aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 15, 2011 - 11:16pm

Again, this is still a working title because I saw that some dude's book is named Psychosis on Amazon so now I'm thinking of changing it again.  Maybe I was better off with Necrophobia unless anyone else has any good ideas.  Anyway..  I just wanted to share some photos from my friend Andrew that I thought might a cool cover to the book.  We are still very much open to subs. 

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z447/aliensoul77/The_Last_Monarch_by...

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z447/aliensoul77/Modern_Renaissance_...

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z447/aliensoul77/Echochambre_by_Dokt...

Nick Wilczynski's picture
Nick Wilczynski from Greensboro, NC is reading A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin November 15, 2011 - 11:19pm

I like the second one, not such a big fan of the hallway (number 3) but I like the faces.

.'s picture
. November 15, 2011 - 11:22pm

I think number 3 fits the best but the face are pretty cool too.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 15, 2011 - 11:33pm

I'm a big fan of one and two but I know three represents that whole "hallway of the mind" metaphor but maybe that's too cliche.  He's a pretty talented guy.  Maybe I could talk him into doing a completely new one with like bloody doll heads or something lol.  I swear he's obsessed with mannequins. 

Charles's picture
Charles from Portland is reading Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones November 16, 2011 - 12:39am

i like the first one.

Raelyn's picture
Raelyn from California is reading The Liars' Club November 16, 2011 - 12:50am

I second the first one. 

writingasgjjensen's picture
writingasgjjensen from Don't Ask is reading A lot. I try to read as much as I can. November 16, 2011 - 12:50am

The first one. 

Limbless K9's picture
Limbless K9 from Oregon is reading Wraeththu November 16, 2011 - 1:08am

Love the first, don't really like the second, and love the third. 

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest November 16, 2011 - 2:04am

First and third. Second one reminds me of a miner.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 16, 2011 - 3:10am

Here is the master list, put your name next to something if you want it, copy and paste it or add a new disorder and put your name next to it if you want to lay claim to it.

Anyone want to claim these?

Schizophrenia:  taken

Pica:  ???

DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder):  Me, for now

Stockholm Syndrome:  Limbless K9

Bipolar/Manic Depressive:

I have a self mutilation and necrophilia already and drug induced psychosis.

I know Moon said he wanted to do Cotard syndrome.

Here are some others that would be cool to include in the anthology, feel free to research them.

Fregoli Delusion:

Reduplicative Paramnesia:

Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome:

Trichotillomania

Apotemnophilia

Pedophilia is also considered a mental illness and Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.

Hybristophilia

Laramore Black's picture
Laramore Black from Joplin, Missouri is reading Mario Kart 8 November 16, 2011 - 9:10am

Can I do hypersexual psychosis? =D

Nighty Nite's picture
Nighty Nite from NJ is reading Grimscribe: His Lives and Works November 16, 2011 - 9:27am

I'm thinking Folie à deux

 

Also, number one for sure. Number two looks like I'm being interrogated by a muppet.

.'s picture
. November 16, 2011 - 9:27am

Even depression could be considered psychosis

Nighty Nite's picture
Nighty Nite from NJ is reading Grimscribe: His Lives and Works November 16, 2011 - 9:32am

True. I don't know what my characters will share yet, but they're sharing some kind of crazy.

 

Unless of course you weren't referring to my post.

enough's picture
enough from Indiana is reading Warmed and Bound November 16, 2011 - 1:18pm

I like the first and third.

Jay.SJ's picture
Jay.SJ from London is reading Warmed and Bound November 16, 2011 - 1:41pm

The first is a cooler picture but I think the third would make better cover art.

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING. November 16, 2011 - 1:56pm

I wonder if the two doll faces could be combined into one picture.  They both creep me out.  

Flaminia Ferina's picture
Flaminia Ferina from Umbria is reading stuff November 16, 2011 - 3:51pm

Yeah, let's mash the three pics up.

So, like I said i wanted DID, but also Alien's on it. It's ok, I can take bipolar or, even better, schizotypal disorder. It's cool as long as I can derail the plot to a demonic possession, 'cause I intend to use the story - or part of it, or a remix - later on a larger project.

I'm thinking of a situation were a psychiatrist would diagnose a personality disorder, whereas a priest would shout The Devil. Stuff like that.

This way, pretty much can apply:

- Dissociative

- Bipolar

- Schizotypal

- Borderline I guess

I could go with schizotypal, name is dope and symptoms are fitting (see bodily illusions). Also, maybe that's what I have too - my shrink having trouble figuring my heads out. Or is it a quadruple diagnosys?

 

Schizotypal. Yes, schizotypal personality disorder. Taken.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 16, 2011 - 5:37pm

If you want DID you can have it. Sorry. I am having second thoughts about it. I may do eating disorders instead.

@laurance---nymphomania for sure. Make it gross though and not sexy. Lol

Aaron's picture
Aaron from Texas is reading Robert Filmer's Patriarcha November 16, 2011 - 8:13pm

I like pica. And Fregoli.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 16, 2011 - 9:01pm

Feel free to try pica or frigoli or a combination thereof.

I guess I should tell people, don't be afraid to fuck with your reader, make them think a character has one mental illness when maybe it's another one entirely or maybe they are making it all up.  Psychosomatic psychosis.

Flaminia Ferina's picture
Flaminia Ferina from Umbria is reading stuff November 17, 2011 - 4:43am

K, I'll do Dissociative/Schizotypal.

I'm on it.

Waterhouse's picture
Waterhouse from Columbus is reading Bullet Park, John Cheever November 17, 2011 - 9:38am

First one. The third reminds me of the cover of Michael Gira's collection of stories of madness, psychosis and disturbing events, The Consumer.

 

 

Laramore Black's picture
Laramore Black from Joplin, Missouri is reading Mario Kart 8 November 17, 2011 - 4:47pm

I was thinking about a psycho nymphomaniac that just snaps and goes on a rapin' and killin' spree. 
Trying to brainstorm the details.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 17, 2011 - 5:17pm

Um, I wanted to try and do stories that are less over the top which I know sounds funny coming from me but no raping and killing just for shock value please. If you were to do nymphomania I would want it to be more about sex addiction and the gross reality of it. I'm actually going for more stark ugly reality stories that are medically accurate. Research sex addiction and I'm sure you find all kinds of stuff.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 18, 2011 - 2:53am

I am increasing the word limit for stories.  They can be 2500-5000 words because I just started writing my story on OCD and could not for the life of me condense it to 2500 words, it would lose all meaning.  I've been working on it for the last three hours, I'll do over it again and then submit it to the workshop for critiques.  It took me forever to decide on a mental illness but I finally picked one.   I should emphasize that the most important thing to me about this anthology to make it different than others about crazy people is that the stories are medically accurate to the illness.  I just wrote the most freaking OCD beginning to a story ever. 

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest November 19, 2011 - 10:22pm

Started one of my favorite parts of writing: Research. So much on Cotard's, which leads to Capgras leads to Schizophrenia leads to psychosis leads to bipolar leads to... 

Good God, where to start...

jl85's picture
jl85 from originally East Tennessee now Southern California is reading everything I can November 20, 2011 - 12:34am

Hey aliensoul - I saw the first thread a while ago and meant to respond but I've been trying to bang out the whole nano novel this month (a couple hundred words shy of 32k). Just wondering if there's anyway to jump in on this? (I really loved the name Necrophobia!!) I looked up some of the terms and Apotemnophilia and Reduplicative Paramnesia stuck out and I'd be willing to take either one of those. (I know I'm pretty fucking late to the party but..) I would love to be involved, so if there's room let me know :)

-Josef

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 20, 2011 - 12:47am

I might stick with Necrophobia since I saw another book is named Psychosis on Amazon but I need someone to do a story about Necrophobia then which is the fear of death, although the reason I was going to name it that was because I personally believe all fears and madness originate from a fear of death.  You totally have time to jump in on it, the deadline isn't until mid-January.  I gave everyone a long time because of the holidays.  That way everyone has enough time for rewrites, etc.  Either one of those illneses you mentioned would be awesome.  They are just so insane.  I did OCD and put my story up in the workshop if anyone wants to read it and tell me what you think.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 20, 2011 - 12:55am

I still would like everyone to tell me what illness they picked and figure out whose writing what because I'm not sure how many people are planning to submit so far.  Can everyone post their illness and if they are planning on submitting something so I can get an idea of how many slots are left.

jl85's picture
jl85 from originally East Tennessee now Southern California is reading everything I can November 20, 2011 - 1:02am

I can't help but say it. Goddamn! I'm pretty excited about this and can't wait to get started on a story! I'll be posting in the workshop soon after thanksgiving. Really glad you brought this whole antholog idea up - I think this type of thing really defines why LitReactor exists. There is so much untapped talent here, and I can't wait to see how this all turns out!!

jl85's picture
jl85 from originally East Tennessee now Southern California is reading everything I can November 20, 2011 - 1:06am

Forgot to mention this, but I'm going with....drum roll...Apotemnophilia! 

Raelyn's picture
Raelyn from California is reading The Liars' Club November 20, 2011 - 1:11am

Sign me up for Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome please. This is quite exciting!

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 20, 2011 - 1:11am

I look forward to seeing how you handle it.  There are so many ways to go with that.  There was an episode of Nip/Tuck with a guy who had the disorder and he ended up sawing off his own leg.

Raelyn's picture
Raelyn from California is reading The Liars' Club November 20, 2011 - 1:14am

Just curious -- and sorry if you've already explained -- but how exactly is this anthology going to work? Meaning, after everyone submits their stories by mid January are you going to compile them and send it off to a publisher...or what?

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 20, 2011 - 1:31am

I've already started hitting up publishers because Bradley said you can pre-query even though you don't have it done yet but there are some publishers who want stories up front so I have to wait on those.  I am compiling a list of underground publishers who are more likely to take a chance on us.  I did know a guy at MacAdam/Cage who read over my novel a few years ago and I'm trying to get in contact with him again.  I want there to be a print copy of it.  Worst case scenario it will be a digital book and also available for those who want a physical copy on Amazon but I hate Amazon's self-publish policies.  They take like 75% of the profits because they print it for you.  No matter what I have to do, I will try to pimp it out good and I am willing to put some money out of my own pocket to advertise it.  In fact, I am willing to promise everyone a physical copy for their effort even if I have to buy all the copies. 

I'm thinking 12 or 13 stories max.

Raelyn's picture
Raelyn from California is reading The Liars' Club November 20, 2011 - 1:59am

I see, thank you. One more question: how are the stories going to be picked for the anthology. I'm thinking more than thirteen stories will be submitted so I'm wondering how the eliminating process will be handled.  

Steve's picture
Steve from Southwestern Chicagoland, IL November 20, 2011 - 7:50am

Is Fregoli Delusion spoken for yet? If not, I'd like to take a crack at it.

 

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest November 20, 2011 - 8:01am

@Steve... I don't know. Someone above said they were interested, but hasn't posted since. He was also interested in Pica. I imagine if you want it, it's yours.

 

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest November 20, 2011 - 8:02am

I think everyone should state what disease/syndrom/mental illness they're doing by the end of the weekend so we don't get too many repeats. Alien, thoughts?

Steve's picture
Steve from Southwestern Chicagoland, IL November 20, 2011 - 8:46am

Ehh, either way. I'm invested enough in the idea now that I'm going to do something with it. If someone else does a Fregoli story that turns out to be a better fit for this project, no hard feelings.

 

Flaminia Ferina's picture
Flaminia Ferina from Umbria is reading stuff November 20, 2011 - 8:57am

I think we should try to cover all disorders, but there's no problem if we have repeats. The more the better in fact, so we have more choice, or not? I wouldn't care if I don't get chosen in the end, it's a good exercise for me anyway.

enough's picture
enough from Indiana is reading Warmed and Bound November 20, 2011 - 12:03pm

I would like to do self-mutilation.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 20, 2011 - 12:38pm

Okay, can we make a master list where everyone puts their name and their disorder and copy and pastes it.

For example:

Enough--self-mutliation

aliensoul77--OCD

Ryan--necrophilia

@Steve--I think that person was going to do pica.  If not, I want someone to do pica.  Pica is fascinating.  So many story opportunities there.  Go ahead and do fregoli.  You don't have to state the disorder in the title of your story or anything but just on here. 

@Raelyn--Well, I was hoping everyone would post their story in the Writer's workshop, we would give them advice on how to make them better, do rewrites and eventually kind of have a group agreement as to which ones should be in the anthology.  I know Moon offered to help me read over stories too but I want everyone to have an equal voice.  I just submitted the first draft of mine on there, and if guys ultimately decided you didn't want mine to be in there, I would accept it.  I want to take ego out of the process and just make a good anthology.  Ryan gave me some great feedback on my story but I would appreciate anyone else's thoughts.  Especially when writing about OCD, I want it to be believable.

@Moon--I agree if everyone logs in this weekend.  It's already Sunday, we might have to have the full list by the end of this week.  Again, the list is just for my piece of mind to know what's up, people can change their mind if they find they can't do anything with the disorder they picked.  If there are doubles, we pick the stronger of the two stories. 

Jay.SJ's picture
Jay.SJ from London is reading Warmed and Bound November 20, 2011 - 1:01pm

I still haven't found an idea that excites me. I guess I want something different to paranoia, a disorder that works as a theme rather than a plot point.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 20, 2011 - 1:11pm

how about anorexia or binge eating?

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. November 20, 2011 - 1:13pm

Or narcissim or sociopathology?

Raelyn's picture
Raelyn from California is reading The Liars' Club November 20, 2011 - 2:06pm

That sounds like a good system. In case it was missed, I would like to claim Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome. 

Limbless K9's picture
Limbless K9 from Oregon is reading Wraeththu November 20, 2011 - 4:17pm

Stockholm Syndrome for me please! 

wickedvoodoo's picture
wickedvoodoo from Mansfield, England is reading stuff. November 20, 2011 - 4:36pm

Hey - sorry to be late to the party, been super busy the last couple of days, but I have been keeping an eye on the threads. This project seems an interesting one to me.

EDIT - struck by an idea. Can I have chronic panic attacks? - I just remembered a story I wanted to write a while back and then never started for one reason or another. This would be an awesome reason to revisit it.

May I feel free to take a swing? Hopefully I get something down over the next couple o' days. If it goes well then I'll workshop it. If it doesn't, well, nothing ventured and all that.

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest November 20, 2011 - 4:28pm

I'm all over Cotard's syndrome.