The Cerebral  Writer
  • About
  • Books
  • Blog
  • Links

THE SPEED OF DARK BLOG TOUR: Kenneth Weene

4/26/2013

4 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
People love to ask a writer, “So how did you come up with that idea?” Let me share a partial answer. The story is called “The Hansom Dove” and is one of the mysterious stories to be found in The Speed of Dark, an anthology from Chase Enterprises Publications and my name is Kenneth Weene.

 What happens when a love story runs aground on the writer’s subconscious Freudian shoals? The answer is “The Hansom Dove.” When I first imagined Quince Humphrey, he was a lonely but successful author in need of a quiet place to write what he was sure was going to be a great novel. Obsessed with his work, Quince would not notice that he was falling in love, at least not until the beautiful Miss Dove had won his heart. The story was going to reveal the awaking of the artist’s sexuality and his deepest emotions. Love would awaken his emotional capacity, and Quince would escape from the chains of intellect and art. 


As for Miss Dove, she, too, would be freed—freed from the oppressive demands of her father, the shuffling and contrary old innkeeper, and from the stultifying life of Port Harbor Island. After all, isn’t that the goal promised in all love stories: the setting free of the individual so that he or she can live a richer and more fulfilled life?

But something went wrong. In my enthusiasm to celebrate love and to allow my characters to revel in their sexual desires, I had forgotten the other side of humans, the side that Freud called Thanatos. If Eros drives us to seek pleasure, it is Thanatos which compels us to avoid pain.  It is dark force that urges us to take refuge from life’s storms, to hide our angst in the arms of Morpheus and ultimately in the even safer arms of death. Without my willing it, perhaps even without my awareness, “The Hansom Dove” moved into the world of darkness. Desire became not the vehicle for freeing Quince but for immuring him.

Then, as if to taunt me as author, a symbol forced its way into the story, the narwhal tusk. Often confused with the mythological horn of the unicorn, a well-known if nonexistent aphrodisiac, the narwhal tusk, which is in fact a tooth, is one of the most delightfully phallic appendages of any animal. If the tusk implies sexuality, then we have to also remember the species’ name; narwhal is derived from the term “corpse whale.” The creature also reminds us of the necrophilic part of the Freudian dichotomy. There we have it, libido and the death wish in one symbolic animal.

This having been explained I must, with all due embarrassment, say it was during a dream that I first imagined room 627 and its strange decoration.  Yes, dear Dr. Freud must have been guiding my creative process. Once I understood that the story was not only about love and libido but also about death and imprisonment, the tale took rapid shape. In the end “The Hansom Dove” is one of my favorite short pieces even as it makes me want to flee my own words. But there I am, trapped—as trapped as Quince is from the very beginning of the tale, queasy, wretched and caught on that horrible ferry which will take him to the island and to his fate.
Hunched in his brown tweed suit, the one he had purchased to let the world know he was a true Bohemian, Quince Humphrey tried not to think about his queasiness. Never before had he understood what it meant to feel green. He tried to reassure himself that the lurching and swaying of the small ferry would someday provide him an idea for a story. That was his strength as a writer – turning misery into plot. It just hadn’t been his plan to be miserable this particular Thursday evening. 

Isn’t this just the place you’d like to join us? If you would, Mr. Dove will be waiting: 

The old man stared at Quince, and the younger man stared back. Never before had Quince seen such a pitted face – grooved and furrowed by time and no doubt the unpleasant island weather as well. Quince took in the paleness of the innkeeper’s complexion, the stringy white hair that hung beneath the ridiculous cap, the thinness of his wrists and angles as they emerged from his nightshirt, the boniness of his hands and bare feet.


“May I come in?” Quince asked reaching to pick up his suitcase. He was struck by the weariness in his own voice. “I could use a drink. Do hope you have a gin and tonic?” He tried to make the request sound light and friendly. 

“Mugget sent you, did he?” The old man swayed but did not move from the doorway. The lantern, which he was carrying, swayed with him casting dancing shadows on the nearby walls. 

There was another pause as the man seemed to study Quince’s words. Finally he said, “Didn’t expect you till morning. Not a night fit for ferrying.”  

Be ready for a charming encounter, but watch out for the beautiful daughter.

Perhaps you’d like to learn more about my writing and me. Please visit me at my website.  You can purchase my books here.
 
In case you’re wondering, I should say, “Yes, I am trained as a shrink, a PhD in psychology.” That said, “Hansom Dove” is certainly one of the most Freudian pieces I’ve written. 

Picture
Want to purchase The Speed of Dark?  Stop by here for more info.

A New Englander by birth and disposition and trained as a psychologist and minister, Ken Weene has worked as an educator and psychotherapist.

Besides writing, Ken's earlier interests included whitewater rafting, travel, and playing paintball.

Ken's poetry has appeared in numerous publications - most recently being featured in Sol. An anthology of his writings, Songs for my Father, was published by Inkwell Productions. Two of his short stories are soon appearing in Legendary. His short play, The Right Number, was recently workshopped with great laughter and success by Stage 55 in Phoenix.

Ken's novel, Widow's Walk, has just been published by All Things That Matter Press.

Now in semi-retirement, Ken and his wife live in Arizona. There Ken has been able to indulge his passion for writing and enjoying life.


Check out the rest of the blog tour:

April 25 Micki Peluso at James Secor’s blog

April 26 Ken Weene at Lisa Lane’s blog

April 27 Clayton Bye at Micki Peluso’s blog

April 28 Lisa Lane at John Rosenman’s blog

April 29 James Secor at Ken Weene’s blog

April 30 John Rosenman at Clayton Bye’s blog

4 Comments

Larisa Walk: A WITCH WITHOUT MAGIC

4/17/2013

1 Comment

 
Today, Larisa Walk shares about her new release, A Witch Without Magic.  Make sure to leave a comment for your chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate.  Stop by Goddess Fish for more information.
Picture
About the novel:

When her neighbors accuse Belladonna of Satanism and making them age years to days, she must find who is behind it or face a modern day witch hunt. Her mysterious enemy knows where to strike to cause the most damage: Belladonna's only friend is losing his life-force; the garden that feeds her is dying; and her house ghost goes poltergeist. To save her neighbors and friends and prove her innocence, she must travel to the Otherworld where butterflies have razor wings and where her worst fears will come to life.


Picture
Excerpt:

The mob on the other side of the wrought iron fence wore no tri-cornered hats or starched bonnets.  They didn’t brandish pitchforks or flaming torches.  Hell, they didn’t even bring a preacher to drive the Devil out.  Still, they had come to flush out a witch and the witch was me.

They were thirty all together, gathered outside my gate under the two California live oaks that shade the sidewalk in midday.  I had to squint into the still hot mid-October sun to study their unfamiliar faces.  The mob included several dwarves.  The youngest dwarf must have been in her forties, a tiny woman that for some reason wore a yellow, red and blue Snow White dress with an appliquéd picture of Snow White on the chest.  She didn’t look like a typical dwarf: no classically high forehead and her arms and legs were proportionate.  She was holding a fluffy purple teddy bear by a front paw and sucking her thumb.

In the sun my forehead sweated under the straw hat.  A mocking bird’s harsh chirrup burst from the oak on the right, piercing as a car horn.  I flinched.

I don’t much like or trust people in large groups - doing time in Greenville State Prison for Women had taught me that.  In prison the exercise yard is the most dangerous place to be: too many inmates in one area, too many chances to be stabbed with a shiv made from a sharpened toothbrush handle or from melted and hardened Styrofoam cups.


Picture
About the author:

Larisa Walk, a native Russian, lives in California with her husband and two formerly homeless cats. She writes paranormal fiction that is more often than not populated by characters from the Russian fairy world. Her short fiction appeared in several anthologies and magazines. She has published a historic fantasy novel, A Handful of Earth, and a modern paranormal novel, A Witch Without Magic. See her quirky blog posts here.  For more about her and her books, stop by her Amazon author page.

A Witch Without Magic is available on Amazon Kindle.



1 Comment

Guest Author Dina Rae: Tour of the Damned

4/12/2013

3 Comments

 
Dina Rae is running from website to website, trying to outrun the demons at her heels. Run with her on the Tour of the Damned and read special guest posts, excerpts, reviews and more from her hit novel Halo of the Damned. If you are lucky, you may be able to walk away... With a special prize pack from author Dina Rae herself.
Picture
About Halo of the Damned:

A chain of advertising agencies, a new breed of humans, and a fallen angel to worship... Andel Talistokov is known for his slick advertising agencies across the globe. He is a fallen angel that uses advertising as a weapon for Satan's work. His growing power emboldens him to break several of Hell's Commandments. Furious with his arrogance, Satan commands him to return to Hell after finding his own replacement. Yezidism, an ancient angel worshiping religion, quietly expands throughout the West. Armaros appears as a guest of honor during their ceremonies. He mates with young women to produce nephilim, a mixed race of humans and angels. They are alone and unprepared for their supernatural power. Joanna Easterhouse, a recovering drug addict, steps out of prison shortly after her mother's fatal accident. She and her sister, Kim, unravel their mother's secretive past. Intrigued, they learn their bloodline is part of a celestial legacy. Both worlds collide. Halo of the Damned is a horrifying tale that weaves research together with suspenseful twists and turns.

Picture
Excerpt:

The scroll’s seal matched the box’s lining. The color was foreign to Joanna, Kim, and Maria, but they agreed that indigo was the closest it came to any of the colors on the spectrum. The scroll was much thicker and softer than paper.

“This must be some kind of animal skin,” remarked Joanna.

The last item in the box was a piece of curved metal. The edges along its outer rim were ridged in an elaborate pattern. It looked like a cracked piece of a charger that once was part of an elegant set of china. Joanna tried to pick it up, but was mildly shocked. The electric charge did not stop her from trying to hold it. She picked it up a few more times. Once neutralized, she held it to the light in the room.

“This looks like a piece of scrap metal. Obviously, it had major importance or Mom wouldn’t have gone to such measures in hiding it. It’s not gold, silver, or even platinum. But it’s shiny, like tin. It’s almost weightless. I thought it would be much heavier,” Joanna analyzed after carefully studying it.

“It’s Grandma’s. I’ve seen her wear it in my dreams. There’s another piece that matches it and makes a circle. She puts it in the back of her head and it glows. She must have hid the other piece,” Maria said.


Watch the Halo of the Damned trailer.

Picture
About the author:

Dina Rae is a new author here to stay.  As a teacher, she brings an academic element to her work.  Her three novels, Halo of the Damned, The Last Degree, and Bad Juju weave research and suspense throughout the plots.  Her short story, Be Paranoid Be Prepared, is a prequel of sorts to The Last Degree, focusing on the James Martin character.  In the spring of 2013, her latest novel, Halo of the Nephilim, will be released.  Dina also freelances for various entertainment blogs.

Dina lives with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs outside of Chicago.  She is a Christian, an avid tennis player, movie buff, and self-proclaimed expert on several conspiracy theories.  She has been interviewed numerous times in e-zines, websites, blogs, newspapers, and radio programs.  When she is not writing she is reading novels from her favorite authors Dan Brown, Anne Rice, Stephen King, Brad Thor, George R.R. Martin, and Preston & Childs.



Links:

You can find Dina Rae at her website, blog, Pinterest, Facebook Fan Page, and Eternalpress.biz.

She is also available through Twitter at @haloofthedamned, and her books are available online through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

3 Comments

Please Welcome Guest Author M.R. Gott

4/4/2013

6 Comments

 
Today, I have the honor of hosting the very talented M.R. Gott, who adds a wonderful cerebral edge to his horror.  I enjoyed his thoughts on using graphic imagery without exploiting or promoting violence, and I'm sure you will too.  Thanks for stopping by!

Picture
Graphic, But Not Exploitative  
A contemplation on depictions of violence by M.R. Gott


It is my view based upon a great deal of evidence we live in a violent world, too violent I would argue.  Our fiction reflects our world and helps us step back and analyze this reality, and as such is prone to contain a reflection of the violence we see in our world.  The question as I writer I ask is, how to do so without glamorizing, exploiting or glorifying violence?

To help illustrate this point I’m going to describe a popular film and book series, a work I believe to be staggering in its genius.  This work depicts scenes of a fetus being dropped in a boiling pot, children being sadistically tortured and murdered, parents murdered before the eyes of their children and an array of other violent actions.  Did you guess what series I’m referring to?  It’s Harry Potter, and that’s in children’s literature. (Though adults such as myself still enjoy it)

The reason this is not seen as exploitative is the essence and idea of the story being told.  Rowling has stated the work is about tolerance, she even outed Dumbledore.  There are real emotional significances to the violence.  Harry mourns for his slain family members, and there is a sense of impact and loss when character die or are killed.  And of equal importance the violence is meant to be scary, readers were worried Harry would not survive the final book.

And this is the justification I use for the violence in my own work as a Horror author.  While others in the field often cringe at this label I embrace it.  I find it liberating. It frees me to address any ideas, without fear of offending my audience.  When a reader picks up a horror novel they are signing a contract with the author that they are willing to go for a dark ride. 

Within the horror trappings of my novel Where the Dead Fear to Tread, the story is about informed fatalism.  The main protagonist is a vigilante killer, a cliché if there ever was one.  He murders those who traffic in child slavery, not a great deal of sympathy from my audience.(Or so I would hope)  Where my killer, William Chandler is different however is that he goes to the funerals of those he has murdered, to memorize the grieving features of the mourning family and loved ones, and understand the weight of his choices.  He watches their children cry in loss, struggling to understand.  William understands that violence leads to sadness, even the violence he does in the name of a cause he believes wholly justified.  In order to keep his own sense of humanity he forces himself to understand these consequences.  Painful as they may be.

Every character needs a foil and William’s is Kate Broadband, a police officer who is tracking William’s carnage.  She is also being seduced by the allure of William’s efficiency, because she does not see the bereaved families, only the ones William reunites.  And while his actions tear him apart she begins to romanticize him. 

The violence in Where the Dead Fear to Tread is explicit and graphic.  I work to ensure my readers understand the impact of every bullet that enters a person’s body, and the damage that a bullet does when it rips through a human being.  I want you to grimace with every cut and flinch with every bruise. I want you to find the violence in my book scary, because violence is scary and any work that depicts it otherwise is exploitative. 

Then again, I could be wrong.  I’m just a guy who writes scary stories. 

About the Author:

His work has been called, “bleak,” and “insightful,” as well as “frantic, horrific, brutal, and without doubt the darkest thing I have read in years - maybe in my life.” And that was pretty much what he was going for. M.R. Gott is the author of Where the Dead fear to Tread and the sequel Where the Damned Fear Redemption, and a contributor at Ravenous Monster.  While crafting these upbeat, life affirming tales, M.R. enjoys dark coffee, dark beer, red wine, and fading light. For more on M.R. Gott and his works please visit wherethedeadfeartotread.blogspot.com.



6 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    Privacy Policy:

    No names or e-mail addresses listed in blog post replies will result in mailing list additions or sharing/sales to other sites via the Cerebral Writer.

    All email addresses, unless added intentionally to the body text of a post or response, will remain hidden from public view.

    Archives

    April 2021
    November 2018
    October 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    July 2008
    June 2008
    May 2008
    April 2008
    March 2008


    Categories

    All
    Aftermath
    Animals
    Anthologies
    Awards
    Bestseller List
    Bizarro
    Blogging
    Classics
    Contests
    Critical Analysis
    Dystopia
    Edgar Allan Poe
    Editors
    Excerpts
    Film
    Finding Poe
    Flash Fiction
    God
    Grammar
    Guest Blogs
    Horror
    Humanitarians
    Interviews
    Jane The Hippie Vampire
    Language
    Leigh M. Lane
    Literary Fiction
    Lupus
    Marketing
    Movies
    Muses
    Musicians
    My Books
    Myths Of Gods
    My Writing
    My Writing
    Nook
    Novellas
    On Writing
    On Writing
    Opinion
    Other Great Authors
    Paying It Forward
    Pirates
    Poetry
    Racism
    Redrafting
    Revelations
    Reviews
    Rod Serling
    Screenplays
    Self Publishing
    Short Stories
    Speculative Fiction
    Television
    The Hidden Valley
    The Private Sector
    The Twilight Zone
    This Site
    Trailers
    Urban Fantasy
    Vampires
    Weird Western
    Words
    World Mart
    Zombies

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.