Fictional Journeys

by Paula Gail Benson

I’m a great admirer of Charlaine Harris, Toni L.P. Kelner, and Dana Cameron, who all have seamlessly shifted between traditional mysteries and paranormal mysteries (as well as novels and short stories for each genre). I find it fascinating to delve into the worlds of creatures who coexist with humans, yet have their own infrastructure.

Maybe dipping back into mythology earlier this summer with Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles and Circe was a good precursor for some paranormal reading. Also, I have to admit being intrigued when a work colleague read a recent short story I’d written and said it reminded her of Mur Lafferty’s The Shambling Guide to New York City (2013). My colleague was kind to share her copy and I found myself immersed in a familiar, yet very unique Big Apple.

Looking at the cover of the Shambling Guide gives you a flavor of what you’ll be encountering. It shows a young woman walking along a city street and passing by a man with a tail, a monster perched on the hood of a cab, and a skyscraper with a dragon at the uppermost tower. The book’s structure intersperses segments from a city guidebook with episodes in the young woman’s life.

Mur Lafferty

Mur Lafferty’s protagonist, Zoe, shares some of the author’s own background. Mur, from Durham, NC, is both a podcaster (I Should Be Writing) and award winning and nominated science fiction writer. Zoe has left a great job in a Raleigh, NC, travel publishing company (after a horrendous affair with her boss) and is trying to re-establish herself in NYC. When Zoe sees a description of an editorial position that seems tailor-made for her, she wonders why the people involved with the company encourage her not to apply. Stubbornly, she submits a proposal and is given the opportunity, which means she’ll be writing a guidebook to New York aimed at “coterie,” or vampires, zombies, dragons, sprites, fairies, death goddesses, succubi and incubi, and similar creatures. The primary reason Zoe has been warned against applying for the position is that the office is staffed with vampires, zombies, and an incubus, who consider her food. Also, the new CR (Coterie Resources) employee is a “construct” (golem or created monster, like the one in Frankenstein) who has the head of one of Zoe’s ex-boyfriends.

Zoe’s story begins as adventure, very much like Alice slipping down the rabbit hole, but it quickly becomes a thriller where Zoe, with her blunt approach to all things coterie, has to save the city itself from a rogue “zoetist” (a person who gives life to inanimate objects, like Dr. Frankenstein). In explaining zoetists and their constructs, Mur brings many different folklore traditions to the narrative, meshing them together in a manner that is both believable and informative.

At first, I wondered if the excerpts from the guidebook would be distracting from Zoe’s story. Instead, I found they enhanced and broadened it, introducing background in a manner that did not intrude upon and sometimes foreshadowed the action. Reading the Amazon reader comments, I noticed one person expressed a desire for the entire guidebook. Another commenter suggested that Mur’s book was about tolerance. I agree. The characters in the book all had many fundamental differences, but found ways to work together for the greater good.

I have to admit I've ordered the second book in the series, Ghost Train to New Orleans (2014), maybe as much from hearing about Shari Randall’s journey there as well as anticipating what Zoe and her staff will encounter as they write a supernatural tour guide for the Big Easy. The vicarious travel to both the cities and the paranormal world makes for some delightful vacation reading.

What fictional trips have you taken lately?

The Dark Knight's Terror Trail

Scott Stepp at church in family vehicle

My friends drive a hearse to church and they don’t operate a funeral business.

They do own a  facility called The Castle (which features an entertainment center and is available to rent for parties and receptions); however, this time of year is particularly busy for them.

Sign for The Castle

 

From the beginning of October through the first of November, they invite guests to tour any or all of the three haunted attractions that make up The Dark Knight’s Terror Trail.

I spoke briefly with Elizabeth Stepp, extremely talented actress/dancer/teacher/and occasional zombie daughter of Scott and Lori Stepp, the proprietors of The Castle and The Dark Knight’s Terror Trail about how their annual ritual began.

Lori, Scott, and Elizabeth Stepp at the St. Patrick's Day Parade

Elizabeth said it was a venture between her grandfather Larry Oates, her uncle Mitch Oates, and father Scott Stepp to offer Columbia, SC, a young adult/adult (they advise if you wouldn’t take your child to an R rated movie, don’t bring your child to this event) different, interactive Halloween experience.

Now in its eighth non-consecutive year, The Dark Knight’s Terror Trail began in 1999 as an outdoor terror trail. At that time, they used Karo Syrup and food coloring to create blood, but it was sticky and attracted ants. Currently, they rely on fake blood or paint, which is spattered on the actors, props, and settings prior to the tour and not upon the customers.

Due to family illness, the Terror Trail was not held from 2006 to 2011, but it reopened in 2012 in a vacant indoor mall store and added the Zombie Zone quest. In its present location at The Castle, it gives visitors the opportunity to experience an outdoor trail, a traditional indoor haunted house, and an expanded Zombie Zone, which is both indoor and outdoor. You may buy a ticket to one or all three, and you don’t have to go through them all on the same day.

Each attraction provides a guided tour with at least one and sometimes two guides. While the experience is aimed to scare its visitors, the tours have no nudity, no Satan worship, and only mild curse words, if any. Mitch Oates, who handles promotions and safety, makes sure each group is accompanied by a security person.

Organizing and planning the attractions is a family affair beginning with the prep work by Andrew Stepp, brother of Elizabeth and son of Lori and Scott, who studied Media Arts at the University of South Carolina and now works in the film industry in Los Angeles, California. Along with friend Jeff Driggers, a writer and director at Palmetto Pictures, a motion picture studio in Columbia, Andrew writes an outline of the background stories for the attractions and prepares short movies that lead the visitors into the tour and get them ready for what they may expect.

Scott greeting guests at The Castle

Elizabeth and Scott with friend

Scott Stepp, a gifted actor and singer who is well known to Columbia theatre audiences, often playing the villain, but sometimes the romantic lead (including Bill Sikes in Oliver, Judd Fry in Oklahoma, Beau in Mame, Oscar in The Odd Couple, Dr. Scott in The Rocky Horror Show, Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun, and Shrek in Shrek, the Musical) along with daughter Elizabeth is one of the tour guides and directors.

(Scott also generously gives his time every other year to play Judas in the St. Paul’s Players’ The Living Last Supper at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, my home congregation. We tease that we had to ask a Baptist to play the role because we couldn’t find a Lutheran to take it.)

Lori and Scott Stepp

Lori Stepp, wife and mother, participates in the attractions and in addition serves as costumer. She’s well qualified since she fills that capacity expertly for the productions at Town Theatre in Columbia, one of the oldest community theatres in the country, which has been operating continuously since 1919. While visitors to the Terror Trail are waiting to see the attractions, Joan Oates, Lori’s  mother, tells them ghost stories.

Family and Volunteers

The Stepps and Oates mobilize sixty plus volunteer actors, backstage assistants, and security persons to create the attractions. While the basics are scripted, the actors also have flexibility to improvise, which makes the performances different each night with each group. People looking to raise money for a local group can earn money by acting as Zombies in the Zombie Zone.

So, if you’re in Columbia, SC, this October, stop by The Castle for a heart-racing treat, with a few tricks on the side. Remember: the family that slays together, stays together. [Thanks to Lori Stepp for the wonderful photos!]

 

Elizabeth, Scott, and Lori Stepp

What’s on your schedule for Halloween?

Zombie Writing

Zombies are everywhere!

On a recent walk I spotted this bumper sticker. (Who knew a candidate with an anti-zombie platform ran for president in 2012?)

Last year I watched “Zombie Apocalypse” on The Discovery Channel. Shockingly, some scientists are studying if humans can turn into zombies. Also, there are “zombie preppers” who believe humans can turn and are ready for the inevitable in their underground bunkers. (I had no idea the undead were such a problem.)

However, excessive fear of the undead can lead to hazardous situations. In May, a man stole a big-rig in Temecula, CA causing several accidents which injured a number of people. The rig then flipped over on a freeway, blocking traffic for miles. When caught, the man said he was running from zombies.

Zombies are alive and well in books too. This summer, #2 on the Washington Post Bestseller was World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. It ranked above a Brad Thor book and was only surpassed by the classic, The Great Gatsby.

Carolyn Book Chick City, a book review site of urban fantasy and romance, declared a new genre called, Zombie-Apocalyptic Romance.

Jumping on the zombie craze, my county library held a talk by Isaac Marion, author of a teen zombie romance. They also taught kids how to make zombie pillows, apply special effect makeup to look like a zombie, and fed them pizza.

Surprisingly, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uses zombie-mania as a promotional opportunity to encourage a new audience to visit their website and learn about disaster preparedness. They released a couple of tongue-in-cheek "zombie warnings," which are really disaster-preparedness stunts .

Then there are the practical jokers...  In February, the emergency alert system at a Great Falls, Montana TV station was hacked, interrupting a broadcast of the Steve Wilkos talk show. A message broke in announcing that "dead bodies are rising from their graves" and residents should seek shelter. It’s unknown how many people believed the message and took action.

But what is the definition of a zombie?

After hours of mindless research to answer this crucial question, I learned that a zombie is an undead person incapable of fatigue who will persist at any cost; a rote automaton powered by a supernatural force.

Not to be left out of a trend, I decided that October was the perfect month to embrace zombie writing.

What’s zombie writing you ask?

Well, it’s a term I made up, but for me it means I pledge to give up distractions such as over-researching and reading for pleasure in order to concentrate on my writing. Like the indefatigable zombie powered by an otherworldly force, I will persist at any cost. I’ll keep writing and finish those stories that are languishing on my computer.

Perhaps I may even turn into a zombie.