Lee Allen Howard's Blog, page 14

I Finished the First Draft of THE BEDWETTER

Almost two months ago I posted the first scene of my work in progress, a dark psychological thriller I’m tentatively calling THE BEDWETTER. It’s about an abused young man with chronic secondary nocturnal enuresis who, as pressures mount, embarks on a killing spree using the tools of his dark fantasies.

I tracked my daily writing milestones with nightly Facebook page updates, and posted a progress report two weeks ago.

I finished ahead of schedule, completing the first draft the evening of April...

Book Review: INSTIGATION by Michael A. Arnzen

INSTIGATION: Writing Prompts on the Dark Side by Michael A. Arnzen from Mastication Publications

“Where do you get your ideas?” Since it’s not cool to say, “From fantasizing about strangling the living shit out of you,” I’m telling everyone, “From Mike Arnzen’s Instigation: Writing Prompts on the Dark Side.”

Michael A. Arnzen, PhD, is an award-winning author of horror fiction (four Bram Stoker awards), an English professor at Seton Hill University, and a mentor in their Writing Popular Fiction...

Progress Report on CALL OF THE PISS FAIRY

A month ago I posted the first scene of my work in progress, a dark psychological thriller I’ve titled CALL OF THE PISS FAIRY (formerly THE BEDWETTER). It’s about an abused young man with chronic secondary nocturnal enuresis who, as pressures mount, embarks on a killing spree using the tools of his dark fantasies.

I’ve started to keep track of my writing progress and wanted to update you in a more comprehensive way than my daily Facebook status updates and tweets.

Idea Development in CALL OF TH...

Progress Report on THE BEDWETTER

A month ago I posted the first scene of my work in progress, a dark psychological thriller I’m tentatively calling THE BEDWETTER. It’s about an abused young man with chronic secondary nocturnal enuresis who, as pressures mount, embarks on a killing spree using the tools of his dark fantasies.

I’ve started to keep track of my writing progress and wanted to update you in a more comprehensive way than my daily Facebook status updates and tweets.

Idea Development in THE BEDWETTER

I originally receiv...

Coming Soon: ODDS AND ENDS by Dustin LaValley

Prepare to be ferried to an unfamiliar realm on the bony back of despair.

Author Dustin LaValley takes us down face first with rapid-fire flash fiction in the form of ODDS AND ENDS: AN ASSORTMENT OF SORTS. Already associated with the dark and bizarre, LaValley expands his repertoire to experiment with form and literary introspection.

These harrowing meditations on the nature of the world—and the very purpose of humanity—not only provide chills, but strangely the effect of this read is vastly di...

A Voice Too Dark? Sneak Preview of THE BEDWETTER

The following is the first scene of my work in progress, which I’m tentatively calling THE BEDWETTER. It’s about an abused young man with chronic secondary nocturnal enuresis who, as pressures mount, embarks on a killing spree using the tools of his dark fantasies.

When I originally received the idea for this novel, I thought it would make a fascinating psychological thriller. But as I opened up to inspiration and the voice that attended it, I became disturbed. Such a dark story, such a dark v...

Coming Soon: ODD MEN OUT by Matt Betts

Fighting for survival in a post-Civil War America overrun by zombies, Cyrus and Lucinda join a military group called the Odd Men Out, and together they face a terrorist army from the North in a showdown over a weapon of enormous power.

The Civil War went on far longer than anyone expected, prompting the North and South to call a truce to fight their common enemy: The Chewers—dead men come to life to attack the living. As a result, a peacekeeping force called the Office of Military Operations i...

Guest Post: Stephanie M. Wytovich, Member of the Dead Poets Society

The number one rule in writing is that if you want to write, and write well, you must write every day. Poetry is no exception. When I decided I wanted to become a poet—something I distinguish greatly from being a fiction writer—I knew it wouldn’t be easy. Poetry doesn’t have a huge market, it certainly doesn’t pay well, and to add to the frustration, when you throw genre on the table, you’re looking at a dead end.

Except you’re not.

I’ve dabbled in literary—as I think every up-and-coming poet s...

Ferreting Out Filter Words

I recently encountered a post on Suzannah Windsor Freeman’s blog, Write It Sideways. It’s about filter words, character POV observations that create an extra layer of perception that distances your reader from what’s happening in your narrative.

Susan Dennard explains in The Writing Life: “Filters are words or phrases you tack onto the start of sentence that show the world as it is filtered through the main character’s eyes.” For example:

Henry saw the rack of magazines along the back wall of t...

Anthology Review: Mirages - Tales from Authors of the Macabre (Edited by Trent Zelazny)

Reblogged from DaveBrendon's Fantasy & SciFi Weblog:

I received this anthology a couple of months ago from one of its contributors, Curt Jarrell, a fellow bookseller and champion of all things Speculative. :-)

I'm really glad that I got an opportunity to read this anthology, because it's one of the best collections of dark, unsettling tales that I've ever read. I won't say that it was a pleasurable read -I'm not sadistic or masochistic- but it was definitely an eye-opener, and supremely memora...