Posts Tagged ‘living and life’

Taking Brand Names out of My Stories

Posted: May 25, 2023 in Reflections, Writing
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So, one thing that really surprised me about the editing process for Hannah was that I had to get rid of brand names from the stories. YouTube became WeTube, and Kroger and Meijer became Lundgren’s, etc.

But those weren’t the only things I had to take out. Ohio State University, which was featured in What Errour Awoke and which was mentioned in Hannah, has been renamed Aurelian University. And Disneyland is now Mueller Land. Yeah, Disneyland was in a story at one point, but now it’s Mueller Land. And I was really surprised I had to change those both.

As my publisher explained, we have to be careful, because if we use a real brand and the company that owns the brand thinks the depiction is negative, they can sue both me and the publisher. Which makes sense. I mean, Apple doesn’t allow its products to be used by bad guys in movies and TV shows. If you see someone in a movie using a generic android phone, chances are they’re bad guys. And in the TV show Chuck, the name of the store where the main character works is a Best Buy parody called Buy More. And given that the store is regularly depicted as being staffed by lazy, incompetent, and oftentimes creepy employees, or is the sight of shootouts and spy shenanigans, it makes sense that the creators would change the name.

Also explains why Subway, which was a sponsor for the show in later seasons, was only ever eaten by the good guys. As far as I can remember, I never once saw a bad guy in that show going for Subway.

Still, that show also depicted Stanford University as a major recruiting center for CIA operatives, and during the first season, the main character has negative feelings towards the school due to his being framed for cheating and getting kicked out while there. Did Stanford not care? And if it didn’t, would Ohio State really care that some characters in my collection were students there?

On the bright side, I was able to keep Slender Man in Queen Alice. Even though he’s a copyrighted character (I know, most people think he’s public domain as well), I was able to keep him as mentioned in Queen Alice because he illustrates an ongoing phenomena regarding Internet boogeymen. And in What Errour Awoke, I was able to keep a reference to Die Hard because, as my editor put it, Nakatomi Plaza is not a copyrighted name or actual location and everyone loves a Die Hard reference (truth).

I still find myself wondering about this, though. Some authors, especially big-name authors, can put references to brands, businesses and universities, among other things, into their work and don’t think twice about changing them. Occasionally, you even see song lyrics from famous songs! Gerald’s Game‘s antagonist draws his name from lyrics from “The Joker” by the Steve Miller Band, and My Best Friend’s Exorcism had lyrics to many popular songs from the 1980s, albeit sung with the wrong lyrics because that’s what the characters liked to do. Not sure if that counts as parody or fair use, but it doesn’t change the fact that We Got the Beat by the Go-Gos was used as an exorcism chant later in the book.

And how does Law & Order: SVU get away with using TikTok and TikTok stars in one episode? Yeah, season 23, episode 5. Even if the app isn’t portrayed as having any bearing on the bad guys in that episode, I can’t imagine TikTok was happy to have its name used in the show like that.

I guess what I’m saying is, there’s a lot to using real brands in fictional contexts that I don’t get. It’s incredibly nuanced, and you can’t get away with using a real brand by using it in a positive light and then pointing to the copyright text at the beginning of the book stating that all characters, settings, and whatever are fictional or used fictionally. In which case, more often than not, it might be better to just turn a popular brand or institution into a fictional version with a name that may or may not reference the real thing. YouTube becomes WeTube, Disneyland becomes Mueller Land, Ohio State University becomes Aurelian University, and…well, you get the idea.

Do you have any insight on this, my Followers of Fear? Please sound off in the comments below.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. Just a reminder, though: this Saturday I’ll be at the Canal Town Book Festival in Dover, Ohio, selling books. If any of you are in the area, please stop by and visit. Also keep an eye out for some exciting news on the horizon regarding Hannah and Other Stories. Trust me, you won’t want to miss it.

Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!

“Hannah and Other Stories:” The Third Draft is Finished

Posted: May 20, 2023 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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So, these past few weeks, I’ve been editing the hell out of the stories in my upcoming collection, Hannah and Other Stories. This collection contains stories featuring ghosts, budding collections, and even carnivorous horses, and it looks like we’ll be releasing it some time this fall.

And as of early this morning, I’ve finished editing the third draft of the manuscript.

I’m not going to lie, this has been the most exhausting editing process I’ve ever gone through. Way more than Rose ever was (and I had to rewrite two-thirds of that novel at one point). Some of the stories, such as What Errour Awoke and Fuseli’s Horses, required extensive editing and rewrites. Autopsy Kid, which at this time is the last story in the collection, had a ton of content cut from the story and a lot of changes made so that it could stay part of the collection. As a result, I actually missed the deadline to get this story turned in!

Yeah, I’m not happy about that. It was due on Friday night at 11:59 PM, but even though I adjusted my schedule to maximize editing time despite being at ParaPsyCon, I still couldn’t finish it by then. I actually had to grab some shut-eye, then wake up at 5:30 in the morning and finish the edits!

Still, I’m not happy that I was late. Yeah, there were factors that contributed to the lateness, such as having a day job and needing to sleep. But it was still a failure on my part, if a minor one. I’m glad I wasn’t like one of those writers in the movies and books, who are one to six months past deadline. Or that one writer whose next book is…nine years overdue?! Good Lord, we are never going to get that series finished, are we?

Anyway, now that the third draft and all the major edits and rewrites are done, all that’s left is for the fourth draft. This draft will mainly be editing the stories to be grammatically correct. Any new content will likely just to make an unwieldy sentence read better, or to flesh out something that’s more telling than showing. And after that, provided there’s nothing more to do, we can move forward with getting this book released in the fall.

I’ve actually already done three stories in the fourth draft, and it only took me an hour to get through them, rather than the hours or days for each story in the third draft. Hopefully the next four stories go the same way.

That being said, right now, I’m exhausted. Work has been crazy, so balancing work and the writer life, as well as my personal life and getting sleep, has been insane. And I didn’t get enough last sleep last night. So, although I want to party with wine, cake, and some horror movies or anime, I’m just going to get into bed. Tomorrow, on the way back from ParaPsyCon, I’ll try to pick up some of the good stuff and have a good time when I get home.

Anyway, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’m hoping to be blogging a bit more now that the third draft is done. Until then, good night and pleasant nightmares. I know I plan to have a few.

An Evening in the Haunted Anchorage Mansion

Posted: May 14, 2023 in Living and Life, Scary Stuff, Tales across the US
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The Anchorage Mansion. Majestic but spooky, isn’t it?

As you know, I was in Marietta the other day for the Hidden Marietta Paranormal Expo. And while I was there, I signed up for a flashlight tour and short ghost hunt of the Anchorage Mansion, the headquarters of the Hidden Marietta Tour Group, who are also responsible for the expo. And, being me, not only did I bring my dowsing rods, but I filmed some creepy stuff and put it on YouTube!

So, if you don’t know, the Anchorage Mansion is a large, Victorian mansion set on a hill looking over the lovely city of Marietta. It was built in the 1800s and was home to about four different families before becoming a church run rest home. After the rest home was closed, it laid abandoned until the local historical society, and then Hidden Marietta, took over it and started fixing it up. Today, the house’s first floor has been refurbished and the second floor, the servants’ quarters (which is kind of like a floor 1.5), and the attic and its tower will hopefully be fixed up in the coming years.

And Hidden Marietta offers tours and ghost hunts, both public and private, to the residence, because the place has a number of ghosts. Some ghosts include the original owners, a pair of little girls named Henrietta and Clarabelle (nobody’s entirely sure who they are, though there are theories), and former residents of the rest home, the most famous of whom is a prankster by the name of Walter.

I was there for the flashlight tour with a half-hour ghost hunt added afterwards, and my friend/fellow vendor Jeff Ignatowski was there as well (he’s the inventor of Killers; The Card Game, which I recommend you check out). With a group of about a dozen people, we toured the house and learned its history and about its hauntings, of which there were numerous stories. And while I enjoyed supplying my knowledge of Victorian house-planning and customs when appropriate (I knew researching The Pure World Comes would come in handy someday), I was overwhelmed by how active the house was.

Kid you not, early on in the tour, we started experiencing activity. While we were in a side room off the dining room, I saw a blue light flashing back and forth in the dining room. I asked about it, thinking it was one of the tour guides with her phone, but she said it wasn’t her or her phone. Followers of Fear, it was a blue orb! I’d never seen one so clear and close with my own eyes before.

And throughout the night, I would see more and more orbs and light anomalies. In fact, I was able to get some on film in the attic tower.

Crazy, right? Some of those anomalies just flew up into the roof and disappeared. My dad even saw the video and said he saw five. And he’s a bit of a skeptic to this sort of thing (or maybe he’s just a skeptic when it comes to ghost hunting shows).

Anyway, after that the tour ended and we received some equipment to go throughout the house and investigate. I went with my friend Jeff to the attic, where we heard those two little girls Henrietta and Clarabelle are known to hang out. And the results were beyond anything I expected.

Divebombing bat aside, it was quite the moment for me. Clarabelle made the stairs creak, which was something I’d only seen in movies and ghost-hunting shows. To experience it myself was like a dream come true.

After that, Jeff and I went downstairs. We wanted to go into the servants’ quarters, where a very violent ghost hangs out (no joke, they do not allow women to go in there alone). But another group was in there, so we decided to head down to the dining room and try to get in contact with Walter. First, I tried using the GhostTube app on my phone.

Then I used my regular camera, which ended up producing a kind of odd angle to parts of the video.

As you can tell from the end of the above video, the ghost hunt came to an end at that point. And while I had fun and felt satisfied, I wish I could have stayed longer. After all, the Anchorage Mansion is the real deal. I bet skeptics will have a few thoughts if they visit this mansion at night, that’s how crazy active it is.

So, if the opportunity arises, I definitely will visit the mansion again, and maybe do a full ghost hunt. I would love to get plenty of footage and experience more paranormal activity. And, of course, if possible, I would love to go with some friends.

In the meantime, I’ll be at ParaPsyCon this coming weekend at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio. As you well know, the Reformatory is one of the most haunted places in the United States, as well as one of my favorite in the world. I’ll be selling books and doing Tarot readings there the entire weekend, so if you’re in the area, please stop by! And if something supernatural happens to me there (and it probably will, given my track record), I will try to get it on video.

Until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night, pleasant nightmares, and make sure to check out my YouTube channel for more spooky videos and updates on my work. Mostly spooky videos, but also updates on my work.

Speaking of Victorian mansions with freaky things going on inside, my Gothic horror novel, The Pure World Comes, will be on sale through Wednesday in honor of its one-year release anniversary. Set in 1894, the story follows Shirley Dobbins, a maid who goes to work for the eccentric baronet Sir Joseph Hunting. While at his estate, the Hunting Lodge, strange occurrences happen at the mansion, and Shirley soon learns that not only do these occurrences may have something to do with the baronet, but they may threaten her and those she holds dear.

The ebook is currently on sale from all retailers, and the audio book is on sale from Chirp, Spotify, Nook Audiobooks, and Apple. If this piques your interest, I’ll leave links below. And if you like what you read, leave a review online somewhere so I know what you think. Happy reading and pleasant nightmares!

Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, Goodreads, Audible, Chirp, BingeBooks, LIbro.Fm, Storytel, Palace Marketplace, Hoopla, Vivlio, Smashwords, Thalia, Scribd, Spotify

The Pure World Comes: One Year Anniversary and Sale!!!

Posted: May 10, 2023 in Novel
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One year ago, I published my love letter to the Victorian era and to Gothic literature, The Pure World Comes, in paperback and ebook. The story followed Shirley Dobbins, a maid in 19th-century England who only wants to become a head maid of a great household. So, after the death of her employers, she think she’s hit the jackpot when she’s invited to work for the estate of the baronet Sir Joseph Hunting. However, she soon finds out the manor is not only in need of more than a little TLC, but strange things are occurring there. Things that may be related to the baronet’s research into fringe sciences. And these strange things are turning increasingly dangerous.

Anyway, I can’t believe it’s only been a year since this book came out! So much has happened in that time. But a year has passed, and I’ve been lucky enough that many people are not only reading the book, but loving the hell out of it. As I said, this story is a love letter to the Victorian era and to Gothic literature, and I think I spent five years just doing research before I actually wrote it. I wanted to not only be able to breathe the era, but to have my readers breathe it too. And I think I succeeded on that front. I certainly succeeded in making a toilet scary.

Yes, I made a toilet scary. There’s a scene where a character uses the bathroom and something terrifying happens when she’s done. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the book.

But as I said, a lot of people have discovered and enjoyed the book, and I’ve been lucky enough to get their feedback. Here’s what people are saying:

I love it when I’m pleasantly surprised by a book. Rami Ungar is not a debut author, (according to the back of the book, this is his fourth novel), but his work is new to me and so I went in not knowing what to expect. What I got was a short novel so perfectly Victorian and utterly Gothic that it made my old-fashioned self giddy as a schoolgirl…Mixing classic-romantic Victorian elements with early science-fiction, tales of Jack the Ripper/Spring-Heeled Jack, and a bit of the occult, this book gives the reader a truly chilling and also slightly fun little Gothic adventure

Heather Miller, author of “Tales My Grandmother Told Me.”

Wow Literally Breathe Taking.

This Novella/ Short Story Packed a Powerful Punch. A Gothic Victorian Tale of Heart Retching HeartAche and Disparity to a Glorious Triumph. A Depiction of England around the Same time of White Chapel/and Jack the Ripper. This writers style and depth of description brings the reader right into the story as the events unfold. The Banter between the Characters is so natural. It will surely Become a Classic in its own Right.

This has elements of Dark Shadows Lara Parker (Angelique) books, as well as Thomas Megan and so many Victorian writers including Shirley Jackson

Joan Smith, Goodreads reviewer

There were quite a few things I liked about this book – the attempt to make it historically accurate (required a lot of research), the author’s take on a possible Jack the Ripper scenario (no spoilers!), And the Big Reveal itself. I quite like the idea. I think it has many possibilities and potential uses as a plot device for future (possibly non related) stories. I also listened to Rami’s other novel Rose, and this one is completely different. A little darker, a little more philosophical. Exceptional work.

Ronald Gillepsie, Amazon reviewer

And that’s just a small sampling of what people have been saying. You can read the rest by clicking on the Amazon and Goodreads links below.

And that brings me to some exciting news: in honor of the one-year anniversary, I’m having a sale! From now until May 17th, the ebook will be on sale from all retailers! And the audio book (yeah, there’s an audio book) will be on sale from Chirp, Spotify, Nook Audiobooks and Apple as well during this period. So, if you’re interested in reading the book but might be a little cash-strapped, now is a great time to get a copy and start reading! Links are posted below.

And if you like what you read, please post a review online. Not only will it let me know what you thought and maybe improve my writing, but it’ll let other readers know whether or not to get the book.

Anyway, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I hope you all enjoy reading the book, and I can’t wait to hear what you think of it. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!

The Pure World Comes: Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, Goodreads, Audible, Chirp, BingeBooks, LIbro.Fm, Storytel, Palace Marketplace, Hoopla, Vivlio, Smashwords, Thalia, Scribd, Spotify

Updates on What I’m Doing

Posted: May 3, 2023 in Living and Life, Progress Report
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Life is crazy, there’s a lot going on, so here’s some quick updates on what’s going on in my life and writing career.

Hannah and Other Stories

So, the next draft has already begun on Hannah. Currently, my editor is sending it to me story by story every couple of days, with “Hannah” itself arriving yesterday. (And yes, differentiating the two in email conversations with my editor was a hoot). I actually got the story done in one evening and sent it back, with the biggest change to the story just being that I changed some names of brands and public institutions. For example, YouTube became WeTube, Ohio State University became Aurelian University, and Disneyland in Anaheim because Mueller Land in San Dimas. Fun fact, took me about half an hour to rename Disneyland, but given that they’re a brand I don’t want to owe money to for using in a story, it was a half hour well spent.

I should receive the next story, “Queen Alice,” in a few days at most. When I get it, I’ll get it edited as quickly as possible and get it back to the publisher. With any luck, we’ll be done with this draft by the end of the month.

They Sleep Within the Rock and other projects

I finally got around to doing a third draft of this novella last week. With my beta reader’s help, I’ve been able to improve the story immensely, and have edited about seventy percent of the story. Unfortunately, while working on it, I realized the last thirty percent doesn’t have the oomph this story needs to be great. I mean, it’s a story about giving neo-Nazis some epic karma! You would think the story would have an ending on par with the explosiveness of Die Hard or the finale of The Little Mermaid (say what you will about that movie, but that finale is nothing to sneeze at).

So after a lot of messaging back and forth with my beta reader, I think I came up with a new ending that might be closer to my vision. I’ll be working on it in-between stories of Hannah, so it may take time, but I’ll get it done and back to the beta reader before too long.

After that, I would like to edit “The Underground Kings” and “It Changes You: A Backrooms Story,” as I’ve received some great feedback on how to improve those stories and I want to see what I can do with them. With any luck, they may even find homes!

And as for new stuff…well, I would like to get back to my mummy novel Crawler. And I do have some short stories, novelettes and novellas I might want to work on later this year. But really, nothing definite at this point. Just a ton of editing.

Horror Writers Association news

You may not be aware of this, but I’ve been the Chairperson for the Ohio chapter of the Horror Writers Association, HWA Ohio, since around its inception. I didn’t volunteer for the role or anything in the beginning, I just kept reserving meeting rooms for our meetings, and as we got more organized, I just kind of became the chair.

This year, the HWA implemented a system to elect chairs every two years organization wide. And I can officially say that I’ve been elected to serve the role two more years. I’m looking forward to serving as the Chairperson again, and to growing both the chapter and its members. If anything exciting pops up in that regard, I will let you know.

Anything else?

As you know, this Saturday I will be selling books and doing Tarot readings at the Hidden Marietta Paranormal Expo in Marietta, Ohio. It’ll be at the Washington County Fairgrounds from 10 AM – 4 PM. If you’re in the area this Saturday, please stop by, because it’s going to be a ton of fun.

I’m also going to be doing a flashlight tour and a ghost hunt at the local Anchorage Mansion this weekend with a friend, so hopefully we come across some spooky stuff. If we do, and I can, I’ll record it so you can see it!

And I finished Every Woman Knows This by Laurel Hightower, and thought it was a strong collection of scary short stories. 4 out of 5, won’t disappoint readers who give it a read.

Other than that, there’s nothing I can talk about. At least nothing that’s relevant to this blog right now or that I can talk about without getting into trouble. So, I’ll take this moment to bid you all a good night. Until next time, my Followers of Fear, pleasant nightmares!

Please Stop Bringing Babies to the Ballet!

Posted: April 29, 2023 in Living and Life
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I normally don’t talk about this sort of thing on my blog. You know, because it’s kind of devoted to my writing career and to horror. But honestly, after today, I gotta say something to more than just my family. So strap in, kids. I’m doing a public service announcement veering into rant territory.

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of ballet. I’ve even included it in a few of my stories. And I was very excited to go see my local company perform Swan Lake. It’s their last production of the season, it’s probably the most famous ballet in the world alongside Nutcracker, and it’s a lot of fun to guess what variation of the story the performers will do (there are many depending on the vision of the company). And it was, to my delight, a great show. Except for one little issue…some of the patrons had brought their babies and infants with them to the show.

If I could insert an actual sigh here, I would.

Look, I get it. We all need a little escape from our lives. And except for maybe Nutcracker, most companies will wait several years before performing the same show again, which means you probably only have the opportunity to see this production once. And nobody likes missing out on what they love. And for Nutcracker, I kind of expect small children at that one. It’s a family show with lots of exciting stuff happening onstage to keep their attention.

But seriously, why are you bringing a child that young to a show other than Nutcracker? At five or so, kids start to gain the ability to sit still for movies and shows and be quiet. But younger children, especially babies, aren’t able to do that. Many of them can’t even comprehend what’s going on around them.

Imagine, being in a room where it’s dark, there’s loud music constantly playing, and then there are bursts of house-shaking applause during the show. Any small child will be terrified and cry out!

In fact, many of them were. I counted at least four tots who cried at various times during the show. If not because they were scared, then because they were tired, or fussy, or they’re babies! That’s what they do. As well as gurgle, babble, and make any number of noises. All of which happened during the show and distracted the audience. Several times, the parents had to take their child out of the theater and into the foyer because it wouldn’t calm down or go to sleep.

Feels like a waste of a ticket, if you have to leave the show every twenty minutes because of your kid.

And that brings me to my next point. These tickets cost anywhere between seventy and four hundred dollars (excluding processing fees and whatnot). So you’re putting down several hundred dollars for tickets for these shows, including one for the baby, when your child isn’t able to understand or appreciate the show, and definitely won’t sleep through the whole thing. You might as well spend the money on a babysitter instead. From what I’m told, they’re much more affordable, and you wouldn’t be inconveniencing all the other guests who paid a lot of money to see this show as well.

And if you’re not ready to be separated from your kid, don’t go! You’ll save money, and you won’t have the inconvenience of leaving the show several times, climbing over people in seats that are as packed in as airplane seats.

And while I’m on the subject, this should go for movie theaters as well. Yes, movies are a lot more affordable than plays and ballets, but the concept still applies. Hell, it might even apply more! A lot of films these days include explosions, screaming, guns firing, and so many things that might frighten a small kid in a dark room.

I’ve had to deal with this at more movies than I dare to count. When I saw IT: Chapter Two, some woman in the front row brought her baby. During the first twenty minutes, the kid kept screaming and the people around her kept telling her to leave because it’s IT: Chapter Two! That movie is going to be loud and scary! And when I saw Logan a few years before, a kid was crying on the stairs in the theater because that’s a gory, violent film and he was scared! Took a good twenty minutes for the parents to get up and take the kid outside. I guess they thought he would just stop and take a nap?

Now, I know I’m not a parent. I don’t know how tough it is (though my parents did raise me and three younger sisters, so sometimes I feel like I kind of get it). But I know that young kids, unlike teens and adults, don’t know better about how to act during a movie. They just react. And if your kid isn’t ready for movies and you can’t get a babysitter…well, parenthood is about sacrifice. That’s what I’ve learned from every great parent I’ve ever come across. And sometimes, that sacrifice means waiting a few months for the movie to be available on streaming and Blu-Ray.

Luckily, there’s been some movement to prevent this sort of problem. A lot of movie theaters don’t allow young kids to see R-rated films at all, and won’t let them see PG-13 movies after a certain time. Many of these same theaters also have showings exclusively for families: the lights aren’t out all the way, talking and crying isn’t a big deal, and the film is something the kids can get into. And the majority of Broadway theaters and traveling shows require children be at least five years old, or they won’t let them into the theater. And many ballets can even be streamed these days, believe it or not! Some are even streamed live!

And yes, I might write to the company that runs the theaters to see if anything can be done. I mean, if they enforce Broadway policies for the touring Broadway shows, they might be willing to extend that to other events.

But really, parents of young children need to help out too. As I said above, these small kids can’t help being noisy. They’re not electronic devices you can just switch off. They’re going to react instinctually, and that will disturb audiences. But parents, you can make a choice. You can choose to waste money on something that your baby will disturb for you and everyone else. Or you can keep the kid home, and save everyone, including your kid, from having their night ruined.

And hey, you might still be able to see your show or movie. Like I said, babysitters are a lot more affordable than you might think.

Thanks for reading, folks. This has been something I’ve actually been wanting to write about for ages now, but after the show today, it just kind of came to a head and I had to make my feelings public. And if this changes even a few people’s minds, it’ll be worth it.

So Much Still to Learn

Posted: April 25, 2023 in Reflections, Writing
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As I mentioned in a previous post, BSC Publishing Group’s editors and I had several Zoom and email discussions regarding the content in my upcoming collection, Hannah and Other Stories. During the discussion, I realized a lot of things about my stories and my writing in general that needed improvement. And this led to some discussions with one of the editors about my writing, writing horror in general, and what directions I could go with my writing.

I won’t go into details, because some of it is for stories that you have yet to read, and I really want things to be a surprise. But the biggest conclusion I came to was that there’s still so much I need to learn as a horror writer.

I mean, I kind of already knew that, but I think part of me thought I’d become some sort of authority on horror writing, and the content meeting, as well as all the discussions that followed, really made me see the light. All of a sudden, I’m understanding why some of my stories haven’t been accepted, what fatal flaws I’ve allowed to slip into my storytelling, and what needs to be fixed so I can write not just effective horror stories, but publishable horror stories.

Honestly, it’s been rough to realize how much I still have to learn and how many ways I’ve actually been sabotaging my own stories. It’s been enough to make me doubt my own abilities as a writer…for a second. Then I remembered this is why we have editors and beta readers and why authors are their own worst judges and how we also need this feedback so we can grow and become better writers. If we never learn from others or discount what our editors and beta readers say, we end up writing really bad stories that never get published.

So, this whole experience, while slightly disheartening, has been a good eye-opener for me. Hopefully I can learn from this past week and write some stories that magazines and publishers will want to release and readers will want to read. I’m already thinking of ways to improve the stories I still need to edit, including “They Sleep Within the Rock” and “It Changes You,” and stories I might want to tackle next. I’ve also thought of ways to change Toyland and Crawler, and, of course, I’ve had plenty of thoughts of how to improve the stories in Hannah. With any luck, I can put these thoughts into practice and edit these stories so that they’re worthy of the promise at the top of this blog and on my business cards: “Scared yet? My job here is done.”

I look forward to updating you all on my progress.

One last thing, my Followers of Fear: I know I got into all the events I’ll be attending yesterday (you can see that post here), but I got confirmation on one more today, so I’ll add it to the end of this post. So this summer, I’ll be a guest at Gem City Comic Con on July 22nd and 23rd, 2023 in Dayton, Ohio! I’m really looking forward to this convention, so if you can stop by, please do so. I don’t know if they’ll let me do Tarot readings yet, but I’ll be happy to sign your book.

Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!

Events in 2023

Posted: April 24, 2023 in Living and Life, Writing
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Well, it’s been a while since I’ve done of these posts. But guess what? We’re coming up on a lot of events, so I’m doing a big post to update you on the various events I’ll be attending as an author and/or vendor. And if you’re lucky, I might not need to do reminders at the bottom of posts right before said events.

And let me tell you, this summer is going to be jampacked with events! First, I’ll be attending the Hidden Marietta Paranormal Expo on May 6th, 2023 in Marietta, Ohio! I had such a great time the last time I was there, so I’m so excited to be back. This time, it’s been moved to the Washington County Fairgrounds, as the convention is too big for the Lafayette Hotel. The convention is from 10 AM – 4 PM and you can find out more on their website.

Then, on May 20th and 21st, I’ll be at ParaPsyCon at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio! Followers of Fear, you know I love the Ohio State Reformatory and you know I love ParaPsyCon, so I’m excited to come back again, meet readers and do Tarot readings. Saturday will be from 10 AM – 5 PM, and Sunday will be from 11 AM – 5 PM. You can find out more on their website.

One weekend later, on May 27th, I’ll be at the Canal Town Book Festival in Dover, Ohio! This is apparently the Tuscarawas Valley’s biggest book festival, and is held in concert with the Canal Dover Festival. It’ll be from 10 AM – 3 PM and you can visit the other festival while you’re there. For more info, you can check out their website.

Then after that, assuming I haven’t sold out of books, I’ll be attending the Hamilton Ohio Pride Fest with HWA Ohio on June 3rd, 2023 in Cincinnati, OH! A friend in HWA Ohio reserved a booth for us, so I’m looking forward to coming down and supporting both the genre of horror as well as my LGBTQIA+ community (I’m bisexual, if you weren’t aware, as well as aromantic). You can find out more on–you guessed it!–their website.

And then a couple of weeks after that, I’m very excited to be joining so many members of the Horror Writers Association at StokerCon 2023 in Pittsburgh, PA! As you know, this will be on June 15th-18th, and this will be my first ever StokerCon! I’m so excited. Of the people who will be there, many I’ve only interacted with online or through Zoom, so I’m looking forward to meeting people, learning from my fellow horror fans and creators, and just have a good time. And while I won’t be selling books, I’ll be taking lots of photos and maybe even some video! And if you want to learn more, check out the website.

And if you won’t believe it, I’ll have another event in July! This time, I’ll be at the Columbus Book Festival on July 15th-16th, 2023 at the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Main Branch in downtown Columbus, Ohio! This is part of the library’s 150th anniversary celebration, and will hopefully be the first of many such festivals. I’ll be there with HWA Ohio, so hopefully we meet horror fans from all over Ohio looking to connect with their state’s local talent. You can find out more at their website.

Yeah, lot of events going on. And if I’m lucky, I’ll be attending a few more. I’m in the process of applying for some, am waiting to hear back from some others, and waiting for some others to open up for applications. But no matter what event I go to, I look forward to meeting new readers, connecting them with books, reading their Tarot (when the venue allows me), and just having a blast.

And if you’re in the area for any of these events, please feel free to stop by. I would love to see you, take a photo and maybe sign a book for you. And if you can’t, you can support me instead by still reading my books. Just head to my Books page to see if anything reaches out to you.

Anyway, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I hope I get to see some of you. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!

The Balancing Act Between the Author and the Publisher

Posted: April 21, 2023 in Reflections, Writing
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In Tarot, the Two of Cups represents reconciliation and balance in a relationship. It’s a card I thought often of during these past few days while figuring things out with BSC.

The relationship between an author and a publisher is a collaboration. The author creates a work, and the publisher helps them get the work cleaned up enough to be published. Together, they release the book into the world and put in the work to make sure the book gets to as many readers as possible. That’s all known.

But, as I said above, the relationship between the author and their publisher is also a relationship. And a relationship is often about give and take, compromise, and balance.

I was reminded of this fact recently during a two-hour Zoom meeting with my editor at BSC Publishing Group. BSC, as you probably know by now, is releasing my new collection, Hannah and Other Stories, later this year. Part of the reason why I wanted to release this collection with a publisher is that I knew these stories would need help reaching their full potential, so I wanted a publisher with experience that could help me reach that potential. Plus, the people working for BSC know the industry well and are enthusiastic about helping their authors reach as wide an audience as possible.

This particular meeting was a content meeting. Simply put, we were looking over the individual stories and seeing what in the story’s content could be fixed in the next draft. This way, we could continue to improve the stories by identifying any story issues and maybe cutting out anything that would be too controversial or souldn’t help the stories. And my editor had plenty of suggestions for the stories, some of which I’d already hit upon. Most I didn’t have an issue with. They either made sense from the get-go or they made sense after a bit of explaining.

A few things that came up, I was glad to receive. I mean, if you haven’t already noticed, I’m a white male. And, try as I do, I don’t always see things from outside that perspective. It’s good that my editor and others at BSC are women and can see outside that perspective. They pointed out more than a few things I didn’t realize might come off as problematic. And now that I know, I can change and learn from these examples so (hopefully) I don’t make that mistake in the future.

Other suggestions, however…I had more than a bit of hesitation.

Look, I’m normally an amenable guy. I like getting along with people and I’m usually good with going along with someone else’s suggestion if it’s not a big deal. But without getting into details (spoilers, you know), some of the suggestions my editors made just didn’t sit right with me. And I pushed back, which resulted in a lot of emailing back and forth.

And that’s something you have to keep in mind when you work with publishers. While they do want to help you get your book out there and even further your career, they do have their own ideas, goals and needs. And sometimes, all that with conflict with your vision in some way or another. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just the way things are. And ultimately, the best you can hope for is either coming to an understanding, or a compromise.

Otherwise, the relationship between author and publisher could dissolve and the book go unpublished, or the relationship between author and publisher is extremely unbalanced and the two parties, as well as the resulting book, suffers.

Ultimately, BSC and I were able to talk it out, come to a few agreements, and reach a compromise. And now we have a direction for the next draft of this book. Soon, I’ll get the notes on the second draft from them, and we’ll go from there. What happens next…well, we’ll see. At the very least, we’re still able to get along and still committed to getting this book out. And that’s what’s important.

New Story Finished! Now Back to the Great Editing

Posted: April 2, 2023 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
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Well, I’m feeling pretty good. Tired, but good.

As many of you know, I’ve been caught up in editing a bunch of stories, both for my upcoming collection Hannah and Other Stories, and others I hope to submit to various publications and magazines. For all the obvious reasons, I’ve been calling this the Great Editing, and it’s been a lot! I think I’ve edited about six stories by now, and that was just in the first two months of 2023.

Needing a break, I decided to write some new stories. Sure, they’d become part of the Great Editing at some point, but it just feels good to work on new stuff sometimes. Anyway, I wrote “The Hunting Party,” a Christmas horror story (you can read all about that here), and I just finished “Mother of Spiders,” a novelette set in the 1950s and about a town whose history comes back to bite them in the worst way: with eight legs and some scary fangs!

Yeah, it’s a spider-based horror story. I did say in previous posts that this story would tap into a common phobia, after all. And I think the overall concept of the story is good.

That being said, I really struggled with this story at times. Not because I didn’t know where it was going, because I’m an obsessive plotter. I always know where my stories are going. I think it was just finding the right words for the story and figuring out how to convey it. That was a struggle, and it wasn’t until the final scene of the story that I really felt like the story was flowing out of me. I have a feeling that when I edit this one, it’s going to take several drafts before I can start submitting it for publication. And most of it will just be figuring out how to better tell this story.

But hey, it’s a good sign when you recognize your own story’s shortcomings and are already thinking of ways to improve the story. Hopefully that means when I get around to the second draft, I’ll be prepared to turn this story into something worth reading.

For now though, I think I’m ready to get back to the Great Editing. Let’s face it, the number of stories requiring my attention have only grown since I started my break, and I want to get at least one or two out of the way before the next draft of Hannah lands in my inbox. I’ll start with “The Hunting Party,” because there are a couple of Christmas anthologies already looking for stories and I want to submit this one before they fill up. Then I’m going to get into the third draft of “They Sleep Within the Rock,” AKA the novella where I put neo-Nazis through some well-deserved hell. After that, if it isn’t time to work on Hannah again, I have a few stories to choose from.

For now though, I’m going to chill the rest of the weekend. I have some scary movies from the library, so I think I’ll have a double feature before bed. So, until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares. And if I don’t catch you before Passover starts this Wednesday, may the matzo monster get you and ruin your digestive system with more cracker-like bread than you could ever want to eat.

Cheers!

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