Patrick C. Greene's Blog: BEST BLOG EVER!, page 17

The Book Tour - Interviews

More coming...
Patrick visits The Author SpotPatrick visits The Book ConnectionPatrick visits Drippings from the Mind of Me

PROGENY is HERE!

IT'S HERE!

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Are you ready for Halloween??

A Special Halloween Double-Shot of short stories by PROGENY author Patrick. C. Greene. In the first, lonely widow Mrs. Tucker suspects something besides trick-or-treaters is lurking outside. Then - a second nail-biting tale of teenage pranksters and the real cost of choosing "tricks" over "treats."] Just click on the scrolling banner at the top of the page to order for the Amazon Kindle! Coming Soon for NOOK and KOBOS.

CHOOSING THE PERFECT TITLE: PART 1

A glance at the venerated New York Times Bestseller List reflects whatever might pass for current "trends" in titling. Alliterative, (Gone Girl, Winter of the World) lyrical (The Light Between Oceans), to-the-point (A Wanted Man), enigmatic (The Casual Vacancy), whimsical (This Book is Full Of Spiders), and generic (Phantom, Down To You). Looking over these, I'm given to wondering if anyone has ever agonized -as I have- over the perfect title for their work.
It seems like a lot of factors to consider. Too pedestrian and it may not stand out as interesting. Too wordy might seem pretentious. A little descriptive might give away plot details. Too simple might give the impression that the author has little imagination. A perfect happy medium then, would hint at the story, offer a poetic hint and be easy to remember. Right? One would think. 
If I'm honest, I have to admit that I lean toward the pretentious, or at least the imaginative. My novel PROGENY has at its core, a horror story about a ferocious family of sasquatches. If asked what it's about, I would be tempted to stress its theme of father/son relationships and the delicate dynamics thereof--and I'd pretty much sound like a jackass. The title makes that point--enigmatically and via a nifty vocab word that makes me sound smart. Now I have to rely on the cover art and word of mouth to convey that it has monsters in it. But I stand by that title. There are enough books and films with the word bigfoot in the title; more than one with that word alone as its title, in fact. Now if only there weren't a couple of dozen other books called PROGENY. 
Still, mine is the only book called PROGENY that features rampaging bigfoots! 
Some of you horror fans may have seen a film called Pumpkinhead. Back when that film was first completed, it fell into a sort of limbo. The distributing studio switched heads and may well have gone the direct-to-video route, thanks to the new suit, who wanted to re-title it Vengeance: The Demon, and dump it into video stores. Clearly, that title denotes little imagination and his decision shows no faith in its theatrical potential. Not sure what happened next; but obviously at some point, this guy was no longer in the picture. Pumpkinhead got its original title back and had a nice theatrical run. However, can I honestly say I would have been less interested in seeing it under the Vengeance title? No. I'd have probably seen it anyway. But I'm strange--what of the average filmgoer? 
So there's another facet to my dilemma. How do I know whether my quirky sense of what sounds cool will ring to potential readers? 
I've submitted scripts to filmmakers who have told me they liked everything but the title. I've had the same script dismissed by someone different-who then wanted to do something else with the title! I guess William Goldberg was right: nobody knows anything. 
MORE TO COME

SHOP GREENE's FIENDS

Find all of your HORROR FAVORITES at  GREENE's FIENDS

BILL'S BECOMING

Here's your FREEBIE!!! 
Now through Monday you can download Bill's Becoming for free!"Body horror, biological horror, organic horror or venereal horror is horror fiction in which the horror is principally derived from the graphic destruction or degeneration of the body" ~wikipedia


CLICK HERE to download BILL'S BECOMING!

A BITTERSWEET OCTOBER

As fall winds usher in not only my favorite season but the occasion of my first novel, PROGENY, being published, I’m given to some introspection.
Four years ago in October, my father passed away suddenly. A journalist and novelist himself, Lewis Green was hugely supportive of my writing efforts. From my childhood’s Godzilla fan-fic pieces scribbled on yellow notepads to my more recent short stories and screenplays, my father was always enthusiastic in wanting to read my work. A short film I made based on a script I’d written in 2004 made him so proud he cried. He immediately had copies made to distribute to anyone who would take one.
He found the screenplay format confounding; offering little opportunity, in its leanness, for descriptive expression. He made an effort to look past this for the sake of giving me an honest critique. His reviews were always shining. While I was well aware of his bias, I was no less encouraged. He had several novels and a collection of short stories under his belt, had worked for years as a newspaper journalist and editor and taught classes in both creative writing and journalism. Whatever talent I can be said to have I owe to him.
On November 13th, the good folks at Hobbes End will release The Endlands: Volume 2. I’m lucky to be a part of this anthology, which, like the last volume contains a story of mine as well as my introduction. More importantly, it will also feature a story by my own son Deklan. To be published alongside my son is a special occasion for me, a milestone that fills me with as much pride as I hope my father would have felt if he and I had been published together.
I’m sad that he is not here to see that his grandson has also inherited his gift, perhaps in greater measure than I have. I wish he was around to see the publication of my first novel, as well as the production of whichever of my screenplays in development purgatory makes it to production first. I would like to have presented him with a copy, which he would have insisted on having me sign, and seen the smile and twinkle it would have brought to his eyes.
Being that PROGENY’s central theme is the often-stormy but deeply profound nature of father-son relationships, its publication is especially meaningful to me, this bittersweet October.  I’ve dedicated it to Deklan, with the hopes that he too, will one day have the joy of an amazing son. 

BILL'S BECOMING

CLICK HERE to download story from Amazon!
"Bill Travers looked with bitter eyes at his reflection. Since puberty, that time when humans learn to care about such things, Bill had been painfully aware that he was ugly."

VOLUME 2 ~ Pre-order Today!!

PRE-ORDER TODAY!


There is a place outside human knowledge, a place where myth and legend collide. A place far beyond human reasoning. The thin veil between reality and make-believe is lifted in The Endlands, a place not of imagination, for everything you see here is real.In the Endlands, nothing is what it seems. noises are not what you think, no place is off limits.Nothing is safe.Welcome to a place where time stands still . . . no one leaves and no one willWelcome to The Endlands

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D TRAILER HAS ARRIVED...

Whether you're a fan or not, you have to admit; the original THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is a milestone of modern American cinema. It's gotten the remake treatment, (twice!) multiple sequels, and a prequel, not to mention numerous imitations. Having now found its way into the hands of Lionsgate, the production company that brought us the SAW series, the franchise is getting the 3D treatment. 
Due for release in January, this latest murderous adventure of the series' unique main character are teased in a trailer that arrived just last week, which can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqCe2pDfICE 
I'm not a reflexive hater of the remake trend; some decent ones have come along and the originals get a little attention during the cycle, so it's all good in my eyes. I don't have to watch the remakes of PULSE or BLACK CHRISTMAS, films that are already damn near perfect-and I haven't. TC3D, as I'm sure it will come to be known, appears to fall into the re-boot category -as opposed to a full-on remake or sequel; which means our friends at Lionsgate would have had to walk a line at some point between staying true to the expectations held by fans of the original, and crossing over into the expectations of today's casual horror moviegoer. Success is based on ticket sales, after all, and not the opinions of hardcore fans.
As one of the aforementioned hardcore fans of the original -and yes, some of the other entries- I have certain expectations of my own; cherished notions of what a TCM movie should be, you might say. Looking at the trailer, I mostly like what I see--mostly.
Tobe Hooper's "Bubba Sawyer" Leatherface, whose first appearance in the original is easily one of the most intensely terrifying moments in horror history, is a different kind of slasher, if he can even be called that. There are characters who kill because they enjoy it, and there are killers who kill because they have to-that voice in their heads you know, or that compulsion from a sinister source outside themselves. Leatherface -in his truest incarnation- kills because he sees it as a job. In his childish mind, he seems to have no more interest in what his victims are experiencing than any other butcher. We are food, ingredients for the chili and sausages and whatever other meat-based recipes his family might be cooking. Witness the dementedly poignant scene in TCM 3, in which a frustrated Bubba, engaging, perhaps, in some homeschooling on his See-and Spell, tries again and again to identify a picture of a boy , hunting and pecking the little keypad with his meaty fingers to spell F-U-D, over and over.
Even the 2003 remake and its prequel, with Leatherface pointedly made over as a different character with a new name (Thomas Hewitt) and different family, kept those elements of his personality that made us feel an odd sympathy for him--as though he was a hopelessly rabid dog who should be put down as a matter of mercy.
The TC3D trailer seems to paint a different picture. One telling scene has Ol' Leathy coming up behind a bound and seated captive, resting his chainsaw across her shoulder as if to mock her and instill terror, like one of the torture-happy villains of the Hostel films. Hardly something a butcher just putting in his daily hours would do with the unfortunate livestock sent to the slaughter on his watch. Perhaps I am reading the scene wrong. Time will tell. But the trailer, together with its synopsis, implies that our old meat-loving monster is sort of squatting in the film's requisite mansion, unattended by the also deranged but more functional family members who both cared for and manipulated the old Bubba--a manchild so unstable that it's doubtful he could have made it for long on his own; another reason he was of the "tragic monster" ilk, like so many classic horrors.
Now I have no problem with the notion that Leatherface could change, grow--even become more self-reliant to some degree. In TCM 2, we find our favorite hulking cannibal smitten with the film's Final Girl, even gifting her with the freshly-removed face of her dear friend, and coming to realize on some level that his beloved power tool is a surrogate phallus. If that's not character maturation I don't know what is.
However, reducing Leatherface to a silent, lumbering thrill killer seems a bit...generic, considering all that's come before. 
Lionsgate has almost always been good to horror fans. Let's hope the film is so packed with amazing characterization that a brief trailer simply cannot do it justice-or that director