Guest Author Anthony Hains on Writing Dead Works

Today, guest author Anthony Hains talks about writing his new horror novel Dead Works. If you like a good mix of psychological suspense and supernatural horror, you’ll like Anthony Hains’ stories. I also enjoyed his novel, Birth Offering.

The final version of Dead Works is only remotely similar to the original version. My initial plot for the novel involved the mishaps of ghost hunters exploring a 100 year old mansion situated in a glorious setting on Long Island Sound in New York. One of the characters had a back story that involved him in therapy as a child - an account that may have topped out at 800 words. So, this wasn’t a huge focus, but rather an interesting tidbit to illustrate a character.

The only problem with this back story idea was that I couldn’t shake it from my mind. The issues involving the therapy became more complex, even if I didn’t start out with the intention of putting them on paper. It was only a matter of time until this back story became more interesting than the original plot. I realized that I needed to jettison the ghost hunter notion and go with the kid-in-therapy narrative.

Since I am a psychologist and a professor of counseling psychology, I immediately knew the angle I was going to take. The main character was going to be a graduate student – a counseling psychologist in training. The young man would be in a practicum class where students are placed in a clinical setting and conduct therapy under the supervision of an on-site psychologist and a university instructor. After all, I live this stuff on a daily basis. I have taught at least one practicum class a year for the past 25 years. I know how students think and act. And, even though it has been a very long time, I still remember what it is like to be a graduate student. The client, of course, needed to be a kid – again, no problems since my professional area of focus is pediatric psychology and I have been studying and interacting with adolescents most of my professional career. While this group can be a pain in the butt for many professionals, I rather enjoy the population.

The challenge came with making the process authentic without losing a reader. Losing a reader can happen a couple of ways with this type of narrative. First, if I wrote an accurate account of therapy, the layperson would become increasingly frustrated. Unlike screen portrayals of therapy, there are rarely (if ever) those dramatic eureka moments when the client gains insight and the problem is solved within minutes. In most cases, the problem and the goals of therapy are identified early, and the difficult work involves the client learning and practicing new ways of coping or behaving to address personal concerns. This takes time, depending on the nature of the problem.

Second, if I did go for the dramatic denouement and make the therapy passages unrealistic or simplistic, I would run the risk of personal embarrassment if my colleagues or students actually read my fiction (so far, none have as far as I know). Pure vanity (or maybe self-respect?) on my part, I know.

So, I provided excerpts of five therapy sessions involving my graduate student protagonist, Eric, and his thirteen year old client, Greg. I deleted some of the more mundane interactions between them, and stuck to the more “thrilling” proceedings. By the way, the boy sees ghosts, so much of the interactions involve the kid learning how to make sense of these events. I portrayed my student character as being competent at this level of training. He makes all the “correct” responses in therapy and his inner narrative is consistent with what graduate students might be thinking.

Finally, you can’t get around the fact that this is a ghost story and the topic of therapy involves seeing ghosts. Most problems addressed in actual therapy are not “other-worldly”. The terrors, fears, and concerns of clients are grounded in daily realities. Sometimes these horrors exceed our experience, but we know about them anyway: abuse, addiction, suicide… You don’t need ghosts when you have these things to deal with. Nonetheless, every once in a while something rather strange appears on the radar screen in therapy. I can think of three or four times this has happened in my work. How do you address it? There is no one way of doing it, but I think Dead Works provides some indications. Curious? I hope you read Dead Works to find out. 

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Anthony Hains is a university professor in counseling psychology, with a specialization in pediatric psychology – his research involves working with youth who have a chronic illness. 

Here is the link to my website: http://www.anthonyhains.com

Guest Author Eric Red on Researching Horror

My latest guest writer is someone whose work I’ve been a fan of since the 1980s, when Eric Red was writing screenplays and directing movies. Two movies he wrote I consider classics. You may have seen The Hitcher (1986) and the vampire flick Near Dark (1987). When I was studying screenwriting at UT Austin back in 1989, my professor talked about Eric Red and his screenplays, and we discussed The Hitcher in depth. I admired Red’s early success as a writer. In 1991, I went to the theater to see the horror movie Body Parts and there on the big screen was Written and Directed by Eric Red. Mr. Red went on to write and direct some other recognizable horror movies, including Bad Moon and 100 Feet, to name a few. 

After making his mark on the movie business, Eric Red has gone on to write comic book series, graphic novels and channeled his talents into writing horror short stories and novels. I was thrilled when he joined the team of authors at my publisher Samhain Horror. Now, with the release of his latest Sci-Fi monster novel, It Waits Below, I’m honored to have Eric Red as a guest on my blog as he shares his wisdom about researching for a horror novel.

 What does research matter in horror?

You’d think doing research as an author would be less important for a horror novel than other literary genres, because monsters and the supernatural aren’t real—or at least some think so. But in my opinion, the more realistic the everyday details, technology, ordinance, hardware, professional behavior, and science, the more the reader believes what’s going on, increasing their involvement in the story. Even though the reader knows a horror story is unreal, I believe the greater the verisimilitude, that on an unconscious level people believe what is happening just a little bit more—and it’s that much more scary. It all comes down to suspension of disbelief.

I knew two things before writing It Waits Below, my new Samhain novel about the crew of a three-man Deep Submergence Vehicle who encounter an alien life form at the bottom of the ocean. One, the book had to be technically accurate. Two, I didn’t know shit about subs, and needed technical advisers who did. With the help of The National Academy Of Sciences, I was introduced to one of the top Alvin sub pilots in the world and his wife, a prominent oceanographer and microbiologist. For months they gave me invaluable help explaining how these subs are operated and what the crews encounter many miles down. They answered a million questions and shared fascinating materials that provided inspiration for some of the most terrifying scenes in the book. Later, I would run finished scenes by them and ask if this could happen or that could happen. Without the help of my technical advisers, the novel would have been about as convincing as an old Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea TV episode.

Some writers are research-wonks, but originally I wasn’t. When I started writing scripts for movies like The Hitcher—road thrillers set in a spare highway iconography—what the hell did you need to know? Get a map of Texas. Find out the makes of the police cars and what kind of guns they carried. The rest was pure imagination. But over the years, as my subject matter grew more involved, so did the research entailed. What I discovered was some of the most creative ideas often sprang from the research.

For instance, in Containment, my IDW zombies-in-space graphic novel about to be re-republished, I had to research long-distance space exploration and immediately realized the movie cliché of these cavernous space arks is a total myth. The fact is everything would need to be built as small and compact as possible to conserve weight and mass for propulsion. The creative opportunity was since the story involved cryogenic zombies on a spaceship, the more cramped and claustrophobic the surroundings, the greater the tension and suspense.

In It Waits Below, the alien comes to earth and ends up at the bottom of the ocean on a falling asteroid that destroys a Spanish treasure ship in the 1800’s. Centuries later, a salvage dive by treasure hunters sets the story in motion. Again, a little research paid off. I hunted down some footage of meteor strikes and was astonished by one event filmed not too long ago in the Eastern Block by witnesses on DV cams and iPhones from every conceivable vantage point. An actual large asteroid impact didn’t look like I imagined, or had seen in movies—it was a pulsing light over the world that turned in day to night to day to night and back again; utterly apocalyptic and chilling. So the crashing meteor that hits the treasure gallon in the opening of the novel was described in just such a manner.

Even when you know the technical realities of the subject matter, you inevitably take certain liberties. In It Waits Below, for dramatic purposes, I needed a second chamber in the DSV that houses a specially designed diving suit—people have to run and hide from aliens somewhere in a fifteen-foot sub, after all—and neither of these exists in actual submersibles. Still, I ran it all by my Alvin sub pilot consultant, and made it as “speculatively accurate” as possible.

The space monster stuff—well, that I made up!

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Here’s the synopsis for It Waits Below:

It waits no more!

In the 1800s, an asteroid carrying an extraterrestrial life form crashed to earth and sunk a Spanish treasure ship. Now, a trio of salvage experts dives a three-man sub to the deepest part of the ocean to recover the sunken gold. There, they confront a nightmarish alien organism beyond comprehension, which has waited for over a century to get to the surface. It finally has its chance.

As their support ship on the surface is ambushed by deadly modern-day pirates, the crew of the stranded sub battles for their very lives against a monster no one on Earth has seen before.

It Waits Below is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Samhain Horror.

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Eric Red is a Los Angeles based motion picture screenwriter, director and author. His original scripts include The Hitcher for Tri Star, Near Dark for DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, Blue Steel for MGM and the western The Last Outlaw for HBO. He directed and wrote the crime film Cohen And Tate for Hemdale, Body Parts for Paramount, Undertow for Showtime, Bad Moon for Warner Bros. and the ghost story 100 Feet for Grand Illusions Entertainment.

Mr. Red’s first novel, a dark coming-of-age tale about teenagers called Don’t Stand So Close, is available from SST Publications. His second and third novels, a werewolf western called The Guns Of Santa Sangre and a science fiction monster novel called It Waits Below, are available from Samhain Publishing. His fourth novel, a serial killer thriller called White Knuckle, will be published by Samhain in 2015. A collection of eighteen of his horror short stories titled Toll Road will be published by SST Publications in 2015.

His recent published horror and suspense short stories include “Colorblind” in Cemetery Dance magazine, the western horror tale “The Buzzard” in Weird Tales magazine, “Pack Rat” in Beware the Dark magazine, “Little Nasties” in Shroud magazine, “In the Mix” in Dark Delicacies III: Haunted anthology, “Past Due” in Mulholland Books’ Popcorn Fiction, and “Do Not Disturb” in Dark Discoveries magazine.

He created and wrote the sci-fi/horror comic series and graphic novel Containment for IDW Publishing and the horror western comic series Wild Work published by Antarctic Press.

Mr. Red’s website is: www.ericred.com.

His IMDB page is: http://imdb.to/LyPooe.

Beating the Writing Blues

Today, guest writer Claire Fryer shares some tips on how writers can avoid or get out of depression: 

Most professions come with at least some health and safety risks. Although many people wouldn’t immediately associate writing with danger, evidence suggests that it can be a risky business in terms of mental health with rates of depression and anxiety being particularly high among those of us in the writing community. There are many factors thought to contribute to this, including an isolated working environment, irregular pay and consequent financial worries. Not to mention the intense internal pressure that comes with a career in writing, such as self doubt, fear of rejection and the dreaded writer’s block that sometimes engulfs us all.

Depression can be a shattering condition for anyone, but for a writer it can seriously impair their creativity, motivation and sheer ability to write, which will affect their confidence and their career in a vicious cycle. For this reason it is important to stay positive and take action against things that may cause or worsen depression if you want to keep writing. Here are some tips on how to do just that.

Create a healthy work space

Writers spend the majority of their time in their workspace – whether that be an office, a spare room or simply a desk. Because it is generally a sedentary job it is important to make sure that the environment, tools and equipment that you are working with are fit for purpose. Not only will this keep you physically healthy but it can help improve your mood too. Ensure that the area in which you write is well lit – ideally with natural light but if this is not possible opt for full spectrum lighting as this is more like natural sunlight than florescent lighting. 

Keep the font size and resolution on your PC (if you use one) as large and clear as possible to avoid eye strain and maintain a good posture by investing in a good quality, adjustable chair to support the back and arms. Many commercial office blocks now also include green plants in their offices where possible, as not only do they improve the aesthetic appearance of the office but they detoxify the air and increase oxygen too. This makes the air cleaner which will help fend off bugs and germs, as well as keeping you alert and motivated.

Take on extra work

When a writer is caught up in a novel it can be all consuming and highly stressful. Taking on more work and responsibility may not sound like an appealing thought but it can help you gain perspective by taking breaks from your novel whilst still ‘working’ and being productive. This will allow you to have a little distance from such a mammoth task while still honing your craft and building your portfolio. 

Take on extra freelance writing work if possible. Writing for wait.co.uk and other content providers often enables you to take on as much or as little work as you can manage, and this ‘no pressure’ approach can be ideal for working around your other commitments at your own pace and earning a little extra income, which will also alleviate any financial concerns. 

Remember that writing often begins as a hobby, so do not lose your love for it. Make time for the areas that excite or interest you even if they aren’t completely relevant to your workload. If you enjoy writing poetry for example then make sure you continue with it even if you are busy.

Take regular breaks

Lack of sunlight, little exercise and bad diet are all factors that can exacerbate low mood, so drag yourself away from your work at regular intervals and go outside! A brisk lunchtime stroll will increase the production of serotonin in the brain, and so your feel-good endorphins will start flowing and leave you pumped up and motivated for an afternoon’s work. 

The beauty of being a writer is that you can pick your own hours. But do try to work to some sort of a schedule that allows you to take time out for breaks and meals. It can be easy to snack at your desk, but maintaining a well balanced diet full of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and protein-rich meat will not only benefit your physical health but your mental health too.

Seek medical help

Lifestyle tips can go some way to relieving the symptoms of depression, but in all cases it is beneficial to seek professional advice from a counselor or doctor. Cognitive therapy and medication can often be necessary to help fight and manage depression in order to allow to you live a normal life and continue with your career. Be wary of taking any tranquilizers or mood suppressing drugs though as these may harness your creativity without effectively treating your depression.

Utilize support

For anyone suffering from depression, social support from family, friends or support groups can often help alleviate symptoms. Writing can be a very isolating career, and so once again it is important that you remember to take breaks and make the effort to interact with people. Conversation and interaction are proven to boost self esteem, reduce anxiety and consequently leave the sufferer feeling less stigmatized by their condition.

Special thanks to Claire Fryer for sharing this article with Coaching for Writers. I welcome guest writers. If you are a writer and would like to contribute an article offering tips about writing, publishing or marketing books to this blog, contact Brian(at)BrianMoreland(dot)com. Have a great day!

Terror in the Canadian Wilderness

People often ask me why I’ve set two of my novels in Canada while I live in down south in Texas. I guess the simple answer is I love the remote wilderness and Canada has plenty of it. It is also rich with Native American legends about mysterious creatures that inhabit those woods. My novel Dead of Winter is set in Ontario and builds an epic mystery around the Wendigo legend.

My new novel The Devil’s Woods is set in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. In the novel, there’s an ancient forest that exists at the back of a Cree Indian reservation that is completely unknown to most of the world. But the Cree people have feared it for centuries. They call it Macâya Forest. Animals stay clear of it too. The townspeople of a nearby logging town called Hagen’s Cove know that those woods are responsible for the countless people who have been disappearing around those parts since the 1800s.

My story’s main character is Kyle Elkheart. He’s half Cree and was born on the reservation. When he was a child, his parents got divorced and his white mother moved Kyle and his brother, Eric, and sister, Shawna, to Seattle to live with an abusive stepfather. Now, all three of the Elkheart kids are adults trying to make it in the world. When they learn that their Cree father has disappeared, Kyle and his brother and sister fly a seaplane to the Canadian wilderness. Traveling with them are Eric’s girlfriend, Jessica, and Shawna’s boyfriend, Zack. When the five arrive at the Cree village set deep in the wilderness, Kyle begins to see clues to an unsolved mystery that spans decades and he learns the real reason why his tribe fears Macâya Forest.

As for why I write about Canada ... well, while living in Texas is nice, we don’t have mountains here and there are no ancient forests where man has not tread. I once traveled to British Columbia, visiting Vancouver and Whistler and I’ve hiked around the Rocky Mountains. The mountain country north of the U.S. border is breathtaking and a beautiful place to visit in my mind as type at my keyboard in Dallas. The Canadian wilderness is also so vast and remote that it’s ominous when you find yourself far away from civilization. The native tribes feared the legendary creatures of the forest. And if you enter the Devil’s Woods, you will discover there are some places in the world where man is considered prey.

The Devil's Woods is now available at Amazon and everywhere books are sold.