S.M. Shuford's Blog
December 6, 2021
Please Don't Add My Old Books, Add These Instead!
Please support my new books, listed below. The old ones were largely free prototypes, with the exception of Loverboy, though did have a short run in physical print.
Don't worry - their contents have been rewritten, cleaned up and merged with fresh content, artwork and more cohesive, beautiful books in general, beginning around a rough date of March 2022.
I now have the means to produce stronger, more professional and high-quality books under my own label, thanks to those experimental projects, so one good thing did come out of them.
I am in constant war with health issues, so thank you for being patient with my publishing antics. Please follow my Twitter page for better updates, as I'm more active there.
OFFICIAL BOOKS FOR 2022-BEYOND
The Gates of Paranoia - Contains poetry from Cosmic Love, Blood Ballet, Absolute Heaven, MHz, and Infinite Summer, and new content.
Heart of Blood and Tar - Contains Loverboy and new content.
The Gate Evanescent - Horror novella
Drift From Electric Green - New dark poetry compilation.
Haunt Me to Sleep - A massive horror project that has been delayed a few times, will likely be out by 2024 though.
All Souls Come Undone - Likely my final poetry collection for a long time. Publication date unknown.
Watercolour Hearts - Upcoming short story project, will not be out for awhile.
All of these will be available on major platforms eventually, such as Amazon, Smashwords, Etsy and Barnes & Noble. If you're interested in giving a genuine review, I will give you a discount code for a digital version.
These stories and poems are my schizotypal experience - the elegant, ugly, magnificent, spiritual and horrific. Unlike their older incarnations, I am truly passionate about these. I suppose I fell into the modern trap of trying to churn out new content constantly in the past. All I can ask is that you support the new works to boost them ahead of their rather lackluster predecessors, though I do very much appreciate the praise and honest critiques that those books got during their tiny lifetime.
It broke my heart a little to take the S.M. Shuford Poetry Collection out of print, as someone had just left me a note saying how much they cherished one of the books a few days prior. Hopefully they will discover the new version when it's out.
Don't worry - their contents have been rewritten, cleaned up and merged with fresh content, artwork and more cohesive, beautiful books in general, beginning around a rough date of March 2022.
I now have the means to produce stronger, more professional and high-quality books under my own label, thanks to those experimental projects, so one good thing did come out of them.
I am in constant war with health issues, so thank you for being patient with my publishing antics. Please follow my Twitter page for better updates, as I'm more active there.
OFFICIAL BOOKS FOR 2022-BEYOND
The Gates of Paranoia - Contains poetry from Cosmic Love, Blood Ballet, Absolute Heaven, MHz, and Infinite Summer, and new content.
Heart of Blood and Tar - Contains Loverboy and new content.
The Gate Evanescent - Horror novella
Drift From Electric Green - New dark poetry compilation.
Haunt Me to Sleep - A massive horror project that has been delayed a few times, will likely be out by 2024 though.
All Souls Come Undone - Likely my final poetry collection for a long time. Publication date unknown.
Watercolour Hearts - Upcoming short story project, will not be out for awhile.
All of these will be available on major platforms eventually, such as Amazon, Smashwords, Etsy and Barnes & Noble. If you're interested in giving a genuine review, I will give you a discount code for a digital version.
These stories and poems are my schizotypal experience - the elegant, ugly, magnificent, spiritual and horrific. Unlike their older incarnations, I am truly passionate about these. I suppose I fell into the modern trap of trying to churn out new content constantly in the past. All I can ask is that you support the new works to boost them ahead of their rather lackluster predecessors, though I do very much appreciate the praise and honest critiques that those books got during their tiny lifetime.
It broke my heart a little to take the S.M. Shuford Poetry Collection out of print, as someone had just left me a note saying how much they cherished one of the books a few days prior. Hopefully they will discover the new version when it's out.
March 29, 2020
COVID-19 Update - Book Cancellations
Due to troubles involving the pandemic, and personal issues, the following projects are temporarily cancelled until at least October 2020, if not further beyond that date:
The Gutterpunk Blues - Poetry
Atlantis Drowning - Poetry
Dream Reporters (Working Title) - Science Fiction
Haunt Me to Sleep - Horror (On publishing hiatus, may come into print this year)
MHz - Poetry (Paperback version suspended until later in 2020)
Ignore all of my "reviews" stating the publication dates on these. They will all eventually exist, or are in a state of suspended progress, so I will not remove them from Goodreads.
Stay safe, stay healthy, try to stay sane, and happy reading!
The Gutterpunk Blues - Poetry
Atlantis Drowning - Poetry
Dream Reporters (Working Title) - Science Fiction
Haunt Me to Sleep - Horror (On publishing hiatus, may come into print this year)
MHz - Poetry (Paperback version suspended until later in 2020)
Ignore all of my "reviews" stating the publication dates on these. They will all eventually exist, or are in a state of suspended progress, so I will not remove them from Goodreads.
Stay safe, stay healthy, try to stay sane, and happy reading!
April 27, 2018
Characterization - The Golden Core of a Novel
This is a repost from my original article posted here.
Good characterization I believe makes or breaks the novel – it can either be the novel’s thriving soul or its black hole into oblivion. Earlier this week I finally began the construction of the first full novel I’ve attempted in a long, long time, not previously having the opportunity (or desire) to do so before, and ended up churning out 40 pages’ worth solely of character development.
This might sound like overkill, but a lot of it is choppy and haphazard, since it’s only for my use – it’s really not as much writing as it appears. Most importantly, I can say that I fully know all of the characters – their habits, their hair colours, probably even their shoe size. I can now rattle off what each would do when faced with any situation. Being able to do this is the key to unlocking a novel whose cast will stand out in the minds of readers!
Any sketching, pre-writing and development notes you feel like you should take, do it. Characterization is so vital and time that goes towards it is valuable. If you end up writing a hundred pages or more of character development, that’s a chunk of your novel already done. All that’s left is to translate it into action and meld the characters with their story, which will now be so much simpler since you’ve grown accustomed to the characters – their mannerisms, speech and inner machinations will be pretty much a second skin.
A few tips that will might help to keep a character and a novel succinct and coordinated:
------In-depth and intricate details aren’t usually necessary on minor characters. If they only show up in one instance, we don’t need to know a textbook’s worth of history about them. Or even a large footnote’s worth, for that matter.
------It is good, however, to have a small excess bit of information about every notable character, in case the need-to-know arrives naturally in the story – for example, their general appearance and a bit about their personality or what their role is. But remember that not all of this has the show up in the final product. If characters or notes you find interesting end up not being mentioned in-novel, you can always post them as trivia, or give that character their own short story later.
------Remember – characters are part of the plot, not clots. If you’re not directly inspired to, definitely do not feel like you need to shoehorn in a character solely to be a romantic interest. It’s always obvious and it (almost) always docks points from a book’s review. Romantic interests need to have a fluidity in the story that matches the rest of the cast. Just being pretty is not enough.
------Write characters who appeal to you. If they bore you or if you feel a tinge of lackluster in your mind just thinking about them, maybe rework them. It’s likely they will bore the audience as well if their own creator doesn’t even like them.
------On that point, don’t be ashamed or afraid to write a character of a darker or more sinister nature. You would be surprised at how a vicious antagonist or anti-hero can earn a book its place in literature.
Hopefully these will help you on your writing journey as well. Writing, especially in the early stages, can be extremely trial-and-error with spans of tedium, but moreso they are like an experiment in a lab – the more you are versed in what you’re working with, the better the results will be.
Good characterization I believe makes or breaks the novel – it can either be the novel’s thriving soul or its black hole into oblivion. Earlier this week I finally began the construction of the first full novel I’ve attempted in a long, long time, not previously having the opportunity (or desire) to do so before, and ended up churning out 40 pages’ worth solely of character development.
This might sound like overkill, but a lot of it is choppy and haphazard, since it’s only for my use – it’s really not as much writing as it appears. Most importantly, I can say that I fully know all of the characters – their habits, their hair colours, probably even their shoe size. I can now rattle off what each would do when faced with any situation. Being able to do this is the key to unlocking a novel whose cast will stand out in the minds of readers!
Any sketching, pre-writing and development notes you feel like you should take, do it. Characterization is so vital and time that goes towards it is valuable. If you end up writing a hundred pages or more of character development, that’s a chunk of your novel already done. All that’s left is to translate it into action and meld the characters with their story, which will now be so much simpler since you’ve grown accustomed to the characters – their mannerisms, speech and inner machinations will be pretty much a second skin.
A few tips that will might help to keep a character and a novel succinct and coordinated:
------In-depth and intricate details aren’t usually necessary on minor characters. If they only show up in one instance, we don’t need to know a textbook’s worth of history about them. Or even a large footnote’s worth, for that matter.
------It is good, however, to have a small excess bit of information about every notable character, in case the need-to-know arrives naturally in the story – for example, their general appearance and a bit about their personality or what their role is. But remember that not all of this has the show up in the final product. If characters or notes you find interesting end up not being mentioned in-novel, you can always post them as trivia, or give that character their own short story later.
------Remember – characters are part of the plot, not clots. If you’re not directly inspired to, definitely do not feel like you need to shoehorn in a character solely to be a romantic interest. It’s always obvious and it (almost) always docks points from a book’s review. Romantic interests need to have a fluidity in the story that matches the rest of the cast. Just being pretty is not enough.
------Write characters who appeal to you. If they bore you or if you feel a tinge of lackluster in your mind just thinking about them, maybe rework them. It’s likely they will bore the audience as well if their own creator doesn’t even like them.
------On that point, don’t be ashamed or afraid to write a character of a darker or more sinister nature. You would be surprised at how a vicious antagonist or anti-hero can earn a book its place in literature.
Hopefully these will help you on your writing journey as well. Writing, especially in the early stages, can be extremely trial-and-error with spans of tedium, but moreso they are like an experiment in a lab – the more you are versed in what you’re working with, the better the results will be.
March 12, 2018
Free to Read on My Blog
All of my off-beat, pseudo-psychedelic haiku will now be free to read on my blog shortly after their publications, for those who prefer that over the eBook download. Just check out the "books" page, and go to "related blog posts" to find them. New collections will come out monthly, and are still available as eBook freebies.
https://bloodredvelvet.wordpress.com/...
Cosmic Love is already being posted on my blog as we speak. Don't forget to leave a review ;)
https://bloodredvelvet.wordpress.com/...
Cosmic Love is already being posted on my blog as we speak. Don't forget to leave a review ;)
March 9, 2018
Ruminations on Horror
Horror is the genre I always end up revolving back around to, in the end. Not sure how, but it happens. Whatever whims I have to read another genre might last a long time, but this is where I always return to, one way or the other. I guess that’s just the way things are, right? Wherever you float away to, something disturbing always waits where you’re sure to meet it along the way.
But anyway… horror to me is like music – there’s something of quality in every type of it, even if it’s hard to find. Like, I don’t prefer “attack-of-the-50-foot-monster” sort of horror, and I have mixed feelings about splatterpunk (though the name ‘splatterpunk’ is awesome) but I get their appeal. I truly love horror poetry, a genre there is simply never enough of, and atmospheric horror is the bomb.
I find also that folklore tends to skirt a hard edge between fantasy and horror, often just falling outright into the latter. Having read a lot of American and German folklore, it seems like they alone have more cannibalism, beheadings and dark occultism than your average horror novel (shoots a glance at the folklore books emanating a bloody aura on their shelf).
But if one has to capture my heart, it’s surreal horror. Surreal horror I guess is a bit of an acquired taste, but I’ve always liked weird, dreamlike things that are horrific for no reason you can really put in words. There is something fundamentally, nightmarishly wrong but when you try to place what it is, it’s gone or it’s changed. That is truly haunting.
Follow along on my other blog: https://bloodredvelvet.wordpress.com
But anyway… horror to me is like music – there’s something of quality in every type of it, even if it’s hard to find. Like, I don’t prefer “attack-of-the-50-foot-monster” sort of horror, and I have mixed feelings about splatterpunk (though the name ‘splatterpunk’ is awesome) but I get their appeal. I truly love horror poetry, a genre there is simply never enough of, and atmospheric horror is the bomb.
I find also that folklore tends to skirt a hard edge between fantasy and horror, often just falling outright into the latter. Having read a lot of American and German folklore, it seems like they alone have more cannibalism, beheadings and dark occultism than your average horror novel (shoots a glance at the folklore books emanating a bloody aura on their shelf).
But if one has to capture my heart, it’s surreal horror. Surreal horror I guess is a bit of an acquired taste, but I’ve always liked weird, dreamlike things that are horrific for no reason you can really put in words. There is something fundamentally, nightmarishly wrong but when you try to place what it is, it’s gone or it’s changed. That is truly haunting.
Follow along on my other blog: https://bloodredvelvet.wordpress.com
March 5, 2018
Blood Ballet - Haiku
Blood Ballet is a hesitant entry in my haiku collections. It is a ballet – but a silent one with a single, disjointed dancer who moves like a mannequin.
I love it no less than anything else I’ve written, but by nature it is… parasitic and strange, for lack of a better description. This mini-eBook, an improvement style-wise on the one before it, will be available likely around mid-March for anyone to read or download. I dream of one day publishing these in paperback form as a big omnibus, but that may take time.
Read some sample haiku here on my blog:
https://bloodredvelvet.wordpress.com/...
I love it no less than anything else I’ve written, but by nature it is… parasitic and strange, for lack of a better description. This mini-eBook, an improvement style-wise on the one before it, will be available likely around mid-March for anyone to read or download. I dream of one day publishing these in paperback form as a big omnibus, but that may take time.
Read some sample haiku here on my blog:
https://bloodredvelvet.wordpress.com/...
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