writing

The Six Hundred and Sixty-Third Post: The One Where I Don’t Hear No Bell…

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Well, I’ve been rejected twice by agents. I didn’t get a nice letter, but a simple ‘this isn’t a good fit for me’ sentence. I am still querying, with the first wave getting six queries and so far only two responses. Am I going to give up? No. I think after thirty, I’ll have a good idea if this should be self-published or not.

Has this affected my output? Not really. I am putting them out of my mind when I sit down and write. I know there is an agent out there for me, and I’m not going to find them sitting on my duff and doing nothing. I need to sit on my duff and do something. This Saturday, I am going to go for round two through Querytracker. I might even dust off one of the novel and publisher guides I have (I think it’s only two years out of date) to look through that. Maybe I should look for a small-time publisher to build up with.

Speaking of output, I am still working on Serve Me Now, and it’s coming along a little better than what I had initially expected. I read another book called Trad-Wife which I really recommend. That book is an influence. I really need to amp up my description a lot, especially of the main characters. I know what they look like, but I have to remind myself that my readers don’t.

There’s not much else going on. I did get an idea from the Internet for another comedy/horror novel that I really need to flesh out. I am looking towards my next book after Serve Me Now is finished – Forever Junkie. I am not going to let two rejections dissuade me. Not two. Not twenty. Not two hundred. Onward!

The Six Hundred and Sixty-Second Post: The One Where I Am Pinching More Than an Inch On My Waist!

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I’ve got several stories that are in the ending stages of getting done, and I need to do something with them. I don’t want to self-publish them because that seems to be the death knell for them. I am considering finishing them up as quickly as possible in between working on Serve Me Now, which is going into a bit of a lull.

Tribal is the leading contender for self-publishing. While it has a good political message, I don’t think it’s going to do well with the readers in general. I think the message might be a little too buried under the fangs and fur of being a werewolf. I already have a cover for it, so it just needs to be finished (now that I know how to end it), line edited and maybe beta read again.

Alien Voices, I think is going to be a better candidate for trad publishing. It can sit well with other books in the genre, and psychopaths are always going to be a go-to in horror. I am doing a line edit on it right now, and has already been looked over.

The aforementioned Serve Me Now is making me pull my hair out right now. I feel like the character is doing one of three things:

  1. Obsessing over her pregnancy scare.
  2. Eating
  3. Getting photographed

I need to think about other things she can be doing. I should write the scene in Victoria’s Secret, and maybe start the weight gain notice there, which would fuel her obsessing over her pregnancy scare…which might make her late on her period…which would cause her to stress eat…which is a good way to go with these things. Now, all I have to do is keep conscious enough to write all of this down.

My problem with this is that I am obsessing over the timeline. I don’t want this to be too fast. She’s not going to blow up as fast as a party balloon. She’s not going to really notice anything until it’s too late. I really wish I had more time to plan it out, but I need to get this done fast while I know there’s at leaat one agent interested in this.

Well – I just need to get things back on track, and thankfully I have a three-day weekend to do that in. Maybe I can do a little more research into weight gain. I did learn that it takes 10 pounds gained to be noticeable in the face. I now have a benchmark. I just need to look up how quickly weight can be gained.

Just – between me and you…I am not liking having to rush through this. I don’t think it’s going to be done in two months. Maybe three if I put my nose to the grindstone. I just wish I had more time to do an outline, build the timeline and do a little more poking around before starting. Oh, well. I’ve got to roll with the punches, I guess.

I think that’s all for now. I should get back to work while the plumber is gone. Yes, on top of all of this, I am having issues with the plumbing. At least that can get fixed in a hurry. Ta-ta for now.

The Six Hundred and Sixty-First Post: The One With an Update!

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Hello – I was on vacation last week so that’s why there was no update. I’m back now and ready to blog for love and money (Just kidding – there’s no money here).

The pitch didn’t got as expected, but it did manage to get something out of it. My first book pitch didn’t work because I didn’t have any comparable titles to it. When I off-handedly told the agent about Serve Me Now, she liked the idea. So now I am working on that and have gotten five chapters down. I’ve set up the name character of Sara, shown her relationship to both food and Oliver. In Chapter Six, I need to get down to the horror aspect of it. I need to ramp up the otherworldliness of the hunger.

The pace I have been writing has been a lot steadier than most other books I have written. I haven’t taken a big day off in a while. Even during the vacation, I still wrote and got 1800 words down. I might finish this one on deadline. Cross your fingers and hope that I didn’t just jinx myself.

This book is going to be an exercise on pacing for me, as much as it is going to be about creating atmosphere. I just hope to get everything right and get it out there to be published.

The Show Must Go On needs to get a couple more tweaks and I’m going to start sending it out. I’m going to give it a year. If it’s not picked up by someone in that time, I am going to self-publish it. I’ve got the cover, I’ve got the notes to make at least the first ten pages better. I just need to do it. This Saturday, I am going to throw myself into getting it done.

There isn’t a whole lot going on this week beyond working on getting stuff together for publishing. I’m feeling pretty good about both books. I hope they entertain someone when they are released into the wild.

Well, I do have to get back to work, so I thought I would drop a quick update. Still writing, still editing and hoping for a release somewhere. Good luck to the rest of you. Ta-ta for now.

The Six Hundred and Sixtieth Post: The One Where I Stare Blankly at the Agent Who Asked Me a Simple Question…

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I blew it.

I blew the pitch because of one thing. I couldn’t list comparable titles to The Show Must Go On.

Well, to be honest – I don’ think that the agent wasn’t too keen on it anyways. I’ll put together a query letter (with comparable titles) and try other agents and publishers. I am not going to let this setback get me down.

However, I did mention Serve Me Now to her, and she lit up at that idea. So, Tyro…poor suffering Tyro…is going to be delayed yet again as I try to cobble together a new novel in two months. I really need to strike while the iron is hot on this one. I can’t wait for an outline, and we’ve proven that I’m better as a discovery writer anyways, or at least that’s how it seems to go. I will get this done on time. I’ve made one deadline, I can make more.

I did learn a lot at the conference. I learned how to make a good query letter to get my foot in the door. I got a lot of comparable titles for Serve Me Now and I am reading one of them right now. There are differences – my character is a sort of influencer, more like a video sex worker and there are no supernatural elements in it, but it was suggested and the premise sounds interesting.

I’ve noticed that I’m not really into supernatural horror anymore. Yeah, I plan on writing supernatural horror with Forever Junkie, but for the most part, it doesn’t really pique my interest as it used to. I guess I am getting older and more curmudgeonly. I like writing horror that has an element of reality to it.

Speaking of writing horror, I am going to wrap this up so I can get back to the project and see if I can get ahead for a change. Wish me luck!

The Six Hundred and Fifty-Eighth Post: The One Where I Run My Victory Lap!

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I did what they said could not be done.

I have travelled through the darkness and into the light.

I Made A Deadline!

The Sweetest Run Ever!

After weeks of checking my email, I finally got something from the people hosting the writer’s conference in Louisville at the end of the month. They told me to get my 10 pages from my novel together with a query letter (if I had one, which I didn’t) and email it. When I got the email, I had a week to get everything together.

Ladies and gentlemen – I am pleased to say that I got the ten pages edited and the synopsis finished and email a full day before it was due!

Yes, yes I will break my arm patting myself on the back because I have earned it. Long time readers of the blog know the problem I have with deadlines. I can’t meet them even if we were formally introduced.

But I made this one. I dug deep, shoved every distraction aside and worked when I had spare moments. I don’t know what made this one so different than the self-imposed ones, other than that the self-imposed ones aren’t ones I paid $85 dollars for. Maybe I need to promise myself something if I make a self-imposed one. Meet a deadline and go see a movie or have a pizza. Do something more than the grim satisfaction of doing a job.

Speaking of grim satisfaction of doing a job – Tyro has slowed down a little now that I am off the outline, but I am having fun in seeing her see a train for the first time. I like catching the wonder of seeing this black iron behemoth and not really knowing what it is. I also like describing it like an alien thing. I want the reader to have this ‘A-Ha!’ moment when they put it together. Of course, we can’t have trains without train robbery, so I am looking forward to writing that scene as well. I want to show her moving with more confidence and grace in this scene than in the previous one.

I’m just waiting to get to the conference and get my work evaluated. This will tell me if The Show Must Go On is ready for prime time or not. I feel it could use a couple more once-overs, but that could be just my self-doubt talking. I might read it once again after the editing and maybe add some things. I don’t know. I really would like an unknowing second set of eyes on it.

Other than the anticipation of the conference, there is very little going on here writing wise. I’m still working on several things at once and should try to find time to research World War One for the big horror novel. Maybe if I only took a four-hour nap at night…

Well, I’ll consider that later. Ta-ta for now!

The Six Hundred and Fifty-sixth Post: The One Where I Express An Opinion!

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Is it Thursday already? I should write something, then.

Save the Cat is a good book if you’re wondering how to organize a novel. Lays everything out in step-by-step. I recommend it for anyone who wants to write, but doesn’t know where to start, or how to organize things.

I think it’s a shame that it’s now a de rigueur standard for books. If you don’t hit the plot points at the right pages, the agent isn’t going to look any further. I think this is a shame. This doesn’t allow for experimentation, or variations on themes. A lot of good books might be overlooked because they’re not following the path that Save the Cat has set up.

I don’t hate it. I just don’t think that it should be used to the exclusion of everything else. I understand – at the end of the day, this is a business, and risk aversion is rife. I am using it right now to write a YA novel. I like the structure, but I don’t like the notes that plot point x should come in at such-and-such percentage of the novel. I write because I am horrible at math.

Speaking of writing, I enjoy writing Unbroken without an outline. It’s a little slow, because I have to figure out what to do next. I am getting a new novel out of it, though. I am amazed at Tyro’s quick thinking and Ghislain’s steadfast trust in her and her grand design. Right now, they’re dancing for money, and they’re going to run afoul of the clergy and hopefully get to the train scene that I want to write. I think things have been a little safe right now, and I want to get them to the next big city to move the story along.

April 24th is not coming fast enough for me. I want to get The Show Must Go On in front of someone, just so I can see if it’s good enough for printing. I also need to get back to looking up agents and publishing companies that are looking for horror. It’s a shame that Writer’s Digest no longer prints their guides to agents and publishers. Query Tracker is good, but they’re a little thin on horror. If anyone knows of any other resources, drop a comment. I would like to find some small publishers. I think I would get better results from them as opposed to the Big Five (now four, I think).

Well, I think that’s enough for now. I should try to get back to writing something. Take care and see you next time.

Th Six Hundred and Forty-Seventh Post: The One Where I Head For The Trenches!

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I am a glutton for punishment. Not only am I tossing aside Tribal for the time being, but I have an idea for a World War One horror novel that’s starting to get under my skin like a blood starved chigger. My first problem was which side the protagonist would fight on? The second problem was where? I did a little market research and found out to my surprise – there are few horror novels that take place during World War One. This really surprised me. I figured that World War One would be a popular idea.

Also — the perfect cover photo is public domain.

Think about it – the beginning what would be called total war. The filth. The disease. The tactics of the 18th century running pell-mell into the mechanization of the 20th century. The idea of attrition as a strategy. So many horrors in fact, and then we throw on top of that the supernatural elements. Zombies wandering the no-man’s lands, foam from a chemical attack drying on their chins. A centuries old vampire – caught up in the fervor of the war in the early days and looking for easy conquests – gets cut down by these new-fangled machine guns and is more wounded by the horrors around him. Why aren’t their more novels from this era?

This stirred my resolve to write this book, but I wanted to make my mark – so I did more market research. There are a lot of fictional books (relatively speaking) about the Western Front, but nothing about the Ottoman front. Now I had a place, and working backwards I had the nationality of my protagonist – he’s German. I wanted to take it to the Western Front, but the idea – a real, live flesh-eating ghoul in the trenches – didn’t really work because there were so painfully few Ottoman soldiers in the West. They were mostly pilots and “carry the flag” types. So, I picked the Ottoman front, which turned out to be a good choice for me.

The book started writing itself. So, I am going into research mode when I have some free time (HA! HA-HA!). As it turned out there is also not a lot of non-fiction about the war front. One book is $133 – and it happens to be the best-looking source. A Hundred and Thirty-Three Dollars! Are you kidding me? Am I going to pay it? If you don’t know the answer to that, then I’m afraid we can’t be friends.

So, that’s where I am at. Planning another novel, on top of outlining one and working on another one while promising to finish another one. Such is my crazy life. Well – that’s all for now, I should get to work on something. Ta-ta for now.

The Six Hundred and Forty-Third Post: The One Where I Want A Hype Machine For My Novel!

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I’ve finished two chapters in Unbroken and I am still trying to get through Tribal. I had a decent birthday – new Hawaiian shirt and comfy, comfy clippers. I didn’t write at all that day and that was the hardest part of the day. Good thing I had my wife to keep me occupied with dinner and dessert. I it just me or are the prices at Cheesecake Factory really high now? Our bill – for two people, mind you – was dangerously close to one hundred dollars when all was said and done. I think next year, I’m just going to walk to the pizzeria down the street. It’s a lot cheaper.

I still want to write a haunted house story, but I really feel like I am treading well-worn ground. I’m aware that this is a carry-over from last week. I know that the haunted house can be a metaphor for whatever, and it’s not like it’s something I can cobble together. I guess what I am looking for is the right metaphor to hang on all of this. Right now – I’ve got MAGA werewolves, vampire junkies and ghostly murders. What could a haunted house be a metaphor for? To make matters even more complicated, I’m trying to angle this into the Southern Gothic genre. Maybe I’ll get a good idea someday.

I did see Weapons during my vacation. It was good, gory and a little disturbing, but I’m not going to put it in the category of ‘best horror film of the year’. I think that title belongs solidly to Bring Her Back. I think there was too much hype between Sinners and Weapons for the amount of scares it brought to the table. I think horror in general is getting more and more hype-dependent. When Abigail came out – I was looking forward to it, but the hype didn’t really live up to my expectations. That and the ad campaign gave away what would have been a great reveal halfway through. I think horror might be petering out as a film genre unless we can get some better scares. My YouTube feed is littered with “what the ending of Weapons means” – mostly because I watched a breakdown of the movie after I watched it. Maybe it’s me being a crotchety old man (a title I have earned, thank you very much), but if you have to watch something to explain the ending, then the film didn’t really do it’s job, did it? But that’s just me.

Well – I did all my writing I needed to do today – time to get a shower and get some milk for tonight. Take care, have a slice of cake for me and support your local horror writers.

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

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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 Forty-first Post: The One Where I Beg Forgiveness…

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I must confess: I started Unbroken. I know I swore up and down that I was going to finish Tribal before starting the next big project, but the next big scene in Tribal wasn’t coming together like I wanted it to, and I had to do something…so I wrote the whole first chapter in a single day. Over five thousand words on a Saturday. Impressive, I know.

So here’s what I am going to do. Monday to Friday, it’s going to be bullying through Tribal. I am feeling better about it now because I got the cover art today from my artist. Saturday, I will work on Unbroken somehow – either expand more on the outline or write a chapter. On January 1st of the New Year, I am switching over to only Unbroken, as I agreed.

Here’s the cover mock-up for Tribal. Let me know what you think.

I’ve also been indulging myself with watching Goulet Pens videos on YouTube. I love fountain pens and inks, so this is like a trip through the candy store for me. Seriously – I own several high-end fountain pens and I have my eyes on some others that I am going to have to save up for. Hopefully, I’ll get some cash together and get this beauty to use to scrawl notes in my manuscripts. As I tell my wife: ignore the price, look at the pretty pen.

Back to Tribal – I’ve come up with a new set of scenes to make things far more difficult for the main character than they have a right to be. On top of discovering what silver does to werewolves, and earning the disdain of the pack leader Jimmy, the main character now has the unenviable job of trying to infect someone into the pack. It’s a wrinkle I came up with while driving, because I wanted to try to continue the story along a little longer and wanted to continue the metaphor of werewolves and political cults.

Cults thrive on getting new people. In this story, werewolves infect other people through bites. So, our poor suffering main character has been told by the leader of the pack to bring in someone else. There’s a major conflict here – the main character sees this as a way of getting back into pack leader’s Jimmy’s good graces, but it also means spreading the curse. What’s he going to do? What’s more important to him? Getting out from under Jimmy’s thumb, or getting back on his good side and condemning an innocent person to being a slavering werewolf? Who knows? I certainly don’t because I haven’t gotten there yet. I can’t wait to find out. I’ve gotten off the outline I’ve kept in my head. This is why I’ve taken to writing down the outlines and trying to finish them before I start writing.

Is there anything else? Not really. Still trying to wean myself off of TV in favor for reading, so I joined Book of the Month. I just really need to find the time to read. Maybe I should stop watching fountain pen porn videos on YouTube.