BLURB:
In the darkest corners of lower Manhattan, a battle like no other rages. The city is home to a hidden group of survivors of the nanite plague, and a brother and sister born to defend their race. With a touch that can destroy nanites, Lanni, sister of Alex, is their last chance. Can she save her brother? Can she protect mankind's only hope? Or will she be responsible for the destruction of the last humans on earth? It's going to be another long day...
What scares a horror author?
Want to know
the scary secret of writing horror? Come closer. That’s it… closer. A little
more… Now listen carefully.
“YAAAAAHHHHHHRRRRRG!”
SCARYPIC.jpg
Alright, I
guess that’s less scary in text than in person. I was going to say something
like:
Sure, it’s a
lame secret. It is very un-profound, and everyone probably already “knows” it.
Like many simple truths, it just makes sense, even if we don’t understand
exactly why.
Here, take a
breath mint and stay close, boys and girls, ‘cause your ol’ Uncle Greg’s gonna
talk about some scary stuff, and if you survive, he’ll even tell what scares
him.
Still with
me? I think most of the normals just clicked back over to Facebook. That’s
good. At least one of them must have taken a bath in counterfeit Polo cologne
this morning. Whew! Now that it’s just us cool kids, I’ll stop referring to
myself in the third person and get on with the scary stuff.
The thing
that scares most people, after public speaking, of course, is dying. I think
what they really mean, though is “not surviving.” We want to stick around and
see what’s going to happen tomorrow, and being dead puts the Kibosh on that
real fast. Maybe I’m over-simplifying this, but ask your friends, family,
coworkers, or fellow inmates at your asylum what scares them, I can tell you
what they’ll say and why. They may not come right out and say “not surviving,”
but that’s what they mean.
Like all animals--except
lemmings, I guess--we puffed up, technologified Cro-Magnons have an innate
desire to not be eaten by other animals. It’s called “survival instinct,” and
we are hardwired with it from the moment come screaming into this madhouse.
Looking at it
another way, we are born with the gift of fear. Yes, tough guy, you too. So the
next time you hear someone say “I ain’t afraid of nothin’,” don’t point out the
real meaning of his words or mention double negatives. Just smile. He’ll
probably stop surviving very soon.
Since we are
all born with fear, it makes sense that so many of us fear the same things. So
let’s take a peek at a list of things that scare most people. I’ll put them
into nice groups for you.
Shall we
start with critters?
Spiders
and snakes
Folks will
say “I don’t know why they scare me. They’re just creepy.” Balderdash! Spiders
and snakes have venom. Venom makes us dead. Dead is not surviving.
Thus:
Spiders & Snakes = Not Surviving
Rats,
mice, & other rodents
KORPeek.jpg
These cute little
varmints are too small to fatally wound us, but…
1. They
carry disease, which makes us dead.
2. They eat
our food, which makes us hungry. And Dead.
3. They have
large extended families. We can’t kill them all, so they’ll be back again to
make us dead.
Thus:
Rodents = Not Surviving.
Dogs
& other predatory animals
Dogslipper.jpg
Come on.
They want to EAT US! They are carnivores, and we happen to be made almost
entirely of tasty meat. So I’m told.
Predators =
not surviving
Flying
& heights
This is an easy
one. Falling = Landing on hard things that will wound us or, that’s right, make
us dead.
Flying and
heights = not surving
Other
People
I’m going to
assume that this hinges on the fact that we can never really know what another
person is thinking. They could be crazier than we are, and want to hurt or kill
us for reasons we can’t understand. Or maybe we have something they want, like
airplane tickets or pet spiders and snakes, so they will kill us and take our
things. “We fear what we do not understand,” I’ve been told. And we certainly
don’t seem to understand each other a lot of the time.
Thus: People
= unknown = not surviving
Other
stuff:
The Dentist.
Public Speaking. Clowns. Children.
Yes, people
fear these things. It may sound silly, but these fit my formula, too. I think I
can do this. Here goes…
Dentist = pain = health problems = unable to eat =
not surviving
Public
Speaking = scorn and
ridicule = shunned by society = unable to provide for self = not surviving
Clowns = people (see above), but also = madness =
anonymity = can get away with making us dead = not surviving
Children = … I, um… Brrr… Sorry, just got the shakes a
little bit. Ok, Whew. I got this. Here goes.
Children = … Look, just keep your creepy little
wide-eyed, high voiced, question asking, parasitic, alien spawn, failed cloning
attempt away from me okay? OKAY? Have you ever looked at a little kid before?
Really looked into their eyes? Then you know what I…
That’s it. I gotta
go. It’s almost three o’clock. I have to get out of here before they…
THE AUTHOR:
AUTHOR BIO:
Greg Carrico is a former Dental and Practice Management Consultant, software trainer, and salesdude. Enduring years of torture in the dental and technology industries uniquely qualified him for his new career of writing horror and dark science fiction stories.
When not creating new worlds and plotting their destruction, Greg reviews indie books at his blog, Live the Story (www.gramico.com/blog). He lives his story in Central New York, with his wife and three small canine overlords, who he faithfully serves by trying to educate people about the horrors of puppy mills, and the joys of adopting the dogs rescued from them. You can read about Charlee, the Bichon Frise he and his wife rescued at www.gramico.com/dotherightthing.html.
AUTHOR LINKS:
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE
WEBSITE
BLOG
THE AUTHOR:
Greg Carrico is a former Dental and Practice Management Consultant, software trainer, and salesdude. Enduring years of torture in the dental and technology industries uniquely qualified him for his new career of writing horror and dark science fiction stories.
When not creating new worlds and plotting their destruction, Greg reviews indie books at his blog, Live the Story (www.gramico.com/blog). He lives his story in Central New York, with his wife and three small canine overlords, who he faithfully serves by trying to educate people about the horrors of puppy mills, and the joys of adopting the dogs rescued from them. You can read about Charlee, the Bichon Frise he and his wife rescued at www.gramico.com/dotherightthing.html.
AUTHOR LINKS:
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE
WEBSITE
BLOG
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