October Country

[IFUSEEKAMY]

I'M SO EXCITED! As I've said a MILLION TIMES I'm a HUGE AVID FAN OF HALLOWEEN. It bothers me there aren't more HALLOWEEN-RELATED movies. I wish HOLLYWOOD would make a concerted effort to release a movie called HALLOWEEN every year, each one having no connection to the plot, characters, writers, directors, producers and actors of one another. SIGH! Alas, movies like TRICK OR TREAT (both of them) and other such delicacies are so much fun to watch but so few and far between. So this last year I promised myself that I'd take an hour out of every one of the 31 days leading to HALLOWEEN ITSELF and write a little....something. This new book is far from my best work. Normally I'd be much more crafty and devout. Instead I'm taking a few pointers from the weird and often nonsensical horror movies from the 60s and 70s and just trying to have and create a little unbound fun. So don't judge this effort too strictly. Just enjoy it.
The entire thing is 31 dark fancies with one common setting -- PUMPKIN HILL, NY. I've never been there and have no idea what it looks like. Normally I do a great deal of research for my books but this one I'm just flying by the seat of my pants so sink your teeth into the whim and folly of it all and visit the sleepy little town of my mind where anything goes!

The first yarn has been posted. Click on the link below to read/listen!

https://www.ifuseekamy.com/octobercountry

All positive feedback and encouragement is immensely appreciated!

 

[bluebro69]

I enjoyed it very much! You paint a very descriptive picture with words. Looking forward to the next thirty stories! Thanks for sharing your talents with us Amy!

 

[Cardinal Fang]

I had images of Stephen King flashing through my mind as I was reading it.

You had me up until the "Ginger Ginger broke a winder" reference and then my shoulders dropped and I relaxed. Very cleaver. Please tell me the dog's not really dead?

 

[SexB]

I first read that as "31 Tracks and Treats" and thought it was going to be a Halloween playlist.

 

[IFUSEEKAMY]

I had images of Stephen King flashing through my mind as I was reading it.

You had me up until the "Ginger Ginger broke a winder" reference and then my shoulders dropped and I relaxed. Very cleaver. Please tell me the dog's not really dead?

OMG AM I *THAT* BAD?!?! JESUS SOMEONE PLEASE KILL ME :Cry:

 

[IFUSEEKAMY]

Thanks a bunch! People and plot (what actually HAPPENS) always drive my writing. MR MCKENZIE'S MISSING FINGERS is a reconceptualizing of a former chapter from a former book. In the original, he only believed he was missing his fingers but was not. In this incarnation I elected to recompile him and start from scratch with the fundamental idea. WHAT IF HE REALLY DID HAVE ZERO FINGERS...where can we take this......? normally these stories would be ten times longer but I'm shooting for short, sweet and as ironic as I can get. If I can include clever that's a plus. I'm shooting high on the clever target to maybe miss the bullseye but hit the unexpected. Even with NICKY NICKY NINE DOORS and the Nikanan Observance I avoided the predictable treatment I would have given (and others have already given) the prolonged terrorizing of the old 'witch' who lives down the lane. The numerous variations of this culture-transcending phenomenon fascinates me. So let's build from here with 81 jack-o-lanterns missing. American Gothic with more than a heavy dose of literary romance and maybe a dash of WTH!?!?! If you use the AUDIO versions I'll be posting you'll get the motif of my voice and the atmosphere of the music. BRADBURY'S "Something Wicked This Way Comes" maybe. I was inspired by my half-dozen visits to ALMONTE. I'm going to recompile MIKE from the local book-store there from a former book I never finished writing called "RYTER'S WAKE" about a failing author in a small town losing his mind. I think MIKE (not Ryter) is worth a minor resurrection. I've got a TROLL and a TREEHOUSE still to come, and maybe some spin the bottle or APPLE-BOBBING (for my self-ref of course). SHOULD BE FUN

 

[IFUSEEKAMY]

I first read that as "31 Tracks and Treats" and thought it was going to be a Halloween playlist.

GOTTA HAVE A TRAIN! EVERY GOOD PASTORAL STORY HAS TO HAVE A TRAIN!
Whats a good scary book without some tracks! Maybe I'll pull another old story out of the embers and see if I can breathe some new life into that too! Can't remember the name of it but I know it had to do with standing as close to the tracks as you could with your face almost touching the thundering train as it sped by.....hmmmmmmm.....did you ever do it? I tried it once on a memory lane jaunt to MEMORIAL PARK in WINDSOR Ontario (one of many places hubby grew up in). We were lucky enough for a train to actually come through when he was telling us all about the game so...I tried it. JESUS THE CRAZY THINGS KIDS DO! Terrifying! But glad I tried it.
No...no musical list. But the ENGRAVINGS (IRA STEIN AND RUSSEL WALDER) I use on the audio version might get a boost from GEORGE WINSTON. We'll see

 

[IFUSEEKAMY]

I enjoyed it very much! You paint a very descriptive picture with words. Looking forward to the next thirty stories! Thanks for sharing your talents with us Amy!

DAY II is posted printable and audio!



https://www.ifuseekamy.com/octobercountry

 

[bluebro69]

:behindsofa: eep:

 

[spraggamuffin]

The Jason Vorhees movies alone will run you all night.
This one is Halloween specific off course.
Then there's a host of others like The Howling 1, 2... that are not Halloween specific, I used to see on Cinemax which means a bit of nudity.

 

[IFUSEEKAMY]

YARN #3 "PHASE" IS COMPLETE AND will be posted tomorrow morning....I'm happy with how organically it incarnated. There's slivers of several other things I wrote before publishing -- things I loved that I wouldn't rewrite now due to time restrictions so it's kinda cozy to have them blended into new material. Originally I was going to have the character be phasing in and out of reality due to some sort of bizarre lunar effect equipped with secondary dimensions and choices overlapping in his witness. But I decided to let an old idea take root and become my homage to GHOST STORY (Straub). I'm not charging anything for this writing this time so I can be as willy-nilly as I want.

 

[IFUSEEKAMY]

I enjoyed it very much! You paint a very descriptive picture with words. Looking forward to the next thirty stories! Thanks for sharing your talents with us Amy!

OCTOBER 3rd YARN PRINTED AND AUDIO ARE NOW POSTED FOR YOUR PLEASURE! Enjoy!
Tomorrow's 'RISE & SHINE" will be available by 4am, AUDIO by 9am

 

[IFUSEEKAMY]

So has everyone simply STOPPED READING? If so I'm not going to bother continuing and get back to my novel HURRICANE JANE. Kinda hurt and disappointed if that's the case. As I said only spending an hour each day writing this so not exactly my OPUS but still................if no one's reading kinda futile to continue.
Sigh.
October 4th "RISE & SHINE" is complete and I'll post it in the mid am BUT YES......if people aren't reading or enjoying it, I'll scrap the page and the project and return to my novel.
If I don't hear from anyone I'll take that as a resounding "STFU AND F.O."

 

[The Hof]

Not reading, listening, so in particular it’s not STFU.

Went to Almonte once and on the way, through the dark and the rain, listened to stuff like Leonard Nimoy reading Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains". Odd, hearing you layer your atmosphere over your imagination reminded me of that drive. It had its own layers, I suspect I never unfolded them all. No matter, there’s always memories, indelible as they are fallible.

Podcast? Appreciation often requires distribution. Your doing great, but perhaps this audience is too limited, if this is your venue.

 

[IFUSEEKAMY]

Not reading, listening, so in particular it’s not STFU.

Went to Almonte once and on the way, through the dark and the rain, listened to stuff like Leonard Nimoy reading Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains". Odd, hearing you layer your atmosphere over your imagination reminded me of that drive. It had its own layers, I suspect I never unfolded them all. No matter, there’s always memories, indelible as they are fallible.

Podcast? Appreciation often requires distribution. Your doing great, but perhaps this audience is too limited, if this is your venue.

Invoking Bradbury is more than adequate to keep me posting. My audience size isn't that critical. I've sold 100,000 copies of my novels (of which this is not) which isn't very good considering how many there are and how long I've been selling them. I never sought any sort of fame for anything I do. I am attached to a life and realm where staying anonymous and relatively invisible -- and certainly very private -- comes with the cowl. I just don't want to spend time writing one thing when I could be writing something else. If only 1 person appreciates it, that's enough. I don't come with the typical vanity-press insecurities most writers do. I have so many other fulfilling elements of my life and writing like painting is a recreation and whim. I love doing it but I could stop today and never write another word quite happy to sail an ocean or climb a mountain or tame a mustang. I'm glad you commented on the atmosphere of things and hope that everyone who is listening or reading meets at the musical nexus. This next audio isn't as ideal as I'd like but with the numerous amusements of my life keeping me quite occupied I can't afford perfection. If I have 45 minutes to kill I'll re-record it later especially if I decide to put this on AMAZON. For the moment your inspiration is more than enough. RISE & SHINE is a bit darker, but there's still others THE BRIDGE (semi-erotic), OUT ON A LIMB (should be freaky as hell), SEASON OF THE WITCH and plans in my head for almost all the remaining thereafter. I've written Bradbury-esque/level material. This ain't it. HAHAHAHAHA it's just quick and fun.

 

[The Hof]

Thank you. As prolific or scarce as they arrive I’ll steal in with a glass of wine and wander through the sticky silk you weave.

Somewhere along the journey I pulled in a degree in English Literature. Perhaps irrelevant, but for an opinion, perfection is irrelevant. Storytelling has its roots in an oral tradition, somehow Oxford commas got in the way. Geoffrey Chaucer, Arthur C. Clark, Maya Angelou, James Joyce... every voice different, every voice in context, none worried about anything but evoking.

Maybe that’s why I like listening to your stories rather than just reading them. You're not writing your opus, they’re not meant to be perfect, they’re meant to release an unfettered point in your subconscious. You’re pulling us ever more deeply into the quickening of the dark nights. Ever closer to Samhain’s cusp.

PS. Oral tradition, the epicentre of Halloween (Samhain / Hill of Tara) and Terbites dirty minds is just another layer...

 

[IFUSEEKAMY]

Unfortunately, HURRICANE JANE is just too important to suspend without more interest in OCTOBER COUNTRY. Daily Yarns cant be done with so little interest. I may or may not write more, may or may not
finish it,but not before HALLOWEEN.
sad...it was kinda fun

 

[The Hof]

All is as shall be. All possibilities moments in perpetual stasis.

Perhaps one more. October 31.

 

[IFUSEEKAMY]

I'm sure there'll be a few more before HALLOWEEN but I've got 3 marriages, 2 GFs, two radio stations to DJ, a novel, the record label and just life, love and adventure....
Finding even a spare hour a day to write OCTOBER COUNTRY was already so challenging. I was prioritizing because I thought it would be fun but with 1-3 people only (if that) actually reading it....seems silly.

 

[The Hof]

Its all good. All we can aspire to is to enjoy the awe in the brief intersection of our awareness with infinity.. and it sounds like you already do. Whatever the compass point, I suspect you’ve got the direction.