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Midnight From Beyond the Stars
Group Reads: Guest Author Invite
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October 2021 Group Read with the Guest Authors from the MIDNIGHT FROM BEYOND THE STARS anthology
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Hey, everyone! Just wanted to make it known I was here and will be answering as many "general" questions as I can as well as personal ones. Hope you enjoy the antho, and happy October!
Kenneth wrote: "Authors: Can you tell us who your writing influences were and what alien horror stories and/or movies were your favorite?"I had no influences for this story in particular. As far as favorites, I'd say a lot of your typical stuff like ALIEN, THE THING, and E.T. ...as well as, INTRUDER WITHIN and SLITHER. I also really enjoyed King's TOMMYKNOCKERS.
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@Jason Parent
@Amanda Headlee
@Brennan LaFaro
A similarity I found in the themes/plot of these stories was the fact that from the onset, especially in Jason's and Amanda's stories, there was no question of doom in the end. How does that affect your approach or manner of storytelling, knowing you plan for unhappy endings?
Hello, everyone! Happy to be a part of this killer anthology and this discussion.
having issues with the app letting me reply to messages, but here's my response to Ken McKinley. my all time favorite author is Clive Barker. the man has inspired almost every word I write. the way he blends supernatural fantasy into masterful pros of horror never fails to amaze me.
as for the inspiration behind broken star, I pull from a lot of real life. I'm a very cathartic writer, and most everything I wrote has something to do with what's happening or happened to me. I pulled from the emotions my wife and I were going through during lockdown, that this world wide pandemic is happening, but it's only in the background, because the things happening to us in our personal lives hit us even harder.
I've always enjoyed playing with the idea of time travel, and when you're writing cosmic horror, you're not limited to a person in a time machine or worm hole theory. I found a lot of inspiration from NASA videos and interviews of astronauts and their experiences in space. I also listened to a bunch of TED talks on what expeditions to the moons of our gas giant planets. as for the ship designs, all that came from images of bugs and insects.
I didn't pull from very many movies or books for plot on this one. I'm normally pants my story, as in I write without an outline, and this wasn't any different with the exception of the ending. that I knew right from the beginning, and kinda wrote towards it.
Alan wrote: "Question for:@Jason Parent
@Amanda Headlee
@Brennan LaFaro
A similarity I found in the themes/plot of these stories was the fact that from the onset, especially in Jason's and Amanda's stories, t..."
Awesome question, Alan. Speaking only for my story, I approached it less as designating an unhappy ending, and more as setting up an attitude of dread and isolation from the word go. I think there's a little bit of hope in there too, though. Matt talks about how it's all futile, but he keeps going at it. Beyond that, I think it's okay to tell a story and be straight with the audience about how it's not going to end well, so long as you're making attempts to subvert expectations.
Thanks for reading.
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Thanks for reading."
Excellent answer. And now that you mention it, in all of those stories there are moments of hope among the protagonists despite the impending situations, so I'd say all stories succeeded in that regard.
About 25% through and have to say hasn't been a weak link yet.Three great stories in a row Embryo-Tim Curran (loved it, my favorite so far), Scan for Life-Jason Parent and Unravelling-Stephanie Ellis.
Kenneth wrote: "Authors: Can you tell us who your writing influences were and what alien horror stories and/or movies were your favorite?"I've not read a ton of UFO type stories but I am always influenced by The X-Files. I just wanted to make mine British and utilize the bizarre phenomenon of staircases. I also had the notion people would likely expect mine to be gross so I attempted to make it quiet.
Movie wise I love the Alien movies and the latter stuff like Prometheus and Independence Day. Since I love 80s stuff I have to mention ET and Batteries Not Included too, ha.
Ctgt wrote: "About 25% through and have to say hasn't been a weak link yet.Three great stories in a row Embryo-Tim Curran (loved it, my favorite so far), Scan for Life-Jason Parent and Unravelling-Stephanie El..."
Glad you enjoyed Unravelling. I think mine is probably a less obvious alien story but it most definitely is one by the end!
Stephanie wrote: "Glad you enjoyed Unravelling. I think mine is probably a less obvious alien story but it most definitely is one by the end!"Loved it for just that reason,....well done!
Kenneth wrote: "Authors: Can you tell us who your writing influences were and what alien horror stories and/or movies were your favorite?"I grew up watching the old Universal Monster movies on the late night Creature Feature, but I also loved the old 1950s science fiction movies. The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Blob, The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Amazing Colossal Man... I loved them all. When I began reading the classics, my favorites were The War of the World, The Invisible Man, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Later, I read King's Tommyknockers and McCammon's Stinger. Whitney Strieber's Communion both fascinated and unnerved me. Then in the 80s, Alien, The Thing, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind were my favorite space/extraterrestrial films. So, I've always had a great love for weird and disturbing science fiction.
Hi Ronald, very similar to my own experience growing up.
I ordered the book 2 days ago. Australia post is ALWAYS slow so I will get the copy around October 20th, unfortunately. However, I gonna fast read it and then discuss it with you guys.
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Have any of you experienced anything “extra-terrestrial?”
I just finished reading Phantom Limb by Kay Hanifen. I've enjoyed all the stories so far, but I really liked this one. The whole Hive mind concept has always interesting/disturbed me for some reason.
James wrote: "Kenneth wrote: "Authors: Can you tell us who your writing influences what alien horror stories and/or movies were your favorite?"John Carpenter's THE THING and THEY LIVE, and the 1978 version of ..."
I love "The Puppet Masters' I don't know why all the either. One of my favorite alien invasion movies.
A great lineup, and a joy to work with, all of them. Every group of authors for these Midnight books keeps upping the game. Just wanted to stop by and say, you all rock.
Kenneth wrote: "AUTHORS: Whitley Strieber gained even greater notoriety when he wrote Communion: A True Story, his account of real-life extra-terrestrial encounter.Have any of you experienced anyth..."
I have not, though a part of me always wanted to (assuming the aliens were nice lol). Anytime I'm outside at night, I always check the sky just in case there's anything strange flying around.
I also loved Communion, which was one of the scariest books I read as a teen. The movie is decent too, though definitely unusual. I don't think anyone but Christopher Walken could have pulled off that role!
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Kenneth wrote: "AUTHORS: Whitley Strieber gained even greater notoriety when he wrote Communion: A True Story, his account of real-life extra-terrestrial encounter.Have any of you experienced anyth..."
No, but I welcome the eventual enlightenment when they show the world they've been here the whole time.
For the record, I believe there has to be life on other planets, there has to be. But I also believe we are so far away from other galaxies, that contact within our lifetime is highly unlikely. I haven't experienced anything even remotely like a close encounter.
The people who claim to have been visited experienced something, and the experience was strong enough to change them in ways many of us cannot begin to understand. What they experienced could be a visitation, or some else entirely.
I want to believe.
Kenneth wrote: "AUTHORS: Whitley Strieber gained even greater notoriety when he wrote Communion: A True Story, his account of real-life extra-terrestrial encounter.Have any of you experienced anyth..."
No, I've not experienced anything extra terrestrial, not personally. I know people who have. I got my inspiration from being curious about consciousness and understanding the cosmos. But I do believe in the existence of aliens and UFO's.
Really enjoyed the Owl Goingback story!
A Monstrous Hunger by Simon Clark, wow, that ending was awesome. Definitely didn't see that one coming. The story wasn't similar, but I got some Soylent Green vibes from it.
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About 10% in and absolutely loving this anthology of horror stories so far. This is fantastic and can't wait to see all the other stories here, this is perfect Halloween reading :-)
@Kimberly: "Abduction Annie" was pretty intense, did not see that one coming! I'm on "Roadkill" now and oh boy...
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I loved both of them!
Same here! This is fantastic, LoL I'm digging all these stories, some pretty wild stuff...
Kenneth wrote: "AUTHORS: Whitley Strieber gained even greater notoriety when he wrote Communion: A True Story, his account of real-life extra-terrestrial encounter.Have any of you experienced anyth..."
Great question! When I was 12 years old, I saw what I believed to be a UFO in Warwick, RI. To this day, I still believe that is what I saw. The shape and the manner of which it hovered in the sky is unlike anything I have ever seen again.
33% in and just finished "The Bulge" and let me tell you, I've seen a lot of horror movies and read a lot of horror books in my life so far and this story was flat out... INSANE. My goodness, I was not expecting that at all as I literally felt that and made all sorts of faces during that read... yeah
"Phantom Limb" was also brilliantly written, this anthology is turning into a 5 for me so far, I'm loving all these stories :-)
OMG how could I miss this announcement? Definitely have to check the book out soon with those fantastic comments and reviews already!
@Elke: I've been very much enjoying it so far! 51% done so far and am hoping to finish it by this week, the stories are all so unique and very good. Some will definitely creep you out...
LTJ wrote: "@Elke: I've been very much enjoying it so far! 51% done so far and am hoping to finish it by this week, the stories are all so unique and very good. Some will definitely creep you out..."Wouldn't have expected anything less from this anthology, the previous volumes were great :) And aliens+horror? What a cool idea!
@Elke: Oh yes! I've noticed there are quite a few sci-fi stories involving planets, aliens, space creatures, you name it. So far, this has a nice mix across the horror spectrum as I've been enjoying it.
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@Kasia: Same here, it's a nice mix all over the place which adds a nice element to starting a new story since it's not following a specific theme or setting!
I just finished this last night and very much enjoyed it! I give this a 4/5 as it undoubtedly got me even more into the Halloween spirit. The only reason it didn’t get a perfect 5/5 is that personally, some of the stories just didn’t do it for me and that’s okay as it’s expected in an anthology. I also felt there were way more outer space/sci-fi stories added to fit the theme and title of the collection. I’m not a huge fan of this horror subgenre but some were pretty good as well. I hope those that finished this also enjoyed it :-)
LTJ wrote: "33% in and just finished "The Bulge" and let me tell you, I've seen a lot of horror movies and read a lot of horror books in my life so far and this story was flat out... INSANE. My goodness, I was..."Hey, LTJ! So glad you dug "The Bulge." Thanks for posting about it. Sorry for just now replying to this. Somehow I missed your post.
Anyhow, thanks!
Rob
@Rob: Anytime Rob and no worries, it happens to the best of us! Excellent job writing that, LoL it legit made me feel so uneasy. Nicely done :-)
I absolutely loved this collection. It was also so diverse. Some were horrifying, some just disgusting, and surprisingly some were sweet. And some just had me gasping for more!!Thanks to whoever suggested this collection!
I've never seen a UFO, but every time there is a celestial event (super moon, meteor shower, eclipse, conjunctions) we seem to have cloud cover in the area, so I do not doubt it wouldn't be any different for UFOs.
@Kirsten: So glad you enjoyed this collection as I remember I did as well! The UFOs are out there... :-P
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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John Carpenter's THE THING and THEY LIVE, and the 1978 version of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. As far as the the ones that had the biggest influence on my story "The Fear of Fallen Leaves", though, I would have to say 1994's adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's THE PUPPET MASTERS (everyone else seems to hate it but I really dug this one, if only for the creature design), the '80s remake of THE BLOB, and the oh-so-quotable NIGHT OF THE CREEPS. I can watch that last one over and over and never get tired of it. So much fun.