On Splattering and Goo
Good heavens. Two months since I last posted. I had no idea it was so long.
One of the non-fun things about writing a novel is how solitary an endeavour it is. It's just you and the recalcitrant words and the infelicitous phrases in a throwdown battle of domination, trying to steer a path between the text reading like a shopping list or alternatively ending up with the plot so buried under a coral of fancy-schmantzy prose that it becomes invisible. It's a grind, especially when one's trying to keep to a schedule in order to get the thing done in a timely fashion. So, one looks for ways to make the process more entertaining and to keep one's energy up generally.
Teasers are great for this, as they're both fun to give and to receive. It's like a particularly juicy piece of gossip that one knows is entirely fresh and will never suffer the indignity of hearing from the listener, "Oh, that? I heard about that a week ago." So the temptation to drop hints about what one is writing to readers who have enjoyed your previous work and who will, in all likelihood, want to read the new material, is very strong indeed. Now, temptation and I have a long and healthy relationship; it tempts me, and I promptly give in. Temptation, job done, can now go off and watch telly with a clear conscience, as it doesn't have one (a conscience, that is. It does have a telly, albeit a metaphorical one). I, on the other hand, find myself wondering if I've done the right thing.
In this case, I tweeted the following in a surfeit of glee.
Those who thought JCtD was lacking horror should be happy. #JohannesCabal 3 has oodles of ugly deaths. Ugly, sticky, oozing deaths...
"Oodles" in this context is a very vague term meaning, "More on-page deaths than usual." As to "ugly, oozing deaths," it should be understood that there is a hierarchy here: there are deaths; there are ugly deaths; there are sticky deaths, that are therefore ugly; there are oozing deaths, that are therefore sticky, and therefore ugly, too.
Now, the reviews for Johannes Cabal the Detective have been gratifyingly good, with no outright bad ones, at least to my knowledge. There have, however, been some middling ones, and these have been almost unanimous as to why they don't like Detective as much as Necromancer; it's because the horror elements are fewer. Linda Marotta's review in "Fangoria" is a good example of these; she loved Necromancer, but was left a little cold by Detective. That's fine and -- after all -- being "left a little cold" is still a good distance from actively disliking it.
As it is, I was in a position to think, "Well, you might like the next one more in that case," when I came upon such reviews. I should emphasise that I had the idea for Cabal #3 a year or two ago and its writing was already well underway when Detective was released. Thus, the reviews bemoaning the paucity of horror in that novel had no impact on the plot of its successor. Heaven forfend that they should do so, because then I'd essentially be writing to order, and that way lies suckage.
So, I sent the above tweet purely in a spirit of "This is very vaguely what I'm doing. Cool, eh?" And for this, I am a fool. It hadn't really occurred to me that, while there are plenty of people who would welcome a more horrific Cabal excursion, there were also plenty who preferred the tone of Detective to Necromancer, and who would regard more horror as a retrograde step.
Thus, I feel I should clear up a few things. Importantly, every Cabal story long or short is its own creature. Some of them are relatively cerebral, and some involve much splatter. I can only say that I am not nor have I ever been a fan of splatter for splatter's sake. Even in the 'seventies when the new wave of extreme gore came in, despite being a schoolboy who should have been easily enamoured of such explicitness, it didn't do much for me. My favourite early James Herbert, for example, was actually Fluke, far and away his least gory. I also remember actually jumping up from my reading and pacing back and forth in mad excitement at the ideas behind Blackwood's almost bloodless "The Wendigo," a courtesy that I never extended to any tale of chainsaws, cannibalism, or giant, vigorously carnivorous animals, usually contained within a novel entitled "The (Noun)," plurals optional. So, when I talk about "ugly, sticky, oozing deaths," this is ugly, sticky, oozing deaths within the Cabal universe, and all that it entails.
There is, however, definitely more horror in Cabal #3 than Detective. There just is. The story will not work or even make sense without it.
So, to come to some sort of conclusion, I suppose I should be more careful with my teasing. Anticipation is one thing, but inadvertently creating misconceptions is something else. My apologies to anybody who got the impression I was reaching for a five gallon bucket with one hand and the formula for Kensington Gore with the other. That is not the case.
I was planning on using the three gallon instead.
And so, to vaguely related fare. I've been asked a number of times in recent weeks about the possibility of a Cabal short story collection. In principle, I'd love to do it. I am and have always been a great fan and supporter of the short form, and sneer mightily at those who regard it as a poor cousin of the novel. Between the two published, and the one due out in November, plus several unpublished examples, I have about 50-60% of what I'd consider sufficient to create a collection. Add to that the ideas for shorts I have noted down, and there should be enough. Lying between now and that happy event, however, is actually getting the stories written and securing a publishing deal for such a collection. So, the will is there, but there's also a muckle of work and a friendly publisher necessary before it actually sees the light of day.
One of the non-fun things about writing a novel is how solitary an endeavour it is. It's just you and the recalcitrant words and the infelicitous phrases in a throwdown battle of domination, trying to steer a path between the text reading like a shopping list or alternatively ending up with the plot so buried under a coral of fancy-schmantzy prose that it becomes invisible. It's a grind, especially when one's trying to keep to a schedule in order to get the thing done in a timely fashion. So, one looks for ways to make the process more entertaining and to keep one's energy up generally.
Teasers are great for this, as they're both fun to give and to receive. It's like a particularly juicy piece of gossip that one knows is entirely fresh and will never suffer the indignity of hearing from the listener, "Oh, that? I heard about that a week ago." So the temptation to drop hints about what one is writing to readers who have enjoyed your previous work and who will, in all likelihood, want to read the new material, is very strong indeed. Now, temptation and I have a long and healthy relationship; it tempts me, and I promptly give in. Temptation, job done, can now go off and watch telly with a clear conscience, as it doesn't have one (a conscience, that is. It does have a telly, albeit a metaphorical one). I, on the other hand, find myself wondering if I've done the right thing.
In this case, I tweeted the following in a surfeit of glee.
Those who thought JCtD was lacking horror should be happy. #JohannesCabal 3 has oodles of ugly deaths. Ugly, sticky, oozing deaths...
"Oodles" in this context is a very vague term meaning, "More on-page deaths than usual." As to "ugly, oozing deaths," it should be understood that there is a hierarchy here: there are deaths; there are ugly deaths; there are sticky deaths, that are therefore ugly; there are oozing deaths, that are therefore sticky, and therefore ugly, too.
Now, the reviews for Johannes Cabal the Detective have been gratifyingly good, with no outright bad ones, at least to my knowledge. There have, however, been some middling ones, and these have been almost unanimous as to why they don't like Detective as much as Necromancer; it's because the horror elements are fewer. Linda Marotta's review in "Fangoria" is a good example of these; she loved Necromancer, but was left a little cold by Detective. That's fine and -- after all -- being "left a little cold" is still a good distance from actively disliking it.
As it is, I was in a position to think, "Well, you might like the next one more in that case," when I came upon such reviews. I should emphasise that I had the idea for Cabal #3 a year or two ago and its writing was already well underway when Detective was released. Thus, the reviews bemoaning the paucity of horror in that novel had no impact on the plot of its successor. Heaven forfend that they should do so, because then I'd essentially be writing to order, and that way lies suckage.
So, I sent the above tweet purely in a spirit of "This is very vaguely what I'm doing. Cool, eh?" And for this, I am a fool. It hadn't really occurred to me that, while there are plenty of people who would welcome a more horrific Cabal excursion, there were also plenty who preferred the tone of Detective to Necromancer, and who would regard more horror as a retrograde step.
Thus, I feel I should clear up a few things. Importantly, every Cabal story long or short is its own creature. Some of them are relatively cerebral, and some involve much splatter. I can only say that I am not nor have I ever been a fan of splatter for splatter's sake. Even in the 'seventies when the new wave of extreme gore came in, despite being a schoolboy who should have been easily enamoured of such explicitness, it didn't do much for me. My favourite early James Herbert, for example, was actually Fluke, far and away his least gory. I also remember actually jumping up from my reading and pacing back and forth in mad excitement at the ideas behind Blackwood's almost bloodless "The Wendigo," a courtesy that I never extended to any tale of chainsaws, cannibalism, or giant, vigorously carnivorous animals, usually contained within a novel entitled "The (Noun)," plurals optional. So, when I talk about "ugly, sticky, oozing deaths," this is ugly, sticky, oozing deaths within the Cabal universe, and all that it entails.
There is, however, definitely more horror in Cabal #3 than Detective. There just is. The story will not work or even make sense without it.
So, to come to some sort of conclusion, I suppose I should be more careful with my teasing. Anticipation is one thing, but inadvertently creating misconceptions is something else. My apologies to anybody who got the impression I was reaching for a five gallon bucket with one hand and the formula for Kensington Gore with the other. That is not the case.
I was planning on using the three gallon instead.
And so, to vaguely related fare. I've been asked a number of times in recent weeks about the possibility of a Cabal short story collection. In principle, I'd love to do it. I am and have always been a great fan and supporter of the short form, and sneer mightily at those who regard it as a poor cousin of the novel. Between the two published, and the one due out in November, plus several unpublished examples, I have about 50-60% of what I'd consider sufficient to create a collection. Add to that the ideas for shorts I have noted down, and there should be enough. Lying between now and that happy event, however, is actually getting the stories written and securing a publishing deal for such a collection. So, the will is there, but there's also a muckle of work and a friendly publisher necessary before it actually sees the light of day.