Darius Jones's Blog: A Writer Begins, page 3

New Horror Story “Go Ask Alice” Out Now

Good news!

My new Flash fiction Horror story “Go Ask Alice” is out now in Carmina Magazine‘s March 2023 issue.

It’s not the first time “Alice” has found her way into the Horror genre (there’s something creepy about all those strange creatures she encounters!). But I like to think it adds a little something new to that old trope.

My story was inspired by:

Jefferson Airplane’s song “White Rabbit” with its famous chorus of “Go Ask Alice.” Its Spanish-Moroccan rhythms are drea...

Where My Writing Is Headed in 2023

Wait. It’s 2023?

Already!?

What the hell?

O.K.

Well, as unbelievable as that is, it’s time. Time for another post. A post about where my writing is headed this year.

Here we go.

In Search of a Strategy
Right now, what I’m really searching for in my fiction writing/career is a strategy. The ability to answer questions like:

What do I want to achieve?Do I want this to be a career or not?Do I want to be an agented/contract author or a independent writer?Whic...

A Look Back at My Year in Writing — 2022

2022…. You were…a lot. A lot of a lot.

I will ignore my other life events here and just focus on the writing milestones. When I first sat down to write this I was like, “Well, I guess I had an O.K. year writing. Steady progress, and all that.”

But no! I have decided that is not giving myself enough credit and that I had really solid progress this year, including some stellar milestones I’m quite proud of. In no real order, here are my top writing accomplishments of 2022.

First Pro S...

The Fifth Room: How Meditation Boosted My Productivity

I have been doing something different lately…since about mid-2021. It’s meditation. And I feel (rightly or wrongly) that it has helped boost my artistic productivity. And may have also led me to a new field of creative activity entirely: poetry.

I don’t want to indulge in flights of fancy or metaphysical mumbo-jumbo here. I just want to give you the facts and let you decide. But before we get there. I want to tell you a little story. About how this came to be, how I got here…

It was as if…...

The Fifth Room: How Meditation Boosted My Artistic Productivity

I have been doing something different lately…since about mid-2021. It’s meditation. And I feel (rightly or wrongly) that it has helped boost my artistic productivity. And may have also led me to a new field of creative activity entirely: poetry.

I don’t want to indulge in flights of fancy or metaphysical mumbo-jumbo here. I just want to give you the facts and let you decide. But before we get there. I want to tell you a little story. About how this came to be, how I got here…

It was as if…...

Past Masters: Algernon Blackwood

[This is one of a continuing series about past masters of fiction writing. SPOILER ALERT: This post contains minor plots points from three of Blackwood’s stories: “The Insanity of Jones,” “Ancient Sorceries” and “The Willows.”]

Happy post-Halloween and All Soul’s Day-Eve!

Haven’t done one of these in a while…but it’s time for another “Past Masters.” This time, it’s Algernon Blackwood, an English “Weird” fiction writer.

Algernon Blackwood, London, 1951; photograph by Norman Parkinson

A...

What Inspired My Most Recent Poem

Well, the world sure is a damn mess…

Tanking economies, inflation, war…And I’ve got this sinking feeling it’s all going to get worse before it gets better. Here’s wishing we all live in more boring times soon. I’ve had just about enough of this “living in interesting times” garbage!

Anyway…what better time to escape, right? Escape into books, escape into movies, escape into Podcasts, escape into travel… And just…unplug. Well, I can’t offer any of those, so how about a little escape into...

What My Inspired My Most Recent Poem

Well, the world sure is a damn mess…

Tanking economies, inflation, war…And I’ve got this sinking feeling it’s all going to get worse before it gets better. Here’s wishing we all live in more boring times soon. I’ve had just about enough of this “living in interesting times” garbage!

Anyway…what better time to escape, right? Escape into books, escape into movies, escape into Podcasts, escape into travel… And just…unplug. Well, I can’t offer any of those, so how about a little escape into...

New Poem, “In the Dose” Out Now at Radon Journal

My new poem “In the Dose” is out now at Radon Journal. Here are the first few lines:

A lonely atom annihilates itself,
driven by strange compulsions for unity.
Radiation bursts from the sun’s surface,…

For the rest, head over to Radon Journal (Issue 2) and check out the poem! Comment here (or there) on what you thought about the piece…And please, please spread the word!!

Thank you!

2022, The Year I Became a Poet

Change. Nobody likes it. Which is weird because it’s sorta kinda the basis of all life. And life is…good.

As I see it, generally pressures come and pressures go. Other times, they grow and fester and can’t be ignored and it is we who must adapt to them. That’s the way it is with evolution, with our personal lives, and sometimes, our artistic lives.

The pandemic was a pressure and an accelerator on all of us (thus fulfilling its biological (and perhaps socio-cultural) function). And boy ...