fantasy

The Six Hundred and Forty-Second Post: The One Where I Boil Everything Down to a Five Second Sentence!

Posted by

0

Is it a new idea if my elevator pitch is a list of movies? I mean, the elevator pitch for my werewolf novel is: The Howling meets the MAGA crowd. I got an idea for a haunted house story, but it’s really nothing more than The Sixth Sense stays home. I was really excited about that idea, not because it was a haunted house story and that’s a horror trope I can check off my list, but because it wasn’t about the house, it was about confronting past traumas and working through them. The story is not about the living, it’s about the dead and what they’re stuck in.

Now, I don’t know. I’m haven’t completely talked myself out of this idea, but I think I should definitely turn it over more in my head. I just want to get that one topic done. Everyone else has written haunted house stories. One of the more terrifying stories I’ve read is a haunted house story (The Haunting of Hill House). I want to write one of those. I think I’m finding my creative groove as a horror writer, but I still love fantasy. I’ve even managed to incorporate elements of horror in the fantasy epic I’m guiltily working on right now. I can occupy more than one genre, right? That’s not a marketing problem?

I promise, I have not forgotten about Tribal. Just worked on a little bit of it today. Edgar’s got to make some hard choices, and I am not helping him. Hee-hee-hee.

I’m on vacation this week, so I am writing this a bit early. I am going to watch the movie Weapons at some point, and I will report back to you about it. I am also going to watch the one film that still scares me after all these years: Something Wicked This Way Comes. That movie is a foundational film for me. You could say it was my first horror film, and it’s the blueprint I try to follow when I write. I probably should read the book at some point. Since I have a few days off, I think I am going to just sit down and read for the whole day. I haven’t taken a day off like that in a while. If anyone has a recommendation for a book – horror or fantasy – feel free to leave me a note.

Well, the leaves are turning and the air is getting crisp. My favorite season is here and I am reveling in the moment. I got a new hoodie from my wife and it’s like a snuggly little hug.

The Snuggle Is Real…

I’m not putting away the Hawaiian shirts, but I am looking for similarly colored shirts in long sleeves. I’m now drinking coffee for power and warmth. Life is good.

That’s all for you – I have laundry to wrangle. Have a good day!

The Six Hundred and Thirty-Ninth Post: The One Where I Don’t Know How To Quit!

Posted by

0

Another issue that I’m having with writing Tribal is that I’m a little shaky on the ending. I guess I’m like Stephen King in that respect. I don’t do endings well. I’m running out of scene I want to get to and I don’t really have a nice way to tie it all up in a bow. This is also a story I haven’t deeply outlined up to this point, so I am navigating dark waters. Well, I still have two more months to figure out what to do.

I am still also behind on outlinging Tyro’s first novel. I’m up to chapter five, and I am expecting to get into the high twenties with this story as far as chapters go. Planning is a pain in the butt, but I need to do it or I’m going to have this very same problem with this novel that I’m having now in Tribal.

Critical Role has started their fourth campaign and oh, man! It’s great! There is a definite change in the DM styles between Matthew Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan. If you get the chance, come here and watch the first episode. Warning: It’s four hours long, so pack a lunch and stay for the day. It’s worth every minute.

Anything else of note going on? No, not really. Trying to get one book done so I can get started with another, hoping to get the whole trilogy done next year. This is going to be going out for traditional publication, so I am going to focus on making this the best book I have ever written. I just don’t know if I should put it into a tight trilogy or leave it opene ended so I can keep it an ongoing series.

Choices, choices – so many choices.

Well, that’s all that’s bugging me for now. Ta-ta!

The Six Hundred and Tenth Post: The One Where I Get In Another Post Barely On Time!

Posted by

0

Deadlines, amirite?

I am working on the history of my fantasy world, and let me tell you – it’s harder than one would think. I have two discrete time periods that I am trying to join. One of them is typical fantasy – swords, elves and the such. The other period has guns and is patterned after the Wild West. In the later period, there are no elves. They’re stories told to children. My problem is two-fold. One: how to join these two time periods. Two: what happened to the elves?

A lot of times elves are always goodness and light…

Or dark dominatrix.

I really want to go in a different direction with the elves here.

So…why not make them like marauders? Hear me out.

The main continent is home to a race called the rahsaya – clouds of self-organizing, sentient magic. They were there first and lived for centuries before the elves came from their home continent. From there, they discovered two things: a resource rich land, and magic for the taking. Like all good colonizers, they take everything that isn’t nailed down and take a crowbar to what was. When they found the rahsaya, they didn’t see them as sentient beings, but as another resource. The rahsaya had no cities, no written language – barely could be considered living. Trapping them in the rare ore orchilarium, they were turned into batteries of magic. Entire fields and families were sucked into devices to make the lives of the elves easier.

Then a few elves discovered an old work called the Khesu-Kher. In it is the secret of immortality. Yes – elves are long lived, but they will still die. Why should the party stop simply because you do? The only problem is the Khesu-Kher was found incomplete. While many of the formula and spells were complete and useful, the one that was desired was incomplete. The cabal of elves spent time and fortunes to find the rest of the spell. This group came to call themselves Masters, and worked behind the scenes to further their research. When the war between the rahsaya and elves involved some humans called the Kuonradi, and started to go badly the elves fled the continent, finding another place to take root in.

This little snippet of history solves most of my problems. I have the elves, so I can continue with Rhona and Anya (if I ever get a good idea) and continue the story of the Masters and Tyro in the later eras. I’ve got a rough outline so far. There are seven ages with Rhona in the Age of War, and Tyro in the following Age of Man. I’ve even plotted a little further along with the Ages of Exploration, Colonization, Rebellion and Progress. Would the Masters see these ages? I don’t know, but it’s fun to contemplate one of the Masters laboring over a computer and bemoaning the loss of good scribes.

Well, that’s all I have for now. I know I should be working on the outline to Agonizing Alibi Day, and I’ll throw down a couple of bullet points before I head to the gym. Wish me luck in sweating!

The Five Hundred and Sixty-seventh Post: The One Where I Am on a Roll!

Posted by

0

Well, I have good news! I finished The Show Must Go On, at least the first draft. Now it sits aside for a couple of weeks, and then I begin the re-writes on it. I’ve finished two drafts in one year – and the year isn’t over yet! I might be able to get a couple more out. I think I am going to take a bit of a working break from writing for a week or two. I’m still working on the outline for Your Tribe, Our Tribe – my werewolf novel. I should have that done in a couple of weeks and I’ll start on it and try to get the rough draft on that one finished before November and Nanowrimo. I’m still going to do Immigrant Voices for that, and that might be the last horror novel I do for the year.

Next year, I am going to make it the year of fantasy and finish up two projects and try to have them ready: The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show and The Deadly Barrow to have them done and in the hopper for being reviewed by my writing group after the horror is finished up.

I really feel that things are coming together now. I’ve gotten a cover artist for The Show Must Go On and if things work out well, I might have her do the covers for Serve Me Now and maybe Immigrant Voices if I can afford her. She’s getting $1,000 for the first cover, and I hope this isn’t money misspent.

This is not me…

What I really need to do is churn out something for immediate consumption. Something that doesn’t go through a strigent review process. Maybe go back to Catastrophic Christmas Party? I think I had most of that done, I just needed to pad it. I might do that now and work in the werewolf outline on Sundays, work on re-writes for Serve Me Now on Saturdays and dedicate the weeks for Christmas Party with an eye for December release.

Did I just make a plan? Am I going to follow through with it?

Yes to both of those.

Wish me luck.

Oh, in case you didn’t know – my first novel The Quietest Heart is free for the remainder of the week. So snatch it up before you have to pay for it. Also – I have a couple of other books, ranging from comedy to horror written by me and several dear friends. Check them out and send some love their way.

Stay well.

The Four Hundred and Forty-fifth Post: The One Where I Drink a Pina Colada Out of A Viking Horn.

Posted by

0

Fantasy and I are going to take a bit of a break from each other. When I read the backs of a lot of books, I’m not thrilled anymore. I can wait for them to get into my hot little hands (still have a bit of a fever). So, I am going to dedicate this year to horror and see if I can get some things going. I’ve got a lot of ideas – enough for this year easily…including Camp Nano and Nanowrimo. I think I need to do this to recharge the batteries and regrow some interest.

I wonder if Stephen King went through something like this? His bibliography looks like if he did, he just took an afternoon off.

Anyway, busman’s holiday aside, I am looking forward to getting into horror. It was the one big genre I loved and I snapped up anything I could grab, with fantasy being a close second. I wonder if there are any good fantasy/horror mashups? If you know of any, let me know please. I want to widen my horizons and maybe dabble a little bit, who knows?

I know I missed yesterday and I am sorry, but after working for 12 hours a day and coming home, I felt like poo. I also got Mechwarrior 5 (I am a sucker for games with deep lore) and tried it out a little. Not a fan of the shallowness of ‘mech customation, but I am willing to give the game a shot. When I have the time. *sigh*

There is not a whole lot going on here – started writing the first horror novel of the year: Serve Me Now and it’s going to be published under my name, so it is my first official horror book. I hope that it has a better showing than Valentina’s Feast. The book has a four and a half star rating, so it can’t be too bad…which is actually the average for my books on Amazon. I just need better publicity.

Anyhow – if you’re curious, on the right hand side there are all the current books of mine you can buy, not to mention books that good friends (and better writers than me) have written, I actually need to update that list soon. Well – that’s all for today, I do have a chapter to finish up for Saturday’s writing group. Ta-ta!

Four Hundred and Forty-fourth Post: The One Where I Don’t Think I’m Contagious, Just Bored?

Posted by

0

I’m feeling a lot better now, but I’m not feeling better enough to write. I cant come up anything for The Deadly Barrows right now, so I am doing something else. I am giving contemporary Gothic Horror a shot. Maybe if I do something completely different from swords and sorcery fantasy, I can shake up my brain enough to get me to the next planned scene in the novel.

Times like this drive me crazy sometimes. While I am still writing, I’m not getting anything done. I know that this is the method that Isaac Asimov used and he’s the most prolific authors ever. The big difference is that he finished his stuff and I just let my stuff twist in the wind. How he did it, I have no idea.

Then again, I still have a touch of what’s going around at work now. It could be that my body is still fighting the infection. I know I’m coughing like I got a pack-a-day habit. I think my brain might want a little rest.

But I have a couple of scenes in the gothic horror novel (working title: The Golden Ticket – it’s a term I used for which people can come over uninvited) that I am going to write and let’s see what happens. It might be that I am starting to burn out on fantasy, and I should switch to something else. Maybe this is going to keep me from just giving up completely on fantasy, which is my favorite genre to write.

Ultimately, I am trying to find the genre that’s going to be the most successful. I could write comedy, horror or fantasy, but I feel like I need to drill down and find one thing to work on. I gave splatterpunk a shot with Valentina’s Feast, but I don’t think it’s going to go off like I thought it would. Maybe Gothic is the way to go. Foggy nights in the woods, the blanket of dread settling over people, and the knowledge that something is wrong – not just wrong, but an act against nature’s own laws.

My goal is to have a book good enough to send to Stephen King as a way of gratitude for what he’s taught me (maybe get an endorsement? C’mon Mr. King – I helped get your kids through college, all I want is a shout-out) as a writer.

Well – I apologize that this is so late, but I knew it was Wednesday, but not that it was deadline Wednesday. Also – I do have a show that I am hooked on called Yellowjackets. The best way to sum it up is Lord of the Flies meets Sweet Valley High. Worth a quick look.

Check out the books I’m selling to the right – written by authors far more talented than me and by myself as well. Hopefully, the sickness will work its way out of my system, and I can be far mor productive.