TPA 64 Writing Heroes 3

I sent the email to myself about how Stephen King and Dan Simmons were wrong about me. I'm surprised that it htlped me a bit. I look at it every now and then to remind myself that they were wrong about me. Or should I say that the monster I made out of them. Now onto the heroes. This one is a mix because it's the writers that made me want to write. I'll have to go over all of them to get my pages in. 

First is Harlan Ellison. If you've never seen him in interviews, he has this cantankerous attitude and a "I don't give a damn what you think" persona about him. He doesn't give a crap about what poeple think and he demands to be paid. "You have to pay the writer." There's this interview with him about how he was called by someone who wanted to interview him about the lawsuit he threw at James Cameron when Cameron made The Terminator. Ellison claimed that Cameron stole the concept from one of his short stories. I think it was the one about the Harlequin but after some research, I found it was an Outer Limits episode Ellison wrote about a soldier out of time. Somehow he got Cameron to admit that he took the concept from the TV show which gave Ellison the right to sue for some money. I'm not sure if Ellison won or not but that dogged attitude of Ellison has always been an inspiration. During the interview on the phone, Ellison says he was asked if he would be willing to give his opinion about the lawsuit for either the DVD commentary or a documentary about the film, I forget which. His first question was to asked if he was going to be paid. The other end of the phone goes quiet and the woman politely denies that Ellison will be paid. Ellison follows up with asking if she'll be paid and if the person making the DVD will get paid. When she answers yes, Ellison demands to know why he won't get paid. He says the call cut off there and follows it up with saying that people don't pay the damn writer. According to him, people think that writing isn't effort or that because they snatch ideas from the air that they aren't worth anything. Pay the damn writer. That always stuck with me. If I go back farther, Harlan Ellison has a bigger influence on me before I got into writing. I remember that I used to be subscribed to a magazine called Gameinformer which had an interview with one of the developers of the game I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. The game is based off of Harlan Ellison's short story of the same name. I didn't know anything about the man at the time, but the interviewer asked the developer what it was like working with Ellison. The developer, who's name I've lost, said that it was fine working with Ellison and claimed that he wasn't a mean person but just didn't like idiots. In fact, it was this developer who propose the question to Ellison that formed the game. He asked "why did AM pick these people?" For context, the short story is about five people, the last remaining humans on earth, being tortured by a hateful AI named AM. Nowhere in the book does it explain why the AI picked these people or what they had done to warrant their condition. This simple question surprised Ellison and formed the backbone of the video game. Back then, Steam wasn't available and I didn't have a PC so I could only imagine what the game was like. Today, I have the game but have yet to play it. It's reccomended that you play it with a guide, most of the ends are bad and the only way to get the good ending is to play it almost perfectly. I believe that AM is played by Harlan Ellison though I haven't been able to confirm it. Let me check...I can confirm that he did indeed voice AM. So Harlan Ellison is build deep into my roots as a writer and a gamer.

Next is, of course, H.P. Lovecraft. I remember going onto the wiki at school or at home when I was hopped up on medicine and dove into hours of lore. I was originally looking at the plot outlines for Stephen King's stories since I wasn't allowed to read them. That was for the best since I was easily scared, but it didn't stop my curiosity. What did Stephen King write about that made him so dangerous, I wondered. So, I looked up the influences behind Stephen King. Two authors came up, one I heard of and one I hadn't heard of. The first was Edgar Allen Poe who's poems I read in our reading assignments and the other was Mr. H.P. Lovecraft who was a mystery to me. I borrowed a few books of Lovecraft from the library and became enraptured by Lovecraft's writing. Looking back, Lovecraft can't write dialogue to save himself or set up a proper scene. But his creation of Cosmic Horror and his monstrosities remain a huge influence on writers, like Stephen King, to this day. There's a Lovecraftian tag on Steam that I often look for when looking for games to buy. I like to see how others see Lovecraft's work and it's always something different or facinating although I feel that many miss the point Lovecraft was trying to make. I was so enthralled with Lovecraft's work that I gave a presentation of his pantheon in school. In a Christian school. I got a few looks after that day. I didn't care, I remember taking spark notes about Lovecraft while I was in school, ignoring the lesson in exchange for figuring out what was happening in Innsmouth. I abandoned Lovecraft once I got into college and was allowed to read King. My focus switched back to Lovecraft when I decided to write my KIY series, if those ever come out. I shouldn't be so hard on myself, writing is hard and I'm making progress.

My final hero is Stephen King. I don't think I've ever read such an influential writer. I think that King writes several scenes out of order and sews them up in a book. At least I think that's how his stories about small towns dying are made. I obviously idolize King and it's because of him that I want to be a writer. I've written in length about King on my other pages so I won't say too much here. I recall that one of my first novels of his that fell into my hands was Duma Key which isn't his best but is still good. I've barely finished his most famous works like The Dark Tower series, Carrie, or The Shining. It's strange to call myself a fan if I have access to some of his best works but rarely touch them. But I still consider King to be the golden standard that I'm striving towards.

I think that's all my heroes. Both the ones I've met in life and out of life. There are a few teachers who've encouraged me as well but I think I'll write about them later. I think this is a good enough wrap up so I'll end it for now. I've got some reading to do.