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Cover for "Condition Black" and some notes on it |
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This is the cover for my story Condition Black. If you're interested in reading it, you can find it in my port or click on the image, and should you read it I would much appreciate an honest review on how I can improve. Thanks in advance. The artist is Serg.S http://deadlinestudios.com/ The meaning of Condition Black- Condition Black is the state which your heart rate reaches 175 beats per minute due to psychological factors, and strange things begin to happen to your body then. Your mind will get taken over by a primal fight-or-flight survival instinct and your ability to think straight deteriorates. Your blood vessels constricts and you'll lose the following: peripheral vision, depth perception, near vision, hearing. And you will have the ability to do things that a normal human body is not capable of doing. Military and law enforcement personnel train to avoid getting into the state of Condition Black for these reasons. I wrote this story to be a horror novella, although it can be considered mixed genre. I chose Condition Black as the title for this story due to a certain irony it contains. It may be hard to pick up by most readers (many other things in the story are subtle and not likely noticable unless you think on it). Without giving much of the story away, there is a certain character who isn't dead or undead, but neither is he fully alive. His state of Condition Black is much different in that sense, and throughout the story he fights a losing battle to avoid succumbing to that state and become completely submissive to the dark entity that has infected him. The term "Condition Black" is also used as a color code of mental awareness by the military, as well as law enforcement organizations. It means that you are actively engaged in combat. A note about the Stargate Project- While not a conspiracy theorist myself, I find the matter of the US psychic spy program particularly interesting. It loosely serves as the backbone of my story's plot. If you're interested, you can read more about it here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project The vampire mythology- Not all vampires in legends are hematophageous (blood drinkers). There are many, many forms of vampires out there. There are essential vampires (preys on life force/spirit), psychic vampires, sexual vampires, nosferatu (plague carriers), flesh-eaters, etc. What they all have in common is having to feed on something. Many books out there go into it in detail. In Condition Black, there is only one example of the "classical" vampire (my version of, at least). I tried to include an example from each of the larger vampire group types as well and merge them all in the same story. I have tried to stay true to the more original of legends as much as I could. Here's an example- In some of the mainstream media (Blade among others. Maybe Buffy, too), it is said that silver can harm vampires. The origins of this legend actually comes from an iron meteor that crashed into Earth long ago, and people believed its contents had supernatural powers. This being said, I depicted iron blades (and not silver) to slay vampires in this story. Among other weaponry. Inspiration- One of my more favorite hobbies aside from writing is playing video games. One that I loved was First Encounter Assault Recon (or FEAR). It is a horror/action shooter about a psychic soldier fighting paranormal entities and ghosts with constant flashbacks of his dead mother haunting him. Though this story isn't fan fiction, if you have played that great game you would see some similarities in the theme. If you haven't played it, well then, I dare you to play it at night with the lights off. lol. Dedication- "Between the worlds of the living and the dead there is a place you're not supposed to stay" (from the 2005 movie "Stay" which was quite sub-par IMHO, but that is still a sweet quote). This story is dedicated to all us living. Live your life to its fullest until the end and never live in-between life and death. Even when it seems hard, keep in mind that we only live life once. Make something of it. And remember, it's never too late. And also to all my friends in the Marines battling their own demons. Stay motivated, get home safe. Last words- I've tried to include a lot of double meaning in parts of the story and the story as a whole. Though as I mentioned, they are subtle and requires some thought and speculation on behalf of the reader. I mainly tried to hint at the direction of it rather than spell it out totally to the reader. The plot was complicated and not that easy to plan the best way to write it out. Like a mystery, it will seem confusing at first. Try and keep the details in mind, even the small ones. I wanted to encourage reader speculation on discovering why something in the story went the way it did. Sometimes can be more than one possiblity. Can be different to different readers, since no two readers will think exactly alike. Hence it is my hopes that the story will be different to each reader in that sense, conforming rather than rigid. With that said, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I take constructive criticism well and would be happy with any suggestions on how I can improve. Thanks. |
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