Steven E. Wedel's Blog, page 44

Getting back into it

It's been weeks since I blogged! I know all my fans have missed me. I hope you're both doing well. haha  Things have been crazy busy lately, and work at the high school has been insane for reasons I won't print. There are problems above and below me in the chain of command and both have had me pretty worked up. Couple that with the second job, and I've just been exhausted on the nights I didn't work. I've been asleep by 8 p.m. the past two Fridays. Last weekend I had to work at the school bot...

Death of Dora

In my 'umble opinion, no literary death can match that of Dora in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. It is such a moving piece, so filled with loss and pain and unrealized potential ... This is Dickens at his best. This isn't the over dramatic, boring, thank-God-it's-finally-over death of Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop. This one seems real, and it hurts.

To further show what a master Dickens was, until she is on her deathbed, Dora isn't even a likable character. She's shallow, self-cen...

Men, you can make V-Day YOUR holiday

Ah, Valentine’s Day—a celebration of romance, love and all that other stuff. Yeah.

For too long V-Day has concentrated on the woman, and I say it’s time us guys ran the show our way. After all, men spend way more money on this holiday than women—we should have a say in how the day is celebrated.

But, after centuries of mollycoddling the chicks, some guys may not know how to go about making V-Day their own holiday. Well, I’m gonna tell ya how to do it.

First, there’s that wine ‘em and dine ‘em...

Peter Straub

First, these new LiveJournal ads are annoying me. I repost pretty much everything here on WordPress, which is attached to my main site at www.stevenewedel.com. I don't care to pay for LiveJournal again, as I didn't get any real benefit from a paid account the year I did pay for it. Eventually, I may get annoyed enough to stop posting here.

Now, on to business ...

My interview with horror master Peter Straub went life at Horror World today. Straub is the biggest, and one of the most influential ...

2009 Bram Stoker Awards ... and me

So, the other day the Horror Writers Association announced the preliminary ballot for the 2009 Bram Stoker Awards. I'm very pleased to note that my own Little Graveyard on the Prairie is one of several Bad Moon Books titles that made it to this stage of the process.

To celebrate the event, Bad Moon Books and Horror Mall are offering a 20 percent discount on copies of the book. Yes, it's still pricey, but it's a limited edition hardcover. (If you're an active HWA member and want to read it, jus...

Literary Representation

It's taken me two days to reach a state of zen that will allow me to write publicly about this. The urge to go all CAPS and scream about it is still really, really strong, but ... no. Maybe. We'll see if I can make it through the announcement without getting all gushy and loud. Here we go ...

As of Wednesday evening, I am now being represented by Edward Necarsulmer of McIntosh and Otis, Inc. Literary Agency.This all goes back to hints and finally open talk about a "super secret project"

Anthology and a new review

I love Monster Librarian! They review horror books with librarians in mind. Not only do they review the latest best sellers, they also review small press releases and even limited edition collectibles. Like, oh ... my own Little Graveyard on the Prairie. In this brand new review by Bob Freeman, he says such "Truth be told, if this were a longer piece the psychological damage just might be irreversible." You can still get a copy at Horror Mall.

I have mentioned before about the placement of a z...

Groping along

I've written 31,050 words on Nadia's Children now. That's well over one-quarter of the expected length of your average genre novel. And yet, I don't know where I'm going. Typically I have some ending in mind. Maybe I don't wind up with that exact ending, but I have a goal and write toward it, hitting something logical at the end. I knew where Shara would end. Same with Ulrik and with the two novels coming from Bad Moon Books and the shorter books I've published. But with this one, I can't "se...

Pain and Nostalgia

About 12 years ago, while working in the last machine shop to employ me, I messed up my right shoulder when a tool broke. Today, while working on my old Ford truck, I did something to aggravate that. Hurts like hell. Icy Hot, heating pad, OTC drugs and even a bag of dry rice my wife microwaved to put on it hasn't helped.

This time of year always makes me think back to the winter of 1982, when Journey's Escape was still the hottest cassette to have and I was in driver's ed in high school. The p...

Get your motor runnin'

Egads! Is Christmas break really almost over? Only one day left? What can I do to make it a fun-filled day? Oh yeah ... go meet the new babysitter the little kids will go to after school. Wooeee!

The past few days have been good, though. You may recall me mentioning that someone had asked to see a werewolf story. Well, I wrote a new one for him. It's called "Nadia's Curse," not to be confused with the new novel, Nadia's Children. The story is back story for the novel, stuff I kinda knew but ha...