It’s October and everyone has been putting out their Halloween decorations, so it probably makes sense that I’ve been thinking about monsters a lot. Also, I’m reading a book about the way monsters are used in fiction, I listened to a podcast episode about monsters, and I write about monsters, so yeah… lots of monster contemplation going on over here, lol.
Monsters are an interesting storytelling technique because aside from your average human monster (serial killers, etc.), we don’t really encounter very many “monsters” in day-to-day life. We can live in a city or an urban area, and it’s highly unlikely that a lion is going to show up and start stalking us or a wolf is going to get a bunch of its buddies together and hunt us down. And even in more rural areas, we have houses and guns and electric fences and all kinds of tools and resources to protect ourselves, so the danger is a lot less than if we only had a spear or a knife.
Aliens haven’t shown up yet (as far as we officially know), Lovecraft’s creatures haven’t come knocking, dragons and other magical monsters don’t exist—and so our exposure to monsters in real life is limited to human monsters, wildlife safaris, and the occasional run-in with a black bear or shark (if you live where they do—I’ve not had that problem in Baltimore haha).
And I think that’s one reason we have such a fascination with monsters—it’s that we don’t face them in real life. And trying to imagine what it would be like is exciting, interesting, and reminds us of the things our ancestors faced back when they lived less digitally and more closely with the natural world.
At any rate, as Halloween rolls around, I’ll be enjoying the depictions of ghosts and demons and witches and monsters all over the city, and maybe, if the mood strikes me, watching a scary movie or two. And of course, working on writing my own monsters!
Do you have a favorite scary movie I should check out? (Preferably featuring monsters, of course!)
In celebration of Halloween, enjoy this image of one of one of my creepier monsters (at least, that’s what people tell me lol). It’s a hulla. They use human skin and human brains to reproduce. Yup, lol.
A couple quick updates:
I’m killing it on new manuscripts! I finished the rough draft of a brand-new urban fantasy trilogy (yes, all three books are drafted) that I’m excited to tell you more about soon.
I also got back the fourth book in the Land of Szornyek series from my betas, and just sent it out to my proofreader.
In Rove City news, I finished a short companion story specifically for my book release newsletter subscribers (click here to subscribe and get the short story for free!) and I have five more books in the series either partially or fully drafted. It’s been a productive couple of months!
I’ve also got a deadline for the audiobook version of Land of Szornyek (holding off on sharing until it’s confirmed!) and have started the process of creating an audio version of the Rove City series.
I’ll also be participating in NaNoWriMo for the ELEVENTH time (I can’t get over that it’s been OVER a decade since I did my first Nano), so if you follow me on Instagram (@arielesieling), you’ll be seeing an uptick in monsters over there.
I’m also working on a few other things (because I’m not great at sitting still lol) and I will check back in with more details once I have them!
Happy October, friends!
