My 5 fears

Well as promised, here is the add-on to my previous post where I wrote about the top 5 fears and anxieties of the greater population at large.  Here are my top 5 and to be honest some are just anxieties, not actually terror.

For instance:

1- Clowns.  I distrust clowns.  Maybe it's because I can't tell what they are thinking behind all that make-up.  Maybe because I wonder why they hang out with small kids and hide their true identities.  From my perspective only superheros get a pass on the hidden identity thing.  Clowns...they suck.  A psychiatrist might think it was because I read Stephen King's novel, It. But I would probably chalk it up to having seen this f'ed up movie much too young.

2- Hospitals.  They smell funny.  Sort of like sepsis and rubbing alcohol.  Oh, and expensive bills for opinions that I could have told myself.  Stomach ache?  Indigestion.  Headache?  No one knows...stress or eat better or ...you guessed it...indigestion. You heard your ankle snap?  You can't see the podiatrist until your general physician verifies its broken and refers you.  Sorry, by the way, you might have digestive issues.

3- Funeral homes.  You would think it would be graveyards but it isn't.  I hear about people who live in the funeral home.  Family lives on one side, Dad does his work in the basement on dead bodies.  F@ck that.  Reminds me of Six Feet Under and My Girl.  My Girl made me hate funeral homes even more and further associate them with tears...don't judge me.

4- Speaking of basements...I hate those too.  I guess it is a combination of the dark and the unknown at its root.  But I am not scared of the dark nor the unknown so much. But when you combine the two in a dank smelly basement of a 100 year old house I get a bit uncomfortable.

5- Last but not least- Being stuck in a nightmare.  Another fear you can blame on bad television or that one time I thought I had sleep paralysis, but not waking from my sleep and being stuck in some continuing nightmare for all of eternity freaks me the f@ck out.  Thank you Freddy Krueger. Thank you to all those people who said the best way to die is in your sleep.  You have scar(r)ed me for life.

Top 5 Worst Fears

People are scared of all sorts of things but only a select few have the notorious distinction of making the top 5 all time greatest or most common fears list.  I'll post those five but then I will post my personal top 5 fears.  It will be interesting, to me at least, to see where there is overlap.

1) Fear of Flying

Yikes.  This picture can't be real...

2) Fear of Public Speaking

Imagining the audience in their undies is supposed to work....

...what if it just turns you on?

3)  Fear of Heights 

I imagine this goes hand in hand with the fear of flying.  I am pretty sure

no one is afraid to fly...just the possibility of falling from such a height.

4) Fear of the Dark

I would never admit that...

5)  Fear of Intimacy 

I figured this would be more Freudian and on the subconscious 

level versus an actual fear that could be listed...

The rest of the top ten are rounded out with (in order): Death, Failure, Rejection, Spiders and Commitment.  Some of the top ten seem to be very similar to me such as Rejection is usually a type of Failure, or at least is associated in the minds of those that fear one or the other.  Commitment and Intimacy go hand in hand if you ask me.  I have only two or maybe two and a half fears that match up with the top ten.  But later this week I will share my personal top 5 for your amusement.

I will give you a hint as to one of my fears, and it involves a red nose.  It is not Rudolph nor is it an alcoholic, though both of those might throw me for a loop if I was caught off guard.  Could you imagine running into a drunkard riding on the back of an actual flying reindeer in the middle of an alley at midnight?  

No thanks.

For Nothing film adaptation Interview

As you all know the novel For Nothing is being adapted into a screenplay by Sir Thomas Humphreys of Wales.  The magazine Side B recently interviewed him about his writing style, current works, family life, etc.  His interview contained large portions of dialogue about For Nothing including how we met, his thoughts on the book, the screenplay, etc.

Feel free to give it a read.  It is insightful as far as Thomas' writing process, flattering as far as my work is concerned, and generally pretty entertaining.

                               The Interview with Side B 

“What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he’s staring out of the window.” - Thomas Humpherys 


LH: Let’s talk about “For Nothing”: How did you get involved in writing the adaptation of Nicholas Denmon’s novel? Were you approached or did you seek it out? Had you read the book before writing it–I’m assuming you eventually read it to in fact adapt it.

TH: Where do I start with Nicholas Denmon? I was introduced to Nick about a year ago through a mutual friend; we connected on that wonderful writer’s tool, Twitter. He was an author, I was a screenwriter, so eventually his book came up in conversation, I was already working on a couple of scripts of my own at the time and in, I think, May of this year I flew out to Florida for just under a month to get away from the distractions of life here and concentrate on rewrites. I find my own company is a lot more bearable in 90 degree heat, sat next to the pool at the house there. [Click for entire interview]