Eva Pasco's Blog - Posts Tagged "characters"

The celebration of Halloween nears, festooned with the likes of costume parties, carving pumpkins, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, watching horror films, and telling scary stories.

Personally, I embrace the element of “horror” all year long. More preferable to me than slashers, growlers, or biters—the psychological horror of self-revelation.

An Indie author who writes “lit with grit” in my primary genre of Contemporary, I expose the emotional vulnerabilities and fears of my characters by revealing the darker parts of their human psyche they’ve either repressed or denied.

I take perverse pleasure in creating discomfort or dread through artistic realism:

From Chapter 15, 'Underlying Notes' ((First Printing – 2007; Second Printing – 2009; available: Kindle Edition @Amazon) :

Carla: This marked the end of the worn trail I had advanced and retreated on over the years, too fearful to pass beyond that point into the untamed wilderness that was booby trapped with prickles and thorns. Mindlessly fanning pages of a magazine induced a hypnotic state empowering thistles, blackberry bushes, and wild roses to unleash their fury and stake their claim by tearing at my flesh as I forged past them. The devil’s fetid breath tainted the rose note in 'Paloma Picasso' so she no longer wafted nostalgic enchantment, but spiraled into the nightmarish twist of cloying entrapment. Underlying notes of patchouli and oakmoss flanked the fickle rose, intimidating her to convey the ripe earthiness of a freshly hollowed grave.

I brushed aside tree branches that had shielded me from the vacant stare of death and gingerly made my way past protruding tree roots and ruts along the unmarked trail to that cabin in the woods numbered 237—my father’s barbershop. Just as I willed myself to turn the handle to open the Fury’s door back then, I would summon the courage to do so again surrealistically…

*What are your preferences in the genre of horror?

Whether conquering evil or overcoming adversity, superheroes in literature and on the big screen have one or more powers at their disposal.

Scratching the surface: invisibility; invincibility; super: strength, intelligence, speed, etc.; healing; teleportation; telekinesis; mind manipulation; mind reading; shape shifting.

A self-published author whose preferred writing genre is Contemporary Women’s fiction, my heroes are honed from ordinary women over forty. Through the trials and tribulations I put them through, they grapple with, confront, and overcome their personal dilemmas/demons to become empowered in making profound life changes for the better.

Not one super power, per se, among them.

Tempered by tragic circumstances, their powers that be, in the guise of resolve and resilience, push them toward the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
Oftentimes, they’re worse for wear. Because—that’s life!

From 'An Enlightening Quiche,' chapter 28:

Lindsay: The turn of events forced Shantae to look at herself in a harsh light and attempt to redress her regrets through self-repudiation and repentance. By the same token, Colette’s terms of departure compelled Estelle to examine her irrational motives for disallowing a friendship. It also justified a truce between Estelle and Augusta, two embittered friends torn apart by the ravages of adultery for the purpose of plotting a funeral, acclimating them to reconcile rather than remain estranged.

*By the powers that be, unassuming heroes rise above the ashes from inner strength tempered by the harshness of life.

From a literary viewpoint:

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.” Isaac Asimov

From my perspective as a writer, there’s much ado about transitioning for depicting a character’s demise. In order to fit the framework of my story—timing, method, and staging are crucial.

Premeditation! Premeditation! Premeditation!

Always striving to blur the lines of demarcation between nonfiction and fiction in the lit with grit I pen, research has me veering off the beaten path on the Internet. One such detour which led me where I needed to go, pertained to the stages of rigor mortis.

In previously published works of fiction, my characters have met their demise as a result of: a fatal fall, brain aneurysm, drowning, illness, and accidental shooting. Trust me, I’m contemplating other demises for stories incubating in my mind.

At this point in time, I’ve stopped the press at the end of a scene in chapter 26 of my Contemporary work in progress (817 words thus far) to ferret out facts on carbon monoxide poisoning and hypothermia. Until I homogenize the facts with fiction, my sorry-ass character lives on borrowed time.

*May the end justify ethical means for achieving desired outcomes.

My sincere appreciation to you for reading this far.

Eva’s Authors Den Page: http://www.authorsden.com/evapasco