IWSG—Their age remains the same (Trusting your gut instinct always wins)

Welcome back to the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, which convenes the first Wednesday of every month to commiserate over worries, fears, doubts, and struggles.

This month’s question is:

As a writer, do you have favorite themes that you like to explore in your stories? If so, what are they?

Since I love writing the kind of characters Lon Chaney, Sr., so often played, people in great emotional pain, with traumatic pasts, disfigured, different from the others and outside the norm in some way, it follows that I naturally gravitate towards dark eras in history and depressing, complicated situations that don’t resolve on a silver platter with neat hospital corners.

But since light always emerges after darkness, I also feature the love, friendship, strength, and hope that survived despite everything, the healing afterwards, the journey back to a semblance of normalcy. That’s also why I’m such a huge advocate for more books set after traumatic moments in history, like how Holocaust and Armenian Genocide survivors rebuilt their lives. It’s the same reason Dante chose to take his readers into the heights of Paradise with him, and didn’t want to leave us in the dark, depressing, hopeless bowels of Hell (despite how many people DNF the Commedia and only read Inferno).

Since I’m really eager to get back to Cinnimin where I left off, rather than continuing to write ahead in 2001 and create an even bigger gap between then and October 1998, I got the notebooks with Sagas V and VI (the 1980s and 1990s) out of the garage to reacquaint myself with the immediate background and important details I’d forgotten. I may have an elephantine memory that confounds most people, but it’s not 100%.

In addition to getting the details I most needed (e.g., Daphne’s new job is at a grocery store instead of on-campus, Randi’s firebrand roommate’s name is spelt Megan, not Meghan), there are so many things that instantly came flooding back. Other things I’d totally forgotten, like Cinni’s neo-hippie youngest son Ainsworth putting his barely-born penultimate child Mike in a freezer during an acid trip and Violet waking up to find pet chimp Rascal and pet monkey Sunny in her bed, along with cow Moonbeam in her room.

And it quickly dawned on me…

The more I began reacquainted with these stories, the more I remembered how I designed my Atlantic City books as deliberately over the top, not straight hist-fic, meant to be funny. I’ve laughed until there are tears in my eyes so many times over Cinnimin and my Saga of the Sewards books. Yes, since I’ve gotten older and completed cognitive development, I’ve leaned much more heavily into realism and serious storylines, but the fact remains that I meant them as a mix of historical, spoof, satire, and over the top humor.

And the more I thought about it and all the resulting complicated repercussions that would automatically arise, the more I knew I couldn’t go through with it and officially, permanently age my original generation up by two years or have a ghostly blessing freeze their aging for two years. I let my adult viewpoints and hindsight cloud my original intentions and consistent depiction of this fictional neighborhood as very different and shocking to outsiders. 

Yes, had I created these characters as an adult, I doubtless would’ve made their starting age two or three years older, and not been nearly so over the top, but it would take way too much frogging and reconstruction to do that now. I’ve already toned down a lot of content that went WAY too far, and will continue toning down what it makes sense to.

I’ll be discussing this in way more detail in a future post, but suffice it to say, my gut instinct was right that the chance to age them up has long since passed. Once I hit the Eighties in 1998, it was locked in. It would’ve been a lot easier had these series ended earlier, but committing to writing a full multigenerational saga locked in the original generation’s birth years of 1929–31.

25 November 2026 will be my 35th anniversary of creating these characters. I can’t alter their age after so much time!

P.S.: For those so inclined, I’d appreciate any prayers, thoughts, and positive energy for my posthumous little buddy Jennifer Martin, whose 32nd death anniversary is today. I always visited her grave when I went to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rensselaer, NY. She had an anaplastic Wilms tumor and had had a kidney removed, but it was a careless medical error, not the cancer, that ended her life.

A terrifying invasion from the great beyond

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, released 13 June 1956, was based on U.S. Marine Corps naval aviator and writer Major Donald Keyhoe’s 1953 nonfiction book Flying Saucers from Outer Space. Like many sci-fi horror films of the 1950s, it was influenced by the era’s very real fears of the Cold War and nuclear power gone wrong.

Reviews were mixed, with some people calling it crude, pretentious, utter nonsense, long-winded, and cliché, while others praised the special effects, entertainment value, and charm. Nevertheless, it inspired many other UFO films.

It’s obvious to anyone with a discerning taste and enough film viewing experience that a lot of 1950s sci-fi horror films are far from highfalutin art and quality cinema for the ages, but that’s part of what makes them so fun to watch. Sometimes you just want soda pop and candy instead of a 5-star gourmet feast with wine.

Newlyweds Dr. Russell and Carol Marvin (Hugh Marlowe and Joan Taylor) are driving along a Colorado road while Russell makes a tape recording about his work with rockets and satellites. This recording is disrupted when all of a sudden, a UFO flies directly overhead and then flies right in front of their car. It vanishes into the sky just as abruptly as it appeared.

Carol wants to report it immediately, but Russell insists he needs more time to think about it before making a report.

While they’re working together in the computer room at Project Skyhook, which Russell is in charge of, Carol realises she forgot to turn off the tape recorder and thus picked up the sound of the flying saucer. (Being 1956, the computer takes up the entire room.)

Carol’s dad, General John Hanley (Morris Ankrum), tells Russell all ten of Project Skyhook’s rockets have been shot down, which greatly puzzles him. At an outdoor lunch later that day, he and Carol tell Gen. Hanley about the UFO.

Not long afterwards, a UFO flies over the observatory in the desert. This time, it lands, and aliens come marching out through a vibrating forcefield. Rather than wait to see if the visitors are friendly, the army immediately fires on them.

This doesn’t exactly end well, as the aliens shoot back through their electronic screen and vaporize the servicemen. Then the aliens fire on all the buildings in sight, as well as utility poles and an oil field.

To escape the resulting fiery conflagration, Russell and Carol take shelter deep inside their underground workplace and barricade themselves.

Gen. Hanley has been abducted, and comes to in a UFO. The aliens speak to him through a rotating translating device coming out of the ceiling, and ask why they were met with violence when they tried to communicate with Russell. Gen. Hanley responds that it sounded like gibberish.

Meanwhile, Russell and Carol think they’re the only ones left alive, and Russell makes a tape recording about what happened. They have to use a gas generator for power, and the air is becoming toxic after three days of being barricaded.

As the batteries start dying, the aliens’ message begins playing back at normal speed, in English. Just as they told Gen. Hanley, they planned to come to Skyhook at exactly that time and had no ill intentions until they were attacked.

Russell and Carol fly to Washington, D.C. to report what happened, and Russell pleads for permission to try to contact them to see what’s going to happen. He feels personally responsible for what happened, since he was the one in charge.

In the privacy of their hotel room, Russell succeeds in making contact with the aliens. When they name the imminent time and date for their next meeting, Russell begs for them to wait a few days, since he’s been ordered to stay where he is. There seems little choice when the aliens end the communication, and Russell rushes off to try to make it in time.

Carol doesn’t want him to go, since she’s already lost her dad. She finds Major Huglin (Donald Curtis), and they hurry into a car and race after him along a beach road.

The UFO lands as promised, and an alien asks everyone to come in and says they’re Russell’s friends. Carol, Russell, a cop, and Major Huglin have little choice but to step inside.

They’re shown a screen of the galaxies and stars they’re passing by, instantaneously having travelled many thousands of miles away. The aliens say they’re the survivors of a destroyed solar system, and show another screen of more UFOs circling the glove, awaiting a signal to tell them where to land. They want Russell to tell his leaders to let them land in Washington.

A third screen shows a UFO firing on a Navy ship with 300 men on board, killing everyone in a fiery blaze.

Suddenly the voice on the translator changes into Gen. Hanley’s, answering their questions about life and history on Earth. Then the voice changes back to the alien’s, and Gen. Hanley walks out like a zombie. His brain has been read and indexed by their powerful technology. The cop’s brain is scanned next.

The aliens again order Russell to arrange a meeting with his leaders, despite the scant time given for this mission.

Russell and Major Huglin propose building a powerful new weapon in the 56 days allotted. Now the race is on to figure out what kind of weapon could defeat an enemy unlike any the human race has ever battled, and to construct it before that fast-approaching next encounter.

How much more damage will this alien race wreak upon Earth before this new weapon can be built, and what will the military be able to learn about them from studying an alien body and suit recovered during one of the attacks? Most importantly, who will emerge as the winner in the epic battle between Earth and the flying saucers?

Sunday Snippets—The séance ends in disarray

Though the long-running Weekend Writing Warriors seems to be officially over for all intents and purposes, I’ve decided to keep its spirit alive by sharing my own snippets on Sundays. There are no more rules about a certain number of lines, so we get to decide how much to include now!

Though spooky season is officially over, I love extending the Halloween vibes into early November, so I’m concluding my snippets from Chapter 15, “Mrs. Malspur’s Séance,” from Movements in the Symphony of 1939 (the book formerly known as The Very Next). It’s May of 1939, and what started as a routine séance hosted by the mystical-minded Mrs. Malspur quickly devolved into drama caused by Mr. and Mrs. Green. The situation became even more dramatic and awkward to witness when Mrs. Green threw a tantrum after her daughter Kit got a very bad fortune suggesting a genetic disease Mrs. Green has kept secret. Mrs. Green ran for the door, tripped, and left cursing and sobbing.

“What is wrong with your mother, Kit?” Sparky asked. “She’s even crazier than you let on!”

“I trust everyone will try their best to pretend this never happened,” Mr. Green said. “I’m in shock at how Bernie behaved like an overgrown impetuous brat or Bedlam escapee instead of a respectable mother of five and society woman. If she doesn’t start watching herself more closely, one of these days she’s gonna end up in the loonybin. When we’re alone, I’ll ask her some serious questions about what she said and refused to elaborate on. If there is a sickness that runs in her family, how dare she keep it from me our entire lives! I would’ve appreciated knowing that before I took on the burden of marrying her!”

“You have the same family,” Kit reminded him. “Her branch is just a little bit more removed.”

“Her immediate family. I know from the family records my parents picked up after adopting her that she had five older brothers who died young, but I assumed they died from normal diseases like diphtheria, measles, and whooping cough, not anything more sinister.” Mr. Green buried his head in his hands. “At least we don’t have any sick kids, if indeed that silly fortune was true. I have a sneaking suspicion what that meant, and it would’ve been disaster if my family were cursed with that.”

Cinni sat in shock as the guests filtered out of the room after having their fortunes told. That was flabbergasting behavior even for Mr. and Mrs. Green, not something decent people did in public. It was bad enough Mrs. Green often went into hysterics and threw temper tantrums when her four oldest children had guests. If this was what could happen at a séance, Cinni never wanted to go to another of these things again.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! This year, since I have no new Halloween-themed excerpt or chapter to share, I’m transcribing a ghostly scene from the currently-numbered Part LIII of Cinnimin, “Origins Discovered.” It’s August 1998, and Cinni’s 13-year-old granddaughter Dana Kevorkian, the youngest child of her firstborn Demian and Max’s first-cousin once-removed Mary Julia, has fled from her hideous uncle Luke after a ghost planted herself between them when he tried to attack her.

To avoid giving away a major spoiler of something that happens during the 1950s, some identifying information has been obscured.

Luke saw Dana had disappeared and started down the outdoor stairs after her. He followed after her as far as the gates of the WTCOAC Circle Cemetery, ten blocks from his house, then plunged in after hesitating for a moment. Too preoccupied to take down every name he saw, he starting picking his way through the headstones.

Dana huddled behind [Name]’s cenotaph, located between the graves of Babs and Stephen and Great-Great-Grandpa Max. “Mother Mary, please protect me from Uncle Luke, and don’t let him spiritually rape my [relative] and other dead relatives. Please lead him back to a real religion, and don’t let anyone in my family die young like [redacted] did. My [relative Name] was a good [person] and didn’t deserve to die at [age]. [Redacted.] Oh, and continue to give health and long life to my great-great-uncle Max. He was like Uncle Luke once, but now he’s calmer and no longer full of hate and meanness.”

“Luke is coming this way,” she heard someone whisper. “You have to get up and go to the place I will show you.”

“Who are you?”

“I only come back to Earth when I know I’m most needed. I’m your [relative] you never met. Go to your father’s family’s section of the cemetery and I’ll show you where to go.”

She got up and ran to the huge Filliard section, starting with the elder Krystyna’s grave and going back to 1700. When it seemed as though the plot of land had gone as far back as it could, her eyes were opened to the hidden path Philip had found thirteen years ago.

“In here. Nobody outside of a select few knows this grove exists. You must hide in the mausoleum.”

Dana saw Jennifer’s grave partially hidden by a bush, the pond, and the trees. She went up to the mausoleum.

“Open the door. Luke will never go in even if he finds this secret grove. You’re going to see something shocking inside, but you must stay in there.”

Dana almost passed out at the sight of Charlotte’s uncorrupted body. It lay on the marble bench, with a cotton pillow cushioning her, as though no time had marched on since 1645. Even her skin was still soft and fresh.

“She was your fourteen-greats-grandma, Charlotte Lennon. She was [relative in age to me] when she died.”

Dana’s eyes were directed to the inscription on the wall. 

Here Charlotte Rebecca Lennon, March 5, 1620–September 18, 1645, lies in state for all time and eternity. She was born with a rare gift of prophecy, able to see her family’s future for as long as there is time. When her far-off descendants discover her in their family tree, many secrets will be revealed and the identity of the ninth reincarnation of WTCOAC Woman will come to light. Her book of prophecies will be hidden for 345 years, and will be discovered and read only by the ninth incarnation and her descendants. Anyone else who shall find out will get his or her tongue burnt out.

She was the loving consort of Eliezer Harmon van Meter and the mother of their only begotten child Jennifer Sophronia Lennon, whose birth cost her her life. Only when society abandons the cruel stigma against being descended from a free woman and her out of wedlock child will the mystery of her family tree be solved. This private grove and mausoleum are established and maintained by Charlotte’s consort Eliezer and her cousins Anita Greenhall, Millie Turtle, Danila Fairfax, and Elsie Maxwell. If you’re here and reading this, you’re of the Lennon-van Meter line. Congratulations on solving a centuries-old riddle, descendant from the future.

Luke had followed Dana over to the Filliard plot and only gotten as far back as the 1720 double grave for Leonora von der Sant and her infant daughter Mary. The pre-19th century graves gave him the creeps because of their curled sides, the deep thin engraving, and the skulls and bones on top of many of them.

Here lies the body of Leonora, wife of Kees von der Sant and dau. of Emil and Lenina Schwartz, aged 35 yrs., and her infant dau. Mary, aged 3 hrs. Her span of life was April 15, 1685–July 10, 1720. She holds her baby for eternity.

For a split second, Luke felt sympathy for the children left behind by this woman’s early death, much like [redacted], but then he remembered his purpose and moved on. The large headstone of Lenina tripped him, and he banged his head against Daniel Zargovich’s cracked grave. Cursing, he picked himself up and looked around for an exit. It appeared as though he were at a dead end. Then, by accident, he stumbled onto the hidden path.

“You will go no further, you filthy heretic. No one outside my direct family line may pass this way.”

He jumped several feet into the air upon seeing a shadowy figure who looked like an adult version of Claudia.

“My sweet daughter Jennifer and I rest here, at least bodily. I see and know everything, so I know you’re the heretic involved with a strange nineteenth century cult. If you don’t take the names of my descendants off of your list of people to be posthumously baptised, you’ll be cursed for the rest of your life.”

“Whoever’s playing this elaborate practical joke on me, please step forward now.”

“My granddaughter Lenina is the merry prankster of the family. It can easily be arranged for her to haunt you for the rest of her life.”

Luke felt a shortness of breath coming on as he saw several more shadowy figures surrounding him. The one holding the baby frightened him most.

“You lost your [relative]. How could you murder her all over again by violating her soul? Your [relative]’s soul was at rest for over a decade till you disturbed her sleep again. My [relative] Lydia would’ve never made me a member of a foreign religion after I’d been dead for [numbered] years.”

“Ghosts don’t exist! I know this because the church tells me so, and I know the church is true.”

“You tell me how far back you dug in Master Demian’s family tree to find names for your lunatic religion. I can tell you anyone who became a cultist in this family would’ve been thrown off the property.” Charlotte’s spirit moved in closer.

“I went as far back as I knew. Maybe the Modjeskas on the maternal side of Mrs. Kevorkian’s family, and through her great-great-grandparents on her father’s side.” Luke tried going forward again.

“Do not pass, Master Seward. My daughter already put a curse on one person this year. Don’t make her do it again.”

“I know this is a hoax. If you were alive that long ago, you never would’ve named your child Jennifer.”

“I saw it in a Cornish poem and liked it. It’s nothing but an alternate form of my favorite name, Guinevere, which my lover rejected. I see everything, so I know there will be a Guinevere in my line in the generation being born now.”

“I fell asleep after I hit my head. This is a nightmare.”

“No, you’re still very much awake. Go back to your lonely house and keep telling yourself your rehearsed lines. ‘I know the church is true.’ What does that even mean?”

Luke tried one last time to move beyond the last graves in the public plot. This attempt resulted in a strong blast of wind that knocked him onto his back, landing sharply against Lenina’s grave.

“Don’t ever come back, not even if you leave your cult. And do remember what’ll happen to you if you try to go ahead with your plans to baptise your dead relatives and Master Demian’s dead relatives.”

Luke felt as though he were in a bad dream as he tried to find his way back out. The cemetery was like a maze. After wandering for hours and getting lost five times, he finally saw the graves of the Hitchcocks, which he knew were at the entrance gates. Almost as a final jeer from the beyond, he tripped over Mr. Hitchcock’s cenotaph and banged his head on Butler Reagan’s ornate new headstone. At least it wasn’t totally dark yet.

A twisted, terrifying revenge scheme orchestrated by an obsessive madman

The Strange Door, released 14 December 1951, was based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1878 short story “The Sire De Malétroit’s Door.” Prior to entering general release, it was previewed at the L.A. United Artists Theatre and the Shea’s Theatres in Jamestown, NY and Mississippi. The film was described as Universal’s return to horror. Universal, once so famous for its classic monster movies and other horror films, hadn’t made a traditional horror film since 1946. Their only forays into the genre from 1948–1951 were the comedy-horror mashups with Abbott and Costello. However, this return to proper horror failed to turn them back into a horror-centric studio.

In recognition of the new-fangled television industry that had begun competing more and more heavily with the film industry, The Strange Door was included in the CBS anthology series Lux Video Theatre, under the title “The Sire de Maletroit’s Door,” on 7 May 1951.

During production, the film was known simply as The Door.

After a tavern fight that includes a perceived murder, Denis de Beaulieu (Richard Stapley) flees into the street and jumps into a carriage. As the carriage ride wears on, Denis grows suspicious and tells the driver he’s going the wrong way, but the driver insists they have to go that route. Not long afterwards, the driver stops and demands payment. Since Denis hasn’t 500 francs, he sets out on foot the rest of the way.

To escape the determined search party on his tail, he hightails it into the first building that appears, an immense château, and listens behind the door to his pursuers declaring he couldn’t have gotten that far and that they should head into the woods. The door has no outside latch, so there’s no reason for the mob to try entering.

Denis looks around at his new surroundings, and is startled when a stranger (Charles Laughton) says he’s been expecting him. This fellow was also in the tavern, sizing up potential guys to use in an elaborate revenge scheme he’s cooking up. He tells Denis to stay as long as he wants, offers him wine, pledges his hospitality, and introduces himself as Sire Alain de Malétroit.

Alain drops the bomb that he’s Denis’s uncle, but not in the way Denis assumes. Alain has selected him as the man to marry his niece. When Denis tries to flee, he’s seized by three guards with tricornered hats standing behind a curtain. Before the guards take Denis to his chamber, Alain pours singed wine over his head.

Later that night, Alain is very upset to learn Voltan (Boris Karloff) was upstairs and eavesdropping behind a panel. Voltan swears he wasn’t listening, but only came to report that he’s restless and she’s in danger. Alain says he’s no madman to believe this, and orders Voltan back to his duties, If not, he’ll feed Voltan’s liver to the swine. Before leaving, Voltan says he knows a way, a very good way.

When he’s alone, Alain opens the curtains on a wall to reveal a painting of a young woman, Hélène. He tells her he’s waited twenty years for this night.

In his chamber, Denis makes the acquaintance of Blanche (Sally Forrest), the niece he was told he has to marry. He’s quite surprised to see Blanche is a pretty young lady, not a toothless old hag like he assumed sight unseen. Blanche warns him about a dangerous scheme before she leaves and a guard comes to check the door.

Denis is officially introduced to Blanche the next day. Though Alain pushes their marriage, Blanche insists she wants to marry Armand, and Denis says he’ll choose his own woman. Alain only gives Blanche 24 hours to reconcile herself to her fate.

When they believe themselves to be alone, Blanche says her uncle never denies her anything she wants, but every time there’s something dear to her, it’s always taken away, snatched, destroyed, for reasons she can’t understand, like a maid she was fond of and a pet spaniel. She also says she hasn’t heard from Armand for months, and begs Denis to find a way out so the same fate doesn’t befall him. Servant Talon (Michael Pate), who’s widely disrespected by the entire household and who tried to make friends with Denis that morning, is eavesdropping from a distance.

We then shift to a dungeon in the cellar, where a man named Edmond (Paul Cavanagh) is behind bars and has gone stark raving mad over the last twenty years, unable to communicate like a human anymore. Alain is annoyed to see Voltan is there too, but Voltan says he’s innocently come to bring water. After Alain leaves, Voltan brings him a map to show him the way out and promises to help. It comes out that Edmond is Alain’s brother and Blanche’s father.

Voltan knocks out a servant in the hallway and drags him behind a curtain, and is taking out a dagger to stab Denis when Blanche steps into the room. He claims he only came there to wake Denis, and when Denis demands to know who this creepy stranger is, Blanche explains he’s her buddy and their ally.

Voltan begins leading Denis to safety, but the gig is up when they’re ambushed in a hall of armour. They manage to overpower their attackers, and Denis is very surprised to see one of them is the guy he was told he killed at the tavern. If Alain lied about that, what else could he be lying about?

Rather than continuing on the escape route, Denis decides to stay and play along with the marriage farce until he figures out a safer way to leave. It might not be easy, but he’s determined to slither out of this madman’s clutches.

Will Denis and Blanche be able to escape before Alain and his guards discover what they’re up to? What will be the fate of loyal Voltan and poor unfortunate Edmond? And just why has Alain been holding Edmond prisoner all these years and playing this elaborate long con revenge scheme?