Author: Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

Alina Happy Hansen is a writer, poet, and blogger based in San Francisco. Besides writing nearly 24/7 and reading stacks of books, Alina enjoys watching classic horror films and listening to Stoner Metal. She holds a Bachelors of Arts in English with a Minor in Writing and Rhetoric Studies from The University of Utah.

My First Novel: Week #2 Break (Feb.6th 2019)

Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

I woke up with Lana Del Rey’s “Tomorrow Never Came” playing in my head. The line, “sitting on the park bench, waiting for you” repeating over and over in my mind. I can hear the music, her voice. Are those words even right? Or do they go another way, I have to look it up,

No, I was wrong, the part I was thinking of, it goes,

“I waited for you

In the spot you said to wait

In the city, on a park bench

In the middle of the pouring rain”

The image is stuck in my head, and it repeats over and over. Now I am finally able to drown it out listening to Warpaint, or Sharon Van Etten. I don’t think I really like “Tomorrow Never Came” as much as other Lana songs, so strange. The reference to Elton John and with accompanying vocals by Sean Ono Lennon. The past is present, it lives on, its alive within us.

What does it mean when I get songs stuck in my head? How am I able to hear the song, the instruments, everything not just the words. I can recall exactly how it sounds as if I am actually listening to the song, how is the brain capable of that?

This is week two of me taking a break from working on my novel. I have given the second draft to a trusted friend and I am patiently waiting for them to finish it and provide some much-needed feedback. I feel calmer and less anxious this week than last, I had been itching to keep working on my novel but refused to look at any drafts or write any background on my characters. I need to distance myself from my work so I can gain a better perspective.

When I say/write “my novel” it sounds so pretentious. But when I say “my book” it sounds flat and lifeless, like it could be anything, a recipe book, a book of quotes, anything. Novel sounds better.

For lunch today, I had a wheat bagel toasted with butter and blackberry jam. I fried up some scrambled eggs and ground up some pepper and salt for taste. I drink my coffee, my thermos keeps my french roast hot for hours, the longest I’ve counted was seven hours, I think that was yesterday.

Mundane details of my day, by writing them out I’m keeping myself occupied, my mind and my constant desire to write anything.

Every morning I use my electric kettle and boil enough water to fill the french press up to the little white line that denotes ‘4 cups’. I use pre-ground organic french dark roast coffee. I have cut cream out completely from my daily coffee ritual. Did that take as long as when I cut out sugar years ago? After I noticed I went through a 5 lb bag of white cane sugar in only a couple of months. The amount of sugar I used is revolting to me now. Two to three teaspoons per cup. Cup after cup after cup after cup.

There is a winter storm warning in effect right now. It started yesterday around noon. The big white flurries coming down. The mountains white with snow and half hidden by looming thick grey clouds. I drove around and ran some errands, bought a new pair of shoes and decided to go home. Reading the road, the drivers, aware of their movements which were becoming more erratic since it started snowing, I didn’t want to risk it. Risk being on the road with people excited, aroused, or angry ready to hit the gas and plow through the snow only to slip and slide and run into each other or worse, me.

Now the snow has piled up high, at least a foot on the fence as far as I can tell when I look out the window. There is so much snow. I am beginning to wonder how long it takes for people to get cabin fever in these conditions. I think about reading The Shining. I really want to and I am surprised that I haven’t yet. Today would be a perfect day to start but I have plans.

Soon I will have to pull on my layers, my boots and gloves, wrap myself up and go outside to dig out my truck. I have plans tonight with my partner and the short drive to meet him will take longer than usual today. Can’t help but think about the movie The Thing, can’t help but think to myself that some things are not what they appear even when they look familiar. My street, the house, even my truck hidden under snow on snow, white on white. It is all unfamiliarly familiar like prescribed deja vu.

In the back of my mind, I can hear my characters, they shuffle in the kitchen, pacing. I can hear their voices begging me to let them out. I can only imagine what’s going to happen when this is over.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

I’m going to go play in the snow.

-Alina

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PATREON

Guaranteed Creepy: The Ted Bundy Tapes

Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

Earlier this week, I sat down and made the conscious decision to watch Netflix’s Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. I had been putting it off for a few days but was interested in the series when I saw it featured on Netflix’s homepage. Right after I started the first episode I was hooked and watched the entire series in one night. When it was finally over I was genuinely unsettled and creeped out.
A monochrome photograph of a expressionless man with piercing eyes
Ted Bundy (photo source: wikipedia)

I know the basics about Ted Bundy, especially as a native Utahn, I remember learning about him when I was very young. I’m familiar with the gory details of quite a few serial killers since I have a passion for true crime documentaries and shows but I haven’t been inclined to research out Ted Bundy in detail. This documentary was the first time I learned about the chronology of the murders. A key part of The Ted Bundy Tapes is the eerie recordings of Bundy talking about the murders, closing the distance between viewer and subject, this results in an appropriate response from the audience.

The Ted Bundy Tapes do a good job of summarizing the multiple killings but fails in going into the explicit details. I get the impression that the goal of this documentary series was to tear apart the conversation most people have about Bundy i.e. “but he was so good-looking and smart, he was one of us”. That conversation is related to the creepiest aspects about the Bundy case, people became caught up in his ability to speak articulately and joke around. He was an attractive flirt that could smooth talk people, quickly getting them under his thumb so that he could manipulate them.

I was partially disappointed in The Ted Bundy Tapes because I was expecting a different approach to the subject, such as a detailed history of Bundy’s life, motives, the crime scenes, and the evidence. Instead, it was more like a summary of Bundy’s whereabouts at the time of the crimes, an outline of the killings and emphasis on the overall attitude of the public. The documentary did a good job of discussing the media coverage of the Ted Bundy cases and how towards the end (before he was executed) Bundy became a strange social-cultural icon.

There were parallels that I noticed in the documentary, between Ted Bundy and the Manson murders, specifically the media coverage and the megalomaniac personalities of Bundy and Manson. Both men had a substantial female fandom while in prison, a frequent occurrence for many males serial killers that I will never understand.

The documentary also did a good job at discussing the changing times in America during the late sixties through the seventies, new types of criminals were emerging and there were limited technological resources available to help catch killers. I think these details are important for younger viewers, and I did not realize this until I was done watching the series. I was perplexed when they mentioned the technology available at the time of the murders because I already knew those facts but then it dawned on me that audiences around the age of 14-20 may not know the technological history of the past seventy years.

This was disturbing, the fact that the documentary interviewed people that said that there was no internet at this time or fax machines, that serial killers was an unheard of concept. The documentary was educating its intended audience about the times of Bundy. The details that were emphasized in this documentary suggested that the intended audience is presumed to be very young.

This got me thinking, if I am right about the intended audience based on the goals of the documentary: ‘debunking’ Bundy as a handsome ‘normal’ guy, and the historical details (women’s movement, civil rights, no internet, no fax machines etc) then can I hypothesize that this documentary’s actual goal was re-educating the youngest intended audiences about a new upgraded discussion on ‘Stranger-Danger’?

Not only could this documentary be an upgraded ‘Stranger-Danger’ warning to the youth, but it can also be considered an attempt at de-glorifying a convicted killer. There was an equal amount of emphasis in terms of the fact that Bundy did rape and kill over thirty women. He was a brutal killer that preyed on very specific groups of females, young white usually college-educated women mostly found on campuses.

Even though I consider my ideas about the intended audience and the goal of this documentary to be just speculation, I did like The Ted Bundy Tapes, it was informative and interesting. It was captivating and strange to hear the recordings of Bundy’s voice talking about the murders in the third person, he had to distance himself from the murders in some way.

I would recommend this documentary to anyone that likes true crimes stories or Netflix Original series centered around crime and action.

If you have already watched The Ted Bundy Tapes, I suggest watching Mindhunter, or Criminal Minds.

Alina’s Rating: 3.5 Electric Chairs/ 5 Electric Chairs

Thank you for reading!

You can also find Alina on Patreon or Instagram

My First Novel: (2nd Draft Break) Jan.29, 2019

Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

I’ve decided to take a break from my manuscript for a while. I need to finish reading a few books and put some space between me and my characters. After my last post, My First Novel: (Finishing 2nd Draft) I ordered a printed copy of my manuscript. It was substantially thinner than the first draft.

I can’t figure out the ending quite yet and there are still about a dozen places in dialogue that need work but I wanted to read through it once and see how it felt. I made it a point just to read through my 2nd draft without editing, making any marks or highlighting. I just had to read it.

It has been stripped down to the bare bones, I cut about 16,000 words from the original 50,000. There are places where I can put some much-needed padding and other spots where I saw that chapters were almost identical (as far as the intended goal).  But overall I enjoyed reading my manuscript without editing it, it only took me about two days to finish reading it.

I plan on keeping myself away from my manuscript for about a week or two, then I’ll dive into the third draft. Until then I plan on posting a couple things about what I’ve been reading, such as all the Patti Smith books I’ve been reading, and a list of how-to writing books.

What I’m Currently Reading:

Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga

10882

What I’m listening to:

What I’m watching:

Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes

 

Thank you for reading about my journey writing my first novel!

-Alina

PATREON

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