Eliza Poe/HorrorCon – Sp4
May 30, 2008
For today’s entry, we invite the very capable ghost of Eliza Poe – mother of Edgar Allen Poe – to play the part of her namesake and our main character. She was born Eliza Arnold and after the death of her father, sailed from England to Boston, Massachusetts with her actress mother and made her acting debut at age nine. They joined a theater troupe called the Charleston Comedians run by a man named Mr. Edgar, and after her mother died, she married a man by the name of Charles Hopkins who may or may not have been related in some way to the man who portrays our Dr. Radan in the HorrorCon poster.
Sadly, good old Chuck would succumb to yellow fever three years later and poor Eliza would find herself a widow at age 18. She continued to perform, however, and was eventually swept off her feet by lawyer-turned-actor David Poe, Jr. Even more sadly, he sucked as an actor and would eventually leave Eliza after receiving a string of honest reviews, but not until after the couple produced two sons, one of whom we all know quite well. Eliza would also give birth to a daughter some months later, and the family would move to New York where mother would continue to perform until her death from pneumonia, malaria or tuberculosis (feeling lucky to be born in the age of modern medicine yet?) at the tender age of 24. Incidentally, the couple who would look after her children in her last days were named Mr. and Mrs. Luke Usher. If you ask me, little Edgar would have remembered this period in his life quite vividly. To see where Eliza is buried, click her miniature above. Would make a cheery family trip, no?
Speaking of cheery trips, let’s hop on over to Orlando and see how the Doctor and his charge are making out. Which is a casual, short-handed way of saying, “BEHOLD, YE WEARY WANDERERS! ‘TIS TIME TO LAY YE WEARY EYES ON HORRORCON – SP3!”:
As we all know by now, Dmitrije is a good swimmer and even better with the bedside manner. Eliza recounted for us her horrible ordeal and introduced us to a new friend named Boris. Dmitrije, like lots of us from time to time, needed a stiff shot to deal, and now must make a few more important decisions. (Remember, check the HorrorCon page in the “stories” section for previous chapters and to make sure you’re all caught up. Enjoy!)
HorrorCon – Saturday (part four) available by request only.
HorrorCon – Saturday (part one)
May 20, 2008
Surprise! I’ve decided since it’s rainy outside and May 20th (2003) is the anniversary of the final televised episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that I would get you all started on the Saturday chapters of HorrorCon earlier than scheduled. However, there will still be another chapter for this Friday, plus some info on a new story idea that is in competition with my “coyote” concept for next project to tackle. It’s my answer to the numbing popularity of slasher and “torture porn” flicks, but with a bit of family values thrown in. Yes, it will be delightfully twisted. And if you liked the bat shit madness behind Welcome to Cydonia, you are seriously going to dig this.
We are fortunate to have the decidedly natural, almost anti-Hollywood gifts of actress Sarah Rivas to lend to our character of Eliza today. I caught Sara this weekend on the Independent Film Channel in a film called Manic that did the festival circuit circa 2001 and starred a handful of really talented young actors such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, and Elden Henson. Their performances benefited greatly by portraying deeply troubled teens doing time in the juvenile wing of a mental institution under the tutelage of the incredibly committed – both in his character and his approach to the role – Don Cheadle. It’s a pretty engaging and indicting portrait of the darker aspects of today’s youth culture, which is something that interests me a great deal and informs a lot of my work. Anyway, it’s a pleasure to have Ms. Rivas join us today and so as not to take up too much of her time, let’s get to the story:
Eliza and Dmitrije greet the morning in their usual (or is that “unusual”?) way as each attempt to get on with the busy day. However, both find a way to avoid their respective tasks at hand, and a dark room makes for a “chance” encounter – the results of which reveal a few more painful secrets.
HorrorCon – Saturday (part one) available by request only.
Another Animal/HorrorCon – Fp3
May 16, 2008
Imagine the life of the coyote. As desert suburban sprawl continues to corner the species, what does it do? It learns to adapt, helping itself to our overflowing garbage can buffets, feeding on our smaller and slower pets (R.I.P. Georgia 
) and finding places to hide and raise its young. As it becomes more accustomed to its surroundings, it becomes braver and takes more chances, passing an even more audacious nervous system to its offspring. Soon, you have a creature that becomes demonized and identified as an evil pest, even when society has literally played a major role in its behavior.
Now imagine your average teenager. As modern technology and its inundation of objectifying messages isolates them and at the same time sublimates their importance by selling them images of who they are meant to be that few will likely match, they become pushed into their own set of corners where they are also forced to adapt. Sometimes they create electronic personas with which to communicate, other times they withdraw into lives of quiet desperation where any number of dead ends await including drugs, crime and massively dysfunctional family cycles. In cases all too common these days, violence against innocent people becomes another choice.
In both cases you have an intelligent creature who somehow falls in between what is expected of them and what we allow them to be. Usually what accompanies such expectations is a serious lack of understanding, and a tendency towards generalization and simple definitions of what they mean to our adult concepts of progression. In my opinion, only one generalization can be made: both mark a failure of society at large. Sure, human beings need to spread out and a cursory glance to the food chain means that little, furry fellers like the coyote need to move aside. But are we doing all that we can so that the transition demonstrates an advocacy for both species? And what of teenagers who are fed images and expectations that they can never meet because the tools of achieving them – our educational system, for one – is insufficient, or worse, itself sublimated to a culture where they are only as important as what can be taken from them. Both creatures adapt by their instincts, and to counter those instincts is to create an enemy.
Think about that for a second: create an enemy. What if all of our problems could be solved by looking forward, taking the time to understand all the factors involved, and then taking steps to avoid them? Sound like a perfect world? Am I doing some kind of tired, out-of-my-ass Eddie Vedder impression? Sadly, I guess I am.
My point here was not to soapbox but to draw parallels and relationships between two interestingly connected elements of modern society, and in particular, elements that we find every day in the city of Los Angeles. In California alone, 2007 NRS statistics put the number of crisis calls from runaways at 28,178. Needless to say, not every one of them calls. And in most cases, I gather, no one calls at all. As for the coyotes, well, there is only so much room, and it’s running out just as fast as the tolerance for these “evil vermin”.
So I got to thinking: what about a story involving – not a boy and his dog like we have become accustomed to seeing – but a boy and his coyote, and connecting it to the problem – our problem – of marginalized youth? The Lost Boys did the runaway thing to an extent with fantastic results, and to be honest, mullets never looked better. Of course, there has to be a killer, horror hook or I’m not interested. And I think I have one – but more on that later. For now, let’s get back to our story (note: parts one and two available in the “stories” section):
As Friday winds to a close, Dr. Radan is strangely compelled to work an introduction to our pill-popping heroine. Soon after, he indulges in a rather unusual happy hour up in his room while Eliza finds her own way to wind down from the day’s events. And as Friday comes to a close, we’re left with an eerie suspicion that the two will meet again.
HorrorCon – Friday (part three) available by request only.
Sumtin Fresh/HorrorCon – Fp2
May 9, 2008
And so it rolls on. I’ve finished HorrorCon and I hope those of you who have started reading it are enjoying it. I should maybe point out again that there are nine chapters in total, so collect them all! Anyway, I plan on adapting it into a screenplay later after all the posts are out, which will be some time late in the summer, so I need something new to keep me busy until then. That said, I dug into my story reserves and am kicking around a few possibilities. One of them involves a video game tie-in that might be rad.
Check out the pic above of those two guys who look like they’re showing their boring home movies to a parking lot full of no one cause everybody left. You may be asking yourself “What the fuck are they doing, showing boring home movies, etc.?” and if you are, that’s good. You’re inquisitive. That will get you far in life (provided you’re not a cat). And if you’re a writer like me, it will hopefully get you far in that, too. Now, click on the pic and come back. I’ll wait.
They can’t spell for shit, but it’s cool, huh? It’s called “lazer tagging”. These graffiti dudes use these big, fuck-off machines to blast laser light across town and put up a temporary tag on some unsuspecting building. Then they pack it up and move along cause I think it’s illegal. Pfft, like they care. But can you imagine what you could tag if you had a big enough machine? And what if the messages you were sending were exposing some kind of government corruption? I think it might be cool if they also rallied up some oppressed peeps into a big, ol’ army which then organized against their oppressors. And what if said oppressors were in orbiting space stations with crazy-ass, monk-like mercenaries that they would send down to quell the uprising? Well, I’d say you’d have one bad-ass mess on your hands. And lots of lasers. Fighting + lasers + graffiti art = cool. That’s what I’m thinking.
Anyway, I’m playing with that idea and trying to see how it might fit into a game. GTA San Andreas had some tagging in it but it was pretty low-key. Still, I might have to load up CJ again and have a chat. He’ll tell you anything you want for a slice of pizza and the chance to whup some ass, don’t you know. And Getting Up looks pretty killer, but I’m shooting for something more intense and futuristic.
Okay, onward to our next chapter of HorrorCon (and remember, if you miss a week, you can find all previous downloads under “Stories”, or just click here):
When we last saw Eliza, she was “praying to the porcelain god/talking to Ralph on the big white telephone/screaming at the ground”, etc. Being around all those people at the convention was too much for her, even as hopped-up on goofballs as she was. In Part Two we meet Dr. Dmitrije Radan, celebrated horror fiction author and a guy with some weird habits. Also, Eliza will make a new friend who just might be able to get her head out of the toilet. Enjoy!
HorrorCon – Friday (part two) available by request only.
HorrorCon
May 2, 2008
Before I start the story, I need to explain a few things. Sorry. Pretend it’s that FBI Warning screen that you can’t skip when you start a DVD.
Here’s what happened: I had all of “Friday” segmented into three separate posts, each with five pages (if you remember, HorrorCon is split into three days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). Each of the pages went on for about one-thousand words and were, obviously, written in the tiny little type that you’re reading right now. It was brilliant…unless you didn’t feel like sitting in front of your computer for an hour and reading tiny type that is a pain in the ass to print. Also, you might not be crazy about having to wait a week for subsequent posts of similar lengths in order to read the story. At this rate of posting, it could possibly take three months – or more – to get it all in. The combination of these factors struck me as a big ask of a visitor to a blog. The chances of losing you would be very high and then what was all our work for, huh?
Also, because WordPress doesn’t allow for indentation, I had to skip a space for each bit of dialog. It worked okay, but “okay” is just “okay”. I spent about a month getting this story out of my head, so I probably shouldn’t settle for anything less than “better than okay”. Don’t you think?
So what I’ve decided to do is to make the segments available via .pdf, and kick off each post with a few words or a little “summary” of sorts as to what the reader can expect. A bit of a teaser, so to speak. This way, I could also make the posts about something current and unrelated and you could get more out of your visit. It also seemed easier to have you download a file that you could print or read on your computer later, and it would even look like a book with indentation and the correct font and stuff. To make it even easier, each installment would be concurrently available in the “stories” section of the blog in case you missed one or more of them, or wanted to wait for a bigger chunk to bring with you to the beach. Sound good?
Greeeaaat. So “attached” please find the first installment of HorrorCon (a.k.a. Lost in Transfusion) and I sincerely hope you enjoy it:
In this chapter we meet Eliza (being played above by the outstanding Blythe Auffarth), and travel with her to the hotel just as the convention is kicking off. She’s planning to set up her booth in the Dealers’ Room just as she’s done many times before, but we’ll find out she’s dealing with some pretty serious issues, and that a weekend she used to look forward to more than anything has now become one she is dreading.
HorrorCon – Friday (part one) available by request only.
