Horror Month Presents: J.C. Michael Day 2

27/9/2013

Hey everyone, I'm back tonight with J C Michael. He's going to be sharing a great flash fiction piece with us in a little while, but first, let's get to know him some more.

Name:

J. C. Michael

Website:

www.discoredia.weebly.com

Other contacts/social media sites:

https://twitter.com/jcdiscoredia
www.facebook.com/discoredia

Link to Amazon page and or any other place that your books can be purchased:

http://www.amazon.com/Discoredia-ebook/dp/B00F8KAHG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380314623&sr=8-1&keywords=discoredia
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Discoredia-ebook/dp/B00F8KAHG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380314695&sr=8-1&keywords=discoredia

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in a small market town on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, so I’m
a country lad at heart.

When did you start writing?

When I was about 5? It was quite a bit later when I got around to trying my hand at
writing a novel though, that started just after Christmas 2006.

What made you start writing?

It was a challenge which my girlfriend, now wife, set me. She was studying for a
Performing Arts degree, so she had a lot of creative things to work on, and was also
exceptionally busy. This gave me an urge to do something creative, my day job doesn’t
really give me that scope, and also a lot of spare time while she was studying. With that
in mind she bought me a journal for Christmas and basically challenged me to write her
a novel as I’ve always been a keen reader, and also a frequent critic of books and movies.
The implication was that if I thought I could do better then I should give it a go.

Is it something that you have always wanted to do?

I’d thought about it before, and always had an active imagination, but it was that push
which gave me the motivation to actually sit down and do it. I wouldn’t class myself as
someone who’d always had the dream of becoming an author, even if it would be true to
say that the idea had always appealed to me.

What is your favourite genre to read, and do you have any favourite books or authors you would like to recommend?

Genre wise it’s got to be horror, although I do enjoy it where there’s a cross over with
the thriller or fantasy genres. My favourite authors are Stephen King, Clive Barker, and
James Herbert, but I’d also recommend Richard Laymon, Dan Simmons, and Justin
Cronin. As for books The Stand, IT, The Travelling Vampire Show, and Carrion Comfort
are all personal favourites for one reason or another. Oh, and the Dark Tower series.

What about to write?

Again, it’s got to be horror. It’s what I read, so it’s what I know best. You can also put
it into the real world which everyone knows and saves the effort of building a whole new,
and convincing, world like you would with sci-fi or fantasy. I’d like to give fantasy a go
someday though, and as a historian I’d love to write something in a more historical
context, maybe the Crusades or World War II, but even then I think there’d be a
crossover with horror.

Do you write full time? If not, what do you do?

I have spend my days in an office, in front of a computer, but unfortunately it’s figures
and graphs I stare at for hour on end.

Do you ever base your characters on anyone that you know, or are they solely from your imagination?

Even our imaginations have to take their inspiration from our experiences so yes, there
are elements of people I know in my characters, but I like to mix them up. There’s also
a lot of me in my characters, with certain ones taking certain elements of my character
but maybe taken to a more extreme level.

J.C Michael Presents His Flash Fiction Piece.

Corruption

We look down in unison at the pair of gleaming, crimson, gloves. Then raise our eyes to one another.

I have led the woman before me down that darkest of corridors which terminates in the sanctity of sin. A desolate and destructive course from which her return is no longer an option. As an angel, she had come to me, a wife, a mother, a carer. Unaware of what lay behind the glass until her eyes met her own, and let me in.

Yes, an angel, pure in thought, and in deed. Yet what I see before me now reeks of my corruption. Her wings torn from her shoulders, leaving naught but bloodied stumps and soiled feathers upon the ground. A carpet of crushed and blood-stained evidence of my unbridled fury at the purity she had dared bring to my dominion. An angel, now fallen from grace and condemned to Hell, as am I. I have turned my face from the glory of God, and now turn the faces of others in the palm of my wicked, twisted, hand.

As I hold her gaze she rubs her hands unthinkingly, like an automaton. Scrubbing at stains from which she can never be free. There is no spark within her iris, for I have extinguished that kind soul which burnt so brightly, dwelling there before coming into contact with me.

Only now does she look down, but I do not. I already know that the blood will have washed away, leaving only microscopic traces beneath manicured nails. Instead, I look over her shoulder. Her husband is obscured by the sheets of the bed. Uniformly hotel-white, with a dash of colour of my own design. He could be sleeping. He is not. Unless, that is, you wish to cavort with the poetic, and regard death as the eternal sleep which sees no dawn. The spray of blood across the headboard, the wall, the print of some unrecognisable city, announces that she has fulfilled her task.

It is a shame my confined view prevents me from bearing witness to the remainder of our handiwork. The other room where my desecrated angel created two angels of her very own. Releasing the souls of her children from a life ruined by a mothers crime. Soon, she will turn. Her eyes open to her actions for the very first time.

When she does I shall wallow in her screams. I shall be content.

©J.C.Michael 2013