Sunday, September 16, 2012

About: Beneath the Skin


"Beneath the Skin" is a story I wrote in the spring of 2011, during a break in between other writing projects. It's one of those stories that just demanded to be written. Those are the best. It was an easy write and then I put it out of my mind. I wasn't particularly saving it for something, I just knew its time would come. And it did. One year later, when I ran by chance into the Evolve Publishing contest, I remembered about it and sent it in full confidence. The subject just fit.

So the subject… I don't remember how I came up with the chameleon idea. I found it intriguing and in the same time scary. Not the idea of being him, but to be with someone like him. It freaked me out. And like with most things that frighten you, you have to fight your fears. Once I started writing it, I needed a name for the character. I often don't name my female characters when I write in the first person, so I didn't bother with her. Him though, he needed a name, a good one. It didn't take long to find it, suddenly I knew what his name was.

While growing up, I had piles of vinyl disks with recorded radio plays. I listened to them so often I knew them by heart. Most of them were children stories, fairy tales, but there were also theater plays and abridged novels, basically whatever hit the stores at the time. The one story that scared me and my cousin the most was The Invisible Man. First, the story had been made to sound more horror-like than the novel ever was. Imagine my surprise and disappointment when I read the book later on and found it so different from the disc, not as the plot was concerned but as atmosphere. The cover art was even worse, being made of small images that formed a bandaged head wearing dark sunglasses. I hated that cover, I couldn't stand having it on top of the pile with the face up.

Calling the character Griffin seemed to fit. So I guess my Griffin is sort of a homage to H. G. Wells. Don't worry, my story is not scary. Griffin is a good guy. And like the anthology's title says, he evolves. They both do in some ways. You'll have to read the story to see how.

"Beneath the Skin" is included in Evolution Vol. 2 from Evolved Publishing, available on Amazon, Smashwords and BookieJar.

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