Random writing thoughts before JulNoWriMo begins

[valarltd]

I have works actively in progress or plotting, to be finished this year

(non-italicized have no titles, am always open to suggestions)
Pagan Children's Book (mostly done)
Flower Fairies (Julnowrimo)
A new Etarin story (Julnowrimo)
Long Term--hardcore BDSM
Man-hunt--a prison escapee in the 30s finds shelter on a lonely farm
Casting Couch Blues--Jaded Hollywood casting director enjoys himself (deadline Oct 15)
Nick and Corban
The next Lord Withycombe novel (provided this one sells at all)--big game hunting, I think
A steampunk piece for an anthology--Angelina Calamity, I think
Rapture Horror Novel
Kenisha and Pan

***
I learned that this:
?!
is called an interrobang.

***

I need to write an anthology proposal for Kerlak on the bright future anthology. I have no idea how to do this.

***

I should see what Naomi and I have that might make a good short story collection. or what I have alone. I'd like to get my werewolves into print.

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Is Hell-billy Highway: Terror on the road and off the beaten path a really crappy name for an anthology? Does the idea of on-road and back-road horror appeal to anyone? See point about bright future anth. I have no idea how to write this proposal.

***

Of the following, what squicks you most:
1) felching
2) cannibalism
3) self-mutilation under stress
4) near-instantaeous eradication of about 30,000 people, where the killer has to walk among the corpses after they've ripened a few days
5) necrophilia, mentioned in passing
6) pseudo-necrophilia (killer in 4 gets turned on, tries seducing mentor, comes home and has sex with wife)
(almost all of these occur in Nick & Corban)

Comments

[faedreamer.livejournal.com]

Felching is an 'ew disgusting' squick of mine, but self-mutilation is a personal trigger topic. I'd probably hardcore avoid reading anything with either. That's just me, though.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I wondered about that, because I have a character who cuts and burns under profound stress. It's extremely unbecoming in a 50 year old man.

OTOH, I've been wondering about the whole felching scene, since there's a twincest element in there, identical twins sharing the same man. Thast may get cut entirely. It seems to be squicking more people than it's turning on.

[jess-faraday.livejournal.com]

Cannibalism. Felching and necrophilia are pretty icky, but reading about/watching a film about cannibalism makes me desperately need a very hot shower.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

So the "Things went pretty smoothly after I raped killed and ate the mayor's wife...not necessarily in that order," is going to be lost on you?

I don't think we have any on-screen, but my protagonist picked up a bad habit in the last book, and he does mention it in passing.

[(Anonymous)]

The D-Man Checks In: No... "Hell-billy Highway: Terror on the road and off the beaten path," is not a really crappy name for an anthology. It grabs the eye, and it is entirely conceivable that truckers encounter all sorts of weirdness in their various travels. Things & places out there normal folk don't know about, and just either don't need or don't wanna know about. A set of spooky tales regarding some of these could prove most entertaining, and definitely different; 3 things that go well together.

=-=-=-=-=-=

Which of that list squicks me the most?
Big surprise: 1.) Felching... followed by 2.) Necrophilia... followed by 3.) Cannibalism, unless done for pure last-resort survival. In my humble opinion, people who write this sorta stuff into their stories--much less all of them--might come across as desperate for attention.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

1) is a logical extension of the character's established kinks

2) mentioned in passing (and past tense) and done as an intimidation of an enemy.

3) my somewhat psychopathic protagonist picked up a bad habit in book two... (and does this mean I shouldn't pass on my copy of Brian Keene's GHOUL?)

Thank you, Dr. Freud. The writing game is ENTIRELY about attention-seeking. Saying a writer is desperate for attention is like saying water is wet.

(And I don't write it into all of them. I have five pieces where there is no anal contact at all. Of course they're all lesbian or heterosexual.)

[(Anonymous)]

The D-Man Checks In (Again): Perhaps attention-seeking is what writers do and/or strive for... but this kinda attention-seeking smacks just a little too much of the kid back in 3rd grade who eats paste, worms, bugs, or anything else on the gross-out meter for maybe the hope that by being so repulsive people may at least pay him some notice (as opposed to ignoring him altogether). Not all attention-seeking is good... and in my conservative opinion: Your writing is too good to need this level of (borderline pitiful, shock & revile) attention-grabbing. This is something beginning writers do... or washed-up hacks who could not sell a story to save their lack-luster life. You are (or appear to be by now) on a much higher road. I'm not sure this sorta, "Eeeew," is gonna help you more than it might hinder.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Remember, you're talking to someone who wrote incestuous necrophiliac bukake and made it "dementedly tender" instead of revolting.

Of course, i have been writing a lot of horror lately and that kinda bleeds through into the Nikolai'verse, since those folks are so far above the law they call lesser people "disposables."

"The 3 types of terror:
The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm.

The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm.

And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there..

If I cannot terrify, I work to horrify. If I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud.”
--Stephen King

You sound as priggish as the fundies who criticized a friend of mine for using the word "fuck," well placed and in perfect context in a poem. They blamed it on her over-abundance of education (College!) and were disappoint she had not taken a higher sort of thought.