You Always Hurt the Ones You Love
Fiction writer ScrewTheDaisies puts her favorite rock band through the wringer in her horror stories.
Asheville, NC (PRWEB) July 12, 2006 -- Hurting the ones you love seems to be the brutal truth when it comes to the work of fiction writer ScrewTheDaisies, author of gut-wrenching horror stories starring members of one of her favorite rock bands, Metallica.
“The novella ...AND DEATH FOR ALL takes place in Romania in the 90s, while the band is on tour,” says Daisies. Vampires, however, are not the unexpected problem the band faces during the stopover. Nor is ...AND DEATH FOR ALL the only time she puts the thumbscrews to the band.
“The first story in THREE (a collection of three tales) was originally written for a crucifixion challenge, so...yeah. Sorry, Kirk. The second story in that book was also written for a challenge—sorry, Kirk. Again. And then ‘Texas Roadkill’ just unfolded on its own.”
When asked what the attraction was of writing rock idols into--and out of--harrowing and sometimes devastating situations, Daisies explains, “You’re taking someone you care about and putting them, vicariously, through the ringer, and--you know, it probably comes down to the same reason I read accounts of people facing and surviving (or not) great challenges, like Jon Krakauer’s INTO THIN AIR. I’m fascinated by how people respond when the absolute worst is thrown at them. So throwing ‘the worst’ at fictional versions of the Metallica guys is a way to explore how people that I maybe idolize might handle these...well, really ‘out there’ situations.”
The situations aren’t the only ‘out there’ thing about these stories. In addition to the elements of horror, they share something else in common: they’re what’s known as ‘slash’ fiction. According to urbandictionary.com, slash is a “genre of fanfiction involving pairing two male or female characters together.” For many male fans of Metallica, finding guitarist Kirk Hammett exchanging flirtatious glances with a couple guys in a bar on page one of ...AND DEATH FOR ALL may be more horrifying than the predicament that the band members face as the story goes along, but for some female fans, ‘slashing’ band members is an offshoot of their fascination with the band.
“Guys just seem less inclined to develop an interest beyond the music, and we women...I don’t know, maybe it starts when we’re lying there listening to the music, staring at the posters on our walls, and our minds wander.... Some of us find ourselves making up stories,” Lackey says. “In my experience, most guys don’t do that. If they are doing it, they’re not writing them down and sharing them with the rest of us. Girl fans--some of them at least--do. Then we find out that other girls are doing it, too, and we share, and there you go.” One place girls gather to share their rock band fiction online is Rockfic.com. “Next thing you know, we’re giving each other fiction challenges--write a crucifixion story, write a ‘seduction of a straight man’ story, write a story where one of the characters has wings. Slash fiction is one way, for those of us who do it, it’s one way that we’re interacting with what the band puts out in addition to their music, with their packaged image, I guess you could say. Actually, all band fiction is that. Slash fiction is just one flavor of it.”
“If more guys were into band fiction,” she continues, “you probably wouldn’t see much slash from them. In fact, you’d probably see a lot less focus on intimate/romantic relationships altogether. But for women it’s the interactions between the band members that sparks the stories to begin with.”
Metallica is hardly the only band ‘starring’ in band fiction. In fact, it’s the rare popular rock, pop, punk or emo band these days that doesn’t have someone writing fiction about them somewhere, from Fall Out Boy to Duran Duran to Iron Maiden.
ScrewTheDaisies is currently at work on a new horror novel, this one starring a German power metal band. Her books are available from Rockfic Press (http://www.rockficpress.com), along with science fiction, fantasy, horror and general fiction titles from other band fiction authors.
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