Anarchy!!

For the final ingredient, Anarchy, I have only a few words to say: Virginia Tech, Columbine, 9/11.

Need I say more? Need I write a story about it? There's too much right now to even go into. It's sad, and appauling. Scary, and horrifying. To get the perfect horror stories, simply watch the news. Horror is all around us. It's monsters wear our faces. We are the true monsters. We are Blood, Madness, and Anarchy. I say we in general, of course. Not all of us are monsters. But there are quite a few out there. Quite a few. I mourn all of those lost in a scatter of bullets, a madman's torture, and fire. Need I say more?

Virginia Tech Massacre:

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The gunman suspected of carrying out the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead was described Tuesday as a sullen loner whose creative writing in English class was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service.

"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," school spokesman Larry Hincker said.

Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department, said she did not know Cho. But she said she spoke with Lucinda Roy, the department's director of creative writing, who had Cho in one of her classes and described him as "troubled."

"There was some concern about him," Rude said. "Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things or just how real it might be. But we're all alert to not ignore things like this."

I write horror fiction, but notice the word "fiction". This guy lost contact of that word somewhere along the line. Somewhere...

ICE 2/24/07

As I sit here in my living room, listening to the sleet and rain mix snick and patter on the windows, my toes are already growing numb, even under two heavy blankets. The power has been out for three hours now, and there's no heat. The temperature outside is twenty-one degrees, but that's not counting the wind chill. My estimate would be that the temp. is actually somewhere in the teens, with the wind chill added in. The wind outside , according to this mornings' weather forecast, which I saw before the power took a crap on us, is roughly forty to fifty miles an hour. The rain hits, freezes, hits, freezes. There are downed power lines everywhere and in some places the power line poles themselves have snapped.

It's cold. I want to get my family somewhere warm before it gets any colder, the thermostat inside reads 45 degrees, but I can't. All we own for vehicles are two Chevy Cavaliers...I'm not sure even a four wheel drive could make it. The roads are treacherous out there, nothing but glare ice at least a quarter of an inch thick. It would be madness to drive the ten miles to my parents place where they got a wood burning furnace. So here we stay. No heat, no way to warm up but huddling next to each other under a few heavy blankets.

I tried calling the power company for this area using my cell phone, but according to the automated woman on the other end, they are "experiencing a high volume of calls due to power outages", and can't take my call at this time. I want to reach through the phone, grab that mechanical woman by her non-existent throat and-

No. I must calm myself. There are a lot of folks out there in the same hollow boat as I am. They're cold too. They need help too.

I can't help but wonder if this might be some sort of prelude to what it would be like a year or so before we kill each other with all those nuclear missiles aimed every which way? I wonder how cold it will get then, before death finds us all? I shiver at the thought, instead of the growing cold in my house.

It's an old house and has little insulation because of the fact. So I imagine it's colder here than say a newer home. A new home we're planning on building come this spring. A month or so too late.

I write horror stories, and this power outage would be something I'd throw in as an added scare factor. It's scary to know how much we take for granted. It's scary not knowing how long the power we rely so heavily on will be out. It's scary to know you just might freeze to death.

This is not a horror story, however, but it's scary enough for me.

My family and I are fine now, I might add. My dad managed to make his way to our house in his Ford Explorer and save us. The power is still out in my town and now it's just a waiting game. Weather forecast predicts a foot of snow or more to cover the sheets of ice for tonight and tomorrow. They say the power will be out for a couple more days. I wrote the above while sitting in my cold house. I wrote it in my note book. I wrote it to cope.

Just a little Note

Since my latest variation assignment flopped on me I guess I'm reduced to sitting here and looking stupid. I blame myself. Perhaps I started everything out too hard. Maybe I should've just had folks write my stories in their own words. Think that would be okay? I write something and you rewrite it to fit your own style? That's how the whole idea started in my mind and then I thought I'd make a little bit more. Take my latest failed attempt for example. Perhaps I should have just asked you to write the entire story in your own words and add a middle to the story. Sometimes I get ahead of myself and I need to slow down. I get into trouble when I try to push the envelope on something. It always backfires on me. This note isn't to rant about how you should be at least trying my assignments, so please don't misunderstand. I'm just feeling low because I got my first rejection for the year. Everything backfires. Maybe that's what I should have titled this post. Everything backfires. Or how about treadmill? That's what I feel like I'm doing right now, walking on a treadmill, going nowhere. Stewart wrote about doubt in an earlier post. Maybe this is my doubt post. I love to write and I do believe it's worth it, but it still seems so damn hard to get anywhere. I'll keep plugging away at it, of course, but some of my heart isn't there as it had been from the beginning. It scares me to think about it.
I'm lost here. Lost in my own head. And being lost is scary enough....

Pssst! Look Here...

Here we are, you and I, alone. Alone in the dark...at least that's what we hope. There is no telling what sort of mangled horror creeps and lurks within these shadows. Why, it could be right behind you now as we sit here. It could be grinning its silvery grin, raising one claw toward your neck. Or it could be in your closet and when you open the door to lay out next mornings' wardrobe, BLAH!, it pops out from behind your best suit or dress (or ugly Hawaiian shirt), all teeth and ragged claws. Why, it could be anywhere.
But listen, I assure you we are alone at this very moment. We are alone, and for now at least, let us palaver. Let us talk about fear. While the horrid beast has yet to find us here in the dark.
Now, now, there's nothing to be scared of here. Look around you. Empty darkness as far as the eye can see. Listen, you hear nothing but a slight rustling. So slight it's barely heard at all. But fear not that rustling, my friend, it's nothing but a few stray leaves that followed us here. Soon the sound will be gone, and the breeze here will die. So relax, move in closer...and let us speak of terrors, let us talk about what scares us, and what fear is exactly. Why are we afraid of what we're afraid of?

I see you're a bit shy, so I'll start, okay? Good. Okey-Dokey. When I think of fear, I think of humanity. Sure, dogs, cats, everything can feel fear, but it is us humans who are able to articulate that fear. We're the only things on this vast planet that can bring our fear into focus, if not a little fuzzy at times, and learn to deal with them. But let's face it. Some fears are just there to stay. Some fears, no matter how much will you think you have, still cling nastily on. Haunting us till our dying day. Mine will always be heights. To this day I still can't get up on the roof of a house to help shingle it, or clean out the gutters. The worst part for me is the ladder. If I had an elevator to the roof I'd be one happy critter...as long as said elevator is enclosed. And as for water parks? You know, the ones with all those giant water slides and tubes looping and twisting every which way like giant petrified serpents? No dice. There's no smucking way your getting me up there just to slide down a tube. Nope, not gonna do it. And I don't care how hot it is. I'm smucking scared of heights okay? Okay.
That is my biggest fear, heights. I can all to imagine a bolt coming loose as I ascend to the water slide, or the step I'm standing on, because the mother smucking lines are always so long, gives way under me and I plunge sixty or so feet straight into solid concrete. I blame my fear on an over active imagination. But I digress.
Now, tell me...what is your greatest fear?