Tim Waggoner's Blog, page 5

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Published on December 23, 2022 11:54

December 18, 2022

Twenty Years of the Waggoner Mythos

2023 will mark the 20thanniversary of the publication of my first horror/dark fantasy novel, The Harmony Society. It was my second novel published. The first was a work-for-hire comedic erotic mystery called Dying For It, one of five novels published by the short-lived Foggy Windows Books, which came out in 2001. (But that’s a story for another day.)

In the late 1990’s I belonged to a writers’ group which counted the fantasy novelist Dennis L. McKiernan as a member. Dennis became a mentor to me, and I learned a lot from him. In addition, he was kind enough to recommend my fantasy novel True Thief to his agent, Jonathan Matson. Jonathan liked the book and called me on my thirtieth birthday to offer representation. Jonathan sent True Thief out to a number of publishers, but none ever made an offer on it.

While True Thief was out on submission, I decided to start working on another novel. I didn’t want to do a sequel to True Thief, but I had no idea what to write. Back then, I belonged to the GEnie network, a bulletin-board-based proto-social media site created by General Electric. (Hence the GE in GEnie.) Many other writers did too, including many well-known science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors. While I’d focused on writing fantasy novels for years, my short fiction tended to be horror, and I often hung out with horror writers on GEnie. On night during a live chat session, I mentioned that I didn’t have an idea for my next novel, and both Robert Weinberg and Tom Piccirilli told me to just start writing and see where the story took me. I’d always plotted out my novels before drafting them, but I decided to take Bob and Pic’s advice. I sat down at my computer and started typing. Years earlier, I’d had a dream of a dark angel imprisoned in a dungeon, kneeling on a stone floor, shackles binding his wrists, iron spikes driven through the backs of his legs and into the stone to hold him in place. I decided to base my story on this character, and I began with an image of the dark angel standing on a cliff, gazing down at a sea of razor-sharp silver feathers and these words: Nathan Bennett’s world first began to unravel with the death of the Dark Angel.

Since this was my first novel set in the real world (at least partially) I drew on my own experiences to create the story instead of writing about an imaginary medieval fantasy world. A couple years earlier, my first wife and I were living in Vincennes, Indiana, and one day we drove past a large stone building with columns, with the words THE HARMONY SOCIETY carved on the front. The structure was somber and imposing – it didn’t look harmonious at all – and for some reason I imagined the dark angel from my dream being imprisoned within. The Internet was in its infancy back then, so I couldn’t easily look up what the real Harmony Society was, but that was okay. I didn’t want reality to influence my imagination too much. Much later, when the Internet was more developed, I researched the Harmony Society, and you can read what I discovered here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Society. I’m glad I didn’t know anything about the real Harmony Society, or else I might not have used it in my book.

I made the main character, Nathan Bennett, a community college professor like myself, around the same age as I was (early thirties), and gave him a wife not unlike mine. My wife and I had talked about having kids (we’d eventually have two daughters) and she was pregnant at the time, so I decided to make Nathan’s wife pregnant, too. They lived in the same type of apartment complex my wife and I did, and had similar relationship problems as ours, although I gave some elements of my personality to Nathan’s wife and some of my wife’s to Nathan, just to mix things up a bit.

I don’t recall how long it took me to write The Harmony Society. Maybe three months? That’s how long it usually takes me to write a book, unless I have a short deadline. (I wrote the novelization of xXx: The Return of Xander Cage in two weeks thanks to not sleeping and drinking copious amounts of highly-caffeinated coffee.) I was pleased with how The Harmony Society turned out. It was weird – even for me – but it was my weird, and I felt – or maybe I hoped – I’d found my unique voice as a novelist. I sent the book to Jonathan, and my wife and I had our baby and moved into our first house before he got around to reading it. He said he liked it and was going to submit it, and I was relieved. The book had been a major artistic risk for me, and I was glad my agent didn’t think it was a big pile of steaming shit.

The RPG gaming company White Wolf had been publishing tie-in fiction based on their games for a few years, and they decided to branch out into publishing original horror/dark fantasy fiction. When I saw their submission guidelines, I was thrilled. They were looking for new, original takes on horror, and I thought The Harmony Society might be right up their alley. I asked Jonathan to submit it to White Wolf, he did, and I was thrilled when they made an offer. The advance they were going to give me was low – only $3000 – but it was $1000 more than what their guidelines said they offered, so as you might imagine, I was fine with that.

Then a few weeks later, White Wolf contacted my agent and pulled their offer, saying they were “no longer comfortable with the book.” When I asked my agent what that meant, he said, “Who cares? A no is a no. We’ll just send it somewhere else.” I’m not sure he ever did, though. Over the years I’d send Jonathan books and I never knew if he submitted them or not. They got published because I found publishers for them, or they were tie-in deals I arranged and brought to Jonathan. He negotiated better contracts for me, but I stayed with him much longer than I should have. I really liked him, and we spoke often. I learned a hell of lot about publishing from him, but I should’ve found a more proactive agent – which is exactly what my current agent Cherry Weiner is.

I’d been striving to become a professional author since I was eighteen, and I was severely depressed by having my first novel deal fall through. I wrote about the aftermath of White Wolf canceling the contract in a previous blog, which you can read here https://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/2012/04/one-that-got-away.html?m=0if you’re interested. I wrote Clive Barker and Harlan Ellison asking if they had any advice where I could send a weird cross-genre novel like The Harmony Society. They were kind enough to reply – Clive via letter, Harlan via phone – and both were apologetic that they couldn’t help me. It hadn’t occurred to me that they were so established and famous that marketing their work to publishers wasn’t really something they had to do. I deeply appreciated their responses, though. I went on to other projects but kept an eye out for places where I can could submit The Harmony Society. In the meantime, I decided to put together my first story collection, one focused on my horror fiction, and I called it All Too Surreal, a title I thought fit my brand of weird fiction well. Author Steve Saville had started a small press called Prime Books, and I submitted All Too Surreal to him. He enthusiastically accepted the book, but before it could be published, he sold the company to Sean Wallace, and Sean was the one who eventually brought out the collection. I decided to see if he’d be interested in bringing out The Harmony Society as well. He was, and the book finally found a home. Author Gord Rollo edited the manuscript, together we picked out a cover, and The Harmony Society came to life. Back then, small presses were experimenting with giving authors a higher share of royalties in lieu of advances, and Prime was one of them. I didn’t think this approach would pay off for writers, but I decided to give it a try. It turned out I was right, but at least my collection and novel were out in the world. Later, when the rights to The Harmony Society reverted to me, Dark Regions brought it out in 2012, and it’s still with them today (and it continues to regularly bring in money for us).

Despite how The Harmony Society fared, I felt I was on to something with the approach I’d taken with the book, and I wrote Like Death, which would go on to be published by Leisure Books in 2005, and which started my personal and professional relationship with editor Don D’Auria, which is still going strong. I didn’t initially conceive of Like Death as belonging to the same world as The Harmony Society, but the protagonists of Like Death cameoed in Pandora Drive, and the chief antagonist of The Harmony Society– Brother Nothing – was the catalyst for the events in my third Leisure novel Darkness Wakes, so I decided all four books were connected, if only in some small ways.

Darkness Wakeswas my last novel for Leisure, due to low sales, and while I was sad, I was happy to have had three books published with them, and happy to have met, worked with, and got to know Don, but I decided my surreal horror wasn’t something most readers wanted, so I abandoned it. (Being let go from Leisure turned out to be a blessing because when they started to tank, I was able to get the rights back to all three of my books before the company went bankrupt. Other writers had a hard time getting the rights to their books back after that.)

I concentrated on writing tie-ins and urban fantasy novels for a time, most of which had a horror element to them but weren’t as batshit crazy as my previous horror novels. (I still continued to write surreal horror in short stories, though.) I wouldn’t return to “Tim Waggoner” horror in novel length until 2014, when I sold my surreal zombie apocalypse novel The Way of All Flesh to Don at Samhain Books. This book wasn’t specifically connected to my burgeoning mythos, though. It wasn’t until I wrote Eat the Night for DarkFuse Books in 2016 that I returned to my mythos, and added to it by creating the entropy-fighting organization called Maintenance.

I created my mythos with no real plan. It just grew on its own over the years, and while both Bob and Pic passed away some years back, if they were still with us, I think they’d be pleased to know what they’re advice to just start writing led to over the course of a couple decades. I of course dedicated The Harmony Society to both of them.

Following is a list of places, characters, and concepts that are part of the Waggoner Mythos. It’s by no means complete. I tried to focus on the major elements, ones that occur in one form or another in multiple stories. I also tried to avoid including anything that would be too spoilery. The descriptions are from my own reference file, so there are few small bits of information that haven’t appeared in any story yet, but I don’t think any of it is spoilery either. There are some new major mythos elements in my forthcoming novels A Hunter Called Night and Lord of the Feast, but since these would definitely be spoilery, I’ve left them out.

OVERARCHING THEME

My mythos isn’t about the struggle between good and evil. It’s about the inevitability of entropy, the eventual but certain death of all existence, and how humans deal with that reality and find ways to live with it (or not).

THE GYRE

The Gyre is an immense black hole that sits at the center of all reality. It has been slowly devouring Creation since the dawn of time, and the Omniverse’s only purpose is to serve as its food. The Gyre is the ultimate expression of the concept of Entropy.

THE MULTITUDE

Godlike servants of the Gyre. Their purpose is to help break down reality for the Gyre so that it might be more easily and swiftly absorbed. They basically predigest the Gyre’s food for it.

SHADOW

The realm that exists between reality and nothingness. It’s the bleeding edge where reality is broken down and absorbed by the Gyre, and many strange creatures and beings – as well as some humans – dwell there.

THE NIGHTWAY

A vast obsidian road which travels through a world of darkness beneath a starless sky. It circles the Gyre, somehow resisting being drawn into it. No one knows if it’s a natural phenomenon or was constructed artificially by some unknown race. There are many dangers both on and off the Nightway, but some beings have managed to make their home there. Since then, I’ve written seven novels connected to my mythos, with two more contracted for which I still need to write. Readers don’t need any previous knowledge of my mythos to enjoy my books, but for those who are familiar with it, I hope it adds another level of enjoyment for them.

THE HARMONY SOCIETY

A mysterious organization dedicated to one goal: domination of the Dark Angel, one of the last surviving Umbral. Brother Nothing is the leader. Other members are the time-traveling hitman Mr. Bones, the Pennyman, and the serpent-like Ssssister. Brother Nothing is one of the most powerful members of the Multitude.

THE UMBRAL

A race of Dark Angels who were the Architects of the Omniverse. When they learned the truth about the Gyre – and what was ultimately going to happen to their creation – some of them became the first of the Multitude to help process the Omniverse faster and more efficiently. Only a few true Umbral exist now, and the Multitude are always trying to find them and “help” them understand the Truth – one way or another. The Umbral are in hiding and on the run and have been for trillions of years. The remaining Umbral are the ones who founded Maintenance. The world where the Umbral shed their wings to become the Multitude is the one featured at the beginning of The Harmony Societywhere there’s a massive sea of razor-sharp silver feathers.

BROTHER NOTHING

A thin man in an old white suit that’s become yellowed with age. He is one of the Multitude, perhaps the most powerful of them all, and is the prime representative of Entropy in the Omniverse. Some say he may be an avatar of the Gyre itself.

MAINTENANCE

An ancient organization of humans created to counter the Multitude’s efforts to speed up entropy. Their goal is to slow entropy as much as they can. There is nothing they can do to stop it. They see their role as slowing the Gyre’s mindless devouring of reality, making its meal more flavorful and last longer. Their motto: “Flavor to the feast.” They are overworked and underpaid, and given that they know their mission is ultimately futile, their morale isn’t exactly high.

THE CABAL

A crimson-robed group of men and women, all of whom are mutated to one degree or another. They inhabit the Vermilion Tower, located on the Nightway, and their purpose it to maintain the balance between Shadow and reality on Earth. They’ll do anything it takes to fulfill this purpose, no matter the cost.

TAINTED PAGES

A bookstore specializing in mystic and arcane tomes. It exists in all realities and may even be found in different towns on the same Earth. Owned by an enigmatic being known as the Proprietor or sometimes The Bookman. The Proprietor also collects humans that have been turned into books, and he keeps these in his private collection.

THE STYGIAN MARKET

An interdimensional market where all manner of things may be sold or purchased. It’s gigantic but it’s often accessed via a portal in a smaller structure, such as a barn or abandoned house.

THE BLACK TRUST

A worldwide consortium of businesspeople who trade in items and services of the darkest nature. Their goods come at an extremely high – and often hidden – price. (This will make its first appearance in The Atrocity Engine.)

ARCANE TOMES

The Book of Oblivion, The Book of Masks, The Book of Depravity, The Book of Madness (also known as The Insanitarium). Every use of these books breaks down reality to a greater or lesser degree, and that’s why they were created by the Multitude and sent to Earth. A member of the Multitude sacrificed themselves to become each book. The books cannot be copied word for word, but they can be imperfectly copied

FICTION IN THE WAGGONER MYTHOS

The works in the following lists all take place on the same Earth. The novels The Way of All Flesh and We Will Rise exist in the same Omniverse as the other stories, but they take place on different Earths.

Novels

The Harmony Society (2003), Like Death (2005), Pandora Drive (2006), Darkness Wakes (2006), Eat the Night (2016), The Mouth of the Dark (2018), They Kill (2019), The Forever House (2020), Your Turn to Suffer (2021), A Hunter Called Night (2023)

Forthcoming: Lord of the Feast, The Atrocity Engine, The Book of Madness, The Desolation War (These last three novels are a trilogy.)

Novellas

The Men Upstairs (2012)

Short Stories

Featuring psychologist and occult detective Ismael Carter: “The Grabber-Man” (2017) and “The Empty Ones” (2019), both in Occult Detective Monthly.

I consider a number of my other short stories as also belonging to my mythos, at least thematically, but I haven’t clearly established them as such.

DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

My Mythos Work

If you’re interested in reading any of my Waggoner Mythos fiction, here’s a link to my Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tim-Waggoner/author/B001JP0XFM?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Your Turn to Suffer

The ebook edition of Your Turn to Suffer has been on sale for 99 cents for a week or so. I don’t know how much longer the sale will last, but it might well be over soon, so if you’re interested in snagging a cheap e-copy, do it now! (I’m writing this on 12/18/2022, so if you’re reading this an significant length of time past this date, the sale is likely over.)

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/your-turn-to-suffer-tim-waggoner/1137330372?ean=9781787585201

Google: https://books.google.com/books?id=osPwDwAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/your-turn-to-suffer

Synopsis: Lorelai Palumbo is harassed by a sinister group calling themselves The Cabal. They accuse her of having committed unspeakable crimes in the past, and now she must pay. The Cabal begins taking her life apart one piece at a time – her job, her health, the people she loves – and she must try to figure out what The Cabal thinks she’s done if she’s to have any hope of answering their charges and salvaging her life.

“This story reads like one of those nightmares you wake up from only to learn you're still sleeping and experiencing a nightmare...except that it just continues like a Russian nesting doll of nightmares within nightmares. The narrative paints a distorted and dreamlike allegory, showcasing how guilt, even (or especially) when associated with long-forgotten – or suppressed – memories can weigh heavily on us.” – Domus Necrophageous

Scheduled Appearances

Scarelastic Book Fair. Scarlet Lane Brewing. McCordsville, Indiana: February 28.

Authorcon 2. Williamsburg, Virgina: March 31-April 2.

Stokercon. Pittsburgh: June 15-18.

Where to Find Me Online

Want to follow me on social media? Here’s where you can find me:

Website: www.timwaggoner.com

Twitter: @timwaggoner

Instagram: tim.waggoner.scribe

Hive: @timwaggoner

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZEz6_ALPrV3tdC0V3peKNw

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Called-Night-Tim-Waggoner-ebook/dp/B0BN6T1GTN/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1669681767&sr=1-4

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Published on December 18, 2022 08:39

November 28, 2022

The Last Christmas Present

I was going through some of my old papers the other day, and I ran across a yellowed newspaper article that contained my first published story. Since it was a Christmas tale, I thought I’d share it with you here on my blog as the holiday season ramps up. The story was published in 1982, only a few days after my eighteenth birthday. The picture above is my senior class photo, and it accompanied the article. (Did I really used to have that much hair?)

I wrote this story for my creative writing class my senior year in high school, and even though it’s not a horror story, it was inspired by a story I read in one of Warren Publications horror magazines, Creepy or Eerie (I can’t remember which). That story was about the last surviving Christmas elf, but he was a crazed, grotesque thing who killed an abusive parent as a gift to the two children being abused. The idea of the last Christmas elf trying to keep Santa’s legacy alive fascinated me, but I thought the original story wasted the premise. What would it be like for the last elf? What would he think and feel? What would he do with himself? How could he keep on going? I wrote “The Last Christmas Present” to explore the answers to these questions.

I was more than a little worried that I was plagiarizing the original story, but I told myself that while I took the basic premise, I went in a very different direction with it. Besides, there’s that old quote from T.S. Eliot, “Good writers borrow. Great writers steal.”

Mrs. Vagedes was so impressed by my story that she decided to read it aloud to the class. She didn’t name me as the author. She said whoever the author was could reveal him or herself if they wished when she was finished. I was very proud that Mrs. Vagedes read my story, and when she was finished, I wanted to tell the class I was the author, but I couldn’t. A lot of kids in school thought I was weird, and I was afraid they’d view the story differently if they knew I’d written it. I wanted them to appreciate the story for what it was. Stephen King once said, “It’s not the story. It's he who tells it,” and while I believe that’s true, I wish I’d have enough confidence back then to claim my story in front of the class. Still, when the story was published, maybe some of my fellow students saw the article and realized the truth.

When Mrs. Vagedes read the story aloud, she couldn’t bring herself to say the word Dammit. I forget what she replaced it with. Darn it, probably. She later apologized for the substitution, saying that the original word was appropriate for the story, but she didn’t feel right saying it. I told her I understood, and I did – mostly. I figured it was probably a religious thing for her, but I didn’t ask.

Not long after the story was written, I discovered I’d been named Writer of the Month at my school, which surprised the hell out of me because I’d had no idea that we even had a Writer of the Month. I suspect that I might’ve been the only one that year, and maybe the only one ever.

I’m not sure how, but a reporter for the Miami Valley Wednesday News – a paper I’d never heard of (the town newspaper was The West Milton Record) – called my house and said her paper wanted to publish my story and that she wanted to interview me for an article to accompany the story. So not only was this my first published story, it was my first interview as an author too!

I was supposed to drive to her house for the interview. (Can you imagine anyone doing that now? They’d want to meet the interviewee somewhere in public if they didn’t have an actual office.) I had no idea how to dress, but I figured it was an important occasion, so I wore my three-piece brown suit. God, I must’ve looked ridiculous to the reporter, but she was kind enough to show no reaction to my outfit.

I don’t recall the reporter’s name, and she didn’t receive a byline when the article was published, which is a shame. I’d love to try to track her down and tell her how this one published story grew into a (so-far) forty-year career.

The article and story were originally published in the Miami Valley Wednesday News, March 18, 1982, and I’ve reproduced it below with only minor changes. I fixed a couple tense errors and made a clearer indication of the scene break.

What do I think of this story after all these years? I’m pleased to see that I wrote with an immersive point of view and included a strong emotional core, both things I still strive to do to this day and try to pass on to my own students. Did I choose the name Tommy because it was close to Tim? Maybe, I don’t recall. At the time I wrote the story, I had no intention of being a teacher, but I’d always been fascinated by the different ways teachers taught, so I suppose it was inevitable that I eventually became one. Did my experience in Mrs. Vagedes’ class – the only creative writing class my high school offered at the time – inspire me to go on to teach creative writing? It was a piece in the puzzle, that’s for sure, and when I dedicated Writing in the Dark: The Workbook to all the creative writing teachers I’ve had throughout the years, I made sure to include her. So in a way, I guess this article and story represents my beginning as a creative writing teacher too.

SHORT STORY EARNS HONORS

Tim Waggoner, a senior of Milton-Union High School who plans to attend Wright State University where he will major in theater, has been named writer of the month by the high school English department in connection with a program designed to enhance student writing abilities.

As a student enrolled in a creative writing class taught by Linnette Vagedes, Waggoner turned in a short story entitled, “The Last Christmas Present.”

Mrs. Vagedes explains “Tim’s paper was selected from all high school English classes as tops. It has a marvelous underlying theme which is so typical of Tim who always comes up with such creative ideas.”

The son of Mr. and Mrs. Orville Waggoner, Tim was field commander of the high school marching band this past season and is a member of the Milton-Union Drama Club. He has the lead role in that organization’s upcoming production of “A Thousand Clowns” to be presented March 26 and 27 at the high school. Waggoner plays the part of Murray Burns, an unemployed non-conformist in his late 30s.

Following is the text of Waggoner’s short story which he has given the Miami Valley Wednesday News permission to publish.

THE LAST CHRISTMAS PRESENT

BY TIM WAGGONER

Sven closed the door in the face of the mounting snow storm. He stood for a second, staring at the ancient, splintered door and listening to the whistling of the wind as it flung particles of ice against the cracked window pane. He removed his tattered grey cloak, shook it once to remove the snow, and placed it upon a nail that had been driven into the wall for lack of a coat rack. Sven walked over to the small table in the center of the room upon which a candle, Sven’s last, burned, providing the only illumination in the small hut.

He stared at the candle’s flickering flame for a second, deeply inhaling the aroma of melting wax as it dripped onto the table, congealing into a molten mass that surrounded the candle. Sven rubbed his chin and began to speak softly, more to hear the sound of a voice than anything else.

“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it, Kris? Lots of things have happened since you died: new countries forming, bombs being made, world wars . . . I tell you, Kris, sometimes I wish I had gone with you.” Sven sighed and began to drum his fingers on the table.

“Two hundred and 50 years, Kris. I’ve stayed here, even after all the rest left. For all I know, I’m the last one. Do you know what it’s like to be alone for two hundred and 50 years, Kris?” Sven took a ragged handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed away a forming tear.

“And do you know what the kicker is, Kris? It’s Christmas Eve. We used to have the best Christmasses in the world, didn’t we? Maybe we never made it around the earth in a night like the stories say, but you always made sure that those who needed it the most got it, didn’t you Kris? After the others left, I tried to carry on, but without them and, most importantly, without you, I just couldn’t. You were Christmas, Kris; and when you died, Christmas died for me. For the others, too, that’s why they left, but I just couldn’t. Too many memories tied to this place: memories I couldn’t leave.” Sven sat quietly for a second, listening to the howl of the storm.

“I don’t have anything left, Kris. My whole life was giving and I have nothing left to give . . . and no one to give it to.”

Sven suddenly wished desperately that he had another person to talk to. He took his cloak off the nail and bundled it around himself as he once again braved the blinding snow storm. He went to the stable, which had seen many animals in its time, but was now the residence of one lone, old reindeer. Sven opened the door to the animal’s stall.

“C’mon Star, let’s go.”

Sven stood on the rooftop of an abandoned warehouse. The moon shone down on the pristine blanket of snow which for a time, disguised the filth, the snow just made it easier to ignore. Sven had given Star her freedom after she had borne him to this city. He realized she might not see another Christmas and wanted her to spend her remaining days with others of her own kind, if she could find them.

Sven heard noises coming from a nearby alley. He looked down and saw a young boy, perhaps only 12 or 13 years old, rummaging through a garbage can. Sven descended the fire escape and in moments stood beside the boy, whose head was buried in another trash can. The boy turned and saw Sven watching him.

“Are you gonna hurt me mister?” asked the frail, toeheaded youth.

“Who me?” answered Sven. “Do I look like a mugger?”

“Well, you are kinda short,” replied the boy. [NOTE from Old Tim: I have no idea what the hell this is supposed to mean!]

“My name’s Sven, what’s yours?”

“Tommy,” answered the youth and shook Sven’s outstretched hand.

“Tommy, what’s a nice kid like you doing going through garbage cans on Christmas Eve?”

“I’m looking for something to give my mom and my little sister.”

“Why don’t you just buy your gifts like everyone else?”

“Can’t. I only make enough to feed us. Well . . . it’s almost enough.”

“Why, doesn’t your father work?”

“He died last year. Tonight in fact.”

“Just like Kris,” thought Sven.

“Well, I gotta get going now. Mom’ll start worrying if I’m gone too long. Wish I woulda found something for them.”

Sven watched as Tommy turned and walked away, not sure whether to cry or to scream with rage and unable to do either.”

“Dammit,” he thought, “that’s exactly the kind Kris always helped. The Lord helped those who helped themselves and Kris helped those who couldn’t. Why can’t I have anything left worth . . .” And then Sven heard it. The sound. He looked up and saw Tommy standing in the middle of the street, transfixed by a pair of headlights that bore down upon him. With the nimbleness of his kind, Sven bounded across the alley and into the street. Sven reached Tommy just before the car did. He pushed Tommy out of harm’s way. Tommy tumbled into a snowdrift, unhurt, as the car roared on into the night. Sven wasn’t so lucky. Tommy ran over to the small crumpled mass of limbs and bent down. Sven looked up into Tommy’s eyes and smiled. He whispered something and died.

Tommy wasn’t sure, but he thought it sounded like “Thanks Kris.”

DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

A Hunter Called Night Up for Preorder

My next novel for Flame Tree press, A Hunter Called Night, is available for preorder. The book will be out on May 9, 2023. Here’s a synopsis:

Order Links

Flame Tree (all formats): https://www.flametreepublishing.com/a-hunter-called-night-isbn-9781787586345.html

Amazon Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Called-Night-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787586316/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1668832377&sr=1-1

Barnes and Noble Paperback: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-hunter-called-night-tim-waggoner/1142487192?ean=9781787586314

NOOK: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-hunter-called-night-tim-waggoner/1142487192?ean=9781787586352

Writing Tie-Ins Panel

I was honored to participate in Con-Tinual's panel on writing tie-ins, along with

Jonathan Maberry, Chris A. Jackson, Susan Griffith, James P. Nettles, Harry Heckel, and Bobby Nash. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyUXuKM3IjQ

Where to Find Me on the Internet

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Published on November 28, 2022 16:58

November 18, 2022

If You Can't Say Anything Nice . . .

The other day while cruising social media I ran across a post from a writer I was unfamiliar with. This writer posted an image of a page from a well-known and quite successful author’s work, with a specific paragraph highlighted. The poster commented how terrible the writing in the paragraph was, then in a follow-up post said that if the author saw the post, he should know that “you’re a terrible writer and we hate you.” A number of the poster’s friends piled on about how awful the writing in the paragraph was, and how they hated the author for being a SJW, blah, blah, blah, you get the picture. I didn’t see a damn thing wrong with the paragraph myself. I didn’t jump to the author’s defense, though. For one thing, the author is perfectly capable of defending himself if he wishes, and I learned a long time ago that Internet trolls are gasoline just praying someone will throw a match at them. They desperately want you to engage, and it’s rarely a good idea to do so. It’s just a waste of your time and emotional energy.

I made a social post about this situation myself. Here’s what I said:

Saw a post today from an edgelord taking a potshot at an established writer. I've been in this game for forty years, and I've seen dozens of wannabees who think they can make a rep by trying to knock down a pro. It never works. They just look like insecure assholes.

I didn’t name names because, as I said above, no need to give the edgelord the attention he was seeking, and why drag the author the edgelord was attacking into the situation unnecessarily? As I said in my post, I really have seen this type of edgelord before (although we didn’t call them that in the old days – usually just dickheads or douchebags or something similar). My first reaction on reading the edgelord’s post was “Not this guy again.” Not because I recognized the poster, but because one edgelord-dickhead-douchebag is pretty much the same as another. They’re usually males in their late teens to mid-thirties trying to establish a rep for themselves by attacking someone farther along in their writing career and who’s well known. They’re like a young gunslinger in a Western who wants to go up against a legendary shootist and make an instant reputation for themselves by gunning them down. I suspect a lot of these would-be gunslingers don’t write much, and instead like playing at being a writer on social media for whatever attention they can get. If they’re serious about making a career as a writer, being a would-be gunslinger is a terrible way to do it. No one thinks they’re funny or cute (except others who get off on mocking people), and unless they’re absolute geniuses, no agents or editors will want to work with them, and no readers will want to read their stuff. Mockers put out a too cool for school attitude and attempt to project a rebel persona, and all they do is try to tear everything and everyone else down in order to make themselves look big. It. Never. Works.

Plus, it’s just bad marketing. People buy products from other people (or companies) they like. Why would anyone want to spend their money on an edgelord-dickhead-douchebag? (Or someone who’s playing that role in public.) I bet the edgelord’s friends who chimed in with mockery of their own have never read a word the edgelord’s writing and never will. They sure as shit won’t spend money on it. Plus, mockers turn on other mockers all the time. You never know when it’ll become your turn to be a target.

Some other writers who saw the edgelord’s original post commented that it was a shame that people should be able to freely criticize another author’s work on social media without any negative reaction, and I got the same comment from a follower in a DM. But the edgelord’s post wasn’t criticism. It was simple, vitriolic mockery directed at someone more accomplished in the hope of gaining attention. None of the edgelord’s friends posted any criticism in reply, only more mockery. Saying “This shit sucks and you suck too!” isn’t criticism. It’s a childish attack. Criticism is more thoughtful, and it’s about the work. It's supposed to provide insight, help people reassess their opinion of the work and hopefully view it in a new way. Regardless of the specific opinion offered on a work of art, criticism in and of itself is positive because it adds to the overall conversation about what makes art good, what makes it meaningful, how does it contribute to the artform itself as well as to society. You don’t have to write a 100-page thesis, though. Even a simple statement like, “This writer used some interesting metaphors in their story, but there were so many, one after the other, that I sometimes lost track of what exactly was happening” is effective criticism (and it’s short enough to post on Twitter!).

One of my professors in grad school said, “Good criticism isn’t supposed to be correct. There’s no such thing as right or wrong when it comes to opinions on art. Good criticism is meant to be provocative.” The professor didn’t mean provoke a reaction, as the edgelord was trying to do. He meant provoke thought, provoke ideas, provoke questions, provoke you to offer your own criticism of the work in order to expand the conversation and keep it going. “Your writing sucks, you suck, and we hate you” doesn’t do any of these things.

And everyone is free to make any comment about writing (or anything else) they want on social media. What they aren’t free from, however, is other people seeing their comment and responding to it. If you put something out on Main Street you need to be prepared for whatever reaction might come your way. You aren’t having a discussion with a friend about a book in a restaurant booth. You’re posting a message where potentially anyone in the world can see it. So you either make peace with hurling your opinions around right and left and letting people respond however they will, or you think about what you’re going to post and whether it’s a good idea to do so at all. You want to chat in private with a few friends about a work of art? Do so via DM’s, email, Zoom, text, phone, or – gasp! – getting together in real life. There is no such thing as privacy on the Internet.

But regardless, writers rarely offer any negative criticism about other writers’ work in public (and often not even in private). Not because they’re cowards, but because they don’t want to put other writers in an awkward position. It’s why we never ask someone if they’ve read our latest story or book. Odds are they haven’t (and we likely haven’t read theirs). We’re all so damn busy writing our own stuff to read much, and we know so many other writers that we can’t keep up with all their work even if we did nothing but read 24/7. We know what it feels like to get a bad and sometimes downright scathing review. Why would we want to make someone else feel like that? And it’s difficult to build a professional network with other writers if you say negative things about their work. Why would they want to have any relationship with someone who’s trashed their latest opus on social media? By doing so, you’re damaging that writer’s reputation, especially if you’re a fellow writer. Plus, as a writer, you risk looking like you’re badmouthing the competition, whether from jealousy or to purposefully harm their business for your benefit. Plus, what if some of your readers like your stuff and the stuff your competitor writes? You risk alienating those readers. And other writers may start to wonder what you think about their work, and what you say about it to others when they’re not around. If you post a lot of negative criticism, you’ll start seeming negative in general to people, and you’ll end up driving away readers and making agents and editors wonder if working with you is a good idea.

Basically, the old adage “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” applies.

On the other hand . . .

All writers started out as voracious readers, and we still love to talk about books – the things we liked, the things we didn’t, the things that amazed, confused, or angered us. We want the freedom to have such discussions with other readers. Plus, you can make a good case that such discussions are important for the overall health of an artform, that they encourage artists to clarify their thoughts and feelings about different subject matter and techniques. Such discussions help artists grow. So it comes down to a simple question: Which matters more to you: tending to the business concerns of your writing career or being free to talk about things you dislike in the works you read? Do whichever matters to you, but be prepared for the cost either way. You can also try to strike a balance between the two that works for you, and – as I’m sure you’re not surprised – I have a few thoughts about how you might do this.

· Talk about the writing you love and why you love it. Primarily talk about what worked for you in a piece of writing, and then maybe mention one or two things that didn’t. If the positive outweighs the negative, most writers and readers will view your discussion as primarily positive.

· Punch up, not down (or sideways). Stephen King doesn’t give a shit about what you think of his work, and the odds of him ever seeing your review on social media are, not to put too fine a point on it, extremely fucking low. Say whatever you want about the work of famous writers. Don’t talk negatively about the work of your peers or of newer writers, though.

· Criticize the work of dead authors. As much as Stephen King doesn’t care what you think of his books, Mary Shelley cares even less. Once a writer is dead, there’s no one for your opinions to hurt. Of course, you might piss off some rabid Mary Shelley fans, but that’s a risk you’ll have to take.

· Criticize writing in other genres. If you’re a baker criticizing another baker a couple blocks over, you might look like a self-serving jerk to some of your customers. But if you criticize the grocer down the street, you might find your customers agreeing with you. Yes, you run the risk of the writer whose work you criticize running across your post, but you won’t be a writer in their genre, and that will (hopefully) cushion some of the blow.

· Criticize other types of art. Talk about movies, TV series, documentaries, reality shows, comics, music . . . anything other than writing. However, a field like horror is kind of like one gigantic mutant family, and horror filmmakers and artists are still horror folk, so you’ll have to decide how close other types of art in your genre are to the writing in that genre.

· Let readers (who are not also writers) criticize writing. Readers are perfectly capable of criticizing writing on their own. They don’t need writers’ help. Sure, writers offer a practitioner’s viewpoint on writing, which is valuable, but the art of writing will not wither and fade because you didn’t post your thoughts about why the new bestselling novel you tried to read to read and put down wasn’t so great.

· Talk about books without naming the author or the title. Talk about the book in as much detail as you can without identifying it. Yes, this will hamstring you when it comes to criticizing, but if you focus on technique and artistry in general, you should still be able to get the important parts of your message across.

· Find some privacy. As I said earlier, don’t post your negative takes on the Internet. Talk with trusted friends in private, maybe over drinks in the bar during a convention – just make sure you know who’s nearby and might hear what you say. If you’re going to write your thoughts – in emails, texts, whatever – only do so when you 100% trust the other person. You don’t want them screenshotting your comments and posting them for the world to see.

If you really want to post your thoughts about others’ writing– positive and negative – on social media, go for it. But if you want to do so without any repercussions, sorry, that’s not an option. The world will respond to what we put into it however it will – if it responds at all.

But whatever you do, don’t be an edgelord-dickhead-douchebag about it.

DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

Ebook editions of We Will Rise on Sale for 99 Cents

The Kindle and Nook editors of my ghost apocalypse novel We Will Rise have been on sale for 99 cents for the last couple weeks. Why? Damned if I know. Nobody tells us writers anything. I don’t know how long this sale will go on. I’m writing this at 11:27 pm EST on 11/18/2022, and if you’re interested in snagging a copy for that sweet-sweet price, do so quick before the cost goes back up.

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585263

Praise for We Will Rise:

This was visceral stuff and a highly entertaining fast-paced read which was a bleak exploration of the human psyche. – Tony Jones, Ink Heist

We Will Riseis a tense, emotional, scary ride and one of Waggoner’s best. – Zach Rosenberg, Horror DNA

Cover Reveal for A Hunter Called Night

My next novel for Flame Tree press, A Hunter Called Night, is available for preorder, and I finally got to see the cover – and now you do too! Ain’t it a beaut? The book will be out on May 9, 2023. Here’s a synopsis:

Order Links

Flame Tree: https://www.flametreepublishing.com/a-hunter-called-night-isbn-9781787586345.html

Amazon Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Called-Night-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787586316/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1668832377&sr=1-1

Amazon Hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Called-Night-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787586340/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1668832377&sr=1-1

Kindle: Link still to come.

Barnes and Noble Paperback: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-hunter-called-night-tim-waggoner/1142487192?ean=9781787586314

Barnes and Noble Hardcover: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-hunter-called-night-tim-waggoner/1142487192?ean=9781787586345

NOOK: Link still to come.

Book and Author Society Interview/Q&A

Last Monday, I was honored to do a video interview for the Book and Author Society. They’ve posted a recording on YouTube, and you can check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P--06BoO2m4&t=1s

The Keenedom Rises

Twitter may die any day now, so Brian Keene started an old-style message board as a place for horror folk to gather when and if it does. Basically, he’s created a refugee camp for displaced horror Twitterites. I have a topic there, so come check it out and party like it’s 1996!

Keenedom Message Board: https://thekeenedom.freeforums.net/

Social Media Links

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YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/timwaggonerswritinginthedark

Twitter: @timwaggoner

Instagram: tim.waggoner.scribe

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner-ebook/dp/B09JPF5XZD/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1668195745&sr=1-1

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Published on November 18, 2022 21:14

November 11, 2022

Balancing the Scales

Last week I attended the World Fantasy Convention in New Orleans. WFC was the first big convention I ever went to, back in 1994, and it too was in New Orleans. I went to WFC for several years after that until my first daughter was born and money became a bit tighter. But my kids are grown now, and I started going to WFC again shortly before COVID hit. I attended the virtual WFC’s during lockdown, but this year’s was the first face-to-face WFC I’ve been to since the pandemic began. Before COVID, I’d heard that WFC wasn’t what it used to be. There were fewer attendees and not as many writers, agents, and editors showed up. WFC used to be the convention for SF/F/H because everyone came, and a lot of business was done there, and older writers would mentor younger ones. Not so now. This year there were hardly any editors or agents present, and most of the writers were newer ones, still in the progress of building their careers. There was a lot of comradery (which was always true of WFC), and I got to hang out with friends like Lucy Snyder, Steve Saffel, Jason Sizemore, and Charles Coleman Finley, not to mention my agent Cherry Weiner, who works her ass off at conventions. I did some business, but not a lot, and while a couple book deals might result, there’s no guarantee. (Is there ever?)

One thing surprised me, though. I heard from several people (none of whom I named above), that editors are telling agents not to bother sending them work from straight white men. These were people in the SF/F/H publishing industry, not disgruntled white male writers looking for an excuse why their manuscripts were rejected. I am, of course, aware of the increased focus on diversity in publishing these days, and I think it’s an important – and long overdue – development, although there is still quite a way to go. What surprised me was to hear anyone talking about it. On social media, whenever someone white, male, straight or any combination says that they’ve never heard people make racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic comments or harass anyone due to their gender, race, sexuality, or gender identification, commentors are always skeptical. It’s around you all the time. You’re just not aware of it. But I honestly never see or hear anything like this. I used to, of course. I’m almost 59, and when I was a kid I witnessed plenty of sexist, racist, and homophobic behavior. I saw less when I was teenager, less when I was an adult in my twenties and thirties, and almost none in my fifties. I hope this is a sign of progress, but it’s possible that racists, sexists, homophobes, and transphobes don’t exhibit such behavior unless they’re around people who they believe share their views, or at least are sympathetic to them. If that’s true, then I’m glad they don’t view me as one who believes as they do. So when I heard people tell me that editors are saying “Straight white males need not apply,” I was, as I said, surprised.

A couple caveats before I go on. I only heard this from a few people, and even though they’re publishing professionals, that doesn’t mean their views are widely shared. None of these people were angry or resentful about the cultural shift. They simply presented their view as a current condition in publishing. Does that mean these comments didn’t come from racism on their part? Since I believe racism can be nuanced (we can be racist in some ways and circumstances and not in others) and unconscious, sure, it’s possible. But that doesn’t make their comments untrue. Especially since they reported only hearing this view from editors and agents.

Do I think it’s true? Probably. I see editors and agents post their manuscript wish lists on social media all the time, and they prominently post how they want to see work from writers who aren’t straight, white men. They may not say this directly, but they list all kinds of cultural, racial, and identity qualities that straight, white men don’t possess as qualities they want their writers to have, so I think the message is pretty clear.

So am I – a cishet white male (and an older one at that) – outraged by the fact I’m no longer desired by publishers, or at least not at the top of their wish lists? Nope. As I said earlier, I believe an increased focus on diversity is good overall for our culture and everyone in it, white, straight people included. Sure, I’m a little bummed when I think about it. Who wants to hear that they are less desirable because of factors about themselves that they can’t control? But I quickly remind myself that this has been (and still is to a great extent) the experience of women, LGTBQ+, and BIPOC writers for . . . well, always in publishing. If rebalancing the scales mean that there’s less opportunity for me in traditional publishing, then it’s a small price to pay, and accepting that price and supporting this change are small contributions I can make to the cause. But I’ve been writing and publishing for decades. I have an established writing career, so it’s easier for me to feel like this than someone who’s just starting out. What, I wonder, do new cishet, white male writers think? And as a teacher of writing, how can I best help students understand this current (and hopefully here to stay) trend in publishing? The easiest thing to do would be for me to keep my mouth shut about it, but I’m not supporting diversity if I do that, so that’s not an option for me.

One of the things I do is tell students that traditional publishing has never been easy. It’s competitive as hell, of course, but the odds were heavily stacked against anyone who wasn’t a cishet white male for most of modern publishing’s history – or anyone who wasn’t a member the upper class and/or highly educated. The scales aren’t suddenly being weighed against cishet white males. They were already weighed in their favor. The scales are in the process of becoming equally balanced. Despite the blunt way of saying it – no straight, white males, please – publishers aren’t trying to put them down or shove them aside. They’re trying to lift everyone else up. I also tell students that increased diversity is an artistic and financial decision. Publishers have realized there are stories that haven’t been told, stories only non-cishet writers can tell, stories drawn from their lived experience and points of view, and that there’s a market for these stories. There were a lot of years when these stories weren’t being told in traditional publishing, and publishers are trying to fill the great void that neglect created.

I haven’t had a student come out and say they resent the current focus on diversity in publishing, but if one did, I’d tell them that they need to do what all writers should do: make their writing their very best it can be and keep making it better as they go on. That’s what makes your writing the most competitive. I’d also tell them that they have the option to self-publish in a way that didn’t exist when I was starting out. They’ll still have to compete for readers’ time, attention, and money once their books are out, but that’s true of all writers, traditionally published or indie. I’d tell them DON’T write under a pseudonym that makes it sound as if you’re not a cishet white male or claim an identity you don’t have in order to get published or attract readers. Yes, women have written under male names in the past, and more recently they may write using only the initials of their first and middle names so no one will make assumptions about their work based on their gender. But those tactics were ways of trying to overcome huge societal barriers that kept publishers from giving fair and equal consideration to women’s writing. Remember, no barriers are being erected against cishet white males. Scales are in the process of being balanced.

Are their downsides to publishing’s current focus on diversity? Sure. It may end up being a passing fad, and publishers will return to publishing cishet white males for the most part. I can imagine some non-cishet writers wondering if their work was accepted by publishers in part because of their background and not solely on the quality of their writing. And publishers might get into a quota mindset. I read a social media post the other day from a writer saying that, although a publisher thought their book was wonderful, it was turned down because they were already publishing a book by a Jewish author and didn’t want the new writer’s book to compete with that one. The publisher already had its one Jewish book for the year, you see.

So what do we do going forward? Well, like I said, I hope the current focus on diversity in publishing continues and gets even stronger. I think we should continue having conversations about it to promote greater understanding and continued growth for us all. I hope publishers broaden their perspectives so they won’t think they’ve checked an item off their diversity list because they’ve acquired a single novel by an author of a specific demographic. Most of all, I hope the world continues to become a better place, and that everyone involved with publishing in any capacity continue to become better people.

Including you and me.

DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

We Will Rise Ebook Sale

For the last week or so, ebook editions of my ghost-apocalypse novel WE WILL RISE are available for 99 cents on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble! I have no idea how long this sale will last (no one ever tells writers anything), but as of this writing – Nov. 11, 2022 – the sale is still going on. So snag a copy before the price goes back up!

NOOK Book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585263

New Forum at the Keenedom

I’m still on Twitter, but since it could go the way of the dodo any day now, Brian Keene opened an old-style message board on his website for the horror community. Anyone is welcome to join as a member (but the waiting list for author topics is a long one!) I’ve got a topic there, and you can find it by following this link: https://thekeenedom.freeforums.net/

A Hunter Called Night Available for Preorder

My next novel for Flame Tree Press, A Hunter Called Night, will be released May 9, 2023. The hardback and paperback editions are available for preorder now. I don’t have the go-ahead to share the cover with you yet, but I’ve seen it, and it’s fantastic! I’ll share it as soon as I can.

Synopsis

Flame Tree: https://www.flametreepublishing.com/a-hunter-called-night-isbn-9781787586345.html

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Called-Night-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787586316/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1668198301&sr=1-1

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-hunter-called-night-tim-waggoner/1142487192?ean=9781787586314

(Ebook editions will be available later.)

Bram Stoker Award-Winning Novella The Winter Box Now Available

Gary Noon, who recorded the Audible versions of The Last Mile and Eat the Night, has finished recording audio for The Winter Box, which won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction. Get yourself a copy at the following link:

https://www.amazon.com/Audible-The-Winter-Box/dp/B0BJW68S3M/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1667263338&sr=1-2

Scheduled Appearances

Authorcon 2. Williamsburg, Virgina: March 31-April 2.

Stokercon. Pittsburgh: June 15-18.

Want to Stalk Me in IRL?

Want to follow me on social media? Here’s where you can find me:

Website: www.timwaggoner.com

Twitter: @timwaggoner (Until the platform dies!)

Instagram: tim.waggoner.scribe

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZEz6_ALPrV3tdC0V3peKNw

https://www.flametreepublishing.com/we-will-rise-isbn-9781787585249.html

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Published on November 11, 2022 12:38

September 12, 2022

A Life in Writing

I grow old . . . I grow old . . .

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

– T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

When I first decided I wanted to be a writer – to make it not just my profession but my life – I started reading every article and book on how to write that I could find. This was 1982, so there was no Internet for me to turn to, just Writer’s Digest, the Writer, and the writing-instruction books they advertised in their pages, many of which I bought or hunted down in the library. I learned plenty about the craft of writing from these sources, but not so much about what it meant to liveas a writer. In retrospect, this makes sense. There are a lot of ups and down in any artist’s life, but who would want to be seen bitching and moaning about them in public? Those conversations were saved for get-togethers with other writers, often in the hotel bar during conventions late at night.

In the early 90’s, I started going to local science fiction conventions and then to the World Fantasy Convention. (I didn’t think of myself as a horror writer then, so I didn’t go to the World Horror Convention.) Writers on panels would sometimes share stories about what the writing life was really like for them, and one of these conventions was where I likely first heard about GEnie, which – like CompuServe – was a forerunner of today’s social media sites. (Curious about GEnie? You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEnie) Writers of all sorts hung out on GEnie’s boards, interacting with each other and fans, and sharing information you couldn’t find anywhere else. So I made an account on GENie and joined this new online world. Then I found out that GENie had private boards for active members of writers’ organizations, so I hustled to make three professional-level short story sales so I could join both SFWA and HWA as an active member and get access to those private boards. (Plus, the GEnie fee was waived for active members of SFWA and HWA members, so that was a bonus!) It was on those private boards that I saw professional writers commiserating with each other about the less-than-fun parts of the writing life – books not selling well, small advances, late payments from publishers, lack of health care, ineffective agents, writing and publishing scams, strained relationships, depression, substance abuse (mostly alcohol), dwindling careers, and competition from all the young writers eager to take their place. (One of these was George RR Martin who once posted that all us new writers should stop writing because we were making it harder for established writers like him to earn a living. I don’t know if he was joking, but I do know that George hasn’t had to worry about money for a long time!) GEnie died in 1999 as the Worldwide Web grew, and writers set up their own websites with their own message boards. It would be years before MySpace then Facebook and Twitter appeared and writers once again gathered in large virtual spaces to interact with fans and aspiring writers.

I continued to go to cons over the years. Not so many when my two daughters were young, and I didn’t go to any for a few years after my divorce from my first wife because I had no money for extras (and sometimes not for basics). But as my girls grew and my financial situation improved, I started going to cons again, mostly World Horror since by this time I’d decided to focus on horror writing for the most part. I’d long since become an established pro who was speaking on panels and conducting writing workshops, but aside from my networking with more successful writers and with editors, I was there to learn as much as I could about living as a writer from my peers and from older writers.

Which brings me to the topic de jour.

One of the things that I’m currently trying to learn from other writers is what it means to age as a writer and to maintain a long, productive career. As you might imagine, the older I get, the more this kind of thing is on my mind. This coming March, I’ll turn 59. That’s the same age my mother was when she died. I don’t have the health problems my mother did, and I’m not superstitious, so I’m not worried about dying next year, but this – I don’t know what to call it. Milestone? A morbid anniversary of sorts? – has got me thinking about my own mortality. (Actually, I’ve never stopped thinking about it since I was nine, when my first close relative died, and then later that year I almost drowned. Mortality has never been far from my thoughts for the last half century.)

I’ve found myself thinking about career longevity for artists a lot lately. Whenever I watch an old music video on YouTube, I find myself wondering what happened to the singer/band. Are they still making music? If not, what are they doing? I hit Wikipedia and read their entries. Most are still active in the arts one way or another, even if they haven’t been on the public’s radar for years, sometimes decades. I wonder what sort of emotional journey it took for them to get from there to here, from then to now, and I wonder how I’m doing the same and how I can do it better.

I’ve written and published so much in my career, and while I doubt I’ll ever stop writing, increasingly I’m finding myself wanting to stop pushing so hard. Pushing myself to come up with novel ideas that I hope will be attractive to editors, entertaining to readers, and artistically satisfying to me. Pushing to try and get my career to the next level, and the next after that. Pushing on social media to maintain and increase my audience. Pushing myself to regularly write blog entries, record YouTube videos, put out newsletters . . . I think about abandoning novels entirely and just writing short stories the rest of my life, maybe experimental ones, or maybe trying to write non-genre fiction and see what kind of career (if any) I can make for myself publishing in literary magazines. So far, these have been passing thoughts, but maybe they’ll eventually be more than that.

I went to the most recent Worldcon in Chicago a couple weeks ago. Worldcon has never been one of my favorite cons. It’s so large that it’s usually a terrible place to do any networking, and this year, attendance was down due to the ongoing threat of COVID, so there were fewer writers, editors, and agents in attendance. My wife had a number of works selected to appear in the art show, and I decided to go and support her at the con. I signed up for programming so I’d have something to do while she was busy doing her thing. It turned out the most of the people who volunteered to help with the art show baled, so my wife – who planned to volunteer to learn more about how convention art shows are run – ended up working the show the entire time (and learning a ton, so she was tired but thrilled by the time we left for home). This meant I didn’t have much to do between panels, and while there were friends of mine in attendance, it’s often difficult to meet up during cons. So mostly I wandered from place to place, thinking about how I’ve been going to cons for thirty years and wondering what the hell I was doing there. When I used to go to World Fantasy regularly, I was more connected to the SF/F community than I am now, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of writers at Worldcon who I hadn’t seen or heard much about in years, people now in their sixties and seventies, some of who had their own tables in the dealer’s room, some who I saw walking from one panel to another. They were all still publishing (I checked their webpages later), and if their careers weren’t what they once were, they were still there, in so many senses of the word. Still writing, still publishing, still attending an event as a professional, still engaging with peers and fans.

Still living as artists. Emphasis on living.

When my wife and I left Chicago, I found myself feeling at peace for the first time in a while. I’m less concerned about where my career might go now – or maybe that should be where I can make it go – and more focused on simply continuing and enjoying continuing. That may be an important lesson for living a long artistic life, but I wouldn’t be surprised to discover it’s a vital lesson about aging overall.

Enough of me nattering on. How about I share some specific things about maintaining a sustained writing career? (I’m going to repeat some tips I’ve shared before in past blog entries, so if you’re a regular reader, think of this as a sort of greatest hits entry, but with some new songs added for good measure.)

First, a couple resources.

· Brian Keene wrote a wonderful memoir called End of the Road that often touches on the issue of the longevity of a writer’s career and on writers aging. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. https://www.amazon.com/End-Road-Brian-Keene-ebook/dp/B087NF6YZD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3NDAN0C0SZ3DW&keywords=brian+keene+end+of+the+road&qid=1662987453&s=books&sprefix=brian+keene+end+of+th%2Cstripbooks%2C108&sr=1-1

· Eric Maisel has written a number of books on the emotional challenges artists face and how to deal with them. They’re fantastic, and if you’re an artist of any kind, you need to check them out. https://ericmaisel.com/books/

· I wrote a previous blog post about feeling one’s mortality as a writer. You can find it here: https://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/2018/12/suns-getting-low.html

· I also wrote one about accepting whatever level of success you’ve managed to achieve so far. You can read that one here: http://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/2021/02/so-youre-never-going-to-be-stephen-king.html

Now, some advice . . .

· I started college as an acting major. On the first day of acting class, the professor told us the only reason to be an actor was because we had to. The acting life was so hard, the odds of success so slim, the only way we could make a life for ourselves in acting was if we couldn’t imagine living our lives doing anything else. Well, I didn’t love acting that much, so I asked myself what I did love that much. The answer, I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn, was writing. Now I’m not saying don’t write if you don’t have an all-consuming passion for it. Writing can be as big or small a part of your life as you want. But if you want to dedicate your life to writing (as I have) and want to have a long career, I think it has to be a calling, a drive, a need. And that, maybe more than anything else, will help you maintain a long-term career as a writer.

· Take your writing as far as you can. I’ve shared this bit of advice so many times throughout my career. The TA who taught my freshman composition course, Pam Doyle, told me this during our final conference. It’s the perfect writing career advice because it’s unlimited. However far you get, however much you write and publish in your lifetime, is as far as you could go. It reminds you to focus on the process, on the doing, instead of achieving one specific goal.

· Try to focus on creating a life in writing. I tell this to all my creative writing students. There are so many things outside of our writing that we can’t control, whether we traditionally publish or are indie. We can’t control how people respond to our writing, how many books we sell, how much money we make, whether we win any literary prizes, whether our work is held in high esteem by our peers . . . Focusing too much on anything other than the writing itself can be a fast track to misery. But we cancontrol whether we create and live a life in writing. I often need to remind myself that I’ve managed to do this, which means I’ve already achieved the most important goal in my artistic life.

· Many years ago, I attended a World Fantasy Convention where I was chatting in a hotel hallway with the husband of a writer I knew while she did a panel in a nearby room. His wife had published a number of well-regarded tie-in novels by that point, and I asked him how things were going for her. He said that one of the things she was surprised about was how hard the publishing part still was, even after all the novels she’d written. This taught me early on never to assume that a writing career would get easy after a certain point and then stay easy. We write, we share our work with the world however we can, we write some more, and we keep repeating this until we die. It never gets easier. Things will change in your career, of course, but for everything that does get easier, a new hard thing will appear (sometimes more than one; I swear, it’s like a fucking hydra sometimes). Find a way to make peace with this, because if you don’t, you’ll be miserable.

· Remember you’re not alone. Whatever you’re going through in your career, thousands of artists over the years have gone through it too. Some talk about it on social media, but some don’t for fear of looking weak or foolish or ungrateful or whatever. Reach out to your writing friends and colleagues when times are bad. Ask for their support in private if you need to. Don’t try to go it alone. (I’ve gotten bad about this over the years. I need to do better.)

· One of the writers I saw at Worldcon was SF author Ian Randal Strock. He runs a small-press called Gray Rabbit Publications. At his table, he was selling a book he wrote called So You Want to Get Rich as a Writer? with the subtitle Let Ian Randal Strock Burst Your Bubble . . . and Then Tell You Why There’s Still a Chance. The book’s cover looks like the kind of thing you used to see on self-published books twenty years ago – very much homemade and amateurish – but I love reading books about writing, especially writing careers, by writers who aren’t massively famous. I learned long ago that these writers are the ones who have more common careers, the type that the vast majority of writers have, and that makes them the best ones to learn from when it comes to career longevity. As much as I admire writers at the tippy-top of the literary food chain, each of their careers are singular ones, and they tell you jack shit about the challenges of being an everyday working writer (you can still learn a ton about craft from them, though). So read books and articles by everyday writers, read their blogs and follow them on social media. (By the way, I’m halfway through Randal’s book, and it’s got lot of great stuff in it.) https://www.amazon.com/Writer-Randal-Strock-Bubble-Chance/dp/1617209503

· Speaking of Randal’s book, early on he presents an important piece of writing career advice. I’ve been aware of the concept since I started writing, but I’ve always framed it differently, as writing for money versus writing for art’s sake. But that never felt exactly right to me. Randal framed it as writing for financial reward versus writing for emotional reward. Emotional reward is a better term, I think. I try to make as much money from my writing as I can, but I’ve never made enough in any given year to live on. But I’m a full-time tenured professor at a community college, which means I have a regular salary, health insurance, and retirement. I’m lucky because I don’t need to make money writing. I love teaching which is why I do it, but I long ago decided to get a day job because of what I learned on GEnie. Writers – pros whose work I read and loved and thought of as living legends – would talk about their financial problems, how they couldn’t afford to see a doctor, how they weren’t able to put away anything for retirement . . . And because of these financial troubles, they were often too stressed to write. I realized I’d need a regular income if I wanted to survive while I wrote but also so I could write, so I wouldn’t be too unhappy/stressed to create. I write for the same reason I teach, for the same reason I do anything in my life (when I have a choice): for emotional reward. I’m extremely fortunate that I had the advantages I’ve had and been able to create the overall life I have. I’m not trying to flex here. I’m trying to say that if you can focus on the emotional rewards of writing, regardless of how much money that writing brings you, you will always be succeeding, no matter what else happens.

· Don’t accept anyone else’s paradigm for success but your own. When I first started writing, my paradigm for success was having a shelf full of my books in a bookstore (this was back when Waldenbooks and B. Dalton’s were the only major bookstores around) and being able to make at least $20,000 a year from my writing since I figured I could live on that. (We’re talking 1980’s dollars here.) For years, I’d read interviews with writers or posts from them on GEnie that true success as a writer meant writing full time and earning all your money from your words. What these writers didn’t say was that they often had spouses with jobs and health insurance, or they did business or technical writing on the side (which still counts as writingfull-time right?). But I also had one foot in academia, and the paradigm there was that writers shouldn’t focus on money but rather on art, and therefore should make their living teaching (or doing whatever) so they could focus on producing work free of any financial pressure. Because I loved writing and teaching, I figured why not do both? Which would I give up if I had to? Teaching, in a heartbeat. I’d still find ways to teach for free if I could, but I could never stop writing. It’s as necessary to me as breathing. My point here: You decide what success means to you, and it’s okay for your paradigm to change over time. Screw what the rest of the world tells you. What the hell do they know anyway?

· I can’t remember where I first heard it, but it was sometime in my late twenties. Old pros would often say “Envy is the writer’s disease.” Comparing ourselves and our efforts to others is one way we learn, but always feeling that we come up short in these comparisons leads to envy, and that leads to all sorts of dark places as an artist (and as a human in general). I struggle with this sometimes, especially when writers younger than me (both in terms of age and in terms of time they’ve been writing) achieve a level of success I haven’t. But I do my best to be happy for them and put my nose back to the grindstone. My work needs to be about my work, and my career needs to be about my career. No one else’s.

· Read reviews, don’t read reviews . . . whichever you do, just don’t take them too seriously. They are just one person’s opinion about one piece of work you did at one particular time. A piece of work that, in all likelihood, is in your rearview mirror anyway. Many years ago, when live video hookups were a new thing in classrooms, the chair at one of the colleges where I taught had arranged for Margaret Atwood to speak live to her class. (The students had read The Handmaid’s Tale back when it was still fiction.) When I asked my boss how it went, she wrinkled her nose and said, “All she wanted to talk about was the book she’s working on now.” The Handmaid’s Talewas in Margaret’s rearview mirror, just as it should have been. As much as writers crave acceptance, praise, and appreciation (myself included), our job is to produce work and continue producing work, however much we can at whatever pace we can given all the factors in our lives. I like reading reviews of my work because I always learn something from them, but if you find reading reviews emotionally difficult, forget about them and get back to writing.

· When setbacks occur with publishing, whether traditional or indie, do your best to deal with them and move on. You’re in this for a career, not just for one story, one book, one poem, one article. The publisher who offered me my first novel contract changed their mind after a few weeks and decided they “were no longer comfortable with the book.” When I asked my agent at the time what this meant, he said, “Who cares? A no is a no, and we’ll send the book to someone else.” When I told my friend Gary A. Braunbeck (a fabulous author whose work you should check out) what happened, he said I was lucky. Surprised, I asked him why. “Because this happened to you early in your career. Now you’ll be more prepared when the next bad thing happens.” And he was right. Like Dory always says in Finding Nemo, we need to just keep swimming.

· Don’t take yourself too seriously. If you’re fortunate enough to have a writing career of any length, the odds are that some people will regularly read your work, love your work, and think you’re awesome. Hell, they might even toss around words like genius and greatest writer of all time. That can feel good. At least, I think it can. I don’t know if anyone’s ever used those words to refer to me, but I have had many people tell me how much they enjoyed my work or how much my writing advice has helped them. And reviews of my fiction have been primarily good throughout the years. But whenever I feel my ego start to get a bit too big, I remind myself that when I’m at a con – especially one like Stokercon where I’m better known – all I have to do is step outside the hotel and no one will have any idea who I am or what I’ve done. It’s actually a comfort to me, most likely because I’m an introvert, but it also helps keep me focused on the writing, not on me as the writer. To paraphrase Stephen King, it’s the story, not they who tell it.

· Accept your career will never live up to your wildest dreams – because they are wild. We’re imaginers. It’s more than what we do, it’s what we are at our core. The real world can never live up to what we can imagine. But you know what? The real world is better because it’s real. Whatever type of writing career we achieve will be infinitely better than any we can imagine because it is real. Which is better? An imaginary gourmet cheeseburger, the most delicious that’s ever been made, or a real cheeseburger that’s mediocre and just tastes okay? One puts food in your belly and the other doesn’t. A real writing career feeds your life. What we imagine can give us goals to strive for, and that’s important, but we need to always remember what really feeds us is what keeps our spirit alive.

· The world will decide how you will be remembered. Author and teacher Laurence C. Connely told me this some years ago, and it’s one of the best pieces of writing career advice I’ve ever received. Edgar Allan Poe wanted to be remembered for his poetry, not his fiction. Neil Gaiman recently posted on Twitter that, for all that he’s created or will create, Sandman will probably be his legacy. I mentioned Margaret Atwood earlier. She’ll be remembered for The Handmaid’s Tale, not the many other books she’s written over the decades. Stephen King can explore as many genres as he wants in his fiction, but the world will likely always remember him as primarily a horror writer. So don’t worry so much about what kind of writer you should be, what genre you should write in, what your brand is, or any of that. Just write the next thing and the thing after that and the thing after that. Find a way to share these things with the world. Be happy. And I’ll do my best to follow my own advice. Deal?

Department of Shameless Self-Promotion

One of the things about being a prolific writer and working with different publishers is that they don’t coordinate their releases with each other (and why would they?). This means that this year I had three books from different publishers come out in the space of three months. Because of this, I haven’t been able to give each book the individual promotional attention it deserved. So if you’ve read any of them, I’d appreciate it if you could help a brother out and post a review somewhere.

We Will Rise

Speaking of reviews, here’s a sampling for my latest horror novel:

“This was visceral stuff and a highly entertaining fast-paced read which was a bleak exploration of the human psyche.” – Tony Jones, Ink Heist

“We Will Rise is a tense, emotional, scary ride and one of Waggoner’s best.” – Zach Rosenberg, Horror DNA

“From the first page on Waggoner had me hooked. His imagination is truly off the charts, and never could I have predicted what would happen next.” – Julia C. Lewis on GoodReads

You can also listen to me read the first scene from the book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqQWpRmZRAc&t=52s

Synopsis

In Echo Hill, Ohio, the dead begin to reappear, manifesting in various forms, from classic ghosts and poltergeists, to physical undead and bizarre apparitions for which there is no name. These malign spirits attack the living, tormenting and ultimately killing them in order to add more recruits to their spectral ranks.

A group of survivors come together after the initial attack, all plagued by different ghostly apparitions of their own. Can they make it out of Echo Hill alive? And if so, will they still be sane? Or will they die and join the ranks of the vengeful dead?

Purchase Links

Flame Tree Press

Amazon Paperback

https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787585220/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1635525326&sr=1-1

Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner-ebook/dp/B09JPF5XZD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11ZC2NOOC3S1J&keywords=tim+waggoner+we+will+rise&qid=1635593108&sprefix=tim+waggoner+we+wi%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-1

Amazon Hardcover

https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787585247/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=tim+waggoner&qid=1635525512&s=books&sr=1-2

Barnes & Noble Paperback

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585225

NOOK Book

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585263

Barnes & Noble Hardcover

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585249

Writing in the Dark: The Workbook

This workbook is my follow-up to Writing in the Dark. While you can use it in conjunction with Writing in the Dark, I wrote it so it could be used on its own as well.

Want to know if the workbook is right for you? Check out Cynthia Pelayo’s review at Lit Reactor:

https://litreactor.com/reviews/writing-in-the-dark-the-workbook-by-tim-waggoner

Writing in the Dark: The Workbook is available at all the usual places online, but here’s a link to the publisher’s website if you’d like to learn more about it (and order it from them). Plus, you can download some sample exercises for free!

https://rawdogscreaming.com/books/writing-in-the-dark-workbook/#:~:text=Like%20Tim%20Waggoner's%20Bram%20Stoker,developing%20the%20art%20of%20suspense.

Planet Havoc: A Zombiecide Invader Novel

Want to read some sci-fi/horror/action-adventure? I got you covered! My Zombicide Invader novel is still available from all the usual online stores. Imagine Alien meets Resident Evil. Here’s a synopsis:

A deserted R&D facility tempts the hungry new Guild, Leviathan, into sending a team to plunder its valuable research. The base was abandoned after a neighboring planet was devastated by an outbreak of Xenos – alien zombies – but that was a whole planet away... When the Guild ship is attacked by a quarantine patrol, both ships crash onto the deserted world. Only it isn’t as deserted as they hope: a murderous new Xeno threat awakens, desperate to escape the planet. Can the crews cooperate to destroy this new foe? Or will they be forced to sacrifice their ships and lives to protect the galaxy?

Where to Find Me Online

Newsletter Sign-Up: https://timwaggoner.com/contact.htm

Website: www.timwaggoner.com

Twitter: @timwaggoner

Instagram: tim.waggoner.scribe

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/timwaggonerswritinginthedark

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Published on September 12, 2022 06:43

August 30, 2022

Worldcon 2022 Schedule

This weekend – 9/1/2022 – 9/5/2022 – I’ll be at Chicon 8, the 80th World Science Fiction Convention.

https://chicon.org/

I havent been to many Worldcons, only three, I think, and I'm looking forward to this one. My schedule’s below. If you’re going to be there, track me down and say hi!

Thursday, September 1, 2022

Your Corner of the Crypt: Finding Your Niche in Horror: Workshop

Addams

Duration: 120 mins

8:30 PM CDT

9:30 PM EDT

Friday, September 2, 2022

Autographing - Tim Waggoner

Duration: 60 mins

2:30 PM CDT

3:30 PM EDT

Saturday, September 3, 2022

Midwestern Gothic: Panel

Grand Hall K

Duration: 60 mins

10:00 AM CDT

11:00 AM EDT

Panelists: Jason Aukerman, Maria Schrater, Neal Litherland (moderator), Tim Waggoner

The Glories of the Tie-In Novel: Panel

Michigan 3

Duration: 60 mins

1:00 PM CDT

2:00 PM EDT

Panelists: Edgar Governo, Sarah Rees Brennan, Seanan McGuire, Tim Waggoner. Will "scifantasy" Frank (moderator)

Finding Optimism and Comfort in Horror: Panel

Crystal Ballroom C

Duration: 60 mins

5:30 PM CDT

6:30 PM EDT

Panelists: Nino Cipri, Ruthanna Emrys. Scott Edelman. Tananarive Due, Tim Waggoner (moderator)

Sunday, September 4, 2022

Book Publicity Crash Course: Panel

Randolph 3

Duration: 60 mins

10:00 AM CDT

11:00 AM EDT

Panelists: Holly Lyn Walrath, J. L. Doty, Joshua Bilmes (moderator), Tim Waggoner

Teen Table Talk - Tim Waggoner

Crystal Foyer

Duration: 60 mins

5:30 PM CDT

6:30 PM EDT

Monday, September 5, 2022

Inverted Tropes: Panel

Grand Hall J

Duration: 60 mins

11:30 AM CDT

12:30 PM EDT

Panelists: Foz Meadows, Micaiah Johnson, Paul Price (moderator), Tim Waggoner

https://litreactor.com/reviews/writing-in-the-dark-the-workbook-by-tim-waggoner

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Published on August 30, 2022 16:32

August 14, 2022

How to be Class Conscious 2022

In a couple weeks, fall semester begins at my college. It’ll be the start of my twenty-fourth year teaching there, and I taught ten years before that as an adjunct professor at various other schools. All told, I’ve been teaching composition and creative writing for thirty-three years.

Long time, huh?

Periodically on social media, I see someone post a variation on this question: “Do I need a degree to be a writer?” I also see people regularly assert that “As long as you put words to the page, you’re a writer, regardless of whether you’ve been published or not.” (This is akin to saying if you’ve ever turned on a water faucet, you’re a plumber.) The truth of course is that there is no one definition of “writer,” just as there is no one path to becoming one. What matters is what youthink a writer is, and what you do in order to get to where you want to be as a writer.

You don’t need a degree. You don’t need to take any kind of creative writing classes at all. You don’t need to be in a writers’ group, and you don’t need to read any how-to-write books or articles. (But I’d appreciate it if you kept reading my blog posts!) All you need to do is write, and keep writing until you become the writer you wish to be. If you want to become the greatest writer of all time, both artistically and commercially, you’ll most likely never get there, but you will get to the farthest point of growth you could possibly reach during your attempt, and what more can any of us realistically hope for?

But just writing and doing nothing else to help you grow as an artist is the absolute bare minimum. Most artists can’t reach their full potential in a vacuum, or even a fraction of their full potential. But over the years I’ve met a lot of writers who have no interest in artistic growth. They just want to bang out words and imagine themselves as writers, like weekend guitarists who’ll never be skilled enough to perform professionally but have a hell of a good time imagining they’re in a rock band as they play (however well or badly) their instrument. The biggest difference between when I began teaching and now is that these writers can self-publish their work on Amazon, websites, or message boards, or they can post videos of themselves reading it on YouTube, etc. There’s nothing wrong with this, except perhaps if a new writer only reads work from enthusiastic hobbyists, it could limit their perception of what makes good writing, and thus potentially limit their artistic growth (if they’re interested in that sort of thing).

We all create our own paths to becoming the writer we want to be, and while we don’t necessarily need anyone else’s guidance along the way, as a teacher, I want to help writers who are seeking guidance. In 1998, I wrote an article to give advice to writers trying to decide if a creative writing class might be right for them and, if so, how to choose a good one. It was called “How to be Class Conscious,” and it was published in Writers’ Journal. It’s available to read on my website here: https://timwaggoner.com/class.htm

I wrote that article twenty-five years ago, and recently I began wondering how differently I’d approach the subject now. I’ve taught so many more classes and workshops, was a faculty mentor in Seton Hill University’s MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program for nine years, I’ve written many more articles about writing and teaching, and I’ve produced a Bram Stoker Award-winning book on horror writing called Writing in the Dark (with a follow-up, Writing in the Dark: The Workbook). Would fifty-eight-year-old Tim have anything different to say about writing classes and programs – and being self-taught – than thirty-four-year-old Tim did? Let’s find out.

· Can writing be taught? It depends on your definition of taught. Anyone can improve as a writer, and they can do so with or without guidance. But can they be taught to become a Writer with a capitol W? No. Imagine someone who wants to become an Olympic-level pole vaulter. That person can be taught pole-vaulting techniques by coaches, but no one can teach them to have the passion and drive necessary to practice, practice, practice over many years, and to sacrifice anything that could get in the way of their grown as a pole vaulter. The two qualities I’ve come to believe over the years that a successful writer needs to have are 1) Basic capability with language and 2) Passion and drive to become the best writer they can be. I can help people become better with their use of language and structure when writing. I cannot give someone passion and drive. Those are completely self-generated. I have been able to tell people they’re really good at writing and they might want to explore it more, and by doing so, a flame is kindled and passion and drive are born, but that’s just me giving someone a nudge and hoping for the best. Writers teach themselves, but fellow writers, feedback partners, teachers, mentors, editors, agents, reviewers/critics can serve as resources for writers to help them in their journey. They can also hurt writers if they give crappy or mean-spirited advice, or if their guidance, while well-meaning, doesn’t serve a writer’s individual needs. So writers need to pick and choose when it comes to advice and instruction, meaning that, once again, writers ultimately teach themselves.

· Should writing be taught? Some people believe art of any kind shouldn’t be formally taught. They believe that artists should just attempt to create art, and if it’s any good, people will notice it, and if it isn’t, that artist will never emerge from obscurity, and that’s just the way it goes. This is a Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest point of view, and while I understand it intellectually, as a teacher, I don’t endorse it. Sure, the vast majority of students I’ve taught haven’t gone on to write professionally, but a lot have, and when I teach a class, I have no idea which of the students might continue on. I always remember that I was once one of those students in a classroom full of people who thought they were going to become professional writers.

· Do writers need to read to become better writers? Twenty-five years ago, anyone suggesting they don’t need to read to grow as a writer wouldn’t have been taken seriously (to put it kindly). This question is a relatively common one now, and I suspect it’s because of the ubiquity of technology. When PC’s first appeared, it was a lot easier to write and revise than it was on a typewriter. You no longer needed to have the same kind of passion and drive to just screw around with a word-processing program. Then came message boards, and websites, and email, and texting, and blogs, and social media, and now everyone was writing – and most of these people didn’t read. So since they were non-readers who wrote, they figured they could write just as well as anyone else because they were producing words and that’s all writers did, right? So they were concerned, they were Writers with a capital W. It never occurred to them (and still doesn’t) that if they don’t read anything except texts, emails, blogs, and social media posts, how they hell could they have any idea how their fiction, poetry, articles, or essays compare to those written by professionals. It’s not enough for writing to be good. It has to be competitive. Writers compete for readers’ time, attention, and – if we’re lucky – money. Non-reading writers also often say they don’t want their originality and genius to be damaged by exposure to other writing. That’s fine, if you really are an original genius, and the odds are massively against you being one. (But if you are, more power to you.) This is the Darwinian view I mentioned above. You’re on your own, baby, so sink or swim.

· BUT . . . When it comes to reading, you can go too far in the opposite direction, reading book after book, article after article, never feeling as if you’ve learned enough to earn the title Writer. Read some, write some, and repeat until you’re dead.

· BUT PART 2. You can make an argument that nonreaders writing is a punk aethestic, a do-it-yourself, fuck-you-establishment, I’ll-do-whatever-the-hell-I-please artistic approach. Such artists can learn and grow on their own, without any kind of input from other writers or teachers. How much they can learn or grow is another matter. But if you want to take the punk approach (and you’re not just being lazy) then go for it. If it doesn’t take you where you want to go as a writer, you can always try a different approach later. But a creative writing class – or worse yet, a writing program – is a terrible place for punk-rock writers. Classes are designed to provide community and guidance, and they’re completely opposite the punk ethos. If you take a class because you want to cause chaos, to shake up the establishment, you’ll likely just frustrate everyone as well as yourself, and waste your money. But if you really feel a need to take a class, maybe you do want some guidance, at least a little, and that’s okay too.

· Compare to learn, but don’t feel you’re not good enough to even try. One of the biggest problems writers have – whether they’re self-taught or take classes – is comparing themselves unfavorably to other writers, whether fellow beginners or established professionals. Comparison is a great way to learn. I really like the way that author uses dialogue, so I’m going to try that technique. And that author can really say a lot in a few words. Maybe I’ll try that too.These are healthy comparisons. Reading something and thinking I’ll never be that good of a writer, so why should I try? is an unhealthy comparison. I saw this all the time in grad school. We read work by some of the greatest writers who’ve ever lived, and some students wouldn’t even attempt to write on their own because they feared they could never life up to those examples. Whether you’re self-taught or taking classes, try use comparison in healthy, productive ways.

· How do you know if in general writing classes or workshops are suitable for you? (Or you for them?) 1) Do you learn better in group settings? 2) Do you learn better when you have deadlines and regular feedback on your writing? 3) Do you feel capable of sifting through a lot of information to find the bits of advice and feedback that work best for you? 4) Do you like the idea of taking a creative writing class simply because it will make you feel more like a writer, and you’re not all that interested in actually learning? 5) Do you think creative writing class is playtime and you don’t like the idea of having to produce work to set standards? 6) Do you not give a damn what anyone thinks of your writing? 7) Do you feel you could learn all this shit on your own?

· Writing programs vs taking individual classes or workshops. MFA stands for Master of Fine Arts, and it’s the highest practitioner’s degree in an artistic field. A PhD is the highest scholar’s degree in any field. MFA is usually considered THE creative writing degree to get, but there’s a huge time commitment (two years or more), as well as a huge commitment in terms of focus and dedication. You’re expected to give your all when you’re in an MFA program. If for whatever reason you can’t make these commitments, individual classes and workshops are probably better choices for you. Plus, they give you a chance to discover whether creative writing classes are useful for you before committing time and money to a graduate program. An MFA does allow you to deeply immerse yourself in writing for a couple years, and some people find such an intense learning experience transformative in the best way. (Others not so much, as I’ll discuss in a moment.) Different MFA programs have different focuses. Some might focus more on nonfiction than fiction, some might focus on experimental fiction rather than traditional fiction, some might offer a concentration on YA literature or publishing or screenwriting or playwrighting, while others may not. Some may be friendly to genre writing, some may insist you focus on literary writing. The program needs to be a good fit for you and your needs. There’s no such thing as a generic MFA program. They all have their particular niches and quirks, so vet them thoroughly before choosing one. Hit Google and search for what graduates of the program have to say about it, reach out to them on social media and see if they’re open to answering any questions you might have. Many programs these days are low-residency, meaning you only have to be physically on campus a couple times a year, and the rest of the time you do your coursework online. This model is great for colleges who want to make money. People with homes and jobs don’t have to pick up and leave their lives for two years, so more people enroll. Is this the best way to teach and learn? For some people yes, for others no. As always, ask yourself what you need to learn more effectively. For ratings of individual professors (whether for a single class or program) you can check out Rate My Professors at https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/. To check out creative writing programs, you hit up The Association of Writers and Creative Writing Programs at https://www.awpwriter.org/guide/guide_writing_programs.

· Other types of classes/workshops. Writers present classes and workshops at libraries and community centers all the time. And many writers present their own online classes or do one-on-one mentoring via the Internet. Some record free class sessions on YouTube. And of course, plenty write how-to books. Any of these options might work better for you (and be cheaper). Just make sure to check out the teacher’s/presenter’s/how-to author’s credentials to see if they have whatever you consider an appropriate depth and breadth of experience and accomplishment. (More on this later.)

· What can you do with an MFA in Creative Writing? The degree is designed to help artists become better artists. It’s not like an engineering degree that, after you obtain, you go get a job in engineering somewhere. Decades ago, the MFA was considered a terminal degree, so if you wanted to get a job teaching college writing classes as a full-time tenured professor, you could, assuming you have a significant list of publications. Since the 80’s, when I was in college, colleges and universities realized they could make a lot of money off people who wanted a degree in writing, the number of MFA programs exploded. Now there are so many that the degree in and of itself doesn’t mean much. Where you get your MFA matters more than just getting the degree if you want a full-time tenure-track job teaching creative writing at the college or university level. You’re better off getting a PhD in English if you want such a position, and even then, the market is so flood with English PhD’s that the competition for full-time gigs is beyond fierce. With an MFA, you can teach part-time English classes (usually composition) for low wages, no benefits, and no guarantees you’ll get any classes the next semester. This can make a nice supplement to your income (especially if you have a spouse with a decent-paying steady job), but it’s almost impossible to live off of as an individual. You can use the degree as a credential for other types of writing jobs, such as technical writing, public relations, editing, etc. I’ve known people with MFA’s in writing poetry who had full-time gigs as tech writers. An MFA might make you more attractive to potential students and clients if you run your own classes or editorial services online, but it’s an expensive credential to get for that purpose. Speaking of which . . .

· Cost. Individual classes and workshops are cheap compared to MFA programs. MFA programs can be expensive as hell. Sometimes there are graduate assistantships, fellowships or financial aid, but often there aren’t, and you’ll have to take out student loans. If you think your return on investment (whether personally, financially, or a combination) while be high enough to justify the cost, go for it. Otherwise, you might want to take a class at a school like mine, a community college with the lowest tuition in the state of Ohio.

· Burn-out. This is very real problem that happens to some people who finish an MFA (or other intense graduate degree). Once you’re done, you’re sick of writing and want to take a break from it. And unfortunately, that break may be for the rest of your life. I’ve met a number of people over the years who finished their MFA in creative writing and have never written a single word since. For some, going through an MFA (or PhD) program can suck all the joy you had for your art right out of you, and it may never return. Buyer beware.

· Instructor qualifications? Whether you’re reading a how-to book, watching a how-to video, taking a one-day workshop, a single class at a rec center or college, or entering into a graduate program, it’s important to know what the instructor’s qualifications are and whether they write and publish the same kind of work that you want to write and publish (or at least don’t openly disdain it). And having publishing credits, great reviews, and awards aren’t enough. A while back, I read an article in The Teaching Professorthat effective teachers need three qualities: 1) The ability to do the thing they’re teaching at a professional level, 2) an understanding of how to do the thing they’re teaching at a professional level, and 3) the ability to explain to others how they can do the thing they’re teaching. Colleges and universities tend to hire faculty with at least the #1 qualification, but they may lack #2 and #3. It’s not uncommon for teachers in any other learning situation – workshops, rec-center classes, independent online classes, how-to books and videos – not to have any of the three qualifications. A lot of inexperienced writers want to teach others because it makes them feel like an expert (when they aren’t). Other writers want to teach others as a way of promoting their own writing. A lot of inexperienced writers put out how-to-write books and videos for this reason. Students often believe that if someone is teaching a class, they must be qualified, and that isn’t always the case by any means. Besides, qualifiedis an imprecise term. It’s important that an instructor be qualified enough for you. If you’re an absolute beginner, and you watch a video on characterization on YouTube, even if the presenter is only passing along something they only recently learned themselves, the info is still new to you and effective. But when you’re ready to learn more deeply about the subject, you want someone more experienced. As always, Google Is Your Friend. Check out the background of instructors and authors of how-to books and videos online, ask around on social media what reputations these people have, and decide for yourself if they are qualified for your current educational needs. Read some of their work to see if they’re someone you’d like to learn from, and if you can’t find any of their work to read, that probably tells you more about their qualifications (or lack thereof) than anything else. Pro Tip: If you’re taking a class, ask the instructor beforehand if they can show you a copy of their syllabus or course plan. That’ll give you a better idea what you might experience in their class. Most of all, you want to find someone who will be supportive, who’ll read your work without preconceived notions, and who’ll be honest with their feedback, who’ll tell you what you need to know instead of what you think you need to know.

· Are you really ready for feedback? If you’re attending a workshop, reading a how-to book or watching a how-to video that’s primarily presentational (just providing information) then it doesn’t matter if you’re ready for feedback on your writing because you’re not going to get any. But if you want feedback on your writing, you’re more likely to get it from a class or from a writers’ group. Here are some things to ask yourself to check if you’re ready for feedback: 1) Do you just want people to tell you that you’re the BEST writer? If so, you’re not ready for feedback. 2) Are you sure people are going to tell you that you’re the WORST writer ever? You may need to work on your confidence level a bit before getting feedback. Even the mildest of criticisms may crush you. 3) Can you listen to criticism of your work without getting overly emotional? (Getting angry at the instructor or classmates, getting down on yourself, hating the world, deciding to never write again, etc.) 4) Can you keep your damn mouth shut when you receive criticism of your work (unless you’re asking for clarification of a reader’s comment)? You and your work aren’t under attack during a feedback session, so there’s no need to be defensive or explain what you really meant to say. 5) Can you consider all comments and then pick and choose which ones you feel will improve your piece? 6) Are you willing to revise using that feedback to discover if it does improve your piece? If you can’t do these things, a class probably isn’t a good idea for you. However, if you’re willing to work on learning how to do these things during the course of a class, you might have some uncomfortable moments, but you’ll likely find the class effective in the end.

· An important point about feedback. As I said in the intro to this post, I was a faculty mentor in SHU’s MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program for nine years. I mentored students one-on-one, provided feedback and answered questions, etc. I recommend SHU’s program unreservedly, but there are reasons I left, ones which I’ve never discussed with anyone but my wife. But during the nine years I was involved with the program, self-publishing rose in popularity and became much easier for individuals to do. This led to students whose attitude was, “It doesn’t matter if anyone else likes my work. I’ll just self-publish it when I graduate.” (I’ve gotten comments like from students at my college, too.) These students were dismissive, if not downright resistant and even hostile to, any feedback on their work which wasn’t 100 percent positive. The last few years, I’m seeing this same sort of dynamic play out on social media as thin-skinned authors attack reviewers who dare to give their precious work less than five stars. A lot of the students at SHU didn’t come from an English background. Their bachelor’s degrees were often in other fields, so they’d never had any creative writing classes before and had no experience with receiving feedback on their work. They didn’t know how to take it (or how to give it, for that matter). For me, it wasn’t worth the time and effort to provide feedback on novel chapters that a student had no intention of revising, and as the years went by, I began to get more and more students with this attitude. So if you’re REALLY not prepared to at least consider feedback on your work and consider revising, a class situation where feedback is a prime component really isn’t for you. And if you go into an MFA program solely seeking a teaching credential and aren’t interested in improving your art and craft, think twice. You’re most likely going to waste your time and money.

· When it comes to feedback, how do you know who to listen to? You don’t have to listen to anyone’s feedback. You’re free to ignore any or all suggestions. But if you ignore them out of hand, it begs the question why you took a class in which feedback was an essential component in the first place. I tell students that. practically speaking, my feedback will tend to carry more weight in their minds because I’m the teacher, I give them their final grade, and I mostly likely have more experience as a professional writer than anyone else in the class. But if one of my suggestions doesn’t resonate with them, they’re free to ignore it (unless it’s something super fundamental, such as “Make sure to use some verbs next time”). You don’t listen to people during feedback. You listen to comments. You take whichever suggestions you feel will improve your work, try them out, and then see how successful they are. You want feedback partners who will tell you what they really think, who don’t believe they know everything, who respond as a reader more than as a writer (writers will want to rewrite your work to suit themselves; readers tell you what their experience reading your work was like), and who are committed to helping you make your work the best it can be. Toward the end of my time at SHU, students began asking each other “Whose story is this really?” If it was theirstory, they argued, then it needed to please them only, not their critique partners, and not their mentors (who had to sign off on their thesis in order for them to graduate). I’d try to explain that if that was their attitude, why did they choose to enroll in an expensive graduate program where revising your work according to feedback you receive was required? Usually the answer was that they didn’t really want to improve their writing; they just wanted the degree. Yes, your work is always yours in the end, but it should be the best work you’re capable of producing at that point. But if you seek feedback, then you should be open to considering it, and open to the possibility of revision. Otherwise, stick to how-to books and videos, as well as presentational workshops where no feedback is required.

· Pros and cons of the workshop method. One of the most common teaching techniques in creative writing classes is the workshop method. This is where the student (or sometimes the instructor) reads a story aloud for the entire class to experience at the same time, and then the story is discussed, strengths are identified and suggestions for revision offered. Not to put too fine a point on it, this is a shitty teaching technique. It can work for poetry, which tends to be short, but it’s difficult for students to listen to a long story that’s read aloud – especially if it’s read in a monotone – and their attention wanders (so does the instructor’s!). Plus, they don’t have the luxury of stopping, pondering, then rereading what they just read for greater understanding or to solidify a reaction they have. Worst of all, if you’re not writing scripts in class, you’re not producing something meant to be heard. You’re producing something meant to be read, so people should actually readthe damn thing. One of the arguments for the workshop method is that it allows for emergent curriculum, meaning if an issue with description comes up in one of the stories, that becomes the content of the day’s class, and if one person has that issue, likely others in the class do too. It’s also a damn lazy teaching technique because instructors don’t have to take any work home to read. Everything is dealt with during the class itself. On the other hand, the technique can work for a one-day workshop where participants may not have had time to turn in drafts earlier for people to read. But in general, a class where people, including the instructor, has to read the actual words of a piece before giving feedback is best. Same for writing groups.

· Get different perspectives. Sometimes I’ll have students who will take one class after another with me, and often they’ll repeat a class (taking short story writing with me for a second time, for example). They tell me, “I like the way you teach, and you get the way I write.” I’m always glad to see students in class again, but I make sure to tell them that it’s important to get as many different perspectives on their writing as possible. If you find a teacher you really vibe with, that’s awesome. But it’s important for you to have as many tools in your writer’s toolkit as possible, and that means learning from as many people as you can. You can learn from not-so-good teachers, too. You watch a video on YouTube and say, “Christ, that asshole doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. I’m going to do the exact opposite of what he says.” Shitty teacher = still learning. (But I’d still recommend finding the best teachers you can.)

· Don’t become a shadow artist. I first ran across the concept of a shadow artist during a conversation with the director of the James Thurber House. (She was actually talking to someone else, but I was present, so it technically wasn’t eavesdropping.) The director was concerned that instead of writing herself, she’d become a shadow artist – an idea she’d learned from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Instead of writing herself, she worked near writers, in their shadow, so to speak. Shadow artists are people drawn to an art but for one reason or another, they don’t practice the art. Why? I’m not sure. Fear of failure? Fear of success? Fear of rejection? All of the above? Now if you’re the director of a literary center, or an administrative assistant in an English department, or a composition teacher, or any number of writing-related professions, you’re not necessarily a shadow artist. If you feel content and fulfilled by your job, good on ya. But if you’re miserable because you really want to be writing, then you might be a shadow artist. Yes, you can have a day job and still write – it’s what I do – but shadow artists only do their day jobs. The reason why I bring this up here is because I’ve known many people who take writing classes, attend writing workshops, or participate in writers’ groups year after year, and by doing so, they stay close to a writing career – it’s a potential, somewhere out there in the future – without making any forward progress toward that career. They can tell themselves they’re working on their writing, that they’re seriousabout it (after all, look how much effort they put into it), and that while they might not yet be a professional, they have a professional attitude. Some of these people find creative fulfillment at this level and are quite happy to stay there. They love the classes, the feedback, being around other writers, and while they enjoy writing, they don’t really care if they publish anything or not. Not a damn thing wrong with that. But being an eternal student is an excellent way to be a shadow artist, as is being a writing teacher who never writes (or worse, becomes the administrator of a writing program who never writes because they are “just too busy to find the time.”). Take classes and attend workshops all you want. Go into an MFA program. Read as many how-to books as you wish. But if your true goal is to write, do that and keep doing it, regardless of whatever else you do. You should write as you learn because the writing itself is the most important part of your learning. Don’t stay in the shadows. Step into the light where you belong.

DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION

Writing in the Dark: The Workbook

This workbook is my follow-up to Writing in the Dark, and I’ve gotten some really good feedback on it so far. While you can use it in conjunction with Writing in the Dark, I wrote it so it could be used on its own as well.

Want to know if the workbook is right for you? Check out Cynthia Pelayo’s review at Lit Reactor:

https://rawdogscreaming.com/books/writing-in-the-dark-workbook/#:~:text=Like%20Tim%20Waggoner's%20Bram%20Stoker,developing%20the%20art%20of%20suspense.

I hope you’ll help spread the word about the workbook. Like Writing in the Dark, I wrote it to help people improve their horror fiction – or if they’re new to horror, to help them get started in the genre – and I want to help as many people as I can. You can help me do that. And for those of you who’ve already spread the word, thank you so much!

We Will Rise

We Will Rise, my ghost apocalypse novel, is finally out from Flame Tree Press! Reviews have been great so far. But you don’t have to take my word for it – here’s a sampling:

“This was visceral stuff and a highly entertaining fast-paced read which was a bleak exploration of the human psyche.” – Tony Jones, Ink Heist

“We Will Rise is a tense, emotional, scary ride and one of Waggoner’s best.” – Zach Rosenberg, Horror DNA

“From the first page on Waggoner had me hooked. His imagination is truly off the charts, and never could I have predicted what would happen next.” – Julia C. Lewis on GoodReads

If you read We Will Rise, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d leave a review/rating somewhere. Reader reviews are the lifeblood of a book, and they help publishers decide whether to bring out more work from an author.

You can also listen to me read the first scene from the book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqQWpRmZRAc&t=52s

Synopsis

Purchase Links

Flame Tree Press

https://www.flametreepublishing.com/we-will-rise-isbn-9781787585249.html

Amazon Paperback

https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787585220/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1635525326&sr=1-1

Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner-ebook/dp/B09JPF5XZD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11ZC2NOOC3S1J&keywords=tim+waggoner+we+will+rise&qid=1635593108&sprefix=tim+waggoner+we+wi%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-1

Amazon Hardcover

https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787585247/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=tim+waggoner&qid=1635525512&s=books&sr=1-2

Barnes & Noble Paperback

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585225

NOOK Book

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585263

Barnes & Noble Hardcover

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585249

Planet Havoc: A Zombiecide Invader Novel

Worldcon Schedule

I’ll be attending Chicon 8: The 80th World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago, Sept. 1-5. Here’s my schedule. If you’re going to be there, make sure to track me down and say hi!

Writing Workshop: Your Corner of the Crypt: Finding Your Niche in Horror

Addams Thursday, September 1, 2022, 8:30 PM CDT

Autographing Friday, September 2, 2022, 2:30 PM CDT

Midwestern Gothic

Grand Hall K Saturday, September 3, 2022, 10:00 AM CDT

The Glories of the Tie-In Novel

Michigan 3 Saturday, September 3, 2022, 1:00 PM CDT

Finding Optimism and Comfort in Horror

Crystal Ballroom C Saturday, September 3, 2022, 5:30 PM CDT

Book Publicity Crash Course

Randolph 3 Sunday, September 4, 2022, 10:00 AM CDT

Teen Table Talk - Tim Waggoner

Crystal Foyer Sunday, September 4, 2022, 5:30 PM CDT

Inverted Tropes

Grand Hall J Monday, September 5, 2022, 11:30 AM CDT

WANT TO STALK ME IN REAL LIFE?

Here are all the convention appearances I have lined up for the next year. If you attend any of them, make sure to say hi! I’ll be doing panels and workshops, I’m sure, but aside from Chicon, I don’t have any specific schedules yet.

· Website: www.timwaggoner.com

· Twitter: @timwaggoner

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.waggoner.9

· Instagram: tim.waggoner.scribe

· Blog: http://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/

· YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZEz6_ALPrV3tdC0V3peKNw

· TikTok: @timwaggonerscribe

https://www.flametreepublishing.com/we-will-rise-isbn-9781787585249.html

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Published on August 14, 2022 16:54

July 18, 2022

Sometimes Bigger IS Better! Expanding Your Novel

The other day a writer I mentored for the Horror Writers Association emailed to ask for advice on how to make novels longer. I thought, “Wow, that’s not a topic I can address in an email. It would make for an excellent blog post, though.”

So here we are.

Fiction writers tend to come in two varieties: Those inclined to write short, and those inclined to write long. The shorties often have to keep adding material, especially if they’re trying to write a novel, while the longies write a bunch and then have to cut it down to the right size. Before we go any farther, let me say this: It’s okay to be a short-writer or a long-writer, and you don’t have to try to make yourself into the opposite if you don’t want to. Some writers predominately write short fiction throughout their careers, while others focus on writing novels. When I started out forty years ago with a goal of becoming a professional author, I was most comfortable with the novel form. I finished my first novel at 19, and it came to around 72,000 words. But I wanted to learn how to write short fiction so I could master all the skills of a fiction writer. But that’s me. You do you. But if you want to write novels and you struggle to create enough material to fill an entire book, I’ve got some tips that will hopefully help you out.

So how long is a novel? In general, traditional publishers consider a novel to be at least 50,000 words, but they’re more often looking for lengths between 80,000 to 120,000 words. If you self-publish ebooks, however, your novels could be as long or as short as you want, as the physical size of the book – and the cost to produce it – is no longer a factor. My novels tend to run around 82K to 90K. That’s a natural range for me, and business-wise, I don’t get a larger advance for writing more words than the minimum. Why would I write 120K words if I’m going to get the same advance for writing 80K? Sometimes I do write more, especially when the story seems to demand it, but not often.

Young adult novels tend to run between 25K to 50K words, and middle-grade novels from 10K TO 30K. My most recent middle-grade novel, I Scream, You Scream, is about 30,000 words. (This book still hasn’t found a publisher yet, so don’t head over to Amazon and wonder why you can’t find it.) My recently-released novel We Will Rise is around 90K words, and the novel I just finished and turned in to my editor at Aethon Books, The Atrocity Engine, runs slightly more than 100,000 words. Most of the tie-in publishers I’ve worked with wanted lengths of around 80K from me.

Now for some advice . . .

1) Aim for the Bare Minimum. If you’re having trouble reaching novel length, I’d advise you to start off aiming for the shorter end of the spectrum. This is one of the reasons the goal for National Novel Writing Month is 50K words. It’s the shortest novel length you can write that isn’t YA or MG. Fifty thousand words isn’t a marketable length in terms of traditional publishing, but some small press publishers might be okay with it, if you’re self-publishing, shorter novels tend to work better anyway. (Shorter but more frequent releases seems to be the most successful business model for self-publishing.) Breaking 50K on a manuscript for the first time can help you overcome the psychological hurdle of writing a novel. For a lot of beginning novelists, the novel form can seem too intimidating. But once you’ve hit 50K, you’ve gotten over the first big psychological hurdle, and you can try to write a longer novel next time.

2) A short story is an event; a novel is a series of events that add up to a much larger journey. If the length of a novel seems intimidating, don’t think of your story as a novel, but rather a series of connected short stories. For example, if you’re writing a novel about a haunting, one scene might be the story of the first time your main character suspects there’s a ghost. Another scene might be the story of how the ghost came to be in the first place. Another scene might be the story of the ghost’s first attempt to kill your main character or perhaps possess them. You can write these stories in any order you want and combine them later. Using this technique, your novel is almost like a short story collection where all the stories are linked and they add up to a plot progression from beginning to end. And if you need to write some connecting scenes so the stories fit together better, so be it. And if you’ve already got a novel draft finished but it’s too short, ask yourself if there are any other small stories related to the overall story that you haven’t told yet, then tell them. For example, maybe the haunting in your novel has been going on for two centuries. This means other people than your main character have encountered the ghost. Why not tell their stories in your book?

3) Add more characters. One of the ways I get length into my novels is to use an ensemble cast. This means I can write scenes from different characters’ viewpoints, and it allows me to show different aspects of the story. I try to keep the number of characters in the ensemble manageable, around ten or less, with three to five main ones. Sometimes I’ll fall in a love with a character who was originally supposed to have only a few scenes or who was even supposed to die. But I see possibilities for expanding the story with them, so I keep them around. Sometimes I’ll introduce a character later in the narrative who’s only going to stick around for a while (maybe they’re going to be killed by the antagonist) but I’ll write a scene of two from their point of view. I want to give them their moment on the stage, give them their dignity, before they have to bow out.

4) Add more obstacles. One of the easiest ways to make a novel longer is to give your characters more hurdles to overcome. On the way home from teaching at my college today, I was listening to an audiobook, a fantasy adventure story. The characters were traveling on foot attempting to sneak past an enemy army at night. Now they could’ve gotten past without incident, but what fun is that for readers? They got noticed by the army, were chased, and got separated. Two had to jump off a cliff into a river, and two others had to disguise themselves and attempt to pass through the army to get to a castle of potential allies under siege. It wasn’t easy, but they all managed to eventually meet back up inside the castle, relatively safe (one of them caught an arrow in the shoulder). The author could’ve simply had the characters all get from point A to point B without trouble, but by making it harder for them, not only did the author make that part of the story more interesting, he made it longer.

5) Use the Triangle Technique. Many writers try to create novels using only two points of conflict. Let’s use the movie Jaws as an example. Two points of conflict: Sherriff vs Shark. But now consider three points of conflict: Sheriff vs Shark and Mayor who wants to keep the beach open during 4th of July holiday weekend at all costs. The novel Jaws has a fourth point of conflict. The oceanographer Hooper dated the Sheriff’s wife in college and they begin an affair. Adding extra points of conflict not only makes your story richer and gives it more depth, it allows you to regulate the pace of your novel by switching back forth between the points of conflict, and it allows you to make your story – you guessed it! – longer.

6) Employ Murphy’s Law. A lot of beginning writers have almost everything go right for their characters. The characters may have some kind of obstacle to overcome to get from point A to point B, but they will get to Point B, usually unscathed (more or less). For example, say you have a scene where a character needs to get to a job interview, and they’re running late. Maybe they almost get involved in a car accident but manage to get there at last. But what if they don’t get to the interview? What if something occurs that completely sidetracks them? They get into an accident. Or someone runs up to them at a stoplight and begs for their help. Having something go truly wrong in a scene can send the story off into interesting and unexpected directions – and lengthen your novel in the process. Some books on novel plotting call this a Disaster, as in scenes should always end with something going wrong, whether large or small. I think that approach is too mechanical and could quickly become repetitious, but the basic concept is sound.

7) Combine story types to develop your novel further. There are many different story motifs, and one way to make a story larger is to combine them. Stereotypical action movies do this well (because the action in and of itself isn’t enough to carry an entire film). Let’s say the main thing our action-adventure hero needs to do is stop vampires from releasing a genetically-modified virus that will lower humanity’s collective IQ to the point where they’re no smarter than cattle (thus making it easier to control them and use them as a food source). If our hero knew all this, though, it would make it too easy to locate the vampires and stop them. So we add a Mystery element. Why are formerly brilliant people turning up on the street with low IQ’s? Why are there mysterious murders where the victims die of blood-loss? And so on. That’s still not enough, though, so let’s add a Love story. A scientist who’s looking into the mysterious low IQ’s gets threatened by a mysterious assailant (who we’ll later learn is a vampire) and our hero ends up saving them and starts for fall for them. Maybe we’ll add a Chase too. The vampires are desperate to get their hands on the scientist. They manage to abduct them and the hero goes after them. Now we’ve got a Rescue, too! So if your novel is too short, add in one or more story types. Following are a few different story types to choose from. I’m sure you can think of more.

· Chase

· Love

· Rescue

· Revenge

· Coming of age

· Discovery

· Quest for object

· Quest for truth

· Survival

· Escape

· Defense/protection

8) Stories within stories. At the start of this blog entry, I talked about how you can think of a novel as a series of stories, and how you can expand your novel by adding more stories. Here are few specific types to choose from.

· Flashbacks: You can show a great deal about characters and setting by adding dramatized flashbacks. Just don’t overdo it and have every other scene be a flashback. And if you have more than one, space them out. And try different techniques. One flashback could be a memory, one could essentially be a monologue as a character tells their story to another character, one could be a separate dramatized scene that you insert without any explanation where it came from (readers will understand you’re simply showing them something from the past), or you could present it as a dream (which means you can add surreal touches to it here and there, maybe combine it with another memory, or turn it into a nightmare). And speaking of dreams . . .

· Dreams: Other ways dreams can be used are as a portent of the future (whether the character’s dream is magic or psychic in nature) or as a reaching into the past (again, via magic or science). You can also have bits and pieces of these dreams – or psychic episodes – occur periodically throughout the book, keeping the mystery of what it all means until later, when all the puzzle pieces are in place. You can have characters communicate in dreams. This could be two living people or it could be a living person and a dead person, or people connecting across time or dimensions. It all depends on the kind of story you’re telling.

· Imaginings: This is the Walter Mitty technique. One of your characters can imagine a dramatized scenario – maybe one they’ve been dreading or one they hope will happen. They can try to imagine something that happened in the past. These scenes may be short – anywhere from a few paragraphs to pages – but when you’re trying to expand your novel, every little bit helps.

· Hallucinations: Your character might be under the influence of some supernatural force or they might be sick, injured, drugged or suffering from some sort of mental illness. Any of these could cause your character to experience a dramatized scene that may not be real, but it’ll show more about them and, depending on how you write the hallucination, even advance the plot. And if your character (or characters) experience periodic hallucinations, so much the better.

· Origin stories. Say you have a character that has a deathly fear of drowning. Instead of telling readers about it in a short summary paragraph, you could write a dramatized flashback showing the origin of this fear. Maybe you’re writing a science fiction novel in which a space colony has for some mysterious reason become deserted. You can alternate between scenes of the current investigation into the disappearances with past scenes of the colonists experiencing the events that lead to their eventual disappearance. (This alternating between past and present storylines can work well for short fiction too.) You can tell the origin of a people, a civilization, a technology, a curse . . . anything, really, just so long as it’s pertinent to the story and above all, interesting to the reader.

· A supporting character’s story: Have an important supporting character? Tell their story, either all at once or in bits and pieces, but tell it in a dramatized scene.

· Use epistolary techniques: Epistolary techniques – making a novel be a collage of documents written the characters – used to be a common storytelling techniqye. It’s still around today, but most people probably know if as found-footage movies. You can use diary/journal entries, excerpts from a fictional book in your world, letters, emails, new articles, web articles, TV news, recorded videos, security footage, records of scientific experiments, etc. Putting excerpts from these things in your novel can enrich it by adding some narrative variety, as well as additional length.

9) Additional expansion tips.

· Have your characters work at cross purposes: Too many writers have all of their characters working well together the entire time, with perhaps a token argument here and there, but nothing so serious that disrupts the group’s forward progress. But you lengthen your story (and add additional conflict and character development) by having your characters argue about the best way to deal with a problem, or having them go their own way to address the problem because they can’t agree on strategy. Maybe your characters have different goals (and maybe they’re concealing their true motives). Having your characters work at cross purposes also complicates your plot, which . . . yep, makes the story longer.

· Twist in the middle: A lot writers save a plot twist for the end of the story, but what good does it do then? The story’s over. But if you include a twist in the middle, it can send your story off in some interesting directions, and make your story longer, especially if the twist is something that plays itself out after a while. What if one of your characters is revealed to have stolen someone else’s identity and in reality, they’re a criminal? Your other characters will no longer trust them once they discover this secret, and additional complications might ensue, such as the police coming to arrest the character or maybe some of their former criminal associates showing up to collect an unpaid debt. These complications are eventually dealt with, the other characters get over their distrust of the deceptive character (maybe by learning their backstory, as I mentioned earlier) and then everyone gets back to the regularly scheduled plot and the story moves on from there.

· Sidetracks: One of the earliest tie-in novels I wrote was a young adult Dragonlance novel for Wizards of the Coast called Temple of the Dragonslayer. This was the first YA novel WotC produced, and after I turned in my draft, my editor contacted me and said, “I know we told you we wanted 40,000 words, but we’ve decided the book should be 50,000 words.” So I had to add another 10K words, but I wanted to avoid significant rewriting. I needed 10K words of story that I could drop into the novel somewhere without changing anything before or after it. My heroes were traveling to a valley where the temple mentioned in the title was located, and in the original version, they reach the edge of the valley (after a long and hazardous journey), look down upon the temple with relief, and head down toward it. For my extra 10K words, I decided to have one of the characters be kidnapped by goblins and dragged down into their subterranean lair. Then I had the other characters go in search of her. (Basically, I added a mini-Rescue story.) I wanted to make this sequence important to the overall book, so I decided to make it an explanation for why goblins always seem to pop up out of nowhere in D&D campaigns. They travel through a series of underground tunnels, come up, cause their mischief, then escape back into the tunnels. The rescue was successful, my characters got back to the edge of the valley, they took a deep breath, relieved that they could finally head down to the temple, and started forward again. I’d plopped an additional mini-story into an already complete draft, but readers had no idea when they read the finished book. I made the rescue exciting and made it pertinent to the overall story by showing something about the world. Having characters get sidetracked, maybe for a lengthy portion of your novel, can work great to add length. It’s a variation on adding more obstacles, but this is a big one, one that might add several chapters to your book instead of a few pages.

· Wrong turns: Even if characters encounter obstacles on the way toward meeting their goals, beginning writers still have their characters make right choices along the way. But you can add length to a novel, and make the story more interesting, if your character makes a mistake that sends them off in a wrong direction, especially if they don’t knowthey’re headed in the wrong direction. Ever seen a movie in which characters are searching for a treasure, and after deciphering a series of clues, get to what they think is the location of the treasure, only to find it’s not there and in reality it’s located at the place where they started their search? The entire damn story is a wrong turn, sending the characters on an absolutely unnecessary journey. Unnecessary for them, but maybe quite entertaining to an audience. Characters should make mistakes, operate under false assumptions, follow bad (or deceitful) advice on how to proceed, etc.

· Ask yourself, “What couldn’t possibly happen next?” then make it happen. This is a piece of advice I share with aspiring writers all the time. Too often our plots are simple, contrived things, a subconscious recycling of stories we’ve read or viewed before. Let’s say one of your characters is going to confront their spouse about having an affair, and you imagine them having a huge argument that ends with them deciding to divorce. Nothing especially interesting about that, plus it’s not that long. So ask yourself what couldn’t possibly – at least in the way you currently envision the story – happen next, then make it happen. Maybe your character walks into the house and finds their spouse dead. Maybe they find the spouse being held hostage by someone they’ve never seen before. Maybe the spouse isn’t there, and there’s nothing to indicate where they went. Maybe the spouse’s mother has dropped by for a visit and they can’t have a discussion about the affair. Or maybe they do have it with the mother, and maybe she’sthe one that unexpectedly starts it. Maybe that’s the moment when an alien race invades Earth. Whatever. This technique works better in the outline stage if you’re a plotter, but you can try it anytime in the drafting process if you’re a pantser. I’m a little of both, but I’m never hesitant to make a sudden swerve in my story if a good change occurs to me, and I need to make my novel larger.

So if your novel turns out to be shorter than you (or your editor) would like, hopefully the tips I’ve given you will help you expand it. Just remember what I said several times above: Anything you add should be pertinent to the story and interesting to the reader, not just random words crammed into your novel only to make it longer. You want your novel to be both bigger and better.

DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

We Will Rise Release

We Will Rise, my ghost apocalypse novel, is finally out from Flame Tree Press! Early reviews have been good so far. But you don’t have to take my word for it – here’s a sampling:

“We Will Rise is a tense, emotional, scary ride and one of Waggoner’s best.” – Zach Rosenberg, Horror DNA

“The book is CREEPY. It's devastating and brutal, with parts not for the faint hearted. It's definitely a horror, and one of my new favourite horrors that's for sure!” – Melissa

“Such a fun, horrifying rollercoaster of a book! Once I started, I couldn’t put it down.” – Sugar Spice Coffee

“From the first page on Waggoner had me hooked. His imagination is truly off the charts, and never could I have predicted what would happen next.” – Julia C. Lewis

You can also hear me read the first scene from the book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqQWpRmZRAc&t=52s

Synopsis

Purchase Links

Flame Tree Press

Amazon Paperback

https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787585220/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1635525326&sr=1-1

Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner-ebook/dp/B09JPF5XZD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11ZC2NOOC3S1J&keywords=tim+waggoner+we+will+rise&qid=1635593108&sprefix=tim+waggoner+we+wi%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-1

Amazon Hardcover

https://www.amazon.com/We-Will-Rise-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1787585247/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=tim+waggoner&qid=1635525512&s=books&sr=1-2

Barnes & Noble Paperback

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585225

NOOK Book

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585263

Barnes & Noble Hardcover

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585249

Writing in the Dark: The Workbook

This workbook is my follow-up to Writing in the Dark, and I’ve gotten some really good feedback on it so far. While you can use it in conjunction with Writing in the Dark, I wrote it so it could be used on its own as well. It’s available at all the usual places online, but here’s a link to the publisher’s website if you’d like to learn more about it (and order it from them). Plus, you can download some sample exercises for free!

https://rawdogscreaming.com/books/writing-in-the-dark-workbook/#:~:text=Like%20Tim%20Waggoner's%20Bram%20Stoker,developing%20the%20art%20of%20suspense.

Want to stalk me in real life?

No one knows what impact COVID is going to have in the future, so I might end up canceling any or all of the following appearances. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, here are all the convention appearances I have lined up for the next year. If you attend any of them, make sure to say hi! I’ll be doing panels and workshops, I’m sure, but I don’t have any specific schedules yet.

Chicon 8: The 80th World Science Fiction Convention: Chicago, Sept. 1-5.

World Fantasy Convention. New Orleans: Nov. 3-6.

Authorcon 2. Williamsburg, Virgina: March 31-April 2.

Stokercon. Pittsburgh: June 15-18.

Want to stalk me virtually?

Want to follow me on social media? Here’s where you can find me:

Website: www.timwaggoner.com

Twitter: @timwaggoner

Instagram: tim.waggoner.scribe

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZEz6_ALPrV3tdC0V3peKNw

TikTok: @timwaggonerscribe

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Published on July 18, 2022 17:26

May 26, 2022

Why Horror (Still) Matters

In the aftermath of 9/11, horror writers went through an existential crisis. “How can we continue writing horror fiction,” they asked, “when the world is filled with real-life horrors that are so much worse?” Was it even moral to write horror fiction in the face of terrible tragedies? Were we mocking them? Worse, were we somehow contributing to them?

After the recent mass shooting at Uvalde elementary school in Texas – in which an eighteen-year-old gunman took the lives of nineteen children and two adults and injured seventeen others – writers of dark fiction are doubtless asking themselves the same questions that they did when the towers fell. I know I am.

If you feel you need to step away from writing the dark stuff for a while, I get it. If you feel you need to take a longer break, maybe even a permanent one, I get that too. But even in a world which contains such true darkness in it, I think horror fiction, film, TV, and games still play an important role, maybe even a vital one.

I wrote about the importance of horror fiction to humanity in the first chapter of Writing in the Dark, which I’ve posted below.

WHY HORROR MATTERS

Originally published in Writing in the Dark, 2020

Years ago, a student asked me why I write horror. “You seem like such a pleasant person,” she said.

I looked into her eyes and smiled a slightly wicked smile.

“Writing horror is what keeps me pleasant.”

We all have a dark side that whispers to us, a side that we struggle against and ultimately need to make peace with if we don’t want it to destroy us. In many ways, that’s probably the most primal story of humanity. Horror fiction gives us a safe way to explore and – hopefully – come to terms with our dark side.

Horror stories allow us to confront our deepest fears through the buffer of fiction. Wrestling with the darkest questions of human existence – why is there violence, pain, cruelty, and death? – can be emotionally overwhelming. These questions can be too intense to deal with directly. Like an eclipse, the only way to safely view these aspects of life is indirectly. Horror allows us to do this. Horror can serve as a buffer in another way. It can distract us from the horrors of the real world, all of which are far more terrifying than any story about a ghost or vampire. Horror writers are like dark clowns that caper in front of our readers, making grotesque faces in the hope that the audience won’t look over our shoulder and see the true darkness of existence behind us.

Not that most readers think that deeply when they pick up (or download) a horror book. They’re looking to be entertained, and probably even more so with film and television horror. They want to enter a dark dream and experience the delightful frisson that comes from feeling they’re in mortal danger, when in reality they’re perfectly safe. It’s the same for people who enjoy a trip through a carnival spookhouse. It’s a fun experience that gets the blood pumping, that jolts people out of their everyday existence and – if only for a short time – makes them feel alive. And if this was all horror did, it would still be important. Who doesn’t want to feel really alive? But even when it entertains, horror can do so much more, be so much more.

Horror is as much, if not more so, about an individual character’s experience than it’s about whatever dark force confronts them. There’s an old saying that an adventure is someone else having a hell of a tough time a thousand miles away. Any type of fiction can teach us more about ourselves and our fellow humans by showing us how particular characters deal with conflict – both external and internal. But horror turns up the conflict all the way to eleven. How do characters deal with the unknown, the impossible, the nightmarish? How do they deal with being exposed to – or tempted by – evil, whether demonic, mundane, or symbolic? What would we do in those situations? Would we be smarter, braver, more resistant to corruption? Would we be smart enough not to go into the dark basement, to resist opening the Necronomicon, to not invite the vampire into our house? Could we hold onto our sanity in the face of the awful things we encounter – or become? Psychologists suggest that reading and watching horror allow people to develop stronger survival skills. We engage in fictional scenarios to explore what we would do in dangerous situations. How many of you have spent time arguing with friends about the best way to survive a zombie apocalypse or how you’d react during a home invasion by a Michael Meyers-like serial killer?

All fiction can make people more empathetic by simply dropping us into a character’s life and allowing us to experience how he or she tries to deal with problems. But horror fiction allows us to follow characters pushed to the absolute limits of human experience and beyond. The more pain – of all sorts – a character experiences in a story, the greater our empathy for that character.

Horror also allows for deep catharsis. The ending of the movie Jaws is a perfect example. After an entire film dealing with an implacable inhuman force, Sheriff Brody – clinging to the mast of the sinking Orca and literally in the shark’s environment – manages to kill the beast at the last moment. And the resultant explosion is a huge catharsis. When characters not only survive but triumph against dark forces, we feel relief. We also feel that if characters in a story can do it, maybe we can too in real life. But good horror isn’t predictable, isn’t safe. Maybe the heroes succeed in banishing the evil, maybe they don’t. Maybe they’re defeated by it, changed by it, become part of it. Or maybe they only believe they’ve won, but it’s a temporary victory at best because the evil returns in the sequel. (I contend this, aside from being a marketing tactic, reflects how we deal with darkness in our own lives. We can never banish it entirely. The best we can manage is a holding action or temporary respite until it returns, and it will keep returning until it finally claims us. How’s that for a cheery thought?) Uncertain outcomes like these keep readers and viewers on their toes mentally and force them to deal with the more complex and mixed emotions uncertain endings bring.

Horror also offers another kind of catharsis. We get the chance to experience what it’s like to be the monster, to not be constrained by morality or even our humanity. We can stalk, torture, maim, kill, despoil souls, destroy worlds, all without ever committing an actual act of violence in the real world. We can get in touch with our dark side, explore it, map it, acknowledge it . . . and once we do, it ceases to have power over us. Or at least, its power is lessened. We’re no longer afraid of thinking “bad” thoughts or imagining “bad” things. It’s like The Purge, only without all the blood, death, and screaming.

Horror can be deeply existential, too. How can we mere mortals hope to defeat all the things that make up Darkness with a capital D: death, disease, violence, temptation, degradation, insanity? What does it mean to be human in a world where the dead can return to life and seek to drain your blood or devour your flesh? What does it mean when otherworldly forces – infinitely more powerful than we are – seek to destroy or dominate us? What does it mean to be human when the monster is inside us, growing stronger every moment? The vast majority of audience members don’t think this consciously about the horror they consume as entertainment, but subconsciously? I believe they do engage with the existential questions horror raises on that level, just below the surface of everyday normal thought.

Horror can provide comfort for the weird ones among us. (And I count myself as a member of this tribe.) With horror’s focus on monstrous distortion – on Otherness – those of us who for one reason or another don’t fit into society’s paradigm of normal can find a place to belong. My wife once told me, “You talk about monsters as if they’re your best friends.” That’s because in many ways they are.

A lot of you reading this might be thinking that literature of any sort has the potential to do all the things I’ve discussed so far – and you’re right. This proves my ultimate point. Horror is literature, and it’s just as important and vital as any other type for the health and growth of humans and their culture.

This sounds cool and all, you might be thinking, but I like to read and write horror because it’s fun.

There’s nothing wrong with fun. If we didn’t have fun from time to time, imagine how miserable our lives would be. But I believe even popular fiction meant primarily for entertainment can fulfill a higher purpose, too. We all know that entertainment can provide an escape from our everyday lives, but it wasn’t until my senior year in high school that I truly understood what this meant.

There was a small bookstore in the town next to ours. (This was back in the pre-Amazon past, when such places still existed.) My dad and I were browsing the bookshelves, and I was happily surprised to see a new novel by Piers Anthony in his Xanth series called Centaur Aisle. I’d loved the first three books in the series and had no idea there was going to be a fourth. Dad and I went up to the register, and when he saw the book I was holding, he asked, “Do you mind if I read it first?” I was shocked. In my family, whoever bought a book was always the first one to read it. No exceptions.

My mother – who suffered from a number of health problems – was scheduled for surgery the next day. The procedure wasn’t a very serious one (or so my parents claimed), but I understood then that my father was worried, and he wanted something to distract him in the hospital during my mother’s surgery and recovery. I said yes, of course. And I realized then that popular fiction of all kinds – fiction written to be fun – has a profound power. It can provide comfort to someone who’s scared. It can take someone’s mind off their worries, help them get through some of the hardest times in their life.

Not only do horror writers work in a genre with a long and rich history, the stories we create perform numerous important functions for people as individuals and for civilization as a whole. So if anyone ever asks you why you’re wasting your time writing horror instead of “real” fiction, tell them, “Horror is as real as it gets, baby.” Then for good measure hiss and bare your fangs, then get back to work.