Guest blogger - Colin Barnes

Colin F. Barnes is a writer from the UK who writes Science Fiction, Horror and Thriller fiction. He likes to take the gritty edginess from his surroundings and personal experiences and translate them into his stories. He is currently working on an anthology of horror stories in his 'City of Hell Chronicles' setting after recently debuting with a crime anthology titled 'Killing my Boss'.

Essence of Extremity

Dark fiction is a wide umbrella covering a gamut of flavours of sub genres. I tend to write and read what I call Horror. It's at the extreme end of Horror. Somehow, over the course of the last decade, 'Horror' has been devalued to cover paranormal romance and angsty YA urban fantasy. One only needs to look at the Amazon charts under Horror to see this diabolical hijacking of the label. What his means is that readers are slowly but surely loosing the true essence of extremity within the horror bounds.

I'm talking about Ketchum, Barker, early King, Laymon et al. I'm talking about I Spit On Your Grave, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original), Hellraiser etc.. You know, when Horror meant horrific experiences. When horror had scares that actually scared you.

I remember watching the original Friday the 13th as a kid and having nightmares for weeks after; that was pure horror (of its time). Not this weak romantic rubbish. I mean, come on, what the hell is 'horror' about a woman having a romantic triangle with an effeminate vampire and a pruning wolf? It makes me sick to see Horror be reduced to this.

One of the first dark fiction books I read as a youngster was King’s IT – so yeah, I now fucking hate clowns too. King has single handedly ruined children’s parties (for the adults). Excellent work Steve!

We need more of this subversive fiction. We need to twist common tropes into things that scare the living crap out of people. Without fear, humanity gets lazy. Life becomes predictable, stale, and safe. Who wants that? Not me. I want excitement. I want to double check that thing I thought I saw in the shadows, I want to feel the frisson of energy as I hear footsteps late at night in the attic. What I don’t want is this bland formula of ‘horror.’ And neither should you.

So, what can we, as creatives, do about it? Promote, write, share, push, and abuse networks. Get our work out there; force people to dwell in the shadows again, scare the crap out of them. It means we as authors and creators need to dig that little bit deeper; find what scares the jaded/cynical people of today and hold a mirror up to their fears and go beyond what it is considered acceptable. It's only when doing that can we actually reclaim the title of Horror.

This is where the essence of extremity comes in. I’m not advocating stories to be extreme for extreme’s sake. That’s too lazy, and it’ll show. Hell, it already shows in things such as SAW. Torture porn with no real intent behind it. We need to take the extreme areas of life and our imagination and tie them into everyday reason. That is how we can reconnect ‘Horror’ with the masses.

Most people are disgusted or even bored at extreme gore, so we need to be cleverer about it. We need to be more subtle, and insidious with out extreme stories.

Once you’ve roped in a reader and given them a false sense of security with a solid grounding of reality and rationale, then you bring your out the big guns. You give them terrifying situations with things that can barely be described with regular words. You show them something so horrendous that it’s impossible to fit it wholesale into your stories. You want to leave some of ‘it’ hanging outside of the story so that it sits inside your readers mind, clawing its way out for weeks on end.

If you’re going to have gore or extreme sex (which are both good things in proper Horror) you have to do it so it counts. Everyday people can see the most horrendous things as easily as searching on Google. They are desensitized to the images and videos and concepts. We need to make it personal. And there is only one way to do that -- no, not abduct them and taken them into your basement dungeon – but good, deep characterization.

Weak protagonists are just that. No one cares about some insipid teenager, or some moaning kid. You want fully realized three-dimensional characters that are made up of shades of grey. No one likes wholly good or wholly bad characters; they have to be a mix. They have to be like you and I (perhaps not like me, readers really wouldn’t be able to relate to me). They have to be the everyman/everywoman.

Take that character, get inside their head, and then bring on the horror. That is the essence of extremity – personal experiences shared by the author with the reader. Connect! When you think you’ve gone as far as you can, slug a shot of whiskey, pull your pants up and go beyond. You know you can do it. We have to do it for Horror’s sake.

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A brilliantly argued guest post, I'm sure you'll agree!

You can find Colin online at Twitter, his personal website and Amazon.

www.cityofhellchronicles.com 

Kate x

Guest blogger - Charles W Jones

This week's guest post comes from Charles W Jones (@ChuckWesJ). Charles is the author of The Second Plain and An Unnamed Acquaintance.  The Second Plain is his first published work.  It is about a man, Saul, who can control dreams; both his and that of other people.  During the story, Saul has to discover that he is actually in charge and not the Man who is wreaking havoc on people’s dreams, turning them into nightmares.  


This book took Charles around six years to write; not because of writers block, but because life jumped in the way.  His second book, An Unnamed Acquaintance, is a collection of strange short stories and poetry.  After reading Jake’s Pitchfork Diaries, Charles decided that it was time to put his short stories and poetry together.  Charles wrote these stories and poems several years ago and updated them from their original borderline vanilla state.  Learn more about Charles at his blog, bizzarofiction.blogspot.com or by following him on Twitter @ChuckWesJ.

I’ve been writing odd little stories since I was a kid.  Most are lost and forgotten somewhere in the dust motes of the past.  I draw, too, and attempt to dabble with Photoshop, but that program is a little bit much for me.  I grew up in a small town called Shoshoni, WY and I managed to break free from its grasp with my dark soul intact.  Growing up in a small town scared me to death most of the time.  It’s very dark at night - I mean really dark.  I think Shoshoni had like ten streetlights.  To top it off, it is full of ghosts; well, that’s what I thought when I was kid. Turns out it was just the constant wind blowing dirt around.

I was the only one that knew about The Second Plain during the writing process.  I guess the reason is because…I have no idea; maybe I just didn’t want anyone to know until I was finished.  (I’m trying to be more forthcoming about my current work in progress, Circus Tarot.)  During the process of writing The Second Plain, my partner’s father’s cancer returned with a vengeance and I couldn’t concentrate on much of anything.  Then earlier this year I decided it was time to finish.  That actually was very easy; everything was still fresh in my mind.  The problem came with the editing, I used a source that was recommended to me on the internet (I will not mention any names), and published it on Smashwords.  Then a friend of mine starts telling me that words are missing.  FUCK, are you kidding me?  Probably the most embarrassing moment in my life. 

I told my partner about writing The Second Plain as I was posting the information on Facebook.  Yes, I admit I have communication issues and I’m a bit reclusive (until you get to know me) but that’s part of my charm.  Everyone else is as shocked that I wrote a book as he was.  When they ask what it’s about, I’m vague at first, forcing them to ask more questions.  When I say, “It’s a horror novel” why do people feel compelled to ask, “Is it scary?”  Didn’t I just say it’s a horror novel?  Then I explain a little bit more.  

People look at me strangely too, when I say “horror”; one even said “you look so normal.”  I write fiction, lady, I don’t write about things I do on my free time, as fun as that would be sometimes.  The thing that worries me the most about The Second Plain is that people won’t be able to get past the fact that Saul, the main character, is gay; even though that has maybe 5% influence on the story.  The Second Plain is not gay erotica; those books are really creepy though.  It is not packed full of man-on-man action; I have to admit there are two scenes but one is vague, and in the other the man catches on fire. 

There isn’t a part of the horror genre I don’t like.  I like it creepy, filled with suspense or brutal with descriptive torture scenes.  My favorite horror movies have always been the slasher movies; give me the gore.  Lately, there hasn’t been anything that has made me even giggle once.  I find most horror movies funny; aren’t they supposed to be?  I actually wrote The Second Plain because I was bored with what was out there in the horror genre at my local independent bookstore (literally a bookshelf 8” wide with four shelves and not even full).  I decided that if Clive or Stephen can do it, then I could too.

I’m currently working on Circus Tarot.  It’s a fun little tale about a husband and wife with a weird Donna Reed feel.  The wife works part-time at a consignment shop and the husband is a junior partner at some office.  Wifey buys some tarot cards from an old woman at the shop and ends up in the dark world of Circus Tarot.  There are some excerpts on my blog.

Thanks Jake, Kate and everyone else at Family of Dog for the opportunity to guest blog. 

The Second Plain is as available in eBook format at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and other eBook retailers; it is also available in paperback at Amazon and Createspace.  An Unnamed Acquaintance is available at Smashwords and other eBook retailers coming soon. 

Kate x

The Family welcomes its first guest blogger...

I'm delighted to introduce the first in a series of guest bloggers that will be gracing the pages of the Family of Dog blog over the coming months - Mike Kozlowski. If you're interested in having your work featured here, then email me; be warned, though, it takes something special to meet with our approval. Saying that, of course, neither Jake or I are averse to a bit of good, old-fashioned bribery or flattery... Kate x

Michael A. Kozlowski is the author of Some Days Suck, Some Days Suck worse, a collection of horror and suspense stories. He has been published in various magazines, has a novella in print titled Above the Clouds, and has authored a travel memoir about moving to, living and working in Australia.

He lives in a reasonably quiet suburb of an unreasonably loud city in Michigan, USA, with his wife and two boys. They keep him around for entertainment purposes only. He is banned form telling the children bedtime stories.

You can find out more about his writing, works in progress and general activity at his website, www.mikekozlowski.com, on his blog, www.blog.mikekozlowski.com, or by following him on Twitter.

"Hank, I’m a horror writer.

That’s the answer I like to give when people ask me what I do. I enjoy the way their faces take on that dull, glazed over expression while they try to sort out if that means I’m only moments away from pulling out a machete and lopping off one of their arms. You know, just for fun.

Sometimes I build up to it a little by just saying I’m a writer and letting them get around to the specifics. Rarely, these days, do I start off with telling them what my day job is (the one that actually pays most of the bills). I’m not ashamed of my day job, it’s a good one that pays pretty well, but I have come to define myself as a writer; a struggling author, perhaps, that happens to have to take on other work to make ends meet for the time being (like all those actors in Hollywood that are serving dinners and wine to the people they wish they were).

After the initial shock wears off, people tend to say something along the lines of, “Oh! Like Stephen King?” Well, yes and no. I write stories that might make you think of King or Peter Straub or Richard Matheson or a hundred other “horror” writers but I don’t write Stephen King stories (he does that well enough on his own). Frankly, King’s stories don’t often scare me, or even disturb me. Nor do any other horror stories. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them, I’m just a hard scare. I try to write about the things that give me the chills or that, at least, make me pause. If I can do that then I’m reasonably certain that they will give little, creepy feelings to my readers.

Now most of the things that scare me are pretty mundane and wouldn’t necessarily be horror story fodder. Things like impotency, family tragedy, random drug testing and flaming midgets (it’s a well documented fact that I love both midgets, with whom everything is more fun or funnier, and flames, with which everything is cooler, but that they terrify me in combination). My stories, by and large, tend to focus on the dark parts of the human condition. Sure, I write the occasionally monster yarn but there is usually, at the heart of it, some mental issue going on. I like when you read a horror story and say, “You know, that could happen” because that makes shit really scary.

I also tend to stay away from happy endings. In fact, I have a whole collection of stories that end badly. Well, I guess that depends on the perspective, but you know what I mean. It’s not that I’m a dark, angst ridden person. In fact, I am quite the opposite. I nearly always look on the bright side of things, am generally upbeat and tend to be pretty humorous, if reports from friends and family can be trusted (and they probably can’t be, ‘cause those fuckers lie a lot). I also tend to write a lot of parenthetical statements because I have a hard time staying focused and that practice lets me spout off about whatever I want to, whenever I want to (but that has nothing to do with this post other than to amuse me).

Most stories, horror or otherwise, tend to have a happy ending or, at a minimum, a satisfying resolution that lets the reader close the book and go to sleep knowing that the day has been saved, humanity has prevailed, the monsters have been vanquished, the boy got the girl, the bad guy was served a healthy dose of justice, etc., etc. Not all of them, to be sure, but most of them. You can usually find a hero. I can’t tell you exactly why my stories don’t typically end up that way but they don’t. In fact, I’ve been told by a few trusted readers that I seem incapable of a happy ending, though they mysteriously keep expecting one (I’ve also been told that there is something very, very wrong with me, that I’m probably insane and that they’d rather not have me around their kids anymore).

Maybe my stories end in gruesome and horrifying ways because the effort of keeping a sunny disposition all the rest of the time pushes all those dark bits down and they need a way to get out;  a way that doesn’t involve high powered rifles and clock towers. Maybe I just like being a bit different (“different” is one of those words people like to use when describing me anyway as in, “He’s a really great guy though he is a bit…different.” That pause speaks volumes). It could be that it’s just so much damn fun writing bad guys and evil things that I get attached to them and end up rooting for them to win (Note: I realize this is going on a blog that originates in England and, as a person that has spent some time in Australia (yes, I know that’s not in England) I feel it may be necessary to point out that “rooting” in this sense does not mean “fucking.” It means pulling for or putting one’s support behind (and I suppose that last one could mean “fucking” too. God, you’re a bunch of sick bastards)).

How’d you like that? Parenthesis inside of parenthesis…twice! Fuck yeah! I’m on a role! And a tangent, I notice. Should this bit be in parenthesis, as well? Shit, I’m confusing myself. Oh well, onwards and upwards.

After people realize that I’m not likely to kill them on the sidelines of my son’s football game (that’s American football, folks, not soccer), they usually go in one of two directions; neither of them, in this case, being running away from me. They will either comment that they are going to go find some of my work to read it (which, I’ve discovered, is usually true about 1/10^th of a percent of the time) or they say that they just don’t have the stomach for horror.

I always find that last statement so confusing. Fear is such a primal instinct. One we have used for survival and safety since the dawn of man. It paid off not to go poking the sleeping Saber tooth Tiger. But fear can also be so damn much fun. It gets the heart racing and the blood pumping. It gets you all sweaty and worked up. And when it’s over there is a nice, exhausted, relieved feeling and a sense of accomplishment. Now that I think about it, Fear is a whole lot like Sex (but not as messy and, if you’re doing the latter correctly, probably not as fun).

I can only assume these people haven’t read a scary book or watched a horror movie since they were six. I can only surmise that they never watch the news, because that’s a whole lot scarier than anything I can come up with. I guess they spend their time reading Newsweek or romance novels and the closest they’ve been to horror involves sparkly vampires (don’t get me started). Most likely, they don’t read much of anything at all and spend their free time watching The Biggest Loser (while sitting on the couch eating fatty snacks) or American Idol or something.

I feel sad for them. I can’t imagine not having read Carrie or ‘Salem’s Lot, I Am Legend, Horns or 20^th Century Ghosts, Dracula, The Haunting of Hill House, Ghost Story, Something Wicked This Way Comes and countless others. How do you get through life not having seen the Friday the 13^th series or Halloween, The Thing, Dawn of the Dead, Amityville Horror, The Exorcist and on and on?

I’m not saying horror is the end all be all, I like other genres just as well, but it should be included in any well-rounded individual’s library or DVD collection. It’s a bit like depriving yourself of new foods and living on a diet of bread and water. Sure, you might survive, but what a waste (unless you’re talking about mushrooms; nobody should ever, for any reason, eat a fucking mushroom).

So what does all this mean? What is the point I’m trying to make here?

Fuck if I know. I’m just ranting. Kate was kind enough to let me play in her sandbox and I’m gonna make a good, God damned mess of it because I can. Maybe you get a glimpse into the mind of a horror writer. Maybe you decide to go read a “scary” book or watch a horror movie even though you haven’t in a long while. Maybe you get a giggle or two or you start adding random parenthetical statements to your emails and letter correspondences. I don’t care. I was able to vent and it was fun. Just be glad I didn’t really go off and start on about those sparkly vampires or what I ate for breakfast and how it affected my bowel movements or what color underwear I’m wearing today (or IF I’m wearing underwear today). Don’t push me. I’ll fuckin’ do it! Be glad I held it together for this long. I am a bit…different, after all."

Mike's anthology is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble & Smashwords. If you want a collection of tales that will in turn chill your bones, curl your toes and make you laugh out loud, then this is the one for you. I gave it 5* on Goodreads - and trust me, I'm notoriously hard to please!