| | BETHCA NEVER THOUGHT YOU'D SEE ANYTHING HERE AGAIN!Yep. Now that I've finished Tantric Jesus and As Leaf Subsides to Leaf, and There's Something Rotten on Azusa Street (the book about apostasy) is nearing completion and Tantric Sex for Christian Couples is taking shape, it's time to turn my attention back to this collection of short stories. I'm going to enjoy them. I may make them a little more horror and a little less inspiring. Life can be just creepsville, as anyone who has lived in the Deep South can attest.
Why North Carolina?
I wanted a state that was Deep Southern. That narrowed the search to thirteen states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri.
Then, I wanted one that had been a pre-Revolutionary War colony. That narrowed the search to six: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, plus the French colony of Louisiana and the Spanish colony of Florida. I eliminated Louisiana because I don't know the French legends, and Florida was void of charm until the 20th Century.
I eliminated South Carolina right off the bat. It is just too grungy, and doesn't have mountains (well, not many). Virginia has gobs of charm and mountains, but it's just plain stuck up. Stuck up people play an important role in these stories, but I cannot abide that "putting on airs" attitude of Virginian gentility. I almost went with Georgia ... I know Georgia like the back of my hand, but it was barely a colony by the time of the Revolution, and doesn't have the colonial legend base. That left North Carolina, which is hick like Georgia, genteel like Virginia, has a Cherokee Indian background and has some of the creepiest colonial legends I've ever heard! It also doesn't hurt that the state wasn't blasted to shreds during the Civil War (like Georgia and Virginia were). That doesn't mean I didn't borrow liberally from all those cool stories from Georgia.
What does Rachelend mean? It's a combination of the German word Rache (meaning "revenge") and the German word Elend (meaning "misery"). It's origins will appear in one story, tied very closely to one of those colonial legends I mentioned.
New story concept -- 1958. Jenny Castor is one of the most beautiful girls in her high school. One day, her best friend, Judy Icarus, takes her out into the woods, where a coven made up of other high school girls, kills Jenny. Judy tries to stop the murder, but she can't. As the other girls begin to turn up dead, Judy starts to think that either she is going mad, or that Jenny has come back from the dead. Yep -- this is a blatant look at Jesus, but it's also a look at what we as people have done to the memory of Judas. When Jesus said it would have been better if Judas hadn't been born, I think he was talking about what the church would do to that man's memory and reputation.
Werewolves in kudzu! Vampires in the tobacco fields! Zombies living in white trash trailer parks ... wait ... don't they already ... oops. Did I say that out loud?
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| | Posted 12/18/2006 1:47 PM - 3 comments
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