Hello my darlings, it’s 7.21 A.M on this cloudy but nice enough Friday. And I’m once again listening to one of my favourite audio books while writing this. It has been another wonderful week, full of fabulous people.
I am loving working on this Blog and getting to meet new people. Along with writing more. This week I released “Nightmare At Funtime Town”, and the first half of the mine and Alex Pana’s “Conversations With Writers – Horror and it’s Sub-Genres.” As well as worked with @WhoThat_One_Guy from Twitter who has been helping me edit a couple of my stories.
I have also been working with Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc AKA @AndyVanScoyoc on her Mini Bio Special which goes live next week. And I am proud to say on the 10thJune I will have an article go live on Kendall Reviews @gjkendall. It’s an article I am very proud of, about how ‘Horror Transcends its own Genre’.
Now to talk about a bit of a special project of my own I’ve been working on. Even if you don’t write or read in Horror, Thriller, or Suspense, I am sure you would have heard of Lovecraft. For the few who don’t know, he put his very big stamp on the Horror genre with “The Call Of Cthulhu”, creating in its wake the idea of the ‘Old Ones’. One of his more recognisable quotes being, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is fear of the unknown.”
The reason I bring this up is because I am writing a series of shorts called, “The Collective”, which will be posted every other Monday. They will be in the Lovecraftian style, and follow each other, telling one story. To give you an idea, here is the snippet from the first instalment called, “The Collective; Coming Home.”
‘Insanity would have been a much more comfortable place to be than this. I stood on the edge of Sunny Cliffs name sake looking out at the ocean, wondering what it was that made me so sure, I was able to take on the world only a month ago.
I came here a sceptic, now I may not leave here at all. And it’s all thanks to a letter from a woman I have not laid eyes on since getting here. If she actually exists.
It stated plainly that something was wrong in her home town. That where it had once been peaceful, people were now being killed in the most peculiar ways. She begged for my help. So, I came.
Feeling the breeze on face my I waited for the sun to set and pondered, what exactly possessed me to drop everything, and travel a hundred miles back to where I had been born. Back into the small town which had once threatened to suffocate me.’ - Copyrighted Lydia Stone AKA Twisty 2019
All I ask is that if you like the introduction, share it with someone you think will like it too.
Now then, as it is #MentalHealthAwareness Week, I wanted to end this Blog by talking a little about that.
It hurts me to see how many are still shamed for being Mentally Ill. How when most ask how someone is, they expect and want the answer “Yeah, I’m OK. How about you?” neither caring or, wanting to know more than that. I am not saying this applies to all of you. In fact, I have come across some amazing and understanding people. But, there are still too many that do this.
I want to be in a world where it is just as accepted that someone can say, “I’ve had a bad day because I’ve hit a real low with my depression,” or “I’ve had a strange day, became really manic,” or “It was shit today, I had suicidal thoughts.” And be as accepted as “Yeah, work was shit today.”
Equally, I want to hear people say, “I had a great day, I overcame my depression, I finally managed to open my curtains, and get outside.” Or “I was able to get up before midday today, I feel so proud,” or “I did it, I’ve gone my first week without self-harming.” And have those things not only accepted but be as welcomed and enjoyed by those around you as, “I got the promotion at work.”
We aren’t there yet. But, these things are just some, of the horrors of real life. And as much as I love Horror in FICTION, I think it needs to only be in fiction.
Ta-Ta for now my lovelies,
Twisty Xx