Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Crystal M. Romero on "The Relic"
Tell us a little about your story, “The Relic.”
The Relic was originally written for an LGBTQ anthology of flash fiction. This was my first encounter with the concept of writing a story with as few words as possible. I quickly discovered that it’s not as easy as I originally thought it would be. Hopefully I pulled it off.
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
During her childhood, Crystal M. Romero fell in love with the horror genre. In addition to two novels, The Veil of Sorrow and Valley of the Dead, Crystal had five stories published in the LGBT 2008 flash-fiction anthology Chilling Tales of Terror and the Supernatural. Follow her onTwitter @Crstl_M_Romero or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Crystal.1a.
Tell us a little about your story, “The Relic.”
The Relic was originally written for an LGBTQ anthology of flash fiction. This was my first encounter with the concept of writing a story with as few words as possible. I quickly discovered that it’s not as easy as I originally thought it would be. Hopefully I pulled it off.
Even with its title, “The Relic” evokes ideas of artifacts and the cultures that created them. Was there a specific culture or mythology that inspired the story?
I wrote the story when I was a university student studying Meso-American history and culture. When I came across the myth of the Jaguar Goddess, which existed in both the Aztec and Mayan pantheons, I found myself intrigued by her many attributes. In both cultures the Jaguar Goddess is the protector of women, especially during childbirth. In addition to being a protector she is also considered both an earth and moon goddess.
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
Although I wasn’t born in California, I’ve lived in the Golden State since I was a year old. Owing to this I consider myself a Californian. My early years were spent in Chico, Redding and Oroville, respectively. My high school years were spent at Las Plumas High in Oroville. Oroville is a small town that sits below Table Mountain and in the shadow of Paradise. After graduation I relocated to the Bay Area at the time when it was first becoming known as Silicon Valley. Although my first novel did not take place in California, my second novel, Valley of the Dead, takes place almost exclusively in both Silicon Valley and smaller areas in northern California.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
For me California has always been a beacon of hope for anyone looking for a place to belong regardless of ethnicity, religion or ideology. Even in the most dystopian vision of the world, I always envision California as a state that will always come through adversity with a positive outlook for our future.
Where can readers find more of your work?
Amazon.
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 10/28/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Dana Fredsti on “You’ll Never Be Lunch in This Town Again
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: Gerry Griffiths on "The White Stuff"
Tell us a little about your story, “The White Stuff.”
The story is about four friends celebrating Christmas together in a remote home out in the desert. Not exactly the holiday theme you would expect being surrounded by sand and cactus. But that all changes when everyone awakes on Christmas morning to newly fallen snow. Could it be a miracle of nature? Or is it more menacing? I’d like to think this story has a little Twilight Zone vibe to it.
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
Gerry Griffiths lives in San Jose, California with his family, their four rescue dogs, and a cat. He has over thirty published short stories in various anthologies and magazines, along with a collection entitled Creatures. He is also the author of Silurid, The Beasts of Stoneclad Mountain, Death Crawlers, Deep in the Jungle, The Next World, Battleground Earth, Down from Beast Mountain, Terror Mountain, Cryptid Zoo, and Cryptid Island (prequel to Cryptid Zoo).
Tell us a little about your story, “The White Stuff.”
The story is about four friends celebrating Christmas together in a remote home out in the desert. Not exactly the holiday theme you would expect being surrounded by sand and cactus. But that all changes when everyone awakes on Christmas morning to newly fallen snow. Could it be a miracle of nature? Or is it more menacing? I’d like to think this story has a little Twilight Zone vibe to it.
Much of what happens in your story is shaped by the characters’ isolation—they’re in a house that is, as one characters says, “in the middle of nowhere.” Was this based on personal experiences?
Well, I can think of a couple of incidences. One time when my brother and I were kids we went camping with our parents in the Santa Cruz Mountains and got lost when we wandered off into the woods. At the time we were pretty scared and were in tears—until we realized all we had to do was retrace our footsteps back to camp. I don’t think our parents even realized we were gone. While in the Navy, the submarine I served on nearly sank while undergoing a routine test dive. I guess the thought of being stranded in the forest or lying at the bottom of the ocean certainly traumatized me. Like floating helplessly in outer space without a tether … or facing true terror running for your life in the middle of the desert.
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
California has been my home for much of my life. I was only a year old when my parents left London and brought me across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary in 1950. We were constantly moving from state to state as my father worked for Trans World Airlines and was always accepting new job opportunities with the airline, but we always seemed destined to return to California. I can’t think of anywhere I would rather live than here and have many fond memories. I’m sure they’ve influenced my writing. Sunshine is great for the imagination.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
Well, these are turbulent times for California. I think it’s important that we preserve and protect our wonderful state and share the core values as honest and compassionate citizens and not forget the historical legacies that made this state the fifth largest economy in the world. Everyone from all walks of life working together accomplished that. This is where we can step up and be proud of our Golden State. I think many of us have friends and relatives that lived in Paradise and the surrounding communities that suffered from the devastating Camp Fire. This charity anthology benefiting wildfire relief for the survivors is our way as Bay Area horror writers of doing our part to help with the effort.
Where can readers find more of your work?
I have an Author Central page on Amazon that lists my novels, the magazines I have contributed to, and a collection of short stories. Please feel free to visit and browse around.
https://www.amazon.com/Gerry-Griffiths/e/B003CGSL6E?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1554922190&sr=1-1
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 6/3/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Loren Rhoads ON “Still Life with Shattered Glass”
Scary Stories for a Good Cause: John McCallum Swain on "The Wolf Who Never Was"
Tell us a little about your story, “The Wolf Who Never Was.”
A few years ago I saw an open call from April Moon Books, an outfit that has come up with some really fun themes for their anthologies. They were looking for stories inspired by the old Hammer horror films I watched religiously on TV as a child. Hammer cranked out monster flicks from the late ‘50s to the early ‘70s, and they played on TV nonstop when I was small. Some of them were corny, and some of them are now classics. Hammer’s lurid, titillating and bloody reboots of Frankenstein, Dracula …
By L.S. Johnson (https://traversingz.com/)
John McCallum Swain has lived in Canada, Germany, Scotland, and the United States, where he now shares his home with a small herd of cats. His tales, ranging from graphic horror to alternate history, have appeared in Weird Menace: Volume 2, Spawn of the Ripper, Peeling Back the Skin, Blood Sweat & Fears, The Stars at My Door, Death’s Garden, and many other anthologies. His own titles include the horror and speculative fiction collections My Vile Bounty and Califhorrornia, and the novellas Smile and The Unicorn Man.
Tell us a little about your story, “The Wolf Who Never Was.”
A few years ago I saw an open call from April Moon Books, an outfit that has come up with some really fun themes for their anthologies. They were looking for stories inspired by the old Hammer horror films I watched religiously on TV as a child. Hammer cranked out monster flicks from the late ‘50s to the early ‘70s, and they played on TV nonstop when I was small. Some of them were corny, and some of them are now classics. Hammer’s lurid, titillating and bloody reboots of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy made international stars of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, and they scared the hell out of me when I first saw them. I knew I could write a good story based on that material. The challenge was writing something different, something with a twist. That’s when I began to think of behind-the-scenes scenarios; what if there was an actual goddamned monster on the set of a monster movie? And the production in this case is Hammer’s only werewolf movie, The Curse of the Werewolf, starring Oliver Reed.
And I had several questions for this one, but my most pressing (and rhetorical) question is: why Oliver Reed?
I chose Oliver Reed for two reasons. First, I really like Oliver Reed. I grew up watching his movies, and his turn as Bills Sykes in the 1968 musical Oliver! horrified me as much as any Hammer horror movie monster. Hey, cut me some slack, I was about 8 when I saw it, and to be fair, it’s said that Reed was so effective at portraying a menacing bastard that he terrified the children he was working with on the set. In other words, he scared the ever-loving shit out of little kids and got paid for it. That’s a special kind of awesome that I really appreciate. Also, alcoholism has irreparably impacted my own life, and as we saw with Reed’s death during the filming of Gladiator, it’s a sordid, awful addiction that takes will and reason to overcome. Oliver couldn’t do that, and since most horror writers write horror to work out shit they are dealing with either on the surface or way down deep, I thought I’d try and suggest a noble reason why Oliver Reed died as he did, to redeem him despite his tragic flaws.
What is your relationship to California, and does California influence your work?
I was born in Canada, and since I was a military brat I bounced around a lot. I’ve seen most of Europe and lived in Scotland for a few years, but the longest I’ve ever been in one place is in California. This really is the land of dreams. Not all of them come true, but it’s a great place to keep trying to achieve them. My first book of short stories is set here. Califhorrornia: Dark Tales from the Golden State (that goddamned title looks better in print than it sounds rolling off the tongue) is available on Amazon.
As writers, we constantly use our imaginations, sometimes in terrifying ways. But can you imagine a hopeful future for California? What might that future look like?
California is the most culturally diverse state in the union. Some people see that as a scary thing. I see it as a strength. With diversity comes many different points of view. With different points of view come as yet unimagined solutions to the problems we face as a state and a nation. All we really need is water. If we can get our act together with serious water rationing, solar or wind or wave powered and marine life friendly desalination plants, use gray water effectively, and experiment with towing glaciers to port cities, we can survive on our own. Then again, it’s life’s more awful scenarios that are bread and butter for writers—one of the stories in Califhorrornia is about the devastating effects a water shortage has on the residents of a single street.
Where can readers find more of your work?
I’m working on a series of horror stories that take place in my fictional Ottawa Valley town of Kitchissippi. The stories are all set in the ‘70s and will ultimately explain why Kitchissippi became a ghost town by 1981. The stories focus on the children of Kitchissippi; the things they fear are not supernatural, but perversions of nature and the human mind, so there are no vampires, werewolves or zombies—most of my monsters are human. I have been extremely fortunate to have Kitchissippi tales appear in Blood, Sweat, and Fears: Horror Inspired by the 1970s, Death’s Garden, and Peel Back the Skin. The foundation of those 70s horror tales is my novella The Unicorn Man, my take on the Frankenstein mythos that first appeared in 4rchetypes: Modern Interpretations of Classic Horror. All of these tales and more can be found on Amazon, at the link below. Thanks for reading!
NEXT POST ON MONDAY 5/13/19, SCARY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE: BEN MONROE ON “THE QUARRY”
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