Candy Korman's Blog, page 24

Monster's POV

My latest Monster Meditation is entitled:

Sympathy for the Monster

See the post on my Candy's Monsters Blog:
http://candysmonsters.com/2012/10/15/...

Point-of-view is a critical part of storytelling that both readers and writers enjoy. Flip the POV and the entire narrative changes. Good is bad, bad is good and everything gets blurry — just like life.

In Mary Shelley's masterpiece she makes a great case for the monster, but most of us remember the doctor's story as it is told in most of the movie versions. Check out my blog post and enjoy a little sympathy for the monster!

Real Life & Fiction

I think most writers mine their lives to add texture and environmental details to storytelling. But — since I'm not a vampire, werewolf, witch or ghost (really, I'm not!) — my real life can only take me so far in fiction.

In today's Monster Meditation on my Candy's Monsters blog, I'm pondering the bits and pieces of me that wind up in characters.

http://candysmonsters.com/2012/10/11/...

I'm also visting some of the best gargoyles in New York!

Lonely Monsters/Social Monsters

In classic horror stories, the MONSTERS are isolated creatures. Dracula lives in his castle and the wolf-man is a lonely soul suffering under a terrible curse. But in contemporary supernatural fiction, urban fantasies, paranormal romances, science fiction, fantasy and horror, the mythology of monsters has changed.

Contemporary monsters are social beings.

I'm exploring the transformation of monsters from loners to social butterflies on my Candy's Monsters Blog. Be sure to check out the post and chime in with your thoughts on the subject.

http://candysmonsters.com/2012/10/08/...

The Aroma of MONSTERS

My newest MONSTER MEDITATION is on the sense of smell.

I invite you to visit the Candy's Monsters blog and get a whiff of the monstrous aromas in the air!

http://candysmonsters.com/2012/10/05/...

Becoming a GHOST

I've recently completed a ghostwriting project.

Working on another person's memoir is an adventure. Through several drafts — and several years — I worked hard to produce a manuscript that reflects her unique point-of-view and not mine. It was a challenge and, I think, ultimately, a triumph.

The Writania writers site, gave me the opportunity to share the experience. Here's the link to my guest post on Writania:

http://writania.com/becoming-a-ghost-...

Thinking About Halloween

I'm thinking about Halloween. I know it's more than a month away, but it has a way of sneaking up on me. Last year I showed up at the gym for a Zumba class wearing black velvet cat ears, a black feathery tail, white gloves with black fuzzy bracelet cuffs, a white t-shirt and black leggings. A few minutes into the latin music and most of my costume was shed — faster than my real cat sheds hairs!

This year, I think I'll confine my costume-wearing to an evening event. Maybe I'll be "The Bride of Frankenstein" but I'd better figure out the Elsa Lancaster hair in advance or I'll wind up as the black & white cat again.

New Kind of Book Blog

There's a new blog for readers & writers and I think it's a great idea. Authors post their favorites and readers get an opportunity to learn what novelists like to read.

http://novelsauthorsread.wordpress.com/

We're all influenced by a variety of sources — classics, children's books, literature assigned in college... I remember reading Stephen King's "Carrie" when I was home from school with the flu. My grandmother was watching me and had no idea that my mom had left a scary book where I might find it.

"Carrie" with a high fever — explains a lot about me.

Classic Theater & Classic Monsters

I saw a new Broadway production of Ibsen's classic, Enemy of the People. It's a new adaptation, shorter and crisper than the one I remember reading ages ago. In addition to an amazing cast headed by Boyd Gaines and Richard Thomas (yes that Richard Thomas from the Waltons), the is play startling because is it relevant right now.

Switch out a tannery polluting the Norwegian town's new money-making spa for fracking in upstate New York — or any one of a number of controversies pitting economic interests against environmental needs — and the play could take place right now.

Classics have staying power because they transcend time and place.

In my Candy's Monsters ebook series, I'm exploring classic horror with an eye to how it fits in today. I hope you'll give my NEW stories a try largely because they are rooted in such rich soil. Classic MONSTERS never die, they just morph a bit.

Films that Make Me Think...

I really enjoy it when a movie makes me think!

I just saw 'The Queen of Versailles.' It's a documentary about wealth, real estate, greed, family and MONEY. In many ways the real people in the film are MONSTERS.

They are ruled by monstrous desires for stuff, status, power, love or all of the above. I know I'll be thinking about the issues raised in this movie for a long time. Writing, as I do, about monsters, I'm often confronted with out-of-proportion aspects of monsters and how many real people are monstrous in intriguing and disturbing ways.

The desire to live in and to build the largest house in the U.S. and to model that house on the palace of Versailles is the kind of out-sized ambition that drives people toward an inevitable fall. Much like the flawed heroes of Greek mythology and much like the monstrous ambitions of Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll in classic works of horror fiction.

I was inspired by this film. Where this inspiration will lead, I don't yet know, but it is going somewhere!

Stephen King Week

It's Stephen King Week on the Insatiable Booksluts blog:

http://insatiablebooksluts.com/2012/0...

I'm primarily a fan of classic horror and the inspiration for my Candy's Monsters series of ebooks are all classics, but one has to admire the ingenuity and versatility of the modern master — Stephen King.

Check out the Insatiable Booksluts tribute.