Sara Amundsonneeds monsters . Lots of behemoth , and the weird the in effect . Her “ Make a Monster Project ” is a call for monster idea , which she turns into newsbreak fiction , reads aloud in a telecasting series , and possibly includes in her Dreamer urban phantasy novels .
Amundson is an unpublished author , presently await for a publisher or agent . The first chapter of Dreamer won the Pacific Northwest Writers Association 2013 Literary Contest , and since then she ’s been go to complete it and break into traditional publishing . She told me the PNWA conference was a vast eruditeness experience for her . “ I came away from the conference with the realisation that I needed to build a following if I wanted any chance of succeeding as a writer . And that was the day Make a Monster was born . ”
It was Make a Monster that catch my attending — Amundson was on Twitterasking for “ demon parents , ” and the photoflash fiction she ’s creating out of these idea is wholly bonkers , gory repulsion - comedy in which over - the - top creatures devour human victim in brutal yet hilarious ways . HerYouTube version of the stories(sometimes as her psychotic alter ego , the Murdercorn ) are no less horrific / delightful .
Here ’s an excerption from a late chronicle about apopcorn teras :
It was made of a billion single piece of popcorn densely pack together . Each opus had a pair of orangish eyes that burned with hatred . Sara had eaten a wad of Zea mays everta in her life , and the Zea mays everta want payback .
The monster hopped down off the retort , and its foundation made a crunch when they hit the floor .
The pieces make for mayhem in Sara ’s mouth suddenly soften , let go of her torn flesh and scurrying to fulfil their master . She spat out line of descent , swaying , struggling to realise what was happening . The popcorn in her brassiere used their tiny sleeve to tear escape holes in her dress and clambered down her body .
Here , Amundson report arainbow monsterassaulting a church bake sale :
Across the room , Pearl plucked up one of her shabu - deal brownie and crammed it into her rima oris , chewing thirstily . She smiled beatifically , blood dripping down her chin . “ Jush like Mom ushed to make ! ” Her murder tongue blur the words to glop .
The rainbow pumped out another glittery wafture of LSD . A frail old woman who ’d been selling monkey nut brittle as ancient as she was leach off her wearing apparel . She stretched her arm above her head and gyrated her wrinkled , stick - thin body as if she were hula - hooping . “ I ’m sound to win the contest ! ” she whoop . “ I ’m go to be the bunny queen , you cocksuckers , you just hold back and see ! ”
Other ledger entry in the Make a Monster serial let in aValentine ’s Day ogre , amonster that extrudes arms made of animate being , amonster that unravels knit , and onemade of razor blades .
Amundson explained Make a demon to me , as well as Dreamer and the struggles of an up - and - coming author dealing with the age - honest-to-goodness catch-22 that “ you need an audience to be successful , to be successful you need an audience . ”
io9 : Can you explain what Make a Monster is all about ? These are standalone newsbreak pieces , but the monstrosity ideas link in to another serial as well ?
Sara Amundson : Make a Monster ’s concept is pretty uncomplicated : masses request monsters . I drop a line news bulletin fabrication about their monster bolt down people . If I pick their monsters for a story , they get credit on my web site as Monster Parents . And if their monsters terminate up in a Dreamer Koran , they ’ll get Monster Parent credits in the novel ’s acknowledgement as well .
But Make a Monster ’s design is Brobdingnagian . It ’s directly tied into Dreamer , my urban fantasy trilogy , which is set in a human race dwell by monsters that are all unique in configuration . As an aspiring author , I have two important challenge in advance of me . 1 ) I have to fill three books with monsters that are all entirely different . 2 ) I require to build a followers for my authorship . Whether you traditionally issue or self - publish , a readership does n’t magically look the day your Good Book is expel . That ’s something you have to develop yourself , and it take time and a luck of piece of work .
Tell us more about the Dreamer trilogy .
Amundson : The Dreamer universe is a unsafe position , where terrible beings can appear at any sentence , channelize into the world of humans by magic gone haywire : jabberwocky . Shaped in dream , every jabberwocky is unlike , and every jabberwocky is lethal . Some are hideous . Some are absurd : monsters made of birthday patty , bloodthirsty booby - beasts , and evil rainbow .
The only thing that ’s bar the human race from becoming jabber - chow chow are Dreamers : specialised hunters with a psychical connecter to jabberwocky . Morgan Miserie is a Dreamer , just like her dad was . Working at the hunting firm he founded , she has enthusiastically hunted jabberwockies throughout the Pacific Northwest her entire adult living .
When Morgan embark on a mission to find the jabbering she blames for her Father-God ’s tragic death , that exuberance veers into dour obsession . on the Q.T. , she begin abusing a Dreamer drug to raise her powers . She vows she ’ll stop if her experimentation intervene with her job as a hunter . As the drug starts changing her body , her secret rise harder to conceal , and her hope hard to keep .
Yourvideo readingsof the Make a Monster piece are so fun , and I noticed you have all these little gestures and voices for unlike grapheme . Is all that there in your head when you write them , or does that just emerge when you do the readings ?
Amundson : I judge to write each Make a Monster story in the voice of its victim . Now that I ’ve started doing the Make a Monster videos , I ’ve been altogether surprised by the new dimension of voice that instinctively derive out when I take aloud . I did n’t know I had that in me !
I normally practice read them aloud a few time before making a video , but the voice and the rhythms and the gestures are all the right way there the very first time I study one . I am , apparently , mostly made of gammon .
What ’s a Murdercorn ? How did you become The Murdercorn ?
Amundson : I focus all of mysocial media try on Twitter — and have a buttload of fun doing it . The Murdercorn come in into macrocosm the same way several monster have : Twitter harlequinade .
I ’m well known for my passionate lovemaking of both unicorn and bloodshed . jest around on Twitter resulted in the heavy Halloween costume melodic theme ever : a unicorn that mutilate people . Once I started build the execution - y unicorn costume , it became clear that I ’d really just happen upon my true nature . It ’s no costume . I am The Motherfucking Murdercorn .
Horror
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