May 2015 Update

Thanks to an early Spring, missed blog posts have resumed early! My only excuse is that when you live in a place where winter lasts nine months, you have every right to drop everything and try to enjoy nice weather every chance you get!

Of course, enjoying the nice weather means not only the blog suffers, but my writing in general. I'm STILL working on the same stories I was in March (my killer bee story, my "unwanted guest" story that made it to first draft and not much further). I did accomplish some revisions on older stories and get a few reprints sent out, but haven't progressed much in the "new writing" department.

In spite of that, two of my stories have been published recently:

"Sympathy for the Devil" is available in Hysterical Realms (Alternate Hilarities 3);

"Inhuman Resources" is available in Black Chaos II: More Tales of the Zombie;

Both are comedies. In "Sympathy for the Devil," Satan has to learn to use social media like Facebook. In "Inhuman Resources," the world's largest retailer hires its first zombie employee.

Be sure to pick up your copies today!

March 2015 Update

I found out on the blastr site that '70s Superhero series Electra Woman and Dyna Girl is getting a revival.

I don’t remember Electra Woman, but it got me thinking about some of the old superhero and science fiction shows I used to love.

 

Isis

Yes, it was as cheesy as the screenshots look, but for some reason, I liked it far more than Wonder Woman.

 

Automan

I didn’t watch a lot of tv or movies when I was young, so I think Automan was my first “movie star” crush. Figures, my first crush would be on a hologram.

 

Manimal

This show, remade, would probably go over VERY well today given the popularity of shapeshifter romance. Just sayin’.

 

Quantum Leap

and

Sliders

Both of which were fascinating for their “what kind of mess will the characters get themselves into this week” storylines.

Man From Atlantis

Not sure why I like this one, since Aquaman sucks. ;)

 
 

And let’s not forget

In search of…

It’s a tv series that investigates unsolved mysteries (like UFOs and Bigfoot) and was narrated by Leonard Nimoy. You can buy the complete series at Amazon, and here’s the IMDB page: In Search of

~ ~ ~ 

Currently Writing:

I’m currently working on polishing and updating a couple of reprints to send back out into the world, and I’ve made some progress on the first draft of my killer bee story.

 

I finished the first draft of the other story I was working on (working title: Unwanted Guest). It came in at 7845 words, which means I need to cut it down a lot to make it more marketable. Five thousand words is the sweet spot for most markets, though a lot of markets won’t take anything over two thousand. There’s no way in hell I’m going to be able to cut this story that short and still retain the suspense/creep factor. In my first cut pass, I was able to cut 600 words…only 2500 left to go!

 

Currently Reading:

I finished The Plague of the Undead. The book had some really great new ideas in a genre where a lot of the books are “the same old, same old.”

 

Now I’m reading The Best Horror of the Year Volume One, edited by Ellen Datlow.

I’ve only read a couple of stories so far, but they seem very familiar, so I’m beginning to think I’ve read the book before (I lose track of what I have/haven’t read very easily).

And I’m still working on All that is Solid. It’s a very slow-moving book, so I read it in small chunks.

~ ~ ~

See you next month!

February 2015 Update

I was planning a longer post on "genre blind spots," but that will have to wait until next month. I'm a little swamped right now, working on:

a brand new horror short (untitled);

edits for "Sympathy for the Devil," publishing soon in Alternate Hilarities 3: Hysterical Realms;

and contemplating--only CONTEMPLATING, mind you--a novel I finished the rough draft on a few years ago. New ideas and angles for the story have been popping into my head, and I'm feeling that "work on the novel" itch again. Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away. ;)

I'm currently reading:



and



Life's too short to read one book at a time!

January 2015 Update

One of the most common questions asked of writers is:
Where do you come up with your ideas?

I'd love to be able to answer that question, but unfortunately, I have no idea! I use writing prompts quite a bit, especially when I'm suffering from writer's block (as I have lately), but most of my best ideas just seem to fall out of the sky!

Okay, maybe they don't really fall out of the sky. It's more like my mind goes on some kind weird, random-association train ride. Did you ever see the episode of Big Bang Theory where Sheldon tells everyone “what’s on his mind”?

"I've been thinking about Dr.Green's efforts to make science palatable for the masses...Now I'm thinking about fractal equations. Now I'm thinking about the origin of the phrase 'train of thought.' Now I'm thinking about trains."

That's usually how I come up with my ideas!

I see something, hear something, or think about something, and then some other input happens to cross-pollinate with whatever I'm thinking/hearing/seeing, and a story is born!
For example, I happened to be flicking through the channels and saw a report on the “running of the brides.” One of the brides they were interviewing had thick bushy eyebrows and a large, squashed nose, and she spoke into the microphone through a snaggletooth smile. Not to be mean, but she kind of looked the troll from under the bridge in the illustrated fairy tales I read to my kids. That got me to thinking, “Wouldn’t it be funny if she really WAS a troll, and she was getting married and needed a wedding gown, so she shaved and tried to disguise herself as human so she could get a bargain gown, too. Moments later, the report flicked to a shot of brides fighting over a gown, and I thought, “Whew. I feel sorry for any gal who decided to get into a fight with troll-bride.” And "Monique's Bridal Boo-tique" was born (though in the final version, the brides are a werewolf and a vampire).

Or, A few days after waxing nostalgic with someone about the ads that used to be at the back of comic books (trick cigarettes, finger trap gum, fake dog poo, and Amazing Sea Monkeys), I saw a picture on the Internet of a nasty little sea creature that hitched a ride on a submersible brought to the surface.  The image of that ugly little sea critter clicked with a visual in my mind of the text “Amazing Sea Monkeys” and "Incredible Sea Mongrels" was born.

After working a Black Friday at a major retailer, I had a desire to write something about the complete chaos of the experience, but I didn’t know what angle to take on it: nonfiction or fiction, comedy or horror, etc. While I was letting the idea percolate, a customer happened to say to me one evening, “The night shift must be rough. You guys all look like a bunch of zombies.” And bam! “Inhuman Resources” was born.

“Revelations” came from a religious flyer. For whatever reason, the words struck me as more ominous than inspirational: “He came the first time to die. He is coming again to raise the dead.” Imagine that text with a Damien/The Omen-style soundtrack in a movie trailer!

"Lard-Ass Larson" came from a CNN report about the obesity epidemic in America and a rerun of a South Park episode where Cartman had a V-chip embedded (he received a dog collar-like shock every time he swore).

“The Piper” came (sort of) from a family game we used to play on trips. In the game, we replace titles of songs, movies, books, etc. with the word “Yam” in them somewhere (The Yams of Wrath, Yam Wars, Gone With the Yam). Sometimes I just like to stick zombies into everything. And obviously, this is a very popular idea, what with Pride & Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, etc.

While the reality is that we really don't know where the ideas come from, the thing you should take-away from this is: stories are everywhere, all around you…

or…

writers have really warped, twisted minds.
Take your pick.

December 2014 Update: Auld Lang Syne

It's that time of the year again, the time when we look back, ponder the course our lives took for the last 365 days, and either celebrate our accomplishments or lament our failures.

If you're anything like me, the flip of the page to December has left you wailing, "Where the hell did the time go!?!" Especially since my writing life seemed to completely veer off course, jump the guardrail, and crash and burn.

The past year (year-and-a-half, really) has been my least productive writing time ever. I've continued to resubmit rejected stories & even started a few new ones, but nothing at the pace I used to work at.

Now, the first excuse that pops to mind is, "Well, you did take on a full time job." True, but it's only partly to blame.

The real blame lies with change of any kind. Most humans resist change but eventually adapt. Most humans. Not me. Change completely throws me off, no matter how hard I try to embrace it or even if I'm the one who initiated the change. It throws me off my game & gives me writer's block.

For those of you who aren’t creative types, I’ll let you in on a little secret: us creative-types are Chihuahuas. The slightest little change in routine/life causes us to quake so bad that we shake the muse right out of us. It’s been a year of changes for me: kids moving in, kids moving out, hubby switching jobs, I switched to a full-time job, hubby switched back to his old job… shiver, shiver, shiver. It all really threw me out of my groove.

A lot of "creatives" are the same, a little introverted, a little quirky, a lot resistant to change. It's just a personality "creatives" share. And I bet you find your productivity/creativity slip every time there's a change in your life. Even if it's a small change.

It's nothing to be ashamed of...

It's something to be aware of so you are better prepared to fix it and not let it eat away at your creativity for a year or more.

And now, like Meryl Streep in SheDevil, I’m taking my damn life back...my writerly life.

I’m drawing a line in the sand. 2015 is going to be my best writing year yet. Will I get a novel done? I doubt it. I’m not sure if I’m ever going to make that goal. But I am going to dedicate a few hours every day writing/editing, and I”m going to spend a good chunk of the weekends working on it. I'm going back to my old policy of having "office hours." Granted, they won't be as long as they used to be, I can't spend all day writing anymore, but I am going to make them a priority.

I'm also bringing the "fun back," with writing as play: lots of working on prompts, lots of freewriting, no pressure to take anything to completion. Of course, that can’t last forever (or else it’s the same as not writing at all. Eventually ya gotta finish something), but right now, I’m trying to get in the habit of starting something, so bringing the fun back helps. 

This past year, I think I finished ONE new short story, and I bet I only started three or four new short stories. In years passed, I would have started AT LEAST a dozen new short stories, and finished four to six. So in 2015, I’d like to finish four short stories, at a minimum. And by finish, I mean written/polished/sent out into the world.

While actually sitting down and writing is the main part of getting my writerly life back, the other part involves taking care of my Internet presence. Though there are times when I want to throw up my hands and say, “Why the frick am I building my brand on social media when, if I don’t get some writing done, there’s no brand to build!” I have managed to keep up a minimum online presence (outdated website, fair amount of Twitter/FB, abandoned blog, a million little social sites where I’m not active), but it’s time to get that updated, too.

So that's my review of 2014 and plan for 2015: 

2014 was my worst writing year ever; 2015 is going to be the best ever.

I already have some great projects coming up in 2015, including a story in a zombie anthology from Big Pulp and a humor story in Alternate Hilarities (release dates TBA).

And speaking of catching up...

ZNation...anybody seen it? How was it? I tried like crazy to fit it into my schedule & only ended up catching two episodes: the pilot, and the one with the crazy preacher. I enjoyed what little I saw, but I just wasn't sure how the whole series was going to pan out (I love you Syfy, but your shows/movies can be like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get...and sometimes it's cheesy.

I guess I'll have to wait until they have a marathon and try and catch up on it...as long as it doesn't interfere with my new writing plan.  ;)

October 2013 Update

 

Welcome to October, my favorite month of the year! This week I'm working on workshops at the Muse Online Writers Conference, but I wanted to take a break from the action and send out an update.

If you're looking for a free read, my story, Global Swarming is available in Silverthought Online.

My story, "The Piper," will be in the Bete Noire Tell Me a Fable anthology, release date TBA. The story is a new spin on the Pied Piper story, but instead of dealing with rats, he's dealing with a plague of zombies.

On the Work-in-Progress front, I'm trying to work on a story that is set in North Dakota in winter, and it's really hard to capture it adequately. In the fall, the long prairie grass turns an amazing silver, and it gets really bristly, and it catches the moonlight and seems to glow from within, so the fields look like the back of some great, glowing, bristly beast half hidden in the earth. And that's just fall! In winter, the wind blows the snow into bizarre shapes, and the -30 temperatures freeze it solid, so it's like being in some white, alien-planet landscape. So it definitely all lends itself well to the horror genre, but it's the problem of trying to adequately capture the spookiness of it.

And, last but not least, I'm anxiously awaiting the return of The Walking Dead on Sunday! My youngest daughter bought me the amazing T-shirt you see above. Go Team Daryl!

See you next month!

Summertime and the Living is Easy

Spring has finally sprung here in the northland, as you can tell from the several missing posts in the blog. Actually, we went right from winter to summer: I had to delay planting my decorative bean plants until Sunday because Saturday's low was 28 degrees; today, I have my air conditioning on because it is 89 degrees. Ah, the wonder that is North Dakota weather!

Anyway, with planting/fishing/grilling season in full swing, it's time to switch to the summer posting schedule. New posts will appear at the first of each month now through August; the regular posting schedule will resume in September. There may be an occasional bonus post, but we'll have to see what the summer brings. You can subscribe to the blog and receive posts in your email if you'd like to be notified when new posts are available.

I haven't been writing much lately thanks to spring cleaning/spring planting (in addition to the bean vines, I picked up a pussy willow and a bittersweet to add to the yard to replace the bittersweet nightshade I removed for the safety of the dogs), but Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Writers will be available May 21st and includes my story: "Putting Together the Pieces." My comedy short, "Alecsander's Empire" will be available in the May/June issue of 69 Flavors of Paranoia, which should be up soon.

Have a great May, and I'll see you next month!

April 2013 Update

I'm currently working on final edits of a new horror short story. It's very close to done, but there's something missing that I can't quite put my finger on yet. I'm ready to be done with it, so my frustration level is pretty high. I hate knowing something's wrong, but not knowing what, and thus not being able to fix it.

I'm also editing a reprint, "Inhuman Resources," which originally appeared in Zombidays: Festivities of the Flesheaters. I love the story, but trying to place reprints is another source of frustration. Very few markets accept reprints, and most of those that do either pay less (which makes sense; it is, after all, a "used" story, lol) or not at all.

I'm also working on a longer project with the working title, "Primrose Place." No, it's not a romance; it's a contemporary fantasy with a cast of quirky characters, a touch of comedy, and plenty of the supernatural. It's about belonging, family, and finding your place in the world. I don't dare call it a novel, because we know what a problem novels are for me. So while this one is in its "zero draft" stage, we'll just call it "a really long short story with a whole lot of characters."

Notice the trend here? Three frustrating projects! No wonder I've been having to take frequent breaks. Hopefully I'll have at least two of these projects done by next month's update, and my frustration level will be back to its normal "just slightly aggravated."

See you next week!

March Update & After Hours Combo

Whip me with a stack of rejection slips, I missed another blog post (and almost missed this one)! I promise I'll get the hang of this . . . someday.

It actually worked out for the best, because I have two pieces of great news to share:

My short story, "Alecsander's Empire" will appear in the May/June issue of 69 Flavors of Paranoia. This humorous urban fantasy story originally appeared in the anthology, Loving the Undead, and I'm excited that 69FoP has decided to resurrect it!

My inspirational essay, "Putting Together the Pieces," will appear in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Writers, available May 21st.

See? I don't blow-off my blog posts for just any old reason! Exciting stuff has been happening!

I've also been working on one new horror story and an older orphan story that needs to be finished.

Now, on to the regularly scheduled "After Hours" post:

1) If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be and why?

A Russian olive, because I think they are beautiful. They have thin, silvery-green leaves and thorns. Unfortunately, they are classified as an invasive species in some places.

 2) Describe your favorite pair of shoes.
In general, I'm not much of a girly-girl . . . except when it comes to shoes! My favorite pair is a wedge with an extra-high heel (five inches) covered in silver glitter. My family calls them my "drag queen" shoes. Sadly, I don't get to wear them as much as I'd like. There are surprisingly few places/occasions to wear them in North Dakota (the farm and home show? across a parking lot covered in a foot of snow? I think not).

3) What is your favorite quote?

I have two:

"You must stay drunk  on writing so reality cannot destroy you."--Ray Bradbury

"In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." --Albert Camus
4) Did you wear hand-me-downs as a kid?

No. I didn't have any siblings until four days before my twenty-first birthday, and my father was in the military, so all the rest of my family (cousins, etc.) always lived far away from wherever we were stationed.

5) What was the most unintentionally stupid thing that someone has said to you this week?

I was complaining about something and my husband of twenty-three years turned to me, shrugged, and said, "Not my problem."

REALLY!?! I'm pretty sure it's right there on the marriage license, in the fine print: "Any problem your wife may have, no matter how small or irrelevant, most certainly IS your problem, or else she will make it so!"


See you next week!

February 2013 Update

Image courtesy of Evgeni Dinev / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I apologize for completely missing the last post of January. I started a post and thought I finished it, but obviously didn't. It just shows how bad the end of last month turned out to be! Even my "I need a weekend out of town and out of this crappy winter" trip didn't work out--we ended up having a blizzard and traveling was out of the question!

February is already starting out better. I've made it to the final round of a volume of Chicken Soup for the Soul. I don't usually write nonfiction, but I do enjoy writing about writing (which is what the upcoming volume is about: "Inspiration for Writers") and writing about pets. And speaking of pets, that's how I became a Chicken Soup for the Soul fan. I picked up my first volume (Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul) back in 1998, and I think I have every pet-related volume they've published since. So I'm excited at the opportunity to have my work (possibly) appear in one of their volumes. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

On the "what I'm currently writing" front, there's not much to report. I'm not sure if it's the chaos of life, the "dark heart of winter doldrums," or what, but I've kicked around (and eventually rejected) eight or ten different short story ideas. I don't know if they truly sucked as much as I came to think they did, or if it's just my perspective that's skewed. I know some people say that writer's block doesn't exist, but it sure seems like what I'm dealing with right now.

Maybe if I go pull out one of my novels and try to work on it, it will get the short stories flowing again. There's nothing like the threat of novel revisions to get me fired up to write short stories!

Have a great week!

January 2013 Update

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In my December update, I talked about doing a DecWriMo and continuing on with my unfinished NaNo novel . . . Yeah. That didn't happen. Color you shocked, right?

Once again, I procrastinated and putzed around, and the next thing I knew, I was knee-deep in short stories again.

Someday, I'm going to write, polish, and submit a novel . . . but today is not someday.

It is, however, a new year. And I have drawn up this year's list of resolutions: things I'd like to accomplish this year but probably won't, LOL.

#1) Write and finish at least six new short stories.

#2) Get better at social media; my focus is Blog/Twitter/Facebook. This is a goal that's been on my list every year since I started on social media, and though I've definitely improved at it, there's still more room for improvement.

#3) Self-publish. I’m old-school, so I want to do most of my publishing via traditional methods. However, I have a few reprints that I’d like to self-publish since it’s so terribly hard to find markets for reprints. Plus, I’d just like to take the whole “indie author experience” for a test drive and see how it works. However, I’m a bit intimidated by all the work it takes to “go indie.” (create your own cover, do your own marketing and promotion, etc.).

#4) Read 24 books. Yes, this is a decrease from prior-year goals, but given that I’ve got so much other work planned, I think it’s better to err to the side of caution. I currently have 500+ books in my kindle library, so I should be done reading them all in 20 years or so.

#5) A novel--any novel, for the love of god--done. I have plenty of choices here, so I should be able to accomplish it. If not my Macha novel (which is done, but I just keep rewriting it instead of polishing it), then either my Cryptozoologist novel (which is in the "completed first draft" stage) or this year's NaNo novel (which isn't even a completed first draft yet). Given my track record, I'm not going to set the bar too high on this one. Macha or the Crypto novel needs to be ready to submit, or I need to end the year with a finished first draft of my NaNo novel. One of those needs to happen!

Of course, the first week of January has already come and gone, and I haven't made any progress toward any of the items on the list, LOL. I'm in the process of finishing and revising a few orphan stories (stories I wrote that were set aside and forgotten) and finishing the first draft of a story I started back in October and abandoned during NaNo and deer season.

I'm shooting for having the new story ("From Little Acorns Grow . . .") done by the end of the month. And then I can start working on the resolutions list.

Happy New Year, and may we all do better with our resolutions this year!

December Update

Alas, I did not "win" NaNoWriMo this year. With deer hunting season and my other commitments, there just wasn't enough time to write. I ended about eighteen thousand words short. I did, however, get my buck! Deer jerky for everyone!

I'm not abandoning the NaNo novel, however. One of the reasons I was able to rack up word count in spite of only writing a few days is because the story flows well; it's a page-turner to write (hopefully it will be a page-turner to read, too). It's horrific and suspenseful, too. During one evening of feverish writing, I was writing one of those "don't-open-that-door" scenes when my daughter, who was outside with our dogs, threw a snowball at my writing room window . . . and hubby nearly had to call the paramedics to revive me.

I think it will be a solid novel: strong plot, unusual characters, and zombies! But since I didn't have much time to plan it before NaNo, there are a few issues. For example, I have no idea how all the characters converge, and thus, how it ends. My plan is to spend a few days (maybe more), outlining the thing, and making sure the current cast of characters are the ones who are going to carry the story (one set of characters is rather weak right now, and I may have to replace them). Then I'm going to DecWriMo (and JanWriMo, if necessary) and see if I can get a coherent first draft. Then I can go back to working on my one true love, short stories.

In other news, Penumbra eMag's December "Utopia" issue includes my short story, "Comfortably Numb." Order your copy now!

See you next week!

November Update

One month into the new posting schedule and so far, so good, ha-ha. Of course, this month is one of the busiest of the year, so we’ll see if the posting schedule survives it. This month is deer hunting season and turkey hunting season, so I'm going to be out in the woods as much as possible.

And as if I wasn't over-scheduled as it was . . .

I put my short stories aside to work on the fantasy novel that’s been dogging me for years (Macha Mong Ruadh). I had been making good progress on a major revision, but on October 30th, the muse came fluttering by and sprinkled inspiration dust (or something) on my head . . . and now I’m doing NaNoWriMo (write a 50K novel in a month). Just what I need: another novel collecting dust, waiting for revision, making me feel guilty about ignoring it. But, when the muse gives a gift, I hate to turn it down.

Part of the problem is my fickle muse: Cletus the Redneck Muse. Here's a rare picture of him:

See what I have to work with? I wonder if it's possible to be assigned a new muse.

So now I will be spending the month of November working on a zombie-apocalypse novel. It’s still early, so I can’t say for sure how it’s going to turn out, but so far, it’s been absorbing to write—I keep getting caught up in the story. So hopefully it will be as much of a page-turning read as it has been a page-turning write.

In other news, my story “Comfortably Numb” will be in the December "Utopia" issue of Penumbra Emag. I’m proud to say that it will be my second story published in the magazine (which makes them the best magazine ever, in my opinion). ;)

Wish me luck, and check back next Monday to see if I keep to my schedule or if I spend November curled in the fetal position, weeping, while Cletus throws Pork Rinds at me.

October Update

Okay, where did September go? I feel like Rip Van Winkle, but I KNOW I didn't sleep through it because I'm still way too tired to have slept that much. I can't complain, though, because now it's October, the best month of the year with the best holiday of the year.

October also marks the return of the best show: The Walking Dead.

AND, the return of the annual The Muse Online Writers Conference.

So good riddance September, and hooray for October.

~~~

On the writing front, I have a couple of new stories I'm working on, and I'm STILL working on my ethereal fantasy short. It's like a recipe that's just not quite right yet--it still needs a little something . . . just what that something is, I haven't figured out.

On the reading front, I'm currently reading Robert McCammon's Swan Song. I'm enjoying it (how could I not? It's nuclear-apocalyptic fiction), but I do find myself getting distracted by the number of writing "rules" it breaks. For example, I know today's writers are cautioned against using omniscient point-of-view, and when it is used, writers are cautioned to limit POV to one character per chapter. But in Swan Song, the POV varies from paragraph to paragraph. I can't say I'm a fan of the method.

~~~

That's all my news. Go enjoy something scary!

Mid-month tidbits

The final edit on my short story, "Leech Lake," is almost complete, and the story is almost ready to be sent into the world to find a home.

The ethereal fantasy short story I was working on is not going as well. There's still something missing . . . something I can't quite put my finger on. It's still in first draft form.

And, as usually happens, while I was swamped, trying to finish two drafts and a revision for a deadline, a new story popped into my head. I tore myself away from the other stories for a few moments and wrote a rough draft/outline for the interloper story. I'll come back to it after I finish the current two and see if it is worth continuing on, or if it should go in the "maybe someday this will be a story" file.

Don't forget to check out my latest published stories:

"Lard-Ass Larson" is available in the "August Augmentations" issue of SNM Horror Magazine;

"Homeland Security" will be available in the collection, "A High Shrill Thump" from Third Flatiron Publishing on September 1st.

And, last but not least: two pictures to share. The first is my new puppy, who's now 4 1/2 months old.

Roscoe Pascal

Momma's little hellhound

And this is a picture of one of my kids, on her way to a "Creatures of the Night" party. She does her momma proud:

Momma's little carnivore

Now go read something creepy, and I'll see you next month.

August Update

Although I'm hoping to bring the blog back to at least a weekly posting schedule (instead of this pitiful monthly posting schedule), I don't see that happening this month. I'm currently juggling three stories (two in the drafting stage and one in revision), and two of the three have looming deadlines. Ah well, perhaps next month the once-a-week format will return (unless I actually get off my tuchus and get back to work on revising the novel).

On the publication side of things, I have two new releases:

"Lard-Ass Larson" is available in the "August Augmentations" issue of SNM Horror Magazine;

"Homeland Security" will be available in the collection, "A High Shrill Thump" from Third Flatiron Publishing on September 1st.

Be sure to check them out!

Summer and the living is easy? HA!

By some small miracle, I finished the two stories I was working on and sent them off just in the nick of time. There's nothing like a looming deadline to really amp up your productivity!

I'm almost always overscheduled, but June was the busiest month I've had in a while. I've been focusing on puppy training and making sure I get my writing done because, let's face it, job one is writing. When time comes at a premium, the writing comes first and the blog and social media have to fall like headshot zombies.

I actually have a written hierarchy (I know: it's geeky; but it appeals to the accountant in me).

In definite order of importance:
1) Writing
2) Reading
3) Writer's group
4) Main social media (blog and Twitter)
5) Second-level social media (Facebook)
6) Third-level social media (Tumblr, etc.)

The month of June saw all of them suffer. I even missed a writer's group meeting!

So what's in store for July? Probably more of the same chaos, but at least I'm not going to be trying to write two brand new stories by the end of the month.

I have one short story that I want to revise/polish and get sent out for a July deadline, and a story I'm thinking about writing for an August deadline. Meanwhile, I have ten stories submitted that I'm waiting to hear back on.

So maybe July will actually be a slow month!

"Crazy Busy" is the new normal

In spite of life being crazy busy with the new puppy, I managed to get my zombie fairytale story polished and sent off well before the deadline.

My next project will be a little different: this time, the monsters are your neighbors. I'm currently working on a short story about middle America and its reaction to "the war on terror." The anthology I'm targeting closes at the end of the month, so I'm crunched for time . . . again. Good thing I do my best work under pressure.

The presentation I gave on writing horror seemed to go over well with our local writing group. I think everyone had fun exploring their dark side. Eventually I might turn these presentation into some sort of ebook for writers.

I also found a new well of creative inspiration: prompts on Twitter. I set up Hootsuite to collect any tweets that come through with the hashtags: "writingprompt" and "prompt," so now I have a stream in Hootsuite that's exclusively prompts (though the occasional complaint about friends who are chronically late occasionally shows up in the stream). If you find yourself staring at the blank page, you might want to check out those tags!

Now I've got a whole slew of prompts waiting to spark my muse . . . I just have to make the time to use them!

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Recently finished reading:



The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror


The Zombie Survival Guide, by Max Brooks

Currently Reading:



The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

New addition

Although I did great for the whole first part of the month of Story-A-Day May, the last week was a bust. I think I got a story done for the last Monday of the month, but nothing for the rest of that week. Oh well, there's always next year.

Part of the reason the last week was so busy was because we were preparing for a big anniversary weekend. We planned on spending the evening at the casino in Hankinson on Friday (our anniversary), coming back Saturday, and then taking my parents fishing on Sunday. And we did all that . . . with a slight addendum.

Every time we go south, it's become a tradition to stop in Fargo and play with the puppies at Great Pets. I was especially looking forward to it this time because I lost my dog to a brain tumor a few months ago. Hubby had asked if he could get me a dog as a present for our anniversary, but I told him, "No. I'm not ready for another dog. Besides, I'll never find another dog I love as much as I loved Missy."

So, we stopped at Great Pets on Saturday, and they had a BUNCH of puppies. I decided to stop and play with one litter they'd just gotten in (about 10 pups). After I played with them a few minutes, hubby asked the storekeeper if we could take one out and play with it in the puppy area. I picked a black, block-headed looking girl pup to play with (thinking she would be the least likely one to tug on my heart strings). As the lady grabbed that one, she also grabbed another black pup. If one pup is fun, two is a blast, right?

And then something unexpected happened . . .

I fell in love with that second pup, the one I hadn't even asked to play with. Something just clicked.

And this is my new pup, Roscoe Pascal.

I really don't know how this happened. I wasn't even a dog person before my dog Missy. Now I'm a dog person, but I'm a hardcore "purebred-German-Shepard-and-always-girl-dogs" kind of dog lover. Or I was.

He's 1/4 Shar Pei, 1/4 English Bulldog, 1/4 Boxer, 1/4 Springer Spaniel (how does THAT happen?). He's jet black with four or five white hairs on his chest and a cinnamon-colored ticking on a few spots on his back. And when he looks up at you, his floppy-jowls and down-turned mouth make him look like a Grouper fish.

And I adore him!

So now I'm trying to juggle "writing time" with "puppy-time." I can't wait until he gets a little older and I can be working away on my latest manuscript in my writing room with him snoring peacefully on a blanket in the corner.

For now, though, I have to work in my writing time during his naps.

Story-A-Day Progress, Week 4

Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Still going strong on Story-A-Day May . . . but (and I never thought I'd say this) I'm ready for some revision!

It's not that I haven't loved focusing on writing new short stories. I'm just getting impatient. I have projects I put on the back burner this month that I'm ready to get back to work on. And I'm anxious to work on revising some of the stories I've written this month.

I've had a great time with Story-A-Day May, but I'm glad it's drawing to a close.

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Last week's Story-A-Day stories:

May 21st: "Spring Break" (apocalyptic horror);

May 22nd: "Jellyfish Summer" (horror);

May 23rd: "Tropical Getaway" (horror)-- I hate the title, love the story;

May 24th: "The Truth Hurts" (psychological horror)-- be glad you can't read minds;

May 25th: "Everybody Needs a Hobby" (horror).

~ ~ ~

Recently finished reading:



The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew


Currently reading:



The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror 2008