Hope Lives in Dark Times by Robyn Walters

While sitting at my desk, I point the remote at the television, and change channels to the evening news. The anchor’s urgent voice and pleading face flashes on the screen reporting the tragedy unfolding in Sutherland Springs, Texas. My article’s subject changed in an instant.

I close my eyes, lean back in my chair and feel the weight of grief on my chest. Another day of killing in America. Twenty-six dead. Families and communities forever changed. Law enforcement working diligently, again, to make sense of the carnage.

Please Great Spirit, God, Universal presence, please stop the hate and end the violence. Not one more, not another day. My prayer is unlimited and all inclusive. It is about the intention each one of us sets in our heart and soul to heal what ails us, our communities, our country, our world. I rest my forehead on the palms of my hands and take a deep breath.

How unrealistic am I?

Our people and communities don’t have time to grieve the last deaths reported, before another one occurs. Eight in New York, fifty-eight in Las Vegas, and dozens more across the country just in the last few weeks. I am disturbed at the thought that this type of activity seems to be becoming normal. Let that never be accepted. 

I reflect on the title of my first novel, Seeds of Hate, and I imagine there are a lot of us scratching our heads, holding our hands to our hearts and wondering how we ever got this far. Are we all drawing a collective breath waiting for the next grand act of violence?

My thoughts shift to the definition of words, their power and how to begin processing, again, what type of person can commit such acts. 

Hater.

This one word alone roils to the surface others that fuel the fiery topics people hate: race, ethnicity, poverty, wealth, politics, government, religion, health care, financial institutions, celebrity, other people – that’s the short list. 

A good speller growing up, I often read the dictionary to learn new words, loved word games and puzzles, reading and writing. Since the English language first appeared some 1,500 years ago, my curiosity about the history of the word “hater” peaked. First shown to exist around 1350, I bet the founders of our language would be surprised as to how that word applies to our society today.

The inspiration for my main character in Seeds of Hate, Wilhelm Kastner, departed this earth nearly a decade ago. I’m grateful he does not have to navigate these times. He would struggle to understand. When he was born, hate came with mother’s milk. His chance for survival slim, he faced the odds as a hardened soldier. Then, as a young immigrant, Wilhelm experienced America at its best. His journey from hater to redemption, love and justice must be told, so others can learn from his experience.

I’m not watching much television these days. I press my hands over my ears, yet my eyes are wide open to the noise and images manifested by a disgruntled society, natural and manmade disasters, and a world that seems hell bent on perpetuating hate, rather than spreading peace.

Once known and highly regarded as a land of opportunity, America appears as a shadow of its former self. If media and social media provided the only lenses I use to view the world, it would appear that hate oozes from every darkened corner like a toxic sludge seeping across the landscape, permeating our homes. In some cases, hate poisons the minds of people to the point they commit shocking acts of violence against innocents. The increasing frequency of these events is alarming. 

If Wilhelm lived today, he would be disheartened. Wilhelm grew to believe in the good of all people. He would hope that his story would inspire those who read it to do better and be better - to come from a place of less judgement and a more compassionate heart. 

Seeing the irony in the title and purpose of my book makes me smile. The conscious choice of peace and love over hate and fear can be a tough one, given what we are bombarded with.

My thoughts drift to nature versus nurture. In the course of Wilhelm’s life, his true nature had to dig out from the depths of an almost unfathomable nurture to find the way. I imagine that an underlying faith, buried under the dark teachings of his youth, somehow kept his soul warmed during the days hope did not exist.

These are very challenging times. As a society, we have come so far, yet our forward momentum is tested each day. Finding the good and staying positive is more important than ever. Seek out the relationships that lift you up and feed your soul. Let happiness live in the core of who you are.

With this in mind, I start a new day setting my intention to the highest and greatest good. Let all my thoughts, actions and reactions come from this space. Hope exists that good will come from what we are experiencing now. To disbelieve is not an option. To see is the reward.

Peace.

PRAISE FOR SEEDS OF HATE

“…a well written and compelling story of courage, survival, reliance, and of not betraying your principles or who you are.” ~C. Grau, READNOW Early Reader Reviewer

“If you’re a sucker for legal fiction, like me, then I recommend this book, hands down!” ~Liz’s Review, READNOW Early Reader Reviewer

ABOUT SEEDS OF HATE

Growing up in Nazi Germany, Wilhelm Kastner knew two things by the age of six: conform or die. To survive, he becomes one of Hitler’s prized acolytes.

When the war finally ends, Wilhelm sheds the training of his youth to pursue the American dream and build a future. Happily married with two children, life is good in Sunnybrook—until an incident at a school forces him to confront the demons of his past.

Now Wilhelm must fight to survive all over again—or lose his life trying.

AVAILABLE FORMATS

Available in hardcover, trade softcover, and ebook at fine retailers everywhere, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a- Million, iTunes, Kobo, plus many more. Coming soon to audio!

Visit the publisher’s website for more information and purchasing options.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born to war-survivor parents, Robyn Walters was raised on the southern-most beaches of California. Robyn’s inspiration is drawn from ordinary people who provide extraordinary stories of triumph over tragedy. Newly retired from a life-long career in public service, Robyn writes to her heart’s content in western Colorado.

Top 5 Reasons I’m Looking Forward to the Zombie Apocalypse by J. Whitworth Hazzard

It’s a little weird to admit that I’m a fan of disaster. When you write a zombie apocalypse novel, like DEAD SEA GAMES (published by BHC Press), you have to be. But all that chaos and mayhem and death. How could you be so callous and cruel? Would it help if I told you that it’s not all bad? I’m a glass-half- full kind of guy. There’s a bit of upside and comedy to almost any situation if you look hard enough, and I’m betting I can get you to agree with me on at least a few good things to come out of the approaching apocalypse.

I think a proper, old-fashioned, burn civilization to the ground kind of reckoning might clear the air around here. To be clear, I’m specifically a fan of a zombie apocalypse. Oh, other apocalypses have their sexy bits sure, nuclear war mutants, asteroid craters, and alien battle cruisers, but zombies have heart. Zombies are us; humanity boiled down to its ugliest, ravenous essence. So when your neighbors turn and start knocking on your door looking for brains to devour, here are some things you can look forward to:

5. No more politics.

We get so angry over who voted for who and how they’re screwing up this country that watching the news or going on Twitter is likely to cause an aneurysm. I’ll tell you something even a reality-TV- star-made- President will recognize: once the zombies roam the streets there’s no politician in the world that’s going to come save your butt. Just imagine it, a world where there’s no left or right or Conservative or Liberal, or even those cheeky libertarians, just the living and the dead. Politics is going to get real personal in the aftermath, just you and whatever survivors you can round up will get to vote on all kinds of things a lot easier than tax code and deficits. Word of advice…don’t vote for the Cannibal party!

4. No more school or work.

This is probably the biggest upside for our protagonist, Jeremy, in DEAD SEA GAMES. Overactive teenage boys aren’t traditionally that fond of high school, so having school canceled…well, forever, is a pretty nice trade-off for fighting the undead. I know some of you out there get pretty pumped for second year Spanish and Pre-calculus, but there’s no translating zombie to English, my friends. And let’s face it, for us adults that permanent sick leave status is going to be a big load off our shoulders. And you won’t even have to fill out any FMLA paperwork. Suck it, HR.

3. No more commute.

If you’ve lived in the big city like I have, that daily commute can seem as bad as death. All right so work is canceled, but that still leaves the highways clogged and your attempt to get out of New York City in a car or subway is a suicide mission. Why bother? Just sit home and wait until all those juicy morsels sitting in their cars and trains are chomped into fresh zombie chow. Problem solved. Sure, there’s going to be thousands of derelict cars and trucks on the road hampering your style, but there’s nowhere safe to go anyway so you might as well skip the commute and ride your bike to the survival bunker.

2. No more Thanksgiving.

This one is especially sweet to all those fellow introverts out there. It’s not just the awkward Thanksgiving dinner with your racist uncle, it’s all the horrible work Christmas parties, mystery casserole church potlucks, and cringe-worthy wedding receptions for friends you stopped hanging out with a decade ago. All those social gatherings that are the underpinning of a polite society in which we pretend to like people that creep us out are all going away. Come to think of it, after the zombie apocalypse safely weeds out the unexpected dinner guests, you can safely shoot anyone (or anything) that darkens your doorstep while you’re sitting down to feast on a roast cat and stuffed pigeon.

1. No more f*#$ing bills.

I’m not going to lie. You’re really going to have to brush up on your bartering skills to get ahead, but if you can trade batteries for bullets with a straight face, then maybe the zombie apocalypse is for you. Sure, you’re going to have to brain a lot of disgusting deadheads who want to rip your face off with their teeth, but oh imagine the sweet, sweet freedom of no mortgage payments and no student loans and no insurance deductibles. The thought of burning those stuffed envelopes that never stop coming is almost worth encouraging a few meth heads to bite each other to get this thing started. Twenty-three percent interest? Usage fees? Convenience fees? College textbooks you never even open? What a bunch of bullshit. I’d trade blood-sucking corporate vampires for zombies any day.

Dark jokes and gallows humor may not be your style, but it’s a way for me to cope with the horrors just over the horizon. Just remember that even in the darkest times, we have the capacity to look for the silver lining. Humans are, at our core, creatures of hope. It is that spirit of resiliency you can see in the survivors I created in the world of DEAD SEA GAMES. The orphaned teenagers find a way to turn tragedy into adventure, and with a little bit of mystery, magic, and bravado their journey is nothing short of
heroic. Enjoy the apocalypse!

PRAISE FOR DEAD SEA GAMES

…a thrilling story, and a call to look beyond the simplistic, one that’s going to keep you reading and guessing the outcome.

~ Readers'  Favorite

ABOUT DEAD SEA GAMES

The only way to win...is to live

One year after the Emergency, the island of Manhattan has become a prison. The survivors of the Colony have carved out a living a few stories above the sea of millions of shambling corpses. With no escape and no hope for the future, the teenagers entertain themselves by participating in brutal gladiatorial games, betting the only thing they have left—their lives.

Jeremy Walters is among the best of the best, but his adrenalin-addicted recklessness has done more than earn him the nickname Deathwish; it’s gotten him noticed. Now the race is on to recruit Deathwish as opposing forces maneuver to take advantage of his zombie-killing gifts. If he somehow manages to navigate the maze of bribery, threats, extortion, and intimidation, and not get himself killed, he’ll still have to face every teenager’s greatest fear: an angry mother. 

AVAILABLE FORMATS:

Available in hardcover, trade softcover, and ebook at fine retailers everywhere, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a- Million, iTunes, Kobo, plus many more. Coming soon to audio!

Visit the publisher’s website for more information and purchasing options.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J. Whitworth Hazzard lives in the vast cornfields of Illinois with his wife, and four nearly perfect children. Trained in science and critical thinking, J. Whitworth spends his leisure time writing fiction that would make his former professors cringe. Dr. Hazzard’s PhD in molecular biophysics is used to figure out how to scientifically justify the existence of mythical creatures. His dream of writing started in the 5th grade when his five-page story “The Blood and Guts 500” entranced and thrilled his classmates. His passionate prosody received a standing ovation and from that day forward he was hooked on the art of storytelling.

Guest Bloggers Wanted!

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Classism in Vampire and Zombie Literature by Guest Blogger Damon Sutton

One thing to note about horror is that horror is almost always about one thing, anxiety. The Big Bad Wolf in grandma’s clothes? That’s the anxiety that the family members closest to you actually want to do you harm. The Headless Horseman who chases Ichabod Crane over every hill and valley? That’s the anxiety of time coming for you to take everything away from you and your utter powerlessness to stop it. This is why different cultures have such different flavors in their horror, because different cultures have different fundamental anxieties. Different cultures think about different things and as such they fear different things.

So, what anxieties are reflected in the classic horror mainstays of vampires and zombies?

For the purposes of this discussion, I’ll limit myself to the classic stories involving these scary elements. Once a classic story has taken root, other writers rewrite, reboot, deconstruct, and reconstruct creating countless cases of examples that prove the rule, so to keep things focused I’ll focus on the classic stories.

Which goes back to the mainstays discussed in this blog post, Vampires and Zombies. Vampires are not Zombies, but the two are actually very fascinating reflections of class anxiety.

The first thing to note about vampires is their aristocratic default. As much as later writers have tried to diffuse this, they have only been partially successful. The famous Dracula was an aristocrat and almost every other vampire story embraces this either literally, financially, or metaphorically. Vampires are defined by being in an elite, usually a financial elite, hidden among humans and feeding among them. Vampires are the fear the lower class of the upper class. Aristocratic, seductive, yet ultimately parasitic.They're in charge, people tell us it's because they're better than us... but that's so obviously untrue it's more likely to be dark forces and dark hungers... That "I'm losing my loved one to The vampires" that is endemic in vampire fiction is the anxiety of the lower classes that if they have children who are intelligent, and productive, that the upper class will 'seduce' them and they'll lose their children to it. It's working 3 jobs to send your daughter to Harvard... where she marries a rich boy and raises your grandkids in The Hamptons, having taken all your help but leaving you totally behind. One of my favorite elements is the horror of realization. The sexual nature of vampires underlies this, the rich always did desire the young and attractive members of the poor.

There is another layer here. Did the peasants under Dracula’s rule know he was a vampire? Of course they did, but they willfully pretended otherwise. This is a layer of this terror, that even putting words to it puts you in danger, an anxiety I think known all too well given current events among powerless actors and actresses and predatory Hollywood producers. 

Zombies are more subtle in their class consciousness, but equally as based in such anxiety. For starters, Zombies are almost never hidden, in fact they are defined in contrast by being everywhere and unable to avoid. Instead of intelligent and calculating, Zombies are crude and bestial. Zombies are the converse anxiety, the fear the upper class has of the lower. "They're everywhere, and they hunger!" is how the rich see the poor. Stupid, hungry, yet inexplicably everywhere 'why haven't they all died yet!?'. Even the bizarre 'how can our heroes end up so under threat by such basic beasts!?' suspension of disbelief is part of the genre. Zombies are without even the facade of legitimacy, little more than hungering animals, and yet contagious, reflecting how more often than many are comfortable with, upper class people get 'close' to the lower class and gain sympathy with them... oftentimes internalizing sympathy and more 'rough' cultural ideas, it's your daughter having a liking of rough men and falling into a poor and rough crowd, and now you can't invite her rough family over. Of course the rich talk endlessly about what to do with the poor, but despite gate guarded communities, armed guards, and private schools for some reason they can’t be avoided. I would argue this is an innate problem, for even the wealthiest financier of a Golf Club will need poor people to park the cars and he’ll be aware somewhere in the back of his head that his wealth would be scant protection if his valet simply decided to bean him with a golf club.

In both Vampires and Zombies is the anxiety that you will lose your identity to the other, and become a threat to those you love, so keep away, don't try to talk to them (they'll either beguile you or they'll just be too hungry to make any discussion fruitful) the only hope to save yourself is staying separate, stay out of biting distance. The anxieties monsterize the ‘other’, or simply convey that the difference in perspective just may make the other dangerous to talk to. Contagion is always a key marker in such anxieties. Vampires are contagious, as are Zombies. Werewolves are a similar anxiety, but instead of upper and lower class, Werewolves are the anxiety of the urban for the rural.

Keep these things in mind, in particularly as one watches modern and attempted explorations/deconstructions of the mythos. I’ve had fun with iZombie but have been struck as the more sophisticated it makes the Zombie genre, the more vampiric it becomes with factions, hiding in plain sight, and the seeking of power among the prey as a tool of self preservation. Conversely, the bestial and ubiquitous vampires of I am Legend are nothing more than fast moving zombies.

Modern interpretations are settling on what I would call the liberal supernatural horror hypothesis. Whether it’s The Walking Dead or True Blood, modern incarnations of this concept have an underlying theme that the real problem is people rather than the supernatural. You can now have good vampires (Twilight), good zombies (Warm Bodies), and the real threats are the human beings around which these things coalesce. Modern horror has a theme of “Undeads aren’t so bad once you get to know them, at least no better or worse than normal people and all you need to do is properly understand them.”. It’s there, it’s omnipresent, it makes for interesting TV… I also think it’s sadly and drastically incorrect.

Can't get enough zombies and vampires! Hungry for more? Start with this meaty reading list of zombie literature. If those selections don't wet your appetite, stay tuned for my vampire reading list. I'm sure there will be something you can sink your teeth into!

Tell us what you think. Do you agree with Damon's classism theory or do you have a theory of your own you'd like to share?

Win A Copy of Caytlyn Brooke's YA Dark Fantasy: Dark Flowers

Hello! Thanks for having me! I’m Caytlyn Brooke, author of the award-winning YA dark fantasy/horror novel Dark Flowers.

Dark Flowers (published by BHC Press) is about two friends desperate to escape St. Agatha’s orphanage. When the timing is right, they flee and stumble into a beautiful fairy realm while running through the Louisiana swamps. The realm is magical and the silver fairies are bewitching, but

underneath the beauty lies sinister secrets that are impossible to outrun.

The first question everyone asks me is how did I come up with this idea? What inspired me? In truth, it was my younger sister. When we were little, we were obsessed with fairies and fantasized about finding them in our backyard. We built houses and made gifts, leaving them around the base of trees and amidst flower patches. We watched countless movies and read dozens of books revolving around the tiny enchanting creatures and that wonder and curiosity never left me. Fantasy is my favorite genre to both read and write because you can do whatever you like, let your imagination run wild with very little boundaries.

One day when my sister was visiting me a few years ago, we were outside and I noticed yellow pollen covering my arms and fingertips. I looked down and rubbed the soft powder between my fingers and said,” Wouldn’t it be cool if the pollen just sunk into my skin, like a drug?” Inspiration flashed and both of our jaws dropped. Immediately we ran inside and I grabbed my notebook (because I’m super old school and write down every single story idea I have in a notebook along with the date.) I have at least five floating around my house and every so often I stumble upon them and thumb through, flinching at some ideas and marveling at others.

We sat down at the dining room table and started mapping out a plot. The title instantly leapt to my mind but I needed strong names for my protagonists. I love Eliza because it’s not very common and my sister volunteered Millie. It sounded so sweet and innocent that the story just unraveled from the tip of my pencil in minutes. But unlike all the movies and media surrounding fairies, I wanted to do something different, something haunting and something totally unexpected that flipped the image of a beautiful, petal-wearing fairy on its head. 

I made my fairies bleached silver and naked, wearing nothing but billowing black shadows. Rather than tiny dew drops coating their delicate wings, I gave my fairies thick, knotted spider-webbed wings and needle sharp fangs that lust for blood. The fairies are beautiful, yet dangerous and the whole time Eliza is near them she can’t shake the eerie feeling that something isn’t right. I wanted to take something sweet and wondrous and splash a little poison onto the perfect image of a woodland fairy.

For this reason, I also chose Louisiana for the setting. I’ve never been to that part of the country, but no place seemed more fitting. The thick, humid air, the algae-covered swamps, and the chilling moss-covered bald cypress trees created the perfect image in my mind. I notice lots of writers set their novels close to where they themselves live or are familiar with in order to draw on famous landmarks. I’m the opposite. All of my novels are set in towns and cities that I have never been to. I Google lots of images to get an idea of the weather patterns, but then I let my mind do the rest and I feel like I have so much more freedom.

And it worked! I’ve had so many readers come up to me, angry almost and say, “I used to love fairies! Now they’ll never be the same!” I can’t smile any wider when I hear comments like this because that was my goal! I wanted to take a century-old idea and craft it into a novel with such a startling twist, that readers would be left gasping. In this day and age it’s really hard to create a new, original idea, just look at how many times they’ve remade the Batman movies. Yet my idea, actually angers and shocks people, because for most of them, after they read about my fairies ripping and tearing flesh to reach the warm blood inside…that image will never fully dissipate when Tinkerbell flits across their screen.

When my friends and co-workers read Dark Flowers it was so amusing to watch them come in and make eye contact with me. My good friend Kathy even said, “Who are you!” If you look at me, talk to me, there’s no way I could have written a horror novel. I’ve never been considered emo or goth, I have to hide behind a pillow during scary movies, and I sound like Minnie Mouse over the phone. But I have a wild imagination and love exploring the darker side. In fact, many of my ideas have come from my dreams. I’m working on one about witches and I came up with the idea because I dreamed about a girl in a flooded bathroom, drowning. In my dream, I watched her die and as soon as I woke up, I wrote it down in my notebook and cranked out four chapters.

All of my novels have a gritty, uncomfortable edge to them and I remember telling my sister that I wanted Dark Flowers to be creepy, terrifying. I want my story to give readers nightmares. Hopefully

that doesn’t make me sound too weird, but that’s when you know it’s a great book, because even after you put it down, the words and the characters stay with you. My friend Sean was one of my first readers and he told me he couldn’t sleep. All he could picture was Eliza at the end, staring, watching.

I love surprising people and Dark Flowers is a perfect way to give them a glimpse to the darkness lurking beneath my smile and polka dots. Thank you so much! Sweet dreams!

Win a copy of Dark Flowers. Visit the BHC Press website and fill out the contest form. The contest is running through next Thursday, October 26, 2017. Good luck!

PRAISE FOR DARK FLOWERS:

Read what reviewers are saying about Caytlyn Brooke’s multi-award- winning debut YA horror novel Dark Flowers.

…a work of paranormal fiction so utterly haunting and undeniably eerie it’s sure to tingle your spine.

~ Literary Classics

…a haunting story that the reader will not soon forget.

~ InD’Tale Magazine

a highly immersive read.

~Readers’ Favorite

ABOUT DARK FLOWERS:

Life at St. Agatha's School for Girls is anything but a fairytale. With ratty blankets and a torturous device called the box, it's not hard to understand Eliza's desperation to escape. When the timing is right, Eliza manages to run away with her best friend Millie, heading through the Louisiana swamps to the town on the other side. But the swamps may be even more dangerous than the orphanage.

Silver and black fairies invite the girls to experience a world where they can have it all, but Eliza doesn't trust the sparkling beauty. When Millie suddenly becomes violent and attacks another girl, Eliza knows something awful is about to happen. She will do anything to protect Millie but once Eliza remembers her own terrible secret, it is impossible to forget. The fairies' songs call to Eliza and it's getting harder and harder to pretend it's all in her head.

AVAILABLE FORMATS:

Available in hardcover, trade softcover, and ebook. Coming soon to audio! Visit the publisher’s website for more information and purchasing options.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Caytlyn lives in Elmira, NY with her husband Daniel, her son, Jack, and her orange tabby cat, Ana who is only slightly overweight. She can quote any Disney movie and believes that everyone should wear polka dots.