer gives me instant info with the tap of the keys.
During this information blackout, my laptop decided to act up as well. I can suffer through being disconnected from our home internet service, because I DO have my teeny-tiny little phone and it's miniscule keypad if I really feel the need to surf. But my computer dying on me? No.
So, the first draft of the novel I'm working on now and all my random writing from the past six months--were sitting on my desktop, waiting patiently to be transferred to a memory stick. And and there they sat, with me unable to retrieve them.
I swear all my nefarious, supernatural creatures just suck the life out of my computers because I've gone through three of them in the past few years.
After having a full-blown tantrum (why do kiddos always catch you swearing at inanimate objects?) I calmly informed my husband that I was going to expire and jump off a cliff, not necessarily in that order.
My husband is my hero. He was able to perform surgery on my computer and retrieve everything I had been working on.
He's just clever like that.
This week, I'm left without a laptop and relegated to a desk top computer. I'm not complaining however, because I have my writing.
My supernatural creatures have some explaining to do.
On January 26th Saturday, join me on Gaea, the Greek Goddess of Planet Books blog for an author interview and discussion of my young adult title, PRADEE. This is a kid-run and mom approved NEW blog where Gaea will be discussing and reviewing middle grade and young adult fiction.
If you have/know of any kiddos that would like to follow this blog, please spread the word!
PRADEE
A young adult fantasy by Clarissa Johal
Tagline: What if there was an artifact that could see the past and change the future--would you use it?
Blurb:
Three friends are accused of poisoning an Elder in their village. They escape to the mysterious region of Vel to search for the Guardian of a mythical artifact. If they find the artifact; it is reputed to have the powers to see the past and change the future, thus proving their innocence. However, if it falls into the wrong hands, the artifact could destroy the future of their world as they know it.
In the tradition of The Dark Crystal by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, PRADEE will pull the reader into an exciting, otherworldly adventure.
*Second round finalist in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award Contest 2012
As a young girl, Lucinda was able to see spirits, a gift that didn't come without its problems. Now, a dedicated young veterinarian, she is committed to the idea that every life can be saved.
After a devastating accident, Lucinda tries to escape her past by moving to a small town. There, she meets a newcomer and feels an immediate connection with him. But there is another mysterious stranger to the small town, one that stirs within her a mixture of unease and desire.
As Lucinda is drawn into a bitter tug-a-war from the forces around her, she is likewise pulled into a dangerous twist of past and present events. Forced to make difficult choices, she finds that the two men are locked in not only a battle for her life...but a battle for their salvation.
I stayed up late the other night to watch American Horror Story. I shouldn't have, really. I've been setting aside late nights as writing time. My kiddos are still on holiday and, while they're fine at entertaining themselves, I can't write with other people around. But sometimes my brain wants to zone and writing late at night isn't an option.
I love American Horror Story. The good and the bad of it (mental institution good, aliens...eh). There are few programs I can say that about. Doctor Who, BBC's Being Human (sorry folks, the American version sucks), True Blood and Grimm. That's about it, really. A cooking reality show here and there. With a gazillion channels on television, I have to wonder why there's such a small gene pool to pick from.
For the most part, I can watch American Horror Story and it doesn't bother me a bit. But there are times it makes me squirm and I think, "Now there's some good writing." Add to that, superb acting, and it becomes a feast for the senses. In my geeky and writerly brain, I often find myself trying to imagine how to translate that feast to a page.
Have you ever done that? Watched something and imagined what the script must have looked like and how it would read in a book?
*Scary Movie Script*
Act 5, Scene 1
Victim: "What do you plan to do with me?"
Scary Guy: (waves knife around) "I don't know. I'm sure we can come up with something. Given time."
Something like that handed to an actor requires them to squeeze emotion and tension from the lines and translate them to the audience. I know this from experience, I graduated from a high school of performing arts (eons ago) and majored in acting and dance. Gleaning emotions from the script as an actor is much the same as gleaning emotions from the reader as a writer.
Try reading this instead:
"Scary Book"
Page 200
"What do you plan to do with me?" She felt the annoying tickle of perspiration run down the side of her brow. Her heart was beating so hard, it made it difficult to breathe.
"I don't know," he replied. The knife caught the dim, yellow light overhead as he waved it back and forth hypnotically. "I'm sure we can come up with something." The dead look in his eyes sucked the last bit of hope from the room. "Given time."
More words are required to squeeze emotion from the reader. And even then, the writer is hoping the reader can see the wan light overhead, the peeling paint on the walls (which I saw in my head right now and would have disclosed in a previous paragraph) and the juxtaposing tension on the characters faces. It's similar to acting--but working the internal/cerebral vs. external/visual.
Which is probably why I can't write with people around. The acting required (in my head) is so internal, any external is a distraction. I do often externalize a scene to see how it sounds--but I wouldn't want to scare people and make them think I talk to myself. Yeah.
So, I'll leave you with a video of one of my favorite moments from American Horror Story.
It captured the unexpected, surreal and 1960's quality of the series--all in one scene. Absolutely brilliant.
Set up: Sister Jude's (played by Jessica Lange) shock-therapy induced hallucination.
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