WCMarchese

To me horror is that feeling within. The one you won't admit to. It's when you know the deepest feelings will be shed without descrimination. Yet you keep on reading, or watching that horror story, because you "can't stop looking."  It bares pent up emotions, that of which you once had no means to voice.  Now there is an explanation. Now you can rest easy knowing it’s NOT only you with “those thoughts.”  Those demented thoughts that you ponder moments before sleep, when you think about the evil in the world. When your outlook sours and warps at the edges. A lens is placed over your mind, for you to use when nothing else makes sense. It allows humor when perhaps you shouldn’t be laughing.  A respite from the true horror that is life.  And horrific it is. I remember as a child drawn time and time again to horror. Whether a cheesy B rated movie, or a high budget fear fest. Because it is the most real.  Just think: A comedy usually always ends hap...

WCM: Almost Halloween. Another Friday show has come and gone and it had been as entertaining as any, if not more. JD: Last Friday we had an interesting show. We offered an insider's perspective by discussing submissions for the Cthulhu Christmas Special while maintaining confidentiality. We also talked about the JFK files and had two live callers that warned of going any further into the subject! WCM: We discussed the Christmas Cthulu anthology and some of the submissions thus far. What we are looking for and how to format. We had come to the table ready to disagree with each other, but left agreeing yet again upon the minute details. JD: yeah, we had disagreements over including certain rules and the certain details of a few submissions. Don't worry, names were not mentioned. WCM: We even recorded a few episodes so those of you who actually listen and genuinely love the show can get more of us during the week. After Halloween, there may not be another blitz fo...

Another week begins and whether you want to hear it or not, you will make it through this Monday. But why make it something you have to trudge through? Why not turn it into an opportunity to get things started, or finish projects.  Think about this:  I sometimes say things to workers at my day job, things like, "I can't wait for seven o'clock." And: "This day can't end fast enough." But then I realized something.  Every time you say these things, or think about rushing through the day, you are wishing your life away. And time. Precious life that contains precious time. That's precious moments you can do something toward your dreams. Yes you're at work, but there are moments, breaks at lunch--for instance--where you can jot down ideas and write scenes on your smartphone. These are opportunities to think, to ponder what you are going to be doing later. Update a blog, figure out who you're sending a short story to next, find an agent...

It's the Friday before Halloween. Cold weather struggles to push past warmer, humid temperature. Colds and sick folks are on the rise. Beautiful leaves are falling from branches in a rain of brown and yellow. An ozone smell mixed with musty leaves permeates the air.  Fall is here.  Some TV channels are playing non-stop horror flicks, if not some of their own concoction of the holiday that correlate with the spooky spectacular.  I am happy to be in a Halloween anthology titled Trickster's Treats, where each story has to be exactly 666 words. Coolness is having a story out during the horror writer's holiday. And it's a pretty good bunch of stories, as well.  See, I took a chance and it worked out. That's what life is about. Taking chances. Some are big and some are small. Some are calculated and some one jumps into blind abyss.  I've been pondering a thought for quite a while now. When do you know you can quit the day job? When is the point where you fe...

WCM: This week on the Friday show, we had on Ken Stark, who has three books out with a great career he's tending to. But another occurrence happened during the broadcast. A sound came through every time our guest talked. It sounded like a motorcycle revving, riding, and then going down through the gears to idle and then start the cycle again.  JD: Ken Stark writes horror because horror is cool, and that's enough for me. It was cool hanging with him. Had some beers, some motorhead playing, and Marchese was distracted by a motorcycle that did not exist. WCM: But back to the noise. I mean, this thing was crazy. And I even posted a video on Twitter where you can clearly see Ken Stark's picture on Twitter is clean, where as his Skype picture had some sort of smoke-like overlay. I went to take a picture, and the Twitter app crashed on my phone. And further, when I tried again to take the video, the camera wouldn't come up--all I'd get is a black screen. Then my phone ...

Monday. One week and a day until Halloween. The fall hasn't exactly reached NY yet, just brushed it's fingers across our cheek. Some places have had snow, some are hot. I think the weather officials have said Tuesday is the turning point. Let's see.  But it's a new week and a new beginning. A new chance to make good on writing tasks, or start new ones. Or simply just continue on a big project that will see the world one day.  Whatever you do, you must keep positive thoughts prominent throughout. Or else its like trying to make your car run fast in a lower gear, and you burn the engine out. Once that happens, you can't do anything. You have to fix the engine and that could take a while. Some think creativity just happens, that one sits down and gets to it. And there are times when just the happens--or techniques to use to get out of that, but after a day of busting your hump at the day job, thinking of creating another world (or just editing one) is the last thin...

In this business are we alone? Is Twitter and social media a classroom of sorts for the artistically inclined?  Play along, make nice, be sure to retweet and like, and write, of course. (Or whatever you are pursuing.) There really aren't any rules to this, and that's why there are so many how-tos about it.  In this business you come across a lot of flaky notions and ideas pressed upon you from the "powers that be." So much so it starts to feel as though you're in a cut-throat corporate environment. And yes, while it may be cut-throat in competing to get published, or your movie shot, or that scene over the hundreds of other auditioners, you would think people might be there to help, people you look up to.  I've been blessed to become aware of certain truths in the industry. Sometimes people come out and blatantly blurt what they feel, or explode at you with something so flagrant that even if you don't know what is happening,  you still take pause a...