Fright or Flight?

 

Halloween came and went quietly at the end of October. We didn’t have any costumed visitors this year. However, the day did make me think about fear. There were so many more hair-raising movies advertised on television than I normally see, although scary movies seem pretty popular in this day and age. Sometimes fear can actually be fun, if you’re reading a book or watching a movie. In real life? Not so much.

When I first started writing I created a book titled Secrets of Holt House, later rewritten and republished as Mysteries of Holt House. I tried to think of what readers might like and came up with a spooky old house (which was transformed into a boarding house), located in the middle of nowhere, and I added secret passages and unexplained events and circumstances. I thought it up, wrote it, and read it. It’s certainly not my best work, but it isn’t bad. Here’s the thing. I received comments from readers that really surprised me. The things that happened in that old house and in the secret passages actually scared people. Who knew? I had no idea that I could cause someone to lock their doors, check the windows and sit on the edge of their seat.

Anyone who was around when Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was first released remembers the paralyzing fear that the shower scene caused. Believe it or not, there are still women who take a bath instead of a shower because of that movie.

In 1990, two Carol Davis Luce books were released, Skin Deep and Night Stalker. She kept me on the edge of my seat with those stories. Night Stalker took place near the area where I lived at the time. I think knowing the places she referenced made the story scarier, because I could relate to the locations. Sometimes familiarity is all it takes. I’ve never forgotten those books, so they definitely had an impact.

All kinds of things scare people. For some it’s snakes or other reptiles. Big dogs bother others. Things that go bump in the night will set some off because they represent the unknown. I know one woman who won’t read even lighter cozy mysteries because they make her so nervous. The subject doesn’t matter, but the unknown does.

I wrote a post about animals in stories a while back and mentioned dogs making great characters. Remember Stephen King’s Cujo? Dogs can make great villains, too. They aren’t all named Lassie and they aren’t all heroes. I’ve had more than one canine set my teeth on edge, and dogs are my pet of choice. Imagine witnessing a car accident where the vehicle ends up being upside down, and you get out to see if you can help – and a woman climbs out through a window followed by a vicious dog on a leash. That actually happened to me not long ago. It was touch and go for a few minutes.

Ugliness, monsters, clowns, the unknown, surprise, graphic violence; these are all things that can scare readers. However, the list is a lot longer than these few things. Some fear heights, and an author can set a scene where you feel like you’re right there on top of a thirty story building with someone. Mountain driving, bridges, freeways and deep water are frightening to some. What doesn’t give one reader the heebie jeebies will cause another one to lose sleep. How about flying? Plenty of people are terrified of airplanes and flying. My point is that like being on a roller coaster, fear can be both terrifying and fun at the same time.

Thankfully, some writers can spice the fear with a little humor. You’ll see that in some vintage movies. For instance, Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope and Red Skelton add a little humor to their own movie fears.

My mother and I once watched a scary movie on TV from our separate homes, but stayed on the phone while we watched because the movie was too scary to watch alone. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

What scares you? For me, it’s spiders and flying. Oh, and twisted mountain roads. And… Never mind.

 Until next time, have a good week and I hope you conquer your fears.

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Nervous Laughter and Alfred Hitchcock

The other day I watched a rerun of an old Dick Cavett Show. His guest was Alfred Hitchcock, and it was a wonderful interview.

I’m probably one of only a few who’d never heard Mr. Hitchcock interviewed. He had an understated and droll wit, and I found myself laughing at his comments. I love a dry humor.

What amazed me is the insight he had into people and what makes them tick. For instance, he talked about fear and that people love to be frightened. He was right. He used a roller coaster ride as an example. People ride up and down at extreme angles and scream throughout the entire ride. When they get off? They’re laughing and giggling. 

Yes, people love to be frightened. Why else would they enjoy reading about haunted houses, ghosts and monsters, and secret rooms? Why else would they watch a horror movie and find themselves talking to the television, saying, “Don’t open that door!” “Don’t go outside alone!”

One time my mother was home alone and there was a scary movie on TV that she wanted to watch. So she called me on the phone and had me turn it on, and then she wouldn’t hang up until the movie was over. I had to laugh at that one, and so did she.

We write mysteries. We’re not directors or actors. However, we can write scenes that will keep the reading audience on the edge of their seats. Interestingly, we can write suspenseful and frightening scenes that will make the reader laugh, regardless of whether it’s nervous laughter or humorous giggling. Our characters can feel the fear that makes them giggle, just like real honest-to-goodness people, and we can include this trait in their reactions.

Like many people, I have a fear of spiders. I once lived in a very old house with a black widow issue. I was cleaning the entryway floor and wearing slippers, and all of a sudden a black widow dropped from the ceiling onto the toe of my slipper. I kicked, trying to throw it off, but as I backed up it followed me. I was being stalked by a black widow! And I started to laugh. I laughed so hard that I cried. Maybe it was really hysteria. Anyway, I finally realized that the spider had attached itself to my slipper with a web, and when I moved, it moved with me. That poor ol’ spider ended up as nothing but a grease spot on the floor. After all, I had two slippers. Maybe it’s not a good idea to mess with someone who’s scared.

Mr. Hitchcock also explained how certain scenes were filmed in his movies. I guess you’d have to call the procedure early special effects. We can include special effects in our books, too, through descriptions.

Remember the shower scene in Psycho? I know a couple of women who, to this day, won’t take a shower. Hitchcock knew how to terrify viewers.

Years ago I read a book written by an author who happened to use the area where I lived as her location. Because I recognized the places and streets she described in her book, it frightened me. It was familiar and scary, and it was about a serial killer who was stalking the small town where I lived. Maybe that’s one of the keys – using a location people can relate to.

Scenes that are too graphic generally don’t make me laugh. It’s the anticipation leading up to a frightening event that can make me chuckle nervously. I have to admit that I’ve read stories in the newspaper that were so bizarre and terrifying that they made me laugh.

How about you? Does fear make you laugh? Did Alfred Hitchcock know how to push your buttons?

Until next time, I hope you have a carefree week with no black widows or monsters to worry about.

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Black Butterfly - A Bogey Man Mystery

 

A.B. Emrys, Guest Author

I have to admit that there’s something mysterious about vampires, and A.B. Emrys has brought this to the front with her guest post. How did she entice students to read great works, and what works for her? I think you’ll find this post very interesting. Welcome, Barbara!

 

 Writing Temporary Vampires

by A. B. Emrys

I made my own vampires out of student fandom, classic horror, and a trip to Barcelona.

My first unknowing step toward Temporary Vampire was teaching horror lit 214GS. While I was dragging general studies students kicking and screaming through Great Works, I asked each class what they read or watched on their own; the answer very often was horror. The solution seemed obvious.

Not for nothing did I have a deep background in nineteenth century British lit, from whence sprang all the popular categories of fiction. So I first taught the class I put together great works of horror, from Frankenstein to Jurassic Park (it really is–if you've never read it, go now). 

Later I switched to great American writers of horror, from Poe to Shirley Jackson and her ever-loving disciple, Stephen King. By the time I burned out on those variables, vampires were so rampant that I built an entire class around the elements of vampire fiction and how they had mutated since Coleridge's "Christabel," Byron's doctor's little tale, and LeFanu's Carmilla.

It was while we wallowed in undead lore, my students and I, that I decided to try my hand at it. I have a theory that no one can fully understand a type of literature, or maybe any literature, unless they've at least attempted to write it, but then I am a form-alist to the core.

I already was a publishing writer of short shorts, stories, personal essays, and scholarly articles, all them held together by a certain weirdness (you can see some of this range in free mystery stories and other items at abemrys.com). So one holiday gathering, I sat at the edge of the room while others watched a movie and started a little tale about a mime who embodies the vampire as the climax of a New Orleans tour.

Since then I've learned that many people hate mimes second only to clowns, but I had been impressed with the huge variety who perform in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona, where there is a mime school. There was the young man who turned into a tree, the coal miner on a smoking vent, the red devil in a trunk, the ancient Chinese shaman, and many more. My mime was in that tradition. She studies at a school and her best friends are performers. One of her teachers was even visiting from Barcelona.

At the time I finished the story, Temporary Vampire, I had an agent I met in a mystery bookstore in London, and she just happened to be editing a collection of vampire romance. The first two chapters appeared in The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance Stories (I have copies of the Italian and Russian translations too), and later in a Barnes & Noble collection, Louisiana Vampires (the editor who tracked me down said "It's a really good story").

Of course I started turning it into a novel. Of course while also teaching horror lit and other classes, and writing a nonfiction book about two mystery writers  for which I had a contract, and making some big life decisions, and once in awhile having some fun.

My vamps at some points were, well, cold, but I never nailed shut that coffin. Instead I returned to them like an enamored slayer unable to stay away.

Here's the blurb for Temporary Vampire:

Letitia Condit mimes the vampire in Jackson Square for a midnight tour. She's pretending to be the power she fears.

Yankee vampire Nathan Court has come to New Orleans to snare his feral counterpart, who has for decades killed his companions. All he wants is to play human after dark.

By the time he sees Letty perform his reality, he feels safe enough to fall in love.

But Letty, Nathan, and all their allies–Letty's mime troupe, her spirit-walking mentor, and a steel magnolia who runs a vampire's Downton Abbey–must shed their most cherished illusions to have any afterlife left.

See, what I love about vampires are the boundaries. That's why I revere the great old novels. They rise, they have powers, but there are tradeoffs, like the daytime sleep, silver, crosses, garlic, that limit the afterlife. It's the way they negotiate these limits that interest me.

Also, I love the illusion, the passing-for-human, as well as the human costuming as vampire. (I once taught my class on Halloween in vampire makeup.) How much will a particular undead pretend? How much will she live like a feral cat? My plot turns on who pretends to be what, with what success.

So I made a vampire whose main desire is to live his old life. He even gets sustenance from strangers in a discreet way that avoids the savage bite, which at one point kind of disappoints my mime-heroine. Her spooky advisor tells her she may have called a vampire to her, that perhaps they are her fate.

Two of the supporting characters nearly ran away with the whole thing. They are Marla Tremaine, whose a blood-bonded staff keep her in traditional Southern style, and her good-ole-afterlife partner, Remy Sandoz. I wrote a story about the two of them that's also available, Fish and Company, about how Marla's plan for pretending to die and inherit from herself runs into problems when the relative she has put in charge doesn't want to leave. In the novel, Marla acts as mediator when Nathan and his enemy attempt to settle their feud.

The story and Temporary Vampire both are available on Amazon, where you can preview the first two chapters and a little more. A different excerpt is at abemrys.com. The covers are by my sister, and the young woman on the novel cover is my granddaughter.

Bio:

        A. B. (Barbara) Emrys has had more than 40 short pieces published, from Prairie Schooner to Mysterical-E, won two national prizes and was a finalist five other times, and is the author of the scholarly work, Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel, an Agatha and Macavity nominee. She has helped bring attention to the writing of Caspary, once a famous screenwriter and mystery novelist, many of whose works now are available again. After decades in Chicago and on the plains, Emrys lives in a small town in central Florida with her cats, Godzilla and Salamander.

Check out Barbara’s website at http://abemrys.com/

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw’s website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com

Having a Great Crime - Wish You Were Here, A Sandi Webster Mystery, will be 99 cents (ebook version) on Amazon.com from Wednesday, January 11 thru Saturday, January 14, 2017. 
 

A Night of Fear and Laughter

Halloween means it’s time to think about scary stuff. Vampires, zombies, super heroes, angels and princesses may all show up at your door. Sometimes fear can actually be fun, if you’re reading a book or watching a movie. In real life? Not so much.

I remember years ago when my mother was watching a scary movie on TV. I happened to be watching the same movie. She phoned me and wouldn’t hang up until the movie was over. All she had to do was change the channel, but she couldn’t do it.

When I first started writing I created a book titled Mysteries of Holt House. I tried to think of what readers might like and came up with a spooky old house (which was transformed into a boarding house), located in the middle of nowhere, and I added secret passages and unexplained events and circumstances. It’s light reading and has a little humor in it. Because of that, I was surprised at some of the comments I received. It turned out there were scenes in the fictional house and in the secret passages that frightened people. Who knew? I had no idea that the book would cause a few people to lock their doors, check the windows, and sit on the edge of their seat. I guess it’s all in the perception, because I don’t think it’s that scary.

Anyone who was around when Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was first released remembers the paralyzing fear that the shower scene caused. To this day there are women who take a bath instead of a shower because of the movie.

All kinds of things scare people. For some it’s a snake, and for others it might be a spider. Things that go bump in the night will make people sit up and take notice because they represent the unknown. I know a woman who won’t read even simple mysteries because they make her so nervous. The subject doesn’t matter, but the unknown does.

In some of my posts I write about dogs. They make great characters – or do they? Remember Stephen King’s Cujo? Dogs make great villains, too. They aren’t all named Lassie and they aren’t all heroes. I’ve had more than one canine set my teeth on edge, and dogs are my pet of choice.

Ugliness, monsters, clowns, the unknown, surprise, graphic violence; these are all things that can frighten a reader. However, the list is a lot longer than these few things. Some fear heights, and an author can set a scene where you feel like you’re right there on top of a thirty story building with someone. Mountain driving, bridges, freeways and deep water are frightening to some. What doesn’t give one reader the heebie jeebies will cause another to lose sleep. How about flying? Plenty of people are terrified of airplanes and flying.

My point is that like riding on a roller coast, fear can be both terrifying and fun at the same time.

This is the day for spooky ghosts and wicked witches. It’s also the day for angels and princesses and picnic tables. Yes, I know someone who once placed a red and white checked table cloth over a cardboard box, attached condiment containers, paper plates and cups, and stuck his head up through the middle of the table – through a serving plate. This is a day to be creative with costumes, and it’s a day when many purposely set out to be frightened.

What scares you?

Until next time, BOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

CLICK HERE to visit Marja McGraw's website

CLICK HERE for a quick trip to Amazon.com 

Having a Great Crime - Wish You Were Here, A Sandi Webster Mystery is a mystery to die for, so to speak.