ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Weston Ochse is a former intelligence officer and special operations soldier who has engaged enemy combatants, terrorists, narco smugglers, and human traffickers. His personal war stories include performing humanitarian operations over Bangladesh, being deployed to Afghanistan, and a near miss being cannibalized in Papua New Guinea. His fiction and non-fiction has been praised by USA Today, The Atlantic, The New York Post, The Financial Times of London, and Publishers Weekly. The American Library Association labeled him one of the Major Horror Authors of the 21st Century. His work has also won the Bram Stoker Award, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and won multiple New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. A writer of more than 26 books in multiple genres, his military supernatural series SEAL Team 666 has been optioned to be a movie starring Dwayne Johnson. His military sci fi series, which starts with Grunt Life, has been praised for its PTSD-positive depiction of soldiers at peace and at war. Weston likes to be called a chaotic good paladin and challenges anyone to disagree. After all, no one can really stand a goody two-shoes lawful good character. They can be so annoying. It's so much more fun to be chaotic, even when you're striving to save the world. You can argue with him about this and other things online at Living Dangerously or on Facebook at Badasswriter. All content of this blog is copywrited by Weston Ochse.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

My Public Apology to Nadine

Dear Nadine,

I am sorry that Empire of Salt scared you so badly it gave you nightmares. Not really. No seriously, I am. Not really. But seriously. I'm sorry you couldn't make it past chapter four. Not really. No seriously. I wish I would stop doing that. I really am sorry. Stop lying to her. No, I really am extremely sorry that I scared you so badly that you couldn't sleep through the night. No I'm not.

Sigh.

As you can see, part of me feels bad that I scared you. But the other part of me is pretty pleased that you were scared. After all, when I wrote this, I wanted to scare people. You see, Nadine, I'm so used to reading and writing horror that nothing much scares me anymore. To tell the truth, I didn't really think Empire of Salt was all that scary. But I suppose that it's all a matter of perception. I was too used to the scare to realize that it was still scary.

Nadine with Fear in her Eyes
Kind of like using salt, I suppose. My friend Kimo salts everything including his Fruit Loops. I don't salt anything. His food looks the same as mine, but when I try and steal a bite it about kills me with the salt. I suppose horror is the same. I guess it takes people like you to remind of of that... normal people who don't spend their days thinking about hacked up bodies, monster guts and fangs.

Frankly, I forgot people like you were still out there.

I forgot that I am in the minority and you are in the majority.

So let's switch this apology letter to a thank you letter. Can we do that, please? Any comments from the Id, before I continue? Anything? Bueller? It seems that both parts of me are in agreement.

So...

Thank you, Nadine.

Thank you for being scared.

Thank you for NOT reading past chapter four.

Thank you for having the courage to try a book you don't ordinarily read.

Thank you for reminding me that I can still scare people.

Thank you for validating my horror sensibilities.

Your ever-loving horror author pal,

Weston (and his Id)
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1 comment :

  1. UnknownOctober 14, 2010 at 9:37 PM

    Wow. Uh, thanks, Weston. The book is good-it's well-written, and you have a nice ear for dialogue. It's just scary as all get-out. Someday, I will finish it, though, beacuse you really know how to tell a story. That's a promise.

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