I shall have to be creative in what kind of trouble to lure you into this year. Last year's karoke wasn't as much fun as I expected.

Rant

What an absolute masterpiece - reminds me of Perec's La Disparition. I don't think that even at my best I could write this.

LJ thought they were pitching me a softball. About a month ago I announced that I was writing a paranormal romance novel about Frank & Tony and a resort on a mountaintop in PA. So clearly I think that "what is not written about" is gay paranormal romance.

But I chose that because I thought it would sell. Paranormal romance is an exploding genre and I judged that it was the genre where it was possible for a first time author to be published. That doesn't actually mean that I thought that was what needed to be written about. The distinction between "art" and "saleable" is a question I think best discussed late at night over a second bottle of Galiano with close friends.

I went into history in part because it was the path of least resistance, but also in part because I found an incredible wealth of stories about people like me. People throughout history who had stories that taught me something. I'll admit that in the beginning most of the stories were about futility. About men and women who were, by any definition "great". Endowed with abilities and talents greater than my own. Favored by fortune with positions where the commanded wealth and power that nobody today can dream of - and they still failed. Some of these people were petty, but others had a vision - they wanted to give their children a world better than the one they'd received. And they failed. Some improved the world, but

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for? All is silver-grey,
Placid and perfect . . . " Browning's Del Sarto

Now I've got to go off for more tests - I've got a suspicious bulge in my abdomen which could be related to Porphyria, or it could be a hernia, or it could be something "interesting". When I come back I'll try to finish the essay.

Wow - that took longer than I anticipated. Today's educational word is "intussusception". For a special bonus of my weekend fun, look up "Neuropathy" and "Allodynia". For a few days typing was agonizing.

Obviously the interruption in my train of thought wrecks whatever structure I once had for this essay. I had planned to start with why I found history fascinating and bridge to why I find the Romantic movement so compelling - these wonderful idealistic people who chose to preference ideals over reality. I'd hoped to do a contrast of Francis Bacon and Percy Shelley. The summary of the summary (as Keynes once said), is that we can't have a civilization without Bacon's invention of the scientific method and we can't care about that civilization without the Romantic sensibility.

And there was a fantastic quote by Bruce Mcallister - in the story "Stu" that I've lost.

So in the context of that, what needs to be written about? We need more stories that bridge the isolation of one soul from another. Stories that support and join us, reminding us of common bonds - bonds like the awe that so characterized the best of the Romantics.

Bloodwing
Mr.Wizard
Vamp

I think I have permission to post these. They may vanish.

I've managed to possibly extract Mr. Tanner's text.
Tanner's comments

I'm aware that Tanner's comments are only one side of the conversation. Those who understand why it must be that way will understand; others will be frustrated. I cannot control that.

Bit of a a physical collapse this week. Had some medical problems over the weekend and received emergency treatment. Either the drugs or the stress were too much for me, and Monday afternoon I had a relapse. So I'm hooked up to the machines again today listening to the whirring of the pumps and washers, and staring at my belly which we hope will decrease in size.

And thinking. Thinking about William Blake and Adam Smith. About Benito Mussolini and Oliver North. About Stephanie and about Neville Chamberlain. Thinking about my father and his father and his father and about Robert Lee Tanner. I've written and deleted the next paragraph several times, and I'm just not ready to embrace it. But I find it ironic that as I finished my last post, Dido was asking if there was anything in her life that she truly owned.
(yes, I listen to Dido occasionally. Mixed with Rammstein. Accept it. Move on.)

The world is a different place. And not all of this weekend can be washed from my body by a set of machines.

Life is... a little different than it was last week. I'm still trying to absorb that. Sometime soon I'll post what I feel I can. But in the interim there are some people who may want to reach me.

If you're looking to contact me, you can address email to my username at comcast.net

I'm quite pleased by the response you've all given me. I've still got some work to do on the tail end of the essay on horror. But today I'm going to give you a special treat. Brandon Sanderson says that fiction is about character, plot and setting, but that Character must be the most important. So let me share the following paragraphs that introduce some of the characters. And some of you may recognize the setting as a fictionalized version of Chamber's resort.
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I wrote an earlier post mentioning that fiction gave me the ability to write my opinions without restriction. The downside of that is of course that nobody will pay me to go to this haunt: Africa Haunted Castle

What is horror?

I've been asking myself that for a while. What makes a scene horrifying? What is it that we enjoy about a scary story?

Talking with some friends - Peg & Kali- we came up with a list of things that contribute to horror

Disorientation

Sensory disorientation is scary - either by occuluding a sense (darkness) or confusing it (background noise), or overstimulating it (strobes, smells), or by inappropriateness. Disorientation puts you off balance.

Powerlessness

Things are more scary when you've got no power to affect the outcome. If we can act effectively, the situation is less scary.

Incomprehensibility

We're used to being able to understand the situation; when we can't, that's scary.

Violation of expectations

When the evidence of our senses violates our deeply held beliefs, that's scary. We know that the dead don't rise. But if we think we see a ghost or a zombie, we're scared. If this commonly accepted fact is wrong, what else don't we know? This is one of my favorites. And it doesn't have to be done as bluntly as Lovecraft & his ilk

I want to write a scary novel. I freely admit I've picked paranormal romance because as Scalzi says "That's what sells", but having set myself the goal, having permitted myself an opinion, I want to do it reasonably well. I want my scary story to be scary.

DarkWood Manor
Splendid little haunt in the romantic town of Luray Virginia. Peg found this on An index site of horror resources and suggested it.

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All in all a splendid haunt. I wish that other haunt staff could see this one.

Excellent news!

Peg, who easily qualifies as my best friend, will be visiting America. She's working on a project that mirrors mine and we'll be visiting places that are relevant to our research. Our next joint visit will be the Chambers resort & spa.

Peg & I worked together on a writing project a few years ago, and kept up contact after the project finished. We work well together. She's a perfectionist who uses words like scalpel's. I'm more logorheic - words spew out onto the page. Between us we get stuff done on time and under budget, which means we get paid.

Peg will be posting here occasionally. Which means I have to set some rules. Peg's not quite as wild as some of my friends - so please treat this as the living room of your best friend's parent's home. (If you treated this like the living room of your parent's home, some of you would get me banned from LiveJournal pretty quickly; so pretend it is the living room of someone you respect). If you misbehave Peg will be forced to give me "The Look". Nobody wants that.

Welcome Peg!! I'm looking forward to seeing you.

Hi,

I'm JP. Nice to meet ya.

So who am I and why am I here?
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If you want to post something in the comments introducing yourself, feel free. If you want to suggest a haunt or location that might do well in a book, chime in.

http://www.goatmanhollow.com/ has some pretty loyal fans -  I gather it started as a backyard/family haunt, and has grown over the years.  They've moved from a backyard to a rented or borrowed building, and they've acquired a large staff of mostly young, very amateur staff.

There's a story  - something about a part goat/part man. There's also a history involving Dr. Stephen Fletcher, his wife and some experiments. Parts of the story are rewritten every year, and the full legend is apparently only known to the creator of the haunt.   Over the years some internal traditions and jargon have crept in - like "cryptids" which are evidently important to the story, but not explained at the Haunt.   This year's legend includes a number of other jokes & puns - like the scientists characters who are named after towns in Maryland, or the "ARC" which is another artistic effort worked on by some of the staff.  Unfortunately Goatman is in danger of becoming accessible only to the insider.  I wish they'd put up exhibits and/or infotainment outside that could make the site accessible to guests.

There's a great deal of work in the haunt.  A building which was probably an old hardware store has been gutted and rebuilt with many interior chambers.  Some are haunt standards -like the winding black maze. Some are relatively novel.  Most of the chambers however are "one trick ponies" - rooms that illustrate some clever effect that inspired the creator, but don't support either each other, or the story. Sadly, once the effect was achieved, work on the chamber seems to stop.  Generally they affect only one sense, and only one sentence of story.  They also decline in entertainment value. The second and third rooms are well presented (if thin), and hint at horror, but after that there are a variety of badly presented disconnected chambers that lead to boredom.  There are a few good rooms in the mix, but I don't want to spoil the surprises.

I mentioned above that the actors are young and unskilled.  They strive to get their lines out, but aren't able to make them real, and aren't able to do any pacing.  The languid wander destroys any element of suspense or disorientation. Occasionally the staff resort to senseless humiliation of the guests as a form of comedy. 

Having said all that, they clearly love their haunt, and that carries a great deal of weight.  The overwhelming impression is one of potential - this could be a very good haunt.  We left happy, and we'll try to come back next year