E.J. Wesley's Blog, page 5
November 12, 2013
I'm On Trial For Troll Abuse!
Hey, gang! Yes, this is absolutely as serious as it sounds. I'm taking part in one of the awesome Realms Fair events this year, and as you'd expect, I've already gotten into some trouble.
Seems some folks take issue with how the main character from my Moonsongs series (Jenny) handles the monsters she encounters. We're pleading our case over at Sheriff Gwen Gardner's blog today, so please stop by and help me win my freedom!
She's meaner than she looks!I'm afraid Jenny, while well-meaning, might be hurting my cause more than helping. She's a little agitated at being torn away from her video games to argue on my behalf. Plus, she REALLY hates trolls. :)Also, be sure to check out all of the fun Realms Fair events going on this week. There are giveaways, but frankly they're just a blast.
Events: Joust ~ Drench-a-Wench/Soak-a-Bloke ~ Stockade Brigade ~ Dueling Bards ~ Phasers ~ Masquerade Parade ~Collective Performance ~ Castle Jumble ~ Dragon Hunt
"Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my--oh hell, just get me out of these things!"
November 6, 2013
IWSG - NaNoWriMo Edition - Easy Ways To Get More Writing Time
Hey, gang! Time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post! What is IWSG? A collection of awesome writers who get together once a month to share our vulnerabilities and encouragement. You can learn all about it (and sign yourself up) by clicking the image below.
Carving out writing time--and not folding laundry, feeding kids, playing with dogs, catching up on Walking Dead, going to work, showering, etc., etc.--can be tricky. Why? Because not everyone sees it as such an essential activity as we writers do.
This gets particularly tricky if you're doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) types of things, because you're not just ducking out for a quick nip with the keyboard every now and again, but doing the equivalent of a month-long Rocky training montage with your WIP.
So what's a writer to do? Well never fear, cause ol' E.J. is here to help you out. The next time you need to write and someone tries to stop you, just respond with one of the following--
A world needs saving, and I'm only a quarter of the way into figuring out how it's going to happen.
I have leprosy from 8-10 PM every day.
There are monsters in our (insert writing spot here), and it's going to take a few thousand words to flush them out.
I can't wear pants or remove this clown mask until I reach my word count. However, I'm happy to do whatever it is you need me to do sans pants, clown-mask-on until then.
Our computer was taken over by a gang of vicious cyber-terrorist, and if I don't write they're going to share (insert embarrassing photo memory here) on Facebook.
There are two versions of me: Writing me and pissed-off-bat-crap-crazy-homicidal-depressed-hates-puppies-never-cooks-slaps-babies-sets-fire-to-ALL-the-things me. Which do you prefer?
I'm Facebook chatting with your (insert most annoying family member here) so she won't call. This could take a while. Would you like me to tell her to call you instead?
I've agreed to donate $1 of your money to the local animal shelter for every word I fall short on my goal. Between dirty diapers, work, and getting our eldest child's foot sewn back on, I'm probably going to need around $45,000. Or they've agreed to let us adopt this abandoned litter of 13 very cute--but very feral--kittens instead (show ANY picture of numerous kittens running amok). OR I could TOTALLY just write some more.
This year's NaNoWriMo prize is the producers of Lost will finally tell us what the last episode meant.
This year's NaNoWriMo prize is Miley Cyrus will no longer stick her tongue out.
I'm working on math story problems--want to help?
You ever read (insert WIP title here)? No? Really? (pull out tuft of your own hair and set it on fire) IT'S BECAUSE I HAVEN'T FINISHED WRITING THE DAMN THING!
You ever read (insert obscure book title here)? No? Really? Let me tell you about it: There's this writer who is frustrated because she never has time to write. So she decides to start acting out her stories instead. It's great, you should read it. But I really need to get back to writing my story. It's about a wife/mom/sister/friend who does horrible things to people's food. Or I could make you a sandwich and we can keep chatting.
Are you NaNoWriMo-ing this year? If so, are you on track to meet your goal? If no, what are you working on? In either case, hope this bit of fun helps brighten your day and keeps you going. :)
~EJW~
Carving out writing time--and not folding laundry, feeding kids, playing with dogs, catching up on Walking Dead, going to work, showering, etc., etc.--can be tricky. Why? Because not everyone sees it as such an essential activity as we writers do.
This gets particularly tricky if you're doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) types of things, because you're not just ducking out for a quick nip with the keyboard every now and again, but doing the equivalent of a month-long Rocky training montage with your WIP.
So what's a writer to do? Well never fear, cause ol' E.J. is here to help you out. The next time you need to write and someone tries to stop you, just respond with one of the following--
A world needs saving, and I'm only a quarter of the way into figuring out how it's going to happen.
I have leprosy from 8-10 PM every day.
There are monsters in our (insert writing spot here), and it's going to take a few thousand words to flush them out.
I can't wear pants or remove this clown mask until I reach my word count. However, I'm happy to do whatever it is you need me to do sans pants, clown-mask-on until then.
Our computer was taken over by a gang of vicious cyber-terrorist, and if I don't write they're going to share (insert embarrassing photo memory here) on Facebook.
There are two versions of me: Writing me and pissed-off-bat-crap-crazy-homicidal-depressed-hates-puppies-never-cooks-slaps-babies-sets-fire-to-ALL-the-things me. Which do you prefer?
I'm Facebook chatting with your (insert most annoying family member here) so she won't call. This could take a while. Would you like me to tell her to call you instead?
I've agreed to donate $1 of your money to the local animal shelter for every word I fall short on my goal. Between dirty diapers, work, and getting our eldest child's foot sewn back on, I'm probably going to need around $45,000. Or they've agreed to let us adopt this abandoned litter of 13 very cute--but very feral--kittens instead (show ANY picture of numerous kittens running amok). OR I could TOTALLY just write some more.
This year's NaNoWriMo prize is the producers of Lost will finally tell us what the last episode meant.
This year's NaNoWriMo prize is Miley Cyrus will no longer stick her tongue out.
I'm working on math story problems--want to help?
You ever read (insert WIP title here)? No? Really? (pull out tuft of your own hair and set it on fire) IT'S BECAUSE I HAVEN'T FINISHED WRITING THE DAMN THING!
You ever read (insert obscure book title here)? No? Really? Let me tell you about it: There's this writer who is frustrated because she never has time to write. So she decides to start acting out her stories instead. It's great, you should read it. But I really need to get back to writing my story. It's about a wife/mom/sister/friend who does horrible things to people's food. Or I could make you a sandwich and we can keep chatting.
Are you NaNoWriMo-ing this year? If so, are you on track to meet your goal? If no, what are you working on? In either case, hope this bit of fun helps brighten your day and keeps you going. :)
~EJW~
November 4, 2013
Coffin Hop Winners & Blog Changes!
Hey, gang! Hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween weekend, or at the very least enjoyed that extra hour of sleep. (I just got up at the same old time--now an hour earlier into my day. -_-)
Just a few things on the docket today…
Winner! Winner!
Thank you to everyone who left comments on my Coffin Hop posts last week! Had a lot of fun reliving some of my favorite horror stories and movies and sharing some tips for writing scary fiction.
I did a giveaway for the hop and entered everyone who left a comment on any of the hop posts. (If you left multiple comments, you were entered more than once.) Below is a list of the winners (selected by assigning numbers and using Random.org) and their winnings:
Digital copies of the entire Moonsongs series to date (Anthology + Dragon's Game - 2 winners)
William Kendall
Donna Hole
Signed paperback of Moonsongs, Anthology 1
A.F. Stewart
Paperback copy of the Death By Drive-In anthology
Julie Flanders
Digital Copy of Death By Drive-In
Shannon Lawrence
Congrats to all of the winners! I'll be in touch. :)
Blog Changes
Y'all might've noticed a I've put a fresh coat of paint on the joint recently. I'll be rolling out an "official" author website soon and wanted the blog to have a similar feel--but more on that to come in days ahead.
I've also made something of an executive decision regarding cover announcements, book blasts, and other promotional things I do for other authors. I've decided to give them their on page on my blog.
I'm doing this for 2 reasons --
1) So folks can easily find all of the new stuff authors are sending down the pipelines. There are so many new releases, etc. now that they get sprinkled in with all of my other posts and, I fear, get lost in the shuffle.
Now you can simply click the "All About Books & Authors" tab above and see everything "new" I'm sharing on a weekly basis. Plus, there are usually giveaways associated with these things, so if you're on the lookout for chances to win cool freebies, this'll make it easier to do.
2) I want to keep my posts separate so it's clear what content is coming from me, and what content I'm simply sharing for others.
I'll be sure to highlight everything I've shared on the books and authors page on the main blog page, so don't worry that your announcements aren't going to get noticed. They'll just actually exist in two different places now. (Once in link form, once in full-post form.)
So what'll you find under the books & authors tab right now?
Echoes by Amy Evans - Amy is releasing the followup to her YA eco-fantasy, Clicks, with Echoes. And the cover is gorgeous!
Time On Her Side by Shelly Arkon - Shelly is offering up her latest FREE on Amazon right now, and it's currently #7 in the 'time travel' category. I just snagged my copy and recommend you do the same (tomorrow is the last free day).
Be sure to click over for a look at the fantastic cover, book description, and more on Shelly if you aren't already acquainted with her. She's a fantastic writing-blogging friend to have. :)
That's it for today! I'll be back Wednesday for IWSG!
~EJW~
Just a few things on the docket today…
Winner! Winner!
Thank you to everyone who left comments on my Coffin Hop posts last week! Had a lot of fun reliving some of my favorite horror stories and movies and sharing some tips for writing scary fiction.
I did a giveaway for the hop and entered everyone who left a comment on any of the hop posts. (If you left multiple comments, you were entered more than once.) Below is a list of the winners (selected by assigning numbers and using Random.org) and their winnings:
Digital copies of the entire Moonsongs series to date (Anthology + Dragon's Game - 2 winners)
William Kendall
Donna Hole
Signed paperback of Moonsongs, Anthology 1
A.F. Stewart
Paperback copy of the Death By Drive-In anthology
Julie Flanders
Digital Copy of Death By Drive-In
Shannon Lawrence
Congrats to all of the winners! I'll be in touch. :)
Blog Changes
Y'all might've noticed a I've put a fresh coat of paint on the joint recently. I'll be rolling out an "official" author website soon and wanted the blog to have a similar feel--but more on that to come in days ahead.
I've also made something of an executive decision regarding cover announcements, book blasts, and other promotional things I do for other authors. I've decided to give them their on page on my blog.
I'm doing this for 2 reasons --
1) So folks can easily find all of the new stuff authors are sending down the pipelines. There are so many new releases, etc. now that they get sprinkled in with all of my other posts and, I fear, get lost in the shuffle.
Now you can simply click the "All About Books & Authors" tab above and see everything "new" I'm sharing on a weekly basis. Plus, there are usually giveaways associated with these things, so if you're on the lookout for chances to win cool freebies, this'll make it easier to do.
2) I want to keep my posts separate so it's clear what content is coming from me, and what content I'm simply sharing for others.
I'll be sure to highlight everything I've shared on the books and authors page on the main blog page, so don't worry that your announcements aren't going to get noticed. They'll just actually exist in two different places now. (Once in link form, once in full-post form.)
So what'll you find under the books & authors tab right now?
Echoes by Amy Evans - Amy is releasing the followup to her YA eco-fantasy, Clicks, with Echoes. And the cover is gorgeous!
Time On Her Side by Shelly Arkon - Shelly is offering up her latest FREE on Amazon right now, and it's currently #7 in the 'time travel' category. I just snagged my copy and recommend you do the same (tomorrow is the last free day).
Be sure to click over for a look at the fantastic cover, book description, and more on Shelly if you aren't already acquainted with her. She's a fantastic writing-blogging friend to have. :)
That's it for today! I'll be back Wednesday for IWSG!
~EJW~
October 31, 2013
Killer Serials Giveaway & Coffin Hop '13 Finale - Four Keys To Frightening Fiction - Pt. 4 - Murderous Tension
Happy Halloween, gang! I'm here to put a bow (or should that be noose?) on this year's Coffin Hop by talking about the final ingredient to writing frightening fiction--creating tension.
But first, I want to share a special giveaway event I'm taking part in…
Just in time for Halloween, some Killer Serials you can sink your teeth into!
Serial and episodic fiction are becoming more and more popular with readers in the digital age. And as many of you know, my Moonsongs series is exactly that, so I'm pretty passionate about the concept.
Who would enjoy serialized stories? Fans of television, for one. Many of these stories are built around the TV model, leaving you craving more at the end of each episode. Others who might enjoy serials are the folks who don't have time to cram entire novels into their daily lives, but would love to read fiction with a purpose. These aren't short stories so much as sagas broken into bite-sized pieces.
I know for my Moonsongs books, I really work hard to give the reader a feeling of fulfillment with each story, but also leave them wanting to see what happens next.Sound like something you'd enjoy? Luckily, there are several fantastic authors doing them! And beginning today, you can enter for a chance to win some of the most exciting serialized content going--plus, you can sample several of these authors for free. (Including me!)
Here's the rundown of the authors and stories involved in the is special giveaway:
Some Killer Serials you should consider sampling
Andrew Leon: The Shadow Spinner Series
(34 parts, 40ish pages each) Tiberius has always thought of himself as a normal 10-year-old boy, at least until the day his mother finally decides to tell him about his father, and she tells him things that convince him that one of them is crazy, and he's pretty sure it's not him. That is until the Man with No Eyes shows up and his father falls out of the sky.
Susan Kaye Quinn: The Debt Collector Series
(9 Volumes, 50ish pages each, all complete, (for you risk-averse readers) first one free) What's your life worth on the open market? A debt collector can tell you precisely.
EJ Wesley: Moonsong Series
(5th coming in December - no end point necessarily planned, but they are coming in 3-book clusters *6th in January* for satisfying individual story arcs; link to the first one FREE) Jenny Moonsong recently inherited the title of "monster hunter" and an ancient tribal journal/how-to manual passed down by her Apache ancestors. The Moonsongs books follow her adventures as she battles the dark supernatural denizens of the world in a series of action-packed, urban fantasy novelettes.
RaShelle Workman: The Cindy Chronicles
(4 published of 6 volumes) From a seemingly insignificant word comes the greatest of fairytales... Cinderella is a witch and she's been asked to save a world she never knew existed.
Hart Johnson: A Shot in the Light Series
(10 episodes, 100 pages each, 4th available today and the first is free) Deadliest virus in a century, or a social experiment gone awry? Sidney Knight begins to notice inconsistencies in what people are being told and what's going on as half the population dies of the flu... or is it the vaccine?
Visit the authors participating in Killer Serials giveaway:
Andrew - http://strangepegs.blogspot.com/
Susan - http://www.susankayequinn.com/
E.J. - http://the-open-vein-ejwesley.blogspot.com/
RaShelle - http://www.rashelleworkman.com/
Hart - http://waterytart23.blogspot.com/
And here's how you can enter to win some of these great stories!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Now to end my first ever Coffin Hop! I've had a blast taking part this year, and I've met a ton of great horror authors. Be sure to check the site and join up for next year if you think you'd like share in the scare!
Being a writing blog, I decided to cover what I thought were the basics to weaving a little thrill and chill into your stories. My full hop schedule looked like this:
Monday, 10/28 - The Sinister Senses
Tuesday, 10/29 - Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
Wednesday, 10/30 - Mining The Darkness Within
Thursday, 10/31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN - A Murderous Tension
Also want to mention that the organizers behind Coffin Hop have put together a fantastic collection of horror stories to benefit an even better cause. All proceeds from the Death By Drive-In anthology will go to LitWorld.org to promote childhood reading.
*click the image below for more details on the anthology*
As for my giveaway, simply leave a comment on any of my Coffin Hop posts and I'll enter you into a drawing for one of the following items:
- 1 Digital copy of Death By Drive-In
- 1 Paper Copy of Death By Drive-In (US ONLY)
- 2 Digital Copies of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 AND my latest, Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4 (1 set to each winner)
- 1 Signed paper copy of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 (US ONLY)
Lastly, I'll be highlighting one of my fellow Coffin Hoppers at the end of every post--so let's get to it!
A Murderous Tension
Tension in fiction is a weird--and often fickle--thing. It can be created or destroyed with a single word, description, or scene. And while it's important for any kind of story, it's absolutely dire for horror and thrillers.
A reader has to feel the threat pressing down on them like the brutal heat of a summer day in Phoenix, Arizona. An inescapable anxiety has to blanket the story, and the only way out from under it is to read The End.
No small task! So how do we do it? Here are few quick cheats:
Start in the middle - in medias res is a commonly refereed to concept of beginning a story in the middle of action. It creates insta-tension.
Example: Don't let the reader get all comfy-cozy by getting up to speed with grandma leisurely driving them through the park on the way to soccer practice. Instead, slap their ass behind the wheel of a car going 150 MPH on the Santa Monica Freeway with a couple dozen well-armed cops chasing them, and a drug lord in the backseat threatening to kill their spouse if they slow down. It works.
Mystery - Uncertainty creates tension. Arriving at a camp known for its unexplained, horrible accidents. A newspaper article about a series of grizzly unsolved murders. Exploring a 'supposedly' haunted house. It intrigues us. It also scares the jeepers out of us.
False Trails - Let the reader chase their tails a bit. Let them presume, guess, and postulate. Then yank the freaking rug out from under them! If you're going to create a scary, tense story, the reader can never feel comfortable. One way of doing that is by encouraging them to guess wrong.
Love and hate, get it straight … or maybe don't - Just like real life, when your characters don't get along, it creates friction. And friction creates--you guessed it--tension for the reader! Even if it's THE love interest for your protagonist, have them fight like cats and water! The result will have your reader on edge, and when you throw that werewolf in the mix, it'll send them over it. :)
How do you work tension into your writing? Any favorite books or films that kept you biting your nails the entire time?
Thanks again for riding along with my Coffin Hop, and have safe and fun Halloween!
FEATURED COFFIN HOPPER OF THE DAY
The FlipSide Of Julianne
Author Julianne Snow has put together an awesome eight-part flash fiction piece for her Coffin Hop! The link above will take you to part one--and I highly encourage you to check it from the start. :)
Like most all Coffin Hoppers, she's also doing a giveaway of some of her work if you comment. So be sure to give her a click!
You can check the entire hop below:
But first, I want to share a special giveaway event I'm taking part in…
Just in time for Halloween, some Killer Serials you can sink your teeth into!
Serial and episodic fiction are becoming more and more popular with readers in the digital age. And as many of you know, my Moonsongs series is exactly that, so I'm pretty passionate about the concept.
Who would enjoy serialized stories? Fans of television, for one. Many of these stories are built around the TV model, leaving you craving more at the end of each episode. Others who might enjoy serials are the folks who don't have time to cram entire novels into their daily lives, but would love to read fiction with a purpose. These aren't short stories so much as sagas broken into bite-sized pieces.
I know for my Moonsongs books, I really work hard to give the reader a feeling of fulfillment with each story, but also leave them wanting to see what happens next.Sound like something you'd enjoy? Luckily, there are several fantastic authors doing them! And beginning today, you can enter for a chance to win some of the most exciting serialized content going--plus, you can sample several of these authors for free. (Including me!)
Here's the rundown of the authors and stories involved in the is special giveaway:
Some Killer Serials you should consider sampling
Andrew Leon: The Shadow Spinner Series (34 parts, 40ish pages each) Tiberius has always thought of himself as a normal 10-year-old boy, at least until the day his mother finally decides to tell him about his father, and she tells him things that convince him that one of them is crazy, and he's pretty sure it's not him. That is until the Man with No Eyes shows up and his father falls out of the sky.
Susan Kaye Quinn: The Debt Collector Series
(9 Volumes, 50ish pages each, all complete, (for you risk-averse readers) first one free) What's your life worth on the open market? A debt collector can tell you precisely.
EJ Wesley: Moonsong Series
(5th coming in December - no end point necessarily planned, but they are coming in 3-book clusters *6th in January* for satisfying individual story arcs; link to the first one FREE) Jenny Moonsong recently inherited the title of "monster hunter" and an ancient tribal journal/how-to manual passed down by her Apache ancestors. The Moonsongs books follow her adventures as she battles the dark supernatural denizens of the world in a series of action-packed, urban fantasy novelettes.
RaShelle Workman: The Cindy Chronicles (4 published of 6 volumes) From a seemingly insignificant word comes the greatest of fairytales... Cinderella is a witch and she's been asked to save a world she never knew existed.
Hart Johnson: A Shot in the Light Series (10 episodes, 100 pages each, 4th available today and the first is free) Deadliest virus in a century, or a social experiment gone awry? Sidney Knight begins to notice inconsistencies in what people are being told and what's going on as half the population dies of the flu... or is it the vaccine?
Visit the authors participating in Killer Serials giveaway:
Andrew - http://strangepegs.blogspot.com/
Susan - http://www.susankayequinn.com/
E.J. - http://the-open-vein-ejwesley.blogspot.com/
RaShelle - http://www.rashelleworkman.com/
Hart - http://waterytart23.blogspot.com/
And here's how you can enter to win some of these great stories!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Now to end my first ever Coffin Hop! I've had a blast taking part this year, and I've met a ton of great horror authors. Be sure to check the site and join up for next year if you think you'd like share in the scare!
Being a writing blog, I decided to cover what I thought were the basics to weaving a little thrill and chill into your stories. My full hop schedule looked like this:
Monday, 10/28 - The Sinister Senses
Tuesday, 10/29 - Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
Wednesday, 10/30 - Mining The Darkness Within
Thursday, 10/31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN - A Murderous Tension
Also want to mention that the organizers behind Coffin Hop have put together a fantastic collection of horror stories to benefit an even better cause. All proceeds from the Death By Drive-In anthology will go to LitWorld.org to promote childhood reading.
*click the image below for more details on the anthology*
As for my giveaway, simply leave a comment on any of my Coffin Hop posts and I'll enter you into a drawing for one of the following items:
- 1 Digital copy of Death By Drive-In
- 1 Paper Copy of Death By Drive-In (US ONLY)
- 2 Digital Copies of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 AND my latest, Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4 (1 set to each winner)
- 1 Signed paper copy of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 (US ONLY)
Lastly, I'll be highlighting one of my fellow Coffin Hoppers at the end of every post--so let's get to it!
A Murderous Tension
Tension in fiction is a weird--and often fickle--thing. It can be created or destroyed with a single word, description, or scene. And while it's important for any kind of story, it's absolutely dire for horror and thrillers.
A reader has to feel the threat pressing down on them like the brutal heat of a summer day in Phoenix, Arizona. An inescapable anxiety has to blanket the story, and the only way out from under it is to read The End.
No small task! So how do we do it? Here are few quick cheats:
Start in the middle - in medias res is a commonly refereed to concept of beginning a story in the middle of action. It creates insta-tension.
Example: Don't let the reader get all comfy-cozy by getting up to speed with grandma leisurely driving them through the park on the way to soccer practice. Instead, slap their ass behind the wheel of a car going 150 MPH on the Santa Monica Freeway with a couple dozen well-armed cops chasing them, and a drug lord in the backseat threatening to kill their spouse if they slow down. It works.
Mystery - Uncertainty creates tension. Arriving at a camp known for its unexplained, horrible accidents. A newspaper article about a series of grizzly unsolved murders. Exploring a 'supposedly' haunted house. It intrigues us. It also scares the jeepers out of us.
False Trails - Let the reader chase their tails a bit. Let them presume, guess, and postulate. Then yank the freaking rug out from under them! If you're going to create a scary, tense story, the reader can never feel comfortable. One way of doing that is by encouraging them to guess wrong.
Love and hate, get it straight … or maybe don't - Just like real life, when your characters don't get along, it creates friction. And friction creates--you guessed it--tension for the reader! Even if it's THE love interest for your protagonist, have them fight like cats and water! The result will have your reader on edge, and when you throw that werewolf in the mix, it'll send them over it. :)
How do you work tension into your writing? Any favorite books or films that kept you biting your nails the entire time?
Thanks again for riding along with my Coffin Hop, and have safe and fun Halloween!
FEATURED COFFIN HOPPER OF THE DAY
The FlipSide Of Julianne
Author Julianne Snow has put together an awesome eight-part flash fiction piece for her Coffin Hop! The link above will take you to part one--and I highly encourage you to check it from the start. :)
Like most all Coffin Hoppers, she's also doing a giveaway of some of her work if you comment. So be sure to give her a click!
You can check the entire hop below:
October 30, 2013
Coffin Hop 2013 - Four Keys To Frightening Fiction - Pt. 3 Mining The Darkness Within
Hey, gang! I'm back for round 3 of my 4 part Coffin Hop feature on writing frightening fiction!
So what the heck is a Coffin Hop? Basically, a bunch of us writer types get together to share scary stories, do giveaways, and generally try to get the blog world into the spirit of the season.
Being a writing blog, I've decided to cover what I think are the basics to weaving a little thrill and chill into your stories. My full hop schedule looks like this:
Monday, 10/28 - The Sinister Senses
Tuesday, 10/29 - Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
Wednesday, 10/30 - Mining The Darkness Within
Thursday, 10/31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN - A Murderous Tension
Also want to mention that the organizers behind Coffin Hop have put together a fantastic collection of horror stories to benefit an even better cause. All proceeds from the Death By Drive-In anthology will go to LitWorld.org to promote childhood reading.
*click the image below for more details on the anthology*
As for my giveaway, simply leave a comment on any of my Coffin Hop posts and I'll enter you into a drawing for one of the following items:
- 1 Digital copy of Death By Drive-In
- 1 Paper Copy of Death By Drive-In (US ONLY)
- 2 Digital Copies of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 AND my latest, Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4 (1 set to each winner)
- 1 Signed paper copy of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 (US ONLY)
Lastly, I'll be highlighting one of my fellow Coffin Hoppers at the end of every post--so let's get to it!
Mining the Darkness Within
Write what you know. Popular writing advice that, frankly, I haven't always found to be true. It takes a good imagination to write fiction, and imagination by definition is basically the art of making crap up.
If I really knew how to stop a nuclear disaster, win a fight club, sweep beautiful people off of their feet, or survive a zombie apocalypse, I probably wouldn't be an author.
But I love to read about characters who do those types of things. Thus, I usually default to: Write what you love--then sprinkle in what you know.
However, when it comes to writing scary, there's some very useful knowledge lurking inside all of us. And tapping into it can really go a long way to creating a terrifying reading experience.
I'm talking about our fears. Everyone has them. They can be highly unique, like being afraid of truck stop urinals. (Okay, that might not be just me…) Or they can be shared by lots of people. I'll boldly say that more people are freaked out by spiders than aren't.
In either case, what we're afraid of, if we can accurately bring our fears to life on the page, is going to scare other people, too. And it's one of the easier emotions to channel. After all, what's more vivid than our darkest dreams and the terrors of our minds?
The tricky part is examining fear honestly, because it isn't always a comfortable process. If you're terrified of snakes, it can make you a little squirmy to think about EXACTLY what it is about snakes that scare you.
But I bet there's something. Maybe it isn't the fangs, maybe it's the dread of feeling their slimy scales spasming over your bare skin. Maybe it's the way their cold, reptilian eyes express nothing but animal calculation. Or perhaps it's knowing that each flick of their demonic forked tongues is the equivalent of you walking along the buffet to see what looks good to eat. :)
Whatever it is, you're going to have an inside track on what makes it so damned scary, and if you can share that with your readers, they'll be scared, too.
More importantly, if you can do it for yourself, you can start to easily imagine the deepest dreads for each of your characters.
One of the scariest movie moments for me growing up was an awesome example of sharing an inner fear--something only the character would be able to conjure or imagine--with the audience.
Via Pet Cemetery - Zelda was the sister of one of the protagonists, who she watched die of spinal meningitis as a child. The character recounts her memories in chilling fashion.
That scene still freaks me completely out! LOL
So what are you most afraid of? Could you make a list of three very specific things about it (plausible or no--like the tormented long-dead sister coming back to live in your attic) that would frighten you the most?
Come back tomorrow as we'll finish off the hop and celebrate Halloween with a look at creating tension! Plus, a surprise for fans of serial fiction. :)
FEATURED COFFIN HOPPER OF THE DAY
Michelle Muto, Paranormal Author
I had the pleasure of getting to talk with Michele for one of our recent NA Lit Chats. She definitely knows her scary! She's also a part of the Coffin Hop and offering a signed copy of one of her books.
Michelle's blog is featuring some ghost stories, and generally has lots of paranormal goodness going down, so jump over and check her out!
You can check the entire hop below:
So what the heck is a Coffin Hop? Basically, a bunch of us writer types get together to share scary stories, do giveaways, and generally try to get the blog world into the spirit of the season.
Being a writing blog, I've decided to cover what I think are the basics to weaving a little thrill and chill into your stories. My full hop schedule looks like this:
Monday, 10/28 - The Sinister Senses
Tuesday, 10/29 - Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
Wednesday, 10/30 - Mining The Darkness Within
Thursday, 10/31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN - A Murderous Tension
Also want to mention that the organizers behind Coffin Hop have put together a fantastic collection of horror stories to benefit an even better cause. All proceeds from the Death By Drive-In anthology will go to LitWorld.org to promote childhood reading.
*click the image below for more details on the anthology*
As for my giveaway, simply leave a comment on any of my Coffin Hop posts and I'll enter you into a drawing for one of the following items:
- 1 Digital copy of Death By Drive-In
- 1 Paper Copy of Death By Drive-In (US ONLY)
- 2 Digital Copies of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 AND my latest, Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4 (1 set to each winner)
- 1 Signed paper copy of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 (US ONLY)
Lastly, I'll be highlighting one of my fellow Coffin Hoppers at the end of every post--so let's get to it!
Mining the Darkness Within
Write what you know. Popular writing advice that, frankly, I haven't always found to be true. It takes a good imagination to write fiction, and imagination by definition is basically the art of making crap up.
If I really knew how to stop a nuclear disaster, win a fight club, sweep beautiful people off of their feet, or survive a zombie apocalypse, I probably wouldn't be an author.
But I love to read about characters who do those types of things. Thus, I usually default to: Write what you love--then sprinkle in what you know.
However, when it comes to writing scary, there's some very useful knowledge lurking inside all of us. And tapping into it can really go a long way to creating a terrifying reading experience.
I'm talking about our fears. Everyone has them. They can be highly unique, like being afraid of truck stop urinals. (Okay, that might not be just me…) Or they can be shared by lots of people. I'll boldly say that more people are freaked out by spiders than aren't.
In either case, what we're afraid of, if we can accurately bring our fears to life on the page, is going to scare other people, too. And it's one of the easier emotions to channel. After all, what's more vivid than our darkest dreams and the terrors of our minds?
The tricky part is examining fear honestly, because it isn't always a comfortable process. If you're terrified of snakes, it can make you a little squirmy to think about EXACTLY what it is about snakes that scare you.
But I bet there's something. Maybe it isn't the fangs, maybe it's the dread of feeling their slimy scales spasming over your bare skin. Maybe it's the way their cold, reptilian eyes express nothing but animal calculation. Or perhaps it's knowing that each flick of their demonic forked tongues is the equivalent of you walking along the buffet to see what looks good to eat. :)
Whatever it is, you're going to have an inside track on what makes it so damned scary, and if you can share that with your readers, they'll be scared, too.
More importantly, if you can do it for yourself, you can start to easily imagine the deepest dreads for each of your characters.
One of the scariest movie moments for me growing up was an awesome example of sharing an inner fear--something only the character would be able to conjure or imagine--with the audience.
Via Pet Cemetery - Zelda was the sister of one of the protagonists, who she watched die of spinal meningitis as a child. The character recounts her memories in chilling fashion.
That scene still freaks me completely out! LOL
So what are you most afraid of? Could you make a list of three very specific things about it (plausible or no--like the tormented long-dead sister coming back to live in your attic) that would frighten you the most?
Come back tomorrow as we'll finish off the hop and celebrate Halloween with a look at creating tension! Plus, a surprise for fans of serial fiction. :)
FEATURED COFFIN HOPPER OF THE DAY
Michelle Muto, Paranormal Author
I had the pleasure of getting to talk with Michele for one of our recent NA Lit Chats. She definitely knows her scary! She's also a part of the Coffin Hop and offering a signed copy of one of her books.
Michelle's blog is featuring some ghost stories, and generally has lots of paranormal goodness going down, so jump over and check her out!
You can check the entire hop below:
October 29, 2013
Coffin Hop 2013 - Four Keys To Writing Frightening Fiction - Pt. 2. Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
Hey, gang! I'm back for round 2 of my 4 part Coffin Hop feature on writing frightening fiction!
So what the heck is a Coffin Hop? Basically, a bunch of us writer types get together to share scary stories, do giveaways, and generally try to get the blog world into the spirit of the season.
Being a writing blog, I've decided to cover what I think are the basics to weaving a little thrill and chill into your stories. My full hop schedule looks like this:
Monday, 10/28 - The Sinister Senses
Tuesday, 10/29 - Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
Wednesday, 10/30 - Mining The Darkness Within
Thursday, 10/31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN - A Murderous Tension
Also want to mention that the organizers behind Coffin Hop have put together a fantastic collection of horror stories to benefit an even better cause. All proceeds from the Death By Drive-In anthology will go to LitWorld.org to promote childhood reading.
*click the image below for more details on the anthology*
As for my giveaway, simply leave a comment on any of my Coffin Hop posts and I'll enter you into a drawing for one of the following items:
- 1 Digital copy of Death By Drive-In
- 1 Paper Copy of Death By Drive-In (US ONLY)
- 2 Digital Copies of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 AND my latest, Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4 (1 set to each winner)
- 1 Signed paper copy of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 (US ONLY)
Lastly, I'll be highlighting one of my fellow Coffin Hoppers at the end of every post--so let's get to it!
Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
A clown. A little old lady who sits in front of her bedroom window at the same time every day, watching the neighborhood kids play. A caretaker who isn't very sociable and always seems to have something sharp in his hands. A cabin in the woods. A toy monkey playing the cymbals. A kid riding a tricycle…
Nothing extraordinary there. All are pretty much everyday occurrences or items. But, because you know the nature of these posts, I bet the hairs on your arms stiffened just a touch by the time you finished reading that list--particularly if you're a fan of horror movies and books. :)
Why? Because creepy is all about context, and sometimes, the most ordinary things--when viewed from unordinary perspectives--can be terrifying.
Put that clown in a sewer. Maybe that little old lady HATES children. Make that cabin the only shelter in a violent storm, and the caretaker its only inhabitant.
Put that toy monkey at the scene of a grizzly murder, then have a down-on-his-luck detective take it to give to his son because he forgot his birthday. The kid takes it everywhere with him, and suddenly the boys, the ones who used to torment him while he road his tricycle up and down the sidewalk, disappear. The kid on the trike becomes the harbinger of death!
I've loosely referenced a few Stephen King stories here with good reason: He's an absolute master of turning the commonplace into our greatest fears. And it's all very basic psychology! After all, most phobias are rooted in the mundane.
I'm using a family ghost story I told recently to illustrate a few of the points this week. You can check the entire story out HERE.
Here's a passage from the story where a few ordinary things--moonlight streaming through curtains, a recliner, and vaporous breath on a cold night--take on a more ominous quality.
"With trembling hands, he inches the covers downward until he can see. He scans left, toward his grandmother’s closed bedroom door, hoping she’ll be standing there looking in on him. She isn’t.
He looks straight ahead to the dining room, but sees nothing but the swirls of his own breath in the cold and moonlight tracing funny shapes on the floor through the curtains.
At last, he cuts his eyes to the right, where he knows he should see an empty recliner, a coffee table, and a black-and-white television. All is exactly where it should be, except the chair isn’t empty. Grandpa is sitting in it, wearing his overalls, just as the boy had seen him do in so many of the old photographs lying around the house."
Another author who does fantastically creepy things with very simple ingredients is Neil Gaiman. Here's a passage from The Graveyard Book where we're introduced to one of the best villains ever, the man Jack:
"The street door was still open, just a little, where the knife and the man who held it had slipped in, and wisps of nighttime mist slithered and twined into the house through the open door.
The man Jack paused on the landing. With his left hand he pulled a large white handkerchief from the pocket of his black coat, and with it he wiped off the knife and his gloved right hand which had been holding it; then he put the handkerchief away. The hunt was almost over. He had left the woman in her bed, the man on the bedroom floor, the older child in her brightly colored bedroom, surrounded by toys and half-finished models. That only left the little one, a baby barely a toddler, to take care of. One more and his task would be done.
He flexed his fingers. The man Jack was, above all things, a professional, or so he told himself, and he would not allow himself to smile until the job was completed.
His hair was dark and his eyes were dark and he wore black leather gloves of the thinnest lambskin.
The toddler's room was at the very top of the house. The man Jack walked up the stairs, his feet silent on the carpeting. Then he pushed open the attic door, and he walked in. His shoes were black leather, and they were polished to such a shine that they looked like dark mirrors: you could see the moon reflected in them, tiny and half full.
The real moon shone through the casement window. Its light was not bright, and it was diffused by the mist, but the man Jack would not need much light. The moonlight was enough. It would do."
Thin black gloves, shiny shoes, misty moonlight streaming through a window--just brilliantly chilling stuff!
Have any favorite authors who do simple-creepy well? Favorite scary movies that turn ordinary things into horribly frightening moments? (How about that shower scene in Psycho? I still don't like hotel shower curtains for that reason! LOL)
Come back tomorrow, and we'll take a look at how you can use the things you're afraid of to scare the loafers off of your readers, too. :)
FEATURED COFFIN HOPPER OF THE DAY
Jeff Chapman's Writing
Jeff is an extremely well-read horror fan, and he's throwing out reading recs left and right during the hop. Today, he's talking about books he reads to get in the Halloween mood--including H.P. Lovecraft's "The Rats In The Walls"!
Jeff, like all Coffin Hoppers, has a sweet giveaway going, so be sure to check him out!
You can check the entire hop below:
So what the heck is a Coffin Hop? Basically, a bunch of us writer types get together to share scary stories, do giveaways, and generally try to get the blog world into the spirit of the season.
Being a writing blog, I've decided to cover what I think are the basics to weaving a little thrill and chill into your stories. My full hop schedule looks like this:
Monday, 10/28 - The Sinister Senses
Tuesday, 10/29 - Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
Wednesday, 10/30 - Mining The Darkness Within
Thursday, 10/31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN - A Murderous Tension
Also want to mention that the organizers behind Coffin Hop have put together a fantastic collection of horror stories to benefit an even better cause. All proceeds from the Death By Drive-In anthology will go to LitWorld.org to promote childhood reading.
*click the image below for more details on the anthology*
As for my giveaway, simply leave a comment on any of my Coffin Hop posts and I'll enter you into a drawing for one of the following items:
- 1 Digital copy of Death By Drive-In
- 1 Paper Copy of Death By Drive-In (US ONLY)
- 2 Digital Copies of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 AND my latest, Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4 (1 set to each winner)
- 1 Signed paper copy of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 (US ONLY)
Lastly, I'll be highlighting one of my fellow Coffin Hoppers at the end of every post--so let's get to it!
Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
A clown. A little old lady who sits in front of her bedroom window at the same time every day, watching the neighborhood kids play. A caretaker who isn't very sociable and always seems to have something sharp in his hands. A cabin in the woods. A toy monkey playing the cymbals. A kid riding a tricycle…
Nothing extraordinary there. All are pretty much everyday occurrences or items. But, because you know the nature of these posts, I bet the hairs on your arms stiffened just a touch by the time you finished reading that list--particularly if you're a fan of horror movies and books. :)
Why? Because creepy is all about context, and sometimes, the most ordinary things--when viewed from unordinary perspectives--can be terrifying.
Put that clown in a sewer. Maybe that little old lady HATES children. Make that cabin the only shelter in a violent storm, and the caretaker its only inhabitant.
Put that toy monkey at the scene of a grizzly murder, then have a down-on-his-luck detective take it to give to his son because he forgot his birthday. The kid takes it everywhere with him, and suddenly the boys, the ones who used to torment him while he road his tricycle up and down the sidewalk, disappear. The kid on the trike becomes the harbinger of death!
I've loosely referenced a few Stephen King stories here with good reason: He's an absolute master of turning the commonplace into our greatest fears. And it's all very basic psychology! After all, most phobias are rooted in the mundane.
I'm using a family ghost story I told recently to illustrate a few of the points this week. You can check the entire story out HERE.
Here's a passage from the story where a few ordinary things--moonlight streaming through curtains, a recliner, and vaporous breath on a cold night--take on a more ominous quality.
"With trembling hands, he inches the covers downward until he can see. He scans left, toward his grandmother’s closed bedroom door, hoping she’ll be standing there looking in on him. She isn’t.
He looks straight ahead to the dining room, but sees nothing but the swirls of his own breath in the cold and moonlight tracing funny shapes on the floor through the curtains.
At last, he cuts his eyes to the right, where he knows he should see an empty recliner, a coffee table, and a black-and-white television. All is exactly where it should be, except the chair isn’t empty. Grandpa is sitting in it, wearing his overalls, just as the boy had seen him do in so many of the old photographs lying around the house."
Another author who does fantastically creepy things with very simple ingredients is Neil Gaiman. Here's a passage from The Graveyard Book where we're introduced to one of the best villains ever, the man Jack:
"The street door was still open, just a little, where the knife and the man who held it had slipped in, and wisps of nighttime mist slithered and twined into the house through the open door.
The man Jack paused on the landing. With his left hand he pulled a large white handkerchief from the pocket of his black coat, and with it he wiped off the knife and his gloved right hand which had been holding it; then he put the handkerchief away. The hunt was almost over. He had left the woman in her bed, the man on the bedroom floor, the older child in her brightly colored bedroom, surrounded by toys and half-finished models. That only left the little one, a baby barely a toddler, to take care of. One more and his task would be done.
He flexed his fingers. The man Jack was, above all things, a professional, or so he told himself, and he would not allow himself to smile until the job was completed.
His hair was dark and his eyes were dark and he wore black leather gloves of the thinnest lambskin.
The toddler's room was at the very top of the house. The man Jack walked up the stairs, his feet silent on the carpeting. Then he pushed open the attic door, and he walked in. His shoes were black leather, and they were polished to such a shine that they looked like dark mirrors: you could see the moon reflected in them, tiny and half full.
The real moon shone through the casement window. Its light was not bright, and it was diffused by the mist, but the man Jack would not need much light. The moonlight was enough. It would do."
Thin black gloves, shiny shoes, misty moonlight streaming through a window--just brilliantly chilling stuff!
Have any favorite authors who do simple-creepy well? Favorite scary movies that turn ordinary things into horribly frightening moments? (How about that shower scene in Psycho? I still don't like hotel shower curtains for that reason! LOL)
Come back tomorrow, and we'll take a look at how you can use the things you're afraid of to scare the loafers off of your readers, too. :)
FEATURED COFFIN HOPPER OF THE DAY
Jeff Chapman's Writing
Jeff is an extremely well-read horror fan, and he's throwing out reading recs left and right during the hop. Today, he's talking about books he reads to get in the Halloween mood--including H.P. Lovecraft's "The Rats In The Walls"!
Jeff, like all Coffin Hoppers, has a sweet giveaway going, so be sure to check him out!
You can check the entire hop below:
Coffin Hop 213 - Four Keys To Writing Frightening Fiction - Pt. 2. Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
Hey, gang! I'm back for round 2 of my 4 part Coffin Hop feature on writing frightening fiction!
So what the heck is a Coffin Hop? Basically, a bunch of us writer types get together to share scary stories, do giveaways, and generally try to get the blog world into the spirit of the season.
Being a writing blog, I've decided to cover what I think are the basics to weaving a little thrill and chill into your stories. My full hop schedule looks like this:
Monday, 10/28 - The Sinister Senses
Tuesday, 10/29 - Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
Wednesday, 10/30 - Mining The Darkness Within
Thursday, 10/31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN - A Murderous Tension
Also want to mention that the organizers behind Coffin Hop have put together a fantastic collection of horror stories to benefit an even better cause. All proceeds from the Death By Drive-In anthology will go to LitWorld.org to promote childhood reading.
*click the image below for more details on the anthology*
As for my giveaway, simply leave a comment on any of my Coffin Hop posts and I'll enter you into a drawing for one of the following items:
- 1 Digital copy of Death By Drive-In
- 1 Paper Copy of Death By Drive-In (US ONLY)
- 2 Digital Copies of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 AND my latest, Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4 (1 set to each winner)
- 1 Signed paper copy of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 (US ONLY)
Lastly, I'll be highlighting one of my fellow Coffin Hoppers at the end of every post--so let's get to it!
Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
A clown. A little old lady who sits in front of her bedroom window at the same time every day, watching the neighborhood kids play. A caretaker who isn't very sociable and always seems to have something sharp in his hands. A cabin in the woods. A toy monkey playing the cymbals. A kid riding a tricycle…
Nothing extraordinary there. All are pretty much everyday occurrences or items. But, because you know the nature of these posts, I bet the hairs on your arms stiffened just a touch by the time you finished reading that list--particularly if you're a fan of horror movies and books. :)
Why? Because creepy is all about context, and sometimes, the most ordinary things--when viewed from unordinary perspectives--can be terrifying.
Put that clown in a sewer. Maybe that little old lady HATES children. Make that cabin the only shelter in a violent storm, and the caretaker its only inhabitant.
Put that toy monkey at the scene of a grizzly murder, then have a down-on-his-luck detective take it to give to his son because he forgot his birthday. The kid takes it everywhere with him, and suddenly the boys, the ones who used to torment him while he road his tricycle up and down the sidewalk, disappear. The kid on the trike becomes the harbinger of death!
I've loosely referenced a few Stephen King stories here with good reason: He's an absolute master of turning the commonplace into our greatest fears. And it's all very basic psychology! After all, most phobias are rooted in the mundane.
I'm using a family ghost story I told recently to illustrate a few of the points this week. You can check the entire story out HERE.
Here's a passage from the story where a few ordinary things--moonlight streaming through curtains, a recliner, and vaporous breath on a cold night--take on a more ominous quality.
"With trembling hands, he inches the covers downward until he can see. He scans left, toward his grandmother’s closed bedroom door, hoping she’ll be standing there looking in on him. She isn’t.
He looks straight ahead to the dining room, but sees nothing but the swirls of his own breath in the cold and moonlight tracing funny shapes on the floor through the curtains.
At last, he cuts his eyes to the right, where he knows he should see an empty recliner, a coffee table, and a black-and-white television. All is exactly where it should be, except the chair isn’t empty. Grandpa is sitting in it, wearing his overalls, just as the boy had seen him do in so many of the old photographs lying around the house."
Another author who does fantastically creepy things with very simple ingredients is Neil Gaiman. Here's a passage from The Graveyard Book where we're introduced to one of the best villains ever, the man Jack:
"The street door was still open, just a little, where the knife and the man who held it had slipped in, and wisps of nighttime mist slithered and twined into the house through the open door.
The man Jack paused on the landing. With his left hand he pulled a large white handkerchief from the pocket of his black coat, and with it he wiped off the knife and his gloved right hand which had been holding it; then he put the handkerchief away. The hunt was almost over. He had left the woman in her bed, the man on the bedroom floor, the older child in her brightly colored bedroom, surrounded by toys and half-finished models. That only left the little one, a baby barely a toddler, to take care of. One more and his task would be done.
He flexed his fingers. The man Jack was, above all things, a professional, or so he told himself, and he would not allow himself to smile until the job was completed.
His hair was dark and his eyes were dark and he wore black leather gloves of the thinnest lambskin.
The toddler's room was at the very top of the house. The man Jack walked up the stairs, his feet silent on the carpeting. Then he pushed open the attic door, and he walked in. His shoes were black leather, and they were polished to such a shine that they looked like dark mirrors: you could see the moon reflected in them, tiny and half full.
The real moon shone through the casement window. Its light was not bright, and it was diffused by the mist, but the man Jack would not need much light. The moonlight was enough. It would do."
Thin black gloves, shiny shoes, misty moonlight streaming through a window--just brilliantly chilling stuff!
Have any favorite authors who do simple-creepy well? Favorite scary movies that turn ordinary things into horribly frightening moments? (How about that shower scene in Psycho? I still don't like hotel shower curtains for that reason! LOL)
Come back tomorrow, and we'll take a look at how you can use the things you're afraid of to scare the loafers off of your readers, too. :)
FEATURED COFFIN HOPPER OF THE DAY
Jeff Chapman's Writing
Jeff is an extremely well-read horror fan, and he's throwing out reading recs left and right during the hop. Today, he's talking about books he reads to get in the Halloween mood--including H.P. Lovecraft's "The Rats In The Walls"!
Jeff, like all Coffin Hoppers, has a sweet giveaway going, so be sure to check him out!
You can check the entire hop below:
So what the heck is a Coffin Hop? Basically, a bunch of us writer types get together to share scary stories, do giveaways, and generally try to get the blog world into the spirit of the season.
Being a writing blog, I've decided to cover what I think are the basics to weaving a little thrill and chill into your stories. My full hop schedule looks like this:
Monday, 10/28 - The Sinister Senses
Tuesday, 10/29 - Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
Wednesday, 10/30 - Mining The Darkness Within
Thursday, 10/31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN - A Murderous Tension
Also want to mention that the organizers behind Coffin Hop have put together a fantastic collection of horror stories to benefit an even better cause. All proceeds from the Death By Drive-In anthology will go to LitWorld.org to promote childhood reading.
*click the image below for more details on the anthology*
As for my giveaway, simply leave a comment on any of my Coffin Hop posts and I'll enter you into a drawing for one of the following items:
- 1 Digital copy of Death By Drive-In
- 1 Paper Copy of Death By Drive-In (US ONLY)
- 2 Digital Copies of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 AND my latest, Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4 (1 set to each winner)
- 1 Signed paper copy of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 (US ONLY)
Lastly, I'll be highlighting one of my fellow Coffin Hoppers at the end of every post--so let's get to it!
Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
A clown. A little old lady who sits in front of her bedroom window at the same time every day, watching the neighborhood kids play. A caretaker who isn't very sociable and always seems to have something sharp in his hands. A cabin in the woods. A toy monkey playing the cymbals. A kid riding a tricycle…
Nothing extraordinary there. All are pretty much everyday occurrences or items. But, because you know the nature of these posts, I bet the hairs on your arms stiffened just a touch by the time you finished reading that list--particularly if you're a fan of horror movies and books. :)
Why? Because creepy is all about context, and sometimes, the most ordinary things--when viewed from unordinary perspectives--can be terrifying.
Put that clown in a sewer. Maybe that little old lady HATES children. Make that cabin the only shelter in a violent storm, and the caretaker its only inhabitant.
Put that toy monkey at the scene of a grizzly murder, then have a down-on-his-luck detective take it to give to his son because he forgot his birthday. The kid takes it everywhere with him, and suddenly the boys, the ones who used to torment him while he road his tricycle up and down the sidewalk, disappear. The kid on the trike becomes the harbinger of death!
I've loosely referenced a few Stephen King stories here with good reason: He's an absolute master of turning the commonplace into our greatest fears. And it's all very basic psychology! After all, most phobias are rooted in the mundane.
I'm using a family ghost story I told recently to illustrate a few of the points this week. You can check the entire story out HERE.
Here's a passage from the story where a few ordinary things--moonlight streaming through curtains, a recliner, and vaporous breath on a cold night--take on a more ominous quality.
"With trembling hands, he inches the covers downward until he can see. He scans left, toward his grandmother’s closed bedroom door, hoping she’ll be standing there looking in on him. She isn’t.
He looks straight ahead to the dining room, but sees nothing but the swirls of his own breath in the cold and moonlight tracing funny shapes on the floor through the curtains.
At last, he cuts his eyes to the right, where he knows he should see an empty recliner, a coffee table, and a black-and-white television. All is exactly where it should be, except the chair isn’t empty. Grandpa is sitting in it, wearing his overalls, just as the boy had seen him do in so many of the old photographs lying around the house."
Another author who does fantastically creepy things with very simple ingredients is Neil Gaiman. Here's a passage from The Graveyard Book where we're introduced to one of the best villains ever, the man Jack:
"The street door was still open, just a little, where the knife and the man who held it had slipped in, and wisps of nighttime mist slithered and twined into the house through the open door.
The man Jack paused on the landing. With his left hand he pulled a large white handkerchief from the pocket of his black coat, and with it he wiped off the knife and his gloved right hand which had been holding it; then he put the handkerchief away. The hunt was almost over. He had left the woman in her bed, the man on the bedroom floor, the older child in her brightly colored bedroom, surrounded by toys and half-finished models. That only left the little one, a baby barely a toddler, to take care of. One more and his task would be done.
He flexed his fingers. The man Jack was, above all things, a professional, or so he told himself, and he would not allow himself to smile until the job was completed.
His hair was dark and his eyes were dark and he wore black leather gloves of the thinnest lambskin.
The toddler's room was at the very top of the house. The man Jack walked up the stairs, his feet silent on the carpeting. Then he pushed open the attic door, and he walked in. His shoes were black leather, and they were polished to such a shine that they looked like dark mirrors: you could see the moon reflected in them, tiny and half full.
The real moon shone through the casement window. Its light was not bright, and it was diffused by the mist, but the man Jack would not need much light. The moonlight was enough. It would do."
Thin black gloves, shiny shoes, misty moonlight streaming through a window--just brilliantly chilling stuff!
Have any favorite authors who do simple-creepy well? Favorite scary movies that turn ordinary things into horribly frightening moments? (How about that shower scene in Psycho? I still don't like hotel shower curtains for that reason! LOL)
Come back tomorrow, and we'll take a look at how you can use the things you're afraid of to scare the loafers off of your readers, too. :)
FEATURED COFFIN HOPPER OF THE DAY
Jeff Chapman's Writing
Jeff is an extremely well-read horror fan, and he's throwing out reading recs left and right during the hop. Today, he's talking about books he reads to get in the Halloween mood--including H.P. Lovecraft's "The Rats In The Walls"!
Jeff, like all Coffin Hoppers, has a sweet giveaway going, so be sure to check him out!
You can check the entire hop below:
October 28, 2013
Coffin Hop '13 - Four Keys To Frightening Fiction - Pt. 1 The Sinister Senses
Hey, gang! We are quickly ticking down the days to one of my favorite holidays, Halloween! This year I'm taking part in an extremely awesome blog tour for horror and thriller authors called Coffin Hop.
Basically, a bunch of us get together to share scary stories, do giveaways, and generally try to get the blog world into the spirit of the season. (Pun most definitely intended… read further to find out why! :)
As a participant, I can blog on a theme. So seeing as how this is a writing blog, I've decided to share some tips for writing frightening fiction.
Beginning today, with a look at how to create terror by engaging the 5 senses, I'll cover a different aspect of writing for frights.
My full hop schedule looks like this:
Monday, 10/28 - The Sinister Senses
Tuesday, 10/29 - Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
Wednesday, 10/30 - Mining The Darkness Within
Thursday, 10/31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN - A Murderous Tension
Also want to mention that the organizers behind Coffin Hop have put together a fantastic collection of horror stories to benefit an even better cause. All proceeds from the Death By Drive-In anthology will go to LitWorld.org to promote childhood reading.
*click the image below for more details on the anthology*
As for my giveaway, simply leave a comment on any of my Coffin Hop posts and I'll enter you into a drawing for one of the following items:
- 1 Digital copy of Death By Drive-In
- 1 Paper Copy of Death By Drive-In (US ONLY)
- 2 Digital Copies of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 AND my latest, Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4 (1 set to each winner)
- 1 Signed paper copy of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 (US ONLY)
Lastly, I'll be highlighting one of my fellow Coffin Hoppers at the end of every post--so let's get to it!
The Sinister Senses
If you're going to scare the bejeezus out of a reader, you must put them in the forest fleeing from a machete-weilding-maniac--it's not enough just to tell them about it. They have to live it, or at the very least, be afraid they won't live through it.
Fear on the page is only as real as fear in the mind. Which sounds like a lot to accomplish with a few adjectives, but if you've ever been the scared kid hiding under the blankets, waiting for whatever made the scratching sound on your bedroom window to burst through and eat you, you know the mind can do powerful things.
The first (and perhaps simplest) way to do this is by engaging the reader's five senses. Using sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste is creative writing 101, yes. But if you're writing to thrill and chill, it becomes much more important than simply adding color to your prose. It's the foundation on which you're going to create the reading experience.
Hearing the Mothman's menacing garble on the other end of a phone line, seeing a partially severed finger dangling from spaghetti-like tendons, and tasting bitter bile as it stings the back of your throat goes beyond setting the mood. It places you in the story.
More importantly, those sensory elements are the anchor to reality in what are often implausible situations. We're pretty certain Frankenstein isn't real. But when we can conjure the sickly sweet smell of raw meat--just beginning to turn--that his decaying flesh gives off, and run our fingers over the oozing ridges of the crude stitches crisscrossing his face, our minds are no longer quite so sure.
I'll reference a family ghost story I told recently. You can check it out HERE. This was a very real story for me, and just being familiar with the players in it (my living brother, my dead grandparents) is enough to scare me.
But the folks reading it won't know my grandparents. They haven't met my brother. So I needed to put them in our old farmhouse with my brother. I needed them to feel cold, watched, and threatened.
Here's the opening passage from the story where I used a few of the senses to try to do those things:
"It’s a mid-winter night on an isolated farm in rural Oklahoma. Inside of an old farmhouse—that was once an even older church—a noise sounds in the dark. A boy stirs, still half-asleep, under a mountain of quilts so thick and heavy he can barely rollover.
His grandmother, who is slumbering in the next room, can’t afford to run the gas stoves at night. There are times the house gets so cold her false teeth freeze in their overnight cleaning solution on the bathroom counter.
The blankets are a practical necessity. But deep inside the child’s groggy mind, they offer something even more important than blessed warmth. They’re a wall of protection between him and the unseen terrors lurking in the void around him."
Come back tomorrow as we'll take a look at turning the mundane into the macabre! (i.e., Clowns and Stephen King's It FTW :D)
FEATURED COFFIN HOPPER OF THE DAY
Katie M. John - Dark Fairy Tales & Horror Blog
Katie is doing a fabulous rundown of each day's Coffin Hop highlights--including notable giveaways! Plus, she's a talented author and blogger, so be sure to hop over and say hey to Katie!
You check the entire hop below:
1.A Diamond In The Dark 2.A. F. Stewart 3.Adventures in SciFi Publishing w/Ronald Malfi 4.Angela Scott Author 5.Angelic Knight Press 6.As the Crowe Flies 7.Ash Krafton’s Demimonde 8.Atty’s Attic 9.Author Jaime Johnesee 10.Author Jolea M. Harrison 11.Axel Howerton 12.Becki’s Book Blog 13.Blaze McRob’s Tales Of Horror 14.BloodRedShadows 15.Bustling Along Bookshelves 16.Cait’s Place 17.Catherine Wolffe – Wolfen Secrets 18.Chris Verstraete @ GirlZombieAuthors 19.Claudia Lefeve 20.Coffin Hop 21.D. A. Ward’s The Blog That Wouldn’t Die 22.Dance on Fire 23.Dark Heart & Night Shade 24.Dark Moon Digest 25.Days with the Undead 26.DemonAuthor. com 27.Epitaphs and Headstones 28.Eric Garrison 29.Escoe Allen 30.Fangs & Halos-Charlayne Elizabeth Denney 31.Father Thunder/Mother Night 32.Greg James 33.Jack Wallen 34.Jean Booth – Zombie War 35.Jeff Chapman 36.Jessica McHugh 37.Jezri’s Nightmares 38.Joanna Parypinski 39.John Everson: Dark Arts 40.Joseph Pinto’s Horror (& not so horrible) Blog 41.Katie M. John 42.Kim Koning | I See Ghosts | Wrestling The Muse 43.Land of the Brewin 44.Lori Michelle 45.Melissa A. Smith 46.Michael Montoure’s 47.Michelle Muto 48.Murphy’s Pub 49.Musings & Little Obsessions (INT) 50.Our Darkest Fears 51.Paul Stansfield 52.Pavarti K Tyler 53.Pen of the Damned 54.Precious Monsters 55.Red Tash 56.Robot Lincoln & Zombie Jackson 57.Scattershot Writing 58.Sirens Call Publications 59.Skye Callahan 60.Spreading the Writer’s Word 61.Strandville Zombie Series (B. Frisch) 62.Swamp Full Of Lies 63.Tell Me a Story, Ghost 64.The Cerebral Writer 65.The Dark Angel – Sotet Angyal 66.The Dark Fiction of Kenneth W. Cain 67.The Endless Chase 68.The Evermore Chronicles 69.The FlipSide of Julianne 70.The Manicheans by Johanna K. Pitcairn 71.The Nickronomicon 72.The Peculiar Life of a Writer 73.The Real Horror in “Blow Up the Roses” 74.The Road to Nowhere. . . 75.The Storyteller 76.The Vampire from Hell by Ally Thomas 77.Thea Gregory’s Zombie Bedtime Stories 78.What Really Scares Me 79.Whispers From The Abyss 80.Writing with Scissors 81.Zombie Night in Canada
Basically, a bunch of us get together to share scary stories, do giveaways, and generally try to get the blog world into the spirit of the season. (Pun most definitely intended… read further to find out why! :)
As a participant, I can blog on a theme. So seeing as how this is a writing blog, I've decided to share some tips for writing frightening fiction.
Beginning today, with a look at how to create terror by engaging the 5 senses, I'll cover a different aspect of writing for frights.
My full hop schedule looks like this:
Monday, 10/28 - The Sinister Senses
Tuesday, 10/29 - Oh So Ordinarily Creepy
Wednesday, 10/30 - Mining The Darkness Within
Thursday, 10/31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN - A Murderous Tension
Also want to mention that the organizers behind Coffin Hop have put together a fantastic collection of horror stories to benefit an even better cause. All proceeds from the Death By Drive-In anthology will go to LitWorld.org to promote childhood reading.
*click the image below for more details on the anthology*
As for my giveaway, simply leave a comment on any of my Coffin Hop posts and I'll enter you into a drawing for one of the following items:
- 1 Digital copy of Death By Drive-In
- 1 Paper Copy of Death By Drive-In (US ONLY)
- 2 Digital Copies of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 AND my latest, Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4 (1 set to each winner)
- 1 Signed paper copy of Moonsongs, Anthology 1 (US ONLY)
Lastly, I'll be highlighting one of my fellow Coffin Hoppers at the end of every post--so let's get to it!
The Sinister Senses
If you're going to scare the bejeezus out of a reader, you must put them in the forest fleeing from a machete-weilding-maniac--it's not enough just to tell them about it. They have to live it, or at the very least, be afraid they won't live through it.
Fear on the page is only as real as fear in the mind. Which sounds like a lot to accomplish with a few adjectives, but if you've ever been the scared kid hiding under the blankets, waiting for whatever made the scratching sound on your bedroom window to burst through and eat you, you know the mind can do powerful things.
The first (and perhaps simplest) way to do this is by engaging the reader's five senses. Using sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste is creative writing 101, yes. But if you're writing to thrill and chill, it becomes much more important than simply adding color to your prose. It's the foundation on which you're going to create the reading experience.
Hearing the Mothman's menacing garble on the other end of a phone line, seeing a partially severed finger dangling from spaghetti-like tendons, and tasting bitter bile as it stings the back of your throat goes beyond setting the mood. It places you in the story.
More importantly, those sensory elements are the anchor to reality in what are often implausible situations. We're pretty certain Frankenstein isn't real. But when we can conjure the sickly sweet smell of raw meat--just beginning to turn--that his decaying flesh gives off, and run our fingers over the oozing ridges of the crude stitches crisscrossing his face, our minds are no longer quite so sure.
I'll reference a family ghost story I told recently. You can check it out HERE. This was a very real story for me, and just being familiar with the players in it (my living brother, my dead grandparents) is enough to scare me.
But the folks reading it won't know my grandparents. They haven't met my brother. So I needed to put them in our old farmhouse with my brother. I needed them to feel cold, watched, and threatened.
Here's the opening passage from the story where I used a few of the senses to try to do those things:
"It’s a mid-winter night on an isolated farm in rural Oklahoma. Inside of an old farmhouse—that was once an even older church—a noise sounds in the dark. A boy stirs, still half-asleep, under a mountain of quilts so thick and heavy he can barely rollover.
His grandmother, who is slumbering in the next room, can’t afford to run the gas stoves at night. There are times the house gets so cold her false teeth freeze in their overnight cleaning solution on the bathroom counter.
The blankets are a practical necessity. But deep inside the child’s groggy mind, they offer something even more important than blessed warmth. They’re a wall of protection between him and the unseen terrors lurking in the void around him."
Come back tomorrow as we'll take a look at turning the mundane into the macabre! (i.e., Clowns and Stephen King's It FTW :D)
FEATURED COFFIN HOPPER OF THE DAY
Katie M. John - Dark Fairy Tales & Horror Blog
Katie is doing a fabulous rundown of each day's Coffin Hop highlights--including notable giveaways! Plus, she's a talented author and blogger, so be sure to hop over and say hey to Katie!
You check the entire hop below:
1.A Diamond In The Dark 2.A. F. Stewart 3.Adventures in SciFi Publishing w/Ronald Malfi 4.Angela Scott Author 5.Angelic Knight Press 6.As the Crowe Flies 7.Ash Krafton’s Demimonde 8.Atty’s Attic 9.Author Jaime Johnesee 10.Author Jolea M. Harrison 11.Axel Howerton 12.Becki’s Book Blog 13.Blaze McRob’s Tales Of Horror 14.BloodRedShadows 15.Bustling Along Bookshelves 16.Cait’s Place 17.Catherine Wolffe – Wolfen Secrets 18.Chris Verstraete @ GirlZombieAuthors 19.Claudia Lefeve 20.Coffin Hop 21.D. A. Ward’s The Blog That Wouldn’t Die 22.Dance on Fire 23.Dark Heart & Night Shade 24.Dark Moon Digest 25.Days with the Undead 26.DemonAuthor. com 27.Epitaphs and Headstones 28.Eric Garrison 29.Escoe Allen 30.Fangs & Halos-Charlayne Elizabeth Denney 31.Father Thunder/Mother Night 32.Greg James 33.Jack Wallen 34.Jean Booth – Zombie War 35.Jeff Chapman 36.Jessica McHugh 37.Jezri’s Nightmares 38.Joanna Parypinski 39.John Everson: Dark Arts 40.Joseph Pinto’s Horror (& not so horrible) Blog 41.Katie M. John 42.Kim Koning | I See Ghosts | Wrestling The Muse 43.Land of the Brewin 44.Lori Michelle 45.Melissa A. Smith 46.Michael Montoure’s 47.Michelle Muto 48.Murphy’s Pub 49.Musings & Little Obsessions (INT) 50.Our Darkest Fears 51.Paul Stansfield 52.Pavarti K Tyler 53.Pen of the Damned 54.Precious Monsters 55.Red Tash 56.Robot Lincoln & Zombie Jackson 57.Scattershot Writing 58.Sirens Call Publications 59.Skye Callahan 60.Spreading the Writer’s Word 61.Strandville Zombie Series (B. Frisch) 62.Swamp Full Of Lies 63.Tell Me a Story, Ghost 64.The Cerebral Writer 65.The Dark Angel – Sotet Angyal 66.The Dark Fiction of Kenneth W. Cain 67.The Endless Chase 68.The Evermore Chronicles 69.The FlipSide of Julianne 70.The Manicheans by Johanna K. Pitcairn 71.The Nickronomicon 72.The Peculiar Life of a Writer 73.The Real Horror in “Blow Up the Roses” 74.The Road to Nowhere. . . 75.The Storyteller 76.The Vampire from Hell by Ally Thomas 77.Thea Gregory’s Zombie Bedtime Stories 78.What Really Scares Me 79.Whispers From The Abyss 80.Writing with Scissors 81.Zombie Night in Canada
October 22, 2013
*SINGS* Happy Book-Birthday To Me!
Hey, gang! Just a quick note to announce that the latest story in my Moonsongs series, Dragon's Game, is officially on the market!
It's a paranormal tale of budding romance, friendship, and of course, dragons. Like all of the stories in the series, this one is moderate in length (under 15k words), but big on action, humor, and thrills. (Maybe even a few chills, too.)
It was a real blast to write, and I hope those of you who read it will have just as much fun running alongside my favorite tomahawk wielding, purple faux-hawked heroine as I do.
Special thanks to my friend Melissa for all of her help getting this one whipped into shape. :)
Also, thank you SO much to everyone who shared my cover last week (or shared the shares ;)... I was in Oklahoma for most of the week (back in Cali now), and I can't tell you how much better you made my trip. The Anthology sale was also a success, and I know I owe a lot of that to you all as well.
Speaking of, Amazon still has the Anthology discounted to .99 -- so you can get the entire series-to-date for less than $2. (I've no clue how long they'll keep it at that price ... The Amazon kind of does what it wants. :)
As for today's baby, Dragon's Game is currently available at AMAZON and BARNES & NOBLE for .99 cents.
Jenny Moonsong recently inherited the title of "monster hunter" and an ancient tribal journal/how-to manual passed down by her Apache ancestors. She has already faced a werewolf, witches, and a troll. But nothing could prepare her for her latest confrontation...
Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4, finds Jenny out of her rural West Texas element, searching for an evil witch in an urban Houston nightclub. After attempting to help a handsome and mysterious stranger out of a jam, she finds herself on the run from a ruthless gang who are even more dangerous than they initially appear.
Forced into a twisted game of life and death, Jenny must navigate the complexity of a budding relationship, and somehow survive a night filled with unexpected horror and paranormal mystery.
Dragon's Game is approximately 14,000 words or 45 pages of humor, horror and paranormal mystery. It is the fourth volume of the Moonsongs Books, an ongoing series of New Adult, urban fantasy novelettes by author E.J. Wesley.
~Moonsongs Series List~
Blood Fugue, Moonsongs Book 1
Witch's Nocturne, Moonsongs Book 2
Dark Prelude, Moonsongs Book 3
Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4
Moonsongs, Anthology 1 (Collecting books 1, 2, & 3)
Quick Shouts About Book 4 (Click to tweet, or copy/paste for Facebook.)
New Release: Dragon's Game by @EJWesley - #urbanfantasy #horror #newadult #series http://tinyurl.com/kodn9te
Action, humor, romance, and paranormal thrills - Dragon's Game by @EJWesley http://tinyurl.com/kodn9te #newrelease #kindlebooks #fiction
Halloween Reads - Dragon's Game by @EJWesley - approx 14k words of humor, horror and paranormal mystery. http://tinyurl.com/kodn9te #kindle
It's a paranormal tale of budding romance, friendship, and of course, dragons. Like all of the stories in the series, this one is moderate in length (under 15k words), but big on action, humor, and thrills. (Maybe even a few chills, too.)
It was a real blast to write, and I hope those of you who read it will have just as much fun running alongside my favorite tomahawk wielding, purple faux-hawked heroine as I do.
Special thanks to my friend Melissa for all of her help getting this one whipped into shape. :)
Also, thank you SO much to everyone who shared my cover last week (or shared the shares ;)... I was in Oklahoma for most of the week (back in Cali now), and I can't tell you how much better you made my trip. The Anthology sale was also a success, and I know I owe a lot of that to you all as well.
Speaking of, Amazon still has the Anthology discounted to .99 -- so you can get the entire series-to-date for less than $2. (I've no clue how long they'll keep it at that price ... The Amazon kind of does what it wants. :)
As for today's baby, Dragon's Game is currently available at AMAZON and BARNES & NOBLE for .99 cents.
Jenny Moonsong recently inherited the title of "monster hunter" and an ancient tribal journal/how-to manual passed down by her Apache ancestors. She has already faced a werewolf, witches, and a troll. But nothing could prepare her for her latest confrontation...
Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4, finds Jenny out of her rural West Texas element, searching for an evil witch in an urban Houston nightclub. After attempting to help a handsome and mysterious stranger out of a jam, she finds herself on the run from a ruthless gang who are even more dangerous than they initially appear.
Forced into a twisted game of life and death, Jenny must navigate the complexity of a budding relationship, and somehow survive a night filled with unexpected horror and paranormal mystery.
Dragon's Game is approximately 14,000 words or 45 pages of humor, horror and paranormal mystery. It is the fourth volume of the Moonsongs Books, an ongoing series of New Adult, urban fantasy novelettes by author E.J. Wesley.
~Moonsongs Series List~
Blood Fugue, Moonsongs Book 1
Witch's Nocturne, Moonsongs Book 2
Dark Prelude, Moonsongs Book 3
Dragon's Game, Moonsongs Book 4
Moonsongs, Anthology 1 (Collecting books 1, 2, & 3)
Quick Shouts About Book 4 (Click to tweet, or copy/paste for Facebook.)
New Release: Dragon's Game by @EJWesley - #urbanfantasy #horror #newadult #series http://tinyurl.com/kodn9te
Action, humor, romance, and paranormal thrills - Dragon's Game by @EJWesley http://tinyurl.com/kodn9te #newrelease #kindlebooks #fiction
Halloween Reads - Dragon's Game by @EJWesley - approx 14k words of humor, horror and paranormal mystery. http://tinyurl.com/kodn9te #kindle
October 15, 2013
When Would You Go? Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc. by PK Hrezo
Hey, gang! Absolutely honored to share the cover of author PK Hrezo's forthcoming book, Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc., with you today!
As part of the fun, I'm going to let you know when in time I'd like to go back to...
Would I like to give Napoleon a taunt on the fields of Waterloo? Or perhaps I'd choose to be cozied up on a couch watching TV with the rest of the US when Neil Armstrong boot-scoots on the moon for the first time.
Heck, I'm even contemplating going back and convincing our US forefathers to write in an amendment requiring public thrashings for congresspeople who don't show up to work. *grumbles*
We'll find out when I'd like to go back to in a sec, but first, let's check the details on PK's book!
Available 11-12-13! Welcome to Butterman Travel, IncorporatedWe are a full service agency designed to meet all your exclusive time travel needs. Family-owned and operated, we offer clients one hundred years of time travel experience. A place where you can rest assured, safety and reliability always come first. Anxious to attend a special event from the past? Or for a glimpse of what the future holds? You’ve come to the right place. We’re a fully accredited operation, offering an array of services; including, but not limited to: customized travel plans, professionally piloted operations, and personal trip guides. *Terms and conditions do applyConference us directly from our Website. Our frontline reservation specialist, Bianca Butterman, will handle all your inquiries in a professional and efficient manner, offering a tentative itinerary and free fare quote, so you can make the most of your time trip.We look forward to serving you at Butterman Travel, Inc., where time is always in your hands.
.
PK Hrezo is a native Floridian whose life could easily be a Jimmy Buffet song. She shares her home with her firefighter husband and their two children. When not creating characters and their worlds, PK can be found at her other job of rearranging passenger’s itineraries for a major international airline. The only hobbies she loves more than traveling, are reading, writing, and music, and when the four are combined she exists in total bliss. She blogs regularly at PK HREZO: Fearless Fiction http://pk-hrezo.blogspot.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/PKHrezo @pkhrezoFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpkhrezo Website http://down-the-rabbithole.com/
__
Sounds fantastic, right? Truly can't wait to read it, PK!
So let's see, where would I go in time? I'm a history nerd, so I'd be super excited to relive any major event--but honestly, most of history's major events would be super dangerous to be a part of.
That being said, I don't think I could pass up an opportunity to see living dinosaurs. 8 year old me would never forgive current me if I did.
So send me back to the Jurassic period, PK! But maybe in a helicopter or something I could use to watch from a safe distance. :)
Also wanted to pass on reminder that the New Adult Fall Fling book sale is still going strong! You can pick up several NA titles for cheap (and maybe even free) this week. Click the banner for more details!
My Moonsongs Anthology, containing the first 3 Moonsongs books, is on sale for .99 cents as part of the event. Even if you've purchased the three stories separately, I'd greatly appreciate the help of another download. A spare hundred pennies goes a long way to helping an author with his ranking and future sales. :)
Plus, it contains a sneak-peek of the newest Moonsongs book, Dragon's Game, that's coming out next week!
As part of the fun, I'm going to let you know when in time I'd like to go back to...
Would I like to give Napoleon a taunt on the fields of Waterloo? Or perhaps I'd choose to be cozied up on a couch watching TV with the rest of the US when Neil Armstrong boot-scoots on the moon for the first time.
Heck, I'm even contemplating going back and convincing our US forefathers to write in an amendment requiring public thrashings for congresspeople who don't show up to work. *grumbles*
We'll find out when I'd like to go back to in a sec, but first, let's check the details on PK's book!
Available 11-12-13! Welcome to Butterman Travel, IncorporatedWe are a full service agency designed to meet all your exclusive time travel needs. Family-owned and operated, we offer clients one hundred years of time travel experience. A place where you can rest assured, safety and reliability always come first. Anxious to attend a special event from the past? Or for a glimpse of what the future holds? You’ve come to the right place. We’re a fully accredited operation, offering an array of services; including, but not limited to: customized travel plans, professionally piloted operations, and personal trip guides. *Terms and conditions do applyConference us directly from our Website. Our frontline reservation specialist, Bianca Butterman, will handle all your inquiries in a professional and efficient manner, offering a tentative itinerary and free fare quote, so you can make the most of your time trip.We look forward to serving you at Butterman Travel, Inc., where time is always in your hands. .
PK Hrezo is a native Floridian whose life could easily be a Jimmy Buffet song. She shares her home with her firefighter husband and their two children. When not creating characters and their worlds, PK can be found at her other job of rearranging passenger’s itineraries for a major international airline. The only hobbies she loves more than traveling, are reading, writing, and music, and when the four are combined she exists in total bliss. She blogs regularly at PK HREZO: Fearless Fiction http://pk-hrezo.blogspot.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/PKHrezo @pkhrezoFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpkhrezo Website http://down-the-rabbithole.com/__
Sounds fantastic, right? Truly can't wait to read it, PK!
So let's see, where would I go in time? I'm a history nerd, so I'd be super excited to relive any major event--but honestly, most of history's major events would be super dangerous to be a part of.
That being said, I don't think I could pass up an opportunity to see living dinosaurs. 8 year old me would never forgive current me if I did.
So send me back to the Jurassic period, PK! But maybe in a helicopter or something I could use to watch from a safe distance. :)
Also wanted to pass on reminder that the New Adult Fall Fling book sale is still going strong! You can pick up several NA titles for cheap (and maybe even free) this week. Click the banner for more details!
My Moonsongs Anthology, containing the first 3 Moonsongs books, is on sale for .99 cents as part of the event. Even if you've purchased the three stories separately, I'd greatly appreciate the help of another download. A spare hundred pennies goes a long way to helping an author with his ranking and future sales. :)
Plus, it contains a sneak-peek of the newest Moonsongs book, Dragon's Game, that's coming out next week!
