For me, paranormal embodies the immensity of the inexplicable, the unseen, the unquantifiable. Science fiction, fantasy, supernatural and horror all blend together in a realm of pure creation where boundaries don’t exist. It boils down quite simply, where do I want to live?
Writing paranormal allows me to invent mind-boggling worlds
full of characters with limitless potential and a bit of love story thrown
in. Any story, any character quirk, any scenario flipped into a paranormal
venue means my writing can go into the past, the future, the nether world,
outer and inner space. No boundaries… as an artist, I love that freedom of
expression. So with Smitten Image, I jumped into the future and immersed myself
in painting, which I know, and magic, which no one knows! How much fun can a
writer have?
(Excerpt) She had pulled her paint smock off over her
head, skimmed out of her T-shirt and unzipped her jeans when she heard a loud
sucking sound behind her. Turning, Lily watched in horror as the figure in the
painting moved. Just a twitch of a hand at first, a stretch of an arm. Then in
one violent lunge, the man tore himself free of the canvas and stepped onto the
floor, real, animated, looking around her apartment with every naked inch of
his skin gleaming in fresh oil.
In Smitten Image, Lily drinks a love potion that torques her
inherent magic into an omnipotent power, volatile and unpredictable. Magic can
be as simple or complex as the story needs. As a writer, I chose language and
imagery to illustrate the paranormal phenomenon I wanted the characters to
feel, sense, fear.
(Excerpt) It took no
great leap of imagination to see that this sudden green house explosion came
from magic. Lily’s own damned magic! Somehow her lovely houseplants were
feeding off her powers as if she’d offered up bloody fingers like the clerk in
Little Shop of Horrors!
She hauled a ladder up from the basement and
was cutting free the ceiling when she heard a tinny voice near her ear. “Half a
league, half a league, half a league onward!”
On
the string of lights dangling amongst the leaves, a pink flamingo grinned at
her. Lily’s jaw dropped, and so did the shears, and she hugged the ladder in
sudden, disconcerted vertigo.
Another
voice spoke, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” God’s Afire, the plastic
flamingos were quoting poetry! Shakespeare and Tennyson, no less.
I absolutely love writing dialogue and in a paranormal
context dialogues just aren’t normal! I can have as much fun and go as far with
humor as I need a mood to take the reader. That doesn’t always mean keeping it
light. Sometimes, contrast and conflict make for terrorizing rides into the deep
dark.
(Excerpt) Half afraid
a complete body sketch might jump to life out of her sketchbook, Lily focused
on drawing only the model’s hands in different positions, the angle of his arm
meeting the shoulder, or a foot curving into an ankle. Tonight she felt wound tight
as a hair trigger, waiting ... waiting for the articulated body parts to
animate themselves like zombie limbs in a B horror flick! Long before the
session ended, she’d slapped her sketchbook closed and splurged on a taxi cab
ride home. That night she dreamed of headless torsos walking the streets and
woke screaming, clutching the geode to her chest like a talisman.
The
idea that an incomprehensible power she couldn’t control lived like a freakish
thing inside of her became a kind of suspended panic in her mind. She painted
like a mad fiend, slapping tumultuous emotions onto every canvas along with the
paint. Loneliness consumed her…
So leap into 2039 New Chicago with Smitten Image, Lily
Barnett, her best friend Daniel, magic, love, fear… and me. You’ll have fun, I
promise.
