Novel Writing vs. Short Story Writing

One thing I have discovered about composing is that novel writing is a LOT more difficult than short story writing.

I started my first novel with a great plan. I am basing it on the mythology of a county I lived in Northern California. It is an interesting plot about a grad student in anthropology researching the history of the county. As an outsider, he meets with reluctance and derision from the townsfolk about sharing the shadowy history. And he soon finds his life is in danger. Neat, huh?

So I thought how hard can it be to write a novel? My approach was to treat every chapter like a short story. I would write a chapter, close it out and build on it in the next chapter. Simple enough. But what I forgot was that characters, once brought to life and three dimensional, have an agenda of their own. And the more I write, the more the topic or premise of the book becomes skewed by the characters.

Well developed characters always take on a life of their own at least in my opinion. Once you have given them a personality and breathed life into them, the characters have a tendency to run away with your story. No matter how much you fight to keep the storyline on track, the characters steer it in another direction: their own direction. And all you can do is try and reach a compromise.

As I am nearing what I thought was the end of the novel and formatting it into one volume, I am finding that my characters have other ideas. Reading back through the manuscript, I find references to things and people I don’t remember inventing. So now I have new chapters and characters and events I have to create. It would be almost disconcerting if it wasn’t so normal.

Does everyone have this dilemma?

Cemetery Symbolism

I can’t remember exactly when I became obsessed with cemeteries but I remember where. It started when I found Greenwood Cemetery in south San Diego. This cemetery is gorgeous and the back part is full of monuments, tombstones, crypts and a great park like pond. This is where my beloved Angel of Death sits silently watching as the year tick by.

For my senior project working towards my Bachelor’s I created the 500 page nonfiction book entitled “Cemetery Art and Symbolism in North America.” This is a reference book that includes drawings and definitions of symbols used on headstones and tombstones and a chapter showcasing photographs of the symbols on actual tombstones. The volume also includes article on making rubbings of tombstones, preserving and cleaning monuments, etc. It was a lot of work to compile and as one cemetery director told me it is an invaluable reference for cemeteries and funeral homes alike. It also includes all Masonic symbols used in cemeteries.

This labor of love is a great addition to any taphophiles library. It is available through Amazon.

On Chapbooks

Wikipedia defines a chapbook as “… an early type of popular literature printed in early modern Europe. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered booklets, usually printed on a single sheet folded into books of 8, 12, 16 and 24 pages. They were often illustrated with crude woodcuts, which sometimes bore no relation to the text. When illustrations were included in chapbooks, they were considered popular prints.

The tradition of chapbooks arose in the 16th century, as soon as printed books became affordable, and rose to its height during the 17th and 18th centuries. Many different kinds of ephemera and popular or folk literature were published as chapbooks, such as almanacs, children’s literature, folk tales, nursery rhymes, pamphlets, poetry, and political and religious tracts. The term “chapbook” for this type of literature was coined in the 19th century.”

Chapbooks have come back into vogue in the 21^st century. Some contain poetry on one subject, essays on multiple subjects or a compilation of essays, poetry, photos and short fiction. My chapbooks fall under the latter. They are great fun to put together and mine usually includes all of the above. I try to pick subjects that I find fascinating and also essays on lesser known topics, such as the Torrins House or female Nazis. Chapbooks also give me an opportunity to share poems I’ve written, sayinsg I like and some of my photography which is my second love next to writing.

My chapbooks are a gift to my readers as they tend to broaden their knowledge and perspective on life and history. And as I said, they are a great of fun to compile.

My first chapbook, Small Atrocities, is available through Amazon now. In it I have included such diverse topics as The Black Death, The Bradbury Building and creepy little stories such as The Hallway. It houses a great deal of my cemetery photos and other artwork.

My second chapbook, Graveyard Dust, which will be available shortly, is centered round the dark side of the female species. Women can be and are just as bad as men in their depravity, brutality and wickedness and the stories included in this chapbook prove it. It is also peppered with great photography and other goodies.

My third chapbook that I am already working on will again be a mixed bag of stories, essays and photographs that will surely enlighten, entertain and educate. I hope you will enjoy all three as they become available.

The Angel of Death

You may have seen this photo on my website and in my book of funerary art. This statue is very dear to me. It sits under a wide tree in Greenwood Cemetery in San Diego, California. It was erected over the resting place of Ulysses S. Grant, Jr.

He was the second son of the famed military president born when the General was a lieutenant in the Fourth regiment, U.S. Army on July 22, 1852. Ulysses S. Grant, Jr. took his A.B. from Harvard University in 1874 and his L.L.B from Columbia two years later and was admitted to the bar in New York in 1876. Forced by ill health to seek a milder climate, Mr. Grant and his family selected San Diego to live in 1893. He became interested in real estate and launched construction of the U.S. Grant Hotel which is still in operation today in downtown San Diego.

 Grant had an intimate knowledge of his father’s experiences in the White House inasmuch as he was secretary to his father, President Grant, for eighteen months during his second term. He was politically active running for U.S. senator in 1904 but was unsuccessful. A world traveler, after returning from one of his many journeys and suffering from throat cancer, Mr. Grant died on my birthday September 25 in 1928.

What Scares Us?

Writer Robert Bloch, the author of Psycho was asked the tired old questions: why he wrote horror fiction. Bloch, always a quick wit, thought for a moment and replied, “I have the heart of a small boy… and I keep it in a drawer at home.”

I think all of us who write in the genre can relate to that statement. I don’t have any interior anatomical parts lying around the house but I do have enough skeletons in my closet to inspire stories for the rest of my unnatural life.

But what about the rest of you? Those of you who don’t write horror fiction but read it, watch it, devour it and generally, live for it? I have a theory about you which I will share. Only don’t get me wrong; I’m one of you, too. I see every film, every television show, I read the genre magazines anything that has even the slightest propensity to horror. I mean for me, it’s research, right? I have to know the market know what sells. And horror has been selling for years and years.

Down through the ages, there has always been at least one type of horror fiction: monsters. In the legends of every land, the mythology of entire civilization and even the Bible, you find monster. Gilgamesh, Goliath, the Hydra and the Gorgon are just a few that come to mind.

What changes is the types of monsters each generation find terrifying. And each generation has its own special creatures that terrify and astound them. Let’s take a look at what scared our parents and grandparents. Starting with Mary Shelley’s creation, the Frankenstein monster, who since its inception, has appeared in countless films and television shows. This monster, created on a bet and a whim, has endured for almost two centuries because of it pathetic and misunderstood nature. In that sense, it’s a story we can all relate to even if we find the underlying story of being sewn together from unrelated parts a bit grotesque. The monster shows us a part of ourselves that we seldom recognize. The vulnerable innocence within and the child like take on the world. And as we all know, children can be the cruelest of all.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula, on the other hand, came right out of the history pages. Fashioned after a Transylvania dictator – Vlad, the Impaler – Dracula is based on a real charter more terrifying than the book. The vampire legend has existed in Europe for centuries so why did Dracula who, like our friend above, has spanned generations of film and incarnations, become so popular? There is something sexy and aloof about the vampire, a dark seductive presence that thrills as well as chills. And its evolution from the nightmarish Nosferatu to the menacing yet charismatic Bela Lugosi, to the sensual portrayals of Frank Langella and Gary Oldman, have taken the character from the grotesque to the sublime.

The Werewolf was another character steeped in legend and a true malady that plagued victims from the Dark Ages on, Lycanthropy, the disorder known for wolf-like tendencies, is a true illness that manifested well in the 19^th century. Again, there is something seductive and mysterious about being lupine, a topic well explored in the Howling series. Benicio del Toro’s remake of the original Wolfman film is a stunningly beautiful film.

One other monster comes to mind when I think about what frightened my parents: the mummy. Today, a limping man wrapped in rages makes for a feeble terror but according to my mother, in the days of the silent film, this monster could be horrifying effective. I’ll just have to take her word for it.

But what about us?

If we speculate that every generation has its own monsters and ideals of what scares us, then let’s take a look at our contemporaries. Arguable, one could say the current generation of horror began with the release of The Exorcist, a classic movie that was both thrilling and disturbing. Next, again arguably, the film that captured the same atmosphere would be The Omen. It’s interesting that both of these films had as the monster of choice, a young child. As I said earlier, the cruelest of creatures.

In 1979, John Carpenter helped us celebrate Halloween with the movie of the same name and introduced us to Michael Meyers, a madman who hid behind a Captain Kirk mask. Through (fill in the number) films, we watched him terrorize the small town where he was born and although the original film started its own sub-genre, its sequels have been less satisfying.

Next came Friday the 13^th and Jason. Truthfully, I never understood the attraction for Jason and his incredibly bad sequels. A supernatural being running around in a hockey mask, Jason rambled through a plethora of slice and dice flicks with the monster going from one incarnation to the other. I learned on very sound piece of advice: never go to camp, especially with a bunch hormonal driven teenagers.

Our third guest of honor brings us to the late and lamented Wes Craven’s creation, Freddie Kreuger. The Nightmare on Elm Street series also starred teenagers in peril but these teens are intelligent and most have a fighting chance against Freddie. Besides Freddie had one of the most sarcastic wits on film and his dark humor rivals mine. With a face even a mother couldn’t love, I like him and his films. It is interesting and telling that the original glove, shirt and hat from Freddie are now housed in the Smithsonian.

Our fourth monster is bit different, though. The creation of the brilliant Clive Barker, the Hellraiser series is perhaps the most literate and intelligent of our 80’s monsters. Pinhead is, despite what his creator thinks, extremely seductive. Yet his cruelty knows no limits. There is no compassion, no room for negotiation and no reasoning with him. His world is as black and white as it comes. And he was our first high tech monster replete with leather, vinyl and hardware, to usher us in to the 21^st century. Yes, the later sequels are terrible but the first four films are very entertaining and visually stunning.

As everything comes full circle, and that is just as true of the horror genre, at the turn of the century you have Buffy, Angel, and True Blood. Then the zombies took over and although the Walking Dead may be one of the best series to ever hit the TV screen, it has spawned some really bad cookie cutter films and series.

And there you have it. What does this say about our values and need to be frightened? I’m not really qualified to say but looking back, I wonder if all generations have monsters that fit with the innocence or lack thereof, of the particular generation? As each generation grows more sophisticated and jaded, so do our monsters. And the monsters of today will probably become just like the monsters of the past, clichéd vehicles for mundane and banal jokes.

On Cemeteries

I love cemeteries. They are quiet, usually clean and full of history. My favorite cemetery is Greenwood Cemetery in San Diego, home of the Angle of Death that I will write about shortly. My love of cemeteries is why I wrote my book Cemetery Art & Symbolism in North America, a 500+ page tome that took me two years to put together. This book is actually a reference for cemetery aficionados and cemetery offices alike. It includes graphics of most if not all the symbols you see on headstones, a description of the symbol and its meaning and a photo collection of symbols as they appear on headstones. It was a labor of love and I traveled all over northern California filming in cemeteries.

I am now contemplating a second edition entitled Cemetery Art & Symbolism in Europe with much the same format and structure and probably just a voluminous, LOL. It will take me more than two years to put this volume together and as much as I would love to spend those two years in Europe, I doubt that is feasible. But ya never know.

If you know of any cemeteries worth my visit, please let me know.

Deborean Magick

Old World Witchcraft depicted in an early color woodcut.

My second nonfiction book, which I am writing at the present time will be on Deborean Magick. Here is an excerpt from the Introduction:

The term Deborean is used in magick circles for two very distinct forms of magick. Deborean Wicca is a branch of Wicca that melds Celtic spirituality and Cherokee magickal traditions. This form of Wicca is akin to Appalachian Granny Magick which grew out of the hills about the same time as Deborean Wicca. Settlers of Celtic descent flocked to this region and co-mingled with the Cherokee who had lived there for thousands of years. The two belief systems merged into a magickal system utilizing prayers, spells and rituals from both nations.

Deborean Magick is a system that attempts to recreate witchcraft as it was practiced in Europe before the “burning times” or before the 15^th century and grand scale witch persecutions. This is a very difficult endeavor as few written documents have survived from that time (due to the secret nature of the practices; witches were persecuted before the Inquisition, just not in such great numbers). Deborean tries to re-establish the link between old world magick that existed between the Greco-Roman civilizations and the late middle ages and early Renaissance. To this end, scholars are trying to confirm the existence of magickal practices that probably were not widespread but most certainly existed.

Magick is found in all civilizations as is the belief in the supernatural. Long before the Judeo-Christian religions were created, people believed in magic and practiced rituals to raise power. The ancient caves of Europe are full of cave paintings depicting these rituals. With the onslaught of the three major religions, as much as they tried to suppress and obliterate the ritual practices of old, witchcraft and magic did continue. Although it is obvious now that Margaret Murray’s witch cult did not exist and there probably was no universal religion practiced by pagans, the rituals and spells of the Old Religion were kept alive probably by solitary witches working alone and in secret. There were no covens, no organized Sabbat or Esbat meetings but the religion was carried down from one generation to the next.

My book will explore the religion as practiced by the people that lived in Europe from the 3^rd to the 13^th century. A thousand years of ritual practice, spells, curses and knowledge have been mostly lost from those times but a few documents and oral traditions do remain. And that is what my book will focus on.

An early draft for the cover of the book. Subject to change. 🙂