The making of a horror novelist.
I was 21, about to graduate from college and set up my own household, you know, with a sofa that didn’t come from the curb, ceramic plates instead of paper plates, and real cups instead of the plastic freebies with the school mascot on the side. Bring this cup back for a free fountain drink … Continue reading The Odd Writer
I’m excited to share one-sentence reviews for my top 25 reads of first quarter 2021! (In alphabetical order by author or editor.) Wings & Fire: A horror anthology compiled by Dan Alatorre. There is such a wide variety of stories here, from dystopian to vampires, from not-so-interesting to excellent stories, the latter category making the … Continue reading One Sentence Reviews: My 1st Quarter 2021 Reads
For Nanowrimo 2020, my goal was to write four short stories, edit them, and submit them to paying markets. I ended up deleting a story (because it was plain silly), but three out of four ain’t bad. One of the Nano stories I wrote is about slugs, a mom/scientist who knows all about mollusks, and … Continue reading Slug Story Accepted, Happy Dance!
Studying the craft of writing is different than studying math or science. In college (I studied engineering) my classmates and I furiously scribbled down what the prof was writing on the board. Usually it was sample equations, things we’d see again on an exam. Our notes were top to bottom, pretty straight forward. I was … Continue reading How to Study the Craft of Writing
Word counts . . . as in why NOT do a blog post listing daily writing progress? I’m chugging along as I write my first horror novella of 2021, making some progress. Here are my word counts for the last 14 days. Monday, February 1: 1068 words and an hour of outline work. Tuesday, February … Continue reading Daily Word Counts, Chugging Along
How long will you keep writing? Can you still write when you’re old, I mean really old, like 90 or 100? Some systems in the brain decline with age, and some improve with age, particularly those systems that we use as writers. I’m reading a fascinating book (linked below) about the elderly brain written by … Continue reading The Nonagenarian Novelist
