I was Angry, and Then...

This movie meme thing happened. I still have a rant brewing. Maybe tomorrow it will spill over. Maybe not.

1.Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times:

Rear Window (1954), the original Hitchcock. Talk about suspense, I seen that darn flick a gazillion times, and I still clench up when Raymond Burr (aka Lars Thorwald) enters Jimmy Stewart's place. Yikes.

2.Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theater:

I'm a cheapskate, so this doesn't happen often. The last time was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I wanted to see the "eat shit" look Ginny gave Cho again.

3.Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie:

Harrison Ford. But that was long ago.

4.Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie:

Any "professional" wrestler except Tor Johnson. Plan 9 was bitchin'.

5.Name a movie that you can and do quote from:

Okay, I'll name two: Platoon.

I can't help repeating the line from Barnes to O'Neil before the final battle: "We all gotta die sometime, Red."

and Ghostbusters. (any line that comes out of Bill Murray's mouth...Mother Pussbucket comes to mind)

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs:

Jesus Christ Superstar. Love it. The movie was weird as hell, too. I also dig Phantom of the Opera (go ahead, throw things), but the movie...meh. I couldn't watch more than ten minutes.

7.Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with:

Guys and Dolls. C'mon everybody..."I got a horse right here..."

8.Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see:

Rebel without a Cause so you'll know what all the James Dean schtuff is about. That and Zombie Strippers. (I'm kidding about one of these, of course)

9. Name a movie that you own:

Seven Samurai. You should probably watch that one, too. Slide it in #8 instead of the strippers.

10.Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops:

Ice Cube. Have you seen Anaconda? That's what acting is all about. Hell yeah.

*edit* But seriously...I'm a big Tom Waits fan. Thanks to KC Shaw for reminding me. I loved his Renfield in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

11.Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?

Regrettably, no, but we did have a "drive-in" party in our backyard last year (big sheet hanging from the house with a projector=drive in). We showed Scooby-Doo episodes for the kids and watched The Horror of Dracula when they went to bed.

12.Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t yet gotten around to it:

The last movie with Peter Cushing in it...you know, the one I haven't seen yet. I think it might have vampires in it. Vampires or reanimated corpses. Either that or he plays Sherlock Holmes. Damn. Too many Cushing movies.

13.Ever walked out of a movie:

Only to, you know, go "potty".

14.Name a movie that made you cry in the theater:

Up. Like a freakin' baby. That movie is like torture for the first 10 minutes, man. I also cried at The Muppet Movie, but I was like four or five.

15.What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?

Up. Can't go back to the theater. Too traumatic. Except maybe to see Harry Potter. Gotta have my Potter fix...

16.What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie?

The good one. You know, with the awesome schtuff in it. Explosions and meaningful exchanges of dialogue about the nature of love and the universe?

17.What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?

The Muppet Movie. It made me question the nature of reality.

18.What movie do you wish you had never seen?

The Ring. Seriously, I had trouble sleeping. Then I started trying to understand the logic of the whole thing, and I had trouble sleeping for a whole different reason.

19.What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?

Kwaidan. Japanese ghost stories for the win! If you don't think giant eyeballs floating over a blizzard are weird, you're fired.

20.What is the scariest movie you’ve seen?

I'm with Katey on this. Full Metal Jacket freaked me out. Horror stuff, yeah...scary. But war. War is effin' real. Full Metal Jacket is messed up real...weirdo soundtrack that twists your head, too.

21.What is the funniest movie you’ve seen?

I still love Ghostbusters. I didn't get half of it when I was a kid. Some of Aykroyd's lines are priceless. Nobody, but nobody, improvs like Bill Murray. Plus, the big monster at the end? Marshmallow!

Yum.

I'm going to go make some s'mores. Cheers.

The Truth About Rabbits

The car is black, devouring gravel on a side road to the lake. Two men ride inside, both wearing wrinkled suits and loose neckties. The driver tightens his grip on the wheel. Lined up in the headlights, a jackrabbit freezes, then bolts for the shoulder.

The two-day beard in the passenger seat smacks the driver on the back of his head.

“What the hell was that for?”

Two-day Beard crosses his arms. “The rabbit, you jackass.”

“I missed him.”

“He ran.”

The driver frowns. “When’d you go soft?”

“Shut up.”

“’fraid it was the Easter Bunny?” The driver laughs. “Like you was ever good enough for the Easter Bunny to leave a basket, right?”

Two-day Beard lifts the pistol from his lap. “I just don’t like nobody killing something what never hurt ‘em, is all.”

Another rabbit skirts into the road. The driver’s foot drops on the accelerator. For a moment, the headlights have the furry thing trapped, but it vanishes into the grass as the car passes. The driver laughs again, opening his mouth with the laughter.

“Fuck you,” mutters Two-day Beard.

The car slides between a few more trees and skids to a halt at the edge of the lake. Both men climb out and slam their doors in near synchronicity. The driver jiggles the keys on his way to the trunk. He inserts the key and clicks the trunk open.

“The truth about rabbits, buddy,” he says, “is that they’re just rats with long legs. Like our friend here.” He nods to the trunk.

Two-day Beard scowls as he puts his hands under the body’s arms. “You gonna help with this guy, or write poetry?”

___________

If nonfiction is your "thing", I have a short piece up at Flash Fiction Chronicles about my road to loving flash.

Next week, I'll be writing a piece of flash based on a title submitted in the comments to this post, ala Name Your Tale . (Check out the site...crazy...they write 100 word stories based on reader submitted titles.) I won't promise it will be any good or exactly 100 words, but I will throw something together from a randomly selected title from those added to the comments below. C'mon. Have fun.

WIP Wednesday...It's still Wednesday, Right?

Okay, I'm up to my eyeballs in paint (trimming the house...thank God for bricks), so this will be a quick update.

I'm just shy of 17K in Loathsome Dark and Deep and just penned the end of the first act. I have some details to add, and I suspect act one will land around 20K, act two closer to 30, and the final, "run-like-hell" act (that would be number three) to clock in at 10-15K. Yes, this only makes a 60-65K novel.

Sue me.

In today's snippet, as they motor up the Lewis River, our heroes find what they think is a corpse nailed to the remains of a totem pole. Enjoy!

All hands fell silent, and the only noise came from the constant slap of water against wood, the low puff of our engines at idle, and the clucking of a pair of ravens on the body—clearly that of a large man. The black carrion birds pulled at strips of flesh from the man’s face and exposed neck.

His arm flinched.

“Jesus God, he’s alive,” Silas whispered. Metal and wood clicked to his shoulder; I didn’t have to look—he aimed for the poor soul writhing in pain atop the pole. The Winchester barked, the ravens flapped to the sky, and we all stared in silence as our boats slowly held the curve in the Lewis, slipping away from the grizzly totem.

Atmosphere for the Win!

I'm a sucker for good atmosphere in fiction and film. My love for Disney's clunky sci-fi snoozer, The Black Hole is predicated primarily on the power of the movie's atmosphere.

God knows the "science" is stoopid, not to mention the dime-store dialogue.

But wow. There is a moment when our heroes (a small band of American explorers on board the Palamino, a chubby hypodermic needle of a spacecraft) escape the pull of the black hole (right) only to cruise by the supposedly derelict hull of the Cygnus (a cathedral in space...spooky as hell). The Cygnus is dark, dead. Little V.I.N.C.E.N.T. (a robot) is clinging to the outside of the ship, the Palamino's searchlights rove over the grey hulk of the larger ship...chills. Really.

Embedding is disabled, but here is the link to the scene via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ts-v6AHr38 (the creeps start at around 3:45 as the Palamino makes another pass on the Cygnus)

I'm that big of a sucker for atmosphere.

So much so, that when I write, sometimes I find myself lost in the atmosphere. The story...meh. Who needs a story when you have atmosphere?

I love old Hammer films for the same reason. And Roger Corman? Don't get me started. No one used the cheesy plastic skull with cobwebs and rubber spiders as well as Corman.

Am I destined to be lost to a world of pulp movies with spooky vibes? The thing is, in a book, atmosphere can be magnificent. I've just picked up this year's Stoker winner for best first novel, The Gentling Box by Lisa Mannetti. Wow. Atmosphere so thick I almost have to chisel my way out.

In a word: heaven. If you like your heaven in a dark, scary place.

Limbo

...not the fun dance-party game, either.

I'm writing about "short list" limbo. Two pieces of mine are currently floating with the other undead souls in short list purgatory. I'm eager for both to make the proverbial "cut" and slip through the pearly gates of publication, but short list limbo has damned a good many stories in the past. I've seen a few of my own favorite creations fall in the name of "hey, but at least it made the short list."

Would I rather not know the stories were short listed? No...I think I like the mere suggestion of publication-hood. But the waiting...ugh. Shortlistage has a nasty way of making the waiting that much longer.

How about you, dear writerly-folk: do you like a short list notification, or would you rather stumble through the dark until a definitive answer lands in your box?