A Free E-Comic and Friends From Back In The Day

Some years ago, five or six friends (several absent from this picture), used to spend their summer weekends messing around on Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York.   They water-skied, they cooked way too much meat, drank some beer, lay on the dock, and pretty much wasted the days away.  Read more in detail about their experiences here.

One of the friends dreamed of becoming a writer.  Now, back then he felt bound and determined to be the next Issac Asimov.  Raised during the Star Wars years, exposed to Tron (a pre-Matrix Matrix for all you youngsters), gifted box sets of original Star Trek five year mission novels by his parents, this college student's head was in the stars, and he believed he'd be the next big thing in science fiction and fantasy.   That's all he wrote, read, or watched in the theater.

However, in the summer of 1996 this guy encountered something up in Cooperstown that shifted his perspective.  Suddenly, his creative juices churned over things that hid deep in the dark woods, old abandoned houses and gothic relics, a few of which he saw every weekend as he and his friends boated all over Lake Otsego.  

At first he tried to make this new creative desire fit the old science fiction mold - maybe some aliens crash-landed in the forest - but he couldn't do it.  He realized he was far more interested in the dark corners that lurked here on earth than he was the deep reaches of space.  This was all due, in part, to an old abandoned  Victorian farmhouse in the middle of a field.

Several trips were made to this house, over the course of two or three years, and while nothing too awful happened, some things a bit out of the ordinary did.  Or at least, these guys found evidence of that.  Anyway, safe to say after finding this place, the science fiction writer guy had changed genres forever. 

Now, that writer guy still hasn't hit it big like he dreamed of doing all those years ago, lying on the dock with his best friends.  He promised them, though, that he'd write about that house.  Make up a real good story about it.  And he did write several bad ones that never saw the light of day.  One or two pretty good ones are still doing the rounds, not having found a home yet.

However, one pathetically small peek of this house did find a home in Northern Haunts, a flash fiction anthology of fireside ghost stories.  He had to set it in the Maine area to fit the anthology,  but it's still about that house.  Eventually, with the help of artist and writer Corey Clubb and artist Mike Brunt, he put together a simple little e-comic as a wedding gift for one those friends.  Below is that e-comic.  It's an early work, maybe a little contrived and hokey, but it's fun and free.  Just click in the cover and open it up.  Enjoy!

Open publication - Free publishing - More horror

Aside: My Multi-faceted (Bi-polar?) Writing Career

For anyone following this blog or my little writing steps, you may or may not have noticed my divergent publication paths.  On one hand, there are the short stories I've sold to the mainstream horror/speculative fiction market, my Hiram Grange novella, and my two stints as editor; one with Shroud's upcoming Lovecraftian project The Terror at Miskatonic Falls and most recently, Shroud's Halloween Issue.

On the other hand, I've sold six non-fiction "slice of life" stories to the inspirational market, to collections published by Tyndale, Bethany House, and Guideposts. 

Wow.  That's quite a...diverse publication list.

It happened by accident (or maybe not).  About three years ago, when I started out, I had no idea where I wanted to be published.  I was a Christian maturing in my faith, but also an obsessive reader who didn't really read much Christian fiction.  Still, I wanted to test all the waters, see where I really belonged.  

I sold my first story to The Midnight Diner: Volume 1. Now, even though they're a faith-based publication, I don't consider them "Christian".  They're an R-rated anthology that's not affiliated with anyone.  Around the same time, I received a heads-up for a collection looking for stories about how personal decisions - based on faith - had changed the course of people's lives.  

Since the story of how I met my wife totally fit this, I thought: "What the heck? Why not?"  It was short - 2, 000 words max - and paid pretty decently for that length.  That story became "Right Choice"  and was published in Tyndale's Life Savors collection.   I figured that would be it.

I sold some other stories, then got contracted for Hiram Grange.  But what happened was this: the same editor for the Life Savors collection had added me to her select email group.  So, she started sending me more submission calls.  And you know what?  I answered them.  At first, I thought this: "They're short, pay well, and it's writing. How can I say no?"

However, something else began developing, in my head.  I made the personal decision that (and folks are welcome to disagree with this) my beliefs concerning the craft of fiction were pretty particular.  I didn't want to write my fiction primarily in the Christian market, and any themes I displayed connected to my faith would be subtle and applicable to the general market. 

BUT...the nonfiction stories allowed me a way  to share how God's been good to my family and friends...without an agenda-based, evangelical thrust.  These non-fiction stories I've written are about our lives, and how God has impacted us...not about theology, or arguing why folks should believe as I do.  For example, this most recent Guideposts story relates the tale of how I believe prayer saved my best friend's life after he suffered a horrible accident almost ten years ago.

They're also 'thank-yous' to my family: to my wife and in-laws and parents - for supporting me in my pursuit of a writing career.  They help provide balance, and remind me what's most important, in the midst of Cons and impending book deals and meeting people like Brian Keene and Joe Hill.

Of course, I'll never abandon the dark and strange and weird and freaky stories (much to my mother in-law's amused chagrin) because that's where my heart is, quite frankly.  Ever since my dad gave me my first box-set 0f original Star Trek novels (Sci Fi was my first love) I've been obsessed with the fantastic and strange.  

See, if the market for my fiction ever dries up (God forbid) I'd stop writing the memoir stories.  They're connected, and provide balance for each other...if I stopped writing the memoir stories, it'd be much easier for me to lose touch with what really matters; if I stopped writing my weird strange fiction, I'd lose the motivation to write completely.

Ironically, the measure stands at six to six.  Six fiction shorts published in the secular market (not counting Hiram and my editing gigs) and six memoir shorts.  Interesting how that works out, eh?

It's all about balance.

Blog the 13th: I Love to Go, but I Hate to Leave

Today I leave for my last Con of the year, Horrorfind Weekend, down in Gettysburg, PA.  Should be an excellent time.  First of all, for fans of horror, the dark fantastic, or Halloween - this thing is an extravaganza, a wondrous, spooky thing to behold.  

I mean, the vendors alone are ridiculous.  There's the film festival.  A magnificent costume contest. Then, the celebrities - goodness.  Bruce Campbell?  Both Buseys?  Kristy Swanson? Those two guys from the Phantasm movies? Unreal.

Finally, of all the Cons I've attended, this is the biggest because it's FAN driven and not necessarily attended by writers and writer hopefuls.  The place should be crawling. 

It'll be an awesome time.  I'll hang with some excellent authors and even more excellent friends, I'll read on Sunday, hopefully sell some copies of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One and The Midnight Diner, and enjoy my last "hurrah" before the work of the school year begins.

And it'll kill me inside to do it.   

There, in all its contradictory glory, is the pull-and-tug of attending Cons: I love being around writers, doing writerly things, but absolutely HATE leaving my family behind.  

It's not something I'll ever get over, I don't suppose.  I deal with it, because regardless of what future I have: as an author, I'll have to travel.  At least a little.   That's the nature of the business, and I like to travel.  I like visiting new places, meeting new people, and especially like sharing my work across state lines.  I just hate leaving Abby and the kids behind.  

There's lots of reasons why.  Basically, I want to be around my family all the time.  I miss Abby and the kids terribly when I'm gone, and that Sunday drive after a Con always feels like a manic homeward dash that passes way too slowly. 

Also, the kids are in a very high maintenance stage right now.  Honestly, it's a labor of love that Abby lets me atttend these things at all (in a self-pimping moment, for a really DETAILED account of this, buy this collection with a story of mine in it about this very thing) because I know how the kids get when I'm gone.

And....as much fun and as eye-opening and educational as the last two years has been, (2 Borderlands BootCamps, 2 Necons, 2 Contexts, 2 Horrorfinds, 1 MoCon and several bills later), I'm not sure how necessary these Cons are for me, right now.  

Let's not quibble: we're basically broke.  One car dead, the other car dying.  I work for a small private school, Abby's a nurse, and the bills are mounting.  And only twice have I sold enough at these Cons to offset travel expenses (not counting Borderlands, because both times were strictly educational, and worth more than all the other Cons put together).  How much more can we afford?

And is it worth it?  The emotional AND financial strain?

Yes, I've met lots of cool people.  Yes, I've taken micro-leaps in my career. And yes, (now that I've talked to Tim Deal and gotten his blessing), I can share this: I may or may not have chance at a book contract with a midlist publisher.

But that's been because of the writing.   Not the Cons.  (Again, excluding Borderlands because that's ALL writing).

So, what if I do land a book deal?  Do I tour?  Keep going to Cons?  There's a balance to this, I think.  Author and Editor Maurice Broaddus blogged recently about the realities of book tours, and author, Geek Princess, and all around Faerie Queen Alethea Kontis blogged yesterday about the contradictory reality of Cons: if you don't attend regularly enough, people forget who you are and you forget how to network, if you attend them too much you get no work done - and my amendment to that is you miss family like crazy and imperil the already sketchy family budget.

So I don't know.  Regardless of potential midlist book deal, I may be done with Cons after this for maybe a year.  Or more.   Even if I nail the deal - if the story is right for the publisher and the publisher right for me and vice versa - the novel wouldn't see print until mid-late 2012 anyway, which would give us time to gain perspective on the whole Con thing, as well as repair our battered finances.   

Probably the only Con I could manage this next year is World Horror in Austin, Texas, and then only if Hiram Grange manages the impossible and receives a nomination for the Bram Stoker Award in the "Long Fiction" category, and that's such an unbelievable long-shot, it's not even worth dreaming about.  However, unless that happens, Horrorfind will have to be my last "hurrah" for awhile - in more ways than one.

My Booklist #3

1. Currently Reading:

- Mystery, (Signet), by Peter Straub.  Peter Straub is one of my all-time favorites.  From Shadowland, his classic Ghost Story, his collaborations with King and my favorite two, lost boy, lost girl and in the night room, his books basically rock my world.  His prose is a thing of beauty, his handle of storytelling masterful, and it was reading Straub and also Gary Braunbeck that really led me to see what writing horror would look like for me.  Mystery tells the story behind Tom Pasmore, the reclusive sleuth Straub's reoccuring character, author Timothy Underhill, so often seeks out for information.  Rich and substantial, like all of Straub's works this is one I'll force myself to read slowly.



 
- Johnny Halloween, (Cemetery Dance), by Norman Partridge.   Norm Partridge is one of the finest and most versatile wordsmiths I've come across recently.  Lesser Demons  and Dark Harvest were splendid, the former one of the best short story collections I've read since Tim Lebbon's Last Exit for the Lost, the latter being a VERY tricky take on Halloween, and here comes this tasty treat:  more stories about the October Boy.  You want noir and the supernatural together with precise wordsmithery, this is the stuff for you.








2. Just finished:

 - The Keep, (Berkley Books), by F. Paul Wilson.  This was great, as I fully expected.   No sparkly vampires here, and also a peek into the roots of Wilson's over-arching mythos that ties many of his works together.  I'm a total sucker for those things:  maybe it's a marketing ploy, who knows, but reading different installments and perspectives of a mythos is like piecing together this huge, unbelievable puzzle.  Wilson's usual lean prose was a little more substantial in this one - more elegant, really - but it fit the time period well.  Another win for Wilson.








3. "Recently" discovered:

- Ghostwriter, (Hatchette Books,) by Travis Thrasher. I put recent in quotations because this one I discovered just last summer and the following months ago, but they still deserve a mention.  Ghostwriter, by Travis Thrasher, is honestly the closest thing I've seen in the CBA (Christian Bookseller Association) to actual horror.  The bloodshed - though well done - is there.  The suspense is there.  The tension. AND...a key element of horror that CBA books usually miss: the dread and despair.  All there.  Also: people die.  Sounds heartless that I list this as a plus, but if you're going to scare people, dangle them over the edge...there MUST be stakes.  Thrasher does this one right, and I'm looking forward to reading more of his work.

- Creatures of the Pool, (Leisure Fiction), by Ramsey Campbell.  Okay, horror fans - I know.  How long did it take me to discover Ramsey Campbell?  Before this I'd read his short work and liked it, but I never realized his POWER until I read this.  Highly literary, built on images darting from the corner of your eye, full of atmosphere and dread, Campbell proves why everyone considers him a master with this one.  It's so Lovecraftian but not, it's mostly "Campbellian" because he channels all that classic dread, propels the reader headlong in a present tense narrative, but does it HIS way.  Definitely will be hunting up more of Ramsey Campbell.