C. Dennis Moore's Blog, page 3
September 24, 2012
Currently Reading:
Yesterday afternoon, I officially read my last Into the Darkness submission. Now all that's left is to decide what from the maybe pile goes into the finished book.
Meanwhile I'm getting back to reading for enjoyment, starting today with:
which has been sitting on my desk for four months.
No writing this morning; I overslept 2 hours--thank God I usually get up 3 1/2 hours before I have to clock in at work. I've got several--four, I think--older stories I've revised lately in between first draft stories, that I need to clear away and either submit or publish, so that's supposed to be the focus this week. If I can get up on time.
Maybe tomorrow.
Meanwhile I'm getting back to reading for enjoyment, starting today with:
which has been sitting on my desk for four months.
No writing this morning; I overslept 2 hours--thank God I usually get up 3 1/2 hours before I have to clock in at work. I've got several--four, I think--older stories I've revised lately in between first draft stories, that I need to clear away and either submit or publish, so that's supposed to be the focus this week. If I can get up on time.
Maybe tomorrow.
September 21, 2012
Five Fantasies
The last book in the Five Fantasies set is the collected Five Fantasies itself. This book's had a bit of a history already, going through three different covers before I was able to settle on one I liked. And once I settled on the five-finger concept for these collections, and then saw this blue against white palm print, seeing it alongside the other three covers for "Coming Down the Mountain", "Two Tales" and "Working for the Fat Man", I knew the blue on white theme was going to make it awesome. And it did.
This book collects the four feature stories, "Mountain" and "Fat Man" along with "In the Town of Broken Dreams" and "Angels of No Mercy" both from Two Tales, plus it contains "Luck of the Draw", which has been free on my website forever. Together they contain a number of fantasy elements, Greek gods, fairy tales, angels, Santa Claus, that it just seemed an obvious choice to call it Five Fantasies--although the first two versions were called Five Fatal Fantasies. Same difference.
The latest, and final version, of the book is 5X8, 78 pages and contains the first chapter of my novel Revelations as a freebie at the back. The book is available in both print and ebook versions, just as are all the others in this and the previous set, Five Fates. The print version is available from CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3963364) and Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Five-Fantasies-...) for $5.99 while the ebook version, through Amazon for the Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/Five-Fatal-Fant...) and Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...) for all the other ereaders (including Kindle), for $4.99.
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Evolution of a book cover:
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This book collects the four feature stories, "Mountain" and "Fat Man" along with "In the Town of Broken Dreams" and "Angels of No Mercy" both from Two Tales, plus it contains "Luck of the Draw", which has been free on my website forever. Together they contain a number of fantasy elements, Greek gods, fairy tales, angels, Santa Claus, that it just seemed an obvious choice to call it Five Fantasies--although the first two versions were called Five Fatal Fantasies. Same difference.
The latest, and final version, of the book is 5X8, 78 pages and contains the first chapter of my novel Revelations as a freebie at the back. The book is available in both print and ebook versions, just as are all the others in this and the previous set, Five Fates. The print version is available from CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3963364) and Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Five-Fantasies-...) for $5.99 while the ebook version, through Amazon for the Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/Five-Fatal-Fant...) and Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...) for all the other ereaders (including Kindle), for $4.99.
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Evolution of a book cover:
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September 20, 2012
Working for the Fat Man
I'm taking a break from working on anything new over the next few days to try to get through as many Into the Darkness submissions as I can. I think I'm down to about 45 left. I made it through 5 this morning.
So today's feature story is "Working for the Fat Man", a story about where Santa's magic comes from and what happens to the bad kids. I had a lot of fun writing this one, even though when I started it I didn't know exactly what was going to happen, just that there was some serious magic at work to allow Santa Claus to do what he does, and it wasn't necessarily good magic. I wrote this one for a Christmas-themed horror anthology, where it was accepted very quickly, but the book never happened and the publisher soon folded. I saved the story and put it in Terrible Thrills a year later. I had wanted to do this story as an ebook for a long time before I finally published it but no matter where I looked I just couldn't seem to find a suitably "evil" looking Santa Claus. Until I found the one I eventually used. There's something about the look in that Santa's eyes, whether intentional by the artist or not, that I thought fit like a glove.
The chapbook here is 32 pages and features FIVE bonus stories this time, five 100-word stories, which have also been published in Terrible Thrills. Print versions are available for $4.99 from CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3966005) and Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Working-Fat-Man...), while the ebook version is only $2.99 and can be purchased at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Working-Fat-Man...) and Smashwords.com (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...).
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So today's feature story is "Working for the Fat Man", a story about where Santa's magic comes from and what happens to the bad kids. I had a lot of fun writing this one, even though when I started it I didn't know exactly what was going to happen, just that there was some serious magic at work to allow Santa Claus to do what he does, and it wasn't necessarily good magic. I wrote this one for a Christmas-themed horror anthology, where it was accepted very quickly, but the book never happened and the publisher soon folded. I saved the story and put it in Terrible Thrills a year later. I had wanted to do this story as an ebook for a long time before I finally published it but no matter where I looked I just couldn't seem to find a suitably "evil" looking Santa Claus. Until I found the one I eventually used. There's something about the look in that Santa's eyes, whether intentional by the artist or not, that I thought fit like a glove.
The chapbook here is 32 pages and features FIVE bonus stories this time, five 100-word stories, which have also been published in Terrible Thrills. Print versions are available for $4.99 from CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3966005) and Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Working-Fat-Man...), while the ebook version is only $2.99 and can be purchased at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Working-Fat-Man...) and Smashwords.com (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...).
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September 19, 2012
Two Tales and 4150 words
The new first draft is done, two days ahead of deadline. I wrote about 900 words last night after work, then finished it off this morning with about another 1100 for a total of 4150 words. Now I only have 4 short stories left to write by the end of the year before I'm all out of short stories. Surely more will come up, but for the current list of titles I've been chipping away at since 1992 there are only 4 short story titles left.
Today's chapbook is one of my favorites. Two Tales features "In the Town of Broken Dreams" and "Angels of No Mercy". Both stories are about angels and both stories are, in my opinion, pretty good. In fact, I like both stories so much, and equally, it was impossible for me to pick just one as the feature story and relegate the other to backup story. So they're both feature stories. Although "In the Town of Broken Dreams" comes first. "In the Town of Broken Dreams" was written from the Ricky Nelson song "Lonesome Town" while "Angels of No Mercy" was written for a war anthology. It didn't make the cut, but both were then published in Terrible Thrills, so it's cool.
This chapbook is 30 pages, and is available in print or ebook formats. Print is $4.99, ebook is $2.99. CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3965999) and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Two-Tales-C-Den...) have print versions while Amazon and Smashwords carry the ebook versions (Kindle from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Two-Tales-ebook...), Sony, Nook, Kobo, etc from Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...))
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Here's the original ebook cover. I include it here because I always liked how it turned out. It was probably the first ebook cover I did that I thought looked like an actual chapbook cover.
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Today's chapbook is one of my favorites. Two Tales features "In the Town of Broken Dreams" and "Angels of No Mercy". Both stories are about angels and both stories are, in my opinion, pretty good. In fact, I like both stories so much, and equally, it was impossible for me to pick just one as the feature story and relegate the other to backup story. So they're both feature stories. Although "In the Town of Broken Dreams" comes first. "In the Town of Broken Dreams" was written from the Ricky Nelson song "Lonesome Town" while "Angels of No Mercy" was written for a war anthology. It didn't make the cut, but both were then published in Terrible Thrills, so it's cool.
This chapbook is 30 pages, and is available in print or ebook formats. Print is $4.99, ebook is $2.99. CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3965999) and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Two-Tales-C-Den...) have print versions while Amazon and Smashwords carry the ebook versions (Kindle from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Two-Tales-ebook...), Sony, Nook, Kobo, etc from Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...))
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Here's the original ebook cover. I include it here because I always liked how it turned out. It was probably the first ebook cover I did that I thought looked like an actual chapbook cover.
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September 18, 2012
Welcome To the Trust
I think I reached a point this morning on the new story where there's no turning back. I opened it today, reluctantly, not really wanting to work on it, but knowing I have that Friday deadline. Then I opened a blank document and almost started the story again, but with a very different, and shorter, take. But it wouldn't have been as complete or as interesting. So I closed the blank document and continued with the version I've already got, winding up with just under another 600 words. I think in the end this story will, structurally, resemble "Satanic Mechanic" in a lot of ways. Not that the plots are similar, but they are both journey stories, so writing this one reminds me a lot of the writing of that one.
Today I wrote about
I'm taking a brief detour from the Five Fantasies chapbooks to announce a new FREE ebook. Welcome to the Trust serves as an introduction to my novel Revelations, with three short stories that lead into that world and introduce The Trust and some of the supporting characters we meet in the novel. And if you haven't yet purchased the novel, Welcome to the Trust also contains the first chapter, also free, to bridge the gap between these stories and that book. You can get it, did I mention FREE, for your various ereader devices at Smashwords.com (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...) (I'm working on Amazon still, they seem to be having some issue the past 2 days). Or, if you've got the novel in paperback and want to have this companion book to put next to it on your shelf, you can get this book in trade paperback from CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3999091) for a mere $3.99. Tell a friend.
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Today I wrote about
I'm taking a brief detour from the Five Fantasies chapbooks to announce a new FREE ebook. Welcome to the Trust serves as an introduction to my novel Revelations, with three short stories that lead into that world and introduce The Trust and some of the supporting characters we meet in the novel. And if you haven't yet purchased the novel, Welcome to the Trust also contains the first chapter, also free, to bridge the gap between these stories and that book. You can get it, did I mention FREE, for your various ereader devices at Smashwords.com (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...) (I'm working on Amazon still, they seem to be having some issue the past 2 days). Or, if you've got the novel in paperback and want to have this companion book to put next to it on your shelf, you can get this book in trade paperback from CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3999091) for a mere $3.99. Tell a friend.
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September 17, 2012
Coming Down the Mountain
I started the new story this morning, for the third time. I let the opening play out in my head last night as I was going to sleep, then I sat down this morning and got to work, but that opening I had last night wasn't right, so I remembered an opening line I thought of the other day at the store but didn't write down and it seemed to work ok. So I got a little over 600 words, then took the majority of Version 2 I had written last week, and with the two sections combined I have 1061 words to start.
I also realized why I'm having so much trouble. Structure. There's a backstory to this that I feel needs to be integrated into the narrative, and I keep trying to tell it upfront, when it might play better if I have it as a flashback. I think with what I'm doing now, I can manage that, but first I need to get the gist of it down, then probably go back and add a frontpiece. Or maybe not. We'll have to see how the rest of what I'm doing on it now plays out. It's all a big knot I need to unravel.
Now the second round of short story chapbooks is here, so it's time to start looking at them individually. First is "Coming Down the Mountain", which I wrote in the early 2000s, I believe. 2000-2001 maybe. Hell, maybe I wrote it in 1999. Either way, it started off simple enough: write a story about explorers discovering the Greek gods of mythology were real. In my head the whole thing was much more complicated than the finished product, but the story sort of took over for me and finished itself. This story was one of those cases where I finished it and read it over and said, "Yeah, that's pretty good."
The backup story is "Cuneiforms", which ties the chapbook into an old-gods theme. The book is 36 pages, $4.99 in print, $2.99 ebook, available at CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3965979) and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Down-Mou...) for the chapbook and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Down-the...) and Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...) for the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader or Kobo.
If you read it and dig it--or if you've already read it and dig it--tell a friend. Then tell that friend to tell another friend. And so on and so forth.
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I also realized why I'm having so much trouble. Structure. There's a backstory to this that I feel needs to be integrated into the narrative, and I keep trying to tell it upfront, when it might play better if I have it as a flashback. I think with what I'm doing now, I can manage that, but first I need to get the gist of it down, then probably go back and add a frontpiece. Or maybe not. We'll have to see how the rest of what I'm doing on it now plays out. It's all a big knot I need to unravel.
Now the second round of short story chapbooks is here, so it's time to start looking at them individually. First is "Coming Down the Mountain", which I wrote in the early 2000s, I believe. 2000-2001 maybe. Hell, maybe I wrote it in 1999. Either way, it started off simple enough: write a story about explorers discovering the Greek gods of mythology were real. In my head the whole thing was much more complicated than the finished product, but the story sort of took over for me and finished itself. This story was one of those cases where I finished it and read it over and said, "Yeah, that's pretty good."
The backup story is "Cuneiforms", which ties the chapbook into an old-gods theme. The book is 36 pages, $4.99 in print, $2.99 ebook, available at CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3965979) and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Down-Mou...) for the chapbook and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Down-the...) and Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...) for the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader or Kobo.
If you read it and dig it--or if you've already read it and dig it--tell a friend. Then tell that friend to tell another friend. And so on and so forth.
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September 14, 2012
Five Fantasies
The second bundle of chapbooks is ready. There are fewer books here, but the end result is still five feature stories bundled together in a 5-story collection. These titles are, as with the Five Fates stories, available in my collection Terrible Thrills. This set features "Coming Down the Mountain", "Angels of No Mercy", "In the Town of Broken Dreams" and "Working for the Fat Man". The 5th story in the end collection, "Luck of the Draw", is available free here on my site, "Coming Down the Mountain" and "Working for the Fat Man" contain free back-up stories while "Angels of No Mercy" and "In the Town of Broken Dreams", since both stories feature angels as the main protagonists, are collected together in one book, Two Tales.
Laid out the books look like this:
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I'll go into more depth about each title over the days to come, but for now each is available in print or ebook formats on my website at http://www.cdennismoore.com/page11.php
Laid out the books look like this:
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I'll go into more depth about each title over the days to come, but for now each is available in print or ebook formats on my website at http://www.cdennismoore.com/page11.php
September 13, 2012
Five Fates
Finally, we round out the first bundle of chapbooks with the collected edition, Five Fates, first of the Mini Collections, which will be 5-story collections of short stories with similar themes. In this case, the theme is fate.
While, collectivelly, these first five chapbooks contain 12 stories, Five Fates contains only the feature stories, "In the Veins", "The Son of Man", "The Legend of Mr. Cairo", "Plaything" and "Terrible Thrills". Of course, all 12 stories are also available in my first full collection, Terrible Thrills, along with 13 other stories. What this collection features that none of the other chapbooks, nor Terrible Thrills, contains, is the first chapter of my novel Revelations, free of charge. All told, the book is 84 pages, but the price is only $5.99 in print and $4.99 for the ebook.
Five Fates is available in both print and ebook versions, just like the others, from CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3964082), Amazon.com [print (http://www.amazon.com/Five-Fates-Mini...) and ebook for Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/Five-Fates-Mini...)] or Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...) for your other ebook readers, Nook, Sony or Kobo.
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While, collectivelly, these first five chapbooks contain 12 stories, Five Fates contains only the feature stories, "In the Veins", "The Son of Man", "The Legend of Mr. Cairo", "Plaything" and "Terrible Thrills". Of course, all 12 stories are also available in my first full collection, Terrible Thrills, along with 13 other stories. What this collection features that none of the other chapbooks, nor Terrible Thrills, contains, is the first chapter of my novel Revelations, free of charge. All told, the book is 84 pages, but the price is only $5.99 in print and $4.99 for the ebook.
Five Fates is available in both print and ebook versions, just like the others, from CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3964082), Amazon.com [print (http://www.amazon.com/Five-Fates-Mini...) and ebook for Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/Five-Fates-Mini...)] or Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...) for your other ebook readers, Nook, Sony or Kobo.
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September 12, 2012
Terrible Thrills--the short story
No new words this morning. I suppose I could have, but oversleeping 90 minutes always ruins my morning. I'm not entirely sure how to proceed on the story, anyway. Instead we'll talk about the final story in this batch, "Terrible Thrills", which also gave its name to my first collection.
I wrote this story originally for a Halloween-themed anthology, where it was first published. And then I read the anthology. I haven't been able to read a collection I've been in since, and I've made damn sure to have this story republished elsewhere. A couple of times.
The story deals with those Halloween sound effects CDs. Only this one has a particular effect on its listeners. I got the title from the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack song "Science Fiction/Double Feature", the line "But when worlds collide, said George Pal to his bride, I'm gonna give you some terrible thrills." I was listening to it on the way to work one day and it clicked with me that there was a story somewhere in that title (I've actually gotten 3 or 4 stories from random lines in that soundtrack). The story is made up of two sections, both sections dealing with a different character and their reaction to one of the CDs two tracks. The first section, "The Murder", is a torture piece where the listener is drawn further into the story than he'd expected, while the second section, "The Mayhem", has audible cues that effect people other than the main character.
The story is backed with "The Stand-In", a story about identity and trying to figure out who you are and where you come from. It deals with a boy who discovers he was adopted, but when he contacts his birth father in an effort to learn about his real family history, he comes to realize family is more about those who love you and less about genetic ties. And of course it's a horror story.
The chapbook is 32 pages and is available in both print and ebook versions. The print version is $4.99 and available at CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3965532) and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Terrible-Thrill...), while the ebook version is $2.99 and can be had on your Kindle, Nook, Sony reader, Kobo, etc through Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...). Amazon has the Kindle version as well, but I've got this story there PLUS the Terrible Thrills collection and the pages seem to have some overlap (the reviews for the collection appear on the short story page), so I don't necessarily trust that what you pay for and download there is the version you would be seeking, so I'm only including the smashwords ebook link.
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I wrote this story originally for a Halloween-themed anthology, where it was first published. And then I read the anthology. I haven't been able to read a collection I've been in since, and I've made damn sure to have this story republished elsewhere. A couple of times.
The story deals with those Halloween sound effects CDs. Only this one has a particular effect on its listeners. I got the title from the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack song "Science Fiction/Double Feature", the line "But when worlds collide, said George Pal to his bride, I'm gonna give you some terrible thrills." I was listening to it on the way to work one day and it clicked with me that there was a story somewhere in that title (I've actually gotten 3 or 4 stories from random lines in that soundtrack). The story is made up of two sections, both sections dealing with a different character and their reaction to one of the CDs two tracks. The first section, "The Murder", is a torture piece where the listener is drawn further into the story than he'd expected, while the second section, "The Mayhem", has audible cues that effect people other than the main character.
The story is backed with "The Stand-In", a story about identity and trying to figure out who you are and where you come from. It deals with a boy who discovers he was adopted, but when he contacts his birth father in an effort to learn about his real family history, he comes to realize family is more about those who love you and less about genetic ties. And of course it's a horror story.
The chapbook is 32 pages and is available in both print and ebook versions. The print version is $4.99 and available at CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3965532) and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Terrible-Thrill...), while the ebook version is $2.99 and can be had on your Kindle, Nook, Sony reader, Kobo, etc through Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...). Amazon has the Kindle version as well, but I've got this story there PLUS the Terrible Thrills collection and the pages seem to have some overlap (the reviews for the collection appear on the short story page), so I don't necessarily trust that what you pay for and download there is the version you would be seeking, so I'm only including the smashwords ebook link.
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September 11, 2012
Plaything
I am having a bit of trouble with this new story now. It's not the plot, I have that all worked out. I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out the best way to tell it, though. I have several options and every time I think I've got it nailed down and start working on it, it seems . . . not right. Again.
This morning, I saved about 250 words from the previous version, put it into a new document, added a couple paragraphs at the beginning, and a few more after, and at the end of the morning only had about 541 words altogether. And still it just doesn't feel like this is the story. I think I'm still not starting where the story starts, you know? I'm trying to start as close to the end as possible but maybe I'm not starting close enough. So I'll keep trying. Either way, I want to have this first draft finished by next Friday, so I've got my work cut out for me and my subconscious had better get on the ball.
Today's feature chapbook is "Plaything", which I wrote probably in 2000, MAYBE late 1999, but I think it's more likely 2000. The idea came while I was working third shift at this produce company in KC and it was a lot of late nights and being always exhausted. I was sitting in the break room one night with my tired face in my hands and I looked up when I heard someone come in and for a second my writer's mind said "What if I looked up and saw myself walking into the room?"
That was about all it took for this story to come out. The story is backed by "Parliament of Jim", another story about identity and choices and feeling helpless in your own skin, which is no longer your own skin. The book is 34 pages, 5X8, in 11pt Garamond, and is available in print or ebook versions. Print versions can be had at CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3965499) or Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Plaything-C-Den...), while the ebook versions are available for all the main ereaders, Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/Plaything-ebook...) through Amazon and Smashwords, while you can get the ebook for your Nook, Sony reader or Kobo also through Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...). Print versions are $4.99, with the ebooks going for $2.99.
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This morning, I saved about 250 words from the previous version, put it into a new document, added a couple paragraphs at the beginning, and a few more after, and at the end of the morning only had about 541 words altogether. And still it just doesn't feel like this is the story. I think I'm still not starting where the story starts, you know? I'm trying to start as close to the end as possible but maybe I'm not starting close enough. So I'll keep trying. Either way, I want to have this first draft finished by next Friday, so I've got my work cut out for me and my subconscious had better get on the ball.
Today's feature chapbook is "Plaything", which I wrote probably in 2000, MAYBE late 1999, but I think it's more likely 2000. The idea came while I was working third shift at this produce company in KC and it was a lot of late nights and being always exhausted. I was sitting in the break room one night with my tired face in my hands and I looked up when I heard someone come in and for a second my writer's mind said "What if I looked up and saw myself walking into the room?"
That was about all it took for this story to come out. The story is backed by "Parliament of Jim", another story about identity and choices and feeling helpless in your own skin, which is no longer your own skin. The book is 34 pages, 5X8, in 11pt Garamond, and is available in print or ebook versions. Print versions can be had at CreateSpace (https://www.createspace.com/3965499) or Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Plaything-C-Den...), while the ebook versions are available for all the main ereaders, Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/Plaything-ebook...) through Amazon and Smashwords, while you can get the ebook for your Nook, Sony reader or Kobo also through Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...). Print versions are $4.99, with the ebooks going for $2.99.
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