Halloween movie night: Ravens Hollow

If Mattel ever hired Steven King as a creative consultant, this is what Barbie movies would probably look like. 11 minutes, directed by Colin Clarke.

Dystopian future: diseases

Disease. It's the one thing over which humanity has very little control. Did you read that right? Yes, you did. Germs may not know we exist, but they are out to get us, and it is quite possible that they will. There is no hope of conquering disease, only a series of lucky, temporary defenses.

From the Innsmouth Observer, October 29

Innsmouth Police Chief in desperate plea to pet owners

"Please stop feeding your pets Dunwich Happy Buddy Pet Food," said Innsmouth Police Chief  Severity Johnson on Monday, October 29. "The pet company has issued a recall on all batches shipped before Friday October, 26, and we kindly request all pet owners to return batches before this date as soon as possible."

Halloween and what it means to me

Whether approaching darkness, or the long hot days of the southern summer, Halloween has become important to me, to the point where I made a comment on Facebook that I am worried about the encroachment of the pink of breast cancer on the day.

Movie night: Before Sunrise

Shadow creatures play throughout the night in a fairytale village, but on this night one particular shadow is tired of his mischevious life and discovers something altogether more magical. 5 good-natured minutes written and directed By Kealan O'Rourke.

Mindset Cafe: 2012-10-26

On this week's menu, 30 cm spiders, a sick note from a sangoma, Kim Newman's 'Dracula Cha Cha Cha', superbugs in animals and the 'Thesaurus of Emotions'

Dawning revelation ('Breaking Damn!')

I have been a bit (very) slack in getting on with rewriting 'Coffee'. This morning, as I was writing, I let loose with words and things started moving along. As I looked at the situation, I realised that what I have been trying to do is to write in a 'writerly' way, limiting things like figures of speech and so on. By letting go and going with what I love, the words came thick and fast. That is, I am almost certain, also the reason why I have procrastinated on the rewrite. There is no reason for me to attempt to be excessively prosaic if the first object of the exercise is joy in finding the story and fleshing out its textures. LESSON: 'Have fun first, you knucklehead.'

Dystopian future: water

A large part of humanity thinks that water comes from a tap. Part of the rest of humanity don't believe in taps, knowing that they are science fiction. They know that water comes from a bucket, hauled from the well, a couple of hundred meters away, if they are lucky, but more likely a couple of kilometers away. The third part of humanity know that water is to die for, literally.

The return of 'The Fourth Gift'

This got rejected by Shimmer in a way that feels strangely like a triumph. It wasn't rejected out of hand, it was bumped up to the editorial board and then it was rejected on grounds that were entirely different to the reason I believed they would reject it. I'm posting it again (while I experiment with my own structural changes and seek absolute clarity on the definition of temporal cues and what cues are ideal). First, though, I have to knuckle down and get it together with the 'Coffee' rewrite which is moving at the pace of about a sentence a day mainly due to my own stupid procrastination.

Training a bat to fly

If you need to do flight training with a bat, put the mite in your hand if you can't get it to hang from your finger. Drop your hand and see if the bat panics enough to flap. Just make sure it doesn't fall, and have something soft beneath it.

What I've figured for myself about writing

Reading a story you enjoy and realising you actually wrote it produces the sort of surprise and elation which is difficult to describe, except possibly as someone giving you a hard, sharp rap on the forehead, with a knuckle. Bonk! Is your head spinning yet?

Movie night: Still Life

A young man drives into a town full of figures frozen in place. Fassbinder-style tableaux begin to form around him. Kraftwerk would be proud of this one. Just shy of 10 minutes, directed by Jon Knautz.

Mindset Cafe: 2012-10-19

Every week, I post links on my blog and explore others for personal fun. It's a feast of ideas, and I am going to share the context with anyone who cares to read. I'll also comment on what I am reading. Have fun, but let's start with something on a darker note first...

Dystopian future: life by the sea

I wrote about the basis for dystopian fiction a while back, and while trolling for ideas to write about tonight, I stumbled on the idea of the various aspects of the dystopian future. As it is such a rich seam, I decided to write a series of pieces on it, with no particular discipline, just ideas, known stuff and the probable future. This week's topic hovers around the idea which is most sensationalised, sea level rise.

From the Innsmouth Observer, 16 October 2012

Innsmouth gardening contest winner announced

Mrs Harpsichord Withers has scooped the annual Innsmouth Flower Fanciers Best in Show Award for a new hybrid bloom created by grafting a Venus flytrap onto a South American corpse plant. 

OK, shut it already! Global noise and pointless forms of protest...

Look at a child running towards friends. The yells and shouts proclaim, "I am here! See me!" Like the demonstrators, noise is a way for young people to be noticed. Kids shout to one another and shout louder to drown one another out.

Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, flags and banners

The interesting thing about the scenario, for the purposes of this column, is the very human way in which Morpheus chooses to separate himself from that which defines him, in this case by concentrating his powers in tools. Following this analogy back to its roots, you get humanity, and that which defines each individual: beliefs.

Movie night: The Passenger

Man, that is one very scary goldfish... one of the most unlikely monsters I have ever come across outside of Half Life 2. Seven minutes by Chris Jones.

16 reasons why you really, really don't want to be a telepath

It's been a while since I did a list, so here's one to think about (just not too hard)...

1. A very real sense of inadequacy.
2. Non-delusional paranoia.
3. The ruinous hangover of the guy sitting next to you on public transport.

Maybe it's a postcard from some underheated neighbourhood of Hell...

I'm not sure what to say about it. It's a picture that has been fluttering around in my head (like a desert crow on a mission to defend its turf, not a butterfly). There's no thousand words in it that interest me, but it does have cool half-tones. Maybe it's a postcard from some underheated neighbourhood of Hell, in which case, you can write your own thousand words. Anyway, enjoy.

Damned! Evil! Unclean! A quick note on Christians and horror

There's not much that can be changed, and no real reason to find thrills in mucking with the minds of these individuals, but we have to give credit to the Bible and various religions for laying the groundwork for most of modern horror and providing a rich source of tropes and scenarios.

Abracadabra is too imprecise: spells and the power of words

In alchemy, for instance, these people would study things, observe them, and once they were understood, they were named. The use of the name evoked understanding and the understanding was theoretically a pathway to control. The idea of the atom is a good idea of this at play.

Dystopian fiction and evolution of the scenario

Dystopian fiction cannot be effective without some hope of survival. Imagine this scenario: "He knew he was going to die, so he ran around a bit like a headless chicken, until a sense of complete hopelessness set in, and he sat down and waited for death."

Don't be scared of snakes

Let's twist this into a premise for a horror flick. Imagine a being about sixty meters tall. Imagine this person walking down a street leaving squishy red splodges in the places where people weren't quick enough to get away. The army would be around to greet our very tall being with firepower before too long. The snake operates the same way.

Movie night: When Genevieve Ruled the World

Genevieve has all the toys a child could want, even toy makers to provide toys that aren't for sale. One day she realises she has it all, so... Brilliant. Slightly macabre. Thought provoking. 9 minutes.

Thing One and Thing Two: some personal stuff

If a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody to hear it, the laws of physics dictate that it will make a sound. However with nobody to hear that sound, the tree will not be assessed for its value as a part of the ecosystem and its future, shaped into a product or a carving, might also be in doubt. The fact that you read what I write gives value to the words, and for that I can never be grateful enough.

The solution to climate change: gruesome catastrophes

Everybody is harping on about sequential tropical storms and the rising water level. I have something scarier to report. I live in an arid country, a large part of which is desert. A couple of years back it rained every day for four weeks. Now it snows in the desert. That’s scary.

‘Say hello to my little friend’: tokoloshes and world horror

As far as reading goes, I'm a sensation seeker. After the first few thrills, things have a way of palling. How many vampire stories is it possible to read before the things become boring? And there are so many of them. 'World horror', new storylines, tropes and threads, are one way out, a fresh new source of speculative fiction. Tracie McBride gave me an opportunity to write my take on it and guest post on her blog, Exquisite Corpse. Take a look at where my mind headed, here...

Slapstick economics and insensitive fun with the fuel price

At this point, you may be tempted to go out and buy a hybrid that saves fuel and the environment. Think carefully...

...but you can CHOOSE a book by its cover.

This may seem awful to say to someone who writes horror, but go with the stereotypes when it comes to the cover. By analogy, people take a lot of convincing to buy a car that doesn't look like their sort of car. Imagine trying to sell a station wagon to a sports car enthusiast.