A Disturbance in the Wells

By Gregory Meyer
December 18, 2015

“Every human down in Humanville liked the Star Wars Universe a lot,
But the Greg, who lived north of Chicago, did not.”

As the world waits with baited breath for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I find myself in a strange situation. See, what I’m about to say will most likely ostracize me from both my fellow Children of the Wells writers, as well as geeks everywhere— I am not a Star Wars fan.

I see you picking up those rocks to stone me. Now, now, let’s not get carried away. Put them down and let me finish please. All of them. Yep, I still see that one you have hiding in your pocket. I’m waiting. Okay, now where was I? (more…)

Extravagance

by Nick Hayden
November 20, 2015

Nightdragon0NA0 / Pixabay

“If I were God, I never would have made procreation such a messy, intimate, emotional, painful affair. It’s crude and unclean and sometimes horribly unpleasant. I would never have made trees. I would have made lampposts. Goldfish, but not the sawfish, in my world; cats, but not the cougar; grass, but not the ivy. It is fortunate that I am not God. He enjoys the beastly disorder of forests and rivers and caves. […] And so we build hospitals and office building and laboratories to shield against the pain — and hide us from real joy.”

The above-quote is from a little known project that preceeded Children of the Wells by nearly a decade. It was called The Story Project and it was a collection of the fictional blogs from a varied and interesting group of fictional writers who lived together in a New England mansion. The above writer’s name was Vincent, and he lived in a meticulously spotless lab in isolation from others. He preferred to control his environment.

I’m no Vincent, but I feel the draw of ordering my life “just so.” I tend to want to use my time efficiently, to edit things repeatedly, to balance my checkbook accurately, to cross items off my checklist daily. And these things, indeed, are well and good.

But there is something that kills in these things, an instinct that grinds the edges off life and mechanizes it. God created the world in an orderly manner, but he did not create it as Henry Ford might. The universe might be compared to a cunning made watch, but it so often defies that easy description. There is a diversity, a wildness, a sense of surprise and head-scratching weirdness to the created world. You need not look far into space or deep into the ocean or long through the aisles of Wal-mart to see what a strange cacophony of men and animal and galactic bodies we’re surrounded by day-in, day-out.

We miss something, I think, by isolating ourselves in safe little havens of calendars and Netflix and Internet-relationships. We are safer, but we are not better. For a writer and reader, it is like this: if the stories I create and consume draw me into myself, I have perhaps failed to understand. If they draw me out, I have grown wiser and better.

It is nearly the holiday season. It is nearly time to celebrate with some sense of indulgence because to celebrate is to overdo–to cook more food than is necessary, to decorate a little too much, to thank God that he gives us not just nutrients, but taste, not just the potato, but the genius to mash them and drape them with gravy.

And soon we shall gaze upon the Nativity and see a baby who is actually God, the Creator disguised in flesh, a wild, inexplicable extravagance–astounding, inconceivable, but not so out of step with the God who thought we must have both the jellyfish and the giraffe.

There is a beastly disorder to loving others, to living in the world as it is, in seeing the God of the universe in all he has made. It is not safe, and I dare say I am not good at it myself, but this holiday, perhaps you and I can embrace a bit of that messiness and enjoy well this weird, wonderful world all the more.

A Shared Birthday

By Timothy Deal
November 11, 2015

Twenty years ago, something happened that forever changed my life: my baby sister was born on my birthday.

It was an astonishing event that had been foretold months before. My parents had announced that the new baby’s due date was around November 11. After the initial shock had faded, I was left with the deepening sense of fatalism that only an eleven-year-old boy who knows in his soul that he will likely forever have to share his birthday with another can experience. I dreaded that no longer would my special day be about me, but it would be about some smaller, cuter lifeform. As the eldest sibling, I had seen it happen before; the youngest kids got all the attention. I would have resolved to face the future with stoicism, if I knew what the word meant at the time.

We celebrated my twelfth birthday the night before, just in case. And sure enough, early in the morning on November 11, 1995, my dad woke me up to let me know he and Mom were heading toward the hospital. It was as I had foreseen. I confess I gave my mother a somewhat accusatory look before they left, as if to say, “I’m not angry with you, Mom. Just disappointed.”

After the the birth of three previous baby sisters, it was beginning to feel routine to be brought over to Grandma’s house while Mom and Dad were at the hospital. When Dad called to say Mom and newborn baby Danielle were safe and healthy, of course we were all happy, but then my conversation with Dad went something like this:

“So…another girl, huh, Dad?”

“Yeah…another sister.”

“….”

“….Yep. Sorry, looks like we’re still gonna be the only men in the family.”

“Well…that’s life.”

Okay, so I don’t know if that’s really what I said, but that was kinda my attitude at the time. It wasn’t entirely the best, but from a twelve-year-old’s perspective it’s hopefully understandable.

What I didn’t realize at the time was just how much fun it would turn out to be having a baby sister as a teenager. Little Danielle quickly stole my heart with her chubby cheeks, shiny hair, huge smile, and imaginative personality. In her preschool/kindergarten ages she delighted in grabbing onto my legs, climbing all around me while I was lying on the couch, and generally treating me as one of her most beloved toys that she could pose and ride on. (One of her strangest ideas during this period were her attempts to make me “relax,” which apparently involved looking disinterested in the world while holding specific poses.)

As Danielle grew, she continued to delight and surprise all of my family with her boundless creativity which found expression in drawings, costumes, stories, unusual pet chicken names, hieroglyphs made of crushed dandelions, oral histories of imaginary worlds, ceremonies to mark new seasons, sketchings, rubbings, paintings, designs, calligraphy, photography, and probably a lot more that I’ve forgotten. As a creative nerd, I love being able to share my interests with all my sisters, but I’ve had some of my deepest conversations about creativity and favorite stories with Danielle. She has continued to inspire creativity in me during times when I felt creatively dry. And I hope to reciprocate that inspiration as much as possible.

And instead of being a burden, sharing my birthday with my baby sister has turned out to be a huge blessing. As a friend of the family correctly predicted, I wound up getting more attention (and more presents) during my teenage and young adult birthdays because I shared them with my kid sister. While she was still small enough, it was a fun tradition to have Danielle sit on my lap while we blew out our candles, and we still get a kick out of anticipating our special day day or calling/texting/telling each other Happy Birthday when it arrives.

12239688_895688946803_5262903489939655094_n So with all of that said, Happy Birthday, Danielle! Thanks for being the best birthday present I’ve ever been given.

Halloween: A Scary Good Time

By Nathan Marchand
October 30, 2015

Me as Captain America blocking an attack from Catwoman at a Halloween dance party last week.

I love Halloween.

There are some Christians who might stone me—proverbially speaking, of course—for saying that. Many believers won’t have anything to do with the holiday because they can’t get past its occult origins. I can understand that…and yet I can’t. See, if you dig into the history of any major holiday, you’ll discover that it had unsavory beginnings until the Church “Christianized” it. Even Christmas and Easter, which Christians love.

But I digress. (more…)

The Great Unpacking

By Nick Hayden
October 22, 2015

geralt / Pixabay

About two weeks ago, I moved for the first time in 12 years. With two small kids and another on the way, we had plenty of boxes filled to the brim. The heaviest of these were filled with books. Lots of books. My wife has numerous Advanced Reading Copies of YA novels, and I have a good selection of fantasy tomes, Russian novels, and sundry classics. So, after the kitchen was in working order and our beds were reassembled, the next question was “Where do we put the bookcases?”

In a perfect world, we’d have more bookcases than we do. I mean, we only have seven at the moment, only one of those dedicated to DVDs and photo albums, and one half bookcase that will probably be used for knick-knacks. Seriously, who can get by with only seven bookcases? (more…)

How Bad Movies Changed My Life

By Gregory Meyer
October 9, 2015

This past weekend I had the pleasure of joining my fellow Children of the Wells collaborators in person for our monthly meeting. I don’t live in Indiana, which is where the rest of the members live, so it’s a bit of a drive to reach them. I made it to one meeting last year, and wanted to do it again, so I took the day off from work Friday and made the trip all on my own.

I had a blast hanging out with everyone and chatting about CotW and life. There’s just something about hanging out in a room with other writers that I find invigorating. Most of my friends aren’t writers, so I don’t get to talk about the creative process often with others who can relate. Tim, Nick, Natasha, and Nathan are great people, and I am so thankful that I’m under their guidance for writing my first novel. I can’t thank them enough for all the encouragement and input they’ve given me and my story.

Figure 1 from www.mst3k.wikia.com

Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to take any pictures of the meet-up, nor the Apple Festival I went to the next day with Tim. But it got me thinking today about how lucky I am to have such great friends that I’ve only met in person twice, other than Tim. How did I get to writing a story in a shared universe with people I didn’t know ten years ago? I started thinking about the DNA of friendship,= and how little things in life can lead to these powerful relationships. So how did I end up writing for Children of the Wells? After some thought, I found the answer: Mystery Science Theater 3000.

So if you will indulge me, let me explain to you how MST3K changed my life and brought me here.

Years ago when I was in middle school, I was flipping through the channels, and saw a strange movie with kids playing hide-and-go-seek in the woods. What stuck out to me was at the bottom of the screen there were the outlines of some guy, a gumball machine, and some weird thing with a net on its head making funny comments at the movie. I watched a bit and found it hilarious, until some scary melting monster appeared and I quickly changed the channel. That was the movie The Incredible Melting Man, my very first experience with Mystery Science Theater 3000, though I didn’t know what it was called at the time.

A few years later, I would pass the Sci-Fi Channel and catch the last fourth of an MST3K episode. I still didn’t know the name of the show, but I became exposed to movies like The Final Sacrifice, Invasion of the Neptune Men, Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders, and Devil Doll. I’d watch what I could and found the show hysterical, but I had yet to become a full-fledged fan.

Fast forward to my sophomore year at college. My roommate Marcus was unpacking his things, when he showed me all the DVDs he brought for us to watch. My eyes widened in recognition at one sitting near the top: Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie. I grabbed that movie like Link finding a new item in The Legend of Zelda, turned to Marcus, and said, “I know this show; we need to watch it.” So shortly after, he and I sat down and I watched my first MST3K episode.

From that moment on, I became a hardcore MST3K fan, and it’s impacted my life ever since. With my eyes opened for the first time, I grabbed my friends and made them watch the movie with me. In turn, my college friends too were sucked into MST3K, and to this day, we will watch an episode together when we meet up in person. Over the next few years, I picked up box set after box set, ordering digitally converted episodes to DVD from dealers online. From about 2003-2007, I was obsessed with the show, and my college friends happily came along for the ride. When friends got married, we’d watch an episode at our bachelor parties. It became one of the foundations of our friendships, besides our faith and our love for video games.

After college, my wife (who also became a fan) and I went away to Virginia Beach so we could pursue our Masters. I struggled in making friendships, and I think part of it was that the other people I’d meet didn’t enjoy the show like I did. It’s strange, film school students actually like watching good films, who knew? Most people I showed an episode to would smile and nod, but that was about it.

Then one day, during my first semester meet-and-greet with other new Regent film students, I met a shaggy haired guy from Indiana named Tim. We talked for a bit, and he struck me as a person I wouldn’t mind hanging out with. But while showing an episode of MST3K to a mutual friend, Tim gave him a call, discovered we were watching MST3K, and exclaimed that he, too, was a huge fan of the show. Well, that changed everything; and when we met up for class the following Monday, we had a long discussion about the show, and I invited him over to watch an episode. From that moment on, we became friends, and while we ended up having a ton of common interests, I thank MST3K as being the icebreaker to open our friendship.

I ended up moving back to Illinois during the next semester, but I stayed in contact with Tim through Facebook, as well as through his podcast with Nick. Eventually, when Children of the Wells was looking to add more writers to the series, Tim graciously invited me to join the team, despite having never written a novel before. Once I finished my masters, I accepted the offer, and here I am, writing this blog while editing my first novel.

It’s funny how little things in life can create long lasting friendships. I mean, MST3K is a show about making fun of bad movies, how important can it be? Yet because of it, it’s opened a door for me in my writing career that has been an invaluable experience. I have a solid group of writing friends now, all because I flipped through some channels on TV one boring afternoon.

Figure 2 from www.mst3k.wikia.com

Keep circulating the tapes!

Personal Reflections on a Year of Change

By Natasha Hayden
October 2, 2015

It is barely October (my favorite month!), but for many reasons, I have been looking back over this year and the challenges and changes my family has gone through.

In January, our contentment and happiness was rocked by a sledding accident that put my three-year-old daughter in the hospital with potential brain damage. I was deeply shaken, wondering if the rest of our lives would be different. But the bleed into her brain dissipated with no obvious lasting physical effects. The emotional trauma lingered a little longer and will, perhaps, stay with her father and me for a long time to come.

In May, after a year of wondering and waiting, I found that I was pregnant with our third child. It wasn’t an easy decision to make to have a third. We already had a boy and a girl. Our small two-room house fit us, and we were getting close to paying it off. I wavered back and forth about whether or not I wanted a baby. Ultimately, it wasn’t up to us. We struggled to get pregnant with our first child, and this time, we had some trouble again. We left it in God’s hands, and he decided it for us…about a year after we thought we were ready.

The Hayden Family

In August, we became more serious about looking into new houses, and in the space of one very interesting week, we found a house, got our initial paperwork in order with the bank, made an offer, and began the process of closing. That process is nearing completion now, about a month later, and soon, we will be moving from our home of 12 years, a thought that brings both excitement and melancholy.

Last week, I watched my cat Chewbacca, who’s lived with me nearly as long as my husband, fight his last days of a disease I didn’t even know he had and be euthanized before my eyes, his little body stilling under my hand.

I laugh (and cry a little) to think that I had hoped for a less eventful year at the close of 2014. This one’s not even over yet, and ahead, I know there are expected joys and unexpected losses, blessing and pain all mingled together so that sometimes it is hard to tell one from the other. Such is life. We can prepare all we want, but only God knows what’s in store for us.

This is illustrated so well in even that first moment we draw breath into our lungs. No matter how much a mother prepares for the birth of her child, when labor hits, she has to go with the flow. I wanted to try a natural birth with my oldest, but I had gestational diabetes and had to be induced and ended up with an epidural, thank God, and that’s just how it goes.

As I’ve shared before, two of my pregnancies ended in miscarriage, and a little bit of that fear that my children’s lives are out of my control has remained with me ever since. I can no more protect my children now than I could at their conception and birth, as I was so strongly reminded in January and again, a few weeks ago, when my five-year-old son ran a kid-size motorcycle into a tree, five feet away from a lake. He walked away, but part of my heart still beats on the ground where I stood. We plan and plan and live in frustration when control inevitably slips from our hands.

On these contemplations, I venture into the last quarter of the year, preparing as best I can for a future that is, really, out of my control. But one thing I know for certain: God has brought me through so much and will bring me through the rest, little scrapes and lifelong changes all. I can trust in his control. I might rather remain in comfort and security, going at a slower pace than the rest, but contentment is found in letting go amidst the chaos and knowing he will catch me wherever I fall.

Read 200 Pages and See Me In The Morning

By Nick Hayden
September 18, 2015

The cure for what ails you.

stevepb Pixabay

Beware, I am now going to write on something I only know a bit about–bibliotherapy. What is it? It’s prescribing specially chosen books to help you deal with what ails you, whether that be anxiety or depression or fear of death. There’s even a neat book to help you find the “medicine” you need.

Now, I haven’t had the opportunity to peruse the book linked above or do any deep study on bibliotherapy, but I find it fascinating that such a thing even exists. The fact that studies show reading fiction improves empathy, social understanding, and happiness are not surprising to any book lover. What’s surprising is that such a thing as a book lover exists. (more…)

My Overdue Gen-Con 2015 Report

by Nathan Marchand
September 11, 2015

It’s been over a month since I attended Gen-Con 2015, yet I haven’t written about it until now. Writing is a busy life.

Regardless, I attended Gen-Con and sold books in its Authors’ Avenue for the fourth year in a row. For those who don’t know, Gen-Con is a long-running gaming convention that takes place in Indianapolis, Indiana. It has a strong writer/literary presence, hence why it has a Writer’s Symposium and the Authors’ Avenue, where independent authors can sell their books.

Coming up with a new blog for Gen-Con when I wrote a four-part series on it for my own website will be a challenge. If you want the full details, check out my website. With this blog I will focus more on Children of the Wells and give a few noteworthy highlights. (more…)

After the Cataclysm took our magic,
how do we rebuild?