Insight Into Writing A Comedic Anti-Hero

29 07 2015

From Ignatius O’Reilly to Blackadder to well, pick any other Brit-Com:

“The keys to keeping Sunny palatable through all the sordidness is that the gang can never win, and that the show can never allow them to be truly sympathetic. The gang are all underdogs, which should lend them pathos. Yet they all harbor delusions of enormous self-worth, which causes them to act superior to each other and the rest of the world, and they lash out in unpredictably destructive ways when those delusions are punctured. If any member of the gang comes out on top in a particular episode, it’s at the expense of one or more of the others, and their victory only comes about through actions viewers can never truly get behind.”

I would add “…never win on their terms, for themselves.” A comedy anti-hero can create good for others, but by accident. The anti-hero can’t come out on top, otherwise his warped values go from funny to gruesome.





Links! Horror and Writing Links!

24 07 2015

Five Paranormal Books You Haven’t Read Yet

Classical Monsters You Haven’t Heard Of (Some Are In AD&D, More Are Ready For Your Next Big Masterwork)

Body Horror In Advertising (Lots Of Videos)

Clever and Incisive Reviews Of Classic Horror Novels

 





Why Don’t We Have A NASA For The Afterlife?

22 07 2015

Here’s yet another academic paper describing Near-Death Experiences.
Humanity is ruled by Death. Speculations about the afterlife have launched all religions, and in turn all governments and law. To paraphrase “American Me”: whoever owns the afterlife, owns Life.
This makes Death far more important than Space.
What would a National Afterlife Science Administration look like? Its logo? What would be its Cape Kennedy? Its Shuttle Disaster?

 





New Story Published In DarkFuse Kindle Book

17 07 2015

Editor Shane Staley of DarkFuse included my crime noir story “To Get Past It” in the new release “DarkFuse 3”.

What do the readers say?

“TO GET PAST IT was a good little revenge story with a couple nice hooks to it.”

“The L.R. Bonehill and Tim W. Burke stories are recommended, so if two good ones is enough for you check it out.”

Have a look at the summaries for the other stories. A nice range of chills and $2.99 is a good deal. I’m buying a copy.

darkfuse3

 





Best British Horror 2015 edited by Johnny Mains

11 07 2015

Best British Horror 2015 edited by Johnny Mains.





The “Open Graves Open Minds” Gothic Studies Project

10 07 2015

Undead Studies.





The One Piece of Advice That Made Me A Better Writer

9 07 2015

Is not about writing. It’s about pride in your work and the threshold of what you will do for your work.
This advice made me send my work to loftier markets, where I was surprised to be accepted. This advice forced me to up my game and not be comfortable with my current skills. This advice found me friends and advisers of high caliber, who have done more and who know more. Editors, pro writers, semi-pro writers all follow this advice.
What small success I have had I owe to this:

Do not work for free. Yes, “for exposure” counts as “free”.





My Nation of Final Girls

3 07 2015

I love my country. I wish it had more sense.

###

The movie scene opened on a little neighborhood of beautiful victorian houses.

A flash of lightning revealed a girl bursting from the front door of a house. “Help me!”

She limps from a bleeding slash on her thigh. The rain clung to her fit and slim form, but enough to show she wears a thorough layer of undergarments. She stumbled and fell in the mud. Looked back at the shadow in the doorway. Made her way to the porch of the neighboring house. Forced open the front door. We know she is The Final Girl.

She peered into the dark. “Hello?”

Her voice echoed through the dusty hallway. The furnishings gleamed with wood luster, brass fixtures, and endless affluence.

A hand grasped her shoulder. The Final Girl screamed.

But its only another girl. The resident explained: A plague had swept through the house, killing nine out of ten of the residents.

Did The Final Girl think a hand had made way for her to make her life easier? Did The Final Girl look into the darkness and feel it look back, waiting?
Something had to be here. Something to use to survive. To make it safer than the house she ran from. She stayed.

More Final Girls fled their houses. Fled through storms and shadowy forests. Stumbled onto the porch and pounded on the door.

There are murderers in the forest. Murderers out there in the storm. Some Final Girls tried to reason with the residents and negotiate a refuge. Others were hysterical from their flight and had seen too many in their sleepover parties butchered. Drunk with fear and rage, they killed and chased the residents into the basement. The Final Girls must be sure they are free. They pursued happiness.

In the living room, Final Girls gathered and created a government that knew no one can be trusted. They fought to see who rules, because no one knows the wisdom from suffering more than the one in charge.

They said to each other “Remember when we were chased? Remember when we fought to this place to be safe and dry? Remember how we fought to keep them from taking our lives?”

They knew what its like to be a victim. They crept to other houses to steal and buy other people. The people are forced to labor to make the house stronger. The first residents looked up as the new arrivals clomped and stumbled above them.

The Final Girls in the rec room invented machines to do the work of the stolen people. Those stolen have holidays to celebrate their own survival. They fought to rule and lead with their wisdom.

The house stayed quite safe. Vermin swept away. No one dared peer in the windows. The Final Girls ate well. They exercised. They made weapons from fireplace pokers and baseball bats and kitchen knives. They crept to the houses that they fled. They set those houses ablaze and danced.

“See what we’ve done! See what we can do! See…who else is being chased!”

The Final Girls flew into the woods. Into the houses down far-away streets. They fight to save their friends. They killed the shadowy figures in the forests or down in those basements.

The Final Girls leaned on the boarded windows, fingers splayed, eyes wide and mouths open, listening for the slightest little sound.

###

We will never believe ourselves safe until we stop looking in the shadows calling everything we see a monster. There will never be end credits.





Alex Gave His Life For Her. Olivia Tested Death For Him.

1 07 2015

He gave the lives of dozens of others to keep her.

A school of mystics failed their test to keep her from him.

Nirvana was not enough for them. Several Hells could not hold them.

Now the world and the spirits are in their way.

 

As heard on Pseudopod.org…

“In THE FLESH SUTRA Tim W. Burke has charted a diabolical, metaphysical odyssey for his main characters, a journey that will take you through Death itself… and back out the other side.”
— Shawn Garrett, Pseudopod

 

Sample “The Flesh Sutra”.

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