Archive for Behind the Words

“The Boy Between Worlds” – Behind The Words

jdeeds / April 12, 2012 / No comments

Wow our Sixth installment of Behind the Words! Today we talk about “The Boy Between Worlds,” which turned out to be my first Gloaming Gap story.

Where did the idea come from?

I had originally started working on The Boy Between Worlds before I had ever even talked to Jeff about Gloaming Gap. Originally the story was going to be about a boy who suffered from Sleep Paraylsis. As someone who suffers from it personally I had wanted to write a piece that explains the tramia of Sleep Paraylsis on tween aged children.

Obviously that’s not where the story went. Once I started putting words to the page I knew it wasn’t going to follow the intended path. I had written about three paragraphs before I meet Jeff and was introduced to the world of Gloaming Gap.

When Jeff told me about this weird little town I feel in love with the idea of writing for it. That was when the idea of Timmy’s story exploded in my head like a deepth charge searching for a Nazi sumbermine.

About half way through writing the story I knew it was going to be two stories told from Timmy and Chance’s perspectives. 2400 words later I had a the first vampire story.

2400 words? that’s not flash fiction!?

Yeah this was also my first introduction to massive editing. Jeff sent me  very polite email explaining that Gloaming Gap stories were generally always flash fiction near 1500 words. OH CRAP. I spent the next two nights cutting as much as I could from the story. Taking out nearly 700+ words. Jeff was gracious enough to roll with the story even though the length was still far longer then most stories on the site.

Timmy, Tamra, and Paul where did the characters come?

There is a little secret here. When I started fleshing out the friendship between these three I drew from my High School days with my best friends, Jason Paul Kurinko, and Kirsten Tamara Deeds (Malkowski) Timmy was the name of one of my invisable friends when I was a little kid.

To this day “Boy Between Worlds” is one of my favorite stories I’ve written. I think there is so much more to this story that I may have to work on someday…

 

Category: Behind the Words, Gloaming Gap, Series, Writing, Writing Projects / Tags: , ,

“One Stake or Two” – Behind The Words

jdeeds / April 5, 2012 / No comments

On our fifth installment of “Behind the Words.” We are going to talk about the Gloaming Gap story “One Stake or Two.”

Where did the idea come from?

While writing “A Boy Between Worlds” I realized that these two brothers were so connected that I had to tell Chance’s side of events. In my mind Chance and Timmy are two sides of the human experience in Gloaming Gap. Timmy believes everything is supernatural, and Chance believes or did believe that it was all explainable with rational thought.

So I came up with this idea of telling story that started with Timmy, but allowed him to have interaction with Chance and create a starting point for the second story.

The whole point was to create an interweaving story of two brothers that would show one world from two very different perspectives.

Why is Chance such a goofball?

I think chance’s constant acting like a goofball is just that, an act. I think he has some idea of what is really going on in Gloaming Gap, but it’s like with wild animals if you show fear they kill you. Chance plays dumb so he’s not a threat to anyone in Gloaming Gap. Maybe he’s done it so long, that the act has become part of him. You can only wear a mask for so long before you forget what you look like under it.

Did you know ahead of time if Chance would kill his Timmy?

I wanted Chance to have to make that decision that none of us want to ever have to make. Sorta like if you were in the Zombie Apocalypse could you kill a loved one you knew was infected.

When I finished the story after the first draft in my mind Chance had killed Timmy. After talking with, my wife, Kirsten and fending off her anger for killing off yet another character I decided to leave it up to the reader really, until we decided to use Timmy in later stories.

What’s up with Chance and Bella? 

For that I’m going to say, just wait and see. This Friday 04/06/2012 read Nean Burkholder’s Story and see what is written in the stars for Chance and Bella.

Category: Behind the Words, Gloaming Gap, Series, Writing, Writing Projects / Tags: , ,

“Attack of the Meatloaf” – Behind The Words

jdeeds / March 29, 2012 / No comments

On our fourth installment of “Behind The Words” we are going to digest one my personal favorite Flash Fiction pieces I’ve written “Attack of the Meatloaf.”

Where did the idea come from:

The story was written from a prompt given to me by one of my college professors. In fact I wrote the entire story in it’s original form in class. The prompt was about how certain foods can bring back strong memories.

When I as a young lad many years ago my parents would pack up my sister, me and our family dog and we would travel across the country seeing all the sites. It was and is some of the best memories of my life. I wanted to combine that idea with the old “twilight zone” feel to the story. I wanted to create a sense of foreboding with out anything really happening.

I fell quickly in love with the image in my head of a demented Norman Rockwell picture of the 1950′s family sitting in an all american resturant dive the the dad’s head stuck in a map, mom looking consered at her own food choice and the little boy poking and play fighting with his meatloaf in an attempt to subude it.

Addapting it for Gloaming Gap.

After several people involved with the Gloaming Gap website read this story they thought it would be great to have it take place in their town. I quickly changed a few items around and had it take place in the local Diner “B’s.” I added the part about the mother ordering grape fruit pie, which if you are aware attracts the vampires.

Did the family die?

I had a couple of people ask me if the family made it out of Gloaming Gap. While it is true that it is always easier to make it into Gloaming Gap then out of it. I’m just not sure if the family makes it out or not. I would love to write a follow up piece where Billy is found wondering the woods after being separated from the rest of his family who he presumes dead after they were attacked by Vampires. Maybe he’ll run into the Linder boys, Sandra or Timmy out in the Gap woods.

 

Category: Behind the Words, Series, Uncategorized / Tags: ,

“Christmas Presence” – Behind The Words

jdeeds / March 22, 2012 / No comments

The Third installment of “Behind the Words,” and we are talking about my first co-writing piece. “Christmas Presence” is another Gloaming Gap piece. You can also listen to the story being read over at “The Lancast” for their Christmas Show!

Where did the idea come from?

Moving to Lancaster I came across a new experience living here that I had never experienced growing up in San Diego. Christmas Tree Lightnings. Every city, township, village out here has them. I love going to them. You see people you haven’t seen in ages catch up and just wander around mingling with the town’s people.

This is what I wanted to use as a means for readers to meet some of the new faces, and catch up with some of the older character’s in Gloaming Gap.

It was Nean’s idea to use the character of Keith, who is invisible to the towns people, to see the town and it’s people in a way that allowed us to be both and outsider and insider all at the same time.

What did you think of the co-writing experience?

Co-writing is a great way to challenge yourself as a writer. Learning how to express yourself and what you want to present in a story while also listening to the input of another causes you to constantly re-imagine your images and story plot.

The part of co-writing I enjoyed the most was seeing how another person can imagine the same story from such a different perspective. It is always good to see stories through different ideas.

The part of co-writing I found the most difficult was timing and scheduling. I really like working with somone in person to work out details. Both Nean and I had crazy schedules and restraints to our available time.

Will you ever co-write again? 

In fact yes! My wife and I are working on moving forward on a novel that has been bouncing around in my head for the past 10 years. The story to me is finished in my mental landscape. The problem I was running into is I know every detail of the world was becoming frustrated trying to fit it all into the story.

Our set up is that I will be writing a synopsis of the story overall and giving her basic details of how the world works. I will then write a brief synopses of each chapter and she will fill in the story.

I’m sure I will be writing much about this as the process moves forward.

Category: Behind the Words, Gloaming Gap, Series / Tags: ,

“Toy” – Behind The Words

jdeeds / January 26, 2012 / No comments

This the second installment of “Behind the Words.” I’m taking some time to talk about my writing as a process. I will discuss How I create the images and where my ideas come from. This time we are talking about the Gloaming Gap story “Toy”

Where did the idea come from:

There were several ideas behind this story. I wanted the story to take place in the little town toy store, run by a bearded old man, much like a Santa character. I wanted it to be one of the magical places with tons of wooden toys and dolls…just gone wrong, dark and creepy. I also wanted to bring in humor so I thought it would be interesting for Caitlin to think she was talking to the ghost of this man when in reality he wasn’t dead at all. A Christmas Miracal if you will.

What was the point of the movie theater?

I love the old Majestic style 1950′s theaters. There are so few left I knew Gloaming Gap would be the perfect place for one. Who better to sit in the theater then a girl trying to avoid ghosts. Why would ghosts sit down to watch a movie when they have the best reality to watch whenever they want. Are we just reality TV for Ghosts and Angels? (sounds like a whole different GG story.)

What was that shadow creature?

If I knew yet I would tell you. or better yet write a Gloaming Gap story for us and use the creature!

Was Thomas dead or not?

No you can’t kill a creature like Thomas who has the power of creation of life that easily.

 

Next Week I’m going to talk about “A Christmas Presence” Which was my first Co-writing piece. So if you haven’t read it take a gander and leave me and questions you have for me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category: Behind the Words, Gloaming Gap, Series, Writing Projects / Tags: , ,
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