Saturday, July 27, 2013

Dehumanized Preformatted Post #9 (Guest Post #8)

Ryan Zachery lived his life the way all high school teenagers should -
carefree.
Until he was attacked by an unknown assailer and awoke in the hospital with lycanthropy. Taken by armed guards and dragged away from everything he held dear, Ryan was thrown into a US camp made for those 'suffering' from lycanthropy.

They caged the beast, but now he will show them that he will never be dehumanized.



My First Change by Anna Clarke

The night of my first transformation was easily scariest moment of my life. All day I was full of anxiety, because I just knew it was coming. The scars on my stomach burned like hot coal, as if in response to the coming full moon. They were moderately healed by the time my first transformation came along, thanks to my sister Kelly who was a nurse before she got sick. She was battling cancer, so she couldn’t work any more but she was able to patch up my wounds so we didn’t have to go to the hospital and get discovered.

The second I got home with the scratch we all knew I’d been infected with Lycanthropy. My brother refused to let me be taken; using every penny he had to construct a sort of containment area in the cellar. He was the CEO of his company, so he definitely had the money.

It wasn’t easy building the containment area (I don’t like calling it a ‘cage’ since that makes me feel like some sort of beast) because we couldn’t hire workers to do it for us without arousing suspicion. The second the request was received they’d know what we were up to and I would have been taken away. Instead Robert and I built it. It took us three weeks to build (would have been less but I had to take it slow since I was healing) and when it was done it seemed perfect. We had the whole thing planned out: I’d get locked in, Kelly would sit and make sure I didn’t escape, and we’d have music playing the whole night so no one could hear what was going on. I was nineteen, so it wouldn’t be too hard to believe that I’d have music blasting all night.

But, even though everything was planned out and I knew I’d be safe from the world, I was still scared. They never explained what the transformation was like when talking about Lycanthropy, so I had no clue what was coming that night. The commercials with the slogan “Stay in during the Full Moon” never truly explained why other than being infected. The idea of being infected alone was scary enough to keep the populace in place, so they didn’t have to add in what would happen after being infected.

That night I found out just how horrible it is to be infected.

I had stripped down naked and was sitting inside my containment area; Kelly sitting on the steps of the cellar as Kelly Clarkson’s (at the time) new single Stronger blared from her IPod. She thought it was an appropriate choice to start off the night, to which I just glared at her the whole time I was sitting there.

The song was beginning its second chorus when it started. Everything seemed to fade away as my whole world was taken over by pain, unbelievable pain. I hadn’t known what to expect, but the kind of torture the Change brings had not even crossed my mind. I remember falling on my side and screaming, and not much else. I think I was in so much shock that my brain had blocked out most of the experience, and I’m actually thankful for that.
The next morning I woke up to Kelly crying. She seemingly hadn’t moved from the spot she was sitting in the night before, her hands covering her face as she sobbed loudly. I was covered in scrapes and I felt like absolute hell. There were streaks of blood on the floor, most likely from the process of the Change, which nearly made me throw up. I had held it in and called out to Kelly, who, upon hearing my voice, practically tripped over herself running to my side. She held me as we both sobbed for what felt like hours.

That was my first time transforming. It was, hands down, the most horrifying moment in my entire life. And I have to relive that pain every month for the rest of my life.

-Anna Clarke
 
Michael Loring was born in Bristol, Connecticut, but has lived in a variety of places such as Florida and Tennessee. He likes to think of himself as an amateur Lycanthropologist, studying werewolves ever since he was eight years old when he first saw An American Werewolf In London. He spent most of his life switching between home school and public school, always focusing on his passion of writing no matter what. His interest in writing was sparked in the second grade when his teacher encouraged him to write short stories for the class, earning him more than one award at school assemblies for Creative Writing. He currently resides back in his birthplace of Connecticut with a house full of women who like to drive him up the wall until he finishes his chores. Though they seem to avoid him during the night of the full moon for some unexplainable reason...

As a present for stopping by
here is a Dehumanized screen saver:
We hope you have enjoyed this stop on
the Dehumanized tour!


Stop by www.MichaelLoring.com to check out the other tour stops;

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Dehumanized Preformatted Post #8 (Guest Post #7)


Ryan Zachery lived his life the way all high school teenagers should -
carefree.
Until he was attacked by an unknown assailer and awoke in the hospital with lycanthropy. Taken by armed guards and dragged away from everything he held dear, Ryan was thrown into a US camp made for those 'suffering' from lycanthropy.

They caged the beast, but now he will show them that he will never be dehumanized.


 
If you follow me on Facebook (my personal one, not the one for Dehumanized) then you can tell I have a bit of a bad issue with becoming obsessed with things. If you don’t follow me, then let me explain.

When there’s something new that I like, whether it be a new song or movie or TV show, I post about it a few dozen times before stopping. Not all at once, mind you, just over the span of a few days. For example: I freaking LOVE Being Human, both the US and UK versions, and I’ve posted probably a hundred videos pertaining to the show on my Facebook. Something else I’ve done is spam people’s newsfeeds with music videos. I’m still wondering why I even have any friends at all, haha!

When I get obsessed with something nothing can stop me, and one of my biggest obsessions was writing Dehumanized. I’m not sure what it was, but I just had this need to write this novel. If I wasn’t writing for it, I was thinking about it. If I had writer’s block, I’d think about what I had already written and try to think of ways to improve it. There were times I was afraid this book wouldn’t make it, but even then I was thinking about the day it was published. I may have had a lot of doubts, but I still imagined the day it was done.

I had written short stories before, and I had attempted at writing other novels, but none of them stuck to me like Dehumanized did. It was like this novel and I just clicked, like how strangers do just before becoming best friends. I just couldn’t help but be so fond of this idea I had in my head, and I poured my heart and soul into this book. I’ve tried to write a few new projects since completing Dehumanized, and so far nothing has clicked like it did. It’s like reading a really good book and trying to read something else afterwards and the second book just doesn’t compare to the first.

I even had dreams about Dehumanized, if you’d believe it! I’d dream about being a subject in the camp alongside the other werewolves and witnessing what would come to be scenes in my book. One of the scenes I had dreamt of was the scene where Ryan (the main character) throws up in the bathroom and Jack (one of the baddies) comes in to taunt Ryan. Weird dream, I know, but I pride myself on not being a normal person. I’m polite, but I’m still weird.

When I finished Dehumanized I was having some serious writing withdrawals. I was so eager to finish this novel and when I finally did I wished I could go back in time to write it all over again, just to experience the thrill. It was a bittersweet day when I finished Dehumanized, and I guess it didn’t really hit me until the day after. Even now when I think about it I wish I could go back to write Dehumanized again, not to change anything, but just to experience the ups and downs of writing this novel that came straight from my heart. But, really, at the same time I’m glad it’s now out there. I’m happy people are now able to read the product of one of my biggest obsessions to date, and are enjoying it.

Makes me feel like being an overly obsessed person isn’t such a bad thing after all.

Of course I could still ease up on the Facebook links…
 
Michael Loring was born in Bristol, Connecticut, but has lived in a variety of places such as Florida and Tennessee. He likes to think of himself as an amateur Lycanthropologist, studying werewolves ever since he was eight years old when he first saw An American Werewolf In London. He spent most of his life switching between home school and public school, always focusing on his passion of writing no matter what. His interest in writing was sparked in the second grade when his teacher encouraged him to write short stories for the class, earning him more than one award at school assemblies for Creative Writing. He currently resides back in his birthplace of Connecticut with a house full of women who like to drive him up the wall until he finishes his chores. Though they seem to avoid him during the night of the full moon for some unexplainable reason...

As a present for stopping by
here is a Dehumanized screen saver:
We hope you have enjoyed this stop on
the Dehumanized tour!


Stop by www.MichaelLoring.com to check out the other tour stops;

New guest posts, interviews, excerpts and more!
 
 
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Dehumanized Preformatted Post #7 (Guest Post #6)

Ryan Zachery lived his life the way all high school teenagers should -
carefree.
Until he was attacked by an unknown assailer and awoke in the hospital with lycanthropy. Taken by armed guards and dragged away from everything he held dear, Ryan was thrown into a US camp made for those 'suffering' from lycanthropy.

They caged the beast, but now he will show them that he will never be dehumanized.



Everyone knows about werewolves. Even if you don’t like them, you know of them. In today’s literature Lycanthropy is a very favored subject, so it’s hard to not have at least a basic knowledge of the creatures. But even with this, there are a lot of myths and legends about werewolves not everyone knows about. I pride myself on knowing a lot more than the average person about werewolf lore, so I decided I’d share some things not everyone may know about werewolves.

The first thing I’d like to share is the Lobizon. The Lobizon is a special type of werewolf that is born and not made. The Lobizon is the seventh son in a family of no daughters, born a werewolf and transforming only during the full moon, like most types. The belief originated in Spain, and back in the day the belief was so strong that when a seventh son was born the infant was usually abandoned or killed days after birth. In the early 1920s, the Argentinean president would grant the seventh son a full scholarship until the time of their 21st birthday and make sure they were baptized, often under the name Benito (meaning Blessed) to counter this horrible tradition.

The second thing I’d like to share is the story of Peter Stubbe. He lived in Germany in the 1500s, and was one of the most ferocious murderers of the time. The legend goes that Peter summoned the Devil and made a deal. The Devil promised to let Peter have whatever his heart desired, and instead of getting wealth or women, Peter asked for the ability to turn into a beast to aid his skills as a killer and to remain anonymous during his kills. The Devil gave him a wolf pelt, and whenever Peter put it on he would transform into a giant wolf with large claws and fangs. Placing the pelt on, Peter stalked every one who had ever done him wrong and tore them limb from limb. He would then chase down all the women he found attractive and rape and murder them. A few years after his killing spree began he fathered two children, a boy and girl. When they got older he killed the son and married the daughter, his wicked ways knowing no boundaries. It wouldn’t be until after twenty-five years of murdering that he’d finally be caught after failing to attack a group of frolicking children. In the following October he was publicly executed after admitting to his crimes, the pelt disappearing forever.They say the Devil took it back, but some believe that maybe someone found it and roamed the countryside as a wolf, creating the werewolf legend.

The last one I will share will be a short one, and probably the most widely known. Lycanthropy is an actual psychological disorder. Sufferers sincerely believe that they are werewolves, transforming when the moon is full or when their emotions get out of control. There was a case where a woman would stare into the mirror and see a wolf’s head in place of her own. The only way to help these people is through years of therapy, and the cause of this condition is not exactly known, but believed to be through trauma.

These are just a few facts I personally find interesting about werewolves and the werewolf lore. It dates back hundreds of years, a different version for each century. There are so many ways to interpret the legend of the wolfman, and I love reading and learning about each variation.

I hope you enjoyed these facts and will find it in yourself to learn more as well!
 
Michael Loring was born in Bristol, Connecticut, but has lived in a variety of places such as Florida and Tennessee. He likes to think of himself as an amateur Lycanthropologist, studying werewolves ever since he was eight years old when he first saw An American Werewolf In London. He spent most of his life switching between home school and public school, always focusing on his passion of writing no matter what. His interest in writing was sparked in the second grade when his teacher encouraged him to write short stories for the class, earning him more than one award at school assemblies for Creative Writing. He currently resides back in his birthplace of Connecticut with a house full of women who like to drive him up the wall until he finishes his chores. Though they seem to avoid him during the night of the full moon for some unexplainable reason...

As a present for stopping by
here is a Dehumanized screen saver:
We hope you have enjoyed this stop on
the Dehumanized tour!


Stop by www.MichaelLoring.com to check out the other tour stops;

New guest posts, interviews, excerpts and more!
 
 
Copy + paste the coding
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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Lady Amber's Tours - Dehumanized Cover Reveal! 7/30/13

Title: Dehumanized
Author: Michael Loring
Genre: NA Paranormal / Dystopian
Tour Host: Lady Amber's Tours
Ryan Zachery lived his life the way all high school teenagers should -
carefree.
Until he was attacked by an unknown assailer and awoke in the hospital with lycanthropy. Taken by armed guards and dragged away from everything he held dear, Ryan was thrown into a US camp made for those 'suffering' from lycanthropy.

They caged the beast, but now he will show them that he will never be dehumanized.
 

 
 
Michael Loring was born in Bristol, Connecticut, but has lived in a variety of places such as Florida and Tennessee. He likes to think of himself as an amateur Lycanthropologist, studying werewolves ever since he was eight years old when he first saw An American Werewolf In London. He spent most of his life switching between home school and public school, always focusing on his passion of writing no matter what. His interest in writing was sparked in the second grade when his teacher encouraged him to write short stories for the class, earning him more than one award at school assemblies for Creative Writing. He currently resides back in his birthplace of Connecticut with a house full of women who like to drive him up the wall until he finishes his chores. Though they seem to avoid him during the night of the full moon for some unexplainable reason...

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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Dehumanized Preformatted Post #6 (Guest Post #5) for A Diary Of A Book Addict


Ryan Zachery lived his life the way all high school teenagers should -
carefree.
Until he was attacked by an unknown assailer and awoke in the hospital with lycanthropy. Taken by armed guards and dragged away from everything he held dear, Ryan was thrown into a US camp made for those 'suffering' from lycanthropy.

They caged the beast, but now he will show them that he will never be dehumanized.



To Be A Werewolf by Ryan Zachery

This is hell. Absolute, unadulterated hell. Being what I am…I can’t even say it without curling my lip. A werewolf. Being a werewolf is terrible. I hate it so much, every fiber of my being burning with rage towards the wolf inside of me. I curse it, and it curses me right back. Why would anyone want this?

There are articles about people who want to be a werewolf, blogs dedicated to how awesome and beautiful they are. Well, I’m here to tell you they aren’t either of those, or anything else you may think of them. What I turn into every month…it’s a terrible, ugly, evil beast with no intent other than to destroy. It feeds off of misery, it relishes in your pain. What is inside of me is the Devil itself. The wolf is a monster, nothing more.

People actually want this? It’s absurd. If I could choose I’d be human, through and through. All of these children wishing to be monsters…it’s just not right. When I was growing up everyone feared the things that lurk in the dark, now everyone wants to have sex with them. What’s wrong with the world?

Werewolves are not creatures to be desired. The portrayal of a werewolf where they just snap their fingers and turn into a wolf is wrong. What we actually are is something you’d fear should you ever come face-to-face with it. There is no snapping of the fingers and we’re a normal wolf, not at all. It’s an excruciating pain that lasts for an eternity. There’s no way to describe the horrible sensation of Changing, of having your bones broken and rearranged, of feeling your muscles tearing and reforming, of having your skull cracked open and reshaping into a snout. There’s nothing romantic about what I am.

Sure, there’s still the human side to me. Outside the full moon I’m human, I’m still me; but just how human am I? How far does my humanity go before it starts to skew a bit? How long before my rage takes over and I destroy everything in my path?

Dating is not something I should ever worry about, something none of my kind should ever even attempt. Yet…here I am with Anna, trying to fabricate a normal existence with her by my side. But I fear for her safety, because I’m a monster, and there’s nothing I can do about that…

Being a werewolf is a curse, a disease. It’s not a blessing, not anything I’d wish on anyone no matter the vendetta I have against them. I pray every day for a cure…for a release from this cage I lie in. Should the day come I am free, maybe Anna and I could live a happy life together. But until that day I am a monster, a bastard child of the moon. And no amount of wishing will change that.

So think of that before you sit in front of your little laptop and look up pictures of werewolves and fantasize about being one. You’re human. Stay that way.

-Ryan Zachery
 
Michael Loring was born in Bristol, Connecticut, but has lived in a variety of places such as Florida and Tennessee. He likes to think of himself as an amateur Lycanthropologist, studying werewolves ever since he was eight years old when he first saw An American Werewolf In London. He spent most of his life switching between home school and public school, always focusing on his passion of writing no matter what. His interest in writing was sparked in the second grade when his teacher encouraged him to write short stories for the class, earning him more than one award at school assemblies for Creative Writing. He currently resides back in his birthplace of Connecticut with a house full of women who like to drive him up the wall until he finishes his chores. Though they seem to avoid him during the night of the full moon for some unexplainable reason...

As a present for stopping by
here is a Dehumanized screen saver:
We hope you have enjoyed this stop on
the Dehumanized tour!


Stop by www.MichaelLoring.com to check out the other tour stops;

New guest posts, interviews, excerpts and more!
 
 
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Monday, July 15, 2013

Dehumanized Preformatted Post #5 (Guest Post #4)


Ryan Zachery lived his life the way all high school teenagers should -
carefree.
Until he was attacked by an unknown assailer and awoke in the hospital with lycanthropy. Taken by armed guards and dragged away from everything he held dear, Ryan was thrown into a US camp made for those 'suffering' from lycanthropy.

They caged the beast, but now he will show them that he will never be dehumanized.



For as long as I can remember I’ve loved werewolves. It’s always been one of my guilty pleasures, just without the guilt. My love started when I was eight-years-old when I first saw An American Werewolf In London. I’m man enough to admit when I was little I was terrified of nearly EVERYTHING, but there was something about that movie that just captivated me. The idea that an average, everyday guy could become such a creature was so fascinating to me. I had already been an avid animal lover, and seeing someone turn into one really got to me. It was the first movie where I actually cheered for the monster!

I started looking more into the genre of werewolves. Most of the movies and stories were scary, so I was apprehensive. Being a young boy who was too scared to sleep without Scooby Doo or Gilligan’s Island playing in the background hindered my research quite a bit. Not to mention the media wasn’t as abundant as it is today thanks to the Twilight fad. This was the early 2000’s, so my research didn’t take me far. I read all about werewolves and the early incarnations of the legend, sitting in awe in front of my PC as I read all about these man-creatures that were effected by the full moon. I read the story of Lycaon and his testing of Zeus, cringed at the horrible deal Peter Stumpp made with the Devil, and stayed up all night because of the tale of The Beast of Gévaudan. I was hooked, and slowly my unnatural fear of all things horror-related faded and I became a dedicated “Horrorist” as I like to call it.

I grew to have many passions; karate, boxing, video gaming, comic books, music; but none even came close to my passion for werewolves. Only one thing ever surpassed that passion: writing. So, it was only natural to combine the two things, right? Of course! I attempted hundreds of stories, more than half involving werewolves, the others involving superheroes and vampires and zombies and such. But even with all of these failed projects I never gave up. I continued my study of all things Lycanthrope by watching the movies that have come out during these first years of the 21st century and reading all the books that I deemed “worthy” of my tastes. Even though I love them so much, I don’t just read any werewolf novel that comes out. I’m pretty picky. My guidelines for a werewolf novel have always been strict, and more than once I’ve ignored a New York Times bestseller because it didn’t fit my criteria.

There came a day when my mother, one of the few people who grit their teeth and pretended to be listening politely while I rambled on and on about the full moon beasts, said to me, “If you can’t find any werewolf books that interest you, then why don’t you just write them yourself?”
I remember just staring at her for a second; dumbfounded that such a simple, obvious answer had escaped my grasp. I gave some excuse involving something along the lines of already having tried, and then ran off to my room to think of an idea. After nearly two years of thinking and planning and writing, Dehumanized is now available for all to read!
And I’m happy to say it fits my criteria perfectly.
 
Michael Loring was born in Bristol, Connecticut, but has lived in a variety of places such as Florida and Tennessee. He likes to think of himself as an amateur Lycanthropologist, studying werewolves ever since he was eight years old when he first saw An American Werewolf In London. He spent most of his life switching between home school and public school, always focusing on his passion of writing no matter what. His interest in writing was sparked in the second grade when his teacher encouraged him to write short stories for the class, earning him more than one award at school assemblies for Creative Writing. He currently resides back in his birthplace of Connecticut with a house full of women who like to drive him up the wall until he finishes his chores. Though they seem to avoid him during the night of the full moon for some unexplainable reason...

As a present for stopping by
here is a Dehumanized screen saver:
We hope you have enjoyed this stop on
the Dehumanized tour!


Stop by www.MichaelLoring.com to check out the other tour stops;

New guest posts, interviews, excerpts and more!
 
 
Copy + paste the coding
below to feature!

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