Category: The Art of Writing

After having audience attendees leave during the screening and boo the film after it ended, to call the Cannes Film Festival run of Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon tenuous would be an understatement, especially given the similar reaction to his previous film Only God Forgives. Almost as a point of contrarianism to the attention his film Drive was given, Refn seems to be climbing further and further into the deepest reaches of art house expressionism and The Neon Demon appears to be the culmination of that intended apex. Critics have been chastising his work for being pretentious, masculine, and dull, but this hasn’t faded his process, on the contrary, it has further motivated him to explore a neo-Kubrick cinematic style that is only enjoyable by the hardened cinematic enthusiast, a style which forces the viewer to defragment a puzzle instead of seeking entertainment. While I cannot…

By Alyson Faye

The shadow creeping across Lizzy’s bedroom bent over her. Giant shadow fingers, thick as tar, stroked her face, then her lips. Next morning Lizzy couldn’t speak.

“We need to weave a willow web,” her mum announced.

They went out harvesting the willow wood early at dawn. It was dewy and bendy.

“We must wrap strands of your hair around the willow.”

At one a.m. the shadow thief came insinuating at the windowpane, pushing against the willow. Its long, black, inky arms reached in, grabbing at air. In fury, it roared. Glass shards descended.

Lizzy found her voice, yelling in triumph.

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 Finger’s Breadth Book Excerpt

by M. Christian

Looking from the window of the coffee shop. Watching from the windshield of a parked car. Staring from the glass of a very rare unbroken bus kiosk. Glaring from the side of a passing bus.

A brief summer rain had painted the city that night in reflections. Fanning saw himself everywhere, and everywhere he saw himself his expression said the same thing—Why haven’t you caught him yet?

In his ear, a Bluetooth bud whispered the Officer Wertz inquiry’s soundtrack; in his pocket, the video was playing on his phone. He didn’t need to hear or see it. No one would, but if asked he could probably rattle off every verb, every noun, every linguistic bit from when Knorr started it to when he stopped it. Knorr was good at what he did, just like the lab mice who studied crime…

Once again I was browsing what to watch and I’d seen this one a few times but never pressed play. After a quick read of what it was about, I thought why not give it a go. The concept sounded unique and I love a film that’s mostly set in one place.

EXAMINATION

Misery is probably my favorite of the movies based on Stephen King’s novels. It is a taut thriller with no supernatural elements, which is uncommon for his adaptations. My favorite scene is the one where Annie serves Paul some soup as she discusses his latest manuscript. When she gets overwrought over the book’s profanity and spills a little soup on him, it makes a powerful bit of bloody red foreshadowing that always gives me chills.

Warming up a can of soup can do wonders for fending off the chill of a long winter’s night, but I always imagined that Annie, knowing how much she admired her best-selling author she was nursing back to health, would cook no ordinary tomato soup. Rather she’d serve him up a hearty tomato bisque.

Traditionally, tomato bisque tends to be tomato soup that was cooked with ham and cream added. I think most people who…

By Shweta Padma Das

Two friends, backpacking across the Western Ghats, arrived by the early morning train at a small-town station. It was a day like none other. As the train curved through another of the moss-covered tunnels and emerged into the first rays of sunlight, they were embraced by a soft blanket of mist. It ran beside them, through the woods, and across the cabin, through the open window, like a mischievous ghost on wheels, making them laugh.

Hello Addicts,

Very few things are better than a good night’s sleep.  To relax and slumber while your body heals itself and your mind goes through a reboot of the upper level thought processes.  Many a writer or artist attributes their creative career to dreams had while they slept.  But, what happens when you wake up and realize that you can’t move or speak?

The medical term for this condition is “sleep paralysis”, and it can occur when you are either just falling asleep or starting to wake up.  Your body naturally makes it so that your muscles are “deactivated” when you sleep.  If it didn’t, every action you took in your dreams would be acted out in real-time and you or someone else stand a good chance of getting hurt.  With sleep paralysis, you wake up faster than your body is able to turn the physical switches back on…

As a publisher, I see this every day. People making excuses for not writing.

“I’m very busy.”
“I have kids.”
“I have a full-time job and go to school.”

Stop.

No, seriously. Stop. If you have time to post status updates, and catch up on DVR’ed shows and/or movies, you have time to write. I challenge you today to find out how many minutes you spend posting, typing statuses and how many words you’ve typed in the Facebook (or other social media) vortex.

Is that number over ten? You have time.

Are you watching at least one show a night? You have time to write.

Are you vegging out doing nothing for thirty minutes a night? You have time to write.

The real question is, “Is writing a priority to you?”  That’s where you need to make up your mind. Writing takes hard work, dedication, and commitment…

EXAMINATION

As a father, I totally understand the motivation of the Dad in Creepshow. Though, I wouldn’t take my obsession with Father’s Day cake as far as he did. Probably. Best not to test me. Here’s my recommendation for a delicious ice cream and brownie cake that’s super easy to make so you have no excuse but to make it.

ANALYSIS

Servings: 12 to 16

Ingredients

1 box brownie mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on brownie mix
1/2 gallon (2 quarts) Dad’s favorite ice cream, slightly softened
Red velvet cookies, crushed
Red candy melts

Apparatus

• 2 (9-inch) round springform cake pans

Procedure

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350°F. If you do not have springform pans, you can use regular cake pans but line them with foil and lightly grease the bottom.
2. Combine the water, oil, eggs, and brownie mix per the instructions on the box. Divide the…

Horror Addicts Episode# 127
SEASON 11!

Horror Hostess: Emerian Rich

Intro Music by: Valentine Wolfe

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j. malcolm stewart, phantom of the opera, peter scartabello

Find all articles and interviews at: http://www.horroraddicts.net

141 days till halloween

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