Beverley Price's Blog, page 4

Holding out for a happy ending?

It is part of the human psyche to want a happy ending. It would take a very strong and sadistic soul to keep choosing a path that ends in sadness by their own choosing. But do we want our fiction to have a happy ending? Has Hollywood and the media sold us the dream that everything has a happy ending? Personally I do not made if the ending is happy or sad, as long as it is a conclusion. I am more annoyed by ambiguous endings than unhappy endings. But when we pick up our novels are we already expecting the guy to get the girl, (or get the guy if he so chooses), that good will triumph over evil, and every one essentially “lives happily ever after”. After all, reading is usually an escape, do we not want the title character(s) have all the things that we ourselves don’t have. If these characters are in the same state or worse off than the reader, then what hope does the reader have of achieving “a better live?” I believe that we should have books that have that “happily ever after” buzz but not all books. Sometimes it is nice to have a book that is a little less rosy. But do these books exist? The answer is yes.

It would come no surprise that dystopia novels such as 1984 don’t come with a happy ending, although you can not help but hope that it comes for the down trodden and mistreated of these novels. I think you feel that the frightening aspect of the novel can not be carried out to the end, but it is. But there is more to this than just flow of the novel. The frightening end is meant to make us question the bubble that we live in and as that dystopia world is becoming closer to the real world that ending seems more miserable. But romance novels are different, right? Wrong! The heart-breaking tale of Love Story could not be any further away from the happily ever after if it tried. A story full of love and loss. There are books such as A Thousand Splendid Suns and We The Living, that are about women’s struggle and in neither case, the woman in these books get the happily ever after.

There are many others out there and it could be quite a long article if I listed them all, but the ones mentioned are some of my personal favourites. From a horror writers point of view, it is the novels that allow the bad guys to win that appeals the most. Books like hardcore romeo and American Psycho, seem to be rotten the very spine of the novels and yet they are still appealing to our nature. While I would have like to have written a novel that dark, I am also looking for balance. Unlike, hardcore romeo I wanted some of the characters to be likeable, as well as you changing your opinions of some of the characters. A friend told me as they were reading the novel, who was their favourite character was, I responded with a wry smile because I knew as the novel went along that opinion would change, (and it did). And despite my hate of ambiguous ending I did give my first novel just that. But in my defence, I knew what was coming in the second book. The ending is not a happily ending after, neither will the second or the third book, (as I plan at the moment) and I am fine with that.

Black Samhain

As a pagan that loves the dark more than the light, Samhain is my favourite ritual. Yet, a lot of pagans feel that Samhain is the most important of all the festival of the wheel of the year. It is the last of the harvest festival as the seeds fall into the grounds and lay dormant until Spring. The Sun King is sacrificed and the Goddess, now in the form of a Crone mourns until his rebirth at Yule. During this time, the Sun King has travelled to the underworld to gain its knowledge. This descent into the dark where new ideas are born. At this time the veil between the two worlds is at its thinnest and the time that we honour our ancestors. For here on, the dark half of the year begins. It is a magical time. Death is always followed by rebirth, this is the death of the old year and the beginning of the new year. The Celts saw the day starting at the setting of the sun, with the onset of darkness. Therefore, light always comes out of the dark, the two are inseparably. The darkness is fertile with all that is achievable. The dark gives us a time to reflect on the past and to dream of new beginnings.

Vampire Son

So why did I give birth to the Puppet Master? Two reasons, one to do with a long-lasting love for vampires and the influence of one individual created the Puppet Master. Reading and myth telling was an important part of my childhood. I remember around the age of 8 receiving from Santa when he came to school, a book about monsters. I noticed that everyone, including my parents were disturbed by my choice, I loved that book, looking at werewolves, bigfoot, loch ness monster, etc. and of course vampires. My love grew from there, especially anything darkly horrific, from R.L Stine’s Goosebumps, (Monster Blood being a personally favourite) the Point Horror series, (loved Caroline B. Clooney contributions) to Stephen King, James Herbert, Edgar Allan Poe, and so many masters of horror. May be surprised that I am not blown away by Anne Rice, apart the Vampire Chronicles. As well as hovering up novels, I loved TV shows such as “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” (Twisted Claw the modern version of Monkey Paw, sticks in my head) and films such as “The Lost Boys”. My childhood involved looking for escape and finding someone to take me away, even if that was straight to hell. I wanted a mixture of a vampire and Jareth, the Goblin King from Labyrinth, although teenager fantasies got a bit raunchier. I become more aware of the sexual energy associated with vampires, (and Jareth’s Package!). Fantasies took on a new look. He did not arrived during my childhood but he did eventually arrive. And as I was now an adult, it was not surprising that he came in a package more closely associated with my teenager image than my childhood one.

After walking away from a terrible relationship, I was crying out for my vampiric Jareth and through my dark poetry, like a siren song he finally came to me. And while he filled all the fantasies that I had about this man, and so much more, it was just that, a fantasy. As a child, while the fantasies was dark, it still had a happy ending. However, as an adult this fantasy was destructive, for both of us. This person took me away from myself, as I had always wished for, but he burnt me through to my bare bones. While it was a painful process, it was necessary for the phoenix to be reborn. In some way, I was part of the same process for him, baring the part of him that he had kept hidden for so long. We both used this to our benefit but like all fires, it eventually burnt out. The only way to capture the fantasy and those feelings forever was to write them down and that was how the Puppet Master was born. However, this burnt phoenix was still struggling to fly, needed wings and from the stage left came Strong Man, and this is way the second novel, Blood Brother will be Strong Man’s story and not the Puppet Master’s. I will need to deal with the Puppet Master again but that can wait until the third book. Mainly because he is a voice that will not be silenced.

I am in love with a dark lady

One of the Goddesses who dips in and out of my life is Lilith. She has gone through an interesting metamorphosis from Demoness to Dark Goddess. Lilith, (when known at all) is known as the first wife of Adam and was not to bow to Adam’s will especially in sexual matters, as there are both created equal. If anything Lilith wanted to be on top, literally. Adam was adamant that she was his helper and he would not bow to her. Lilith took matters into her own hands and seduced Yahweh to which end he revealed his name. Lilith spoke the Divine Name and flew away from the Garden and Adam forever. Her new home was a cave near the Red Sea where she took demons as lovers and filled the world with her demon children, thus gaining the name Mother of Demons. However, when she refuses to rejoin Adam, her children are slaying which caused Lilith to curse all of Adam’s offsprings and attacked mothers and babies. She also steals the semen of men during the night to replace the children that were lost.

However, within the Neopagan community she has been adopted as a Goddess, especially by those groups that have leanings towards femiminism. They focus on Lilith’s sacrifies, she leaves paradise and her children are slaughtered so she does not have to be submissive to Adam. For these groups she is a symbol of strength and defiance. Her nightly attacks are seen as revenge for women who have been hurt by men. Yet, with this interpretation, these group are missing an important part of her mythos, the fact that attacks mothers and babies. These groups say that Lilith was a Sumerian Goddess or a maiden to Innanna, and would invite men to have sacred sex with Priestessess. Unfortunately, there is no evidence to support this. This is part of a trend to liberate any “evil” feminist mythological character. They try and say that they was no Gods in Ancinet times.

Adam literally means “Mankind”, therefore Lilith is his shadow self. She is our subconsciousness, the part of us that is defianant and passionate. She is sex, she is the things that society frowns upon, things that are natural and enjoyable. With this in mind we have to reach the conclusion that Eve is also our subconscious. But she is wholly part of Adam, she is the civilised “face” that we show to people. Eve was “created” to make us acceptable. She is the opposite of Lilith. The two of them create the whole of our inner self. Lilith’s children are own personal demons. They are criminal and harmful. These are imbalances in our lives that can lead to our own destruction. With this in mind, the old myth make sense in a modern society. Adam wanting Lilith to be submissive is the civilisation wanting to tame the animal. Lilith’s desire to be on top is the lover’s need to dominate the rational self. Lilith flight from paradise to a cave represent those desire being supressed to the dark parts of our mind.

This is just small article about Lilith and if you would like to know more I would recommend the following:

The Story of Lilith – http://jewishchristianlit.com//Topics/Lilith/alphabet.html

The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, by Reginald Campbell Thompson

Semitic Magic : Its Origins and Development, by R. Campbell Thompson

Disrespectful feelings.

I have just come back from an amazing holiday full of cultural, historical and spiritualism. However, sometimes other people spoilt my enjoyment of the holiday. I am not one for big crowds of people and I hate the hustle and bustle of people but this is more than that. It was their disrespect of their surroundings that annoyed me, this happened in both spiritual and historical places. I witnessed people sitting on St. Patrick grave, smoking at Newgrange, a neolithic burial site, and a man wearing a Union Jack hat at the garden in remembrance of An Garda Siochana. Regardless of your beliefs about these places, it does have symbolism to them that needs to be adhered to. However, it was a business that upset me the most and that was Sainsbury as they had the declaration of what they were on the back of their shop, which was seen clearly in Milltown cemetery. I am not sure what customers there are getting there. I just wish people are more aware of what is around them.

Don’t fear the poet

The last couple days I have been working on my second poetry book and I am getting very excited about it. I was shocked when I realised that it had taken me well over a year to get near the finish of this book, but hopefully it will be worth it. While the first poetry tracked the blossoming of Black Petal, this book will be her continuing struggle to stay on top as things try and drag her down. Again, like the first book it will be 50 poems split up into bulks of tens. This time the theme is the elements, earth, air, fire, water and spirit. If you would like to read the first book then follow the link below.

http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4790151-the-flowering-of-the-black-petal

The modern writer

One of the pitfalls about being a modern writer is the ability of the audience to tell you exactly what they are thinking of your work. This can be a source of positivity, there is nothing that a writer wants more than reinforcement that what we are writing is being enjoyed and loved. Every writer knows that their work is not going to be universally loved and opening yourself up to that you have to be ready for the back lash.

This was a mistake that E.L.James made this week when she decided to start a Q&A session on twitter and she inundated with negative questions, which she seemed to have chosen to ignore. Whoever decided this was a good idea clearly has not used twitter or realised that 50 Shades of Grey is not universally loved. James, herself can not have got this far without realising some of the issues that the readers have had with her book.

If you are going to do something like that, regardless of how your book is received, you have to answer all the questions. You have asked that of your audience. You may not be able to answer straight away but answer them you should. So far I have had nothing but positive response, but it is very early day. I hope that when I do get that negative response I can response myself positivity. Here is a link to the story of E.L.James Twitter Q&A session:

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/fifty.shades.of.grey.author.e.l.james.overtaken.by.critics.during.twitter.qa/57765.htm

Gimme some loving

I have decided to try and start a new practice, and it is something that I have not done for a long time, that is the art of self loving. I have mastered the technique of self loathing, but that is getting me nowhere. It was “fine” when I was only hurting myself but now that I have someone who loves me deeply, he finds it hard when I tear myself open again, usually for no reason. So, from today, I going to try and love myself as much as I am loved by others.

Sex Fiction

One of the scenes from my book that people keep commenting on, is the one where Pandora masturbates. I am not sure why this particular scene invokes a response. It is not like this is the only sexual scene in the book. Maybe, even in fiction, women should not be masturbating. This bring up another interesting point about the book, is it porn? Literature rarely gets called porn, the closest it gets is erotica. Art, on the other hand is constantly fitting a battle between art and porn. Is this to do with the fact that art is a more visual media and therefore the sex aspect is there for all to see. What makes porn porn anyway? Is it like many forms of art it is the eye of the beholder and not the intention of the creator that deems if it is porn or not? People can be aroused by art but that is not porn. Does art become porn when the person becomes so aroused that they act on that arousal? Is it the point art becomes porn? If that is the case, is the opposite also true, that if porn does not result in the viewer engaging in a sexual act then it is art?

I am only one person and I can only comment from my point of view. In a strange way, my novel was porn for me. I was in a completely loveless vista and still had all the cravings that a human has and I needed a place to air them. Saying that, I would never call my novel erotica, I would say that it is a vampire novel that happens to contain multiply sexual references. This is why I believe that one scene is the only one mention and when people talk to me about the book, they continue about their connection to certain characters and loving the twists and turns of the plot. All have also commented about the way the book ends and leaves them hunger for more. As a writer that is a good thing to hear. So, at the end of the day, is my book porn? I would say no, and I think most of my readers would agree.

Stonehenge Apocalypse

I am currently watching a film called Stonehenge Apocalypse and while it is NOT a blockbuster, it does have an interesting idea. That somehow it is a “machine” capable of destroying the world through magnetic waves pulses. This may sound crazy but when it comes to Stonehenge we just do not know. The most common assumption swings between some sort of calendar based on the solar information and an ancient burial site. I remember reading once, (but I can not remember where) that the standing stone could have been placed there as a form of acupuncture to “heal” the Earth. Once the Earth is “healed” they would fall down. Says a lot then that those stones are still standing. As a pagan I am draw to stone circles as being a source of healing.  However, there are those that believe that it may have been built by someone not of this planet.

Ancient alien theorists believe that all major structures were in fact technology left by the aliens to help us to develop into the race that we are now. They will often cite the fact that even with modern building equipment we are still unable to explain or recreate these ancient monuments. So how did people manage to do it back then? One of the major issues with Stonehenge is that the stone came from Wales. So what is Stonehenge? Now it is a mere tourist attraction and has lost some of its “spirit”. But there so many other stone circles that it is worth going them and seeing what you feel. Make your own theories.