Eileen Maksym's Blog, page 16
October 30, 2015
A Bleak New World has dawned!
BUY THE ANTHOLOGY HERE ON AMAZON FOR $2.99!
Starting at noon EST, the Bleak New World crew will be holding a release party on Facebook! Come, talk with the authors (including yours truly!) and maybe win a copy of your very own! It’s gonna be so awesome it will more than deserve every single exclamation point in this post!!!
October 29, 2015
A Bleak New World is imminent!
Tomorrow is the release of A Bleak New World, the dystopian anthology that features my short story “Incarnation”. I will be participating in a book release event on Facebook, so watch this space for a link and come join me! If you absolutely must have a taste of what’s to come right now, then I have a treat for you: the anthology authors have shared the backstories for their pieces on author Gregory Norris’s blog! Here’s a brief excerpt from mine:
I would often confront friends (and acquaintances…and people at parties…) with this question: if you were to switch brains with a friend, which person is you and which is your friend? Or are two new people created in the melding of minds and bodies?
Read more from me and the other authors here!
Don’t Fear The Reaper
No list of creepy music would be complete without this classic by Blue Oyster Cult. I know I’ve cranked this song up to 11 while speeding down the interstate in the middle of the night, windows open and wind whipping my hair as the moonlit road races beneath the wheels.
And there’s cowbell. The only cure for a fever.
Don’t fear the reaper, man.
October 28, 2015
Dayyyyyyyy-O
Tim Burton is the undisputed king of quirky, endearing horror. We’ll visit The Nightmare Before Christmas later, but for now let’s enjoy a scene from the iconic Beetlejuice. The people in this clip find themselves supernaturally compelled to dance to Harry Belafonte, and I dare you to watch and listen and not find yourself compelled to do the same.
Harry Belafonte, via Beetlejuice, with “Day-O.”
October 27, 2015
AhhhOoo!
Tonight is the full moon, and what better way to celebrate than with werewolves?
And vodka.
Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” is a classic, but I like this cover by Masha because it’s so slinky and sensual, it gives me shivers. Yes, it’s a commercial for vodka. I’ll take it.
Enjoy the song, and watch yourselves out there. The wolves are on the prowl.
October 26, 2015
Dressing up
One of the most fun things about Halloween are the costumes. The tradition is rooted in the notion that on Halloween night, the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is very thin, allowing all sorts of entities to cross over. People wore scary costumes so that the evil spirits would think they were one of them and not do them harm. In modern times, however, things have changed significantly. Nowadays we often dress up as things we admire and want to be. We enjoy putting on a face, and stepping into a role, just to see how it feels. We emulate, and we also make fun.
This is a cover of a Michael Jackson song, and the whole video is exactly that: emulation, and making fun. Everyone is dressing up in homage to Jackson, delivering tricks as well as treats. This is “Smooth Criminal” by Alien Ant Farm.
October 25, 2015
She’s a giggle at a funeral
This is yet another song about the dangers of love, about losing yourself in another human being even when they are no good. The narrator is willing to destroy the world if that’s what it takes to lay a sacrifice at the feet of his beloved, a cult of one.
This is Hozier with “Take Me To Church.”
October 24, 2015
Haunted by the promises I’ve made, and others I have broken
Hauntings happen when there’s a failure to move on from the past. According to lore, people become ghosts when they’re unable to be at rest due to some unresolved issue, some inability to accept the past and let go. And I think that’s the key to any sort of haunting, literal or figurative. People are haunted when they are unable to let go, of a lost love, of a trauma, of things that were and things that could have been but weren’t. Poe deals with that head on in this song, “Haunted.”
Listen, and consider: what haunts you?
October 23, 2015
I want to tear you apart
According to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight series grew out of a dream she had one night, in which she watched a tensely romantic moment between a man and woman. The man said he was afraid to get close to the woman because he was afraid he would kill her. When Meyer awoke, she was compelled to write to see how that scenario would play out. She’s hardly the only person to examine the link between sex and violence. Two of my favorite horror-themed shows, American Horror Story and Hannibal, examine this theme in-depth, and in particular the compulsion to consume the beloved.
This song puts that theme to one hell of a beat. It’s “Tear You Apart” by She Wants Revenge.
October 22, 2015
WHAT’S IN THE BOX???
Se7en was one hell of a movie, and it starts off with one hell of a remix of the seminal Nine Inch Nails song “Closer.” The song is fantastically creepy all on its own. If you’ve seen the movie, it’s all the creepier.
