Patrick Rutigliano's Blog, page 13
July 1, 2014
Background on Bestiary – Part Three
Arguably, the biggest theme Bestiary explores is revenge.
I’m not talking about anger. Not the quick flood of rage that rushes over a person when he’s been wronged.
I’m talking about something far colder and more acidic.
Karen Lambert, the book’s protagonist, has had almost a decade to ponder her grief. Her hatred. The longer she hunts the man she holds responsible for the loss of her parents, the more the core of the person she used to be erodes.
Everything she does is centered on her mission. There is no joy of life. No love left save for memories of ghosts. Just the growing bitterness gnawing at her insides.
And when she finally accomplishes her task and takes what she’s sought for so long, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether there will be anything left of her to step back from the abyss, or if she’ll fall into the blackness staring back at her.
June 29, 2014
New Article Up (Ensemble Issues)
Because balancing a cast isn’t easy:
http://patrickrutigliano.wordpress.com/articles/ensemble-issues/
June 24, 2014
Background on Bestiary – Part Two
As those of you who read the last Surviving the Crash update probably already know, I love monsters.
I’ve been a huge fan of the horror genre since I was a kid, cutting my teeth on everything from the classic Universal films to The X-Files. The latter also spawned an interest in legends and folklore that’s stuck with me to this day and occasionally leaks into my work.
The Beast of Gevaudan, the Dover Demon, the Mothman … these kinds of bizarre stories hold a special fascination because there’s that niggling grain of doubt, that desire to suspend disbelief despite the absurdity of so many of them. Because damn, wouldn’t the world be a far more interesting and mysterious place if they were real? It would bring the kind of awe that makes one question everything and darkens our view of night back to the primitive for it.
I’m talking about wonder. Amazement. A quality so often lost in a cynical age where everything speeds through the internet with the click of a button to be dissected by millions of different people until it’s raw, steaming fact (or one-sided opinions fighting it out).
Imagine the kind of spectacle it would take to make someone’s cell phone tumble from his hands and shatter on the pavement without him even noticing … because there’s something in front of him he’s never seen before–something that’s not supposed to exist anywhere.–and it makes his world stop.
In Bestiary, this effect, this feeling, is one character’s pride and joy, and caused another’s personal hell …
June 22, 2014
New Article Up (Traditional Publishing vs. Self-Publishing)
Traditional publishing vs. self-publishing. The pros and cons broken down:
http://patrickrutigliano.wordpress.com/articles/traditional-publishing-vs-self-publishing/
June 20, 2014
Review of Patrick Rutigliano’s “Surviving The Crash”
Some very kind words about Surviving the Crash from fellow writer, Patrick D’Orazio!
Originally posted on Patrick D'Orazio's Blog:
Surviving the Crash is a series of three novellas set in an alternate universe where the stock market crash of 1929 adds the additional horrific feature of the world also crashing into darkness. Strange, alien creatures out of nightmare have come to earth and rule the night, devouring those who are foolish or unfortunate enough to be caught out after the sun goes down. Hiding in the bowels of the buildings that have survived the destruction of these monsters isn’t enough to keep them at bay-they hunt by night and set traps to lure the living into darkness by day.
George is a man ready to end it all. He’s barely hanging on, and about to jump off the ledge of a building he wanders into when he meets up with Francis. Tough and defying all feminine stereotypes, Francis is a woman who is called upon by the local mobsters…
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June 17, 2014
New Article Up (Writing Numbers)
Because numbers … get bloody confusing.
http://patrickrutigliano.wordpress.com/articles/writing-numbers/
June 15, 2014
Background on Surviving the Crash – Part Four
Post-apocalyptic settings provide interesting environments. They’re ideal for showing how people can evolve (or devolve) to cope with the massive changes that take place when society crumbles. The fun of throwing a supernatural horror element into the mix is that it keeps the threat of what originally devastated the populace constant, even while the survivors are struggling to deal with each other in a world they no longer truly rule.
Sadly, the monsters are also where things tend to fall flat.
I like zombies as much as the next guy and I appreciate the symbolism they represent, but their overuse has become a crutch for creators in the horror industry. For every person who manages to weave a cool, original story involving them (and to be fair, I do know several), a hundred others churn out something derivative of Romero’s original trilogy.
And honestly … there are few things I loathe producing more than unoriginal work.
Enter the Horde.
The creatures that devastated New York in Surviving the Crash defy any kind of uniform description. Each creature is unique, making the group’s origin all the more troubling to conceive and the threat that much more difficult to defend against. While (somewhat) vulnerable to conventional weapons, sunlight provides the beasts’ only shared natural weakness. And they all have a taste for human beings.
I went with this approach for a number of reasons. First, it allowed me to offer the reader a little surprise every time a creature appeared instead of just providing him more of something he’s already seen (which is also a great deal more fun and challenging to write). The concept of the Horde also provided the story with a mystery to pick at the characters. And even when they believe they have the answer, it turns out to be far vaster than they ever imagined…
And so concludes this little series. I invite you to click on the link below if you want to check the book out:
Now, back to the articles and Bestiary!
June 11, 2014
Surviving the Crash is Live!
It took four long years to get this book done and out to you all. And I couldn’t be prouder.
Check out the link below if you dig badass female heroines, gangsters, Tommy guns, cults, and hordes of creatures that defy description:
http://khpbooks.com/surviving-the-crash-by-patrick-rutigliano/
June 10, 2014
Background on Surviving the Crash – Part Three
As mentioned in the first part of this series, any character who wasn’t white got pretty short shrift in the pulps, while a Caucasian man was virtually always embraced as the protagonist. So again, I wanted to twist these stereotypes in more interesting directions.
The male lead of the novel, George Cooper, fills the role of the average white Joe. He’s noticeably well-spoken and empathetic in a world that no longer bothers with such niceties and provides a sort of moral center for the other characters. However, he has a number of major flaws to balance him. George’s introduction to the novel clearly exhibits he’s nowhere near as stable/adaptable as the rest of the cast in dealing with the disaster around him, resulting in a suicide attempt at the start of the book (and a drinking binge later that night). The gangsters and criminals who compose the rest of the core cast survived and adjusted as well as they did because they’ve always had to fight for what they have. George made it to his introduction more by way of luck than anything else. Out of place as he feels, he prefers to let others make the big decisions when he can. Despite that, he is loyal to a fault and quite dependable.
Tommy Cheng provides my rebuke to the hideous “Yellow Menace” stereotype. Although a Chinese immigrant, Tommy bears none of the pulpy tropes. There is no mastery of the martial arts or silken robes or Eastern philosophy. Instead, he traded them in for a sharpshooter’s eyes and a sarcastic sense of humor. Rather than pidgin English, Tommy speaks with an “American” accent. Ambitious and smart as he is, I figured he’d be a quick study when it came to anything that might weaken the prejudices holding him back.
“Grim” Jim Long is the chief black character in the cast. Neither servile nor stupid in any sense of the word, Jim has no problem stepping into authority when necessary. Like the rest of the cast (except for George–again, poking fun at the absurdity of tropes that would have readers believe all minorities were meant for either service jobs or criminal careers), he has a criminal background, but rather than being motivated by greed, Jim got involved for the sheer intellectual challenge of the jobs he used to pull. I also had fun contradicting old stereotypes with him physically. He’s almost unnaturally tall, but gaunt and just past middle age instead of some bruiser. And while he is a hard-ass and looks the part, he also cares deeply about the people for whom he’s responsible. Maybe even a little too much.
Next time, I tell you just what kind of stuff these people are up against.
June 8, 2014
Background on Surviving the Crash – Part Two
Honoring the spirit of the old pulps while playing with their more appalling character elements proved an interesting challenge.
The first thing I knew was that I wanted a female hero. There would be no damsels in distress in my book. More than that, I wanted her rough, both in appearance and personality.
Enter Frances Borelli.
1920′s glamour had no place with any human character in a post-apocalyptic setting, let alone one with my hero’s violent history, and I wanted to make sure her appearance was a reflection of what she was about.
I made her clothing uniformly masculine to express her utilitarian attitude (and partly for a reason I don’t want to spoil here), offset by a bob cut intended as a nod to the nascent feminism of the era. I also provided her a tall, athletic build to make her intimidating presence genuine, with a prominent scar to hit the point home. The decision to make her Italian-American was pure tribute to my own ancestry. Her housing and elements of the voyage to the States covered in the book do indeed have a basis in reality.
I had to make sure her personality was almost as hard as her looks. Simply put, this is a woman who has been through some serious shit. Violence comes naturally to her at this point in her life, and she has few qualms about using it. That said, I wanted to introduce her in a way that showed she was still capable of compassion. From that seed, I could both make her a character worth caring about and one who has a great deal of room for personal growth. More than slaying monsters and putting down cults, her story is one about reclaiming the worthwhile parts of her humanity.
Next time, I’ll introduce you to more of the cast.
