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Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Free Ebook - The Keepers By: John Reeves
The Keepers
Ebook Price: Free! 6500 words. Fiction by John Reeves on August 3, 2011Girls are taken out of public, and never seen again. Years later one girl would be found. After that nothing seems to fit. Her story is published, and then she is gone. A writer will try to tell her story again, while also trying to find out what happened to her. He will find out this mystery has a price to pay.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Bookrix - Author Interview with John Reeves
This was an author interview with the Book Reviews group at Bookrix.
Name: John Reeves
Age: 32
From: New Market, Alabama
Last book you published on Bookrix: Serve and Protect
What are your goals in writing? I want to be known as the guy who scared you. I'd like to win the Bram Stoker Award.
What made you want to be a writer? I read a lot of books when I was young, and knew I had stories I wanted to tell. The first full length novel I read at age 10, (Christine by: Stephen King) made me realize how good a story could be told. After that I knew I wanted to write.
Do you have a method when you start a book? After the idea is firmly planted in my thoughts, then I start to visualize the characters, things they'd say and do, or how they'd act in general. I ask myself how they'd act in the situations I already know they'll be involved in, and from there the story is already taking off.
Do you base characters from real people? Yes, I want characters I know and so does the reader. They're not always people I know directly, but they are real people I've came into contact with.
Where do you usually write your books? In my bedroom. Everything I've ever created began in the bedroom.
What are your writing strengths? I think it's my ability to always have material to write. I don't really know what writer's block is, because my imagination never stops working.
What inspires you to write? My fears. I write what scares me. I've been a fan of horror and suspense so long that my tolerance is high. I've become somewhat desensitized to conventional horror, so most of what I write these days is very dark fiction.
How do you develop your characters? We don't all know the same people, but we know people who are very much alike. I think you have to use believable characters, so I build them from the types of people we all know.
What authors inspire you? Stephen King. I was inspired to write because of Stephen King's Christine. However in the twenty years since I first read King, there have been countless other stories that reminded me why I like storytelling.
What are your favorite books? Horror and thrillers. I like most of the early Stephen King, pre-2000's. I like Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door, just read this last month, and really enjoyed it. The Shining is still probably my favorite novel.
How do you handle criticism? I like hearing what people thought, and they're not always going to like it. I think the negative feedback is just as important as the positive feedback. Either way you'll know where you stand.
What book do you think everyone should read? What did you get or learn from it? Newbies Guide to Publishing: By JA Konrath - The book tells you valuable information about the self-publishing industry, and the author's knowledge on the subject is second to none.
What do you want the readers to receive from your writing? I want them to be scared, possibly horrified, but if nothing else at least grossed out.
They say that from books you learn more about the author, what do you think people will or have learned about you? Nothing, looking at it like that would give them the wrong idea about me. I guess you'll know what my fears are, because that's the only part of the stories connected to who I am.
If or when you are published and make your first million, what will you do first? Make sure my children have tuition for college.
Thank you John AKA Tigerpride for letting us know more about you.
-evercaptivating
Name: John Reeves
Age: 32
From: New Market, Alabama
Last book you published on Bookrix: Serve and Protect
What are your goals in writing? I want to be known as the guy who scared you. I'd like to win the Bram Stoker Award.
What made you want to be a writer? I read a lot of books when I was young, and knew I had stories I wanted to tell. The first full length novel I read at age 10, (Christine by: Stephen King) made me realize how good a story could be told. After that I knew I wanted to write.
Do you have a method when you start a book? After the idea is firmly planted in my thoughts, then I start to visualize the characters, things they'd say and do, or how they'd act in general. I ask myself how they'd act in the situations I already know they'll be involved in, and from there the story is already taking off.
Do you base characters from real people? Yes, I want characters I know and so does the reader. They're not always people I know directly, but they are real people I've came into contact with.
Where do you usually write your books? In my bedroom. Everything I've ever created began in the bedroom.
What are your writing strengths? I think it's my ability to always have material to write. I don't really know what writer's block is, because my imagination never stops working.
What inspires you to write? My fears. I write what scares me. I've been a fan of horror and suspense so long that my tolerance is high. I've become somewhat desensitized to conventional horror, so most of what I write these days is very dark fiction.
How do you develop your characters? We don't all know the same people, but we know people who are very much alike. I think you have to use believable characters, so I build them from the types of people we all know.
What authors inspire you? Stephen King. I was inspired to write because of Stephen King's Christine. However in the twenty years since I first read King, there have been countless other stories that reminded me why I like storytelling.
What are your favorite books? Horror and thrillers. I like most of the early Stephen King, pre-2000's. I like Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door, just read this last month, and really enjoyed it. The Shining is still probably my favorite novel.
How do you handle criticism? I like hearing what people thought, and they're not always going to like it. I think the negative feedback is just as important as the positive feedback. Either way you'll know where you stand.
What book do you think everyone should read? What did you get or learn from it? Newbies Guide to Publishing: By JA Konrath - The book tells you valuable information about the self-publishing industry, and the author's knowledge on the subject is second to none.
What do you want the readers to receive from your writing? I want them to be scared, possibly horrified, but if nothing else at least grossed out.
They say that from books you learn more about the author, what do you think people will or have learned about you? Nothing, looking at it like that would give them the wrong idea about me. I guess you'll know what my fears are, because that's the only part of the stories connected to who I am.
If or when you are published and make your first million, what will you do first? Make sure my children have tuition for college.
Thank you John AKA Tigerpride for letting us know more about you.
-evercaptivating
Friday, July 1, 2011
The Way It Fell To Pieces
I know we have readers and writers here, but this time I'm speaking more to the writers. This discussion is about the stories you wrote that had wheels, but then they fell off.
I was working on a book, and when I began writing it I instantly thought trilogy. Because as I was writing book one, two and three popped into my head instantly. I don't want to get into what the three books would have been, because there's an outside shot that I'll resume writing that series of books. Possibly combine the three stories into one longer novel.
There's also a story that I have written, but was not satisfied with the story. My ideas never really came out into the piece, at least not how I thought they would. There have been three separate tries at doing that one, but for some reason the way I want to tell it, never seems to come out in the finished product.
Sometimes I think the characters and plot pull away from each other, and as the writer we don't always see it. I have completed several stories that came together, but not like I'd planned. You have character driven stories and plot driven stories, but it's in my opinion that both must push the storytelling along.
*Questions*
1- Have you ever had a story fall apart?
2- Has more of your stories been written or fallen apart?
3- Do you outline a story before writing it?
4- How often do you revisit a fallen story?
5- Why do you think that some stories fall apart?
I was working on a book, and when I began writing it I instantly thought trilogy. Because as I was writing book one, two and three popped into my head instantly. I don't want to get into what the three books would have been, because there's an outside shot that I'll resume writing that series of books. Possibly combine the three stories into one longer novel.
There's also a story that I have written, but was not satisfied with the story. My ideas never really came out into the piece, at least not how I thought they would. There have been three separate tries at doing that one, but for some reason the way I want to tell it, never seems to come out in the finished product.
Sometimes I think the characters and plot pull away from each other, and as the writer we don't always see it. I have completed several stories that came together, but not like I'd planned. You have character driven stories and plot driven stories, but it's in my opinion that both must push the storytelling along.
*Questions*
1- Have you ever had a story fall apart?
2- Has more of your stories been written or fallen apart?
3- Do you outline a story before writing it?
4- How often do you revisit a fallen story?
5- Why do you think that some stories fall apart?
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Sexual Violence in Horror
Sexual Violence in Horror
How Much Sexual Violence is Too Much?
A horror movie or story is suppose to scare you. In some cases even gross you out. In the late 70's into the late 80's slasher movies got hot, while in literature there has always been the psychological approach. Both can scare the hell out of you. The serial killer that could be stalking your neighborhood, or the lady on the corner that could have her favorite author tied up in her house. To me, the more realistic the situation, the more scary it becomes.
What does it take to scare you? The more we see in the world that is real horror, it desensitizes us to fictional horror. The slasher wearing a hockey mask is no longer any more scary than the guy next door. It's the people that look like us doing these bad things that's truly scary. People like, Ted Bundy, Dennis Rader, Gary Ridgway, or Jeffery Dahmer. They were able to continue to kill because nobody suspected them. They looked like what we call 'normal people'.
There are a handful of writers who know true horror, and they don't use the supernatural to do it. The do by telling you about the, rape, torture, and murders of people like us, committed by people who are like us. Some of these writers are writing true crime, and those can be some of the most scary stories. Because we know that they did happen.
The sexual predator who is yet to be discovered is the most scary. The person who abducts children, or the guy who'd send you a bomb in the mail. We want to be afraid, but not too afraid. We want to know what is in the dark, but we don't want a good look at it.
*Questions*
1 - How much sexual violence is too much?
2 - Do you read sexually violent stories?
3 - Is gory violence more accepted than sexual violence?
4 - Is there a connection with sex and horror?
5 - Did the scariest book/movie you ever read/watched involve sexual horror?
How Much Sexual Violence is Too Much?
A horror movie or story is suppose to scare you. In some cases even gross you out. In the late 70's into the late 80's slasher movies got hot, while in literature there has always been the psychological approach. Both can scare the hell out of you. The serial killer that could be stalking your neighborhood, or the lady on the corner that could have her favorite author tied up in her house. To me, the more realistic the situation, the more scary it becomes.
What does it take to scare you? The more we see in the world that is real horror, it desensitizes us to fictional horror. The slasher wearing a hockey mask is no longer any more scary than the guy next door. It's the people that look like us doing these bad things that's truly scary. People like, Ted Bundy, Dennis Rader, Gary Ridgway, or Jeffery Dahmer. They were able to continue to kill because nobody suspected them. They looked like what we call 'normal people'.
There are a handful of writers who know true horror, and they don't use the supernatural to do it. The do by telling you about the, rape, torture, and murders of people like us, committed by people who are like us. Some of these writers are writing true crime, and those can be some of the most scary stories. Because we know that they did happen.
The sexual predator who is yet to be discovered is the most scary. The person who abducts children, or the guy who'd send you a bomb in the mail. We want to be afraid, but not too afraid. We want to know what is in the dark, but we don't want a good look at it.
*Questions*
1 - How much sexual violence is too much?
2 - Do you read sexually violent stories?
3 - Is gory violence more accepted than sexual violence?
4 - Is there a connection with sex and horror?
5 - Did the scariest book/movie you ever read/watched involve sexual horror?
Saturday, June 18, 2011
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