A.R. Braun's Blog, page 2

Is True Life Really Stranger Than Fiction?

There are a lot of events that make it seem like real life is stranger than fiction: John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Ted Bundy. Wow, those are good examples. And let’s not forget that some of the best fiction stories are based on true events: Jack Ketchum’s The Lost, based on the Manson family, and Ketchum’s The Girl Next door, based on the real story of a girl tortured by neighborhood kids in a basement. How can anyone argue that fiction is stranger?

 

 

I feel it’s up to the author. If a writer really digs, can’t he come up with something crazier than real life? Are our imaginations really that limited? Doesn’t reality bite, like the movie says? I say it does. Wouldn’t it take a writer on an ego trip to say fiction can be weirder? Probably, but I’m still not convinced.

 

In the next novel I’m planning to put out, there are inhumanly insane events that take place. And I’m not talking about a low body count. Still, wouldn’t what Hitler and the Nazis did outdo anything anyone can dream up? Of course…up to now.

 

It’s been said that if true life is stranger than fiction, than the writer has a limited imagination. I agree with this. I think we, as horror authors (I’m hoping that this blog is being read by writers of the macabre), should stretch our imaginations, make readers believe the mondo bizarre with dynamic writing, and outdo the truth.

 

Something to ponder.

Review of Vostok, Interview with Steve Alten, and Book Giveaway

After reading Vostok by Steve Alten, the sequel to The Loch, all I can say is what a trip! After nearly drowning for a second time when trying to purge Loch Ness of Nessie in the last book, marine biologist Zachary Wallace goes on a mind-bending journey in a submersible tethered to a laser to Lake Vostok in East Antartica, unexplored for fifteen million years, where he encounters Mesozoic life, including an enormous crocodile, and an alien intelligence. In the end, Zach finds he can’t trust his government or the military, only his family from Drumnadrochit, the highland area of Scotland.

 

This sci-fi thriller never lets up, punishing the protagonist more and more as he goes forward for the greater good. Just when you think it can’t get more bizarre, Alten pushes the envelope even more, just as he did in The Loch. I give this killer book five stars out of five, and I recommend it to anyone looking for an eerie, action-packed novel.

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH STEVE ALTEN:

 

1. How did you get into writing?

 

I was struggling to find a career back in 1995 and came across a TIME Magazine article featuring the Mariana Trench. The article stirred my imagination and I married the location with my favorite creature of all time – MEGALODON, the 60 foot prehistoric great white shark. Six months late I had a raw manuscript. Five months after that, I had an agent, a polished novel, and a two-book deal with Bantam-Doubleday.

 

2. What’s your favorite book, and why?

 

My favorite Alten book? Really impossible to say. I enjoy them all. But MEG was the most important. I just went back and rewrote the entire book, combining it with the never-released-in-print prequel, MEG: Origins. The limited edition is being sold at www.RebelPress.com and is a completely different read. Maybe that’s my favorite.

 

3. An early scene in The Loch terrified me. Are you into horror at all?

 

All of my thrillers have elements of horror in them.

 

4. What’s your favorite genre, or do you love more than one?

 

Fictional thrillers.

 

5. I loved The Loch, about the Loch Ness Monster, and Vostok, about a giant crocodile, but’s also about much more. I’m guessing research for Vostok took a long time. Could you elaborate on how the book was researched?

 

A ton of research was necessary. Getting the science right is very important to me. To enable my characters to access Vostok, I contacted Bill Stone of Stone Aerospace, the company that is designing a drone to access the frozen seas on the Jupiter moon, Europa. Bill was incredibly helpful, enabling the Vostok journey to be feasible. Then there’s research about the lake itself, and the monsters, and the ET…

 

6. Tell me about the Meg series and the Domain trilogy.

 

The MEG series centers around Carcharodon megalodon, the 60-70 foot long, 30 ton prehistoric cousin of the Great White shark. DOMAIN is the first book in a trilogy about the Mayan Calendars doomsday prophecy. The hero, Michael Gabriel, is locked up in a Miami insane asylum, diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic. He must convince his new intern, Dominique Vasquez that the world is about to end so she’ll help him escape. Book two is Resurrection, book three is PHOBOS: Mayan Fear. The series is known as El Testamaneto Maya in Spanish and was a number one best-seller in Spain, Mexico, and Argentina.

 

7. Is there a possibility of movies based on The Loch and Vostok?

 

The LOCH has been optioned. If the movie is made and is a hit, I’m sure we’ll see Vostok.

 

8. Do you plan on venturing into any other genres?

 

I actually wrote a laugh-out-loud comedy called Dog Training the American Male, under the pen name L.A. Knight. The story centers around Dr. Nancy Beach, a relationship counselor who hosts a local radio show called Love’s a Beach. One problem: The relationship guru can’t seem to make her own relationships work, sending her credibility and ratings into the toilet. When her new boyfriend brings home a 120 pound German Shepherd. Nancy flips out . . . until she realizes the dog trainer’s techniques can be used to housebreak her boyfriend. That begins a wild hilarious social experiment that every couple and dog owner can identify with.

 

9. What’s a typical day as far as your writing?

 

Not sure there are any typical days anymore. A focused day has me exercising in the morning, answering email, then writing thru lunch up until dinner. I used to write from midnight until 3am, but my wife works full-time now and I must rise earlier to take my son to school.

 

10. What are your goals or ideas for novels in the future? Any screenwriting?

 

I’m tossing around two very different ideas for thrillers and debating which one to write first. I’m also hoping for a big MEG movie announcement soon.

 

Thanks so much for Steve Alten for my free copy of the book and for giving me an interview, and let’s not forget the giveaway of fifty signed print copies of Vostok on Steve Alten’s homepage. Go there and enter. What have you got to lose? Here’s the link:

 

http://www.ireadbooktours.com/blog—current-tours/book-tour-vostok-by-steve-alten

 

Vostok Tour Schedule:

March 16 – Cheryl’s Book Nook - review / author interview / giveaway

March 16 – Horror Maiden’s Book Reviews - review / author interview

March 17 – Working Mommy Journal - review / giveaway

March 17 – Adam Oster, Adventure Novelist - review / guest post

March 18 – Back Porchervations - review / author interview / giveaway

March 18 – The All Night Library - review / guest post

March 19 – Hello, my name is Alice - review / guest post

March 19 – Girl With Camera - review / giveaway

March 20 – So, I Read This Book Today - review / author interview / giveaway

March 20 – Steve Lionel – Top Amazon Reviewer - review 

March 23 – The Eloquent Page - review

March 23 – A. R. Braun Horror Author - review / author interview / giveaway

March 24 – She Treads Softly - review

March 24 – Room With Books - book spotlight / author interview / giveaway

March 25 – Life as Leels - review 

March 25 – Pinky’s Favorite Reads - book spotlight

March 26 -Luxury Reading - review / giveaway

March 27 – JBronder Book Reviews - review / author interview

March 30 – Space and Sorcery - review / guest post

March 31 – Books, Bones and Buffy - review / guest post / giveaway

April 1 – fundinmental - review / author interview / giveaway

April 1 – Nighttime Reading Center - review / author interview / giveaway

April 2 – Pure Jonel - review / author interview / giveaway

April 2 – Library of Clean Reads - review / author interview / giveaway

April 3 – fuonlyknew - review / author interview / giveaway

April 6 – The Earthian Hivemind - review

April 7 – Amia Book Lover - review

April 7 – Brooke Blogs - review / guest post / giveaway

April 8 – Boom Baby Reviews - review / author interview / giveaway

April 9 – Rockin’ Book Reviews - review / giveaway

April 10 – Deal Sharing Aunt - review / giveaway

April 10 – Beauty in Ruins – review / author interview

Book Synopsis:

East Antarctica: The coldest, most desolate location on Earth. Two-and-a-half miles below the ice cap is Vostok, a six thousand square mile liquid lake, over a thousand feet deep, left untouched for more than 15 million years. Now, marine biologist Zachary Wallace and two other scientists aboard a submersible tethered to a laser will journey 13,000 feet beneath the ice into this unexplored realm to discover Mesozoic life forms long believed extinct – and an object of immense power responsible for the evolution of modern man.

In this sequel to The Loch and prequel to the upcoming MEG 5: Nightstalkers, New York Times best-selling author Steve Alten offers readers a crossover novel that combines characters from two of his most popular series.

Author’s Bio:Steve Alten is the New York Times and International bestselling author of fourteen novels, including the MEG series about Carcharodon Megalodon, the 70-foot, 100,000 pound prehistoric cousin of the Great White shark and Domain trilogy, a series about the Mayan Calendar’s 2012 doomsday prophecy. His work has been published in over 30 countries and is being used in thousands of middle and high school curriculum as part of Adopt-An-Author, a free teen reading program, which he founded with teachers back in 1999.


 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Way-Past-Overdone and Do It Again

I’ve complained and complained about the endless overdoing of vampires and zombies–sometimes even douchey (the Twilight series and Warm Bodies)–but I still seem to be one of the only people in the world who knows that horror should be original. What gives? To me, this endless flogging of a dead horse seems an easy way to sell out and make tons of money, because most people just don’t have good taste.

 

Vampires, vampires, vampires; zombies, zombies, zombies, over and over again, rinse and repeat. It’s gotten to the point where I won’t even read a vampire or zombie novel or watch a vamp/zomb movie anymore, although there are rare exceptions to the rule like The Strain and Contracted. It sure isn’t The Walking Dead anymore, which I call The Walking Dud. What was it, last season they were wondering around in the wilderness? No wonder Frank Darabont doesn’t care enough to get involved anymore. And one of the exceptions sure isn’t It Follows, which I call Boredom Follows, a film that seems to have the critics creaming their jeans (Why doesn’t that surprise me?), but bores me to death. Wow, a girl running out of her house, looking at the camera, then running back in, and then out again, and driving away. Zzzzzzzz. SPOILER ALERT: Giving away a zombie virus by having sex, that doesn’t even make sense. How many times can George Romero and Bram Stoker get ripped off?

 

It’s not right for the authors that care about creativity–meaning being original–to get thrown under the bus for these writers and filmmakers to do the literary and film equivalent of scraping their nails on a blackboard. But, so often, real horror authors end up working for small presses or self-publishing. In some cases, newbies just need to learn to stop it, writing stories too much like Dracula. (I was one of those, so, fellow rookies, don’t feel bad.) But to senselessly overdo these creatures for money when you know better–meh.

 

World, please wake up! I’ve had enough of Dracula saying, “Bleh”! And the zombie apocalypse didn’t happen in 2012!

I Got Runner-Up in the Stuff Writer’s Like Writing Contest

I’ve found the staff at the Stuff Writer’s Like Website (stuffwriterslike.com) to be personable folks, and when they announced they were taking pieces for their writing contest, I jumped at the chance. I didn’t know if I’d place, but I decided to write the best article I could. I mean, what the hell? I never thought I’d get second place.

 

By the way, here’s my article: http://stuffwriterslike.com/examining...

 

It’s always great to be acknowledged for your talent. It seems the longer I write, the less credit I get, so I’m beyond grateful for this honor. And I hope to write as much as I can for the site.

 

Also, here’s my Twenty Questions and a Selfie article on the same site, if you haven’t seen this yet: http://stuffwriterslike.com/20-questi...

 

Long live Stuff Writers Like!

Always Back Up Your Files!

I know, this seems like a No shit, Sherlock moment. I mean, duh! Of course you back up your files! But it’s not always that obvious. In fact, it’s easy to fall into the trap of not doubling your files.

 

Here’s where I got snared. As a newbie writer, I was always a good little backer-upper. Then I got hacked, and I had to pay Microsoft a big chunk of money to take the virus out. Then I was hacked again about five years later, and rinse and repeat with Microsoft. This got me thinking: if they’ve hacked me, they’ve got all my files of the novels and screenplays I’ve written in My Documents. Therefore, I quit putting them into My Documents and began backing up my files on my old desktop computer (which doesn’t have the Internet), as well as on a flash drive. This is where I shot myself in the foot.

 

Then I got sick of having to tear down my laptop and then fire up my desktop at the end of each workday, and quit doing it. I mean, bad stuff like losing novels and screenplays only happens to other people, right? That’s where I cut my throat.

 

Someone broke into my apartment and stole my newest flash drive, which contained my new novel and the new screenplay I’d just started. I didn’t have the novel backed up anywhere else, which actually isn’t my fault: I did back up that one up on my desktop, but that piece of shit failed me and only contained the prologue when I searched it for my novel. As far as the new screenplay, I’d barely started it, so it’s not too much trouble to start over again; the novel’s another story, however. I spent the whole month of November writing that thing, and I’m not writing it again.

 

In short, ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR FILES ON MY DOCUMENTS AND A FLASH DRIVE–OR DVD DRIVE, OR A FLOPPY A DRIVE FOR THAT MATTER. Point being, you can take the portable drives with you in case of a fire, and you’ve got your My Documents files if your flash drive gets stolen.

 

Let’s be honest, I’m not a Rhodes scholar. I write horrorbooks. Don’t be stupid and get fucked like me! Location, location, location: My Documents and a flash drive.

My New Top Twenty Favorite Books

I want to update this list, since I just finished a Ray Garton novel that’s now my third favorite book ever. Hopefully, this will be a fun post, and you readers can leave a comment mentioning your top twenty list, so we can compare. Believe it or not, it gets scarier than Stephen King (in my opinion), but he’s one of my favorites, for I feel he’s the most consistent. Here goes!

 

1. Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin

2. The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson

3. Shackled – Ray Garton

4. The Exorcist – William Peter Blatty

5. Coffin County – Gary A. Braunbeck

6. In Silent Graves – Gary A. Braunbeck

7. The Girl Next Door – Jack Ketchum

8. The Lost – Jack Ketchum

9. The Stand – Stephen King

10. The Shining – Stephen King

11. Pet Sematary – Stephen King

12. ‘Salem’s Lot – Stephen King

13. Night Shift – Stephen King

14. The Dead Zone – Stephen King

15. Christine – Stephen King

16. The Servants of Twilight – Dean R. Koontz

17. Demon Seed – Dean R. Koontz

18. Phantoms – Dean R. Koontz

19. Cujo – Stephen King

20. Firestarter – Stephen King

Slashers: Swords of the Lord?

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how horror movies were better when I was a kid than they are now–where real horror was lauded, not douchey vampires and zombies–the exception being slasher films. But the latter, while sort of being horror shooting itself in the head, still interest me. Have you ever noticed that the pot-smoking kids engaging in underage beer guzzling and pre-marital sex are the ones that get axed? I have. And that’s exciting to me, in that the slashers become the cruel messengers sent after the wicked promised in the book of Proverbs (17:11). But that’s just how the King James Version puts it. Check out the NIV: “Evildoers foster rebellion against God; the messenger of death will be sent against them.” Man, “messenger of death”! That’s brutal, and it’s got my wheels turning.

 

Or should I worry about too many morals seeping into fiction?

 

Then I ponder A Nightmare on Elm Street, where the children pay for the “sins of the fathers,” as spoken of in the Old Testament (Exodus 34: 7, Numbers 14:18, Deuteronomy 5:9). This makes me muse over how we horror authors might be getting preachy while not consciously trying to do so.  Also, in terror, I realize that not only is my dad divorced, but also so am I! We both found rocky times our first marriages.

 

You know what? I think I’ll pass on going to the bar tonight.

 

Then I think about the man who killed Jeffrey Dahmer in prison. Jesse Scarver said that God told him to do it. Wow, now it’s creeping into real life! Could the eerie subject dealt with in the movie Frailty, where a man claims God is telling him to murder people who are really “demons,” be a real-life thing? I know the “sins of the fathers” thing is real, for I’m paying for my dad’s sin of divorce by being divorced myself.

 

After considering all this diligently, my personal decision is not to worry about being preachy in my stories, but to let the tale be the boss, and write the piece in the most entertaining manner possible. That’s my no. 1 goal, to pen a great read…

 

…and stay away from pot and pre-marital sex. Ha-ha!

How Far Is Too Far?

Let’s face it: there are a lot of trolls on the Internet doing anything they can to upset artists, authors being without exception. This is something I’ve struggled with during my just-over-seven-year career as a author. First, as a newbie, I was taught at a writer’s conference to always be professional. Then, another author told me to just say it when I’ve got something on my mind, which of course would eventually get me in trouble, especially if I tell an editor off–even if I don’t get a sample copy–because they have a network, and they do talk.

 

So what’s the code of ethics on this?

 

Obviously, writers should be in control of their emotions on sites like Twitter and just report on the horror scene. But what if someone is walking all over you on your personal Website–or the site’s forum–and you’ll look daft if you let it go on? In this case, I’d say politely warn the person doing the damage and give him an ultimatum: either try to be civil or be banned. This seems the best course of action to me.

 

Any suggestions? I’m interested on reading comments about this.

To Nano or Not to

One mistake newbie writers make is assuming–which, remember, is always making an ass out of “u” and “me”–that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, or nanowrimo.org) is a great undertaking for everybody. I mean, writing a novel in a month is a win/win, right? The answer is, in my opinion, only if you’re having trouble stretching your novels past novella length (around 100 pages, or 20,000 to 50,000 words). This is my situation. (No, I’m not lazy; I’ve already written rough drafts of a lot of novels that have yet to be critiqued. Yes, it gets harder after a while, at least for me.)

 

First of all, you shouldn’t need National Novel Writing Month to get your butt in a chair. This should come with discipline, which at first does not come easy. After I read King’s On Writing, asking for four hours a day, I had to bribe myself by playing albums as I was working. Four hours a day–in a row–is hard on any ass.

 

Second, I’m not sure you’ll come up with a brilliant novel in one month. If you’re a better writer than me, you probably can, but I need at least a couple, if not three to six. It’s just not long enough to get a decent rough draft. To me, NaNo can seem like a race, and as usual, slow and steady wins it, in my opinion. At least slower than 100,000 words in a month (I type at about forty-five words a minute, but I strive for about 2,100 words a day). Keep in mind that NaNo awards are handed out on the twenty-fifth, giving you less than a month. That’s 52,500 words for me–if I’m at full-steam ahead every day, which I’m not–and I’ve heard that agents want very close to 80,000 words.

 

Great things can happen when you get butt in chair and pound it out–the novel I’m having critiqued started out with a vague idea and went full-fledged crazy on me, in a good way–but you’ll probably want to ask yourself which is better, hurrying to finish a draft, or taking your time and letting description flow. And I mean excellent, devil-detailed description like King, Koontz, and Ted Dekker.

Horror Set to Music

In my opinion, one does not have to be affiliated only with the written word to be a horror writer. There are certain metal bands or frontmen of metal bands who are brilliant horror authors.

 

King Diamond, chief lyricist for both Mercyful Fate and the solo group under his name, is one of the most brilliant horror authors I’ve ever encountered. I used to think Fate was better, but certain recent solo albums like Give Me Your Soul Please, The Graveyard, and Abigail 2: the Revenge have smashed that theory. If you’re a churchgoer, try listening to his solo album House of God, and tell me you didn’t get spooked. I won’t write any spoilers here, but The Graveyard deals with a crime committed by a mentally-ill person, and Give Me Your Soul . . . Please tells the tale of an attempt to right a wrong when a little boy who’s been murdered is wrongly charged with suicide and is about to be the victim of damnation. King’s solo group tends to have one subject for the whole album–like a novel–while Mercyful Fate touches on a different subject on every song–like short stories. For decades, both groups have churned out eerie lyrics combined with eerie music, chilling souls all over the world.

 

Then there’s Cannibal Corpse, who’ve been setting horror stories to music for decades, also. Unlike King Diamond and Fate, different lyricists are involved, and all are brilliant. I would advise picking up any album done before Kill, which I mostly don’t care for, then pick back up, starting with Torture. “Bent Backwards and Broken,”  “Devoured by Vermin,” “Orgasm Through Torture,” “The Spine Splitter,” “Coffinfeeder,” “I Cum Blood,” “Meat Hook Sodomy” “Necropedophile,” and more are tattooed on my brain and will haunt me for years to come.

 

These tunes have inspired me, and half of my songs for my anonymous death-metal project are written about horror novels, horror films, or real-life events. But the original ideas are reserved for my stories.

 

But the CDs I’ve mentioned, and you won’t be sorry. If you are, you’re probably not a metalhead . . . or breathing.