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My blog, where I store those thoughts rattling around my brain |
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Welcome to the insanity of my mind! Please excuse the cobwebs and clutter, I've been meaning to clean the place up a bit... Stop in and read some of my nonsense whenever the mood strikes you :) |
| I'm planning to drop another bundle of spooky stories this month on Amazon! Right now the struggle is trying to select which ones fit the bill and determining the best way to edit/re-write the ones that were a bit lackluster. I'm thinking the Sea of Trees will occupy a nice chunk, being a novella and all. Just need to tweak that last third... *cringes* It's tricky to rework something you've written in the past. I think it's a result of being in a particular headspace during the creation, you look back and wonder at the influences present when you first wrapped threads around that nucleus of an idea. Of course, time and experience help you spot mistakes... But it's the tone and passion that are lacking. Do other creative people suffer from this problem? I wonder if I'm not alone in my struggles. |
| How far do you go when it comes to researching a story? I find that taking the time to craft some foundation or add some hidden details really helps the creative process. You might stumble across a bizarre tidbit that becomes a plot point. You might find a new direction to take the narrative, or add some realism. Hell, just adding some flavor can take a generic outline to a whole 'nother level. Yesterday I was trying to find a word in an ancient language. It was a bit tricky, seeing as not many places hold information on Assyrian. I had to crawl through a 300 page PDF to find what I was looking for. But the journey gave me time to think and stew over the story I was working on, giving me a great idea. I love it when it all comes together. When people read it, I'll go 'yeah I meant to do that the whole time'. Was it the Muse? Or just plain luck? Who knows. The only thing to do is to keep moving forward and try to recreate that moment once more. |
| Not much to say here except I had a minor heart attack when I left my laptop to take a snack break and returned to find... true horror. The damn device had updated and rebooted in my absence, resulting in the loss of a 2000+ word story I was nearly done with. There's nothing worse than the feeling of losing hours worth of work. I had resigned myself to this and lamented the loss of a great entry when I found a tab with autosaved documents. I almost lost it again, this time out of joy. I'm extremely pleased because there was no way I was going to rewrite all of that again. Fate has smiled upon me at last it seems. The lesson? SAVE EVERYTHING FOR YOUR SANITY. |
| Hello Blog. It's been a minute since I've returned to this uneven journal of mine. Since I've been on a film kick, I decided to type up my thoughts on the last movie I watched. With the advent of a new horror reboot, I opted to watch the original to refresh my spotty memory. And what a treat it was. Candyman, starring Tony Todd and Virginia Madsen was an absolute treat. What is it about movies from previous decades that are so entrancing? Is it a worthwhile script? Excellent direction or just plain old powerful performances? Whatever it was, I felt totally hypnotized by the titular slasher as Candyman haunted the screen with his enigmatic presence. I had no idea this movie was adapted from a Clive Barker story. Isn't it odd how we can happen across something in life's travels and uncover more connections related to it nearly instantly? There's a phenomenon for this exact scenario but I fear if I search for it my train of thought will be irreparably sidetracked. I'd just finished reading some of Barker's works and plan to indulge in more. Darkly poetic and rather Gothic in places. A perfect cocktail for a thrill chaser like myself. But I digress. Candyman plays with some intriguing ideas, racial undertones, links between marginalization and crime, weaponizing fear, and the concept of immortality through storytelling. I loved the exploration of urban legends, which is how the shadowy killer hides in the darkness and perpetrates unspeakable acts against any who dare summon him. The soundtrack, oh how it aids this moody tragedy. A fluting organ and almost monastic chanting give this an operatic feel. And the music box theme adds an eerie otherworldy vibe whenever it quietly creeps into the lingering shots of crumbling Chicago buildings. Great work by Philip Glass. I'm actually listening to it now, I'm a sucker for a lovely soundtrack. Another thing about this movie (and most of Barker's works) is the romantic tones that seep into the horror. It is a twisted love story, of sorts. A bit like Phantom of the Opera, what with Candyman following Helen and persuading her to be his victim. He speaks in a darkly sensual manner, wooing her with promises of undying life and the exquisite feeling of her name being spoken in whispers and walking in the dreams of others. While it is far from a perfect film, the highs more than compensate for the lows. Tony Todd's voice is a deep forbidding one that oozes into your ears as he commands you to believe in the legend. Once he speaks, you have no choice but to. Another great point is the practical effects which really make the gore and set pieces feel believable and visceral. I can't imagine how they managed to get those bees to behave. The finale was chillingly beautiful, when Candyman confronts his chosen victim for the last time. All in all, simply marvelous. I couldn't have asked for a more haunting way to spend an hour and a half. I look forward to the newest offering with great anticipation and will let you all know what I took away from it. I am the writing on the wall, the whisper in the classroom. Without these things, I am nothing. So now, I must shed innocent blood. What's blood for, if not for shedding? - Candyman |
Wow. I just finished writing one of my longest short stories. Kinda feeling a bit empty and exhausted, but it was an exciting ride. Don't even want to think about editing but I know there are some hanging plot threads and other polishing to do. But you know what I say to that? NOT TODAY! I'm going to crawl into bed and die now. Have a great day, folks! |
| I sometimes dread it when people call me. Not because of the social anxiety, but the possibility of having to do a favor or make future plans, or even a simple request to hang out and cure their boredom. While I enjoy the company of friends, it makes me feel guilty when there are things I was hoping to accomplish. Who knows when life will turn upside down and force me to sideline yet another project? I must always seize what free time I have and guard it possessively. They wants it, my preciousss. But I suppose I'm not entirely blame-free. After all, it's one thing to complain about people pestering you and preventing you from writing and it's another to sit around watching TV and goofing off until it's time to be productive and then have something come out of nowhere. Still, I'm getting better at managing my time. Slowly but surely I'll have this mastered. Just you watch. |
| I hate Amazon. Well, that's not exactly right. I wouldn't use the word hate in this scenario... I despise Amazon. That said, I have an uneasy partnership with the aforementioned world-eating corporation. Things are quite hard for content creators, forcing authors to compromise their values in exchange for a steady source of revenue. My first foray into the literary world has been fairly quiet but I expected nothing less from a debut novel. (Is it really a novel if it's a collection of stories?) Library of Nightmares has been a moderate success and received a fair amount of acclaim. With this, I am content. But one cannot live on scraps alone. My next attempt (The Book of Shadows) was going along quite slowly until I caught wind of a new program launching through Kindle. Naturally, I was interested and wanted to know more. "Kindle Vella, the new way to read stories.' That remains to be seen, I thought. But I cannot deny it is a bold strategy... Kindle Vella is an episodic format, offering readers three free chapters of a story and changing per episode afterward. Each episode requires tokens to unlock, each amount varies depending on the word count. Authors get a larger cut than they would with a traditional publication but I have my doubts. Also, wouldn't readers prefer to pay upfront and have an entire story at their fingertips? The execution and reception are crucial to the success of this new format, but I can't deny that I'm a little curious. I decided to see how it works for myself and uploaded a good amount of The Book of Shadows. If this works, I could schedule chapters to release weekly and finish writing it while earning a few bucks in the meantime. Not a bad plan, eh? But... I ran into some snags and things quickly grew frustrating as I struggled with the barebones submission tools and argued with the reviewing team. Somehow along the way, they discovered an excerpt of the prologue on some website I frequented years ago. Understandable, I thought. It'll be a quick fix, just gotta log in and remove it. And yet after I deleted my account and offending text, the results were still popping up in Google. I surmised this must be the website metadata, an old snapshot that wasn't yet purged from the servers. But this was enough to keep my story pending submission for weeks. Once I finally got that situation cleared, I had to re-upload each chapter and fix all the proofreading errors that I cleaned up previously. It was a major pain in the tushy. And now when I finally can breathe, I learn that this isn't even fully launching until next month or possibly later. Kindle Vella is only available on the formal website or on iOS apps. No Kindle support, no Android apps. Not even launching outside the US currently. So all that work for a fraction of the audience? Time to hit the bottle, folks. |
| Our vast seas are dying rapidly and this would be a tragedy ... if we didn't have aquariums for our little brats to see. Wildfires raging, firemen engaging, FEMA in disarray ... but hey it's all okay, this is a distant world away. The heatwave out here killing folks is really just a liberal hoax ... so let's be carefree with our A/C and crack some tasteless jokes. Crops are failing, animals dying, wars still raging, politicians lying. Hate is growing, famine looming, fear is showing, oil still booming. Let's succumb to apathy, sleepwalking to our fate. Everyone dies, it's no surprise - enjoy life while it's great. Oh stop your constant worrying, you can't change a thing. Just consume within your tomb and raise more doomed offspring. |
Blocked from start and I try to unfold When I'm stepping out into the unknown There's a part of me that just can't relate So I'm turning my demons into saints Am I inviting or am I disguised Are you living the dreams the ones that keep you alive I see myself begging for only the worst You know that I love you but you know that I'm cursed |
| There's something soothing about waking up to the gentle patter of rain. It's a lazy comfort whispering to stay in bed a while longer, snuggle deep in those blankets and let your cares unwind. Perhaps it's a subconscious message. After all, who wants to leave the house when it's pouring outside? Your brain never urges you to stay inside on a pleasantly sunny day. (Unless you are a recluse like myself) I always loved the smell of fresh rain in the summer. It's an intoxicating aroma, the musky damp earth intertwined with the mellow perfume of growing leaves. Maybe I was a tree in a previous life? The sight of glistening foliage and rippling puddles always rejuvenates my soul. Today is going to be a marvelous day. I couldn't have asked for better writing weather! |
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