Ugly Crying over Beautiful Stories by Marilyn Barr

 

Grab the tissues. Sometimes when the positivity is overwhelming and toxic, you crave a tear-jerker. Is it the release of pent-up stress, the mind’s way of making room for gratitude, or catharsis? The first movie I loved, because I used a box of tissues, was “My Girl” in 1991. Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay Culkin’s portrayal of young adults processing death was burned onto my brain from the time I saw it. My parents gave the video to me because I wanted to be a coroner and the female main character’s father runs a funeral home. I can’t imagine what it was like for those who saw the saddest movie I’ve ever seen in theaters. Did they use all the snack bar napkins or smuggle full boxes of tissues into the screenings?   

Where do you go when you prefer spooky entertainment, but you need an ugly cry? There are a plethora of tear-jerkers in the paranormal genre, but are they romances? The definition of a ‘romance’ includes a happily ever after, so when selecting my favorites, I selected titles from the paranormal and fantasy genres. What are your favorite paranormal titles that use up your tissue stockpile?

1.     Ghost (Movie 1990) – Who can forget the pottery scene of Ghost when it is parodied on television and comedies to this day? This paranormal romance movie is about a dead banker (Patrick Swayze) who uses a medium (Whoopi Goldberg) to warn his wife of danger (Demi Moore). While Home Alone was the highest-grossing film of 1990, Ghost was a close second with the two movies fighting for the top spot all year. Ghost was nominated for many Oscars but only won two (Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress – Whoopi Goldberg). (Facts from IMDB)

2.     The Shadows (novel) by JR Ward—While the Black Dagger Brotherhood book series kills, injures, reanimates, and diagnoses many female main characters with terminal diseases, this book hit me in the feels. Not only is the paranormal romance between Chosen Serena and Trez heart-breaking because she is destined to turn to stone, but the relationship between Trez and brother iAm is put to the test. I don’t know whom I cried for more—the romantic couple or the brothers.

3.      Storm of Swords (novel) by George R R Martin—Some of you may have an eyebrow raised at my inclusion of a Game of Thrones book in my favorite tear-jerkers. My response is two words—Red Wedding. When the Red Wedding episode aired on HBO, many fantasy readers (including myself) ran to the nearest bookstore to buy the series. Could an author write a scene this heart-breaking and destructive to his main protagonists or did HBO pull it to the extremes for ratings? The books are not close to the televised version of Game of Thrones, but the red wedding is horrifically identical.

 

With a collection of tragedies on my bookshelf, I could assuage the guilt of writing my own dark fantasy tear-jerker. Strawberry Shifters Book 4: Rotten Apple is the tale of Ryan’s demise. We’ve known from Book 1:Bear with Me, that the vampires aren’t healthy and die young. Ryan the Vampire King is a “vampiric dinosaur” in his fifties thanks to the stem cell treatments developed by Dr. V. When they stop working, Ryan is given two months to live by the doc…and the promise of immortality if he betrays his friends and family on Earth…

There are many tender moments between Ryan and his love interest, Orchid, but my favorite scene in Rotten Apple is when he says goodbye to Gran, the matriarchal witch of Strawberry. Here’s an excerpt of their banter:

“I miss the days when you pretended vampires needed an invitation to enter someone’s home,” Rafaella croaks while trying to climb out of bed.

“I miss the days before air conditioning systems when I could fly into any home with an open window. Jeez, don’t break your hip trying to get up. I’m here to answer your summons,” I say while dismissing her with my hand.

“You look like hell,” she states with a subsequent coughing fit.

“As do you,” I reply, holding her water glass to her cracked lips. I remember when she was a beauty. Her violet eyes have dulled and sunk into her head. Her lustrous black hair has dried into straw. I say a silent prayer of gratitude that I will die before being as crippled as she looks. The once-powerful witch is as hollow as a chocolate bunny in an Easter basket.

“I look like I’m dying.”

“Well, aren’t you?”

“Yep, I’m dying to get to the afterlife so I can get laid.” I catch the twinkle in her eyes before her wheezing starts again. I offer her another sip of water, but she swats me away. “You, on the other hand, aren’t dying with grace. You are fighting nature with everything you have. Isn’t young love waiting for you in the afterlife?”

“The first Terika.” Her name drifts out on my sigh before I can stop myself. An image of her spinning in her graduation gown fogs my thinking and the words take flight from my mouth. “She was a stunning vampiress with fiery red curls, quick wit, and legs that seemed to go on forever. She died before I could wed her. I let my ambitions get in the way. Vampiresses are a sickly bunch. She died a virgin when I wasn’t looking.”

“How did you say goodbye?”

“I didn’t.” Pain stabs my chest with the memories that define my life. I traded the crown for the love of my life, so I dedicated myself to the job. The story is like a runaway train pulling my heart off the cliff of despair. “Her father said she died of a broken heart. He blamed me and banned me from the funeral. In hindsight, I could have pushed the issue or charged him with contempt, but I didn’t have the time. There was my brother’s wedding, his subsequent abdication, my coronation, endless challengers for the throne, and my father had only been dead for a few years. The colony was a mess. People were starving.”

When she pats my hand, my thoughts snap back to the present. “It doesn’t matter anyway. She wasn’t mine.”

“The fairy.” Her words are whispered so quietly I almost miss them. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell. I want a deal for my secrecy,” she says with more strength. She struggles to sit up on her elbows to look into my eyes.

“Nope, this is too big and I’m not leaving debts for Lucien.” I stare down my nose at her. My fangs itch to descend as fight my temper. I will not be tricked by a witch.

“Okay, one big secret for two small favors.”

“Rafaella, my last grains are falling through the hourglass. I haven’t the time to do anything for you. Lucien will not honor any claim you or your mongrels lay at his feet when I’m gone.”

“Believe it or not, Lucien has his guardian angel hidden under five pounds of goth makeup. He doesn’t need you. You can rest, Ryan. Betty will protect him for the rest of his days.”

 

Rotten Apple is available at multiple retailers as well as the rest of the Strawberry Shifters saga. Say goodbye to Ryan the Vampire King here and find out whose mistake starts the clock to the prophesized Fae wars and the end of either Magmell or Strawberry…