Story Choices

A friend of mine recently found out I write "scary" stories. A few minutes later, after explaining what that actually meant when fed through the Will filter, she was very quiet. Seconds passed. Awkward seconds.

"What?"

"You never struck me as someone who would write that sort of...stuff."

After assuring her I was mostly harmless (props to memory of Douglas Adams), I went on to explain that ideas come and go no matter what I do with them, so why not write them down? It's actually a lot deeper than that. I love the writing thing, as she put it, and am at my happiest when I've been able to feed the hunger a little.

Hmm. This is sounding a little creepy. Maybe she's right to be a little freaked out. I mean, if I, a seemingly normal guy is out there writing zombie stories in the Old West or soldiers storming space stations in orbit around Mars, who knows what her other friends might be doing.

Just keeps getting creepier, doesn't it?

The picture above is a great example of how these ideas come to me. Top left is a Fall shot of the maple in my back yard. Great old thing with stories of its own to tell, I'm sure. Looking up into the undoctored blue sky (I feel compelled to point that out since I'm known for my Photoshop exploits as well) I think stories. A twist here, a crumple there and the details take on new meanings. How could that sky be scary? What would it take for a glance into any sky to bring horror, or wonder. Everything I see is like that when I'm in the zone. And the more I write, the more time in the zone I spend. It's a good place and, like a good piece of software, runs in the background while life rolls along.

What's a guy to do?

The ideas come no matter what I decide to do with them.

I write them down. Maybe you should to.

Ultimate Angel Super-Smackdown

Well, maybe just Ultimate Angels, but that's enough I can assure you. 

Description of the Kindle edition from Amazon's site: "Ultimate Angels brings you 13 tales of Mythical horror, from a downtown diner to a backwoods Maine township harboring a dark secret."

I'm proud to have my story, "Head of the Pin," included in this collection.

The complete Table of Contents goes a little like this:

Jack's Diner by Benjamin Rogers

City of Angels by Teall Tahtinen

Ahote's Spirit by Kenneth W. Cain

Eligos by Suzanne Robb

Darkness in the Heartland by Dana Bell

The Between by Brad Zipprich

Fellowship by Henry Snider

Prince of Thorns by Cora Zane

Release of the Desert Demon by Nathalie Kazandjian

Head of the Pin by William R.D. Wood

Fallen by Nathan Robinson

Endless Reward by Ryan Miller

The Calming Ones by David R. Wennberg Jr.

Read Local, Shop Local

Thanks to Melissa Davidson of the Staunton Public Library, the book sale and signing is back on!

Animism: The God's Lake

An awesome new mythology is coming together at Animism: The God's Lake. It's quite the powerhouse of creative talent!

You can learn more at the website and their facebook page. Cool stuff's a'brewing.

Taken directly from their facebook page:

Animism: The Gods’ Lake chronicles the adventures of Melody “Mel” Ravensfall, a 17 year old activist who discovers that her friends’ efforts to save the Gods’ Lake are just the smallest-scale skirmish in a much wilder war. Underneath the surface of the lake lies a Sacred Site that is the key to a timeless conflict between the supernatural forces of the Mother and the Wetiko, a creature who has held power for too long and whose minions have pushed our fragile world to a breaking point. Only their unpredictable sibling, the Trickster, can restore balance… but he has been missing for centuries. And time is running far too short.

This is a wickedly cool universe with canon myths created by authors such as Kevin J. Anderson, David Farland, Beth Aileen Dillon, Stephen Savile, James Alan Gardner, Stephen Kotowych, Nick Mamatas, and Cat Rambo. 

Wow, right?

NaNoWri-NO!

You won't get me this year, Office of Letters and Light! Nope, I will not be sucked in, so stop your petty attempts to convince me--what? You have cookies, you say? Well...

No!

It's not because I don't want to. I do. I really do. It's just that there are other obligations. A time travel short story in much need of editing and possibly even last minute rewrites. Other projects stacking up. Some that don't even involve writing at all.

And coffee? And a local group of equally deranged individuals to hang out with? And write/not write as the mood strikes (as long as you make the 1,666.7 words per day)? Well...

No!

I've enjoyed NaNo in the past. Even completed the challenge a couple of years. Once with a piece of zombie fiction that will go on to novelhood someday and once with a time travel homage to a heavily trademarked and copyrighted series that I'd love to write for if they didn't already have a gaggle of geniuses doing just that. Darn it.

This year, with travel on the docket, and a plethora of evening and weekend challenges to meet, 50K just did not seem doable.

What's that? I can have permission to shut off my internal editor for 30 days? That does sound pretty good...

No!

There's work. There's family time. There's travel. There's other writing projects with November deadlines. Just isn't going to happen. I was still mulling over joining in right up to Halloween before I decided to bow out. I have the idea and more scenes than I can put to pen in 30 days. It's really just a timing problem. Rest assured, I'm here for support, just not as a active participant. You understand, right?

So, just to sum up, Office of Letters and Light: It's not you, it's me. Really. I just cannot and will not take you back no matter how much you beg or bribe. Really. I mean it...

...until next year.

Alternate History

One of my favorite subgenres is alternate history. Whether its the timeline twisting of big screen meddlers or the infinitely prolific grand master of the alternate written history, Harry Turtledove, I never tire of the stuff. Of what could have been.

I think my first taste was probably Star Trek reruns, namely "The City on the Edge of Forever." From there my interest in the subject exploded.

I've written a few stories myself where events aren't as they were as it was. And I've not made even the slightest effort to prevent tossing in a zombie or ten if the tale seemed oddly zombie-free. In some stories, the timeline remains intact with the characters doing all of the work behind the scenes of the history books such as "Hands" in The Zombist anthology. Others, such as "Beneath the Shade of the Trees" in the Gone With the Dirt anthology which would require a complete rewrite of everything you were taught in school, assuming there was anyone around to write a text book.

Latest among my offerings in this arena is a drabble called "The Grassy Knoll" available at Maria Kelly's The Were-Traveler. She's compiled 22 history bending pieces of zombie goodness. Check 'em out!

Parallel Zombie History, by Maria Kelly
The First Book of the Dead, by Kevin Hoffman
A Better World, by T. Fox Dunham
Zombie Gonzo, by Reed Beebe
Lt. General John Bell Hood’s Last Day, by Michele Cacano
Revenants in Warfare, by Matt Mitrovich
Let Them Eat…BRAINS! by Kenneth Shand
ZombieMania, by Tom Ward
Yes, Wonderful Things, by Daniel Ritter
It Begins, by Larry Kollar
Shambler, by Jay Wilburn
The Grassy Knoll, by William Wood
The Clothed Heart, by Chris Castle
The Grave, by Audiowriter
Ruthless Mercy, by Kara Kreswell
Expedition Through The Great Sandy Desert, by Bayard Tarpley
Forty, by Maria Kelly
Zombie Mnemonic, by Reed Beebe
The Deadlist, by Melanie Browne
Nazi Doomsday, by Tim Tobin
Pilgrim’s Plague, by Michele Cacano
Inside, by David Edward Nell
Scapegoat, by Justin Elliott & Nathan Drake

Storytelling formula

I've got this formula I picked up from a writing class. The instructor called it the Three Act Structure and it wasn't new to him. I'm sure it's not new to any of you either. Maybe not in name, but I think we all recognize it when it's broken down for us. It's been around as long as storytelling. You can lay it across almost every epic story with very little adjustment needed to get a good fit.

I took the formula and plugged it into my good friend and colleague, MS Excel, and that works great for me when I use it. I create columns for each character so I can put them all through the grid and maintain a consistent timeline and set of character arcs. Trouble is, as I said, when I use it. It's not my first stop with all stories but it probably should be. Some stories write themselves from the initial inspiration right through to the ending, but others take a little coaxing. The ones that don't come as easily are the ones most likely to get the spreadsheet treatment. Those and the ones I just want to squeeze through to see if I have enough to go on.

This week I compared my submissions against the formua spreadsheet and (surprise, surprise) the stories receiving the Three Act treatment were more likely to sell. I should learn a lesson then, right?

Only my biggest sellers were stories that came more organically and didn't get the treatment, at least not before being written. Sigh.

Conclusion? Some stories are just easier to write whether the idea is better, the subject matter more familiar, or the Muses simply more gracious that day. The dates the stories were written also played a part with later pieces doing better overall simply because I'm getting better at the craft. Hopefully, anyway, right?

So the storytelling formula is still great for creating an outline but is it the more successful and lucrative way to go for one William R.D. Wood?

The jury is still out.

Zombies Gone Wild on Kindle

It's true, folks.

Zombies Gone Wild! is available for Kindle even as I type. Follow the link and you can read an opening poem and the first two stories using Amazon's Click to Look Inside feature. And one of those stories just happens to be mine.

Writing Tips

If you're a writer and you're not reading David Farland's Writing Tips (affectionately known as his Daily Kick in the Pants), then you should. Better yet, subscribe to his newsletter. Some installments apply more directly than others to whichever project I happen to be working on, but each is a little piece of genius.

The one that comes to mind immediately (and the one that cemented me in as a regular reader) is called "Analyzing Your Novel's Audience" where he breaks down key elements found in the 20 bestselling novels of all time.

He pulls out the similarities from their settings, characters, conflicts, emotional beats, themes, etc. and virtually screams, "Why aren't we all doing this?"

Okay, okay. Maybe that's what I hear. You might hear something completely different. Plain and simple, though. Why? It's a different way of thinking for me and will take some practice, but practice it I will.

And in case you're wondering what he lists those top 20 bestselling novels are:

A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien
And Then There Were None Agatha Christie
The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien
She H. Rider Haggard
The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
The Alchemist Paulo Coelho
The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco
Harry Potter / Deathly Hallows J.K. Rowling
Jonathon Livingston Seagull Richard Bach
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
Valley of the Dolls Jacqueline Susann
Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell
One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez
The Godfather Mario Puzo
Jaws Peter Benchley
Shōgun James Clavell
The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett
Perfume Patrick Süskind
The Horse Whisperer Nicholas Evans

Campfire Tales and Updates

My interview is live at MilesBoothe.com! Our talk included everything from monsters to the Bilderbergs to Enya. And, yes, you heard me. Enya. My interview is just one of many Miles is conducting leading up to the release of Volume 3 of the Monster Hunter series, Use Enough Gun.


In other news: James Roy Daley had to pull the next two volumes of the Best New Zombie Tales, one of which might have contained a reprint of "Loss of Vector." I hadn't received the final decision from Mr. Daley or editor Carolina Smart but I had my fingers crossed and double-crossed. These things happen and the small press world is volatile to say the least. You can check out Mr. Daley's blog here and get the latest on his comings and goings. It's always an interesting read.

That brings my current submissions down to a mere eight. Eight! I haven't had so few pieces out in a couple of years. Time to get cracking!