R.C. Mulhare's Blog: Notes from a Grocery Clerk With a Too-Big Imagination
May 8, 2020
[Archive] Horror Writing in a Time of Plague…
We live interesting times, in the sense of the old curse.
So the writing has gotten a bit rocky: a family member came down with a bad head cold (no, not COVID-19, thank heaven) and I had my hands full taking care of them. Also my day job has been utter madness. I’ve worked in this company for eighteen years. I’ve seen people stocking up for hurricanes and snowstorms. I’ve worked during the major holiday seasons (In order of craziness: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day and Fourth of July barbeques, Super Bowl Sunday). Friday, March 13th, 2020 lived up to its unlucky reputation: everyone and their mother and their brother and their sister and their cousins to the seventh degree showed up to panic shop, cramming the store to capacity. The shelves looked like locusts had descended – locusts that eat toilet paper and canned goods. It’s calmed down since, though a lot of people continue to buy in bulk. I’ve taken precautions by wearing nitrile gloves and have added surgical masks to my personal gear. Unfortunately, I doubt I could make use of the replica 17th century plague doctor mask I’ve procured. More about those odd goth-looking crow dudes later…
Read More Here...
So the writing has gotten a bit rocky: a family member came down with a bad head cold (no, not COVID-19, thank heaven) and I had my hands full taking care of them. Also my day job has been utter madness. I’ve worked in this company for eighteen years. I’ve seen people stocking up for hurricanes and snowstorms. I’ve worked during the major holiday seasons (In order of craziness: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day and Fourth of July barbeques, Super Bowl Sunday). Friday, March 13th, 2020 lived up to its unlucky reputation: everyone and their mother and their brother and their sister and their cousins to the seventh degree showed up to panic shop, cramming the store to capacity. The shelves looked like locusts had descended – locusts that eat toilet paper and canned goods. It’s calmed down since, though a lot of people continue to buy in bulk. I’ve taken precautions by wearing nitrile gloves and have added surgical masks to my personal gear. Unfortunately, I doubt I could make use of the replica 17th century plague doctor mask I’ve procured. More about those odd goth-looking crow dudes later…
Read More Here...
[Archive] Woman in Horror Busy Writing the Horror
As seems usual, I had every intention to write and post something here for #WomenInHorrorMonth, except I had my hands full writing the horror fiction. But, here on the last day of February (thank you, Leap Year, for an extra day to write this entry), I have a post full of news about the things that have flown up from my writing desk.
Last Saturday, I wended my way again to legend-haunted Salem for the fourth annual Write Like A Girl at the Witch House, courtesy of the spooktacular ladies of FunDead Publications. I read a tale I’ve wanted to read out loud since I read it, “The Creeping Crust”, which appeared in last year’s Strangely Funny VI from Mystery and Horror LLC. This tale of a young pizza delivery girl who finds her next call involves an inept cult of eldritch entity worshipers played out like a movie in my mind, a comedy-horror flick that delighted me to share it with the world. I also sold a few books, including a copy of the now-out-of-print Cocky Tales (I still have a few copies, so don’t hesitate to tap me about snail-mailing you an autographed copy!). All in all, a very good night for a very good cause, as the proceeds from the ticket sales go to benefit Safe Child Africa, which helps children falsely accused of witchcraft in east Africa.
Read More Here!
Last Saturday, I wended my way again to legend-haunted Salem for the fourth annual Write Like A Girl at the Witch House, courtesy of the spooktacular ladies of FunDead Publications. I read a tale I’ve wanted to read out loud since I read it, “The Creeping Crust”, which appeared in last year’s Strangely Funny VI from Mystery and Horror LLC. This tale of a young pizza delivery girl who finds her next call involves an inept cult of eldritch entity worshipers played out like a movie in my mind, a comedy-horror flick that delighted me to share it with the world. I also sold a few books, including a copy of the now-out-of-print Cocky Tales (I still have a few copies, so don’t hesitate to tap me about snail-mailing you an autographed copy!). All in all, a very good night for a very good cause, as the proceeds from the ticket sales go to benefit Safe Child Africa, which helps children falsely accused of witchcraft in east Africa.
Read More Here!
March 19, 2020
Return to the Witch City….
My path has wended to legend-haunted Arkham – I mean, Salem – an increasing number of times lately. On a personal level, a medical professional whom I’ve worked with moved their office to Salem. But the writing has also brought me there once already this winter.
Curtis M. Lawson invited me to take part in Wyrd, a semi-regular evening of dark fiction readings at Salem, MA’s Koto, a Japanese restaurant in town (with some of the tastiest sushi I have had in a long time). I read part of “Food Substitution”, a horror comedy featuring vampires, grocery stores and a vampire shopping in a grcoery store, which appeared in Macabre Maine‘s all-vampire anthology Bite ME. Had an utter blast, and I’ll definitely take part in this again, if I get the chance.
You can read the rest here!
Curtis M. Lawson invited me to take part in Wyrd, a semi-regular evening of dark fiction readings at Salem, MA’s Koto, a Japanese restaurant in town (with some of the tastiest sushi I have had in a long time). I read part of “Food Substitution”, a horror comedy featuring vampires, grocery stores and a vampire shopping in a grcoery store, which appeared in Macabre Maine‘s all-vampire anthology Bite ME. Had an utter blast, and I’ll definitely take part in this again, if I get the chance.
You can read the rest here!
March 2, 2020
New Year, New Decade, New Stories!
Now that the day job craziness around Christmas/the December Holidays (Holi-daze??) has finally dropped into my rearview mirror, I can dust off my writing journals and get back to what I do best.
This year, this decade, I have decided that the time has come to clear out the journals full of half-written and barely written stories and completed stories. Obviously, that means finishing the former and typing the latter. I went through the piles of journals (I tend to start a piece either at the beginning of a new journal or halfway through the pages of a previously broken-in journal) and notated all the stuff I’ve started but haven’t finished or finished but haven’t typed. I’ll just say that I have less than fifty incomplete-and-need-writing stories and less than thirty complete-and-need-typing stories. The former range from things that just need an ending to things that I wrote a paragraph or two of before I sidelined it (due to deadlines on Other Things or maybe just losing my place in my mental book). I plan to clear as many of these stories as I can in the next ten years.
Continued Over Here!
This year, this decade, I have decided that the time has come to clear out the journals full of half-written and barely written stories and completed stories. Obviously, that means finishing the former and typing the latter. I went through the piles of journals (I tend to start a piece either at the beginning of a new journal or halfway through the pages of a previously broken-in journal) and notated all the stuff I’ve started but haven’t finished or finished but haven’t typed. I’ll just say that I have less than fifty incomplete-and-need-writing stories and less than thirty complete-and-need-typing stories. The former range from things that just need an ending to things that I wrote a paragraph or two of before I sidelined it (due to deadlines on Other Things or maybe just losing my place in my mental book). I plan to clear as many of these stories as I can in the next ten years.
Continued Over Here!
January 24, 2020
2019: A Writing Year In Review
One of my odd personal writing goals which I set for myself entailed publishing a story a month, or twelve stories within twelve months. I didn’t make this a hard and fast goal, just something to see if I could pull off.
Hoo boy, I achieved that goal (minus a story coming out in January) and then some! Below I’ve run down those published tales…
Read More here!
Hoo boy, I achieved that goal (minus a story coming out in January) and then some! Below I’ve run down those published tales…
Read More here!
December 30, 2019
[Archive] A Holiday of Horrors, A Stockingful of Scares
As of now, I’m getting into the busy season at the day job, and that means I’ve put publishing – or at least preparing things for publishing (ie. typing and/or editing with a deadline within the next four weeks) – on the back burner for the time being. Not to say I won’t write between now and, say, New Year’s Day (or Super Bowl Sunday, if the local sportsball team makes there), I’ll just draft things and polish them when I have the mental wherewithal for it. Drafting/writing and publication-work require two different parts of my creative centers. Also, I discovered that if I hold off on writing, even jotting something purely for my own amusement, a kind of malaise sets in.
And since Halloween, I’ve gotten into the Christmas spirit, ....
Read More Here!
And since Halloween, I’ve gotten into the Christmas spirit, ....
Read More Here!
December 13, 2019
{Archive] Halloween Treats in November
October is behind us, but my folks and I are still celebrating Halloween. When you write spooky stories and dark fantasy, every day is Halloween! My family and I had a wonderful if windy Halloween night and a cool and cozy Halloweekend (I may have invented that word?). Also, the book sale in Salem went splendidly, outside of having to cancel on Sunday, as the weather turned rainy and outdoor market+books+rain doesn’t make a fun equation. I sold out one title and had to run to a friend’s store to buy some extra copies – and then sold some of those! Also, for the first time, I carved a pumpkin jack o’ lantern. Till now, I decided to go old-school for Halloween and carve turnips for the darkest night of the year, the way my Irish ancestors had done for ages. Now I can see why, when the more recent levels of the family tree emigrated to the United States, they decided to carve pumpkins instead! I might have developed an arm for hollowing turnips with a melon baller, but it can still feel like hollowing out a rock.
Read More Here!
Read More Here!
October 28, 2019
A Full Trick or Treat Bag
Yet more radio silence, and as usual, I have very good reasons for it. Three very good reasons for it. Given the nature of publishing horror and dark fantasy fiction, October is like Christmas: people buy/read horror during the run up to Halloween, thus a wise publisher releases their most horrific horror books during the month of all things spooky. Generally, I’ve had a story or two arrive in October, but this year… I have three stories and a fourth one in a state of pre-publishing.
From DBND Publishing: "Halloween Horrors Volume One" - A reprint of my classic "The Witch Who Blew In On the Storm", in which a Salem, Massachusetts news photographer covering Haunted Happenings (or the lack thereof) on the night of the No-Name Hurricane of 1991 snaps a shot of something strange blowing into town on the wild winds. This story previously appeared in 2017's One Night in Salem, but I've tweaked this one a bit for this market.
(Read the rest Here!)
From DBND Publishing: "Halloween Horrors Volume One" - A reprint of my classic "The Witch Who Blew In On the Storm", in which a Salem, Massachusetts news photographer covering Haunted Happenings (or the lack thereof) on the night of the No-Name Hurricane of 1991 snaps a shot of something strange blowing into town on the wild winds. This story previously appeared in 2017's One Night in Salem, but I've tweaked this one a bit for this market.
(Read the rest Here!)
August 15, 2019
Doing This and Signing That, August 2019 Edition
I’ve been quiet on here for a lot of reasons:
-I’ve been writing some stories for the heck of it, finishing up some things that had sat gathering dust in several journals, including a comedy tale involving a bed and breakfast whose rooms are air conditioned by ghosts, and a dramatic urban fantasy involving a regular mortal Catholic priest assigned to work with a community of vampires. Now I just need to find potential markets to send them to, which can pose some challenges. All in good time.
-I’ve been polishing up the Gothic novella, getting it ready for a soft release in paperback on September 21st, but I decided to hold off the hard release til November. I’ve got books releasing in September and October and I’d rather give each book its own month of promotion.
Read more here
-I’ve been writing some stories for the heck of it, finishing up some things that had sat gathering dust in several journals, including a comedy tale involving a bed and breakfast whose rooms are air conditioned by ghosts, and a dramatic urban fantasy involving a regular mortal Catholic priest assigned to work with a community of vampires. Now I just need to find potential markets to send them to, which can pose some challenges. All in good time.
-I’ve been polishing up the Gothic novella, getting it ready for a soft release in paperback on September 21st, but I decided to hold off the hard release til November. I’ve got books releasing in September and October and I’d rather give each book its own month of promotion.
Read more here
August 2, 2019
Diving into Draft 2 Digital
I think I’ve talked elsewhere about my efforts to find a home in print for a Gothic novella that I wrote last year, which I’ve been hard put getting published by the usual routes (In some ways, it probably steps outside the usual parameters of Gothic fiction, due to the presence of clear supernatural elements, due to the presence of clear supernatural elements, something atypical to the genre). I decided since I keep hitting walls with this particular book, I would self-publish it. I’ve chosen Ingram-Spark to print the physical version and Draft 2 Digital for the ebook version. However, considering the length of the book, I figured it best if I tried launching a smaller project as a kind of testing the waters.
Read more here!
Read more here!
