Catches in Holiday Hospice

What I Wanted in Holiday Hospice

IMAGINATION PART 1:  I love imaginative, tall tales so much that I wrote one of my own.  One simple question leads to another then another--Who's killing people?  Why are they killing people?  Who's really in control?  There's no one simple answer (except ultimately the most evil Elder God, I suppose) because the data looks contradictory depending upon switching viewpoints.  Each background character answers differently than a named staff member would, and his or her answers would be incorrect from how the magic cat, Mr. Meow Meow, interprets the problems, etc.  So, I let the reader decide if anyone has free choice & how wrong or right can one's fate truly be.

IMAGINATION PART 2:  The main character essentially tells a campfire story towards the end of Holiday Hospice.  His tale, to me, is a fun one full of wizards, dragons & magic.  He uses a very simple good versus evil plot, with a fantastic owl & an analysis of what happens when we stray from morality, to illustrate what's both universal & unknown about life:  Death.

MURDER:  Besides the inevitability of death as a universal theme, murders in a health care setting seem relatively original minus one or two forgettable organ farming clone projects.  Potential victims find themselves trapped on an island (or a planet, or a boat, or within the subconscious...) struggle to get along with each other & fight for their lives against a killer or monster.  Those are gripping movies usually.  One by one they die...  

NOVELTY:  Boost that attrition with daily celebrations then add a wonderful/diabolical feline & you've found a flavorful & surprising treat for the mind.  Many names have some basis in combinations, as I learned from a smart person:  Just take two completely different words then combine them into a compound word using trial & error until you have something that matches or works.  Previously, I put those instructions to the test & invented "Soulhammer."  But so had a dozen others.

RELATABLE FOLKS:  I believe that what makes Holiday Hospice tick is the flawed, down-to-earth aspects of the characters.  Even the hero—handsome, strong, smart, fast, keen—can’t or won’t mentally go easy on himself.  The minister drinks to a fault.  The janitor is a pervert.  The nurses trust too much and/or are over-emotional at times.  None of us is perfect & neither are the patients, the staff, the near-perfect paragons, nor the Elder Gods regardless of what they claim.

HUMOR:  Another ingredient, in the book, is quirky humor.  From my hardwired trait of looking askew at so many commonplace happenings for both amusement & survival, Holiday Hospice brings sarcasm, improbability, puns, slapstick & an eccentric comedy style to the reader.  A subtitle could be “a man & his cat.”  A synopsis could be “predestination gone awry.”  Both fit for me also.