What Was Your Childhood Monster? Blogfest


In honour of the release of Christine Rains' new paranormal romance novella, FEARLESS, which came out on August 7th  and is available via Smashwords, Christine is hosting the What Was Your Childhood Monster? Blogfest.

Here's what Christine has to say about the fest:

One of my favorite parts of writing the story was creating monsters spawned from children's imaginations. Some of them are silly, but there's no rhyme or reason to a child's fears.

For this blogfest, all you need to do is write about your childhood monster. Did you have a beast living under your bed? Or was the scary clown in your closet?

So, what was my childhood monster?

While in adulthood I have a fear of clowns, thanks to Pennywise the clown *shudders*, as a child I was actually scared of aliens!!

Growing up, me, my sister and my dad often listened to Jeff Wayne's War of theWorlds in the car. 

While I was enthralled by the music, intrigued by the concept and utterly in love with David Essex's Artilleryman, the aliens – and most of all – their tripod space crafts and heat ray terrified me. 

The slow build up, the reveal of the alien as it came out of the craft, the whistling sound that stayed in your head for weeks, and worst of all, the noise of that damn heat ray, went right to my soul.


On one occasion, I borrowed the cassette off my dad, but was too scared to listen to it on my own, and it remained untouched on my window ledge until the following weekend, when I saw my dad again.

Even today, I still get creeped out when listening to War of the Worlds and I think it's responsible my dislike for mechs in sci-fi films, TV shows and books. As well as being the inspiration behind an idea for one of my stories, in which forty tons of mobile metal machinery, called The Harvesters, hunt down the people of the slums, and if they catch you will turn you into robots like themselves .

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked seeing a little snippet of my childhood monster, and I can't wait to read yours … unless it involves more alien or clowns!

And remember to check out FEARLESS on Smashwords!


30 comments:

  1. Interesting. War of the Worlds is a classic story. As for me, I was the weird kid who wanted aliens to land. Oh, who am I kidding? I still do (as long as they're friendly, of course).

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    1. It is a fantastic story. Though I'm still slightly creeped out by aliens, I find them fascinating. I'm loving TNT's show Falling Skies.

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  2. At least you were able to use that fear in one of your stories!

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    1. Yeah, it's funny what inspires us as adults. :)

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  3. Awesome story, Clare! I remember being freaked out by those tripod spacecrafts, too, haha. Funny how fear shapes us, eh? Thanks for sharing!

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    1. It really is! Those tripods were scary!! Thanks for commenting Guilie. :)

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  4. I think big metal monsters are pretty scary. They're more of a possibility than anything else! It's awesome that your dad listened to War of the Worlds with you. Stephen King inspired a lot of monsters, I've seen. He's the one that triggered mine! It's why I admire him so. Thanks for sharing your monster with us and for helping promote my novella. :)

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    1. I think that's why aliens still scare me a little today. It could happen. My Dad is awesome like that, we still talk about War of the Words sometimes.
      From the little I've read of Stephen King, I can see why he'd inspire so many childhood monsters, his stuff is creepy. It's great that he's turned into an inspiration for you now though. You're welcome. I love Fearless, it's a great story, and I'm more than happy to promote it. :D

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  5. Aliens used to scare me a bit when I was younger, too! And Pennywise - just hearing the name makes me shudder!

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    1. I think what's so creepy about aliens is that it could still happen. Funnily, I'm becoming less scared of Pennywise. Stephen King's user pic of Twitter is of him, and I just sat there staring at it, thinking what a dumb expression he had on his face! :)

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  6. Aliens and clowns, check! Those are two of my all-time least favorites. Pennywise (although I love the band by that name) freaked me out so bad when I was young.

    My brother will kill me for posting this but when we were kids he was seriously frightened of clowns. Like freak out have a fit scared. His crazy brought mine down under control. But aliens still freak me out! War of the Worlds specifically, is CREEP-TASTIC.

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  7. I've not heard of the band, what style music are they?

    I think that's a good think your brother's freaked out-ness calmed yours down, but it's bad he was that scared ... though I can't blame him! *shudders*

    War of the Worlds is very creepy. :)

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  8. Clare- Pennywise are hard-core punk. I started to listen to them in the early 90's. Can't listen to them much now, unless the kids aren't around cause they cuss, a lot. LOL

    My girls always ask me, "Mommy, why is your music so angry?" HA.

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    1. LOL Hum ... now to search from them on YouTube without finding that damnable clown.

      Angry music, I love it. Sometimes you just need a bit of angry music!

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  9. What a fun blogfest. Yeah - I can see how aliens would be creepy. I was always afraid of Freddy Kruger, and I never even watched that show! How weird is that?

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    1. I don't think it's weird at all, as I was creeped out by him too, and never saw the movies either. :)

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  10. I think, had my exposure to War of the Worlds been a lot earlier, that I might have been scared of aliens, too. I share your Pennywise inspired fear of clowns!

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    1. I should imagine a lot of people are scared of clowns thanks to Pennywise, and I can certainly see War of the Worlds being less scare and more interesting if you first listened to it at a slightly older age.

      Thanks for commenting. :)

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  11. So Clare, I'm guessing you don't watch a lot of X-files?

    Pennywise is a scary, scary clown, but I think the clown in Poltergeist tops him.

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    1. Actually I did watch X-files, I had the biggest crust on David Duchovny. I stopped watching before it got heavily into aliens though.

      The clown in Poltergeist is creepy, but not as scary as Pennywise, in my opinion.

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  12. I have a healthy fear of clowns, also thanks to Pennywise. But, I do like the good mechs, like the autobots from Transformers. I may have to check out War of the Worlds- this is new territory for me.
    A2Z Mommy and What’s In Between

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    1. I quite like the autobots from Transformers, I think them being friendly makes them less scary.

      War of the Worlds is an excellent alien and human survival story, well worth checking out. :D

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  13. I'm not sure why people thought clowns would appeal to children... they are kinda scary! I never thought I'd watch a show about aliens, but I've been watching Falling Skies and the aliens in it are very creepy.

    Allison (Geek Banter)

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    1. Exactly! How are clowns appropriate children's toys/ entertainers?!

      Oh, I love Falling Skies, one of the best shows on right now, though the mechs in that creep me right out.

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  14. I grew up on a farm and we had two neighbors killed by machinery accidents. Mechs are definitely scary.

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  15. Pennywise ~shudder~

    I have to say, that recording sounds good, but terrifying.

    My monster: http://thewarriormuse.blogspot.com/2012/08/childhood-monster-blog-fest.html

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    1. As an adult, I can see the beauty in War of the Worlds, but as a child, it terrified me.

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  16. Aliens are more substantial than what scared me. :)

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    1. Oh yeah? Something you can share or too scary?

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