Instigation: Creative Prompts on the Dark Side @MikeArnzen

As you may (or may not) know, Twisted: Tales to Rot Your Brain Vol. 1 owes a lot to the instigations of Mike Arnzen and his Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers. For years I've been stealing his short, dark story prompts from the Gorelets blog and collecting them in a Word file that I revisit on occasion when I'm short on ideas.

Well, he's about to make the task a lot easier for me. He's collected the instigations from his Goreletter (along with additional prompts and goodies) and will be offering them up in an eBook this spring. You can get a copy for as little as $1 if you back his Kickstarter project "Fridge of the Damned," which serves as even more instigation. Jump in now; funding ends Feb. 1.

Appendectomy: The Final Sucking

Here's my final drawing for the chapter "Appendectomy" planned for use in Twisted Vol. 2. Can't wait to show my doctor. I think she'll approve.

Appendectomy

I had a few stories left over from Twisted Vol. 1 that weren't quite ready for prime time, and I decided to save them for Vol. 2, but last week I had my first new idea for Vol. 2 that I felt like I really needed to work on.

Here's the sketch:

It's what actually happens after you go in for surgery and they hit you with the Forget-Me Stick. Working title will be "Appendectomy."

I guess I've already given away the punchline, haven't I.

All Hallows Read

In case you didn't know about it, Neil Gaiman had an idea a couple of years ago that he called "All Hallow's Read" where, instead of (or in addition to, it doesn't really matter) giving candy at Halloween, you give a scary book instead. You can gift it, you can leave it somewhere, you can give it to a library. It doesn't really matter. All you really need to do is get people reading!

So, as in the past, I've designed a bookmark for the occasion. It's free to download and print as often as you like, and free to give away with that scary book you're going to give this Halloween. Download the hi-res pdf version on the Hairy Eyeballs Press site.

 

The font I used on the bookmark is called Canker Sore, and it was designed by John Martz.

As for scary books, may I suggest Twisted: Tales to Rot Your Brain Vol. 1? It's fun, it's scary, and it's just the thing to tuck your little ones in at night.

Twisted one-sheet

I've updated the one-sheet I put together for Twisted, and the hi-res pdf version of it is available here. I've included quotes from Kirkus Reviews and the Midwest Book Review along with the entire Publishers Weekly review. The QR code takes you to the Hairy Eyeballs website. I pulled the colors directly from the cover image to tie it all together. The rest of the media kit is available either from the book's site or the Hairy Eyeballs Press site.

I hope I remembered everything.

Media kit: Done

After a little (O.K. a lot of) rearranging and reuploading and relinking, I finally have the media kit finished for Twisted Vol. 1. I had a bit of a kit available on the publisher site, but I hadn't uploaded anything yet on the book site so I wanted to get moving on it. That, and the original media kit was mostly geared toward the Kickstarter campaign which, if you haven't noticed, was finished about a year ago. I had some catching up to do.

So available for download would be:

• The cover image (both low and high res)
• A still from the book trailer (low and high res)
• Two head shots to choose from, one casual, one formal (low and high res for each)
• The book's one-sheet (pdf)
• A contact sheet (pdf)
• An author bio (pdf)
• Info about the book (pdf)

I also have links to all the reviews I know about, plus the Kirkus Reviews Indie Spotlight Q&A they did with me and whatever other press the book has gotten along with all the links for the book: the book's site, blog, trailer and shop.

I'm hoping I haven't forgotten anything. I'm sure somebody will let me know if I did (and thanks in advance).

Kirkus interviewed me about Twisted!

After they reviewed the Twisted book, Kirkus contacted me and asked if I would do an interview for them. Of course I said I would! Here's a link to the page:

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/blog/fiction/indie-spotlight-nora-thompsons-twisted/

Nora Thompson's Twisted features 28 brief chapters of repulsive, funny flash-fiction. In our review, we noted that the debut author “shines at using multiple perspectives to breathe new life into conventional tales, with story endings that are surprising and skillfully foreshadowed.”

Repulsive? Yep. That's what they said.

The interview was done back and forth over email with Kathryn Lawson, and I thank her much for taking the time. Please, if you will, "Like" the page, g +1 it, email it, tweet it. Any help will certainly help!

The August Kirkus Reviews last page

The August edition of Kirkus Reviews is out, and their review of Twisted is in it! And you'll only have to flip to page 1,716 to read it. Yeah. That would be the last page.

Hey, it's Kirkus and they like the book. It doesn't really matter where they put it.

The Trials and Tribulations of a Reluctantly Reluctant Reader

I wrote a post about a month ago in response to a few comments I received in a couple of book reviews I got on the Twisted book, and I just reread yesterday what I had written in the post. After a little time away, sometimes you see things you missed that maybe bring up points you hadn't originally planned on making.

The post itself was supposed to be about how people were perceiving the book and how my implied words and illustrations weren't being taken at face value. As if that wasn't my intention from the start, but let's not go there right now.

When I reread the original post, I saw a few lines in there that I had written that weren't exactly what I was aiming for in hindsight. Here they are:

First, my mentor. Dr. Michael A. Arnzen taught me everything I know about writing fiction. He's a good teacher, and from what I've heard, a good writer as well. Why don't I know he's a good writer? Well, because he writes horror, and I really don't like to read horror. I've tried reading his stuff, but it's not what floats my blood cells, if you know what I mean. But you know what? He's won enough Bram Stoker Awards to shut up anybody who thinks the genre is all about teen gore movies. Just do a search for "Arnzen" on this page, and you'll see what I mean.

That paragraph made me think about something that has come up a few times since the book was released. I was going to post another comment on that post, but quickly realized I had a bigger point than I could put in the space of a comment. (And as an aside, I actually find Dr. A's flash fiction and poetry very entertaining. It's still classified as horror, I understand, but my mind doesn't wander off when it's in smaller doses.) The point I was trying to make was that just because I don't like to read something doesn't mean it isn't good.

That's the conundrum of a reluctant reader.

Let me try to explain. I'm a picky eater. Always have been. I think of mushrooms as fungus, and generally I avoid them when I'm choosing from a menu. But as a vegetarian, I've found that a whole lot of people think that being a vegetarian must mean you really, really love portobellos because that's the vegetarian choice in many restaurants. Apparantly, portobellos are considered very delicious. They're just not delicious to me.

I've also always been a picky reader. I don't like it, and I try hard to get as much variety in my reading diet as I can, but I've found there are some things I have trouble with. And it's not always everything by a certain writer, and it's not always a certain genre, and just because the vast majority of readers and critics agree it's a classic doesn't mean I won't have trouble with it.

Just to give you an idea. Here are a few of the books that I've tried to read that I haven't been able to finish (but am still trying):

A Farewell to Arms by Earnest Hemingway
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft (I understand it's only a short story, but that doesn't seem to be making it any easier for me.)

Here are a few books that I wanted to like but struggled violently to get through:

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (illustrated by Lane Smith)

Here are a few books that I pushed myself to finish but won't be reading the rest of the series (which is terribly sad for me because I love collecting entire series of things):

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide by Holly Black
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

And then here are a few books that I read and will likely read again:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (illustrated by Dave McKean)
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (which I wrote about on my other blog here)
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

See what I mean? There's no rhyme or reason. Those top books are considered classics; the portobellos of the literary world. I wish I could explain how a reluctant reader thinks, but I don't understand it myself. Some things stick and some things don't. Some books keep my attention, and some books make my mind wander, and it really doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the writing or illustrations.

• I picked up Lemony Snicket, Spiderwick, James and the Giant Peach and The Graveyard Book because of the illustrations.
• I kept with Raw Shark and Extremely Loud partly because of the graphics that were added throughout.
• I had trouble with The Hobbit and Hitchhiker partly because of the odd names and words that I struggled to keep straight.
• I kept with The Graveyard Book and Slaughterhouse-Five partly because of Gaiman's and Vonnegut's turn of a phrase.
• But Vonnegut's great phrase turning didn't help when I forced myself to finish Titan.

There are a couple of things I would like people to know—and when I say "people" I mean readers who devour books. Those people I would so like to be like. I think something that I do understand that I would like other people to understand is that I don't like that I can't stay focused. I don't like that I won't be reading the second book in the Harry Potter series. I don't like that I don't like portobello mushrooms. Because if I could stay focused and read the rest of the series and eat the mushrooms, I would fit in so much easier socially. I could be part of the discussion. But I know what a struggle it is to make myself sit and read the same sentence over and over and over and still not hear what it's saying. I decided a long time ago to stop putting myself through it.

I also want to point out that just because I'm not reading it doesn't mean that I don't think it's good. I'm absolutely sure that it is. It's just not flashing my neurons the way it's supposed to, the way it does all those people who can devour a book in one sitting. I've never, in my entire life, been able to stay focused long enough to devour a book (longer than a picture book) in one sitting. And it really doesn't have anything to do with the book. I still haven't figured out why I like the things I do or not like the things I don't. But if I ever do, it will make it a lot easier when I shop for books.

I know this probably hasn't shed much light on the mind of a reluctant reader, and the only advice I have for the parents and teachers and librarians out there who are dealing with one (or many) is to not give up. Don't stop trying. There's a Graveyard Book out there for yours; you just have to find it. Dig it up. It took me 45 years to find mine.

Redesigned covers

With three positive reviews from major reviewers to boast, I decided to redesign the Twisted covers to include exerpts. While I was at it, I made a few more changes of things that were bugging me. Here's what I did:

• I was afraid the image was printing a little on the cyan side, so I adjusted that
• From the beginning I wanted the title on the front to be much bigger, so I messed with that a little, too (although I'm not quite happy with it yet)
• I added a few spot colors of that aqua from the image in some of the text, which I like a lot better
• I changed most of the fonts from VT Portable Remington to Goudy Old Style like the body copy in the book
• I made some changes to the spine in the image and the font
• I changed the Hairy Eyeballs Press logo so it will show up better

Here's the hardcover before:

and here's the hardcover after:

Two Purple Dragonflies—Proof!

In case you didn't believe me...

a couple certificates to prove it!

Won: Two Purple Dragonflies!

Twisted: Tales to Rot Your Brain Vol. 1 is the proud recipient of two Purple Dragonfly Book Awards! The first one is a First Place award for Fiction: Collection of Short Stories, and the second is a Second Place award for Interior Design. Here's a link to all the winners:

http://www.fivestarpublications.com/bookcontest/book-award-winners.html#2012pdbawin

Are people seeing what the reviewers are seeing?

Hmmm.

Sometimes I wonder what people out there think they're reading. Or seeing. When you read, how much of what you see comes from what you yourself are bringing to the reading?

The Twisted book just got reviewed by Kirkus last week (yay yay yay!), and I'm noticing a pattern here. I'm not a horror person, let's just say that up front. At least, not in the way it's come to be known. I don't go for gore. I'm more of a Sixth Sense kind of scary story person. But between the book's review in Publishers Weekly and now in Kirkus, I'm starting to wonder...

1. About myself
2. About what people think they're seeing
3. About does it really matter

I'll get to "1. About myself" later, but first, let's do 2.

"...the main character is brutally attacked"
"...a jack o'lantern sits mutilated in the foreground..."

—Publishers Weekly

"...Her artwork tends toward the gory..."

—Kirkus Reviews

I don't want to sound like a writer who just got bad reviews and wants to throw a fit; that's not the problem at all. I'm totally thankful for the reviews I got. They were positive and encouraging and much appreciated (thank you, MBR, PW and KR).

The thing was, when the Publishers Weekly review came out, I thought it was a single instance of someone who was reading more into the stories than was actually there, and I just let it pass. But with this new Kirkus review, I'm starting to wonder what's at play here.

Without giving too much away, let me address first the PW quotes. In the first one where "the main character is brutally attacked," I sort of make a face like, huh? Except for two lines, the main character isn't even touched by the thing after him, let alone brutally. (By the way, the lines are: "Oily fingers grab at your throat," and "It reaches through from the back of the open stairs and seizes your ankle.")

In the second quote, I think the easiest thing to do is show you the illustration. And that would be it, over to the right. If the seeds that are left after gutting a pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern are considered mutilation, maybe parents should think twice about letting their kids at the gourds this Hallowe'en. Just sayin'.

Now to the Kirkus quote, and I think I'll have to post another illustration here. That picture on the left? That's as gory as it gets. He's a butcher. You know, like the one who works in your local supermarket. I'm not even trying to be funny here. I'm a vegetarian, and the poem that goes with this illustration was actually my reaction to just how rediculous the eating of meat (including the kind that will probably be on your dinner table tonight) is to those of us who don't partake in that sort of thing. Seriously.

Here's a list (without giving too much away) of the rest of the illustrations in the book:

• clouds (not kidding)
• two birds in a tree talking about the person walking under it
• various poses of an artist drawing a graphic novel
• a clown
• the jack-o-lantern from above
• the butcher from above
• a doctor (not even playing doctor)
• a child's drawing of a rainbow, a sun, a flower and clouds (those darn clouds again)
• a child in bed sleeping
• the butt of a monster looking in a refrigerator
• a vacuum cleaner
• a kid looking scared in the shadow of a cartoony monster
• another clown (this one's scary, but not at all gory)
• a chair knocked over with broken glasses and a book
• the zombie waitress on the cover

That's it.

Now about "1. About myself." I was worried at first about being categorized in a genre that I really didn't like and thought I had nothing to do with.

But then I thought about, well, two things.

First, my mentor. Dr. Michael A. Arnzen taught me everything I know about writing fiction. He's a good teacher, and from what I've heard, a good writer as well. Why don't I know he's a good writer? Well, because he writes horror, and I really don't like to read horror. I've tried reading his stuff, but it's not what floats my blood cells, if you know what I mean. But you know what? He's won enough Bram Stoker Awards to shut up anybody who thinks the genre is all about teen gore movies. Just do a search for "Arnzen" on this page, and you'll see what I mean.

As for the second thing I thought about: Alfred Hitchcock. So what if these people are seeing something that isn't there. Alfred Hitchcock banked his career on the possibility that they would, and his is considered classic material.

So I'm not going to worry about any of this after today. If I ever get around to a Vol. 2, I'm going to stick to my guns (but I probably won't draw any because I'm a pacifist) and draw and write the stories that make me laugh.

And, I'm going to enter the book in the Bram Stokers.

Thumbs up review from Kirkus!

Oooh hoo!

Kirkus Reviews has gone and reviewed my Twisted book, and I'm getting the idea they liked what they saw!

A lot of the review is directed toward book buyers and summarizes some of the stories, but here's a collection of parts where it's all about the review:

A clever collection of stories and comics by debut author Thompson.

An experienced illustrator and graphic designer, Thompson organizes this flash-fiction book into 28 extremely brief chapters on many subjects and uses both text and spacing to heighten interest. Her artwork tends toward the gory, though the drawings also contain elements of humor. The words themselves are arranged on the page for an atypical and interesting reading experience...Thompson shines at using unexpected or multiple perspectives to breathe new life into conventional tales, with story endings that are surprising and skillfully foreshadowed. This balance between the unpredictable and the expected rewards rereading. Thompson uses amusing chapter titles like “Cleaver Over-Achiever” and “Lobotomy Pie,” and her phrasing is often similarly adroit...the book is an excellent example of its genre and will likely appeal to younger readers.

An assortment of repulsive yet funny chapters makes for a quick and enjoyable read. —Kirkus Reviews

I don't think some of the words they use to describe the book are entirely accurate, but I'll focus on that aspect next week. For now, I'm just going to bask in a repulsively positive review!

My book is totally available--with incentives!

It's taken me a while, but I finally was able to get my book available for purchase on its own site:

http://www.hairyeyeballs.com/books.html

And that's not all: If you buy the book directly from me (rather than through Amazon or Barnes & Noble), not only is it cheaper (cost-wise), I'll also throw in a free bookmark (those are them to the left over there) and I'll sign it for you! Even with personalized signage! Just let me know who to dedicate your copy to in the "Add special instructions to the seller" box when you check out.

Yep. It's that simple.

Publishers Weekly liked the book!

Yes! THE Publishers Weekly!

Here's what they had to say (and how it looks on the printed page):

In "Garlic Toast," one of nearly 30 brief works of "flash fiction" in this collection of dark comedy and horror, the main character is brutally attacked and chased by a monster, before awakening in bed from a nightmare. "You wipe the sweat from your forehead.... You close your eyes and smile. You hope the next one is just as good." That type of kid—the one who revels in being terrified—is the audience first-time author Thompson is aiming for. In stories that last only a few pages and comics that resemble Nickelodeon cartoons on acid, Thompson riffs on zombie, werewolf, and other ghoulish genres, while also finding the horrific in unexpected places. In "Testophobia," a test-taker's increasingly anxious thoughts are superimposed over a blurred-out exam below ("Hemophobia: Fear of blood. Won't wipe off. On fingers. On sleeve, paper. Smeared. Trembling. Shaky. Shaking"). And in a cartoon labeled "Lobotomy Pie," a freshly baked pumpkin pie cools on a counter, while a jack o'lantern sits mutilated in the foreground. Just the thing for readers who aren't scared of the dark—or for those who are and like it. Ages 12–up.

(!)

And here's the link to it online:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-9836699-0-6

I got to talk about writing and illustrating—and people actually listened!

A few weeks ago I was part of a panel at the Frick Art & Historical Center discussing kid's books, writing and illustrating them and getting them published. The panel was in part in conjunction with their current exhibit: Draw Me a Story: A Century of Children's Book Illustration, but it was also to celebrate Women's History Month.

We talked about our influences in writing and reading kid's books, including influential female characters and writers. I explained that I wasn't a very good reader growing up—not that I had trouble reading, but that I just wasn't interested in doing it. I was what publisher's now refer to as a "reluctant reader," which generally is code for "boys."

When I wrote Twisted: Tales to Rot Your Brain, I had no trouble keeping that young, reluctant reader in me in mind. I wrote short, short stories that would work well with the short-attention-spanned reader I used to be. I also illustrated many of the stories in the book which addressed the "pictures or it didn't happen" side of my reading brain. And, for the part of me that wasn't interested in the subjects that were available for me to read at the time, I wrote about the things that might have kept my attention.

So I guess I wrote this book for the me I used to be, but I'm hoping it sticks with other readers who are struggling to pay attention as much as I did. And those readers aren't just the boys in the room. I'm proof.

See? I wasn't lying. Saturday rocked.

I totally survived my first book signing last Saturday at the Frick Art & Historical Center, and had a great time. It was fun seeing how people "got it" when they opened the book and got a look at the twisted illustrations inside. I don't know who else I signed for, but I know one of my books will be going to the Murrysville Community Library, so I'm just warning all you parents with kids over there: It's coming.

It was also terribly fun to use my new Square credit card reader on my iPad. The best part was how the people handing me their cards also thought it was fun. I was a tiny bit afraid they might be apprehensive about it, but I had no problems at all. It was fast. It was easy. I'd recommend it completely. (I've mentioned Square so many times on my blogs that people are going to start thinking I work for them. I really don't.)

Book buyers were rewarded with a free bookmark to take home with their new book, and we also had prints and posters available, along with various free postcards options to choose from.

I'll be doing a little research to see where else I might be able to have a book party. If you know of any independent bookstores or quirky shops that might be interested, just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Just a reminder about how great Saturday is going to be

As I mentioned in my last post and to remind everybody, I'll be doing my first book signing for Twisted: Tales to Rot Your Brain Vol. 1 this Saturday. Here's the info:

What: Book signing (along with my new buddy Stacy Innerst)
Date: Saturday, April 14
Time: 1:30-2:30 pm
Location: The Frick Art & Historical Center, in the museum rotunda

For more information: http://www.thefrickpittsburgh.org/programs_events/The_Frick_is_for_Families.php

What you can expect when you get there:

• puppets
• write and illustrate your own stories
• storytimes
• book signings (that's me!)
• kid's flicks
• food!

Events start at 11:15 and run through 4:00.

Book signing @ The Frick

Last week I was one of the speakers on a panel at the Frick Art & Historical Center in Pittsburgh. We talked about writing and illustrating kid's books, and I wrote a preview about it on my kid's illustration blog here.

The museum's current exhibit is Draw Me a Story: A Century of Children's Book Illustration, and on Saturday, April 14 they're going to have a family day. Admission will be free with lots of activities for kids throughout the day. Besides book readings, puppets and movies, they're also going to have book signings, and they've asked me to be a part of that.

So. I'll be doing my first book signing for Twisted: Tales to Rot Your Brain Vol. 1 a week from this Saturday! Here's the info:

What: Book signing (along with my new buddy Stacy Innerst)
Date: Saturday, April 14
Time: 1:30-2:30 pm
Location: The Frick Art & Historical Center, in the museum rotunda

For more info: http://www.thefrickpittsburgh.org/programs_events/The_Frick_is_for_Families.php