Posts Tagged ‘short story’

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!

Searching for the Theme of “Hannah”

Posted: April 14, 2023 in Reflections, Writing
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Earlier this week, my publisher got in touch with me and asked me to pick some excerpts from each of the stories in Hannah. Specifically, they were looking for excerpts that reflect the theme of the collection. And that really made me think, because up till then, I hadn’t thought there was a theme to Hannah. It was just a bunch of stories I’d been working on at the same time that I thought might make a good collection if included together.

So, I had to ask myself: is there a theme to Hannah and Other Stories?

Now, if for some reason you’re unfamiliar, Hannah and Other Stories is a collection of short stories that I’ll be releasing later this year in the fall (exact date to be determined). It’s a collection of seven strange and unique stories, ranging from ghost hunters investigating a haunted school, to budding serial killers, to even carnivorous horses. And BSC Publishing Group, the company that will be releasing Hannah, and I have been working hard so as many people as possible are interested to read this book when it releases.

Which brings me back to the point of this post: BSC wanted me to pull excerpts from the stories inside that really speak to the theme of the collection. So, I had to sit back and really think about if there was a theme to the collection. And if so, what was it? There certainly wasn’t when I wrote and released The Quiet Game. That was just me writing stories that interested me and which I thought people would enjoy. I thought with those five stories, I’d be making a good foray into the world of publishing, self-publishing, and horror fiction.

And as mentioned above, I was working on some stories I liked and thought would make a great collection when I put Hannah together. So, was there a unifying theme below it all? Maybe something I only noticed subconsciously when I was choosing which stories to put together? Because there were definitely a few I rejected for one reason or another.

Well, after some rumination, I did realize something: in all the stories, there’s a senselessness to the world. The violence and horrors that occur don’t seem to occur because of some greater plan, or a good versus evil struggle like you see in horror. Shit is happening, and even when you go back through events and see how they start and how inevitable the endings are, you don’t feel like there’s anything guiding the world. It’s just a cruel, indifferent world with cruel or indifferent people and cruel or indifferent circumstances leading to horrific results.

And for many, that’s scary in and of itself. Even those of us who aren’t necessarily religious like to think there’s a higher power or guiding force or principle in the universe. The idea that the universe has none (except maybe a writer with a penchant for dark, sinister and macabre storytelling) is sure to chill more than a few readers.

So, I chose excerpts I felt reflected that. Sure, some of those excerpts featured people being awful (and those scenes are incredibly violent), but in the end, that senselessness and lack of guidance or purpose is at the center of the excerpts.

Hopefully, the excerpts chosen help with the marketing campaign we’re going to do in the months leading up to Hannah‘s release. As I said, I have high hopes for this collection, and I think many readers, whether new to my work or fans for years, will find plenty to enjoy.

And maybe, if I put out more collections in the future, I’ll think harder about themes before I put it together and try to shop it around.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I actually woke up sick today, so my weekend plans kind of fell by the wayside. Hopefully I can do some of the stuff I wanted to do this weekend. At least I was able to get a blog post out. That was something I wanted to do at some point this weekend.

Anyway, I’m off to heat up dinner. I hope this post got you excited or more interested in Hannah and Other Stories. And while you wait for its release, if you’re looking for something spooky to read, if you want to support my career, or if you want to help me feel better, maybe consider checking out my Published Books page and finding your next read there. Trust me, there’s plenty there to enjoy.

Until next time, good night, pleasant nightmares, Shabbat Shalom, and only 200 days till Halloween! Yes, I’m keeping track, that should surprise none of you.

How Do They Get Their Short Stories So Short?

Posted: April 7, 2023 in Reflections, short story, Writing
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So, I’m reading Every Woman Knows This: A Horror Collection by Laurel Hightower, a collection of horror short stories I won in a Twitter giveaway. Not very fast, because I get through print books so much more slowly these days than I used to, but I’m making my way through it. And I am in awe that some of these short stories appear to be shorter than five thousand words. Hell, some of the earlier stories in the collection appear less than four thousand.

And I’m sitting there, reading the stories, and I’m like, “How does she do that and make them still so damn good?”

I actually posted that question on my personal Facebook and my Twitter feed. Laurel responded to the Facebook post (we’re friends there), thanking me for posting about the book and being glad that I’m enjoying it. Did not share her secrets with me, though.

I wish she had, because I would love to be able to write stories that short and still be effective. After all, I grew up on Harry Potter and the Bartimaeus Trilogy, followed by books like Interview with the Vampire and IT. The shortest of those books is seventy-seven thousand words. By the time I started regularly reading and writing short stories, my brain was already primed for sprawling plots with deep twists, multiple layers of themes and secrets, and complex character relationships that are explored through multiple pages, chapters and books.

Taking all that out and trying to tell an entire story in less than seventy-five hundred words (what the Horror Writer Association says is the maximum word count for a short story) was a huge switch for me. And honestly, I’ve had varying success. Occasionally, I manage to get a story less than seventy-five hundred words, and sometimes those stories get published, but more often short for me is a novelette between 7,500 and 17,500 words. Not as long as a novel, not by far, but allows me more room to work with those plot elements I like.

Still, I do try to come up with and write those shorter stories, what Stephen King calls “a quick kiss in the dark from a stranger.”* Yeah, it’s difficult to do, but most publications are looking for stories of that range, and I want to get my work into them. And, I like the challenge. It’s another hill for me to climb on my journey as an author. And, occasionally, something I write in this vein is really good.

That being said, if it looks like a short story is destined to be a novelette, or even a novella or novel, I will let it be the length it’s going to be. No sense trying to maim a good story so it can fit somewhere, right?

But I still try. And I’ve gleaned some things in my attempts, like instead of big plots or huge happenings, you focus on small instances or events that may happen to one or two people. Rather than the big moments, like the destruction of It in the sewers of Derry or the fallout of four writers visiting a haunted house on Kansas during Halloween for a publicity stunt (Kill Creek by Scott Thomas, if you don’t know), I should focus on maybe a ghost at the Ohio State Reformatory trying to get information on what happened after he died, or a young man dealing with something evil that’s appeared intermittently in his life. Those might manage to become the kisses given in the dark by a stranger.

Actually, one of those was a kiss in the dark, and some of you may remember it. It’s “Is Anyone There,” which was published last year in That Which Cannot Be Undone, and got mentioned in several reviews as a highlight of the anthology. So maybe I might be closer to my goals than I think.

Just don’t kiss me in the dark. I’m more likely to punch you for that than enjoy it or put it into a story.

What are your tips for writing short stories, Followers of Fear? Do you struggle with keeping them under 7,000 or 5,000 words? Let’s discuss.

Also, be sure to check out Every Woman Knows This by Laurel Hightower. So far, it’s a great collection, and I hope I’ve learned some things by the time I’m done.

*Which, by the way, is a weird idea, isn’t it? You walk down an alley or into a room and it’s really dark and suddenly someone plants one on your mouth before disappearing? Actually, the scenario with the room is the plot of an Anton Chekhov short story, and the character who gets the kiss does have an impression left on him. So, I guess it’s a good metaphor.

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!

“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.

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!

Happy New Year! Let’s Have a Book Sale!

Posted: January 1, 2023 in Living and Life, Novel, short story, Writing
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I’m sure this is the last thing you want to read on the first day of the year, but what the hell? I’m doing this sale, so might as well make sure everybody and their grandmother knows about it.

So, in the hopes of starting 2023 off on the right foot, I’m having a sale on most of the electronic versions of my books, of which I’ve listed below. This includes such terrifying tomes as my first collection, The Quiet Game: Five Tales to Chill Your Bones; my slasher novel Snake, about a serial killer hunting members of a powerful mafia family; and The Pure World Comes, my Gothic horror novel about a maid going to work for a mad scientist and getting wrapped up in his odd science.

All these and more will be available for the first week of 2023 for only ninety-nine cents. And get this: the audio version of The Pure World Comes will be on sale as well from certain retailers. Not for under a dollar, but enough that it’ll make a considerable difference.

So, if you have been wanting to read my works but costs have been prohibitive, or you want some new horror to start the new year right, this is a great opportunity for you. I’ll post the links down below. And if you end up purchasing a book and reading it, and you like what you read, please leave a review to let me know what you think. Positive or negative, I love reader feedback, it helps me as a writer, and it helps readers figure out if the books are worth their time.

Anyway, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I promise, my blog posts during the rest of the year will be the same stuff that you’ve come to expect and love (hopefully). Until next time, Happy New Year, good night and pleasant nightmares!

The Pure World Comes: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, Goodreads, Chirp, Spotify

Snake: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Smashwords, and Kobo

The Quiet Game: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Smashwords, and Kobo.

Agoraphoboia: Amazon

Mother of the King: Amazon

Crawler: Update #2

Posted: November 8, 2022 in Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
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In truth, I should have posted this update last night. That’s when I finished the latest chapter of the novel. But it was nearly eleven at night, and I had to go into the office this morning, so I put it off till now. Would have been written earlier in the day, but I had to de-stress from work and relieve my election related anxiety.

So, as many of you know, I’ve been working on-and-off on a new novel, a mummy novel tentatively called Crawler. The story was inspired by that god-awful movie with Tom Cruise that came out in 2017. Or maybe I should say it’s my attempt to show the world (and maybe Universal) how to write a decent mummy story. We’ll hopefully see someday whether or not I’m successful in that department.

Anyway, I’ve been writing four chapters at a time, then working on other, shorter projects that I can submit to other publishers. And if you’ve guessed that I’m going to post an update every four chapters, you’re completely right. In fact, the chapter I finished last night was Chapter 8. And if I’m being honest, these past four chapters have been among my favorites to work on so far.

Yeah, I know. How can I have favorites this early in the process? The novel is barely a quarter written! And you’d be right. But these chapters have some (what I think is) great content. Chapters 5 and 8 have some nice, slow character development and bonding that I really enjoyed writing. I really got to showcase the forming and established bonds between these characters, which is something I feel like I haven’t done enough of in my previous novels.

And Chapters 6 and 7 did plenty to establish the mystery and terror of the story. Chapter 7 in particular, I feel, was quite creepy and is a nice little opener for the horror that the readers will eventually get to experience. I’m trying to approach the idea of the mummy as a threat in a way that hasn’t been done before, so seeing the initial results with these initial chapters is encouraging to me and makes me think I’m onto something here.

And when I get back to this novel, I’ll be diving right back into the horror and seeing if my idea goes anywhere (no spoiler, but Chapter 9 is going to be something else). At the moment, the novel is currently 133 pages (regular MS Word pages, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font) and 37,575 words. It’s going to be one hell of a Stephen King doorstopper when it’s done. And hopefully just as terrifying. Or if not terrifying, hopefully just as interesting.

In the meantime, however, I’ll be working on a couple of (hopefully) shorter works, and finally editing that story where I put some neo-Nazis through the hell they deserve. All these stories have a common theme to them, so I think they might work well together if I wanted to create a new collection or something. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see what I end up writing, if it’s any good and if I think a collection is the best way to go with these stories.

But first, I’ll need to write and edit them, of course! And I look forward to every moment of it.

Well, that’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I need to head to bed. So, until next time, good night, pleasant nightmares, and may God have mercy on all our souls! Trust me, there’s a good chance we’re going to need it.

Updates on What I’m Doing

Posted: October 30, 2022 in Progress Report, Writing
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I wanted to post something before Halloween, but there wasn’t any one particular topic I was passionate enough to write an entire blog post about. So instead, I thought I’d do an update post, because there’s a lot going on right now and you should know about it. How much is going on? Well, let’s take a look and find out.

Crawler and Toyland

So, for my mummy novel with the tentative name of Crawler, I’m making steady progress in it. I’m currently writing Chapter Seven and think I could get to Chapter Eight by the end of the week. Hell, I might finish it by the end of the week, if life is kind! (It’s usually not, but one can hope, right?). After that, I’ll take another break to work on shorter works (more on that below), and then get straight to Chapters 9-12. It may take longer than usual, but I will get this novel done eventually.

As for Toyland, I hope to do another draft of it before sending it out to publishers. I feel that this Gothic novel of a boarding school under attack by a ghost obsessed with a children’s novel has a lot of potential and I want people to read it. However, I want to get Hannah and Other Stories out of the way before I tackle that novel again (there’s a good reason why Hannah needs to be done first, but I can’t tell you that just yet). So hope Hannah gets released soon.

Hannah and Other Stories

Speaking of Hannah, BSC Publishing and I are looking to get that out sometime in 2023. Currently, the publisher is starting its winter vacation a month early in November rather than December, so I’m getting a little break from Hannah to work on more of my other projects. However, once we hit January, it’ll be a furious pace to wrap up the edits on the book and get it ready for publication. I can’t wait to share with you this terrifying collection of short stories featuring ghosts, budding serial killers, and meat-eating horses, among other things, so keep an eye out for news after the new year.

Other Shorter Works

As many of you know, I have one more short story, “The Dedication of the High Priestess,” scheduled to come out before the end of the year. Literally: Tales to Terrify, the podcast that will be reading the story aloud on their show, said it will come out before the end of the year. And with 61 days left, there’s only so much year left, so I should be getting news on that any day now. When I get that news, I will let you know.

I will also, of course, let you know the moment I hear of any other stories of mine getting published.

In the meantime, I plan to do some writing and editing on some other stories over November and December, once I finish Chapter Eight of Crawler. For one thing, I plan to finally edit They Sleep Within the Rock, the novella I wrote last winter where I terrorize neo-Nazis. I have no idea why I put it off for so long, but I have and I want to give it some edits so I can maybe find it a home. I also want to write some more novelettes and novellas that I’ve been feeling passionate about working on for some time. A lot of these stories center around common themes, so I think I would not only enjoy writing them, but maybe putting them into a collection.

I may also write a short story involving bugs, but I’m not sure if I want to. Yeah, there’s an anthology I could submit it to, but I prefer to write stories that I feel I would enjoy writing rather than what I think would get accepted or make some money for me. We’ll see how I feel after I finish those chapters of Crawler.

Anything Else?

Quite a bit, actually. Let’s talk about it.

  • Events: This coming Saturday, I’ll be operating a booth at the Columbus Witches’ Ball. This is an awesome event featuring plenty of paranormal enthusiasts, psychics and mediums, authors, and so much more. Plus, plenty of dancing and ritual (or so I’m told). I’ll be selling books and doing Tarot readings there, so I hope you can stop by. The event is November 5th, 2022 from 6 PM – 11 PM at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. I’m not sure you can get tickets at the door, but I know you can buy them from Eventbrite by following this link.
    In addition, I’m already signed up for events in 2023! I’ll be making reappearances at Hidden Marietta Paranormal Expo (which will be in May this year and in a bigger venue) and at ParaPsyCon. I’ve also put down a deposit for another booth at Mystics & Marvels and am waiting for confirmation on a few other events, so I’ll keep you posted as those come up.
    And, of course, I’ll be at StokerCon in Pennsylvania in June, so if any of you are planning to be there, I really hope I get to see you and give you a great big hug (if you feel comfortable with it).
  • I saw Dracula the ballet yesterday. As you probably know by now, I’m a huge ballet fan, and I’ve long held that ballet can be a great venue to tell horror stories. I got to see that in action yesterday when my local company BalletMet performed Dracula, which was as amazing and as horrifying as I could have hoped. It was scary, really delved into the themes of Victorian terror regarding sexuality and anything considered aberrant through its choreography, and even managed to surprise me at times, especially with the conclusion. If I ever get a chance to see it again, I will.
    And, of course, if there are any other horror ballets, I would love to see those too. Hell, I have a few ideas for ballets that are both horror and otherwise, so if any companies would like to collaborate, email me. Let’s work together! I’m easy to get along with, and I don’t cost an arm and a leg, so why not?
  • New YouTube video. I’m going to try to post a new video to YouTube tomorrow before my Halloween festivities really get underway (having a friend over for pizza, drinks and scary movies. I can’t wait!). If I can’t, I’ll get it out as soon as possible. In the meantime, please check out and consider subscribing to my YouTube channel while you wait. You can also check out my other social media by clicking on the widgets on the right.
So looking forward to putting this bad boy out on the stoop tomorrow.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. As usual with these sorts of posts, I’ll post links to my published works down below in case you want to support me that way or if you’re just looking for something spooky to read. Until next time, good night, pleasant nightmares, and one day till Halloween! Get ready to hop around a bonfire in costume with terrifying creatures from the other side!

The Pure World Comes: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, Goodreads, Audible, Chirp, BingeBooks, LIbro.Fm, Storytel

Rose: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Audible, B&N

Snake: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Smashwords, and Kobo

The Quiet Game: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Smashwords, and Kobo.

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