Sam Stark's Blog, page 2

“For Every Job That Must Be Done, There Is An Element Of Fun” – Mary Poppins

I haven’t been keeping up to date on this blog, and I really should be because a lot has happened the last month.

First, I finished my novel. My dumb apocalypse adventure with land pirates, cute gay boys, and a dash of zombies. I’m not super happy with how it turned out, but I am happy that I finished it. Sometimes just finishing something is good. It felt great for about an hour and a half but then I was staring into the big black void of having nothing to work on and started freaking out. ...

“What sense I had just took her panties off and laid down in front of him.” ― Tiffany Reisz, Submit to Desire

I tried to find the silliest quote for the title of this entry, and well… there you go. You may be wondering why I have a quote from an erotic novel as my title, so let me explain:

I am now in talks for a contract to narrate an erotic novel. Yup.

Last week I decided to find out how audiobook narrators found jobs and stumbled across a site where you can make a profile and put up voice samples and search books looking for narrators. I did some research to see if the site was legit and the ...

“I have never met a vampire personally, but I don’t know what might happen tomorrow.” – Béla Lugosi

I’ve been having some nerdy thoughts about supernatural lore. (Not the tv show, otherwise I would have capitalized it, obviously.) Well, now that I think about it Supernatural would be included, but it’s not what I’m focusing on. I’m thinking more generalized lore.

Let me preface this with a little backstory: I’ve been reading a lot (please read that as “shit ton”) of urban fantasy lately, which I admit goes a little off brand for me as I kind of hate most of the UF out there. I hate a lot of...

You Could Fry An Egg On My Face

It’s hot.

I know if you’re reading this from somewhere like Florida or Texas or something you’re thinking “haha, no it’s not” but goddamnit. It’s hot for Seattle okay? I’m not a fan of the sun, or the beach, or generally nice weather because again, I am from Seattle. I like rain. I love rain. And overcast. Damp is what flows through the blood of the Seattleite. So anything coming even close to 80 degrees is climbing too far; reaching too high. Slow your roll there, partner.

I’ve made the most ...

I Tried To Take One Day At A Time, But Several Days Have Attacked Me At Once

Hello again folks. I hope everyone is having a safe summer. I hope no one is going mad, stuck in their houses with their children for months on end. I hope everyone is finding something to do that’s calming, or soothing, or at least distracting. Because holy cow, I am going pretty stir crazy.

I have been doing some fun projects though. I bought a few bird feeders and placed them in various spots in the front and back yard. I made sure to get different kinds too, so we have food for the bigger...

I’m Trash Because I Love Hunky, Man-Chest Book Covers

I published a book.

I mean, yes, it’s a book but it’s more a novella. It’s a fun little story I wrote for shits and giggles about two dirty-mouthed pirates that fall in love with each other over food. A reader of mine was kind enough to offer their editing services and the niece of one of my writing group pals is a artist/designer. Long story short: I received free editing and free cover art for the book and I am beyond grateful. I don’t know what I would have done without them. (Actually I d...

“I Became Insane, With Long Intervals of Horrible Sanity.”

My dear friends, it has been a rough couple of weeks.

Some of you may know I have a twelve (almost thirteen) year-old daughter. She is wonderful and hilarious and loves horror movies and is basically everything one could want in a daughter.

On February 17th, we had a small kitchen fire that blackened our walls/ceiling, and melted a lot of plastic stuff. It started when a bit of oil splashed out of a pan, caught on the element, and built from there. My daughter was burned pretty badly try...

Double Trouble – More Work Makes It Easier…?

I was thinking of this blog last night and started feeling guilty because I haven’t updated in a while. Truth is, I don’t have much to update. I’m still writing, still plodding through a manuscript that needs thousands of words of overhaul. It’s still too long, even if most of it is still only in my head. I’ve taken to putting names down in an Excel spreadsheet because forgetting characters is a thing. It’s rough because I saw the light at the end of this tunnel, or I thought I did, about seven ...

NaNoWriMo 2019

NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month.

I was sure I was never going to do it again because the last few times I participated, I realized the pressure of putting out a specific amount of words in a short period of time drives me absolutely fucking bananas. The result is usually a massive writer’s block or sickness or something. I have a regular word output every month that’s fairly decent, so it just wasn’t worth it.

However, I did decide to participate this year because a good friend of ...

Grocery Line Epiphanies

Stories are everywhere.

I met an old man in line at the grocery store yesterday. He was friendly and from what I could tell, he was kind. He acquiesced his place in line to a mother with two kids and a cart full of stuff, even though I think he had gotten there first and he had maybe five items in his basket. Someone who gives up a spot in line at the busy hour, to someone who has at least two hundred dollars worth of stuff to ring up, is probably a saint.

I was curious so I stepped ...