B2BCyCon Horror Genre Tour: My Type of Horror by Carol James Marshall

Welcome to the 2017 Brain To Books Convention! 

This is a stop on the 

Out of the Shadows Horror Genre Tour!

Welcome to the Blood Spring!

For this part of the Out of the Shadows Tour, I bring you a delightfully intriguing post on inspiration, monsters and the love of the genre by author Carol James Marshall. Enjoy...

My Type of Horror by Carol James Marshall

The horror genre is massive. The streets of horror are connected to side roads. Those side roads are connected to dirt roads. Fair warning no good can come from a dirt road on the horror path.  There seems no way of mapping the horror genre it is something that must be explored. Many steer clear of the horror roads, being afraid of where they lead to.  I have been down many of those roads trying my best to discover what branch of horror I liked. The horror inclination was always tugging at me giving me the need to wander in it finding where I fit in.

This is article isn’t for or against any facet of horror.  In writing my Women of the Grey series I am constantly surprised at what my readers find creepy, unsettling while others find the same section mysterious and poetic. The fact that this happens is a tell of human nature. While some people smell the flowers, others stomp them, and some plant them.

In my wanderings down the horror path I discovered my horror love is classic horror mixed with some camp. I’ll be the first to line up for a Hammer film festival or to see Elvira at local venue.  I am not a blood and guts fan. My heart belongs to monsters, Kaiju, and those creepy things that go bump in the night. Most of all my heart pumps for those terrifying things that visit us from outer space.

My fandom for monsters and classic horror started off when I was very young. I might have been the only 8 year old on the block watching Godzilla movies, not sure. Thinking back at such a young age my love for these monsters came from admiration. Who wouldn’t want to be Godzilla? If you’re having an awful day wouldn’t it be great to just knock down a building? As a kid I didn’t think about the logistics of knocking down the building, I just knew I wanted to be Godzilla.

As I grew older my tastes for monsters progressed. I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and had my mind blown by the fact that there was other type of monsters out there. Everyday things could be a monster, just like the birds in the movie. By the way I’m still a bit wary of large groups of birds, being almost certain that they are called a murder of crows for a reason.

In my teen years I discovered Tolkien. Orcs were a new type of monster. After my Lord of the Rings obsession (read the series 5 times) came the Alien movie franchise. As I grew older my palate for monsters was developing. My palate became enhanced more than what was typical. I can clearly remember the first time I watched Pan’s Labyrinth; the eye holding, saggy skin, kid eating monster that our heroine narrowly escapes shook me down and woke me up. That, I could point a finger at, was my type of horror.

There were other things before Pans Labyrinth that put the stepping-stones down for my education into horror. I watched things like Faces of Death and I read Stephen King. I took long walks with Anne Rice books bringing along her vampires and witches.  I did these things to further explore the horror path. I wanted to know how many places it could lead me to. The Faces of Death movies weren’t for me. Stephen King books were a pleasure to read and his movies enjoyable. Anne Rice vampires were seductive, her witches intriguing.

There was so much out there to understand about my relationship with horror, why I liked it and what I liked. Horror is not one solid thing. What is one person’s horror is another person’s main stream; some might believe to have horror you must have torture or captivity. While others might believe to have horror there must be a guy with a mask and machete romping around some lake. 

When it is discovered that I am a writer the first thing people ask is what genre I write. When I say I am a horror author some immediately put their hands up explaining to me that they can’t handle it, don’t like it. “Oh girl, I can’t sleep at night after reading that stuff.” I understand that, but I invite readers to stick a toe in any way. Try my books or other horror authors. Horror isn’t just one thing; horror is many things that can challenge the reader into feeling emotions that perhaps they haven’t explored in a long time.

My cousin and I often had horror, let’s call them discussions she loved the movies I run from. She wanted to watch movies where the human spirit is challenged by little men on tricycles. When I asked her why, she said that she would become engrossed into trying to figure out how she would survive such an ordeal. My cousin is a survivor she’s been through a lot, it added up and made sense.

Another avid fan of gore horror books and movies told me it wasn’t the horror that he loved most of all, but the psychology of it. I often hear this, horror takes us to places within ourselves that we would rather not explore. Horror can have the reader questioning themselves. What would I do? What could I handle? It’s actually not about the zombies, but about how the people handle the zombies.

As a writer I am still on my monster hunt, but now I create them. My current manuscript The Demon Dealer is a nod to the great Stephen King and my love for the show Stranger Things. My books are me still searching, traveling down those horror roads figuring out what makes me jump back and take notice. 

For me the scariest thing of all is the unknown. It’s not that there is something under that bed. It’s the not knowing what that thing is. Because of that I fill my books with mystery. I want the reader to get the creeps over what “it” might be.  Those dark corners of the unknown are where I find myself most often.

If you haven’t tried horror before maybe it’s time you go find your monster; you might learn something about yourself that was hidden on one of those dirt roads.

Carol James Marshall is a new adult author of the Women of the Grey series that likes to flirt with science fiction and horror. Carol James Marshall is also appearing this weekend in the B2BCyCon Book Expo, Blog Hop and Author Showcase.

Drabble Wednesday: Frankie and Joni Continue

In a continuation of last week’s adventures Frankie and Joni return with more strange tales of virtual reality programming...

Aftermath of the Monkeys (Sea Ghouls and Zombies)

“Frankie, I can’t believe the company wants a simulation based on what happened last week.” I sighed, a headache forming. “Monster Combat. Sea ghoul vs. zombies vs. flying monkeys.”

“And don’t forget the puppets.”

Ignoring him, I continued. “At least these creatures won’t be real. I had nightmares until the last of those monkeys went home.”

“Um...”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “Frankie? Did you keep one?”

“A little one. I’m training him to run errands.”

I stared, my headache pounding. Frankie looked at me with sad eyes. I capitulated. “Fine. But I’m not cleaning the monkey poo.”

~*~

Monster Combat?

Stupid Frankie and his stupid monkey.

Grumbling under my breath I tossed a large bag of monkey poo into the incinerator. If the darn thing wasn’t so good at fetching our lunch orders I’d—

“Hey! You’ll miss it!” I turned at Frankie’s shout, and raced back to see the new game boot up on the monitor.

“Let’s get ready to Ruuumble!”

I rolled my eyes. “Stop clowning and watch for glitches.”

“Hmmm. That’s odd. They’re, um, dancing.”

“What?” I started at the screen. Ghouls, monkeys, zombies and puppets danced a jig.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have programmed Riverdance into the soundtrack?”

~*~

Virtual Therapy and Love

“I can still see it. The horror... you can’t imagine the sight of a zombie waltzing with a puppet.”

“Tell me, how did it make you feel? Did— zztzzttzzz”

I looked up at the grating noise. The holographic image of Freud jumped, and then frizzed out. Frankie stood waiting by the VR chamber door.

“Why did you stop my program?!”

“Um, we may have a problem. Zippy’s in love.”

“Zippy? Oh, yeah, your flying monkey. Wait, what? It’s in love?”

“With one of the puppets. I think they’re planning on eloping.”

Shit. I’m going need more therapy after this escapade.

© A. F. Stewart 2017 All Rights Reserved

Drabble Wednesday: The Return of Frankie and Joni

Today Drabble Wednesday goes back to the virtual world with the duo of Frankie and Joni…

Hologram Horror

“The quiet lays on me like a shroud, an ominous portent of the creeping night.” My words echoed through the VR chamber.

“Okay, fine and dandy, but are we going to do with the sea ghouls?”

“I was setting up a mood here, Frankie! Sheesh.” I sighed. “I don’t know. Stick them in the sky, hovering.”

“Um, that’s not what I meant.”

Uh oh. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t mean to. But we have extra ghouls.”

“Extra ghouls?” I looked up. Red eyes looked back at me.

“Frankie?”

“Yeah?”

“I think we should run.”

Then the surplus ghouls chuckled.

~*~

Ghouls vs. Zombies

The door slammed shut just in time. I leaned against the titan-steel door listening to sea ghouls shrieking on the other side. Frankie stood next to me, wheezing.

“How did we get those things in the program?”

“Probably—wheeze—from the hidden—wheeze—file.”

With dread I asked, “Hidden file? What hidden file?”

Frankie took a deep breath. “The one marked Thursday. I opened it.”

“Why would you do that?”

Frankie shrugged. “Curiosity. But don’t worry. The zombies will take care of the ghouls.”

“Zombies? What zombies? And who will take care of the zombies?”

“The flying monkeys, I imagine.”

~*~

How to Solve Your Flying Monkey Problem

“Are they still flinging their feces?”

Frankie stared at the screen. “No. Now they’re throwing ghoul bits and zombie heads. Told you they’d take care of the zombies.”

“Yes. And the ghouls and half the VR equipment!” I resisted the urge to punch him. “They’ll destroy the whole chamber, heck the whole complex, if we can’t stop them!”

“I’d send them away first.”

“You can send them away? As in get rid of them?”

“Yes. Figured it out yesterday.”

“Then why are they still here?”

“I like them. They’re cute. We needed new equipment anyway.”

“Frankie! Send them home. Now!”

© A. F. Stewart 2017 All Rights Reserved

Interview with Author Benedict J. Jones

Today I have another interview, this time with multi-genre author, Benedict Jones. He stops by to chat about his books, and writing in the crime, horror and western genres. Enjoy!

Interview with Benedict J. Jones

Why don’t you begin by sharing a little about yourself.

Well, my name is Benedict J Jones and I’m a writer from London who works mainly in the genres of Crime, Horror, and the Western – often blending genres together. I’ve been published since 2008 and gradually worked my way up through various short story venues until Crime Wave Press published my novella “Skewered” and collected a fistful of my short fiction along with it in “Skewered: And Other London Cruelties”. Since then my Private Eye character, Charlie “Bars” Constantinou, has appeared in two novels from Crime Wave.

In amongst that I went back to my horror roots with a grind house novella from Dark Minds Press called “Slaughter Beach” and they also collected a bunch of my weird western tales in “Ride the Dark Country”.

When I’m not writing I work for a university assisting students all around the globe and try to travel and see as much of the world as I can. As well as that I read voraciously, watch an awful lot of films, and have an interest in martial arts.

Could you tell us a bit about your latest book?

My latest book is the novel – “The Devil’s Brew” and sees the return of my character Charlie Bars who has appeared in a clutch of short stories, as well as the novella “Skewered”, and the novel “Pennies for Charon”.

Unlike the previous stories it takes Charlie out of his comfort zone of the Badlands of south east London and plants him in the bleak and beautiful countryside of Northumbria, the most remote and sparsely populated county in England. In part, it deals with the mental fallout of the violence that Charlie has previously inflicted, and been on the receiving end of. It’s the run up to Christmas and as the weather turns colder Charlie finds himself caught up in a case of ritual horse mutilation and becomes the protector of a family in peril. You can expect a mix of rural noir and British folk horror – a kind of “Get Carter” meets “The Wicker Man”.

Do you have a favourite character? If so, why?

I think it would have to be Charlie Bars as he is the character that I have spent the most time with – three published short stories, half-a-dozen unpublished ones, a novella, two published novels (and a third one that is close to being completed).

What probably draws me to him is the amount of myself that I initially poured into him but since then he seems to have taken on a life of his own. I often wonder if we were sitting next to each other in a pub having a beer would we strike up a conversation – and, oddly, whether or not he’d like me. I’m not sure he would.

A lot of people have commented that it is his inherent decency that draws people to him which always surprises me as even before the stories start he has done some very bad things. But deep down he is a very moral man, albeit one whose morals don’t quite match up with those of society in general.

You write in several genres. Do you have a favourite? And if so, why?

Writing across several genres and occasionally mashing them up usually means that whichever one I’m writing in becomes my favourite at that moment. Really, the reason I write across genres and in several is that while sometimes they bring the same things most of the time they allow me to explore different aspects of people. The viewpoint of a lot of my fiction tends to be the dark but each genre allows a different approach to the human condition.

For example the western often lets me take a more heroic approach with someone who will stride into the danger allowing me show evil defeated in some way. Whereas my crime and horror fiction often revels in the darkness of the human condition – and can allow me to bring in fantastical elements as well.

Why did you write this book? What was your inspiration?

The initial inspiration for “The Devil’s Brew” was a single scene that came to me of Charlie walking alone down a country lane, twelve-bore shotgun over his shoulder, just as the snow begins to fall. I didn’t have a clue how I was going to use the scene but it stayed with me and I gradually began to think of how I could build a story around it. In the mean time I started what I intended to be a standalone crime novel about a criminal fleeing from London to hide out in the North East and ending up trying to help a nearby family. That began to run out of steam and I realised that the character I had used for it simply wasn’t driving the narrative – in steps Charlie, as he has a habit of doing.

I had already got a lot of information regarding the area from my good friend and fellow author Anthony Watson. The landscape of that area of England was a huge inspiration for the story.

As well as that I went and re-watched a lot of folk horror films (“The Wicker Man”, “Robin Redbreast”) as well as “Straw Dogs” which I think played a big influence on certain parts of the book.

Did anything surprise you about the process of writing your book?

I am always surprised about where a book goes once I start it. I normally have a few scenes in my head and usually have a point “A” to start from and a point “Z” I want to get to. What comes in between always surprises me!

In part that organic nature of the story is part of what brings me back to writing each time. I like the characters to grow and speak to me and, perhaps, diverge along paths that I hadn’t previously foreseen.

It’s extremely rare that I will plot a whole story out. I like to see where the words take me and what occurs to me as I write. This can sometimes be problematic and lead to stories stalling but on the whole I like it and I don’t think I could ever be one of those writers who plots every scene out before they start – but this is just what works for me, to each their own when it comes to the creative process.

When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?

That I think has always been with me. I have always written since I was old enough to hold a pen, and always made up stories in my head. When I was about nineteen I realised the urge and wrote a novella. Which then went into an envelope and onto a shelf. But the bug had truly bitten and I sporadically wrote pieces of short fiction which, again, I didn’t do much with.

Then about eleven years ago I decided that this was what I wanted to do and I got stuck into it. I wrote constantly and gradually began to work earlier ideas into readable stories. A ‘zine called “One Eye Grey” picked up my short story “Goin’ Underground” and then I just built from there.

How do you research your books?

That is very dependent on what I am writing. A lot of my crime fiction comes from things I see and have heard rather than from traditional research. But even in that there are things I want to know more about and get right. For instance, when I wrote “Pennies for Charon” I needed to brush up on my Greek myths, for “The Devil’s Brew” I watched documentaries on dog fighting and had a friend who lives in Northumbria send me pictures from his walks in some of the remote spots.

When it comes to my Westerns I probably do a lot more “book” research. Mainly because I hate seeing anachronisms in films or reading them in stories. One of my worst moments was when a reader of one of my early western shorts contacted me to say he thought that the hero fired one more shot than he had available to him. I checked and, well, let’s just say when the stories were collected for republication he fired one less… Thanks for spotting that one Ross Warren!

What’s your next project? Any upcoming book secrets you care to reveal?

I am working with putting the final touches to the next Charlie Bars book. This one touches on the British political establishment and one of the dark scandals that has dogged it for years. It is my attempt to make sense of certain things that have come to light and wondered how the hell they could have been allowed to happen. Mix in some British gangsters, the shady world of post 9/11 espionage and Charlie is once again up to his neck in grief.

Apart from that I have returned to my horror roots and have a couple of short stories coming out in a pair of projects that look to be very exciting. I’m also still working away on a pair of longer length works set during the second world – so many things on the go and so little time.

You can find all of Benedict Jones' books on his Amazon page.

About the Author:

Benedict J. Jones is an author of crime, horror and western fiction from south east London. His work has been published in various anthologies and magazines. Since 2008, he has published almost thirty short stories. His books include, Skewered: And other London Cruelties, Pennies for Charon, and The Devil's Brew

Check out his website for further info: www.benedictjjones.webs.com or follow Benedict on twitter @benedictjjones.

Drabble Wednesday: Behind the Door

Today, on Drabble Wednesday, horrors lurk behind that closed door...

A Scratch at the Door

In the darkest hour of the night, when the wind ceases howling and the owls fall silent, you hear it. That scratch, scratch on your cellar door. You burrow under bedcovers, tell yourself it’s the elder oak on the downstairs window pane.

But you know. It’s coming from the bowels of the house. A repeated scritching scratch on the wood, a plea, a calling to come and see. You close your eyes tighter, cover your ears, but you know. You hear. It beckons you each night.

And soon, compelled by curiosity, you will open the door and let me out.

~*~

The House on the Lane

A commonplace door, pale oak wood with a half moon window and a shiny brass knob. Nearly identical to every other door in every other house on this quiet little lane. The man who lives there goes to work each day, smiles at his wife as she waves goodbye.

Then she shuts that ordinary door.

She descends the stairs to the basement, to a locked room. Where she keeps her knives and her strange private life. No one suspects, but...

Tonight her husband will come home early.

Tonight he will open his mundane door and discover all of her secrets.

~*~

The Door at the End of the Hall

They tell me not to go there, not to walk down that hall. Not to open the door. That it’s private. Forbidden. Dangerous.

I know.

But I keep asking questions, needing them to tell me.

I’m making them angry.

I want to stay away. I don’t want to stare down that corridor, gawk at that wooden door, my feet restless, my hand itching to turn the knob. Not that it would do any good; the door is locked.

They keep telling me.

There’s something I don’t tell them.

I can hear the screaming from the other side of the door.

© A. F. Stewart 2017 All Rights Reserved