Dark Muse Within: Jeremy C. Shipp

jeremyphotoJeremy C. Shipp is a writer of all kinds of disturbing stories that have been seen, or will be seen at Cemetery Dance, ChiZine, Harlan County Horrors, Apex Magazine, and Pseudopod. His books include Vacation, Sheep and Wolves, and Cursed.

I first came across his writing in audio form on Pseudopod, a weekly horror podcast. The story is titled “Camp” and it tells the the story of a boy trying to fit in at a not-so-ordinary kind of summer camp. It’s creepy as hell, and very original. If you’re looking for something that keeps you up at night, and leaves you wanting more, you’ve got to check it out.

Check out his website for a complete bibliography, a list of his stories that you can read for free, and opportunities to purchase signed books.

David: Why did you decide to become a writer?

Jeremy: Even before I knew how to write, I enjoyed storytelling and using my imagination. My brothers and I would play pretend and create strange worlds and characters. Super-powered robots, friendly mummies, Neanderthal side-kicks, the grim reaper. Then, in 4th grade, I wrote my first short story, and I loved the experience. So on the one hand, I’m a writer because I love writing. On the other hand, I want to do what I can to affect people positively. And I might as well have a good time doing that.

David: Why horror?

Jeremy: I never set out to write a story that will be classified as horror or Bizarro or dark fantasy or magic realism. I give my muse freedom to speak her mind, and these are the stories she needs to tell. I suppose my stories are often horrific, because the world is often horrific. When reality affects me deeply, the compassion and horror I feel affects my writing. I hope that by shining a light on darker subjects, my stories can help change the world, even in the smallest of ways.

David: What would you say is the defining moment in your writing career to date?

Jeremy: Getting Vacation published was a big thing for me. But in truth, every day of my life is filled with monumental moments. For instance, I received an email today from a reader who told me that Cursed touched her deeply.

David: Do you keep specific goals for your writing success? If so, can you share some of them?

Jeremy: There are times when I hold specific goals close to my heart. For instance, I always wanted to get a story accepted by Cemetery Dance. But in general, my goals are to write the best stories I can and to share these stories with people who will connect with them.

David: Have you ever noticed a perceptible shift in how people react to you after they read your stories? For instance, if someone met you in person and thought you were a nice guy, but after they read one of your stories they suddenly start acting extra nice to you, just in case you go the way of Norman Bates.

Jeremy: Here’s a conversation I’ve experienced on more than 5 occassions:

“What do you do?”

“I’m a writer.”

“Wow! What do you write?”

“Most people classify my stories as Bizarro, horror, dark fantasy.”

“Ohâ€.”

And I’ve heard this quite often:

“Why do you write stories like that? You seem like such a nice guyâ€.”

I’ve also heard:

“Why don’t you write Christian romance novels instead?”

David: I’m always interested in hearing where the idea for different stories came about. What was the idea that sparked the creation of “Camp” in your mind? (If you tell me you went to that camp as a kid, I’m going to be really freaked out)

Jeremy: I did go to that camp as a kid, and I write in order to atone for the horrors I caused. Nah, I’m kidding. Or am I? Yeah, I am. Anyway, with Camp, I wanted to write a story about social pressure and about the exploitation of new generations. Children are often willing to sacrifice their souls in order to please their parents. As for the camp system itself, the idea just sort of hit me, like a baseball bat in the skull.

David: As a horror writer, you’re well acquainted with your ability to draw out fear in others through your words. What is your own greatest fear?

Jeremy: The loss of loved ones is definitely my greatest fear. As a kid and as a young adult, I was an extremely fearful person. I worried about everything. And I reacted to these feelings in unhealthy ways. These days, however, I’m much more laid back and fun to be around. I try to reserve my states of fearfulness for when I really need them, such as when I’m being chased by giant man-eating babies. They can crawl faster than you’d imagine.

David: What fictional story, other than your own, has done the best job of scaring the hell out of you?

Jeremy: Movies scare me. Audition, Eraserhead, The Ring. But somehow, I feel much less vulnerable when reading a story. Still, there are many books that have disturbed me deeply. American Psycho, Let the Right One In, Pressure.

David: If you could meet one fictional character (not from your writing) who would it be?

Jeremy: I’m a total Harry Potter nerd, and I’d love to meet Hagrid. He seems like a nice guy.

David: If you could give only one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?

Jeremy: Write from your heart, and share your stories with the world as best you can, and don’t give up.

David: What was the last book you read?

Jeremy: Recently, I’ve been reaidng a bunch of graphic novels and manga. American Born Chinese, Kare Kano, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. The last novel I read was Gossamer by Lois Lowry.

David: Your favorite book?

Jeremy: The God of Small Things. Or 1984.

David: Who is your favorite author?

Jeremy: Arundhati Roy, perhaps. I also love Piers Anthony, Kurt Vonnegut, Brett Easton Ellis, Barbara Kingsolver, Neil Gaiman, Franny Billingsley, Amy Hempel, Aimee Bender, George Orwell, Haruki Murakami, Chuck Palahniuk, Anthony Burgess, CS Lewis, Douglas Adams, Francesca Lia Block, Roald Dahl.

David: What was the last movie you saw?

Jeremy: Totoro. I love Totoro.

David: What is your favorite movie?

Jeremy: The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. Or Princess Mononoke. Or Oldboy.

David: Your novel, Cursed, is now available. Can you tell us a little bit about it? Why should we buy this book over all the other ones on the shelf?

Jeremy: Cursed is the story of Nick, Cicely, and their friends. They’re all cursed, so they create an informal support group, of sorts. Together, they try to figure out who cursed them, why, and what the heck they can do about it. But more important than all that, Cursed is about weird, complex people with weird, complex lives. You shouldn’t buy this book over all the others on the shelf, unless you connect with my writing. So here are some free stories of mine, in case you’d like to check out my work.

David: I see on your website that readers can sign up for subscriptions. Can you tell us about that? Are these previously unpublished stories?

Jeremy: For $12, my Bizarro Bytes subscribers receive 12 new, previously unpublished stories. You get one story a month, delivered to your email account in e-book format (PDF, Mobi, or ePub). Higher level subscriptions are available to those readers who’d like their name in one of my stories and other such bonuses. You can learn more here.

David: Can you tell us about your works in progress?

Jeremy: The novel I’m working on now is called Bridge. Bridge is a very strong, very fragile young woman with a lot of passion locked in her heart. She’s lost, and there are forces in the world that want to use her. Claim her. Hopefully, she’ll be able to discover her own path. I’m also working on a story collection, a comic series, and a short film. And I have stories forthcoming in Cemetery Dance, 10 Nails on a Screaming Chalkboard, and other publications. In addition to all this, I’m hoping to boost my abilities in gnomic magick so that I can transform the moon into a giant vegan cookie.

David: Thanks, Jeremy, for taking the time for this interview. I’m looking forward to checking out your new book.

Jeremy: Thank you kindly, David!

Cursed is the story of Nick, Cicely, and their friends. They’re all cursed, so they create an informal support group, of sorts. Together, they try to figure out who cursed them, why, and what the heck they can do about it. But more important than all that, Cursed is about weird, complex people with weird, complex lives. You shouldn’t buy this book over all the others on the shelf, unless you connect with my writing. So here are some free stories of mine, in case you’d like to check out my work:

http://www.jeremycshipp.com/onlinestories.htm

The Absent Willow Review 2009 Anthology is Here!

Absent Willow Review 2009 AnthologyThe first annual Absent Willow Review Anthology is now available here.

You can learn more about The Absent Willow Review at their website.

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, you will be able to read my story, Normal, in their January 16th, 2010 issue. Be sure and check it out!
 
 

Niche Game: The Lost Treasures of Infocom

Niche games: Âwe’ve all played them. ÂThey’re the games that you remember for a long time because they’re so unique. ÂSometimes they’re the only ones ever made like them. ÂOther times they were trailblazers for their kind of gameplay. ÂBut what they have in common is the bravery to try something new, allowing them to rise above the imitators. ÂEven though there might be newer games with shinier graphics, these games are still worth playing because they’re something different, something special.

LostTreasuresYou are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.If that sounds familiar, then you probably already know about the games in this article. For those of you who don’t know, that first paragraph was the opening to Zork, a text-based adventure game released in 1980. After this opening line you are given a prompt to choose what to do next. You type each command on the prompt and then the description of what happens is shown on the screen. After this opening line you could type “open mailbox”, at which point you will see there is a leaflet inside the mailbox. Or you could say “look at mailbox”, “look at house”, or “go west”. And so on.I remember my brother playing Zork in our basement back when I was in grade school. That was before I had access to too many games, and I remember one time he asked me for ideas as we were walking along the sidewalk in front of the townhouse we lived in. I told him everything idea I could think of. I don’t think any of them worked, but I still thought it was really cool he asked.

I came across this package by accident. My aunt and uncle, who lived near my home at the time were given a computer with the game and they passed the game on to me. I played the games for many long hours, but I’m sorry to say I didn’t complete a single one of them. Games in those days were HARD! And unforgiving. If you miss one detail, then you can’t finish the game, as simple as that. But if you have the patience and the determination it’s well worth it.

The Lost Treasures of Infocom is a package of 20 Infocom games that was released in 1991. The collection was released by Activision, who had closed Infocom, then their child company, back in 1989. The games included are Zork 1, Zork 2, Zork 3, Beyond Zork, Zork Zero, Enchanter, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker, Deadline, The Witness, Suspect, The Lurking Horror, Ballyhoo, Infidel, Moonmist, Starcross, Suspended, Planetfall, Stationfall, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Now, these games are challenging like nothing today. Many gamers who grew up on 3-D games will scoff at this idea, but you have no idea. Games now are quite forgiving. If you’re alive at some point in the game, then you certainly can defeat the rest of the game, given enough skill. This is not always the case with these older games. If you didn’t pick up the screwdriver under the couch in the lounge in the opening room of the game, you may not be able to complete it, and by the time you need to use it you can’t go back to the couch room, that sort of thing. Also, some of these puzzles are HARD, unbelievably hard. Most modern games I can complete given a solid block of time to crank away at them, but these ones are so hard I never finished any of them all the way through, though I did make it a little ways. Do not expect to pick them up and beat them right away just because they’re old.

Zork is light on story, but is fun anyway. You’re a treasure hunter, who ventures into the ruins of the underground kingdom of Zork. You collect treasures and put them in the trophy case back in the house. There’s no explanation to who you are or where you came from, whose house that is, or really anything else. But as long as you’re okay with that, you can enjoy the treasure hunt. Remember to always keep a light source, or you’ll be eaten by a grue–game over!

The other Zork games continue in the same treasure hunting line with new settings. Zork Zero is a new tack because it takes place while the underground kingdom of Zork is still thriving. It’s my favorite among the ones in this package because you finally get to see what the place looked like when it was still occupied.

Enchanter, Sorcerer, and Spellbreaker are 3 games in a series. Enchanter was the first game written by Infocom after the Zork trilogy. Krill, a powerful warlock, is spreading wreaking havoc on the world. The Circle of Enchanters is afraid to defy him, but they send a novice Enchanter with only a few spells to confront him, hoping that Krill will ignore such an obvious weakling long enough. It’s a fun challenge. You can learn new spells on the way, and even the ones you know aren’t always at your disposal. You must “memorize” each spell before you can use it again, and when you cast it the memory scrambles in your brain. It’s a good way to impose a “cost” to the spellcasting so it’s not just a magic bullet.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is based on the Douglas Adams book of the same name. It starts in the same place, with Arthur waking up in his house which is scheduled to be demolished in mere minutes. From there to his escape with Ford Prefect and onto the Heart of Gold ship. Readers of the books will appreciate the humor and the situations, but the puzzles are the game’s alone. Having read the book will not give you the solution to many of the puzzles. For instance, in the book, Ford Prefect sticks a Babelfish in Arthur’s ear to translate for him. In the game, getting the Babelfish is a long and multistep and very non-intuitive process which could easily discourage a player who wasn’t very determined from playing the rest of the game. You can keep going in the game without it, but you’ll have no chance of completing the game if you can’t understand alien speech.

Deadline, The Witness, and Suspect are detective games. In deadline you’re a detective investigating the supposed suicide of a wealthy industrialist. You have 12 hours to find evidence of foul play and make an arrest. The suspects are wandering around the estate, the widow, the son, the gardener, eand others, all following their own agendas. On top of the usual text adventure commands, there are detective specific commands like “accuse” and “arrest” and “fingerprint.” The Witness and Suspect have similar setups with a possible crime to be investigated, a list of suspects, and the opportunity to search and question.

Deadline was also the first game to include “feelies.” When making the game, the 80k limit was just too small to include all the material they wanted to include. So they included extra physical documents, official memos, lab reports, and more with the game’s packaging. They were a huge hit with fans, making the game feel more real. In addition they acted as a form of copy protection because they contained important information and were harder to copy than mere computer files. Many subsequent games include “feelies”.

Ballyhoo and Moonmist are also detective games. Ballyhoo revolves around a kidnapping investigation at a circus, and Moonmist is based on investigating mysteries at an English castle.

This collection contains a game which has one of the most unique game premises I’ve ever seen, one that could never translate well into a visual format. It’s called Suspended. The player character has been wired into the mainframe of a facility that controls public systems such as transportation and weather control for an Earth-settled planet. Normally the player would be kept in cryo-stasis for their entire stay. As the game opens, hoewever, he is awakened by error messages. An earthquake has damaged systems, and parts of the system are shutting down. For the duration of the game your physical body never leaves its stasis pod, and your only interaction with the outside world is with a handful of robot avatars. You can switch to each one on will and each has its own specialty. Iris is the only one who can see, but has suffered a burnt out chip and can’t see at the beginning of the game. Whiz interfaces the central library. Waldo perceives the world with sonar and is the most adept at manipulating objects. Auda senses sounds and vibrations. Poet can sense the flow of electricity and is very difficult to understand because of his cryptic manner of speaking. Sensa is specialized for the detection of magnetic and photon emissions. In addition to this disjointed sensory system that is geographically separated, there is a very harsh time limit. I didn’t get very far in this game, because every time I’d really gotten to the point of exploring, these strange men would storm into the control center, disconnect me from the system and replacing me with a clone at which point that is a game over. It’s been a long time since I gave this one a try. I’m curious to see if I could make it further now. I’m guessing to complete this one you will have to do many many saves and restores. It might be aggravating, but the satisfaction for completing this one will be very high, and the unique premise is just such a cool idea I can’t recommend it highly enough just to try the weird gameplay experience.

The Lurking Horror is a Lovecraftian horror story, Infocom’s only horror game. The point of view character is a student trying to finish a term paper, who has gone back to campus despite a blizzard to work on the report in the computer lab. But to his dismay he finds his file is overwritten by a hacker. He has to make his way around the snowbound campus to try to recover the paper, and finds out that something much more sinister is going on.

Infidel begins as an archaeologist searching for Egyptian treasure is drugged by the men he brought with him, who have stolen most of his equipment, taken the food and water, and left him to di. He has no idea how to find his way back to civilzation. Soon the navigation box arrives that he has been awaiting, sort of like a primitive GPS, and perhaps he can at least find his way to the treasurer.

Starcross involves the exploration of an empty spacecraft of unknown origin and composition, always a good premise. Planetfall is another space exploration game: the character escapes an explosion in an escape pod and crash lands on a planet which he then explores.
If you want to find this whole package, boxed up and everything, it will be a challenge. It came out back in 1991. My guess is that most people who have them now are lovers of text games and would be loathe to give them up. A quick search on eBay comes up with only one hit, $128 “Buy It Now” price, and that one’s for Mac. However, if you want to play these games, you can find them for free download with a quick Google search. I found a few of them on Abandonia.com, my favorite site for abandonware computer games. I’ve had good luck with them. Keep the source in mind, of course, and give it a quick virus scan.

While searching for more information about this games, I came across The Lost Treasures of Infocom II, released a year after this one. I haven’t played it, but I’m confident that it’s full of text-based gaming goodness just like this one is. Either way, if you’re up for a challenge, and don’t mind lack of graphics if the game is good enough to justify it, you should track down some of these Infocom games. Enjoy!

I Only Paint Dead Cowboys: Nick Rose

Nick RoseNick Rose is a talented horror illustrator with publications in several Horror publications including Horror Bound Magazine, Necrotic Tissue and Tales of the Talisman. In addition to his art, he also has a number of other projects going on but I’ll let him tell you about that. Let’s get started.

Thank you for taking the time to sit with us Nick.

Anthony Sullivan: There are a lot of exciting things going on for you right now. Tell us a little about your current projects.

Nick Rose: First let me say Thank you Very much for the interest that the folks at Horror UK has taken in me and my work. It is much appreciated. As far as work goes, I have a lot going on right now. One of the biggest projects I have going on is for a company called The Evil Nerd Empire.

I am painting 16 paintings for the interior of a book called Darc Karnivale. It is a collection of horror short stories written by the best horror writers in the business. I’ve also done the cover for it as well. The book will be released before Christmas, so it will make a great gift for any horror fan, and/or a fan of my work.

Beside the works for “The Evil Nerd Empire”, between now and Christmas I have to do some movie work, A Movie Poster and DVD cover. I also have an oil painting commission to do as well as several portraits, (They are always very popular around the holidays.) And that doesn’t include the work I have to do for my own company, Wicked Kitty Productions.

For next year, I am already booking up, plus I have a very secret project that I am doing for WKP as well. It is something I have wanted to do for a very long time, but just haven’t had the proper outlet for. Now with our production company I have that opportunity. This is something really big, and I promise every Horror and Fantasy fan out there will love it and it will be a work in progress for years to come.

AS: Wow, that is a lot. At what age did you first take an interest in art?

Demon nurseNR: That is an interesting question. Unlike most artists, I didn’t really take an interest in drawing until I was in the Army. Most artist are drawing while their still in diapers. I would say I was 19 years old before I showed a real interest in drawing.

When I was around 10, my older brother’s wife was an artist and she lived with us while he was in Vietnam. I used to love to sit and watch her draw. I don’t know if anyone will remember, but way back when, they used to run ads in magazines, like “Draw Sparky” to see if you have any artistic talent. “Sparky” was either a turtle head or a mouse head, and I honestly think that anyone could have drawn him without much effort. Any ways you mailed the drawing into the address on the magazine and they would send you back a “test” to take to see if you could be in “Art School” I passed with flying colors (as probably everyone did) and they would send me lessons for some small token of money. Since I was 10 and I didn’t have much money (The story of my Life) that ideal didn’t go any further.

At that point, my creativity took a turn, and I decided I wanted to be a writer. So until I joined the Army, I would type away in my spare time. Thinking back on it, I probably wasn’t very good. But as a teen-ager I was convinced that I would be the next Edgar A. Poe. I hadn’t discovered Lovecraft at this point. I grew up in the Bible belt and Lovecraft books where hard to come by. But once someone turned me on to Lovecraft, I was hooked, and never looked back.

But I didn’t return to art again until my days of serving my country. In the Army, I was a Medic. I didn’t want to shoot people, so I decided to learn how to save their lives instead. But this meant that unless a conflict was going on, I wound up setting out in training areas with nothing to do all day. So, one day I took a few comic books and some drawing paper with me and off I went to the middle of nowhere drawing Spider-man. I know the drawings where probably awful, but they were good enough to keep me interested in drawing. So it became a daily thing. After the Army, I attended a local community college and studied commercial art. That was way back in 1979, and I’ve been drawing ever since. I had my first piece published in 1980 and got paid a whole 10 dollars, but back then 10 bucks was a night on the town.

AS: Your work certainly has a twisted bent to it. What originally inspired you to produce this sort of artwork?

NR: [Laughing] Anthony, it would probably take years of therapy to find out the answer to that one. Seriously though, that has to be answered in two different ways, one pleasant, and the other not. The pleasant version would be the way I grew up, which back in the day when you where lucky to have 3 whole TV channels to choose from. But one thing you could always count on was that every Saturday afternoon, and either late Saturday night or Friday night, there would always be a horror movie on, and you could count on the fact that my little face was glued to the tube!

Also back in the 60’s, it was safe for Parents to drop their kids off at the local Movie Theater to see a double feature while they went shopping or whatever Parents did back in those days. The double feature was always either Horror or Science Fiction. I got to see most of the Hammer films while they were being shown at the movie theaters still, as well as all the wonderful American International films and all the Godzilla movies. Man, that was a magical time! I can say a lot of bad things about my childhood, but all those Saturday afternoons at the double feature watching all the movies that would mold me into the artist that I became, for the most part.

The Dark and Twisted part comes from very deep scars inflected on me by “Family” members, some of them where family by blood and the others by marriage. At 52 years old, I still have horrible nightmares of things those people did to me when I was just a child. It took years for me to learn the difference between love and abuse, good from evil. I could look at these people and see their true faces. The ones that are just below the surface of their skin. Because of this I learned to see things in a twisted way. Now when I watch the news, I see the true faces of murderers, child molesters, and all the monsters out there. Drawing Monsters comes easy to me.

AS: How hard is it to separate yourself from the wicked themes you create?

anewfalsehopefiniwebNR: That’s another really great question and the answer doesn’t come easy, but I will do my best to answer it honestly. Like the question before, this one has two types of answers, the first is what you see on the surface and the second is what is buried down deep in the dark hidden places of my mind.

As an Illustrator my main job is to read a writer’s story and create an image for it that will help sell it to the masses. Sometimes that is a challenge but I just let my imagination take over after I read the story. So, to me, I am not really creating the Illustration, the writer is. I am just a tool that is taken their idea and given it an image to identify with. Sometimes that is very easy and sometimes I pull out my hair trying to come up with an image. Now, after that point, a little of me does come into the picture. The expressions on the character faces, the things in the background, the dark strange looking shapes that there is no name for. But those are just surface things.

On the rare occasion when I do get to paint something from the Dark Recesses of my mind, I normally don’t leave the house or talk to friends in person or the phone. I stay to myself, mostly because I worry that the “Dark Side” of me will ‘scare’ them. Someone once told me “Be careful when you look into the darkness, that the darkness does not look back” or something close to that. I believe that to be true. There has been times I felt like the “Darkness” was watching me.

As far as putting these things down on paper, well, that is coming very soon and the story that goes with them. I am not trying to be dramatic, but I really believe that some folks out there will not be able to handle what I am going to show them and the world as I see it every day. In answer to your question, I cannot separate myself from the wicked things, because I am those wicked things.

AS: Who are some of your major artistic influences?

NR: To be honest Anthony, I can’t think of a single artist that isn’t an influence on me. Every single artist has something unique about their work that inspires me. But some artists stand out a little more to me. Howard Pyle is one of the big ones since I have been trained with his teachings by Master Daniel Horne who is another major influence and dear friend. Todd Lockwood is another. He trained me for a year and became a huge influence to me. Some others that influence me because there styles are so unique are Frazetta, Jeff Jones, Barry Windsor Smith, H.R. Giger to name a very few. Some of the classic Masters that influence me are DaVinci, Monet, Picasso, N.C. Wyeth to name a very few.

AS: Horror has been defined many ways over the years. How would you define it?

NR: Before the age of Movies and Television, horror was a thing of your imagination. It was something you would rarely see in person, such as death. So in that timeframe, War was truly a thing of horror. After Movies and Television are created, death becomes an everyday thing to the average person, including children. Monsters from space and from our imagination become an everyday thing to a point and after a while we become immune to such things. Now War is romantic as well as horrible. The age of film moved horror from our imagination to a stage for celebration and dress up. The things that use to scare us are now the things that amuse us. We spend countless dollars on costumes so we can dress up like our favorite monsters and “Scare” our friends.

The face of “Horror” has changed. It takes more and more to scare us. For a while Hollywood thought, “Gore” was the answer, but it wasn’t. It just cut into the profit made from snacks at the Theater. Hollywood has run out of options. They have remade the movies of past that scared audiences 50 years ago, but now make them yawn. They have spent countless millions on special effects that do not scare the audience any more than the old ones did.

So what is the answer? The answer is in your imagination. Last year I was surfing around the internet and ran across a site that offered up old horror radio shows that you could listen too. I immediately feel in love with the site. I could listen to these classic old horror radio shows while I worked and my imagination came alive! I was seeing visions of horror I had never seen in my mind. I was truly inspired, and I realized that to truly be frighten once again, you had to go back to ones imagination, stir it up and breath life back into it.

This task will fall back into the hands of writers and artist once again. It will be up to us to bring back the imaginations of the people out there that love to be scared. It will be up to us to bring new idea’s to Hollywood and Television that will make watching a new movie something to be excited about once again.

AS: Nick, what is the best advice you’ve been given with regard to your artwork.

NR: “Why don’t you paint some Barns, or Cowboys? Something people want to see!” This was the advice my Mother gave me. Good thing I never listened to her, huh? I think the best advice I ever got was from Daniel Horne. He told me to “Throw your heart into the painting and then dive in after it!”

AS: What tips can you give to aspiring artists to help them get started?

bloodlinesfiniwebNR: If you can’t afford to go to a good art school, go here and read the book Creative Illustration. This is the bible of the illustration market. Even though the book is 70 years old, everything except for the advertising chapters still apply today. Read and study this book until you have it memorized. Work on learning and applying values to your work every day. Build a portfolio that is very strong in the use of values. Learn to draw anything and everything. Sketch at least 30 minutes every day. I do first thing in the morning just to loosen up, before I start work on the money jobs.

And last, but not least by any means, is to learn good work ethics. Learn and Practice good manners. This is something that people will remember about you and they will respect it and like it. Ask yourself, would you rather work with someone who uses bad language, doesn’t meet deadlines, and puts down other people or would you rather work with the person that always has the assignment in ahead of time and is polite and pleasant to deal with?

There are 100’s of very talented artist out there, and I don’t care how good you are. There is always someone better. The person that is pleasant to work with is going to get the job in the end. Remember this, and you will always have work to do.

AS: What is the best compliment you have received about your art?

NR: “Man, that’s freaking me out.”

AS: Nick, I want to thank you again for taking the time to sit with us. It has been enlightening.

NR: Peace and Blessings.

If you would like to know more about Nick and his many, many projects, check out his website at http://www.wickedkittystudio.com.

Giveaway! Win a free copy of Shadows of the Emerald City

Book-COVERwebDiabolical Plots is giving away one free copy of Shadows of the Emerald City. Do you want to enter? It’s very simple. All you have to do is reply to this topic and name your character from any Oz-related media. (That’s the land of Oz, not the Oz TV show that takes place in a prison). We’ll pick a winner at random from those who respond.

You have until Monday 10/26/2009 at midnight CST to enter. If you’ve already paid for the special discount offer, then you can still enter–we’ll just refund your money if you win.

The Utility of Love now available!

Book-COVERwebDavid here. My first published work, “The Utility of Love” is now available to the public in the Shadows of the Emerald City anthology, edited by JW Schnarr, published by Northern Frights Publishing. The story is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz, but the Tin Man is two stories tall and does not hesitate to kill if it can benefit him.

There are 19 stories in total in this anthology, appealing to a wide variety of tastes. It’s supposed to be available on Amazon in the very near future, but in the meantime you can order it directly from the publisher. If you do pick up a copy, stop by here after you’ve read it and drop us a line. We’d love to know what you think!

If you’d like to see reviews, here’s a list:

Apex–5 stars!
http://www.apexbookcompany.com/blog/2009/10/review-shadows-of-the-emerald-city/

Wanderings–mentions my story as must-read:
http://www.wanderingsmag.com/rvw_ShadowEmerald.html

Senses Five–mentions my story before any other as a standout:
http://www.sensesfive.com/2009/10/15/shadows-of-the-emerald-city-review-by-greer-woodward/

Innsmouth Free Press
http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/?p=2440

Strange, Weird, and Wonderful (it’s a ways down in the PDF):
http://strangeweirdandwonderful.bravehost.com/3Site/Fall09.pdf

Niche Game: The Lost Vikings 1 & 2

Niche games: Âwe’ve all played them. ÂThey’re the games that you remember for a long time because they’re so unique. ÂSometimes they’re the only ones ever made like them. ÂOther times they were trailblazers for their kind of gameplay. ÂBut what they have in common is the bravery to try something new, allowing them to rise above the imitators. ÂEven though there might be newer games with shinier graphics, these games are still worth playing because they’re something different, something special.

The Lost Vikings

In the mood for a puzzle game? Give The Lost Vikings and/or The Lost Vikings 2 a try. I originally played both on the SNES, but they’ve been on several other platforms, including PC, Playstation, Sega Genesis, and Nintendo DS. It a 2-D platform-based puzzle game based around time-traveling Vikings.

The Lost Vikings was developed by Silicon & Synapse, which has since been renamed to the well-reknowned Blizzard, and was distributed by Interplay.

In the intro sequence, the three Vikings are abducted from their homes by the evil alien overlord Tomator. They manage to escape through a time portal which takes them to to Prehistoric times. You control each of the Vikings, one at a time, and you must work your way to the exit. All three have to be at the exit or you can’t move on. Each Viking has his own unique abilities, and you’ll have to use each of them to fullest advantage to make it through the levels.


Baleog the Fierce is the guy on the left on the title screen with the yellow mustache. He’s the fighter of the group. He can attack enemies with his sword or his arrows. He can also hit switches with his arrows from a distance. Erik the Swift is the guy in the middle with the red beard. He’s the most maneuverable of the group. As his name suggests, he does run faster than the others. He’s also the only one in the group who can jump (I guess the other guys are weighed down by their gear). He can lower his head like a battering ram, which can knock down walls and kill some enemies. Olaf the Stout is the, uh, stout guy on the right with the shield. He’s the defender. His shield can block most enemies and projectiles. In addition he can raise his shield above his head for the other Vikings to use as a platform and this allows him to hang glide slowly down from high places. You can switch between any of these Vikings at any time with the push of a button, and the screen will zoom to their location. But always keep in mind that the Vikings you’re not directly controlling are simply standing there immobile. If you leave them in danger they will die.

The game is infused with a good sense of humor. The expressions when the Vikings fall too far is cartoonish and comical, and at the end of each level they bicker amongst themselves and make fun of each other.

As the game progresses, you travel through a series of time periods, each with their unique puzzle sets and enemies. The game keeps a great amount of variety this way. So in the “sweat shop” stages, there is a magnet crane which any character can jump in to move metal blocks around. If Olaf moves his shield above his head it can also be used to carry him around. Each time period has inherent features like this to keep things interesting.


Finally at the end the Vikings return to Tomator’s ship for a final confrontation. This is the only real boss battle in the game as each Viking faces off against Tomator using their own unique skills, and finally facing up against him with their skills combined in a single confrontation. To finally use the warriors’ skills in combat is gratifying and challenging after being up against

Each Viking has three bars on their health meter which can be replenished by eating food that can be carried with you. There are also lots of environmental dangers that cause instant death, so beware! If one of your Vikings dies, then you will not be able to complete the level, but you are still free to explore with your remaining characters as long as you want, letting you scout ahead. When you’re finished you can quit and restart. When you do this you’ll see a traditional Viking funeral with a burning ship, and then lightning bolts will strike and bring the dead Vikings back from the dead. Why? I don’t know, but the burning ship sequence is cool. There is no limit to the number of times you can restart a level, so

The game is on a password-based system, so all you have to do to come back to a level is remember a 4 digit password. This game is reasonably challenging. If you’ve never played it before, some of the levels will take you multiple tries to make it through. Some of the puzzles and levels are downright difficult, though the game never stopped being fun.

Unfortunately, this one’s not available for download for Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console, but finding this game shouldn’t be any trouble, and shouldn’t cost you too much as long as you don’t demand a factory-sealed copy. A quick eBay search comes up with dozens of hits for multiple systems, most with “Buy It Now” prices under $20, as long as you are okay with “acceptable” condition. Alternatively, you can always search around for an emulator and a ROM for this game.

The Lost Vikings II

This article’s a two in one! The Lost Vikings II (known as Norse by Norsewest on certain game systems) is similar in most ways to the Lost Vikings. The first game was one of a kind, like nothing I’d ever seen before. The sequel was more of the same, but enhanced. If you liked the original, try this one out to fill your Lost Vikings craving.

In this one hey’ve done a nice job adding some new features to keep things fresh. Tomator abducts the Vikings again to enact revenge. The Vikings see him coming this time and get away in a fight, stealing some futuristic equipment on their way. Erik the Swift gets a new helmet that lets him breathe underwater and boots that let him jump once in mid-air. Baleog gets a bionic extendable arm which can grab things from a distance and allows him to swing from strategically placed swinging points. Olaf has a shrinking device that allows him to enter small spaces. Also, he has been eating gassy foods and has gained the “ability” to fart, which allows to smash certain blocks, and give him a boost in mid-air.

In addition to extra abilities, there are two new characters they pick up as they travel. Fang, a werewolf, can attack with his claws (nice to have another attacker in the group), can climb walls, and can jump. Scorch, a dragon, can “fly” to a limited degree, which is really just five midair jumps. He can also use his wings to glide slowly down to land safely from heights, and he has fireball projectiles.

The concept is basically the same. Your group travels through different time periods. Only 3 characters are in any given level, and all 3 characters must reach the end of a level to complete it. And, once again, you return to Tomator’s ship for a final confrontation. Easy peasy? Not so much. This game is as much a challenge as the last one, well worth the time it takes to complete.

Unfortunately, this one’s not available for download for Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console, but finding this game shouldn’t be any trouble, and shouldn’t cost you too much as long as you don’t demand a factory-sealed copy. A quick eBay search comes up with dozens of hits for multiple systems on both games, most with “Buy It Now” prices under $20, as long as you are okay with “acceptable” condition. Alternatively, you can always search around for an emulator and a ROM for this game. Enjoy!