Writing MIDNIGHT AT THE MAUSOLEUM

Link to MIDNIGHT AT THE MAUSOLEUM

Back in 2016 I was writing and editing my thesis. Because it required a strong academic slant, I needed to write something that satisfied the creative side in me. I studied films; also, I created them. Short stuff. Nothing too extravagant, though in my mind the ideas were high-concept and too fun not to produce. So I did. But writing, shooting and editing a short film is a very complicated task. I needed something quick, something to get the ideas out of me alongside the feeling of frustration and determination I had within me.

Enter: the idea of a man struggling with his writing. It was too perfect - the struggle to want to say the things I wanted to say but not being able to say them, or say them in the way that I wanted to say them. Writing a thesis for a master’s program is like that - it’s a collaborative effort between the student and the supervisor. Though my ideas and interests were there, it wasn’t quite the journey I wanted it to be.

So I made up my own instead.

MIDNIGHT AT THE MAUSOLEUM is about the very craft of writing - and I guess perhaps about storytelling in general. It’s about the aforementioned man named Carson Forte, whose writer’s block leads him to a very strange and odd place for inspiration. At once grotesque and beautiful, macabre and intriguing, the mausoleum offers Carson a chance to fuel his writing. The stories that come with the dead are often fascinating to think about - at least, to me, anyway. For those who have lived their lives through multiple generations, spanning eras and enduring the hardships of the 20th century and what came before it, it is a treasure trove of possibility. 

This is where Carson finds his inspiration, his will to keep writing. Much like my own sense of stagnation while writing my thesis, Carson fumbles his latest project, and all the works in progress that have come before it. He wants to write, but like all writers, he finds the rocky foundation upon which this career stands upon startling, tinged with a fear that offers nothing of comfort for those looking to “break in” to it.

Cue the dead bodies - metaphors for every struggle every author has ever faced. Like I said: potential. Horror has that ability to speak to wider issues. For example, Carson’s fear of not being able to eat off of a writer’s income is something I wanted to hint at with the gangly zombies that attack him. Near the climax of the story you’ll find creatures that mirror the horrors writers face, maybe not always in day to day life, but in their minds as well. The creeping, crawling sensation of dread, and the constant reminder that making a living off of this craft is a scary, blistering thing.

But we love it. And that’s where MIDNIGHT AT THE MAUSOLEUM found its heart.

I love to write; I love to tell stories. And like Carson Forte - whose last name I found pleasure in forging because I was able to find a parallel between my Italian heritage and the determination faced by many aspiring writers - I persevered. When I finished this story, it was around 2017 or 2018, and I had just broken up with a long-time girlfriend. This seeps into the writing, no doubt. But it’s more than any one person can have the credit of: this is a story about writing. The very craft of it, and the fear and excitement that plagues every writer to have ever lived. It’s a macabre, beautiful thing. And like Poe or Lovecraft that have come before me, I yearn to speak to that experience because it’s not only given me a lot of joy and reprieve in my life, but because I think it still has so much left to offer me.

I hope you find something here you like. And if you’re turned off by the disgusting heart at the center of this story, just know that it comes from a very real and honest place, full of frustration, anger, stagnation, and ultimately, hope.

Wednesday June 23, 2021

Cory Maddalena