Erik Gustafson's Blog, page 23

At the park

Just sitting in a park waiting for the band days parade to start. On sitting on a high log bench with my feet dangling below me. It's chilly and feels like fall now. The air is crisp and blue. There are trees all over the park. The leaves and mostly yellow and gold. I'm eating a warm slice of Casey's pizza.

People watching.

There are people walking around everywhere. Most are carrying coffee and have a folding chair slung over their shoulder. Dozens of strollers. Kids swarming over...

Ghosts on TV!

I am a huge paranormal TV junky. I love to scan the channels searching for the scariest reality show out there! I eagerly await new programming to see if it will top the scare factor charts for me!

My two favorites write now are Ghost Adventures and the Travel Channel and Paranormal Witness on SyFy!

I was a huge fan of Ghost Hunters on SyFy but it turned into the investigators always saying the same thing each week and having experiences that were always just off camera. It's left me bored a...

New short story: The Fishers

I put together an new short horror story! Its free too!

The Fishers is a short story about a father and son heading out to go fishing early one morning. They find their way down to a pond and cast out. After a bit, the boy thinks he sees a turtle out in the water…

Find it here on Smashwords: The Fishers

Please give it a read and let me know what you think!! Hope to see some honest reviews up there soon!

Do Pets Help You Write?

I have two cats and a little fluff dog. His name is Oliver. The cats are Gatsby and Molly. Gatsby is a big, 15 pound orange cat that thinks he is a dog. The dog thinks he is a cat or something. Molly is a shy gray cat with soft fur. She knows she is a cat and acts like one.

But Molly loves the dog too. As you can see here:

They also all groom each other and lounge around together.

You see what I mean? This is typical.

Gatsby likes to help me write. He is up on my lap and keyboard purr a...

Psychology and Character Development

Getting ready to head out to a high school football game. The games are always a good time but I have to be honest: I go for the band! My daughter plays the clarinet during the pre-game show and half time!

I have been reading a lot about ways to create characters for your stories and books. Everyone has an idea how to make your characters more believable and how to make them resonate with your readers. Its true I have learned a lot from many different people.

The best advice I have heard...

Old Short Stories

In high school I wanted to be a writer. I wrote many short stories and most of them are horrible. I wrote them on a word processor for a while and later on an Apple IIc that I bought with money I saved from working at McDonalds. I still have all those stories. I scanned them a decade ago so they would be saved.

I have been looking at them and trying to decide if there are any ideas worth salvaging….a total rewrite would be needed to say the least but if there is a spark of an idea there...

New font for my book cover

Whatcha think of the new font??

All new horror novel Fall Leaves and the Black Dragon

That's right, I said all new. You may have seen my book around over the past few months and that is true enough….but I fell into the trap many new writers fall prey too: excitement! I wrote the book, read it over a couple times and threw it on Smashwords.

It is a great story but it was never properly edited…until now!! Editing is an important step apparently

My book was graciously edit by fellow horror writer Jackie G Williams. She has a great heart and a very creepy collection of short s...

Guest blog: Thea Atkinson's great new book!

Today I have a super surprise for everyone! Not only am I publishing my first guest blog, but how fortunate am I that my first guest blogger is Thea Atkinson?! WOW! I have read her work and she is a talented writer…you will want to get a copy of her new book…

The bedrock of family and fiction

Thea Atkinson

My Grandmother was a war bride. I never really understood what that meant as a kid. I assumed it meant she'd left her country to marry a man she'd met during the war. And it does. It does m...

Short and Scary Stories

So I happened upon a cool website called Short and Scary Stories

It is a wonderful little gem that graciously posts short horror stories. I think you should go check it out and throw a story up there. The stories all have honest feedback from several people. Its a great way get your words out there and see what people think!

Its also a great place to go if you are in the mood to read some quick horror!

I have one of my short stories there. Its titled "The Road to Safety" ….if you visit...