Shadow Manor

Review: Night Fright

2011-10-11T13:09:00.000-07:00

Holy Crap, a new post! I know that no one is reading this blog anymore, but I'm gonna try and post more regularly and drum up some traffic. Anyway, there is a new review over at The Graveyard for 1967's Night Fright, a low budget (low, low, low budget) monster flick with a gorilla suit as the monster, far too much day-for-night photography and the late, great John Agar as a small town sheriff. Check it out!

Full Review Here.

Now, where have I been? Short answer: overloaded at work and distracted with other things. Hopefully I can get back to writing and blogging and yammering on and on about movies, books, wargaming and such things.

Until next time, later dudes.

Review: The Snow Creature

2011-02-17T22:18:00.000-08:00

After an absence of nearly seven months, I have returned to the Graveyard to unearth 1954's craptacular yeti film, The Snow Creature. The movie was the first western film centered on the Abominable Snowman, who was quickly gaining in notoriety thanks to plenty of reported sightings during the preceding decade. Boring, plodding and featuring a monster than looks like the cast off from a fourth rate Banana Splits rip-off (google the Banana Splits if you're too young to recall who they were), this movie is no where near mediocre, let alone good or entertaining. This is the type of film you force people to watch on endless loops when you have them tied up in your basement. Not that I have ever done that. nope.

Some of the lessons imparted by this film:

1. A crate of scotch is standard gear on any expedition into the Himalayas.
2. Despite their environment, Yetis are not natural rock climbers.
3. Yetis possess the ninja-like ability to vanish into their surroundings, especially in urban areas.

Go to review.

The Scroll Of Anubis Is Here!

2011-01-23T06:50:00.000-08:00

Just got my contributor's copy in the mail and was so jazzed, I made this:

2010 In Review

2011-01-09T18:15:00.000-08:00

Troubled Times

2010-11-30T19:57:00.000-08:00

Has it really been three months since I posted here? Sheesh. I knew I was getting busy with other projects, but in the back of my mind I kept meaning to post something. Before you know it, a quarter of a year has gone by! Wow. So here's a quick status update:

Shadow's B-Movie Graveyard - Again, the movie site has taken a back seat to make time for other things. I've been itching to get back to it and I do have a review in progress, I just don't know when I'll get the time to finish it. Probably not until 2011, with all that's going on around here now.

Writing - Alas, I have not written a word in months and months. That hasn't stopped me from jotting down ideas, I just never get around to working on them. If 2009 was the year I proved to myself that I could write and get published, 2010 was the year of self reflection and delayed aspirations. Numerous things have conspired to keep me busy and away from this blog and my online writing friends, but I won't get into the boring details. I'm hoping to get my schedule sorted out soon and get back to regular writing. Maybe 2011 will be the year of kicking oneself in the ass.

However, despite a lack of writing, I have subbed a few stories that were completed last year. Everything has come up rejected with the exception of The Transcendental Man, the time travel story that I originally wrote for the Time in a Bottle antho. They promptly lost it and after a year (and prodding by K.C. Shaw) they finally found it, too late of course to make the cut. I let them keep it for consideration for the second volume, but methinks they lost it again, cuz after 638 days, I have yet to hear a word from them. No matter, I decided to sub the story to Permuted Press' Times of Trouble antho and after months of waiting, I learned today that I made the cut! This is even more gratifying because I subbed the story under my real name and not my JTC horror pen name. And again I will be sharing a TOC with the fast-rising Aaron Polson. I will dog his every step until we both have multi book contracts.;)

So, I have no idea if anyone even checks in here any more, but I just had to stand up and shout out that small bit of "yay me!" I hope everyone is doing well.

Words Fail me

2010-08-26T19:52:00.000-07:00

So I've been away a lot for the last few weeks. It's the busy season at work, so that has taken up a lot of time, plus all manner of other things here at home. For the last month or so, I've only been getting the chance to catch up on blogs and what not about once every week or two. So imagine my utter shock and disbelief when I logged on earlier only to learn of the passing of Jamie Eyberg. I never met Jamie, but still considered him a friend. He was one of the first to comment on this blog and always had something positive and constructive to say. All my other complaints of the last week seem so trivial now. My first thoughts upon hearing of his passing were of his and Ann's two children. My heart goes out to them. I cannot even imagine how tough it is for them right now. My second thought was of all the stories we won't ever get to read. In truth, I am still trying to process this tragic news and find that I am feeling a great sadness. I'm just gonna go and have a drink in memory of my friend.

Worst. Week. Ever.

2010-08-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

Last week sucked.

Monday - 12 hour day. Nothing overly crappy happened. Just a long ass day.

Tuesday - While loading my truck at the Chevron rack, one compartment on my tank truck overfilled. THAT COMPARTMENT WAS EMPTY. It overfilled due to their malfunctioning equipment. Still I was the one who got locked out for a week and has to take a class before I can load there again.

Wednesday - At my first delivery of the day, I got sprayed with diesel. No, I need to amend that. I got SOAKED. I had go the rest of the day with diesel fumes filling my nostrils.

Thursday - I Slipped and fell and hurt my shoulder really, really bad. So bad that I can't raise my arm all the way. At a certain point when lifting, it begins to shake. Torn rotator cuff methinks.

Friday - Arrived at work to learn that my coworker was in a motorcycle accident and broke his leg.

Overall a truly craptacular week. This week had better go more smoothly.

Now that the bitchfest is over, we now return to the normal sporadically used blog of Jameson T. Caine.

Opening The Vault

2010-07-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

So over the holiday weekend I opened up the famed treasure vaults here at Shadow Manor, looking for items to sell on eBay so as to fund my OOP book recovery project. Many a wide-eyed niece and/or nephew has stood slack jawed at the merest glimpse of the vault's contents and no doubt they would have readily agreed to part with their young souls were I to offer them the chance to get their grubby little digits on the items within. Alas, no amount of pleading or flat out wailing on their part will convince me to allow such juvenile persons alone time with such valuables. For the most part, the items I chose are things that I really cannot see myself ever having use for and/or opening, or they are multiples of things that I already own. Now I just hope someone buys this ~~crap~~ stuff. Click the photos for the super size versions.

Further exploration of eBay opened up another avenue of possible income: old computer games and books. I was astounded at the amount of older things (going back to the commodore 64) that people were buying and I am literally loaded with such stuff. I was this close to throwing out a lot of those old clue books and things. Who knew some people were willing pay 50 bucks for some of them?

To Sell Or Not To Sell

2010-06-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

So after cruising eBay quite a bit lately, I've drawn up a massive list of OOP books I want. Naturally, this great literary recovery project requires funding. I began looking around my house for things to sell. The first thing The Other Half suggested was all the unopened toys I have. Some of you may recall the pictures of my "Man Cave" last year and the toys that could be seen in them. Those were just a small portion of the ~~crap~~ stuff I have. The only problem is, I'm not quite ready to give up that stuff. Likewise with the near mint copies of Dragon magazine I have. I have over a hundred of the early issues and I know some ~~fool~~ geek out there would love to get his greasy hands on them. I really have no use for them, as I have all the issues on CD and can access them much easier that way. Still, I'm not sure if I want to part with them. Maybe I can sell a kidney or something?

For some of you around my age, maybe you recall the old animated show Star Blazers? The Americanized version of the great anime Space Battleship Yamato? If you remember, then feast your eyes on this:

I sooo want a U.S. release for that.

Review: Megalodon

2010-06-21T18:48:00.000-07:00

I’d never heard of this film until I saw the DVD on the shelf at the electronics store. Since it was cheap, I bought it. Sharks both scare and fascinate me, and I’ve read up on them quite a bit over the years. I was already familiar with Megalodons, having read about them in the late 70’s. After teenage years spent at the beach surfing (during which I had my own encounter with a shark), I’ve grown more fascinated with them, so movies like this always interest me. Too bad the film is rather plodding, slow and underdeveloped. I watched it once. Then I watched it three more times for this review. That’s enough for me.

Lessons imparted by this film:

1. The best way to provide oxygen to a person suffering a panic attack, is to crowd around them in a tight circle.
2. Savage storms strong enough to prevent rescue at sea will not produce much in the way of wind or rain.
3. Engaging in tag with an eleven ton Carcharodon Megalodon is not the smartest game to play.
4. Deep sea mining routinely makes use of anti-matter for demolition purposes.

Go to review.

In other news, my writing has once again stalled. Halfway through this year and I've written six or seven thousand words, maybe. Right now, I'm all about the world building; researching various things, using different programs to draw maps of my made-up locales and so forth. This in itself has rekindled another old hobby: Dungeons and Dragons. I have absolutely no one to play the game with and am not about to seek out other gamers via the local game shops, but I find myself looking at all my old D & D books and wishing I had managed to collect all the ones I had wanted. In times past I would have been SOL, but with fabulous things like Ebay, I can find those older books I missed out on 15 and 20 years ago and finally obtain them. Somebody stop me before I max out my credit card!

Where's The Beef?

2010-06-10T19:32:00.000-07:00

I've quite literally been beefing up lately. The Other Half works for a farm management company and as a result, we are often on the receiving end of lots of free produce - fruit, veggies and nuts (I go bonkers on the pistachios when those come in). Every now and then when some livestock are slaughtered, we get some meat. Well, last week it was the cows turn and we ended up with loads of beef: prime rib, T-bones, ribeyes, porterhouse steaks and several pounds of burger meat. By the end of this month, I'll be sick of it all, but for now I'm in beef heaven.

The 10th anniversary issue of Blood Moon Rising has been posted online, featuring my flash piece, The Customer. Long time readers may recall an even shorter, work in progress version from last year. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Writing has been slow this week, with my shoulder problems keeping me from getting much done. Still, I have managed a few words here and there on an untitled short as well as more fleshing out of the novel I hope to do in November.

Musical Inspiration: Rie Tanaka

2010-06-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

The past few days have been the first in some time that I have actually felt like a writer again. For too long now I've been dealing with one family crisis after another or some larger than life project that requires all of my focus. It seems that things may be settling down and I can get back into my earlier (as in 2009) groove. I finally got to the requested re-write from the Times of Trouble antho from Permuted Press. That was sent in and the editor replied favorably to the changes, saying that I had a good chance for the finals. I am really hoping to make the cut on this one for two main reasons: 1) Since my story is Science Fiction, I wrote it under my real name, and 2) PP books actually show up in my local bookstore so it would be entirely possible for me to find a copy and see my name. Here's hoping. After getting to that rewrite, I perused Duotrope and subbed three other stories to various markets, then wrote some tidbits on a new story before jotting down lots of notes for another. All in all, a productive few days.

This week's musical inspiration is the song Ningyohime by Rie Tanaka. The song was one of the themes used for the end credits on the Chobits anime. For those unaware, Chobits was an anime about personal computers shaped like real people...hot young females to be exact (don't ask where the reboot button is). A poor student named Hideki finds a discarded one and eventually wonders if she may one of the fabled Chobits series, a computer that is far more evolved than others. Despite the often playful and (mostly) wholesome nature of the series, there is still an undercurrent of tragedy and loss. Somewhat haunting, this song really conveys a sense of longing and unrequited love. Plus, hot Japanese female singers are a nice counter to all the hot Japanese male singers that Nat posts!

Review: Hunchback Of The Morgue

2010-06-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

This movie somehow manages to squeeze in a veritable cornucopia of horror story elements, including a mad scientist, a hunchback assistant, a warren of creepy catacombs, a series of murders, a crazy experiment conducted in secret, an inhuman monster, a small town European location and a liberal dose of blood and gore. Despite the gothic undertones inherent in the story and setting, the film takes place in a (then) contemporary 1970’s German town. The narrative takes a while to set things up and get into proper gear, but once it does, things unfold at a lively pace.

Lessons imparted:

1. Drink enough beer and you'll literally drop dead.
2. Robbing graves in a cemetery while it’s still light out and not expecting to be seen while doing so is a rather foolish notion.
3. Repeatedly breaking into and then back out of a women’s prison is an easily accomplished feat.

Go to review.

June Already?

2010-06-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

Bloody hell. It's June already? Why didn't anyone tell me?! The past month has kept me quite busy. Unfortunately, most of it has been away from the computer and my writing. More health issues in the family, longer hours at work and several projects around the house that could no longer be put off (I'd been procrastinating for years on some of them). Maybe, maybe, MAYBE with the new month some order will descend on the chaos that has been my house. I sure could use some. While not writing very much, I have been sneaking in a few moments here and there for some research or to jot down notes for later use, so I'm going to consider that as keeping on the ball. Yep, that's what I'll do.

For fans of the Graveyard, YES, that new review will be coming soon. I've just been lazy about getting to it with everything else going on.

And yes, I finally changed the name of the blog to reflect the banner above. I've been meaning to do it forever now, but kept forgetting when the first of each month rolled around. Being the stickler for details that I am, I refused to change it at any other time.

The Scroll of Anubis TOC

2010-05-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

Looks like the TOC for the Scroll of Anubis anthology has been finalized:

The Lockwood Collection, By Mary Rajotte
Amunet, By Rhiannon Frater
The Companion of Jacob Bleek, By Jeffery Scott Sims
The Rise of Terefini, By John McCuaig
Let Justice Be Done, By Alva J. Roberts
White Cloud's Return, By Janett L. Grady
Family Under Wraps, By David Bernstein
Styx and Stones, By Malachy Coney
Kiss of Death, By Jessy Marie Roberts
The Jaws of the Jackal, By Patrick Rutigliano
Caves of Gold, By Jim Bernheimer
The Baron and the Cat, By Megan R. Engelhardt
The Legacy of Seshat, By Jameson T. Caine
The Dry Man, By Amanda C. Davis
Amun’s Curse, By Carey Burns
Beneath The Floorboards, By Robert Essig
The Book of Osiris, By Charles Kyffhausen
Balam, By Megan Bamford
Mistress of the Scarab, By Miles Boothe
Egypt, PA, By Wayne Goodchild
The Lurker In The Depths, By Michael C. Lea
The Desecrators, By Paul A. Freeman
Pharaoh’s Best Friend, By Adam Blomquist
The Eternal Resurrection, By, M.S. Gardner
Calixite’s Curse, By Deborah Walker
Abu Timsaah, By Zachary Thomas Tyler
The Pyramids of Rock Lake, By Derek J. Goodman
The Curse of Djer, By T. Patrick Rooney

Yup, I managed to get my comedic take on mummy thieves in there. Gotta love that cover.

Nightmare Imagery

2010-05-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

I think it's safe to assume that just about every writer out there, published or not, has at one time or another fueled one of their stories on something taken from a dream or nightmare. Be it an entire story idea, a setting or just a quick image, I'm sure we've all done it. The other night I had a dream that was filled with such nightmare imagery that I fail to see how I cannot use it in a story. The subjects of the dream? Tarantulas.

Now, let me be clear. Spiders rank number two on my list of things that cause instant heart failure and/or the spontaneous calling for "Mama!" If you must know, number one on that list are sharks and some day I will regale you with the story of my long vanished surfing days, when on one fateful day I had a close encounter with one of Satan's fishes. But that is a story for another day (or ask Mercedes Yardley, she's heard it). Anyway, back to spiders. I hate them. They freak me out big time. This stems from waking up in my crib as a baby and seeing a huge specimen just a few inches away. I cried and screamed and hollered up a storm that would have put a banshee to shame. So what if it was just a piece of stuffing from my teddy bear? I thought it was a spider and ever since then, spiders have been the enemy.

The really strange thing about my tarantula themed dream from the other night is just that: it was a dream and not a nightmare. Despite the abundance of eight legged hell spawn, and their proximity to me in the dream, I never felt any sense of fear or loathing. It was quite odd. I awoke with such an odd feeling of awareness, as if on some subconscious level my mind had come to a realization about the dream spiders that I had not yet processed. The images and ideas in that spider dream would normally have freaked me out big time (especially the part where I was concealing tarantulas in my mouth), but even in the dream things were calm. I plan on using those ideas and images in a story at some point, because I'm sure it will scare someone. I just need to be patient and wait for the right story to come along.

Review: Zombies of Mora Tau

2010-04-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a lifeless movie. No, really..bad pun aside, this film was boring. About as exciting as watching tryouts for the flea circus. A bunch of Americans travel to Africa where they meet more Americans. Seems there are some diamonds in a sunken wreck off the coast, but it's being guarded by a bunch of zombies. LOTS of talking, arguing and yelling ensue. This one is dark, hard to see and has characters that you want to see pulled to a watery grave. Overall, a real snoozefest.

Lesson's imparted by this film include:

1. Every ship has at least one crewman named Johnson.
2. Zombies are clean freaks, maintaining pristine abodes.
3. Zombies have swimming skills that are only eclipsed by those of Michael Phelps.

Go to review.

When It Rains

2010-04-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

After two solid weeks of rearranging the interior of the house, I thought I had reached the point where I could return to a normal schedule.

Wrong.

The Other Half's dad had to hospitalized due to low blood sugar. The following week (this past week), her mother went in for surgery. Her dad was so stressed by everything - coupled with his bouncing blood sugar levels - that he had to be taken to the hospital again. My poor wife has been run ragged, and she is nearing the point of utter exhaustion and mental breakdown. Right now her dad is at home and her mom is doing good in the hospital, recovering. I took some days off from work last week to help, but man am I pooped. It's been a hell of a month.

For fans of the Graveyard, a new review is coming soon. It's been written now for weeks, I just have not had the time to proof read it. Tomorrow I should have the chance to do that.

On the writing front, I have not written a damn thing in weeks, but that is about to change. I got the news today that my submission for the Permuted Press "Times of Trouble" time travel anthology made it past the first elimination round (meaning it didn't get rejected right off the bat). The editor asked for some mild rewrites and expansion in some spots, so I'm gonna work on that this week, too.

Another bright spot has been reconnecting with an old friend. We fell out of touch over the last few years, but hopefully we can keep the lines open again this time.

It's back to the day job tomorrow. :(

The Great Spring Rearranging

2010-04-12T20:02:00.001-07:00

About two weeks ago I came to the realization that I was rapidly running out of bookshelf space. The bookcases in my office: crammed. The DVD shelves in the bedroom: overloaded. The bookcases in the downstairs library: close to bursting. The solution? The four big bookcases given to me by my mother before she died. They've been sitting out in the garage for the last few years and the time finally came to clean them up, move them into the house and use them. Alas, things could not be that simple. Are they ever? Those four bookcases don't really match any of the others, so I wanted to keep them all together on one wall. This necessitated moving half the freaking house around. Because various bookcases were bought separately, not all match and are the exact same height. Others were inherited and are unique. Thus the great move went like this:

1. Move the four bookcases from the garage into the library.
2. The three bookcases usurped from the library would go upstairs, one to my office, two to the bedroom.
2. Move two existing bookcases from my office to the bedroom.
3. Move two different existing bookcases from the bedroom to my office.
4. Completely rearrange the (now) 8 bookcases in the bedroom.
5. Remove collectibles from one large bookcase in living room and place into two barrister bookcases given to us my The Other Half's mother.
6. Move this now empty bookcase and use it for books.
7. Move four small bookcases from various locations around house to bedroom.
8. Move one (of two) TVs from bedroom to office.
9. Rearrange entertainment center downstairs.
10. Buy wood and cut new shelves for various bookcases.

Of course, in order to do all this moving, all the books and DVD's in these bookcases had to be removed. Great googly moogly! I never knew how many I had until I went to take them out and keep them in the same order. There were books and movies stacked EVERYWHERE! Some books moved from one room to another, but for the most part, they stayed where they were at. The really tough part was because The Other Half has a pinched nerve in her neck/back, she can do very little physical work. Thus it fell on me to move everything by myself. With my bum shoulder it took some work, but I managed to get everything done over the last two weeks - and this is why it's been so quiet on this blog...I've been utterly exhausted. Now, after all this moving, there is plenty of shelf space for more books and DVD's. At least for another five years or so. After that, I have no idea what I'll do.

Musical Inspiration: Tenebre

2010-03-28T20:15:00.001-07:00

Today's musical selection is the theme from Dario Argento's 1982 giallo-thriller, Tenebre (also known as Unsane). Tenebre or Tenebrae is a Latin word for darkness or shadows. The film follows a writer who arrives in Rome only to find somebody is using his novels as the inspiration for committing murder. As the death toll mounts the police are baffled, and the writer becomes more closely linked to the case than is comfortable. The music is by the legendary band Goblin, who provided music for many a horror film, including George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. The Tenebre theme has a very disco-like vibe to it and I can't help but picture guys in leisure suits dancing to it or chicks on roller skates zooming around to it. Needless to say, it is currently the one piece of music that I cannot get out of my head. Give it a listen:

The French electronic music duo, Justice, sampled the music for their songs Phantom (which you can hear below or here) and Phantom Part II. This leads me to wonder, when is sampling a good thing, if ever? Some artists only sample specific beats and riffs, while others sample larger pieces. Where is the line drawn between being so creatively challenged that one has to lift music from others and the desire to take an older piece of music and put a modern spin on it? From all accounts, Justice had Goblin's blessing, so die hard Goblin fans cannot get too irate. Personally, I prefer the original version, but that's just me. Oddly enough, this sampling theme fits with the movie Tenebre, where a writer has his words co opted by a killer and used in several bloody murders. Now I just need to snag a copy on DVD. Fortunately, a newer special edition is available, since the original edition went OOP quite some time ago.

Review: One Million AC/DC

2010-03-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Simply put, this movie sucks worse than a malfunctioning sex doll. A tribe of cavemen deal with horny apes and hungry T-Rexes while simultaneously inventing pornography, wine making and BBQ. When not engaged in one of these activities, you'll find them screwing non stop. Hey, at the rate these morons get themselves killed, the Earth needed repopulating real quick.

Made in 1969, this film was nothing but a cheap "nudie" made to play on the grindhouse circuit. Nowadays the only grinding will be your brain as it comes to a crashing halt when watching this utter mess. This is the very first film in The Graveyard's history to score my lowest rating possible: The Toilet. Seriously, all copies of this film need to be consigned to the sewers along with the alligators and cannibals.

Lessons imparted by this film include:

1. "Going Ape" had an entirely different meaning a million years ago.
2. Even in prehistoric times, blondes were trouble.
3. All cavemen were capable of copulating without having to remove their fur clothing.

Go to review, if you're willing.

What's In A Name?

2010-03-25T20:22:00.000-07:00

For the last couple weeks I've been outlining the story for Lair. Everything is going along great, but I am experiencing something that for the life of me I cannot seem to surmount very easy: naming my characters. Oh, I can shut my eyes and see them in my head. The color of their hair, their families, their jobs, their personalities, their quirks....but not their names. I have never had so much difficulty coming up with names for these folks. I've tried random name generators on the Internet, but while that has given me some names, I tend to dislike most that are suggested. I've tried mixing up the first and last names of people I know, but am afraid that if they do ever read the finished product, they'll be offended somehow. What to do? How do you come up with names for your characters?

The Character Pool

2010-03-15T19:31:00.000-07:00

Throughout most of the year 1997, I crisscrossed the country as a long haul big rig driver (or over the road driver using industry jargon). You know that song, "I've Been Everywhere?" Well that was me, darn near. I made it to 44 out of 48 contiguous states and visited every major metropolitan area with the exceptions of Miami, New Orleans and Washington D.C. I met a lot of unusual people in the many places I passed though and started jotting down notes on some of the more quirky/memorable ones for use as character outlines. These characters went into a file I referred to as my "Character Pool." I had no specific story in mind for them and often they had no name, but I maintained the list for future reference.

Alas, that file was one that went bye-bye in the tragic hard drive crash of 09', though to be truthful, quite a few of the characters in that pool had hardcopy backups. Since then, I've jotted a few more down in a new (and properly backed up) file. Lately I've been going over them, trying to decide which ones I might use in Lair, the novel I will be attempting to write soon. Some fit my general idea for story setting while others do not. Still, even these may help spark some creative mojo in crafting new characters. Fleshing out these people and their backgrounds has turned out be a rather fun task and I find myself already imaging certain scenes and dialog exchanges based solely on their personalities and relationships. Of course, some are going to come to some very bad ends. Hehehe. Time to take some notes and refill the Character Pool.

Does anyone else have any specific ways for creating characters?

Review: The Angry Red Planet

2010-03-14T22:48:00.000-07:00

New at the Graveyard this week is the 1959 (or 1960, depending on source) scifi flick, The Angry Red Planet, which tells the tale of four utter morons and the first manned expedition to the planet Mars. Too bad the Martians didn't tell us to stay off their lawn before we put all that time and effort into making the trip.

Lessons imparted by this film to remember include:

1. Bombers are used to ferry Generals from base to base.
2. Hot girls are always more important than the threat of radiation.
3. Rockets are like a TARDIS: bigger on the inside than on the outside.
4. Loafers are standard issue foot wear for rocket crews.
5. Bulova is a contractor for NASA.

Go to Review

Time To Reel Them In

2010-03-11T20:27:00.000-08:00

I'm the type that nearly haunts Duotrope when I have more than three or four pieces out in submission land. I'm on that site constantly to see if any new responses have been reported from the same markets to which I subbed. When I went on my temporary break from writing a few months back, I had five stories submitted to various places. Sometime in December, one was accepted. The other four are still out there. They had already been out for some time when I went on my break. During the time I was focused on the movie site, I paid no attention to how long they had been out, but now I am seeing that the four stories have been out for 170, 225, 324 and 374 days, respectively. Two are zombies stories, one is a flash piece and the last (the one that's been out the longest) is a time travel story.

The time travel story is gonna stay where it's at. It went to the Time in a Bottle antho where it was promptly lost. It wasn't until K.C. Shaw mentioned to them that I had also subbed that they found it. Since the TOC for the book was already finalized by then, I had the option of withdrawing the story or letting them keep it for consideration for volume 2. I went with the latter. The other three stories however, may need to be addressed. Am I right in thinking it's time to query and/or withdraw them?

The new issue of Ghostlight Magazine is now out. This one features my story A Private Misery, the idea for which came to me one day when I wondered what would happen if an itch in a sensitive and private area would not stop. The awesome Aaron Polson also has a story in this issue and by my count this is the fifth time I have shared a TOC with him in a book or magazine. I guess they have to balance out his genius with my drivel.

Musical Inspiration: The Fog

2010-03-09T22:07:00.000-08:00

When writing, there are times when I am so into "the zone" that I can ignore all manner of distractions while on other occasions I need almost complete and total silence in order to get anything done. Often I will play some music or have a movie running in the background to help get me in the proper frame of mind. Naturally, a lot of the music is rather creepy, given the genre I most frequently write in, but there are plenty of times I go for something more uplifting. Tonight's selection is the theme from the original version of The Fog.

100,000

2010-03-08T19:34:00.001-08:00

Sometime on Sunday, the old Graveyard rolled over 100,000 hits. That's just the counter for the home page, so I'm sure collectively it's garnered a few more than that, but I've only kept track of that one page. That may not be very many for a site that's five years old, especially when compared to similar sites, but I'm rather proud of it.

On the writing front, despite dabbling with a short story over the last week, I find myself drawn more and more to the ideas I have for novel length tales. Writing short stories was supposed to help me get into a regular groove and work out some kinks. Now I find that I'm not too eager to return to smaller projects and really want to tackle something longer. Naturally, all my ideas for longer stories involve a monster of some kind. The one word titles I use to refer to these ideas are Lair, Nest, Arisen, Parts, Hunter and Jars. Aside from the creatures, I fear that the stories are much too similar and am trying to think of ways to help them stand apart. The first one, Lair, is the most developed (I actually went on a road trip to research stuff for it) and probably the one I'd tackle first. Who knows what I'll do. Any advice?

Consolidation

2010-02-28T16:57:00.001-08:00

I have decided to merge both of my blogs, as I am tired of juggling two different ones. As I get my new writing schedule in place - one that allows me to work on both fiction and my beloved film reviews - I need to find ways to save time and consolidating THIS blog with the one before your eyes seemed the logical choice. More additions and changes will follow, including a name change for this one, as evidenced by the banner above.

What To Do?

2010-02-25T22:11:00.000-08:00

Last night was a total loss. I fell asleep shortly after seven PM, and other than the five minutes at eleven to take the dogs pee and then haul my ass up the stairs to bed, I slept straight through to when my alarm went off at 5:20 this morning.

Tonight I began looking over my various "in progress" stories as well as my idea folder. For all intents and purposes I have not really written anything since October, so I'm trying to figure out where to pick things up. Work on an existing WIP? Start a new story based on an idea in the idea file? Perhaps brainstorm a new idea and story? For right now, I opted for the second one. I tried looking over the existing WIP's, but since it has been a while, I wasn't feeling much enthusiasm for them. Thus, I figured to actually get to writing, it would require something new. I chose an idea that I had been bouncing around in my head for some time. Right now it is painfully rough, but I just want to get accustomed to writing each night again before I worry about the numerous edits it will need.

Work sucks. The only bright spot is being pretty much invaluable to the company. Right now I am the only one who can operate both a fuel truck and an oil truck while maintaining an up to date familiarity with all our products AND current customers.. Each department has its own dispatcher and they've both been fighting over who gets to use me. Too bad oil usually wins. It's been moving all those damn 400 pound drums that helped screw up my shoulder.

Quicksand

2010-02-23T20:19:00.000-08:00

Sheesh. Has it been that many weeks since I last posted? I can't believe that much time has gone by. No, scratch that. I can believe it. So where have I been? Let's see...

Once the new year rolled around and I wrapped up my big movie site project, I took a few days to rest and get ready to hit the keys again in crafting fiction. Then I got sick. A bout of sore throat-stuffy nose-raging headache extended my stay in bed. Once I got past that, the real humdinger hit me. For months I have been dealing with a growing pain in my right shoulder. In January that pain decided to become a full on damaged rotator cuff. Suddenly I couldn't move my arm much without it hurting really bad. This required a round of doctor visits, x-rays, shots and physical therapy that I am still dealing with. Through all this, I felt little or no desire to sit at the computer. As the days went by it was easier and easier to let this blog, my writing and other things just slide. Turning 41 didn't help my mindset much, but I am slowly trying to pull myself out of the funk and get back into my earlier groove.

One thing that helped was receiving some contracts to sign as well as some contributor copies. That really made me want to get back to my stories. So, hopefully, I can maintain some degree of regularity with this blog and my other endeavors. To that end, I may do some redesigning. I may not.

So what did I miss?

2009 In Review

2010-01-01T07:40:00.000-08:00

A new year has arrived. Time for the obligatory year in review post. Before we get to 2009, I must first report on the month of December:

Words written: 0
Acceptances: 1
Rejections: 0

There that was simple. Now for the entire year. As I've mentioned a time or two before, 2009 was the year I finally got serious about writing. This stemmed from discovering 52 Stitches in 2008 and on a whim, whipping up some stories to submit. Two acceptances later, I was encouraged enough to keep going. Since I consider myself a newbie, my only goal for the year was to be consistent with my writing, editing, revising and submitting. I think I accomplished that. So for 2009 as a whole we have:

Stories written: 33
Stories sold: 29
Total acceptances: 30
Total rejections: 44

My goals for 2010 are the same for 2009, except this year I want to take the time to craft my stories better. It could be easy for me to claim that since so much of what I produced sold this year, it was good enough. The thing is, much of it was stuff I felt could be better, so "good enough" just doesn't cut it. Instead of churning out stories like mad, I want to take the time to really make each one shine. I've proven to myself that I can write and sell, now I want to write better. That and participating in Nano this year are my only real goals.

So here's to 2010! Woot!

Reading Fail

2009-12-27T19:02:00.000-08:00

The other day I finished reading my 24th book in 2009, a far cry from the 50 I had hoped to complete. Of course, back in January I was working a different position at my job, one that allowed me plenty of time to read. Along came the recession and did away with my position for the time being, necessitating the move back to my old job, one that gives me NO time to read. Thus, my reading really took a dive this year. I've had to read (gasp) at home, rather than at work! That means reading time has to compete with writing time and movie time...and oh yeah, spending time with the wife. Next year doesn't look to be any different, so I'm not even gonna bother keeping a list.

Saw this the other day and it made me smile:

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-24T13:25:00.001-08:00

Just popping up out of the void to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyful Kwanza, Festivus or whatever. I hope all is good with everyone out there.

I should be back to my old blogging habits come the first of the year, so expect the inane ramblings to increase exponentially. My big movie site project is about 95% complete. I'm really looking forward to writing some fiction once again!

November

2009-12-01T19:18:00.000-08:00

Another slow month as far as writing is concerned.

Words written: 0
Rejections: 1 - Weird Tales
Acceptances: 2 - "Matches, Martyrs and Mortality" to the Zombie Feary Tales antho and "The Wind Whispers My Name" to 52 Stitches.

Despite the slow last couple of months, 2009 was a good year and I'm getting myself prepared to hit the keyboard hard and fast come 2010. Until then I continue to work on my big movie site project, which gradually nears completion. I'm over halfway through it all, so things are proceeding on schedule.

In nearly forgot that I had a tweet go up yesterday at thaumatrope.

The Twisted Legends antho came out, with my take on the tarantulas-in-the-cactus tale, "Desolation's Brood."

Plus, the "Road Trip" themed issue of The Monsters Next Door arrived, with my story "Valley of the Splintered Oaks."

It's been out a few weeks, but I don't think I ever mentioned the Creature Features antho from House of Horror, featuring my story, "Returning to Eden."

Okay, enough pimping. Time to get some real work done.

One last thing: congrats to all of you who fought your way through Nano this year. Next year, I am so there! :)

A Cause For Celebration

2009-11-07T15:47:00.000-08:00

Back in 1996, in the midst of one my earlier attempts at writing and submitting stories, I wrote a story called A Cause For Celebration. Inspired by the movie Independence Day, it told of a world wide alien invasion that grinds to a sudden halt when the extraterrestrials discover they have mistakenly attacked the wrong planet. The story is told from the view point of some random bar patrons, drowning their miseries and watching things unfold on TV. Of course, the story didn't sell and after two or three rejections, I pushed it aside and soon after stopped even trying to write (the general idea was explored again in 100 word Micro I posted earlier in the year).

Still, there was something about the story that I liked. While events of epic proportions were unfolding, it focused on just a handful of everyday folk and their own personal views, using the alien invasion more as background. About a year ago, when deciding to give "this writing thing" another shot, I dusted off that story and changed the background events. Rather than an alien invasion, it was now a plague overrunning the Earth, transforming people into zombie-like hordes of the infected. What remained the same was everything else: people in a bar discussing the impending end of the world. I began sending the story out again...and again it got rejected. A lot. I was on the verge of shelving it forever when it finally sold to The Nautilus Engine.

Aside from any references to the virus and zombies, this is the exact same story from 1996. When you have a chance, read it and let me know what you think.

A Cause For Celebration.

Remembering October

2009-11-03T21:20:00.000-08:00

October was an easy month to sum up:

(fiction) Words written: 0
Rejections: 0
Acceptances: 1

See? Easy. The reason I wrote nothing is the same reason why I have opted to not participate in Nano this year. Some of you may recall me mentioning a movie website I maintained. Well, that site got hacked and that disaster coupled with my hard drive crash from early in the year meant that I lost quite a bit of material. Thus, I have been working to update all those older movie reviews in a new format. This means writing about 3k (on average) words each for the 44 reviews I had on there. That is what I've been working on and what I will be working on for the rest of the year. This blog may be in run silent, run deep mode until January, but I'll pop up from time to time.

I hope Nano is going good for those giving it a go!

Blog? WHAT blog?

2009-10-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

Yikes! Nearly two weeks since I posted here! The truth is, not much has been happening. Certainly nothing worth blogging about. I have written zero words this month. Well, aside from the notes for my Nano project. I've been mapping it out with a very rough outline. I continue to think that story over in my head each day, still not convinced to take the plunge and give Nano a shot this year. I've also been busy on several other non-writing projects, so I figured if I am going to do Nano, this month would be a good time to get to all the things that have been piling up, cuz I won't have a lot of time in November.

I've been reading everyone's blogs, but just have been too tired to comment. I haven't even bothered to trying to get caught up on Twitter. I get home each day and it announces that I have 200+ new tweets to read. That's when I leave the room and go take a nap.

WIP Wednesday

2009-10-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

My WIP this week is a story called The Anubis Appropriation. The title is recycled and has a strange history to it. It started off as an unnamed Tweet story for thaumatrope. They rejected it, so I decided to expand it beyond 140 characters to a full blown 100 words for the now defunct Micro 100. At this point I came up with the title, to help describe the story of two buffoonish con men/adventurers who raise a mummy from the dead in hopes of tricking it into revealing the hiding place of its treasure. It got rejected again. I think I posted a different 100 word version on this blog as part of that 100 days/100 Micros thing that I gave up on. Then along came The Scroll of Anubis anthology. I expanded the idea into a 3000 word story, but since the anthology already had the name Anubis in the title, I changed the story's name to The Legacy of Seshat. This time the story was accepted and it tells the tale of Arthur Davis and Miles Kirkpatrick, two unscrupulous Indiana Jones wannabes that get in over their heads when raising the mummy of Prince Ibus from the dead. Davis and Miles survived the story, which brings us to my WIP.

Since I never used the name The Anubis Appropriation, I decided to haul it out again for a new story, again featuring Davis and Miles ( I hope to use them in several future stories, each one detailing a new scheme of theirs or further inept attempts at getting rich while dealing with the supernatural). This time they're trying to procure (steal) an ancient Egyptian artifact from a Las Vegas pawn shop that legend says was cursed by the god Anubis and which gave rise to Jackal-men, which in turn eventually lead to modern werewolves centuries later. Maybe this time the title will stick.

My flash piece The Sea Hath No King is now up at AlienSkin magazine. Check it out and let me know what you think. It was one of those stories that I wrote on the spot, having been inspired by the old monster films, The Horror of Party Beach and The Monster of Piedras Blancas. In fact, I paused one movie halfway through and came to the computer to write the story before continuing with the film. Dutiful members of the Aaron Polson fan club should note that the new issue of AlienSkin also features his story, Melons.

Ideas

2009-10-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

Numerous times over the last two decades, when reading interviews with various writers who were asked about their ideas, I've seen many say that they have more than time to develop them all. Often the mere notion of having that many ideas was foreign to me because in times past I always struggled to come up with a good idea myself. Sometime last year, that all changed.

About this time in 2008 I decided I was going to give writing another shot. However, before I could start, I had several other projects I wanted to complete before devoting my time to my muse. While finishing up those projects I would often come up with an idea for a story, which I would jot down in folder "for later development." Once I wrapped up those other projects and had time to write, I had several ideas to draw upon. Many were based on personal experiences with a horror "twist" thrown into the mix. Which one did I tackle first? Why, none of them. The first thing I did was write four flash stories for 52 Stitches (two of which were accepted). After that I passed over my idea pool in favor of a new story for Dark Jesters (reject) and then Devil's Food (Accept!). Long story short, here we are a year later and I have yet to tackle any of those ideas I had. In fact, I've added to the list of story ideas. Now I finally understand what those writers were talking about. Not enough time!!!

I bring this up because I've been thinking over various ideas for a possible Nano project. I'm fairly sure I've settled on one known only as "Jars" at this time. This idea came to me about six weeks ago (once again, bypassing all those earlier ideas) and I've been plotting it out in my head over the last couple of days. When I consider the core idea, it seems like a good candidate for a YA adult book, so I am unsure how bloody to make it. Then again, I might go balls to the wall and go for a more mature focus. Either way, the first death in the story is a High School teacher. Sorry, Aaron!

September Stats

2009-10-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, September really flew by. I suppose because I was on vacation for nearly two weeks the month seemed to zoom past faster than normal. Without further ado, the stats for the month:

New stories completed and subbed: 3
Matches, Martyrs and Mortality (3400 words)
Letter from the Dead (750 words)
Trial of the Century (2700 words)

New stories begun but incomplete: 1
Curse of the Fallen Star (700 words so far)

WIP's worked on: 1
Church of the Deviate Minds (added 2900 words, 5000 total)

Total words written in September: 10,450

Rejections: 4
Shroud
Rymfire ebooks (vermin antho)
Ideomancer
Horror through the Ages anthology

Acceptances: 3
Church of the Deviate Minds to Alienology: Tales from the Void
Ground Zero to Night Chills magazine
Sanctuary of the Shadowed Sleeper to Zombology IV: The Undead vs. the Living Dead

Overall, it was an excellent month. I can't complain. After 78 days, Ground Zero was rejected by the Vermin antho, but just three days later Night Chills Magazine snatched it up, so that was very gratifying. I've been going great guns on short stories all year, but I'm giving serious thought to participating in Nano this year. I almost gave it a shot last year, but opted out at the last minute, since I still had projects that needed finishing. This year I have no other commitments, so the idea is more tempting. I have one more short story that I want to complete in October and if at that time I'm up for it, I'll begin outlining my Nano project. Time will tell.

Pure Suckage

2009-09-29T21:58:00.000-07:00

It just hasn't been a good few days around here. I seem to be losing stuff left and right. First, for some reason I cannot explain, my Ipod got completely wiped. I have no idea how that happened. One day it was loaded with songs, the next day...nada. I was rather pissed and bummed out because a lot of the music I had on there was irreplaceable. All my stuff on the hard drive was wiped out earlier in the year, so the Ipod was my back up, but now its been wiped. Grrrr.

Then I found out that my movie website has been hacked, files corrupted and altered big time. Again, all the originals were obliterated in the hard drive crash back in January, so the stuff on the website server was my back up, but now much of it is ruined. It seems I can salvage a lot of the media files (photos, screencaps, video clips, sound bytes, etc) but the important stuff - the written material - may be a total loss. Considering that I had easily written 500,000 words (at least, it may be closer to 800k) for the site, that loss has me ready to hit the bottle.

The situation at my job has been very depressing as well. It's too long to even bother getting into. Besides, I don't want to bore you into a coma. Suffice it to say that while I am in no danger of losing my job, I seem to have gotten screwed over in certain areas. It's impacted my health because I am no longer a kid and can't perform such heavy physical work for extended periods without it taking a toll on my body. Plus, I'm not getting the hours I once did and as a result, am bringing less home. Overall, very discouraging at times.

And of course there was the rage-inducing news of a plagiarist that hit the web today. It baffles me how anyone could be so stupid. Did they really think they could steal from King of all people and get away with it? Sheesh.

About the only thing that seems to be going good is the writing. While I haven't hit the NY times best seller list (I have to actually write a novel first), I'm doing better than I expected for my first year. I may even give Nano a shot this year if I can work out a good idea. Still, aside from that one positive thing (OK, two things - my family being the other), everything seems to be rather crappy and I'm finding it hard to muster much enthusiasm for anything.

I did get one piece of good news today. Primeval has been saved from cancellation and will return for a 4th and 5th series. Yay!!

Narcolepsy is Contagious...Right?

2009-09-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

I think I may be suddenly narcoleptic. That happens, right? Everything is going fine and then one day, WHAM! Narcolepsy! This entire weekend I have been fighting to stay awake...and not always wining the battle. One weapon in my arsenal was Jack of all Trades by K.C. Shaw. That book is so engrossing, it's almost impossible to put down. I could have easily read that thing from cover to cover in a single sitting, but I have purposely drawn out the experience, reading a couple chapters each night. Alas, I am almost finished. Methinks I'll have to wait a few days before jumping into a new book, as nothing will be able to fill that sense of enjoyment that JOAT has imparted.

The new issue (number 5) of House of Horror is now online. Included in the new batch of tales is Taking Root by Aaron Polson, so all you fellow AP fan club members be sure to check it out. Also in this issue is a story called Planting Season by some turkey named Caine. You can check that one out, too if you feel like it. Let me know what you think.

Pine Hollow Horrors

2009-09-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

Damn, but it was hot today. It was pushing triple digits in these parts and the rest of the week doesn't look to be much cooler. I thought this was supposed to be freakin' Fall fer Pete's sake. I'll be glad to have a few less scorchers now that Summer is over.

There have been two recent rejections in these parts. On Friday, Beyond the Veil was rejected by Shroud, after having made it past the first round of cuts. To be honest, I was slightly surprised that it did that, so when the rejection came I wasn't exactly devastated. No one likes rejections, but this one didn't sting too bad. Then today, Ground Zero was rejected by the Vermin anthology. Since the basic idea behind that story as well as all the major plot twists were my wife's idea, she was a bit more saddened by the rejection than me. I just sent it right back out again.

I do have some good news. The new issue (#8) of The Monsters Next Door is now out. This issue marks the transition to print, though a free PDF version is also available. You can find that by following the link on the page above or just by clicking HERE. You can also buy a print version HERE if you so desire. Anyway, my story The Horror of Pine Hollow is in this issue (page 102 to be exact), so check it out and tell me what you think.

On other (slightly) good news, I was organizing my files last night when I came across a 2700 word zombie story that I had completely forgotten about. It was like finding buried treasure. It seems I wrote it while on vacation a couple weeks back, but I suppose my illness and other factors contributed to me losing track of it. After a good polish or two, I'll have to find a place to sub it, though for some reason duotrope seems to be on the fritz right now. Oh, well. This story ain't going out tonight anyway. There's time to wait.

Writing Fail & Book Pimping

2009-09-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

Last week I sat down to write a fantasy short story. I got about 300 or so words into it and stopped because I've had easier times removing fence posts from dried concrete. The words were just not coming. I opened that story back up each day this past week and stared at it, hoping to conjure something, but nothing magically appeared. I just couldn't do it and wasn't sure why. Then when reading K.C. Shaw's new novel, Jack of all Trades (go buy a copy!), I realized what was wrong. Years back I read fantasy to the exclusion of all else. I did that for years before venturing into science fiction and horror. Because I read so many fantasy books in times past (literally hundreds of books), I gradually moved on to other things. I realized tonight that it has been a long time since I read fantasy regularly and because of that, the unique terminology inherent in such tales as well as basic knowledge of medieval/renaissance life has fled from my mind. At one time, I studied such things and poured over history books on life in the middle ages, but it's been so long since I did that, whatever I learned needs to be re-learned. So the end result is, I've given up on any fantasy stories until I can brush up on my facts. Poo! I had this neat idea about a wizard named Gabeus Fillymander who ran a private magical detective agency, but who was called upon a lot by the city guard to help solve crimes and mysteries. Naturally he is hiding a big secret from his past. Oh, well. Maybe someday.

Time for some book pimping!

First we have the 52 Stitches collection from Strange Publications, gathering all the stories from the project's initial year, including two of my stories, Nuts and The Confession. Available from Amazon.

Next up is the new anthology from Pill Hill Press, The Middle of Nowhere: Horror in rural America. Available from both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. This one opens with my ghost tale, The Gallery of Final Repose.

And of course, we have The Devil's Food from The Monsters Next Door. My offering, The Faceless Ones shares this awesome book with notable names like David Dunwoody, Natalie L. Sin and Aaron Polson. Available from Amazon.

Even though I don't have a story in it (I did make the shortlist though!), the new Dead Bait anthology from Severed Press is now out. The aforementioned David Dunwoody and Aaron Polson have tales in this book, so you know right there it's packed with quality stuff. Available from Amazon.

Let's not forget the book I mentioned earlier, K.C. Shaw's Jack of all Trades. You can get it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble or from the publisher. I advise the latter.

While you're buying books, be sure to get a copy of Cate Gardner's awesome chapbook, The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon, available from Bucket 'O' Guts Press.

Now I'm off to get in another chapter or two of Jack of all Trades before calling it a night.

Back To The Grind

2009-09-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

The only problem with taking so many days off work and spending most of them sick in bed watching movies, is now I am accustomed to my days unfolding like that and the thought of returning to work tomorrow fills me with a feeling of dread. Damn, I need to win the lottery. Of course, I need to play the lottery before I can win. So it's back to work for me in the morning. Thankfully it's only three days before I can be lazy again.

Speaking of laziness, I accomplished nothing today. Not a single word written, not a single thing read (aside from a magazine article or two) and not a single TV show or movie watched. What did I do? When not wasting time on the Internet cruising blogs, forums, news sites and such, I was hooked on Professor Layton and the Curious Village, a game my wife bought for her Nintendo DS. Since she was at work and I was at home, I decided to play it. Damn! Talk about addicting. I'm a sucker for games centered around puzzles and this one is loaded. I spent hours on the damn thing. In fact, the wife had to practically pry it from my hands just now so that I'd come upstairs and go to bed.

Church of the Deviate Minds was accepted by the Alienology antho today, which makes going back to work tomorrow a little less painful. That makes one less story cluttering up my WIP file. I've tried and tried and tried to come up with something for the Baconology antho, but every idea I have just sounds terrible. Plus, I can't figure out where to take half of them or how to end the story, so I may just have to move on to something else like Wolfology. Who knows.

Vacation Recap

2009-09-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

So nearly a week after my last post, I've returned to this blog. Not much has changed. After last Monday, I still was rather ill and rested most of the week, though each day I was able to get up and get moving better. I even managed to get out of the house some. I also completed a couple new stories and got them subbed, so I felt like I accomplished something. The Other Half was in some pain from her neck/back problems so coupled with my not feeling good, we really didn't get out to do the things we wanted to do on vacation. The exception was yesterday, our wedding anniversary. We went out for a day of shopping and fun, had a nice meal and watched a movie. It was a good day. Today I worked really hard on polishing Church of the Deviate Minds before launching it off. Tomorrow the wife returns to work, but I still have two more days of vacation before returning to my job on Wednesday. I plan to use that time to write as much as I can. We'll see how that goes. If the stuff I ordered from Amazon finally shows up, I may end up watching old Japanese monster films instead.

EDIT: To everyone at Agriculture Industries: Yes, this blog is run by Cindy's husband.

Still Alive

2009-09-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

Man, did this surprise sore throat-stuffed nose-bad cough thing really knock me on my ass. I've been pretty much laid up the last three days. Sunday was the same as Saturday, with me sleeping and watching movies all day. I did feel well enough to stagger to the computer and pound out 1600 words on a new zombie story, finishing it. Today was more of the same: sleeping and watching movies. However, today I was feeling much better and spent more time at the computer, editing that zombie story several times before sending it off. Tomorrow I hope to be feeling good enough to be a bit more productive and actually enjoy my vacation. Just for the hell of it, here's the list if films I watched yesterday and today:

Kronos (1957)
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
The Dark Knight (2008)
The Land Unknown (1957)
The Deadly Mantis (1957)
Darkness Falls (2003)

As you can see, I really love scifi and horror flicks from the 50's. They can be quite inspiring. One of the stories accepted last month was partially inspired by two old 50's flicks. Anyway, I hope everyone had a good Labor Day. Time to go drink more juice, pick out a movie and flop out for the night.

Sequestered

2009-09-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

I feel like one of those sick people in a movie where a virulent plague is sweeping the land. I've been practically quarantined in my own house. The Other Half insists I stay in bed and rest while doing her best to fill me with juice and pharmaceuticals. I have accomplished nothing all day. Not a damn thing. Well, I did watch some movies. Being sick allows me the opportunity to peruse the DVD collection and view some favorites as well as films I have never seen before. So today I, while awake and lucid, watched Tarantula from 1955 with the ass-kicking John Agar and gorgeous Mara Corday. Then I was in the mood for some European fare, so I watched the 1973 Italian giallo film Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye and wrapped things up with the joint Italian/Spanish zombie film (but set in the UK) Let Sleeping Corpses Lie from 1974 (aka The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue). Giant man-eating spiders, mysterious murders in a Gothic castle and hordes of the gut-munching living dead. Yes, this is how I relax. Doesn't everyone?

Well This Just Sucks

2009-09-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my last day at work before my vacation. I don't return until Wednesday September 16th. All week I've been eagerly awaiting this time off. And now I've gone and gotten sick. A really bad sore throat hit me out of nowhere today. I really hope it goes away, but I suspect that it will get worse before doing that. So now I get to spend part of my vacation in bed. Joy. So if I'm rather quiet for the next few days, you will all know the reason. If I'm not back by next week, it means I have probably succumbed to the Swine Flu. Wonderful.

"August Stats" aka "Screw You Duotrope"

2009-08-31T21:03:00.000-07:00

Despite the utterly craptastic week I had last week, August was a really good month on the writing front. Without further ado, here is the breakdown for the month.

New stories completed and subbed: 4
The Wind Whispers My Name (700 words)
Hungry Waters (500 words)
Returning to Eden (3000 words)
Desolation's Brood (1900 words)

New stories begun but incomplete:
Untitled Monster Story (300 words)
Jars (500 words)
Beast of Blackwater Gulch (500 words)

WIP's worked on: 1
Church of the Deviant Minds (+600 words, 3100 total)

Total words written in August: 8,000

Rejections: 4
Reflection's Edge
Nossa Morte
House of Horror
Elements of Horror antho

Acceptances: 9
The Customer to Blood Moon Rising
A Cause For Celebration to The Nautilus Engine
Valley of the Splintered Oaks to road trip theme issue of TMND
Deadliest Cachalot to The Bitter End antho
Planting Season to House of Horror
The Sea Hath No King to AlienSkin
Hungry Waters to Elements of Horror antho
Desolation's Brood to Twisted Legends antho
Returning To Eden to Creature Features antho

Needless to say, this was my best month ever. I received enough acceptances that I won't feel bad if the next couple of months are slow. The flip side to my small bit of success is that Duotrope thinks I am full of it. With 12 days of vacation coming up, I hope to get several WIP's completed and sent of into submission land.

Ready For New Week

2009-08-30T22:21:00.000-07:00

Last week sucked.

Just a few things that made it craptacular: constant back pain, equipment failures at work, me screwing up something at work that added HOURS to a long day, the father-in-law going in to the hospital, lots of running around after work, not getting enough sleep, a cranky wife, a wide screen TV going on the fritz, a washing machine already on the fritz, not enough money to fix them and a zillion other things. I am ready to get this new week started, hoping it is better than the last one. More to the point, I am ready to get this next week over because come Friday, I will be on vacation for nearly two weeks. I am so ready for it.

Not much writing over the last few days. I started and finished one story and worked out details for a couple others. Mostly I've been trying to rest with any free time. Last night I dreamed (dreamt? I'm too lazy to check and see which is correct) I was a character in one of my stories - The Horror of Pine Hollow to be exact. Armed only with a shotgun and a handful of shells, I was trapped in an attic, fending off an attack by dozens of the goblin-like Gimplings. Woke up in a cold sweat. Sheesh, I can't even catch a break when asleep!

Kreative Blogger

2009-08-25T20:00:00.001-07:00

Laura Eno over at a Shift in Dimensions has awarded me The Kreativ Blogger Award. I am quite shocked as the last word I'd use to describe my blogging would be Kreativ. Boring? Routine? Inept? Sure, but creat...er..kreativ?

There are two parts to this award. First, that I pass it on to seven other bloggers. This is where I get creative and just pass it on to one, cuz I'd feel like Typhoid Mary otherwise. Plus, I only know a handful of other bloggers and wanna leave lots of potential suckers...er...candidates for them.

Thus, my choice for the Kreative Blogger award is Carrie Harris. I could spend hours going on about how awesome her blog is, the sheer comedic value in every post coupled with keen insights on life and writing (especially the dreaded query letter), but it's better if you just go see for yourself if you have not already.

The second part of this award is to list seven mystery authors. This is the easy part for me. I don't read mystery and couldn't name a single contemporary mystery author.

Aside from that bit of frivolity, this week has been pure suckage. Work has been hell. Monday was one of "those" days when things went wrong all day, making a long day even longer. Today was marginally better, but I am sore all over from it all. On top of all that, my wife's father has been in the hospital, so there has been lots of driving around after work running errands and helping her parents. No writing at all this week. It's all I can do to keep from collapsing at the end of the day.

One Lovely Blog Award

2009-08-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well, it would seem the utter pinkness of this blog has earned me the One Lovely Blog Award. I know, I know...pink for a horror writer's blog? If it helps, think of it as the color of burned flesh or maybe a spectacular sunset that heralds the approach of darkness and all the vile things that come with it.

Anyway, the talented Catherine J Gardner (have you got your copy of her new chapbook, The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon yet?) has bestowed the award upon yours truly. I thank her not only for the award but also for believing in me when duotrope hinted at me being a liar of all things.

This of course means that I get to pass the award on to a new recipient and I have chosen the soothing colors and perceptive wit inherent in The Knotted Thicket, the blog of K.C. Shaw (have you got your copy of her new novel Jack of all Trades yet?). I'll forgive her for getting me addicted to lemonade, as I did wave my cheese puffs in her direction, leading to her developing a craving for their snacky goodness.

Thus, the rules for the award:

1. Accept the award, and don't forget to post a link back to the awarding person.

2. Pass the award on.

3. Notify the award winner(s).

WIP Wednesday

2009-08-19T22:17:00.000-07:00

Around my house today, aside from Work in Progress Wednesday, it was known as Horrible Back Pain Wednesday. I stayed home from work because my back was hurting so bad. This gave me lots of time to rest and watch DVD's. Movies enjoyed included The Slime People, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Creature of the Walking Dead and Conan the Barbarian. I wrote in between films, finishing my unnamed monster story. Total words today: 3,000. Tomorrow is edit time. Right now it is sleep time. Regardless of how I feel in the morning, I have to go to work. Ugh.

The Way We Were

2009-08-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

Things are back to normal around here. This means that my back is in near constant pain from the day job, The Other Half is not satisfied with the speed I am accomplishing household chores, I can't seem to get enough sleep, no one wants to cook and...oh yeah, rejections are once again rolling my way. Hey, the ride was fun while it lasted, but it's back to reality for me. At least duotrope doesn't snicker when I report rejections as opposed to its snarky response to my acceptances.

After brainstorming like mad the last few days with help from The Other Half, I've got several good ideas for short stories. When push comes to shove, she can be quite inventive with her settings and scenarios. Of course, it's almost always left up to me to come up with an ending. Tonight I wrote a good 800 words on a new monster story and then promptly deleted them all. They were good, I suspect, but I could see that I was going to go waaaay over my word limit if I began the story in that spot. Plus, I realized that I was beginning in the wrong spot and the scene I was so carefully crafting could easily be referenced easier in dialog later on once the spooky shit was going down. So I chopped them and then jumped forward and started the story where things get creepy.

Right now it's time for ice cream. Yum.

The Awesome Aftertaste Of Olive Lemon

2009-08-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my copy of The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon by Catherine J. Gardner arrived in the mail. I waited until 8:00 PM to settle down in a comfy spot on the couch and dig into it. WOW! This is easily my favorite story of hers. As the story was unfolding, I kept looking at the page count and bemoaning the fact that it was so short. Such beautiful, haunting strangeness! And all wrapped up in one memorable ending. I wanted more! Bucket 'O' Guts press could not have picked a better story to kick off their chapbook line than this one. Be sure to grab a copy for yourself!

On the personal writing front, since my gleeful post from two days ago I have actually had two more acceptances. I am in utter shock. That's four days in a row that I've gotten an acceptance and six overall for the month. The acceptances actually outnumber the rejections this month. I'm sure duotrope thinks that I am a full of shit when I report these. As elated as I am, I need to get to work on some new stuff as I am running out of stories to sub (I know, cry me a river ;) ). I also know that such a good run is not the norm and I could easily be in the middle of a weeks long barrage of rejections. Still, I am tickled pink - as pink as the colors on this blog - that my first year of serious writing has worked out as well as it has. There's always room for improvement, so back at it I go.

Somebody Pinch Me

2009-08-13T17:07:00.000-07:00

I keep expecting to wake up at any second. The acceptances during this first part of August have balanced out the onslaught of rejections that came in late July. Last Wednesday my short micro piece The Customer was accepted by Blood Moon Rising for their spring 2010 issue. Then on Friday, the story that has seen more rejections than any other, A Cause For Celebration, was picked up by The Nautilus Engine for their November issue. I was this close to retiring that story. I am super glad it finally found a home. Yesterday I came home to learn that Valley of the Splintered Oaks was accepted by The Monsters Next Door for their Road Trip themed issue (and the positive feedback in the acceptance letter made my day) and then today came the news that had me whooping and jumping around the house like I was on crack: Deadliest Cachalot was accepted for The Bitter End antho as part of a few early acceptances to kick start the formatting process. Seriously, August has been kicking ass! I don't wanna wake up! I've been trying to be more low key about reporting acceptances (much like Aaron) but when this many come this fast, I just have to jump up and down and scream like a fool. Pardon me now while I go jump and scream some more.

I Just Noticed...

2009-08-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

...that this blog has an awful lot of pink on it. Not exactly the color one imagines when thinking of horror and the macabre. I guess I was trying to go for a twilight-ish (the time of day, not the crappy sparkling vampire movie) look and feel. I may need to change things around here soon.

So today was WIP Wednesday. At least, in other parts of the world is was. Here there is no WIP. More like WOT - works in thought. I keep thinking about various ideas and stories, but when I plant my butt down to write, I either fall asleep before getting too far or pound out a paragraph or three and upon reviewing them and deciding they suck, head for the big upstairs TV and my collection of horror films on DVD. I've been watching older movies this week for inspiration (it's worked before). This week included The Monster of Piedras Blancas from 1958 and Beast of Blood from 1970. The only thing the latter inspired me to do was fall asleep.

Anyway, all this babbling is just my way of saying that there is not much new in these parts, aside from new addiction to lemonade. I've been going through it like crazy and still can't get enough. I think I'll blame K.C. for that one. Maybe I'll go get another glass and then watch The Thing From Another World (1951).

Olive Lemon Has Arrived

2009-08-09T07:05:00.000-07:00

The new chapbook from Catherine J. Gardner is now available! The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon is up for sale at Bucket O' Guts Press for a mere six dollars, which includes shipping to anywhere in the U.S. Rush on out and get your copy today! Er...wait. I mean, run to your computer and order one today! Um...you're already at your computer, aren't you? Then click on over and order one today!

I Broke Another One

2009-08-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

Earlier in the week came the news that Lurid Lit was canceling their annual journal, thus freeing up a story of mine they had accepted. Then Baen's Universe announced it was closing after the April 2010 issue. At least I had nothing to do with that one, never having submitted there. However, today came the news that Macabre Cadaver is terminating production as well. The story I had subbed there has been sent to a new market, but I have to wonder if I'm killing these markets with my toxic submissions. Truthfully, I know it's not me, but it sure seems odd.

Chop! Chop! Chop!

2009-08-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I edited Deadliest Cachalot down from a bloated 8200 words to a svelte 5,000. What got chopped? I completely removed the photographer character, lost about 98% percent of the real life background info on the Farallon Islands, did away with the long talking scene after the initial attack (that ground the story to a halt) and trimmed words here and there. Once done, I sent it off to The Bitter End: Tales of Nautical Terror antho. Today I learned that after the initial reading, it was being held for further consideration. Um...yay! Yes, I have my fingers tightly crossed...again.

On the writing front, after one night on Church of the Deviate Minds, I have already pushed it back aside in favor of a story for a new creature horror antho taking shape at House of Horror. Monsters are my first true love in the realms of horror, so any chance to delve into such territory must be taken! It helps that Church of the Deviate Minds is one of those stories that is not being written with any specific market in mind, thus I feel no pressing need to finish it asap. It will happen in its own time. Right now it's monster time!!

WIP Wednesday

2009-08-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

Last week on WIP Wednesday I had no project with which I was firmly engaged. This week I have dusted off Church of the Deviate Minds, adding another 600 words tonight. I know exactly where this story is going, it's just a matter of getting there. Since I'm exhausted and fighting sleep at the moment, the rest will have to wait until tomorrow. In the mean time here is a snippet.

The cacophony of voices sprang into agonized song simultaneously, a discordant chorus of tortured souls lamenting the cruelty and hopelessness of their sudden fates.

Kenley stared at the other interns in shocked confusion for a fleeting second, caught unaware by the abrupt disharmony before she realized that the anguished voices were coming from rooms on either side of the hallway.

All of them.

Behind each door, some unseen torment was inciting every patient on the third floor to howl in misery.

Phooey

2009-08-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

I learned today that Lurid Lit will be closing due to financial reasons. Thus, their new print journal won't be appearing. This means that my previously accepted story Pruritus Maximus is getting sent back out into submission land. It was originally written for the Dark Jesters antho, but it was only after I subbed it to them that I realized the publishers had already produced a book with similar material. The end result? They enjoyed the story, but passed due to those similarities. I subbed it a couple other places before Lurid Lit took it, but now I need to find a new home again. Any suggestions for a horror/humor tale about a poor sap who drinks from the wrong bottle and winds up with a case of very itchy balls? An itch that just won't go away, no matter how much he scratches and rubs?

July Stats

2009-08-02T18:44:00.001-07:00

July started off pretty good, with an acceptance on the second from The Monsters Next Door for my story The Horror of Pine Hollow. Then things were silent for a long time. Around the 17th, rejections started rolling in...and didn't seem to stop. While June was my best month for acceptances (4 total), July brought me the most rejections I have ever had in a single month: 9. For some odd reason, none of them really bothered me. Well, not too much. I shrugged and subbed again. Eventually, by month's end I did score two more acceptances (to paying markets no less), so the month turned out rather well after all.

Acceptances: 3
The Horror of Pine Hollow to The Monsters Next Door issue 8
The Gallery of Final Repose to The Middle of Nowhere: Horror in Rural America anthology
The Legacy of Seshet to The Scroll of Anubis anthology

Rejections: 9
GUD
Weird Tales
Brain Harvest
Pill Hill Press
House of Horror
Necrotic Tissue
Absent Willow Review
Alternative Coordinates
Dog Oil Press

New stories completed and subbed: 5
Ground Zero (7500 words)
Valley of the Splintered Oaks (5700 words)
The Legacy of Seshet (3000 words)
Down These Dead Streets (500 words)
Sanctuary of the Shadowed Sleeper (3300 words) - Alliteration is fun!

New stories begun but incomplete: 2
Church of the Deviate Minds (2500 words so far)
An Inheritance of Shadows (1400 words so far)

Total words written for July: 23,900

Bring on August!

WIP Wednesday

2009-07-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

It's Work in Progress Wednesday and I have no WIP. Sad, I know. I've spent most of the day thinking about Church of the Deviate Minds and An Inheritance of Shadows, though I haven't touched either in nearly a week. I'd like to get one of them completed by Friday night so I can sub again to Necrotic Tissue, but I don't know if I'm gonna make that deadline. Tonight I fiddled with a zombie flash piece, so I guess you could call that my WIP. The day job has been busy and I've been zonked each evening, though somehow I managed to write a mummy story that was accepted for the Scroll of Anubis anthology. I'm still not sure how I scored that one and am half convinced it was a dream. I'm sitting here now, marinating my insides with liberal amounts of lemonade and bemoaning the fact that I have no proper snacks in the house (salty and crunchy). My eyelids are getting heavier by the second. Methinks it is time for bed. Oh, and rejoice, those who of you who - like me - are still looking to find a home for their rejected Dead Bait story. Looky here!

What A Week (End)

2009-07-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

The Other Half and I were planning on seeing the new Harry Potter movie today, but last night we noticed a nail in her car's left rear tire, so we got up early to take the car into Sears, where we bought the tires originally. We have the coverage plan that fixes road damage flats for free, so we knew we didn't have to spend any money. We got there early - 9:20 for a 10:00 opening. We were the first ones there.

About five minutes later some guys pulls up and parks his car right in front of the roll up door leading into the garage. A minute or so later, a second car pulls up behind him. The Other Half and I get out of our vehicle (parked in the lot) and walk up by the door. Technically we were first, but I wasn't about to make a big deal about two people in front of us. While we waited, more cars got into the impromptu line formed by that first guy. My mistake was not moving our car into that line because when the doors opened and our turn came to talk to someone, we were told that if we weren't in line, we couldn't be helped. Well, then HOW ABOUT A FUCKING SIGN EXPLAINING THAT?!!! So we got there first, but had to wait for about 8 other cars before we got checked in. Wow, was my wife fuming.

The end result was lunch in the food court at the mall and not getting the car done until it was too late to catch a matinee (I refuse to pay full price). So I get to wait another week for my Harry Potter fix. Instead we came home and watched Confessions of a Shopaholic. I know, not quite the same thing.

On the writing front, this has been a rather depressing seven days. No acceptances since July 2, but eight rejections so far this month - and six of them just in the last week, including a fifth "no thanks" today for Deadliest Cachalot. I haven't been too down about things, not having been in the greatest mood to begin with, but I did get to experience the "one editor hates it/one editor loves it" phenomenon for myself.

Last Sunday my story The Valley of Splintered Oaks was rejected from the Rural Horror anthology. No biggie, I thought. I'll just sub another story. I sat down and started writing the piece I eventually called An Inheritance of Shadows. That was coming along great until I learned the antho was closing to submissions today (Sunday the 26th). I knew I would never get the story done it time, so set it aside to work on other things around the house. Then Thursday came and I got a rejection from Necrotic Tissue for The Gallery of Final Repose, a story I had originally subbed here, but withdrew. The NT rejection kind of stung, making me question my ability to craft a good story. Their comments included such things as "run of the mill"and "story that did nothing new with the genre." Ouch.

Since The Gallery of Final Repose is set in a small town, I realized only minor tweaking would be required to have it fit the Rural Horror guidelines. What the hell, right? It's worth a shot. So Friday and Saturday I tweaked then subbed. Tonight I got the news the piece was accepted. It's funny how one yes from an editor can take the sting out of all those other no's.

WIP Wednesday

2009-07-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

I didn't get too much time today to work on my latest project, a second piece for the Rural Horror antho. About another 300 words were added tonight. So far the working title is An Inheritance of Shadows. I'm sure this one will get rejected because they've already accepted a story featuring a cornfield. Yes, I'm being snarky.

Right now I have about four short stories in various stages of development. I think I finally figured how to fill in the gap with Church of the Deviate Minds, but that will have to wait until this new story is completed...or hits a snag of its own. You know how that goes. You don't? I hate you.

A Nice Surprise

2009-07-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

So after 113 days I heard from Shroud Magazine today. I nearly fell out of my chair when I read that my story, Beyond the Veil, had been narrowed down to the next phase of the acceptance process. So the story has earned another read and additional consideration. This tells me the story wasn't perceived as total crap, but with the sheer number of people trying to score a slot in that mag, I still know my chances are slim. Still, it was enough to bolster my spirits. For those of you who volunteered as beta readers at the time, Beyond the Veil is the name I gave to the single story that ultimately combined the two pieces The Thing in the Bathroom and Horror in the Chamber of Steam.

Another 350 words tonight on latest WIP. What would you consider to be the scariest form of disembodied voice? A scream? Crying? Laughter? Belching? This (wannabe) writer wants to know.

Timing Is Everything

2009-07-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

So after all that hard work on Valley of the Splintered Oaks, I sent it in Saturday to the Horror in Rural America antho and got a rejection Sunday. The reason? They had already accepted a "broken down car on the side of the road" story, so to whoever beat me to the punch by a few days, I have made the appropriate offerings to the lords of the underworld. You should expect fiery revenge any day now. ;) To think that I might have had a better shot if I'd only subbed that thing a day or three earlier had my wife blaming herself for taking me away from the keyboard last week. Hey, at least the response time was damn fast. Amidst my plans for seppukku, I hit upon another idea for the anthology and tonight I started a new story, getting about 500 words down. This one doesn't involve cars of any kind.

The Movie Meme

2009-07-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

Following in the footsteps of Alan who followed Natalie who got it from K.V. Taylor, comes The Movie Meme!

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.
Where to begin? I've seen so many films multiple times that listing them would take hours. I love just about anything science fiction, fantasy and horror related, so I tend to watch those types of movies over and over. As for the one film I've seen more times than any other, it's probably the original Star Wars (1977). Ive easily seen that one close to 150 times. The original 1951 version of The Thing From Another World ranks up there, too. Ive seen that one dozens and dozens of times.

2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theater.
As with question one, I've seen lots of films multiple times in the theater. I don't do it anymore though. As I've gotten older and even lazier, I'll only go once...if at all. With films eventually arriving on DVD, I tend to wait and buy it then. For 20 bucks I can just own it for the same price as one admission ticket and some snacks. However, back in the day I would regularly see films up to four or five times in the theater. My all time record is for Willow (1988). I was really into fantasy at the time and such movies were very rare, so I went 23 times to the theater to see that one.

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.
Hugh Jackman or Will Smith. I tend to like them in just about anything they do.

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.
Will Ferrell. I loved him on SNL, but his movies make me want to gouge out my eyes with a spoon and fill my ears with cement.

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.
Galaxy Quest (1999). It was such a great send up of Star Trek and space opera in general. I love it.

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
Oddly enough, Grease 2 (1982). I had never seen the first one by the time the sequel aired on HBO a billion times in the early 80's, so I have always preferred part 2 over the original. It's one of those guilty pleasures of mine.

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.
The aforementioned Grease 2. I have the songs on my ipod and listen to them regularly. I know, very sad.

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.
The Robot versus The Aztec Mummy (1958). Then people will know what a truly crappy film is all about. This one will either put you into a coma or scar you for life if you make it through awake.

9. Name a movie that you own.
At last count, I have close to 2,000 films in my DVD collection (and that's just films, don't get me started on TV and anime) so I have a lot to choose from, so I'll go with A Clockwork Orange (1971).

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.
Will Smith. I like his films MUCH better than his music.

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?
I haven't been to a drive-in since the 70's but I can clearly recall seeing Jaws (1975) and The Gauntlet (1977) at one.

12. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t yet gotten around to it.
A Clockwork Orange. I've owned that bloody film on DVD for 10 years and have never gotten around to watching it.

13. Ever walked out of a movie?
Only once, with the truly craptacular Leonard Part 6 (1987) with Bill Cosby.

14. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.
E.T. The Extra-terrestrial (1982). Hey, I was a kid.

15. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?
J.J. Abrams big budget Star Trek reboot/relaunch from earlier this year.

16. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie?
Anything Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror. I also love historical dramas and epics, especially if they take place in a time before gun powder was invented.

17. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?
As a wee lad of four and five, I remember going with my family to see some Bruce lee films in the early 70's.

18. What movie do you wish you had never seen?
I can't say that there is any film I regret seeing, but I do know that I have no desire to see Howard the Duck (1986) again.

19. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?
Probably The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). A rock and roll musical that glorifies the scifi films of yesteryear, complete with bisexual transvestites from outer space? Gotta love it.

20. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen?
When I was four years old, the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) scared the crap outta me. Since then, nothing has ever frightened me again. Sure, going surfing was freaky after seeing Jaws, but the film itself didn't scare me.

21. What is the funniest movie you’ve seen?
Well, the movie I laughed the most at was Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985). Then again, I was in high school at the time and was probably drinking the night we went and saw it.

The Final Stretch

2009-07-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

It was full steam ahead today. Since getting home from work at four PM, I've written 2800 words on Valley of the Splintered Oaks. The story is now at 4650 words. I was hoping to keep it under 5000, but I am really close to the end, so maybe some liberal chopping and several editing passes will get it back down to manageable size. This is one of those times when the story almost told itself and I just sat and typed nonstop, getting it out. It's been fun as well, creating creepy moment after creepy moment, (hopefully) building up the tension until all hell breaks loose. I'm still debating the end. I know how it all comes to a conclusion, I'm just not sure if I want all the characters to survive...if any. I suppose I should sleep on it.

Today at work was much better. The heat still sucked at 100+ degrees, but at least I had AC in the truck!

WIP Wednesday

2009-07-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

Like a few others, the Muse was missing in action for a few days, but then I got wind of the new Horror in Rural America anthology. Valley of the Splintered Oaks fits this one to a T, so I pushed aside the not happening Church of the Deviate Minds and dove into Oaks. So far, so good. 1300 words tonight with a clear picture of where the story is going. I'm actually forcing myself to stop writing for the day, as the characters are about to make a creepy discovery and I want to do this scene justice by operating on less exhaustion. 10.5 hours at work today in 103 degree heat AND NO FREAKIN' AIR CONDITIONING IN MY TRUCK!!!

Stick a fork in me, I am done!

Flashback

2009-07-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

Am I the only one who remembers this creepy video from the 80's?

Crash

2009-07-13T20:52:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been a week since I posted here. Not much has been happening. For a few days I was blazing away on my latest WIP, The Church of Deviate Minds, but then I hit a snag. I knew how the story was going to end, but suddenly the road that I had envisioned leading to that ending wasn't feeling too good. It was like BOOM! Here are the characters, WHAM! Murder, POW! Freaky Shit and then......the end. It just didn't feel right. I chopped out one entire section and then was unable to come up with anything to fill it with. The writing just came to a grinding halt. I'm still trying to work this story over in my mind, but for the last few days, I haven't written a thing. I'm just gonna view this as one of those "recharge" periods often experienced before another burst of creative genius.

WTF?

2009-07-06T22:21:00.000-07:00

So I see on Duotrope that The Drabbler is open to submissions again. I also see that according to Duotrope, this market only notifies those whose work is accepted. So no rejection notices. Sauntering on over to the Drabbler website, I see that they don't accept multiple submissions. As part of their FAQ's they have the following:

How many stories may I enter?

As many as you can write. However, no multiple submissions. Please submit one story at a time.

I then see that at the current time, they are open to subs until August 31. I also read that winners will be announced on October 1st. So a great big WTF?!! If you can only sub one story at a time, BUT they don't send out rejections, you will have to wait until October 1st to know if you've been accepted. By that time, the submission period will have been over for a month and it is too late to send a second piece...so why in hell do they encourage writers to send as many stories as they can write? Does that make any sense?

The sore throat was better today. Thanks to all for their remedy suggestions. I found the easiest way to get to sleep last night was the old classic: several shots of scotch.

My Vermin story, Ground Zero got polished and sent out tonight. Here's hoping. I also managed a few hundred more words on Church of the Deviate Minds. My big news of the day was an acceptance from The Monsters Next Door for my story, The Horror of Pine Hollow. It will appear in issue eight. TMND is also changing format, with issue eight being the first as a free PDF. There will also be the option to purchase a printed version. I think I'll have to buy a couple print copies to show off to friends and...well, friends.

Productive Weekend

2009-07-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

This was a productive weekend. Saturday The Other Half and I had already agreed to stay home for the day and relax, due in part to all the running around we did on Friday. Thus, I was able to make several passes at Ground Zero and get it down to manageable size. I'm letting it a sit for a day or so before another polish and then off it goes.

Today was another day where I worked on several different stories as the day progressed. In the morning I dabbled with an unnamed flash piece. In the afternoon I worked on a story called Valley of the Splintered Oaks (which was once known as Wrong Turn in Dutch Hollow) and a new one entitled Midnight in the House on Whispering Hill, though that name is subject to change. Then this evening it was another writing marathon (1200+ words) on a new piece called Church of the Deviate Minds.

No rejections or acceptances this weekend, but I expect to hear soon from something. I have two subs that have been out for 97 days each and another two that have been out for 75 days each, not to mention the story for the Time in a Bottle antho, which is now at 125.

For some ungodly reason, I have managed to develop a sore throat over the last two days. I can feel it worsening with every hour. I only hope I can get some sleep tonight and that it won't be too bad come morning.

Did I Do That?

2009-07-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

So mere hours after I received a rejection from GUD the other day, they closed to submissions. Coincidence? A part of me wonders if they took the quality of my submission as a sign to close their doors for the time being. Oops.

On the writing front, Ground Zero, my Vermin story is complete. Yay! Only...there's a problem. It's waaaay too long. The other day I was at about 3.5 thousand words and confident that I'd have it wrapped up by 5k. Then 5k came and went and the story wasn't complete. Then 6k came and went. The same with 7k. sigh As it is now, the bloody thing is 8200 words long. The word limit is 7500. Chopping is in order. Since I'd prefer it to be even shorter than 7.5k, serious chopping is in order. However, that comes tomorrow. After my writing marathon this afternoon (1800 words! woo hoo) and then watching the Friday the 13th remake tonight, I think it's time to unwind with a good book from Richard Laymon.

Oh, my latest Tweet story went up today at Tweet the Meat. Check it out.

June

2009-07-01T15:09:00.001-07:00

So June has come and gone. Overall it was a pretty good month for me. I only had two big rejections. One from the Hideous Evermore antho (and that one really bummed me out) and one from Murky Depths magazine. Technically I got a few rejections from Tweet the Meat since I subbed five stories and they only took one, but those aren't exactly heartbreaking. Oh, and there was that rejection from Dark Recesses, but since that story sucked, I was rather glad it got the boot.

This was my best month ever as far as acceptances. In the Dog House went to Everyday Weirdness. Thin Ice found a home at Flashes in the Dark. The aforementioned Tweet the Meat took a tweet story I refer to as Invasion and Lurid Lit accepted Pruritus Maximus for their new print journal. So, yay! Thus the grand total was:

Rejections - 7
Acceptances - 4

The year is now half over. 2009 marks my first ongoing attempt at carving out a writing career. While I did sub a few pieces in late 2008, I think of this year as my beginning phase. In years (and decades past) I'd go through the occasional period where I'd hammer out some crappy stories and sub them a time or two before calling it quits, but this time around I was determined to stick with it. I have to say, I exceeded my expectations. I fully expected to have a file overflowing with rejections by this point, with very few (if any) acceptances, but my rejection/acceptance ratio for the year is not too shabby. So while many great markets have yet to be cracked by yours truly, I'm doing well enough that I feel that I am learning and progressing to the point where it will only be a matter of time before I see my name...or at least, my pseudonym, in them.

Now bring on July!

Eeeewwww!

2009-06-30T22:19:00.000-07:00

Mystery Life Form in NC Sewer

I am reminded of numerous horror films at this point.

Liar Liar Pants On Fire

2009-06-28T17:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's the latest meme. I've been tagged by at least three people, so here goes.

"Sometimes you can learn more about a person by what they don’t tell you. Sometimes you can learn a lot from the things they just make up. If you are tagged with this Meme, lie to me. Then tag 7 other folks (one for each deadly sin) and hope they can lie."

Pride: What is your biggest contribution to the world?

Not having children.

Envy: What do your coworkers wish they had which is yours?

My vicious charm, good looks and success with the ladies.

Gluttony: What did you eat last night?

Not enough.

Lust: What really lights your fire?

Women with a BA - bank account.

Anger: What is the last thing that really pissed you off?

The snippy attitude Honey Bunny, my stuffed rabbit, took with me this morning.

Greed: Name something you keep from others.

The secret of existence.

Sloth: What's the laziest thing you've ever done?

Aside from the short answers to this meme, this: I tag Danielle, since everyone else has been tagged (that I know of).

The title to this post was Liar Liar Pants On Fire and good gravy, is that last part true. It was 108 degrees F in these parts today and the triple digits are forecasted for the next several days. My response to the realization that I will be working in such heat: FUCK!

Due to various emergencies, Ground Zero (my vermin story) got little love this weekend, but I hope to fix that tonight. I tried writing a serial for thaumatrope since they are open for serial submissions, but that ended up sucking worse than a malfunctioning sex doll.

Time now to go listen to the Funky Werepig.

This Rawks

2009-06-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

A 60-foot Gundam statue in Tokyo Bay, that lights up at night!

See?

Now I fully expect a 400-foot tall Godzilla statue that roars on the hour.

Despite a hellish week at work (made all the more crappy by all my various pains, be it back pain, neck pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, etc), the writing has been going very well, at least until today. Tonight I am too zonked and sore to write. Instead, I researched potential markets and contemplated expanding a couple of those 100 word micros I did a while back into longer flash pieces. My Vermin tale, Ground Zero, has been coming along great. I've now reached the final act, which naturally is when all hell breaks loose.

On top of all that, today I got an acceptance from Tweet the Meat for a Tweet story I subbed. Plus, last night I got an acceptance from Lurid Lit for Pruritus Maximus, a story that is equal parts humor and horror (at least for men). Time now to pass ou...

The Godzilla Tree

2009-06-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

I once lived in a small town called Galt, situated in the heart of the San Joaquin valley and located at just about the halfway point between the greater Sacramento and Stockton metro areas. The area is mostly farm land, with patches of trees here and there. When I lived there, I worked in Stockton, 20 miles to the South. One day not long after moving there in 1999, while making the home commute for the first time, I noticed something odd in the distance when I approached Galt from the South. I spied a giant tree far in the distance, located somewhere in the heart of the city. From the freeway, the tree resembled Toho's Titan in profile. I thus dubbed it The Godzilla Tree. A couple times I tried to locate the tree by driving around town, but it seemed to only resemble the Big G from that one particular angle. I looked for that tree everyday while driving home from work. Then in 2003, I sold my house and moved. I rarely get out that way these days, but today I had deliveries in those parts. When returning North, I spotted my old pal The Godzilla Tree. Part of me imagines it uprooting itself and then stomping around town, squishing people like bugs. I'd take a picture of it to post here, but as mentioned earlier, the only way to see its resemblance to Godzilla is from the freeway...and I'm not about to stop and stroll out into the fast lane to get a clear photo.

The Vermin tale continues to develop. Another 400 words tonight. Hopefully more tomorrow. The only death so far is a cat, torn to pieces by...well, you'll just have to wait and see.

Good Weekend

2009-06-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

I had a fairly productive weekend, logging several hours of writing. The Vermin story is finally coming along nicely after weeks of being stuck in limbo. I should really thank both Alan W. Davidson and Natalie L. Sin for unknowingly helping. Alan posted a Characterization Checklist on his blog the other day that reminded me of a few crucial things, while a short story of Natalie's that I read provided the impetus to make my characters more "flavorful." Once I added a few more character traits (some good, some bad), the story really came alive, so thanks, you two!

My back is feeling better, but it's a return to work tomorrow. I hope these new pain killers can do the job if I need to call upon them.

Is The Weekend Here Yet?

2009-06-18T21:56:00.000-07:00

This week has been a real pain in the backside. Well, more like the back. My lower back started hurting Monday afternoon and has not quit. The soonest I can get to the doctor is Friday afternoon, so I've been muddling through work each day, going sloooow and leaving early in order to get home, pop some muscle relaxers and start applying heat and cold to my back. This isn't the first I've had back pain and I'm hoping that I can avoid having the muscles become too inflamed and swollen. If that happens, they'll pinch the sciatic nerve and I really will be immobile. I've had that happen twice before and I do not wish to repeat the experience.

Writing has taken somewhat of a backseat, but I have made steady, if slow, progress on my Vermin story. I also wrote a flash piece but haven't subbed it because it just seems to be missing something that I can't identify at the time. I'm torn between calling it a crappy flash story and considering it as the opening for a longer piece. I dunno. What I do know is that I'm tired of all the aches and pains.

Thin Ice

2009-06-13T23:34:00.000-07:00

More shameless self promotion. My story Thin Ice is now up at Flashes in the Dark. It was inspired by a true event that happened to my mother when she was a girl waaaay back in the 1930's. I actually wrote a non-fiction piece about the event about twelve years ago and sold it to the Good Old Days nostalgia magazine. That was the first time I ever sold anything I had written. Now, years later, I've taken the same basic premise and put a horror spin on it. Mom grew up in Illinois, but in keeping with the supernatural element of the story, I moved things to the South West, Arizona in particular.

A Puppy Post

2009-06-13T18:18:00.000-07:00

This post is for my two dogs, who helped inspire my story over at Everyday Weirdness. Plus, I just felt like talking about something new today. These two are like my children, so they get spoiled something fierce. Be warned, this entry might be sickeningly sweet. As mentioned before, these two are Pembroke Welsh Corgis and are now about 2.5 years old. I know this makes them dogs rather than puppies, but we still call them our "puppy kids."

First up we have Sandy above, who popped up a few months back in my Man Cave pics. Her full name is Sandrine Liliane. She takes after my wife in that she is very sensitive. Any loud talking or sounds and she gets nervous. Her many nicknames include:

Sand Lilly
Sanders
Colonel Sanders
Sandster
Sandy Dandy Doop
Little Miss
Little Miss Kiss Kiss
Sandy Ruff Ruff Roo Roo

This is our male Corgi, Jag. His full name is Janus Argus Griffinus, but we just call him Jag. Jag is like me. He doesn't like being touched in certain areas (mainly his front feet) and is very excitable. Any commotion and he is up and barking. I often call him "son" but his other nicknames I've given him include:

Jaggy
Jiggy Jaggy
Jagster
Jagalicious
Jaggernaut
Jagapanthus
Jaggy Waggy Woo Woo

There's the three of us this morning right before our morning walk. And for those of you who may notice, yes, I no longer have Rob Zombie length locks and facial hair like in my Twitter pic. There's just too much gray hair to pull it off any longer.

Everyday Weirdness

2009-06-12T06:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I arrived home and checked my email to find two new messages (yes, only two). One was from L.B. Goddard, co-editor of the Devil’s Food antho, advertising her appearance later on The Odd Mind blogtalk radio show (which I forgot to listen to live). While reading that message I noticed who sent the other email: Everyday Weirdness. I then opened that email and upon seeing only two lines of text, figured that I had been rejected. Then I actually read the text and was surprised to learn that my story, In The Dog House, was accepted for today. Read it HERE.

In other news, I’ve had a second story enter triple digit days while waiting for a response. The first was the horrid story Dark Recesses rejected after 177 days. Now, my piece for the Time in a Bottle antho, The Transcendental Man, has just reached 102 days. I’m wishing I had a time machine myself so I go forward and see what the result for that story is going to be.

Rejection Relief

2009-06-09T22:13:00.001-07:00

I just got a rejection from Dark Recesses Press after 177 days. I had submitted that story before the hard drive crash and as a result of said crash, I had totally forgotten where I had sent the bloody thing. I figured it would eventually come back as a rejection because the story was rather lame, but after so much time had gone by, I had nearly forgotten about it. I think this is the first time I am relieved at a rejection because since subbing that story, I've come to the conclusion that it SUCKS and the story needs to be retired. I would have hated to have that story represent me to potential new readers.

On the writing side, I spent tonight playing story tag team. I'd work on my Vermin story for a while and then when I hit a bump in the road, I'd jump over to another work in progress. When that one started to get difficult I jumped back to the Vermin story. Back and forth I went. Surprisingly, I got quite a bit done on both stories. The real test comes tomorrow, when I read over what I wrote and decide whether or not it's all crap.

The Best Laid Plans

2009-06-08T22:18:00.000-07:00

So Saturday, after running errands around town in the morning with The Other Half, I had the house to myself when she went to help her parents after lunch. No responsibilities and several hours to call my own! Prime writing time! I was eager to get to work on my Vermin story, but I was feeling a little tired, so I opted to take a wee nap first. As usual, I popped a movie into the DVD player before stretching out. The movie I chose was a "classic" monster flick from the early 60's, and when I say "classic" I mean that it is regarded by most people as crap. As I watched the film (which I have seen dozens of times) and started fading into slumber, something in the film jogged a "what if?" in my mind. I went ahead and snoozed and then got up and thought about this what if some more, eventually sitting down and writing a story called The Sea Hath No King. I polished it up Sunday and again today before sending it out.

I never did get to that damn Vermin story. It taunts me like some sort of...taunting thing. Tonight I intend to make some progress on it.

Hell Yes!

2009-06-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

So I got home from the job today and started working on a new fantasy story. I know I should be working on that Vermin story, but when the muse points in one direction, it ain't wise to head in another.

Anyway, like I mentioned last night, this story is set in a fantasy setting I created moons and moons ago for both an AD & D campaign, as well as a place to set some stories. Over the years I created detailed maps, wrote up pages of information on the backgrounds of people, nations, places, histories, organizations, etc. In other words, A SHITLOAD of work. All of that went bye-bye in January when the hard drive crashed.

Or so I thought.

I was poking around in some old files today (actual physical files, not word docs on the computer) and came across a rather thick folder stuffed with paper. It turns out these were all my old, original hand written notes before moving everything to the computer. In some cases, they were even printed from those early wordperfect files. So everything I thought was lost, was here all along. I am quite pleased, to say the least. Especially since I had been looking at a particular map and was trying to remember the placement and names of major nations and cities. Once I found that old folder, I located an early map that had all that on there, so yeah...me jazzed.

On the flip side, I also located one of the very first stories I ever wrote. This tale was an Alien clone I penned (literally) in the 8th grade. Looking back over it, I cannot believe some of the things I had my characters doing:

1. With a killer alien loose on their spaceship and bodies piling up, the crew opts to stop everything and eat a a big meal - on more than one occasion! Seriously, they just drop their weapons and head for the mess hall to chow down.

2. These people fire guns like it was a rap concert. Apparently no one worries about causing a hull breach.

3. They also seem to be going nuts with flame throwers. Why they even have them on their spaceship is a good question. Another good question is why they use them in areas of the ship with poor ventilation.

4. Continuing in the idiots in space trend, they used an explosive device to open the airlock and gain entrance to a space station. It seems said explosives are stored all over the ship, easily accessed by anyone.

5. The Captain conveniently designates his successor for command of the ship just seconds before the alien pops out and kills him.

I would really like to think I've come a long way from those days. I mean now, I'd at least have an access code required in order to get at the grenades.

What The Hail?

2009-06-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

So last night I went to bed at about 11:30. Usually I'm like a light switch - I close my eyes and I'm out. However, since I was still keyed up mentally from writing and submitting, it took me nearly 20 minutes to fall asleep. Then about 12:48 AM...WHAM (and with apologies to Mercedes, there was no murder)!!! I awoke to a sudden downpour of rain and hail that came out of nowhere. The weather man had said there was the possibility of some showers, but he failed to mention apocalypse-sized thunder storms. Not only was there pounding rain and hail, but the lightning was nearly non stop, illuminating the house like a scene from a horror flick. Now, having been all over the damn place (see all those red states in that map in Tuesday's post) I know that such storms are quite normal for many parts of the country, but here it is exceedingly rare, so it was kind of cool...until I tried to go back to sleep and the infernal racket kept me awake til 2:00 AM. I hope tonight there is not a repeat performance. Having grown up here in CA where it rains in the summer about once every 20 years, it just seems plain unnatural for water to be falling from the sky any time between May 15th and September 30th.

Finally worked on my Vermin story some, though I spent more time plotting it out in my head than actual typing. Also began work on a new fantasy piece set in an old AD&D campaign world I created years ago, but never really got to use. I'm wishing all the documentation and notes for it were still around, but all of that went poof in January's hard drive crash. I guess I have to build that world from scratch again.

Damn

2009-06-03T22:52:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite writers died yesterday. I first discovered David Eddings back in the 80's and have been a big fan ever since reading his Belgariad series in high school. While I wasn't fond of how he wrapped up his last series, The Dreamers, I still felt the story and characterizations were awesome. He wrote with his wife, who died in 2007. I knew then that given that fact coupled with his age, meant it was unlikely he'd produce anything else. While he probably was done writing, it's still sad to hear of his passing and know there will be no more. His books brought so much enjoyment that I feel like an old friend has died.

On the personal front, today brought a rejection from the Hideous Evermore antho. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't supremely bummed out over this one. In fact, I've gone through a bit of depressed mood as of late, which has contributed to my lack of an online presence. A few rejections over the last two months - most notably ones like HE that I was really, really hoping to crack, had left me contemplating giving up the whole writing thing for a while. Rejected stories sat on my hard drive, as I didn't bother subbing them again. Thus, I decided to lose myself in a few good books and forget about it all.

Today the fog lifted. Sure the HE rejection SUCKED BIGTIME, but that's how the game goes. I subbed that particular story again (The Horror of Pine Hollow) as well as Planting Season, which had sat around since Necrotic Tissue said no thanks to it. Then the rewritten Deadliest Cachalot went out once again. After that I polished a flash piece called Thin Ice that had sat finished for several weeks and sent it on its merry way. So it seems my personal cure for rejection blues is to read a few books, get inspired again and jump back into the game.

Now maybe I can get back to that long neglected Vermin story.

May

2009-06-02T18:05:00.000-07:00

So looking at the last post, it seems I've neglected this blog for over two weeks now. Well, nothing has really been happening in these parts.

I haven't done much writing aside from the Deadliest Cachalot rewrite, but that it isn't too time consuming. No, what I've been spending my time doing is reading. Normally, my job as a tanker truck driver gives me lots of time each day to read - when waiting in line to get loaded, when pumping off the load, etc. In fact, I can read so much during the day at work, that I don't bother reading at night. Unfortunately, the economy has decided to divest me of my reading time. We've lost two drivers at work (one quit, one was fired) while a third threw his back out and is on light duty. Combine all that with slower fuel sales and it means I get to drive the oil truck a lot more rather than just my fuel truck. This in turn means that I get NO time to read anymore during the day. This is one reason my "read 50 books in 09" list has been so short. Normally it would twice as long by now. Thus, after months of not being able to read, I've been burning through books over the last couple weeks, taking a break from writing to get "recharged." Or something like that.

May stats:
Rejections: 4
Acceptances: 3 (Thaumatrope, Tweet the Meat and Micro 100)

visited 44 states (88%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or Like this? try: Chinese Radicals

I, Vampire

2009-05-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't been running around in pancake makeup, decked out all in black attire and biting people on the neck (and sparkling whilst doing so). I've been sick in bed for the last several days. We have some of those window shades that block all incoming light, so when they are closed, the bedroom gets very, very dark. Just as dark as if it was midnight. I have the same type of shades in my office to help facilitate my writing mood. Anyway, I've been keeping to the bedroom for the most part, watching movies and TV shows when not zonked out on medication. I emerge only to check emails and get food. Then it's back to the Stygian darkness of the bedroom.

I have emerged now for two reasons:

1. My story, "Nuts," is now up at 52 Stitches. Please go check it out and let me know what you think.

2. Thanks to everyone who volunteered to beta read Deadliest Cachalot. I got a bunch of insightful comments and suggestions, many of which I will be using for the rewrite. The process made me smile. Elements that one reader may have loved, another thought I should lose and vice versa. It made for a good reminder that all of us have our own tastes and just because the story hasn't sold yet doesn't mean it's total crap.

OK, back to the crypt for me...

I Spoke Too Soon

2009-05-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

So the day after recovering from my stomach flu/virus thingie, a head cold, complete with stuffed nose, super sore throat and raging cough, settled over me. Well, more like landed on me like a ton of bricks. Today I am off to the doctor. The Other Half is convinced that I have Swine Flu because a coworker who recently returned from a trip to Mexico was quarantined by his doctor before being allowed to come back to work. I don't care what it is, I just want it to go away.

Back In The Land Of The Living

2009-05-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

I seemed to be fully recovered from a recent battle with some sort of stomach flu/virus thingie. It won and kicked my ass all over. I've pretty much been going to work and then spending the rest of my time in bed bemoaning my fate. This has thrown a monkey wrench into my writing as well as the 100 Days, 100 Micros thing here on this blog. I'm about five days late at this point and there is no way that I'm gonna try to write five pieces tonight. Tomorrow doesn't look good, either. In fact, I think this forced vacation from the project has made me reevaluate it. From this point on I'm going to lose the "100 Days" bit and just call it "100 Micros," posting them when I'm good and damn ready to post them. Of course, I'll still try to work on them daily, but won't lose any sleep if I miss a day or twelve. This week I hope to get back to my story for the Vermin antho.

100 Days, 100 Micros Day 6

2009-05-06T22:25:00.000-07:00

Micro 006/100
"The New House" - 100 words

Taking a break from unpacking, Sara was feeding the baby when the front door opened, the twins barreling into the house.

“How was the first day in the new school?” she asked.

“The kids told us that our house was haunted!” Sally exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Tommy agreed. “They said that ghosts possess people here and make them do bad things. That’s not true, is it?”

Sara smiled. “Of course not. Don’t let those kids get to you. Those are all just stories.”

The baby’s eyes suddenly glowed red. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” she said in a menacing baritone.

Tuesday's Gone

2009-05-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who volunteered to read Deadliest Cachalot. Today was a short day at the day job, but a long one at the hospital and then home to do chores (which have been piling up). I'm knackered.

Micro 005/100
"The Customer" - 100 words

The sign read Mojo’s Magical Emporium. I opened the door and entered, finding it empty except for a short man behind the counter.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

“I have a problem,” I said.

“Well, you’ve come to the right place! What might it be? Werewolf? Vampire? Mummy? I carry an assortment of silver bullets, wooden stakes and fresh tanna leaves. What will it be?”

“None of those.”

“Is it a demon?”

“No.”

“Ghouls? Fairies?”

I shook my head.

“Then, just what is your problem?”

“I’m short on cash.” Producing my gun, I shot him before emptying the till.

A Whale Of A Tale

2009-05-04T20:19:00.001-07:00

So Deadliest Cachalot came back today, rejected for the second time since being cut from the running for the Dead Bait antho. That's three rejections for this tale in less than two weeks. Ouch! It stings a little, since I am rather partial to this tale and the work that went into writing it...twice no less. I begin to wonder if the story just isn't crap, but then figure it wouldn't have made the Dead Bait shortlist of it was total shit. Still, there may be room for improvement. I think I'm going to let it sit for a bit and reevaluate it later. I'd rather not send it out again at this time because my mind imagines all these fish stories bouncing around out there right now after getting cut from Dead Bait like me.

The other problem I have with the story is its length. At 8,000 words it is more a novelette than short story. Finding a home for it may not be all that easy. However, I can't envision trimming it down, as I had to fight to keep it under 8k in the first place. In fact, I felt the ending got rushed a bit because I needed to wrap things up before I passed the DB word limit. Maybe I will go back and flesh things out some more. Who knows.

Anyway, the reason I've babbled on about this is because I'd like some fresh perspectives on the story and wonder if anyone is interested in being a beta reader. Is one still considered a beta reader if the story had been subbed three times?

Micro 004/100
"Tomb Raiders" - 100 words

Davis pushes the sarcophagus lid aside, revealing the lone occupant. “Read the passage,” he says.

Miles opens the ancient tome and in the lost tongue of kings, recites the resurrection invocation. With a dry snap, the withered mummy climbs from its resting place.

“It worked!” Davis cries, as the mummy lurches forward. “Read the next part.”

Miles consults the book then says, “Go, great prince and retrieve the treasure that rightfully belongs to you.”

“Be ready to follow him,” Davis says.

The mummy suddenly springs forwards, grabs the book from Miles and in the lost tongue of kings, says, “Mine.”

The Email Gods Hate Me

2009-05-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

I really, really need to just turn my email program on once a day to check things. As it is now, I keep it open whenever the computer is on (which on a day like today, begins when I wake up at 6:30 AM and ends when I go to sleep). Whenever the chime sounds that denotes a new email, or whenever I return to the office to find something new in the inbox, I get all excited. Could it be a response from a submission? Which one? Possibly an acceptance? A rejection? Eagerly I go to check. So far I've received 17 emails since May 1st.

1 newsletter from Amazon
1 newsletter from Cemetery Dance
5 receipt confirmations from Tweet the meat
1 acceptance/rejection from Micro 100

The other nine? All notifications that someone was now following me on Twitter. Now, that's good and all, but it seemed like every time I turned around and eagerly opened an email, it was from Twitter. Talk about dashed hopes! The truly mystifying part is why my city's local newspaper has decided to follow me. Hmm...

Micro 003/100
"Mistaken Identity" - 100 words

It was only after twelve hours of orbital bombardment, which had vaporized over fifty major cities, that the alien fleet halted its attack on Earth.

We all climbed out of our hiding places and amidst the settling dust, listened as the invaders began broadcasting across the globe on every known frequency. In shock and anger we stared at each other as they apologized for the clerical error that led to their mistaken attack on our world.

To err is Human, someone once said, but to royally fuck up on an interstellar scale is purely Hygorian, or so it would seem.