Ken Preston's Blog, page 17
December 5, 2014
Me and George RR Martin
November 21, 2014
Procrastination Tactics, or, How I get over the writing hump.
November 14, 2014
Living with The Walking Dead, or, Haven’t we had enough of zombies yet?
October 31, 2014
And once more, the righteously indignant are rising up against the evil tradition that is Halloween.
July 22, 2014
A Free Story Today
Maybe you’re subscribed to my email updates, and maybe you’re not. If you aren’t, you might not realize that by simply giving me your email address, you will be receiving a free story twice month.
You might have heard me mention this before, and decided it’s not your thing. Maybe you don’t like reading short stories, or maybe you do, but you don’t like the kind of stories I write.
Dark and edgy, with lots of profanity and some violence, if you don’t know.
If that’s the case, then please stop reading now. I really don’t want to waste anymore of your time.
But if you’re still here, because you’re thinking you might like to read them, and hell, they’re free, (and did I mention they are all brand new, written especially for my subscribers?) but something’s still holding you back, then read on.
Maybe you’re not so keen on giving out your email address to strangers, or you’re thinking maybe the stories might be too dark and edgy and profane, or something else is keeping you from taking that step to getting those free stories dropped right in your inbox every couple of weeks. I can understand that.
I’ve been there plenty, too.
So, let me assure you of a couple of things.
Number one, I don’t do spam. Every couple of weeks, you’ll get an email from me, and in the email I’ll probably tell you a little about what I’ve been up to recently, and I will probably drop a few tantalizing hints about what this story is about, and there will be a couple of links to the download page. One is for the Kindle version of the story, to drag and drop into your Kindle reader. The other is a PDF, for reading on your computer or tablet.
Sometimes I will let you know about a new book I’ve got coming out. For example, in September I will be talking about my new series of horror novels, Joe Coffin, the first of which will be released on September 30th. But there will usually be a discount, or a freebie, associated with that new release.
Number two, your email is completely safe with me. I use an email responder service called Aweber. If they receive any complaints about my emails, because maybe I’m spamming you, or I didn’t get your permission before I put you on my list, or I passed your address on to somebody else, I’m in big trouble.
Plus, there is an unsubscribe button at the bottom of every email I send you, so you can leave anytime you choose.
And that’s it.
Two new stories a month, free for you, and no spam.
You might be wondering what’s in this for me.
Okay, I’ll be honest with you. I want to grow an email list of superfans. Not only do I want a group of fans who will snap up my new books the day they are released, but I want them to tell their friends, their family members, their work colleagues, their neighbours, their neighbours’ families, hell, I want them to tell everyone about my new book.
And you, yes YOU, might become one of those superfans. If I send you enough stories, and you read them and you love them, and you buy my books, and you love them too, yes, you might become a superfan.
But let me tell you right now, you’re under no obligation to pay one single penny for a word I write. You could sign up today, and download all my stories, and you could send them to your friends, and they might read them and send them on too, and I’d be happy.
Why?
Because I love writing stories, and I love for my stories to be read and enjoyed, that’s why.
And all I want in exchange is your email address.
But you’re still not sure, are you? I can tell, by the look on your face.
So here’s what I’m going to do.
I’m going to provide you a link in this post to one of my favourite stories. Now, you might think I’m biased where my work is concerned, and you know what, you’re right, I am. But this one, it’s had some good feedback from readers. Some very good feedback.
And I want to share it with you, without the need for you to provide me with your email address. And then you can download it, and read it, and you can make up your mind about receiving more stories just like it.
Here it is…
How To Eat A Car
I have to warn you, there’s some bad language in this short, and the narrator is not a nice person. Oh, and there’s a scene which made one reader feel ill.
But if all of that sounds like your kind of thing, well, why don’t you just dive on in?
After all, you’ve got nothing to lose.
You don’t even have to give me your email address.
June 27, 2014
Two Short Stories a Month, Delivered to your Inbox, Completely FREE!
Maybe I am a little bit crazy, or maybe even a lot crazy, as some of my friends would be happy to tell you, I’m sure.
Because that sounds like a slightly crazy offer, right? Basically, I want to deliver a short story to your inbox, twice a month. And not one of those stories will have been published anywhere else. Each and every one of them is brand new, and written especially for you.
Why would I do this?
After all, I’m a busy person. Just like you.
I’ll tell you why.
You might have noticed I send out a regular email newsletter. And I’ve been doing this email newsletter thing for a few months now, and I still don’t feel I’ve got it quite right. I’ve been adding extra value to my blog posts, and I’ve been giving away free books, and I’ve been sharing my writer’s journey, and life lessons in general.
But I wanted to do more. I wanted to give more value. Couple that thought with the decision I had made to halve my email frequency, from one a week to one every two weeks, and I felt the need to up that value even more.
The other thing that happened was, I decided one day recently to set myself a challenge. As well as working on the first season of Joe Coffin, I wanted to get back to writing short stories, something I haven’t done for a while. I’m going to be editing Joe Coffin for a couple of months at least, and editing, whilst necessary, isn’t writing.
And I’m a writer.
So, whilst I’m slaving over the editing process, I’m going to be writing as well. I’ve already started, in fact, and the first of those free stories is going out today to my subscriber list.
It’s called How To Eat A Car.
I like that title. And, although I’m biased, I like the story too.
You see, I came up with that title in a brainstorming session, just writing random phrases down in my notebook, as titles for possible stories. Most of them I doubt I will ever use.
Here are few that I can’t see what I could do with:
Stuck In A Lift With Elvis
7 Days Dead
A Hundred Ghosts On Broadway
The Great Shout
If you think you can do anything with those, be my guest. You’re welcome to them.
Anyway, back to my story.
How To Eat A Car.
That one crazy title stood out for me amongst all the others, and my first thought was, How the hell do you eat a car?
The idea kind of percolated in my head for a week or two, and then one morning I sat down and started writing. Some stories come into this world kicking and screaming, whilst others practically write themselves.
This one wrote itself. In fact, my (unpleasant and unreliable) narrator surprised me by doing his own thing at the story’s end. By that point I felt like I wasn’t writing anymore, I was simply taking dictation.
I did think about providing you with a blurb, to entice you in. Or maybe a snippet of the story, to whet your appetite for more. In the end, though, I decided against both of those. I’d rather you just found out for yourself what it’s all about.
Hey, that story, it’s flying out to my subscribers and landing in their inboxes right about now. But if you sign up in the next day or two, I’ll make sure to send you a copy, too.
But you’ve got to be quick, because I’m going to be working on sending the next one out soon.
The Man Who Murdered Himself.
What’s that one about?
As if I’d tell you . . .
Oh, yeah, I forgot to say, one day I will collect these stories together and publish them in a couple of collections for Kindle and Kobo.
But why would you want to wait until that day, and then pay for them, when you can get them for free, right now?
June 13, 2014
The Autotelic Experience
Do you ever wish you were somewhere else?
Do you ever wish you were doing something else?
It becomes very easy to start wishing away a lifetime, and before you know it, months and even years have flashed by, with nothing to show for those passing years other than a series of random anxious moments, alternated with boredom.
All right, maybe I exaggerate a little, but I challenge anyone to tell me that they have never caught themselves looking at the clock, and thinking, Really? Only five minutes since I last looked at the damn thing?
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his book, Flow, talks about the ‘autotelic experience’. The word autotelic is dervied from two Greek words, Auto, meaning self, and Telos, meaning goal.
The autotelic experience refers to an activity that is done without the expectation of any future benefits, and purely for the experience of the doing, itself.
I would imagine that most people who join a gym, or take up an exercise such as running, do so with the idea of becoming fitter, maybe losing a few pounds. They have a specific goal in mind. But those who then continue with gym training, long after they have reached impressive fitness levels, or continue entering running races, spending long hours outside training, do so because the activity itself has become the point. It is no longer about the result, but about the experience.
How much do you think your life might be transformed, if you approached those everyday tasks with the autotelic experience in mind?
May 23, 2014
12 Films to show your children before they are 12
The other day I told my eldest that we were going to watch The Magnificent Seven at the weekend.
“Can’t we watch Harry Potter?” he said.
I said, no, we will watch The Magnificent Seven.
All right, let me clarify a little, before you start thinking I am some sort of film nerd ogre. We are already a fair way through the Harry Potter series, maybe up to number 5. Don’t ask me the title, they all blur into one for me. So there, I am actually letting him and his younger brother watch the Potter films.
But they also need a proper film education, besides all this modern CGI stuff that is shoved in their faces on a regular basis.
And that got me thinking.
What I need is a list of films to show them, to start them off on their cinematic education. Otherwise, they will get stuck into flash bang wallop movies with no substance and little style.
So I started compiling a list.
They have already seen some of these films, whilst others are waiting until my boys are old enough for the material, and be able to appreciate them better.
If you’ve got kids, and you want to give them a starting point for an education in proper cinema, I believe you could do a lot worse than the following twelve films.
Star Wars
This is easy, right? Every dad over a certain age is going to want to show their sons Star Wars as soon as possible. Although The Empire Strikes Back is arguably the better film (and probably the best in the series so far, at least until we see what Episode VII looks like), Star Wars Episode IV has got to be the starting point. It’s where we first meet Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, the story isn’t weighted down with ungainly back story baggage, and it probably has some of the best dialogue in the series.
“Never tell me the odds!”
“Laugh it up, fuzzball!”
“Would somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?”
And the immortal, “I have a bad feeling about this,” which has now become a running gag in all the Star Wars movies, and has appeared in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Way Out West
It was a toss up between Way Out West and The Music Box, but as I am listing feature length films here, it had to be Way Out West. Laurel and Hardy are essential viewing for children, and adults, of any age. The child like innocence of Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy’s pomposity, the slapstick and inventiveness of the gags, all combine in Way Out West with a great storyline and a feel good ending. It also has the most prolonged tickling scene ever in a film, as Sharon Lynne chases Stan around, over and under a double bed. How did that get past the Hays Office?
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Harrison Ford, snakes, jungles, booby traps, a treasure hunt, hidden tunnels with even more booby traps, evil villains, action, adventure and comedy, and some more great dialogue:
“What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, I’m making this up as I go along.”
Still the best of the Indiana Jones movies, and one I can watch over and over without getting bored.
The Great Escape
Okay, now we’re getting into the grown up movies. I’ve already shown this one to my two boys, aged 10 and 7, and we had to split it over two afternoons, as I had forgotten how long it is. The first half is very talky, and lacking in action that boys love so much. But with a little encouragement, and some explanation of what was going on, they stuck with it, and were gripped by the second half, as the escape plan was executed. Of course they fell in love with Steve McQueen, and cheered him on as he attempted to outmanoeuvre the German soldiers on his stolen motorbike.
The Magnificent Seven
We have plans to watch this at the weekend. Steve McQueen again, cowboys, men on a mission, lots of action, and it is a brilliant film for initiating conversations about injustice, standing up to bullies, and the value of doing the right thing.
For example, when the villagers tell Chris they have collected everything of value in their village to hire him.
“I have been offered a lot for my work, but never everything,” he replies.
North by Northwest
Not a lot I need to say about this one, other than all children need to be introduced to Hitchcock at some point, and this is probably his most family friendly film.
King Kong (1933)
The 1976 remake is good for all the wrong reasons, and the Peter Jackson remake is just plain bad. That leaves the Merian C Cooper version, with Fay Wray and Bruce Cabot. I know, it’s in black and white, but hopefully you’ve got the children used to black and white films by now, through showing them endless Laurel and Hardy features. And besides, they’re going to love Kong, the mysterious island, the dinosaur battle, the giant snake and the giant bird.
Jaws
My favourite film of all time. I showed this to my eldest when he was nine, and he was gripped throughout. (Although he did turn to me, halfway through Quint’s legendary speech about the USS Indianapolis, and say, “Daddy, I don’t understand what he’s saying.”) My worries about whether or not he would actually get the movie disappeared at the film’s end, when he leapt from his seat and cheered as Martin Brody shoots the shark, and it explodes.
Gremlins
Rated 15 when it first came out, Gremlins has now been given a new 12 certificate on its re-release. This 1984 horror comedy probably has more potential to scare kids than Jaws did. After all, worried about getting bitten by a shark? Don’t go in the sea! But no such comforting thoughts in this film, as most of the action takes place in environments familiar to children, and involves attacks on authority figures, such as a teacher and a mother. Oh, and make sure your kids know the truth about Santa Clause, before you show them this film.
Shane
“Somebody’s comin’, Pa!”
“Well, let him come.”
Ohmygosh, Shane. I feel like crying right now, just thinking about that film. The lush colours, the acting, the understated dialogue, the gun fight, and those final lines, laden with emotional meaning, “Come back, Shane! Mother wants you, I know she does!”
Citizen Kane
I’ve dealt with the issue of black and white films, right? So we can get that out of the way, and insist that our children sit down and watch the greatest movie ever made. Admittedly, this one’s probably going to be a tough one, especially for children grown up on the likes of Rio, and High School Musical. But there is no way around it, they have to see Orson Welles’ masterpiece at some point. It might as well be now.
To Kill a Mockingbird
This is the trickiest film of all. In one sense, it is the most perfect children’s movie on the list. After all, the whole story is seen through the eyes of a child (although narrated by the young girl now grown up) and is fundamentally about childhood, and the first inklings of what it means to become an adult. And who wouldn’t want a father like Gregory Peck? But it’s the film’s central themes of racism and rape that cause the problems. When to expose a child to these issues is a decision best left to individual parents, but what better way to introduce them, and start a discussion, than by watching To Kill a Mockingbird?
And then, of course, there’s Boo Radley.
I’m sure you will disagree with some, or most (maybe all?) of the films on this list, and I know there are some criminal absences (Singin’ in the Rain, for one) but we have a duty to our children to show them what storytelling heights cinema is capable of, and introduce them to the classics of Hollywood.
After that we can get onto subtitled movies!
What films would you choose to show your children?
May 16, 2014
It’s going to be tougher than you think.
Caro Wallis via Compfight
You will be criticised. You will be judged. You will be ridiculed. But most of all, you will be ignored.
These are the fears that lurk in the subconscious of anyone who is about to embark on a creative endeavour. That creative endeavour may be writing a novel, short story, or an article for a magazine, it may be painting a watercolour, or a huge portrait or abstract in oils, it may be composing a song, or stepping on stage as a singer in a band, or an actor in a play.
In any creative endeavour, the fear is there that the creator, the artist, will be criticised (That book was boring. Those songs are miserable. What’s he trying to say in that painting?) that she will be judged (Did she really think she could sing? Who does she think she is, writing a novel about sex?) or ridiculed (My cat could paint better than that. When he sings, he sounds like he’s having a rectal examination).
But you shouldn’t fear rejection, whatever shape it takes. It happens, and it happens to anyone brave enough to step outside of the comfort zone, (that comfort zone outlined by the soft, flickering glow from the box in the corner of your room) and create, thereby exposing their inner selves to the world.
Embrace rejection, in all its forms. Embrace failure, as failing is part of the learning curve. Without failing, how can you succeed? Don’t let the naysayers, the critics on the sidelines, tear apart what you are striving to build.
But what about being ignored?
This is your greatest challenge, to find an audience, and then to please that audience.
Being ignored will do your reputation more harm than empty criticism, judgement or ridicule.
Need any more encouragement in persistence, and the art of not giving up?
Mojo story teller Joe R Lansdale (Bubba Ho Tep, Bad Chilli) tells of his early days working in the baking hot fields of Texas by day, and pounding a typewriter at night.
“. . . because I didn’t know better I wrote a story a day . . I got, in time, about a thousand rejections.” (Emphasis mine.) ¹
Similarly, New Orleans writer James Lee Burke used to write his stories on his ten day shift on an oil rig, mail out the manuscripts on his five days at home, then back to work on the oil rig. Every time he returned home, he found a pile of rejection slips waiting for him. Even after he had published three novels, he experienced thirteen years without a paperback publication.
“My novel “The Lost Get-Back Boogie” alone received 110 rejections during nine years of submission, supposedly a record in the industry.” ²
1. http://americanfrankenstein.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/first-blood-joe-r-lansdale.html
2. http://www.jamesleeburke.com/content/4
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May 2, 2014
Writing is a matter of life and death (and why my imaginary friends are just as important as my real friends)
It sometimes feels that way for me, at least.
There are some days (most days) when it seems that I live two lives.
There is the outward, normal life. The one that involves my family, my friends, work, and everything else that makes up the variety and routine of my daily life. I am very happy with that life, too. I have a wonderful wife, two fantastic boys, some very close friends and a great many more friends I enjoy spending time with. I even love the daily rituals of ferrying my children to school, cubs, beavers, guitar lessons, swimming lessons, and whatever else they happen to be involved in at any given moment.
This is all part of life, and I wouldn’t miss any of it.
Then there is that other life.
This one mainly happens in one place, and that is in my cellar. Down there, underground, I spend time with murderers, vampires, zombies, pirates, lovers, fighters, criminals, and ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. I watch what happens to them and I write it all down. Sometimes I even find I have a story on my hands, and then I publish that story.
There are some days (again, most days, to be honest) when the lives of my imaginary friends are just as real to me as the physical life I lead in the ‘real’ world.
And just as important.
But how can my imaginary friends be as important as my real life, physical world, friends and family? Does this demean the people I spend time with, my loved ones, my friendships?
Or am I just a little bit crazy, perhaps?
Well, the jury is still out on the crazy part, but I can positively state that, no, I am not demeaning the value I place in my family and friends. You are all hugely important to me, and impact my life in positive ways you will never realise.
But I still need to be able to step through that magical door, and go to that other place. The elsewhere place.
If I couldn’t do that, then I think I would eventually lose my mind.
This is what I mean when I say that writing is a matter of life and death.
We all have our ways of coping with the shit that life throws at us.
(And remember, Life is an equal opportunities shit slinger. Life does not care about your social status, ethnic origins, or your BMI. Life just enjoys throwing shit, and seeing where it will stick.)
But sometimes, those coping mechanisms can do us more harm than good.
I remember, when I was 18 or 19, finding a box of art brushes and paints stuffed under the driver’s seat of the family car. I was studying art at college at the time, so this was an interesting find for me. Unfortunately my father and I were not very good at communicating with each other at that time (a situation that continued until his death, four years later). So I asked my mother what was going on, and she told me that he was secretly attending art classes at night school. She was the only one he had confided in.
This was a revelation to me. As the only outwardly creative person in an extended family of football loving, beer drinking, chain smoking, institutionalised, drug abusing, thieving, argumentative, working class blokes and blokettes (I exaggerate only ever so slightly) I had always felt like the odd one out.
But here, all of a sudden, was my father expressing his creative side.
It didn’t last. He quit the art lessons, and went back to his regular routine of spending every night down the pub.
My father’s sister (now in her eighties) describes him as a ‘very complex man,’ prone to angry outbursts, but with a sensitive, creative side.
Unfortunately, the culture of the time and place into which my father was born and lived demanded a lot of courage to express creativity. To be free to be yourself. This situation is better today, although it is still not easy. My father chose not to express his creativity, and to deny a true and necessary part of himself. He chose to bury that part of his identity beneath a lake of alcohol and a mountain of cigarettes, and beneath all that time spent in the pub with his mates, telling tall stories, and acting macho.
Yes, I know, life is a lot more complicated than that, but I truly believe that the cigarettes and the alcohol that finally killed him were a coping mechanism for the unhappiness that, by denying a necessary part of himself, had been eating away at him for years.
And so, having learnt from the mistakes my father made, and to avoid creating unhappiness in my own psyche, I write. Some of that writing even sells. But making money isn’t the point. It’s the writing that matters.
Because writing is a matter of life and death.
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