Cold Flesh: Ask Reginald Bloom, Oct. 17-22

[hugonian]

Session: Reginald Bloom, Oct. 17-22

Instructions: Post a question for the author and wait for a reply. From Monday to Saturday, the author will peek in periodically to answer questions. If the author cannot answer your question before time expires, feel free to PM the author with your question.

This week’s author: Reginald Bloom “Easter Always Falls on a Sunday” is the literary nom de plume of Scott Aaron Stine. He has had his work published in such periodicals as Lovecraft’s Weird Mysteries, Raw Media Mags, Touchstone NW, and Lethologica, and in such e-zines as D.E. Davidson’s Crimson and The Art of Horror, the latter of which was a story accepted for their Blood & Bones Halloween Collection anthology. He also placed third in the Seventh Chiaroscuro Short Story Contest. (His contribution, “Your Infection,” also appeared in the October 2001 issue of the e-zine Chiaroscuro, and was given an honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror.) Under his given name, he is the author of The Gorehound’s Guide to Splatter Films of the 1960s & 1970s, as well as the follow-up devoted to 1980s fare, both from McFarland Publishing. He also published and edited such magazines as GICK!, Trashfiend and Filthy Habits. His forthcoming Trashfiend book from Headpress Magazine’s Critical Vision Imprint picks up where the magazine left off, and is also devoted entirely to disposable horrors from the 1960s and 1970s. (www.stigmatapress.com) The author currently resides in an unmarked grave in Everett, Washington, the ghastly result of watching far too many Al Adamson and Andy Milligan films.

Q&A Schedule: See when other authors will be available--schedule of authors

Cold Flesh info: For more info regarding Cold Flesh, such as reviews and updates, please visit the official thread or the official website.

[hugonian]

Reginald, tell us how you came up with the idea behind your Cold Flesh story, “Easter Always Falls on a Sunday.” What experience spurred the premise?

How did you decide on the pen name "Reginald Bloom"?
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Is the style of this story indicative of your other work, was it a departure, or would you say that you don't have one set style?
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How much time did you spend writing the story and was it made specifically for Cold Flesh?
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If you were to wake up one day and find yourself trapped in a horror move, what would you want it be and why?


I've posted my review of "Easter Always Falls On A Sunday" in the main Cold Flesh thread.

Originally Posted by hugonian

Reginald, tell us how you came up with the idea behind your Cold Flesh story, “Easter Always Falls on a Sunday.” What experience spurred the premise?

(Spoilers ahead.) To me, the Crucifixion and Ressurection always screamed of a horror story (although maybe not in exactly the same way those who believe in it do), so I decided to sit on the idea until I came up with a concept that was befitting of this much reverred icon.

Although traditional monsters are my first love, as a reader they rarely evoke anything in the way of fear. I find nothing more horrifying than real life monsters, which are usually the products of child abuse; intentional or not, my stories often deal with this subject, whether it be obvious or just below the surface. Somewhere along the line, I fancied the notion that--if the Second Coming actually did happen--what would the outcome be if the Messiah was chronically abused and shuttered up by an insane mother in the middle of nowhere? Following this revelation, the story wrote itself.

Of course, in some sick way I found the notion humorous (godless atheist that I am) so I felt the story couldn't be written without some levity to offset the more ghastly images. I mean, c'mon, how could one not laugh at the idea of the Second Coming returning as an undead revenant, eating roadkill and bringing corpses back to life ala Lazarus by way of The Monkey's Paw. That is funny.

Originally Posted by Collin

How did you decide on the pen name "Reginald Bloom"?
-
Is the style of this story indicative of your other work, was it a departure, or would you say that you don't have one set style?
-
How much time did you spend writing the story and was it made specifically for Cold Flesh?
-
If you were to wake up one day and find yourself trapped in a horror move, what would you want it be and why?


I've posted my review of "Easter Always Falls On A Sunday" in the main Cold Flesh thread.

1. I decided on using a pseudonym when I first started writing seriously, during my last few years of High School. At that time, I was very much into shock value, so I decided to employ a nom de plume so I could write extreme material without the stigma hanging over my head. To contrast with the writing, I wanted a name that sounded "proper," or more "literary," and around it created an entirely fictional persona ala Kilgore Trout. I was really into Philip Jose Farmer at the time--his fictional biographies of Doc Savage and Tarzan were highly influential--so I integrated "Reginald Bloom" into the same family tree, as there was a branch of Blooms. Silly, that, but it seemed like a nifty idea at the time.

2. There are definitely certain stylist predilections that can be found in most of my work, but I usually try to alter the voice and flow for each story, as dictated by the material itself. I still have a penchant for run-on sentences rife with adjectives and antiquated or obsolete words; H.P. Lovecraft was probably my biggest influence when I started writing, and I haven't been able to completely shuck his ghost.

3. I think the story was pretty much completed in one four-hour sitting, and if I recall it was written about a year before I submitted it to Cold Flesh. In the past, when I have written stories with a specific book or magazine in mind, they were rarely "inspired." (i.e. They usually blow.) But in the last few years, I've collected such a backlog of decent contributions that when a periodical or contest comes along that has a particular bent, chances are good that I have something in my files that fits the bill.

4. Heck, most horror movies can't hold a candle to my life, so I'm open. If I had a say, though, anything with old musty castles to lose myself in would be groovy. And it has to take place in the 1960s or 1970s, when bellbottoms, hoop earings and big sideburns were all the rage. Any one of the Blind Dead films would be fine by me. Dark Shadows would probably be best. And that way, I would never have to worry about flubbing my lines. Mad Monster Party would be keen, too. It would be interesting to wake up to find yourself processed in Animagic. Then I would also get to hang out with Boris Karloff. But then, if I was stuck in The Old Dark House (the original, of course), I could have the best of all worlds, aside from being an animated clay puppet. Sorry, what was the question again..?

[hugonian]

In general, how do you generate story ideas?

Originally Posted by hugonian

In general, how do you generate story ideas?

I don't have any set ways for coming up with a story. I have culled many of them from dreams, whereas others are less organic, with me trying to consciously come up with a new bent on an old idea (and hoping someone whom I haven't read hasn't already come up with the same thing). Sometimes I'll come up with a basic concept, jot it down, then wait for it to germinate naturally; some of the pieces done in this matter, though, have taken ten years between basic conception and me finally coming up with something worthwhile AND getting the gumption to get off my lazy patootie and actually writing the damnable thing. (For some reason, the last part of that equation is the toughest hurdle for me.) Occasionally, I'm also inspired by a film, not by what they show, but by questions the screenwriter/s never followed up on. I've gotten some good results from this "what if" scenario; I've also cooked some up that fall in the "Who the hell cares?" category, but the less said about those, the better. Then there's the occasional story that springs forth from a really inspired title, but alas the title usually winds up being the only worthwhile part of it, so I scrap the work and hope I will eventually come up with something else that fits the bill. Mad Libs is good for generating story ideas in a pinch as well; I heard a rumor that's how Kafka kickstarted the process, so what's good enough for Franz is fine by me.

I've posted my review of "Easter Always Falls On A Sunday" in the main Cold Flesh thread.[/quote]

Many sincere thanks for the flattering review. But you'll have to pry the dog-eared copy of Roget's Thesaurus from my dead, cold hands before I write something readable. Just be happy that the editor made me take "defenestrated" out of the text before it went to press.

[hugonian]

What is the best piece of advice you can give to beginning writers?

Hi Reginald. Enjoyed your contribution to the antho. Splatter Films of the 70s...does Count Yorga qualify? I remember being traumatized by that flick as a kid. I can still see Yorga's face appearing in the van window...and Erica eating the cat. Outstanding. And of course, little can compare to Martin. Are you currently working on a novel?

Originally Posted by hugonian

What is the best piece of advice you can give to beginning writers?

1. Don't eat yellow snow.

2. Always use a condom.

3. Write write write. Reading about writing is good and all, but nothing beats time-honored practice and experience. The more you write, the more you realize you suck, and there's nothing like this epiphany to make you want to embarass yourself less the next time you put pen to paper. There's always room for improvement, so don't think for one second that just because you don't sound as dated as H.P. Lovecraft that you're some kind of literary genius. If he were still alive and writing, you wouldn't hold a candle to his grocery lists, I assure you. I've been writing seriously for almost twenty years, and I've manage to bury everything I churned out in the first ten... and I'll be spending the next ten years trying to make less of an ass of myself then I did up to this point. Just because your mother thinks your stories are keen doesn't mean squat; plead with everyone you know to read your stuff, especially if they have some concept of what "literature" is, and--more importantly--if they are not fans of whatever genre you are working in at the time. Fans are not always the best judge of quality when it comes to their reverred genres. Look at me... I like Andy Milligan films and Eerie Publications--not the high points of horror cinema and literature. If it weren't for the fact that I make some attempt to approach horror from an outsider's perspective when writing, I'd be utterly useless to judge, much less write. So--if writing horror--be open to criticism from non-horror fans; even if you think the person is a complete half-wit, it doesn't mean that you can't gleam some insight from their responses. One of the best things I ever did was hook up with a local writer's group for a few years back in the late 1990s. Being the only member who wrote horror, I learned more about writing in those few short years (and about the genre in which I had deluded myself into thinking I was an expert) than I did in all the years previous. Being in such a group forced me to write regularly, when I would otherwise have found other things to distract me; it gave me a readymade audience who were more than willing to give their two-cents worth (if only because they expected the same in return); and it kept me from getting lax, as I was continually challenged to write material that would impress and/or scare the bejeezus out of my peers, most of whom were not susceptible to stock monsters and dimestore spookshows. (I rarely succeeded in the latter, but I never stopped trying.) In short, write until your fingers bleed and your eyes burn, and learn to take criticism without curling up in the fetal position or telling your reader that they're an idiot who wouldn't know a dangling participle if it slapped them in the piehole.

And I wasn't kidding about the tainted snow and prophylactics. Nausea and unwanted pregnancies can be hell on a writer's career, especially when it hasn't even started.

Originally Posted by Paoletti

Hi Reginald. Enjoyed your contribution to the antho. Splatter Films of the 70s...does Count Yorga qualify? I remember being traumatized by that flick as a kid. I can still see Yorga's face appearing in the van window...and Erica eating the cat. Outstanding. And of course, little can compare to Martin. Are you currently working on a novel?

Although I wrote two books on Splatter films, I'm more of an outright horror junkie and trash film afficionado. (Screw Jason and Freddy and vampire rockers; give me Boris Karloff or The Creature From the Black Lagoon or Barnabas Collins any day of the week.) I loved the Yorga films as well. Quarry was an actor I always enjoyed watching. (He made an interesting villain in the black exploitation zombie flick Sugar Hill; never thought I'd see him brandish a Southern accent, but he pulls it off.) I was exposed to Erica's kitten chow scene at an impressionable age as well; even at the age of five, I wasn't easily shocked, but--being a cat lover from the beginning--that scene gave me some rather unpleasant nightmares. I think Martin is probably the best vampire film ever made, despite it's shortcomings. Of course, I'm still partial to the earlier Dracula outings from Hammer--particularly Brides of Dracula--but Martin resonates in a way that few other vampire films do, which I feel has a lot to do with its blurring of the traditional bloodsucker and the often sympathetic psycho-sexual deviant portrayed by John Amplas. I honestly can't recall being impressed by any of the vampire films made since. (Well, there's Buffy--the series, not the dreadful theatrical film--but it being a stellar production has nothing to do with the onscreen bloodsuckers and everything to do with Joss Whedon.)

Actually, I've completed two novels--one a fairly straightforward supernatural outing, the other a transgressive genre mash that is best described as John Sandford by way of William Burroughs, but no where as good as either of those masters--but I've been so busy with the forthcoming Trashfiend book that I haven't had an opportunity to do some last minute polishing and ship it out to prospective publishers so I can accrue even more rejection slips. (I have enough now to wallpaper at least one wall of my office, and hope to finish the entire room by 2007. If there's anything I've learned, it's that it's important to make goals one may eventually achieve in life.) If anything comes up in the way of interesting Reginald Bloom sales, I'll post it as an update at the Stigmata Press website (www.stigmatapress.com). I also have several short story collections for which I'm hoping to find interested parties, although I've found that single-author anthologies are a particularly tough sell. Anyone else have some questions which I can twist into shameless plugs?

Just so people have an idea where I'm coming from, here's some top ten lists:

(Note: Entries in no particular order.)

Favorite Horror Writers:

1. H.P. Lovecraft
2. Robert Bloch
3. Richard Matheson
4. Ray Bradbury
5. Franz Kafka
6. Leslie H. Whitten
7. Clark Ashton Smith
8. H.G. Wells
9. Edgar Allan Poe
10. Edgar Allan Poe (So good he deserves two entries.)

Favorite Horror Novels:

1. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
2. Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon
3. Dracula by Bram Stoker
4. Night of the Ripper by Robert Bloch
5. Image of the Beast by Philip Jose Farmer
6. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by R.L. Stevenson
7. The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson
8. The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
9. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
10. The Holy Bible (Can you think of anything scarier? I can't.)

Favorite Horror Movies:

1. The Old Dark House
2. Curse of the Werewolf
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
4. The Manster
5. The Creature From the Black Lagoon
6. The Angry Red Planet
7. The Blood Island Trilogy w/ John Ashley
8. Mad Monster Party
9. The Island of Dr. Moreau (Any adaptation. Even the Filipino one with John Ashley.)
10. The Hills Have Eyes

Favorite Horror Television Series:

1. Kolchak, the Night Stalker
2. Dark Shadows
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
4. Milton the Monster
5. Dark Shadows 2.0 (Even though Ben Cross was just wrong for the role.)
6. The Twilight Zone (The original.)
7. The Outer Limits (Again, the original.)
8. Angel (Not as good as Buffy, but has it's moments.)
9. Nightmare Theatre on KIRO-TV (Technically, not a series, but The Count made everything shown a treat.)
10. Joss Whedon's next television venture, if he decides to do a horror series.

Favorite Zombie Films:

1. Night of the Living Dead
2. Dawn of the Dead
3. Day of the Dead
4. Land of the Dead
5. I Walked With a Zombie
6. The Dead at Manchester Morgue
7. Horror Express (Hey, it's got zombies. And aliens. And the missing link. And...)
8. Garden of the Dead (It's better than Lenzi's City of the Walking Dead!)
9. Dr. Butcher, M.D. (So they're not technically undead. So sue me.)
10. And--last but definitely not least--The Blind Dead Quadrilogy

Actually, I enjoyed the heck out of Sean of the Dead and Hide & Creep, but the rest of the zombie flicks I've seen as of late have left me cold.

Only Horror Films Worth a Damn Made in the Last Twenty-Five Years:

1. Dog Soldiers
2. The Ring (God forbid, the American remake.)
3. The Machinist
4. The Manson Family
5. Pitch Black

Heck, I know there's a handful of others, but they elude me at the moment, thanks to the deluge of recycled, uninspired, homogenized and more-often-than-not condescending dross that I subject myself to every time I make a trip to Lackluster Video. Too many bad films, so few brain cells...

Anywho, I think exhaustion is starting to take its toll, so I'm signing out. At the very least, I hope my ramblings have helped cure someone else's insomnia.

Mr. Bloom, we have greatly admired the story Your Infection which was published elsewhere. Surely you must realize that it reveals a certain amount about yourself. Likewise this current effort. Doesn't that worry you?

Originally Posted by Piskie

Mr. Bloom, we have greatly admired the story Your Infection which was published elsewhere. Surely you must realize that it reveals a certain amount about yourself. Likewise this current effort. Doesn't that worry you?

At the risk of sounding brusque, I find it troubling that so many people are cursed with the inability to separate a writer from his or her work, particularly when it comes to horror fiction. Why is it people often assume that if one writes about horrific subjects, there must be something inherently or intrinsically wrong with this individual? Writers of mystery and detective fiction produce work that is often far more unsettling--stories that deal with murder and mayhem in a way that hits closer to home than their supernatural counterparts ever could--yet such respectable authors aren't burdened with the label of "deviant" like many of us who pen more imaginative, outré fare. No one would make the crass assumption that Patricia Cornwell and John Sandford are serial killers, so why should I be judged differently, just because I wrote a short story about a disturbed young man who has a sexual fixation on disease and the physiological aftermath that results ("Your Infection"), or another about a particularly grim look at the second coming of Christ ("Easter Always Falls on a Sunday"). Should people make assumptions about my character because I am able to conceive of such subjects? How is this any more pertinent than assuming that George Romero is a fetid corpse with an unquenchable hankering for longpig? Or that Stephen King is a writer of hack novels who is forced to continue writing dreck for the masses after having been in an automobile accident, despite aspirations of producing something more "literary"? (Okay, so maybe that last one was a terrible example.) I have written countless stories about ghosts, vampires, werewolves, zombies, and a multitude of other things that go bump in the night as well, yet I'm very much alive and can safely say that the only transformation I go through is to that of a raving, homocidal lunatic when someone takes me for, well, a raving, homocidal lunatic. Kapiche?

Okay, so maybe there IS something kind of sexy about festering sores. Even more so if it relates to a psychopathic messiah...