Michelle Scott's Blog, page 10

Spring Has Come to the Creek

As some of you know, my husband and I moved across the state last year. Going from a city of several million people to a village of barely 1,300 has been quite an adjustment. I miss my conveniences, like GrubHub deliveries and fresh sushi. However, country life has improved 110% now that it’s finally spring.

Our property is bordered by Lake Creek, which to my husband’s delight, is a designated trout stream. He’s seen his share of brown trout, but has yet to catch one. I’m more interested in the local flora. For the past thirty-five years, I’ve been a city girl so I’m very unfamiliar with the plants. However, I’m learning, and I was delighted to find forsythia blooming along the water.

[image error]We also have our share of wildlife. Every day there are fresh deer tracks in the mud along the creek. My husband also spotted these astonishing prints the other day. He said he didn’t know what made them, but he sure hoped it was friendly. (We believe it was a great blue heron.)[image error]

Other guests aren’t so welcome. Take the groundhog who has burrowed into our hill only a few feet from our newly-planted garden. In the past, we’ve dealt with rabbits but nothing as large as the groundhog. I’m fine with him as long as he doesn’t touch my tomatoes, but my husband thinks when the garden is growing, Mr. Groundhog will be feasting, so we’re going to have to find ways to make him leave.[image error]

I knew that spring in the country would be miraculous, and now that winter is finally over I’m glad to see that it’s true.

Dr. Sleep – Is it a Worthy Sequel to The Shining?

[image error]Let me start of by saying I’m 100% biased. In my opinion, The Shining is the gold standard for horror movies. Nothing scares me as much as the Overlook hotel, and the ax scene is forever branded in my mind. Shelley Duvall’s top-notch performance entrances me every time I see it. This makes judging the sequel very difficult since, to my mind, nothing would compare with it. However, I will do my best to rein in my prejudice.

Dr. Sleep takes up where The Shining left off.  Danny Torrance, now a middle-aged man with a serious drinking problem, is challenged to help a teenage girl manage her own set of supernatural skills when she goes up against a traveling band of soul-sucking gypsies.

I don’t want to get sidetracked by the plot, however. As interesting as it is, I’m more concerned with how the other horror elements work (or don’t work) together to create what, ultimately, is a promising movie that, alas, falls short.

Let me start with the things I liked about Dr. Sleep. The acting comes to my mind first. Ewan McGregor’s Dan Torrance does a wonderful job of becoming both sinner and saint. He’s the man who assists a desperate teenager, but he’s also the one who caused the death of a mother and her child. He’s a man begging for salvation, and I like his transformation.

My other favorite character is Kyliegh Curran as teenage Abra Stone. She’s a tough character, but inexperienced.  She doesn’t know her own strength, and at the same time she misjudges the threat she’s up against. She’s courageous and fearless, even when faced with a deadly enemy.

Characters aside, there are other elements to Dr. Sleep that make it – if not a great – then at least a good horror movie. The soundtrack is one of them. One of the reasons I love The Shining so much is the simple, haunting music that makes me feel as isolated as the shots of the Overlook during a blizzard. Dr. Sleep‘s music works in the same way. It’s delightfully eerie, but sparse, and sets a great mood.

The word that comes to mind whenever I think of The Shining is ‘eerie’. When I watch a horror movie, that’s what I want. I like movies that drag me out of my comfort zone. Gross and grisly doesn’t affect me nearly as much as a world off-kilter.  To my mind, The Shining is a perfect example of that.

Dr. Sleep also offers several creepy scenes.  My favorites were the shots of Rose’s caravan in the dark woods. Or the way Abra fell into Rose’s mind. In Dr. Sleep, things are never as they seem.

via GIPHY

So, on the one hand, I found Dr. Sleep entertaining and – if not scary – certainly unnerving. Yet, I do have one big complaint, and that had to do with the second part of the movie.

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Mike Flanagan is an excellent director (I loved The Haunting of Hill House and Oculus), and I appreciated that he wanted to pay homage to Stanley Kubrick. However, there is too much Kubrick in this movie. The clips from The Shining detract from what I think is Flanagan’s vision for the film. Yes, I understand the need for backstory. This is, after all, a sequel. Yet, the second half of the movie almost comes off as a hastily, stitched-together clip show. Instead of adding to the tension, the cuts to Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson bog things down, and what you end up with is a mess. To me, Dr. Sleep would have been much more effective if it had paid more attention to the new without trying to wedge in the old.

In the end, I enjoyed Dr. Sleep much more than I thought I would. Yes, I was disappointed in parts of it, but to be fair, I went in with a bias. If I’d never seen The Shining, I probably would have walked away quite satisfied. Dr. Sleep won’t become one of my top ten horror movies, but it ranks solid in the top 200.

Just Call Me Skullcrusher…or How I Played D & D for the First Time.

[image error]That’s Mr. Skullcrusher to you.

When my friend texted me asking if I’d like to play a  Dungeons and Dragons campaign, my first question was, “What’s a campaign?”

Yes, I am that much of a newbie.

I’d flirted with the idea of playing D and D before. Many times, in fact. The game holds a certain mystique for me. I’d heard about it from movies and TV shows. My own kids play it. But the entire thing was shrouded in mystery. Still, what did I have to lose? I’m Covid 19 out of my mind right now, and any opportunity to meet with friends and family, even virtually, was welcome. So I agreed.

My one previous brush with D and D involved creating characters, a process I found exhausting. I’m terribly indecisive, so having to pick a race and class and gender and come up with a backstory overwhelmed me. (Yes, I get the irony in that since I am a writer, and that’s kind of what I do. However…) This time, my friend the DM made it easy by creating characters ahead of time. All I had to do was select one. Knowing that D and D is nothing if not a chance to live out a fantasy, I picked a half-orc Barbarian whom I named Skullcrusher. Ive always wanted to be bad-ass. Here was my chance.

There’s ten of us in this campaign (nine plus the DM). In real life, we have my family of five plus the “adopted” boyfriend of my daughter. The other members are a couple we’ve been friends with for over thirty years along with two of their children who are like my own kids. I was in good hands. I also wasn’t the only newbie. Thank God.

Starting the campaign was both terrifying and exhilarating. Kind of like the first time my dad put me behind the wheel of the family car and simply said, “Drive.” When I asked him which pedal was the brake and which was the gas, he said, “Pick one and try it.” I stomped the pedal on the right. Thankfully, everyone in the car was wearing a seatbelt.

I never realized how much goes into a D and D game, and I soon understood that I couldn’t fake my way through. I needed help. Lots of it. For starters, I didn’t realize I needed dice in order to play. Thankfully, there are plenty of on-line go-tos for that kind of thing. I also had no idea what half the characters were. My daughter’s BF is a paladin. I think that’s a military person of some kind. There are languages and maps and creatures and spells and items…the list goes on. My most frequent questions of the night was, “What die do I roll again?” and “Where is that on the character sheet?” At least my friends and family are all very patient.

My favorite part of the evening was smashing things and intimidating people. I sunk my ax into the barkeeps bar in order to make him give up information about the Duke who hired my companions and I to end an infestation. I ate a side of beef with a generous portion of grog (no idea what grog is…it just sounded like something a half-orc might drink.) My least favorite part of the evening was being hit in the neck by a stray arrow and nearly dying. It was okay, though. I know Tara the half-elf didn’t mean to get me. She’s practically my daughter in real life, after all.

Since we were merely starting the campaign, not a lot happened. We killed a Drow (not really sure what that is, but its dead now, so I guess it doesn’t matter.) I was blasted in the face with poison from a flying creature with the body, head and wings of a vulture and the paws and tail of a dog. I used a javelin which was pretty cool. I also found out I get to do something called rage which makes me even scarier.

I honestly didn’t think I’d have as much fun as I did. When the DM called it quits for the night, I realized with a sense of shock that four hours had gone by and I wasn’t ready to stop. That’s a first for someone with my tiny attention span.

We’ve set a date to continue the game, and I’m very excited about that. In the meantime, Ill be brushing up on my Orcish and looking up pictures of Drow.

Book Review – Dracula by Bram Stoker

[image error]Over the years, I’ve seen my share of vampire movies and read a number of books about vampires. Because my daughters were teenagers at the height of the Twilight craze, I know about about Edward Cullen and his family. Then there was Anne Rice’s rock star vampire, Lestat. There have been countless others as well; however, it was only this month that I read the original Dracula.

I love Gothic mysteries, and Dracula had plenty of Gothic atmosphere. The book is full of creepy, old castles, dank crypts, and gloomy weather. Like many classic novels, this one used a lot of description, but I appreciated how Stoker painted a picture of the Carpathian Mountains and the old-world charm of those who lived there. As I read, I disappeared into the world he created. I knew the basics of the story, but even so I was swept away. I consider this high praise since I’m generally not attracted to novels written in diary form the way this one was.

I also liked the characters, even if they were a bit over the top. Stoker made Mina, the heroine, out to be a saint and hearing about her perfectly sweet nature got old after a while. I like my heroines a little more earthy. However, considering when this book was written, Mina is a pretty kick-ass woman. She doesn’t see a lot of action (the men want to spare her delicate sensibilities), but she’s fearless and smart. An equal part of the team. I also liked the relationship she had with her husband, Jonathan. The two of them were clearly in love and wanted only the best for the other. These were characters I could get behind.

Dracula himself, however, was a bit of a disappointment. He was evil enough for me, but his evilness wasn’t clever or interesting. I like villains with fascinating backstories who use twisted logic to justify themselves. Dracula was more like an animal acting on instinct than someone with a purpose or will. Obviously, he was clever enough to move from Transylvania to England, but beyond that, he was more of a mystery than anything.

There were a lot of interesting details in the book that subsequent vampire stories have ignored. For example, I was shocked to find that Dracula had a mustache, and that he was an old man until he drank blood from young women. The book was also surprisingly gory, given the fact it was written in the 1800’s.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and I plan on reading more classic horror. I highly recommend Dracula for those who like mysterious, Gothic horror. This was definitely a five out of five star read.

Want to read more vampire books? Try Soul Awakened.

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There’s a vampire war on, and it’s time to choose sides.

Cassie doesn’t know why she fainted on stage, or why she woke up with a two-hour hole in her memory. She doesn’t understand the twin puncture marks on her neck, and can’t comprehend why she’s suddenly terrified of being in the dark. All she knows is that her ordinary life has completely changed…for the worse.

Then she meets Isaiah, a mysterious man with a dark past. He has answers to her questions, but he’s reluctant to give them and put her in more danger. Only when Cassie proves herself does he trust her with what he knows: there’s a vampire war in Detroit, and those who don’t take sides will be caught in the crossfire.

Now, it’s up to Cassie and Isaiah to put a stop to things before the warring vampires claim more victims. Falling in love isn’t part of the plan, of course, but some things can’t be helped.

Soul Awakened is available on Amazon. FREE on Kindle Unlimited.

Hard Rock Zombies – Movie Review

Here’s a movie that’s sure to be among the worst you’ve ever seen. If the death by weed wacker doesn’t interest you, maybe zombie Hitler will.

Why I’m Watching the Movie Outbreak During a Pandemic

[image error]Last night, while my husband and I decided what to watch on Netflix, we came across the 1995 movie, Outbreak. I haven’t seen the movie (yet), but the title pretty much says it all. I’m guessing there’s a major pandemic with Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, and a side order of Dustin Hoffman. I really want to see this movie. What’s more, I want to see it now.

Right now, the U.S. seems to be (once again) divided. There are those who think the coronavirus is a hoax, or at the very least not to be worried about. Then there’s group B, the ones who are stocking up on toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Although I’m not expecting Armageddon, I will put myself in the second camp.

So why do I want to watch a movie about a pandemic when I’m already concerned?

Getting scared is exactly why I like horror in the first place. It’s cathartic. When I watch a movie like Outbreak in the middle of a mess like we’ve got, it’s like spitting in the devil’s eye. Sure, you can huff and puff, but I refuse to cower in fear.

My son and I were talking today about a board game he owns called ‘Pandemic’. It’s a fun game in which players try to stop a virus from taking over the world, and we both said how we’d like to play a round. According to my son, the key to winning is Madagascar. Own that island, and you’ll come out on top every time.

That’s how I hope my loved ones (you too, readers!) and I will fare over the foreseeable future: fine. If we are quarantined, I plan on watching Outbreak, 28 Days Later, and Train to Busan.

That is, if I haven’t moved to Madagascar first.

Take advantage of the Friday the 13th sale going on now! Download Restless Spirits for only $.99 on Kindle.

All Ethan wants is a normal life. Too bad the ghosts won’t let him have one.

[image error]Everywhere he goes, Ethan is haunted by spirits demanding his attention. He’s tried to help them, but all it’s done is wreck his career and ruin his reputation. Now, he’s learned his lesson. He’ll never get involved with another spirit.

Then David calls.

David, Ethan’s former boyfriend and one true love, begs Ethan for a favor. David’s sister Tessa is slowly going mad. Her husband and doctor claim it’s due to the recent loss of her child. Only David believes that she’s being haunted. He’s sure that Ethan’s second sight is the one thing that will help her.

Casting heartache aside, Ethan agrees. The minute he steps through the door of their desolate, old house, however, he knows something is wrong. It’s not the faulty wiring or the drafty rooms. No, it’s the spirits haunting the place. They’re hungry, angry, and determined to make him their next target.

How Chapter One of ‘The Soulless’ Reflects My Own Personal Nightmare

I became a teacher sixteen years ago, and I’ve never regretted it. Connecting with students and giving feedback on their essays are some of my favorite parts of the job. (Showing up for an 8 o’clock class is my least favorite…) My husband, who has been a teacher for over thirty years, has been an excellent mentor, and I admire the rapport his has with h[image error]is classes. Overall, teaching has provided good careers for both of us.

But sometimes teaching terrifies me.

School shootings are becoming more and more common here in the U.S., and there have been times when going in front of a class can feel like standing before a firing squad. Literally. To do our jobs, my husband and I have to participate in things like active shooter drills. We have to know how to protect our students in the event of a school shooting. The chance of this happening is small, but it’s there. And the implications of that are horrible.

In The Soulless, the teachers at Twin Rivers High School are dealing with the aftermath of this very nightmare. A student in their sleepy, little town brought a gun to school and the worst possible thing happened. The thing that sometimes keeps teachers, students, and parents awake at night. Ernie Kloster, the book’s hero, escaped with his life, but he still has to walk into his classroom and start teaching again. He has to return to the school which has become the place of nightmares. 

I wrote these first few chapters of The Soulless by delving into my own dark nightmares of what might happen if such a terrible thing happened to me or my loved ones. These chapters were incredibly real to me. Even now, when I hear the chapters being read out loud, I get chills.

In some ways, horror is based on reality. Horror gives our darkest fears a shape. But it can also help us overcome these fears by helping us to face them. We don’t have to be helpless. We can fight back.

Listen to chapter one of The Soulless here.

The Soulless – Now on Horrocane’s YouTube Channel

[image error]I am so very excited to announce the first installment of the narrated version of my horror novel The Soulless. Thanks to Horrocane and 32 wonderful actors, this amazing presentation is now available to listen to.

If you can’t get enough CreepyPasta or NoSleep, then this video is for you! And the best part? This is only the prologue! There is a lot more scary excitement to follow.

A Creepy Photo Collage for My Upcoming Horror Novel Broken Spirits

After a year of writing, re-writing, editing, more editing, and even more editing, I can almost see the finish line to the next installment of the Restless Spirits series…Broken Spirits! I’m too much of a pragmatist to give a hard deadline on when the book will be coming out, but I’m on-board for spring/ early summer (and after all of our recent snow and cold, I am really on-board for spring and summer!)

Now that a lot of the hard work is behind me, I get to focus on the fun stuff…like how freaky the cover will look. I have a few ideas. One major setting in Broken Spirits is a mental institution, and there are plenty of creepy pictures to go along with that. Such as…

[image error] Additionally Ethan, the series’ main character, continues to awaken his necromancy skills, so he’s been touting a human skull around in the trunk of his car and hoping like hell he doesn’t get pulled over since he’d have a lot of explaining to do if he was! That leads me to this picture…

[image error]Finally, there is a cat in the book. (Why am I always writing about cats?) Spoiler: Max is no ordinary cat. When I think of Max, I think of…

[image error]Stay tuned for more updates on the project. It’s coming along nicely, and I can’t wait for the release. If you haven’t had a chance to read Restless Spirits give it a try. I hope it gives you a sleepless night. Or two.

YouTuber Horrocane Delivers Plenty of Chills

[image error]If you love scary stories as much as I do, you won’t want to miss the genius that is Horrocane.

Visting Horrocane’s YouTube channel is like sitting around a campfire in the dead of night and listening to your friend tell tales that scare the crap out of you.

I got a chance to interview Horrocane and find out a little bit about her channel.

What first got you interested in horror? I’ve been a horror junkie since I was young, Stephen King was a big influence as well as Darren Shan, who does YA horror. I think the beginning of my horror experience started with my mother though, as she was the one with the massive collection of books and movies and even video games that she would – gradually – let me read and look at.

What horror themes interest you the most? Personally, my favourite themes have always been the paranormal. I’ve written countless tales about an investigator that I made up a long time ago, solving crimes that were paranormal in origin. I love stories that blend where the real world ends and the beyond begins. If I were to rank a second favourite it would be occult themes; possession, the devil, etc. I have a deep fascination with biblical stories and have adored spin offs in the horror genre; Dante’s Inferno, Darksiders, Good Omens comes to mind, but I know that isn’t horror haha!

If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be and why? Darren Shan for sure, I know lots of horror fans might say people like Robert England or Stephen King, but Darren has been my biggest influence as to the way I like to write my own stories and how the plot flows. Either him, or… Derek Landy – the Skulduggery series is one of my all time favourites.

What’s your favorite horror novel or movie and why? This question is never an easy one, let’s be honest. It’s so hard to narrow your field of passion down to one favourite. So I can’t say my favourite one movie, but my favourite series is, and always will be, The Conjuring series. I love that it’s based off of people that existed and certain items and events that really did occur. While I’m not a believer, I do find it incredible to learn about the background of the series and where the ideas came from in history. Plus, Valak is awesome.

What made you decide to develop your own horror channel? This one is one that gets asked of me often and I always find it embarrassing to answer because the reason behind my channel is so silly! I love listening to narrations of stories and one day I submitted my own story to a channel I admire – who is very popular – and never heard back. It crushed me, to feel rejected as a writer, so I decided why not be the person on the other end? So I more or less read every single story given to me now, or at least tell people why I can’t, to involve the community as much as I can.

What can viewers expect when they visit your channel/podcast? Visiting my channel on YouTube or the podcast which is now on Spotify, listeners can expect some tales written by people on Reddit’s nosleep thread, the Creepypasta Wiki website, or short stories submitted by published authors in the horror genre – all narrated by yours truly. We have sound effects, spooky music and haunting voice mods to up the ante in terms of audio chills! Other than that, there are some silly skits to celebrate reaching new milestones, to break up the scary stuff and remind everyone that I am a real person behind the mic!

What do you like to do when you’re not elbow deep in horror? My spare time, I usually spend watching Drag Queen drama shows and drawing digital illustrations on my tablet. If I find time, I also play video games and catch up on new movies that I missed because of the endless amount of work I do for the channel. But most of my time, truthfully, is spent coming up with new ideas and new ways to engage more people with the channel.

Lightning round questions!

Freddie or Jason? Neither! Never seen them (blasphemy I know).

Zombies or ghosts? Ghosts, but zombies are scarier.

What scares you the most: creepy cemetery or shadowy back alley? Abandoned places, empty streets, etc. Cinematic spaces waiting for the bad guy to show up.

Sweet or salty? Sweet.

Cats or dogs? Dogs, for me!

Seaside or mountains? Seaside, but indoors (I have a complexion to maintain).

Coffee or tea? Also neither! I drink fizzy water.

Last but not least, here’s one of Horrocane’s amazing stories. The Carver is a personal favorite of mine!