AG: How did the stories for Hell's Bells come to be written?
Jake:
When I quit a promising career in March of 2017 and decided
to be a full-time writer, two story ideas came to me and they stuck.
One afternoon while I was playing my guitar and
contemplating my decision, the top E-string detuned by a couple of whole notes,
which is quite unusual. I was reminded of the first time I ever tuned a guitar
and moved much too fast while the strings were cold: the string snapped and
smacked me across the face, right underneath my eye. The fear of that happening
again got my mind churning and I thought – What if the instrument were to
strangle me somehow? And so the idea for "The Bow of Murmured Voices"
was born.
After I wrote the story I realized that my preferred
instrument, the guitar, didn't fit. As an ex-audio engineer, I remembered past
assignments I did on the construction and acoustical properties of musical
instruments and how best to record them in studio, and I specifically
remembered that the body of a violin is also called the corpus, which
translates as corpse or body. That was when a final idea struck me: what if
this violin not only murdered anyone who played it, but trapped their souls
inside it?
The second idea came to me when financial woes almost forced me to become a street musician. Growing up as an aspiring musician and rhythm
guitarist in a thrash and death metal band, the topic of musicians selling
their souls to the devil was a major influence for my story "Those That
Stay." But I needed a different, or original, take on it. So the story
began first as a street musician who stole the souls of anyone generous enough
to give him money.
Soon after finishing the original draft, and also at the
time when the Hell's Bells invitation to submit came, I realized that the story
bordered on humor instead of horror. That's when an idea struck me: what if a
street musician thought he was doing good deeds by healing the sick and
claiming their loved one's souls as the price without them knowing it? And so
"Those That Stay" was born.
People often ask me, "Why do you write?" The
answer isn't what I think they hope to hear. All I can say is that I simply
have to. I don't have a choice in the matter, and besides, I don't want to do
anything else with my life ever again. Publication in Hell's Bells was one of
the major highlights of 2017 and has further fed this mysterious urge to pen
words. As for 2018, I am hoping to get published more and paid enough to
survive, but I will also begin my journey and life-long dream to become an
editor.
Bio
Jake TS Wryte is a full-time writer from the Darklands of
Africa where the creatures of his imagination have a bounty on his head. You
can find his micro-fiction pieces at 101 Words and his article on flash fiction
writing and online courses at christopherfielden.com. When not reading or
writing, Jake can be found hiking remote areas and wishing he hadn't gone there
in the first place, or avoiding assault by his rescue macaw. You can reach him
on Twitter @jakemetalsnake and Facebook as Jake TS Wryte.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete