Winter On The Way

Lately in Ottawa, things have not been all well. A prominent politician's son committed suicide. That, and the fact that so many around me have cancer, has meant that I've been a bit blue. You might think that the fact that winter's coming would add to my morbid frame of mind but I find it's been the opposite. I'm looking forward to the snow. I'm anxious to go out in the first snowfall of the year and just enjoy it.
As a child, I loved the snow and all the stuff you could do with it. It was especially great when I took my dog out in it. She would try to eat any snowballs I whinged her way. It was quite a good time.
In Ottawa now, there are many things to do in winter. We have Winterlude in February and I go to see the ice carvings, they are quite near my home. I admit they aren't as impressive as the ones they have in China but they're always nice to see. I don't go skating on the canal because I haven't skated since I was a child but I can go down and watch others skate.
Well, I'll close off here but just after I tell you one more thing. On November 4,5,6, I will be in Montreal at the MuseItUp conference. My short story, The Mountain City Bronzes comes out that weekend. It can be ordered from the MuseItUp Publishing website. It's one more thing to pick me up this winter and even if this pales before all the grief of the families left behind by cancer and suicide, I'm grateful for it.

Horror

Hi People: Well, it's coming up to November and my horror story will be released by MuseItUp Publishing that month. It's entitled 'The Mountain City Bronzes'.

So I've been thinking about the origin of horror and the feelings of horror. I think it goes way back to the start of the human race. We all fear crime and loneliness but to be considered horror, it must have a supernatural element. When the first humans started speaking, they probably talked of three things. God, ghosts and gossip. Now the experts will tell you that they talked of hunting and I'm not arguing but I don't think they only talked of that. They must have amused themselves around the campfire with supernatural stories of magic (gods) of thunder and the elements. Ghosts because we all fear dying. Supernatural creatures like the Mongolian Death Worm may have come later but I truly believe that the fear we have when we read a good horror story or watch a horror movie is that primitive fear that may have been the first feelings of the human race.