I hope everybody had a Happy Spooky Halloween. I have to admit I overdosed on John Carpenter’s Halloween. I love watching Jamie Lee Curtis be terrorized by Michael Myers. What I like about John Carpenter’s Halloween is the suspense – how Michael jumps out of dark corners, the music and the tension. When movies just show horrible gore and blood, they lose the tension and terror. Think of JAWS. How many times have you heard the theme song and shuddered? As you can see, horror movies have always been a favorite past time for me. A couple of weekends ago, I saw Paranormal Activity 3 and yes, it’s scary, because it possesses these same components. My favorite is the babysitter sitting in the kitchen. I won’t give away what happens because it’s one of the best scenes in the movie. If you like to be scared, I’d recommend it.
I enjoy horror books as much as I do the movies. But sometimes, the screenplay misses the terror of the book. For instance, Stephen King’s The Shining is a suspenseful book, but the movie with Jack Nicholas fails to capture the terror in the book. I know many people would disagree with me, but I like the ending in the book better than I do the movie. My other favorite author is Anne Rice. I feel in love with Lestat, Louis and Armand. The ultimate sexy vampires! I believe both Rice and King’s ability to develop believable characters makes their books hard to put down.
My fascination with scary movies and books led me to write paranormal romance. In my world, I can create my own supernatural monsters. In Cassandra, I create an Underworld where demons dwell, not the ones that will possess you like in The Exorcist, but demons that had mated with mystical and real creatures. My hero, Eric, is Prince of the Dragon Demons who are in danger of becoming feral and conquering their world and then focusing on ours.
Many times, readers want to know writers come up with our ideas. Writers develop ideas based on every day experiences. In this case, I surfed the internet and stumbled upon a sinkhole in South America. The huge sinkhole sunk over 100 feet into the ground. A highway had caved into the hole. I broke out in shivers when I saw it, because I wondered what would happen if it stretched to hell and something crawled out. I took it one step further and thought about my favorite mountain town, Frisco. What if a sinkhole happened in the middle of the night at Walter Byron Park? Hmmm…what if a demon flew out searching for his mate? Eric Wyvern comes to life for me. What would happen if the heroine could see ghosts and a demon goddess from the Underworld? The demon goddess in my book is the Wraith, and I have to admit she was fun to write about. She is shrouded in a dark cloak and all you can see is her skeletal hands and red burning eyes. When she talks, she hisses. She is one of my favorite characters in this book.
So, the next time you see a sinkhole, imagine where it would go? What lives down there? What wants to escape into our world?