This week: Ghosts vs. Monsters Edited by: Angus  
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“Blood is really warm,
it's like drinking hot chocolate
but with more screaming.”
~ Ryan Mecum, Zombie Haiku: Good Poetry for Your...Brains
“Everybody is a book of blood; wherever we're opened, we're red.”
~ Clive Barker, Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three |
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Some of you may remember in my very first Newsletter I talked about how I was introduced to horror at a very young age with the movie Jaws. ‘Bruce’ the shark (nicknamed after Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer) was real, in the sense that sharks are real, but does that make sharks ‘monsters’?
The same could be said of Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King's IT, in the sense that clowns are real (and sadly, so was serial killer John Wayne Gacy).
How about Frankenstein? He was just a simple, misunderstood creation of a mad scientist’s wild imagination (and Mary Shelley’s), but did that make him a monster?
I guess that would depend on your own interpretation of what a monster is.
But what about the completely imagined monsters of literature and the big screen? King Kong, The Wolf Man, The Blob, Godzilla, and Xenomorph (of Alien fame) come to mind. But these are totally fictional, so there’s no arguing that these would indeed be classified as ‘monsters’, right?
So what about ghosts? Are ghosts real? Science has yet to prove that, but many people won’t deny that they’ve actually seen ghosts (myself included!). But whether they’re real or not, are they the frightening spirits we see on the big screen and in books? Good examples of the frightful type can be found in Poltergeist, Bell Witch Haunting, The Conjuring, The Haunting of Hill House, The Exorcist, The Turn of the Screw, and The Changeling, just to name a few.
Here’s a little history about ghosts and monsters:
In the first century A.D., the great Roman author and statesman Pliny the Younger recorded one of the first notable ghost stories in his letters, which became famous for their vivid account of life during the heyday of the Roman Empire. Pliny reported that the specter of an old man with a long beard and rattling chains was haunting his house in Athens.
The history of monsters in fiction is long. For example, Grendel in the epic poem Beowulf (believed to have been composed sometime between 700 and 750 A.D., but didn't appear in print until 1815) is an archetypal monster, deformed, brutal, with enormous strength and raiding a human settlement nightly to slay and feed on his victims.
OK. Now that we have that out of the way, you have your fighters. Monsters on one side, Ghosts on the other.
So my challenge to you is to write a story about a Monster taking on a Ghost! Hey, it could happen! If they can make a movie about Cowboys taking on Aliens, then anything's possible, right? And don't forget about Alien versus Predator!
And if you do write a story to meet this challenge, I'd be interested in reading it! Email your stories (any genre—horror, comedy, sci/fi, doesn't matter!) directly to me Angus (1,000 words or less, please!) with the subject NL CHALLENGE and you might, MIGHT receive a nifty little reward!
By the way, if you'd like to read some really awesome Halloween stories, check out the entries in The "'SCREAMS!!!' HALLOWEEN CONTEST!" These folks put in a lot of hard work during October, so maybe you could give them a review or at least leave a message in their notebook!
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My question this month is: What type of horror stories do you prefer? Psychological, Monster, Ghost (paranormal), or whatever else you can think of?
Last time I asked 'Books have inspired many movies. Which do you think is better, the movie or the book?'
Some your responses:
BIG BAD WOLF is hopping 
In general, books tend to do better than the movie adaptations. But, sometimes the movie stands on its own right. Or maybe one has yet to see/read it in the other medium.
Quick-Quill 
I am writing a novel about a serial killer. It's more about the search for a killer. I have the SK life, his family, how and where. Now I have to give the clues to the MC and her friend so they can find him.....hiding in plain sight.
Sum1 
Angus, Shirley Jackson wrote "The Haunting," also known as 'The Haunting Of Hill House', not The House On Haunted Hill. The House On Haunted Hill was a 1959 movie, and frankly didn't scare me much. Shirely Jackson's book, and the movie, scared me so badly that to this day there are things I won't do because of it.
Vick Rolling 🏳️🌈 
Thank you so much for supporting my work.
The pleasure was all mine, Vick Rolling 🏳️🌈!
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Horror/Scary: November 20, 2019 Issue [#9881]
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