Time Off for Creative Behavior

It's time for the April session of Camp NaNo, and I am ready to go! I'm wearing my Camp NaNo t-shirt and my Minion pajama pants. I've packed all the necessary supplies - Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, wine, a giant flashlight that serves double duty - it's bright enough to illuminate all the dark corners of the woods (and of my mind) and it's heavy enough to thwack monsters, stunning them so I can run away screaming for help from either the tortoises or my husband.

And I've got a story draped over my imagination much like Spanish moss. It's been clinging to me for so long now that I've lost track of how many drafts it's gone through. But enough is enough. Writing this novella/novel is my fight of 2018, and April is the next round. Who - or what - will emerge at the end of this month?

"Because after all, 

isn't writing a novel 

a survival story of its own?" 

(Kathleen McCleary)

I'm pretty sure I'll make it - having gained a few pounds and lost a few more marbles. I think the story will survive - bloody and twisted. As for some of the characters, well, let's just say they really could've used that heavy duty flashlight to fight back against the baddies. Not that it would've done much good . . . .

Mwahaha!

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Will you be going to Camp this month? Participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge? Undertaking some other creative project? Good luck to us all!

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Since I'll be busy wandering around the deep, dark woods, weeping into my Reese's Peanut Butter Cups while wondering why I thought being a writer was a good idea, I'm taking a blogging break for April. I'll be popping in and out - as long as the flashlight works - but no new posts until May's IWSG. 

Popcorn, Please!

Did you know The Exorcist was the first horror film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar?

Did you know Psycho is the first American film to show a toilet? It's also the first time we hear a toilet flush.

For more fun trivia, check out 40 Fascinating Facts About Your Favorite Horror Movies (MentalFloss.com, 10/23/17.) I love this kind of stuff! Here are a few more:

Robert Englund was not the first choice to play Freddy Krueger, and Sissy Spacek was not the first choice to play Carrie. Can you imagine anyone else in those roles?

Gene Hackman was supposed to star in and direct Silence of the Lambs. No Anthony Hopkins?! And speaking of Silence of the Lambs, remember Buffalo Bill's creepy dance? That wasn't in the script, but it was in the book, and actor Ted Levine insisted it be included to help explain the character.

Jaws is one of my all-time favorite movies for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that not seeing Jaws right away escalates the tension and the creepiness. But the real reason the shark doesn't fully appear until one hour and twenty-one minutes into the movie? Because apparently, the mechanical shark rarely worked during filming.

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Do you enjoy watching horror/scary movies? Have any favorites? Have any interesting movie trivia to share?

The Horror! The Horror!

The Plan: Buy this book - Frightlopedia: An Encyclopedia of Everything Scary, Creepy, and Spine-Chilling, from Arachnids to Zombies by Julie Winterbottom - for my nephew and niece for Halloween. They love to read, and they're pretty okay with scary things. Besides, each section in the book has a Fright Meter to gauge the scare-factor. 

What Actually Happened: Aunt Madeline decided she did not want to be responsible for terrifying her nephew and niece. (Adults, on the other hand, are fair game.) So, at great sacrifice to her own sanity, she read it instead and promptly freaked herself out.   

(To be fair, the kids might've been fine with it. It's just you never know what will trigger a nightmare, a fear, a phobia, especially when you're young. Take it from someone who was scared so badly by an innocent Popeye cartoon that she had bad dreams for a week.) 

All that being said, I really did enjoy the book. It's creepy, with photos that haunt me still, but it's also entertaining and informative. 

Did you know . . . about the waste water treatment center where scientists found 107 million spiders had woven a four acre web - the size of four soccer fields! - inside the building? 

Did you know . . . that claustrophobia is the fear of enclosed spaces, but cleithrophobia is the fear of being trapped? Check out these two real-life situations:

- A man got stuck in an elevator for two full days with nothing to eat but Rolaids.

- A woman got stuck in her bathroom for 20 days. She banged on the pipes, but neighbors thought the noise was construction. She lived on nothing but water.

And finally, a place I will NOT be going to on my next vacation:

Gomantong Caves is on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. It houses two million bats. The cave floors are ten feet deep in guano, but you can't see any it because of all the cockroaches. Yep, a giant mass of cockroaches feasts on all that poop, along with the occasional bat that falls from the ceiling. And you can watch it all from the wooden walkway that will supposedly keep you safe from all but the errant cockroach and the three-inch-long centipedes that crawl along the handrail. 

Yeah, my sister should sooooo thank me for not sending this book.

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So, what scared you as a kid? What scares you now? Plan on taking a trip to those caves? If so, please don't bring me back a souvenir . . . . 

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(I talked about this book purely because I enjoyed it. I didn't receive any compensation, etc.)