The Paperback Pursuer: Guestpost: Benjamin Kane Ethridge's 'If I could jump into any horror novel…'

If I could jump into any horror novel…

By Benjamin Kane Ethridge

I would have to have to be somebody from Stephen King’s THE STAND. At first I thought about Stu Redman, but his ending is too happy, all things considered, and he doesn’t actually get to make the final stand against evil. So I would have to be the guitar-toting Larry. Think about what he is and what he becomes. Just after the plague wiped everybody out, he instantly becomes a relic—a rock star that could no longer be adored by millions of people, reduced to normality. What’s left then? All he had was the music in his heart, the guitar on his back and good intentions all around him.

I always enjoyed the freedom that Larry’s character offered; he was like Stu in that he said what he wanted, but he was slightly edgier about it. He wasn’t perfect. If he were a role playing character he’d probably be Neutral Good. Despite his obvious alignment with the righteous, he struck me as somebody who might get tired of Mother Abigail’s do-gooder compound, and want to ride off for parts unknown with his newly acquired wife and son. He’s fascinating for such a simple protagonist when you consider him fully. Losing his rock stardom didn’t faze him as much as it would have a self-consumed musician; it actually took down the fame prison that was slowly building around Larry and that liberated him rather than crushed his soul. I dig that.

Now, what would I do different if I jumped into his skin? Probably not much, because Larry’s doom is prophesy, but something always struck me as slightly false about Larry becoming one of the lambs at the end. I’d have much preferred seeing him hang out as a spy with the Flagg in Vegas for a bit, since he could blend so well in that scene. But then again, that course of action might not have got him a front seat for God’s grand finale, so I guess all is well that ends well.

About the Author:

Benjamin Kane Ethridge is the Bram Stoker Award winning author of the novel BLACK & ORANGE (Bad Moon Books 2010) and Bottled Abyss ( Redrum Horror 2012). For his master’s thesis he wrote, “CAUSES OF UNEASE: The Rhetoric of Horror Fiction and Film.” Available in an ivory tower near you. Benjamin lives in Southern California with his wife and two creatures who possess stunning resemblances to human children. When he isn’t writing, reading, videogaming, Benjamin’s defending California’s waterways and sewers from pollution.

To learn more about Benjamin, visit his website at:www.bkethridge.com

Visit Benjamin on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/benjamin.kane.ethridge

Visit Benjamin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/bkethridge

About Bottled Abyss:

Herman and Janet Erikson are going through a crisis of grief and suffering after losing their daughter in a hit and run. They’ve given up on each other; they’ve given up on themselves. They are living day by day. One afternoon, to make a horrible situation worse, their dog goes missing in the coyote-infested badlands behind their property. Herman, resolved in preventing another tragedy, goes to find the dog, completely unaware he’s on a hike to the River Styx, the border between the Living world and the world of the dead.

Long ago the Gods died and the River dried up, but a bottle containing its waters still remains in the badlands. What Herman discovers about the dark power contained in those waters will change his and Janet’s lives forever…