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Tag Archives: Short Story

Random Transmissions

I am super excited about one of my stories from The Other Side of Despair being featured on the latest podcast episode of Random Transmissions. This podcast is super cool and you should go and check out all the episodes!

Random Transmissions

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The Yellow Booke Vol. 2

My story “Shockley House” was published in this year’s Halloween anthology The Yellow Booke.

My Author Interview

Hi! If you’ve read any of my blog and my weird writings, please take the time to post a comment about your thoughts and impressions. I’d love to hear what you think!

Also, here is an interview that I just did that delves a little deeper into my artistic vision.

Interview with David Garrett

Impressionism and Symbolism in Weird Fiction

For those writers and bloggers who have steadfastly followed the last two stories I’ve posted, I would like to say thank you for reading them. After I published my collection of short stories in 2010 I decided to take some time away from writing and figure out a new direction. Finally, I decided to write a novella that was a Lovecraftian, Cthulhu Mythos story – The Scourge of Wetumpka. That took some time to write but turned out quite well. Coming off of that I began writing Psychological Horror short stories. When I use the term Psychological, I am using it in the true sense of the term as having to do with Psychology. I have a Master’s in Psychology and I really enjoy Psychological thrillers with horror or dark fantasy overtones. The first couple of stories were “Alone” and “Shockley House”. I was very pleased with “Shockley House” but wound up re-writing “Alone” in order to make it deliver the right effect. After those two stories, I began to get interested in the use of Symbolism and the techniques used in Impressionism. The last two stories, “The Land of Nod” and “The Murklor”, explore using those techniques in writing weird tales. What makes them really work on a blog is that each day (or every couple of days) a new glimpse or vignette is added to the overall impression of the piece. In “The Land of Nod” I tried to do that by adding more bits of symbolism to the canvass of the story. In “The Murklor”, I tried to do that by adding new vantage points – usually in the form of different writing techniques. Overall, I’m really liking this new direction of Impressionistic Weird Fiction. It’s fun and offers so much freedom.

BTW, I can’t take credit for inventing it. Here’s a really good interview about what I’m trying to achieve in my writing:

The Insomniac Propagandist

One final note – the ciphers in the story “The Murklor” are very much real. They aren’t just thrown together to make the story weirder than it already is. Each one was methodically designed and does have a real solution.

Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling

Here is a good article about what this blog is all about!

Storytelling

 

In The Walls of Eryx

Thanks to Chad Fifer and Chris Lackey at The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast for using music from Al Azif in Episode 114 – In The Walls of Eryx. As usual, they pulled off another entertaining episode. Sadly, they are coming to the end of Lovecraft’s body of weird tales with only two episodes left. They have mentioned that they will next be discussing weird tales that inspired Lovecraft, so I’m looking forward to that.

Thanks, Guys!

http://hppodcraft.com/2012/06/06/episode-114-in-the-walls-of-eryx/

Horror Author Tribute

This is artwork paying tribute to some of my favorite authors of horror:

Thanks to Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer

Episode 101 of the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast was just released yesterday (Thursday, 26 Jan 2012). I wanted to publicly say thanks to Chris and Chad for another entertaining and amusing show – especially since they had to work with two lesser stories attributed to Lovecraft’s involvement and they did a great job plugging my work. Thanks, Gentlemen!

I didn’t really expect Chad to quote me as saying I wanted to be “Alabama’s H.P. Lovecraft” – damn you, Fifer, that was a joke.

Another entertaining episode and two great guys!

Check it out:

hppodcraft

The Wetumpka Cycle

Having put much thought (and research) into a new story arc that will be the backdrop to a new series of stories, I’ve just about finished the first story that will likely weigh in at some 6,000 – 7,000 words. I’ve dubbed this cycle of stories the Wetumpka Cycle for the name of the town and its history in Alabama. These stories are to be integrated into the Cthulhu Mythos and will draw on much of the creatures, deities, and arcane literature that many authors before me have contributed to the Mythos.

Of course I will be adding my own elements to everything. A few of the books I’ve decided to draw on are real books:  Tyson’s Necronomicon, the Nocturnicon, and The Book of Nod. There are various other real books that aren’t contemporary works that I’ve researched and will use. Mostly they are books on witchcraft, demonology, Hermeticism, and alchemy.

The plot of the larger arc that unfolds is based on some very real events in Alabama’s history. In Wetumpka, Alabama is the site of the state’s only confirmed impact crater. Matter of fact, I currently live inside of the caldera. The asteroid that caused it impacted the Earth many millions of years ago and was estimated to be as large as a football stadium. The result is that the current crater is about 5 miles in diameter. In the Mythos, this asteroid contained an alien metal that possessed sinister powers and was a conduit through which an alien, outside force could project its influence causing the psyches of the humans that would come to settle the area and come into contact with the metallic ore of the asteroid to change. The result usually being a gravitation towards madness, violence, evil, abuse, and various other dark behaviors.

The metal lay dormant for millions of years waiting to act on a sentience. The Native Americans were the first people to settle the area and they were the ones to discover the metal. Sensing the uniqueness of the metal, they revered it and incorporated it into their rituals. When Hernando de Soto came with his conquistadores through Alabama in the 1500’s they took the metal and fashioned it into a set of shields; but before they could leave the area the Indians rose up at the Battle of Mabilla and took back the shields. After that they were re-incorporated back into the rituals of the natives – thus becoming the object of the Brass Plate Dance in the Creek’s Green Corn Festival.

History lost them after white settlers arrived and the Creek War ended. Many legends as to their fate have circulated but the plates’ whereabouts remain a mystery. That is until it’s explained in the Wetumpka Cycle.

The Twist Ending

When I was a kid I loved to watch The Twilight Zone. That show had a huge influence on how much importance I place on the endings to my stories. The best part of TTZ was the twist-ending. While Rod Serling didn’t invent the twist-ending, he sure did make it a trademark for The Twilight Zone.

It is my opinion that a short horror story or weird tale is not complete unless it has a twist-ending. This may fly in the face of many horror or weird writers but I don’t care. The twist-ending is such a strong element that a story falls flat unless the reader is left with a bang at the end. Plus it has the added benefit of leaving a far stronger lasting impression on the reader than an ending that is nothing more than the end of the narration. Hell, a great twist-ending can turn a mediocre story into a good story simply because it is the last impression the reader is left with.

But how do you define what exactly a twist-ending is? I think that a twist-ending is when the author reveals to the reader (or viewer in the case of film) the answers to the holes in the plot in such a way that it shocks the reader (viewer). There are three basic ways this is done: 1) the author reveals to the reader a key piece of the plot that answers any ambiguities that have been left unanswered, 2) the reader has been led to conclude one direction in the plot and the author reveals something that totally turns that assumption on its head, and 3) a shock is revealed that makes the plot have a far greater ramification than the reader suspected.

I place a great deal of importance on the endings to my stories in the hopes that I achieve a twist that leaves the reader going away from the story with more to think about than just the events of the story.