Ghosts of the Disappeared stalk the streets of Death
Screams of silence fill the graveyard of the Abandoned
Gates creak open with unearthly screams
Come down to the Graveyard
Coffins spill their bone chilling secrets
~ The Abandoned and the Disappeared ~
Tell me what happened to these Ghost Towns…
Twist a tale of terror,
Send shivers of horror down my spine with a story,
Flay the flesh from my skin as you open my veins and bleed me out with our poetry…
Rules
Submit your daily entry (1 per person per day) in the comments.
Submit either a Flash Fiction Piece/Prose
or
Short Story
or
Poetry
Prizes
There can be only 1 ultimate winner for this contest.
You will win
1 * Ebook – Death by Drivein (CoffinHop Anthology)
1 * Mystery Trick or Treat
Contest runs 24th – 31st October 2013
Winner to be announced – 5th November 2013
x
San Zhi, Taiwan
Dragons & Dystopian Spirits
Image courtesy of oddee.com
Built in the late 1970s as a luxury resort for American soldiers based there, it was abandoned before opening. People kept dying in the dystopian futuristic resort, not only in the resort but traveling to the resort.
Image courtesy of oddee.com
The history of the town starts centuries ago in 1661 when the Dutch East India Company occupied the country and settled in this area calling it Fort Zeelandia. The Dutch charged every person a “head tax” – literally paying taxes for the “right” to be alive – this led to a huge siege between the locals and the occupiers and the eventual massacre of hundreds of Dutch troops and their families.
Image courtesy of travelcreepster.com
When in the 1970s building was started on this new futuristic resort, the Chinese decided to clear the area by erecting a giant statue of a dragon. They believed this would bring luck to the building and protect the resort from any ills. Unfortunately this dragon ended up being very unlucky when the construction crew broke it in half: in Chinese lore, this is equivalent to breaking 1000 mirrors.
From the start, this breaking of the Luck Dragon was only the first disaster of many. From car crashes to seeming “innocent” construction accidents, people kept on dying here. To this day there has been no accounting for how many people have actually died there due to the top secrecy of the Taiwanese government. In fact any discussion of this abandoned, disaster-prone resort is strongly discouraged today.
Ghosts of the Disappeared stalk the streets of Death
Screams of silence fill the graveyard of the Abandoned
Gates creak open with unearthly screams
Come down to the Graveyard
Coffins spill their bone chilling secrets
~ The Abandoned and the Disappeared ~
Tell me what happened to these Ghost Towns…
Twist a tale of terror,
Send shivers of horror down my spine with a story,
Flay the flesh from my skin as you open my veins and bleed me out with our poetry…
Rules
Submit your daily entry (1 per person per day) in the comments.
Submit either a Flash Fiction Piece/Prose
or
Short Story
or
Poetry
Prizes
There can be only 1 ultimate winner for this contest.
You will win
1 * Ebook – Death by Drivein (CoffinHop Anthology)
1 * Mystery Trick or Treat
Contest runs 24th – 31st October 2013
Winner to be announced – 5th November 2013
xxxxx
Dudleytown, Connecticut
New England, USA
Note from the Connecticut State Police: Those who go, or attempt to go to Dudleytown will be arrested for trespassing and/or parking. The fines start at $75.00 per person and rapidly increase.
Welcome to the Village of the Damned…
Image courtesy of ghost2ghost.org
Shadowed by three mountains and in the heart of a forest called “Dark Entry Forest” there lies an abandoned village trapped in shadows and secrets. This village keeps terrible secrets of ghosts, demons and curses.
The story of this town begins in the faraway land of England…
In 1510 Edmund Dudley was beheaded for plotting to overthrow King Henry VIII. Legends go that at the time of his beheading, a curse was placed upon the heads of all Dudleys, present and future: The curse states that all Dudleys from Edmund’s lineage would find themselves surrounded by horrors. However this did not scare Edmund’s son, John Dudley the Duke of Northumberland, who followed in his father’s fatal footsteps and tried to overthrow the crown. John Dudley’s third son, Robert, Earl of Leicester, fled England to avoid losing his head for his father’s and his grandfather’s crimes of treason. Eventually his family would flee to America and the curse of the Dudleys followed them across the Atlantic.
In 1748 three Dudley brothers, Gideon, Barzillai and Abiel, purchased land to start a farm. Eventually they were joined by more Dudleys and the township became known as Dudleytown because the Dudley family made up the majority of the inhabitants.
It wasn’t long before the Troubles in Dudleytown began.
In August 1774: an unidentifed epidemic struck and killed the entire Adoniram Carter family. Soon after their relatives moved away and were attacked by Native America Indians who killed all but 3 children.
In April 1804: Sarah Faye, the wife of the famous Civil War General Heman Swift; was struck fatally by a lightning bolt. This drove her husband to reportedly become “slightly demented”.
In 1872: Mary Cheney, wife of Horace Greeley, took her own life one week before her husband lost his bid for the presidency of the USA.
The end of the 1800s: John Brophy’s wife died of consumption and shortly after his two children disappeared mysteriously. After losing his entire family, John Brophy then lost his home to an unexplained blazing inferno. John Brophy fled the town never to be seen again.
1899: Dudleytown was completely deserted and the “Dark Entry Forest” started reclaiming the land once more.
In 1920: Dr. William Clark, a cancer specialist from New York, came to the area for the quiet it promised after the bustle of city life. He was so entranced by the area that he built a summer house there.
In 1924: Dr. William Clark formed The Dark Entry Forest Association and declared the area a nature preserve. The Association’s original charter stated that the land must remain “forever wild”. During one of these summers Dr. Clark was called away to an emergency leaving his wife alone. When he returned, a few days later, his wife had reportedly “gone mad”. Reports at the time said that something had attacked her in the forest and the attack had left her completely insane. She lived out the remainder of her days in a mental hospital.
Dudleytown, today.
The Dark Entry Forest Association still owns much of the land where Dudleytown once stood. There are a group of homes where people there live a secluded existence. There have been numerous reportings of strange rituals and symbols marked on trees and rocks that have led people to believe satanists and black witches have taken to practicing in the area.
Dudleytown lies quiet for the third time in its history.
Image courtesy of ghostvillage.com
The Dark Entry Forest has swallowed the land once more and its secrets from civilisation.
Ghosts of the Disappeared stalk the streets of Death
Screams of silence fill the graveyard of the Abandoned
Gates creak open with unearthly screams
Come down to the Graveyard
Coffins spill their bone chilling secrets
~ The Abandoned and the Disappeared ~
Tell me what happened to these Ghost Towns…
Twist a tale of terror,
Send shivers of horror down my spine with a story,
Flay the flesh from my skin as you open my veins and bleed me out with our poetry…
Rules
Submit your daily entry (1 per person per day) in the comments.
Submit either a Flash Fiction Piece/Prose
or
Short Story
or
Poetry
Prizes
There can be only 1 ultimate winner for this contest.
You will win
1 * Ebook – Death by Drivein (CoffinHop Anthology)
1 * Mystery Trick or Treat
Contest runs 24th – 31st October 2013
Winner to be announced – 5th November 2013
xxxxx
Canate, Italy
Image courtesy of weburbanist.com
With roots in the 12th century built into the solid mountain walls of MT Lago, the village of Canate is lost in the spirits of time. The village can only be reached by foot along ancient stone footpaths.
The last families abandoned the village by 1958. They left with what they could carry on the steep stone paths and abandoned everything else.
Since 1958 this picturesque village on the mountains of the Italian coast has remained abandoned and deserted. This is not a village with crumbling walls even though it has been deserted for 55 years. This is a village that for whatever reason was just left behind. Why in 1958? A thriving village for 8 centuries and now a ghost town lost in the secrets of time for the last 55 years.
Ghosts of the Disappeared stalk the streets of Death
Screams of silence fill the graveyard of the Abandoned
Gates creak open with unearthly screams
Come down to the Graveyard
Coffins spill their bone chilling secrets
~ The Abandoned and the Disappeared ~
Tell me what happened to these Ghost Towns…
Twist a tale of terror,
Send shivers of horror down my spine with a story,
Flay the flesh from my skin as you open my veins and bleed me out with our poetry…
Rules
Submit your daily entry (1 per person per day) in the comments.
Submit either a Flash Fiction Piece/Prose
or
Short Story
or
Poetry
Prizes
There can be only 1 ultimate winner for this contest.
You will win
1 * Ebook – Death by Drivein (CoffinHop Anthology)
1 * Mystery Trick or Treat
Contest runs 24th – 31st October 2013
Winner to be announced – 5th November 2013
xxxxx
The Ghost Island
Gunkanjima, Japan (translated “Battleship” Island)
Images courtesy of weburbanist.com
Once one of the most populated places in the world, at 1.4 people per square metre, it is now completely deserted. Entry is forbidden. This island’s secrets have been trapped in the crumbling walls of eery buildings. Lying off the Western coast of Japan, this island is truly sealed off from the world as it lies behind forbidding, impenetrable concrete sea walls.
In 1810 coal was discovered on the island leading to mines being built and a bustling densely populated metropolis rose from the waves.
In the 70s as the world became more reliant on petroleum to fuel it, there was no need for coal mines. In 1974 with the mines shut and thousands left jobless, the people were forced to leave. Within days the Battleship Island was completely deserted and Gunkanjima became known as Ghost Island.
The eery feature about this abandonment is that the Island’s inhabitants literally left everything they had. They took nothing. Everything remains frozen in this Island of Ghosts & Forbidden secrets. Everything has been left waiting for their owners to return and reclaim them.
From 1974 until 2009, everyone was forbidden entry to this place. Now only carefully supervised tours are allowed onto some parts of the island. But areas known as the “Stairway to Hell” and “Block 65” are still forbidden from any access.
An island that was bustling with energy. Now a forbidden fortress hidden behind giant concrete sea walls. Trapped in time. Trapped in a concrete wall of secrets. Forbidden. Condemned. Waiting…
Ghosts of the Disappeared stalk the streets of Death
Screams of silence fill the graveyard of the Abandoned
Gates creak open with unearthly screams
Come down to the Graveyard
Coffins spill their bone chilling secrets
~ The Abandoned and the Disappeared ~
Tell me what happened to these Ghost Towns…
Twist a tale of terror,
Send shivers of horror down my spine with a story,
Flay the flesh from my skin as you open my veins and bleed me out with your poetry…
Rules
Submit your daily entry (1 per person per day) in the comments.
Submit either a Flash Fiction Piece/Prose
or
Short Story
or
Poetry
Prizes
There can be only 1 ultimate winner for this contest.
You will win
1 * Ebook – Death by Drivein (CoffinHop Anthology)
1 * Mystery Trick or Treat
Contest runs 24th – 31st October 2013
Winner to be announced – 5th November 2013
xxxxx
Kolmanskop / Kolmanskuppe, Namibia, Africa
Image Courtesy of Damien du Toit from Cape Town, South Africa
Where: Namib Desert, Namibia, Africa
Facts: Founded by a transport driver called Johnny Coleman. Trapped by a sand storm, he abandoned his ox wagon in the desert which became the settlement of Kolmanskop / Kolmanskuppe.
In 1908 a diamond was found here by an employee of the German railway inspector. Germany declared the area a Sperrgebiet (translated – Prohibited Area) and started exploiting the desert as a diamond field.
Driven by the wealth of diamonds and adventure, a town was formed that included modern amenities like a hospital, ballroom, power station, school, bowling alley, theatre, casino, ice factory as well as the first x-ray station in the southern hemisphere and the first tram in Africa.
World War 1 put the town into a sharp decline.
In 1954 the once diamond-rich town was suddenly abandoned and became a ghost town.
Click on the “EYE” to take you to my COFFIN HOP TRICK for a TREAT Prize Page…Enter if you dare…Enter or be scared….Contest ends at the Witching Hour (3am) 31st October 2012…(Contest closed)
Often the most haunted places are places where violence and bloodshed have occurred. Revolutions overthrow governments, old ways must die for new ways to take control and often this takes on a decidedly bloody tone. Today’s city is one with a violent history, tsars and revolutionaries, priests, prophets and magic. This is above all a place where people fight passionately for what they believe in even if means to the death.
For a state founded by fierce bloodthirsty warriors in the 9th century, it is not hard to believe that Russia is a place of Warriors, Battles, Wars, Bloodshed and above all Passion. It was the East Slavs who settled here in this strange forbidding land first in the 3rd century but it was the Swedish Vikings who named and founded this land as Rus or The Land of Rus. For many centuries Rus was ruled by feudal laws: The strongest took power by force and the weakest either died or moved on. The first major revolution came in 1237-40 at the hands of the Mongol Invasion. Half of Rus’s population were slaughtered and the vast expanse that was Rus was parceled off and controlled by various nations. Moscow fought back viciously and valiantly and in 1380 defeated the Mongols. Moscow was now the centre of Rus once again and this city showed its strength and might. Deciding that feudalism would not keep them strong, they looked at the early example set by Rome and decided that Rus needed to be a Tsardom. They crowned their first Tsar (Russian for Caesar) Grand Duke Ivan IV (Ivan the Awesome who later was known as Ivan the Terrible) ruling Tsar in 1547. Ivan the Terrible established Moscow as his ruling base and through fierce wars and battles and much bloodshed he added land to the new mighty city; the new Rome as he saw it. Once again Rus underwent death and destruction as The Time of the Troubles began with a severe famine that killed 1/3 of the population (about 2 million). It was a time when brigands roamed the countryside killing, destroying and taking anything in their way. Russia was a country without a leader once again until the first Romanov, Michael Romanov, finally took back control after a number of false tsars had tried to take control. His rule did not come without bloodshed, he ordered the current false tsar’s 3-year-old son to be hanged and for the wife to be strangled to death. The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia from 1612 until their violent death and destruction in the Russian Revolution of 1917. The famous slaughtering of the ruling Romanov family was seen as a victory by the peasants and militant revolutionaries. Tsar Nicholas II known as Bloody Nicholas was forced to abdicate the ruling throne on 2 March 1917. A few months later in July, the Tsar, his wife, his son, his four daughters, the family’s medical doctor, the footman, maidservant and cook were all killed by the revolutionaries. The world watched in vain as the horrific executions were done and the Iron curtain slowly fell over Russia. Once again Moscow was the centre of most of this bloodshed.
Moscow is without a doubt one of the cities in the world with the most violent history. Moscow is recognised as one of the strangest and most haunted cities in the world. The facts and history alone of bloody violence and constant revolutions are enough to send a chill down anyone’s spine. It is a land of militants and mystics, poets and politicians, tsars and peasants, a land of contrasts. Russian literature and poems are full of fantastic creatures, legends and bloodcurdling myths…
The Bronze Bird
In the Bronze Bird (Anatoly Rybakov) there is a tale told of the Golyginskaya Gat (a log road across a swamp): “If they wander on to the Golyginskaya Gat, they might get lost there forever,”. This is the place where an old Count and his son were beheaded in the 17th century. He was one of the false Tsars who attempted to overthrow the Romanovs and instead was defeated and executed by beheading. Then they were buried in the swamp land which was unconsecrated by the Russian Orthodox Church with the hope that their souls would be doomed to eternal suffering. The legend of their haunting goes like this: Cursed by a burial in unconsecrated ground, the restless, maltreated souls of father and son rise from the swamps at night and ask passers-by to bury their remains as befits Christians, insisting they were just innocent victims of malignant libel. If an unlucky man so approached cannot utter an intelligible response, the princes grow even more pressing, coming closer and removing their own heads, to be polite!
In the 19th century, Kuznetsky Most Street was a thriving centre of fashion and nightlife with many boutiques and gambling houses. Gamblers often played all night long, losing all their cash. As the legend goes, those hit particularly hard might even be considering suicide when they suddenly saw a grey coach with wonderful horses stopping in front of them. The coachman, hiding his face, was ready to take them “wherever your soul wishes” for very little money. Few were able to grasp the covert sense of the phrase, indeed, they had just considered taking their own lives. Those who got into the mysterious coach were never seen again.
Gospitalny Val Street, Moscow
There is an old cemetery here dating from the 18th century. The city suffered an outbreak of the Plague. So many people died in this outbreak that the city had to start burying its dead on the banks of the river outside of the cemetery. These days, people say melancholy flute music is sometimes heard from the dark cemetery park on spring nights and, when it rains, an invisible musician plays his sad music until dawn, accompanied by the rattling of iron shackles heard from the tomb of Dr. Fedor Gaaz. Locals call this cemetery “Infidels’ crypts.”
The Bauman District, Moscow
The macabre history of this district is that this impure place was a place where witches were burned or took their own lives by suicide. Since 1558, a hunchback old woman with a crook has haunted these lands, appearing to residents of Ostankino village shortly before their deaths. As the legend goes, she even predicted to Emperor Paul I that he would not live until spring. Her prophecy came true: the tsar was murdered by officers of his guard in the early hours of March 12, 1801. The same old woman told Alexander II that he would die at the hands of an atheist – and this prediction also came true when he was assassinated by a terrorist on March 1, 1881. It is rumoured that the old prophetess also appeared to local residents before the Ostankino TV Tower fire in 2000.
Many of these haunted places are so dangerous and so cursed even to this day that the Haunted tours that run in Moscow will not take you there for fear of death themselves. Moscow is indeed worthy of being called one of the 10 most haunted cities in the world. So before you take a walk through these desolate hauntings it might be wise to have some liquid courage. So I have included a few Vodka Martini recipes (below) in honour of this ancient city that is sure to bolster and shore up your courage to face the shadowed spirits who walk the veil between worlds in Moscow, that Mighty, Mysterious city.
Decadent Vodka Cocktails with a Terrifying Twist
Click on any of the DECADENT COCKTAILS
– this will take you to my Pinterest page,
One more click will take you to the delicious concoction’s RECIPE…
What is the use of posting cocktails unless you try them for yourself?
Come back and tell me which was your favourite flavour!
Click on the “EYE” to take you to my COFFIN HOP TRICK for a TREAT Prize Page…Enter if you dare…Enter or be scared….Contest ends at the Witching Hour (3am) 31st October 2012…(contest closed)
Day 2 of The Haunted & The Hauntings takes us to a place of Voodoo and Magic. This city is famous in the Horror and Paranormal Circles. It has inspired legends, myths, tales that terrify and movies that horrify. It has also been a favourite obsession of mine and has inspired my new WIP – The Tattooist Trilogy.
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This city has been called the Most Haunted City in the USA. It has also been called “The Crescent City”, “The Big Easy” and “The City that Care Forgot” I first became familiar with this city through, what else but my favourite medium, books: specifically The Vampire Chronicles of Anne Rice. I could not get enough of this series and could not get enough of this strange haunting city. This city is one of the main settings in my NEXT BIG WIP – The Tattooist Trilogy. I am also planning on a 2013 trip – it falls under research – to this city of Hauntings, Voodoo & Vamps. In my thirst for knowledge + WIP research I explored the earliest times of this notorious city.
Perhaps the earliest legend that has fueled the Hauntings in this city is that the vast swamp that was New Orleans was once a sacred Indian burial ground. In 1718 King Louis XV founded the city of New Orleans, named after the city of Orleans lying on the banks of the Loire River in France, in the hope and belief that it would be a profitable trading station for the French because of its appealing location on the Mississippi River. Once people started trickling in to live here though; murderers, thieves, rapists, common criminals and laborers were the first inhabitants. I assumed they came here and set up camp to escape their various crimes and the punishment they were sure to face on apprehension. In these early days of New Orleans, it was only the desperate and the damned who would choose to make their home here: They called it The French Quarter in 1721. It was a topography that perfectly mirrored the depraved, the desperate and the damned who settled here with natural harsh elements like quick sand, alligators, venomous snakes, mosquitoes and rampant disease. For the next hundred years the murder rate in this new city was high and along with numerous major fires, hurricanes, wars and the dreaded yellow fever epidemic this city became a place of death, decay and destruction.
Description: Tomb of Marie Laveau (The 1830s notorious Voodoo Queen) Source: New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum Date: 8/10/08 Author: Charles M. Gandolfo Permission: Jerry Gandolfo
During this first 100 year period of New Orleans, the Haitian slave revolt (1791 – 1804) happened in Haiti. To escape the massacre the refugee plantation owners, bringing with them their slaves, escaped Haiti to make their way across the ocean to a new home and refuge in New Orleans. For the first time New Orleans heard the sacrificial drums of Voodoo. Voodoo had come to New Orleans. Voodoo is a strange mix of various African – originating in Benin and Nigeria – magic, belief and rites mixed with Catholic elements. Voodoo brought with it snake magic, seers, ritual animal sacrifice, fortune-telling, black magic, bonfires and orgies and notorious Voodoo Queens: the most famous Voodoo Queen would have to be Marie Laveau. Both a practicing Catholic and a Voodoo Queen; she acted as an Oracle, conducted private rituals, performed exorcisms and offered sacrifices to spirits. To this day people still come to her tomb to offer up favors and offerings. Her grave is the one of the most visited graves in the world. There are still sightings of this Voodoo Queen in modern-day New Orleans.
It is no wonder that this city with its notorious history, its birthplace founded on a purported sacred Indian burial ground and its mix of the depraved, the damned and the illicit combined with the black magic of Voodoo Queens has spurred the title of the Most Haunted city in the USA. It is a place layered in history, in magic and ancient sacred rites. It is a place where the veils between ritualistic beliefs, fears are thin. It is indeed a place where spirits watch you from veiled shadows.
Another thing that this city is famous for is Cocktails, decadence and illicit deliciousness…It is not known as “The Big Easy” and the home of “The Mardi Gras” for nothing. So for a treat today I have included some New Orleans cocktails and some Halloween inspired cocktails for your enjoyment.
New Orleans Classic Cocktails
Click on any of the DECADENT COCKTAILS
– this will take you to my Pinterest page,
One more click will take you to the delicious concoction’s RECIPE…
What is the use of posting cocktails unless you try them for yourself?
Come back and tell me which was your favourite flavour!
1) HAVE A SPOOKY FUN TIME!2) INVITE YOUR FRIENDS AND SPREAD THE WORD!3) THIS TOUR STARTS: Monday, October 24, 2011 at Midnight (PST) THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, October 31, 2011 at Midnight (PST) Winners will be drawn and posted November 1, 20114) MEET AND MINGLE WITH THE AUTHORS! EXPERIENCE A NEW DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY SITE’S CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!
5) PARTICIPATION AT ALL SITES IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT REQUIRED. THE MORE SITES YOU HOP, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING PRIZES.
6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE A SPOOKY FUN TIME?
***Authors have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification of win, whichever comes first. Anyone who participates in this tour is subject to these rules***
My next WIP is a psychological thriller and it involves psychological twists and a cold-blooded killer. This killer curdles my blood. Already the killer haunts my dreams. But the worst thing about this character is that I am struggling to name him. He does have a moniker that he will be known by in the story but he does need a name.
Let me tell you a little bit about him. He is a psychopath. He is exceptionally cruel and sadistic. He is also a perfectionist who never leaves any trace of himself at the crime scene. He is fastidiously clean, almost surgically I would say. He preys on people that he feels are “fallen”. He is incredibly alluring and seductive. He is hard to say “no” to. By the time his victims realise he is the final person they will see, it is too late and they are taken by surprise. This man could be anyone. He might be your friend, your brother, your father, your lover, your husband or your colleague. He stalks you like a silent lioness. Do you know his name?
So…this is where you blog-hoppers come in. I need you to put your creative hats on and spin me a first name and surname for my sadistic killer.
The best name will win three ebooks by three phenomenal authors. (I will be announcing the names of the authors and their books closer to Halloween but believe me you will want these ebooks.)
The best name will also become the name of my sadistic killer.
You need to be subscribed to this blog to enter (so join up if you are not already) as well as leave your best answer (along with your email address for winner notification) in the comments on any of this week’s posts on this blog. You also need to have visited and commented on at least 5 of the CoffinHop bloggers.
The winner will be announced on this blog on 5th November.
Have you ever tried watching a horror or thriller without the sound on? I guarantee you that you will not have a problem turning off the lights and going to bed. It is the creaks and the strange sounds, the eery music and whistling wind that truly send the shivers down our spines even before the villain has come onto the scene ready to kill. The core element for horror and thriller is the theme music and the background noises.
How do we convey this horror element and scare factor into writing? How do we create shivers down spines with ink on a white page?
We must write out a theme music. How do we do this? We write using all of our senses. We bring all of the character’s senses into the story. We bring in a deep POV (Point of View) where by writing from the character in the scene, we effectively put the reader into the scene. Their heart beats as quick as the characters. All of a sudden they are not sitting there reading a harmless book…they have been transported into a situation of being hunted and not knowing what was hunting them. Our characters senses and emotions are the writer’s theme music for the story.
Here is an excerpt of one of my own stories to demonstrate. Tell me if your heart beats quickened.
Did your heart skip a beat? Were you there with the character? Now I didn’t tell you who the character is or where exactly they may be. I just wanted you to feel this character’s fear and desperation, her mind stretching for an escape but knowing it is too late.
Now character’s emotions and senses are not the only way you can set your story’s theme music. What happens if you want to set the scene when the horror has already passed? What happens if your key character in the scene cannot move, feel or even speak? What tools does the writer have then? You have the setting. This is when you use your setting. This is the time when you put a hard focus on the body lying broken. The horror will edge across your spine like a crescendo of violins.
Here is an excerpt of another of my stories to demonstrate…
“She lay on the ground, a confusion of twisted limbs and red sand.
The sun was slowly starting to break over the ocean’s rim. Already the seagulls were flying overhead, their harsh cries echoing in the noise of dawn. The girl lay very still and quiet, limp like a rag doll. Slowly she cracked open her eyes, seeing only red sand. Closing her eyes again, she moved her tongue around her mouth feeling for broken teeth. The sand beneath her cheek grated painfully into her bruises. Her left hand, held in a fist, was bent over her back. Carefully she uncurled her fingers. A whimper escaped as sharp pains shot up her shoulder and into her neck. Trying not to move her arm, she lifted her hand slightly off the cool sand. With a sharp gasp, she dropped her head back onto the ground. The sun started to punish her bare legs with its rays. She opened her eyes again and watched as a tear fell from the tip of her nose into the sand.Suddenly tired, her eyes blurred. The light faded and she fell into a black hole.
That was how they found her: a confusion of twisted limbs and red sand.
This scene unlike the first does not have the action element but the theme music is still loud and clear. Something horrific has happened and the heart of a reader is tugged.
How do you compose the theme music of your story? How do you make ink on a page send shivers up the reader’s spine? How do you crawl into the head space and imagination and pull out horror in your reader? What are your best tools? Look at your own writing and listen to it instead of reading it. You will hear the music. You will hear the creaks in the floor. You will hear the soft tread of the killer.
Now I will leave you with the creepiest theme music I know. As you listen, remember how important the music of a scene – both visual and written – can be to converting the true horror. Here is Angelo Badalamenti’s “Dark Water” Suite. Enjoy the chills…
3) THIS TOUR STARTS: Monday, October 24, 2011 at Midnight (PST)
THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, October 31, 2011 at Midnight (PST)
Winners will be drawn and posted November 1, 2011
4) MEET AND MINGLE WITH THE AUTHORS! EXPERIENCE A NEW DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY SITE’S CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!
5) PARTICIPATION AT ALL SITES IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT REQUIRED. THE MORE SITES YOU HOP, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING PRIZES.
6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE A SPOOKY FUN TIME?
***Authors have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification of win, whichever comes first. Anyone who participates in this tour is subject to these rules***
Life is precious and fragile. We are all part of the animal kingdom and supposedly we are the most intelligent species. I am not so sure about that. But I do know that we are the cruelest species. Death is a natural part of the circle of life as are predators and prey. But though animals hunt for food and sometimes kill for dominance, animals do not murder.
Murder is something that is the reserve of humanity. A murder was the first crime in the world when one brother murdered another out of jealousy and envy and then covered it up. So Murder is truly as old as humanity itself.
Some psychologists believe that everyone is capable of murder but that some are not capable of controlling this black streak. But some murders don’t fall into the murder category, they fall into manslaughter or self-defense. When you hear those terms, you can understand the theory that anyone of us is capable of taking a life especially if it is to save another person’s life or to save your own life. Does this make us more human or less human? No matter how murder is justified, killing is killing. A life ends at another’s hands.
Murder does lend itself to the world of cinema and fiction. There is nothing as riveting as a good old-fashioned murder mystery. There is nothing as thrilling and spine-chilling as a psychological thriller. There is no antagonist/villain as frightening and horrific as a psychopathic, cold-blooded serial killer.
I write dark paranormal fiction and in my stories there is always a lurking ghost, a psychological twist or a cold-blooded killer. Many people ask me why I write about the stories that I do. Am I that fascinated with ghosts and murder? Yes I am. I am fascinated and horrified by ghosts, spirits and killers because like it or not they are there. That scares me. To conquer your fear you have to face it. So I face it by writing about it. Often this means I do not sleep at night and this is caused by a combination of my imagination and my insomnia.
My next WIP is a psychological thriller and it involves psychological twists and a cold-blooded killer. This killer curdles my blood. Already the killer haunts my dreams. But the worst thing about this character is that I am struggling to name him. He does have a moniker that he will be known by in the story but he does need a name.
Let me tell you a little bit about him. He is a psychopath. He is exceptionally cruel and sadistic. He is also a perfectionist who never leaves any trace of himself at the crime scene. He is fastidiously clean, almost surgically I would say. He preys on people that he feels are “fallen”. He is incredibly alluring and seductive. He is hard to say “no” to. By the time his victims realise he is the final person they will see, it is too late and they are taken by surprise. This man could be anyone. He might be your friend, your brother, your father, your lover, your husband or your colleague. He stalks you like a silent lioness. Do you know his name?
Prize Time
So…this is where you blog-hoppers come in. I need you to put your creative hats on and spin me a first name and surname for my sadistic killer.
The best name will win three ebooks by three phenomenal authors. (I will be announcing the names of the authors and their books closer to Halloween but believe me you will want these ebooks.)
The best name will also become the name of my sadistic killer.
You need to be subscribed to this blog to enter (so join up if you are not already) as well as leave your best answer (along with your email address for winner notification) in the comments on any of this week’s posts on this blog. You also need to have visited and commented on at least 5 of the CoffinHop bloggers.
The winner will be announced on this blog on 5th November.
Kim Koning 