***COLD OPEN***
Before I begin with the body of this blog entry, I want to
announce that my current creative project will be editing the shit out of
Beautiful Monster and turning it into a clean-cut second draft. I’ve edited the
first three chapters so far and really all I needed to do was cut out
unnecessary phrases and make Tarja Rikkinen a little less flirty. Once
Beautiful Monster officially becomes a second draft, I’m going to take it over
to Hollow Hills Publishing for further editing and beta-reading. Hollow Hills
is Ashley Uzzell/Marie Krepps’s new business and I plan on being her loudest
and proudest customer. Any price I pay for her services will be well worth it.
And now onto the main attraction…
***DOUBLE FEATURES***
You know how some movies are really just two short movies
fused together? Grind House and Attack of the Five-Foot-Two Women are both
shining examples of this. And that got me thinking: could the double feature be
pulled off with books too? I’d like to think so. Then again, I’m biased because
I tried to do the same thing back in 2014. When I first published Occupy
Wrestling, it was originally intended to be part of a double feature that also
included Filter Feeder (the most dreadful first draft I have). That overall
book was called Brawl-Mart, which is why one of the covers on Good Reads has
that title and not Occupy Wrestling exclusively. I have since cut Filter Feeder
like the cancer it is and now Occupy Wrestling is just a little bit shy of
one-hundred pages. It’s so tiny of a book that the title doesn’t fit on the
spine. So tiny. So, so tiny. And now I feel as though I’ve stumbled upon a
Viagra commercial.
In some ways, I believe a double feature book can be
beneficial if pulled off correctly. For starters, it would make the book
thicker and therefore more marketable. I hate to admit it sometimes, but books
with small page counts aren’t nearly as marketable as those with larger page
counts. Someday you’ll get your time to shine, Occupy Wrestling. Someday. But
of course, in order for a double feature to work, both novellas have to be of
similar genres. The same thing applies with short story collections, which is
why American Darkness (contemporary drama) and Poison Tongue Tales
(science-fiction, fantasy, and horror) don’t coincide with each other. That’s
how you have to think of a double feature: a collection of short stories even
though there are only two of them. They may intertwine, they may not, your
choice.
As far as my current crop of first draft novels goes, I can
picture some of them being placed in the same volume while others are
questionable. Watch You Burn (psychological college fantasy) and Demon Axe
(heavy metal fantasy) could easily fit together since they’re both urban
fantasies with mental illness as their major themes. Silent Warrior is a little
tricky since it’s the only first draft I have that conforms to the modern day
drama genre. That just leaves Beautiful Monster and Filter Feeder with nowhere
to go. One is an alternative history fantasy while the other is urban fantasy.
Maybe I’m not fitting all of these puzzle pieces together adequately enough.
Maybe I need to write more first draft novels of similar genres in order for a
double feature to work.
But don’t take my word as gospel, because I’m by no means an
expert on double feature books. I’m just giving my thoughts based on a failed
experiment involving Occupy Wrestling and Filter Feeder, the latter of which
hasn’t seen the light of day beyond Deviant Art. I’m sure there are wiser
authors than me when it comes to the subject, one of them once again being
Ashley Uzzell. She co-authored a double feature book called “Reaching For the
Light”, a duo of stories dealing with the topic of mental illness. I ended up
giving the book five out of five stars (extra credit grade), so she and her
co-author must have done something right. I know there are others out there who
feel the same way about that awesome book, judging from its current star rating
on Amazon and Good Reads. I know this sounds like a plug, probably because it
is. And while I’m in advertising mode, a portion of the proceeds from book
sales will go to mental health charities, so that pretty much solidifies the
message of both stories.
Does anybody out there have experience with reading double
feature stories? If so, what are your favorites? I’d like to think graphic
novel omnibuses count, because they’re just an overall collection of issues
from one comic book series. But what about regular print novels? Am I missing
something that I’m not aware of? Let me know in the comments section what your
thoughts of double feature novels are. I’m Garrison Kelly! Even when you feel
like dying, keep climbing the mountain!
***JOKE OF THE DAY***
Q: What do you call a depressed Rage Against the Machine
fan?
A: Pro-Zach.
