Posts Tagged "Thomas Morrissey"

• Hannibal Lecter Is A Friend Of Mine

  Villains

  What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.  What doesn’t kill our characters makes our stories stronger.

  So Hannibal Lecter is a friend of mine.  So is Ernst Stavro Blofeld.  And The Joker, and Professor Moriarty, and especially Darth Vader.  Maybe Bane, too, but we’ll see.

  

  Villains in fantastic fiction are one of my favorite things to write because, as the nemesis of the hero, they get to have a lot of the same qualities, but they get to have them in an evil way.  Call me twisted, but writing about the use of power towards nefarious ends is at least as much fun as writing about heroes and their struggles.  And it makes the story that much more satisfying when the hero wins. 

  With acknowledgements to Iago and every henchman-type bad guy, interesting villains to me are generally powerful individuals.  Part of what makes a villain powerful is success in his/her field. You want to know a writer’s politics? See who he casts as the villain in his story.  Corporate greedheads are usually good, but let’s not forget corrupt cops, military officials gone rogue, or maybe even a President who wants to transform a country from a representative republic into a European socialist state…

  But I digress. 

   ;-) (more…)

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• All For One, One For All…?

  Wolf Pack of One?

  Although the post title comes from The Three Musketeers, of course, I’m going to respond to this week’s question–whether we write solo or in a pack?–by asking which you’ll enjoy more: The Dark Knight Rises or The Avengers?

  In DKR, we get the solo artist.  Batman lives alone, works mostly alone, researches by himself in the Batcave, builds his weapons by himself.  For good or bad, he carries the story’s heroic arc on his caped shoulders without help.  That kind of focus tends to make things…intense.  The Avengers, on the other hand, gives us a team.  Each member of the team is a unique figure, but they rely on each other through the movie to advance their goals.  There’ll be more storylines, and less time to tell each.  With more heroes carrying the load, the heroic arc might be a little…lighter.

  I’m looking forward to both, which I guess means I can be either solo or group.  Neither approach to writing is inherently more effective, but if I’m one or the other, then I’ll quote Michael Keaton in  1989: “I’m Batman.” (more…)

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• Welcome to Hell, Blofeld

  Introductions

   

  What better way to start an introductory post than a quote from James Bond?  That it’s said in Sean Connery’s accent is a bonus, a bonus that offsets the fact that it comes from one of the, ah, lesser Bond films (Diamonds Are Forever).  I’m hyperbolizing, of course–blogging isn’t really Hell (at least, not yet–talk to me under a tighter deadline).  In fact, since I get to offer my opinions on things, it may be closer to Heaven for me…and the rest of you, too.  We may disagree from time to time, but we’ll laugh, we’ll cry, these blogs will become a part of us.  Really.  It’s gonna be a fun ride. 

  Trust me.

  My name is Thomas Morrissey, and I’m one of the new authors at Night Shade Books.  My first novel, FAUSTUS RESURRECTUS, is being published today, Tuesday, April 3.  It’s a Supernatural Noir Thriller, a terrific read with elements of thriller, horror, mystery and romance, and is the first of a series featuring Donovan Graham, occult scholar (MA in Philosophical Hermeneutics–the study of interpretation and the search for truth), bartender (in midtown Manhattan), biker (motorcycle, not Schwinn) and (occasional) stoner.  Kind of an eclectic mix, but hey–write what you know.

  So who am I?  

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