Joel Arnold's Blog, page 12

Some Snow Burn news

My YA suspense novel Snow Burn received a nice review at A.J. Braithwaite's blog Inside Hawley Lodge.

It was also named a runner-up in Red Adept Reviews 2010 Annual Indie Awards!

(My short story collection Bait & Other Stories was also named as a runner-up in the short story category.)

The genesis of Northwoods Deep - the first 6 days

I got the idea for the novel that eventually became Northwoods Deep all the way back in 1995 when I was working in Yellowstone National Park. I wanted to write a straight-forward horror novel. Previous to that, I had written a couple novels that jumped around in time a lot, and one of those novels turned out quite horribly - I'd tried too hard to be artsy and/or fartsy, so I thought - time to just write something that's linear, with a minimum of flashback. (Plus, I'd come to the disappointing conclusion that I was no Thomas Pynchon) I wanted to try and write something that was actually frightening, since I hadn't been scared by anything in the horror genre that I'd read recently. (There were fun reads, to be sure, but just not frightening.)

So anyway, toward the end of the summer season, I was taking my daily walk around the geyser basin (depending on which trails/directions you took, this could be a good two, three, four miles or farther) and I started envisioning this old man who resembled Walt Whitman creeping up the steps from a cellar through a trap door into a dark cabin in the woods. I kept hearing in my mind the creaking of the trap door as he slowly opened it, as well as the way his shoes sounded on the floorboards as he crept (creep, creep, creep) toward these two women who had overestimated this man's hospitality.

I visualized the face of the cabin as - well, a face. Two window eyes, the door a mouth. And that made me think of the witch's house in Hansel & Gretel, so before the walk was over, I'd decided to make it sort of a very loose, modern telling of Hansel and Gretel. And when I say loose, I mean loose in the way that the movie Wild at Heart was a retelling of The Wizard of Oz.

So within about 6 days, I had typed up (on an actual typewriter, no less - remember those?) appx 120 pages between my shifts at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. Those six days were a lot of fun. I really felt...writerly. There I was, in a cabin with my door open to the beautiful weather, squirrels skittering past the entryway, bison and elk occasionally visible nearby, a bottle of Jim Beam next to me (pre-marriage, pre-kids.)

After that initial flurry of activity, however, I became stuck. Plus, the season was winding down, and it was time to get ready for the move back to Minnesota. I don't think any of those first 120 pages made it into the final draft - maybe a description here or there. And I never had quite that same burst of energy as I did on those initial six days. But eventually, over a lot of false starts and stops, I felt I had a decent draft.

It would be wonderful if our times spent writing could all be flurries of creative activity. But the reality is that those times are incredibly rare, if they happen at all. The reality is that writing is a lot of hard work, and can in fact be quite a lot of drudgery. But - if you're a writer - you know that's how it works. You know that is a huge part of what makes you a writer - working through the drudgery, not giving up after that initial spark of excitement has left you. And - if you're a writer - you know that it's still worth the effort.
 

Paige's Godzilla Documentary

Nine-year old daughter Paige is making a Godzilla documentary. She's videoing me and Melissa and herself giving interviews (as various characters) about the most recent Godzilla/Mothra/Rodan/etc rampages. We all have to use different voices and costumes for each new person being interviewed. She intersperses scenes from various Godzilla movies between the interviews (that she has videotaped directly off the television.) She wanted to put it on You Tube at first, but then I explained about issues with copyright, and so then she decided 'It will just be for us.'

Dexter and The Town

My wife and I discovered the show Dexter this weekend, and we've already watched 5 episodes of the first season. We're loving it. What a great idea for a show.

We also watched the movie The Town on Saturday. Thought it was well done, but then today I find out Pete Postlethwaite (who was the baddie in The Town) died over the weekend. Bummer. I always liked his work. He could give off a really sinister vibe (for his characters) when he wanted to. He was only 64.

Godzilla's Revenge

My daughter has really been into Godzilla movies lately. Today we watched Godzilla's Revenge, which some consider to be the worst Godzilla movie of the franchise. However, it was aimed at kids, and if that's kept in mind, it was actually a lot of fun. Good camp for adults, and good playfulness for children. The voice of Godzilla's son (yes, he has a son - however this movie pretty much all takes place in the daydreams of a child, the main character of the movie) was rather annoying, but again, I think kids would like it.

My daughter gives it two Godzilla thumbs up!

Happy New Year

I sincerely hope everyone has a great 2011, or at least one that does not suck. A year can last a long time (up to a year, I hear) although in hindsight, they often seem to fly by. Lots can happen in a year. Good people can be stricken with an unexpected illness and/or die. We can lose our jobs. Relationships can go down the toilet. In other words, there's a lot that we don't necessarily have much control over, and are things that just happen as the natural order of things.

But...

There are a lot of things we can control, like what we eat, how we react to and treat each other, whether we exercise or not - and for us writers, we can either take the time to write or not. We can try to improve by learning and studying the craft, reading a lot and figuring out how other authors create the work they do (or at least see why certain scenes work, or bits of dialog or characterization work). There's that old saying about preparation meeting opportunity equaling luck, or something like that, and that seems to hold true for me more often than not.  The more that I'm active in the pursuit of my writing career, the more that good things seem to happen. Becoming a successful writer is certainly not a passive activity.

So my resolution for 2011 is to write.
Oh, and cut down on the double cheeseburgers...

Ugh...

Yesterday afternoon I was in a rotten mood. I just felt so down. No need to go into detail, but I felt almost numb, and it was all silly stuff, really, that I was depressed about. And while in that type of mood, I know that logically it's not worth getting so down about, but I get to where I just need to stay in that place for a while - I just need to wallow a bit, and there's a bit of satisfaction to it. Does that make any sense? I know it's selfish, and I'm no fun to be around at those times, but there ya go...And I shake out of it eventually - nearly always before the day is over. And then I feel like an idiot.

But has anyone else experienced a depression where you almost want to stay there for a bit? Where you actually relish the depression for a while?

Recent tastes, dreams

I dreamed last night that I was in the 4th row of a Beatles reunion concert. John wasn't there (because we all know he's dead) but George Harrison was there. And they all were dressed like they were on the Ed Sullivan Show w/ the same haircuts. But the arena and audience were all modern. And strangely enough, I discovered my seat also served as a toilet, which I found quite convenient. Wife and kids were with me, and Zach kept running down the aisles and we had to keep recovering him. Unfortunately, there was delay after delay, and I think the Beatles only played one song, and then Paul broke his ankle or something like that, and they never came back on stage. I better get a refund in my dreams tonight!

I've been in the strangest mood for Agatha Christie lately. I'm on my fourth novel of hers this month, and I also watched some of the Ms. Marple TV movies/series that had been produced by the BBC back in the late 80's, early 90's. What's up with that? They just seem comfortable and satisfying to me as of late.

The Weekend

We (my family and I) had a nice holiday weekend. Great to see family and friends as always. Thursday my parents came up from Rochester for the day. and Friday evening we went to my mother-in-law's house. A bit sad without Joe there (Melissa's step-dad who died in September this year). Then Saturday we went to Melissa's aunt and uncle's house for the day and ate, napped, opened more presents and played Trivial Pursuit. My team kicked some butt!

The Approach

There have been a few times throughout my life - particularly in my college years - when I was approached by someone who seemed really friendly, and I thought 'Oh, that's nice - someone's coming over to talk to me.' But the person would make some chit-chat, and then eventually get around to the inevitable question: "So, what do you think about Jesus Christ?" And I'd think, aw hell.

I'd usually just nod along and agree to almost anything just to get them to go away. 'You want me to join you at your youth ministry meeting? Sure thing. Let me write that down.' Of course, I'd never actually go, and I'd never give them a real phone number. But I just wanted them to leave. I also didn't want to offend them - I hated any kind of confrontation. The worst was when I was getting a ride back from a golf outing with a married couple. It was an hour-long ride, and they got to that 'Have you ever thought much about Jesus Christ' within the first ten minutes, so the rest of the ride I was hostage in the back seat to their crap about why I should consider accepting Jesus into my life.

I've got nothing at all against Jesus; I believe in many of the things he taught, especially the whole 'treat others as you'd like to be treated' thing. But he wasn't the first to come up with that, nor the last. And I personally can't stand that glassy-eyed over-enthusiasm of those who've been  born-again. Perhaps they could go on some sort of vacation for a while, away from civilization, until they settle down a bit.

Now that I'm at my present age, I haven't been approached this way for a long time. I think high school and college-age kids are the most ripe for converting, and I'm sure that's why they're most targeted. I just want to teach my kids to stick up for their own beliefs, whatever they might be. If someone tries to tote their religious views, that's perfectly fine - but don't feel afraid to tote your own views right back at them. Since they're trying to make you question your own beliefs, there's nothing wrong with making them question their beliefs as well.

I was just so afraid of rocking the boat when I was younger - still am much of the time. But I need to remind myself that sometimes the boats need to be rocked in order to keep the water from becoming too stagnant.

Or something like that.