R.C. Mulhare's Blog: Notes from a Grocery Clerk With a Too-Big Imagination, page 5
July 19, 2017
Keeping the nose to the notebook
Two months since my last entry? That's unacceptable, though hopefully forgivable. I've been living life and having experiences: Celebrated my birthday and climbed Dungeon Rock in Lynn, MA, one of the creepier spots in the already creepy state of Massachusetts.
Your humble author, not so sure about the vibe on this place
Dungeon Rock, living up to its name.
I've been busy with the business of writing, crafting stories and sending them out. I've had a few rejection letters, but found other possible markets to send the stories off to for consideration. This included about the nicest and oddly most inspiring and weirdly assuring rejections I've had: the editor of a magazine specializing in Weird Fiction informed me that, though they had room for only three stories in this issue, my story made the top ten out of Two Hundred Submissions. Even if I didn't make it, that tells me my creations still have an effect on people, they just need to click with the right editor.
In the meantime, one thing did click with the right editor, and that is my "The Witch Who Blew In On the Storm", a tale of strange powers, human cruelty and protecting family, told against the backdrop of the "No-Name Hurricane" of 1991, probably best known as "the Perfect Storm", which will appear in "One Night in Salem", FunDead Publications' new anthology slated for release at the end of September. This book will feature stories set in Salem MA, on Halloween nights spread out over the nearly four centuries of this spooky city's history. I chose this particular Halloween as it was an odd Halloween for me: it was a dark and story night, but initially, it didn't click with me. I was fourteen years old and in a weird place emotionally (aka. "being a teenager"), and Halloween didn't feel "cool" any more. Methinks what was wrong was, I was the uncool one, and it took a terrible and tragic storm created from a nor'easter and the remains of a hurricane to shake out of that and start looking into the darkness. And this story deals with a lot of that: forces of nature, people pushing the limits to protect family, darkness and fear and the light that returns when the darkness can be pushed back against.
Also, I'll be joining the good folk of FunDead Publications for a poetry reading at the Witch House in Salem for their "Entombed in Verse: An Epitaph for Salem" Readings and Release Party, on August 5th, 2017 at seven pm. I'm very much looking forward to sharing my poem and hearing the others being read by their authors. I'd never thought of myself as a poet, but testing this limit lead to pushing past it and proving otherwise.
Your humble author, not so sure about the vibe on this place
Dungeon Rock, living up to its name.
I've been busy with the business of writing, crafting stories and sending them out. I've had a few rejection letters, but found other possible markets to send the stories off to for consideration. This included about the nicest and oddly most inspiring and weirdly assuring rejections I've had: the editor of a magazine specializing in Weird Fiction informed me that, though they had room for only three stories in this issue, my story made the top ten out of Two Hundred Submissions. Even if I didn't make it, that tells me my creations still have an effect on people, they just need to click with the right editor.
In the meantime, one thing did click with the right editor, and that is my "The Witch Who Blew In On the Storm", a tale of strange powers, human cruelty and protecting family, told against the backdrop of the "No-Name Hurricane" of 1991, probably best known as "the Perfect Storm", which will appear in "One Night in Salem", FunDead Publications' new anthology slated for release at the end of September. This book will feature stories set in Salem MA, on Halloween nights spread out over the nearly four centuries of this spooky city's history. I chose this particular Halloween as it was an odd Halloween for me: it was a dark and story night, but initially, it didn't click with me. I was fourteen years old and in a weird place emotionally (aka. "being a teenager"), and Halloween didn't feel "cool" any more. Methinks what was wrong was, I was the uncool one, and it took a terrible and tragic storm created from a nor'easter and the remains of a hurricane to shake out of that and start looking into the darkness. And this story deals with a lot of that: forces of nature, people pushing the limits to protect family, darkness and fear and the light that returns when the darkness can be pushed back against.
Also, I'll be joining the good folk of FunDead Publications for a poetry reading at the Witch House in Salem for their "Entombed in Verse: An Epitaph for Salem" Readings and Release Party, on August 5th, 2017 at seven pm. I'm very much looking forward to sharing my poem and hearing the others being read by their authors. I'd never thought of myself as a poet, but testing this limit lead to pushing past it and proving otherwise.
May 23, 2017
"It's Going Down for Real..."
So, yet another long stretch of radio silence, in which a lot happened: March proved a highly busy time for me. I was writing and sending out stuff left and right, it felt (I think I sent out a total of seven stories to various venues). The more one sends out, the better one's chance of getting published, and quite a few things stuck, including:
-My first ever professional poem, "My Father's Shade", inspired by the life, death and strange afterlife on earth of my seven times great-grandfather Hugh Jones, an English born blacksmith and farmer who settled in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1650s and whose name turns up in the 'spectral evidence' for two different cases in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The poem is appearing in FunDead Publications's "Entombed in Verse: An Epitaph for Salem, which is now available for pre-order, with a release date slated for this summe.
-"Something Eating At You", inspired by "The Colour out of Space" and some weird-looking vegetables I spotted at the Topsfield Fair, was picked up by The H. P. Lovecraft Lunatic Asylum. Still need to dot the i's and cross the t's on the contract, but watch this space.
-"Curiosity Shop", my first ever published story, featuring a teenaged H.P. Lovecraft and a mysterious Book Shop That Wasn't There Before, got picked up as my first-ever reprint by Digital Publishing Corp, as a soon-to-be released ebook of flash fiction.
-My first ever vampire horror-comedy "Food Substitution" was picked up for Macabre Maine's "Bite ME" anthology of vampire tales, due out at Halloween. In this tale, an older woman has a tangle with a vampire, and she hopes that the change will do her health - and her grocery bill - some good... with mixed results. I've often said we need more horror set in grocery stores (I work in one, Trust me when I say they are *terrifying* places...), and by jove, I've made good on that desire.
-"In the Path of the Trees", in which a man and his daughter encounter an entity guarding the trees in a forest of the White Mountains, is available in Awen 96, from Atlantean Publishing
And last but not least:
-"The Wings at His Window" was picked up by Off the Beaten Path Press as part of a series which I've tentatively titled "The Dreamer of Providence". In this first installment, a very young HPL unsettles his mother with some of his peculiar sketches of a creature he calls a "night gaunt", and there might be more to it than a mere childish scribble. I have more tales to come in this series, so as before, keep an eye out for more information as I can supply it.
Whwooo... If it sounds like a lot, well, it is! It's certainly kept me busy, to say nothing of giving me a rush of emotions: mostly excitement, but also a certain amount of trepidation. It's all getting real, and it's all going down quite intensely and steadily. Wish me luck that it all goes well, and as the tales emerge in print, I hope you all enjoy them!
-My first ever professional poem, "My Father's Shade", inspired by the life, death and strange afterlife on earth of my seven times great-grandfather Hugh Jones, an English born blacksmith and farmer who settled in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1650s and whose name turns up in the 'spectral evidence' for two different cases in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The poem is appearing in FunDead Publications's "Entombed in Verse: An Epitaph for Salem, which is now available for pre-order, with a release date slated for this summe.
-"Something Eating At You", inspired by "The Colour out of Space" and some weird-looking vegetables I spotted at the Topsfield Fair, was picked up by The H. P. Lovecraft Lunatic Asylum. Still need to dot the i's and cross the t's on the contract, but watch this space.
-"Curiosity Shop", my first ever published story, featuring a teenaged H.P. Lovecraft and a mysterious Book Shop That Wasn't There Before, got picked up as my first-ever reprint by Digital Publishing Corp, as a soon-to-be released ebook of flash fiction.
-My first ever vampire horror-comedy "Food Substitution" was picked up for Macabre Maine's "Bite ME" anthology of vampire tales, due out at Halloween. In this tale, an older woman has a tangle with a vampire, and she hopes that the change will do her health - and her grocery bill - some good... with mixed results. I've often said we need more horror set in grocery stores (I work in one, Trust me when I say they are *terrifying* places...), and by jove, I've made good on that desire.
-"In the Path of the Trees", in which a man and his daughter encounter an entity guarding the trees in a forest of the White Mountains, is available in Awen 96, from Atlantean Publishing
And last but not least:
-"The Wings at His Window" was picked up by Off the Beaten Path Press as part of a series which I've tentatively titled "The Dreamer of Providence". In this first installment, a very young HPL unsettles his mother with some of his peculiar sketches of a creature he calls a "night gaunt", and there might be more to it than a mere childish scribble. I have more tales to come in this series, so as before, keep an eye out for more information as I can supply it.
Whwooo... If it sounds like a lot, well, it is! It's certainly kept me busy, to say nothing of giving me a rush of emotions: mostly excitement, but also a certain amount of trepidation. It's all getting real, and it's all going down quite intensely and steadily. Wish me luck that it all goes well, and as the tales emerge in print, I hope you all enjoy them!
March 7, 2017
Write Like a Girl!
Meant to post something for Women in Horror Month (ie. February), but I was busy doing the writing thing and "living the writing life", as my friend "FractureMinded" on Plurk calls it. Perhaps next year, when hopefully I've really put down roots as an author and really started to make a name for myself, I'll have some carefully crafted words on the subject to share with you.
In the past few weeks, I've written four new stories (well, one of them a narrative poem, another a new piece drawing on the work of August Derleth, a third finished just today which features a young HPL, a fourth that I got the idea for...the day after it's original market closed, yet another opportunity presented itself), typed and sent one of them, revised two previously published pieces from 2015 to send to a couple markets open to reprints, to say nothing of sending out two new works to two markets looking for fresh new material. I certainly keep busy, and I amaze my co-workers at my day job at the sheer amount of stuff I crank out. And I amaze myself as well: the ideas are pouring out of my head these days.
My inspiration got a huge shot of vitamin I one week ago: I took part in "Write Like A Girl!", a fund-raiser reading of six women horror authors at the Witch House in Salem, Massachusetts, hosted by the lovely ladies of FunDead Productions, with the ticket sales going to an organization that provides legal aid to girls in Africa falsely accused of witchcraft. A worthy cause, and the evening was intensely creepy and delightful. I read my "Paper Masks", which you can find in A Terrible Thing, a King in Yellow tale featuring a young government assistance case worker who turns over a leaf that reveals deeper and darker things in the world. I'd read this in Worcester, MA, at Annie's Book Shop, at my first ever public reading, and it's a story especially close to my heart, since I've been on the other side of government-related paperwork, and my heart appreciates the patience and hard work of the folk who assist those who have to deal with that paperwork. This event was...perhaps not a dream come true, but something that delighted me: I'd been to the Witch House with my folks, for a ghost story reading. Loved the atmosphere and the sheer lived-in quality of the place. Now, it was my turn to be the one providing some of the shivery tales.
Your author, the evening of ye reading (well, afterwards, hence the tired look in my eyes). This was what I wore, and it seemed fitting!
In the past few weeks, I've written four new stories (well, one of them a narrative poem, another a new piece drawing on the work of August Derleth, a third finished just today which features a young HPL, a fourth that I got the idea for...the day after it's original market closed, yet another opportunity presented itself), typed and sent one of them, revised two previously published pieces from 2015 to send to a couple markets open to reprints, to say nothing of sending out two new works to two markets looking for fresh new material. I certainly keep busy, and I amaze my co-workers at my day job at the sheer amount of stuff I crank out. And I amaze myself as well: the ideas are pouring out of my head these days.
My inspiration got a huge shot of vitamin I one week ago: I took part in "Write Like A Girl!", a fund-raiser reading of six women horror authors at the Witch House in Salem, Massachusetts, hosted by the lovely ladies of FunDead Productions, with the ticket sales going to an organization that provides legal aid to girls in Africa falsely accused of witchcraft. A worthy cause, and the evening was intensely creepy and delightful. I read my "Paper Masks", which you can find in A Terrible Thing, a King in Yellow tale featuring a young government assistance case worker who turns over a leaf that reveals deeper and darker things in the world. I'd read this in Worcester, MA, at Annie's Book Shop, at my first ever public reading, and it's a story especially close to my heart, since I've been on the other side of government-related paperwork, and my heart appreciates the patience and hard work of the folk who assist those who have to deal with that paperwork. This event was...perhaps not a dream come true, but something that delighted me: I'd been to the Witch House with my folks, for a ghost story reading. Loved the atmosphere and the sheer lived-in quality of the place. Now, it was my turn to be the one providing some of the shivery tales.
Your author, the evening of ye reading (well, afterwards, hence the tired look in my eyes). This was what I wore, and it seemed fitting!
February 5, 2017
The Most Subversive Thing One Can Do...
I generally avoid discussing politics, especially partisan politics: it's too divisive and it ends up with people angry and annoyed (granted, I want people to have emotional reactions to my work, but I'd rather it involved chills xylophoning up and down their spines or a shiver of wonder running through their limbs, and not getting all graa-raah-argle-bargle). But this time, I'm going to talk about it in as non-partisan a way as I can.
These are strange times we live in, for us in the United States of America, and those affected by them (translation: the rest of the world). I'm not here to influence people's opinion, but I am urging you to do something subversive and world-changing.
Read. Read books. Read lots of books, as many as your schedule allows. Find ways to listen to audiobooks when you're doing things that keep your hands busy but your mind unoccupied. Physical books, digital books, audiobooks, parchment scrolls, bark folios, vellum manuscripts, clay tablets, subway halls and tenement walls - whatever the format, read them. Read books that introduce you to different people, different cultures, different worlds, especially people different from you in some way. Read books that broaden your horizons and shine lights into the corners of your mind and world that usually remain in the dark. Read books that make you think, that make you laugh, that make you cry, that anger you (in good ways!), that challenge your perceptions.
“Truth is singular. Its 'versions' are mistruths.” ― David Mitchell, "Cloud Atlas"
Read. Keep reading. I know I'm probably preaching to the choir, but sometimes the choir needs a rousing speech. If politicians insist on putting down intellectuals because what they have to say shatters their convenient fantasies about the world and who resort to "alternative facts" in order to prop up their shaky positions, keep reading, keep getting the real facts, build yourself up with the truth.
I know, how can an author with horror and dark fantasy titles to her name have any stake in the truth? But here's the thing: horror teaches us to face our fears, even when the outcome of doing so is uncertain, and dark fantasy helps us to accept the fact that not everything in Faeryland is pleasant or beautiful (if I might paraphrase G.K. Chesterton...). Fiction in general helps us to rehearse the real world in all its ugliness and splendor and the mediocrity in between, helps us to see the world through the eyes of other people. There's a study out there that shows that readers of fiction are often more compassionate people than those who don't, and the world could sure use more compassionate people.
"You want weapons? We're in a library. Books are the best weapon in the world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm yourself!" -- Russell T. Davies, "Doctor Who: Tooth and Claw"
I applaud the people who rose to the challenge that these times have thrown at us and who boosted George Orwell's 1984 to the top of Amazon's best seller list, and who cleared all copies of it from the shelves of a library where a friend of mine works. It's a book that's inspired me since I was a high school junior, that I read more thoroughly in college, and now I'm taking the time to go through it a third time, to remind myself what it was that inspired me, the notion that truth and facts can be the most valuable commodity that we have and thus the most dangerous substance on earth. I hope it helps them in their quest for the truth and in their struggle to protect it at all cost.
These are strange times we live in, for us in the United States of America, and those affected by them (translation: the rest of the world). I'm not here to influence people's opinion, but I am urging you to do something subversive and world-changing.
Read. Read books. Read lots of books, as many as your schedule allows. Find ways to listen to audiobooks when you're doing things that keep your hands busy but your mind unoccupied. Physical books, digital books, audiobooks, parchment scrolls, bark folios, vellum manuscripts, clay tablets, subway halls and tenement walls - whatever the format, read them. Read books that introduce you to different people, different cultures, different worlds, especially people different from you in some way. Read books that broaden your horizons and shine lights into the corners of your mind and world that usually remain in the dark. Read books that make you think, that make you laugh, that make you cry, that anger you (in good ways!), that challenge your perceptions.
“Truth is singular. Its 'versions' are mistruths.” ― David Mitchell, "Cloud Atlas"
Read. Keep reading. I know I'm probably preaching to the choir, but sometimes the choir needs a rousing speech. If politicians insist on putting down intellectuals because what they have to say shatters their convenient fantasies about the world and who resort to "alternative facts" in order to prop up their shaky positions, keep reading, keep getting the real facts, build yourself up with the truth.
I know, how can an author with horror and dark fantasy titles to her name have any stake in the truth? But here's the thing: horror teaches us to face our fears, even when the outcome of doing so is uncertain, and dark fantasy helps us to accept the fact that not everything in Faeryland is pleasant or beautiful (if I might paraphrase G.K. Chesterton...). Fiction in general helps us to rehearse the real world in all its ugliness and splendor and the mediocrity in between, helps us to see the world through the eyes of other people. There's a study out there that shows that readers of fiction are often more compassionate people than those who don't, and the world could sure use more compassionate people.
"You want weapons? We're in a library. Books are the best weapon in the world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm yourself!" -- Russell T. Davies, "Doctor Who: Tooth and Claw"
I applaud the people who rose to the challenge that these times have thrown at us and who boosted George Orwell's 1984 to the top of Amazon's best seller list, and who cleared all copies of it from the shelves of a library where a friend of mine works. It's a book that's inspired me since I was a high school junior, that I read more thoroughly in college, and now I'm taking the time to go through it a third time, to remind myself what it was that inspired me, the notion that truth and facts can be the most valuable commodity that we have and thus the most dangerous substance on earth. I hope it helps them in their quest for the truth and in their struggle to protect it at all cost.
January 19, 2017
New Year and at last, a New Blog Post
Hello again, dear readers! And so I return after a long absence: work kept me very busy from the middle of November till the beginning of this month. Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hannukkah, New Year's Eve/Day are a very busy time in grocery retail, and so my writing more or less went on hold. Not to say that I didn't have some writing-related work alongside working in the store. The final edits for my offering in Transmundane Press's After the Happily Ever After came in and I had to sign off on those, then came the long wait for my contributor copy, which finally arrived today (at a good time, since it made me feel better as I'm currently dealing with an annoying stomach bug). This is the thickest book I have a selection in, and it's smack in the middle of the book. This marks the fourth book with a piece of my work in it that came out in 2016, and the sixth story that I have in print.
Looking ahead to 2017, I recently signed off on a rough draft of an especially exciting project, an anthology of stories inspired by the King Arthur legends, with a framing device in the form of a novella, making it a collection of stories within a story, and also, I have a secret project in the works, which I'll reveal in due time, as it turned into a present for my dad.
And in new works, I have a story in progress, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour out of Space", which I'm sending to an anthology of stories inspired by same, My offering came about after seeing some rather odd-looking vegetables in the fruits and vegetables display at the Topsfield Fair, and since there's things in the Lovecraft story involving weird-looking produce, I knew exactly where I was going with this offering.
In the meantime, take care of yourselves, dear readers, and may this new year be full of new books to read!
Looking ahead to 2017, I recently signed off on a rough draft of an especially exciting project, an anthology of stories inspired by the King Arthur legends, with a framing device in the form of a novella, making it a collection of stories within a story, and also, I have a secret project in the works, which I'll reveal in due time, as it turned into a present for my dad.
And in new works, I have a story in progress, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour out of Space", which I'm sending to an anthology of stories inspired by same, My offering came about after seeing some rather odd-looking vegetables in the fruits and vegetables display at the Topsfield Fair, and since there's things in the Lovecraft story involving weird-looking produce, I knew exactly where I was going with this offering.
In the meantime, take care of yourselves, dear readers, and may this new year be full of new books to read!
October 26, 2016
Return to the Witch City
I've been taking a bit of a breather from submitting things to various markets, and just plain writing things. Some of this might have come from some despondency when a market I'd submitted to had to cancel their project. At least the editors notified me; there was that one time when an anthology I'd submitted to just... disappeared, with no explanation (I did eventually find another market for that story, so its publication history has a good next chapter).
Though I am writing a couple of Halloween-themed stories; I probably won't have them finished by The Big Dark Night, but I will likely have them done for Halloween of next year. My intent is to put these two, plus the orphaned story into a small collection; perhaps by then, I'll have more stories to add and make it a slightly thicker book. Unless, of course, the stories I'm working on at the mo don't decide to turn themselves into even longer tales than I'm expecting. Writing, at least the way I do it, sometimes has some surprising results; George R.R. Martin has classed writers as gardeners (the kind who just write and let the story unfold itself) or architects (the kind who plot and plan and have a blueprint drawn up even before they start to write the actual tale), and I'm very much a gardener, it would appear.
Most importantly! This weekend, October 29th and 30ths (hopefully both Saturday and Sunday, if I can get Saturday off), I will be returning to Salem, this time with the New England Horror Writers, where my two books, Lovecraft ME and Shadows in Salem: Wicked Tales from the Witch City will be on sale among dozens of books penned by the lovely folks in the group. I'm likely to be in and out and around the town, but it's looking to be another wicked awesome event.
Though I am writing a couple of Halloween-themed stories; I probably won't have them finished by The Big Dark Night, but I will likely have them done for Halloween of next year. My intent is to put these two, plus the orphaned story into a small collection; perhaps by then, I'll have more stories to add and make it a slightly thicker book. Unless, of course, the stories I'm working on at the mo don't decide to turn themselves into even longer tales than I'm expecting. Writing, at least the way I do it, sometimes has some surprising results; George R.R. Martin has classed writers as gardeners (the kind who just write and let the story unfold itself) or architects (the kind who plot and plan and have a blueprint drawn up even before they start to write the actual tale), and I'm very much a gardener, it would appear.
Most importantly! This weekend, October 29th and 30ths (hopefully both Saturday and Sunday, if I can get Saturday off), I will be returning to Salem, this time with the New England Horror Writers, where my two books, Lovecraft ME and Shadows in Salem: Wicked Tales from the Witch City will be on sale among dozens of books penned by the lovely folks in the group. I'm likely to be in and out and around the town, but it's looking to be another wicked awesome event.
October 18, 2016
Halloween Book Signing in Salem, MA
It's a week after the event as I post this, though as per usual, life got interesting, and that interesting included getting yet another story typed and out the door to another possible market (a Halloween themed anthology: since Halloween is my favourite holiday, I couldn't resist submitting), as well as work at the day job and getting the boiler for our hot-water heating system replaced.
But! My first ever book signing, at Salem, MA's Wicked Good Books (formerly the Derby Square Book Store, aka The Place With Floor To Ceiling Piles of Books) on the Essex Street Pedestrian Mall, was a wicked awesome success. I got to meet some of the other writers who shared their tales, got to meet some current and future readers and had a blast signing books (the number of which I quickly lost count) and watching the crowds of folks enjoying witch-haunted Arkham - err, Salem.
Our table, with Amber Newberry, the main editor seated behind it
Your humble author, wearing the world's floppiest witch hat
My tale in ye book links into H.P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model", and as luck would have it, I spotted this sign on a building on Derby Square
But! My first ever book signing, at Salem, MA's Wicked Good Books (formerly the Derby Square Book Store, aka The Place With Floor To Ceiling Piles of Books) on the Essex Street Pedestrian Mall, was a wicked awesome success. I got to meet some of the other writers who shared their tales, got to meet some current and future readers and had a blast signing books (the number of which I quickly lost count) and watching the crowds of folks enjoying witch-haunted Arkham - err, Salem.
Our table, with Amber Newberry, the main editor seated behind it
Your humble author, wearing the world's floppiest witch hat
My tale in ye book links into H.P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model", and as luck would have it, I spotted this sign on a building on Derby Square
September 1, 2016
"And I'm doing this, and I'm signing that..."
Again, a long radio silence, and with good reason: I've had a busy summer behind me, between the day job, another bout of illness (I'm genuinely starting to worry about my immune system) and a fair amount of writing. Not quite as much actual writing as I would like, but one can't always be hitting the notebooks. Sometimes you need to take a break and let the field sit fallow while you fertilize it with reading books/stories/oracular scribbles on walls and experiencing life experiences and listening to music and watching movies and things.
Mostly I've been busy with the business end of writing, to wit, going over edits (and there is one editor whom I owe a set of edits, which I've had some set-backs on, including the above-mentioned illness as well as a file conflict that required some technological tap-dancing) and reading/signing contracts. A fair number of them, while I'm at it,
Most importantly! Shadows in Salem: Wicked Tales from the Witch City, which features my short story "The Thing in the Graveyard" is now available for pre-order with a street date of September 6th, 2016 (Next Tuesday, as I write this on the Thursday before Labor Day), and I've also kit-bashed together an Author Page on Amazon, something which I hacked at for over an hour. Once I had it done and it had gone live, I caught myself sitting there staring at it in sheer disbelief. All these years I've admired the Amazon pages of authors I've liked and admired, and here's a page with my name and bemused face on it, alongside of so many other authors. The metaphoric ship has come in for me, it would seem!
Mostly I've been busy with the business end of writing, to wit, going over edits (and there is one editor whom I owe a set of edits, which I've had some set-backs on, including the above-mentioned illness as well as a file conflict that required some technological tap-dancing) and reading/signing contracts. A fair number of them, while I'm at it,
Most importantly! Shadows in Salem: Wicked Tales from the Witch City, which features my short story "The Thing in the Graveyard" is now available for pre-order with a street date of September 6th, 2016 (Next Tuesday, as I write this on the Thursday before Labor Day), and I've also kit-bashed together an Author Page on Amazon, something which I hacked at for over an hour. Once I had it done and it had gone live, I caught myself sitting there staring at it in sheer disbelief. All these years I've admired the Amazon pages of authors I've liked and admired, and here's a page with my name and bemused face on it, alongside of so many other authors. The metaphoric ship has come in for me, it would seem!
July 10, 2016
Busy with the Business of Writing
Almost two months since my last entry, and a lot of things - mostly good things - have contributed to this radio silence.
Some of the not-so-good things: the day job getting busy. As I've said elsewhere (author bio included!) I moonlight in grocery retail, and now that the warmer weather has arrived in the Miskatonic Valley, cookout season has launched as well, and that means busier shifts at the store where I work, which sadly, cuts into the number of spoons I have at the end of the day when I start writing or typing up my drafts. Needless to say, it's given me a few ideas involving Innsmouth fishpeople having beach parties, or as they would call them ...regular parties.
Also, I had a bout of Really Bad Allergies, to the point that I thought I had contracted strep throat, but thankfully, the only prescription I needed was Sudafed and frozen yoghurt for my scratchy throat (really, the nurse at the CVS Minute Clinic told me to treat myself to some fro-yo for lunch).
But! the good things outweighed the not-so-good: "Brother Swanwing" and "The Thing In The Graveyard" were bought by two anthologies and my King in Yellow story "Paper Masks", which had ended up in limbo when the anthology I sent it to just vanished, will appear in a third anthology alongside some Wicked Awesome KiY Writers (Will reveal more when the book goes live). I'm also working on a Holy Grail story for a King Arthur anthology, and consequently listening to the wonderful audiobook version of The Once and Future King, one of my all-time favourite modern retellings of the King Arthur legend, second only to perhaps John Steinbeck's sadly unfinished but still excellent The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights. Wish me luck on this one, as I'm trying to bash the manuscript into a publishable form.
Some of the not-so-good things: the day job getting busy. As I've said elsewhere (author bio included!) I moonlight in grocery retail, and now that the warmer weather has arrived in the Miskatonic Valley, cookout season has launched as well, and that means busier shifts at the store where I work, which sadly, cuts into the number of spoons I have at the end of the day when I start writing or typing up my drafts. Needless to say, it's given me a few ideas involving Innsmouth fishpeople having beach parties, or as they would call them ...regular parties.
Also, I had a bout of Really Bad Allergies, to the point that I thought I had contracted strep throat, but thankfully, the only prescription I needed was Sudafed and frozen yoghurt for my scratchy throat (really, the nurse at the CVS Minute Clinic told me to treat myself to some fro-yo for lunch).
But! the good things outweighed the not-so-good: "Brother Swanwing" and "The Thing In The Graveyard" were bought by two anthologies and my King in Yellow story "Paper Masks", which had ended up in limbo when the anthology I sent it to just vanished, will appear in a third anthology alongside some Wicked Awesome KiY Writers (Will reveal more when the book goes live). I'm also working on a Holy Grail story for a King Arthur anthology, and consequently listening to the wonderful audiobook version of The Once and Future King, one of my all-time favourite modern retellings of the King Arthur legend, second only to perhaps John Steinbeck's sadly unfinished but still excellent The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights. Wish me luck on this one, as I'm trying to bash the manuscript into a publishable form.
May 16, 2016
Authorhood at Long Last!
A month and change has passed since the last time I posted here, and I can chalk that up to Busy Writing Stories and Sending Them Out Into the World of Submissions. I've got two, sort of three stories on the writing desk at the mo, but I'll save chatter about those for another entry.
Someone once explained the difference between a writer and an author thusly, that a writer is someone who writes and works to improve their craft, while an author is someone who writes, works to improve their craft and gets paid to share their stories with the world. So, by that standard, I am now an author: my short story "The Thing in the Graveyard" just got accepted by FunDead Publications for inclusion in their "Shadows in Salem" anthology, due out in October of this year. I loosely based it off themes and notions from H.P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model" as well as an unused idea from the Old Gent's commonplace book, though I set it in modern Salem and focused it on some fun-loving college pals who head off to Salem on Halloween night... and who get a lot more chills than they bargained for. I may have startled some folks in the Dunkin Donuts where I'd gone for lunch after my shift moonlighting in grocery and I'd started checking my messages via Nyarlathotep the Kindle, whereupon I found ye acceptance message in my inbox and started crowing with delight, but I explained myself - likely sounding like a proud parent announcing the birth or adoption of their child - to which one gal said, "You got every reason to crow, with news like that!"
Someone once explained the difference between a writer and an author thusly, that a writer is someone who writes and works to improve their craft, while an author is someone who writes, works to improve their craft and gets paid to share their stories with the world. So, by that standard, I am now an author: my short story "The Thing in the Graveyard" just got accepted by FunDead Publications for inclusion in their "Shadows in Salem" anthology, due out in October of this year. I loosely based it off themes and notions from H.P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model" as well as an unused idea from the Old Gent's commonplace book, though I set it in modern Salem and focused it on some fun-loving college pals who head off to Salem on Halloween night... and who get a lot more chills than they bargained for. I may have startled some folks in the Dunkin Donuts where I'd gone for lunch after my shift moonlighting in grocery and I'd started checking my messages via Nyarlathotep the Kindle, whereupon I found ye acceptance message in my inbox and started crowing with delight, but I explained myself - likely sounding like a proud parent announcing the birth or adoption of their child - to which one gal said, "You got every reason to crow, with news like that!"
