2011 Spring Cleaning

Hi, I'm here to tell you that I will not be blogging here the rest of May. I have the usual yearly back-end cleaning and improving to do on my sites. I will be back in June. Thank you.

While I have you here, I would like to thank everyone who helped with the Kickstarter for Amaranthine. You're help is appreciated not only by the producers of the game, but by me as well. Cheers.

Mood: stressed.
Music: Coming Soon by Queen and Black Lodge by Anthrax.

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To A Creepy New Year in 2011

Hello and welcome to the New Year of Horror on Hump Day! It's been a long hiatus, though maybe not the longest I've taken. Publishing a horror magazine will do that, even at the length of Killing Time - Horror E-Rag. It's become something of a tradition to look back and then look forward. Let us begin.

Looking back I am immediately struck by the recent posts about movies and television both before and after Hallowe'en's thirteen blogs. Both by the number and the ideas I hoped to express about them. There was even some motivational material, because honestly with all the negativity out there about the genre and its failings someone has to get on topic, push forward, and try to be a force of change.

To some degree it's a sad state of affairs that it has to be me, but really who better? I've always been trying to push for better horror, and painting the way as a consumer. Some could ask, who am I tell to anyone how to make something better? The answer is, I'm someone who enjoys horror so much I had to become a creator. Even that much commitment isn't necessary. All it takes is a passion for the material, the movies, the books, the games, the tropes, the feelings, the whole shebang.

The look back became the look forward. Might as well continue mixing it up. The past year I talked about a setting with witches, and more pertinent to the discussion witch hunters. It's kind of funny because I recently saw the animated video for "American Witch" NSFW by Rob Zombie, which seemed to me to be a companion piece to the "Lords of Salem" NSFW video, which I had seen significantly longer ago. The Lords video is very evocative of just how frightening the Witch Hunter General and his closest men are, to not only the common man, but also to even the blackest hearted witch.

I intend to look at some more settings. Like early in 2010 I also intend to look at horror from a RPGer's perspective because what is a pen and paper RPG for the person running the sessions (known as the Game Master among other names), a position akin to director on a movie set and at the same time scriptwriter--if both of those only worked with or wrote the minor characters and the setting/sets. I'm re-explaining this both for new readers and because there's been some recent controversy, but that's not something I intend to get into here. Beyond that, I never know what I'm going to write about until I start planning for the next week. Here's to new horrors and new looks at it.

Mood: stoked.
Music: American Witch by Rob Zombie and Werewolf Women Of The SS by Rob Zombie.

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Final Words for 2010

Here we are at the last entry of the year. There are just a few days left. I hope you've all had as much fun as I did. I think there's only thing left to do. I wish everyone a Happy December/Kwanzaa/Hanukkah/Solstice/Yule or a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. Stay safe. See you in 2011!

Mood: festive.
Music: Highway To Hell by Quiet Riot and Thunderbird by Quiet Riot.

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We miss you Kevin.

Scheduling for the 2010 Remainder

Hi, it's been just a few days since I completed this year's thirteen special nights of Hallowe'en. Normally I take a bit of a break, something of a hiatus. Not so much this year. At the same time I am not planning to be up to much here. That said I thought it would be a good idea to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in the movie nights, and especially everyone who helped spread the word. Thank you.

If you even need to know when the next entry is scheduled for this blog you can always check out the Dead Days Calendar(TM) on Battered Spleen Productions' main page. For November I've penciled in the 10th and the 24th. December is undecided, but is also a sparsely populated month blog-wise. One of those entries will be a small gift guide--likely the first week so people have time to shop. Otherwise I do not know what will happen until closer to then. Cheers.

Mood:
Music: Punched In The Teeth By Love by Motley Crue and Wanted Dead Or Alive by Bon Jovi.

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No Horror This Week

My apologies, but I have been working on a secret project. I hope you had a good hump day nonetheless. I will return again, as my schedule indicates, on September 29th. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Horror Witches Rising

I started writing this first new entry after the May hiatus without even looking to see if I had already written an entry for this date. I was last writing about role-playing games and magic systems. I may return to it, but first I wanted to inject some horror back in and make this an entry true to the Horror on Hump Day nickname. I came back to the topic of magic again recently when I started considering a project about witches. The type of project doesn't matter since it may never happen in that format, and if it does it will be low on the work priority scale below even my slow burning role-playing game work. Before I get to the witchy goodness I want to point out the great thing about RPG work is stories that don't work out, or I don't have time for, work well as scenarios in an RPG session(s) and the research for the games works just as well for stories.

Witches. I'm talking about nasty, vile-hearted, selfish, devil-worshipping witches, horror witches. The wart-nosed old hag comes to mind, but is actually of less use. Really, when supernatural events start happening and children are found ritually slaughtered everyone looks to the hag. Let's also ditch the broom unless this is a historical setting. Honestly, flying on a broom has become something done by cute girls in countless anime. Looking back at historical legend let's also ditch crazy things like houses with chicken's legs running around. Now, again, horror witches. They may sign a pact with the Devil, including giving up their first born, or they may be unaffiliated and truck with whatever forces they wish if any at all. Familiars are good, but they need some consideration regarding their apparent connection to the witch.

In a story a character, male or female--witchcraft isn't sexist--with an animal hanging around all of the time is a dead giveaway. To keep the witch's identity a secret distance events involving the familiar. The witch might be revealed when the beastly companion feeds, using the witch's teat of course. Somewhere on the witch is a superfluous nipple--aureole not included--or even a short tentacle upon which the familiar suckles blood and magical energy, part of the witch's soul, or some other intangible. Here's an odd bit of folklore I discovered when researching for "You Accused the Wrong Woman" for Killing Time - Horror E-Rag™. One method of detecting a witch involved making a cake using urine from a victim of the witch. The victim would see the witch after smelling the vapours from the hot cake, or if not then, after having eaten some of the witch cake.

Mood: enchanted.

Music: Witch Hunt by Stratovarius and Season of the Witch by Vanilla Fudge.

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A Break for Some Different Work

There will be no new Dark Corners in the month of May. Instead I will be working on things behind the scenes. However, it will not be an entirely quiet month. Keep an eye on "Inchoate Ascendant" for some special interviews. There will be a post on Friday the 7th detailing what these interviews are about. Thank you, and see you again here in June.

Mood: reserved.

Music: Dream Warriors by Dokken and Rock Zone by Scorpions.

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Killing Time and Open Wound Marketing

It's good to be back from hiatus after the onslaught of the thirteen nights in October, even if it is only for a couple of weeks before the next one for the December holiday season. I thought that I would start the new entries with some news. I've released the first issue of my magazine Killing Time - Horror E-Rag™ in the Battered Spleen Productions™ store. I have also opened the Market section of the store with items in the Swag section. The Market section is where I hope to have other authors and artists sell their wares. They will provide me an image, a link to the sales page, and the name of the store or site that is directly selling their product. An author selling copies of their own book from their own site would send me that info. I will not handle the sales or take a commission, only charge for the space in the market.

I will of course have final say if a product is accepted. I want to view the promotional material to see if it's of proper professional quality, if it's going to offend people, and other similar things with which I do not want to be associated. Books for instance that are available places like Amazon or Barnes & Noble will get higher priority only because they've been through most of the checks I'd be concerned with. So why would an author do that? Authors often get copies of their book to sell for much more profit directly in their pocket. Signed copies are common in these cases. So why place a product with Battered Spleen Productions? Promotion. Your product available with those of others. This provides more variety and a chance to pick up a sale.

I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure of the cost for inclusion at this point. I'm thinking a flat fee per item. Perhaps it will be an annual fee. My initial thought is it would cost about as much as your average paperback book. The main page for the market will have a primary featured item and then a selection of varied items. I have the market broken into three sections. Swag is for shirts, mugs, mouse pads and other similar items. Books is for printed books, which can be horror, thriller, sci-fi, fantasy or other similar related genres. E-books is for e-books only--in the same categories as the printed books. I'd also be interested in role-playing game books or art books in the same genres. Each product will have its own description page or go directly to your sales page as desired.

What do you think? Are you interested? Comments?

Mood: excitable.

Music: Against the Wall by Quiet Riot and Phantom Limb by Tourniquet.

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Divergent Meanings

I would like to start with a little bit about what has happened during the hiatus I planned. I had every intention of starting the blogs back up in the middle of the month, after finding that the Battered Spleen Productions Knowledge Base coding work was taking longer than expected. Then when it came time to write the first article I was sick the entire week. So here we are now. Please accept my apologies.

Sometimes words are a losing battle. One word that gets a lot of bad press is stereotype. There are times that an idea is a stereotype not because it's an easy, and often incorrect assumption upon which to fall back, but because it is actually such a common occurrence. Other times it does suffer from bias and misinformation. Such biases and the flurry of reasoning and illogic, both at once in some cases, had been covered before the hiatus. Getting back to the losing battle, sometimes one of these stereotypes, when tied to a single word should maybe be considered a lost cause. When this happens there are essentially two options to consider. One is to use a different word altogether. The other is to accept, in the sense of ignore, the negative connotation.

Now, I in no way mean to malign anyone with this, or stir up trouble, or look down on anyone. Caveats and warnings like this usually are enough to cause confrontation, practically something of a tie in--in and of itself--to the themes being pursued in these Dark Corners. What I speak of is a word that has rather negative connotations to many and varied people, but at the same time strikes at, beyond the direct offensiveness of it, another group. The controversy over misappropriation of this word may even be to one degree or another misinformation itself. It may only be a piffling insult. It is hard to tell from the outside. Such is the nature of bias and ignorance. So, what is this contentious word that deserves such preamble? The word is witch.

To horror lovers everywhere witches are evil and vile people bent on vengeance, violence, depravity, and associating with all kinds of other evil. Witches though are also members of the Wiccan faith. Therein lies the problem. It might be inferred now that I would consider using the word witch in connection with the beliefs of Wicca's a lost cause. I am in no position to decide such a thing. The problem lies in using the wealth of horror mythology and material on evil or satanic witches. Some people take offence at putting the word evil in front of a group's name, like there is any group of any size that is 100% free of evil, no matter how much we wish to dismiss such people as not belonging to the group. However, doesn't that fly in the face all that has been discussed on twisting ideologies?

Mood:

Music: First Band on the Moon by Motley Crue and Back to Madness by Stratovarius.

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