chiller blog

Posted Nov 16, 09 12:40 PM

CHILLER’S CHALK OUTLINE: Personal Effects: Dark Art

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PERSONAL EFFECTS: Dark Art
By J.C. Hutchins and Jordan Weisman
Publication date: June 11, 2009
0-312-38382-7/ $24.95 / 320 pages
St. Martin's Griffin
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I remember when Mom bought the family its inaugural computer. Dad, whose tech savvy was best described with epochs and eras, fumed.

"What do we need a computer for?!" he, again, fumed.

"Well, dad, computers can do a lot. Applications, programs, writing, copying - "

For some reason, all dad registered was that last word. "Copying?" he continued to fume (Trust me. I was getting sick of all of his fuming, too). "Why not just get a Fairfax Copier? It's half the price."

I stared blankly, wanting to chuck a bronze spear at Me-Make-Fire. Pleeeease, let me personally ka-chunk his ticket on the first chariot outtahere.

And whoever heard of a Fairfax Copier?

Far be it from me to stand in the way of technology, especially when it converges into a fascinating new art form. Like a transmedia novel. Personal Effects: Dark Art - possibly the first such book on the market targeted for adults (great, how is it that I'm always catching up to the younger generation?) - came across my desk, courtesy J.C. Hutchins and his co-author (and game designer) Jordan Weisman. Good spooky, psychologically chilling, disturbing read. Er, and phone call. And, uh, web surf. And... artifact peruse. And...

Let me explain. By letting J.C. explain.

CHILLER: For the uninitiated, uh... ahem, what exactly is a transmedia novel?

J.C.: Hah! I feel you, man. It's a new form of novel-based storytelling. With killer technologies at our disposal these days, from the web to blogs to telephone systems and the like, why not take some of the novel's story beyond the pages of the book? That's what transmedia storytelling does.

Personal Effects: Dark Art is a novel, for sure... But when you buy a copy, you also get a pocket filled with additional tangible items: ID cards, government documents, photos, business cards...all of which are specifically mentioned in the book. They're the possessions of an accused serial killer. When readers combine the clues in the book's text with clues embedded in these "personal effects," they can visit websites, call phone numbers, listen to voicemails - even hack into a character's email account. The reader becomes an active participant in the investigation.

To me, the coolest bit isn't that we're just "widening" the story...we're deepening it, too, since there are plot twists and secret information that can only be experienced beyond the book's pages. Curious readers who pursue the out-of-the-book experience are rewarded with content and story information that the heroes of the story will never discover. I don't think there's a novel that's ever done that before.

CHILLER: My high school creative writing teacher, A. Reuben Lackman, always said, "Form follows function." The adrenaline wave your work is generating largely focuses on breaking open your narrative's universe. But let's get back to the building blocks - the story. Beyond the groundbreaking novelty, why was it crucial to tell your tale in this particular manner?

J.C.: The Personal Effects universe was created by Jordan Weisman, one of the founding fathers of the Alternative Reality Game form of storytelling, and a living legend in the gaming community. He's been telling transmedia stories online for nearly ten years.

I wanted to make sure that the spirit of the story could organically support the transmedia elements - the "personal effects" items and the like. I didn't want it to feel like one of those old-school read-along books: "Turn the page when you hear the beep." That would have been predictable.

So we constructed a story that was built from its foundations to rely on these out-of-book hooks and plot twists, and vice-versa. I wanted to capture the voyeuristic feel of looking through those tangible items; kind of like looking through a person's wallet. There's something very taboo and creepy about that. What do these things mean? What do they reveal about the owner?

I also tried to make it an unspoken undercurrent, a vibe throughout the rest of the story. In the end, this descent into a madman's mind...that voyeuristic sense of discovery is hinted at in the out-of-the-book experience, but it's front and center in the pages of the book.

CHILLER: You've got a blind serial killer with razor-cruel intentions. An asylum built downward into an abandoned, cursed quarry. An art therapist out to save souls. Although this is a mystery that puts the reader into the detective role, in what aspects do you consider Personal Effects: Dark Art a work of horror?

J.C.: I'm glad you mention the procedural mystery angle, because that's one of the things I'm most proud of the book. Authors are liars...We build these crazy-ass plots and pray the reader will come along for the ride. I think the best stories - like the best lies - are surrounded by realistic, familiar details. The first half of Dark Art is intended to be a very rational mystery, so I can throw supernatural scares at the reader in the second half. The serial killer in this book insists he didn't murder the people he's accused of killing. As the investigation unfolds, his therapist is exposed to the story of The Dark Man, an ancient demonic force made of living darkness that "haunts" the serial killer.

At first, The Dark Man is a boogeyman, a myth, a fragment of the killer's imagination. But soon, we start to feel its chilly presence, and hear it - and by the book's end, people are dying gruesomely because of their belief in it. Most of the scares hail not from what you see, but from what you don't see. It's all about the psychological terror: in this very rational world, can something like The Dark Man exist? If it could, would you know you were being hunted by it?

By the end, readers find out if The Dark Man is real. And if they discover the Sixth Sense-style twist ending beyond the book's pages, they'll get a completely different perspective. Writing that creature was fun. It exists to wreak vengeance.

CHILLER: Your prose - and the mind-bending images you shadow - delve heavily into psychological terror. Who would have thought that Fantasia would play into all of this! Were you disturbed by what you would write? It's intense.

J.C.: I was absolutely disturbed by what came from my fingers, mostly because the story takes place in a reality where monsters like The Dark Man simply shouldn't exist...

In the beginning, there are some descriptions of murders that happened long ago. I just typed and grinned during those scenes. But once the violence starts happening in the "now," that's when I freaked.

Describing The Dark Man also gave me the willies. I was basically giving form to my own personal fear of the dark, and my fear of evisceration.

CHILLER: So what scares you?

J.C.: Darkness represents the predatory unknown. I have an irrational fear of knives. And mirrors creep me out...if you stare long enough, the person looking back just isn't you, I'm convinced of it.

CHILLER: The allusion to The Silence of the Lambs is elusive, but patient Martin Grace is actually trying to push away art therapist Zach Taylor, and Clarice Starling never suffered any metaphysical delusions.

J.C.: Yes indeed, Martin Grace is a clear hat-tip to Hannibal Lecter. My thought: if you're writing a story about a serial killer, why not just acknowledge fiction's greatest? To not would be dishonest. And you're right: I tried to defy expectations. Martin wants nothing to do with Zach. He's a black box. Zach has to fight for every scrap of information.

CHILLER: What "personal effect" were you striving to leave with the reader?

J.C.: Our goal was to create a unique, memorable experience. We wanted them to feel like an active part in the story through the out-of-book experience... and we wanted them to ride shotgun on a descent into paranoia and fear. This ain't a gore-filled book; it's all about being in the head of a very rational hero, and then slowly slipping into another place - a dark place - where you can't outrun the past, and the darkness lives to kill.

CHILLER: Hmm. Darkness, meet the Fairfax Copier.