Sarah E. Glenn's Blog, page 17

Cover reveal: Ha-Ha! Horror

"I laughed, I groaned, I shook my head in disbelief....Ha-Ha! Horror will bring a grin to the faces of adults and kids alike..."
--Colleen Wanglund, Monster Librarian

Here's your first taste of Ha-Ha! Horror from the masterful Monstermatt Patterson. We first 'met' Monstermatt during our time with Pill Hill Publishing. He's a remarkable person.

Monstermatt is a horror artist and illustrator who does monster portraits and masks, and a nominee for Best Painter in the Artvoice 2013 Best of Buffalo Awards. He narrates 'The Monster Minute' on the 6' Plus podcast, which is either the best or worst minute of the show. He is the wizard of bad monster jokes, and we're helping him share them with you. Ha-Ha! Horror is proudly presented by Mystery and Horror, LLC.
Learn more about Monstermatt:

http://hahahorror.gravediggerslocal.com/ (you can see some of his material there)
http://monstermattpatterson.wordpress.com/

The 6' Plus podcasts:
http://6ftplus.gravediggerslocal.com/
Be sure to check the Mystery and Horror, LLC website for more information on the book as it becomes available.
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All Hallows' Evil Authors: Meet Daniel Hale!

Today, we're talking to Daniel Hale, author of "Pact of the Lantern". It's a great story, and especially appropriate for a Halloween anthology. That anthology, All Hallows' Evil, is now available in print and Kindle format. We're also doing a giveaway on Goodreads.
Q. Tell us about your inspiration for the story. It is very much a 'reason for the season' tale.A. I wanted to write a Halloween tale that would illustrate the evolution of the original holiday traditions to the ones we know today. I envisioned Halloween as a parallel realm that once a year becomes connected to our world, allowing its beastly denizens to cross over for a short time and spread their celebratory havoc. From there I needed to show why they would follow the rituals of protection—the Jack o’ lanterns lit as a symbolic OFF LIMITS—and the consequences of dishonoring the Pact.    
Q. How did you pick the genre/setting/era you write in?A. I had no specific location in mind for the setting: just an anonymous small town with strong community feelings and prejudices towards Halloween traditions. It saddens me personally to see the celebrations die a little more every year, harmless fun sacrificed for narrow definitions of decency. A place like that would be a windfall to a trio as troublesome as Pintley, Founger and Scabus, and their looting and plundering would only serve to feed the cycle of distrust. 
Q. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?A. When I first started college. I knew I needed to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and it just occurred to me “Hey, I read so much. Why don’t I try writing?” So I’m still trying my hand at that, seeing where I end up. 
Q. What is your current project?A. I like to keep an eye on submission calls for contests and upcoming anthologies, and focus on a number of projects. At the moment I’m trying to finish a story for the “Midian Unmade” anthology of Clive Barker-inspired stories. I’ve also got a story appearing in “The Last Diner” anthology by Fringeworks, which will be coming out soon. After that I want to buckle down and write my first Big Debut Novel. Wish me luck! 
Q. Plotter or pantser?A. All writers are plotters. It’s only in our stories that we have the courage to pants. 
Thanks for talking to us today! And, good luck!

All Hallows' Evil Authors: Meet DJ Tyrer!

Today, we meet multitalented DJ Tyrer, the person behind UK small press Atlantean Publishing as well as the driving force behind The Yellow Site, the King In Yellow wiki. He also figures prominently in the sold-out Sorcery and Sanctity: A Homage to Arthur Machen, coming out in late October from Hieroglyphic Press.

He is also the author of "An Echo of Samhain", one of the stories in All Hallows' Evil. All Hallows' Evil is now available in print and Kindle format. We're also doing a giveaway on Goodreads.

Q. In "An Echo of Samhain" the crime and its investigation are both supernatural in nature. I'm curious about the magical system. Did you draw from actual practices, magic in popular entertainment, other sources..?

The magic system behind "An Echo of Samhain" is intended to evoke the feel of real-world occult and folkloric beliefs, although I have drawn inspiration from those sorts of fiction that are closest to it, mainly horror and the magic of the Shadowrun setting. Although there is a lot of fun to be had with the sort of fantasy settings where wizards can toss around fireballs, I've always be most drawn to the idea of a wizard as a manipulator and magic as something that is difficult to use and comes with a price, rather than something that can be tossed around casually and on a whim.

Q. Tell us more about The Yellow Site.

I became involved with The Yellow Site, a wiki of anything and everything to do with the Yellow or Carcosa Mythos inspired by the works of Ambrose Bierce and Robert W. Chambers, after editing a small press anthology of "King In Yellow" fiction and poetry. My involvement spiralled from there and I ended up, entirely unplanned, as the major driving force behind the site (although, as a wiki, anyone is free to work on it) due to the feedback nature of the process – the more I added, the more topics I realised needed to be added. Even though there is still a great deal more work to be added and the project, by its nature, is open-ended, I believe that it is currently the most comprehensive collection of information on this sub-genre.

Q. Who is your favorite author (I could take a guess) and what really strikes you about their work?

In terms of the authors who have most impacted my writing and dominated my time, Chambers is, of course, there at the head of the list, along with the other greats of weird fiction such as Lovecraft, Machen and Clark Ashton Smith. There is something about the dream-like ambiguity of Chambers' "The King In Yellow" that bewitches me. I suppose it is the desire of the mind to impose order even on the most nebulous of things. There are an infinite number of stories that could be told from that same basic template, each interpreting the source material quite differently.

Q. What is your current project?

I've just finished writing my second "King In Yellow"-inspired novella (the first, "The Yellow House", was released in a limited edition that received some amazingly positive feedback) and am currently in the midst of submitting short stories to a variety of anthologies, both on spec and by request.

Q. What was the first story you wrote? Did you try to publish it?

What I regard as my first 'proper' completed story was "The Legend of Harley", a horror story that I first wrote in my early teens, then reworked in 1996 (according to my records). I included it in an early issue of Monomyth in 1999 and it has been republished since (and there is even a heavily reworked and expanded version of the legend currently under consideration for an anthology at the moment). The location of the story, Harley's Mount, and its environs have gone on to feature in a number of published and unpublished poems and stories, even an article on conlanging. In fact, around 1995/96, I wrote an as-yet-unpublished novel set on The Mount (recently rewritten), which, by coincidence, was the first appearance in my fiction of Paul Starling, who features in "An Echo of Samhain".

Thanks for talking to us today!

Learn more about DJ Tyrer via his personal blog at http://djtyrer.blogspot.co.uk/ , and check out The Yellow Site if you're a Chambers fan.

All Hallows' Evil Authors: Meet Erin Farwell!

Mystery and Horror's second anthology is out! As of today, All Hallows' Evil is now available in print and Kindle format. We're also doing a giveaway on Goodreads.

Today, I'm introducing you to Erin Farwell, author of Shadowlands and "The Carver". This mystery takes place in a Halloween maze set up in a corn field - illuminated by the Jack o' Lanterns of the soon-to-be-victim. Erin's descriptions brought back memories of one of my favorite Samhain celebrations which had a corn maze with interesting encounters. Fortunately, that one was lethal for no one. So, let's learn more about Erin:

Q. I really enjoyed reading about the pumpkin walk. Were you drawing from personal experience when you wrote it?

A. The general setting is from a local farm with a great corn maze, haunted barn, hayride, bonfire, etc., but no pumpkin walk. I know many places that line paths with pumpkins but not one specifically like this. I’m sure they exist; I’ve just never had the pleasure of experiencing one.

Q. What made you decide to start writing your own stories?

A. I’ve written stories since I was a child but set that love aside when I started college. After law school I worked as a consultant, a job I loved, but my writing consisted of reports and articles. I dabbled with fiction writing until about eight years ago when I buckled down and got to work. My first novel wasn’t very good but I learned I could write a beginning, middle, and end. This may seem obvious but I had several friends who wrote great beginnings, then became bored and moved on to the next story. Even though my first book wasn’t good, I learned from that process and my second novel became my first published one.

Q. You've done a lot of traveling. Is there still a place you haven't been that you'd like to go?

A. LOL. I have an entire pinterest board devoted to places I’d like to visit. I would love to ride the Orient Express, visit the Lake District in England, and tour the pyramids. I need to start setting stories in these places so I can have an excuse to go and a tax write off as well.

Q. What is your current project?

A. I’m writing a sequel to Shadowlands. My protagonist, Cabel Evans, took his first steps back into the world in the first book. Now he must deal with his greatest challenge, his family.

Q. Can you tell us a little about your writing process?

Generally, I start with my setting. Many writers begin with their plot or characters but I need to know where the characters live, work, and since I write mysteries, die. Once I have the where, the rest of the story unfolds. When I start a project I know my beginning and my end as well as specific plot points along the way. I find that if I am too structured my writing becomes stiff and the story predictable. When I let things happen more organically the story flows better and I find that small things I put in for background are just what I need to get myself out of a corner I’ve written myself into. These happy coincidences make my stories richer and my characters more natural.

Thanks for talking to us today!

Read "The Carver" and twelve other great mysteries in All Hallows' Evil, and check out Shadowlands as well.

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Guest Post: Leslie Budewitz

And now for something completely different—because sometimes it’s fun to visit another part of the playground. And because sometimes humans are scarier than any zombie or vampire!
My first mystery, Death al Dente, was just published by Berkley Prime Crime. It’s a cozy mystery, and I can hear some of you—readers and writers alike—asking “what’s that?”
You all know the traditional mystery – think Agatha Christie. One of its modern incarnations is the cozy. It’s the comfort food of the mystery world, the mac & cheese. And who doesn’t love that now and again? (Or carbonara if you’re Italian, like my protagonist’s mother.) No graphic sex or violence; lots of graphic food. Okay, so they don’t all involve food. Some involve knitting. Or librarians or booksellers, psychics or museum directors. Or the owners of haunted houses and hotels. But no FBI agents or bomb squads—at least, not as protagonists. The setting is typically a small town, or an identifiable community within a big city, where a murder is a shock that disturbs the natural order. An amateur sleuth— typically female—is drawn in by the personal nature of the crime, and uses her skills and connections to solve it.
But not everyone likes the term. Carolyn Hart, a goddess in the mystery world (and a past president of Sisters in Crime, which designates former leaders as goddesses), asks “How cozy is it to die in agony from poison, knowing your killer is among your intimates, but dying without knowledge of the culprit?” Not cozy at all—downright terrifying—but in my opinion, the term is cheekily ironic for exactly that reason.
There is an official investigation, of course, run by law enforcement. Often, the amateur sleuth hears and sees things the police can’t. She knows the community—she and her shop, café, or gallery are often at its center. As a result, she may be convinced that the police are focused on the wrong person—maybe even her, or someone close—and will act too quickly or fail to take seriously the clues she uncovers. They may think she’s helpful—or try to stop her from interfering. But in the cozy, both the professional and the amateur detectives are essential, because they serve different functions. Their job is to restore external order, through the legal system. In the cozy, they need her help. By giving it, she demonstrates the triumph of the individual over evil. Her involvement in righting a wrong restores balance to the community. She restores social order.
And ultimately, that’s what a cozy is about: community. How it’s formed, how it’s damaged, how it’s restored.
And of course, how it eats.
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Death al Dente by Leslie Budewitz is the first in the Food Lovers' Village Mysteries (Berkley Prime Crime, August 2013). The town of Jewel Bay, Montana—known as the Food Lover's Village—is obsessed with homegrown and homemade Montana fare. So when Erin Murphy takes over her family's century-old general store, she turns it into a boutique market filled with local delicacies. But Erin's freshly booming business might turn rotten when a former employee turns up dead.
Leslie is also a lawyer. Her first book, Books, Crooks &Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law & CourtroomProcedure (Quill Driver Books) won the 2011 Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction, and was nominated for Anthony and Macavity awards.
Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their Burmese cat, Ruff. See Ruff on the cover of Death al Dente and visit Leslie online at  www.LeslieBudewitz.com or www.Facebook.com/LeslieBudewitzAuthor

Launch Party: Wrapping Up

Shipping out the authors' copies.Thanks for joining us during our virtual launch party. We've posted interviews, profiles, excerpts, even one entire story on YouTube. We mailed out the authors' copies of Strangely Funny today. They're traveling from California to Israel.

No rest for the batty, however... we're starting the whole process again with All Hallows' Evil. I've sent out six acceptances so far and will be sending more in the near future.

Changes I'm making:

There's a bigger gap in time from ordering the print copies to receiving the books than suggested by our printer. We'll allow for that in our schedule.I've begun making changes to the guidelines. There are three things our guidelines are supposed to accomplish: identify the type of story we want to publish, make the stories easier for me to read, and facilitate formatting for print and e-books. The last is the most difficult.Some booksellers only allow you to submit 20 names max as contributing authors. I was annoyed that we couldn't list all of Strangely Funny's authors, and they weren't pleased about it either. We will probably limit the number of authors we accept per anthology until that changes. Otherwise, I have to ask someone to be selfless or choose whom to leave out. Neither is a particularly satisfactory option.
Gwen and I are already discussing what anthologies we'll be publishing next year. We haven't made many decisions yet, but one of them will be Strangely Funny 2. Reading the stories and interviewing the authors was too much fun to only experience once.

Win a Free Print Copy of Strangely Funny

Okay, so I've yapped about Strangely Funny all week. I've introduced you to several of the authors, and Gwen has even posted samples from the book.

Right now, you can get a copy for free. Ted Wenskus has done a great audio recording of his story, "Down for the Count". We're going to send a free copy of the book to one of the commenters on the YouTube page. If you've already ordered a copy or downloaded one (thank you), why not pass the info on to a friend?

The drawing is this weekend, so hurry!

Strangely Funny Authors: Meet Ken MacGregor!

Demons yesterday, fairies today. Meet Ken MacGregor, author of "Jake Blossom, Pixie Detective".

Q. What gave you the idea for creating a new genre: fae noir?

I originally wrote this for a sketch comedy show, though it never made it to the stage. I loved the idea of a tough, gritty private eye who was two feet tall (2', 3", dammit!) with wings. It worked much better as a short story. Incidentally, I am floored to be credited with creating a genre. I'd love to see a Fae Noir anthology someday.

Q. What got you interested in writing the genres you normally write in, which are much darker?

I started watching horror movies when I was barely pubescent, for the nudity. My mother wouldn't watch horror, so I never had to worry about getting caught. However, somewhere along the line, I fell in love with horror. I love the visceral response invoked by fear - my own, but yours, too.

Q. What is your current project? Tell us a little about it.

I have a few in the works: a Bizarro story, a zombie clown story, a western horror. An anthology of my work is also forthcoming from Siren's Call Publications. The working title is An Aberrant Mind.

Q. What makes you so sexy?

I can't think of a way to answer this that doesn't make me sound like an egomaniac, so I'm just gonna say "thank you."

Q. We know you're an author. What do you enjoy reading?

I love a good story. I'm a total book whore, and will read anything well-written. If it's really good, I'll read it again. I'm particularly impressed by Neil Gaiman, Gillian Flynn and Joe Hill. There are also many fine storytellers among my peers. Too many to name drop, but I think they already know who they are.

Can I also say, though you didn't ask specifically, that I love doing this? It is so exciting to me, to make a connection to a reader. To make someone laugh, or shudder or go "no way!" is so cool. To get paid for it is even better, but really, that's just gravy.

Thanks for talking with us!

Ken doesn't have a blog right now, but he does have an author page on Facebook. I suggest 'liking' it.

Read Ken's story and many more in Strangely Funny, now available in print, Kindle, and other e-book formats.

Strangely Funny Authors: Meet David Seigler

Today, we're meeting David Seigler, author of "If You Can't Trust a Rhyming Demon, Can You Trust a Demon not to Rhyme?" It's an amusing (and occasionally rhyming) study of human nature. Plus, it has a very engaging demon.

Q. What inspired your notion of a four-foot tall demon who could compose quatrains and haiku on the fly?

The demon was inspired by my Cocker Spaniel, who is not only quite short, but also an evil poet at heart. She spends her time lying in the floor, composing verse and thinking up ways to cause bodily mischief upon anyone foolish enough to come near her. I think she’s already determined the best way to take over the world and she knows it involves the internet. Frankly, we’re all just lucky she keeps getting distracted by pictures of cats.

Q. Tell us about Ground Zero Comics.

Ground Zero Comics is the comic store I opened some twenty years ago at the urging of my therapist. He said I needed something to invest myself in but somehow I misinterpreted his advice to mean that I just wasn't losing enough money in the career that I was in at that time. So I looked around for the most demanding, least financially rewarding occupation I could find and a comic book store seemed to fit the bill. Twenty years later, I can safely say that I haven’t been the least bit disappointed.

Q. What is your current project? Tell us a little about it.

It’s a tender coming of age story about a boy who adopts a deadly snake believing it is the reincarnation of his dead mother. I really hate snakes, so I've been trying to avoid writing it.  I can’t afford therapy anymore so I may have to just finish it and move on.

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about your writing process?

My writing process is very structured. I form an extensive outline and meticulously plot out every move my characters make with a specific outcome in mind. Then when I start the final draft my characters take over and do what they damn well please, which invariably has absolutely nothing to do with what I intended to write. My characters are all like children and I don’t mean that in a good way. They’re petulant and defiant and generally determined to show me who’s in charge (hint: it’s not me). I've tried holding out and not finishing a story until they did what I wanted them to, but in the end they’re always stronger than I am.

Q. We know you're an author. What do you enjoy reading?

Many years ago I attended a lecture by Kurt Vonnegut. I had read a handful of his novels, but I left the lecture determined to read every one of his books. There is something incredibly audacious about his writing. I find that when I describe one of his stories it comes out sounding awful, but his genius is that he makes it work in a way that seems perfectly obvious. Of course right now my own writing has not even a hint of his audaciousness, but I think the reason I keep plugging away is because I hope that at some point it will force me to lose my own inhibitions.
Ultimately the biggest thing I got from Vonnegut was this basic tenet that runs through his work: If you can’t see the absurdity in life, you’re just not paying attention.

Thanks for talking to us today!

Learn more about David Seigler and his projects at http://davidseigler.wordpress.com/ . You might also be interested in learning more about his store, Ground Zero Comics.

And don't forget: Strangely Funny is now on sale in print, Kindle, and other email formats.

Profile: Norman A. Rubin

Norman A. RubinNorman A. Rubin was the first person to send a submission to Strangely Funny. He not only sent one submission, he sent four over the following weeks. From Israel. I was curious, and looked him up online. Mr. Rubin authored several articles that focus on mythology and Near East archaeological subjects, topics I find very interesting. Back during the reign of Kurt Cobain, I was a classical languages student at the University of Kentucky. Didn't finish the degree, but I didn't lose the interest. He'd been published in Archaelogy and Minerva. Now, he was retired, and had turned his hand to fiction.

I sent him an acceptance for "Aunt Bessie and the 'It'", a story I found charming and quite suited to the theme of the anthology. There was another story I particularly liked, but I'd already accepted a story with a similar subject. When I sent the rejection message, I suggested he resubmit it if an appropriate antho opened.

Then I waited. And waited. I wondered if he'd been offended by my last reject. I also held off on my final rejection notices, since I might have an open slot and I didn't want to say 'no' any more times than I had to.

Fortunately, I heard back from his wife. Mr. Rubin was ill, but she would get his permission to print his story for me. I thanked her.

The permission came through, and "Aunt Bessie" appears in the book. I didn't know until recently if I would hear from Mr. Rubin again. I got my answer last week. We're still open for one anthology this year, and I got a submission from him.

Make that two.


Learn more about Norman A. Rubin from his profile at New Myths. You can see some of his nonfiction works at Esra Magazine. He also has an amusing story at Scissors & Spackle.

And don't forget to read his current tale: Strangely Funny is now on sale in print, Kindle, and other email formats.