DASTARDLY BASTARD BLOG TOUR

TODAY, I’M WELCOMING EDWARD LORN TO MY PAGE FOR HIS DASTARDLY BASTARD BLOG TOUR AND GUEST POST.

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Dastardly Bastard

Written by Edward Lorn

The Dastardly Bastard of Waverly Chasm does gleefully scheme of malevolent things. Beware, child fair, of what you find there. His lies how they hide in the shadows he wears. ’Cross wreckage of bridge is where this man lives. Counting his spoils, his eye how it digs. Tread, if you dare, through his one-eyed stare. This Dastardly Bastard is neither here, nor there...

Located twenty miles east of the town of Bay's End, Waverly Chasm awaits.

Seven people embark on a tour of Waverly Chasm. The excursion soon turns into a struggle for survival when evil awakens.

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Supernatural Vs. Can-Happen Fiction

 

As far back as I can remember, my mother has had a bookshelf filled with terrific stories. Stephen King shows up more prominently than any other author. The way she tells the tale, is that a friend loaned her a copy of The Stand, and she became an immediate fan. She's told me on more than one occasion, "It was the way he described a character opening a stick of gum that did it for me." I know exactly how she feels.

My mother's collection of King's work was mainly obtained through The Stephen King Book Club. Every month, a new nondescript brown box would show up, just to be secreted away. I'd notice from time to time that there were new books on the shelf, but they were always set too far up for me to reach. But like the fabled cat, curiosity got the better of me. So one afternoon, after staking out the mailbox for what seemed like an entire week, I absconded with the newest delivery, hid in my closet with a flashlight, and tore that packaging to shreds. Inside, Stephen King's book, Dolores Claiborne, sat waiting to be read. I devoured that book. But for me, the kicker wasn't anything as subtle as the opening of a gum wrapper, but a man thrown down a well. He didn't die right away. Dolores could hear her husband down there scratching away at the walls, begging to be released. I was terrified. But I was also taught a very valuable lesson.

 

You can scare with a can-happen story.

 

I was a huge fan of every Universal Monster and B-movie atrocity that I could find. Creatures, beasts, and evil science experiments were my favorite reading material. So, why was it that King's story of an abused woman scared me so bad? Because it could happen. Before I read Dolores Claiborne, I believed horror was only managed through supernatural events. Once I realized that everyday horrors could entertain, my entire world changed.

 

And then I read Stephen King's It. After I finished Dolores Claiborne, It arrived the next month (I realize It was published before Dolores Claiborne but that's just how the book club worked back then). It took me almost a year to read, not because the book is almost 1200 pages, but because I kept having to stop for fear of recurring nightmares. Pennywise the Clown didn't bother me—I've never had a problem with clowns—but the way the monster kept changing into different phobias freaked me out. In the end, what kept me reading was the real life, can-happen elements: The Loser's Club and their friendship, Henry Bowers and his inherent evil, Bev's insane, abusive father. It made me realize that to make the supernatural scary, you must base it in reality. Once again, another lesson learned.

 

I tried to implement these lessons with my second novel, Dastardly Bastard. My monster is supernatural, but the being uses its preys’ humanity against them. Without the can-happen horrors of the group's pasts, there would be no connection to the horror. Hopefully, I succeeded.

 

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Edward Lorn is an American horror author presently residing somewhere in the southeast United States.

He enjoys storytelling, reading, and writing biographies in the third person.

Other books by Edward Lorn:

Bay’s End

Three After

FIND DASTARDLY BASTARD AT THE FOLLOWING RETAILERS:

Dastardly Bastard (Amazon)
Dastardly Bastard (Amazon UK)
Dastardly Bastard (Barnes and Noble)
Dastardly Bastard (Smashwords)

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