Worldbuilding Wednesday: Basement!Narnia

Wherein I take an hour or two to expand a concept of mine and see how far I can take it. I have something like 50 pages of story ideas (just the ones I've sorted, moreover) and this will be an exercise in seeing how much potential they have. It's all basically stream of consciousness, thrown out as it occurs to me, with only some polishing at the end to make sure that everything is grammatically correct and I didn't leave any sentences incomplete.

This one is a little unusual in that there are some parts that I've already figured out beforehand, so this isn't solely comprised of stuff that I came up with in a 1-2 hour brainstorming session. I also did most of the number-crunching outside of this session, and then went back and edited where appropriate. 

There is a basement somewhere. An apartment complex, say. You go to the basement, and there are stairs leading down to another level. And another. And another. It keeps going on for a long, long time., and the levels get weirder and bigger but the urban environment never actually stops being a thing. Think Basement!Narnia, except that it's a bunch of rooms and stuff. From its brief discussion on reddit, it's been compared to Narnia crossed with House of Leaves and Neverwhere crossed with City of Angles.

FICTION: Tin Roof Reminiscence

Tin Roof Reminiscence

You love the sound of rain falling on a tin roof. The rain is brought by clouds. The clouds, more often than not, bring the murk with them and overshadow the world. And in the shadow you can see. You can smell. You can feel.

Poetry: Was the Hunt

This poem originally appeared in the Summer 2014 issue of Inner Sins.

Was the Hunt

Such sense of pursuit, and horrid fear
Such stalking patience and hungry need
They flee, they pounce, they shriek and they roar
Together on a swirling table
Keeper, reaper, again and again,
Shadows caught against the wall like fire
One hunting, and the other hunted
But dead and trapped in that final chase
Which had felled them both and mixed their minds:
In final victory was the death;
In pain of loss was still the triumph.

Poetry: Hali (Byself)

This poem was previously published in the December 2014 issue of Hello Horror.

Hali (Byself)

A shoreless, boundless sea
Kicked up by the cold storm
Swallowing the ivory tower.

A shoreless, boundless sea
Hiding hunting serpents and
Gaunt faces in the chaos
Kicked up by the cold storm,
An explosive transformation
Beckoning the end of ages,
Swallowing the ivory tower,
The tower of Babel, our folly,
To the sound of beating drums.

In a house of mirrors the yellow king
Harrows sixty-nine reflected tiers.

Poetry: Behind the Walls

This poem was previously published in the Autumn 2014 issue of Tales of the Talisman.

Behind the Walls

there is something there unseen
scratching and rustling behind the walls
buzzing that roots itself behind my eyes

it follows me it sometimes wanders
stalking something behind the walls
warded off by company but still heard distantly

they do not cease they do not relent
voices resolve from the noises behind the walls
murmuring chants that echo through the house

they now carry into my nightmares
sounds suggesting colors made behind the walls
twisting my perceptions to meet in alignment
with the Presence lurking behind the walls

The Idea Emporium #2: Selected Fragments from the Necronomicon

Selected Translations

A selection of lines from Wormius’ Latin text, with translations by Dr. Shawn Daniels. Some notes also by the same. The observant reader will notice some discrepancies in these literal translations from some traditional renderings given by Warren Rice.

Antiqui illi erant; Antiqui illi sunt; Antiqui illi erunt.

“Those Ancients were; Those Ancients are; Those Ancients will be.”

Rendered by Warren Rice as “The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be.”

Letum fio quod mundos deleo

“I am become Death, that destroys worlds.”

It does not appear that the Necronomicon borrowed from the Gita, and it is quite impossible for the Gita to have borrowed from the Necronomicon. Rather, based on other evidence it appears that this and other lines have been drawn from a third text predating them both.

Nevertheless, the particulars of the Necronomicon’s version presents interesting differences.

Things That I Like: 8 Things to Do With Zombies

Apparently I’ve been on a zombie kick as of late. I haven’t actually written any zombie stories recently, but I just finished writing a three-part series of articles on zombies for Sanitarium and there’s a zombie section to be written up soon, for a sourcebook that I’m putting together. Here are a few ideas that I haven’t seen often, or at all.

1. The zombie virus only affects children

Did you see World War Z? There’s an implication that kids aren’t targeted by zombies. There’s that scene where one of the kids seems to be getting chased by zombies, sure, but it’s just as likely that the zombies were going for the guy in front of him. After all, the zombies were interested in him, how did he get past the other ones to begin with.

The Idea Emporium #1: A Few Notes on the Necronomicon

As promised, with the closing of The Culture Column has come the opening of a new column. The Idea Emporium is a grab bag of ideas. This month and the next I’ll supply some goodies on the Necronomicon. Other months might include new cultures, alien species, peculiar philosophies, or anything beyond or in-between.

As always, these are free for grabs and totally in the public domain from this point on. Use as you please, how you please.

A Brief History of the Necronomicon

"...pretiosissimum donum ab dis, id quod est esse, sed est novissime malum." Garamond Edition

“[it is] the most precious gift by the gods, that which is to be, but it is the last of all evil things.” Warren Rice Translation.

The Hope Spot #3: Nietzsche & the Heroine’s Journey

This post originally appeared in the August issue of Sanitarium Magazine

***

I am probably not the biggest Nietzsche fanboy that you are ever going to meet, but I think that a case could be made that I am the biggest Nietzche fanboy currently writing a column for Sanitarium. One of my favorite ideas from Nietzsche is the concept of “Eternal return.”

Guest Post: A Platform to Stand On.

Today's guest post was written by Shaun Horton. He blogs at Shaun of the Not-so-Dead, where he posts articles on "writing, the horror genre, and the occasional mad rant." He has published several stories, including the novel Class 5, Cenote, and Paths. 

Class 5 is available for free through Amazon today and tomorrow, and Cenote will be similarly available on the 21st of December. 

These days, it seems like everyone and their eloquent iguana has talked about how to build a platform as an author. It also seems like just as many are quick flash-in-the-pans that disappear in six months. So, what makes this blog post any different? Well, for starters, I've been working on my platform to varying degrees for going on two years. I've tried several different things, some that have worked, and some that haven't. So what sets this blog post apart is that there is real experience here.

CYOA brainstorming: Fallen Paladin

What is this about?

Fall: God is Dead
Weapon: Vampiric morning star
Powers: Necromancy 2, friend to animals, charisma, resourceful, favored by demons, unholy strength, serpent's reflexes
Companion: Engineer
Residence: Airship

When a god dies, its paladins feel the agony. They feel its loss, and the abandonment. They know, intimately, the difference between the world as it is and the world as it once was and never will be again.

CYOA brainstorming: Evil Controller

What is this about?

Cause: Persistence
Favorite food: Bonds
Realm: Small town
Minions: 1 Individual, 6 Weak, 12 Shadows
Powers: Truly Alien, False Creation, Figments, Corruption, Ghost Sounds, Minor Telekinesis
Bonuses: Nomadic Realm
Drawbacks: Untouchable (may only feed on the innocent), Strong Victims

The Dragon goes to and fro across the face of the Earth. It insinuates itself into small towns and spreads to fill them up. And then, it feeds.

CYOA brainstorming: Otherworldly Land

What is this about?

You awoke in: Deep space
Its two hazards are: Unstable ground and anomalies
Your boon is: The nanite cloud
Its malfunction is: Diabolus ex machina
Your friends are: Automatons
Your two enemies are: Ascendants and cultists
Your escape plan is: Get to the exit
The problem is: Upheaval

Our protagonist awoke in a space station of some sort. A sprawling affair that seems to go on forever. Physical laws are prone to being bent or even broken here, and the superstructure is beginning to decay, so that floors may suddenly give out, walls collapse, or doors jam.

CYOA brainstorming: Spooky Adventure

What is this about?

Form: Everyman (face in a crowd)
Immortality: Rebirth
Domain: Person
Powers: Cult, Extra Sustenance (Joy), Paralysis, Wanderer, Unbound, Durability, Voices
Weaknesses: Nocturnal, Monster Hunter

The Woathman has been hunting for a long time. Its origins, even its original sex, have been lost to history. The Brandons do not remember how it started, the first transformation from human to Woathman. A deal of Faustian proportions... a ritual gone wrong...

CYOA brainstorming: The Island (Candid version)

What is this?

Island CYOAs were (are?) a fad on /tg/. I know of almost a dozen, and I come across a new one every so often. The idea behind each of them is the same (you find yourself on a spooky island thing, GO) but they differ in the options that they give. They also differ in how many options you can pick before you have to start taking penalties.

This one is not particularly forgiving.

Shelter: None
Companion: The Necromancer
Artifact: The Amulet, Possessed Sword
Covenant: Abominations
Nemesis: Fear and Madness, The Other

Oh, and The Other gets some choices too, dang it:
Shelter: Gypsy Caravan
Companion: The Other (a different one), the Blackbark Faerie
Artifact: The Sarcophagus
Covenant: Island Guardians
Nemesis: The protagonist

So what have we got here?

Our protagonist has been displaced to some horrible Otherworld. It matters not whether it's an actual island or not, though we'll refer to it as such for convenience's sake. It's a very dangerous place, inhabited by all kinds of horrible things. There was apparently a magi-tech kind of civilization based here, but it's anyone's guess what happened to them.

Perhaps the Island got them. It has a will of its own, certainly. And it's out for the protagonist's blood.

To that effect it has also plucked up two of the protagonists friends. Perhaps the protagonist's appearance here is a fluke, but theirs was certainly not. They have been told that the protagonist is a very, very bad person now, and that killing zem is of the utmost importance. Letting zem live will do nobody any good, but will mean the deaths of millions.

It may hurt them to believe it, but they've been thoroughly convinced that ze's somehow gone down a bad road.

The statuesque servants of the old civilization are at their disposal. The faeries of the Island, who may be connected or have simply moved in after the original inhabitants left, are responsible for conveying the Islands orders, and one of them is accompanying the protagonist's friends to help them on their quest. They are traveling with other humans (who, unlike the faeries, are definitely latecomers to the Island), who are not noteworthy for their combat skills but know the roads of the Island. And one of them has slight precognitive abilities that should be of help.

Should they die by anyone's hand but the protagonist's, the Island will be able to revive them.

But the worst thing is... our protagonist can't be totally sure that they're wrong. The protagonist has fallen in with some potentially bad company, an amoral necromancer whose reason for tagging along is unknown, and has explained the situation to the protagonist. The necromancer is definitely not popular in these parts, though, especially among the undead (of which there are many). And... there are horrible Lovecraftian monsters that like you. Which is probably not a good sign.

Finally, the protagonist is in possession of a thinking sword. It can steadily improve the protagonist's skill over time, but it is also the source of a growing compulsion to kill. The amulet, which confers both physical and mental health, is keeping its influence at bay, but the amulet will be effective for only so long.

Fiction: Where the Minotaur (A Babylonian Medley Story)

Out of the books must you be judged, and out of the books have they been judging you. Have they judged you?

They have.

Out of books that are a pale, forged book of life. You remember the hearing of your crimes, even if the memory of them is sometimes faded in this place. You remember, and you remember knowing you were not a monster.

750 Words Fiction: Before You Fly

No bang. No whimper. More the sound of leaves in the trees, rustled by the wind.

Not the sound of an end. The sound of emptiness. Of having been set apart.

Of what, by what, for what purpose, he did not know.

He was apart from the world. Set apart. Removed. Or the world had been removed from him.

750 Words Idea: Thistledown Estate

There is an old estate that they call Thistledown. The center of the place, its manor and Thistledown proper, is a brick house. It is built almost like a castle or old caravansary, encircling on all sides a large courtyard area. The manor stands at the center of the estate, and at the center of the manor, in its courtyard, is a well with a heavy iron cover and a battery of padlocks.

Radiant Shadows: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

A review for Radiant Shadows, by Sarah Baethge

Nutshell: Vampires. And anti-vampires. And a Good/Evil dichotomy that's actually a Light/Dark dichotomy that's actually an Optimistic/Pessimistic dichotomy... I think? Well, there's a rogue vampire that has to be taken down and things happen and the plot makes sense, maybe, but little else does. 

Atmosphere: 1 out of 5. It was... okay at first, but then the story tries to present itself as an in-universe document and it falls apart. We know that it's an in-universe document because that's how it's being described and talked about. And we know that's how it is for the first part, at least, because the narrator is talking about certain concepts not just as if the reader doesn't know what they are, but explicitly because the reader doesn't know and the narrator wants xem to understand. It's this next thing that's the trouble: The supernatural world is not in the open. It is a secret. So this story is being written as an in-universe document directed, apparently, at people who don't know about vampires and witches and things, despite there being an organization, which this narrator works for, which wants to keep that stuff secret.

Characters: 2 out of 5. The only character that I remotely cared about was Caroline. I don't even know why, it was just something about her bubbliness. Still, that didn't even last until the end of the first part (let's just say she's not very smart).

Plot: 2 out of 5. What it says in the nutshell. There's a rogue vampire! And stuff happens! And half of it could be avoided with the common sense that God gave to one of Michael Myers' victims.

Writing Style: The story opens poorly. There are more technical problems than I can shake a twig at: formatting (I say as I keep hitting "Preview" and find myself still unable to fix That One Problem), typos, issues of tense, quote marks being handled badly, missing dashes, the works. I also don't like how the parentheses are inserted into the story or how some words are emphasized with italics and others with bold type without any apparent rhyme or reason. There is also no consistency in any narrative voice.

Worldbuilding: The only strong point of the story, honestly. There are some neat ideas here. The explanation for why vampires need to feed on humans is passable and there are a couple of clever needles in the haystack. There's this dream dimension stuff that was pulled from out of freaking nowhere, but don't worry because we get an infodump to tell us everything we're going to need to know in just a few minutes. I like how vampires have wings there, though, even if the bat wings thing is silly.

I'll be frank: I simply cannot believe that a good editor was employed for this story.

Details, details: [here there be spoilers]

As I mention in the nutshell, I'm a little unsure of what to make of the alignments described in the story. At first they're Good and Evil, and then they're Light and Dark (except that there's apparently nothing to distinguish this system from the first), and while the story vacillates between these two it seems at times that the author is confusing morality with outlook. At least I hope so, because I don't want to read a story where people are "Evil" or "Dark" because they're pessimists. Oh, and this seems to be an inborn condition, which I doubly don't like.

I like how vampires are common in the paralegal profession. It's a good place for them, and I'm not making a joke about lawyers. It really does make sense, up to and including why they're just paralegals.

Why do vampires consider it a punishment to turn someone into a vampire? They seem to like being vampires. That's like if I said "You'd better watch out, or I'm gonna give you some free books." Maybe you don't like books, but I certainly don't know that and it's certainly not widespread enough of an opinion for me to make "give them free books if they're bad" a general policy.

I thought you said "Ultimate Showdown of
Ultimate Destiny."

The Count's accent is stupid and cliche. Do we really need a vampire, called "the Count" no less, who sounds like Bela Lugosi? And why, if this is a private nickname made on the spot and shared with one other person before the namer dies, is it being used by somebody who has a close, familiar relationship with the vampire?

Why can't the narrator in Part Two believe that the "two" Stephen Browns are the same person when one of them is undeniably Weird and the narrator himself is a vampire?

"Ultimate Battleground of the Nightmare Dimension." I can't even...

Good things, good things... Like I said, there were some good needles in the haystack. The author should get some more needles like this, melt them down, and forge them into a Sword of +2 Interesting World. The fat needs to be trimmed, though. This is a fantasy kitchen sink as assembled with parts from eight different manufacturers, one of whom may not really exist.

(this, incidentally, is what I thought of when I read "Ultimate Battleground of the Nightmare Dimension")

The Tree Man: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

A review for The Tree Man, by David Bernstein. 

Nutshell: A small town kid finds himself the only one able to defend the town against a horrible evil. But the path is treacherous and fraught with danger, and if he proceeds unwisely then many innocent people may die. 

Atmosphere: 2 out of 5. I didn't feel any, really. There wasn't anything that detracted from the atmosphere but there wasn't anything that built it up well either. 

Characters: 3 out of 5. I really liked Evan's friend and brother. Both of them seemed a little more fleshed-out and realistic for his ages (sometimes it seemed like Evan had taken English lessons from a melodrama actor) and I especially liked how it was obvious that Evan's brother did care about the kid but was also, you know, a big brother who liked to have some fun too. And Evan couldn't quite see it. 

Plot: 3 out of 5. The plot is pretty... okay, but the ending makes it worth reading and the story is short enough that you won't take too long to get there. I don't think that I'd read it again, but I don't feel bad about the time that I spent reading it the first time. 

Writing Style: 3 out of 5. The opening sentence may be intriguing but it's too clunky, too run-on. It gets better, but there's never anything spectacular about the writing and there's always the occasional haphazardly-constructed sentence that feels really weird to read. 

Worldbuilding: 4 out of 5. I would have given it a 3 out of 5 but for an element that I can't really talk because we're above the spoiler line here. Dang it. One thing that kind of sucked for me was the "spell of Revulsion of Void." Something about the name, or maybe the way it was phrased, made me feel very Dungeons and Dragons just then, which wasn't something that carried through the rest of the story. It was jarring, to say the least (and, because riffing on DnD is often done by hacks and this came early on, it made me worry for the story to come). The author also gets points for the idnoid's description and modus operandi, if not for its name (which also felt derivative enough that I'm glad I was reviewing this story because I wouldn't have kept going if I hadn't felt obligated to finish it, and it turned out that these were only initial hiccups). 

Details, details: [here there be spoilers]

Chapter two tells us a little bit too much about the old man, too early.

Crisis Universe, this kids' cartoon program that Evan and his friend watch, sounds really fun, actually, for all the corniness. Alien monsters fighting humans who have had their brains implanted in robots because of a muscle-and-bone destroying plague that the aliens are spreading? I want to see this in all of its Saturday Corny glory. Even with my criticisms of this book in mind, I would definitely drop dollars down for the author to write some Crisis Universe stories.

I like how quickly the old man went down.

Monster trees working for the good guys. I like it.

I really, really like how Genre Savvy Evan gets, and how this screws him over in the end. I am totally gonna be that kid, if I ever wind up in a horror movie. There is nothing worse than not knowing the rules to a horror movie when you find yourself inside one, except for knowing the rules... but not that this is the genre-redefining movie that breaks them all.

I didn't expect what would happen to him, is all I'm gonna say.