Humanity
liked to imagine they’d known evil during their brief time on the Earth. They’d
written about it, made movies about it, glorified it and, for many, endeavoured
to become it. They thought they’d seen iniquity
in the eyes of murderers, cultists, witches and foolish youths labouring to be
something they knew nothing about. The
world of vampires and werewolves had become pop culture, little more than adolescents
with hairless chests hissing, growling and flaring their nostrils. Folklore had been driven into despondency,
etching what was once dark possibility into now clear and discernible
signposts, which pointed towards shadows that held the hands of those who mocked
what once remained unseen and unknowable.
The world had grown weak and its residents weaker still. Maturity had bred fools and followers rather
than those who might lead, and those who pretended to lead merely made fools
of their followers. The world and its
denizens had little left to do now but wait for something they still knew
nothing about. Pompous, conceited and
as hollow as the caves from which they’d crawled, Jabez had once wept at the
very thought of spending another unwanted moment breathless with despair
amongst them. They thought they held the
universe in their palms; in truth they still owned the hands of children...
Cornelius Harker
Follow the ebooks/reviews/ramblings of Independent Author Cornelius Harker Carnator Publications - Dark Literary Fiction
Saturday, 29 April 2017
Thursday, 19 January 2017
Eventide excerpt
She entered a cold, dark but
generously furnished room. Edna spared no
expense for her guests since her husband had left her very much provided for. A double bed for each of her three bedrooms,
thick shag pile carpeting, Gabbeh rugs, acanthus lincrusta wallpaper and pitch pine
double wardrobes.
The window was half open
as always and the light had been turned off. Mr Dresner, it seemed, had an aversion to
any form of light and quite possibly owned a severe case of hyperthermia. He stood motionless before the window, as was his wont. This was a custom he had upheld
since his arrival at the guest house. Quiet but courteous was his way, but this was
not even half way towards meeting Edna's needs.
She was a people person, and Mr Dresner was currently the closest thing she
had to instant human interaction. Edna needed to
talk.
He stood with his right palm
resting upon the top of his left hand.
This was another custom of his.
Edna had spent the better part of three weeks learning his habits simply
because she needed a project, something to take her mind away from the
lacerations that had been left in the world.
She had subtly interrogated and remained observant and, in doing so, had
ascertained the following:
- He was a retired accountant and
also a widower.
- He had a daughter with whom he
had not spoken for nearly twenty years.
He was in the process of finding her.
- He would come down to breakfast
at 9am and dinner at 6pm whereupon he would mostly eat silently, speaking only when spoken to. His answers were succinct and were
delivered calmly and congenially.
- He had a poor appetite, leaving
at least a quarter of what was given to him each time.
- He seemed persistently distracted and his brow was consistently beaded with sweat. He checked
his watch regularly and his eyes were forever flitting from left to right. As a result he seldom smiled, but when he did
she felt it was genuine.
- He left the house each night at
10pm to "take the air".
- He was left handed, owned three
suits, disliked dogs and parsnips and was completely bald by the time he had
reached the age of thirty.
Aside from these facts and minor deductions Edna knew little more about
her inhibited but nevertheless oddly pleasant guest.
The first thing she wanted to do after setting the tea tray down upon
the bedside table was to close the window.
She wrapped her arms tightly around her waist, inhaled a winter's breath
and thawed it in her lungs before releasing a vaporous stream back into the
air. Mr Dresner appeared, as always,
fixed to the vista beyond, watching, listening or whatever it was he did. Only once had he turned his head slightly to
hear her enter the room before returning his attentions to the surrounding
forest and the distant but discernible glow, the corona of which roofed the woods and
spat shards of light from within. The unsettling
and unending synthetic sun still managed to cast its apocalyptic saffron blaze over the
horizon, smearing the line and raping nature until everything that once was beautiful
seemed now so false and trifling; they were mere aimless wanderers amidst darker climes. London had been razed to the ground...
Friday, 30 December 2016
Blog Hijack! An Apology From Santa
Now I know why I didn't receive my Stretch Armstrong all those years ago! Sorry guys, he just appeared on my blog.
Thursday, 15 December 2016
Eventide: The trouble with writing large novels...
For me there is an inherent problem with writing a novel that's so damn
large it keeps you enclosed in your own secluded head space and away from everybody. The result? People believe you're no longer writing at all, and this problem is made
worse when it's someone like me writing it; you see, I like to take my time. I began
writing Eventide about three years ago and, as a result, lost contact with many of the
people I used to converse with on a daily or weekly basis. This is my fault. I've never really been the type of person to
'keep in touch', as they say, and I've never really considered myself a person
of interest for people to seek out online. I'm just some guy who makes up
stuff. Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely bursting with charisma and I have enough
confidence to land a boot in Captain America's nuts any day of the week. I suppose I'm
just simply more of a private person... unless Captain America criticises anything
I write.
Eventide was simply going to be a brief side project before I continued with
the writing/editing phase of my Gothic saga, 'Words to the Wise', but things haven't turned out the way I planned. Eventide was once called 'Chainstorm'. It was a novella I originally wrote several years ago and it was my intention to re-edit it before releasing it. I did so in my own inimitable style, of course, by
rewriting the entire wretched thing, changing the story completely, adding new
characters, subplots and everything else that rendered it completely
unrecognisable in relation to the original.
What, therefore, began as a novella soon turned into a really large novel, and then
what became a really large novel turned into a really really large novel that's
now close to 290,000 words... and I'm still not done. Consequently I will be releasing it in
three parts, most probably a week or month apart so as to at least give people
a chance to digest each book individually.
With Eventide I decided to go for a modern day approach as oppose to the eighteenth/nineteenth century tongue I employed in the saga. This means Eventide comprises modern day vernacular and also a little modern day swearing accompanied by a
few explosions and misdemeanors here and there. Eventide isn't merely
about the possibility of the world ending, though. It's about people, normal people doing normal
things before being thrust into this dark and dire reality, which also has a touch of ancient myth and some rather
startlingly unearthly discoveries that I hope will raise the hairs on the nape of every reader.
Anyway, I decided to post this just to let people know I'm
still out there hammering away and that I intend to post updates a little more regularly
than I have been. In other words I shall
now be posting updates.
Harker out
Tuesday, 13 December 2016
Suicide Squad Review: A film about buggers
This is a film primarily about buggers, absolute buggers. The plot's as thin as an undernourished man
who's seriously let himself go. Set in the aftermath of Superman's death after he
took an enormous one in the chest, the world is apparently lacking any military
defences and/or world leaders; at least that's how it seems. No good bugger can do bugger all against any ruthless
bugger. It's because of this somewhat
lack of skills from any military leader type buggers that an intelligence
officer, who is herself a completely callous bugger devoid of smiles, deems it
a great idea to form Team X - an expendable band of misfits - to undertake high
risk missions for the United States government.
Of course this said band of misfits aren't too happy since they're
forced into their new unwanted roles with the assistance of explosive charges injected
into their necks, which can be activated remotely by another bugger, namely a stone-faced
guy with a bad attitude who takes charge of the Suicide Squad. Now, it seems that one of these would-be
recruits happens to be possessed by a right bugger of a witch. When this witch suddenly decides to take over
her host's body completely and, in turn, tries to take over the world with her
recently resurrected ancient superpowered bugger brother, bad stuff
happens. The Squad is brought in and,
well, etc etc...
So how does it all
play out? It isn't terrible and it isn't great.
It could've been a lot better.
The majority of the characters are unfortunately thinly sketched. One appears too late in the day to make any
impact at all and hardly owns a line in the film, while another is dispatched
so early on it makes your teeth ache. Numerous,
menacing and varied they might be, but the characters' sometimes brief back-stories
unfortunately amount to an abundance of interrupting scenes that kill the flow
rather than accentuate the narrative. Will Smith's 'Deadshot' and Margot
Robbie's 'Harley Quinn' definitely steal the show here adding both empathy and
humour to progress their characters, and yet they still seem to edge things
forward only mere inches rather than help catapulting us through what should've
been a barrage of character driven fun amidst impressive set pieces; and what
about those set pieces? Well, I shan't bore you into bleeding from every orifice
with talk of special effects. In this
day and age the majority of AAA movies have great effects, and quite why people
still go on about them in regards to major releases is beyond me. They should look good; these films cost
millions! There are some exceptions to the rule, of course, but I'm not
reviewing those exceptions at this time, not yet anyway. That aside, set pieces are scattered throughout
and they're well directed with quick fire camera work and two second shots that
fuel the action, and yet still I couldn't help but think I've seen it all
before somewhere, or rather everywhere. This was a film that I believe should've
been based more on character interaction than on action. The writers had everything at their disposal
and nearly every box was ticked, actually too many boxes were ticked. A band of misfits that don't get along?
Check. A band of misfits coming together for the greater good? Check. A band of misfits whose exploits will most
probably lead to a film franchise? Check. But there was a box that should've
been left empty, an impervious and utterly tickless box. Actually the box shouldn't have existed at
all. This is the point where I may come under fire from some when I state that The
Joker shouldn't have been in the damn film until the end. This was a story revolving around lesser
known characters in the DC universe and, for me, The Joker really didn't have a
place in it. His reputation alone precedes
him and yet here he takes a back seat in order to flesh out Harley Quinn's back(love/obsession)story.
I say thrust the big wisecracking
painted profligate into the next film when all the characters are firmly established.
This review has
gone on for longer than expected and I can't say I'm entirely pleased about
that, and I've even left stuff out namely because I didn't want it to become
longwinded, which unfortunately it has become.
I'll work on that. So, in short,
did I enjoy it? You'd think: "NO!" Oddly enough the answer is yes,
but it could've been so much more by giving us so much less. Less joker, more judiciously placed back
stories, a villain that actually speaks a hell of a lot more, a villainess who
can actually stand still without appearing as though she's recently soiled herself,
oh and not so much walking around. There
seemed to be far too much of the latter without much occurring both in plot
progression or character development.
For a city that was supposedly under siege by powerful entities there was
an innumerable amount of quiet moments in which more reflection and character
building should've been at the forefront.
My advice there would've been to use that time to flesh out the
characters a little more beyond mere flashbacks and do it while blowing stuff
up in the background! Blowing stuff up, or indeed buggers, in the background always
adds to the ambience; it's a tried and tested formula that been generously passed
down from one generation of film maker buggers to the next. Damn those quiet moments without any major
character development and their arresting flashbacks at inconvenient times. Damn them, I say! Bugger this, I'm off.
Harker out
Monday, 12 December 2016
Forthcoming Content
Ladies and gentleman, it's about time I began actually using the blog instead of leaving it to fester. There must and shall be content, and content must and shall arrive in the form of, well, other stuff. Aside from updates and excerpts from whatever it is I'm working on at the moment (in this case Eventide) I will also be covering extra 'fun' related content, and I'm not necessarily being sarcastic when I highlight the word 'fun'. I do fun. I watch films! I'm a PC gamer! So, I thought why not occasionally pop in and review something that I've seen or enjoyed playing? Why not indeed? That's the intention... let's see how it pans out. What I won't be doing is venturing beyond the shallow depths of critique. I shall write a no-bullshit approach when reviewing these things and tell you how it is, since that's really all that most of us care about. Anyway... things to do. I watched 'Suicide Squad' recently, so I'll soon tell you 'How It Is'.
Tuesday, 12 July 2016
Eventide: Midnight Burglars
"Now that's one ugly
bastard," Phil announced as he stopped next to an old portrait of an even
older looking man with balding white hair and spectacles sitting before a large
desk in a large study. "Why the
hell do they always have to be sitting in front of book shelves?" he asked
in an infuriated whisper. "They
always seem to think it makes them look intelligent if they're sitting down
with an entire library of books behind them."
"Perhaps he's read all of them," Hal suggested.
"And what if he has? Anyone who can read can go ahead and read a
book. That doesn't make them any more
intelligent than the man who prefers to observe the world."
"Is that what you do, then, observe the world?"
"I look at it with indifference," Phil answered as he
continued scrutinising the painting. The
low lighting of Longchester House forced him to squint and strain his
eyes. "You can look at the world
without observing it just as much as you can sit before a library's worth of
books without ever having read them.
This man was probably illiterate.
He has the look of a lout."
"He seems to have a lazy eye," Hal added. "I wonder why he'd want that depicted in
there? If he had a lazy eye in real life then he could've asked the artist to
omit it in the portrait. Those books
look suspect as well. Look at the
spines. Not one of them is thicker than
my finger."
"Children's books at best," Phil concurred. "Although the inclusion of his lazy eye
in a portrait may show a degree of pride.
It shows that he's not ashamed of who he is or what he looks like. Unfortunately for him, though, he just looks
like a gammy eyed prick."
"Agreed," Hal said as they both moved further up the stairs.
"Anyway," Phil continued as he chose his steps diligently, not
wishing to step upon anything that creaked or grumbled beneath his feet,
"this tale at the end of the book.
It was a soul searching thing for Longchester, who was in fact as mad as
a carton of bollocks. He believed there
existed worlds beyond this one."
"Hardly an original idea," Hal submitted.
"It is when you believe that each of those worlds is accessible
through a piece of furniture," Phil returned. "Apparently there was once a hole
punched in time and space a few hundred years ago through which things poured,
all kinds of things, artefacts, furniture and all sorts that came from these
neighbouring dimensions, and when the hole was mended..."
"Mended by who?"
"How should I know? A wormhole repair man, an oddjobber, someone
passing by who happened to have a wrench on him? So when this hole was
repaired," Phil continued, "all the things that had come through
remained here in this world or dimension.
When these things were touched by certain people, who themselves were
most likely touched, they could see into the universe whence it came."
"Whence it came?"
"Yes, that's the proper lingo for it," Phil replied, "'whence'
is a good word. It's this way," he
added after looking from left to right down a barely lit corridor. "Her room is on the right."
The corridors of Longchester House were of the imposing and closing type,
the kind that appeared always to narrow the further one navigated. The older and more frangible residents had
taken lodgings downstairs due to an increasing number of accidents in the night
due to poor lighting conditions.
Upstairs was forever in the throes of dusk, while downstairs the magnificent
bay windows ingested much of the daylight and a great many moonbeams at
night. Ultimately Longchester House was
still a product of its time, a time when candlelight and oil lamps would
fraternise with the shadows rather than subdue them. Now occasional electric lamps surrounded by
thick crimson shades on tables too wide for the narrow passageways did their
best to alleviate the sense of unending palms of twilight, which pressed
constantly against the all-too-small leaded windows that dotted the north
passageway. Longchester House did indeed own a sense of character, but it was
one that thrived too much on mystery for Phil.
"Mind the candle holders," Phil whispered as he brushed past
one of the many unused brass holders that jutted from both sides of the
wall. "Hit one of these full on with
your shoulder and you'll have a mark for weeks."
Hal navigated himself slowly past the ornate brass wall sconces, each
one meticulously crafted into mythological beasts all owning claws, talons or open
palms into which had been carved niches just large enough for a single resting candle
to spend its slowly dissolving existence.
"I thought Longchester was found dead in his chair," Hal
whispered after a moment's deliberation.
"He was," Phil returned, "but it was how he was found
that wasn't disclosed to the community at the time."
"And how was that?"
"Mouth wide open," Phil said after turning around to face Hal,
"and eyes wider than wide with drying blood trailing from the sockets to
the cheeks. It seemed as though
something was trying to get out of him; either that or it actually
succeeded."
"Like what?" Hal asked while wishing for at least a miniscule
amount of daylight at that moment.
"The soul, Hal," Phil said.
"When I speak you must listen.
I already told you about Longchester's theory. In his mind he saw something, another place
in another time, and his soul left the body and travelled to that wondrous
place."
Hal fell silent.
With each possibility trampling upon the next, he suddenly felt a little
nauseous, uncomfortable and desperate to vacate Longchester House with as much
speed as his limbs would permit.
"Look at you, you're like a schoolboy. It's all bollocks," Phil assured
him. "I could tell you that my arse
is haunted and you'd be checking me out for weeks afterwards."
"Not very likely," Hal disagreed as he released a breath.
"Longchester was a lunatic who drank too much, believed too much
and did too little to snap himself out of it. It was a good bedtime story, though, wasn't
it?"
"Campfire stuff," Hal agreed.
"You should've shone a torch in your face while you told it. Do we have a torch?"
"What for?"
"It's dark."
"Well that's kind of the point, isn't it?" Phil began. "I've never understood the mentality of
a burglar who breaks into a house during the dead of night under cover of
darkness only then to switch on a torch.
Where's the logic? The first thing anyone is going to see from the
outside is someone walking around a dark house shining a torch. Look at this wallpaper," he added as he
brushed his hand against the thin floral patterned wall. "I bet this hasn't been changed in
centuries."
"Did they have wallpaper back then?"
"Of course they had wallpaper.
Has the adult Hal suddenly stepped out of his body and fucked off? Are
you having an out-of-common-sense experience?" Phil enquired with both
palms held out.
"There's someone at the other end of the corridor," Hal
announced suddenly in a frantic whisper as he pressed his back up against the wall.
"What the hell is the matter with you?" Phil asked. "I asked you here for a bit of support
in what's fast becoming quite an important moment in my life and you're acting
as though you've just parted ways with your balls."
"There's someone..."
"Christ, it's like being in an Abbott and Costello movie! It's a fucking full length mirror, Hal!"
Phil whispered close to Hal's face.
"Is it?" Hal asked.
"So it is," he added as he passed a hand in front of his face
and observed his reflection in the mirror.
"I don't know who thought of
putting a full length mirror at the end of a dark narrow passageway anyway,"
Phil mused. "I swear they're trying
to kill off the residents. They have
glints in their eyes."
"The staff?"
"The staff," Phil confirmed as he walked forward slowly and
stopped short of the third door along.
"The residents should sleep with one eye open."
"Like Popeye?"
"No, it's just an expression, Hal.
And when did Popeye ever sleep with one eye open?"
"When did Popeye ever have both eyes open?"
"He didn't. That's the way
he was drawn. His character...,"
Phil stopped himself. "Why the fuck
am I standing here discussing Popeye?! I never liked him
anyway. I've never trusted anyone who
has one eye constantly closed; there's always something sinister being planned
behind the lid."
"Have you met many people who've had one eye constantly closed?"
"I've met a few," Phil nodded slowly, "scheming bastards
the lot of them."
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