Lunchtime Life Collection

I'm a Doctor, not a computer programmer!
A very merry unbirthday to all of you, and a happy birthday to the late, great DeForest Kelley, the last straight man who could wear an ascot and mean it.

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Republicans get 41-59 Majority in Senate.

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For those of us who loved them, Aahz and Skeeve are online. The Phil Foglio comic version of Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures

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In a poll of readers, Reading Books rated fourth in time spent, under 4 hours a week, as opposed to 15 spent online.

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Another day, another disgruntled white man. Killed eight and shot down a helicopter in Virginia. It's getting worse, folks.

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6 worst fast food burgers The winner clocks in at 1250 calories. That's 25 weight watchers points or more, because of the fat.

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From the BBC, a timeline of history and a gallery of cool stuff. The bugle that sounded the charge of the Light Brigade. Medieval Portugese coins. A Titanic Launch ticket. A Votes for Women sash.

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100 Ways to improve your writing
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Because Starfleet uniforms, pointed ears, White and Nerdy and Bellydance are all awesome separately, the fusion is even more awesome.

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Shamless Promotion. Another excellent review for SHELL SHOCKED, this time from The Pagan and the Pen.

Thoughts on horror

grynner got me thinking, as he is wont to do.

Horror. What is it and what scares people?
I write horror now and then. And I read a LOT of horror.

There is supernatural horror. In which ordinary humans are called on to withstand outside forces that are much more powerful than they are. This is every vampire novel right on up to the Cthulhu Mythos, where glimpsing a lesser servant shatters human minds.

There is human horror. Serial killers. Mutants. Mad scientists. This can crossover with supernatural horror, as in Brian Keene's The Rising, where the terror is not JUST the zombie apocalypse, but the fear of one man for his son. Child-in-danger stuff is a very primal fear and movie makers know it.

There is psychological horrror, where all the stuff is in someone's head. My icon, from Gothic is this kind.

In supernatural horror, a person, or all of humanity, is up against a supernatural foe. This allows writers to show the best and worst of people, sometimes at the same time. The foe is, by definition, more powerful. Vampires scale walls, become a mist, have the strength of ten men and can command rats and wolves. Zombies (here the walking dead as opposed to Voodoo zombies) are implacable, do not tire, make more with every bite and cannot be bargained with or bribed. Demons are strong, brilliant and can leave a human a soulless husk.

This sets up the conflict and imbalance in the world. At best, it requires humans to think, to work around their foes and to use the advantages as weapons. In many cases, the foes have a built-in weakness that must be found and exploited. Vampires have the sun and stakes and running water and a host of other things, depending on where your vamp is from. Zombies are vulnerable to fire and decapitation. Demons tend to be proud and convinced of their superiority.

The humans have three choices: succumb, utilize the weaknesses, or call in a bigger supernatural power. In every Dracula movie, they go for the second (except, of course, the bosomy young thing in the low-cut nightie) In The Exorcist, the priests try the last, but their lack of faith costs them.

Human horror tends to interest me more. People are capable of more than we can imagine. Remember, one in every 25 people is a sociopath.

Human horror often branches into the supernatural. Serial killers in the movies have amazing skills and toughness, when in real life, they tend to be ordinary men who die of heart attacks while pumping gas. I liked the Hannibal Lecter movies, although anyone who eats the stupid and rude probably gets more than his share of sympathy from me.

The horror in Steven Shrewsbury's Hawg, to me, comes not from the murderous rampage of the beast (the supernatural element) but from the very ordinary people, a pig farmer and a blind woman. From the secrets and lies and seedy small-town underbelly stuff, which Hawg ripped open and dragged out like one of his victims.

An interesting side note here. In The Hills Have Eyes remake, it wasn't the copious amounts of gore. It wasn't the hideous mutants. It wasn't a brutal rape scene or some really gruesome deaths. In fact, the mutants were good for a single jump scene. What chilled me and keeps playing in my mind is a very brief moment of our hero, Doug, watching his teen-age sister-in-law sunbathe in a bikini. I expect it was put in to show Doug is young and sometimes misses his single status, now that he's saddled with a wife and kid and unpleasant in-laws. But what I saw was a desire to possess, the same look that the mutant, Lizard, has as he rapes the girl. And given the end, that makes me shudder every time.

It is not the hideous death of Inspector Howie in The Wicker Man, although that is bad. It is the moment when he tells Lord Summerisle that "It won't work and next year, they'll sacrifice YOU" and for the barest instant, Christopher Lee gives us a flash of fear and knowledge under the merry-making. He knows what's coming, but he will lead his people until it does. (of course the whole premise of The Wicker Man, the lengths a religious people will go to when driven by desperation and fear, is terrifying in itself)


Psychological horror is tougher to pull off. It's not really my thing so I can't speak as broadly on it. The idea that nothing we know is secure and real terrifies us. It leaves us without a frame of reference. A slow build, a sense of unease, followed by a rapid plunge into complete unreality can be very effective. Oddly, the movie that comes to mind for this is Alice in Wonderland, which is pretty creepy when you look at it.

This is me, shooting off my keyboard. What do you think?

State of the Sooky

Work: Truck was late. Freight was as heavy as I've ever seen. Home late

FLY: shined sink, swished and swiped, decluttered bedroom for half an hour. We can use the closet again! I actually have clothes hanging in it for the first time in a couple years.

Writing. 11700 on the fairy tale. Discovered a problem with my erotic fairy tale. There is no sex! *headdesk* There's a fair bit of kink, but no sex. So far it's painful and sweet and gorgeous, but it's not sexy.

Scent of the day: Incantation vetiver, dark woods, crumbling and burnt black sandalwood and a drop of lemon rind. Nope. Still not a keeper. All piney and Irish Spring smelling.

Tarot Meditation for the day: King of Swords. A master of words. Honesty and fairness. A stern man, but logical.