The other night, I was watching the new television series Alcatraz, and something started to bother me about it. Now, it’s not a bad show, “decent but flawed” might be a good way to put it. But it suffers from lazy writing sometimes, and the episode the other night made that quite clear.

Twice in the same episode, the main character, a police officer, had a clear chance to shoot the violent assailant and end a string of bombings. Both times, it was clear that the bomber was happy to kill anyone in his path, in fact the first time it came up he threw a mine at the cop. A cop who had her gun trained on him while he turned around, armed the mine in his hand, slowly bent over, then rolled the mine a good thirty feet towards the officer.

She’d been standing there the whole time watching this, with a Glock pistol aimed at him the entire time, ready to fire. She watched some more, waited until the mine had rolled nearly to her, then dramatically dove out of the way just as it exploded.

She never fired a shot. This despite having enough time to empty her entire clip into him had she wanted to. She did, however, have time for a, “funny quip”.

It’s lazy writing, and it’s terribly annoying. Sure, the episode probably would end if she kills him before the first commercial break (which I think would be awesome to see happen, then onto a second story). But the writer should never have let that situation happen like that in the first place. Leading to that same spot could have happened many different ways, with the outcome the same (the bomber briefly gets away). Quite a lot more care could have been put into building something out of it. The writer shouldn’t just force a situation to feed the story, it needs to all flow together.

Let’s compare it to a different film, but similar situation. In the film The Bourne Ultimatum, the title character is chasing after a C.I.A. man that might have some answers. At the same time, an assassin is following the C.I.A. man, who has now jumped into a car to get away. The assassin tosses a bag at the front wheel of the man’s car, and starts off in the other direction. Bourne runs up just as the assassin is leaving, and Bourne might have killed him. Except, the assassin saw this situation coming, and the bag he tossed explodes, killing his victim and knocking Bourne down. The assassin gets away, and Bourne, though he failed, gets to go on another chase.

It works perfectly in the film because it leads up to it well, the tension seems ratcheted up, and nothing seems out of place. Bourne doesn’t have enough time to react, and barely gets a chance to even see the bag before it blows up. He’s failed, and worse for him he’s now knocked out. The plot, and the ensuing action sequences, move forward in a sensible way.

In Alcatraz, however, I was pulled completely out of the scene (and show). It makes no sense that she wouldn’t have tried to stop him, especially since he had just blown up a park and killed a bunch of people. She had plenty of time, and the only reason she didn’t was that the plot would have ended there. The writers painted themselves into a corner that they couldn’t get out of, and the only way out was to do something illogical.

Speaking of “painting”, this naturally brings up artists. Artists are not immune to doing the same thing, creating illogical actions to make something “cool”. I’ve seen quite a few covers where a character is doing something that makes no sense, and even interior art where the angles don’t work in the slightest bit.

Creating drama is great in the scene, but sometimes you’ll see a piece of art where the artist didn’t really think it through. Case in point, the women of swords and sorcery. Many covers of women in a fantasy image show them dressed in the tiniest of bikinis, showing more skin than Skinemax (as if I would–AHEM–know anything about that).

These women, painted to look perfect in every possible way and posed in the sexiest way imaginable, then have to fight giant monsters. Usually they are fighting in a swamp, or some horrific landscape, often even in the snow. The monsters are gooey, terrible things, a thousand times larger than the wee girl in the bikini. She’s still brandishing her sword as sexily as possible, though.

It’s like the bomber thing again, just with a monster.

It’s completely illogical that she’s dressed like that, and that she’d be silly enough to stand there and pose for the camera. It’s a wet dream fantasy for men, on the cover of a book that (I hope) the author would want the reader to take more seriously.

But, as with The Bourne Example Above™, there are ways to remake that image so that it really is exciting, and makes me want to pick up the book. Say, the woman is in full armor, feminine but still practical. Our angle shows us that she has a plan, be it magical or practical, but she’s obviously already been fighting. Her pose is tough and ready for action, and the monster is coming in.

I’d buy that book in no time flat.

As a creator, think to yourself next time about how a situation looks, and how it could be better. It should make sense, and be part of the scene or story, not just in there for looks. Lazy writing and lazy art just keep people away from your creation, and that’s the last thing you want.

The 1950′s: synonymous with the Atomic Bomb, the Cold War and the Space Race.  All of which helped bring about a string of science fiction movies that have become entrenched in the ‘feel’ of the 50′s.  Most of these films deal with evil in the most obvious, cartoony ways, and it is easy to overlook their importance in our search for understanding man’s inner evil.

In 1951, Edgar G. Ulmer filmed The Man From Planet X in 6 days.  Ulmer, a B-movie virtuoso, infused his movie with lots of fog and bad Scottish accents: but damn if it doesn’t work.

Our favorite 50′s characters are here: our fearless narrator is a leather jacket wearing reporter.  The heroine’s father is the lead scientist who is smack dab in the middle of the ‘planet X’ situation.  And I just don’t trust his lab assistant—Dr. Mears.  We better watch that fella, I tell ya.

But the alien?  He’s a different type of xeno altogether.

In fact, my theory is that he’s just a blue-collar worker, sent to earth with a job to do, buddy.  Science isn’t really his bag.  When the army decides they should attack him, our man from planet X starts building a fortress of dirt around his spaceship. 

Yep, dirt.

A fort of dirt.

Which is pretty awesome.

I could go on about this fun, forgotten gem from 1951, but we are interested in plumbing the depths of man’s inner evil here.  Which brings us to the fact that everything would have just been fine if it wasn’t for Dr. Mears—man, I told you to watch that guy!

The alien quickly makes peace with our reporter and his love interest (and really, isn’t that what all female leads in 50′s science fiction films amount too: The Love Interest), but Dr. Mears, in his greed to gain knowledge from a superior society (this is before anyone sees our man from X building a dirt fort), forces technological secrets out of our alien friend and then tries to kill him.

Dr. Mears is a caricature, but his is a character grounded in real 50′s fear.

Dr. Mears is the reflection of a world’s fear—we had unleashed nuclear warfare, technology was advancing with no signs of stopping and without any real answer to the question: should we?

We advanced with blind hope, faith and the shield of ‘if not us, them.’

Which left us sitting around our dinner table with our family, the beginnings of our bomb shelter seen through the back window, and our prayers that men’s inner evil would not unleash a nuclear hell storm.

It’s also easy, when one thinks about the fifties, to think of picket fences, soda fountains, and the helpful sheriff, tipping his hat back, bending over, and offering to help find our lost dog.

Lou Ford is just such a sheriff of just such a town in Jim Thompson’s violent tour de force The Killer Inside Me.

Lou is quick with a smile, but slow with his colloquialisms—just hold up a sec, or maybe a minute, and he’ll tell you that “We don’t have crooks here… anyway, people are people, even when they’re a little misguided.”

And no spoiler alert needed: there’s a killer inside him.

While the parallels between the 50′s ‘Keep Watching the Sky’ films and the Cold War are easy to connect, there’s a parallel here with this novel as well.

For Lou Ford has infiltrated the small town of Central City, Texas, and his endgame is nothing short of total destruction of the town.

If anyone bothered to check out the books lining Lou’s bookcases, they’d find all sorts of psychiatric literature: Krafft-Ebing, Jung, Freud, Bleuler, etc.  Lou knows he has a ‘sickness’ inside him, one that’s lain dormant since he was fourteen, after that unfortunate incident with a little girl.

And he knows the sickness is coming back.

There’s a fine line here: mental illness, or inner evil?  A line bordering on a Dr. Jeckyll/Mr. Hyde answer and execution.

Writing in the first person of Lou Ford, Thompson successfully merges Jeckyll and Hyde into one seamless being—Jeckyll and Hyde are one and the same in Lou Ford.

Stanley Kubrick is cited as saying that The Killer Inside Me is “…probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I have ever encountered.”

Far be it from me to disagree with Mr. Kubrick.

(Quick Public Service Announcement: Is there a Lou Ford in your town?  Name names on the form provided, please.)

The Haunting of Hill House might seem an odd choice to wind-out our exploration, but Shirley Jackson masterfully tells a haunting tale that buries its inner evil in the trappings of bump-in-the-night.

Dr. John Montague invites several people in touch with the paranormal to Hill House to help explore his research into paranormal activity.  One of the two people who accept his invitation is Eleanor Vance.

When we meet Eleanor, we are quickly told: ‘the only person in the world she genuinely hated, now that her mother was dead, was her sister.’

Not the usual heroine you’d build your story around.

(And, not to put too fine a point on it, we’re also told that she has no friends, so, uh… Hi, nice to meet ya?)

Poltergeists have supposedly haunted Eleanor her entire life, hence her invite.

Through her, maybe the ghosties will come out and play.

But do not miss the fact that Eleanor is a deeply troubled individual.  Her evil inner has turned inward, onto herself.

Eleanor might just want to put an end to Eleanor.

Eleanor’s inner evil is such that she is constantly under attack: by her own thoughts, by her actions, by her choices.  Whether or not the house is haunted makes little difference (although if she is telekinetic, she is actually, physically launching attacks against herself.)

But if Hill House is haunted, and I like to think it is (just the romantic in me), then the ghosts are picking on Eleanor because of her inner evil.

She is weak because of it, and an easy target.

The Haunting of Hill House might be one of the first books to deal with the question (buried under the Hill House floorboards however deeply): can someone who is mentally ill be held responsible for their inner evil?

Jackson’s novel doesn’t explore this question in any real depth, but Jackson is laying the foundation (on the ground broken by Thompson) for the mapping of the thin line between insanity and man’s inner evil.

It should be no surprise that the 60′s would provide some clearer cartography for us.

When Sarah built the new Apex blog, we made a decision that the blog would be an entertainment platform first and a promotional platform second. To that end, we elected to limit ourselves to one promotional post every two weeks. Additionally, that post would always run on the weekend… eventually Saturday was selected.

Welcome to the very first Apex Publications News post!

NEW RELEASES:

Artwork by Donata Giancola

On February 7th, the 33rd issue of Apex Magazine was published. We’re quite excited about issue 33 because we have an exclusive story from one of the best short fiction writers in the business–Maureen McHugh. In addition, we have stories by David J. Schwartz and A.C. Wise, a poem by Carrie Vaughn, nonfiction by Alex Bledsoe and Lynne M. Thomas, and an interview with the great Maureen McHugh (by Maggie Slater). Our cover art is from the legendary Donato Giancola.

Apex Magazine is released monthly and is free on the website. We also sell the zine in eBook format for $2.99 an issue. Subscriptions are available for $19.95.

Buy Issue 33: Apex – Amazon – B&N – Weightless Books

Subscribe to Apex Magazine: Apex – Amazon – Weightless Books

BOOK NEWS:

* The reviews of Machine (Jennifer Pelland) are rolling out over the internet. Reaction has been universally positive! Here is one by the website Val’s Random Comments (“Machine does quite a few things I like to see in a science fiction novel. First and foremost, delivering plenty of food for thought.”). Here is a second by Bibrary Book Lust (“As part of her exploration of what it means to be human, Jennifer does an amazing job of dealing with questions of sexuality and gender…”).

* Nicole Cushing interviewed Jennifer Pelland (“I decided I wanted to interview Jennifer Pelland about her first novel, Machine, because her short story collection Unwelcome Bodies changed my life.”). That’s quite an introduction!

* Let’s Play White received a glowing review from Chris Moriarty in the March-April 2012 issue of F&SF. No review to link to just yet, but here is a choice quote: “Burke’s stories describe African-American women’s experiences with honesty and humor, and with a profound awareness of the complexity of race and gender roles that makes her a worthy heir to writers like James Baldwin and James Tiptree, Jr.” Compared to James Baldwin and James Tiptree, Jr.? I would print that out and hang it over my desk.

Buy Machine: Apex – Amazon – B&N

Buy Let’s Play White: Apex – Amazon – B&N

APEX OUT IN THE WORLD:

Apex Publications owner and cartoon villain Jason Sizemore will be guest lecturer at the annual Indiana Horror Writers retreat next weekend (February 17-19) at Fort Ben Officers Houses, Indianapolis, IN.

Photo by Amber Clark

Once upon a time, I wandered through a graveyard in the Pacific Northwest and I came up on a gravestone with a symbol I did not recognize. Determined to know what it meant, I researched it and discovered a wealth of history to be had. Now, with photographer Amber Clark at my side, I share my gravestone stories with you.

One of the more common symbols used on gravestones is three chained links. This symbol has a myriad of meanings. The most frequent meaning is for the divine trinity–father, son, holy ghost. But that is just the beginning. How the links are placed, where, and whether or not they are broken, all have different meanings.

When used for the gravestone of a Freemason, beyond symbolizing the trinity, it also symbolizes the eternal connection between fraternal brothers. Once a Freemason, always a Freemason. This three chain link symbol is often accompanied by a Masonic handshake carving of two hands clasped together with the links carved below it.

If the letters FLT are carved above or within the chain links, this represents a fraternal organization called the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. This order is also known as the Three Link Fraternity. Created in the 18th century, this fraternal order is most well known for taking care of widows and orphans and those less fortunate. They ‘visit the sick, bury the dead, and educate the orphan.’ The three letters mean: Friendship, Love, Truth.

These are not the only meanings for the chain link symbol. A chain of five links means “the truth” that is often used in a nondenominational religious manner. A chain with a broken link symbolizes the death of a family member. If there is a hand pulling the chain upwards, this symbolizes God bringing a soul to him.

The linked chain symbol is a beautiful and recognizable symbol that needs the context of what else is on the gravestone to determine what its meaning is. In some cases, the meaning of the linked chain is personal to the family of the deceased. However, looking for other symbols–such as the Freemasons symbol–will tell you what you need to know.

Sarah has been our blog editor for over a year now. She’s done a knockout job, and I don’t think she or the great content she gets posted receive enough credit. Maybe with having a more accessible platform some of that credit will be more forthcoming. At the very least, she should know that I love her for the work she’s put into it (just don’t tell Mr. Peduzzi).

This kind of segues into what I wanted to discuss this month.

One of the most common questions I receive during interviews, interrogations by concerned parties, and by writers boozed up on expensive beers at hotel bars during early morning hours after asking if I’m looking for a new novel goes something like this: “Why? Why did you start a publishing company?” The second question I often hear after this one is “How did you make it succeed?”

Success is a moving target, and it means different things to different people. Do *I* think I succeeded? Partially. I’m still here pumping out fiction, right? But I realize that any successes I’ve had has been due to being hoisted on the shoulders of people like Sarah Peduzzi and being thrust upward toward my goals.

Back in 2004, I was working a dead end city government job in the division of risk management. It was about as exciting as you’re picturing it. I supported the ‘risk analysis’ software the  city used to determine if old man Baker could have that public fireworks show in his cow pasture on the 4th of July to celebrate the birth of his new goat. I’d also recently turned 30, was losing the rest of my hair, and had blown out both knees playing intramural basketball.

I felt quite miserable.

I realized that my life was quickly spiraling into a well of meaningless day to day drudgery.

I wanted to do something that might leave a positive mark on the world. I never much thought of it in terms of building a lasting legacy… dead is dead, after all, but I wanted a chance to make a difference in some small way. So I decided to start a business.

Several realities dictated the boundaries of what I could do. First, due to economic and practical reasons, I could not quit my city job to work on my new business full time.  I also need to work on something within the bounds of my skill set. And most importantly, I needed to do something that created a passion of interest and excitement, something that I looked forward to doing after the day of helping the city say no to old man Baker. Being a lifelong voracious reader of fiction, my intellectual gaze fell upon publishing.

At the time, I had an internet friend who ran a saddle-stitched photocopied zine(the name has eluded me, alas) that published genre short fiction. I would do *that*, except a step further. I adored those old school zines (still do), but I felt something like that would not blossom into a potential full time business. Thus, I would have my magazine printed professionally in digest format. The cover would be in full color. The interior would have great b&w artwork. The stories… oh the stories.

This being 2004, and me being a naive upstart publisher, I didn’t sense the impending doom of the printed short fiction markets. But, like any good cylon, I had a plan. A business plan, to be specific.

More importantly, I had/have talented friends who believed in Apex and shared a need to make a difference.

Eight years later, Apex is still fresh and vibrant and hella fun to do. Perhaps Apex hasn’t blossomed into the full time “make me rich” publishing project I hoped it would (yes, told you I was naive). But getting to do something I have a passion for, and getting to work on Apex with good friends… that’s what currently matters to me. Getting to publish great books from authors I respect (and even mostly like!) matters to me.

I suspect my reasons intersect the reasons that someone as smart and talented as Sarah Peduzzi built this blog (or that Justin Stewart keeps designing such kick ass book covers, or that Deb Taber works so diligently editing our books, so on and so forth)

To be part of something that reaches beyond the bounds of our daily routine in a positive manner. This shared desire has played a major role in any and all of our successes.

And in our shared goal, I hope we’ve succeeded in making our readers happy, happy people.

This issue will get under your skin. I didn’t set out to produce a theme issue, but with two stories featuring tattoos as a central motif, the urge to pair them together was overwhelming, and I succumbed.

This month, David J. Schwartz’s “Bear in Contradicting Landscape” and A.C. Wise’s “My Body, Her Canvas” both use tattoos, but to completely different ends. Our reprint this month is from the inimitable Maureen McHugh. “Useless Things” meditates upon creation, humanity, and parenthood in a post-apocalyptic setting. Carrie L. Vaughn graces us with her lovely poem “Caverns of Science.”

This month’s nonfiction brings an interview with Maureen McHugh, who discusses why names are hard, working on spec, and writing advice. Alex Bledsoe explains why all those secret societies of vampires and werewolves wouldn’t work very well, in his essay “No Mortals Allowed.”

Our gorgeous cover art this month is by Donato Giancola.

It’s also awards nomination season: nominations are now open for the Hugos, the Nebulas, and the Stokers. For your convenience, our website has a list of Hugo and Nebula eligible works (http://apex-magazine.com/2012/01/06/nebula-and-hugo-award-eligible-works-published-by-apex-magazine/) and Stoker Award eligible stories (http://apex-magazine.com/2012/01/16/stoker-award-eligible-stories/), including links to read them all for free.

I hope that you enjoy this issue of Apex.

Lynne M. Thomas
Editor-in-Chief, Apex Magazine

MGE: Can you give our readers a bit of background on how you got involved with the first Dark Faith anthology?

JG: Maurice Broaddus and I were at a writers retreat when he first bounced the idea off me.  Gary Braunbeck had introduced us a year or two before, and we had become friends and sounding boards for each other’s work.  We talked about how to approach the subject of belief in genre.  How to package and sell it.  It was one of those late night conversations that you don’t expect to go anywhere.  At least I didn’t.

A few months later, Maurice and I were having dinner.  At this point he’d sold Apex on Dark Faith but had a three-book deal looming on the horizon.  I told him he needed a co-editor, someone to handle the slush and manage the overall workload.  I suggested three or four writers (my name wasn’t among them).  A couple weeks later, Angry Robot signed Maurice to that three book deal and, much to my surprise, he asked me to edit Dark Faith with him.

MGE:  What did you learn from your experience as co-editor?

JG: The process of editing an anthology really holds a mirror up to your own work.  I defy anyone to put together a pro-rate anthology and not come out the other side a better writer.  It really helps you refine and articulate a sense of what works (and doesn’t work) in short fiction.

MGE:  What have you been doing since the release of the first one?

JG: Most of the following summer was spent marketing the book and lining up future projects.  Since then I’ve completed a young adult science fiction novel that’s being shopped, written short stories for a half dozen markets, and started work on a series of interconnected novellas that will eventually be packaged as a novel.

MGE:  Did you finish up with the first one hoping to have a second?

JG: We had a great deal of fun putting the first one together, and we all wanted to keep pushing the boundaries of genre fiction.  Once the reviews started coming in, it seemed inevitable.

MGE:  What has been involved in the planning process for the second Dark Faith anthology so far?

JG: Mainly finalizing the business plan and soliciting new stories.  We have some amazing writers returning for the second volume:  Gary Braunbeck, Tom Piccirilli, Jay Lake, Lucy Snyder, and Mary Robinette Kowal to name a few.  And we’ll be adding new stories from Orson Scott Card, Mike Resnick, Tim Pratt, Jeffrey Ford, and several others.  It’s going to be an exciting book.

MGE:  How did the January reading period come to be?

JG: On Dark Faith, we accepted submissions for four months.  By the time we were done reading, the process had eaten up five months of our lives.  So there was definitely a desire to limit the open submission workload.  We also found that our best stories came early or late in the process.  The middle months yielded a vast wasteland of mediocre fiction.  By limiting it to a single month, we hope to focus on writers actively crafting stories for us.

MGE:  Of course readers of the blog that happen to be writers are going to be hoping you will give them the inside scoop on what you are looking for (insert guidelines link). Can you share with us a little about the stories that didn’t make it in last time and why?

JG: Belief doesn’t have to be about organized religion, but it’s very difficult to write on the subject without drawing on some unique aspect of your own experience, faith, or values.  The bulk of the pro-level stories we rejected lacked that unique flavor.  They could’ve been written by any sufficiently talented writer.  The generic nature of the work kept it from standing out.

We also had to reject a number of amazing stories due to space constraints.  If I was a writer trying to break into this anthology, I’d go short.  That gives us more room to take a chance on you.  We purchased work from two previously unpublished writers for Dark Faith.  Both stories came in under twenty-five hundred words.

Submission guidelines:  http://bit.ly/oqiVxI

MGE: What would you like to see represented in submissions this time around that you got too little of last time? Are you the co-editor that likes talking animals?

JG: I’d love to see more stories that deal with faith from an African, Asian, Middle Eastern, or South American world view.  I’m also a big believer in interstitial fiction.  As for talking animals, I’m the one that tends to reject those stories.  I don’t have anything against them, but they’re hard to do well.

MGE:  What would you instantly reject from the slush pile?

JG: Stories that proselytize or mock the beliefs of others.  Go into politics if that’s your goal.

MGE: After you survive the slush wars, can you take us through the rest of the process? (Check out Jennifer Brozek’s Making of an Anthology Series on the Apex Blog)

JG: For the most part, the post-submission process is about shaping.  You’re looking for a sense of synchronicity or a progression like a great mix tape or album.  Maurice and I stand around a big table with all the shortlisted stories on index cards and start mixing and matching.  Some stories fall out of favor because they simply don’t fit with the evolving tone or they too closely mirror another work.  Others fit together like the writers traded notes before sitting down at the keyboard.  At this level, most revision requests are minor.  Contracts are signed, line edits are completed, and the table of contents is announced.  Then the work of promoting the book begins.

MGE: What other projects are you involved in, and what are you hoping to work on next year?

JG: Right now I’m finishing Breaking The World for Apex.  The apocalyptic novella follows a group of teenagers inside the Branch Davidian Compound during the standoff between the FBI and David Koresh.  It’s a prequel to “City of Refuge,” an alternative history short that first appeared in Apex Magazine #12.

In the coming months Shroud Magazine will feature an interview and short story from me.  ”Ghost in the Machine” deals with third-party politics and the dangers of state sponsored torture.  I’ve also written “Vampire Nation” for Michael West’s Vampires Don’t Sparkle! anthology.

In 2012, I’ll be writing two more novellas for the Breaking The World series and doing some work for hire in the gaming industry.  Visit www.jerrygordon.net for more in the coming months.

—————

Jerry Gordon is leading at least one life too many. As a full-time author, grad student, web programmer, and editor, he lacks the time to write a witty bio, but assures you that if you keep drinking, he’ll get funnier. In addition to co-editing Dark Faith and Last Rites, he’s published stories with Apex Magazine, Indie Review, and the Midnight Diner. He recently finished his first novel, Severed Dreams, and can be found blurring genre lines at www.jerrygordon.net.

You can learn more about the interviewer, MG Ellington at her website which appears to have been under the control of evil, yet thankfully lazy web monkeys since May.