Bert S. Lechner's Blog, page 5
June 30, 2023
Fortnightly Writing Update: Episode 3
Hey there! Welcome to my third fortnightly writing update, where I go over how the past two weeks have gone in the world of writing. Read on for story updates, writing progress, and more!
Writing UpdatesLast week marked not only the completion of the story His Castle Crumbles, but also the completion of my short story collection, The Roots Grow Into the Earth! I’m quite pleased with how these stories ended up and I’m really excited to see them on paper and in stores this October.
In addition to completing those, I also succeeded in my June goal to write 600 words every day! In total I wrote just a smidge under 20,000 words this month: that’s a little less than half a novel’s worth of words.
For July I won’t be setting myself a word count per day goal since I’ll be focusing on last editing checks, formatting, and marketing for The Roots Grow Into the Earth, but I’ve still got a handful of projects in the pipeline that I’d like to work on. Speaking of which…
I have two short stories and a novel in the works currently. The short stories are planned to release on the website whenever they are complete, and you’ll hear about those when I have more information!
The novel, on the other hand, is going to remain a secret for now.
In addition to in the works stories, I also have a third new story which I’ve submitted to a flash fiction competition run by author Patrick Mcnulty. If you’d like to read my entry, titled Beach Day, you can find it here. Also go check out the other contenders here, and consider submitting a story as well!
The page on which I keep all my stories is going to get a face lift soon so that you don’t have to scroll so much to find the later stories, so keep your eyes out for that.
In addition, to prepare for the release of The Roots Grow Into the Earth, bertwriteshorror.com will be getting a store page where you can go to purchase a hard copy of the book when it’s released, as well as any future releases and potential merchandise (I do already have a merchandising idea for The Wall).
Anyway, that’s all I have for you this week. Stay tuned for more information on upcoming releases over the next few months and I’ll catch you again in another two weeks for the next fortnightly update!
June 27, 2023
The Roots Grow Into the Earth is Coming to a Bookstore Near You!
Huge news today!
My first ever paperback book is coming out on October 7, 2023.
The Roots Grow Into the Earth is a collection of all of my existing short stories and novelettes, including the three books I have published on Amazon.com and the six shorter stories I have published here on bertwriteshorror.com.
This first book has been a decade in the making, and I’m overjoyed to finally be only months away from having my first book in my hands.
Stay tuned over the next few months for cover reveals, opportunities for reviewers to receive and ARC copy, and more!
The Roots Grow Into the Earth will be available wherever books are sold, and I am also planning on creating a webstore here at bertwriteshorror.com.
If you’re a reviewer, have a podcast or a YouTube channel, come find me on your social media of choice and let’s collaborate!
Do you have a favorite local bookstore, or do you own a bookstore? Send me a note as well!
June 22, 2023
Behind the Story: His Castle Crumbles, and its Subtext of Emotional Abuse
This post contains mild spoilers for His Castle Crumbles.
His Castle Crumbles started as just a cool title that I thought sounded pretty cosmic horror appropriate. The only scene that was a known entity in the story was the gruesome conclusion, a scene which I created specifically because I wanted a raw ending to The Roots Grow Into the Earth. At its inception I intended on creating an atmospheric story of a man blinded by hubris, the author of his own downfall as he toyed too far with something beyond his power.
Part way into writing, however, I realized that the story had chosen to take a different direction. Instead of a egotistical protagonist, I had written a man caught within a cycle of emotional abuse and manipulation. A man repeatedly broken down by his Patron through emotional outbursts, subsequently showered with gifts when he did what it wanted. An endless cycle of abuse that is repeated until he is destroyed by giving up the last pieces of himself.
The story ended up reflecting my own experiences as a survivor of emotional abuse and intimate partner violence. I found myself in a situation where my personality and my challenges as an undiagnosed autistic person were criticized, demeaned, and vilified in emotional outbursts, followed by periods of love bombing after I accepted the blame and apologized. By the end of the relationship my self esteem had crumbled to its lowest low; my ability to stand up for myself, to create boundaries, had disappeared entirely; in effect, I had too torn off pieces of myself to appease this abuser until there was nothing left.
Looking back I realize now that a lot of my work has ended up becoming a way to reflect on the abuse, and the recovery from that abuse that I have gone through. But His Castle Crumbles has by far the most direct correlation to my own experiences.
I have no doubt that my experiences will continue to shape the stories I write, and while it can be difficult to face my trauma I think in the end it creates a very different twist on cosmic horror.
If you enjoy these sorts of insights into my writing please let me know in the comments! If you haven’t yet read His Castle Crumbles you can check it out at this link here.
June 21, 2023
His Castle Crumbles is Now Available!
It’s a day early but I couldn’t wait any longer. His Castle Crumbles is now available to read here on my website for free!
About His Castle CrumblesHe wanders the halls of his castle, dread pursuing him through the halls of ivory stucco and gilded pillars. His life is about to collapse around him…
A short blurb, but to give you any more would spoil the fun!
You can find His Castle Crumbles by clicking the “My Books” text in the navigation bar atop this webpage, or alternatively just use this link here.
June 19, 2023
Cover Reveal: His Castle Crumbles
I present to you the cover for His Castle Crumbles!
This story is absolutely insane. It’s a tale of a man’s life falling apart, taken to cosmic horror extremes: it’s the first time I’m writing a story in present tense; it’s inspired by German expressionism; and it contains by far the most graphic ending of a story I’ve written.
I can’t wait to share it with you.
His Castle Crumbles will be available here on bertwriteshorro.com on June 22, but may come out earlier because I’m so excited about it.
This story is also the final planned story for my paperback collection, The Roots Grow Into the Earth, so stay tuned for details on the release of that project.
June 16, 2023
Fortnightly Update, Episode 2
Hello and welcome to the Fortnightly Update! I’ve got some huge news so get ready!
Story UpdatesThe biggest news I have for you is that my next story is finished! A title and cover reveal will be coming as soon as my last edits are completed, but more importantly this means that my series, The Roots Grow Into the Earth, is now done.
That means a paperback copy will be coming later this year, and it also means that I can shift my focus to finishing a novel that I’m about a fifth of the way finished with!
There are still a generous number of short stories I’d like to add to the website as well, so keep your eyes peeled for announcements with that.
My writing goals changed a lot over the past two weeks: initially it had been my plan to complete episodes 5 and 6 of Illusions of Grandeur, but, well…that project very simply wasn’t going as I would like it to. So instead the stories ended up on the website.
I have been able to continue my personal challenge of writing six hundred words a day, however, and have managed to hit that mark every day this month, which I’m quite pleased with.
This week saw my first foray into performing live readings, and though the turnout was relatively small I had a great time with it! The feedback from the recordings of the live readings has been incredibly positive, and so I am absolutely planning on narrating as many of my works as I can.
You can find my video recordings of narrated stories on a new page on the website. Click here to check out that new page, or use the ‘Media’ button on the navigation bar near the top of the page!
That’s all I have for you today, but stay tuned for news on the new story and the paperback version of The Roots Grow Into the Earth!
June 14, 2023
Interstate Has a New Cover!
Interstate has a brand new cover, commissioned from @missarte.crafts.
The original cover of Interstate used art from the Kindle Create database, and was not all that original, so I decided to commission a brand new cover for my first story to help it stand out. In all likelihood I expect I’ll get new covers for The Wall and Joanne’s Vault in the future, but Interstate’s cover change was the most pressing.
Check out how it looks on Amazon! If you haven’t given the story a read or a review yet please consider doing that as well!
Stay tuned for the Fortnightly Update, Episode 2, coming this Friday, as well as a new page on the website for multimedia.
June 11, 2023
The Books are Live
Happy very late Sunday night!
The stories from my Kindle Vella series Illusions of Grandeur, as well as the three stories originally posted as blogs, are now available for free on the site!
You can find all of my books, including links to my Amazon stories, via the new navigation bar near the top of the home page (or follow this link here).
There’s one more story that I plan to release on the website before I focus on getting a paperback collection published. I’d also like to continue publishing free stories when I can on the website, and have at least two stories that are planned to be released on the site after my paperback!
I hope you enjoy the stories and their new covers!
June 6, 2023
My Stories are Moving!
Illusions of Grandeur is Moving to bertwriteshorror.com
I was interested in giving Kindle Vella a go with my project, Illusions of Grandeur, to see if it was a sort of market that would work for me. After some careful consideration, however, I’ve decided that the platform really doesn’t work well for my genre or my style of storytelling, and I’ve been struggling with the limitations Kindle Vella has for republishing work outside of that platform.
The stories in Illusions of Grandeur instead will be moving here to my website, where you’ll be able to read them for free!
Coming soon to this webpage you’ll see a navigation bar at the top of the page with options to read these and any future free stories I publish, as well as information and links to stories I publish elsewhere.
Other Stories that Will be Joining Illusions of Grandeur on the Website
In addition to Illusions of Grandeur, three stories which were originally published as blog posts will be moving to the new books page, in addition to getting their own cover titles!
I also plan to publish two more short stories here on the website, which were originally planned for the Illusions of Grandeur project!
Thank you for reading, and keep your eyes peeled for announcements of when each story drops on this platform!
June 2, 2023
Fortnightly Update, Episode 1
Hey there and welcome back to the Fortnightly Update! Read on for story progress, updates, and more.
Story Progress
The story that is planned to cover Episodes 5 and 6 of Illusions of Grandeur are going slowly but surely: it’s been one of those stories that started out with a silly idea and became a story that required a considerable amount of research for the sake of realism. I’ve ended up having to rewrite a lot of it, but as of today I’m back to the word count before the revision.
The story for Episodes 7 through 10 is also almost finished: this story is pretty different from the others I’ve written so far and I’m still keeping it a tightly guarded secret, but in my opinion it is the most opulent, bleak, and gruesome thing I’ve written so far so I’m excited to share it when it’s done.
As far as publishing goes, once episode 10 of Illusions of Grandeur is out you can expect the Kindle ebook version to be released about a month and a half after.
Personal Challenges
For May I challenged myself to write 200 words a day to help me get more accustomed to writing in larger spurts every day. I knocked that challenge out of the park, so for June I’m upping the challenge to try 600 words a day! It’s going to be quite a lot more challenging but I’m hoping that getting that much out each day will help me improve my writing muscles and get my creative works out faster.
Live Reading Coming the 12th and 13th!
To celebrate my one year publishing anniversary on June 12th I’m going to be reading my story ‘Their Eyes Were Dust’ live on Instagram at 5pmPST!
If you don’t have access to Instagram I’ll also be doing a live reading on the 13th on Twitch at 5pm PST. The Twitch stream should remain available for viewing a few days after the live event ends if you’re not able to be there for the time.
If the recording is particularly good I’ll make sure to embed the video here on my website as well for your viewing pleasure!
That’s all I have for this week, so I’ll see you in a fortnight!
