Tomorrow I’ll be reading some scary scenes from Darkwood, discussing villains, and guiding kids in the creation of their own creeps and monsters at The Reading Bug in San Carlos.
That’s Weds, June 3, at 3:00 pm.
As an example of the fun of writing wicked, I offer you Ovid’s Envy:
The battered doors swung open; there was Envy
Eating the flesh of snakes, the proper food
To nourish venom with. Minerva turned,
As Envy rose, torpid and slow, the snakes
Half-eaten on the ground, and she came forward,
Torpid and slow, and as she saw the goddess,
All bright and beautiful in her armor,
She groaned aloud and sighed for that bright presence.
Pale, skinny, squint-eyed, mean, her teeth are red
With rust, her breast is green with gall, her tongue
Suffused with poison, and she never laughs
Except when watching pain; she never sleeps,
Too troubled by anxiety; if men
Succeed, she fails; consumes and is consumed,
Herself her punishment.
–from Ovid’s Metamorphoses
