2011... The Year I Arrived

2011.  What a year to look back on.  And, yeah, it seems like I was sitting here before, it was about 365 days ago that I was sitting here to write a post titled 2010... I Barely Knew 'Ya.  I just figured, what the hell, do what everyone else does for a change and write a little bit reflecting on the past year.  So I signed right into my blog as soon as I sat down, just typing away.  It was a break from my usual routine, which is something big when you have OCD, skipping going in to check my e-mail and bouncing around to the three main story sites I had been posting on, little realizing that there was an e-mail informing me that my short story Fungi had been plagiarized and was being offered as part of a story collection on Amazon.  (Yeah, Rebecca Giesler...Becky Bick-SUCKER...Mistress Ana Phylaxis, or whatever the fuck your wanna be witch ass name is, I have not forgotten about you!)  For an author nothing makes you feel more robbed and violated than to know you've been plagiarized, especially if it's one of those stories that's kind of near and dear to your heart because it was written several years before and it's one you think over often.  I quickly got my footing and struck back, and today I'm happy to say that I at least played a part in having the "works" of Mistress Ana Phylaxis removed from Amazon.

In a twist of irony the incident pushed me to the point that I reached a goal, which in my mind was the goal I needed to reach to consider myself having arrived on the writing scene.  I looked into eBook publishing for the first time, armed with the knowledge that it had to be fairly easy once you took into consideration the narrow turn around time between the posting of Fungi on Literotica and its appearance on Amazon.  Within a month and a half my recently finished novel Heather's Journey: The Sound Of her MASTER'S VOICE was published to Amazon after an intense round of reformatting.  Not long after I began to sever my ties from story submission sites because they were either highly political or run by indifferent administrations, or both.  And I haven't really looked back.  With my relenting and finally joining das FaceBooken at the beginning of the summer I was able to reconnect with several people I knew from Lushstories, as well as meeting ones I was aware of  but never had a chance to get to know during my time there.  Am I totally done with story submission sites?  I would say it's a yes, for the most part, however there's always the possibility that I will post an occasional short story here and there, but as busy as I seem to stay they will definitely be few and far between.

Early last year I also published eBook editions of my holiday erotica short stories Bunny Holes and St. Patrick's Day Scrumpin'.  I worked on and off of a story collection built around Fungi until the start of the summer.  Then I decided to take a break to rework an older story, which resulted in my second published novel A Day In The Life Of Abagail King.  In the fall I published my first erotic horror short story and poetry collection A Letter To Doctor Freudstein - Demoni - And Ten Poems and released my brief gay male short story Honcho as a free read in eBook format as well.  By that time I had begun to publish on Barnes & Noble and All Romance/OmniLit as well.  In November I made the decision to join the 12 Days Of Creepfest Blog Tour, and after getting a slight ribbing by Rebecca Treadway I decided to write a story collection to release in conjunction with the tour to prove that I "still had it" (it being the same it I had in high school), which resulted in my first non-erotic release, a holiday themed horror and short story collection Frog Nog And Other Horrorday Tales.

If you've followed this blog you know that my Fungi collection Fungi: Weird Tales Of Horror And Eroticism is not the only project I have worked on or though of over the past year.  I'm horrible with deadlines as I really do not believe in writing whatever I can within a few pages and publishing it just to get it out there.  I truly do love to fallow the fields and let stories and projects grow cold for a while before coming back to them.  In my excitement I did start working on several things over the past year to which I assigned projected dates, and none of them have made it, or are going to make it.  That being said I am currently working the short story prologue to my much talked about, but still not published, Shadows Of The Night series.  Titled Legend Of The Ghost's Woods I decided that it was much too long to remain as the actual prologue for Comes The Dark Storm (which, yes, I am hoping for a 2013 finish for that novel), due to the nature of giving a long history it did not fit in well with the rest of the narrative, so I hope it serves as a jumping off point to the first book.  I am currently working on the final three stories of a four story horror collection I call Four Freaks, which I also hope to see complete by late spring at the very latest.  Heather's Journey: The Manual Of Discipline was another project I started on this year, but did not get as far as I had planned on, and at this point I think it will be another year or two before everything falls into place and it's closer to publication.  Then of course there's The Creeper, which I have billed for months as my first horror novel for publication.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a summer release.  Of course there's a lot more that occasionally gets shifted from the back burner to the front, and then right back.  So keep on looking, because there will be more details coming as time goes on.

The end of the year is of course pretty hectic, as I am sure everyone knows.  Frog Nog And Other Horrorday Tales went live on Amazon and Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks ago with no fanfare, though I as sure a majority of my readers grabbed a copy while it was free during 12 Days Of Creepfest.  To cap off the year I made the decision to release eBook editions of two stories I wrote in 2006, each with a different holiday theme.  Both will be released within the next week.  Fuck Flowers, Fuck Candy... ...This Is A Gift You Can Really Use! is a science fiction erotica short story about a woman who gets the greatest sex toy ever made as a Valentine's Day gift.  Thank You, Ma'am And Sir is a Thanksgiving themed BDSM erotica short story about a thankful submissive who tries to work her thankfulness into something else to be thankful for.

Aside from writing in 2011 I began doing reviews.  Of course it seems that the title "critic" probably fits me better than "reviewer".  But I tell it like it is, and the way it is, as I have seen, is that the independent writing scene is full of hacks.  So, as perhaps my only resolution I am not going to hold back in my reviews anymore.  (What, I've been holding back?)  Well, not that much.  This year, though, I'm planning to give the hacks I find in the independent world a swift kick in the balls.  And if you don't have balls...  Well, I've been assured a crotch kick to a woman is just as painful as a crotch kick to a man (no balls = no squishy padding).

I have to say it felt good to get Heather's Journey: The Sound Of her MASTER'S VOICE published to Amazon, because that was the goal, being published for sale (not the making of millions of dollars, or being a best seller, but the actual fact it was published for sale) that I felt spoke to me that Michael C. Laney had finally arrived.  That aside the thing that I have really enjoyed is getting to know other independent writers a lot better over the course of this year.  I can't really imagine not knowing Jason Darrick, Rebecca Treadway, Lady Sharon and so many others.  Knowing these people, finally feeling as if I am in a group that are my friends and peers...

Well, that's another thing, a sign that was never a goal, or even a thought, that I had at last "arrived"!

2012...  I'll be lurking for you!

Master Vyle

12 Days Of Creepfest Is Rolling

Today is the day fiends and fright fans, the start of the 12 Days Of Creepfest Blog Tour.  Over the next couple of weeks look for special interviews, give-aways and surprises.  For the duration of the tour I will be giving away my new horror short story and poetry collection, Frog Nog And Other Horrorday Tales.  I will have more details on that and my plans for a special give-away starting in week two soon.

In the meantime be sure to check out the tour at www.creepfestblogtours.blogspot.com and see what some of the hottest independent authors in horror and dark fantasy have in store for you.

Plus, as a bonus treat, a little something for you to lurk at, my 12 Days Of Creepfest Blog Tour promotional video.

I will be posting the details on Frog Nog And Other Horrorday Tales shortly.  It's frightful fun for all ages, my first collection that lacks va-jay-jays and wangs.  Hhehehehehehehehe!

Master Vyle

Hearing Those (Other) Words, "I Read Your Book."

Today I had another one of those little milestones in My fledgling career as a published author.  This morning further magical words, "Hey, I read your book yesterday."  I have to admit I was kind of expecting something to the effect to come sooner or later, because after all Sarah told Me those first words, "I bought your book," a few weeks ago.  I was still slightly caught off guard though, as at that moment it was completely off My radar.  (It's been a crazy week since last Tuesday involving the death of a car, the purchase of two new cars and celebrating the ten year anniversary of meeting the lady vyle, not to mention another massive change in My work schedule).

As a bonus I got My first review of A Day In The Life Of Abagail King on the spot.  I won't go into details and toot My own horn (much), but I will say it was very positive.  I had to laugh when Sarah asked Me what "perkerneck" meant.  She had said she was going to look it up in the Urban Dictionary, but didn't have a chance to.  I assured her that it was not there as it is a 100% Michael C. Laney original, and thus far I have no plans for any other characters than Abagail King using it, though that can always change.

So what should I expect next?

Well, I'm not really looking forward to expecting anything.  With so many of those little milestones an author dreams of coming out of the blue so far I just say let them come, and I have no plans on sitting around on edge waiting for them to happen and being disappointed when they do not.

Though I secretly hope that someone will actually post a review on one of the novels.

Writing is going well on Demoni, and once it is done A Letter To Doctor Freudstein - Demoni - And Ten Poems will be in the can.  Not sure what I will launch into next.  I was thinking maybe I could get a Halloween collection together as well, but with the time I have before the holiday it might be a project to work on for release next year.  Honcho will also be coming in eReader format soon, so lurk for it as well.




Master Vyle



Lurking Back To Lurk Forward

As a writer you always have things going on to keep you from making deadlines, whether they're from a publisher of some form or whether they're selfimposed.  I've had My fair share of blocks and dilemmas.  And then on course there's always a writer's worst enemy, "Hey wouldn't it be cool to start on this thing instead of what you're doing now?"

Well, having had success with new distributors I realized that I was sitting on quite a little trove of stories that might do well formatted and put out for eReader.  My stories Town Slut, Honcho and Balcony Diddling are in my cross hairs.  And then there was that need to get something that has Michael C. Laney and horror on it ahead of those other projects slowly being written over time.  Okay, so maybe it is still going to be more a foray into erotic horror, but it will still be horror.

The idea is a collection with the long title of A Letter To Doctor Freudstein - Demoni - And Ten Poems.  In this collection will by My short story, A Letter To Doctor Freudstein along with the poems Jack-O-Lantern Lady, Beneath The Bright Zombie Moon, Woman With Plumage, The Gorgon, The Crypt Below, Graveyard Sunrise and Dance Of The Elder Gods.  It will also include the previously unpublished erotic horror short story Demoni and poems Mummy Waits, Critter and Coffin Banging.

If things go well the editing should be done in a couple of weeks, and I expect the above collection and Balcony Diddling to be ready to go, and Honcho released as a free eBook story on All Romance eBooks.

Of course I assure you that work does go on with My other projects as I get ready to adjust to yet another work schedule change.  I am really (I mean really, really) getting to the final stretch of It Takes Two To Matango.  And last week I wrote the opening scene of Heather's Journey: The Manual Of Discipline!

So, I'm looking back to some older works to help look forward and to also help generate a little more interest in my works.

A Letter To Doctor Freudstein - Demoni - And Ten Poems, Balcony Diddling and Honcho all coming soon.  Lurk for them!

Master Vyle

Hearing Those Words, "I Bought Your Book"!

Today I reached a milestone, and it was a surreal moment that left Me feeling giddy for the rest of the day.  August 25, 2011, is the day I heard the words I had dreamed of hearing from the moment I first sat down and wrote a story that wasn't a part of a school assignment.  I've dreamed about it and imagined how it would come for 25 years, how it would sound, what that moment would be.  Of course it came out of the blue, and I was totally unprepared for it.

"I bought your book."

This was said to Me by a member of the management team at work, someone I felt pretty unlikely to buy or read My available works so far because of their adult nature.  I learned that she knew I was published a couple of weeks ago, and when she first mentioned buying one I did warn her that they were all erotic in nature.  She said she would wait for Me to write a horror novel, just in case she found reading erotica from someone she knew to be a little too weird.

She changed her mind, however, informing Me as I was on My way out the door.

"Which one?," I asked.

"The one with the big blond woman on the front."

Already giddy, excited and taken off guard the only thing I could think of to say was, "That's My wife on the cover."

She tried to apologize, thinking she had offended Me, but I explained that, and actually said that, I was feeling a little giddy.  It was unexpected.  I had seen comments online before, and "chatted" through print online, have even been read by a high school classmate, but never before had anyone said to Me, face to face and in person, "I bought your book."

Of course it isn't the monetary gain that I was fixated on.  I had not been expecting trumpets or grandier (things of course I had dreamed of early on).  But just hearing it period, after so many years of being content that writing was only going to be a private hobby, made Me feel that I had made it.  I achieved a forgotten goal.  I have mentioned before that My intention was not to let another year pass without making a royalty check, which is already an accomplished goal, but I have to admit that I really had not set any others, aside from the hope of finishing a couple of projects.  Even reworking and publishing A Day In The Life Of Abagail King as a fully fledged novel was a spur of the moment decision.

So here I am, a goal and a desire accomplished, out of the blue and with no warning.

"I bought your book."

Would I like to hear it again, and again?

Yes, of course.

However, I seriously doubt that any time that I hear it after today that it's going to have the giddiness inducing and somewhat humbling effect that it did that first time.

Thanks Sarah!

Master Vyle

Oh, My! How The Publishing Game Has Changed!

 

 

About 16 years ago I made the decision that to better be able to enjoy writing that I would pursue it as a hobby as opposed to a profession, despite the fact that it had always been My dream to become a published author.  The main reason I made that decision all those years ago was that writing was a hard business to break in to, as I shopped around for potential publishers for Whispers Of Darkness.

As I am sure many struggling writers know, back then writing and publishing was one of those games that was pretty much reserved for the rich, or at least those who had a significant money to blow.  If you didn't have the money to self-publish through a vanity press, then you had to take the real hard road.  Publisher did not want to hear anything from you unless you had an agent.  Agents were not willing to represent you unless you had already been published.  Hell it would have been easier for a 15 year old to get an unsecured credit card than a serious writer with a stack of manuscripts to ever get his first book published.

Since learning at the beginning of the year how easy it was to have an eBook submitted and published, and actually publishing Heather's Journey: The Sound Of her MASTER'S VOICE only a matter of weeks later it made Me realize that the game had changed, as eBook publishers like Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, Smashwords, Lulu and dozens of others have effectively cut out the middle man.  What more could an independent and budding writer want?  No scraping and bowing to publishers over content.  No need to share fractional royalties with parasitic agents when many eBook publishers allow upward of 80% royalties dependent on the selling price.

Yes the game has indeed changed, and today that became even more apparent to Me.

This morning when I opened My mail box I found the most unexpected thing.  A letter from a publisher.  In it the publisher stated they had discovered Me through researching the Library Of Congress and noticing that I had a work now registered there.  Which seems to me is a clear indication that publishers are now trolling the archives of the Library Of Congress because the eBook market is putting a hurting on them.  I was also offered the chance to have My work reviewed by them, and I could send them a typewritten copy (oh, how quaint) to see if they would be interested in publishing it.

I had to laugh to Myself a little.  So this is the latest thing that I am going to be bombarded with?  Publishers coming to Me and wanting a chance to look at My work to see if they found it worthy of publishing?  I laughed a little louder, realizing that this publisher was in turn cutting out their own tried and true middle man, the literary agent.  I called the lady vyle and told her, saying "If all it took to get published back in the day was to send a copy to the Library Of Congress I would have done it.  However, back then publishers wouldn't have bothered."

Did I find the offer a little bit tempting?  Maybe just a little.  But I had never heard of Dorset Publishing before, plus I was sure that My content would not have been what they were looking for.  Were it Random House or Balentine or Berkley I would have probably been a little more tempted.  But then again, despite the fact that I'm not sitting on a huge mountain of money, or planning My retirement from My day job because the things I have published are selling so well, I kind of like being the Master (not sure if a pun is intended there or not) of My Destiny.  It's a lot of stress in some ways, because self-promotion in just that, Me promoting Myself with the help of a few friends such as Marabelle Blue, Nicola Matthews and Jason Darrick.  But on the other side of the coin I have the power to write My own jackets, to design My own covers, control all of My content and set My own pace.  After being overlooked and neglected by publishers I find that I'm not ready to give up My independence, or even consider it seriously if there was a mainstream publisher that wanted to put My work into print.  Were I vain, I would have went out and bought a printer and paper, and had a print copy ready to send out by the end of the week.  But I'm not.

I love the status I have as an independent writer.  I'm proud to be published, even though it is only in eBook format.  People look at you differently when you tell them you published an eBook.  You can tell that the average person on the street doesn't see that as being as glamorous as being published in print.  But, I don't really thing that attitude will last too much longer.  The world is changing by the month with the development of new technologies.  The publishing game has changed.  Print publishers and literary agents no longer hold the power.  The power is in the hands of ePubs and independent writers.

Where's the proof?

Well, I found the proof in My mailbox this morning.



Master Vyle

So What Is Michael C. Laney Up To?

A blast from the past, something old to Me and new to you!  Huh?

Well for everyone that's been following Me I am sure knows that the past year was a pretty big year for Me.  In March 2010 I posted My first two stories online, Descent To Venus and Older Is Bedder.  Then between March and October I wrote several new short stories and a few dozen poems, became a Twitter tweeter, and finished a novel I had been working on for almost four years Heather's Journey: The Sound Of her MASTER'S VOICE.  At the very beginning of January 2011 I discovered I had been plagiarized, and set out to deal with that problem with help from fellow victims and with success.  In February an unabridged edition of The Sound Of her MASTER'S VOICE was published for download and eReaders, in a way bringing to close what was quite a year.

Afterward I went to work on several projects, starting a new story collection and working on getting a good start on the first novel of Shadows Of The Night.  I know, because people ask, they're wanting to know when they're going to see what they know I have in the works, but the problem is it's hard to answer.  Writing is one of those funny things.  Sometimes you will be so inspired to work on a particular project, and then poof, you get stuck, or suddenly you have another idea for a project you want to work on, but I'm thinking, always thinking, about whatever I put on hold or on the back burner.  I've actually begun to think that,especially with longer projects, that I need to work on them a little at a time while working on shorter works in between.

Of course life is something else that tends to get in the way.  I can tell you I really miss the days when it seemed like nothing was ever holding me back as I wrote.  When I was in high school I churned out story after story, assigned and on my own, between going to school full time, working practically full time (35 hours a week) and keeping a full "social" life.  Now I pretty much work, and that's it, or at least all I intend, but usually something is always coming up.  And that's just the basic stuff.

This year the lady vyle has faced several health concerns, and in the past 365 days or so she has been under and in surgery four times.  She is well now, but when you're dealing with the love of your life I think you know that you will put everything on the back burner to attend to their comfort and  to let them know that you're there.

Then there are all those other things that come along.  Boy scouts, "volunteering" at the middle school, yard work, etc.  You know, all those things that come along with being a parent and an adult.  One thing at a time doesn't seem like much, but add it all together and you wonder where all the time when, or how the hell did I write more when I was young with either just as much, if not less, time.

So, I've had life.  Ideas have come and went, some to simmer on the back burner and others stuffed into the freezer to grow cold.  Yet I'm at least always working on them in My head.  And then, there's always what I'm working on now.

Currently I am working on revising My 1994 short story, A Day In The Life Of  Abagail King into a novel.  The story was one I had chosen to quickly convert from a 3.5 inch mini-disk file and put onto My Kindle so I could look it over and have something to read when I was in Missouri for My oldest son's graduation, and as I read over it before I even left I had come to the decision that the story itself didn't need all that much work.  In fact I was surprised at the BDSM themes that had ended up in several of the scenes, and which still stood up pretty well, despite the fact that at the time I had only been living in the lifestyle for a little over a year.

So what's A Day In The Life Of Abagail King (the novel) going to be about?  Well the story is the tale of a southern prostitute, told in her own words.  I know I do My best to try to make each story I write very different from one another, but those familiar with My other works will find it quite a departure from My other works.  Abagail tells her story with her own person moxie and sometimes cutting her words down, dropping the G's off her words when she gets on a roll to reflect her own vocal accent.  She a product of her upbringing and at odds within herself over southern values and modern ideas.  With little apology or shame she relates the events of one of her work days from $50 quickies to a lesbian BDSM scene to a party where she entertains a large group of men with the help of only one other woman.

Is Abagail King going to be for everyone?  Probably not, but then again I would be hard pressed to name anything I've written that had Universal appeal.  However I am pleased with what I have, having just reached the halfway point, and I have as always striven to tell a true to life story with true to life characters.  I have a date in mind I would like to have it done and published, but whenever I actually name a date it seems I never get it done by then, and I hate to give a date and continually push it back, so for now I'm keeping the projected publication date under My hat.

Next?

Well, work continues on on My Fungi collection, slowly but  surely.  Plus I have been reading over The Sound Of her MASTER'S VOICE.  The story of the second novel in the Heather's Journey Trilogy is slowly starting to build itself in My head.  I have already worked on cover and interior art for the novel and I can assure you that work will probably begin on Heather's Journey: The Manual Of Discipline before the end of the summer.

Until then, I'll keep you posted.  But look out for A Day In The Life Of Abagail King, coming soon!

Master Vyle

I'm Not Afraid To Use The N-Word: Character VS. Writer!

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Lurking For Dr. Paul Bearer...My Saturday Writing Influence

Doctor Paul Bearer's Creature Feature Laid The Foundation For My Obsession With Science Fiction And Horror And Was A Huge Part Of My Saturday Television Time.

Saturday.  There was a time when it was a day of special meaning.  Its importance is now pretty much lost to changes in technology and those cultural changes that go hand and hand with it.  For Me growing up, especially in Florida, Saturday meant three things.  First and foremost it was they day that Dr. Paul Bearer's Creature Feature came on WTOG Channel 44.  Later on I discovered My second Saturday television joy, Doctor Who on WEDU PBS Channel 3.  And finally, when I was in middle school, I truly began to embrace pro-wrestling, and NWA Championship Wrestling From Florida (now FCW) came on at 7:00, also on Channel 44, where the greatest commentator in history, the late Gordon Solie, called all the action.

Of course the world moved on.  Saturday began to loose its importance.  It's become just another day within the  last 20 years.  However sometimes things you loose get to come back.  Doctor Who met with cancellation near the end of the 80's and came back stronger than ever in 2005.  Championship Wrestling From Florida was acquired by Jim Crockett Promotions and along with NWA Mid-Atlantic Wrestling and the Universal Wrestling Federation as well as a few other JCP territories were merged to form WCW, however the promotion was revived time and again by various promoters and within the last couple of years now called FCW (Florida Championship Wrestling) it acts as WWE's developmental promotion.

Creature Feature though, despite one attempt at a revival, is unfortunately gone forever.  The host of the show, Dick Bennick, passed away in 1995, not long after I moved to Missouri.  Despite the fact that Channel 44 promised that horror movies would always fill the 12:00 P.M. time slot it was a promise that never materialized, mainly due to the fact that the station had planned to re-run the series, but met with the objection of Bennick's family.  Bennick initially developed the character of  Dr. Paul Bearer in the late 60's while he was hosting another weekly horror movie feature program in North Carolina and long before the former Percival Pringle III, Bill Moody, became Paul Bearer in the WWF.  Initially he played the skull face painted Count Shockula, but decided that he never liked the character, and according to several websites, through the magic of television, he found a way to appear as the ill fated Count and the good Doctor at the same time, Bearer  driving a stake through Shockula's heart and taking over "his" show.

In 1971, the year before I was born, Channel 44's Creature Feature began its run.  I was too young  to remember the program as it began, initially running four features every Saturday in an 8 hour program block.  I am sure I would have been in "hog heaven" if I could remember that time.  However I do remember the show when it presented two of what Dr. Paul Bearer referred to as "horrible old movies", the Saturday double feature format continued on until I was nearly in middle school, and whether I was at home or at Grandma's from 12 to 4 I was glued to the screen.

To say that I was influenced by the movies that appeared on Creature Feature would be an understatement.  And it wasn't just the movies that I looked forward to, but also to the host segments, because it just wasn't a Saturday without Dr. Paul Bearer's mock advertisements, wisecracks and eerie presence.  Even if the movies had been on before, or if they were something that I was not really interested in seeing I wanted to know what Dr. Paul would say or do.  Unlike Elvira or the crew of the Satellite of Love the good Doctor didn't really joke or comment directly on the films, but he did some off the wall stuff like, smoking his coffin nails, or eating Chicken McMaggots, or getting beat with his "Mummy's" purse, and occasional be asked, "Your money or your life," by a burglar, to which he happily gave his life (A copy of Life Magazine that is).  He always presented the films  from the un-living room of his Tenement Castle, and there was always a least a prop or two on the coffin table.  Every now and then he was joined by a static and wisecracking spider known as Spenjamin Bock.  And of course once in a great while he also retreated to the music room where he lip sank such Tom Leher classics as 'Posioning Pigeons In The Park'.

Dr. Paul Bearer and Spenjamin Bock

There were two pictures decorating the walls of the Tenement Castle that will always stick out in My mind, and often shown before the show cut to a commercial.  One was of a cross-stitch that proclaimed Tomb Sweet Tomb.  There happens to be a copy of this in The Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom, although I am not quite sure if there is any relationship between them, or in fact the origin of the cross-stitch itself.  The other is an illusionary painting I believe it titled Vanity.  It is a picture of a woman at her dressing table that also makes the picture of a skull.  You may already be aware that I have a thing for skulls and skeletons, and I can pretty much assure you that that initially came from watching Creature Feature as well.

A painting I believe called Vanity adorned a wall of Dr. Paul Bearer's Tenement Castle



My Skelaton Belaton icon bares an unintentional and superficial resemblance to the illusionary skull in the painting.

Bennick himself was also a radio personality during the week, and he lived in Winter Haven, which was one of the next towns over from where I lived in Auburndale growing up.  When I was about ten I met  Dr. Paul Bearer for the first time.  He was judging a Halloween costume contest at the Winter Haven Speedway (now the Auburndale Speedway).  I was dressed as a clown, and at the time I had no clue of the possible horror there was at being a clown, or that there were even people who had a fear of clowns.  (I still had not seen Halloween at that time.)  He complimented Me on the costume, and I had asked what movies he was going to be showing the next week, because at the time I believed that it aired live.  He told me I would have to "lurk and see" because it was a secret.  Of course that got to My proto-fan boy heart, because he ended each show by welcoming the viewers back every week for more "horrible old movies" and signing off with the catchphrase "I will be lurking for you."  (Which I did paraphrase as "We will be lurking for you", for the Meet the Author's Chat Night I did with Nicola Matthews).  When I was in high school I would occasionally catch sight of him driving around Winter Haven in his hearse, yes he actually did drive a Cadillac hearse around town, and despite the fact I was nearly an adult it still gave Me a thrill every time I saw him.

Dr. Paul Bearer and Creature Feature were the first things that influenced Me to become a writer.  Every week there were movies from the 30's to the 70's when I was a kid.  I was treated to a share of Universal Classics and Corman  Monsterpieces.  I saw more than a few Hammer Horror films, and was introduced to Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing well before they ever appeared in Star Wars films.  Lugosi, Price, Karloff and the Carridnes were other genre actors I became aware of early on, and I was treated to programmers and drive-in delights from Europe and Asia as well as more home grown Sci-Fi and  B Horror movies.  I saw the original King Kong months before the 1976 remake hit the screens through Creature Feature.  I was also given My introduction to tokusatsu on Saturday mornings, and quite often hoped more than anything that there would be a Godzilla or Gamera movie on.  Even beyond the classic Japanese monsters I saw a couple of the Super-Giant films as well as the Dai-Majin series, and Attack Of The Mushroom People (Matango).  One time, when I was in the sixth grade, I even got to see full frontal, naked, white girl boobies, when apparently a European film with a strip scene had not been edited closely enough.  (Woo-Hoo!)

The Super-Giant Series (A.K.A. Starman in the U.S.) were My first taste of a non-Kaiju toku.

Alien council from the Super-Giant films.

A few years back the return of Creature Feature was announced.  I was pretty jacked, especially since the week after the relaunch I was going to be on vacation and would actually be home to see My Saturday morning writing influence come back.  I was interested to see how the show would fare with its new host, Professor Paul Bearer II and to see what format changes would be done to present the show to a new and more "modern" audience.  Alas it was not to be.  There was no Creature Feature that day, the revival apparently canceled after only a single episode.  So again I floundered without My Saturday fix of "horrible old movies".

Original double feature poster for I Was A Teenage Werewolf and Invasion Of The Saucer Men.  Such creature double features were the fodder for My imagination.

Now seven years have passed, and I am sure that unlike Doctor Who and FCW that Creature Feature will never be back.  Recently I decided to revisit many of the movies that I first through Dr. Paul Bearer's presentation on Saturday afternoons.  True they're not the same without the good Doctor sitting in the un-living room of the Tenement castle, but to some extent I now have that old excitement I used to feel when watching them, which was the best Saturday escape, and the sign that the weekend has truly arrived.  Now My son is a little jaded, weened on CGI and big  time special effects, and the lady vyle prefers to do a little cross-stitching of her own as I watch, but every now and then they do get a little in to the stories.  And I still do have a couple of Creature Features I video taped, such as Diary Of A Madman, and Destroy All Monsters, complete with Dr. Paul "singing" 'Posioning Pigeons In The Park'.

Dr. Paul Bearer and his horrible old movies have been with  Me pretty much from the beginning of My writing hobby.  Corman's Poe films inspired many of My early poems, and Bleeders, which  I consider My first short story, was definitely inspired by Corman's Attack Of The Giant Leeches.  Before beginning work on Whispers Of Darkness I did a couple of dry writing runs, penning updated adaptations of Godzilla King Of The Monsters and Mothra to see if I could write something beyond 50 pages, both movies I developed a love for by seeing them over and over on Creature Feature.

As well as Doctor Who and pro-wrestling there are several references to Doctor Paul Bearer and Creature Feature in My stories, and there will continue to be as long as I write.  King Kong Vs. Godzilla, a movie I was particular jacked to see when I found out that Creature Feature was going to have it on, was referenced  in My first erotic short story, Older Is Bedder.  Dr. Paul has been paid homage to as Colonel Creepy in Fungi and as Count Shockula, named after his former ego and nemisis, in Shadows Of The Night and Story Number Two of the Fungi Collection that I am currently working on.  Dr. Paul and Creature Feature were even directly referenced in the original version of Whispers Of Darkness, although the reference will be changed to Count Shockula to fit into the Shadows Of The Night continuity I am building.  Colonel Creepy will probably have a cameo in Story Three of the Fungi Collection, and Shockula may appear in another of the stories in the collection as well.

Late 70's early 80's title card for Creature Feature.

Will there ever be another Dr. Paul Bearer or Creature Feature?  Alas, no, I don't believe so.  However the influence and impact that Dr. Paul and his horrible old movies had on Me, My writing and My sense of gross humor will never be undone.  It is My greatest hope that somehow, someday, the series will be released on DVD.  It's unlikely, but it is the only way that the good Doctor will ever truly come back from the grave to provide Me with that Saturday writing influeence I still crave.  Until then Dr. Paul Bearer, I will be lurking for you.

Master Vyle

2010 I Barely Knew Ya'

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