Michael Offutt's Blog, page 147

Monsers in fiction need to make sense. Wisdom from author L. Blankenship

I am pleased to welcome author L. Blankenship to my blog. I discovered Ms. Blankenship a few months ago. She's a fantastic speculative fiction author, and I have to say that I've been zooming through this offering of hers like a kid through cotton candy. Perhaps next week, I'll have a review for you. Until then, please read what she has to say :).

*****
FROM THE BACK COVER:

The saints favor her, else-wise a peasant girl like Kate Carpenter would never be apprenticed to the kingdom’s master healer. But her patron saint also marks her ready for the duty of tending to a mission that must cross the ice-bound mountains.
Their little kingdom faces invasion by a vast empire and desperately needs allies; across the snow-filled pass, through the deathly thin air, is a country that’s held off the empire and may be willing to lend an army.

Kate knows about frostbite and the everyday injuries of wilderness travel. She can heal those.

She’s not ready for the attentions of a ne’er-do-well knight and the kingdom’s only prince, though.

And she isn’t ready for the monsters that harry them night and day, picking off their archers first, wearing the party to exhaustion, pushing Kate beyond the limits her healing abilities.

She must keep them alive, or her blood will be on the snow too.

SOME THOUGHTS ON MONSTERS:
The monsters that Kate and her companions face are unsettlingly smart and organized. The cover story to keep their mission secret is that they're on a hunting trip to thin these monsters' numbers. Who's thinning whose numbers becomes a going question once the travelers are worn to exhaustion.

They call the monsters lamia. The lamia are wolves who've grown up drinking the magic-laced waters of a fount -- it changes them into something more dangerous. But lamia are still part of the local ecology and however intelligent they are, they still need to "make sense."

Any fantasy world that includes monsters, whether it's dragons or unicorns or invented creatures like my wolf-lamia, ought to take basic ecology into consideration. Even monsters need to eat and raise their young. They need places to sleep and everyday lives to go about.

It's a personal peeve of mine that in so many movies, our hero goes into a forest/jungle/desert and immediately trips over a large predator who has nothing better to do today than chase a random human around. This is usually fatal for the predator, too. It's a senseless and annoying trope IMO.

Author photo of L. BlankenshipI asked myself some basic questions, when I was creating my lamia:

What do they normally eat? Why are humans on the menu? My answer: they eat deer and elk, normally. But most humans are easy to kill, especially children. It's the ones with bows you have to look out for. What ordinary animal are they filling in for? My answer: wolves, bears, and cougars all at once. An area can only support a limited number of predators, and my lamia fill all those niches.What are their motivations for approaching humans? My answer: they are defending their territory, especially the magical fount. They know humans are competition for both the fount and for prey in the stretch of forest the lamia claim.  
What questions would you add to my list?

Find L. Blankenship at the following places:
She keeps a book blog at DISCIPLE OF THE FOUNT Her writing blog called NOTES FROM THE JOVIAN FRONTIER can be found HERE.Disciple on AMAZON KINDLE is located HERE.Disciple on KOBO is located HEREAnd you can find her on GOODREADS located HERE.

The politics of revenge in a zombie apocalypse

SPOILER ALERT -- This blog post discusses season 3, episode 4 entitled "The Killer Within" from "The Walking Dead."

In the image above is Andrew from Season 3 of The Walking Dead and from the comic book of the same name. Those of you who have followed my blog for some time know I periodically like to talk about story elements present within the shows that I watch. Aside from being another nail-biting episode, upon finishing, I had questions about the moral nature of man and the idea of screwing over your fellow man in a zombie apocalypse for no good reason.

Primarily...what I wanted to know is why?

Screwing over your fellow man has never really made sense to me in any science fiction drama that features terrible creatures that will eat you. Burke did it in the movie Aliens and when I watch the movie, I still wonder why. Was Burke insane? Did he not see what the alien xenomorph did to humans. It has got to be one of the most gruesome fates ever imagined.

A zombie apocalypse isn't much better.

With Andrew, he had to run for his life from Rick after his nefarious plot (along with inmate Tomas) was exposed and they tried to kill Rick. Rick chased him to a zombie infested yard where Rick slammed the door shut on Andrew. The last thing we heard were Andrew's chilling screams.

Well, we learned Sunday night that Andrew survived without getting bit and somehow made it to a safe place where the zombies couldn't get to him. Now, if that were me (and trust me...there'd be long odds that I could ever survive one day in a zombie apocalypse) I would count my lucky stars, use the skills that I have to obviously survive multiple zombies, and go into the wild and look for a place where I could find food and shelter away from people that want to kill me. Perhaps I could find another group of survivors that could take me in if I showed them that I could be a good person with valuable survival skills.

But this isn't what Andrew does. He gets back into the prison with the intent to screw over Rick and his crew. Doesn't he realize that each time he encounters the zombies that he is risking his life? Why would you ever do that given that the zombies could kill you and the people you are screwing over can kill you? I would be terrified of both. And he literally gets an entire herd of zombies all riled up by blasting the alarm at the prison. This can only end one way.

So why would a person do that? And does it seem just a little unbelievable? Like maybe they needed to establish that the character was a lunatic before going down this road? Or do you think it's perfectly reasonable that a man on his own (that should feel lucky just to be alive in such a cruel world) would turn from thoughts of survival and focus on those of revenge against people who failed to kill him?

I look forward to finding out what you think regarding revenge in settings where the stakes for your very survival are extremely high to begin with, much less inviting wrath from another front.

Laura Diamond and New Pride

Everyone please welcome author Laura Diamond. She's excited about her new book and wants to tell you all about it :)

New town, new love, new terror.

It’s here! My prequel novelette, NEW PRIDE, releases today. I’m SO stoked for it to run wild in the world.
NEW PRIDE was born from my upcoming novel, SHIFTING PRIDE (coming December 7, 2012!). In SHIFTING PRIDE, the main character, Nickie, searches for her missing father, Richard…and NEW PRIDE is all about Richard’s journey to independence and new love.
NEW PRIDE Blurb:
A shape-shifter without a pride, Richard Leone strikes a tenuous friendship with power hungry Derek from an unstable, rogue group. On a hunt in the forest, they encounter a gorgeous brunette, Molly, partying with friends around a campfire. Derek tells the rogue pride and they bristle at humans trespassing on their territory. Richard risks life and tail to protect his secret and the humans—especially Molly—while simultaneously trying to win her heart. When Molly is kidnapped, he faces taking on the rogue pride alone, but quickly finds he has to put his trust in Derek, not only to rescue his new love, but to ensure the rogue pride doesn’t wreak havoc on his new town.
Author Laura Diamond:
Laura Diamond is a board certified psychiatrist and author of all things young adult paranormal, dystopian, horror, and middle grade. Her short story, City of Lights and Stone, is in the Day of Demons anthology by Anachron Press (April 2012) and her apocalyptic short story, Begging Death is in the Carnage: Life After the End anthology by Sirens Call Publication (coming late 2012). Her debut young adult paranormal romance, SHIFTING PRIDE, is coming December 2012 by Etopia Press. When she's not writing, she is working at the hospital, blogging at Author Laura Diamond--Lucid Dreamer, and renovating her 225+ year old fixer-upper mansion. She is also full-time staff member for her four cats and a Pembroke Corgi named Katie.
**********A bonus:

I will be giving away copies of NEW PRIDE to several lucky fans! Please click the link below and fill out the form on my fan page to enter.

Thanks! >>>> LINK TO GIVEAWAY <<<<

***********Buy New Pride today on Amazon HERE for $2.99.

How to find Laura Diamond on the web:
Blog: http://lbdiamond.wordpress.com/Twitter: http://twitter.com/diamondlbFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/laura.diamond.52Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorLauraDiamondAmazon.com Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Laura-Diamond/e/B009Y7L432/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_8Website: www.AuthorLauraDiamond.com
And now, you get to see the author in the flesh talking about her work. Grab a drink, click play, and listen.
In The DM Zone—Talking about SHIFTING PRIDE

Five things I don't want to see in the new Star Wars films

So the Star Wars/Disney deal is big news and my mental preparation includes a list of things that I hope Lucasfilm will not do in episodes 7, 8, and 9. I have a lot of faith in producer Kathleen Kennedy, as her name is on every single Spielberg film going back to pretty much Jaws. That is a resume of pure excellence that hardly anyone in my mind could top. Still, I do have five suggestions. Could we not have:

1) A romance in the middle episode of the trilogy. You can't dispute that Star Wars is pretty formulaic. The first in the trilogy is the introduction to the characters wherein they fight something evil and triumph with all happy faces to closing credits of John Williams iconic score. But the middle episode has always dripped with gushy romance. Empire had it first and then it continued with "Attack of the Clones." I say break with the formula. Of course, audiences could expect it by now so who am I to complain?

2) Can we not screw over the "extended universe." There's this word that floats around the sci-fi world. It's called "Canon", and it refers to the material that is officially endorsed within the Star Wars universe. Anything that is an outlier, gets kaboshed with the phrase "That's not canon." So if something in a Star Wars comic book or novel gets crushed by the words "not canon" then what the hell is it? I suppose "made up" would suffice. But then, isn't the whole thing "made up?" The whole "that's not canon" is just irritating. The Alien franchise is awash with this as movies like Alien vs. Predator get proclaimed "not canon." It just seems to me to be something that a nerd uses to dismiss the contributions of another that are viewed publicly as piss-poor.

3) Can we get new actors/actresses for Leia, Han, and Luke? I really do not want to see their old asses playing these parts. Harrison Ford looked like he was about to die in Cowboys and Aliens and don't get me started on Mark Hamill. He looks like Roger Moore does (remember James Bond)? My suspension of disbelief can only go so far and this pic of Roger just makes me cringe. We all gonna age and age sucks. Hollywood is definitely not immune.
4) Can merchandising not include Princess Leia and Queen Amidala as "Disney Princesses."

5) Disney please please please do not take on Michael Bay as a director even if he begs and pleads. Just imagine "Star Wars Transformers." No No No No No. And please no Megan Fox or that awful Kate Beckinsale. Every movie either of these women is in sucks the big one all the way home. They are terrible.
One of the worst directors ever. Sorry,
money does not equate skill or intelligence.
It just means "you're rich."I think if we steer clear of these things, I shall be a happy movie goer. I have to admit, I'm excited about Disney taking control of this franchise. As much as I liked episodes 1-3 (I have watched them several times), I think they could have been better. Almost in the role of a beta-reader, I would have made suggestions if possible. For example, I would have cut the Jar Jar character and redone Darth Maul so that he had more speaking parts and more of his back story on display. I would have hired a different child actor for the boy that played Anakin. Oy...he was terrible.

But I wasn't a beta reader for Lucas so all that's a moot point. What Lucas came up with (in my opinion) was still really good but it could have been better.

Having seen what Disney has done with Marvel's movies really blows me away. So I expect HUGE HUGE things. I expect to have directors like Joss Whedon or J.J. Abrams. Just please...no Michael Bay. Transformers makes my brain melt out of my ears.

And that my friends is all I have to say on that.

If you didn't visit Mary's blog yesterday, I was a guest on Spacedock 19. I talked about Japanese Kaiju and it was awesome. Read about it HERE.

Have a great Thursday.

Coprophagia and a visit to Spacedock 19

From Wikipedia -- Coprophagia or coprophagy is the consumption of feces, from the Greek κόπρος copros, "feces" and φαγεῖν phagein, "to eat".

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV-TR), it is classified under 302.9 Paraphilia.

Although not all coprophiles would necessarily be sadomasochists, little data on the prevalence of this behavior is available except from studies of the sadomasochism (SM) community. A study of 164 male sadomasochists from Finland from two sadomasochism clubs found that 18.2% had engaged in coprophilia; 3% as a sadist, 6.1% as a masochist, and 9.1% as both. 18% of heterosexuals and 17% of homosexuals in the study pool had tried coprophilia, showing no statistically significant difference between heterosexuals and homosexuals.

In Literature:
Thomas Pynchon's award winning novel Gravity's Rainbow, contains a very detailed scene of coprophagia.The 120 Days of Sodom, a novel by the Marquis de Sade, is replete with detailed descriptions of erotic sadomasochistic coprophagia.Consider Phlebas, a novel by Iain M. Banks, contains depictions of a tribe known as the Eaters, who repeatedly engage in coprophagia.In Filmography:2 Girls 1 Cup <== Daniel Tosh makes fun of this one on Tosh.OAugust UndergroundThe Green ElephantThe Human Centipede (First Sequence)The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence)Pink FlamingosSalò, or the 120 Days of SodomVase de NocesAnd that's it for my Halloween Fetish Countdown. If you have the time, please stop by Mary Pax's blog. I'm a guest at Spacedock 19, and I'm talking about one of my favorite things just in time for Halloween: 
Kaiju 怪人

Menophilia and the Cuckold Fetish

Menophilia
Menophilia is a paraphilia that effects mostly men (and a very small group of women). Basically, this is the closest humans might come to "actual vampires" as a menophile is a person that loves to suck on used tampons, lick maxi pads, and basically have unsanitary sex during "that time of the month." And I'm not making this up...these people do exist.

The Cuckold Fetish
This is "fetishized infidelity." Basically this occurs when a man becomes aroused by the knowledge that his wife is having sex with another man. In some cases, this may actually involve the man going to great lengths to set up the affair but being absent when the actual act occurs. In other situations, he may even join in or take on the role of a voyeur. The female version of this arrangement is called a cuckquean fetish (and is less common.

*****
Tomorrow is the last day of my Halloween Fetish Countdown. I've saved the best for last (I think). If you watch Daniel Tosh on Tosh.O, you may already know what I'm going to highlight tomorrow since Daniel has no issues talking about this particular fetish on Comedy Central (and makes fun of it).

Have a great Tuesday.

Discussing Mental Illness in Teen Fiction with author Cally Jackson of The Big Smoke

Please welcome author Cally Jackson from the "down unda." Her book, "The Big Smoke" is commercially available right now and this is the first stop on her blog tour. She wants to talk about some research she did regarding a topic that all of us can probably relate to.

Mental illness in teen fiction

Thanks for hosting me, Michael!

As Michael said, I’ve just launched my debut New Adult novel, The Big Smoke, which is extremely exciting, but I’m here to talk about a serious issue that is covered in The Big Smoke – mental illness.

Although things have improved a lot in the past decade, mental illness is still quite a taboo topic in many societies. I’m Australian and my experience of this is mostly home grown, but from what I’ve read and seen, the reluctance to discuss mental illness is also paramount in other parts of the globe.

I’ve read a number of books that deal with cases of extreme (and often sudden) bouts of mental illness, but very few that feature characters struggling to manage less intense mental illnesses on a daily basis. When I wrote The Big Smoke, I decided this was something I wanted to challenge. So I gave one of my main characters, Ceara, a generalized anxiety disorder, which is one of the many obstacles she must overcome to find happiness in this new phase of her life, studying at a city university away from her country home.
An excerpt from the first page: 

What the hell was I thinking, going ahead with this crazy move? I should’ve put an end to the idea the first time Mum mentioned it. But I didn’t, and now I was moving into a share-house with Cindy Carter and Robert Grey – two people who thought I was as worthwhile as a smear of dog shit on one of their shoes. 

My breathing hitched up a notch. I tried to get myself back under control but felt like I was edging towards hyperventilation. The last thing I needed was a panic attack.

I slid down the wall between the stacks of boxes and concentrated – breathe in, breathe out. Why wasn’t my daily anxiety medication helping me deal with this? Maybe I needed to up the dosage.

Shit – the tablets were still in a pocket of my suitcase. I crawled over, grabbed the tablets and hid them inside a pair of socks, which I buried underneath my neatly folded clothes. I didn’t want to risk Mum finding the tablets now. How typical that would be – I manage to hide them for all this time, only for her to discover them the day before I move out.

Why did I inflict a mental illness on Ceara? Because the number of teenagers on anti-depressants continues to rise, but you rarely see these teens represented in fiction. I wanted to create a character that those young people could relate to. A character that I could relate to.

I’ve suffered with mental illness on and off throughout my life, but it doesn’t define who I am. In many ways, I believe I’ve become a happier, less judgmental person because of my experiences with mental illness. And I thought that could be an interesting character trait to explore in fiction. Hopefully Ceara’s journey is one that many young people can connect with, and maybe The Big Smoke will help, in some small way, to break down the silence around mental illness.

What about you?

Have you read any Young Adult or New Adult books that deal with mental illnesses like anxiety, panic and depression? Do you think it’s an area that needs to be explored more in fiction or do you think it’s adequately represented?

*****
Thanks so much for doing a guest post, Cally. I found the above gifs and thought they'd work with the theme of what Cally is talking about here.

Buy The Big Smoke on Amazon for $2.99 HERE.
Checkout Cally's Goodreads page HERE.
Visit Cally's Blog HERE.

Emetophilia and Abasiophilia

Emetophilia
From Wikipedia--Emetophilia is a paraphilia in which an individual is sexually aroused by vomiting or observing others vomit. Also referred to as a Vomit Fetish. Emetophiles put emetophilia into practice by actually vomiting, especially on a partner. This practice is sometimes called a Roman shower, after the commonly-supposed (but mistaken) belief in the frequent induction of vomiting at Roman feasts.

Some emetophiles find the act of vomiting arousing; for them, the sequence of "spasm, ejaculation, relief" in vomiting is erotically charged. Other emetophiles are aroused by seeing and/or hearing others vomit. Some desire a partner who will vomit on them, while others wish to induce vomiting in a partner, or even force them to vomit (wanting to be vomited on may be related to a desire to be dominated, while wanting to make someone else vomit may stem from a desire to dominate the partner - see erotic humiliation). Emetophiles may have any combination of these desires at a time.

Abasiophilia
From Wikipedia--Abasiophilia is a psychosexual attraction to people with impaired mobility, especially those who use orthopaedic appliances such as leg braces, orthopedic casts, or wheelchairs.

While some of these fetishists just like to look at people trying to get around in their orthopaedic appliances, some of them like to see a disabled person struggle without these devices. In videos produced by these fetishists, one might find a quadriplegic person trying to wriggle up the stairs, never quite making it to the top.

Interesting eh?*****
If you have the time, I was wondering if you could help me try to get Amazon to price my short story "The Insanity of Zero" for free (right now it's listed at 99 cents). My story takes 15-20 minutes to read, so given that there's little time investment involved, I'm hoping people will actually "read" it especially if it becomes free (I know from reading blogs that a lot of people "collect" free books but don't actually read them).

To do this is simple. Follow these steps:
Image and instructions courtesy of Callie Leuck.
1.  Go to the Amazon page located HERE.
2.  Go to Product Description section as pictured above.
3.  Click on "tell us about a lower price?"
4.  Select "website (online)".
5.  Drop the URL for the Barnes and Noble price match (Amazon may price match B&N more readily than other retailers) http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-insanity-of-zero-michael-offutt/1113573592?ean=2940044990883
6.  Insert "0.00" in the other two fields.

Thanks in advance for anyone that is willing to take the time to do this. :)

Have a great weekend.

Erotophonophilia and Crush Fetishists

I kind of fell behind on my schedule for my creepy fetish countdown. If I'm going to meet my October 31st deadline, I need to double up today, Friday, and Tuesday. Monday I'll be hosting Cally Jackson for the beginning of her "The Big Smoke" blog tour.

Erotophonophilia
From Wikipedia -- A lust murder is a homicide in which the offender searches for erotic satisfaction by killing someone. Lust murder is synonymous with the paraphilic term erotophonophilia, which is sexual arousal or gratification contingent on the death of a human being. Commonly, this type of crime is manifested either by murder during sexual intercourse and/or by mutilating the sexual organs or areas of the victim's body. The mutilation of the victim may include evisceration and/or displacement of the genitalia. The mutilation usually takes place postmortem.

It sometimes includes such activities as removing clothing from the body, posing and propping of the body in different positions, generally sexual ones, insertion of objects into bodily orifices, anthropophagy (the consumption of human blood and/or flesh) and necrophilia (the performing of sex acts on a human corpse).

Most cases of lust murder involve male perpetrators; however, accounts of female lust murderers do exist. In general, lust murder is a phenomenon most common among serial killers. These offenders have made a connection between murder and sexual gratification. When this type of offender chooses a victim there must be something about that victim that the offender finds sexually attractive. This attractive trait might be common among all of the offender’s victims and is called the offender's Ideal Victim Type (IVT). There might be many potential targets that an offender passes by because they do not meet his IVT. Once the offender has found a victim who is ideal he might engage in stalking or other predatory behaviors before acting out his fantasy on his victim. Fantasies are a key component in lust murders and can never be completely fulfilled. The lust killer will have a fantasy that continues to evolve over time and becomes increasingly violent as he struggles to fulfill it.

Some of history's most notorious erotophonophiles are Jeffery Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy.

Crush Fetish
From Wikipedia -- A crush fetish is a paraphilia in which one is sexually aroused when usually someone of the opposite sex crushes objects, food and sometimes small animals or insects with their body, usually under their foot. The term soft crush refers to the more common fetish surrounding videos involving invertebrates (e.g. insects, worms, spiders) being crushed, while the term hard crush refers to such videos involving larger animals, (e.g. reptiles, birds, mammals). The preference could be barefoot, high-heels, flip flops, and so on, depending on the fetishist.

Crush films depicting anything other than insects are banned in the U.S. and U.K. although internet access to crushing sites (yes they exist) make these laws difficult to enforce.

From the Darwin Awards of 1999--(June 1999, Florida) Okeechobee County investigators believe the death of Bryan, 28, was related to his wife's habit of stomping rabbits and mice for sexual pleasure. Stephanie, 29, was sentenced to two years of probation and community service for the death of her husband Bryan, who was found in a pit with a board over his body, crushed beneath the rear wheel of his sports utility vehicle.

Stephanie did not deny that she drove over her husband, but in her own defence she released tapes to the police showing her stomping small mammals to death. She was identified by a cryptic tattoo on her lower leg.

If you are particularly brave, you can do a google image search of "crush fetish" and you will see hundreds of pictures of women engaging in horrific animal cruelty to rabbits, mice, and baby birds wearing high heels. There must be some market for this stuff. *shakes head

Bug Chasing

Bug chasing refers to a fetish where someone intentionally tries to sleep with a person infected with AIDS in an effort to contract the disease. Although there are some straight men and women who may fall into this group, the majority (by far) identify as either bi-sexual or gay. Some people admit to doing this in order to receive free government benefits. However, I think most are after some kind of "thrill" that I cannot explain. Perhaps they are sex addicts who are bored with less risky behaviors.

Interesting, don't you think?

Have a great Wednesday.