R. Brady Frost's Blog, page 16

"The Itch" A Zombie Short by R. Brady Frost - Free!

Since "The Itch" is enrolled in the KDP Select program, I get 5 promotion days to give my story away for free. Wait a second... what!? Don't worry, everything's gravy. I'm giving "The Itch" away for anyone who wants it. I'm hoping this might spark an interest in the other two stories I've published. Either way, it gets my name and my writing in front of potential readers: always a huge plus!

There's a catch, of course. There always is. Since I want to spread my promotion days out across the KD...

You Have to Make Time to Write

I haven't done much writing lately. I recently published "The Itch" on Amazon. It's a short story of the Zombie persuasion. But the thing is, I'd originally written it in 2008. I just polished it up a bit, deleted countless unnecessary "that" occurrences, and put it out there. To be honest, most of my writing lately has been to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

I used to be a much more prolific writer. Joining the military made it hard for me to write. When I do write things these days I fin...

The Itch - A Zombie Short by R. Brady Frost

I published another short story I had in my archives tonight. When I first wrote "The Itch" it was simply called "Zombie Story" and that was that. I'm a big fan of the zombie genre of horror (and comedy) so it seemed natural to give it a shot. I don't know why I didn't pursue it. Life got in the way I guess, but I'm trying to make more of an effort to stock the shelves.
I've enrolled "The Itch" in the Amazon KDP Select program. That means you can download the story for free if  you're a P...

James Killick's Five Reasons to Keep Writing

I'm in the process of switching meds again so life has been very hectic for the past few weeks. Of course, this means I haven't been making much progress on the writing front and rereading what I had for chapter 2 just about made me vomit. I must have really been out of it when I put together that load of crap. It makes you want to throw in the towel, give up, shout out your front window, "Who the hell did I think I was?! I'm no writer!"

I suppose that's why stumbling across James' post at a t...

The Viability of a Seed - The Inside Scoop

Have you heard the story of the last remaining Judean date palm? It was germinated from a 2,000 year old seed. The palm was named Methuselah and stands as the last hope of resurrecting a species that has been all but wiped out. I'm not making this up. If Methuselah is a female palm, the species will live on. If it turns out to be male, the story doesn't end as well.

The tale is one that inspired me to write "The Viability of a Seed" -- one of the hardest stories I've ever written. It took abou...

Julie Anne Lindsey on Being Plagiarized

I first met Julie via Twitter some time ago and I've always enjoyed her zest for life and writing. As a fiction writer, Julie has run into some unique challenges. One recent catastrophe occurred when her hard drive died. I remember those twitter updates very well. As an IT professional, the thought of data loss was very familiar. Sometimes you're fortunate enough to be able to recover some files, other times you aren't. As a writer, I can't imagine losing my work in progress.
A recent post of ...

My Young Adult Novel and I.

I came up for the idea of my current work-in-progress last year while studying for the Certified Ethical Hacker exam, a requirement for completing the WGU Master of Science Information Security and Assurance program. During my studies I kept running across the same chain of thought: there are reoccurring themes within the principles of Information Security that could be introduced at a much younger age bracket through means of metaphor and simile. I was reading a collection of short stories b...

An Apple in the Rain

Short Story: "An Apple in the Rain" originally posted to HuntingTheMuse.com on Monday, March 31st, 2008.

Sam lowered his head and focused on the tiny splashes of raindrops that fell tirelessly about his ruined sneakers. The gray hood of his sock poked through the duct tape seams, it was as soaked as the rest of his clothing. There was no hiding from the cold wetness in this storm. Not this one. Not today. A deep sigh shuddered through his body and he looked back at the throng of people in the ...

Why Writers Should Read

Originally posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 on HuntingTheMuse.com

It's important, as an aspiring author or even a well published one, to read on a regular basis. Some would say it's important to read everything you can get your hands on.  While that would be optimal, some of us do live rather full lives. That being said, I find that I simply can't read everything come across. Most fictional books I have no problem finishing, even if I consider the writing horrendous, as there are valuable les...

The Trouble with Social Blogging

I mentioned earlier that I had a previous blog, HuntingTheMuse.com. I made just about every conceivable mistake with that endeavor. One of the first mistakes I made that stuck around for a very long time was falling for the idea of social blogging.  Don't get me wrong, being a social blogger is a bit different and much better. What I'm referring to here is basically all the programs out there that promise site views for putting up a widget on your blog and participating by visiting other...