Joel Arnold's Blog, page 5

Branches - 3 Stories about Family

I released a new mini-collection of three short stories that's currently only available on Amazon.

"BRANCHES contains three short stories about family relationships in general, parent-child relationships in particular.

In 'Korean Mother is Dying' a divorced mother deals with the difficulties of raising a teenage daughter while coming to grips with her own past.

In 'A Hand to Hold' a mother and her son form a bond over an elderly woman who lives across their street.

In ''Jump!' the Water Master Cried' a father brings her daughter to meet her grandfather for the first time to see if there's anything left to salvage of a damaged relationship.

While mostly known for his horror and suspense novels and short stories, here author Joel Arnold presents a trio of emotionally charged literary shorts that just may leave you crying, cheering, or both."


Take a look if you get a chance!

Goldy & Lemon

About 10 years ago, between the births of Paige & Zach (who are only a year apart) we bought an aquarium along with a number of fish. Among the fish were two parrot fish, eventually named Goldy and Lemon by Paige. Parrot fish have a life expectancy of about three years. However, these two fish only died this past week. They'd always been together and had outlived all the other fish. When we first got them, they were about the size of silver dollars. They eventually each grew to be bigger than my entire hand (thicker, too). They were both females, and when one would lay eggs, the other would eat them. I guess they were into caviar.

Anyway, they died within only a few days of each other, so I think Lemon (who was the last to die) was lonely.

Here's to two 10-year old big honkin' parrot fish.

Happy National Popcorn Day

Two summers ago, my family toured the Native American Scenic Byway in South & North Dakota for American Road Magazine. Aside from the main article I wrote for that particular venue, I wrote a shorter article about a popcorn business located on the Lower Brule Sioux Indian Reservation. I never placed that article, so finally put it up on Ezine Articles. So in honor of National Popcorn Day, you can read it here!

Some free stuff

Just wanted to let you know that Branches - 3 Stories About Family is free today and tomorrow for the Kindle.

Muhammad Ali's Birthday

In honor of Muhammad Ali's birthday, I have a funny story about him. One of my older brothers worked at the Mayo Clinic in a lab where they tested urine. Muhammad Ali was at the clinic for tests, and my brother ended up testing his urine (this was probably 30 years ago or so) and he brought home a vial of his pee. It was in our freezer for a few years before I think my mom threw it out. But my bro used to like to say, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, I tested the pee of Muhammad Ali."

How to write your first novel from start to finish in 10 easy steps!

How do you not only write your first novel, but also a bestselling first novel - in only 10 easy steps? Simple:

1. Think of an idea. Spend a day or two realizing how great this idea is and how it will make you rich! Buy a notebook and a dozen cheap pens to capture all the great ideas that will soon flow from your brain. Or use a laptop. Either way.

2. Tell others that you have this great idea (but don’t give specifics – they might steal it!) and how you’re going to turn it into a novel. Mention that there will probably be a movie deal, too. It's okay at this point to start casting the movie in your head. And best of all, tell everyone you know that you’re now a writer!

3. Jot down some ideas about the book and maybe some character names. Watch some TV or goof around on the internet for a few hours to let your mind rest and your subconscious work. No use going overboard at the beginning.

4. Have a drink or three. Hey, your idea seems better and better! And you just figured out something chilling about one of the characters! Jot it down if you can find your notebook (or laptop) under all the crap on your coffee table.

5. Post on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc about how you’re writing a novel. You’re a real writer now! You realize you’ve got a whole year or so to write this thing. Don’t most writers put out a book a year? A whole year is plenty of time, so no hurry.

6. Now you’re ready. Time to get down to the hard work. Have another drink. Get that notebook in front of you. Wait, no – go to a coffee shop and sit at one of those tables. A coffee shop is a great place to write.

7. Write down sentences. One sentence, two sentences. It’s okay to use a bigger font to fill up the pages faster. They hire editors to fix that stuff after the book deal has been signed. Hey, look at that person over there. Can they tell I’m writing? I bet this whole writing deal will get me laid a lot more. C’mon, look this way, look this way! I’m a writer!

8. Don’t fill up too many pages just yet. Go to the bookstore and get the Writer’s Market. Or the Novel Market. And the Agent Market. You’re going to need an agent, right? Go home with these and look through them. Which agents and/or markets are right for your novel? Go through and circle them. You’ve got the time! You’ve only just started your novel, and there are still over 360 days left in the year. Relax, you’re doing great!

9. Call your parents or in-laws for some money to subsidize your rent for a while. Why continue with the day job when you’ve got a book to write! Tell them you only need six months worth of rent. (Because really, who are you kidding? You can crank this thing out faster than that! Your idea practically writes itself!) And even if it does take a year, your folks will already be heavily invested, so why cut you off when just as soon as you’re finished, you’ll be like a millionaire or something. And if you’re married with kids, don’t worry about it. They’ll understand your sudden need to follow your bliss!

10. Okay. So you’ve got at least a page or two written, or at least filled them with some ideas and character names. Here’s where the real magic happens – the sure-fire way to land your novel an agent leading to a six-figure book deal leading to a seven-figure movie deal. Listen carefully...You know that cousin/brother-in-law/nephew/friend/former co-worker you have who actually has written a book? Tell him/her that you have this awesome idea for a bestselling novel. Don’t tell him/her the idea yet! No, first tell them that you’ll give them the idea if they will write the book. And then you split the money; at least 60% to you for your sure-to-be-bestselling one-of-a-kind idea, and the remaining 40% to them for the easy part of just writing it out on paper (and make sure they understand the agent’s commission comes out of their end, too.)

There you go – 10 easy steps to not only start your first novel, but to become a bestselling author as well. Enjoy your journey!

Inspired?

A current radio commercial for some new movie about exorcism has the narrator saying "Inspired by true events." 

Um, couldn't you say that about any movie?

Wow - transported back in time by the sound of vinyl

Late last night someone on Facebook posted a link to a song by Don Williams, who was/is a country singer popular back in the 60s/70s (I think). Anyway, even though I'm not really a country fan, I clicked on the link which took me to Youtube where two of his songs played - but whoever put 'em up there had recorded them from a record. I was laying on the couch when I did this, and it was one of those easy-listening type songs called "In the Morning" (the other was "Missing You, Missing Me").

Anyhoo, there was that warm crackle and pop of a vinyl record accompanying the songs, and I immediately felt like a kid in the 70's. I mean, the feeling was strong - like it opened up some deeply buried memory synapses in my brain. Like I was there. What a strange experience!

Mississippi Pearls and a Car Biding its Time on the Ice 'til Spring

My grandparents Laura and Walter Arnold lived in Wabasha, MN while I was a child in the 70s. Their house was made of brick and was over a hundred years old. It was huge to my young eyes, with high ceilings and a wide stairway with a wooden banister, which I loved to slide down on my stomach (the steps, not the banister). This house was (still is, actually) located about a block away from the Mississippi River, and I’d often take walks down to the shore and collect agates and other interesting rocks. My favorite finds were always the hole-punched clam shells along the shore, which had been used and long since discarded by button-making factories upriver. In fact, this particular industry only lasted ‘til the 1930s, when plastic buttons became all the rage...or at least cheaper to make. I collected shoe-boxes full of these shells with the neat button-sized holes punched out. Not sure what I ever did with them.

Anyway, it was many years later that I was doing some online research, trying to find if there was info about the source of these discarded shells; what companies had used them, where they were located, etc. I don’t think I found any direct info about them*, but that internet search led me to info about Mississippi pearls. I’d never heard of these before, and had always thought pearls were something that came from the sea. But nope, people used to harvest the freshwater clams of the Great River for the pearls inside them, as well as for the shells.

At about the same time I found out about the Mississippi pearl, I was trying to recall something from childhood. I remembered that there was a lake we’d often drive by in the winter between Lake City and Wabasha, and sitting on top of the ice would be an empty car. People could bet on the date when they felt the vehicle would finally crash through the thawing ice into the water. It was one of those memories where I wasn’t quite sure if it was something real I had seen or had merely dreamt about it. So I called the Wabasha County Historical Society. No one seemed to have heard about this until they put me in touch with an old-timer whose name I can’t recall. He said, yeah, they used to do that on Russian Lake**, and they secured a cable to it so that it would be easy to retrieve come spring.

It was that combination of things – the pearls and the car on ice – that sparked my story Mississippi Pearl. It’s one of my favorite stories, and it won Oceanview Publishing’s first annual short story contest. I also used it as my writing sample for the 2010 MN Artist Initiative Grant which I received in – um – 2010.  It is part mystery, part horror, part family drama, and is also part of my collection Bait & Other Stories. I hope you’ll get a chance to read it sometime.

* Now a Google search leads me to a bunch of sites that talk about the Mississippi pearl button industry. There’s even a museum dedicated to it in Muscatine, Iowa.

** Can’t find any mention of a Russian Lake online, so not sure if the name has since been changed, or it’s too small to bother listing. In my memory the lake was quite small.

One Decade - One Story, or One Thing Leads to Another

This is the journey of one of my stories and its ripple effect over the last decade. It’s not the story that has earned me the most money (that honor goes to ‘Mississippi Pearl’) but it is one of my favorites.

I wrote “Some Things Don’t Wash Off” back in 2001. It was originally intended to be part of an anthology with a couple other writers I admired and met through the old Dark Tales message boards – the stories were all to be set at this out-in-the-boonies roadhouse full of strange characters and strange goings-on. The project never got off the ground, so I eventually submitted it to a pro-paying (at the time) online horror zine called Gothic.Net. The editor there liked it, but felt it wasn’t quite right for them. He asked me to send something else. Meanwhile, I had decided to attend the 2002 World Horror Conference in Chicago – mainly because it was in driving distance, and also it was a great chance to meet some of the folks I’d met through the Dark Tales boards. The conference was holding a short story contest sponsored by Weird Tales, so I submitted the story there. Long story short, I won the short story contest and won a hundred bucks.

I submitted “The Apple Tree Man” to Gothic.net due to the editor liking “Some Things...” and asking for something else. He accepted this other story and paid $250 for it.

A bit later, Darrel Schweitzer from Weird Tales contacted me and said they’d like to include “Some Things...” in an upcoming issue for which they paid me another $90.

Later that year, I attended the World Fantasy Convention, since it was practically in my backyard (Minneapolis) and there, the legendary George Scithers cornered me and asked why I hadn’t sent anything else yet to Weird Tales. I sorta fibbed and said I was working on something just for them (although the story I soon came up with was eventually rejected by them. But it was still nice to be asked for something from Mr. Scithers!)

In 2006, one of the attendees of WHC2002 remembered me and “Some Things...”, so when he noticed a call for Minnesota writers who had published professionally, he sent me an email about it. I submitted my story “Leave No Wake” to the Resort to Murder antho and it was accepted. I got to appear alongside some bestselling authors like William Kent Krueger and Ellen Hart. We even went on a mini-tour around the Twin Cities, which was much fun and a great experience. I also got on the invite list for the annual Write of Spring shindig hosted by the Once Upon a Crime bookstore in Minneapolis. (I have a story forthcoming in their Writes of Spring antho, which should be out in April). But I wouldn’t have seen that call for stories if it hadn’t been for the bloke who had remembered me and my story from the 2002 WHC.

In 2007 I sold “Some Things...” to Pseudopod for $100, and they did a wonderful audio version of it. (Click on the link for a listen!)

In 2009, I used “Some Things...” as my writing sample for the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Gulliver Travel & Research Grant and won. I received $800 for that in 2010. I got the pleasure to help judge the next year’s entries for the grant, and this year I get to help judge for their Older Writer’s Grant.

In 2010, I included “Some Things...” in my short story collection Bait and Other Stories.

“Some Things Don’t Wash Off” has had a nice decade, and has led to some other nice writing gigs. So to you folks who are in the early stages of your writing ventures, remember that if you have a good story, it doesn’t have to just die on the vine of the first publication that accepts it. Sometimes you need to help it back on its feet, blow the dust off, and encourage it to keep on jogging along.