THE GRALIEN REPORT: Podcast Interview

I want to say THANK YOU  to Micah Hanks over at The Gralien Report for giving me the opportunity to come on his radio show this evening to talk about PROGENY.  Listen to the interview HERE

Micah wrote the Foreword for PROGENY and here you can read from one of his blog posts about Bigfoot.

Bigfoot is an Archetype
From time to time there are reports that fall under the “Bigfoot” category that are, to put it simply, present a lot of disturbing problems for eyewitnesses. While these “high strangeness” reports (an expression that had become innate to the study of odd occurrences tucked within the realms of Forteana) are in the seldom minority, they are often overlooked by the greater cryptozoology community for a number of reasons.  READ MORE HERE


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CHOOSING THE PERFECT TITLE PART DEUX: THE RE-REDEMPTION

   I've never seen the movie "Pontiac Moon", but the title has always stuck with me for some reason. Something about an enigmatic, somewhat mystical-sounding title always catches my attention. Let's take a couple of films from the golden age of the action film: "Good Guys Wear Black", a reasonably entertaining early Chuck Norris vehicle, and "Out For Justice", one of Steven Seagal's movies. In the case of "Justice", it takes me a minute to sort out just which of the many similarly-named Seagal potboilers this one is, despite a rather intense -if brief- obsession I once had with the towering Aikido master. "Good Guys" on the other hand, despite being an arguably lesser film, rouses instant visual images. The title refers to a military unit in the film called The Black Tigers, and the fact that I know that will show you just how intrigued I was with this film's great-sounding appellation.
   I get the feeling many writers just slap their work with a vaguely applicable title to distinguish it from their other works. And I have to admit, I've been guilty of choosing perhaps a less meaningful title in favor of a catchier, more marketable one. After all, if a reader's interest is not caught by the work's "package" -its title, artwork, even the name of the author, in the case of my better known brethren- the chance of them ever becoming interested is low at best. In my notebook of ideas and story concepts, I sometimes scribble a potential title that may have occurred to me, often little more than a conglomeration of genre-related words- in hopes of having an idea form around it, or even of forcing the idea to form, sort of like Roger Corman and a handful of other filmmakers have been known to do.
   One of these disembodied titles that I scribbled many years ago still pops into my head from time to time. These days it's more likely to make me LOL, as the kids say, than to inspire any particular story line, but then again...
   That title was "Splatter Quest." Just think what could occur on a splatter quest...a young Peter Jackson or Sam Raimi would make it a journey to remember, certainly.
   Earlier today, while commenting on a facebook post about some fur-loving fashion designer duo, the term "sonnets of suffering" popped into my fevered mind. Very Barker-esque, I must say, and certainly classier than "splatter quest." 
   My current work-in-progress, a sweeping vampire tale, remains untitled, despite months of (sporadic) work. I'm hoping the perfect title will come to me, and that it will not actually contain the word "vampire", and maybe not even "blood." I'd like it to stand out, you see, yet be attractive to bloodsucker fans immediately, given the vast spate of works in the same sub-genre that will surely flood the market for years to come.
   So while I let that ruminate, there's this movie I've been wanting to see for years. Maybe it'll plant some magical title-growing seed. I believe the film is called "Pontiac Moon."
STILL MORE TITLE MADNESS TO COME!

SHOP GREENE'S FIENDS

SHOP GREENE'S FIENDS

BLACK FRIDAY

Available on BLACK FRIDAY 11/23/12

SHOP HERE

Includes the previously published

BILL’S BECOMING

HIGH STRANGENESS IN SOUTH HAVEN

FINDERS KEEPERS

And introducing

FATE BY FIRELIGHT

~An excerpt from FATE BY FIRELIGHT~

In the den, Ray smirked at me, as we continued a longstanding, familiar discourse.  

          "The coaching staff is the problem.  They're bringing the whole franchise into the toilet." I argued as I poked the fire awake.

          "Come on, Eli.  The team sucks because the players suck.  The coaches suck, the stadium sucks, the town sucks.  Just because they're your home team doesn't mean you have to back them, you know."

           I took a seat across from him.  "That'd be easier to buy, if you weren't so hardcore Philadelphia."

          Ray’s laugh was as childish as it was derisive. 

We were interrupted by Melyssa’s theatrical entrance.  Wide-eyed and hunkered low, she carried the Ouija board box on the flat of her hand like a pizza from beyond the grave, making a mock-eerie sound with pursed lips.  The dim lights and flickering fire added to the effect.  Kumi giggled.

"What's all that about?" I asked.

          Anybody for..." Melyssa maintained the dramatic pause as she floated the box in front of us.  "...Ouija?"

          Ray's eyes brightened.  "Hell yeah!  I haven't goofed around with one of those since I was a kid!"

          I looked at that box for a long moment, wondering if I was past buzzed, closer to drunk.   I was almost totally sure I had pitched it months ago.

          Melyssa lay the box on the coffee table beside the half-empty wine bottle.  She filled Kumi’s glass, then raised her own.  "This will be Kumi's first experience with the mystic oracle. Let's toast."

          "I didn't know Ouija was a drinking game." I cracked, raising my beer.

Inspiration for DARK CLOUD

Patrick C. Greene began his relationship with Hobbes End Publishing by contributing two short stories in the first volume of The Endlands. He then went on to write his first novel, Progeny, which was published in October of 2012 by Hobbes End. In this volume, he not only contributed another story, but he also wrote the intro to the book. HERE are his thoughts on “Dark Cloud” and his inspiration for writing it. 

Buy The ENDLANDS VOLUME 2 HERE

Have you met CRAIG WESSEL??

HOBBES END AUTHOR HIGHLIGHT - CRAIG WESSEL


“I’ve always loved stories that have a twist of some sort at the end. That’s probably the result of too much Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, and Night Gallery during my formative years. I believe that stories like the two I’ve submitted for The Endlands Volume 2 (as well as “Loose Ends” from Volume 1) are rooted in our inherent fear that sometimes things just aren’t what they seem to be. We may not like that in our personal lives, but we do seem to enjoy living vicariously through characters that find out the hard way.” More from Craig at Hobbes End Publishing

NINE QUESTIONS with PCG

Another INTERVIEW with Patrick!

A sneak peek - 

Tell us about your writing process?

Generally it goes thusly: Drinkin’. Then, an insane idea pops into my head and I rush to write it in my notebook before I forget it. This usually happens when I’m already knee-deep in another project, so as I finish that one and get ready to begin something new, I dig into the notebook and see what strikes my fancy. (My notebook is pretty full-it’ll take a few decades to get to all of those concepts.) Being that I write both screenplays and fiction prose, what happens next depends on which option I choose for that particular idea. In either case, I will first begin creating characters — giving them histories, motives, etc. and decide what general purpose they will serve in the story. Then: drinkin’. ~ Click the LINK above for more!