[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions.php on line 4668: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [ROOT]/includes/functions.php:3815) [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions.php on line 4670: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [ROOT]/includes/functions.php:3815) [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions.php on line 4671: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [ROOT]/includes/functions.php:3815) [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions.php on line 4672: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [ROOT]/includes/functions.php:3815) Horror World • View topic - Questions, comments and complements for Gary (CC spoilers!)
Late last week, I saw an ad for Coffin County while reading my daily webcomics (for the life of me, I can't remember where, otherwise I'd tell you where your marketing dollars had been well spent). I had never heard of you before, so I went to my two friends that know everything: Wikipedia and Google. I had been trying to read the Coldfire trilogy, which the girl I'm seeing recommended, saying they are her favorite books (aside: the fact that the story she loves cannot seem to engross me may be an early warning sign for this relationship. I hope not.), but was needing a break before starting the second book, so I decided to give you a try.
I picked up all your books my local B&N had in stock (only Mr. Hands and Coffin County, unfortunately), then, after some research, decided to read Mr. Hands first. I'm very glad I did, as I was introduced to The Reverend BEFORE Coffin County.
I must say I greatly enjoyed Mr. Hands. The extent of my horror consumption tends to be Lovecraft and King, because I simply cannot find much in the genre that scares me (I've experienced way too much "weird shit", as they say in Cedar Hill, to simply be frightened by mere books) or makes me feel any great emotion (this I blame on my clinical depression). Although I was not frightened by Mr. Hands (which does not seem to have been your goal with the book anyway), you DID succeed in making me FEEL.
I have been sitting here for the last 10 min trying to put into the English language exactly my emotional connection with Lucy and Ronnie, but have been failing, so I will simply leave it with this: your creation has touched one life, and it is one that is usually uncomfortable with touching.
I then started (and finished) Coffin County. As wonderful as Mr. Hands was, Coffin County was exponentially greater. Mr. Hands felt slightly fractured to me. It seemed like three stories that intersected, but the character the book was named after was not even created untill the third story and last quarter or so of the book. This would have been better for me to read as a serial (which, according to your website, looks like it is a serial), however, although Coffin County also had a similar bent, every last strand of every section was perfectly interwoven. The only comparison that comes to mind is Herbert West: Reanimater is to Mr. Hands as The Call of Cthulhu is to Coffin County (and yes, I am aware that both Herbert West and CoC were initially serials, but I hope you understand what I am getting at).
The intro/praise section of the post (that is rapidly becoming a novela ((perhaps I should use less parenthetical statements...nah))) being concluded, I will now confront you with the questions:
WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD. Gary already knows all this info (duh, he wrote it), but those of you who have not yet picked up Coffin County (you should, by the way) may not yet be introduced to it Don't ruin it for yourselves.
Who is The Reverend? The clue given by the parable completely escapes me. The only person I could think of would possibly be Joseph of Arimathea, but I don't remember anything about him being related to Judas. However, being raised Evangelical Christian, I never learned many of the stories and apocryphal records you as a "recovering Catholic" would have been exposed to.
One last question while I have you here: What is the significance of he dead, monstrous person in the short story Kiss of the Mudman at the end of my edition of Mr. Hands? He appears once in the story and then seem s to be forgotten. Is this something I will learn when I read the other Ceder Hill stories?
Thanks again for writing and I look forward to reading more of your work.
Thank you so much for the comments/compliments. I'm glad you found the novels worthwhile.
To answer your questions: I can't reveal who the Reverend is yet (I'm saving that for the next next book); and the dead monstrous person in "Mudman" is revealed in the earlier novel, IN SILENT GRAVES.
_________________ "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans."
I would also have to give my compliments to you Gary. A wonderful horrific adventure in Coffin County. I was getting a bit confused at the middle and was having the idea of going back and re-reading it but I stuck with it and found it great(still might re-read it though). I also enjoyed how an old character came back and gave some laughs.
Like El Chupacabra, most of the genre of horror in my local Barns&Nobles and Borders has basically the same kinds of things (Vampires, Werewolves, and Ghosts..Oh My) But you have the difference of it all. You have the beings like Mr. Hands. (that didn't much scare me, but gave the difference as not someone turning into something but something helping someone.)
Thanks to both of you for your kind words. No, it was not my intention to "scare" anyone with either MR. HANDS or COFFIN COUNTY -- I think too many readers (take yourselves out of this equation) have a far too tunnel-visioned idea of what horror fiction is supposed to achieve; in short, if it ain't "scary," it ain't horror. I never bought into that and I never will -- and besides, what is "scary," anyway? Something that disturbs you? Something that causes you deep anxiety? Something that puts your nerves on end? The word has become, IMHO, almost meaningless since horror began its comeback back in the mid-90s.
You both have it right -- I strive to make readers feel something more than just a good "scare." It's not that I have anything against writers whose work is nerve-wracking (to this day, I wish I'd written King's "The Boogeyman" -- a story that scared me silly the first time I read it), but I find that, for reasons I won't bore you with, that I think horror fiction should strive to achieve more than that -- at least my fiction strives for that.
I find that I'd rather have a nerve hit, be disturbed, moved, or enraged by a work than have it simply "scare" me. Think of the direction Peter Straub's work has taken in the past decade with THE THROAT, lost boy lost girl, and IN THE NIGHT ROOM. I didn't find these books "scary" but I did find them challenging, compulsively readable, beautifully written, suspenseful as hell, and intensely discomforting. Each has stayed with me for months -- sometimes years -- after reading them, and I frequently re-read Straub because I find something new each time that I missed upon initial reading.
I want my work to be the same way, and your comments lead me to believe I might be on the right track, after all.
I wasn't going to say anything more about El Chupacabra's question concerning the identity of the Reverend, but then decided against that, so here is the only clue you'll get until the next novel and the third and final Cedar Hill collection come out:
Your guess is close -- but also bear in mind that people from different branches of reality will differ in this world from how they may have been previously known.
If you want to guess again, I ask that you please don't do it here; send me an e-mail at: gary@garybraunbeck.com
But even that won't guarantee that I'll tell you.
Thanks again to both of you; your comments have made my day.
_________________ "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans."
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