  Horror/Scary
This week: Edited by: W.D.Wilcox  
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In my view, stories and novels consist of three parts: narration, which moves the story from point A to point B and finally to point Z; description, which creatres a sensory reality for the reader; and dialogue, which brings characters to life through their speech.
--Stephen King
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IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS THE WORD...
and then they sliced it, diced it, and spliced it into other words. Then some really smart guys genetically engineered it until there were words we couldn't pronounce anymore, let alone spell. It's kind of like what they did to Math. It all started off simple enough, with addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and then it turned into something that, to me, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
But hey, I don't need to use BIG words to get my ideas across, nor do I need to know the formula to figure out what a+b+c=d means. In my book, all I need to know is that every sentence has a noun and a verb, and that 2+2 still equals 4. Everything else is just fluff and damn confusing.
My purpose for writing is to simply tell a good story, and I try to do it in such a way as to NOT make my readers stumble across a word that makes their brains feel like they just smacked into a pile of mush. Which is exactly what happens to me when I sit down and try to help my kids with their Math homework. I write to entertain, not to show how smart I am by using big words. Besides, short simple sentences always seemed to work for Hemmingway, didn't they?
Lately, there seems to be a big push for Flash Fiction: writing a story using the fewest words possible. Whassup with that anyway? You can't publish it, you waste a fantastic idea, and it's a bad habit to get into when you should be trying to write a novel.
I have to admit, I like Flash Fiction, but only as a challenge to practice writing that make-or-break-you blurb that must accompany all query letters to agents or publishing houses. Other than that, I don't really see the point.
There are no shortcuts to writing or telling a good story. If you want to beat your brains out trying to write Flash Fiction, have at it, but like so many other things, it's just a distraction from doing what really needs to be done--which is sitting down and hammering out a bestseller. In fact, I've added a little piece of Flash at the end of this newsletter just to show you that all ideas are good ones and really need to be developed into something bigger and better. This will probably be the last piece of Flash Fiction I will ever write.
It goes like this...
Something eager and hungry lived within Alice's walls, and as she slept, it came to her through vent grilles and electrical outlets, whispering its needs.
Dreaming, she ran through the house lost and scared within a howling wind of torn red blossoms, her legs cycling beneath her warm covers, her hair tangled and lank with sweat as the thud of her heartbeats chased one another.
Always the dream was the same: the demanding voices, the feeling of being pursued down an endless dark corridor, and the terrifying sensation of her mind being raped and violated.
But this time was different. This time, shuddering uncontrollably, she forced herself to stop at a familiar looking door.
She turned the knob, and the house roared a bellow of rage that rattled her bones as if they were dice in a cup. Cracking it open, a cold knife of wind thrust at her through the gap.
It was her bedroom, and she would have thought it strange to see herself in bed had it not been for the repulsive little creatures that clambered all over her sleeping form.
They were gray-skinned and bald, with large black eyes and a slit for a mouth. Their necks and limbs were very long, as were their fingers which they used to squeeze at Alice's breasts until they looked purple and bruised. Others grasped her ankles and spread her legs wide while they took turns with her. She watched in horror as her sleeping body tossed, turned, and moaned--not in ecstasy, but in mortal terror of losing her very soul. Her hands flailed, clenched into claws that grasped at the air around her head as if her fear were a cowl that might be torn off and cast aside.
"God, help me," she begged, her words hanging like bubbles on the air.
Rushing forward, she screamed, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" and the creatures instantly popped like balloons into little puffs of smoke, and then disappeared.
It was then that she realized that these beings were not aliens or demons at all, but rather, the daily distractions of her everyday existence taking form and ravaging her hopes, her dreams, and her goals for a better way of life.
Finally within shouting distance of her right mind, confident and sure, she settled down inside herself and slept better than she'd slept in years.
Until next time,
billwilcox
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EDITOR'S AXE AND PICKS
[Excerpt] She was very frightened. This man did not appear to be formed of chocolate. Where had he come from? How had he gotten here? She scrambled to her feet, turned away from this apparition, and ran for her life.
[Excerpt] Fresh air, he thought. I need it or I’ll die.
No, John. You don’t need the fresh air. You need me, said the tape.
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#1232039 by Not Available. |
[Excerpt] “Well it was kinda hangin’ halfway outta his mouth, bitin’ at me. Then it sucked itself back down his throat and he started talking to me, ‘you leave her be! She’s mine! We’re gonna have a family!’”
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#1289626 by Not Available. |
[Excerpt] “But your file says you experienced...” Barnes reached for the manilla folder on his desk and scanned its contents. “... zombie hordes... breaking into your office...”
[Excerpt] “So how would you like to die, pretty boy?” the young dark man in the black mask asked me. My body lay strapped to a tree trunk in the Pine Level, Alabama woods. My girlfriend lay lifeless, bloody, and violated on a tree trunk to the right of me.
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#1303624 by Not Available. |
[Excerpt] For at least the hundredth time, Allison wonders if she is doing the right thing. Not that it matters now. She has taken the medication, and it is too late to say she's changed her mind, for the baby might now have been damaged.
[Excerpt] The Eye was the milky color of moonstone, devoid of iris or pupil, and flowed like an opaque whirlpool, an oculus swirling within a different dimension.
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FEEDBACK!
Spooky, Cute & staiNed 
Submitted Comment:
Embalming, I was intranced, wickly interesting , Golly I adore your newletters!! Keep them coming!
-stained..
Seisa-sleepingcatbooks.com 
Submitted Comment:
Bill, great newsletter on embalming...probably more than any of us really wanted to know about that process! It brought to mind that Stephen King short story about the "dead" man who's conscious as they prepare to cut into him...
dmack 
Submitted Comment:
Hi W.D., All I can say is, "Wow, what a newsletter, everything you never thought to ask about embalming and probably never would have asked if you did." Is it true about the bag in the foot of the casket?
Thanks for the great newsletter. Oh, and Happy Birthday. Have a good one.
Budroe
Submitted Comment:
I have no understanding why you chose this particular topic, or why you felt compelled to write it as you did.
I simply wish you had made another choice, on both counts.
Happy Birth Day.
alicengoreland
Submitted Comment:
Embalming is fascinating to read about. I am sure that is a clear indication of something. I miss the Ordinary Horror contest. At least is gone for happy reason and I am sure will be back someday. Although being with child and then giving birth are often long term commitments.
zwisis
Submitted Comment:
Hi Bill!
Wow! There's a lot of information there, and it is ALL very useful for Horror writers. Images of CSI's retrieving embalmed bodies springs to mind here! Now I know why I've always favoured cremation...
I guess the whole embalming idea springs from the "afterlife" so important to ancient cultures, particularly the Egyptians. Thank you for an informative and interesting newsletter!
PS - have a great b/day!!!
kelly1202
Submitted Comment:
WOOHOO! Awesome newsletter, Bill. Filled with great information and quite interesting.
Great job my friend!!
darkin
Submitted Comment:
Oh eww, Bill...and right before lunch!!!
Great newsletter!!
-Darkin
StephBee 
Submitted Comment:
Thanks for featuring my story in the Horror/Scary Newsletter, Bill. I loved your topic of embalming. It was very indepth. Someone should get a lot of "gore" out of it.
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Horror/Scary: August 15, 2007 Issue [#1880]
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