When you work in the news industry, you keep closer tabs on what happens in the world around you.
Or at least try your darnedest to do so.
When observing behaviour, and the politics of your community, you gather more fodder to feed your novel writing endeavours. With my current project, events like the son who killed his father in order to protect his mother getting 10 years in prison, and the violent prisoner who gets a one-day sentence for assaulting a police officer show the disparity of justice in Canada.
This is why the horror genre is such a spectacular vehicle to drive home social criticism, and the reason why I’m using the hearse to decry judges in this country who are tougher on those trying to protect their loved ones than the actual villains to society.
So, as I shape my characters around a Gothic-inspired story, set in modern Canada, the debate of tougher sentencing, zero-tolerance for insanity pleas and leniency on self-defence/vigilantism will be injected throughout the tale.
Oh, and I personally don’t like my (perceived) main character. I’m extrapolating left-leaning politics and infusing the bureaucrat protagonist with it. Should make it easier for me to enact a certain degree of justice upon him.
Keeping with my promise to keep a checklist of all media watched, read and listened to, I watched the movies The Lucky One and The Great Outdoors; picked up Kylie Minogue’s greatest hits CD and still continue to read a collection of Gothic ghost tales by M.R. James. Add a little bit of NHL 12, Street Fighter x Tekken and Lego Batman 2 on the PS3 too.