Deborah Woehr

I’m going to date myself by saying that I read my first horror novel in 1981–Dean Koontz’s Whispers. From that point, I got swept up in the horror boom of the 80’s and read all the crap my weekly allowance would allow. My tastes have evolved since then. I expect a good plot with plenty of nailbiting suspense.

Psychological horror is one of my favorite genres. How many of you read Dean Koontz’s Intensity? He couldn’t have picked a better title. I finished the book in two days, wanting to know if the girl was going to escape the killer. Koontz surprised me with the killer. After I finished reading this book, I loaned it to my sister. She returned it, saying that it was too scary for her to finish. What a wimp!

Another book I read quickly was Stephen King’s Misery. Okay, that got kind of gory when Annie chopped off Paul’s feet and soldered the ankles so he wouldn’t bleed to death. But he did a fantastic job with the psychological aspects of being penned up in a bed with a psycho for a nurse. Can you imagine yourself in that situation?

Douglas Clegg is another favorite horror writer of mine. In fact, he’s risen above Stephen King, IMHO. If you love ghost stories, grab Nightmare House. He really knows how to put his characters through psychological torment. Is this real, or am I imagining things? Love it! The Dark Game is another must read by this guy.

Gore and sex just doesn’t do it for me anymore. Unless the author is describing wounds for the police and/or coroner to examine, it’s pointless filler. As for sex, that also must make sense. Will the sex scene give clues to the antagonist’s MO, if he/she is a serial killer? Will a love scene between a couple be a prelude to anguish or extreme terror when one (or both) of them is placed in great danger or possibly killed?

So, there you have it. Psychological wins for me. What about you? Who are your favorite authors and why?

I put weeks of thought into the backstory of Prosperity because I wanted to know why it was haunted by thirty-some ghosts, two of which are very angry and vengeful. Originally, I had only one ghost, who was lynched 80 years ago for a crime he didn’t commit.

Then, as I was delving more and more into the character of Bud Nettleton (a creepy older guy who is the town outcast), I realized that he had the information that Amanda and Travis need very badly in order to free themselves from the hauntings. His mother, Myra, had an obsession with the minister of the town during that time. Bud will tell us about this and the lynching via her diary and scrapbooks, which he has kept after her death. I’m not sure yet whether or not he will willingly give this information to Amanda, as he had refused to help her in the beginning of the story when she was stranded.

In the attempt to understand him and the ghosts better, I wrote God’s Last Twilight. Another reason I started writing this story was for the NaNoWri (National Novel Writer’s Month) contest, where you have to write 50,000 words by midnight of November 30th. The contest began on Nov. 1st. I never made the deadline, but I finished the rough draft in March.

Now that I have a clearer vision of my backstory, I’m finding it easier to write Prosperity.

When the show premiered in December ‘03, I was certain that I was going to dislike it. Having been a fan of the classic show, I figured this show was going to be a cheesy remake that would waste one hour of my life. My husband felt the same way.

We watched the first show out of curiosity and became hooked. I watched tonight’s rerun, where Starbuck tries to torture the truth out of a cylon that they captured aboard one of the ships. At the end of that show, the cylon whispers in Laura Roslin’s (the president) ear that Adama (the commander) is a cylon.

This places a seed of mistrust in Roslin, who can’t hide her feelings from Adama. I didn’t suspect him of being a cylon until Sharon (a cylon nicknamed Boomer) shoots him when she returns from her mission. That’s how the last episode ended.

He said something that made her shoot him, although too much time has passed for me to remember exactly what triggered her reaction. I hope they’ll show the last scene again before they begin the first show of the next season, which starts July 15th.

I’m very curious to find out if Adama is, in fact, a cylon or whether this was a gross error on Sharon’s part. If he is a cylon, then things will get very interesting. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, you can read some interesting stuff on the Battlestar Galactica Blog

If you’ve been writing for a while, then you know what these are. However, if you’re a complete newbie, then I’ll give you the straight-forward definition. Backstories are mini-biographies of your characters and your plot.

Is it necessary to write backstories for your characters before you write a word of your novel? I’m torn by this question because often, the idea for the story and the mental picture of my character come at the same time. If I don’t write the idea down, then it becomes lost.

My characters stick inside my mind, once I envision them. Their personalities and looks are the first thing that come into my mind as I begin writing my novel. Two or three chapters into the process, I begin to realize who they are and stop to let them tell me their stories. Sometimes I write them down. Other times, I continue with the novel, keeping their histories inside my head until the reader needs to know why this character is reacting the way he/she is when confronted with a certain situation.

Then I inject a short flashback, where they re-experience the event (a trauma or an unpleasant situation) that hangs them up in the present situation. This happens in a vivid dream or a conscious recollection. Most of the time, I am short and to the point, careful not to stall the main plot.

In Amanda’s case, I have her face her past when Travis (her neighbor and one of the town deputies) starts probing her about Joel’s murder when her sleepwalking continues. This is a rather long flashback (2-3 pages) that occurs before the onslaught of the hauntings. The sole purpose of this scene is to establish trust between the two characters, something that is lacking in both of them due to domestic violence issues.

They need to trust each other before they can team up to uncover the town’s secrets. If they don’t, well they become part of the ghostly population. Very, very bad.

I was sitting at my kitchen table when I found myself invisioning a woman standing on an island in the middle of Hell, searching for the soul of her dead husband. Black Roses was still a chapter or two away from being finished, but I had to jot this idea down in my notebook. I finished Black Roses, and then set to work on my new novel.

I had the heroine for my second novel, which I titled Hell’s Corner. I named her Amanda Thorne and her husband, Joel. The husband had been amped on crank and booze when he decided to drive, which resulted in him killing someone. An argument between Joel and her father over a new Camaro was the turning point where he decided to kill himself. The story begins with her trying to have a good time on a date two years later.

I drew up my antagonist, Malcolm Spechter, who was supposed to brainwash the citizens of Hell’s Corner into his church of black magic. Even though I’d bought books on the dark arts, I have no experience with practicing them. Therefore, I didn’t feel like I could write convincingly about the subject.

Then there were the problems with the characters. This time, there were too many of them. By the time Amanda arrived, I think I already had four different points of view. My plot was fragmenting.

Worse, my story bored the hell out of the people I let read it, one of them a literary agent I’d had an appointment with at a writer’s conference. He said that it “lacked grit.” I took my manuscript home, read it, and started from scratch.

I’ll give you the shorthand version. The character of Malcolm Spechter was removed, and the other characters put in the background where they belonged. I nixed the black magic theme as well as the title. My focused turned to Amanda.

Every story begins with an idea, big or small. Mine has always begun with a mental image. I can actually see my character inside my mind, either having a great time or going through something excruciating. Since I’m a horror writer, I prefer the latter.

So far in my “career”, I’ve written two novels, both unpublished and a short story involving a little girl who was dealing with an abusive step father. The short story was published by a mag called Welcome to Nod, which is now defunct.

I’m not exactly sure how I came up with the idea for the first novel. I just remember lying in bed, spinning stories inside my head. I’ve always spun stories inside my head, involving real or imaginary people. At any rate, one day, I decided to write down what was going on inside my head.

The first paragraph was so awful that I still remember it to this day. It involved the daughter of a police chief getting abducted from her apartment by a serial killer, who left a black rose on her stripped mattress. The trademark was original, but the storyline was in great danger of becoming a cookie cutter copy of the dozens of books I’ve read. So, I changed the killer’s target to a successful mother of two.

It took me about nine months to pound out Black Roses, researching serial killers plus the locale of my story. Once I finished the manuscript, I gave it to my grandmother and sister to read. They raved about the story and urged me to publish it.

But once I started reading what I’d written, I hated the story. The characters were too “perfect”, and thus predictable. I made the first-time writer’s mistake of using too many adverbs. Actually, I made many first-time writer mistakes.

I shelved the manuscript for several reasons, the main one being that I was tired of serial killers. The market is oversaturated with the serial killer genre. So, I decided that this would be my practice novel.

Something amusing happened to me about five years after I shelved that manuscript. I was looking through the paperback bestsellers and discovered a book with a very similar plot idea. Instead of a successful-married with children-businesswoman, the target was housewives. I should have bought the book and taken it home to compare, but I just smiled and moved on.

Just recently, a family friend asked be about Black Roses. When I told her that I had shelved it, she said, “No! Get it out and publish it!”

So, now I’m thinking about that story and have even set up a blog in WordPress. I won’t start on it until I finish my other stories. But the ideas are beginning to stir.

Drawing up characters is my favorite part of writing. I’ve tried using the various character charts and software on the market, which helps outline their likes and dislikes, traits, etc. But nothing beats having a “conversation” with them.

Most of the time, these conversations will occur inside my head. Other times, I catch myself talking out loud or gesturing. I caught myself on video once, glaring at nothing. I was imagining a character being pissed off at another. Yes, I’m insane. I was diagnosed as an eccentric at six. Let’s add schizophrenia to the list, shall we?

The first thing I do when creating a character is name them. In order to get to know them, I have to know their name. That gives me a clue to who they are. Strong names (ex. Amanda, Elizabeth, Carl, Grant, Tom, Daniel) depict strong personalities, quiet or subtle.

The softer names (ex. Susan, Cheryl, Vanessa) depict meek, quieter personalities. That’s usually the case, but not always.

Once I have their name down, then I’ll draw up a mental picture of what they look like: body features and language, their clothes, the car they drive.

I’ll ask them general things like where they are from, what their birthdate is, their marital status, if they have children. Then I’ll delve into their pasts and into their headtrips. That’s where the fun starts!

From this point on, I’ll thrust them into situations (sometimes everyday, sometimes plot-related) to see how they handle them. If they prove to be too weak, I’ll give them a grisly death. Nature’s a bitch, isn’t it?

The others get placed in definitive roles inside my story. Sometimes they make it out alive with a changed personality, while others fail because they refuse to change. It’s all in the way they play the game.

Like most writers, I’ve had my share of bouts with writer’s block. You know the symptoms: mindless wandering thoughts or no thoughts at all. Sometimes a bad day can trigger a block. Other times, the ideas and words just won’t come.

When this happens, I drag out the old-fashioned pen and paper. If this doesn’t work, I walk away from my computer for a while. Sometimes I’ll blog my way out of a writing funk. Lately, I’ve noticed that I’ve spent more time blogging, commenting on other blogs, and checking my blog stats (i.e., Blog Explosion) than writing my stories.

That’s when blogging becomes a distraction. This reminds me of a Laura Scudder’s (?) potato chip commercial, where the people say, “You can’t eat just one.” Blogging has become an addiction for me. Do I need to go cold turkey and quit, or just manage my time better?

I can’t go cold turkey. Blogging is another way to write. It’s a great medium to connect with other writers and reach potential readers. So, I will continue blogging, but pay closer attention to the clock.

I’m preparing for a move to my first house. My husband and I have rented since we got married 15 years ago. Two kids and thirteen years in one place is quite a bit to pack up. So, we’re chucking everything that we haven’t used in at least six months. I’m find this chore exhausting, yet refreshing at the same time.

We’ll be moving sometime in late July, right around my birthday. This past Saturday, we took the kids with us to pick out flooring, carpeting, and paint. The kids are excited about the move, but it won’t become a reality until we actually start the process of moving out.

The Loma Prieta Earthquake was officially clocked at 7.1, lasting 15 seconds. Just 4 years prior, Mexico City had suffered a major quake that lasted 5 minutes (if I remember correctly) and caused major damage. Our earthquake destroyed one freeway (the Cypress Structure) and several buildings in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Los Gatos.

We had aftershocks for months afterwards. Every time one would hit, my mother-in-law would go crazy while the rest of us would just sit there and wait. The shocks never got bigger than a 5, but they rattled our nerves nonetheless.

A few years later, I’d met a couple of people who had just driven over the Cypress Structure before the earthquake hit. The boss I’d had at the time told me that one friend of hers had been jogging on a rickety wooden pier in Capitola (near Santa Cruz).

Another found herself trapped on BART beneath the Bay. Everybody on the train had to get out and hold hands and walk 1.5 miles to the other side, in the dark with the sounds of rats and leaking water. I have no desire to go on BART.

Eventually, everybody calmed down and went on with their lives. But every time a quake occurs, I find myself wondering if it’s going to be another big one. The media is always speculating on when the next big quake will hit.

But the thing about quakes is that they are so unpredictable. The only thing you can do is prepare and pray that you aren’t caught on or near a freeway. Still, I’d rather deal with them than the tornadoes or hurricanes.