Scaring Ourselves ...and Babies Too

I really enjoyed hearing from so many of you about the horror movies that had made an impact/scarred you for life and I started ruminating on just why it is many of us purposely scare ourselves, whether by bungee jumping, riding terrifying carnival rides (I still remember (The Bullet,) or reading murder mysteries.  

Then I thought -- we even scare our children with nursery rhymes:

Rock a bye, baby,  in the tree top,

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,

When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,

And down will come baby, cradle and all.

One of the first games we play with babies is Peek A Boo -- and, for the most part, babies love it -- once they realize that no one's really disappeared. 

"I'm going to eat you up!" I remember this being a term of endearment -- usually some elderly aunt pretending to gobble up the baby's fingers or toes -- and again, once the baby realized it was just a silly game, it was fun.

And then, when the baby is a child, we read them stories like Hansel and Gretel where the parents really have gone away and the wicked witch really is going to eat the children up.

But the story ends with the children outsmarting the witch and putting things right.  I think of The Wizard of Oz and that witch and her flying monkeys -- overcome at last by a little girl. 

 And perhaps that's the point of the scary stuff -- testing ourselves in preparation for the real scary stuff that life may fling at us. 

And telling us that Evil can be defeated if we take a stand.

What, Again?

Weekend Writing Workshops in Rugby -- Tennessee, that is..

Once again, I must engage in a bit of shameless self-promotion. As well as the Wildacres workshop in July (see side bar,)  I will be teaching two weekend writing workshops in Historical Rugby, Tennessee. One is April,4 - 6, for beginners, the other is August 8 - 10 and it's a critique workshop in which we critique pages from your work in progress.. 

 Rugby is a charming place to spend a weekend and I'll do my best to  inform and inspire you.  There's information HERE  If you have more questions, ask me.

Lost on the Internet in 1861

At last I have gotten a real handle on this story I'm telling. I have been so bogged down in preliminary research -- and there's quite a bit to know about the Civil War in western North Carolina -- that it's been hard to narrow down and focus on the story I want to tell. But my characters are telling me their stories now and leading me where they want me to go so I am doing research as I go. 

 I now know more than I did about bandages (lint) of the era; I know that germ theory was not widely known; I know about scarlet fever and muzzle loaders and how Quakers use thee and thou.

If not for the Internet . . . but I can't even imagine writing a book like this without it -- or a team of research librarians. 

The main points are in the books I have at hand (though they contradict one another more than one could wish.) But the little everyday things that make a story come to life, that make a reader feel he's really there, that's where Mr. Google is so helpful. 

 I went from wondering what sort of bandage would be used to realizing that Polly and her friends might well have a bandage rolling party -- I know I've read about something of the sort in books of the era.

The weather is chilly and mostly gray -- not conducive to pictures but good for writing.  Of which more later.. Just now I have to find out what instrument a doctor would use to extract a ball (from a Colt 1851 Navy Revolver) lodged against a rib . . .

Oh, the places I'll go....

A Rare Opportunity

I just found out that the Allen House is for sale by the owner. If you dream of living in a funky little mountain town in a historic house, here's your chance. It's  on Craigslist HERE.

The Horror!!!

When I was in my teens, quite a long time ago, I really loved horror movies. That, is, till I saw Psycho, back in 1960.  John and I were seniors in high school and we saw it at the Britton Plaza. It was terrifying. After the movie was over, we drove to a secluded place to "park" -- do any of you remember "parking?" and  "making out?"

 John had barely pulled the car under the big live oak tree in our special spot before we looked at each other and at the dark creepy woods around us (who knew how many psycho killers might be out there) before we looked at each other again and agreed that this might be a good night for me to get home early.

And it goes without saying that I still lock the bathroom door before taking a shower. . .

A girlfriend and I saw Christopher Lee in The Horror of Dracula back in 1958. It, too, left its mark. I noticed that all the young women upon whom Count Dracula preyed slept on their backs with their hair spread across their pillows.

I began to sleep on my side with the sheet over my head. For a time, I put garlic cloves at the windows till my mother objected.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) is another movie (I can't quite bring myself to call these films) I remember vividly -- the creepiness of those pods and the foam that oozed out of them as they opened. And the magnificent hopelessness of the ending. But for all its scariness, Bodysnatchers didn't inspire any lifestyle changes for me.

House of Wax (1953) is one that got away. It was playing in downtown Tampa at the Palace and I was all set to go with friends when my mother dug in her heels and forbade me to see it. Too scary, she said. I don't remember if she herself had seen it or what. The first 3D horror movie and I was denied the chance to terrify myself. 

I still haven't seen it. But if I want that creepy frisson of fear, all I have to do is remind myself that there's an empty room at the Bates house . . .

What about you all? Were/are you a fan of horror movies? What movies scared you?  

Actually, thinking back, I was taken to see Snow White at a rather early age and had to be removed from the theater when the wicked stepmother started carrying on. I still have the occasional nightmare that derives from that trauma...

Promises . . .

Lost in the 1860s

I spent yesterday wandering the internets looking for images that would help me to hone in on and flesh out the story of the places and people I'm writing about...

I need to know what sort of dresses Pollie, the wife of the Confederate colonel, would have worn . . .

I need to know about scarlet fever in the mid 19th century . . .

Picture from http://www.badobadop.co.uk/

And what little girls looked like back then . . .

And how country women might have dressed . . . there's so much, if I'm to make this story come to life. . .

I'll find out far more than I actually put down on the page. But I have to know it if these characters are going to be real. 

And since most of them are based on real people, I owe it to these folks to come as near to the truth as possible  -- 150 years (give or take) later.

When I emerge from my workroom to fix supper, it's a wrench because my mind is back in 1860 or thereabout. There's a faraway look in my eyes and I'm still wondering about the census of 1860 -- was Isah, listed as a mulatto, a servant or a slave? And why is Judith listed as the head of the household (F) in all but one census and in that one, with the same household members, the head of the household is listed as Judah (M)?

'Tis a puzzlement. . .

Shades of Gray

 

 Normally I prefer color -- the more the better.

But using the pencil sketch thingy on Picasa made me see these photos as both more mysterious and more detailed.

Perhaps it's because I've been spending so much time (in my head) back in the mid- 1800s when, as we know from photos, life was all black and white and shades of gray. . .



Shades of Gray would have been a nice title for my work in progress -- the varying degrees of right and wrong on both sides of the Civil War massacre that's at the core of the story.

But, alas, I'm afraid with that title, folks would be expecting lots of steamy bedroom scenes.

Which are not my idiom.

Reflecting . . .

Here There Be Dragons . . .

I've alway loved the idea of dragons -- my favorite, perhaps, being the dragon that Eustace becomes in C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  From Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern to  Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, dragons continue to enthrall readers.

Imagine my delight when I found that one of my Facebook friends had written a tiny ebook titled Ten Dragons.  Barbara Weitbrecht calls it a chapbook -- ten short, very short stores about dragons "from the literal to the symbolic."

 It's only 33 pages -- perhaps that's part of its charm -- and the stories range from simple to deeply complex (the last story of all is a knockout!)

 It's available HERE for your Kindle at only 99 cents. Don't have a Kindle? You can download a free Kindle app to your computer and read it there. 

 All these images (and many more) are from THIS SITE.