Category Archives: Interviews

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So, Let’s Talk about Death!

So, let’s talk death huh? Yaaay! This is a topic that most people tend to shy away from, which is very interesting. If you are a saved and baptized believer, you know that as Vlad Dracul would say “Transient guests are we.”

We exist in a world that despises both us and our Lord and Savior, and we know that once we depart from this place we’re going to the most wonderful, peaceful and pain free place that we can’t possibly even begin to fathom. Yet people are afraid to talk about dying.

For those of us that are left behind, it can be an awful feeling where, we know our loved ones are in a much better place, but that doesn’t matter too much at the time because we want them here. We want them with us. We miss them, we love them, we need them, and nothing can really prepare you for the pain and loss that you’ll experience, even if you knew it was coming for some time.

I remember when my grandmother Wenona Irma Ward passed, I was completely and totally devastated. I’d been taking care of her for three years as she had gotten very ill in her late life, and every day she was such a large part of mine. I would get up in the morning and come to her room after checking on her all throughout the night. I would help her up, and once she was ready to face her day I’d make sure she had a good breakfast. I would call and check on her and talk to her throughout the day, and when I came home I would make her dinner.

We would eat together and talk about our days, and we would break bread together. I would sit and have tea with her and we would talk about everything under the sun. She would share with me her memories, her joys, her sorrows and her regrets. When she knew that it was her time, two days before we took her to the hospital, she told me

“Grandson, dearest, I want you to promise me something.”

And I said

“Yes ma’am?”

And she said

“Everyone else is going cry when I go home. I’d tell them not to, but, they won’t listen. But you, don’t you cry until I go home. I want you to smile to me, and talk to me, and sing to me, right up until I’m gone. I don’t want my death to cause anyone pain; it’s a happy occasion. When I go though, then you can cry. Promise?”

And I nodded and said

“Yes ma’am.”

And I honored her promise.

I knew that my grandmother was passing, and even then I wasn’t prepared. What really broke me was I wasn’t there when she died. I don’t regret it; she told me “Boy, you better go to work!” and so I did. I’d stayed at the hospital for like, three days and nights with her, and then I went into work that morning. I got the call right after a meeting I was at ended, that was slipping and it was time. I got to the hospital a handful of minutes after she was gone.

I honored my promise and didn’t cry until they had put her in the bag and taken her away. I thought I was ready. I clearly wasn’t. I completely fell apart and sobbed so hard I almost collapsed.

My family and my friends protected and supported me during this time, and I think on her now with nothing but the fondest of memories. Death is never something we’re prepared for, but it always means something. It is no respecter of person; whether you are rich or poor, young or old, brave or cowardly, death comes for us all. The only difference is, where will you go when you die?

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world he gave his only son that whosoever believeth in him shant perish but instead have everlasting life.”

John 4:16 “I am the way the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”

Death is permanent, death is no respecter of person, and death should always mean something.

One convention that I’m never very fond of is killing a character and then bringing them back and then killing a character and then bringing them back and so on and so forth. I don’t necessarily mind that near death suspenseful moment where you’re holding your breath and hoping and praying the hero will open their eyes and make it, as long as it’s not dreadfully over used. Overall though, I feel like when you kill a character, especially a protagonist, and then you’re like “Oh wait, I’m totally okay!” that just sorta makes the whole experience feel cheapened.

Now, I think in the right place it can be a well done plot device, but I feel like in that instance it shouldn’t be one of those “I watched you get shot/stabbed right in the head/heart! How are you still here?”

“Oh, well, using the ancient technique of/using the power of/using time travel/using etc. I came back!” type of deals.

By and large I’m a firm believer that when you die, you’re dead. Unless you’ve got a darn good reason to suddenly not be dead, if you die in one of my novels you’re gone. In that regard, I try to be exceedingly cautious when I make the decision to end a character’s life, hero or villain. When someone dies, or when you’re afraid that someone is going to die, it means so much more when you know that there’s nothing that can change what’s coming.

When you understand the weight and importance of death in a Dragon House Studios novel, and you’re reading and being taken on this hard won hard fought journey where nothing is promised, you’re pulled in so much deeper than before. I think two of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received on my writing was when one person told me “I was so mad at you! I was so scared that ___ was going to die, and you just dragged that out and I kept waiting and hoping and then there were the blank pages of silence and then-“ and I’m just gonna stop right there before something gets spoiled for you.

The other compliment was when someone, a friend, came up and punched me in the arm shouting “YOU JERK! YOU KILLED ___! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU KILLED ____! I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW!!!”

Yeah, it was pretty great.

This is gonna sound a little bit morbid, but, I feel like if I’m able to elicit that strong of a reaction out of character death then I’ve done my job well. You’re endeared to a character, you’re attached to them, you love them and you care for their well-being. When they hurt, you hurt. When they smile, you smile. When they experience loss, you experience that loss right along with them…and when they die…

It means something.

So, do you know where you’re going when you’re gone? How do you feel about character deaths? Have you experienced a loss that shook you as well? Take heart and faith in the love and goodness of God and His promises, and know that there’s a home in heaven for all of us. This has been a Dragon House Studios spotlight. Much love, God bless, and be safe out there.

-Eugene A.R. Ward
“Xeawn”

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What’s in a Name? Dragon House Studios Spotlight

Why is your studio called Dragon House Studios?

 

Literally, because I like dragons : ). To give a more direct answer though, I’ve always loved the concept of dragons and thought having one as a pet or a best friend would totally rock. I grew up learning about all kinds of different cultures, and of course Anne McAffrey is one of my favorite writers of all time. I was born in the year of the Golden Dragon, if we were to follow the zodiac and all that jazz, and I’ve just had a natural affinity for them pretty much all of my life.

 

Isn’t Dragon House a Christian Studio?

 

You bet your biscuits it is!

 

You’re talking an awful lot of mysticism though…also, aren’t dragons evil in the Bible?

 

I’m glad you asked! I generally get one of two reactions from Christians when my studio name is brought up in conversation. They tend to either fall in the “Dragons? AWESOME!” category (less conservative), or the “Dragons? …I see…” category (more conservative). Now, don’t misunderstand, I’m nowhere near trying to push the one world religion agenda; far as I’m concerned if the Bible says something is legit then it’s legit, and if not then tough bananas. Still, we’re all convicted of things differently.

An example, Sleeping Dogs is pretty much my Game of the Year right now, and it’s a hardcore Triad Syndicate title. Some folk might go “Whaaaaaat?!” while others might shrug and be like “Whatevs” just like some folk are cool with shows like Merlin (I’ve never watched it by the by, but I’ve heard it’s like Smallville but with magic?) and others not so much.

So, I’m really not convicted of my fondness of dragons. Going a step further, I’d like to direct your attention to the Book of Job in which the leviathan was loosed in the sea by God’s creation and command, and pretty much started wrecking fools. A second leviathan was sent with the same destructive purpose, and then after a certain point God decided the point had been made and severed the head of one of them (so as not to let such a destructive beast procreate).

By the way, I have always been deeply unnerved that to my knowledge there was never anything stating that the female leviathan was slain or died out, so…deep sea divers, ya might wanna look out for that…

So in that regard, analyzing this scripture one might come to the conclusion of the leviathan being God’s tool of destruction, a very uncanny way to resolve a conflict, one that was sent at His behest to change the world and attitudes of those involved. I view the leviathan as a tool. A gigantic really scary tool that can eat you and wipe out your armada, but a tool nonetheless.

Relating that line of thinking to the studio, we’re nothing more than a tool. A tool with a really, really awesome name, and one that intends to disrupt and annihilate a world ruled by Satan’s teachings and sin.

So, take from that what you will. Also Leviathan House Studios sounds nowhere near as cool, so, deal.

 

Some of your books have weird names…

 

Only some?

 

A lot of your books have weird names…

 

That’s better, I thought I was slipping for a moment there! The names of my novels aren’t necessarily immediately apparent in how they relate to the stories. Sometimes they are about as obvious as a slap in the face, other times as subtle as a spider bite in the night. There’s books like Loneliness and More Than a Fairytale where the theme is pretty darn clear. I think the Ballad of the Damned is vaguely more subtle, but it’s still fairly obvious what’s going on there, especially if you take the Grind House theme into account.

I’m working on a book right now, Apples Falling to Oranges, which is kind of a companion novel to the also unreleased and still early novel Chalice. For both of these novels, the point of the title is not especially clear, not until you get much further in.

My three flagship novels, none of which are released but all of which have a minimum of the first book in each series finished, are Academia, The Matriarch’s Daughter and The Blackest Rain. I consider these three novel series as well as More Than a Fairytale and its expanded universe to be the four pillars of the studio. For Academia, once you get a few chapters into the first book you know why it has that title. The Matriarch’s Daughter is pretty self-explanatory, and I already touched on More Than a Fairytale.

I think what’s more complicated is The Blackest Rain. What I think is interesting about all of the naming conventions here is that there is a certain elegantly complex simplicity that they convey. The Blackest Rain, if you take it at face value, is clearly a book about a torrent of painful and negative emotions that the protagonists have to deal with.

As you go through however, you begin witnessing and understanding the deeper layers to each title, and begin to understand the complex concepts that they convey. You begin to understand that there’s more to it when you reach beyond face value, so, that’s pretty cool.

I want all of my novels to have that feeling. I have a process to my writing where there’s the theme and the purpose. For example, More Than a Fairytale is a story with a lot of action, drama, pain and some horror elements. There’s the outset goal that Xea has to fight across an unknown land while protecting a baby and trying to find out why exactly the empress has murderous intentions for the family. On the outset, it’s a story with the goal of discovering “Who are you, why do you hate me, and where do I fit into this game of royal intrigue and murder.”

Beneath that there is the layer of a family drifting about and crumbling at the foundation. It asks the question of how far can you fall and how deep can you sink before you lose yourself and can’t find your way out.

Going deeper than that, it explores the unique bonds that siblings share, and how truly important said bond is if they are to survive.

Going deeper than that, it asks the question of how do you find the strength to get up every morning, look at yourself in the mirror, and find something worth pushing forward when you’re trying to recover from a horrible childhood trauma.

Going deeper than that, it drives home the understanding that no one is an island. The novel makes clear that your actions, no matter how much you tell yourself only have to do with you, affect your entire family, and your friends as well. The story examines the loose ends that parents don’t attend to, material, spiritual, emotional, that their children have to face and deal with. There’s also the journey of trying to climb back up that mountain after you’ve been thrown to the bottom and dashed upon the rocks.

Ultimately everything culminates in a series of choices. While the goal of the story is escape the Other Side, survive, and kill the Empress, the deeper feel and point to the story is the bond between the siblings Xea and Leah, and a journey of self-discovery.

 

What can we look forward to next?

 

Presently I’m pouring a lot of energy into Apples Falling to Oranges, though that’s a sci-fi/slice of life/action story that you won’t be seeing for some time. My studio is in the editing and proofing phase for Academia Book 1: Birth, The Matriarch’s Daughter Book 1: Silentium Nocturne, and The Blackest Rain: Sorrow. You can expect to see those rolling out towards the end of this month and carrying over into the next one.

In between that, I’m proofreading some new ashcans. There’s a hardcore sci-fi/fantasy/military fiction ashcan Restoring Order, the horror/drama/fantasy action ashcan A Necessary Sacrifice, and the action/spiritual warfare/fantasy adventure ashcan Malevolence. I’ll have more details on those later, as well as expected release dates.

 

Any last words?

 

YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE! Wait, what? Ah, but seriously, thanks for giving this a read, and please do tell your friends all about the studio. Also hop on over to www.lulu.com and pick up some books while you’re at it! And check us out on the twitter, @DragonHouseAK

Thank you all, be blessed, and keep rockin’ baby!

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15% Off Sale Coming to a Close!

Tomorrow at midnight the 15% off sale will officially end, so snag your Dragon House Studios novels while you can!

 

This evening we’ll be discussing two topics, What’s in a Name, and A Child’s Heart. I look forward to sharing with you all these thoughts and pontifications (which I’ve decided is now a word), and as always wish you all a blessed day in the Lord!

 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

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Dragon House Studios Insight!

I’ve taken a few questions asked by readers and have decided to answer them here on the blog! This quasi interview was originally posted on my old website, but is now being migrated over this way in addition to other flavor articles and additional content in the days to come.

 

Q: What are the hardest things for you as a writer?

A: Hmm, that’s an interesting question. Various things for various reasons really. One thing that can be difficult is getting my characters out of a certain scene to move on to another one. I’ll have a destination in mind, sometimes I’m clear on how to get there and other times not so much. Either way, there’ll be road bumps, like a family breakfast or time spent in a car ride. I’ll be bored to tears and really kinda want to drop kick somebody; getting them out of that darn car drives me nuts. Then I kinda sit back and realize “Oh, I can just do this. Okay, we’re done now. Moving on.”

Another difficulty I run into is keeping dialogue descriptors fresh. I hate saying “said” “smiled” and “laughed” in over abundance; I feel like it kind of detracts from the story if I do. So, I try to explain how someone said something, what type of smile, how are they laughing. The thesaurus, as well as Google to find out colors you’ve never heard of unless you’re a fashionista, have become my best friends. Still, there’s only so many ways that you can say “said”, “smiled”, and “laughed”.

I hate taking the time to describe settings. I always have, and I always will. I also don’t exactly like describing outfits, although for girls it’s a lot of fun. I have an actual fashionista on staff at Dragon House Studios and I text her at all hours of the night asking what colors go with what, what outfits look cute, what’s fashionable, that kind of thing. We don’t always agree; I don’t necessarily think orange and black or yellow and black look fantastic, but, that’s not really important. What I want is for a girl to pick up a book with a female lead or supporting cast member, read the description and think to herself “Oh, that’s cute! I’d wear that!” or “Oh wow, that’s really chic!” I want a girl to pick up the book and know that I tried.

Which is funny, because I actually have found girls are a little easier for me to write than boys. I think my roster has more female leads than male leads, which is becoming problematic *laughs*

Lastly, if we’re talking in terms of emotionally difficult, sometimes it’s an entire story itself. I’m transparent, I write from the heart. I’m willing to sacrifice a lot of myself to tell a good story. It can be very painful sometimes, but also healing. One of the novel series, The Blackest Rain, which talks about slaying vampires and demons and other things that go bump in the night* has a subject matter that is really touchy for me. It talks about infidelity; Rose was madly in love with her boyfriend Vincent who cheats on her and leaves her high and dry in a scenario that mirrors my personal life enough that it hurt to write it. It also felt kinda good though. By the way, in my books I have a personal rule where I never start a sentence with “It”. You can probably count on one hand the times that I do it in each book.

But, yeah, writing that scene was very painful. Writing that book was very painful. I also found it very freeing. I tend to doubt I’m the only person who tried hard, got cheated on and was left holding broken glass and lemon water, so, if someone else can read about someone getting hurt like that and realistically moving on with their lives and that helps the reader, well, it was worth it then.

*laughs* Vincent kinda became my punching bag character. Every writer has one whether you know it or not. Every writer has one character that none of the other characters think very highly of; Vincent is that character for me. He’s one who people generally refer to as “That ass” or something else equally crude. Believe it or not, it’s done without malicious intent. It’s realistic. Vincent hurt Rose dearly, and Rose has a lot of people that are quite protective of her. This sort of thing tends to happen. I personally don’t like Vincent, not just because of my own experiences, but because he doesn’t lend himself to being very likeable.

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I take ire with vindicating characters. There are some stories that do a really great job with vindication, like King of Fighters. Man, I hated Ash Crimson something fierce, and not just because of his character design *laughs*. Ash was a jerk, I mean, a royal jerk. He was about as unlikable of a villain as one could possibly be, and he made one of my favorite characters (Iori Yagami) kinda lame to play as for like, four or five games. Then the new King of Fighters came along, and without spoilers, I’ll just say that I see Ash in a different light. I think I might’ve cried at the end of the story.

Still, I believe that if I tell you that you should hate a character, that it’s kind of a jerk move to suddenly make you feel bad about hating him or her. I almost did it with one of the villains in The Blackest Rain. At the end of the day, I left him (and no, it wasn’t Vincent) as an evil, terrible person through and through. Honestly, it was better that way; the story was stronger that way. And, more realistic. Sometimes there isn’t a dark and foreboding secret as to why bad people do bad things; sometimes people just do sick things. Sometimes people just hurt you. Sometimes they don’t have a reason. Sometimes they’re selfish and they justify it in their mind. even when they have a reason, that doesn’t make it okay. I don’t think anyone stopped to think “Well, maybe Scar was so darn evil because he felt inferior to Mufasa, and that makes me feel sorry for him.” Nope, I’m pretty sure we were all like “Scar is a jerk, TAKE HIM DOWN SIMBA!”

There are times when it’s okay to vindicate a villain. There are times when such a decision is appropriate and a fitting literary tool. There’s also times when it’s okay to have an antagonist that you can just plain hate and not feel odd about it later. By and large, sometimes people just hurt you simply because they can. There are such things as pure evil in this world.

 

Q: Is being a Christian Fantasy/Science Fiction Writer difficult?

A: Not quite as difficult as when I want to write a horror story *laughs*! Sometimes it can be hard. For one thing, I deliver the Word in ways that are considered incredibly unorthodox. I don’t think that there’s a lot of Christian fiction that depicts youths in a post apocalyptic settings wielding a beam sword fighting giant robots, or Korean assassins fighting wild west cowboys to the death. That’s a good thing though; it means I’m hitting an untapped market here, it means my stories stay unique.

I actually haven’t been met with anywhere near as much negativity as I expected, but, by the same token I haven’t exactly blown up yet. I’m sure I’ll have different groups holding book burnings soon enough. That’s okay; they still have to buy every book that gets burned!

On a more serious note though, writing what’s expected of me under the stigma of being a Christian writer is difficult. The Ballad of the Damned was hard; I feel like I didn’t get to cut loose anywhere near as much as I would’ve wanted too. Maybe that’s not right, I had to cut loose differently.

When I first got the idea for a Korean Sword Epic/American Style Grind House while listening to some Akira Yamaoka off of the Japan tribute album he provided a song for, I immediately was aware of the difficulty I would run into. I wasn’t concerned about trying to shoehorn in gratuitous sexual depictions; I wouldn’t write those anyways. What I was concerned about was the gore factor. Grind House is known for three things: Cheese, gore and breasts. The latter wasn’t going to be a factor, and the prior was going to be downplayed in lieu of cinematographic writing a la sword epics. The bit in the middle was going to be hard.

In my head I envisioned fountains of crimson, limbs flying, ya know, the usual stuff that goes with Grind House. How I was going to do that and not be labeled a flaming hypocrite (which is bound to happen anyways) was difficult. I decided instead of focusing on over the top violence, I would utilize tasteful violence. There would still be just as many severed heads and flying limbs as there should be in a good grind house, but it would be tasteful. I wasn’t going to gross you out with graphic depictions of capillaries and sinews and all that; I would tastefully describe the spray of crimson wafting through the air like a fine mist as Yoon and the warrior went one way, while the warrior’s arms flew the other entirely.
Descriptions like that are more tasteful, and, when you think about it kinda humorous in a slightly macabre sort of way. That way, I was able to achieve my goal of taking my readers on a great road show while respecting the Christian aesthetics that go with my work.

Some genres are naturally easier to write; real life dramas such as Memoirs** and Dear Diary**, and romantic comedies like Why I Hate New York*** (sorry New Yorkers!) are easy because of the subject matter I deal with. Still, every book presents its own unique challenge. Other genres like horror (Which is one I’m cautious to explore; I can create a truly frightening experience in my writing. Sometimes I scare myself!) are harder; it’s difficult, for me anyways, to write serial killers and heroes trapped in mad men’s laboratories and lairs and still maintain balance.

To elaborate, how much is too much? At what point have you crossed over from creating a hopeless, frightening setting for heroes to overcome and instead are crafting something in which the message is lost in the terror? I don’t ever want to create something that can be labeled as “sick”. That’s inevitably going to happen; everyone has varying thresholds for what they consider sick. Some people are more sensitive than others, some people are more uptight than others. Still, I kinda have a personal metronome that keeps me on task. After a certain point the rhythm just feels off. On occasion I’ll write a scene and think to myself “Wait…is this too much?” When that happens, I’ll generally bounce the scene off of my family and let them tell me “No, go for it” or “You might want to change that up.” More often than not, I’m okay with changing the scene and feel that its stronger for it. There are those occasions though where I think to myself “Man…that was a really great scene I had to cut…”

Basically, at the end of the day I want to avoid a situation where someone is too caught up in the psychological horror to receive the message or enjoy the ride. This makes some stories hard; how do I kill off protagonists in a frightening manner without it being gross? As a result, Dragon House Studios has yet to release a horror story. Well, a pure horror story. We do of course have stories with a horror element such as The Blackest Rain, The Magician’s Crescendo and More Than a Fairytale.

There are many ways to scare people; leaving the reader feeling helpless as their favorite character is beaten, battered and broken as the antagonist stalks toward them to finish them off, isolating someone away from the others and having the proverbial walls closing in on them, or simply getting a glimpse into the mind of a wounded little boy or girl trying to find a way to keep moving.

Horror never has to be all chainsaws and death traps. As a matter of fact, the moment it becomes that, it stops being horror. It simply becomes gore for the sake of gore.

Dragon House Studios never has, and never will produce gore for the sake of gore.

 

Q: What sort of things do you worry about when you write?

A: Personal deadlines, dry spells, are people going to compare me to other things and turning people off by reality are among the top of my list.

I have personal deadlines every time I start working on a story, which is good because when Dragon House Studios ultimately makes the leap from Indie to Syndicated then I’ll definitely have deadlines to keep. To be candid, it really kinda pisses me off when a deadline is missed. I hate time wasted, so when time isn’t used wisely or dates are missed it leaves me kinda ticked. We are our own worst critics they say!

Dry spells drive me mad. Ask my friends, I’m a little unbearable when I can’t write. Writing is in my blood more than anything else save for Jesus. I think I love writing even more than I love hip hop (That’s hip hop, NOT rap. I’m lookin’ at you Lil Wayne…) and jazz, and that’s saying something. I always have to have something to write with on me. I’m never without my laptop, tablet (paired to a bluetooth keyboard) and at least one notebook devoted to writing concepts and ideas. There’s never a time when I’m not thinking about a story. When I’m sick and I can’t think straight, it drives me crazy! Reality is really boring without a story in your heart and a concept on your mind.

Generally after I finish a novel or two, which I generally do in the space of a month tops, I hit a dry spell. I never have writer’s block, I always have a new story in mind. I just get burnt out, which drives me batty. There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing exactly what I want to write and being physically incapable of doing so. I sit down to my laptop with the story in mind and I know exactly how to go from A to B to C and so on, but I just stare at the page and the keyboard and think to myself “I couldn’t possibly care less” and walk away.

I try to write little fun what ifs to keep my mind going, but, this doesn’t always help. Thank you to my friends, especially those that I talk to daily for hours on end. I am aware I am certainly…we’ll say intriguing to be around when I can’t write, and not in my usual beguilingly roguish way :P!

I won’t spend a lot of time on this next one, because the moment I start naming things that I’m concerned about being compared to people will automatically start comparing me to them. By the very nature of saying I’m concerned about comparisons, people will start thinking them up. Eh, never mind. Forget I said anything *laughs*.

I worry about the kick in the teeth that harsh reality brings. I talk about very dark subjects from time to time, or at least subjects that are considered dark. Having lived through most everything I write about, I don’t know that dark is the word that I’d use. Rather, there’s a social taboo on certain words and occurrences. Racism happens, but you aren’t supposed to call it what it is. Children are molested, but God forbid we talk about it. People are cheated on, but you’re not supposed to go in depth about it.

I do. Nothing that I ever do is ever for the sake of shock value or senseless self gratification; it’s because it happens. People hate people for the color of their skin, whether it’s black, brown, gold or somewhere in between. Sick people hurt children. Callous people break hearts. It happens. And, Hollywood does everything it can to make sure we never move on.

You see a lot of stories about racism, but how many of them really get into the heads of the people that are hurt and the people that breed hate? What’s more, how many show how to cope with that and move on? How many are content to say “RACISM IS BAD, FIGHT THE POWA!” but never talk solutions or brighter days beyond saying that someday something may or may not change but it probably won’t?

How many stories go much more in the subject of molestation or rape beyond using it as an excuse for why someone rejects certain things or as a catalyst to move the plot along? People are afraid to actually get into the topic and the nightmare that every day can be for that person, as well as accountability for what they do in their lives and how to move on with them. Typically it’s only used as a device to drive up your hatred for an antagonist, raise up the hero status of the person who goes after them, and force a knee jerk emotional response to a supporting cast member.

Writing in this way is cheap and easy. You hate the villain without question, you have a driving excuse for your hero to kill the villain, and you have an immediate need to feel connected to and pity the victim without any real depth or reason beyond something bad happened. Before this gets twisted around by someone looking for an internet fight, I’ll put it another way. If I say “This villain is bad” then he may or may not be bad. If I say “This villain is bad because he hates kittens” then he’s kinda bad. If I say “This villain slaughters whole villages” then you dislike and maybe even hate him. If out of the blue I say “Also he ravages women” then that seals the deal. You’re able to throw out that taboo without really doing anything to build the character up as a villain; you just made use of something that is overwhelmingly evil as a means to not have to add depth to your character. Does that make sense?

It’s the same thing for the victim in the story. You do not have to do any work whatsoever to associate a deep emotional response to a character beyond saying “This terrible thing happened.” Instantly, without any work to provide any depth to the character, you’re sucked in. This is bad writing, and honestly, this is insulting to real life survivors.

With that said, I do worry from time to time when the subject comes up. Maybe it’s my social programming, I don’t know. While it’s not as though every other character you read about in a Dragon House story has had this happen, it is a subject I discuss in more than one story. And, I’m never glib about it. Before I go on, something you will never see is a graphic description of the act. You will be told what happened, and you will receive unparalleled insight into the survivor’s psyche and day to day struggles, but you won’t be reading a gratuitous blow by blow. That’s not what I’m about.

Still, not unlike the horror unseen, perhaps the struggle is that much more real because of it. It’s often been said that the terrors that the human mind can craft are far more effective than anything that can be seen or described. That topic is no doubt debatable, but, there ya go. In a lot of ways it’s true. When I’m playing something like Clock Tower 3, Fatal Frame or to a much lesser extent in modern iterations, Silent Hill, I’m always more afraid when there’s no enemies on the screen. When I’m surrounded by ambient noise and the ever present threat of a certain terrible something lurking just beyond the next door or alleyway, I’m always far more afraid than when the enemy is on screen.

The moment I can see the monster after my initial shock, I go into my psychological combat mode. I don’t have fight or flight, I have fight or annihilate. As such, as soon as I can see what’s trying to hurt me, it’s goin’ down. Also, it’s not scary anymore. Same for horror movies. I don’t like American horror (see: gorefest and jump out atcha), but I love Asian Horror Cinema. Movies like Ringu, The Ghost, Blood Pledge, Re-cycle (though that’s more of a psychological drama), The Orphanage and more are my bread and butter. It’s not that they don’t scare me; they’re fun to watch every now and again because they do. And they get horror right. The actual ghost has very little screen time beyond stalking the hero and making the viewer sit at the edge of their seat terrified for when that evil, whatever it may be, is going to present itself.

In my stories, I feel that when I don’t describe something, that very something can be even more frightening or disturbing. Whether that comes in the form of a demonic entity stalking a relatively defenseless protagonist, or in the revelation of trauma, sometimes the words left unsaid can be the most descriptive ones indeed.

 

Q: Any closing thoughts:

A: Buy my books? *laughs* No, but seriously, whether you’re a Christian or not, there’s something for everyone in my books. You don’t have to be saved to enjoy stories about giant robots, dragons, beam swords and martial arts extravaganzas. You don’t have to be a Christian to be struggling on the fringe of heartbreak, betrayal or assault. My books are for everyone. I hope you’ll all give them a chance whether you order one online from http://www.lulu.com or see them in stores (when I finally find a distributor!).

Please be on the lookout for The Blackest Rain, The Matriarch’s Daughter Book 1: Silentium Nocturne, Academia Book 1: Birth and More Than a Fairytale Book 2: Leah’s Story. All of these novels are planned for Q3 and Q4 2012 releases. Follow me on the twitter, @DragonHouseAK and like us on Facebook, Dragon House Studios – Eugene Ward.

Last but not least, be blessed! Peace!

*The Blackest Rain is not for sale at this point in time, but is estimated for a Q3 2012 release.
** Memoirs and Dear Diary are not for sale at this time and are currently listed as TBA.
*** Why I Hate New York is not for sale this time and is currently slated for a Q4 2012 release.