Lori Michelle's Blog, page 3

The Gun

She sat looking at the gun in her hand. The weight of the handle pressed down on her as she contemplated how she had gotten to this point. Did she loath herself that much?  She caught her reflection in the mirror; the pale eyes, the lifeless hair; it wasn’t the woman that she knew.

Depression had been hitting her hard and she couldn’t explain the onslaught of sadness that seemed to rush over her constantly. What was the point of life anyway?  Did anyone know—did anyone care?

Sitting there holding the gun, she thought about the person she had become, and hated herself for it. All she wanted was to find someone who loved her, but instead turned into a loveless monster. Maybe she wanted too much. Maybe what she wanted didn’t exist. Maybe she didn’t have enough love for anyone to return it.

One day, she told herself, I’ll be important enough for someone to notice.  But that day seemed to never come. She thought she had found the one to love her. But she wasn’t important enough to him to leave his wife for. What kind of person was she? When had it become ok for her to be the other woman? The one that everyone abhorred.

He told her that his wife had become ill. She knew then, her feelings shouldn’t be important, wouldn’t be important. The look in his eyes showed the worry that he had for his wife and she knew. How could she still spend time with him, knowing that his wife needed him? She felt so selfish and hated who she had become. Because the selfish part of her didn’t want to let go.

She sighed and looked down at the .38 snub nose in her hand again. If she did, would anyone even notice that she was gone? But she knew that she couldn’t continue on the destructive path that she had taken. She didn’t even like herself anymore, how could she expect anyone else to?  She looked at the pale wan reflection in the mirror once more and watched her hand put the gun up to her temple. The tears were flowing down her face and she closed her eyes as her finger pulled the trigger.

reprinted from Dark Eclipse 11

A great review

Now I Lay Me Down to Reap, the Siren’s Call Anthology my story, “You Should Have,” is in  just got an awesome review.  Go check it out! http://knightmist.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/now-i-lay-me-down-to-reap-from-sirens-call-publications/

All About Halloween

Halloween. A time we all associate with candy and costumes. But where does the tradition come from? Like most American traditions, there is no clear cut evidence of it starting from any one origin, but rather a mish-mosh of various cultures.

The bulk of Halloween traditions come from the Celtic observance of Samhain, the celebration at the end of harvest. The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1st and viewed October 31st as being summer’s end. Around 40 AD, the Romans had conquered most of the land that had once belonged to the Celts and combined their festivals, Feralia and the festival of Pomona, with that of Samhain. Feralia was a day to honor the passing of the dead and the day after was to celebrate Pomona, goddess of fruits and trees. Both of these celebrations were used to celebrate the harvest and take count of the livestock and the amount of grain necessary to survive the winter. Also, Samhain festivals utilized bonfires that were considered the sacred fire needed to get through the cold winters. All winter hearth fires were drawn from Samhain bonfires.

In the 800s, Christianity had spread across the globe, and Pope Boniface IV declared November 1st to be All Saints’ Day, a day that is used to celebrate all saints, whether named or not. The celebration was called All-hallows or All-hallowmas with the night before (Samhain) being called All-hollows Eve, eventually becoming Halloween. In 1000 AD the Christian church added another day to honor the dead who had not reached Heaven yet, All Soul’s Day, on November 2nd. Together, All-hollows Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day were called Hallowmas, eventually morphing into the word Halloween as we know it.

Here in America, no Halloween celebration would be complete without dressing in costume. The Celtic people believed that on the night of Summer’s end (October 31st), the boundary between the living and the dead became more blurred. They thought that if they left their houses on this night that they would encounter ghouls and ghosts not belonging to the earthly world. So to avoid being recognized and antagonized by the spirits of the dead, they themselves wore masks in order to be confused with the other spirits. In the 19th century, children of Scotland began to wear costumes when they went out guising—visiting homes to be rewarded with cakes and other treats.

Costumes have gone from being supernatural figures such as monsters, ghosts, skeletons, witches and devils, to include a variety of other figures including princesses, ninjas and whoopee cushions. It is the only time of year where you can let your inner slut come out and not be judged; or dress up in a giant rubber penis suit and not be arrested. The first mass produced costumes in the US appeared in the 1930’s.

Trick-or-treating is another staple of American Halloween culture. It has said to come from the medieval tradition of a-souling. Poor people would go door-to-door begging for food with the promise of praying for the family’s dead relatives. This evolved into guising where young people went door-to-door in costumes for treats. In the U.S., trick-or-treating as we know it wasn’t popular until the late 1930s.

No Halloween decorating would be complete without a jack o’lantern. The myth of the jack o’lantern comes from an Irish legend about a man named Stingy Jack, who tricked the devil by trapping him in a tree when Jack made the sign of the cross on the trunk. The devil promised to never claim Jack’s soul in order to regain his freedom. When Jack died, he could not gain access into Heaven for being a trickster; nor was he allowed into Hell. since the devil had made an oath. So instead he was given a lump of burning coal which he put inside of a turnip in order to roam the earth, the light being his only companion. In the times of All Souls’ celebrations, carving a turnip and lighting it was used as a way of remembering the souls that were held in purgatory. When the Irish immigrants came over to North America, the turnip gave way to the pumpkin since the gourd was more plentiful. American traditions of carving pumpkins were originally associated with harvest time and not just Halloween.

Many games and other Halloween fun emulate from traditional superstitions. Most of these games and fun revolve around a female finding a suitor. Women frequently used Halloween as a time to see who their future mate was. One such way was to pare an apple peel and throw it over your shoulder. Whatever letter it made showed the initial of the first name of the man the female was to marry (mine was an M). Another was for the female to sit and look into the mirror; the face of her future beloved was said to be shown in the reflection. If the face was a skeleton, then the woman was forecast to die before she wed.

Another fun Halloween game is bobbing for apples. This may have come from the festival of Pomona as she was the goddess of fruit. It should be noted that Halloween tends to fall at the end of the apple harvesting season when apples are plentiful, so this may just be a coincidence. It is said that whoever comes up with an apple between their teeth first will be the next to wed.

A visit to a haunted house attraction is essential in celebrating Halloween. No one knows exactly where the tradition comes from, but it is believed that the first of such attractions was started by the Jaycee organization (the youth organization dedicated to leadership training) to gather funds. Since then, haunted attractions have grown to include mazes, hayrides and theme parks changing their interior. The first such theme park to do so was Knott’s Berry Farm (becoming Knott’s Scary Farm) in Buena Park, California. I know (having grown up about 5 miles from Knott’s Berry Farm) that tickets to Knott’s Scary Farm were hard to get, and you were considered lucky if you had the chance to go.

In the 1970s, there was a push to take everything scary out of Halloween to make it a more family friendly celebration. Halloween has long since lost its religious overtones, but still there are some people in the United States who don’t celebrate the season as they claim it to be a pagan holiday. The Catholic Church itself has sanctioned the celebration, stating that there is no harm in children dressing up once a year as long as it is only for fun. Many churches choose to emphasize the traditions of All Saints’ Day. Most Christians believe that Halloween is nothing more than a secular celebration.

Whatever your beliefs, Halloween is a time to come together in celebration, enjoy the company of others, and celebrate life. Plus it is a whole lot of fun to put on monster masks and scare the crap out of babies. Happy trick-or-treating!

Thanks for visiting. Now, don’t forget to check out all of the other blogs and websites participating in the Coffin Hop Blog Tour. And, don’t forget to check in tomorrow!

Let’s start hopping

Are you ready to get started?  Got your hoppin’ shoes on?  I do and I am ready to jump!

Make sure you visit everyday and comment, comment, comment!  For every comment made on the blog, you will get an entry.  For every retweet you get an entry.  For every promotion on FaceBook, you get an entry. (You need to prove the last two to me via email! lorimichelle7411@yahoo.com)

So first, make sure you hop on over to Facebook and friend me.

https://www.facebook.com/lorimichelleauthor

and like the page http://www.facebook.com/authorlorimichelle

Then hop on over to twitter and find me @authorLMichelle otherwise you won’t be able to retweet, now will you!

Then hop back here to see what excitement I have in store for you.  The winner will win a personalized autographed copy of Dual Harvest and a fabulous Dual Harvest poster.  How cool is that?

Also, make sure you visit Coffin Hop Headquarters to check out the other great authors who are joining me in this endeavor.  Make sure you enter to win their great prizes too.  It’s going to be a wicked good time.

Happy Birthday Big Boy

My little boy turned five today.  Five.  Can you believe it?  It seems like I was just giving birth to him.  Of course, every mother says that about any of her children.

But this is a little different; my little boy is different.  To be honest, there was a time when I wasn’t sure he was going to make it to that age of five.

You see, my little guy has leukemia.

On January 3, 2011, the doctors told me that they found leukemia cells in his bone marrow.  My heart stopped.  Not my little guy. Leukemia is something that happens to other kids; kids who weren’t mine.

There were two bright lights in this darkness of disease. One, his disease was caught on a fluke.  He had fallen and hurt himself. We went for a few months with unexplained fever and pain, but it was never severe enough to worry about.  Now don’t get me wrong, I did take him to an orthopedic doctor, but since it was Christmas time, nothing was going to be done about it.  Then my little guy slipped and fell again.

This time, he wouldn’t move too much.  He cried when he tried to move and he laid listlessly on the couch.  This was my rough-and-tumble football playing 3 year old just laying there helpless.  His fever raged and I took him back to the emergency room.

The doctors there didn’t know what was wrong with him. Nothing showed up on the x-rays.  Nothing weird showed up on the ultrasounds. Nothing was wrong with his blood counts. New Year’s Eve was spent holding my little boy and wondering what was wrong with him.

He was actually lucky to have fallen. If he hadn’t, his disease would have gone undiagnosed for however long. It was caught before it could do any major damage to his organs.

The second bright light is pure medical science. If my little man had been born even 20 years before, his diagnosis would have been a for sure death sentence. Now, they actually have the chemotherapy down to a specific schedule.

My boy’s blood is actually being used for a study.  He has an extra chromosome. Some boys who have this extra chromosome develop leukemia. The doctors and scientists are trying to see if they can eradicate it before the disease hits the body. If my boy’s illness can be a part of developing a cure of sorts, then it will be more of a miracle.

Little Man has been given a 95-99% success rate. The chances of the disease reoccurring is less than 15%. Technically he is now in remission, but will need to continue to undergo chemotherapy until March of 2014. Until then, I watch him everyday for fever and infection. I pray that he doesn’t get sick. I cringe in fear every time he sneezes. Because his little body has no way to fight off viruses and disease that the rest of take for granted. To a child undergoing chemo, a cold can be deadly.

Looking at him, you would never know he is ill. He runs with the other kids, rides bikes and throws the ball like any normal 5 year old. I am thankful that he has taken this journey well, and isn’t fearful of the doctors or the medications. I am thankful he is doing so well.  I am thankful that he is a fighter and survivor.

So, my little boy turned five today.  For most it is just another normal birthday.

For me, it is a blessing.

Guest Author: Mark Scioneaux

On Hollow Shell and why the Zombie Genre is Coming Back from the Dead
By: Mark C. Scioneaux

I cannot speak for all horror writers, but I think the first subject an aspiring writer tries to tackle is the zombie novel. There are a few reasons why the zombies are the popular choice, but mostly I believe it is due to the simplicity of the subject, and the way the story develops.

 

First, you have undead monsters. Scary, right? There is nothing more horrifying and heartbreaking than the thought of your mom, dad, sibling, child, etc. coming for you with no remembrance of who you were to them. All you are now is a meal. Second, it lets the writer craft a tale of survival, and doing what it takes to persevere during trying times of the walking dead. Third, and lastly, the aspiring writer can make a choice of where they want their novel to go. Gratuitous amounts of sex and gore? A cast of characters, ranging from your basic stereotypes to original and unlikely heroes? The writer is free to do what they want, for the world has ended and they are at the control panel. Writers are free to carve their own paths, and zombies help pave the way.

 

Why am I rambling about this? A few weeks ago, I received an email from a publisher. He was cancelling an anthology of which a story of mine had been submitted. His reasons were honest and understandable, but one didn’t sit well with me. He said the genre was flooded with bad zombie books. He wouldn’t make any return on his investment for the anthology he’d planned. The zombie genre was dead; a bullet put right between the eyes of the literary ghoul. To a point, I agreed. With the surge of self-publishing, it appears any and all aspiring authors, who don’t venture through traditional publishing venues for their work, have a zombie novel uploaded to Kindle. I’ve read more than my fair share. Some are great. Plenty are bad, often filled with poor editing and even worse writing. With the popularity of The Walking Dead leading the way, zombies have infiltrated every aspect of our pop culture. The public is burnt out, and who can really blame them? But I think they can be saved and restored back to the prominence and respect they deserve. It is my hope that my serial, Hollow Shell, assists in the revival of the zombie book.

 

When you start Hollow Shell, you’ll see I jammed my foot on the gas, and very rarely do I let up. The tale centers around one central character, Chris. He isn’t special, really; just an ordinary guy trying to do the right thing. He’s not a super soldier, or someone who can make headshots while sprinting through a field. He’s you. He’s me. I wanted to make him that way so you, the reader, would feel for him, think like him, and ultimately place yourself in his situation and contemplate over the choices you’d make if you were in his shoes. There is another character, Dawn, who joins Chris on a most epic journey. I won’t spoil it for you where they are going, or why, but it will be something pivotal that drives our main character forward, much to the dismay of the young woman accompanying him.

 

Chris and Dawn make a good pair, and I think they represent real people in a tragic situation. There is tension, violence, sex, and gore; all things one expects to happen when the laws and rules of society have been thrown out the window, but it’s kept in check. It’s balanced. It’s real. When I write, I try to put myself in my character’s shoes. How would I react? What would I say? How would I get out of this predicament? The result, I feel, is a story with realistic consequences to actions. I want to show the reader that yes, zombies are scary, but humans are so much worse. There will be times when you cheer for the zombies. Hopefully I’ve written enough moments that make your jaw drop and your fingers fumble your e-reader when you go to turn the page.

I plan to update the series every quarter. It will take time to not only write, but also go through the proper editing and proofreading channels. Self-publishing isn’t a bad thing. As a person who has been traditionally published and is co-owner of Nightscape Press, I feel this is what the Kindle was made for. But the key is you have to give the customer a professional product, and one you’d be happy to put your name on. I hope I have done this for you, the reader.

 

Hollow Shell is violent and tragic. It also has moments of humor and raw emotion. It is charged with a certain tension that I feel would exist in a situation like the one our two characters are thrust into. What I love the most about zombie literature isn’t so much the zombies, but the interaction of characters as the world falls apart. There are so many great opportunities for me as a writer to explore the human condition and psyche. That’s what draws me to post-apocalyptic books. The zombies are awesome. They give your characters a reason to act the way they do. But they’re only a part of the story. In Hollow Shell, you’ll care about the characters and realize that these are normal people trying to survive with the zombies as a backdrop. I hope you will keep up with Hollow Shell, because it’s going to be a wild ride.

 

In closing, I’d like to thank Lori Michelle for allowing me to share my thoughts on zombies. I hope you enjoy Hollow Shell and follow the series to the end, whenever that may be. Don’t abandon the zombie story. There are many good ones out there, and like the undead, they are going to just keep coming!

 

Aim for the head,

Mark C. Scioneaux

 

To Buy Hollow Shell: Part 1 – http://www.amazon.com/Hollow-Shell-Zombie-Epic-ebook/dp/B009QRX20I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350429640&sr=8-1&keywords=hollow+shell+zombies

Talk about it on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HollowShellAZombieEpic

Friend the author: https://www.facebook.com/mscioneaux

 

A sample from Hollow Shell: Part 1

“What have I done?” Chris said as he slid down the living room wall.

A faint trail of gray smoke rose from the gun, slowly dissipating into the atmosphere and stinging his running nose. His hands shook uncontrollably, so bad the gun almost fell from his limp grasp.

“Why, God? Jesus…Why?” he gasped, the tears starting to roll down his stubbly face.

With each passing moment, panic at the realization of what he had just done started to settle in. It was a sickening feeling developing deep in the pit of his stomach. He felt a wave of nausea wash over him. He closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

Why am I calling out to God? he thought, as the idea of asking an all-mighty and benevolent creator for help had proved to be a waste of time. God didn’t seem to be present at the moment he put a bullet right between the eyes of his loving parents and once beautiful sister. Those same eyes that gazed down on him the day he was born. Eyes at one time filled with unconditional love, now glazed over in a pale aqua-blue glow. The look they once bore replaced with an insatiable hunger. Chris couldn’t let them live like that. His sister, so beautiful and caring; so young and full of dreams, had been turned into a deformed creature. There was nothing left of who she once was. The same sister Chris beat up a playground bully for. The same sister whose ice cream cone hit the floor and Chris readily gave her his. The thought of her pain made him tear up and the urge to scream rushed up through his throat like vomit.

She had come toward him with the same look as his parents, those hungry, lifeless eyes. His hand made steady by a surge of adrenalin gave him a brief moment of clarity and precision, though his vision had become blurry with tears. The sound of her moaning and shuffling feet became louder as she moved closer. He aimed, closing his eyes as he pulled the trigger, feeling the hammer kick back and the gun jolt in his hand. The abrupt discharge was followed by a soft thud. He opened his eyes and in that moment came to the sick realization that he was an only child and an orphan. All done by his own hands.

One more bullet left in the chamber, he thought to himself, and that one is going to be for me.

The searing heat of the gun singed the inside of his mouth, but he didn’t care. One squeeze and everything would be all right. Just a loud noise, maybe a little pain and his troubles would cease to exist. Or maybe there wouldn’t be any pain at all. It would be a coward’s way out, but given the current events and his decaying mentality, it felt like the right thing to do. He closed his eyes tight as his finger slowly depressed the trigger. Just a little more, he thought. Just do it!

 

 

Coffin Hop!!

Are you ready to hop?  Have you been practicing?  Fully stretched and ready to go?  WELL, ARE YOU?

You’re right, hopping would be hard work, but luckily this hop isn’t so much effort. But your fingers need to be nimble and ready to comment, like, and share.  Everyone that likes, comments and shares a coffin hop blog post will get an entry.  At the end of the hop, all the entries will go into a cauldron and I will draw a winner.  Hey that winner could be you!

The winner will receive an autographed copy of Dual Harvest.  So bring your fingers and let them do the hopping.

So quit jumping up and down (unless you’re excited) and get ready to win!

Check it out

I am the featured author over on Juniper Grove.  Go check it out and try to win a free copy of Dual Harvest! http://www.junipergrove.net/featured-book-dual-harvest-by-lori-michelle-giveaway/

Coffin Hop 2012

And right now, you are saying “What the heck is a coffin hop?  Are they going to be jumping on caskets?”

My answer to you is, we are not quite that demented!  Coffin hop is a blog tour of some of the most influential independent horror writers of today.  And I am one of them, YAY!

So from October 24 through October 31st, make sure you drop by not only this blog, but some of the other blogs as well to meet new writers and to possibly win some cool stuff.  It’s going to be a blast.

Coffin Hop 2012 website

just ignore this post