Friday, May 20, 2011

How do you like yours?




I'm starting with a short story which I have to admit met with mixed reviews, predominantly because it deviated quite strongly from my usual writing style, and as all writers know, your writing style is your brand. It's what the readers enjoy almost as much perhaps as the story itself.

My preference for a story is usually a third person narrative ie;

'As Leon put his head through the doorway into the darkness he knew that something primeval had taken place here. The smell of blood, like that of cold meat, filled his nose and his mind, and his body alerted him of its urge to run. This was the part that he hated the most. The physical sensations that always heralded the oncoming mental images, like the threat of a violent death...' etc. etc.

How do you like yours is very different. It's a first person account that reads like a lifestyle magazine article. This is because it's the main character Julia Smedley that's telling the story and that's how she speaks. If she spoke like me it would seem entirely false, so I let her have it her way, and for me it works.

The key to the tale is in Julia's narrative delivery. Like most warped minds Julia's believes itself to be normal and cannot understand why anyone would consider her romantic preferences to be in any way abhorrent. For this reason Julia chronicles her personal adventures in a deadpan fashion despite the creepy nature of the content. From her perspective she is quite normal whereas from the 'normal' reader's perspective she's very far from it. This is what, for me, generates the energy and some of the shock factor in the story.

Background.

This story, like all the best dark fiction and horror, has it's basis in fact. I saw, some years ago an American news broadcast of a live car chase down a main highway. The chase lasted for over two hours as police pursued a young woman whom, while working as a mortician's assistant, had fallen in love with one of the 'clients' and decided to elope with him in a stolen hearse. Eventually the pursuit ended safely as the woman pulled over to the side of the road and gave herself up to the police. The thing that struck me, apart from the absurdity of it all, was the fact that the woman, on being interviewed by police and the press, absolutely could not understand what all the fuss was about. In the end, since she hadn't broken any significant laws, other than taking a vehicle without the owners consent for which she apologised (she didn't even exceed the speed limit during the 'pursuit'), she got off with a fine after a psychiatric evaluation.

To tell this story as it stands would be little more than plagiarism on my part and so of course I've added all kinds of embellishments, but I can't go into detail because this would spoil the show.

Here's a link to the smashwords version.


How Do You Like Yours is one of Uncle John's Bedtime Tales. The full collection of ten stories is available in ebook format on smashwords.

For those who really do prefer a print version Uncle John's Bedtime Tales is available from:

Amazon.com: Click here
Amazon.co.uk: Click here
Direct from Spinetinglers publishing: Click here

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