Thursday Thirteen -- 295 -- 13 Questions for Norah Wilson, Co-author of Enter the Night

It's my great pleasure to welcome fellow Maritimer Norah Wilson to A Piece of My Mind.

Norah's visit wraps up this year's Spooky Stories Author Series. Be sure to check back next October when I ask a whole new crew of writers about what sends chills down their spines...

1 – Norah, your Casters series is a writing team effort with Heather Doherty. How did your partnership start?

Heather told me a number of times about this idea she had for a young adult novel. I’m a little slow on the uptake, but finally, I said, “Hey, we should write it together!” That project was The Summoning, the first book in our Gatekeepers series, for which we’ve plotted seven books. We never did get to write them, since at the time we were submitting to New York publishing houses, and you always have to be moving on to the next idea until something sells.

But when we wrote the first book in the Casters world, we knew we had to stick with it until we got all four books out. We haven’t looked back since. In addition to other YA paranormal, we’ve gone on to jointly write a launch book for Kindle Worlds (in the Pretty Little Liars universe), and some seriously funny cozy mystery.

2 – Tell us about your latest release, Enter the Night.

In Comes the Night, our girls (Alex, Brooke and Maryanne) learned to escape their troubles—and their actual bodies—by casting a dark piece of themselves out into the night.

We explore that further in Enter the Night, which is essentially Maryanne’s book. (Comes the Night was Alex’s book, and Embrace the Night will be Brooke’s. The final book, Forever the Night, will provide resolution for all of them.) Maryanne, who is by far the most wholesome of the three, nevertheless has a very dark secret, one that is tearing her apart. So when she takes up with Bryce Walker, son of the famed (or infamous) “Heller” hunter Ira Walker, we’re left to sort out how deeply rooted that attraction is in self-destruction. And if it’s self-destruction she wants, she just might get it.

3 – When writing spooky material, do you ever scare yourself?

When Heather (who is crazy intuitive) first got a ‘flash vision’ of the Casters, she started flipping emails to me as the ideas rushed in. Days later, as we were fleshing out the story in a quiet cottage at a nearby lake, we did succeed in scaring ourselves. A lot!

LOL! Awesome.

It was isolated and dark out there on the lake’s edge, and by the time we went to bed, I was afraid to look out the window in case I saw a Caster!

But normally, I don’t usually scare myself while I’m writing this stuff. Unless I’m home alone at night and there’s a branch knocking against the window and my dog starts growling low in her throat… In which case, I’d probably be scared no matter what I was writing!

4 – Did you watch spooky TV shows or films when you were young?

Oh, definitely!

What were your favorites from those?

Remember The Twilight Zone? Night Gallery? And of course, old Vincent Price movies. Gosh, I’m a bigger horror fan than I knew!

5 – As a reader or as a viewer, do you prefer spooky/scary, or do you delve further into horror?

I think I like spooky/scary better than flat-out horror. You won’t catch me at the movie theatre, or even in front of the TV, for Friday the 13th or Saw or the classic horror gore-fests. I don’t mind some violence, but I don’t want to be completely traumatized.

I'm more for spooky myself, although I totally get into the sword swinging of Vikings and Spartacus. That can get pretty gory.

6 – If you had to name your top three supernatural creatures, what would they be?

I do love my vampires.

I’m kind of picky about my shifters, but I do love dragons!

And demons. I do love a demon done well. Or a Djinn!

7 – Have you explored these character types in your fiction so far?

I’ve written vampires for the adult paranormal romance market, and Heather and I have written demons in the Gatekeepers story (The Summoning).Given time, we’ll probably get around to some more. Or we’ll just create a new one, like our Casters or our Fleshers (yes, they are just as scary/creepy as they sound!).

8 – Are there some earthbound, everyday aspects of life that you find scary?

Honestly, the scariest thing I know of is human greed and corporate pillaging. The wars that have been started over it, the people who’ve died for it, our ecosystem poisoned over it, species killed, our own health eroded. Way scarier than a zombie apocalypse.

9 – Where is the spookiest place you’ve ever been?

A taxicab in Boston.

What made it so scary?

No seatbelts, and a maniac for a driver.

LOL. But seriously? I think any place is spooky in the dark. My imagination just goes crazy. I once watched the movie Alien late at night by myself. That short trip from the living room down the hall to my bedroom was the perhaps the scariest one of my life.

10 -- Why do you think people like to be scared?

I think it’s largely the younger crowd who enjoys being scared. The older we get, the more saturated we become with all the “real life” scary stuff we’re bombarded with in the news. But I think lots of younger adults seek out those scary thrills because they don’t have occasion to experience them in their normal lives. It’s a safe way to live through a really intense, cathartic experience.

11 – You began your publishing adventures as a romantic suspense author. How hard is it to switch gears between genres?

I still write romantic suspense, and yes, it’s a big shift in mindset when I switch over from one to the other. I don’t find it particularly difficult, once I get going. You just fall into the right “voice”. But it can be a little tricky when I come to a romantic interlude. We write toward the upper end of the YA market, so the stories might not be squeaky “clean” (I hate that word, because it suggests anything sexual is dirty), but neither are they remotely like an adult romance. I just have to be extra careful to make sure the voice and the emotions stay true to our teenagers.

12 – Do you use your suspense skills when you switch over to paranormal stories, or is that sense of suspense just a part of your writing voice?

I think suspense is just part of my writing voice. I’ve often said that my adult paranormals are just romantic suspense with vampires. I write them exactly the same way!

But truthfully, I have to give Heather all the credit for injecting the suspense into our YA stories. She has such an innate sense of story structure that I rarely feel the need to interfere with her plotting magic. At first, when there’d be a dramatic development or complication or something happened to drastically increase the stakes, I’d be a little, “Okay, are we over-promising here? How are we going to get our characters out of this corner we’re painting them into?” But she’d be all, “No, really, it’ll work.” And it always does, because she is the plotting queen.

13 – This has been so much fun, Norah -- thanks for dropping by. Could you tell us a bit about this excerpt from Enter the Night?

Happy to oblige! This one takes place when the girls come back to Harvell House after the Christmas break.

On their first cast out, they revisit some old haunts and find themselves out at the Walker farm. Bryce Walker is working in a lighted shed beside the barn, and Maryanne wants a closer look. The other girls try to talk her out of it, without success.

“It’s too dangerous!” Alex protested, but Maryanne ignored her. A quick look wouldn’t hurt anything.

Reaching the window, she hovered in front of it, peering in. Bryce Walker stood with his back to her, his tall frame stooping over an old fashioned workbench. With two portable hanging lights shining down on his work area, the room was well lit. As long as it was brighter on the inside than the outside, he wouldn’t be able to see her. Well, see them. Alex and Brooke had joined her now and stared in, too.

She looked around the room. It was like stepping back in time. A small, pot-bellied stove squatted in the corner, a full wood box beside it. The unfinished walls were lined with old license plates, discolored calendar pages, and rusted saws, some of them the largest Maryanne had ever seen, obviously used in the forest industry before chainsaws took over. High on the wall just above Bryce’s head, on a slightly off-kilter, plain board shelf, sat some small sculptures. They were not especially well done, but the subjects were recognizable. A brown owl, a green-shelled turtle, a leaning, peg-legged pirate with a parrot on his shoulder. Then there was the last thing resting on that crooked shelf. Or rather hanging from it.

A dark caster, about seven inches tall with a long neck and outstretched arms and legs. Around its neck was a length of rope from which it dangled. As if alive, the caster—the Heller, as Ira Walker would have called it—seemed to sway and twist on the rope ever so slightly now and again, whenever Bryce nudged against the workbench, sending vibrations up the wall.

“Oh, God! You’ve got the hots for Bryce Walker!” Brooke accused.

“What’s this?” The frown was clear in Alex’s voice. “No way!”

“Haven’t we all had enough trouble from the Walkers?” Brooke’s voice rose again. “All those damn Walkers!”

Maryanne didn’t miss that—we all. They all. Legends and hunters. They all had legacies.

Nor did she answer. She kept staring in through the window, her eyes riveted on Bryce.

“What’s he doing?” Alex asked, her curiosity apparently trumping her anxiety, at least for the moment.

“I don’t know.” Maryanne said. “Something…something for shop class maybe?”

“Right, Maryanne,” Brooke said. “Bryce Walker is in there finishing up that smokin’ bird house he’s been working on over the Christmas holiday! Give me a break! He’s just—”

“Standing too still.” Maryanne’s words were a whisper, even to the casters’ ears. They all watched, silently now, as Bryce stood there, stone still and tense. He didn’t even seem to be breathing. Then he did move, and suddenly. His right hand shot sideways to an electrical outlet just above the table, below the shelf. With one quick snap of the electrical cord, the shed was in darkness, and then the casters were not.

As Maryanne processed what was happening, Bryce flew to the door and snapped on the yard light. The three of them were suddenly bathed in brilliant white light.

“Go, go, go!” Alex shouted.

            They tore away from the window, just as the door flew open.


© Norah Wilson and Heather Doherty, 2013

I'm blogging at The Popculturedivas today

Join me at The Popculturedivas for 13 Questions for Kate Robbins, Author of Bound to the Highlander.

Thursday Thirteen -- 293 -- 13 Questions for Sherri Browning Erwin, Author of Jane Slayre and Grave Expectations

It's a great pleasure to have multi-genre author Sherri Browning Erwin here at A Piece of My Mind for the second in this year's Spooky Stories Author series, running all month on Thursdays.

Every place is Down Home once you get to Canada's east coast -- so come right in, Sherri. It's really cooling off out there, all of a sudden.

Just kick aside those little mounds of leaves collecting on the front steps. Today's a perfect day to chat about your two horror mash-ups, Jane Slayre and Grave Expectations.

1 – How did you first get involved with the classic horror mash-up series?

The idea for Jane Slayre came about when I was joking around with friends.

I shared a blog, the Whine Sisters, with Kathleen Givens and Julia London (and many other authors, but it was just Kathleen and Julia with me at that point), and I wrote a blog that was a book blurb spoofing the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies book based on Jane Eyre, called Jane Slayre.

Kathleen called me and said, “Get that off the blog! Someone will steal your idea. You need to write that book!” At first, I thought, no way, it was only a joke. But then I realized that I could really do it and it might actually sell.

I took her advice and it all worked out. I meant it to be a one time thing, but my publisher asked me to do a second, Grave Expectations, based on the popularity of Jane Slayre.

2 – Has your collaboration with Charlotte Bronte and Charles Dickens influenced your own writing style?

I’m a more careful writer now. I take more time to self-edit.

I’m not sure I learned to become a better writer from working on the mash-ups, but I did learn to be a better editor, which makes a better writer in the end.

What do you think they would have learned from you?

From me, they might have learned to edit more as well, to write tighter. Modern readers prefer a faster-paced story and don’t often take time to stop and admire a well-constructed sentence.

3 – Some writers might have become blocked when asked to merge their own writing with that of two authors who have scholars and university courses devoted to their works. Did that rear its head at all for you?

The process was often daunting. I would worry about changing key elements and adding in my own. How dare I suggest changes to such esteemed works?

Did you embrace this chance to take these two stories down whole new pathways?

I would remind myself that it was all in fun, and that the originals would stand beloved for many hundreds of years to come. Now it’s very exciting when high school teachers and college professors contact me on occasion to tell me that they are teaching my versions with the originals in courses dealing with adaptation or parody.

4 – Clothing designer Lizzie Norris chose your Jane Slayer world as a springboard for her graduation project. How did that come about?

I found out about Lizzie by accident, when I was looking up Jane Slayre on Twitter to see if anyone was still buzzing about the book. Lizzie apparently read Jane Slayre and felt inspired to take on the project of creating costumes for the characters.

How did it feel to see her interpretation of your characters?

When I found her blog and saw her work, I was blown away. She did such an incredible job of bringing the characters to life. It was quite a thrill and an honor to see her costumes and realize that I’d provided inspiration to a clearly very talented designer.

5 – You have short stories in the Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance and in the Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance. How did your involvement in these anthologies come about?

The editor of the anthologies, Trish Telep, read my paranormal romance To Hell with Love and felt I would be a good addition to her Vampire Romance anthology. She wrote and asked if I could do a vampire story for her. And then she asked me for a story for one of her follow up anthologies, paranormal romance. I was pleased to be included, and it was a great chance to stretch my imagination and write something different for me at the time (vampires).

Do you naturally gravitate towards shorter fiction? (My husband is a big fan of horror and fantasy anthologies.)

Writing short fiction is quite a challenge for me, actually. The pacing is completely different and it takes some adjustment from my normal instincts to write full length novels.

 

6 – You’ve written in the historical romance / historical paranormal / contemporary paranormal genres. Is it difficult to switch hats?

I have so many ideas in all different areas of fiction. It’s difficult for me to pick one genre and stick with it.

I read all kinds of things, and then I’m inspired to write something new and different from what I’ve done previously. Picking one genre and sticking with it is much more challenging for me.

7 – When writing spooky material, do you ever give yourself shivers?

I have made myself laugh, cry, cheer, jeer, and have scared the jeepers out of myself. I always think it’s a good sign. If I have a reaction when I write, it seems more likely that my readers might feel it when they read. At least, I hope so.

8 – As a reader or a TV and film viewer, do you prefer spooky/scary, or do you delve further into horror? How far do you go as a writer?

I love psychological thrillers best of all. The idea that the scariest things might be in our own heads, or someone playing with our minds, that scares me more than a physical threat, for some reason.  I’m not sure I’m quite skilled enough to write a really good psychological thriller, though.

9 – If you could visit three hair-raising destinations, where would you go? Or perhaps you’ve already sampled a few…?

I would love to tour some old haunted castles.

I’ve done ghost tours in Salem and New Orleans.

I’ve visited dorms that were supposedly haunted on Mount Holyoke’s campus back when I was in school. Currently my daughter lives in a dorm that is supposedly haunted by a man-hating ghost, and I’ve warned her boyfriend and my son, who attends the same school, but no sign of ghosts yet.

10 – If you had to name your top three supernatural creatures, what would they be?

Ghosts, witches, vampires.

As far as ghosts, what would keep a soul here? What’s the backstory? So many possibilities.

Witches are also intriguing. The idea of casting a spell appeals, but the potential of any harm coming back to me turns me off of trying any spells.

With vampires, immortality might be a gift, but is it worth preying on others? All three inspire my imagination.

11 – Have you explored these character types in your fiction so far?

 I’ve explored vampires, but I’m not done with them yet. So much more to explore.

 I’ve never written ghosts or witches, but both fascinate me.

12 – What are you working on now?

For now, I’m taking a break from thrillers and horror stories to return to my first love, historical romance. If you love Downton Abbey, you might like my Edwardian romance, Thornbrook Park, coming out in June 2014. But I’m also itching to expand the series I started in Fade to Black, my short story for the Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance.

13 – Thanks for dropping by today, Sherri!

CLICK HERE to read an excerpt from Jane Slayre

"Reader, I buried him." -- Sherri Browning Erwin

"If [Seth] Grahame-Smith can be said to have kicked the whole [mash-up] thing off [with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,] the benchmark has been set with Jane Slayre...Not only is [Erwin] an accomplished writer, but she demonstrates a good appreciation of Bronte's novel, a mastery of its language and its aesthetic...I would recommend Sherri Browning Erwin's Jane Slayre as a great way to enjoy the best the genre currently has on offer." -- Gerard Wood, Science Fiction World

"I am a sucker for dark and gloomy novels, so one would think I adore Dickens, but oddly enough I do not. I do not actively dislike Dickens, I just find him difficult to read. So thank goodness for Sherri Browning Erwin. Her gothic revision of Great Expectations made me love this story. Once again, she proves that literary mash-up genre can be something magical when done correctly; sadly, few authors are as adept at the genre as she." -- Tiffany's Bookshelf

5 on Friday -- Set 191

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

Only nine more 5 on Friday's to go before I hit the magical 200th set here at A Piece of My Mind. Much rejoicing will take place throughout the land.

A few heads' up notices first --

Coming up in one month's time, Blog4Peace is an international peace event held online on Nov. 4th. Join me and hundreds of other peace-spreading bloggers by typing the words 'Dona Nobis Pacem' on:

Your blog

Your Facebook page

Your Twitter account

Your Pinterest page

Anywhere you like to hang out online, please join our day of peace by saying 'Grant us peace' with one voice. Sign up at Mimi Lenox's linky on the big day so you can find the other peace bloggers and they can find you. Travel the world from your computer screen and feel the love.

Coming up a few days after Blog4Peace -- I'll be appearing at Hal-Con from Fri Nov 8th to Sun Nov 10th at the World Trade and Convention Centre in Halifax. I'll be hosting a panel with angels-and-demons author Shawna Romkey on Heroes and Villains. More details on time and location as soon as I have them.

Warp Speed Passes are already sold out. Weekend Passes, Day Passes and Family Passes are still available.

In celebration of all things spooky during October, I'll be featuring interviews with paranormal authors for my Thursday Thirteen series. The first one launched yesterday with Spooky Screenwriter Stephen MacLean. This is my second year for the Spooky Author series which is turning into an annual event. Coming up next week: Jane Slayer and Grave Expectations author Sherri Browning Erwin.

And now, onwards to this week's musical set. The beginning of this spooktacular month brings preparations for haunting trick or treaters and Halloween party-goers. These videos feature costumes as their central focus. Will you be dressing up this year? 

1 - No Rain - Blind Melon  

2 - Paradise - Coldplay

3 - The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?) - Ylvis

4 - Truth Faith - New Order

5 - Mr. Roboto - Styx

CLICK HERE to watch the video

Thursday Thirteen -- 292 -- 13 Questions for Stephen MacLean, Screenwriter for Wisp

It's October, and as the leaves start to crisp and curl and blow in chilly gusts along the streets, it's time to revel in all that sets our hair on end.

Please join me for the first in my second annual Spooky Stories Author Series, running all month on Thursdays here at A Piece of My Mind.

Or in this case, Spooky Stories Screenwriter Series. Please welcome my cousin-in-law, Stephen MacLean, shown above with his wife Julianne and daughter (and their dog, curled up) during one of our classic musical Christmas Eves.

1 – How long have you been a fan of spooky movies? What sorts of scary films are your favorites?

I love scary movies, been a fan since I was a kid. Some of my favourites are the Night of the Living Dead, Amityville Horror, The Shining (I often use the quote “all work and no play make jack a dull boy”).  Sam Raimi was brilliant, loved Bruce Campbell and the Evil Dead, loved Darkman. Poltergeist was one of my first vivid memories of movies that really freaked me out.  I went with three other friends, and at the end when they dropped my brother and I are off at our house. Ken (my bro) talked to the guys, while I snuck into the house and got a creepy ape mask. I crept up next to the passenger window and screamed a banshee cry. They were TERRIFIED, then REALLY upset and threatened me with serious bodily harm. I ran away :-)

The Exorcist is one that still gives me the creeps to this day, one that has stood the test of time. Watched it again a couple of years ago with my daughter… she thought it was really scary too.

For our film Wisp, which is a so-called “found footage” thriller, the original Blair Witch (Blair Witch 2 was bad) and the Paranormal Activity films are definite influences. Met Jason Blum, producer of Paranormal franchise at a talk he did a couple of years ago in LA. He was very inspiring.

2 – What was the original spark for Wisp? Did it come to you as a story idea to Writer Steve, or as a great project concept to Producer Steve? 

The story came to writer Steve at first of course, it always starts with story and characters, much like in books.

My business partner Ben Stevens and I were in Los Angeles in June of last year, and were inspired by being in Hollywood, the world Mecca of filmmaking. We were meeting with potential co-producers and a story editor for one of our Telefilm supported projects (called ENDGAME, a vigilante/revenge thriller).

Raising money for larger budget films can be a slow process at times, so we decided we wanted to get back on set. We had a short window of opportunity in the summer. Ben came up with the Wisp idea (based on folklore related to the Will-o’-the-Wisp legend, where lights in the forest guide unsuspecting travelers deeper into the woods where they meet their doom).

We wanted to play with the legend, and focus it around a group of inexperienced students (fish out of water) who set out into the woods to figure out if the Wisps were real and what causes them. That was our setup.

We had a marathon session over a few drinks and hammered out a very rough outline, with a teaser, inciting incident, important beats, act enders, midpoint, and knew what our climactic scene was going to be. Ben took the reins and took the first kick at the screenplay, and had a rough draft within a short period of time. We bounced it back and forth over a few weeks and to our surprise, had a decent workable shooting script. It was hectic and stressful, and we still had to do writing in prep and even tweaks during production.

Pre-production, casting, location scouting, insurance, negotiating with unions had to be all done very quickly. Ben’s family graciously allowed us to shoot around their family home in Canning, Nova Scotia. They are surrounded by some 100 acres of woodland, so we had no shortage of forest to shoot in!!

We were yelling “QUIET ON SET” and “ACTION” within two months of having the nugget of the idea in Hollywood.

3 – Once you began writing the script, were you thinking in terms of story only, or were you keeping the upcoming film shoot and distribution possibilities in mind? 

We had a few parameters we had to follow. We knew our location. We knew we’d only have our leads for 10-12 days maximum.

I personally love the found footage genre. It also allows for more forgiveness in quality of sound and footage, and doesn’t allow having dozens of camera angles. Jump cuts for instance, normally not used in most of our projects, work and are expected for the genre. So in some ways, it is easier to shoot logistically (but in no way easy!!).

Otherwise, we definitely concentrated on the story, character development, and reworking dialogue. We also had to do a fair amount of research on the legend, which helped give the story a more believable feel (I think).

4 – While you and co-writer/director Benjamin Stevens were in California, where were you on Wisp at that point?

Before our trip to LA, Wisp wasn’t on our radar at all… funny how things just fall into place.

How hard is it to juggle your focus during the different aspects of pre-production/production/post-production? 

Producer Steve was (briefly) complaining we didn’t have enough time to get everything done. But when you’re on a time crunch, you have to put your head down and just do it (to quote Nike).

We only had time and money for a ten day shoot, NOT a long time for a feature. We had to plan very carefully, with little room for error. Post production took a number of months. The CGI scenes were very time consuming… (thanks Ben!).

5 – What was the most difficult shooting day on Wisp? What was the easiest or the most fun?

Easy for worst day: Day 2 (of 10 days on set). We were rained out and didn’t get part of our day. There was that sinking feeling in my gut when we tried to wait it out, only to realize it the torrential downpour that wasn’t going to slow down.

We were drenched, cold and demoralized (temporarily).  I was very worried, as we didn’t have a lot of extra shoot time. We decided there were a few pivotal and crucial scenes that had to be redone. We had to call one of the actors back for an extra day and thankfully managed to squeeze it in (the dead cow scene).

-Best time also an easy call: when we yelled out “we are wrapped!” That was a huge relief.

-Most fun: easily the “birthing scene”. We were on the muddy shores and in the middle of a shallow though swampy lake. Our lead actors were head to toe in muck. There was blood, there was ear piercing screaming, there were flies trying to sneak into any orifice they could find. It was a blast.

LOL!

We only had one take, so it was also terrifying. If we didn’t get it, we were in trouble. It would take hours to reset and it was pitch black late at night and would have had to go overtime. The one take with three iPhones and our main camera, and we got it (phew).

Our actors were forewarned of our plans, thankfully they LOVED it and bonded through the entire experience.

6 – How did it feel to premiere the film during the Atlantic Film Festival? Take us through that day for you as a filmmaker.

Also terrifying. I bought industrial strength antiperspirant… didn’t work :-)

Ben is normally one of the calmest and coolest guys I know. He was as nervous as me (though he didn’t show it).

We had tried to pre-screen the film on the big screen prior to showing it to an audience, which didn’t happen, so we were worried about possible technical glitches. Ben was able to do a sound check about 20 minutes before we screened, so that allayed our fears a wee bit only.

Thankfully, it all went very smoothly. It was a relief, like a massive weight had been lifted when the end credits rolled. I was spent.

7 – Well, you both looked and sounded like everything was under control, and that's all that counts. If you had to name your top three supernatural creatures, what would they be?

1-I love zombies, they’re my number one. Love the Walking Dead series. Though I only like the slow “walker” zombies, not crazy about the World War Z zombies who seem to be using steroids and/or crack.

2-vampires (I have to admit thanks to the influence of my daughter, that I’m a Twilight fan. Read two of the books, watched all the films). I’ve written a spec script on a vampire series that hasn’t gone anywhere. Interview with a Vampire (adapted from Anne Rice’s novel) was the first time I saw Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst. I hear they’ve both done very well since then.

3-The monster under my bed as a kid…

8 – Have you explored these character types in your scripts so far?

Yes. I spent 12 years of my life in University on route to my MD degree. It was an important part of my world, so I’ve written other spec scripts about university and medical students. I also like stories where likable normal people end up being thrust into abnormal situations, and exploring how they react when their regular, everyday lives spiral beyond their control. There’s always huge potential for conflict, and lots of potential for story arcs. The knucklehead jock who becomes noble and even sacrifices himself for his friends at the end, the timid bookworm who ends up growing as a character to become a leader that people listen to and respect. Lord of the Flies and Orwell’s Animal Farm had a huge influence on how I look at these types of stories.  ALIVE, a film about a rugby team that ends up in a plane crash and stranded for several weeks in the Andes in 1972. The fact that it was based on a true story made it even more disturbing. It was thought provoking with intense moral dilemmas that they were forced to face head on (i.e. cannibalism). What would I have done in their situation when faced with certain death otherwise? I don’t know, and I hope I never have to find out.

9 – Are there some earthbound, everyday aspects of life that you find scary?

In the odd time when my family is away, when I’m alone on my house in the dark, when things start creaking and cracking when the weather is very cold outside. I know it’s nothing, but still…

10 – Where is the spookiest place you’ve ever been? What made it so scary?

The monster I thought was under my bed when I was a young boy… what made it scary was I didn’t have the maturity to know that there wasn’t one there.

More recently, I was lost for a couple of hours in the woods while mountain biking (alone) a couple of years ago. My phone was dying, the sun was setting.

I wasn’t afraid of ghosts etc, more afraid of not being found and not surviving… I called my wife and said: “I don’t want to worry you, but I think I’m lost.” I said if I didn’t call her back within an hour, to send the police out to where I went into the woods. I finally made my way out. In real life, happy endings are good :-)

11 – If you could be a fly-on-the-wall visitor in a setting from a spooky book, TV show or film, where would you go?

Watch Sigourney Weaver kick butt in the original Alien… just as long as I didn’t have to face the creature myself.

12 -- Why do you think people like to be scared?

My theory is it’s a contrast thing, a balance of the Yin and Yang if you will. If we eat our most favourite food in the world for every meal without any variety, we’d get tired of it.

Our lives, thankfully, aren’t like the movies for the most part, and that’s a good thing. Movies and books look at character development and explore character flaws that aren’t always appealing in real life. Would anyone really want to hang out with Dexter, or Walter White, the lead character from Breaking Bad??  Probably not, but millions of people still tuned in weekly to find out what happened to these very complex and fascinating characters.

Certain character responses are purposely exaggerated in film to make them more engaging. In real life, I might say: “Julia, let’s go out for a coffee and have a chat” and you would say: “Sure Steve, that sounds great.” In movies, you have to up the stakes and add conflict. Your answer becomes (screaming as you break a beer bottle and hold the sharp shards up to my now bleeding neck): “Why the hell would I do that, you’ll just make me pay for the lousy coffee, just like last time!!!”

Example number 1 is what we expect in a civil society and it’s safe and comfortable, but alas, is kinda boring on camera. 

Example number 2, well… not so much!

LOL!

Contrast… it makes us appreciate the positives in our own lives, because we’ve watched others scratch and claw and suffer their way to a happy ending (or not) in a film or book. It makes us appreciate that maybe our lives aren’t so bad. It gives us a feeling of comfort knowing that well, yes I do have to drag my butt out of bed and to go to work today, but at least I didn’t get my brains eaten out by some lame zombie like characters in the Walking Dead. What a great day!

13 – Could you provide a link to a trailer for Wisp or an upcoming project?

Sure, here it is on the AFF website:

Wisp trailer

Here’s our website with some of our other projects:

Dream Front Entertainment

Thanks for dropping by!

Thanks Julia!