Inside "Tough Love"

If you haven’t read my short story, Tough Love, then you may want to read it on Amanda Hocking’s blog before you go any further.

You can read it here.

I was beyond psyched when Amanda asked me to do a guest post on her blog. At first, I didn’t know what to write about. I knew I wanted to write a horror story of some sort, but didn’t know exactly what. I thought about it for a few days and then an idea hit, so I just went with it.

I wanted to write a different type of a zombie story. I thought it’d be fun to write about a despicable character, somebody whom the readers would really hate, and have him get his just deserts at the very end. One of the rare times where you’re actually cheering for the zombies to dismember a person. It was also a way to kind of mix my slice-of-life writing with an element of horror. Oddly enough, for me the real horror is the first half when you meet the abusive boyfriend. (Fact: The inspiration for Earl came from the movie SLING BLADE; Doyle. That’s who I pictured as I was writing)

Even though I was creating a really horrible character, I knew I still had to make him seem realistic enough. I couldn’t make him a parody or a cartoon. The scary fact is that there are people out there with a thought process like Earl’s, and that truly is the real horror of the actual story. He might’ve felt a bit of regret for what he did, but in the end he saw himself as being in the right. I knew that’s how I had to write him, to paint him in a realistic light.

I’m not good with straight-out horror. Even my drabbles mix horror with really dark humor. Because of that, it was fun to mix in some things that I’ve learned from writing some of the short stories that I’ve done in the past. It really does begin as an ordinary story could be found in a short story collection like IN DECLINE, and then ends with a bit of a twist.

Thanks to those who read the story!