My entry into The Clarity of Night's "Silhouette" Writing Contest is up. It's titled "Lammergeier" and is ... something of a departure. If you're in the mood for sunshine and kittens, you might want to give it a pass. But if a combination of Dean Koontz's Intensity and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" sounds like your bitter cup of tea, by all means go read it.(Picture: Copyright 2009 by Jason Evans; used by permission)
16 comments:
Niftily done, Loren.
Wish more serial killers were actually prone to conscience.
Except that sounds like I wish there were more serial killers.
Which I don't.
Hopefully you knew that.
Anyway.
Good story.
And there's that cup of bitter herbs, I mean tea again.
Nevets,
Truth be told, I hate almost every serial-killer story I've read or seen. Now I seem to written one, which puts me in something of a bind. Oh, well, what're you going to do?
B.,
I thought of that right after I hit the publish button. Must remember to shuffle my metaphors more often.
After working in forensics even for a while, I have a hard time with serial killer stories too, but mostly because even brushing up against that kind of evil in the world is something it's hard to shake.
Just submitted my own story.
I am actually quite surprised that this contest has been so . . . down beat. Usually there's a fair amount of laughter and naughtiness.
I won't be helping that though.
--
Like Nevets said, it's nice to see a conscience.
Nevets,
I have a hard time viewing all that perverse violence in the genre as simply entertainment. There needs to be some thematic grit to balance things out. I was hoping to deal a little bit with theonomy and similar subjects in this little piece. Dunno if it worked, though.
B.,
Will check often so I can give it a read.
I've been a little surprised at how grim the entries are, too. Maybe it's the picture. It doesn't exactly put me in a mid-summer mood.
So this big black, sillohuetted bird walked into a bar, ordered a bourbon, and said, "Put it on my bill."
Oh, and as for it working, I think something about it worked. I would hesitate to say it got as strong as I think you wanted it to, but it did work. If that makes any sense.
Nevets,
My wife will love that pun. You see, she's addicted to them. It's a disease.
Yeah, I thought the allusion in the short was pretty obscure. I'm curious to see how many catch it.
hahaha My wife is addicted to terrible puns, too. I did that in honor of her.
The tell-tale. . . vultures. :) For anyone who's had to study Poe, the raven in flight will conjure just that kind of story. Or for anyone who's recently read Susanna Clark's fantastical tome, with all it's alusions to the Raven King.
The tell-tale. . . vultures.
You got it! It's been fun to see the kind of stories that have come up in the competition. They're all over the board, but also largely downbeat. Which is interesting.
I need to make an appointment with my therapist after wading through all these &#$*! entries. My brain is frying - extra crispy frying. And I've still got 100 left to comment on (though I have read them all)
Aerin,
I'm probably a horrible person -- wait, no, I'll claim the title outright: I didn't even try to read them all. Skim, yes, but if I tried to go through and comment on each and every one, I'd have needed a permanent blogging hiatus.
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