You’ve heard the term “blood
on the page,” right? Means the author tapped a vein for inspiration, utilizing
life experiences, emotions, events for fictional fodder, only the names have
been changed to protect the innocent. Makes for gripping storytelling, for
crucial reality, for living, breathing characterization, though you wouldn’t know how
much blood was on the page unless you knew the author personally or said author
pulled back the curtain, as Brian Keene has done many times on his podcast. At
this point, I think it’s pretty safe to say that most coming of age stories are
fueled by the author's blood, veins tapped like kegs for ripe inspiration,
sometimes maybe too much so, particularly for those who lived it, but it's not the only way.
Sure, I’ve bled on the page here and there, but let’s face it, ideas are
all around us, buried in experience, hiding behind unusual facades, ready to
slip into our minds and take root. I ask you to take this little ride in
exploring the roots of my novella Brothers in Blood, because there is
virtually none of my own blood on this one. It’s pure fantasy (set in the real
world without supernatural elements, not sword and sorcery fantasy!), completely
drawn from my imagination . . . and a number of outside influences. So come
with me, let’s take a ride.
In a nutshell, Brothers
in Blood is the story of Kyle and Lyle Morris, twin brothers who murder
people for two very different reasons. One brother is mentally disabled and
the other is mentally deranged. Lyle has a caregiver, Desiree, who finally
feels content in life when her ex returns out of nowhere to torment her. Things
happen, bad, bad things, and soon enough everyone is tangled in quite a messed
up web of madness and perversion.
The first element of the story I came up with was the twin
brothers, but originally they were characters in two separate stories, and they
were inspired by an episode of Taboo or My Strange Addiction, I
can’t remember which one. The episode dealt with a man who liked pretending
that he was a baby. He wore diapers and bibs and even had an adult sized crib
made for him. I started thinking about the awful extremes of someone with that
kind of mental state and wrote two separate short stories, one dealing with a
serial killer who dressed as a baby while murdering hookers with a giant bulb
syringe, and another about a mentally deformed man with the mind of a toddler
who kept the faces of those he murdered and stitched them together into a
comfort blanket. The stories weren’t all that good. There was just something
off about them, so I didn’t do much to look for a magazine or anthology to send
them to. But the characters stayed in my mind.
One day it occurred to me that they were two very different
people, yet so similar . . . like sicko twins. That’s when the seeds that had
germinated in the writing of those stories sprouted into the beginnings of
a novella. I developed a pretty good idea of how the twin brothers coexist and
feed off of one another to achieve their unusual goals, sadistic and absurd as
they may be. I thought about how these men got to this point in life and what
kind of tragedy could have spurred them down such a damaged path. This was all
good and well, however it occurred to me that I needed a protagonist, I needed
a story. I won’t go into detail, because I don’t want to ruin the story for
those of you who have not read it yet, but I decided that Lyle, being a grown
man with the mind of a toddler, would very likely have a caregiver,
particularly since he and his brother live off of many facets of the system
from Medicaid to Welfare to cash aid. One of the requirements for some of the
aid Lyle is receiving is having a caregiver visit on a weekly basis. Enter
Desiree, a woman whose life is finally going in the right direction. She loves
helping people, has a steady boyfriend, and has finally gotten over her psycho,
stalker ex . . . and then she comes home to find a rose and a note on her
doorstep, and her world begins to crumble.
I’ve always admired the way Richard Laymon laid down his
stories, often with twists and turns that keep the pace ratcheted up and the
reader turning the pages. With Brothers in Blood I intended on doing the
same thing by introducing another antagonist, one with a fetish of his own.
He’s a sick man with nothing to lose, which are perhaps the scariest of
deviants. I won’t say much about him, because I’d rather he was revealed to the
reader organically than here in an essay. I again went to shows like My
Strange Addiction for inspiration. I’ll leave it at that.
Now, I have a story, I’ve written the first draft, but for
the life of me I can’t come up with a title. I don’t remember what the working
title was. I have about six unfinished stories with variations on “Untitled,”
so I try to give each new story a fill-in title to avoid confusion. Titles are
important, and I’ve not been very happy with my other book titles. Through the In Between, Hell Awaits? Michael Arnzen asked, at a convention, “So
what’s with the long title?” Yeah, should have called that one Hell Awaits.
People of the Ethereal Realm? Not bad, but… In Black? I kinda
like that title. It was originally called Paint it Black, but I figured
people would think the Rolling Stones were somehow weaved into the plot or
something like in a Greg Kihn book. So one day I’m at work listening to Anthrax
on my ipod. I was plotting the ending of the story in my head (I tend to plot while
driving or at work, that way I’m ready to write when I sit my ass in front of the
computer). I was listening to the album Persistence of Time. Anthrax
fans might know where I’m going with this. The song “Blood” was on. So close to
finishing the first draft, I was actually running possible titles through my
head, and then the chorus hit: “Brother on, brother on, brothers in blood!”
I have my title. Yes, there are other books with that title
(kinda popular with books on war and soldier camaraderie), but it fit the novella so well that I had to
use it, and I have no regrets. It’s catchy, looks good on the cover, and fits
the story very well. So, though I didn’t bleed on the pages of this particular
novella, it certainly is covered in blood. In the first weeks sales have been
good. Better than any of my prior releases. This pleases me greatly. If you have
read it, consider reviewing it on Amazon whether you loved it, liked it, or
hated it. The reviews help the book get traction, and, of course, I appreciate
the effort. Thanks!
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