Jeffrey Kosh's Blog, page 4

MEET A REAL HORROR BUFF: SUSAN MCSHERRY A blog interview by Jeffrey Kosh

Today, I want to introduce you to a dear friend and Horror fan, Susan McSherry.Susan is a reviewer and professional editor for a well known e-magazine, that also produces hard-copy issues, and a real walking encyclopedia on horror. She’s also a singer in a rock band, a wife, mother, and business owner.
In short, she is multitalented.Let’s hear from her.

Jeff: First, welcome to my blog, Susan. We met on Facebook, exchanging jokes and pranks in various horror groups. You have a great sense of humor and are extremely knowledgeable in anything horror. Can you tell us more about you?
Susan: WOW…there’s so much history!!! Not really much to tell though. I’m a wife, a mom, an owner of a computer business, a reader, a reviewer & most recently, a professional editor. I love to read, I love movies, and I love music! As a musician I love to perform and entertain!!!
Jeff: Where does this passion for horror stems from?
Susan: Well, it probably originated from my dad. He took me to my first horror movie; it was a double feature, Dawn of the Dead & The Devil Within Her. Probably the most memorable moments of my life, as far as horror is concerned.
Jeff: How do you ended up reviewing and editing?
Susan: It was a complete fluke. I was reading all of the works of Robert DeCoteau. I looked him up on Facebook, just to tell him I really liked his work. He added me to a group, Kindle Horror Books, on Facebook, & proceeded to tell everyone there I’d be a great reviewer. It kind of grew from there. It started with reviews, and proceeded to doing edits.
Jeff: You are also a singer in a musical band. It is a professional endeavor or just a hobby?
Susan: Singing is a very passionate hobby of mine…I love music & I love to sing, so I thoroughly enjoy doing it!!! We primarily do covers, but we’re working on a few projects that involve doing original music. That’s really all I can say about it at this time!! ;)
Jeff: What’s your favorite color?
Susan:  Hmm….I would have if they’re colors to wear, probably black, even though it’s technically a shade, not a color, and perhaps green. If its colors I want to surround myself with, probably blue & purple.
Jeff: What’s your favorite kind of horror?
Susan: I love, love, love zombie horror!! But I truly love anything within the horror genre…There’s just so much out there that captures my attention.


Jeff: Besides my books, what’s your favorite book of ever?
Susan: I really like any of the Zombie Fallout series by Mark Tufo, and the Dead Hunger series by Eric Shelman.
Jeff: Who’s your favorite author?
Susan: I’m not sure I have one….There’s so many amazing authors to choose from & I love them all!!!
Jeff: Who inspired or inspires you the most?
Susan: Probably my husband…He has such sense for business & for people. He can pick up things that most can’t. He’s my rock. I know I can always count on him for anything & everything. He’s just such an amazing & wonderful human being.
Jeff: Margarita or Sex-on-the-Beach?
Susan: Well, I’d start with a margarita, preferably a Midori margarita, then follow it up with Sex-On-The-Beach!! But if I had to choose only one, it would have to be Sex-On-The-Beach!
Jeff: Would you like to travel the world, like me?
Susan: Of course I would!!
Jeff: Is there anything more you would share with us?
Susan: I’m a fairly simple kind of gal, I have simple wants & simple needs. I am easily pleased!!! I love doing the things I do, and I really couldn’t ask for anything more.
Jeff: Thank you for sharing with us. My best.



www.facebook.com/doubledownsusan http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Top-Shelf-Editing-Publishing/350568761695864 http://susanmcblogs.wordpress.com/ http://www.facebook.com/BRAINSMAGAZINEhttp://zombieseatpeople.net

MY FIRST TIME IN AN ANTHOLOGY

This is my first time.
Yes, I've been published by APG previously, but being part in this charity anthology, rubbing elbows with some of the big ones ... well, it's great!


COMING OUT OCTOBER 2012
For The Benefit of Rockcastle Regional Hospital & Respiratory Care Center: Book Summit, in association with EFW Publishing Proudly Present 14 Tales of Terror.

Featuring (in order of appearance)
Jeffrey Kosh
Tonia Brown
Stephen A. North
Jo-Anne Russell
Joseph M. Monks
Jacki Wildman Wales
Christopher Fulbright
Leigh M. Lane
Jerry W. McKinney
Jaime Johnesee
David Hayes
Lori R. Lopez
Eric S Brown
Billie Sue Mosiman

In some ways ... they popped my cherry!

P.S.: I also did the cover.

DEPRESSION AND WRITING: How to turn the shadow on itself.

One week ago I had an extreme bout of depression. Real life intruded into my fiction work and drove me to the point of quitting my passion once for all. I will not bore you with the details or the motives behind this dark moment; suffice to say I was struck by an extreme writer's block.

I was starting two different novels (a Sci-Fi and a Pirates one) and had just put down my 'setting bibles'.
A setting bible is like a companion to a writer's novel; in it I put everything concerning the fictional universe I'm creating. So, when I wrote 'Feeding the Urge' I created the whole town of Prosperity Glades, filled it with interesting inhabitants, then developed a timeline of its most unusual or historical events from Pre-Spaniard times to these days (Prosperity Glades is set in Florida).
Same goes for Echo, a planet distant 50 light years from our solar system - the setting of that Sci-Fi novel - and for Caliban's Cove - a mysterious island in 1720 Caribbean Sea.

Nonetheless, I found myself unable to write a single word. Stress and pressure from my strained relationship was slowly turning me into jelly. Sure as water I was going to stop writing and retire to premature confinement to the nuthouse. I was so depressed and angry that I stormed off my traditional Thai wooden house and went for a solitary stroll in Ao Nang's deserted midnight roads.

And out of the blue - or the dark, to be precise - a simple line came to my mind:


'Under cold, indifferent stars, I stand.'
Now, to someone of a perfectly sound mind, that would just mean, 'Hey Jeff, you're depressed. It's natural you get such dark thoughts.'But to me was different. I could hear the buzzing of the Great Radio inside my mind scanning frequencies and trying to tune on a particular voice. It was the voice of a dead man.
I hurried back home and wrote that line on a Word's blank page, then, the dead man began telling me his story. During the whole night I wrote the first part of it, then I realized having misinterpreted the first line.An I changed it.
  'Under cold, indifferent stars, I wait.'  
The next day I spent relaxing, avoiding writing at all costs. That darkness I felt was slowly fading away, and I was scared that such a distant, and feeble voice would stop telling me the whole story.
I relaxed myself by doing a cover for what I had titled 'Haunt'.

Slowly, and painfully, I tried to go on with the story, but there was something missing. My rage.And I used it.

New images flooded my mind and the tale became something so weird and haunting that ... well, it scared me. A Shade, some anchors, chains, and freaks. And everything became clear.
Then, I made a new cover:

Well, the story is over, but you won't read it soon. I sent it to my lovely editor Natalie G. Owens, then I'm going to submit it.

I believe in this story, because it's not mine.
It's from a dead man.

Not mine, but I did the cover to this small jewel.FREE to...

Not mine, but I did the cover to this small jewel.FREE today through September 2nd 


AMAZON.COM AMAZON.UK

MEET A REAL MERMAID: KATRIN FELTON

MEET A REAL MERMAID: KATRIN FELTONA blog interview by Jeffrey Kosh

Mermaids are legendary aquatic creatures with the upper body of a woman and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, China, and India. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transforms herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. They are sometimes depicted as perilous creatures associated with floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drowning. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same tradition) they can be benevolent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.


Mermaids are often associated with the Sirens of Greek mythology that were dangerous and devious creatures, portrayed as femmes fatales who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. However, although these charming creatures sung to mariners, they weren’t sea-maidens.The fact that in Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Portuguese the word for mermaid is respectively Sirena, Sirène, Sirena, Syrena, Sirenă andSereia, add to the visual confusion, so that Sirens are even represented as mermaids.

Sirenia, a biological order, comprises dugongs and manatees. Historical sightings by sailors may have been the result of misunderstood encounters with these aquatic mammals. Christopher Columbus reported seeing mermaids while exploring the Caribbeannear the coast of the Cayman Islands. Maybe, even Sir Francis Drake spotted one or two in the same area.


And I assure you that Captain Daniel ‘Drake’ Davies may have met at least one in his bold sea voyages in the ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ universe.But what really made popular the modern image of these charming sea-ladies is certainly Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ in 1836, and later a certain Disney’s movie of the same name.

Do you believe mermaids to be real?
No?Well, you’re wrong, for I’ve met a genuine siren right here in Thailand. While working as an extra in a movie being filmed in the Andaman isles, I had the opportunity to meet this amazing creature: Katrin Felton. Kat dreamed of being a mermaid since being a little kid, and finally succeeded having her dream come true as a professional diver and model.You see, Katrin doesn’t employ any kind of scuba equipment - such as an air thank, mask or wetsuit – she just uses her mermaid’s tail.A tradition started at Florida’s Weeki Wachee Springs since 1947, with professional female divers performing as mermaids, it continues today with most of the performers working part time while attending college.Professional mermaids are all certified SCUBA divers, wearing a ‘monofin’ for propulsion and performing aquatic ballets or stunts worldwide.


As for me, I loved the Little Mermaid, a movie that set Disney’s new course to more mature and modern themes, and so did Katrin.I was charmed by the symbolism of the will of a being to be different, even rebelling to the law of physics to live fully a dream. She was so lured (pardon me) by the  mermaid’s singing that she made the opposite of Ariel’s path by leaving the dryland for the bottom of the sea.Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m honored to present you KATRIN FELTON, a real mermaid.



Jeff: First, welcome to my blog, Katrin. I know you were born in Germanyand won many international prizes as a professional model (Miss Germany International 2006, Germany’s Weddingmodel 2006, Queen of the world Germany 2007, SeaStar Girl 2008) and you are also a passionate environmentalist. But enough with my blathering, please introduce yourself to our public.
KAT: Hey Jeff thank you very much. My name is Katrin Felton and yes, it is right I won some prizes at model contests and used to work in many different countries as a model. Now I’m living in Thailandtogether with my husband, Spencer. I am still modeling but I am also a scuba instructor and a professional mermaid
Jeff: A professional mermaid?
KAT: That’s right. Many people don’t know how to react when I tell them that I work as a mermaid, but I do. I made my own mermaid tail using a professional free-diving monofin from “Specialfins”. I swim in this tail with my legs tight together in the ocean and get filmed for TV and commercials and I also give mermaid workshops where I teach other people how to become a real mermaid or merman.
Jeff: Where does this passion for mermaids stems from?
KAT: I always loved mermaids since I saw Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” for the very first time. When I was a kid, I always used to swim with my legs together in the swimming pool thinking that I am a mermaid and hoping that my legs turn into a mermaid’s tail.
Jeff: Tell us something more about you -
KAT: I love water and when I am not swimming as a mermaid, I am underwater, mostly in my scuba gear or just as a free-diver with bikini, mask, and fins. Last week I had this beautiful dive to a wreck at 18 m depth. It is an incredible feeling to go down there on just one single breath.
Jeff: I see you’ve very passionate about the environment. Do you think we’re doing enough for it, or nothing has changed in the last ten years?
KAT: :I think we are doing enough to disturb our wonderful world and to kill the beautiful creatures living on this planet. And yes, if we don’t stop things we are doing we will kill us sooner or later as well.
Jeff: Could you explain us your job? What it means being a real mermaid?
KAT: Being a mermaid means to me being happy in water. Being a free-diver, an under water model, and an ambassador of the ocean. It is my job to show the world the beauty of the oceans and give them information about the environment. It is my job to be a role model; that means not touching anything under water, not feeding any wildlife, not using plastic bags and many other things.
Jeff: Do you like reading books? If so, what’s your favorite genre?
KAT: To be honest… I don’t really read books. When my husband and I left our home country two years ago, we traveled around a lot just with our backpacks. There is really not much space left for carrying books.
Jeff: Besides my books (yeah, I know you did not read any of ‘em), what’s your favorite book of ever?
KAT: My favorite book is “Desert Flower.” It opened my eyes to see what humans are capable of doing to other humans. When they are able to do terrible things like that to their own race it's not surprising to see what they can do to other creatures.
Jeff: Now, I can’t deny you’re very gorgeous. Do you think an attractive appearance helps a lot in everyday life or a strong personality can be ever more advantageous?
KAT: I think it helps to have a good mix. You can look at the most beautiful girl in the world but if she is unhappy with herself or if she doesn’t have a good attitude, it makes her ugly. And next to her, another girl might not be as pretty but you can see and feel that she is having fun. She enjoys what she is doing and cares about others. In my eyes, she would be so much more attractive than the other girl.
Jeff: You live in Phuket. How long have you been there? And how you valuate this Thai experience?
KAT: My husband and I moved here last September so it is almost one year now. I love living here. It is always warm and even the water is warm all year round. The people here are friendly and no one cares if you have make up in your face and high heels or if you walk around in your flip flops. I love that. I was never that kind of girl who spent much time with styling and things like this. I like the simple life.
Jeff: I’m still the only pair of boots in town, it seems. Are you going to live here permanently or do you miss the western world?
KAT: My husband and I are very spontaneous that’s why we got married after 5 weeks. We love Thailandand at the moment we want to stay, but in two weeks we might be on our way to somewhere else already. You never know.
Jeff: I’m a Digital Nomad, so I dig your point.Is there anything more you would share with us? About your scuba diving school, or other interests?
KAT: My new website will hopefully be online in a few weeks: www.mermaid-kat.com But you can always find me on facebook.com/MermaidKatand I’m really happy about everyone who clicks on “Like” If you want to see my adventures as a mermaid or diver have a look at my youtube channel “KatrinFelton.” So, if anyone likes to travel to Thailandand likes being in the water I think my husband and I are the right people for you. Both of us are scuba instructors. My husband does surfing classes too and I will hopefully be an instructor for free-diving next year.
Mermaid Kat (Katrin Felton)
Some Pictures of Mermaid Kat


















Photos by Davlin CourtPhotographyAdriano TrapaniBrent Madison Dolphin LeeF-photographyMartin HelmersNancy Heusel

Week 8 of The Next Big Thing: My Work in Progress.

First, thank you Valerie Douglas for inviting me to answer this prompt.Valerie is one of the founding members of APG and a great Fantasy writer.Check out some of her masterworks, but be warned, they are longer works and once you start, can't put them down.
WEBSITEAMAZON
Here are my answers to the questions:
What is the working title of your book?BLOODY CROSS.Yet, it may change by the final draft.
Where did the idea come from for the book?I always dreamed of writing the original idea behind 'Dead Men Tell No Tales'. No zombies, set in 1720s (the real Golden Age of Piracy) and with a plot based on 'Paradise Lost' by Milton.My original 'Dead Men' was titled 'Curse of the Black Schooner' and had no undead, just madness, in it. Also, it was intended as a longer work, not a short story.
What genre does your book fall under?Difficult to pin down. There are swashbuckling elements, horrors from the Inquisition, some fantasy topics, and much literary fiction.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Main Character: Antonio Banderas.Main Antagonist: Ian MacShane.Secondary Antagonist: Michael MandoCo-Protagonist: Penelope Cruz.There are many more...
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?God - Lucifer - Man.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?This will be definitely submitted to some small presses.I promised a publishing house to submit my next, unpublished work to them. Should they not accept it, I’ll submit to the next one on my list. And so on.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?Don't know yet. At the moment, it is in preproduction status. I'm doing research, creating character's background, and outfitting the ship before setting sails to the Undiscovered Country.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?Can't tell. Each story is unique to me. This will start a new 'piratical' series, replacing the 'Dead Men Tell No Tales' story line. I'm sorry, but can't cope with the dreariness of that short. I'm happy people liked it, but I wanted something different.I'm taking risks here, I know, but I'm also sure my readers will love Captain Alec more than Captain Drake.He is like ‘Puss-in-Boots’ in human form.
Who or What inspired you to write this book?Meeting Michael Mando, a rising star in the movie industry. His acting of a heinous character, in a movie I was glad of being part with, inspired the figure of Caliban in my story.This guy is incredible and you will hear a lot from him soon.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?Well, there will be a lot of adventure, dashing escapes, cruelty, real-life-of-the-times injustices and charm, and some thoughts-stimulating stuff.This will be a 'real life' Pirates of the Caribbean.
Thanks for the opportunity. I'd like to pass this to some other author at Alexandria Publishing Group, but I'm afraid they all answered this prompt already.

BRYAN HALL AND SYMBOLISM

The Southern Hauntings Saga goes on.
After 'The Vagrant', that introduced us to the weird character of Crate Northgate, comes 'The Girl', even more scarier and macabre than the first installment. More is revealed of Crate's past and of his personal ghosts as he confronts a mystery in the Appalachian mountains.
Yet, is there some kind of symbolism in this tale? Does the missing girl stand for Crate's own ghosts?
And why am I asking this? Am I firing on all rockets?
We look for symbolism everywhere. We can't avoid it. As a species, we look for patterns in every thing, because our mind can't cope with pure chaos, so we strive to find logic and hidden meanings even where there are none.
Yes, sometimes, stories are just stories, with no more depth than a puddle of rain on the highway. Some stories are made to entertain.
Bryan Hall is here to explain it better.



There's a scene in the Steven Spielberg version of “War of the Worlds” where Tom Cruise's character's daughter has a splinter.  Tom wants to get it out, but the girl (played by Dakota Fanning) refuses and gives a short speech on how her body will realize it's foreign and will reject it, forcing it out over time.  I read a review – I can't remember where but it could have been Rolling Stone or EW – that said this scene and the entire movie was symbolic of the Iraq war and Spielberg's thoughts on it.  Personally, I thought it was a bit of foreshadowing towards the eventual end of the alien invasion and nothing more.  Others just thought it was Dakota Fanning's character being a kid who didn't want her dad poking a sharp object into her finger to dig out a sliver of wood.

The point to this is simply that symbolism is important, but that you should always take it with a grain of salt.  Most writers incorporate it into their stories, and in many cases it's actually done unintentionally.  Subconscious saltings of symbolism often weave their way into books without the author even knowing they're there until they go back through and look, I think.  I know they do for me.  Of course, I actually do drop in some metaphors and symbolism here and there while I'm fully aware that I'm doing it.  But I don't expect readers to pick up on them all or to even care that they're there.  And that's okay. 
I know most readers of horror are reading to be entertained.  Or frightened.  Or disturbed.  They're not reading to find a profound literary tale that is filled with allegories and broad brush strokes comparing a monster from the deep to man's constant march forward into the future.  In “The Shining”, you can view the Overlook Hotel as symbolic of Jack Torrance's alcoholism and the way that the entire Torrance family is living their lives inside that disease.  Or you can view it as a scary-ass haunted hotel.  Either way, it's still a damn good book.  
I'm writing this post because I got an email from an advance reader of “The Girl”, out now from Angelic Night Press as part of my Southern Hauntings Saga.  The reader found some symbolism in the story and wanted to know if it was intentional or not, and if they were correct in their assumption.  The simple fact is that if you see something in a story as symbolic...then it is, whether the author meant it that way or not.  Stories mean different things for different people, as much of a cliché as that may be.  If you read “The Girl” - or any book, for that matter - and are entertained and enjoy yourself, then the writer did their job.  If you find deeper meanings in some aspects of the story, even better.  Far be it from me or anyone else to tell you what a story means to you.

Bryan Hall - Author of 'The Southern Hauntings Saga' and 'Containment Room 7'

      Check it out!                      Book One                                 AKP

LEIGH M. LANE AND THE DARK BEHIND THE HIDDEN VALLEY

I’m honored today to host one of the most talented writers I ever met, Leigh M. Lane.She is the author of a wide variety titles, spanning from the dystopian nightmare of ‘World -Mart’ to the classic gothic ‘Finding Poe’.
I asked her to enlighten my blog with a guest post presenting her latest work of art: The Hidden Valley.Like me, Leigh is an experimenter of the written word, always striving to test herself and learn something new in the process. It is a risky business, but she does it excellently.
One of the most ancestral elements in Horror is ‘Isolation’.
I discussed this topic in one of my earlier posts. Read here.
Yet, in the gothic tale, there was another element of fear as strong as that: Nature.Starkly beautiful landscapes by day suddenly turn into forbidding expression of dread by night. And enchanted valleys transform into blizzard swept dales of terror.
I leave you to her enriching words.

The Darkness Behind the Hidden Valleyby Leigh M. Lane
It’s interesting sometimes to look at the various motivations behind any given book. We all draw from what we take in around us, but inspiration can come from the most unexpected of places.
I’m a Californiagirl. I spent most of my childhood and early adult life on one end of the coast or the other, swimming in the ocean, and appreciating the bright, temperate weather. More recently, I spent ten years in the Las Vegasarea, laughingly sharing about my ongoing “culture shock” throughout my stay. Moreover, the summer heat each year was brutal—but with no ocean beaches to balance it out. I told myself I was never going to miss that place. How wrong I could be.
Last summer, my husband and I moved a thousand miles north to a small town in Montana. I fell in love with the place immediately. The landscape reminded me much of northern California. Everything was green. Colorful flowers bloomed everywhere. Waterfalls caressed mountainsides and fell into elegant rivers that followed the interstate. It was, quite literally, love at first sight. And then fall came.
The clouds rolled in … and they remained overhead without reprieve. While the autumn leaves were beautiful, everything else slowly became devoid of color. The town seemed to die slowly right before my eyes, until everything was gray and dark and lifeless. It remained that way through the winter. No sunlight dared to creep through. It felt almost as if time itself had stopped. Being one used to sunlight year-round, even in Vegas—which does get quite cold in the winter—I found myself wanting to do nothing but hibernate. I thought I might die with everything else here.
Being a writer, I took my thoughts and feelings to the written word, transforming the darkness that had enveloped me here into The Hidden Valley. Readers will notice the vibrant colors and rich language I use to describe the characters’ first impressions of South Bend:
It was the seemingly countless vivid colors that struck Carrie most as they entered the valley. There was a sea of green, a fine mosaic of tall heaps of grass, towering treetops, and sprawling overgrowth speckled with tiny buds and diverse flowers in every hue imaginable….
The highway wound around a mountain pass, on which massive formations of dark, rocky terrain broke through the heavy foliage, but the contrast only added to the striking landscape that unfolded as they traveled further into the valley. A river rushed to one side, offering varying shades of blue along with the white crests that formed as it splashed against the peeking rocks. Despite the minimal cloud cover and the visible absence of rain, a well-defined double rainbow stretched overhead, its illusion unwavering as the car twisted down the two-lane highway.
As the seasons progress, however, the characters see a different side to the valley, and while my experience here translated into mere feelings, what they find is a town that is slowly dying—and literally taking them with it. I separate the novel (The Whole Story) into four sections: Spring; Summer, Fall, and Nightmare. Each season is distinctly different from the next, each darker and more horrifying than the last, until the hapless newcomers find themselves in a desperate race against time: to get out before the town consumes them completely.


At Amazon
About The Hidden Valley:
Deep in a hidden valley, there is a ghost town that has experienced a miraculous rebound. It is separated from the rest of the world by a mountain pass, but it's found a dark and deadly lifeline…. Carrie and her husband Grant are moving wayward teenage twins John and Jane across the country for a fresh start. South Bend seems like the perfect place for it. Maybe just a little too perfect. When they become aware of the trap that has been set for them, will it already be too late for any of them to escape?
In addition to being a ghost story, The Hidden Valley is an experiment in structure. The reader will find that nearly every chapter is, in itself, a work of flash fiction. Each main character’s story may be read individually for a surprisingly different effect. Read The Hidden Valley by character; read The Whole Story in Kindle or paperback (coming soon); or read the weekly flash fiction serial at my website, The Cerebral Writer.
Go to http://www.cerebralwriter.com/the-hidden-valley.htmlfor more information.

About the author:
Leigh M. Lanelives in the beautiful mountains of Montana, where she writes speculative fiction that spans from sci-fi to horror. All of her works contain a gritty realism that hallmarks her unique voice, which also often has social or political undertones. Her recent releases are The Hidden Valley, Finding Poe, World-Mart, and Myths of Gods.
Leigh's influences include H.G. Wells, Kurt Vonnegut, Isaac Asimov, Clive Barker, Edgar Allan Poe, Rod Serling, and Stephen King.
Check out her Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Leigh-M.-Lane/e/B0055DSE6Y/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Visit her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorLeighMLane

PIRACY IS MY DESTINY ...

Life can be so funny and ironic.There is a weird connection between me and pirates, it seems.
When I was nineteen year old a self-appointed psychic pressed for showing me his palmistry skills - reading my hand lines. He told me I had been a pirate in my previous life and I died drowning...I was never charmed by piratical stories - nor by psychics - and didn't pay to much attention to this guy. He did this for free; I was buying some seeds in a general store, he spotted me and started blathering about this piracy thing...

Years later I found myself being a member of GAMA - an association of professional Game Masters for Role-playing games. Guess what? My most successful stories where those with pirates in it. People flocked my table to play a stupid story about pirates and time traveling agents...


As a professional writer I wrote different horror stories, but my best seller is still 'Dead Men Tell No Tales' ... a pirate story with zombie-like creatures and a curse...
Internet pirates decided my story was so beautiful they had to share it for free. See my previous post about Pirates being Pirated for the full story.



So, I decided to grab one of my unpublished stories (Black Schooner) revise it, change its style, and set it in the same universe of Dead Men Tell No Tales. It became 'Black Brig'. I offered it for free, and it will always be available as such until I will buy the farm, or more like, will go for my last chase...

Two weeks later, a guy from China downloaded it at Smashwords and published it at Amazon.com - under my name - setting its price at 2.99 bucks. This dude is as dull as dishwater, because he just copied and pasted my description of the short story without paying attention to the lines. In fact, customers could clearly see the word 'FREE' in the blurb. After a long battle with Amazon I was successful in having it removed from sale. Black Brig was intended as a gift to my readers and it must stay that way...

Last week, I was contacted by a movie production crew for a small jig in a movie adaptation of an upcoming video game. Guess what, dear gals and guys? I play the part of goddamned pirate!

So, I must surrender to the will of the spirits. There's a pirate living inside me, rebelling against the system and longing for freedom. As a digital nomad, I'm already a freedom-loving traveler, exploring the vast seas of knowledge and the uncharted islands of the future.

What can I say?
AVAST, ME MATEYS! SET SAILS FOR THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY!

My Work-in-Progress: SLADE - MAN FOR SALE

Do you know what Slade Carver did before going to the Bert R Ranch? How he ended up broke and desperately looking for a job?
Of course you don't, for I haven't told you yet.
SLADE - MAN FOR SALE is my new novelette, adding a chapter to the red hot world of Slade.
More sex, some very private parties, a rodeo, and a crashed wedding await you in this prequel of 'Thrill of the Hunt'.