Posts Tagged ‘article’

My First Published Piece of 2025 is Live!!!

Posted: March 2, 2025 in Journalism, Reflections
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I’ve been meaning to write and post this all Saturday. But I slept in way later than I meant to, and then my day got busy, and…oh wait, it’s Sunday? Shit. Well, might as well get to the good news, then.

So, you might remember back in January, I got my first acceptance of the year, a non-fiction article about how people move on after learning their favorite celebrities have monstrous sides. That article, “Being in the Fallout: Options to Take When Your Heroes Reveal a Dark Side,” was released on March 1st by Trollbreath Magazine. Which, at the time this blog post came out, was yesterday!

I’m really proud of this article. A few times of year, we find out a celebrity we love is evil or has some really dark stuff in their history, and it’s not always easy to move on or even to figure out how to react. This article goes over the most common methods, while also incorporating some well-known examples of problematic or even horrible celebrities.

If you’re at all interested, please consider giving the article a read. Like I said, I’m quite proud of it and would love to hear your thoughts on it. Plus, reading it, or even purchasing a copy of the magazine, would help Trollbreath immensely in the long run. I’ll leave a link below.

Being in the Fallout

I would like to thank Trollbreath for publishing my article and being my first publication of 2025. Especially with this article. It really means a lot to me. And I would like to thank my critique group, who helped me get this article into shape prior to submitting it. As I tell people, writing is a solitary act, but getting that writing into print takes multiple hands.

Now, before I go, my Followers of Fear, there’s some more news/reminders I want to share:

  • First, I have another non-fiction article coming out later this year. Not sure exactly when, but it might be sometime in summer. I’m really looking forward to it, as it’s going to be from a well-known horror publication. I can’t wait for you to read it.
  • This Saturday, March 8th, I will be at the Akron Book Fest at the Akron Downtown Library in Akron, Ohio. I’ll be there representing HWA Ohio, so I won’t be selling books or doing Tarot readings, but I’ll be happy to talk to you about the books our members put out and how awesome horror is. So if you’re in the area, please stop by!

And that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’ll probably have something out again very soon, so keep an eye out for it. But until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares.

Updates on What I’m Doing

Posted: April 24, 2024 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Writing
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So, it’s been more than a week since my last post. And I have some things I wanted to talk to you about. Problem is, none of them are enough for a blog post on their own, so I’m doing an updates post. Because let’s face it, those have worked before! Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to lately:

I’m Writing about a 3D Printer from Hell

You know how after the Great Editing, all I wanted to do was work on some new stories and not edit for a while? Well, I’ve been doing just that, and have so far written one short story, one novelette, and two novellas. Only the short story has been edited and is being shopped around, while the rest are waiting on their second drafts.

The current project is what I hope will be a novella about a 3D printer from Hell. Most likely, it’s going to end up a novel and I’ll be like, “Rami, what did you do?” But if it ends up being that long, so be it. I’m going to care more about the quality of the words instead of the quantity of the word count (though that is important).

Anywho, right now this project, which doesn’t have a title yet, is still early in the first draft. I’m trying to work on it every opportunity I get, and I hope to get further along before too much time passes. After that, I plan on working on a few more (hopefully much shorter) tales. And after that? Well, I think I’ll go through editing all these stories and then finding some of them homes.

Ongoing projects

So, before you ask: yes, I am still planning on getting back to my mummy novel Crawler. It’s just that I wanted to work on a bunch of other stuff and not commit to another huge project for a while. Granted, that might have blown up in my face, with the 3D printer story possibly going the same route as The Pure World Comes (God, I was so naive to think that would be a novelette). But I still plan to get back to it before the end of the year and finish the first draft.

In the meantime, I’m also putting together two new collections. Yes, you read that right: two new collections. All I can say about them is that one will be made up entirely of novellas, and the other will be made up entirely of novelettes. How many in each, and which stories will be in it, I’ll let you know when the projects are a lot further along. But let me be clear: I am working on these, and will update you when it’s appropriate to do so.

Finally, I’ve also started research on a new essay. Won’t say what it is yet, but it’s going to be horror focused, and it’s also going to revolve around one of my favorite things. Like everything else, I’ll keep you updated on any developments.

Important anniversaries are coming up!

So, I realized yesterday that three of my books have anniversaries coming up and these are going to be important ones. First, The Pure World Comes will be celebrating its second anniversary since being released in paperback and ebook on May 10, 2024. Feels like it’s been out a lot longer, but yeah, I counted to be sure. Two years.

Then, Snake will celebrate ten years since release on June 10, 2024. Yeah, the big one-oh. Kind of snuck up on me, didn’t it?

And finally, on June 20, 2024, Rose will celebrate five year since it was first released. I know, I know. Hard to believe, right? It amazes me too that that book came out just before the pandemic!

With all these anniversaries, I’ll be doing something to celebrate each, so be sure to stick around. And if you haven’t read those books…well, if you need some reading material right now, go check those three out. They’re scary and awesome, if I do say so myself. You can check them out using my Book Links and Excerpts page, which is linked to the button below.

Book Links & Excerpts

Anything else?

Well, I’ve been busy with HWA Ohio stuff. As a chapter, we’re really growing and getting noticed in all the right ways, so as Chapter Coordinator, I’ve been busy with that and making sure we all get more exposure and readers. With any luck, some of us may even be able to take our careers to brand new heights.

Also got some events I’ll be going to soon, which I am looking forward to (see my last post about those). Hope you’re looking forward to and maybe stopping by some of those as well.

I’ve been putting up a lot of stuff on my YouTube channel, including some writing advice videos I’m proud of. Definitely check those out and consider subscribing to my channel.

And…that’s about it. I mean, I could talk about work stuff, or the fact that it’s Passover, but I don’t feel like it. Also, it’s getting late, and I have to go into the office tomorrow, so might as well stop here.

Until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares. I hope whatever you’re doing, it’s working out well for you.

Is Cosmic Horror Evolving?

Posted: August 15, 2019 in Reflections, Scary Stuff
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A sketch of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft, and an embodiment of cosmic horror.

Earlier today, I read a very interesting article about how cosmic horror is evolving from the state it was in when HP Lovecraft pioneered the genre, courtesy of Bloody Disgusting (you can read the article here). To sum the article up, the author states that cosmic horror originally had little room for emotions other than fear. The idea was to explore a vast cosmos filled with powerful entities and secrets that humanity can’t begin to grasp. Humanity, and our ideas and emotions, are inconsequential to these beings, and they are too much for us to fathom. However, lately the genre has been used to explore emotional themes such as closure of grief or to overcome childhood schisms and trauma.

I thought it was an interesting article, so I shared it among my fellow horror writers (as well as reserved some of the films mentioned in the article from my local library). And the responses I’ve gotten so far have been rather telling. One author I’m friends with mentioned that horror, including cosmic horror, has always been used to explore themes of emotions and the human experience. Sure, that sometimes involves things so outside the human experience our mind can’t comprehend them, but in the end, they deal with every day human fears of how much we matter, whether we’re alone in the universe.

Look at IT, for example (and yes, I am excited for Chapter Two. My sister and I are even trying to arrange to see it opening weekend). While it is about a shape-shifting being fond of the form of a clown and the people who stand up to him, it’s also about dealing with the change from childhood to adulthood, how reality hardens you and destroys your sense of wonderment. Very relevant to the human experience, underneath the clown make-up.

Another person in that discussion also mentioned how, in the age of the Internet, Twitter, and all the human-made horrors, some people doubted the need for cosmic horror. I mean, isn’t everyday news bad enough? Who needs alien gods with tentacles when you have mass shootings and human rights violations?

Well, not necessarily. Think about how, despite all the “connections,” we live more hermit-like and isolated existences these days. We live very much alone. And seeing all these awful things in the world, one can feel powerless. The world is just too much to handle, it seems, let alone take on.

And that’s cosmic horror in a nutshell. Humanity feeling small, our lives not ours to control, but at the mercy of forces that don’t care one way or the other about our well-being. It was a common enough feeling for many after WWI when HP Lovecraft was building the genre, having experienced the trenches, the gas, and the flamethrowers. And it’s still a common feeling today.

And so long as that feeling of hopelessness and isolation in the face of a seemingly senseless, uncaring world is part of people’s lives, there will be an audience for cosmic horror. The genre will evolve and change, but the swirling darkness that birthed Cthulhu and other monstrosities will always be at its core.

But what do you think? Is cosmic horror evolving? What direction do you think the genre will head? Are you, like me, actually an entity from beyond this planet or realm whose true form induces all who see it to madness? Let’s discuss.

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