Voodoo Murders of Brainerd to get a rewrite
Ok so I have 400 pages of “VMB” (Voodoo Murders of Brainerd)–does that mean I’m committed to it? Does that mean there is any reason I can’t walk away from it, start something new-new? Well, my Board of Directors met (internal non-schizophrenic voices: Moderator, Writer, Artist, Personal and Punk) and we all decided that we need to give this book another shot. But how to re-invigorate it (re-animate it)… which would be a pun if you knew the plot had to do with actual zombies of some yet to be determined kind.
Going back to one of my original inspirations, the great novel The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch, I thought, what is it about that book that connects to this book? [This book which has also been described by my story developer, Lucas Murphy, as "Fargo Meets American Horror Story"] to which I want to add “by way of The Sea, The Sea.”
Ok, you might ask, what’s the connection? Well, there’s this old guy (not unlike Charles Arrowby in the Murdoch novel) but instead of the windy west coast of Great Britain, it’s set in the touristy midsection of Minnesota. But my main character (James) is crabby and smart like Charles, but instead of being a retiree from the theater he’s moving what’s left of his exotic antiques from around the world (failed store in St Paul) up to his family’s fixer-upper gothic home on the lakeshore. He “connects” or tries to connect with his ne’er do well son (borderline methie) and his ragtag role-playing buddies (including the town sheriff who doesn’t want anyone to know he plays D&D like games). Besides trying to set up an online “store” what James really wants to do it follow (once and for all) a disciplined western-occult spiritual path as laid out in the Kybalion (alchemical text).
What surprises James (and eventually the whole town) is that accessing one’s inner self can also access one’s inner demons and not unlike Dr Morbius’ power to manifest his inner demons (thanks to the advanced Krell technology) in Forbidden Planet (1956).
In the original Voodoo Murders of Brainerd the demons were simultaneously “hired actor” zombies who morph (ala Slender Man and tulpa) into real zombies by way of a re-animated curse from a Haitian voodoo object (see Necronomicon) in Charles’ collection.
In my new-new version I haven’t figured out how the inner demons get manifested but let’s say they have more to do with the spiritual exercises in the Kybalion than something in Charles’ collection. But come they do. This is real horror. Smart and Scary. Like Iris Murdoch might write if she wrote horror (OK.. i stretching shamelessly here)… but there IS a sea monster in The Sea The Sea even if Charles can’t figure out if it might be an LSD flashback.
