Blog Archives

Guest Post: Kristy Acevedo, Author of Consider

11/29/2015

Today I'm welcoming another brave newcomer to the blog, Kristy Acevedo, whose YA Sci-Fi debut, Consider, is coming this April!

You can already pre-order it here :)

In the meantime, she's agreed to answer my favorite question...

"What scares you, and how does it influence your writing?"

I tend to be afraid of taking risks when it comes to important decisions. My childhood was filled with enough chaos, so I never wanted to add more problems to the mix. I will research something to death before making a decision. Writing fiction, however, allows me to take all the risks I want and examine the consequences from a safe distance.

Alexandra Lucas, the seventeen-year-old main character in my debut sci-fi novel, Consider, has to make a crucial decision. She must decide whether to follow the media, her friends, or her family's advice in dealing with an apocalyptic prophecy. How do you make a personal, life-altering decision when there is contradictory evidence swarming around you?

Consider examines the consequences of choice, how hard it can be to know what to believe, and how hard it can be to trust your instincts. It's all about whether or not to take a leap of faith, and if you do, what happens to people you love who make different choices. How do you say goodbye and let go?

It's a breakthrough book for me symbolically because releasing my debut book into the world also feels like a type of leap of faith. I'm taking a risk by finally putting my work out there. Scary, but also super exciting.

About Consider:

As if Alexandra Lucas’ anxiety disorder isn’t enough, mysterious holograms suddenly appear from the sky, heralding the end of the world. They bring an ultimatum: heed the warning and step through a portal-like vertex to safety, or stay and be destroyed by a comet they say is on a collision course with earth. How’s that for senior year stress?

The holograms, claiming to be humans from the future, bring the promise of safety. But without the ability to verify their story, Alex is forced to consider what is best for her friends, her family, and herself.
To stay or to go. A decision must be made.

With the deadline of the holograms’ prophecy fast approaching, Alex feels as though she is living on a ticking time bomb, until she discovers it is much, much worse.

You can read the complete first chapter here,

And preorder your copy here!

About Kristy Acevedo

Kristy Acevedo is a YA author, high school English teacher, and huge Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter fan. When she was a child, her “big sister” from the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program fostered her love of books by bringing her to the public library every Wednesday for seven years. A member of SCBWI and The Sweet Sixteens, Consider, her debut novel, was one of three winners of the 2015PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award. She also founded the Monthly Twitter Writing Challenge in 2014. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, two daughters, and two cats.

You can find her on her website, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Goodreads.

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Book Review: Penpal

11/22/2015

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Book Review:

Penpal

By Dathan Auerbach

1000 Vultures, 2012

A

The Basics:

Our unnamed hero has been through an ordeal more horrible than even he knows, starting with the day when, for an elementary school project, he released a balloon with a message inviting whoever found it to write back. It reached the wrong hands. Now in his twenties, he's piecing together the fractured details of his childhood, and we're invited to join him in watching it all click into place.

The Downside:

There are a few small instances of what feel like unintentional repetition within paragraphs of internal monologue. I'm also sure there are many readers who would find the deliberately disjointed intersecting short story style harder to follow and get invested in than a more traditional form, but in this case, I am not one of them.

The Upside:

Penpal is creepypasta-turned-novel in the best imaginable way. The nostalgic, realist, memoir-esque tone common to creepypasta setups is used to full effect to keep the story grounded and personal, and each of the six sections ends with a pasta-style, head-turning (if unsupernatural) stinger. The long form of the book as a whole is also taken beautiful advantage of, with the accumulating details of what happened to the narrator mirroring, on a larger scale, the crescendos of building dread in the individual sections, and the extended acquaintance with the characters allowing for more substance than campfire scares.

The horrors that the narrator dredges out of his memory are as deeply sad as they are spine-chilling, thanks in large part to that believable naturalism paired with the extreme and extended horrible happenings, and unlike many stories that use memory loss as a more fanciful plot device, the fractured pieces of the narrator's early childhood, some incidents in full, indelible detail, other stretches of time completely blank, is such an accurate representation of what remains of long-faded memory that it begs the question of what might lurk unknown in the reader's own past.

This disturbing trip will get under the skin of both creepypasta fans and horror traditionalists.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!

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Guest Post: Vicki L. Weavil, Author of Crown of Ice

11/15/2015

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We've got another wonderful guest this week, brave enough to agree to answer my favorite question, "What scares you, and how does it influence your writing?"

This answer gives me the jeebies too.

So without further ado, I'm handing things over to Vicki L. Weavil, author of the already available YA fantasy, Crown of Ice!

Things That Go Bump in Your Head:
How My Own Fears Influenced Crown of Ice

I know what truly scares me, and it isn’t the idea of ghosts or ghouls or creepy, crawly, critters. Now, I admit I’m not particularly fond of snakes, and spiders are only okay as long as they keep their distance, but neither one terrifies me. I’m not overly concerned with chain-saw wielding strangers, either. (Fortunately, I’ve not encountered such beings except on film).

Nope, it’s not anything outside of my own mind that scares me—it’s losing my mind.

Not in the sense of going mad, although that’s scary too, but more in the case of losing my mental abilities due to injury, illness, or age.

I have seen this happen with older relatives, and it is terrifying to imagine it happening to me. I hate the thought of losing my ability to think, to question, and to communicate. Some people claim I wouldn’t be aware of how much I had lost, but I’m never quite sure that’s true. When my brilliant father’s mental abilities were severely affected by a head injury, I had this sense that somehow, deep down inside, he was deeply frustrated with his inability to think and communicate. It was as if he was trapped inside his own body; lost in a mind that had always served him well, but now had betrayed him. A truly tragic situation.

So when I wrote Crown of Ice, and had to create a terrible fate looming over my protagonist, I didn’t make it death, or even pain. I created the wraiths—former Snow Queens who failed in their mission to recreate a magic mirror by their eighteenth birthday and were stripped of their minds and wills. Immortal, they can’t even know the peace of death. They are simply mindless spirits, endlessly reliving their last terrible moments and haunting the castle where their former master, a mighty sorcerer, lives.

For my protagonist, Thyra Winther, this is a fate worse than death. She’s a brilliant young woman who cherishes her ability to think and reason, as well as her free will. The fear of failing to reconstruct the mirror—and thus becoming a wraith—drives her to do whatever she must in order to survive. It’s truly Thyra against the world (and against magical forces). Because the thawing of her heart is a danger to her entire existence, she must decide, over the course of the story, what she is willing to sacrifice for friendship and love. This is the deeper, inner conflict driving the book to its conclusion.

So, it’s quite true—I used something that scares me to torment and terrify my protagonist.

About Crown of Ice

Thyra Winther's seventeen, the Snow Queen, and immortal, but if she can't reassemble a shattered enchanted mirror by her eighteenth birthday she's doomed to spend eternity as a wraith.

Armed with magic granted by a ruthless wizard, Thyra schemes to survive with her mind and body intact. Unencumbered by kindness, she kidnaps local boy Kai Thorsen, whose mathematical skills rival her own. Two logical minds, Thyra calculates, are better than one. With time rapidly melting away she needs all the help she can steal.

A cruel lie ensnares Kai in her plan, but three missing mirror shards and Kai's childhood friend, Gerda, present more formidable obstacles. Thyra's willing to do anything—venture into uncharted lands, outwit sorcerers, or battle enchanted beasts—to reconstruct the mirror, yet her most dangerous adversary lies within her breast. Touched by the warmth of a wolf pup's devotion and the fire of a young man's desire, the thawing of Thyra's frozen heart could be her ultimate undoing.

Click here to order your copy!

About Vicki L. Weavil

Raised in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Vicki L. Weavil turned her early obsession with reading into a career as a librarian. After obtaining a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Virginia, she continued her education by receiving a Masters in Library Science from Indiana University and a M.A. in Liberal Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is currently the Library Director for the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She is a member of SCBWI and is represented by Fran Black of Literary Counsel, NY, NY.

Vicki’s debut novel, CROWN OF ICE – a dark YA retelling of H. C. Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” – was published by Month9Books in 2014. Two companion books, SCEPTER OF FIRE and ORB OF LIGHT, will be released in 2016 and 2017. Her YA scifi, FACSIMILE, will be published in spring 2016, with a sequel, DERIVATION, following. An avid reader who appreciates good writing in all genres, Vicki has been known to read seven books in as many days. When not writing or reading, she likes to spend time watching films, listening to music, gardening, or traveling. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and three very spoiled cats.

You can find her on her blog, on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram.

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Guest Post: Mia Siegert, Author of Jerkbait

11/8/2015

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Today I get to welcome some fresh blood to Confessions of the One and Only F.J.R. Titchenell (That I Know of), author of the upcoming YA thriller, Jerkbait. It's coming in May, but you can already...

Preorder it here!

As a first timer here on the blog, she has graciously agreed to answer my favorite question. So without further ado,

What scares you, and how does it influence your writing?

A lot of people get scared by traditional monsters and demons, but the real monsters I fear are humans. There are people who show no remorse, sadists who enjoy hurting others. To me, there's nothing more frightening than thinking about what humans are capable of because they're palpable and the same as us. While we might not be able to see certain creatures, we all have images in our heads of truly awful people, and envisioning what could either happen to us or what we're physically capable of absolutely petrifies me. So... naturally, I write about it.

I don't like to write about comfortable things. I never have, although more recently my work has shifted to the thriller side instead of very experimental, literary fiction. I like to write about the people who scare me and scenarios that are out of a character's control. For Jerkbait, I needed to go to a dark, horrifying place to write a story that deals with gay teen suicide and online predators, especially as the novel originated as semi-autobiographical. There's a story that one character, Heather, shares about a hanging and a house sale--this was something that my ex-bestfriend told me that has haunted me since I was sixteen.

About Jerkbait

Even though they're identical, Tristan isn't close to his twin Robbie at all—until Robbie tries to kill himself. Forced to share a room to prevent Robbie from hurting himself, Tristan starts seeing his twin as not an NHL prospect, but a struggling gay teen who is terrified about coming out in the professional sports world. Trapped together in their claustrophobic room, Robbie suggests they run away with "Jimmy2416," a guy Robbie has talked to online for months but never met. Tristan must decide whether to tell his parents about Robbie's plan, losing his twin's trust forever, or go on a journey that will put their lives and innocence in jeopardy.

Click here to preorder!

About Mia Siegert

Mia Siegert received her MFA from Goddard College and her BA from Montclair State University where she won Honorable Mention in the 2009 English Department Awards for fiction. Her debut Jerkbait (a YA coming-of-age thriller) will be released May 2016 by Jolly Fish Press. Siegert has been published in Clapboard House, Word Riot, The Limn Literary & Arts Journal, as well as a few other small presses.

Siegert currently works as an adjunct professor and a costume designer. She enjoys training horses and watching hockey.

You can find her on her website, on Facebook, and on Twitter!

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The Five Scariest Movies of All Time (According to Fi) #1: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

11/1/2015

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(Click the links to read Scariest Movie of All Time #2, #3, #4, and #5)

Here we are, the single scariest movie I've ever seen, because who says the scares have to end when Halloween does?

You probably know at least the gist of how this one goes:

A group of friends out in the Texas desert to visit an old family home find themselves preyed upon by a family of cannibals who like wearing people's skin and building furniture out of their bones, most notably the very large, masked bacon-bringer of the family, dubbed "Leatherface."

Until he whittles them down to one last girl fighting for her life.

It's the same basic story you've heard re-told a million times since. So how does it top this list? It’s not thanks to special treatment for being a trailblazer. This list is for the scariest movies, no handicaps given for other forms of credit deserved.

Why it's terrifying:

This one's an oft-imitated gold standard for good reason.

Like more than one movie on this list, Texas Chainsaw is as scary as it is thanks to -- there’s no better way to say it -- a striking absence of style in the best possible places and ways.

When there's a masked serial killer on the scene, it's usually a safe bet that there'll be either over-the-top, elaborate bloodlettings, or artfully restrained cuts to black and acts shown in shadow and silhouette. Both of these work in their own ways for their own particular effects, but they also draw attention to the fact that the audience is watching a movie.

Leatherface is done in neither style. For his first onscreen kill, our unlucky character is tentatively exploring the cannibal house looking for help, and Leatherface walks out and kills him with a sledgehammer.

As simple as that sentence. No looking away, no gallons of improbably colored blood oozing down the screen, not even a music sting, it just happens.

It's like he's handling livestock, which of course, to him, he is. That's how unconcerned and methodical he is, and everything else about how he's presented mirrors his attitude.

The same can be said of our hero, Sally.

About a lack of movie styling, that is, not being unconcerned.

Later final girl survivors usually either have their inexperience and vulnerability emphasized, to make what happens to them and what they have to do to survive more horrifying, or their toughness and coolness emphasized in much-needed response to the many badly handled examples of the former category.

Again, both styles can work in their own ways when well done.

Two awesomely different horror heroes, right here.

But Sally isn't either of these things. She's a person who's quite appropriately traumatized by what's happening to her, and equally appropriately fighting like hell to survive. When she screams, it doesn’t feel like a single, dramatic scream was called for in the script. She screams bloody murder, because that's the only sane possible reaction to what’s going on.

When she makes an escape out a second story window, she's not being cool and flashy. She just wants to live.

And when she trips and falls, it’s not because she’s helpless, it’s because she’s badly injured. You know, from jumping out a second story window, among other things.

There's no time wasted on hinting that "This is what a girl who survives is like, don't you want to be her?"

We skip straight to "Oh dear god, aren't you glad you're not her?"

She's an avatar of pure, everyman/everywoman relatability, and that works in this case, because the horrors she faces need no more specific commentary than that. Nonstop screaming and jumping out of a second story window to escape pretty much covers it.

The variety of villainy in Texas Chainsaw isn't limited to Leatherface's dispassion. His brother has more than enough sadism and flat out weirdness for both of them.

And the conspiracy that's allowed the cannibal family to exist for this long adds a special layer of despair to the effort of escaping.

But it's that same simplicity in how it's all shown that keeps pushing it to that truly horrifying level. The dinner table scene between the captive Sally and the whole cannibal family is one of the simplest, meanest, and in my opinion scariest scenes in all of horror.

They taunt her, she screams, at one point they cut her finger so one of them can suck her blood, and that's about all that happens of significance, but it just keeps going.

There's no standard pacing to it, no montage effects to show the passage of time, the scene just drags on and on to an uncomfortable, madness-inducing degree.

By movie's end, there's the feeling of having been through an ordeal, which is exactly what we're meant to have shared with its characters.

Try it if you dare. Seriously, this is a movie that warrants that line.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!

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Guest Post: Kristy Acevedo, Author of Consider

"What scares you, and how does it influence your writing?"

About Consider:

About Kristy Acevedo

Book Review: Penpal

Guest Post: Vicki L. Weavil, Author of Crown of Ice

Things That Go Bump in Your Head:
How My Own Fears Influenced Crown of Ice

About Crown of Ice

About Vicki L. Weavil

Guest Post: Mia Siegert, Author of Jerkbait

What scares you, and how does it influence your writing?

About Jerkbait

About Mia Siegert

The Five Scariest Movies of All Time (According to Fi) #1: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

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Guest Post: Kristy Acevedo, Author of Consider

"What scares you, and how does it influence your writing?"

About Consider:

About Kristy Acevedo

Book Review: Penpal

Guest Post: Vicki L. Weavil, Author of Crown of Ice

Things That Go Bump in Your Head: How My Own Fears Influenced Crown of Ice

About Crown of Ice

About Vicki L. Weavil

Guest Post: Mia Siegert, Author of Jerkbait

What scares you, and how does it influence your writing?

About Jerkbait

About Mia Siegert

The Five Scariest Movies of All Time (According to Fi) #1: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

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Things That Go Bump in Your Head:
How My Own Fears Influenced Crown of Ice

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