Can Fear turn into Fiction?

What scares you?

When I ask myself this question, I immediately remember summer camp, twelve year olds sitting around a campfire late at night listening to counselors tell spine tingling ghost stories with pitiful sounding titles like “Give me back my hand, or my liver, or my head.” That fear was so real I can remember it vividly – pounding heart and surging adrenaline; I outgrew most that childish type of fear – out grew but never forgot.

In the 70’s I read my first Stephen King novel and my fear again rekindled. This fear caused the tiny hairs on the back of my neck to stand up straight and gooseflesh to bubble on my arms as I read the chapter in The Shining where the hedge animals closed in on the main character . . . I swear I could hear leaves rustling behind me those words were so vivid, so compelling. These are two cool examples of things that have scared me through the years – there have actually been countless scary moments throughout my life.

For the past two decades I’ve worked to turn many of my own personal scares, fears, and nightmares into fictional short stories, flash fiction, non-fictional articles, critiques, commentary, and memoirs. Hopefully this is just the beginning, as I continue to work on my powers of observation.

Not only do I write about my own fears, I'm working on pulling in scary observations from co-workers, friends, relatives, and even strangers on the street, doctor’s waiting room, or at the mall.

My brain likes to play “what if.”

What if I was driving home from the mall and noticed a scrap of the loud plaid fabric skirt worn by my friend Silvia today hanging from the trunk seam of the beat up old Buick in front of me at the red light? What if that scrap of fabric was yanked from my site right before my eyes as I waited for the light to change?

What if the tiny, wrinkled, mild-mannered old lady at the end of our childhood street were really a practicing witch?

What if the unusual plant that you received for your anniversary were carnivorous?

What if . . .

Well, you get the idea.

With this blog, I hope to keep asking devoted readers
the ever-eternal question:“What scares you?”

Because that’s what I enjoy writing about.

The Shining

Can Fear turn into Fiction?

The King’s Magic

It all started during the Night Shift.

In 1977, in a small Massachusetts library, a bored housewife picked up a volume of short stories by an almost unheard of author. Thus, The Magic griped me in it’s fist before I finished my first King edition.

I became so spellbound by the words and workings of Stephen King; I guzzled everything on the library shelves bearing his name. Once I’d absorbed works already in print, new books and stories just didn’t happen fast enough. Have you ever harassed librarians and bookstore clerks? Tormented them as thoroughly as Pennywise plagued seven children in one of my personal favorites? It wasn’t a pretty picture.

The article in Time magazine first appeared in 1986. What a big mistake. Not only did the article feature a picture of his house, it printed his address. Needless to say, it took me no time at all to locate the big mansion in Bangor, then about four hours away. I burned rubber, making that four-hour trip in Maximum Overdrive – just content to Stand before the big black gates and gaze with Shining wonder at the Dark Tower of the most talented author of my time.

Soon I found a job and settled in the Bangor area to begin my phase of worship. I sent fan letters; I begged for an autographed photo. I even shot many pictures of the King mansion from every conceivable angle. I hate to admit it, but one Halloween in the late 80’s; I followed a group of pre-school trick-or-treaters right up to the doorstep and stood mere inches from the King Himself as he doled out treats to the youngsters. I was his number one fan . . .

Until I peeked into the mirror and spied Annie Wilkes peeking back. With the writing of Misery, I glimpsed Mr. King saying something important to his fans.
“Back off.”
I’ve changed my behavior considerably since Annie Wilkes swung her ax. I no longer haunt the neighborhood of West Broadway in Bangor. The King’s Magic is still with me but in a different way; I create my own magic.

My house in Maine is small, dark, and hidden: it lies quietly on the outskirts of Bangor. As I blaze ahead to where every fiction writer has gone before, I can now look back on those days of idolatry with fresh eyes. My Dark Half has always been here: waiting for the ax to fall.

End

Note from the author: The King’s Magic first appeared in the September 1994 edition of SKIN (Stephen King Informational Network), a newsletter published for Stephen King fans. All first time article contributors had to answer this important question: “What does Stephen King’s writing mean to you?”

SK Tidbit: Stephen King’s The Graveyard Shift was filmed in the town where I currently live. The film was shot at a small woolen mill where my son worked. My son, a high school student at the time, is actually in the movie for a split-second. Each day, during the filming, he would fascinate me with stories of how the movie was made. At the end of shooting, the crew gave him a Graveyard Shift tee shirt for his on-the-set assistance in the making of the movie.

Stephen King's Graveyard Shift

The King’s Magic

Was Nostradamus Yesterday’s Blogger?

In a recent airing of Nostradamus Decoded on the Discovery Channel, experts speculated that the Frenchman’s quatrains (circa 1560) appeared on the market of the day because they suspected Nostradamus wanted to write something people would read – much like today’s blogger.

I was fascinated by the assumption that Nostradamus, one of the most quoted writers of his time, may have simply wanted to write fiction that sold.

His predictions (quatrains), popular with French common folk and royalty alike, streamed doomsday historical clues to his public via early printing presses and small volumes sold in markets and apothecaries.

Unlike today’s blogging crowd, Nostradamus dealt with a public who could have literally served his head on a platter if they didn’t like what he had to say, or if they thought he leaned toward the supernatural or practiced witchcraft. Some believe this is why his written words appeared shrouded in anagrams and necessitate decoding by civilizations past and present.

In society today, writers may be shunned and verbally flogged for their beliefs and convictions, but blogging and the Internet give anonymity. This is a unique opportunity for the common people not readily available in bygone times. We have the freedom to marvel over whatever suits us and to place these written words on our blogs for the entire world to see. If Nostradamus were alive today, I predict that his rhythmic blog would be one of the most popular and largely viewed on the WWW.

So . . . how can I make my blog as popular as a perceived Nostradamus blog? Maybe some really cool and bloody predictions about Anti-Christ number four? How about another elaborate end of the world prediction?

I think not.

Written below is my first quatrain. It serves as my initial prediction for the future. My quatrains are written in English, of course, so they may not have quite the same ring to them as those of Nostradamus. Maybe you will know what I am predicting, and maybe you won’t.

Dragon Chronicles
I. An ancient Scribe came to pass
Scholars join through the looking glass
Voices hush across the land
Witness the miracle of the twisted hand
--ld

Nostradamus 2012

Was Nostradamus Yesterday’s Blogger?