I’m
a Normal Person—Really I Am!
by John B. Rosenman
First, let me convince you I’m safe and normal. I’ve been married forty-five years to Jane,
the exact same woman. We have two
children who are normal in most ways. If
we put them in their coffins and close the lids at the crack of dawn, most of
our problems are solved for the rest of the day.
Hmm, perhaps I’m not helping my case.
Anyway, unless I’m mistaken, the title of this site,
Darkling Delights, suggests both Dark Delights and Delight in Darkness. Well,
recently, I revised one of my darkest stories whose title I hesitate to repeat
in polite company. Are you ready? The story is “Wet Dreams,” and it is one of seven
works of fiction—three novels and four stories—I have published with MuseItUp
Publishing. It explores the darkness and
potential depravity of the human heart, the sadistic and sexual evil it is
capable of. In addition, it explores how
little we sometimes know about each other as well as about ourselves. Below is the cover, by Nika Dixon, which
I believe captures much of the story’s disturbing flavor.
The truth is, many of us are drawn to darkness and
evil, perhaps even hooked on it. K.R.
Morrison, who wrote the previous blog, is fascinated by vampires, which
traditionally steal our souls and doom us to eternal damnation. What, I ask you, could be darker and more
terrifying than that? I myself have written
and published my share of vampire tales.
One major reason we write dark fiction is to try to get a handle on and
conquer all the forces that cause us pain and rob our lives of hope and meaning.
I’ve published over 300 short stories and 20 novels
and books of short fiction. Not all, of
course, are tales of Darkling Delights. My novels, though, most often, tell stories
of cosmic, transcendent Gods or evils—hostile alien invaders, seemingly
invincible enemies of one kind or another—who invade Humanity’s Home and seek
to destroy or conquer us. To name a few,
this is the case in Beyond Those Distant
Stars (Mundania Press), and Inspector
of the Cross and Dark Wizard (MuseItUp
Publishing). Sometimes, as with my
African Science-Fiction Novel, A
Senseless Act of Beauty, available both as an eBook from Crossroad Press
and as an audiobook from www.audible.com, the heartless invaders are humans
themselves, seeking to repeat Europe’s brutal colonization of Africa.
Perhaps that is the ultimate Dark Delight, the
realization that in the final analysis, the worst monster of all is ourselves. This brings me back to the vampire myths, for
aren’t vampires in all their incarnations derived from us? Talk about lost innocence and perverse
cravings!
PAM, Thanks so much for having me.
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/John-B.-Rosenman/e/B001KMN69E
5 comments:
Nice blog, John. In a nutshell, that is really what vampires are--soul-stealers. And I guess that is my greatest fear--that the souls that God made for Himself are so easily stolen away from Him by our own perverse wills. The dark is more interesting because we can't see what's there, and something beyond our ken lures us into it. Scary!
Your book, "A Senseless Act of Beauty", sounds really interesting. I will mark that down as a future acquisition.
John, I too am interested in A Senseless Act of Beauty - adding that to my TBR list!
KL Mullens
Nice post, John. And I'm glad to hear you let your children out occasionally. I have never tried writing "dark," other than the occasional head-lopping of historical romance, but I wonder if it could be considered a counter-phobic activity?
Thanks, K.R., I enjoyed your blog, too. Yes, I think that's the most terrifying thing to think of, the possibility that we might so easily and stupidly give away our souls and participate in letting them be stolen. And darkness is an ultimate terror as well. Somehow what you can see leaves little too the imagination even if it can drive you mad. And Miriam, dark fiction is a counter-phobic activity. I hinted at this a little in my remarks. It's especially true if the good guys conquer the monsters in what you write. Thanks for your interest in A Senseless Act of Beauty. It's my longest, most experimental work, 115,000 words with stand-alone stories within the longer frame narrative which were professionally published and which relate thematically and otherwise to what happens in the larger story.
I love the cover and who is to say what is normal
Post a Comment