Author Archive

I Miss The Scream TV Series

Posted: March 8, 2023 in Reflections, Scary Stuff
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The first season of the Scream TV series. The show deserves more attention, if you ask me.

Odd topic for my two thousandth post, but hey, not every milestone post is going to be something big and amazing. Besides, this needs talking about before Friday.

And what’s Friday? The release of Scream VI, the sixth Scream movie. By now, most horror franchises, especially the slasher franchises, end up on direct-to-video (or DVD and Blu-Ray or streaming, as things now stand). But the Scream franchise, through not putting out sequels every year and making films that tend to age well (seriously, I enjoyed the films I disliked on first viewing more on the second viewing), has stayed in theaters. And the sixth film, set in New York and featuring a Ghostface who appears to be a major fanatic of the Ghostface killers, looks especially amazing. What could be missing?

Well, in all the rewatch of the films and which one’s best, I miss the TV show. Yeah, Scream had a TV show. A lot of people have forgotten that. It was on MTV for two seasons and VH1 for a third season, it was slightly more serious than the movies with less metatextual exploration of horror (but it did have that), and, for two seasons, had a Ghostface whose costume didn’t look clumsy or like it would get in the killer’s way.*

I actually bought the TV show’s version of the costume for Halloween soon after I got my job. I still have the costume, and enjoy wearing it on occasion. I wore it for this post!

What was the TV series about, you might ask? Well, it was a similar setup to the movies. A serial killer, known in this reality as the Lakewood Slasher or the Brandon James Killer, wears a mask based on the face of an accused murderer named Brandon James and starts killing people related to this world’s Sydney, named Emma. And, like the original films, the killings are often inspired by Emma’s family’s past.

There was also some amazing character development, a mystery that kept you guessing, and some really freaky kills and scares that competed with American Horror Story and the Slasher TV series. So, what happened?

I don’t know. I guess the producers got scared that people were losing interest in the second season, because after a Halloween special, they scrapped the ongoing storyline of Emma and her friends and started a new story with the original Ghostface costume for the third season. And that was the season that got critically panned and was followed by a cancellation. So, I guess it was a good decision?

Me in my Scream TV series costume. Creepy, right?

And that’s a shame, because as I said, I remember it being really good for the first two seasons. And while we can never be sure, if the series had decided to focus on the story of Emma and her friends, rather than doing a reboot for a possible anthology series, what could have happened? What if the series got better? At the very least, we might have wrapped up the story.

So, while I look forward to seeing the new film, I would like to point out that the TV show (or at least the first two seasons, anyway), deserve some love and appreciation. Hell, after I finish watching the original run of Law & Order, I’m going to rewatch the first two seasons on Netflix.

Maybe you can join me for a watch? I think that would be a lot of fun. And together, we can maybe show this show some deserved love.

Did you watch the Scream TV series? What were your thoughts of it? Any chance you’ll revisit it with me? What’s your favorite scary movie?

*Seriously, what the heck is with the Ghostface robe? It goes down to your feet and is tight around the legs. Every killer in that costume should trip every time they pursue a victim. Actually, they showed that in the parody film Scary Movie.

“The Hunting Party:” My First New Story of 2023 is Completed!

Posted: March 5, 2023 in short story, Writing
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The Wild Hunt, the major inspiration for this story.

Glad I got it done in March than maybe in June or July. The Great Editing, am I right? Keeps me so busy!

Anyway, as I said in a previous post, I took a break from all that editing so I could get some new stories written before all that editing drove me mad. Well, madder than usual. You know what I mean. The point is, I took a break, and this past Wednesday started on a new short horror story set on Christmas Eve. Yeah, I know I’m Jewish, but I can write a Christmas horror story like everyone else.

And no, this story, which I’m calling “The Hunting Party,” doesn’t involve Krampus or another evil Santa Claus variant. I love the character, but he’s already been done to the point publishers are starting to get tired of seeing him. Instead, I decided to base this story on the Wild Hunt. For those of you unfamiliar, the Wild Hunt is a mythical band or horde of ghostly riders that travel at night, flying through the air as they hunt whatever crosses their path. There are many variations of the Hunt throughout Europe and even beyond, and depending on where you are can be made up of different leaders, riders, spirits and reasons why they ride. It’s a fun motif to work with.

And some versions of the Wild Hunt, as well as some of their leaders, are said to be most powerful around the Christmas season. In fact, some versions are led by Odin, who himself is speculated to be an influence on the modern depiction of Santa Claus. You can see why it lends itself well to Christmas stories, including one written by me.

As for “The Hunting Party,” I’m going to start sending it out to a beta reader or two as soon as I can find one. It’s about 7,400 words long, so I hope neither their suggestions or my attempts to improve the story end in the story getting too much longer. Yeah, the publisher I hope to send it too allows stories up to ten-thousand words or more, but I’d feel more confident if this story didn’t get that long.

As for what’s next, I already know what story I’m going to work on next. It’s going to make you shudder in horror, it involves a common phobia, and takes place at Halloween. I do not write enough stories set at Halloween. The last one I did ended up a trunk novel. Hopefully this one finds a home.

For now though, I’m making a late dinner and watching a movie before hitting the hay. I have a crazy week ahead of me, so I’m going to need all the rest I can get. Wish me luck.

And until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night, pleasant nightmares, and Merry Christmas! May nothing bloodthirsty come down your chimney (or otherwise enter your home if you don’t have a chimney).

Update on the Great Editing

Posted: February 26, 2023 in Progress Report, Writing
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Well, I just finished editing my Backrooms story, “It Changes You,” and added two-thousand words along the way. Only took two weeks. I even improved a very squicky scene so that it will be easier to imagine. And I just reached out to a friend who expressed interest in beta reading the story before I send it out. Depending on how things play out, I may have a few others have a look at it before I try sending it out to publishers.

And now, you might be wondering (or you might not, I can’t read minds) what I plan to edit next. Am I going to go back to “They Sleep Within The Rock,” AKA the story where I put neo-Nazis through hell? Or will I do another pass on the stories in Hannah and Other Stories? Or will I edit something else?

Actually, I’m going to take a break from editing. Let me put it this way: I’m tired. And I’ve been itching for a little while now to work on something new. And I thought I could get through editing one more story. But, you know what they say: man (or whatever species I am) plans and God laughs. So, I’m going to work on some new stuff that excites me and that I think I could find homes for. One’s going to be a story set at Christmas. Yeah, it’s February, but holiday anthologies are already accepting stories. And I may be Jewish, but there are aspects of the holiday season that I enjoy. And which I enjoy putting through hell in stories. The other story will be inspired by a rather unsettling thought I had before bed one evening and which I developed into a story. It’s probably going to make people shudder. Especially my mother. This is something she’s famously afraid of.

I hope she doesn’t mind me saying so. Oh well. She knew what she was getting into when she had me.

Anyway, after those stories, if I don’t have another draft of Hannah to do, I might do that next draft of “They Sleep Within the Rock” and do a third draft of “It Changes You.” Or I may write more new stories. It just depends on what I’m in the mood for. But yeah, I’m going to get those stories edited at some point. I just need breaks from so much massive editing from time to time.

In the meantime, I’m taking the rest of the night off before I get to work on these stories. Tonight it’s dinner, a horror movie, and maybe some reading before bed. It’ll be a good way to end the weekend.

Until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night, pleasant nightmares, and enjoy this week if you can. For all we know, it could be a rough one.

Writing Those Squicky Scenes

Posted: February 25, 2023 in Reflections, Scary Stuff, Writing
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For those of you who don’t know, “squicky” refers to something that is very disturbing, disgusting, and/or unpleasant. In horror, it usually refers to something out of what Stephen King calls “the gross-out factor” of horror, with lots of blood and gore and bodily fluids. Occasionally squicky scenes (or at least most of the ones I’ve encountered) also have some sexual element, though not the kind that would indicate any form of healthy sex. Squicky scenes are the ones that make readers think, “Good Lord, what’s wrong with this author?” And they make the author’s parents go, “what kind of freak did we raise that they could come up with this?”

On a personal level, I can go either way with squickiness. Sometimes, like with the Evil Dead remake in 2013, I find that’s part of the charm of the movie. And I’m looking forward to watching Terrifier 2 because its squickiness reportedly caused people to vomit and faint in the theaters (though hopefully not at the same time). But when it comes to stories like Human Centipede and its sequels, where the very concept is squicky, I run the opposite way.*

That being said, I find myself writing squicky scenes more and more in my work. There’s a scene like that in my Backrooms story “It Changes You,” and one of the stories in my upcoming collection Hannah and Other Stories has plenty of squick in it. And there’s a particular story I hope to start writing soon that will have you shuddering from the squick! It’s going to be a blast.

Why am I writing these scenes? Well, part of it is because I’ve seen other authors in the books I read writing them and that has inspired/urged me to try writing them as well. Another is that, in my continual quest to improve as a writer, I’m trying to push myself to step more and more out of my comfort zone and try things that I wouldn’t normally write. And a third part is that, when done right, those scenes make the story scarier and make the story stand out to readers.

That being said, writing those scenes isn’t easy. I’m usually thinking three things when working on a squick moment: is this too much? Is this not enough? And am I using the right words to bring out the full squicky nature of the scene? Since some of these stories haven’t released yet, I can’t be certain. You’re trying to balance several elements like word choice, time spent on a particular moment, translating that horrifying moment from your brain to the page, and how it fits into the story as a whole, among others. A single misstep and people might call you “shocking for shock’s sake” or “exploitative.”

That being said, people are going to call you that anyway. Besides Human Centipede, other films like the Saw movies or Texas Chainsaw Massacre are full of squicky moments and features. I know authors whose books are filled with squick. And you’ll find that each one has both detractors and fans. It just depends on the person, what they’re capable of stomaching, and what personally draws them to the story.

As for advice on writing squicky scenes, I don’t have much, unfortunately. Like I said, I don’t write them too often. But I do think that, unless your main thought when writing a story is, “I want readers to be shocked and grossed out and wincing with every paragraph,” only use squick when it works for the story. If it adds something to the story, great, keep it. If it doesn’t, then perhaps think about whether you should include such a scene.

This entire film is squicky and I want nothing to do with it.

Also, and while it may be stomach churning, read what others have done with squick and try to pick up what makes their takes effective. Once you do that, you can hopefully get some practice in and start creating scenes and stories that, over time, will produce the same effect those scenes produce in other readers and in you.

All that being said, if squick isn’t your thing, don’t push yourself to include it. The thing about horror, there’s a niche for everyone. You prefer things to be gory and gross and shocking, there’s something for you. You like ghosts and psychological stuff? There’s something there for you. You like cosmic beings whose very appearance causes insanity? Yep, there’s something for you.

Anyway, I just wanted to talk about these scenes I’m writing and my thoughts on them. I hope that when some of these stories with their squick-inducing moments release, they’ll be quite effective and add plenty to the story. Now, if you need me, I’m off to watch some scary movies.

Until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares.

Do you enjoy squicky scenes? Do you write them often? What advice do you have for writing and including them in your horror?

*Seriously, you could not pay me to watch those films. Anyone tries, I will smack them into next week and make my escape in the meantime. I’m already screwed up enough, thank you very much! Don’t need to be twisted any further.

Review: “Sister, Maiden, Monster” by Lucy A. Snyder

Posted: February 16, 2023 in Novel, Review, Scary Stuff
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Before we start, I would like to thank Lucy A. Snyder and the team at Tor Nightfire for providing me with an ARC copy to read (and a special thank you to Lucy for the awesome galley copy she gave me a few months back).

Set a few years after our current COVID-19 pandemic, Sister, Maiden, Monster follows three separate women as their lives are affected by a terrible new disease raging across the planet. Known as polymorphic viral gastroencephalitis, or PVG, the disease is like the stomach flu from hell. For those who are lucky, it kills them very quickly. For the rest, it changes them, making them unable to eat most sources of nutrients. They have to get their nutrition through rather macabre means. And that’s only the start of the apocalypse that’s going to come.

So, it looks like there’s still an appetite for pandemic fiction, even after a real pandemic. At least, if the release of Sister, Maiden, Monster, the airing of “The Last of Us,” and one or two of my own stories, among other works, areanything to go by. And everyone telling those stories are making sure the hypothetical future pandemics are even more terrible than COVID-19 was. Which, honestly, I gotta respect.

Alright, onto the story. Sister, Maiden, Monster was great. I really enjoyed it. For one thing, the three main characters are really well-developed, which is great in such a character-driven story. There’s Erin, who’s seeing her life implode and strange new desires growing inside her after becoming infected; Savannah, a prostitute and dominatrix who discovers she has a talent for causing death in the name of new masters; and Mareva, a sickly woman who has been chosen for a terrible purpose. I really got to know these characters and get inside their minds. Which, by the way, was not always the most pleasant ride, believe me.

Speaking of which, Lucy Snyder does not shy away from showing what Stephen King calls the “gross-out” factor of horror. There are bloods, brains, gore, and plenty more body horror to make more squeamish readers feel faint. Add in the isolation and paranoia of living through another pandemic, this one worse than the one preceding it, as well as some good and delicious cosmic horror, and it makes for a rather scary read.

I did think that the time spent with each narrator was unbalanced. Somewhere between a third and half the book is from Erin’s perspective, and while I get why, I would have liked to see more from the other two narrators. Especially Savannah. That lady is wild and a lot of fun to read, even if you would be horrified by her if she were real.

I also noticed that something that appeared later in the book and which I loved seeing was foreshadowed earlier in the story, but I felt it could have been foreshadowed a bit more. Hell, I nearly forgot about the foreshadowing until the reveal, so that says something.

All in all, Sister, Maiden, Monster is a great, body horror-filled ride and I’m glad I got to be among the first to read it. On a scale of 1 to 5, I’m giving it a 4.3. The book releases this Tuesday, February 21st, so go preorder a copy, settle down when you get yours, and get ready to see the horror of the pandemic go through a terrifying metamorphosis.

Until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares.

There Are Those Who Don’t Feel Romantic Attraction. I Am One of Them.

Posted: February 14, 2023 in Uncategorized
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The aromantic flag. Yes, we have a flag.

“We walk among you.”

This is a line from the movie Transamerica, about a transgender woman traveling cross-country with her son who was conceived when she was still living as a man. It’s said at a gender pride party where most of the attendees are trans. The son is talking to a transgender man and says he wouldn’t be able to tell, to which that line is said. I sometimes think of this line and how much it can apply to just about any minority or group that most people don’t see, including a lesser-known segment of the LGBT community.*

This is the aromantic community, or aro for short. A community to which I belong to. And no, we’re not smelly or constantly giving off some fragrance or another. It’s a-romantic. As in, we don’t feel romantic attraction, or we only feel it under very specific circumstances.

This is very different than being asexual, though some aro individuals are asexual as well (as many of you are aware, I’m openly bisexual). We just don’t feel romantic attraction or feel our lives are incomplete unless we have a romantic partner. Some of us don’t even understand romantic attraction, let alone understand when other people feel it. It’s not the same for every person. Like I said, some of us are asexual, while others feel sexual attraction towards one or both genders. And like sexuality and gender, aromantics fall on a spectrum, where some only feel attraction under special circumstances or depending on if a prospective partner is attracted to them as well.

For me, I may feel sexual attraction or think someone is cute, and I may enjoy being close to someone who makes my heart flutter a little. But I don’t think I’ve ever felt real romantic love before, and I started to realize this in high school. Of course, our society is kind of obsessed with love and being in relationships, so I kind of denied it for a while. But at this point in my life, I’m comfortable with it. And from the fact that I wrote this blog post, I felt it was important enough to talk about. Maybe spread a little awareness.

“But wait,” someone may ask, “aren’t you worried about being lonely for the rest of your life?” No, I’m not. I have friendships and people I am close to. I feel platonic love and familial love. I spend time with people and get to retreat afterwards into a comfortable solitude. For me, that’s enough.

“But surely there’s someone out there for you!” Maybe. Almost nothing is impossible. But remember, I’m bisexual. That means that one person just for me, male, female, or nonbinary, is just one in over seven billion. I have a better chance of winning the Powerball, which is about one in two-hundred and ninety-two million. But I’m not going to go out of my way on the off-chance I beat the odds and win the Powerball, let alone find some hypothetical soulmate.

Besides, I’m happy. I have a good job and a good home, I write stories that I am passionate about and that people love, and I have hobbies that I can share and gush about with people. Someday I may be able to write full-time, which I would love. I get to travel on occasion, and I’ve made so many good memories. What more could I want?

“But don’t you write romantic storylines in your stories?” Yes, I do. But not every aromantic individual is unable to understand romantic attraction. I don’t feel it or experience it, but I understand it. It’s not the first or last thing I’ve ever written about that I have no firsthand experience with (for example, I know no plant/human hybrids). I just tend to approach romantic storylines with a bit more realism. I have an outsider’s perspective, so I see signs of people getting too wrapped up in ideas of romance or true love, or how much a relationship of this sort requires a ton of work, or a hundred other things. And so far, no one’s complained how my relationships seem hokey or silly. On the contrary, all I’ve heard is how well done my fictional relationships are portrayed.

And in the future, I hope I can put more aromantic characters into my work (as well as more Jewish characters). I’m all for representation in my fiction, after all.

Anyway, was there a particular reason I decided to release a post about this on the day that people feel pressured to show how much they love their partner, be romantic, on a date, or otherwise showing they’re not lonely or single? The timing just seemed right, if I’m being honest. That, and for the sake of education. Both for the more romantically able, and for those who may be like me and may not realize they’re not alone or there’s nothing wrong with them.

On the contrary, you’re just the way you’re intended to be. Whether you feel romantic attraction or not. Remember, we walk among the crowds. And despite all appearances, we are never truly alone.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody. If you are with someone today, I hope you’re having a good time. And in the meantime, if you’re curious about aromanticism and want to learn more, I’ll leave some resource links down below. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares.

*And yes, the aro community is part of the LGBT community. In fact, the “A” in LGBTQIA+ can sometimes mean aromantic.

Aromantic-spectrum Union for Recognition, Education and Advocacy

Very Well Mind — What Does it Mean to be Aromantic?

I’m Still Going to Try with My Backrooms Story

Posted: February 10, 2023 in Novella, Reflections, Writing
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The photo that started it all.

So, I freaked out for a moment earlier this week. I found out that a Hollywood studio was making a movie out of The Backrooms.

If you don’t know what the Backrooms is, it’s an Internet urban legend/creepypasta about a maze that looks like a never-ending office building with the most horrid yellow wallpaper. Supposedly, there are things in the Backrooms that will come after you if you fall, or “noclip,” into them. They were birthed by a photo that was posted anonymously to 4chan, followed by some lines of text that were posted by another anonymous user, so the Backrooms are technically public domain. Anyone can use them to tell stories.

I wrote a novella taking place in the Backrooms: “It Changes You: A Backrooms Story.” And I’ve been planning on editing it throughout the week. However, earlier this week, something came up that made me wonder if I even could or should edit the story. You see, one of the most–if not the most–popular iteration of The Backrooms was created by YouTuber Kane Pixels. He’s created his own mini-mythology through a highly successful YouTube series, the first video of which having over forty-four million views at the time I’m writing this.

Yeah, the new movie is going to be based on his take on the Backrooms, and he’s likely going to be writing and directing as well.

So, my first reaction was like, “Oh shit! Way to go, you’re barely out of high school! Good luck, I can’t wait to see it!” And then I was like, “What does this mean for ‘It Changes You?’ Will it even be worth editing and trying to find a home with a movie on the way?”

In times like these, I look to the experts I know best: my fellow horror writers. So I asked them in one of my Facebook groups. And they pointed out some things that I’d almost forgotten.

First off, plenty of writers and creators are making stories and videos and whatnot off the Backrooms, not just Kane Pixels and myself. Hell, I’ve seen one author posting photos of his own story on Twitter and Hive. I won’t be the last one. And so long as I don’t steal anything to someone else’s interpretation of the Backrooms, it’s fine if I want to release my own version of it.

Yeah, a movie might make things more difficult. But it wasn’t as if they weren’t difficult before. Let’s face it, everybody’s putting out their own versions everywhere they can. So long as I keep trying, my version is well-written and compelling, and

And it’s not as if the movie will be a surefire thing. It could end up in development hell or just never get made. Look at the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. That thing has been in development since 2015, and it reportedly only just started filming this month! And the Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud? One of my favorite fantasy series from childhood and still beloved. It was supposed to have a movie years ago! But twenty years after the idea was first floated, still no movie out, even though some new studio bought the rights four years ago.

Who’s to say the same thing won’t happen with the Backrooms movie? It might spend several years in development before it actually gets to the production stage, let alone gets filmed and released.

In the meantime, that’s plenty of time for me to make a mark with my version. Not sure if that’ll be on its own as a standalone novella or as part of a collection, but that’s part of the fun of the search: getting to find out what happens and where your stories will end up.

So, this weekend, I’ll get started on editing “It Changes You.” Some friends/colleagues read the first five-thousand words and gave me feedback, so I’ll look over their notes, and then get to work. By the end of the weekend, maybe I’ll have it off to beta readers, and then maybe next month off to publishers.

But for now, I’ve got work. Until next time, good night (no matter what time it may be where you are), pleasant nightmares, and–watch out! There’s a killer behind you as you’re reading this!

Hannah and Other Stories: Important Update

Posted: February 8, 2023 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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Take a good look. This temporary cover may not be around for much longer.

So, as many of you know, I have a new collection of short stories coming out at some point this year. This collection, Hannah and Other Stories, features stories with terrifying delights such as carnivorous horses, budding serial killers and a couple of very creepy ghosts. And earlier this evening, I had a meeting over Zoom with BSC Publishing Group, the company that will be releasing Hannah. There was me, two of the major players at BSC, and the other writers contracted with BSC.

Get this, by the way: everyone at the meeting had glasses! But of the men in the meeting, I was the only one who was cleanshaven. Everyone else had a beard!

Anyway, we talked about what would be happening over the course of 2023, what the company will be doing to hopefully make our books a success, and some other stuff that needed mentioning to the writers.

And with that, there came some bad news. Because of developments in the publishing industry these past couple of years, and because of the cost of producing paperbacks, even just for print-on-demand, Hannah won’t immediately be released in paperback.

Yeah, you read that right. Unfortunately, it’s just the way things are. You may have read something about Barnes & Noble last year? How the chain, as well as a lot of smaller brick-and-mortar stores, only stock bestsellers these days, and will return the books that don’t do so well to the publishers. BSC realizes this and is reacting to this.

There is a silver lining, however. If Hannah gets enough sales and reviews, and if the latter are positive, print paperback will become possible. And I’m determined to make that happen. Not only do I believe in this collection and the stories within, but I’m putting together a marketing plan to ensure that, alongside what BSC is going to be doing to help me out, this book gets as wide a reach as possible. My goal is to have fifty reviews by the first publication anniversary. Is that a lot? Yes. Is that more than Rose has gotten in three and a half years? Also yes. Do I think I can do it? HELL YES!

And why? Because I believe in the Followers of Fear. Over the years, you’ve not only grown by leaps and bounds as a group, but many of you have become close friends and colleagues whom I’ve supported and who have supported me right back. And I think, once this collection is released, enough of you will be eager enough to check it out and help me get to that goal.

And if not, there’s still a chance of an audio book. Apparently that’s possible even without a paperback with this company. Imagine that!

And now, for the good news: while another draft is likely, we’re moving forward with release. I’ve even been given homework, such as colors I want for the cover, covers to influence the cover, and a few other things. I’m excited. I can’t wait to show you all what we’ve been working on this past year and a half.

In the meantime, I’ll be working on this stuff, then working on a blog post regarding my Backrooms story (so expect more updates soon). So, until that blog post, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares. I hope you’re as excited for Hannah to be released as I am.

Ten Years of Mistakes and Lessons

Posted: February 4, 2023 in Reflections, Writing
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Did you know that my first book, The Quiet Game: Five Tales to Chill Your Bones, is coming up on its ten-year publishing anniversary? And that it was around this time of year that I wrote the first drafts of the stories?

It kind of hit me a couple of weekends ago, while vending at ConFusion, that that anniversary was coming up. I was there in the Artists’ Alley, describing each of my books to an interested congoer, and as I mentioned it was my oldest book, I paused. “It’s about…wow, coming up on the ten-year anniversary.” And that really made me think about how much time has passed since that book first came out, as well as all that’s happened since then. Specifically, all the lessons and mistakes I’ve made along the way.

For example, if you look at the cover of The Quiet Game, you might notice there are two F’s in the word “Five.” It’s an error I’ve since become fond of, but it and others have been reminders to me about carefully proofreading my work for mistakes, even when I’m sure they’re perfect.

And marketing my books! I’m still learning how to do it effectively, which is probably why I still need a day job (that’s a joke). But over the years, I’ve learned that you need a lot more than a blog and a book out there to get readers. Nothing ever snowballs till you suddenly find yourself with hundreds of adoring fans. You have to work and try many different things just to get people to take notice, let alone get interested enough to read your book. I’ve learned just how ineffective Facebook ads are for anything except clicks, and I’ve learned that having some advanced readers who are willing to read your work before it comes out makes all the difference. Oh, and that you’ll get plenty more readers when you’re at conventions and you’re being your true self.

And on marketing, I’m still learning things. I think I always will.

You know, you can be reading and writing with an aim to be a professional author since the time you’re a child–like I was–but learning on how to get the work to people is a whole other ballgame. And after ten years, I think I may be in the minor leagues–or at least I’m at a point where I’m somewhat established and known thanks to all those trials and mistakes and revelations I’ve had through the past decade or so.

At least I know one thing for sure: well before The Quiet Game came out, making this blog was a good idea. I created it at a library near my house a couple of weeks before I was set to start my freshman year at Ohio State University. The goal was that I would already have some readers ready before my first book came out (always something I was sure would happen at some point). And you know what? Not only have I discovered readers, I’ve discovered friends and colleagues and interests and experiences that I never thought possible when I was just 18 and starting out in the world. Or when I was 20 and getting ready for that first collection to come out.

Makes me wonder what lessons I’ll learn in the next ten years (I’m not going to speculate on possible mistakes, because I would like to avoid those if possible). And it makes me wonder where I’ll be in the next ten years as well. I hope I’ll have learned enough to make sure that when I release a book, it’s worth the investment for not just me, but for anyone who may have helped me publish it. I hope I may even be writing full-time, or at least much closer to the point where that’s feasible.

And I hope that I have many more Followers of Fear, as well as keeping those who have stuck by me through the years.

Well, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’ll be working on various projects between now and whenever I check in again. In the meantime, if you haven’t read The Quiet Game yet and want to before the tenth anniversary of its release (when I may have to do something special to mark it), you can find links to it and my other works on the Books page. And if you do end up reading some of my work, please leave a review telling me what you thought. Not only does it help me out as an author, but it helps other readers as well.

Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!

Hannah and Other Stories: Latest Draft Completed!!!

Posted: January 29, 2023 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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Temporary placeholder artwork for Hannah.

Well, that took less time than expected. Still took awhile, but it didn’t take two months as I predicted.

So, for those of you who are unaware, I have a short story collection called Hannah and Other Stories being released some time this year. It contains seven original stories of varying lengths and covers the following subjects: a rumor about a figure on the Internet who is targeting vulnerable teens; carnivorous horses; and budding serial killers, just to name a few. It’ll be released by BSC Publishing Group, whom I’ve worked with before through their magazine The Dark Sire.

And since New Year’s, I’ve been editing the last four stories in the collection, trying to expand on certain things such as showing rather than telling and cutting out stuff that doesn’t do the story any good. I think between that and all the other edits I made, the collection is that much stronger and will make for one hell of a read upon publication.

Of course, I doubt it’s finished yet. We’re probably going to have to go through and make another round of edits before we can set a release date, let alone format everything, create a cover, and make one hell of a marketing plan. But I think that at this point, we’ll just be making some minor alterations to make sure the stories are well-edited and the plots flow well.

Then again, they do say writers are their own worst judges of their work, so who knows? We may have more than cosmetic work up ahead.

The page and word count as I finished the manuscript. It’s going to be a long book.

Well, it’s with the publisher now and they’ll hopefully let me know what they think very soon. In the meantime, I”ll be taking the next few days to relax and catch up on some movies I’ve been meaning to catch and some reading I’ve been meaning to do. I’ll probably also celebrate finishing the latest draft with some good food and some wine. After that, and with my creativity replenished (plus, I’ll likely feel like I need to work on something or I’ll die), I’ll get to work on some other stories that require another draft. These stories are Forever Young, about an unusual child actress; It Changes You, taking place in the Internet phenomenon known as The Backrooms; and They Sleep Within the Rock, the story I wrote about neo-Nazis getting their just desserts.

You can tell why I call all this editing The Great Editing. It’s a lot!

Anyway, after those stories are edited, I haven’t made any commitments yet. It’ll depend on whether or not BSC Publishing Group has sent me back any decisions regarding Hannah and whether or not I need to do further edits. But I do hope I can work on some new stuff by that point. I’ve a bunch of new story ideas I want to work on, so I’m hopeful.

In the meantime, however, I’m going to make a late dinner, maybe open a bottle of homemade wine, and figure out what I’m going to do for the rest of the night. Until next time, my Followers of Fear, I look forward to sharing Hannah with you and hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed working on it.

Good night and pleasant nightmares!

Oh, one more thing: you may have noticed, but at the top of the blog there are a lot less pages. In fact, I recently consolidated all my books onto one page, simply titled Books. I figured that would make things easier for both new and old readers to find my works and the links to them, rather than having to scour fifteen different pages for them.

Just wanted to mention in case you hadn’t noticed. Good night!

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