Donna Galanti - The Element Trilogy

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The Monster Inside Us

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In some movies and books the monsters are obvious. But are the monsters inside us?

In my paranormal suspense, A Human Element, X-10 appears to be the obvious monster. He kills. He seeks blood and revenge. He has no remorse. Yet as we come to discover it’s a combination of his genes and environment, can we blame him?

My short story collection The Dark Inside  features stories about the monsters inside us; the things we fear, battle, and seek escape from. Sometimes we need to face them to conquer them.

And sometimes we create the very monsters we fear who are really to be pitied, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. We can identify with him as we have all felt like an outcast, rejected and unloved at times. Is he truly the monster or is it the human who created him? In Jonathan Maberry’s Rot & Ruin series he reveals, through fast paced and horrific heart-grabbing scenes, that zombies are to be pitied and true evil lies within those who remain alive.

Is X-10 in A Human Element the true the monster in the book? And while his genes and environment have made him what he is, should be feared or pitied? Or both? You can meet him here.

I believe the true monsters in my book lie beneath the surface of characters that are not so obviously monstrous. The abusive foster father. The scientist who tortures his experiment. The doctor who sells a baby. The men who kidnap and torture a sailor. Do they get what they deserve in the end? You’ll have to read to find out…

Excerpt of X-10 “the monster”:

He was seven when he discovered he would cipro never be set free. His doctors and teachers gathered together one day in his room to tell him he would never be allowed to go anywhere at all. It was too risky. They said he wasn’t human and could not live among humans.

When he asked if he could meet the girl, they shook their heads, not understanding him. What girl? He couldn’t explain. He just knew she was part of him and she was out there growing up with a family. He hated her for that. He wanted a family.

But X-10’s life would instead remain one of exhibition in a cell. And so he was left with the doctor, forgotten in a world that existed on the outside. A world X-10 planned to make his escape into. A world where he could have a name, not just a number. He could escape to mountains somewhere and live in remote woods. Unfound. Free.

“Charlie,” he grunted. “My name will be Charlie. A hero who escapes his prison and kills all these pigs.”

But first he would kill the doctor in a long and suffering way. Then he would find the girl and kill her too. X-10 hated the girl with intensity. Thinking of her threw him into violent rages when he tormented himself thinking of her life out there in the world.

“Laura,” he seethed through his steam-shovel mouth.

She got to live a life he never had. A life with a name.

Who are some of your favorite monsters?
Were they hidden monsters or obvious? And did they get what they deserved in the end or were they to be pitied and redeemed?

Do you give your characters theme songs when writing?

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I know some writers who listen to music while writing. Some even craft soundtracks like my friend, Jess Cooper. She goes to Pandora’s Box to find music that fits her mood for particular a book she’s writing and builds a soundtrack. Jonathan Maberry notes he ratches it up at a local coffeeshop or bookstore with tunes for the writing of that day. Eric S. Brown swears by Weird Al.

Some writers I know write in complete silence, like Michael Ventrella. I am one of those, but I also find a dark corner alone in Wegman’s cafe provides a low buzz that fills the void around me in a blend perfect for my writing at times.

What I can’t do is write with music on. However, I do search for theme songs for my characters. To feel close to my writing I listen to the songs in the car and right before sitting down to write. And then I shut it off. But I hear the song in my head and it fuels the moment I’m in. I feel the character and their situation from the music and it drives me with passion.

My husband doesn’t like it. Why? Because I fell in love with Country a few years ago. (Gag, he says). But heck, where else can you find fitting angst to inspire valtrex words on the page but from Country songs?  Country has it all…lost love, out of work blues, hard times, no-good family and lots of drinking. Need inspiration? Check out the Top 100 Country Songs of All Time.

For my new novel it’s Jake Owen’s Barefoot Blue Jean Night album that sends me colliding with my characters. My protagonist’s theme song is Dierks Bentley’s Love Grows Wild. My husband is glad to not share these private moments. (But just to get him back I sneak in his car and switch all his radio stations to Country ones.)

I’m starting a new novel now and I can’t even listen to the music from my last novel. It confuses me about how I feel for my new characters.

Besides being an author, my next #1 dream is to be a country singer. Got to git me a guitar, harmonica and a fringe skirt. My husband might run off if that happens though. But he’ll sure miss me waving goodbye to him in my cowgirl boots and hat as I line dance across the porch.

Is this a writing quirk that just I have? Do you find theme songs for your book that you don’t actually listen to when writing?

Share with me how music fuels your writing – or doesn’t. Even if you ain’t a country gal.

Do your dreams affect what you write?

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Do you dream about the same thing over and over?

For years I had theme dreams. How I wish they were of nice things. Meadows. Carnivals. Melting ice cream cones on a beach. I’d even take being naked in public.

Machete Man

Nope. Mine were scary. A man with a machete looking to whack off my head. Or falling through snow to a burning lava river below. Slice and burn. Not my choice to exit this world. And I can’t forget the wolves racing across the tundra to devour me.

Of course I never actually died in these dreams. I always wake up just before being diced. Dreaming in color just makes it that more vivid.  Especially when its monster armadillos riding motorcycles throwing giant cupcakes at you.

I think we are fascinated with dreams. My friend Jessica Cooper wrote a great YA book about dreams called REM, which recently made it to the Top 50 semi-finalist round with Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award.  Read my interview with her here on it. In REM when a group of kids discover a machine to record their dreams they soon discover how using it transforms them, in fantastic and terrifying ways.

Perhaps we’re better off not remembering our dreams – or re-living them over and over. Perhaps they need to stay as dreams to ward the dark away.

But back to machetes. I ran for miles in my dreams avoiding decapitation from that unknown machete wielding maniac. He swung blades of steel seeking my neck. Across dark woods. Through houses. Down lonely roads. He chased me. He cut off the heads of my loved and I saw them roll.

Then one day a crowd came. They surged onto the machete murderer and whacked him to death with garden hoses. He disappeared and never returned. For the first time someone came to help me. And they destroyed the thing that haunted me most. They gave me hope. Someone finally came to my rescue.

Maybe this is the reason I write from the darker side with a touch of hope.  No matter how dark things are, there is hope for salvation. And then it hit me. The machete man was awfully familiar to the antagonist in my book, A Human Element. The power of dreams, right?

I looked up what this machete terror-filled dream could mean. When someone wields a machete at you it’s time to be brave enough to walk away from a situation that may be causing you to feel threatened and under attack. Check out what your dreams could mean here.

Death by garden hose

The man with the machete has never returned. I think he hides inside me and comes out when I write, and that is the only place he’ll remain safe from now on. If not, I’ll send back in the angry hoard of garden-hose attackers to get him good.

I wouldn’t mind the garden hose dream.  To dream about them suggests a washing away of mistakes, thereby giving a fresh opportunity to grow as a better person. I’ll take that.

Do you have theme dreams and do they affect what you write?

Tormented characters: Love em’ in pain

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Ahh, a tormented soul. Love them.

They fill my favorite books and movies. Angst in all forms. I love to write them. In my novel, A Human Element, coming out March 2012 our tortured hero loses loved ones through tragic circumstances and goes on to lead a life of abuse and self destruction. Can he be redeemed or redeem himself?

I loved the challenge of writing a tortured soul.  I embraced it as my comfort zone. And perhaps that’s why we love the tortured hero. It forces us to step out of our safe world for just a bit and find comfort in the uncomfortable.

I love to see how much torment we can pile on a character, how lost they become, how near the brink of desperation they reach. And then either redeem them or let their demons take them. What is it that drives us to write tormented souls? In a way we must relate to their pain on some level and that brings out the flawed humanity in them that we all have.

What about you? Are there any tortured heroes you particularly love?

Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff

Some of my favorite (and obvious) tormented souls: Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. Maximus from Gladiator. The English Patient from the movie of same name. Maxim de Winter from Rebecca (yes, I love Laurence Olivier). On a subtler note, Newland (Daniel Day Lewis) in Age of Innocence and Lewis in a totally different role as fierce Hawkeye in Last of the Mohicans. Let’s not forget the ladies, more recently with Maggie in the tragic and sad Million Dollar Baby.

A quest for peace never to be found

And I love tormented Tristan in Legends of the Fall. A massive beautiful movie, fraught with tragedy and  wonder. Add the grand landscape of Big Sky Country and sad sweet music. In a way it’s a modern King Arthur tale of unrequited love, competition for love and a lot of fighting, in war and family.

So much pain inside

Tristan is hopelessly flawed, breaking hearts and family apart with his demons. A wild child who is one with nature. Okay, he’s totally self-absorbed and thoughtless but he’s tormented. He just can’t help himself, right? As the old Indian family friend says, “He was the rock they broke themselves against”.

I love that. Have you ever done this at times in love or friendship? To the point where you lost yourself and had to break free or be dragged down? Or have you been the rock? Have the characters you write?

Okay, I admit that I am not a Pitt fan but his character got me in this movie. It may promote the cliche that women prefer jerks, but hey – aren’t some redeemable? Apparently not with Tristan. But you can understand Susannah’s attempts and years of trying to. She can’t help herself either.

He can only love when the bear inside him sleeps

Tristan’s demons never went away. They moved about inside him. He was always restless, seeking peace in self destruction over his part in his brother’s death. He could never find that peace until the bear lay sleeping inside him. He could only give in to love when the bear was dormant. When it awoke it was his master. He gave in to it in the end. He became the bear and in doing so found peace.

One with the bear

Watch the trailer again below, remember the sweeping epic of a wide open country and the beauty and darkness that comes from it. Feeling like I need to see the movie again…

Who’s one of YOUR  favorite tormented characters? Tell me here and why!

Next week its back to the bad asses. We’re getting close to Halloween so a good bad ass is just what we need!