Behind the Scenes of “Model Town”

Warning: this blog post may contain spoilers, SO if you don’t want to know anything more, bookmark this page and read after you’ve finished “Model Town,” which is available for FREE download on Amazon Kindle between Monday, June 5th and Friday, June 9th. You can pick up a copy of that here.

Like many of my short stories, “Model Town” was born from too much scrolling on the internet. I joined one of those writer groups that specializes in posting Open Calls For Submissions and one day, I saw an ad for a Toys in the Attic horror anthology. Intrigued, I clicked on the site to learn more. The ad suggests to email and pitch creepy toy ideas before submitting, as they didn’t want a hundred stories about an evil doll and nothing else. I thought a toy train in a model town would be fantastic.

But what would be so special about this particular toy? The closest thing I had to a model town could be found in my favorite video game franchise, the Sims. I’ve been a fan from Sims 1 to Sims 4, and I can’t begin to tell you how many hours I’ve spent building and decorating both houses, lots, and Sims. I’ve wasted away my life getting my neighborhood “just so.” And then it clicked. That was it! What if I created a town that was like a vampire? It sucked the very soul out of you–literally–all the while appearing to be oh, so innocuous. You could stop at any time–only, you couldn’t. It called you back because that’s how obsessions work.

Speaking of inspirations and obsessions, the character of Zachary Malvern was based off of Mr. Dark from Something Wicked This Way Comes as played by Jonathan Pryce, who embodied tall, dark, and sinister in all the right ways. Though it never came out in the story (because Laurel never figured it out), Zachary first appears in the train opposite Laurel when she has her first Fayton dream. That’s right: Zachary, being a creature of the fey (and definitely of the Unseelie Court) had the ability to change his guise at will. He first appears as a woman because Old Roy was the town’s last victim. Much like the Autumn People of Something Wicked This Way Comes, Zachary Malvern caters to one’s desires–he’s a classic devil with a soul to steal.

What were Laurel’s last words? “Will you… at least…” It was a request she had of Zachary and he understood all too well what she needed to hear. I left it up to interpretation as I feel that stories, like poems, are personal things and should cater more to the reader than the writer. It could have meant “will you at least tell me if you loved me” and if you thought that, fine. That lends the story one tone. But if you must know how I meant it, her last thought was “will you at least lie to me?” Laurel wanted some comfort before she went into that box for eternity to be forgotten forever after. And Zachary, not being completely without compassion, obliges her. Did he love her? Well, even I don’t know that. Some characters are so vague and mysterious, they keep their secrets even from me. And I’m not so nosy as to ask.

Hope you enjoyed this episode of Behind the Scenes. Got a question? Leave me one in the comments below or follow my Facebook Author’s Page and shoot me a PM. Until next time, bye!

 

 

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On Editors

(*This was originally written and published on Oct 5th, 2016 on my Facebook Page. Posting it here for those who missed it and also, because I can easily look this up on my blog.)

As some of you may know, I recently hired an editor for the very first time and not only am I loving the experience, I cannot stress enough the importance of finding one. And not just any editor, but one that is not only knowledgeable in his or her craft but is a good fit for you.

But let me back up a space and answer the question most writers might ask. “Why hire a professional editor?” You may argue you are a good enough writer–or you will learn to be a good writer by editing your own work. You may argue you have friends who beta read for you and they can help with tense shifts and grammar rules and the like.

True, true. But, to answer the first: you as the author will NEVER be able to see the glaring flaws of your own story. It makes perfect sense to you because you are utilizing your own language. I am fluent in Rebecca-ese so naturally, I will understand all the hints and references I am making. An editor will help *translate* Rebecca-ese into a language everyone can understand. My editor told me when I needed to elaborate and on what. I may see the story play out in my head and upon rereading it, get the same visuals. But did I remember to write that out?! Haha. Oops. No, I didn’t.

Now, regarding beta readers–and I am NOT anti-beta readers–there is a difference between an opinion and an EDUCATED opinion. Do they know the definition and use of foreshadowing? When to flag me for repetitive words? When I use passive vs active voice? I like beta readers to gauge how my story might hit the common reader but to test if my story structure is sound, I hire an editor. They will test it like a building inspector will an archetect’s designs, point out your weak spots and help you plug up those plot holes and discrepancies that might make your story fall flat.

But you know what I love BEST about having an editor? It’s like having a private tutor. That’s right. It’s like the BEST two-for-one deal you will get. NOT ONLY is your story getting the makeover it needs BUT YOU, as an author, get to see what you did wrong! So make a note of your weaknesses, ask questions as to why this change was necessary and you will improve your craft! Dreamy, right? I am swooning.

So, OK, so you’re sold on getting an editor. Now what? Find one whose work you admire. Read their stories (if they also write) and if they have a similiar writing style or preferred genre to yours, then try them out. What was important to me was to find an editor who could help me achieve my vision for my work. I wanted my story to still sound like me; I didn’t want my story to sound like a knock-off Stephen King or even resemble my editor’s “voice”. I was lucky and I found that. Find an editor that works with you. It should feel like a bond, a partnership. If you feel like you’re on opposing sides of a boxing match, it is probably time to find a new editor.

Hope you enjoyed this post! Stayed tuned for more thoughts. Got any questions for me and/or my experience as a writer? Please comment below.

Thanks for reading!

Behind the Scenes: “The Girl Without a Face”

My latest short story, “The Girl Without a Face” is now available on Amazon!

Did you know I have a penchant for the meaning behind names? Velia means “veil” because she wears a mask, Lonan means “raven”, and Lilura means “enchantment.” However, not everyone is cool enough to get a name with special significance. Cicero, the Royal Advisor, looked like Sir William Cecil as played by Richard Attenborough in the movie Elizabeth (1998). Calyndra got her name for no other reason other than the face I liked how it sounded phonetically.

When I wrote “The Girl Without a Face,” I  wanted to explore the theme on beauty and love. I didn’t want a princess who was “the fairest of them all,” and I didn’t want a cruel stepmother. I decided to take these fairy tale tropes and play with them a little. I didn’t want to break completely away because I wanted to pay homage to the classics but at the same time, I wanted to try something new.

The idea that stepmothers were evil implied that mothers were kind for the simple fact of being one’s mother. (If you read my poem, “Dear Mother,” you know how I feel about my own.) Mothers, in my opinion, made for better villains in my opinion. With a stepmother, the child might yell in teenage rebellion, “You’re not my real mother!” and run off into the woods to meet her prince. But the princess couldn’t do that with her real mother. She’d always wonder why, what was it she did to earn such hatred and abuse, as with the case with Velia.

So I had this idea that maybe Lilura didn’t take to pregnancy all too well. Perhaps, like so many women, she felt bloated, ugly, and ruined that by the time Velia is born, she experiences postpartum depression to such a degree that she becomes downright psychotic. I hinted that Lilura isn’t human. We have one clue to this when she tells Velia, “…Our kind do not take and give Oaths lightly. It seems my blood runs strong through your veins, daughter of mine.” I drop another clue in that magic seems to be rare not just in Velia’s kingdom, but the surrounding kingdoms as well. That’ because Velia lives in the land of men, whereas Lilura and her kind happen to be creatures of magic: they are some type of fey, making Velia half.

Velia is Lilura’s opposite. While Lilura is all vanity, willing to do anything to retain her beauty at the cost of others, Velia yearns for love and acceptance. At first, it’s for a mother whose motives she wanted to understand but later, it becomes clear to her she simply wanted to be loved. Velia’s quest for beauty isn’t for beauty itself but out of fear for being isolated and alone, of being insignificant.

I want to talk more about the theme of beauty and also of Lonan–but perhaps that’s best reserved for another day. I wouldn’t want to give the ending away, after all. Not yet. Maybe at a later date when other people have had a chance to read it. That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more “Behind the Scenes” as I discuss my other short stories.

“The Girl Without a Face” Teaser

New #shortstory #TheGirlWithoutAFace will be published on Amazon Kindle tomorrow! Love #darkfairytales? Here’s the blurb: “Once upon a time a girl, disfigured by her mother, seeks a way to become beautiful in order to be loved.”

Want more? All right, I’ll give you the first paragraph…

“When I was a baby, my mother, the Queen bit off my face. That was what the servants told me when I was old enough to ask why I had to wear a mask, why I was told not to take it off, and why there were no mirrors in the castle. They said she went mad with grief and chewed my face off, that it took three of her ladies-in-waiting to pry her off me.” ~Velia, The Girl Without a Face

So look my new story on my author’s page located here.

The Girl Without a Face Has Gone to My Editor

Just turned in The Girl Without a Face over to my editor. Anddd I am nervous as heck again. I have complete faith in Jeremy Menefee but I always feel like I’m taking a Final Exam whenever I turn in my work. I half-expect to see a big giant F on my report card. I’m one of those people who suffer from test anxiety so even though I study hard and have nothing to worry about–I will still chew my nails and sit on pins and needles until I get my progress report back.

 

Thankfully, Jeremy is my editor and not my English teacher. He’s the dude who’s going to help me with my homework! ❤

 

Those of you waiting eagerly for something new to read by yours truly, know this: it’s coming sooner than you think! 😀

Trending Now

I had a fellow writer friend chat with me recently. They felt all sorts of down because they didn’t feel like their work was worth a damn. We’ve all been there, right? You look around you and see how different your writing is from someone else’s and a bad case of Imposter Syndrome crops up. In this particular case, we have this one thing in common: we tend to let our natural poetic instincts take over and bleed into our creative writing rather than go for what’s trending now: which is to write in a clean, clear-cut way. We had a bonding moment because we were poets first, short story authors and novelists later.

This reminds me of the story of how I came to be a poet. Do you want to hear it? Well, keep reading if you do.

Imagine a twelve year old me, attending sixth grade in a small town in California. In English class, we came upon the chapter known as Poetry. We all had to study poetry in California back in 1986. I remember reading Langston Hughes’s “Hold Fast to Dreams” and Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Mermaid” among other various poems. Then one day, we were promptly sent home with an assignment: write a poem. I went home and tore through several sheets of notebook paper because I was dissatisfied with everything I wrote. I even changed rooms in which I did my homework, hoping that a change of scenery might spark some inspiration. (Sound familiar?) My self-loathing chased me outside, to the garden in the back, where I finally, finally wrote a poem that kinda-sorta resembled what I saw in my textbook. (Do you see where this is going? I didn’t. Not at the time.)

When I arrived in class the next day and we turned in our homework, I was shocked to learn our teacher would be reading our poems aloud. I was downright mortified when I realized while I wrote a page-long poem about a unicorn in rhyming couplets, my classmates all wrote something along the lines of “the cat/sat on the mat.” While everyone was laughing and having fun, I was dying inside. Please let the bell ring, do NOT read my poem, I thought.

But Fate had other plans.

The teacher read my poem. I paled and shrank into my seat trying to become One with the Chair and Desk if not the Universe. By the time she finished, you could have heard a pin drop.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, this short girl who had always bullied me asked the teacher, “Who wrote that?”

“Rebecca.”

My nemesis turned to face me. My heart stopped. I expected a jeer. But she smiled and said, “That’s beautiful.”

That moment, right there, changed my life forever.

I don’t know why we compare ourselves to others. I don’t know we try to “fit in” and the moment our writing style doesn’t match the work of others, we automatically assume what we did was wrong. There was a documentary I remember watching that claimed Mona Lisa caused a stir because before Da Vinci’s famous painting, all portraits were done indoors. I read that before Sappho, all poems were patriotic in nature but she chose to praise her deity, Aphrodite and wrote love poems instead, inventing even her own form: the Sapphic stanza. Byron invented the Byronic hero. So with all these people doing their own thing, finding their own greatness, why do we allow others to try and mold us to their own style? Granted, I understand we’re not all going to end up Da Vincis, Sapphos, and Byrons here, but goddamn it, I’m going to try.

Lush language and imagery might not be for everyone but I don’t think that should stop a writer from expressing what’s in his/her heart just because it’s not popular at the moment. Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and the novels of D.H. Lawrence was a hot trend once. Styles come and go. And likes attract likes. I don’t think we’re such special snowflakes that we won’t find an audience who appreciates what we do. For fuck’s sake, if Ed Wood can get a cult following even after being nominated the Worst Director of All Time, (winning him a Golden Turkey award, I might add), then I say there’s hope for the rest of us.

Oscar Wilde said it best: “be yourself; everyone else is taken.”

Author’s Note: Special shout-out to author Colin B. Leonard for catching a few errors. You’re a doll! Thank you!

On Being a Writer Mom

Even as I sit down to begin this blog, my toddler toddles over with a high-pitched squeak to protest. Writing is difficult work no matter what medium you try to birth into the world on a good day when you have peace and quiet and you’re alone. It’s just you and your computer in the ultimate showdown. Cue the theme to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly here and toss a few tumbleweeds down the lane. Yeah, even on a day when you set aside time to write, it seems like there’s a struggle to get the motivation or inspiration to write. There’s dishes and laundry staring at me accusingly, waiting to be done. Then add things like Facebook or Twitter notifications, the phone ringing or text messages going off, and a toddler to top it all off.

People have often asked me, “How do you do it?” I understand this one thing: life goes on.

I write around the distractions. Nap time becomes my favorite time of the day and I write then. I set my daughter down to play or watch her videos. She has a little bit of independence and I write until she wants my attention, for food, a changing or play. I download apps like Google Docs or EverNote on my phone and I am able to write on my phone if baby wants to snuggle or sleep in my lap. These apps sync up or are cloud-based so no worries there.

I also don’t mind writing in small bursts. Actually, I’ve found that I’ve made fewer mistakes writing this way. If I only have time to write one paragraph before it’s time to make dinner, hey, that’s one paragraph more than I had yesterday. Do I feel cheated? Not really. Looking back, there were times I’ve scored about four thousand words a day everyday for one to two weeks. And then nothing for months. So, OK, maybe I don’t write like I used to–that is to say, in bulk–but in a way, the old saying “slow and steady wins the race” applies here.

I switch between stories. A lot. Tired of writing horror, I’ll switch to writing erotic romance. Or if my creative side has flat-lined, I head over to edit my novel. This helps make the most of my time so I’m not stuck twiddling my thumbs hoping prune juice will help my writer’s blockage.

Lastly, I remember that it’s OK to actually live. I don’t make myself write when I don’t feel up to it. I know you have to step outside of writing to sometimes get perspective on what it is you’re trying to say. If the purpose of art is to imitate life, then it’s important to remember what living looks like. Guilt-tripping myself that I’m not writing is just going to give me performance anxiety. And then I end up with a bad case of exposition dysfunction and that’s always embarrassing. 😉

My Favorite Scenes From Horror Movies

In order for me to get into the mood of writing, I often refer to my favorite scenes from horror movies. On this lazy Sunday, I’m going to share with you a rather inconclusive list of what made my heart race in both the best and worst way. In no particular order, I present to you segments that hit high on my creepiness factor and made me run straight for Nopesville.

1. Phantasm II (1988): Plot Holes. Cemetery after cemetery is emptied. We know from earlier that our “dearly departed” will return and not as we last remember them. Whether they are diminutive versions of themselves or not, they have one thing in common: they’re homicidal. And while one could argue that the Flying Orbs of Certain Death is rather gruesome, that didn’t bother me nearly as much as the empty graves. After all, it begs the question, “Where are the bodies?” This scene makes you look over your shoulder, wondering when you might see an army of the dead. (There’s a Sam Raimi reference in Phantasm II, so you may wonder even more.)
2. In The Mouth of Madness (1994): “I’m Losing Me.” It where character Lydia Styles (played by Julie Carmen) grabs John Trent (Sam Neill) and tells him she has read the book and What Was Seen Could Not Be Unseen. Something from beyond space and time entered her, was changing her and there was nothing she–or anyone–could do about it. This, to me, more than anything else, exemplified what it was like to be in the mouth of madness.
3. The Others (2001): Picture Perfect. When Nicole Kidman flips through this macabre photo album, all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. The fact that Victorians actually did take snapshots of their deceased only makes it worse. I can’t do my usual routine of telling myself, “This isn’t real. This isn’t real. This isn’t real.”
4. Poltergeist (1982): This one movie gets THREE scenes (because it’s that awesome).
   1. The Fucking Clown. This joker is no joke! I don’t have coulrophobia but this toy looks so sinister, you just know the parents must have been stoned out of their minds when they bought it. Short of Chucky, I don’t think there’s a scarier toy out there. What possessed mom and dad to think this was a good idea? The only thing that made sense was the toy came to be in their possession because it possessed someone into bringing it home with them. Either that or it was a gift from an aunt. One that hates children.
   2. Face Off. The grisly scene really starts with the maggots in the meat which grosses the man out enough that he runs to the bathroom to wash his face. And then he ends up tearing himself apart. Literally. I watched Poltergeist when I was seven years old but I couldn’t fully watch this scene until much, much later. Even though it was nothing more than a hallucination, the fact that this guy nit-picked his own face off down to the bone had me cringing and gagging long after I turned away. While the special effects look laughable by today’s standards, it was very effective in getting the point across and deliver the intended results.
   3. Tonight, She Swims With the Corpses. What the hell?! We’ve heard of “out of the frying pan and into the fire” but out of the haunted house and into a swimming pool of decomposed bodies?! And I know she’s drinking in all that water while she screams and splashes in place.  No, no, no thank you! (I may just be a germophobe.)
5. The Fog (1980):  A Hello to Arms. Ghosts that resemble the lovechild between a mummy and a pirate seek the death of the descendants of those that wronged them. The way those arms smash through the glass to reach the occupants inside had me backing away from all windows for a week. This movie scared the fuck out of me as a child and yet again as an adult. I will say this: that’s no easy feat. I’m not easily scared by horror movies these days. Many of them are either full of jump-scares or with so much over-the-top gore that I’ve become desensitized. This movie has a slow build but the payoff at the end is huge. If I have to pick one movie as my top favorite horror of all time, this one is it.
6. A Haunting in Connecticut (2009): Up Close and Personal. I don’t like people up in my personal space on a good day. I’m the kind of person that, if I’m shopping and someone stands too close to me, I will get up and go to an entirely different aisle. So imagine my terror when the protagonist is stuck in a circle of the lidless dead in the worst stare-down in the history of stare-downs. And since none of these other motherfuckers have eyelids, it’s safe to say we know who is going to blink first. I almost wanted to see an impromptu mosh pit ensue because the tension was so great. (Though I’m sure it would have ended poorly for Matt Campbell.)
7. The Grudge (2004): That Fucking Kid. OK, the Grudge might not make it as one of my favorite horror movies but that kid is too memorable for me to leave off this list. He’s like Pet Semetary’s Gage but so much worse. While no less deadly, he seems happy to be murdering you, like he truly wants to play. Moreover, this boy is like American Express–in the sense that he’s everywhere you want to be. In particular, I was bothered by the scene where he is on every floor the elevator passes. While his mom is also freakish with her over-the-eye hairdo and unsettling walk, it’s the boy that disturbs me the most. Perhaps it gives me flashbacks to my teen years where children chased me around for an impromptu babysitting session. Whatever the case may be, his character hits high on my “oh, hell no” scale.
8. The Changeling (1980):  Hell On Wheels. Only this movie could make something like an empty wheelchair frightening. While there are plenty of movies with ghosts occupying rocking chairs (i.e. The Woman in Black) or moving chairs in general (i.e. Poltergeist), as far as I know this is the only one that contains a wheel chair chasing a man around his own house. I have to remind myself that Joseph, though a ghost, is still a little boy. And kids are jerks when they don’t get their way.
9. Psycho (1960): Just a Normal Talk With Norman. Perhaps the granddaddy of all horror movies, Psycho hits every little nerve with the precision of acupuncture. It’s subtle at first so you don’t notice. You just sort of nod here and there and maybe seconds later you feel the effect. For me, the most frightening thing isn’t the iconic shower scene and it isn’t the big reveal of Norman’s mother: it’s just a chat with Norman. It’s…off. Surrounded in a room of dead and stuffed animals and chatting about his love of taxidermy, you get the impression Norman has a hard time letting go. And he is getting a little attached. It was time to go sometime yesterday. Rain or no rain, you really ought to hop in your car and drive off. It would prove to be the less deadly of the two showers.

Well, that’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed this list. If you have a favorite scene that I didn’t mention or you want to chat about one I did, please leave me a comment. I’d love to hear from you!

Blog Makeover Day!

As you may have noticed, I changed themes for my blog because the old one was…well, it was boring. No pictures to speak of, the layout was dull. It’s not that I didn’t want to present something nice to my readers and would-be readers, it’s just that I am a little technologically challenged. And I have a near-phobia when it comes to trying new things. Lucky for me, my vanity won out over my fear and I did what anyone in my shoes would do: I searched for a tutorial on Youtube.

Now, if you’ve been thinking about starting a blog of your own and was overwhelmed by how to get started in making it look pretty, here’s a nice video for you to check out that may help: WordPress Tutorial For Beginners 2017 Step By Step Build Your Website by WebsiteWizard.tv (If the link does work, copy/paste this into your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiaT4bR3xGA&t=47s)

Anyway, I hope no one was reading any of my posts while I was updating its look. No doubt it was jarring and chaotic. If so, my apologies. I probably appeared rather indecisive and even at moments insane as I pondered background colors of migraine-inducing red and holy-god-I’m-blind yellow. Thankfully, I leave making bad decisions to my protagonists in my stories.

Do you like the new look? Let me know in the comments!

 

“My Better Half” a flash fiction

I took a vacation from social media for two months and missed posting the link to my flash fiction horror story for Women in Horror Month. But here is the link to “My Better Half” as featured on Nina N’arcangela’s blog. (Link not working? Try opening this in your browser https://ninadarc.wordpress.com/2017/02/17/wihm2017-write-her-story-horror-author-rebecca-r-pierce-rebeccarpierce-sotet_angyal-wihm8-wihmonth/)

If you don’t know Nina, you should because she is cool! Also, check out the many stories by the various talented authors who also contributed to her blog. That’s it for now! Good night and I’ll post again soon!