Not every casualty of the zombie apocalypse is at the hands and teeth of the undead. Some people live out their small stories on the periphery of the end of the world. For Maddie and her family, living on the edge of town can’t keep them safe from the horror unfolding in Sweet Creek.

*Warning* This story deals with adult themes and situations, and depicts some graphic scenes. It is not intended for the sensitive or faint of heart.

Promo: The Machinery of Light by David J Williams

Want to give feedback? We have a new voicemail line. Give us a call at (224) 698-7425 and leave your thoughts for us to play on the show. Or, if you’re shy, you can email us at show@trickstermoon.com. We’d love to hear from you!

 

 Sleep, Baby, Sleep [00:23:4m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Secret phobia time: I’m terrified of talking to people. Not really of public speaking- public speaking is easy, if you have a goal to achieve and enough time to plot out a path to it. I’m also a natural ham- ask me to make an ass out of myself in public on purpose, and I’m on it like ham on a… ham sandwich. Need me to act on-camera? Show me where my mark is. Want me to read words that I’ve written but that have never been read by outside eyes? Just let me clear my throat. Throw me in a room with a couple of people that I’ve never really gotten the chance to feel out and tell me to “talk,” however, and you may as well have asked me to talk to them in Swahili (And for the record, I distinctly suck at speaking in Swahili). I bring this up because recently, Morgan came up with the idea of doing a “New Media Masters of Horror Roundtable” series for the podcast.

This series would consist of a group of experienced horror podcasters getting together over Skype and talking about whatever subjects might come to mind covering the genre- be it current movements in the genre, the discussion of new releases or old favorites, the proper use of character archetypes vs the prevalence of clichés, etc. I thought this was a great idea, and I wished her the best of luck with it. She then offered that she wanted me to be involved with the project. In a talky-to-peopley manner.

After a quick ahem, I pulled down the projector-screen and tapped the part of the diagram labeled “Masters of Horror” with my tappy-stick, then directed her attention to my nametag, which read, “Dean Sasser: Amateur-With –Delusions-of-Grandeur-At-Best-of-Horror.” She frowned very schoolmarmishly, slapped a microphone in my hand, and told me to shut up and deal with it. Being of a mind not to sleep outside on the cold, cold ground, I agreed that I would do my best to keep up.

This week, you can hear the result on Episode Eight of the podcast. The fact that I got anything out resembling coherent speech at all is due to the nature of our wonderful guests for the roundtable, the wonderful Jennifer Hudock and her charming fiancé James Melzer. These guys put me at ease and made me feel less like a stranger and more like a friend they just hadn’t met yet. The next time we do one of these, I can guarantee at least 50% more input from my end and at least 12.5% more coherency. Given that we do it with the exact same people involved, or with at least 150% more alcohol in my system.

‘Cause I’m just sayin’… writing about zombies with all the lights off? No biggie. But people? They freak me out, man. They just freak. Me. Out.
- Dean

Post Script, from Morgan: This was a bit of an experiment the first time around, but I would like to do it again in the future, with varied guests and topics. I hope you bear with us as we work out the kinks. And let us know what you think! Have any thoughts about the topics we discuss? Have some suggestions for guests you’d like to hear on the Roundtable? Send your thoughts/opinions/rants to us either here on the blog, email us at show@trickstermoon.com, or call our new voicemail line (224) 698-7425.
-xxxM

Promo: The Ballad of Iron Percy

 

 Episode 08 - New Media Masters of Horror Roundtable [01:08:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In the last few years, with the advent of mp3 players and smart phones, the portability of media has led to a new medium in the realm of fiction – podcast fiction. Authors who want to share their work have serialized and even full cast dramatized their stories and released them for free to the masses. They do it for various reasons but many – if not most- hope to one day become published authors. And in that growing community, horror author Scott Sigler stands out as the gold standard to which most others aspire. Scott built a large and devoted audience podcasting over the last several years, and managed to work that in to a book deal with Crown, a division of Random House. His latest novel, Ancestor, about a genetically engineered beast wreaking havoc on a secluded island, is due out June 22.

There’s some internal dispute as to who was the very first author to podcast their fiction, but no one argues that Scott was one of the first when he began podcasting his novel Earthcore in 2005, after a publishing deal had fallen through. Though, according to Scott’s website he invented podcasting , along with the Internet (to be fair, Scott does recognize he collaborated with Al Gore on the Internet, but maintains he did most of the work himself), Ninjitsu, and the internal combustion engine, and made his first podcast in 1978. Recently, I talked with Scott and asked him how podcasting was possible in an age before personal computers and mp3 players.

“Well, the technology’s been around for a very long time. I’ve actually… I need to update that. I think we’re going back to 1954 now, is when my first podcast was. So we’re over half a century of podcasting, at this point.”

Though no birth date is listed on his website or Wikipedia page, there are pictures of the dapper Mr. Sigler and he doesn’t look that old. So I asked if he had been podcasting from the womb.

“Actually I’m sort of an evil incarnate type individual. So I’ve been around for an extraordinarily long time. Let’s just say I aged very well.”

I thought about asking which of the plagues had been his idea, but decided to keep the conversation focused on more recent works. His books are heavy on the science, and I wondered if Scott thought of himself more as a sci-fi or horror author.

“I consider myself what I call a hard science horror writer. It’s very different, as far as horror goes, because there’s not a lot of people writing what I consider to be pretty hard core heavy horror, but using it from a scientific bent. Most people are approaching it from the supernatural – you know it’s ghost stories, vampires, werewolves, etc. As far as people who are writing just straight on horror novels but with a really hard science background, outside Michael Crichton who I count in that camp, there’s Jonathan Mayberry is one that comes to mind, and not a lot of other people. So I do consider myself a horror writer.”

So what sets Scott’s work, with its rational science roots, apart from sci-fi?

“My goal with the book is to write a thriller that will scare you, but has a logical plot, a logical conclusion where everything is tied together within the novel and comes to fruition at the climax. And from there, the thing that separates it from sci-fi I think is that the vast majority of sci-fi is apocalyptic future or far future. It’s spaceships or the world destroyed and now vampires run amok across the face of the country or something like that. And all my stuff is modern day, its people like you and me, so it doesn’t really fit into the sci-fi camp very well.”

Ancestor, which Sigler wrote in the late nineties, and originally podcasted in early 2006, features a group of scientist who use a machine to create a synthetic genome based on the ancestor of all mammals in order to create a perfect donor herd of beasts with human transplantable organs. In the time from then to now, many of the scientific aspects of the story have crossed from the world of fiction to reality. I asked Scott what his thoughts were on these mirror events, like Craig Venter’s recent announcement that he and his team created the first synthetic life form.

“One of the concepts in [Ancestor] was the reverse engineering of the mammalian genome. Which is, if we’re digitizing all of these genomes we, theoretically, should be able to look at the genomes of all mammals, figure out what bits of DNA are unique in each mammal, get rid of all the unique stuff which is what makes each animal its own creature, and what should be left over should be pretty close to the original genome of all mammals. And Dr. – I think it was Gregory Haussler at the University of California Santa Cruz actually did that in 2006-ish, near the end of 2006 (EDITOR’S NOTE: The doctor’s name is David, not Gregory, and the project happened at the end of 2005.). So that was a trip. That was something I concocted just as science fiction… and it’s not like Haussler read the book or anything like that, but based on theoretical research that was going on at the time I’m like ‘Well, they should be able to do this some day’ and then it happened just a few years later. So between the genetic sequencing of the ancestor of all mammals and Craig Venter actually coming up with artificial life it makes Ancestor all the more plausible, all the more real, and hopefully a lot scarier.”

For Scott, the best part of writing these hard science horror tales?

“Getting to come up with all these crazy theories on what we could possibly do and then bouncing it off this battery of biology PHD’s I have that read all my stuff. And they will tell me ‘Well, that’s cool’ or ‘that’s totally inaccurate, that’ll never happen’. And more often than not they’ll come back and say ‘We just discovered this, go take a look at this.’ And they’ll send me a Wikipedia link. And I’ll like… that’s amazing. So I get to do… I get to learn a lot of stuff that is common knowledge but hasn’t quite gotten out to the popular culture level yet and kind of get to be one of the first readers of some of these things outside of the scientific community. So that’s very exciting and that’s where my ‘every morning is Christmas’ moments come from.”

Listen to the full audio of the interview below!

Scott’s website

Scott’s AMC Blog

 

 Episode 07 - A Visit from the Overlord [00:53:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

So I’ve been thinking lately… If you read Dean’s blog about Episode 06 – Material Components then you’ll know I had some qualms about the story as he initially presented it to me. Not about the story itself, so much as putting it out there in this age when there are lawsuits over Facebook posts. I wasn’t sure about taking a risk putting something out I was nearly positive people would react badly to (the subject matter, not the story which I think is excellant). Now, the story changed some since his initial idea, but the seed of the school shooting is still there. And yet we didn’t get one outraged response. So maybe I was over-reacting over a particular taboo I have.

I was in high school when Columbine happened and our school’s reaction was much like a lot of schools at the time, I’d imagine. They went in to lock down. No one was allowed to leave school grounds and then return for any reason what-so-ever, once you were off campus you were gone for the day. Every door was monitored. Random locker and backpack searches were done.

I was part of a group of friends who wore a lot of black. We listened to heavy metal or prog rock. We read horror and scifi/fantasy. Some people were in to cutting, branding, drugs, paganism, Satanism… it was high school, for a lot of us it was all about finding things out and exploring what worked for us. To a lot of people, we were the ‘weirdos’. And after Columbine, the usual looks we got became more intense. Rumors flew. People were questioned. It was not a fun time, to put it mildly.

So, maybe Dean’s right and I’m a little extra touchy about that particular subject. Which he then brings up after reading what I’ve got written so far for the next story on Trickster Moon Presents… He finds it interesting that I was concerned about how people would receive Material Components, but it didn’t really occur to me anyone may be bothered by the contents of Sleep, Baby, Sleep.

When asked what I write, I tend to self-describe as someone who writes body horror. My stories are very often rooted in the physical, and try and answer the question ‘What do you do when the unknown, the monster, is you?’ As someone who’s struggled with body issues most of my life, a lot of this comes from a very personal place. There has been a particular issue, or fear, that I’ve wrestled with since long before it was an issue that needed wrestling… conception, childbirth, and babies. These things will crop up in my writing quite a bit. Never to the good, though.

So, I’m fine with writing about horrible things happening to people’s bodies, even to the bodies of children and babies, but I was touchy about mentioning the possibility of a school shooting. Dean had two comments after reading the rough draft of Sleep, Baby, Sleep – one was “Are you going to have someone else read this, since it’s so personal?” and the other was “People are going to loathe you for this one.”

The answer to the first part is no, I will be reading the story because it’s so personal. And to the second part, yes I suspect that there may be people who will loathe me once they hear the story. It’s not a pleasant one. Although I hope anyone listening to our podcast knows that given our subject matter, our movie does take place during a zombie apocalypse after all, they’re not likely to get a whole lot of pleasantness.

But given this discussion, and Jenny Hudock’s blog from earlier this week about writing from personal experience, I have been wondering… Where is the line? Is there a line? If there is a line, when if ever is it okay to cross it? As authors, or readers, or just people, where do you think writers shouldn’t go? Or does that place not exist? Is it okay to go wherever you need to go as long as you try and treat the subject with respect and gravity, or should some things just not be written about? We all have buttons that, when pushed, make us angry or uncomfortable and think ‘How could they? They should have just left that alone!’ So what are yours?

**WARNING: This is a long one. And also, I get kind of sappy. So, please, bear with me. **

“The word “community” is derived from the Old French communité which is derived from the Latin communitas (cum, “with/together” + munus, “gift”)” – Wikipedia

Yesterday, the inestimable Jenny Hudock blogged about the first six weeks of the Creative Alliance. TCA is a great bunch of people, and the things the group has managed to do together in that fairly short period of time is pretty impressive. And it’s just the beginning!

What her blog really called to mind for me were all the things the various online communities I belong to, or have belonged to, have given me. When I was very little, we had a computer that I’m pretty sure we only used to play Pong. And maybe Frogger, but I think that was too advanced for my age at the time. I remember being more interested in painting and climbing trees and various other pursuits that intrigued my 7 year old mind.

Several years later, when I was maybe 14, my father got a used HP (I think from someone who he’d done some construction for) and we got AOL. That would have been around 1995. I did the whole chat room thing, and had fun with it. I even met someone that I had met online IRL! (No horror stories about axe murders here, but that’s all I say about that.) A few of my friends had the internet at that point, and I knew a couple of people who were really into being online… but it still wasn’t something we spent a lot of time doing or talking about, on the whole.

It was a couple years after that, when I returned from my all too brief sojourn to Niagara University, that I dove completely into the vast world wide web. I was still with AOL then, still doing the chat room thing, and even met several more people from cyberspace in the meatspace (I got this term from the hilarious Chris Hardwick, of the Nerdist podcast, and I love it). It was around this time that I started looking for writer’s groups online.

In high school I had had my English teachers and the people of Literary Magazine (I was a member in junior high, and all four years of high school as well) to talk about writing with, and to share my work with. In college (for the year I was there) I had a poetry circle I went to. But after that, I didn’t have a local group of peers to share my writing with, and be creative with. And for most writers, at least from what I’ve witnessed, and for me in particular, interacting with other imaginative people and sharing work helps keep those delicious creative juices flowing.

So it began with Triggerstreet. I had seen an interview with Kevin Spacey (who I’ve always had just a little crush on… I think it’s the dimples) where he mentioned starting this website for screenwriters and filmmakers, and I thought ‘Gee that sounds interesting!’ So when the site launched, I joined up and starting reading the scripts people were posting. Some were great, some were good, and some were all kinds of terrible. But something about the ease and approachability of it all made me think I could do it.

So I took a random thing I’d written in high school, mostly for the amusement of me and my friends, and turned it into a screenplay. I wrote it in Word, because I didn’t have any screenwriting software back then, and the formatting was kind of off (though not too bad, considering). And I just slapped it up on Triggerstreet, no beta readers or anything. Some of the reviews I got were just mean, but those were the minority. Many were very helpful in their critiques, and some were incredibly encouraging, despite what was likely a very bad first draft. I know I broke quite a few of the rules of screenwriting. But with the feedback that I got, I went and re-wrote it. And reposted it. And received feedback. And re-wrote. And re-posted. Repeat.

The people there were really great, and when they set up forums I started getting to know some of the people whose work I admired. I made some really good friends with some really talented people. I’m still a member at Triggerstreet, though I haven’t been active in years. I don’t know how the site may have changed, since I don’t spend time there. But if you’re interesting in screenwriting or short filmmaking I’d say check it out. The people were always very cool, and at the very least you get free access to thousands of scripts and short films and it can help you learn what works and what doesn’t in those arenas.

I have since lost contact with many of the people I became friends with there (though not all of them). And I miss them, even the ones who I knew only by a first name, or a screen name. Sabine, Jonathan, George, Ron, Austin, Jolene, PJ… wherever you are, I hope you’re well and wish I could find you! Through that site, and those amazing people, not only did my work get better and my ability increase, but I learned about other sites and communities. A sort of domino effect took place.

From Triggerstreet, I joined Zoetrope, and a Yahoo writing group that has since petered out but was a great help to me. It was in the forums on TS that I followed someone’s link to a blog about horror films. In that blog was a link to a list of horror websites. And on that list was a link to a forum of fellow horror fans. There weren’t many members. The site was fairly new and there were maybe 25 people there when I signed up. Even with the small group I was a little intimidated about jumping into discussions at first. Some of the people there had come over from yet another site, and had known each other there for years. So I was a smidgen shy. But about a week after I signed up, another member signed up and since he was new now, I felt totally comfortable talking to him. His screen name was Deanrockon.

I became really good friends with Deanrockon and several other people on that site. In fact, about seven months after our first online hello, Dean and I decided to meet in person. About three months after that, I packed my bags in NY and he came to move me down to Georgia with him. On our way, we stopped at NJ’s Chiller Theatre convention and met some of the other awesome people we’d only known as screen names until then.

That was in 2004. Since then, Dean and I got married (it’ll be 4 years in November). My maid of honor was a woman who has become a sister to me… and one I met in person for the first time at that Chiller. In 2006, when Dread Central broke from that other site, I went happily with them and have enjoyed every minute of working with them and writing reviews and all the other coolness that comes with being able to write about my favorite genre.

And through them, and the people I’ve met there since then, I’ve learned about other communities. Like the podcasting community. And though we’ve only just become a part of this amazing community, it’s already been incredibly rewarding. I’m getting to know wonderful people like James and Jenny, my other fellow TCA members, and a bunch of other crazy talented and fun people. I’m getting to share my work, which I love, and getting to share in theirs.

The online community as a whole, and the specific communities I’ve mentioned above, has given me so much already. And I am eternally thankful and grateful for that. My love for and belief in this community is part of what led me to suggest Dean and I try this crazy thing we’re trying. I’m counting on this community I’m proud to be a part of to help us fund Blood & Dust, to help us realize this dream we have. And it’s a scary prospect, to rely on a vast community of people who I may never see face to face (although I sincerely hope that’s not the case). But I’ve seen what we can do. And I have faith.

That definition I started this whole thing off with? The Latin has the right of it. This togetherness is a gift. I want to keep giving. I hope you do too.

XXX ~M

So, here’s the thing: as long as it took me to write this last story, it almost didn’t get written. Morgan, in fact, initially refused to let me write it… for inclusion in the podcast, anyway. My original pitch for Material Components, you see, was actually a little bit different from the finished project… and here I suppose I should say: if you actually intend to listen to the podcast, now’s the time, ‘cause it’s about to get spoily in here.

The original idea was this: two teenaged losers who are into magic wind up getting their hands on the real thing and come up with the brilliant- sarcastic usage here- idea of shooting up their high school and then bringing everybody back as zombies as the ultimate form of revenge for the ostracism they faced in their day-to-day lives (Note: this is not the source of the outbreak in Blood and Dust. Or maybe it kinda is. Or is entirely. I really don’t know, the zombies don’t tell me these things). Morgan immediately put the kibosh on this. To her, like I’m sure it is to thousands of others and maybe even to you, the subject of school shootings is a hot-button, nigh-unapproachable subject. It’s a matter that shouldn’t be trivialized, and I hope I haven’t done that here.

In fact, this story is a very personal one for me. Parts of it are almost autobiographical- I was one of those unlucky kids that faced the trials of the high school bully, and I definitely felt the dark gravity of the whirlpool of despair that Eli gets pulled down into. When you’re up against a situation like this, when the faculty seems unwilling to get wrangled into the situation and the safety of home is miles away both in the real world and in your heart, you go to some bleak, black places. You contemplate both methods of self-defense and revenge. Now, for whatever reason, one day this campaign of violence that I found myself embroiled in for months just… stopped. I didn’t ever really find out why. But in a way, I found out why it started, years later.

I was at a restaurant with my father one day, and had excused myself to go to the restroom. As I was washing my hands, the bathroom door opened, and in walked my worst nightmare. I found myself alone in the bathroom with this guy who had made my life a living Hell for so long. Who had driven me to thoughts of suicide, or, matter-of-factly, worse. I thought, given our interaction in the past, that this could only end one way. But instead of the daydreams I had put together in my head of “if I ever see that guy again,” this guy apologized. He told me he was a fucked-up human being at that point in his life, and he asked for my forgiveness. And instead of giving in to those fantasies of vengeance I’d concocted in my head in all the years prior, I swallowed my fear and my pride and I gave it. And as schmaltzy as it sounds, we shook hands and he walked away, and I never saw the guy again.

Now, I tried to leave the interpretation of the story open to the listener; that either Eli and his father, Matthew, were both touched and doomed by the power of the book and the dark forces it brought them into contact with, or they were both just two unbalanced people brought over the edge by the circumstances of their lives. There is no actual evidence of magic in the story, other than the results of Eli’s belief in it. It’s entirely possible that the darkness that Eli eventually succumbs to comes from within him rather than without.

That being said, my first pitch obviously wasn’t so deep, which is why Morgan initially rejected it. She thought, perhaps rightfully, that someone might get the wrong ideas from it, and be influenced to take the resolution of matters like this one into their own hands. Having experienced the feeling of being backed into such a corner myself, I hope that people get the right idea; that violence, no matter how seemingly justified at the time, should never be considered as a viable solution to violence. If you bring force to bear, you will only wind up bringing more force home to roost.

In the end, I’m glad she let me develop and go ahead with podcasting this story. I think that there are certain subjects which should be handled with care- but as a writer, I don’t think I should ever be forced to consider a subject completely off-limits. So I posit this question to you: are some tales best left untold? What topics, as an audience / reader, do you think should be taken off the table? And if your answer is “nothing”… tell me why.

Thanks for your time, folks, and we’ll catch you the next time the moon comes up.

-Dean Sasser

Dean@trickstermoon.com, Dean Sasser on Facebook, @Deanrockon on Twitter

Promo: Dark Journeys

Songs: Dark Matters – David Emeny

 

 Episode 06 - Material Components [00:58:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

To paraphrase the Narrator, I would like, if I may, to take you on a dark journey… *

One of the great things about podcasting is the community. Some call it ‘the tribe’. People are generally very friendly and helpful and kind. Not to mention talented. It’s because of these qualities in the other podcasters we’re slowly getting to know that we want to share with as many people as possible what they’re doing with their work. So from time to time we’ll be talking about the work of other podcasters out there… This week, Jennifer Hudock, a wonderful podcaster and extraordinary person, is doing a tour of various blogs in order to spread the word about her projects. And because we here at Trickster Moon think she’s super awesome, we were glad she agreed to take some time to visit us and answer some questions.

Morgan Elektra: Who is Jennifer Hudock? Can you give us your 5 word story so far?

Jennifer Hudock: I am alive with possibility.

ME: Dark Journeys is a short story anthology you’re releasing story by story. Tell us a little about the stories, where we can find them, and what made you decide to sell your fiction in this particular way.

JH: Each of the stories in the Dark Journeys collection is unique. They aren’t tied to each other at all, but share a common, dark undertone. Every story in the collection to date has been previously shopped around to traditional publishers, and a couple of them have been published in journals or online zines.

I decided to start selling them on Amazon and Smashwords one by one because I wanted to reach a larger audience with my work. Once I have twelve, I plan to compile them into a single anthology and sell it as a unit with a bonus story that hasn’t been released yet as part of the collection.

ME: You are also working on putting together two other anthologies that are compilations of other people’s work. What are they, and why did you decide to do them?

JH: I am working on two charity anthologies: From the Dark Side and Farrago. Each one will contain a large variety of work from different online writers, and will be sold on Smashwords and Amazon. All the proceeds for the From the Dark Side Anthology will go to the Letters and Light organization, which is affiliated with NaNoWriMo. All of the money we raise with the Farrago Anthology will be donated to my friend, independent filmmaker, Michael Bekemeyer, who is trying to raise the funds he needs to film his script.

I have always thought it would be a good idea to do some anthologies for charity, and one day Patrick Pillars and I were talking, and we came up with the idea to do From the Dark Side. We sent out an invitation to everyone we thought might be interested, and presented it as an opportunity to expose the other work, whether it be podcast, fiction or otherwise, to a larger audience, because the book itself will contain a huge page with information on where you can find out more about each contributor.

The Farrago Anthology popped up as an idea when Michael started talking about how much money he needed to film his script. I read the script last year and knew it was good stuff, so I wanted to do what I could to help. My fiance, James Melzer, and I started brainstorming, and I proposed the idea of a fiction anthology. The response was huge and incredibly humbling to see how many people wanted to contribute to see another artist realize his dream.

ME: You write in many genres, but your writing seems to have a dark edge. What is it about the shadowy side of things that draws you?

JH: I have always been fascinated by the darkness. As a kid, I had a few paranormal experiences that guided me to read a lot about ghosts, demons, spirits and the like. It just sort of stuck with me my entire life. I am also a big fan of mythology and my Celtic ancestral roots, so I love putting a dark spin on that genre whenever I can.

ME: Goblin Market , your podcast novel, is something of a modern day Grimm fairytale. How did you develop that idea?

JH: The idea from Goblin Market started out as a cross between a Labyrinth fanfiction and a spin on Christina Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market’ poem. As I continued writing the novel, I developed a lot of mythology that just didn’t fit into either universe, and realized I needed to strip out the fanfiction elements and make it my own. That took me about a year to entirely complete, and after that it just sat on my hard drive for a long time because I didn’t know what to do with it. Then I got into podcast fiction and decided I wanted to share it that way, so I started to skim over it and make some minor edits, then began to podcast it.

ME: If you were to go crazy, Annie Wilkes-style, what writers would you keep hostage and force to write just for you?

JH: One writer- Neil Gaiman. And I would make him write Sandman stories just for me.

ME: You’re locked in a basement, waiting out the zombie apocalypse… what books do you make sure you have with you?

JH: The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Swan Song by Robert McCammon, American Gods and Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman, Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry and Goblin Market so when all the other books get burned by crazy looters in the zombie apocalypse, aliens will find mine in the aftermath and think it was a piece of great American literature.

ME: Recently, you and your fiancé established The Creative Alliance, a website for creative people to congregate and network. What were your hopes when you came up with the idea?

JH: I really believe we are part of a huge shift in the creative element right now because of the ongoing changes in how we present our creative work right now. I know there are others out there who want to be a part of something bigger than themselves, and their own work, and the only way we can make a memorable impact and really stand out is if we band together.

ME: What are your plans for the future? Where do you imagine Jennifer Hudock in ten years?

JH: Right now I am working on a novel called Running Down the Moon that I want to publish traditionally. I am also working on the sequel to Goblin Market, Jack in the Green, which I plan to start podcasting this summer.

In ten years, I will still be making my dreams a reality because that is what I do.

ME: And finally, what do you want written on your tombstone?

JH: She Really Lived

Thanks again to Jenny for stopping by. Make sure you visit her website, and check out her work. Also, be sure to visit her other stops on the tour (which I’ve listed below)… I hear rumors there’s a going to be a giveaway at the end!

Sin-scarily,
Morgan Elektra

May 2010 Blog Tour Dates
May 14, 2010: Jim – Yes, THAT Jim
May 17, 2010: Edward G. Talbot
May 19, 2010: Morgan Elektra of Trickster Moon Productions
May 21, 2010: Ramblings of English with Chandra Jenkins
May 24, 2010: Paddy’s Wanderings with Patrick Pillars
May 27, 2010: Drew Beatty
May 29, 2010: Scrivener’s Circle with David Sobkowiak and Laura Frechette

*Just a note regarding the bizarre blog title, and opening line, for those of you that care to try and understand the inner workings of my brain. As I was driving home tonight, I was thinking about writing this blog entry up and trying to come up with a name for it. And so my brain goes “Hmm… Jenny’s anthology is called Dark Journeys… maybe I can make a play on that. Hmm… dark journeys… strange journeys… Oh there’s that line from RHPS. Oh, Rocky Horror Picture Show… I could call it Jenny Beanses Blog Tour. Same amount of words. But no, doesn’t sound quite right. Jenny Hudock Blog Tour. That’s better, because the H in Hudock and the H in Horror… hmm. But blog is only one syllable and picture is two. Jenny Hudock Online Tour? No. Too clunky. Jenny Hudock Weblog Tour? Who calls it a weblog anymore? Ok… Hmmm. Jenny Hudock Bloggie Tour! Cause then the syllables all align.”

Yeah. I’m weird.

A little over a week ago (on my birthday) podcaster, author, and all around awesome guy Mr. PG Holyfield was nice enough to sit down, via Skype, and talk with Dean and I about his book Murder at Avedon Hill. Unfortunately, the gremlins were feeling frisky that night and the audio didn’t record correctly. Luckily, PG was nice enough to come back and talk with us some more last night. As always, we had a blast talking with the incomparable Mr. Holyfield, and I hope you enjoy listening to the result, and don’t mind the few finicky mic issues. (Technology was not my friend this week… see previous blog entries for hints as to why this might be.)

If you’ve listened to previous episodes of Trickster Moon Presents… you might recognize either the title Murder at Avedon Hill or the name PG Holyfield. In Episode 02, Promopalooza, we mentioned the podiobook version of Murder at Avedon Hill as one of the podcasts that inspired us to try out this crazy thing… and you may remember me getting a little flustered  while discussing my…er… appreciation of PG’s voice acting ability. PG is also one of the hosts of my favorite writing roundtable podcast, The Dead Robots’ Society.

PG’s first novel, Murder at Avedon Hill, is being published by Dragon Moon Press. The book will be available on Amazon, and this coming Saturday, May 15^th 2010, PG is having a book release party live on Stickam. He’s also planning a rush on Amazon, but more about that in a little bit.

Murder at Avedon Hill is a fantasy novel, in that it takes place in a world not our own, and with its dark under currents and comedic highlights, it’s got a bit of something for everyone. The story focuses on a crime – a murder, natch – in the small town of Avedon Hill. Arames Kragen, a monk travelling to a conference with his charge Arrin Pertie, must pass through the town on his journey. Upon their arrival at the Avedon Hill gates, the two discover the town closed to visitors. Arames offers his services to the Lord of Avedon Hill in the matter of the murder in order to gain passage through the town, but what begins as  a means to an end quickly becomes a mission to find justice. With a large cast of interesting, and perhaps guilty, characters you’ll be kept guessing who committed the titular deed until the shocking finale.

I personally loved the varied characters that inhabit Avedon Hill. Whether it’s strange little Jilly Hemming (why was she burning those dolls?) , the cantankerous Marrissa (what is she concocting in that shop of hers?),  or the staunch Head-Constable Louis (where was he really the night of the murder?),  I enjoyed them all. PG manages to make even the smallest tertiary character leap right out of the story and sit down and say hello. Damned if you don’t end the story a little sad to say good-bye to some new friends.  And he manages to expertly weave the mystery as well… teasing and taunting the reader until the very end. I am normally pretty good at guessing who the culprit is in a mystery, but I was no match for Mr. Holyfield.  There was a definite ‘Ahhh… you got me!’ moment when the guilty party/parties (no spoilers here!) is/are revealed. And once you see the grand design, you can go back and to the beginning and see where each little thread finds its place in the story. It makes for a very high re-read (or re-listen) value.

Basically, what I’m saying is if you’re a fan of any of the following:

murder mysteries

 fantasy

 horror

 creatures (like vampires and werewolves and Orcs)

 magic

comedy

procedurals

interesting characters

mystical prophecies

gods

journeys

good writing

than you’ll enjoy Murder at Avedon Hill.  Which means not only should you listen to this interview with PG, and come join in on the fun of the book launch party on Stickam, but plan on picking up your copy of the book from Amazon on Saturday too. And if you know of anyone else who’s into any of the aforementioned things, pick them up a copy too. You won’t regret it.

Sin-scarily,

Morgan Elektra

 

 Episode 05 - A Murder of Tricksters [01:01:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

So, I am recuperating from another Saturday night spent out with some friends having fun and staying up way too late. My back kind of hurts, my stomach isn’t upset really but maybe a little mad, and I am crazy tired.  But I had a really fun time and spent the evening with a couple of people who make me laugh – which I prize highly in the people I know. What does this have to do with the price of tea in China, you ask? Well, nothing… but it does have something to do with the well of creativity and where ideas come from, which is what I’ve been thinking a lot about this week.

I have always written. I’m one of those people who knew from a very early age what I wanted to do. Oh I went through brief periods as a very young girl or wanting to be a ballerina… or a vet. And I toyed with the idea as an adult of doing something else as a career. But even in those various scenarios, I always wrote… just not for a living. I have this very distinct memory of being six, maybe seven, and going with my mother to visit a friend of hers. We spent the better part of the afternoon there, and for the most of that time I was sitting at the kitchen table with a pencil and some paper, writing a story. It was called The Rainbow Maker, and it was about a world where no color existed and a woman who was a scientist/witch who concocted colors in a cauldron in her basement. I still have it somewhere.

So, I have always written. But recently I have entered one of the most prolific periods of my life, and it occurred to me to really examine why. Why are the words and ideas coming easier and more often now than they seemingly ever have? What’s the difference between now, and before? Well, to answer that we need to address the Dreaded Question:

Where do you get your ideas?

Well, where do we? Lately, I’ve begun to think of it a bit like a well somewhere deep inside of me. The well of creativity. And every person has this well, I think. We dip down the bucket when we are in need of an idea. The difference between us all is what comes when we draw the bucket up. Whether it’s an idea for a story, or a piece of music, or a mathematical formula, or whatever. Maybe you’re an architect and you dip into the well for a building design, or a chef dipping in for recipe, or a scientist dipping in for that certain tweak of a chemical composition. You send down your bucket and see what comes up.

And of course, what comes up depends on what’s down there, right? So, say we all have somewhat of a natural wellspring of ideas. Sometimes it trickles, and sometimes it gushes. But just the wellspring doesn’t fill the well. There’s rain too…  and that’s where friends, family, and community come in. Spending a night with good friends, having a few drinks and laughing and being silly? There’s a sudden summer storm. A passing comment from an online buddy? A light spring shower. A deep discussion with some fellow writer friends? A downpour. And each drop fills up that well a little more. And it raises the water table too, which makes your own wellspring flow stronger. And each bucket you draw up is now brimming with fresh ideas.

So, lately I’ve been listening to awesome writer podcasts like The Dead Robots’ Society or Mur Lafferty’s I Should Be Writing. I’ve been interacting in the podcast community, emailing the writers of the podiobooks I enjoy and reviewing them on iTunes. I joined up with the awesomely creative folks over at The Creative Alliance. Even just sharing a joking back-and-forth on Twitter, chatting on Skype or Messenger, or going out for a few beers with some friends from work… all of these things have been filling my well. And not only that, but putting me in a frame of mind to want to dip into it more often. And it is delicious and refreshing.

I love technology. I love my laptop, and my cell phone and all those fancy things that keep me connected and entertained. But I am not tech savvy. I can generally figure out how to use new gadgets in a very basic way on my own, and if someone who knows what they’re doing can show me I can generally learn fairly well and retain that knowledge. But if I’m trying to figure out more complicated functions on my own, I tend to get frustrated very quickly.  Kind of a funny thing to say when Dean and I have chosen to involve just about every kind of new media in our quest to make our short film, which requires me to learn how to use lots of new technological things.

This weekend we had our first chat event over at The Creative Alliance. Aside from the topic briefly veering into Canadian milk packaging (apparently they buy it in bags, but that’s neither here nor there at the moment), we discussed how we can drive more traffic to our respective websites.  Everyone had good suggestions and ideas, and it was a great time. And afterward, while reviewing the transcript for information people had passed on, I realized anew that I am still just a babe in the woods.

People were talking about doing things with their blogs and sites that I think I might need a translator to understand! I’ve bought a few books, but as much as I like to read for pleasure, when it comes to learning how to do hands-on things I learn quicker from hands-on teaching. If there’s not someone who can show me how to do it, then I just have to figure it out myself through trial and error. Books can only help me a little. The up side to this is that I feel great accomplishment when I manage to get it right. The down side is the amount of time it takes to get it right.

I say all this for a few reasons. For one, I’m hoping that by interacting with the great people over at The Creative Alliance, I’ll be able to absorb some of their know-how… which is one of the great things about a community.  For another, you may notice some changes here on the blog while I try and figure things out. I think our awesome and talented webmisstress has done a great job with the look and layout of the site, but I don’t expect her to do everything.  So I hope you’ll bear with us if things get a little wonky from time to time.

I want to make this site great. I want people to want to come here and spend time here. And I want people to get involved in our project. My reasons aren’t purely selfish… yes, I want to raise the money to make this short film very, very much. Reaching that goal is very high on my priority list right now. But part of the reason I want to do that so badly is because I can’t wait to enter the next phase, the community participation phase. I love that sense of working with creative people, and being excited by a common project, and I hope that’s what we can bring to Blood & Dust. And for that, going through all this difficult figuring out of curious technological things seems worth it. Just, please don’t mind the swearing!

Sin-scarily,

Morgan Elektra