Where Did The Week Go And Why Wasn’t I Invited?

picture from Ferrell McCollough

Well, it has been quite a week. Lot’s of things to get to and recap.

First, Eldritch Thoughts is fairing well so far, already getting people following on both Twitter and Tumblr. The padding of what I did previously has been a great help. Plus, looking them over has sparked new ideas that I’m adding to the stable.

Women In Horror Recognition Month has started off strong at The Non-Horror Reader Survey with a Spotlight on The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough (yes, for those wondering, it is a pared down version of my review here) and an interview with the wonderful Jodi Lee, Editor in Chief of Belfire Press and The New Bedlam Project. There are some great answers there, so I’d check it out. And if you haven’t taken the survey yet, there is no better time than now!

The rest of February will be more Book Spotlights of other women writers, including Angeline Hawkes, Mary SanGiovanni, and possibly one if we have time. March is already starting to form up and it looks like April will be filled pretty full as I help promote Many Genres, One Craft, a new book on writing popular fiction written by alums and mentors of the Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction program. If you want an interview or do a guest post on NHRS, just send me a message on the site’s contact page. March still has openings and after April is wide open.

That’s the good news. The bad is that “Witches’ Brooms” is still looking for a place to call home. I’ll probably put it aside for a bit and then go back to it, see if I can tighten it up better. In the mean time, I’m going to finish a story I completely don’t remember starting. It is possibly a memory that was lost as result of the coma. “Every Cell” is going to be an interesting one and it took me a while to find the real conflict in it. Until know it was just an overly described idea. I’m hoping to have it done for submission to Horror Library vol. 5.

It is not the only project that I have going. There are two others, one definite and one possible. I don’t want to say much about the latter until I present my proposals and get a response back. The definite one is my secret “Project 10.” This is an idea that I have had for a while now, and it is possibly one of the most challenging ideas I’ve come up with. It probably won’t even have a word written for it for at least a year, because there is a lot I want to research before diving into it. I’m starting right now at looking at various densely layered stories and analyzing them, both TV and literature. The first one I’m looking at is 24, because no matter what you think of the show, you can’t deny the they brilliance of the plotting through that entire series.

Before I let you go, Valentine’s is coming up. A while ago, I used to make mixes for friends to use during the holiday, and I started it up again. So, for the couples out there, take a look at Valentine’s Day 2011: Somebody’s Somebody. For the first time this year, I decided to make one for the single people too. I know all to well how much it suck to be single on Valentine’s, so I made mix so single people can be pumped to make this year the Year of the Singles. Check out Valentine’s For Singles 2011. Both Tumblr posts are also link to the playlist on iTunes, though it didn’t have all the songs I used (which I note in the posts). Hope you all enjoy them.

That’s all for now. I wish you all a great weekend and Valentine’s Day. Mine will be filled with doctors appointments to figure out why me legs still don’t work.

What Came First: The Chicken’s Thirteen Marriages Or The Egg’s Pool Of Five Possible Fathers

I was talking to my mom the other day. Being 2 pm, it meant it was time for her soaps. It was a typical scene, male character trying to prove that he didn’t sleep with a woman while female character–whom has been married to male character multiple times–is tentative of believing the story by the woman that lied about sleeping with male character. If you are close to anyone that watches soaps, you know it’s hard to get a base understanding of a show. So, unfortunately I started thinking about the number times something similar has happened to this couple. Then other couples in the show. Then other couples in other shows. And a hypothesis formed in my head.

If soaps didn’t have a divorce every three months, over the last forty-ish years they’ve been on, would we have as high a divorce rate as we do now?

I ask the question, because soap operas play with the idea of marriage in a way I can’t think of any other show, movie, book, or other form of entertainment. In most uses of divorce, there is a genuine reason for the separation. There is a connection to character development, theme, symbolism in the story. It gives weight to the idea of marriage that it deserves. Soap operas end them for no reason at all. It’s almost like they use it so when they have sex scenes they cave that dramatic moment where a character says, “But…I’m married!” and then slips under the sheets like greased lightening.

My mom chimed in say that it could be more of a “chicken and the egg” situation, since the rise of divorce rates starting in the 70′s started around the same time that soap operas came on tv.  So, is it that soap operas adopted a growing tread, or did they start that trend? Either way, they have trivialized it to the point where you miss a week and a couple can marry, divorce, then sleep with each other because they reminisced about their marriage. And that message, bombarded to people on the three major channels for at least 2 hours, every weekday, has to have some kind of effect of such a long period of time. Look at Oprah, FOX News, or any media personality or outfit that has an almost religious loyalty. They are their every day, preaching and converting. Some know it, some don’t, but the force is there.

It will be interesting to see that if my hypothesis is true, what the tread of “mistaken” incest will be in the next decade?