Glenn Rolfe's Blog, page 35

Thanks for a great first quarter! I am eternally grateful.

2014 has been a very busy year. I’ve sold three short stories, had two published that were accepted at the end of 2013, managed to get the interview I did with editor Don D’Auria included in Crystal Lake Publishing’s Horror 101, and landed my first big deal with Samhain Publishing. My novella, Abram’s Bridge, will be released in the first part of 2015 from what I consider to be the best horror line on the market (no disrespect to all of the other fine dark fiction publishers). My serial novel, Becoming, has maintained its rank among the top 20 at Jukepopserials.com…and if that’s not hectic enough, my band, The Never Nudes, released our debut self-titled EP a couple months back.

Obviously landing a piece with Don D’Auria at Samhain is my greatest writing achievement thus far, but a close second to that is the fact that I’ve committed to donating all of the money I make from short story sales and JukePop Top 30 payouts to the National Children’s Cancer Society. So far, I’ve earned $115.00 from sales and payouts. I donate as I receive the money owed to me, so the amount officially donated sits at $45.00. Not too bad for a guy who never thought he’d be in any of the positions I’m in.

I’d like to take a quick second to thank some of the wonderful people that have contributed to my first quarter success: James Ward Kirk, Geoffrey Liu, Lori Michele, Jacob Haddon, Hydra M. Star, Joe Mynhardt, Don D’Auria, and all of my great writer/editor/sounding board friends: Erin Sweet-Al Mehairi, Kristin Dearborn, Todd Keisling, Erinn Kemper, Selene MacLeod, Chris Martin, Caroline Phillips, Mike Braun, and of course, my terrific writing group, The Tuesday Mayhem Society: Peter Dudar, April Hawkes, Jo-Jo Mason-Schnopp, and Sylvia Bourgoin. And last, but not least, anyone who has read, voted, or shared the link to my serial novel, Becoming.  Each and every one of you has helped me out far more than I deserve. Should the rest of this year turn up with zero sales from here on out, I shall still consider it my best.

Also, HUGE thank you to my wife and kids and everyone at The Hampton Inn Augusta, Maine for putting up with me.

I’m now gearing up for a number of things: First up, my family and I will be heading out to Portland, Oregon for the 2014 World Horror Convention and to attend the Bram Stoker Awards ceremony for the second straight year. I’m not going empty handed. I have a new novella (Boom Town) that I will be pitching Saturday to my publisher, Don D’Auria, and also to Michael Baily at Dark Regions Sci-Fi.  I’m also looking forward to getting a chance to meet two of my writing heroes, Jack Ketchum and Brian Keene.

Once I return home, I will began the next round of edits and re-writes on my debut novel, The Haunted Halls (being edited by Robert S. Wilson, and published by James Ward Kirk). I am very proud of this haunted hotel story and look forward to sharing it with you by the end of July. After that, I’ll be trying to finish two other novels I currently have in-progress.

Keeping at it one sentence at a time, I look forward to crafting more quality dark fiction. I also look forward to meeting  many wonderfully demented, like-minded souls throughout the rest of the year. Thanks for reading this. Thanks for being so cool.

Cheers,

Glenn

 

The following anthologies/magazines/books my 2014 works can be found in:

Ugly Babies 2 (James Ward Kirk Publishing)

Pavor Nocturnus Volume II (Parasomnia Press)

Dark Moon Digest 15

Infernal Ink Magazine April 2014

Horror 101: The Way Forward (non-fiction, Crystal Lake Publishing)

Vignettes From the End of the World (Apokrupha Publishing)

 

These can all be purchased via my Amazon Author page:

http://www.amazon.com/Glenn-Rolfe/e/B00AXYEBTY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_2

 

Someone posted this and it made me smile.

http://myravenquill.com/2014/04/05/propsforglennrolfe/#comment-11

 

Sometimes your work reaches someone who truly gets what you threw out there.  I’ll take a couple minutes and treasure this while I work on the next project!  

Thank you so very much, Raven.

 

My Kindle Tells Me the Truth

I have a Kindle Fire. I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you. It’s a lovely device. One of the many tech toys I’ve picked up (despite the fact that I am scared of the future and believe in the Terminator Concept: Skynet is going to become self-aware and kills us all).  I mostly use it to read novels by all of my “real best friends” and listen to music from my Amazon cloud, but I also like to send myself whatever piece of writing I’m currently crafting via the Doc option. It’s pretty sweet to be able to email a short story draft directly to my device. Once I started doing this a funny realization presented itself: My Kindle doesn’t lie.

I can read from my laptop, I can read out loud, I can set up the action figures and act out the scenes, but I always miss something. And I know that’s just a hard truth for writers. We always miss something. Even our editors occasionally miss things. But when I send a story to my Kindle and I open it on that beautiful seven inch screen, all of my blemishes stand up and spew their nasty pus right back in my face. I don’t know what or why this is, but I absolutely love it. (Masochist!)   Maybe it’s the intensity with which I gaze into the magical display screen, maybe it’s all that focus that Mr. Miyagi was talking about. Whatever it is, it works for a boss named Cold Hard Truth (not to be confused with Cool Hand Luke) and feeds it to me like my mother fed me my vegetables:  “Glenn, this will help you grow.”

Not only can I clearly spot my errors (of which there are many), but I can highlight those mistake and make notes on how to fix it, how to re-word it, or to simply cut it. When I’ve reached where it says, “The End”, and I’m through discovering the lack of my story’s Feng Shui, I can go to the bar at the top of my screen and tap on Notes. And viola! all of the little uglies that need attention are lined up and waiting for my critical mind to repair them, or in the more drastic cases, to do what needs to be done. Banzai!

If you are a writer with a Kindle you must try this. I remember Ellen Datlow (editor extraordinaire) mentioned using her device for this purpose in New Orleans last summer at a panel during the World Horror Convention. She was talking about doing edits for any one of her many anthologies, so at the time, I didn’t think too much of it. Fast forward a few months and I finally understand!  Genius.

I love my Kindle Fire (and all of the mean things it shows me) very much. My Kindle tell me the truth, and maybe yours will, too.

 

The Fool on the Hill: Woman in Horror Month

Women in horror? I can’t imagine reading a horror novel penned by a woman. How would I ever be able to relate? I need that male perspective. Guys know how to get vicious, how to take the wheel and press the throttle until the testosterone-fueled hell ride drives us toward and over the precipice of literary mayhem paved by the likes of Edgar Allen Poe, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz. Surely there’s no way a female author can handle such a bloody, calculating, journey through Hades and back…right?

I’m afraid to say that I was one of the passengers in this vehicle of ignoramuses. Let me check that…I had works by one woman, Ann Rice. The first four books of the Vampire Chronicles were among my introduction to the world of horror, but somewhere along the line I forgot women could write horror that could cast that magical spell. In 2004, I started reading more King, Richard Laymon, Bentley Little, Brian Keene. Ann Rice got lost in the background somewhere.  I didn’t touch a book from a female author until February of 2013. And I was a moron.

I joined the Horror Writers Association early in 2012. One of the things I love about the organization is the forum, specifically, the bountiful amount of members in there who are eager to help out, offer advice and be real with you. I realized how many women were in there and people like Sherry Decker (among others) were regularly responding to my infant author questions.

Throughout 2012, I focused on my own works. I regularly jumped into the forums and interacted with the HWA community as often as I could. In February of 2013, after being part of the community for a year, I started hearing about February being Women in Horror Month. And it dawned on me that I hadn’t read a terror tale by a female author in A LONG time. Meeting numerous women authors in the forum and on Facebook, I knew I needed to set aside this strange notion I’d acquired over the last eight years or so and give these ladies of blood and fright the attention they deserved.

I started with Shirley Jackson’s, The Haunting of Hill House and followed that up with Sarah Langan’s, The Keeper. Needless to say, I was quickly enlightened of the grave error of my reading ways. I was a fool for even thinking women couldn’t reach my fear factor. For believing I wouldn’t be able to relate to the voice, that I wouldn’t be able to be completely hooked in and taken anywhere close to the heights of fear and intensity that guys like John Everson and Ronald Malfi constantly delivered me to. I was wrong.

I followed my first official celebration and participation in Women in Horror Month by seeking out new female authors to read and discovered amazingly talented writers like Damien Walters, Mercedes M. Yardley, Rena Mason, and even someone who graduated from my tiny high school here in Maine–Ms. Kristin Dearborn. I can’t believe how stupid I was being. And furthermore, I can’t even recall where this bizarre stigma I’d attached to these wicked ladies came from.

Although I know I have come to the light and stepped into the unisex bathroom of horror authors, I know there are still confused and irrationally minded dudes out there making the same critical error with their horror novel selections. Hell, I’m sure it goes on within every genre. I am here today, February 17, 2014, to tell you guys…ladies are just as vicious, just as dark, twisted, and wordily crafty as any of your favorite male horror writers out there.  Set aside your misguided ideas of women writers being too soft, too sensitive, too light to spray the walls of your small minds with the real guts, gore, and brains of our beloved evil realms. I implore you to set down today or tonight and seek out one book in your favorite genre written by a person without a penis. Trust me– you will thank me later (after you get done cursing yourself for being a dolt and apologizing to the other half of our amazing writing community).

To all of you kick ass and gifted female writers…I say, CHEERS!

Here are a few Good Reads links for you to check out to some of my favorite vagina carrying authors:

Damien Walters

Mercedes M. Yeardley

Kristin Dearborn

Rena Mason

Sarah Langan

and a link to an interview I conducted for HorrorNovelReviews.com with Mercedes M. Yardley:

Mercedes M. Yardley Talks ‘The Hunger Artist’, High Body Count Fairytales and Being a Busy Mother to Boot

Broken Clavicle

Yep. I broke it on the crazy ice outside, but I’m gonna try to work on my stories anyway. Now when I write BECOMING, I can listen to another Pantera song from that record….”I’m Borken”.

The Haunted Halls: Volume 4 (August 4th!)

Very excited to announce that The Haunted Halls: Volume 4 will be available Sunday, August 4th! Hopefully we 'll have a cover reveal before then...

In other news, while we wait to hear back to from the publishers who have my finished novel, I've been a busy bee.

Two short stories have been accepted by James Ward Kirk Publishing: Barnyard Horror (available now) has "Jackie Boy" and Serial Killers: Tres Tria (TBA) has "The Neighbor".

"The Rooster" a piece I wrote about my brother who passed away from cancer in 2010 will be included in BLEED from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing in September. Proceeds for the anthology will go to children's cancer research. This anthology is PACKED with big talent. Bram Stoker Award nominees and winners: Bentley Little, Benjamin Kane Ethridge, Peter N.Dudar, Mort Castle, Joe McKinney and a whole lot more! Pre-order your copy now: http://perpetualpublishing.com/bleed/

To keep up with my works make sure to peep my website Glenn Rolfe Horror http://glenntheory.wix.com/glennrolfe...

Cheers!-G

My new website and news!

Hey gang,

So I made what I think is a really cool website. It's called, Glenn Rolfe Horror. It's to keep you all up to date on what I'm doing and what's available to you. I also made sure to include a lot of my friends and people who have helped me get ahead in 2013 with my career. I also included a page about my latest and favorite authors/books I'm reading or watching. Check it out.

Vol. 1-3 of The Haunted Halls are available on Amazon for .99
Vol. 4 is due this August!

I have something special brewing for the final 2 pieces of this story (more on that later). If you follow the website, you'll be the first to know ;) Also, I wanted to direct you to jukepopserials.com for my other in-progress serial, Becoming. Check it out vote and tell your friends to do the same :). http://www.jukepopserials.com/home/re...

Here's my website:
http://glenntheory.wix.com/glennrolfe...

Make sure you click the FB "like" tab at the top when you stop by.

Cheers!

Leisure Book Horror Finds!

Like a lot of my fellow horror lit fans I was hurt by the end of Dorchester Publishing and the demise of the Leisure Books Horror Club. I have made it my duty to scour the bargain bins, Goodwill's and used book stores for any and all horror titles that I do not already own. This week presented a whole load of treasures I wanted to share with you:

Bryan Smith- Depraved
Bryan Smith- Soultaker
Ramsey Campbell-Creatures of the Pool
Sarah Pinborough-The Taken
Douglas Clegg-The Infinite
Douglas Clegg--You Come When I Call You

I am so pumped to have found these (and only paid 22 bucks!)
Love the old LBHC Author roster.
-GR

Goddwill finds 3.09.13.

I grabbed a copy of John Everson's "Sacrifice" and Whitley Streiber's "Majestic"

If I read V+Dean Koontz, I'd come away with a ton more books...he's everywhere.

I will start reading his work, one of these days.

Goodwill Finds 3.8.13.

I love adding to my library by going to the Goodwill. From now on, I'll try and post my latest finds .

So here's what we got:

Dan Simmons- Ilium
Peter Straub- The Hellfire Club
Jack Ketchum- Red
Elvis: What Happened Red West, Sonny West, Dave Hebler as told ti Steve Dunleavy

And my gold star find of the day:
All 6 parts of Stephen King- The Green Mile from 1996!

Grand total $8. YES!