Tuesday, February 12, 2008

When Life Imitates Art

OK, this is weird. I’m working on that horror story I mentioned here a few days ago, which is going pretty well btw, and on Sunday night I wrote the following scene: The elevator dinged. Wayne pressed forward but the elevator doors hadn’t opened yet. He heard a smashing sound, looked again toward the end of the hallway. The glass in the doors there was starred with cracks, and even as he watched one of the monkeys swung a rock again into the glass, smashing a gaping hole. Rats poured through.

The story is set at a university so I’m using my university and my particular building as the model. The glass doors described above are exactly like the doors in my building, and they open onto the parking lot where the attack comes from.

Now for the weirdness. I came in Monday morning to work, and in the afternoon I had a chance fiddle a bit with the above scene, and I also wrote another scene with a window being smashed. As I leave the building about 6:00 that evening I see that the bottom glass panels on both doors into the parking lot are badly cracked and starred in reality. It’s only the lower panels, the same panels I envisioned being smashed through by the monkeys in my scene.

To top it off, the story takes place on a Monday, the same day of the week that this happened. Now, I’m not much of a one to believe in weird things so I’m pretty sure this is a coincidence. But it is certainly one of the strangest coincidences I’ve ever experienced. Strange enough that I’ve been telling everyone about it.

Cue the Twilight Zone music.

36 comments:

Greg said...

that IS pretty weird. "the dark half" or "secret window" come to mind??

moonrat said...

something VERY similar has happened to me. more than once, even. it's freaky.

Angie said...

LOL! Hopefully no one from Admin reads your blog or they might decide to bill you. ;)

Angie

Lana Gramlich said...

Where attention goes, energy flows (or some such new-age, flowery nonsense.)

Randy Johnson said...

Hey, maybe you're psychic! You can see the future. Alright, I want to know who our next President will be. I'm hoping for Obama.

SzélsőFa said...

Oh, yes this is similar to my experience, in a sense.
Even if people don't believe in seeing the future and directing energy-flow, these things happen.

Rachel V. Olivier said...

It is amazing how strong our wills are. If we manifest it, who knows where it will all end up.

Bernita said...

The sort of congruity that makes the hair on the back of your neck try to crawl down under your collar and hide.

Miladysa said...

Very interesting!

Just to be safe... take the stairs in future ;]

Stacia said...

I totally thought this was going to be about monkeys getting loose at your college.

Charles Gramlich said...

Greg, hum, one would expect I'd be able to diagnose myself with my training in psych, but maybe I AM developing multiple personalities.

Moonrat, it does make you say "hmmmn."

Angie, Good point.

Lana, well you should be feeling cuddled about now.

Randy, I predict that many will be disappointed with who wins the presidental election.

Szelsofa, definitely weird.

Rachel, that's much more scary to me than the idea that it's just a coindence.

Bernita, I've got a lot of hair to curl too.

Miladysa, yes, I didn't write any scenes on the stairs so they should be safe.

Michelle's Spell said...

It is so bizarre when that happens! I wrote a story a year before my friend Hank died that almost mirrored how he died in real life (freak accident -- no way of even guessing) and it was a real weeper. I never tried to publish it because it gave me the creeps, the way it was sort of dictated to me. I think that happens a lot to writers when they are tapped into the higher force or whatever you want to call it. There's definitely something to it.

Chris Eldin said...

Oooo! Love spooky stories that have basis in reality.
Keep us posted....

Erik Donald France said...

Plain weird, plain bizarre, indeed. The psychic precog /precog of writing . . .

Charles Gramlich said...

Stacia, yeah but they're "mutant" monkeys.

Michelle, that story would have freaked me out as well. I probably would have trunked that tale too.

Christine, I'm rather hoping no more weird stuff happen with this story.

Erik, I enjoy weird but mostly at a distance.

Sarai said...

wow that is freaky. The only thing that has ever happened like that is a fog rolling in off the bay. I was writing about it as it was happening and freaked myself out...

david mcmahon said...

Visualising a familiar location will bring clarity of description. Good choice, Charles ....

WH said...

I have always taken Jung's views of synchronicity pretty seriously. The "non-random coincidence." Who knows. Either way, interesting story in and of itself :)

virtual nexus said...

Sounds similar to knowing someone has died before you've been told.

There are stranger things than this world dreams of, and all that....

ivan said...

I am myself too cowardly most times to look into the face of reality when I write.
Tend to use imaginary themes.
Last time I took a tour through real metaphysics, something came up and blew my house down.

Tyhitia Green said...

Charles,
This is weird. When you write the next scene, and something similar happens, dump the story, and cue the music from Tales From the Darkside... Very scary...coincidence or not.

Charles Gramlich said...

Sarai, I once had to drive a fog locked mountain road right after watching the movie "the Fog." That was freaky.

David,it certainly makes the visualization process easier.

Billy, I've actually started having many more of these kinds of events since being with Lana. I sometimes think it's a sign that my life is finally beginning to synchronize with that of the greater world. I'm going with the flow rather than fighting the rapids.

Julie, the world has a momentum all its own.

Ivan, I'm with you. As Lovecraft said, "never call up any that you can't put down."

Demon hunter, considering that this is a horror tale I really really hope nothing else in the tale manifests itself.

Anndi said...

I have something creepy for you. On Monday, my honey and I are talking on the phone before he goes off to have a procedure done.

He tells me about a dream he had the night before. In his dream, he was missing the lower half of his left leg. Seems there was something foreign following an injury and the doctors kept taking bits of his leg off... That morning, I sprain my ankle... LEFT leg...

Needless to say I keep inspecting it for any signs of disappearing limb disease.

Freaky, huh?

(Happy Valentine's Day to you and the lovely Lana)

Travis Erwin said...

I'd set out some rat poison just in case.

RRN said...

Crazy stuff Charles. When you cued the Twilight Zone Music I cracked up laughing.....and also heard it in my mind.

This brings light , and maybe a tad of proof , to the ideas that when humans focus on something enough....Funny things can happen.

I am not so much a believer in the super natrual as I am a huge believer in the human brain. These things in our skulls are capable of amazing energy , force , and power. In our current society I firmly believe we have barely begun to even scratch the surface of what our mind powers can really do.

Craziness.

James Burnett said...

Take it as an omen that your plot is on the right track.

Lisa said...

I hear Twilight Zone music! But I do have to laugh about the monkeys -- Scott and I have a joke about them. When he's stuck on a painting or I'm complaining about not knowing where to take a scene, we'll always tell each other to "put a monkey in it!".

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

So your mind power is very strong, Obi-wan.

Charles Gramlich said...

Anndi, now you've got me checking my legs.

Travis Erwin, at least my guns are loaded.

RRN, mental energy is certainly detectable in electrical form by proper measurements.

James Burnett, sounds like a good idea. when events manifest energy is flowing where it is supposed to go.

Lisa, lol. It always helps to have certain things to throw in to up the ante.

LoveRundle said...

That's scary and great at the same time! I would be having a Twilight Zone moment too. Your story sounds really interesting. Happy Writing!

Steve Malley said...

Weeeiiiirrrdddd!

I leave y'all alone for a couple of days and you go mucking around with life, art and the space/time continuum?!

Josephine Damian said...

Charles, FYI: Kim at BookEnds says they may NOT stick to the list of genres.

We'll both have to keep a sharp eye out for the thriller contest.

I'm already re-working my first hundred. You?

AvDB said...

Maybe you should have Lana strap you down while you sleep (in case of sleep walking/destroying, I mean).

Charles Gramlich said...

Christina, I'm having fun with the tale. Feels good to cut loose with some good bloody fun.

Steve Malley, at least my new found powers do not appear to extend beyond the local continuum.

Josephine, I've got a couple of deadlines hanging over my head at the instant but when that's done I'll be reviewing my stuff.

Avery, have Lana strap me down? You mean, additional straps? Above and beyond the current level?

Sidney said...

There's probably a clever phrase that could come out of this about "don't set scary stories where you have to sleep" or something like that. :-)

writtenwyrdd said...

Synchronicity exists to twist our tails. Glad you didn't have evil monkeys in your reality, though.