Time for something spooky

True spooky story time.

I live at the back of an apartment complex.  Basically it’s a maze of streets that wind around buildings until you finally get to the very back stretch, which borders a small wooded lot that is owned by the city and technically a park, though no one really goes there.  There is a small office complex on the west side, a small pond and open field on the east, my apartment on the north and some warehouses on the south.  It’s actually very nice, and much better than living in any of the other buildings that just face each other.

My apartment is on the second floor, so I can see out into the woods from all of my windows.  One night I was sitting on my couch, watching something on TV, when I happened to look to my left out the window.  In the woods, maybe fifty yards in, and about twenty feet up, were two red glowing dots.  I grinned at the fact that they looked like eyes out there in the woods, but clearly had to be traffic lights from the other side of the office complex.  I paid them no more attention and later, after I had shifted on the couch, I couldn’t see them any more.

I noticed the “eyes” in the woods several more times, always when I was on a specific end of the couch, and as always I figured they were traffic lights.

About two weeks ago I came to a realization.  The lights in the woods were always red.  They didn’t change to yellow or green, and they didn’t flash.  They just burned constantly red, like two specks of color in the black night.  I decided to grab my cell phone and take a picture. I couldn’t tell for sure if I got them, but I held the phone up and clicked the camera button.  As I fiddled with the phone to send the pic to my email account so I could blow it up on my laptop, I noticed that the red dots were gone.

The picture appeared in my email and I opened it up with the standard Windows 7 image browser.  I could see the dark patch of the woods through the window, and there were the two red lights.  I zoomed in a few times, but all I could tell was that they were red dots, nothing else.  I had them centered on my laptop screen and looked up to see if I could find them in the dark outside the window again.  No luck.  I looked back to my laptop…

…and the dots had moved.  They were closer to the top of the screen.  They had been centered, almost perfectly, but now they were closer to the top, almost like a pair of eyes looking up.  I figured I’d just bumped it or something, so I moved them down closer to the center, stood up and went to the kitchen to get a soda.  When I got back, the red dots were more to the right, in the direction of the kitchen, as if they were following me.  I shook my head, left the laptop where it was on the coffee table in front of the couch, and went to find a DVD to watch from the case on the opposite side of the couch.  I looked up and the dots were on the left side now.

I blinked, looked again, but definitely the red splotches seemed to have moved.  I felt a bit of a cold chill run down my spine, but I figured it had to just be either my imagination or maybe something funky with the image viewer.  I put the DVD in and sat back on the couch.  The lights were centered on the screen again.  I must have imagined it all.  I looked around for the DVD remote and saw it on top of a pile of notebooks under the coffee table.  I reached down and snagged it, and when I looked up the image was zoomed in several more times, the red dots looking like pixelated eyes staring angrily at me.

I quickly closed the image file and deleted it from my desktop.  For good measure, I deleted the email with it attached and the image from my phone.  That was, as I said, about two weeks ago.  I  haven’t seen the lights out in the woods since.  But despite emptying my trash bin on my laptop a couple of times since then, the image file is still there.  I swear I’ve deleted it, but it keeps coming back.  I’m kind of afraid to open it.  I don’t know what would be in that picture now, and I don’t know if opening it would let it go back to the woods where it came from.

As I write this the file is sitting just under this window…but it seems to be bleeding through, the icon that is.  Like I could click it now.  I wonder what would happen. Maybe I’ll tr

 

Library of the Living Dead – Made you Flinch Again – Cancelled

So it seems that an anthology that had accepted one of my works, Cousins, has been cancelled.  Library of the Living Dead Press has fallen on hard times and the publisher can’t afford to put out anthologies for a while.

It’s a sad note to end the week on, but I understand business decisions have to be made.  I’m hoping that I’ll receive an email confirming the cancellation, but in the meantime, I’ll be looking at the story and seeing if there are other venues to publish it.

 

I’ve gone and lost my head.

Actually, I haven’t, but this is the wonderful version of me from May December Publication’s Chivalry is Dead anthology.  The book is out for Kindle already, and the print version should be available soon.

I have to hand it to May December, they do a wonderful job with the artwork for these books, and this has to be the coolest image of me I’ve ever seen.

The book, Chivalry is Dead, is the male half of the “marriage of the dead” duology, the first being Hell Hath No Fury featuring all female writers.  My story is entitled “Damsel in Distress” and is the story of a young woman trapped in her highrise apartment building as the zombie horde begins to fill the city.  It’s actually meant to be in the same universe as my story “Embedded” from May December’s Eye Witness Zombie.

 

New story published – My Monster on FiftyWordStories.Com

I’m usually not one for flash fiction.  My attempts haven’t gone so well.  However, I did write a micro-flash story, just fifty words long, for the site FiftyWordStories.com.

It was published today.  Here’s a link to the story, titled My Monster. It’s actually a tiny encapsulated form of a longer story I’m working on, currently titled The Slouching Monster.

 

Another acceptance! Cousins to be featured in Made You Flinch – Again!

I received word yesterday that my story, Cousins, will be featured in the new anthology Made You Flinch – Again! from Library of the Living Dead.  The story is a pseudo-Lovecraftian tale of a man rediscovering his roots, and it was one of the first short stories I ever wrote.  It will be good to see it in print!

That makes two new anthologies I’ll be appearing in this year so far – this one and Chivalry is Dead from May December Publications.  Not bad for the first four months of the year!

 

I’ve gotten “married”!?!

May December Publications, the publisher of Eye Witness Zombie and the upcoming Chivalry is Dead anthology, has come up with an interesting idea.  Along with Chivalry is Dead, there is an all female author anthology called Hell Hath No Fury coming out around the same time, and the two books together form a sort of “zombie wedding.”  In keeping with that theme, all of the authors have been paired up, and my “spouse” is Diane Arrelle, author of over a hundred published short stories and two books.

I’m looking forward to seeing how these books turn out.  May December has been a great publisher to work with and I look forward to working with them again in the future.

 

Elizabeth Bear – Shoggoths in Bloom

Elizabeth Bear, a wonderful writer whose work I admire, has posted her tale, Shoggoths in Bloom, on her personal website.  It’s entirely worth reading.  Rarely do you find a Lovecraftian tale that makes you wonder about the nature of humanity and what it means to be free.

 

The Esoteric Theory of Magic

A few days back I posted the Quantum Theory of Ghosts, written by the fictional Prof. Max Bruin, PhD.  Max is a character in my Phasmaturge stories, a close friend of Jeremy, the ghost wizard (which is what a Phasmaturge is, if you were wondering).  Max is a mad scientist of the highest order, a modern day Victor Frankenstein with a bit of Albert Einstein thrown in for fun.  Jeremy, on the other hand, is an old-school conjurer.  He goes along with his friend’s weird explanations mostly because he knows Max is harmless and sometimes even comes up with good ideas.  At one point, Max asked Jeremy to sit down and, in his own way, write up an explanation for how magic works.  Below is that work, the Esoteric Theory of Magic, which Max has been working on polishing into a real “scientific” theory.  Enjoy.

What is Magic?
To paraphrase George Lucas, Magic is an energy field that surrounds all living things.  It’s created by life and is the raw source of consciousness.  Like any form of energy, it can be tapped to perform a variety of functions.  However, unlike, say, electricity, Magic has a will of its own, and can be unpredictable at times.

Because Magic is chaotic, those who would use it have to be careful that the Magic doesn’t overwhelm them.  The human body can conduct electricity safely, but if you’re not careful, the amperage will go to high and you’ll be killed.  Magic is similar; draw on too much too fast and it will burn you to a crisp.

Also like electricity, Magic requires some means of insulation to keep it from running rampant through a wizard.  This is where the concept of spells and enchantments comes from.  Magic also requires will to shape and control, just as electricity requires wires and transistors to be of any real use.  Randomly calling upon Magic would be little different than holding up a metal rod in a lightning storm.

Talismans: Spell, Hex, Staff and Wand
As mentioned above, Magic requires some sort of insulation for the wizard using it or it’ll just go wherever it wishes.  It doesn’t “ground out”, it simply forms chaotic patterns if not bound into a certain “shape” via a wizard’s will and use of talismans.

The most common form of  talisman is the spell, a simple shaping of words that helps insulate the wizard’s will from the raw magic.  The words don’t really matter – it’s the intent of the words.  Unfortunately, the more common the word, the more mundane, the less useful it is.  Like thin plastic insulation on a wire, if too much juice is pumped through, the power can jump right through.  This is why most spells are written in languages not normally used in conversation.  Latin is a classic, of course, but wizards can create spells in other ancient tongues or even make up words that have meaning to them.  Some wizards even use Harry Potter spells!  So long as it helps form the image of what the magus wants and is not common enough to leak the power through to the rest of their thoughts, the spell will function just fine.

Another common talisman is the wizard’s staff or wand.  These are just focusing tools, like the words of a spell, but because they are actual physical objects, they provide a more stable conduit for the Magic to pass through.  Much like the words of a spell, the more uncommon the device, the better it is at focusing Magic.  A plain wooden staff will not be as effective as a staff carved with runes, topped with a crystal and festooned with charms.  In fact, finding an old wizard who does use a simple staff means you’re probably in the presence of a master who can shape his will without such props.

Wands are just like the staff, just smaller and easier to carry, and since they can be highly decorated, wizards will often create different wands for different effects.  A wand of fireballs, for example, might be made of magnesium, etched with fire runes, and capped with a ruby.  Such a wand could be used to conjure a blizzard, but doing so would be much harder since the talisman is not attuned to the effect, sort of like using the wrong kind of wire or circuitry to make electricity work.

Magic circles are a special sort of talisman.  They can be invested with power and used to protect anyone inside, or trap something within their walls.  They work more like a battery, storing a charge and releasing it over time.  Circles are one of the most basic of Magical constructs and possibly the most useful, as they can also be infused with various effects, such as a circle of relaxation, or a circle truth that forces anyone within it to speak honestly.

Magic in Practice
The act of casting a spell or hex is a tapping of the Magic.  The more power that’s needed for the effect, the more draining it will be on the caster.  Wizards are limited not just by their imaginations, but by their strength of will and endurance.  Like receiving a powerful electric shock, casting a spell can leave a wizard exhausted or in pain.  If the talismans used in the spell are not sufficient, Magical energy can spill over, harming the wizard or those around him.  Working with Magic is not dissimilar to playing with live power lines.  It’s something only a trained professional who knows what they are doing should attempt.

Dabblers in the Art are like children poking at an electrical outlet with a fork.  They can easily get themselves killed and may burn the whole house down around them.  True wizards are trained in one of the Arts:

• Thaumaturgy – magic invoking the four elements
• Oculaturgy – illusions and mental effects
• Hematurgy – healing and blood magic
• Chronoturgy – time magic, very unpredictable
• Phasmaturgy – ghost magic, not to be confused with necromancy

There are plenty of sub-schools of each of the above, and most wizards specialize in one school while learning the basics of all.  All wizards thus trained are beholden to the Panmagos Quorum, or the All-Wizards Council, if you prefer.  The PQ is the highest authority among wizards, and they do their best to police the dabblers so they don’t cause too much trouble.

The Rules of Magic
With Magic such an unlimited source of power, it may seem odd that wizards must follow rules.  However, the rules, enforced by the PQ and generally agreed upon by all wizards, are in place for a valid reason.  Those who would break the rules, who seek to rebel, would expose wizards to the world and likely cause the end of human Magic.  The rules are in place to keep the wizards safe, not to hold them back.

These are the Rules of Magic, passed down for millennia:

1. Kill not with Magic.
2. Force thy Will on none save thyself.
3. Turn no spell upon thy master, save to defend thy own life.
4. Aid those in Magic who know not the Arts.
5. Steal not from thy fellow Wizards
6. Obey the Will of the Magic, should it come to ye.

The first one is kind of self-evident.  Don’t use Magic, the product of life, to snuff out a life.  There’s no self-defense caveat either, but the rule specifically means using pure Magic to kill.  Making a tree fall on someone is allowed, but blasting them with an eldritch bolt is not.  Note that non-humans are exempt; a wizard may use Magic with impunity on creatures not of the Mortal Realm.

The last rule is somewhat strange, but it means that if the Will of Magic itself ever possesses a wizard, which has actually been known to happen, the wizard should merely allow the Magic to do what it will.  It’s not unlike the concept of allowing the Holy Spirit to enter ones body, if any wizard actually believed in God.

Those who break the rules are severely punished by the PQ.  That is not to say that the PQ created the laws or is technically responsible for enforcing them, but the council has always served that function since its formation.

Talent and Study
The one important thing about Magic is that anyone can learn to use it.  It is not the purview of a chosen few, but conversely there are not many who ever do learn to tap the energy source.  Most people do work a bit of Magic, whether they know it or not; most often it’s passed off as luck or coincidence.  However, with training anyone could learn to be a wizard.

Magic, though, is like music; some people have a natural talent for it.  You can sit anyone in front of a piano and they can, eventually, learn to play, but only the truly talented will ever go on to write their own cantatas.  Magic is similar, but imagine that there are only a handful of pianos in the world.  Because it’s rare for a wizard to find a talented new student, Magic remains the domain of those who would dedicate their lives to the Art, and dabblers are highly discouraged.

There are very good reasons that those with talent should be trained if they are found.  Most importantly, Magic can become an addiction.  While not truly physically addictive, it can be very difficult to resist the desire to use Magic to gather more and more personal power or wealth.  It is for this reason that elder wizards obey the rule to train those they come upon with the talent, to help prevent Magical disasters.

Conclusion
Magic is, like any other source of power, a temptation.  Wizards are often tempted to use greater and greater amounts of Magic until eventually it overwhelms them and burns them out, or worse, turns them into a Wraith. Wraiths are like Magic vampires, draining the life essence out of living things around them.  Most wizards learn to temper their desire for greater power with the danger inherent in using more raw energy.

True masters learn to control Magic with subtlety and grace, using Magic’s own natural currents to perform what they want.  They are able to perform near miracles without harnessing a tenth of the power a lesser trained wizard would use.  This is the great truth of Magic; the more one learns about it, the less they require of it to make their will a reality.

In the end, all that matters is skill and desire.

 

The Quantum Theory of Ghosts

I came up with a concept for how ghosts “work” for a series of stories, a pseudo-scientific explanation that functions as a basis for reconciling the supernatural with super science.  The concept grew into what I now call the “Quantum Theory of Ghosts” or QTG for short, and it features in my stories of Jeremy the Phasmaturgist.  As a treat for my readers, here’s a somewhat comprehensive explanation of how QTG works.  Some caveats: as this is a theory, it’s ever evolving, just like any other scientific theory.  Second, while I was a physics major in college, most of this is pretty much mumbo-jumbo and I’m aware of that, but just like the warp drive in Star Trek or the Force in Star Wars doesn’t need to be completely explained to work, QTG is more for story than for anything else, and if what it says doesn’t make any real sense, just remember it’s a story device.

Without further adieu, I present the Quantum Theory of Ghosts by Jeremy’s good friend, the mad scientist Max Bruin.

The Quantum Theory of Ghosts (Abstract Edition)
Originally developed by Professor Max Bruin, PhD

Since the rise of mankind there have been stories of the spirits of the dead returning to haunt the living. The very word, haunt, comes from the concept of an animal feeding place, and ghosts are seen as feeding upon the living.  Some societies revere the spirits of their ancestors, but even these myths include angry ghosts who prey upon the hapless mortals.

But what are ghosts?  The rise of science tells us that the idea of ghosts as spirits of the dead is absurd.  They exist in the supernatural, in a realm where science cannot tread, and as such they are dismissed as little more than the imagination of frightened, backward thinking people. However, with the advent of quantum mechanics, new explanations shed light on why the myth of ghosts remains prevalent in cultures around the world.

What Are Ghosts?
Mythology would tell us that ghosts are the lingering spirits of the dead. Balderdash! Ghosts are not at all the spirits of the dead.  They are not, in fact, “spirits” at all.  A ghost is, put simply, an impression upon the subatomic weave of the universe, created via strong emotion of a sentient observer.

This means, in other words, that ghosts are not the disembodied personalities of the dead, and, in fact, they can be “spirits” of the living!  To understand this phenomena, one must first grasp one of the most fundamental principles of quantum mechanics: observation changes the subject being observed. The simple act of observing or measuring a particle forces it into an energy state. Unobserved, a particle may take any energy state available to it, but when a sentient observer is introduced, the particle becomes locked.

Ghosts are created when the observer’s emotions create a semi-permanent “indentation” into the quantum tapestry of the universe.  Like the scent of burned toast that remains long after the offending bread is discarded, ghosts are impressions of emotions that remain long after the cause has been resolved. Ghosts, therefore, are formed not from the dead, but from the living and their interactions with the world around them.  The recording of events within the subatomic weave gives rise to an afterimage, and depending on the intensity of the emotion and the permeability of the quantum state, different “types” of ghosts can be created.

Negative emotions are many times more likely to cause these effects.  The reason for this is currently unknown, though it may have to do with the quantum spin of the universe; in an anti-matter universe, positive emotions might create ghosts more effectively.  Regardless of the reason, negative emotions, particularly hate, guilt and grief, are the most common causes for ghost formation.  This also explains why ghosts have traditionally been thought of as the spirits of the dead; death of a loved one can cause profound negative emotions from multiple sources, all centered around the memories of the deceased, which can then amalgamate into a ghost that appears to be the deceased.

The formation of ghosts, however, is somewhat rare.  It requires more than an excess of negative emotions.  The quantum state around the individual or individuals who form the ghost must be favorable for the formation.  Certain areas are more susceptible to this than others, especially those where negative emotions are most common, such as cemeteries or hospitals.  Other areas may be conducive to ghost formation due to other environmental factors.

Measuring and Classifying Ghosts
The intensity of the impression upon the quantum weave determines the “type” of ghost spawned.  Ghosts can be categorized by measurable, observable characteristics:

1. Size and shape
2. Range of motion/area
3. Duration/frequency of appearance

Based on these three data points, ghosts fall into one of the following basic categories:

• Type A – small balls of light, sometimes only captured via camera, repeating in nature, commonly referred to as orbs.
• Type F – apparitions, may take partially human form, may have auditory component, repeating in nature, non-independent.
• Type N – specters, human form, full sensory spectrum, semi-independent in nature.
• Type R – poltergeist, metamorphic form, sensory and extrasensory spectrum, capable of limited independent action.
• Type X – entity, fully independent with wide range of quantum-based abilities, often self-aware, sometimes called “demons”, capable of possessing human host via quantum alignment.

Type X ghosts are exceedingly rare, formed from large quantum disturbances over many years.  The classic western “ghost” would be either Type N or Type R. Intervening types, for example Type B-Type E, are variations on the primary of each subset.  A Type B orb, for example, has measurable color shifting.

Because ghosts are quantum phenomenon, they can be disrupted via other quantum phenomenon.  Powerful magnets, for example, can cause ghosts to be attracted or repelled, and radioactive materials can cause mutations in a ghost’s form.  Since ghosts are not made of solid matter, they can pass through objects with no difficulty, but the movement of matter is very difficult for any ghost below the R subtype.

Interactions With Ghosts
Ghosts with fully independent awareness often believe they are the mythological spirits of the dead and act accordingly.  Only on rare occasions do they accept that they are not the remnants of the dead, though this may explain various other mythological creatures such as djinn or faeries.

Destructive ghosts are generally bound to the event that created them, and may be discorporated if the event is resolved. This explains why ghosts might vanish after a murder is solved, for example.  Additionally, certain items may cause ghosts to be forced away, not due to any “magical” properties, but simple because the quantum state of the item in anathema to the ghost’s quantum signature.

In conclusion, ghosts are neither supernatural nor imaginary.  They can be quantified and measured.  An intriguing experiment would follow; placing a Type R or higher ghost within a particle accelerator.  However, such an experiment would likely destroy the ghost, though it might reveal new subatomic particles.  In any event, ghost study may be academically pursued without need for the ridiculous trappings of the paranormal.  As always, science shows us that the world around us is more complex that we imagine, but always within our grasp.

 

A New Story: Fair Trade

Fair Trade, my January 2011 story from SNM Horror Magazine, is now available in the Stories section. A tale of teenage love interrupted by the machinations of an evil man, the story has a real 80′s horror movie vibe to it.  Check it out and I hope it entertains.