I was going to be the next Stephen King. I thought if I write horror stories half as good as he did, I'd have it made. I geared myself to that goal, read Horror story after Horror story, watching Horror movie after Horror movie. I was going to be terrifying.
As I write this, I'm printing out a draft copy of a story called "Pookie, the Demon Doll of Death."
Does that say terror to you?
Oh, how I've fallen from my goal.
And I'm loving every minute of it...
Namely, my writing production is up. Way up. I'm currently sitting on three short stories and am working on a fourth. Writing wise, things haven't ever been this good. Oh sure, there's the novel, but the difference is that these stories are good. And with the rewrites, I hope to make them great. More, I think at least one of them might get published.
On top of this, I'm working on drawing character heads. Front view, ¾ view, and side. So far they haven't been perfect, but they have been miles better than usual. Boosting the ego something fierce.
So if I'm a little quiet this week, that's the reason. As always, I'll post when and if the whim hits me.
Which no doubt means two more posts before the night's out. Hi ho.
The Illustration and Its Creator
This illustration is from the 1918 book called English Fairy Tales by Flora Annie Steel. It was done by Arthur Rackham, who is ranked among the greats in his field. Whether or not he is, of course, is a matter of preference. This particular piece seems a combination of excellent in its detail and a bit rushed. You can count every brick on the fence and houses, but the faces of the people seem simplistic. I'm not with a lot of room to talk, though, as this picture is better than most if not all of my work.
The illustration itself is for a retelling of Jack the Giant Killer. The giant is called Cormoran and he is to be the first one slain by mighty Jack. Lucky him.
Steel's collection of fairy tales can be found over at Project Gutenberg
Again, I want to try and avoid the obvious choices. Although, to be honest, even in avoiding the obvious choice I've taken an obvious route:
Cormoran came into the city for a few groceries and wouldn't you know it but everyone he came across started screaming and hollering to all get out. To his disgust, even the dogs scampered away from him like a frightened deer. All he wanted to do now was get to the nearest lake and see if he could wash the scent of stupid people off of himself.
Not much to add to that. If we go by the story, poor Cormoran here gets tricked into a pit by a murderous Jack, who goes on to slaughter many other helpless (and stupid) giants.
Hurray!
Here is another case where Wikipedia has failed me. The artist in question is one D. H. Friston. I know next to nothing about him. During the 18th century he enjoyed a degree of fame. He was the first person to draw Sherlock Holmes (for the novel A Study in Scarlett, naturally.) He also worked as an illustrator for the magazine “Dark Blue”. Beyond that, I've been having a devil of a time finding out information on the man. Which, frankly, is typical. Porn I can find on accident data on historical stuff I need the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon.
The image in question as drawn for the short story Carmilla, written by Sheridan le Fenu. It depicts the vampire Mircalla preparing to assault a sleeping young woman. In the background is the young woman's defender, sword drawn and on the move. Looks like the calvery coming over the hill to save the day. Except things don't always turn out as well as we'd like.
All of this, incidentally, is back story for the main tale. The whole story can be found here at Project Gutenberg.
My Exercise
My first impulse was to write something about Vampires. Unfortunately, what I wanted to write followed Carmilla a little too much. I mean, what's the point of doing this if I'm going to take the easy route?
So instead, I changed things around a bit. Mircalla becomes a very human heroine, the sleeping young woman the person Mircalla is trying to save, and the defender now a captor. It comes out looking a little like this:
After long years of searching, Mircalla has found her kidnapped little sister, now trapped in a loveless marriage with a brutal lieutenant. Now she slowly reaches to wake her slumbering sibling, knowing that the slightest noise might alert the rest of the house to her presence. Unbeknownst to her, the lieutenant already knows she is there, and is about to capture her, perhaps even kill her before her sister's eyes.
Is this the end of the story? The beginning? Or is it, too, back story for some larger tale? That's a part of the joy of Ortiz's exercise. It could be so much more than what it is.
I wish I knew what the name of this painting was. I've been calling it “The Princess and the Trolls” in my head because that's what it looks like: a princess surrounded by Trolls.
It's done by Swedish painter John Bauer (1882 – 1918), no doubt for the yearly fairy tale book Bland tomtar och troll/Among the Elves and Trolls. It is really a sweet, almost haunting painting. There's nothing threatening about it, even though there are implications, to me, that the little princess there has been spirited away by the large folk.
Most of Bauer's work is like this. I've hit a few sites looking for details on his life, and his other works are equally impressive. You can see more, too, at Project Runeberg (which I believe is in Swedish) or over at Bud Plant Illustrated Books (not only in English but with a more information on Bauer and his work.)
My Exercise
While it is a bit obvious, you can see the kernel of a large story. We have the trolls, who want to keep and “protect” the princess, we have the gallant hero and his men no doubt coming to “rescue” the princess from her “evil” captors, and the princess herself, who would probably rather be home with her thoughts and fancies rather than deal with either side. Look at her face. So wistful. She's clearly daydreaming, even while surround by creatures twice her size.
Thus we get the following sentences:
The princess has been kidnapped by four Trolls who have fallen in love with her. This sort of thing has happened to her so often that she's rather bored, and she ponders other things while her captors gaze adoringly upon her. Soon, her dashing knight and his men will ride in to “rescue” her, and there will be swords flashing, fist flaying, words screamed and a lot of other dull things.
Is the princess worth this much effort? Is she shallow? To say no and yes seems too easy for me, but those are thoughts for another time. There are other works to be considered.
