D.T. Neal's Blog, page 12
February 23, 2024
Book 3 Underway!
Yeah, I know I said I was going to rest my brain (and fingers) a bit after having drafted Book 2, but I started writing Book 3 today, and already cranked out 5K words on it. So much for resting my brain!
This series has been snap, crackling, and popping for me, and I (guardedly) think it might actually be able to find its audience. I love the characters in it so much, which makes writing them really easy for me, especially having built out the world they inhabit.
It's both an homage to and a parody of things I love, which I think helps with the writing of it. I know I'm being vague, but I never like to let the steam out of the boiler when I'm in the zone.
Further, it's going to be weird because my rough battle plan for release is:
Book 1 (BRIGHTEYES): June 2024
Book 2 (TBA): 2025
Book 3 (TBA): 2026
So, even though I'm writing these books now, 2 & 3 won't be appearing until '25 and '26. My hope is that BRIGHTEYES will captivate enough readers that the demand for the sequels will be there well ahead of time.
I honestly don't know if the ease of writing these books is because of the worldbuilding or type of story or even that I've had these characters in my head for >28 years, but it's just cooking for me!
Part of me thinks that if I'm able to crank 3 as readily as I did 1 & 2, I should do 4, 5, 6, and 7 the same way. Just keep lining them up and writing them. Then I could have them banked and rolled out as needed.
Ideally before AI comes along and steamrolls all of us human writers into oblivion. That said, this is such an accessibly quirky and fun series that it should still be enticing to readers, even if the AI apocalypse descends upon us all.
Sebadoh | On Fire
This series has been snap, crackling, and popping for me, and I (guardedly) think it might actually be able to find its audience. I love the characters in it so much, which makes writing them really easy for me, especially having built out the world they inhabit.
It's both an homage to and a parody of things I love, which I think helps with the writing of it. I know I'm being vague, but I never like to let the steam out of the boiler when I'm in the zone.
Further, it's going to be weird because my rough battle plan for release is:
Book 1 (BRIGHTEYES): June 2024
Book 2 (TBA): 2025
Book 3 (TBA): 2026
So, even though I'm writing these books now, 2 & 3 won't be appearing until '25 and '26. My hope is that BRIGHTEYES will captivate enough readers that the demand for the sequels will be there well ahead of time.
I honestly don't know if the ease of writing these books is because of the worldbuilding or type of story or even that I've had these characters in my head for >28 years, but it's just cooking for me!
Part of me thinks that if I'm able to crank 3 as readily as I did 1 & 2, I should do 4, 5, 6, and 7 the same way. Just keep lining them up and writing them. Then I could have them banked and rolled out as needed.
Ideally before AI comes along and steamrolls all of us human writers into oblivion. That said, this is such an accessibly quirky and fun series that it should still be enticing to readers, even if the AI apocalypse descends upon us all.
Sebadoh | On Fire
February 22, 2024
Book 2 Finished!
In other news, I finished up my first draft of Book 2 in my WIP urban fantasy thriller trilogy! It topped out at around 80K words, which was my planned book length for it.
I'm very pleased how this one turned out, really think it's a solid middle book of the trilogy. Great action sequences, fun character interactions and dialogue. A joy to write!
Also, Book 2 broke my own personal speed record -- I cranked this one out in a week! Never in my life have I written something so quickly (although, ironically, I wrote Book 1 in two weeks).
This has been a kind of revelation for me, that it's possible, at least with these books, for me to write that quickly.
Another part of it is that I still don't have a job, so, when I'm not job-hunting, I'm writing -- my logic being the gift of time that comes with being unemployed isn't something I should squander as a writer. Ergo, I've been writing. A LOT.
It lets me glimpse what I could be capable of if I were able to write full-time. If nothing else, I have that as a consolation prize for still being unemployed.
I'm going to let my brain rest a bit before I write Book 3 in the trilogy, but I'll be curious how quickly this one comes together for me. If I'm able to turn out books this quickly, I may dive into some others and see if it's just a fluke tied to this series of books, or whether I can apply it to some of the other writing projects I have lined up. If I could bank a number of novels this way, that might be useful down the road.
I'm very pleased how this one turned out, really think it's a solid middle book of the trilogy. Great action sequences, fun character interactions and dialogue. A joy to write!
Also, Book 2 broke my own personal speed record -- I cranked this one out in a week! Never in my life have I written something so quickly (although, ironically, I wrote Book 1 in two weeks).
This has been a kind of revelation for me, that it's possible, at least with these books, for me to write that quickly.
Another part of it is that I still don't have a job, so, when I'm not job-hunting, I'm writing -- my logic being the gift of time that comes with being unemployed isn't something I should squander as a writer. Ergo, I've been writing. A LOT.
It lets me glimpse what I could be capable of if I were able to write full-time. If nothing else, I have that as a consolation prize for still being unemployed.
I'm going to let my brain rest a bit before I write Book 3 in the trilogy, but I'll be curious how quickly this one comes together for me. If I'm able to turn out books this quickly, I may dive into some others and see if it's just a fluke tied to this series of books, or whether I can apply it to some of the other writing projects I have lined up. If I could bank a number of novels this way, that might be useful down the road.
True Defective Redux
Sorry to keep harping on this, but I just saw that a Season 5 of TRUE DETECTIVE has been approved by HBO, with Issa López, the one who served up the dreadful NIGHT COUNTRY apparently greenlit to do Season 5.
Several things -- I saw rumors that López had wanted to do NIGHT COUNTRY as its own show, and that HBO compelled her to make it part of TRUE DETECTIVE -- if that's the case, then that can explain why it sucked so badly, with the ill-fitting and pointless nods to Season 1 thrown in there.
But how cynical is HBO being in giving Season 5 to Issa López because of the big audiences for Season 4? Way cynical. Despite the big audience, Season 4 stunk (for reasons I already stated).
The boosters will be ecstatic, and are even going on the attack to deride Season 1 as somehow inferior to this Season 4 drek. That's insane. Season 1 will always be the best season of TRUE DETECTIVE, and, in retrospect (and despite booster audience rankings), Season 2 will always be second-best of the four seasons so far. People may not ever realize that, or be afraid to.
Season 1 and Season 2 remain THE best seasons of TRUE DETECTIVE. The rest? Not a chance. Here's the quality gauge of the seasons:
1 > 2 > 3 > 4
It's not even debatable.
What's happened to the television world where people elevate junk and diss actually good stuff? While one can opine that taste is subjective, there really are good and bad television shows out there. People may love junk, but loving junk doesn't make it treasure.
I'd be curious if the DARK COUNTRY lovers would compare it to, oh, I don't know, THE SOPRANOS and claim it was better than that? Or BREAKING BAD? Or BETTER CALL SAUL? Or THE AMERICANS? Or even PENNY DREADFUL?
Seriously -- is DARK COUNTRY just the greatest television show in TV history? Stack it up against actually good shows, and you know what it is? Trash. It's junk, and it has fuck-all to do with the female-led cast. It was just poorly-written tele-trash.
It's like people thinking meatloaf and hamburger helper is the same as steak. "It's JUST as good." No. No, it's not.
Even though people are dogging him for griping about Season 4, I feel sympathy for Nic Pizzolatto -- I mean, he got the whole ball rolling with TRUE DETECTIVE, and while he's retained an executive producer credit, he's seen his series, what he created, gradually slip out of his control by way of HBO, and become something else. Further, people are actually slagging him, even though there'd be no TD without his original inspiration!
Are people just so acculturated to loving junk, now? Has the ability to make aesthetic judgments simply faded away before the mob? Season 4 burned me. I *wanted* it to be good, and it simply wasn't. I won't be fooled again.
Several things -- I saw rumors that López had wanted to do NIGHT COUNTRY as its own show, and that HBO compelled her to make it part of TRUE DETECTIVE -- if that's the case, then that can explain why it sucked so badly, with the ill-fitting and pointless nods to Season 1 thrown in there.
But how cynical is HBO being in giving Season 5 to Issa López because of the big audiences for Season 4? Way cynical. Despite the big audience, Season 4 stunk (for reasons I already stated).
The boosters will be ecstatic, and are even going on the attack to deride Season 1 as somehow inferior to this Season 4 drek. That's insane. Season 1 will always be the best season of TRUE DETECTIVE, and, in retrospect (and despite booster audience rankings), Season 2 will always be second-best of the four seasons so far. People may not ever realize that, or be afraid to.
Season 1 and Season 2 remain THE best seasons of TRUE DETECTIVE. The rest? Not a chance. Here's the quality gauge of the seasons:
1 > 2 > 3 > 4
It's not even debatable.
What's happened to the television world where people elevate junk and diss actually good stuff? While one can opine that taste is subjective, there really are good and bad television shows out there. People may love junk, but loving junk doesn't make it treasure.
I'd be curious if the DARK COUNTRY lovers would compare it to, oh, I don't know, THE SOPRANOS and claim it was better than that? Or BREAKING BAD? Or BETTER CALL SAUL? Or THE AMERICANS? Or even PENNY DREADFUL?
Seriously -- is DARK COUNTRY just the greatest television show in TV history? Stack it up against actually good shows, and you know what it is? Trash. It's junk, and it has fuck-all to do with the female-led cast. It was just poorly-written tele-trash.
It's like people thinking meatloaf and hamburger helper is the same as steak. "It's JUST as good." No. No, it's not.
Even though people are dogging him for griping about Season 4, I feel sympathy for Nic Pizzolatto -- I mean, he got the whole ball rolling with TRUE DETECTIVE, and while he's retained an executive producer credit, he's seen his series, what he created, gradually slip out of his control by way of HBO, and become something else. Further, people are actually slagging him, even though there'd be no TD without his original inspiration!
Are people just so acculturated to loving junk, now? Has the ability to make aesthetic judgments simply faded away before the mob? Season 4 burned me. I *wanted* it to be good, and it simply wasn't. I won't be fooled again.
February 20, 2024
House Bands
I think I posted this elsewhere, but I amused myself by thinking of the "house bands" representing the WIP trilogy I'm working on, which owes a lot to some woefully underappreciated 90s bands that I still love, whose work fueled my drafting of the manuscripts.
Even though the story's not set in the 90s, for me, these 90s "house bands" represent that 90s vibe in the writing of these stories.
I already included a bunch of the songs that propelled me through Books 1 and 2 in my Soundtracking post. Anyway, these are the "house bands" for those books:
Book 1: Harvey Danger
Book 2: Jawbreaker
I'm curious to see who will be the "house band" for Book 3. But if you want to capture the vibe of this new trilogy (either before, during, or after reading them), listen to the songs by these great bands, and you'll get in the spirit of the stories I'm writing.
This song (below) is definitely at the top of my running playlist as I'm writing the final chapters of Book 2...
Veruca Salt | 25
Even though the story's not set in the 90s, for me, these 90s "house bands" represent that 90s vibe in the writing of these stories.
I already included a bunch of the songs that propelled me through Books 1 and 2 in my Soundtracking post. Anyway, these are the "house bands" for those books:
Book 1: Harvey Danger
Book 2: Jawbreaker
I'm curious to see who will be the "house band" for Book 3. But if you want to capture the vibe of this new trilogy (either before, during, or after reading them), listen to the songs by these great bands, and you'll get in the spirit of the stories I'm writing.
This song (below) is definitely at the top of my running playlist as I'm writing the final chapters of Book 2...
Veruca Salt | 25
True Defective
The latest edition to TRUE DETECTIVE lumbered through (NIGHT COUNTRY), and I'm convinced that HBO needs to just walk away from the series.
Season 4 was the worst season ever. It serves as a warning that good intentions aren't as necessary as good writing for a television show, because this one desperately needed good writing, and just didn't have it -- the showrunners failed the cast, failed the show, failed the series, and failed the fans of TRUE DETECTIVE. And all because the writing sucked.
There are boosters of this season who look at the female-led cast and the indigenous women (and issues) of the season as the touchpoints for why people aren't liking it. While there may be some bros doing that, I'm not one of them -- I don't have any problem with a female-led cast nor with indigenous people's issues driving a show. I really wanted this season to be good. I was very hopeful that it would be.
However, it wasn't. The writing just wasn't there. The dialogue wasn't there. The characterization wasn't there. The humor wasn't there. The story wasn't there. All of the elements that made TD1 such a phenomenon weren't there.
What WAS there? Jodie Foster pretending to be straight (a weird choice -- they should have just run with her gayness). A bizarre overuse of the color teal, as if that signified anything. A mumbo-jumbo storyline. Boring, dreary dialogue. Pointless character actions without narrative payoffs. Bad acting from some in the cast. Needless nods to TD1 in an attempt to gin up audience interest (again, without purpose beyond goosing audience expectations). The detectives not being particularly good detectives. Rotten motivations for the characters to do anything, just haphazard plot spackle at certain moments.
It goes on and on, to the extent that I've taken to calling it TRUE DEFECTIVE, because that captures the spirit of how badly this season faceplanted.
There's a telling scene near the end where some characters confront the detectives, and this silent mob basically piles up behind the main perpetrator with an implied threat that makes the detectives basically chicken out and look the other way. Strangely, it's symbolic of this entire season -- media people are afraid to criticize the show because they don't want that mob coming after them.
Thankfully, there's a lot of backlash for this season to offset the fearful accolades in some media quarters boosting this season.
This show would've been better served being its own independent thing, versus carpetbagging on the TD name. But then, without that name, maybe it wouldn't have gotten made at all. What it desperately needed (and didn't have) was GOOD WRITING.
People are rating each season nowadays by their preferences. They have their own reasons for doing so, but let me give you the actual ranking of the seasons from best to worse:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
In that order. The first two seasons are best, and the last two seasons are the sucky ones. TD2 caught a ton of hell when it came out, undeservedly -- it was punished because it dared to be difference from TD1. However, it's actually a good season (and is positively top-notch compared to the two that followed it).
My willingness to rewatch something is a quality indicator -- I've rewatched TD1 countless times. I've rewatched TD2 three times. I've never rewatched TD3, and I absolutely will not ever rewatch TD4 -- hell, I'm peevish that I lost six hours of my life watching it to begin with.
Some people are raving about it. However, they're wrong (that is probably verboten in this day and age, but I'm calling that out -- they're wrong). It sucked.
I'll say it one more time: good intentions are no substitute for good writing, where a show is concerned. Just because it highlighted women and indigenous people's issues doesn't automatically make it a good show. What it needs is good writing to bring it all together. The showrunners for this season thought the good intentions alone could carry it. In that, they're perhaps cynically idealistic in gulling an audience, and hoping nobody notices.
The last thing I'll say is some critics gushed about this season, and it makes me question them as critics, honestly. They're clearly captive critics and terrified of being slagged by the mob for not-liking a show with so many signifiers in place as this one had. The gushing critics were wrong. The gushing fans were wrong. The ardent identity politics folks were wrong (yes, nice to see underrepresented groups getting screen time, but for the love of the gods, please give them good scripts, not junk ones).
Oh, and I should add: some of the boosters/ravers are basically slagging men for not liking this season, and certainly some could say of me "Oh, you MAN, of COURSE you didn't like this season, you evil, evil man."
However, they'd be dead wrong about me -- I didn't like this season because the writing wasn't there for the characters, the story, and the actors. It just wasn't there.
If good writing isn't something you value, you will absolutely love this season. If you don't care about good characterization or narrative payoffs, you will love this season. If you don't care about humor or good (or even memorable) dialogue between characters, you will love this season. If you love the color teal, you will love this season. If you like gratuitous jump scares that serve only to wake up doubtlessly drowsy viewers, you will love this season. If you like dreary, boring scenes that fail to build an iota of suspense, you will love this season. If you like to give blank check accolades to women-led stories regardless of actual artistic merit, you'll most definitely love this season.
I'll be curious to see if those same ravers will rave about it in a year's time, or two years, or more. I think it will have disappeared from their memories and passed into infamous oblivion. This season was possibly the worst-written big name show I've ever seen. Writing matters, big time.
Season 4 was the worst season ever. It serves as a warning that good intentions aren't as necessary as good writing for a television show, because this one desperately needed good writing, and just didn't have it -- the showrunners failed the cast, failed the show, failed the series, and failed the fans of TRUE DETECTIVE. And all because the writing sucked.
There are boosters of this season who look at the female-led cast and the indigenous women (and issues) of the season as the touchpoints for why people aren't liking it. While there may be some bros doing that, I'm not one of them -- I don't have any problem with a female-led cast nor with indigenous people's issues driving a show. I really wanted this season to be good. I was very hopeful that it would be.
However, it wasn't. The writing just wasn't there. The dialogue wasn't there. The characterization wasn't there. The humor wasn't there. The story wasn't there. All of the elements that made TD1 such a phenomenon weren't there.
What WAS there? Jodie Foster pretending to be straight (a weird choice -- they should have just run with her gayness). A bizarre overuse of the color teal, as if that signified anything. A mumbo-jumbo storyline. Boring, dreary dialogue. Pointless character actions without narrative payoffs. Bad acting from some in the cast. Needless nods to TD1 in an attempt to gin up audience interest (again, without purpose beyond goosing audience expectations). The detectives not being particularly good detectives. Rotten motivations for the characters to do anything, just haphazard plot spackle at certain moments.
It goes on and on, to the extent that I've taken to calling it TRUE DEFECTIVE, because that captures the spirit of how badly this season faceplanted.
There's a telling scene near the end where some characters confront the detectives, and this silent mob basically piles up behind the main perpetrator with an implied threat that makes the detectives basically chicken out and look the other way. Strangely, it's symbolic of this entire season -- media people are afraid to criticize the show because they don't want that mob coming after them.
Thankfully, there's a lot of backlash for this season to offset the fearful accolades in some media quarters boosting this season.
This show would've been better served being its own independent thing, versus carpetbagging on the TD name. But then, without that name, maybe it wouldn't have gotten made at all. What it desperately needed (and didn't have) was GOOD WRITING.
People are rating each season nowadays by their preferences. They have their own reasons for doing so, but let me give you the actual ranking of the seasons from best to worse:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
In that order. The first two seasons are best, and the last two seasons are the sucky ones. TD2 caught a ton of hell when it came out, undeservedly -- it was punished because it dared to be difference from TD1. However, it's actually a good season (and is positively top-notch compared to the two that followed it).
My willingness to rewatch something is a quality indicator -- I've rewatched TD1 countless times. I've rewatched TD2 three times. I've never rewatched TD3, and I absolutely will not ever rewatch TD4 -- hell, I'm peevish that I lost six hours of my life watching it to begin with.
Some people are raving about it. However, they're wrong (that is probably verboten in this day and age, but I'm calling that out -- they're wrong). It sucked.
I'll say it one more time: good intentions are no substitute for good writing, where a show is concerned. Just because it highlighted women and indigenous people's issues doesn't automatically make it a good show. What it needs is good writing to bring it all together. The showrunners for this season thought the good intentions alone could carry it. In that, they're perhaps cynically idealistic in gulling an audience, and hoping nobody notices.
The last thing I'll say is some critics gushed about this season, and it makes me question them as critics, honestly. They're clearly captive critics and terrified of being slagged by the mob for not-liking a show with so many signifiers in place as this one had. The gushing critics were wrong. The gushing fans were wrong. The ardent identity politics folks were wrong (yes, nice to see underrepresented groups getting screen time, but for the love of the gods, please give them good scripts, not junk ones).
Oh, and I should add: some of the boosters/ravers are basically slagging men for not liking this season, and certainly some could say of me "Oh, you MAN, of COURSE you didn't like this season, you evil, evil man."
However, they'd be dead wrong about me -- I didn't like this season because the writing wasn't there for the characters, the story, and the actors. It just wasn't there.
If good writing isn't something you value, you will absolutely love this season. If you don't care about good characterization or narrative payoffs, you will love this season. If you don't care about humor or good (or even memorable) dialogue between characters, you will love this season. If you love the color teal, you will love this season. If you like gratuitous jump scares that serve only to wake up doubtlessly drowsy viewers, you will love this season. If you like dreary, boring scenes that fail to build an iota of suspense, you will love this season. If you like to give blank check accolades to women-led stories regardless of actual artistic merit, you'll most definitely love this season.
I'll be curious to see if those same ravers will rave about it in a year's time, or two years, or more. I think it will have disappeared from their memories and passed into infamous oblivion. This season was possibly the worst-written big name show I've ever seen. Writing matters, big time.
February 19, 2024
Book 2, etc.
A week into Book 2 of my current WIP trilogy (already mentioned in recent blog posts), I'm 70K words into this one, and I'm really happy how it's been going for me.
When I did the Wolfshadow Trilogy Book 2 (THE HAPPENING) very nearly broke me as a writer. It was an incredibly difficult book for me to write for some reason. I went through a six-month period where I actually stopped writing and just couldn't continue with that book, before eventually finding my narrative footing and being able to finish that one.
So, working on this new trilogy, the "middle book syndrome" haunted me a little, based on that other book from years ago. However, I'm amazed how quickly this one is going for me. I've been writing so much so quickly that my fingers were actually getting aches! That's a first!
This new series is flying for me, which I think is because it's using characters I've had in my head for over 28 years (!!) and they're just ready to live on the pages after all this time. I have a number of false starts and fragments with these characters in that span of time, but none of that is being used in this new material. It's just there in the mental background. I know the characters intimately, and so I'm able to write them freely that way.
Further, because of the subject matter and the story itself, I'm free to be as tongue-in-cheek as I want to be, which is really liberating for me as a writer. My humor permeates all of my fiction (except CHOSEN, which is DARK -- I've said this all before), but being able to write propulsive prose with humor has been a real joy for me. I'm writing exactly the stories I'm wanting to write in exactly the way I need them to be.
THE CURSED EARTH (which actually paved the way for the current WIP series, in terms of my narrative approach) was my original title holder for a quick write for me (46 days). But BRIGHTEYES (Book 1) broke that record (14 days), and I'm thinking this Book 2 will be first-drafted in eight or nine days, tops. I'm flying through these, and I think it's just because of what I already wrote above. They're fun and they're funny (and weirdly heartfelt), which I think has helped them flow quickly for me.
I'm already envisioning Book 3, wanting to tackle it while my mind's in that story place, so I can wrap up the trilogy smoothly. If readers like these books, there'll be more. Big-time world-building from me in these, something I love doing.
BRIGHTEYES (Book 1) will be coming out in June. I'm excited about it.
When I did the Wolfshadow Trilogy Book 2 (THE HAPPENING) very nearly broke me as a writer. It was an incredibly difficult book for me to write for some reason. I went through a six-month period where I actually stopped writing and just couldn't continue with that book, before eventually finding my narrative footing and being able to finish that one.
So, working on this new trilogy, the "middle book syndrome" haunted me a little, based on that other book from years ago. However, I'm amazed how quickly this one is going for me. I've been writing so much so quickly that my fingers were actually getting aches! That's a first!
This new series is flying for me, which I think is because it's using characters I've had in my head for over 28 years (!!) and they're just ready to live on the pages after all this time. I have a number of false starts and fragments with these characters in that span of time, but none of that is being used in this new material. It's just there in the mental background. I know the characters intimately, and so I'm able to write them freely that way.
Further, because of the subject matter and the story itself, I'm free to be as tongue-in-cheek as I want to be, which is really liberating for me as a writer. My humor permeates all of my fiction (except CHOSEN, which is DARK -- I've said this all before), but being able to write propulsive prose with humor has been a real joy for me. I'm writing exactly the stories I'm wanting to write in exactly the way I need them to be.
THE CURSED EARTH (which actually paved the way for the current WIP series, in terms of my narrative approach) was my original title holder for a quick write for me (46 days). But BRIGHTEYES (Book 1) broke that record (14 days), and I'm thinking this Book 2 will be first-drafted in eight or nine days, tops. I'm flying through these, and I think it's just because of what I already wrote above. They're fun and they're funny (and weirdly heartfelt), which I think has helped them flow quickly for me.
I'm already envisioning Book 3, wanting to tackle it while my mind's in that story place, so I can wrap up the trilogy smoothly. If readers like these books, there'll be more. Big-time world-building from me in these, something I love doing.
BRIGHTEYES (Book 1) will be coming out in June. I'm excited about it.
February 12, 2024
Too Happy for Horror?
None of my horror books took off over the past 13 years, which could be a result of a whole host of things I've already written about, but as I'm working through this new trilogy -- I've been referring to them as "emo paranormal super-thrillers" -- it's very clear to me that my generally upbeat (if rampantly smartassed) and optimistic (if wounded Romantic) self is a better fit outside of the cryptlike confines of horror.
Despite publishing a range of writers over the years, I've never felt a part of the infamous "horror community" -- my works just fall outside of the circles they've drawn around themselves. That's fine. They can keep slicing up eyeballs, etc.
Having just finished Book 1 of this new trilogy, I've felt liberated from my long stay within horror (and, yes, I've also written SF and Fantasy books under other pen names). I have two more horror fiction obligations that'll see life in future years, but after that, I'm truly finished with horror fiction writing, and am happy for it. The work I did was solid and credible, even if it was entirely disregarded and unappreciated by nearly everyone out there.
I'm in my happy place with these new books (even when they make me cry while writing them), and I'm glad to be there. I just hope readers enjoy the rides I'm taking them on!
Book 1 of the series is entitled BRIGHTEYES, and should be released this summer, including NetGalley.
Hüsker Dü | Green Eyes
Despite publishing a range of writers over the years, I've never felt a part of the infamous "horror community" -- my works just fall outside of the circles they've drawn around themselves. That's fine. They can keep slicing up eyeballs, etc.
Having just finished Book 1 of this new trilogy, I've felt liberated from my long stay within horror (and, yes, I've also written SF and Fantasy books under other pen names). I have two more horror fiction obligations that'll see life in future years, but after that, I'm truly finished with horror fiction writing, and am happy for it. The work I did was solid and credible, even if it was entirely disregarded and unappreciated by nearly everyone out there.
I'm in my happy place with these new books (even when they make me cry while writing them), and I'm glad to be there. I just hope readers enjoy the rides I'm taking them on!
Book 1 of the series is entitled BRIGHTEYES, and should be released this summer, including NetGalley.
Hüsker Dü | Green Eyes
February 9, 2024
BRIGHTEYES Playlist
That's right, Gentle Reader(s) -- the title of my aforementioned WIP is BRIGHTEYES.
Below are some of the bands and their songs that played along with me while writing this book:
HARVEY DANGER
“You Look So Happy”
“Authenticity”
“Defrocked”
“The Show Must Not Go On”
“You Miss the Point Completely, I Get the Point Exactly”
“Mainland”
“My Human Interactions”
“Problems and Bigger Ones”
“Wooly Muffler”
“Pity & Fear”
“Cream and Bastards Rise”
“Little Round Mirrors”
“Old Hat”
“Diminishing Returns”
“Humility on Parade”
“Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo”
"Radio Silence"
“What You Live By”
JAWBREAKER
“Want”
“The Boat Dreams From the Hill”
“Boxcar”
“Save Your Generation”
“I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both”
“Fireman”
“Accident Prone”
“Chemistry”
“Lurker II: Dark Son of Night”
“Bad Scene, Everyone’s Fault”
“Basilica”
MASSIVE ATTACK
“Group Four”
“Dissolved Girl”
“Man Next Door”
“Teardrop”
“Inertia Creeps”
PORTISHEAD
“Mysterons”
“Sour Times”
“Wandering Star”
“Roads”
“Pedestal”
OASIS
“Live Forever”
“Stop Crying Your Heart Out”
“Supersonic”
“Don’t Look Back in Anger”
BETTIE SERVEERT
“Palomine”
“Tomboy”
“The Kid’s Alright”
“Smack”
TEENAGE FANCLUB
“Everything Flows”
Below are some of the bands and their songs that played along with me while writing this book:
HARVEY DANGER
“You Look So Happy”
“Authenticity”
“Defrocked”
“The Show Must Not Go On”
“You Miss the Point Completely, I Get the Point Exactly”
“Mainland”
“My Human Interactions”
“Problems and Bigger Ones”
“Wooly Muffler”
“Pity & Fear”
“Cream and Bastards Rise”
“Little Round Mirrors”
“Old Hat”
“Diminishing Returns”
“Humility on Parade”
“Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo”
"Radio Silence"
“What You Live By”
JAWBREAKER
“Want”
“The Boat Dreams From the Hill”
“Boxcar”
“Save Your Generation”
“I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both”
“Fireman”
“Accident Prone”
“Chemistry”
“Lurker II: Dark Son of Night”
“Bad Scene, Everyone’s Fault”
“Basilica”
MASSIVE ATTACK
“Group Four”
“Dissolved Girl”
“Man Next Door”
“Teardrop”
“Inertia Creeps”
PORTISHEAD
“Mysterons”
“Sour Times”
“Wandering Star”
“Roads”
“Pedestal”
OASIS
“Live Forever”
“Stop Crying Your Heart Out”
“Supersonic”
“Don’t Look Back in Anger”
BETTIE SERVEERT
“Palomine”
“Tomboy”
“The Kid’s Alright”
“Smack”
TEENAGE FANCLUB
“Everything Flows”
Soundtracking (Redux)
I think I wrote about this before, basically my propensity to play music when I'm writing, and how that music and those bands form an unofficial "soundtrack" for the book for me, embodying a feel that's integral.
My current WIP, the first draft of which I finished after writing it the past two weeks (topping out at 81K words), has a very specific soundtrack that resonates with me, both in terms of the characters (some of whom have been in my head for >28 years, believe it or not), and also in terms of the story, itself.
So, here you have some of the bands who are part of my WIP soundtrack:
Harvey Danger (complete discography)
Jawbreaker ("Dear You")
Massive Attack ("Mezzanine")
Since I listened to these bands and their songs while working on this WIP, there's resonance for me when I hear them.
We shared a moment while I wrote this book. I may include a track listing in the back of the book, or maybe I'll post it here, so readers (if any, haha) can listen along to the songs that moved me through my latest book:
Harvey Danger | Authenticity
Jawbreaker | Saving Your Generation
Massive Attack | Group Four
As many of the characters who are in this book have been in my head for so long (since the mid-90s), they represent a lot of my punk/indie/alternative self that's endured over the decades, as we lumber toward dystopia, paradise, and/or extinction.
It's why these 90s bands resonate as part of the soundtrack, even though the story's not actually set in the 90s. I pointedly don't earmark the time and place of this story -- there's smartphones, drones, and social media, so it's obviously 21st century, but I don't tie it down to a specific time out of narrative necessity, since the madness of our times would override any story if it tried to incorporate that into the setting.
This WIP will be coming out this year (TBD), and I'm looking forward to people enjoying it, which I think they will. I know I laughed and cried a lot while writing this one.
My current WIP, the first draft of which I finished after writing it the past two weeks (topping out at 81K words), has a very specific soundtrack that resonates with me, both in terms of the characters (some of whom have been in my head for >28 years, believe it or not), and also in terms of the story, itself.
So, here you have some of the bands who are part of my WIP soundtrack:
Harvey Danger (complete discography)
Jawbreaker ("Dear You")
Massive Attack ("Mezzanine")
Since I listened to these bands and their songs while working on this WIP, there's resonance for me when I hear them.
We shared a moment while I wrote this book. I may include a track listing in the back of the book, or maybe I'll post it here, so readers (if any, haha) can listen along to the songs that moved me through my latest book:
Harvey Danger | Authenticity
Jawbreaker | Saving Your Generation
Massive Attack | Group Four
As many of the characters who are in this book have been in my head for so long (since the mid-90s), they represent a lot of my punk/indie/alternative self that's endured over the decades, as we lumber toward dystopia, paradise, and/or extinction.
It's why these 90s bands resonate as part of the soundtrack, even though the story's not actually set in the 90s. I pointedly don't earmark the time and place of this story -- there's smartphones, drones, and social media, so it's obviously 21st century, but I don't tie it down to a specific time out of narrative necessity, since the madness of our times would override any story if it tried to incorporate that into the setting.
This WIP will be coming out this year (TBD), and I'm looking forward to people enjoying it, which I think they will. I know I laughed and cried a lot while writing this one.
February 1, 2024
Humors & Horrors
One thing that might have counted against me in my various horror novels is my love of humor.
Not that there aren't plenty of examples of darkly funny elements of horror out there, but for me, personally, when I've worked on horror, the humorous invariably stands out. It calls to me. I mean, you can't spell "slaughter" without a whole lot of laughter, right?
And I know the genuinely horrific scenes I've put in my books, but around those moments are lots of (to me, anyway) funny things that I make my characters wade through. The absurdity of life begs for that humor, if only to get us through it.
For more conventional horror fans, maybe my embrace of humor in horror is heretical. Not sure. Maybe the love of gore endemic in so much of today's horror circles reflects the aversion to humor, which might require more nuance than a clown slipping on a banana peel and falling face-first into a wood chipper. I don't know. I'll often say "It's funny, you know, like a clown falling down the stairs." (no offense to clowns, but, there it is).
My last horror-ish novel, THE CURSED EARTH, wasn't intended as a parody of horror (folk, cosmic, or otherwise), but someone might read it as such. That's mostly because I can't help but see the funny side of things, even horrific things. I'm serious about my work as a writer, but I can laugh at everything in between. I love THE CURSED EARTH, and hope it'll eventually find its audience.
Maybe I'm too nihilistically optimistic to write credible horror that resonates with everyday horror fans.
A moment I always clicks with is Christopher Walken's Bond villain death as Max Zorin. His incredulous laughter as he witnesses his inevitable end speaks to me. I get it, and I get that laughter as he meets his end. It doesn't hurt that Walken is a fellow Aries, so I kind of resonate with that, too.
My current WIP is not horror; as I'd mentioned elsewhere, it's a paranormal thriller, but the sense of humor that flows through my work is very much there, too. I'm very serious about my writing, but within that seriousness is a near-constant sense of humor that is my lifeblood as a writer (and a person).
Not that there aren't plenty of examples of darkly funny elements of horror out there, but for me, personally, when I've worked on horror, the humorous invariably stands out. It calls to me. I mean, you can't spell "slaughter" without a whole lot of laughter, right?
And I know the genuinely horrific scenes I've put in my books, but around those moments are lots of (to me, anyway) funny things that I make my characters wade through. The absurdity of life begs for that humor, if only to get us through it.
For more conventional horror fans, maybe my embrace of humor in horror is heretical. Not sure. Maybe the love of gore endemic in so much of today's horror circles reflects the aversion to humor, which might require more nuance than a clown slipping on a banana peel and falling face-first into a wood chipper. I don't know. I'll often say "It's funny, you know, like a clown falling down the stairs." (no offense to clowns, but, there it is).
My last horror-ish novel, THE CURSED EARTH, wasn't intended as a parody of horror (folk, cosmic, or otherwise), but someone might read it as such. That's mostly because I can't help but see the funny side of things, even horrific things. I'm serious about my work as a writer, but I can laugh at everything in between. I love THE CURSED EARTH, and hope it'll eventually find its audience.
Maybe I'm too nihilistically optimistic to write credible horror that resonates with everyday horror fans.
A moment I always clicks with is Christopher Walken's Bond villain death as Max Zorin. His incredulous laughter as he witnesses his inevitable end speaks to me. I get it, and I get that laughter as he meets his end. It doesn't hurt that Walken is a fellow Aries, so I kind of resonate with that, too.
My current WIP is not horror; as I'd mentioned elsewhere, it's a paranormal thriller, but the sense of humor that flows through my work is very much there, too. I'm very serious about my writing, but within that seriousness is a near-constant sense of humor that is my lifeblood as a writer (and a person).
