Monday, May 30, 2011

Coming home


I was on the subway last night when something strange happened. I can't tell you what city or country, leave that to your imagination.
Slowly the subway came to a stop and as the doors slide open, he slid in. He was tall, six feet at least, maybe taller. His brown hair stood up in many directions. He wore an olive drab battle dress uniform; a garrison cap clung tightly in his left hand. In his right hand, he held a strap as he was carrying a canvas duffel bag--the same color as his uniform. It appeared heavy because he wobbled to the seat directly across from me.
He had huge, dark circles under his eyes and he avoided my curious stare. It was as if he was just now, coming home from war. I imagined him tired and weary from his long journey home, and I wondered. Why hadn't he arrived before now? One lone tear trickled down his gray, gaunt face dropping into his lap. I stared intently at the wet spot it created, and I felt the urge to offer him a tissue. I suppressed it, and at that moment, the subway came to a stop and he rose and exited while I watched in awe.

Don't forget the men and women that gave their lives, so we can continue to live in peace.

As for my soldier, he is still making his way home. If you spot him let him continue on his way, the journey is long, and I know one day he will make it home.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The future as I see it

I see the future as wide open. Writers have more choices these days than ever before. I think all writers want to see their books in print at an affordable price, and to make enough money to make a living doing this.

Some of us will only be able to do it on the side, but that's not always a 
bad thing. Think about all the additional research we get to do. With a day, or night job we have the opportunity to research characters at great length. What kind of voice do they have? Have you ever noticed annoying habits we all have? Maybe it's the nail biter or the person that taps their leg when they sit. (Two of my habits).

I won't go anymore in depth about the future of publishing. I 
embrace both formats. Enough said.

I cancelled my website. I 
honestly don't see the need for one, even if I had something to sell. It takes too much time and I'd much rather blog. If most of you checked it out, you might see the traffic to your website isn't enough to constitute one. In the beginning, you needed one but do you now?

I plan on feeding everything 
from my blog. When I have something to sell, I'll link from here. It's here that I have hits, at least twenty a day, thirty on a good day. I think that's damn good for an unpublished writer.

I enjoy writing, it doesn't matter if it's a zombie 
short or a short story length beginning. Many of my stories are not complete in the sense that they have an ending. For instance, "The Book Of Lies." It's one of those stories that I started with no destination in mind. That's what writers do - we write. 

I see myself as a thriller writer, but I 
need to write my zany stories too. I think it's a healthy balance. I'm crazy (in a good way), but you already knew that.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Good reasons it's better to be a zombie

There are many pros and cons to being a zombie, and if you ask me, I can see more advantages than cons. I have spent my 47 years on this planet discouraged with humanity as a whole, and it will be no surprise to me when a zombie infection occurs.


If you have read any of the recent CDC warnings, even they acknowledge it has occurred already, and I say it's about time they quit covering it up. 


If you think about it, you will never get sick again (wait for it) because you are already dead.


You won't ever have to work again, except to find food. I know many of you say you would never eat human flesh, but have you ever been hungry - really hungry? I mean ravenous? 




Speaking about food, even I have my limits. I would eat anything except politicians, lawyers, ministers, priests, or the pope. I have spent a lifetime being preached to and told what to do, but it all ends here. We don't need to be organized because being a zombie is not a team sport. It's everyone for themselves. 


You don't ever have to go to the hairdresser again, and who knew the zombie look is so in right now.


You never have to diet again because whatever you eat, falls right through. I'm still not sure how that works, but they'd pay a ton for it on the black market. You know I'm right.


Think about the power, everyone is afraid of you, and there is nothing like chasing a truck load of rednecks through town. You might want to be careful of the buckshot though. All in all I see this as a great thing.


Sex doesn't matter anymore because guess what rots off first. 


So you lose a little skin and decay and smell and never sleep. But that's not that bad of thing, right? I hope someone shoots my head off before I become a crawling torso. It would be kind of hard to find food that way.



Saturday, May 21, 2011

Book Of Lies


Never has the Northeast seen storms as this before. Forty days of wind, hail, tornadoes, and dark skies have taken its toll, and things are no longer as they seem.
Newspapers scatter down New York City’s barren Streets, where once they were full of people making their way, in the busiest of business districts. Broken glass littered the concrete below as most windows were broken, and Time Square is dark and lifeless.

Roger drove his Jeep through the city with caution. The drive from Dayton, Ohio had been a test of endurance ... he nearly collided with three twisters.
He wondered if he was a sole survivor or were there others like him, lost to all they knew. Forty days ago seemed like yesterday when the storms first came across the plains, bringing with it hurricane force winds, hail the size of softballs and a series of F5 tornados——leaving devastation in its wake.
Roger had been asleep when a tornado ripped his house from the foundation, taking his wife and five-year-old son. He sat on his bed, looking directly into the eye of the funnel, waiting for it to take him too, but he was spared. Why?

He screeched his Jeep to a stop. Roger thought he saw a shadow dart off to the right. Scratching his head, he looked at the still dark sky. How could there be a shadow when there were no sunlight to cast one? 
He jumped from his vehicle and picked up a baseball bat, his only protection. He walked down the street, pulling his blue hoodie up, as the temperature here were much colder than where he was yesterday. Glancing up, he saw nothing, but dark concrete. 

Where could everyone be? 
Snapping his head up when he heard something scrape across the street, right behind him. He froze, afraid to turn, but feeling as though something or someone meant to do him harm.
Turning, he saw a girl of nine. Her blond hair pulled tightly into two braids. Her dress appeared to be covered in ash and her face dark, as you might see in an old black and white movie.
When she smiled it looked more like a sneer. Her lips barely able to contain her razor sharp teeth. Her hands tucked behind her back, concealing something he feared.
“You are big, scary man with a baseball bat.” She fluttered her eyes. “Are you hungry?” Pulling her hands out, she held a severed arm in them. “Not as good as brains, but they are hard to come by these days.”
Roger stepped back as the child lunged at him. “Agghh, I just want a taste, give me a taste,” she muttered.

Pushing her shoulders back, he tried flinging her from him, but he can’t, she’s too strong. Her jaw snapped as she tried to bite his head. 
Suddenly her head snapped backward, and he saw a woman with a black dress pulling her back. She then placed a small cage onto her head and tied her hands behind her back.
“Bad Millie, you know you can’t just roam around alone.” She turned her dark gaze into Rogers' direction. “Where are you from?” She asked him, smiling slyly.
Her skin was dark like the child, but she didn’t seem to have the same affliction. Still, she didn’t look like him.
“I’m from Dayton, Ohio.”
She shook her head. “From when did you come?”
His eyes narrowed, and he glanced around him, wondering if it would be better advised to escape while he can. “What do mean when? I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you are asking me.”

Leaning forward her dark features became intense. “From what year?
“I don’t know the exact date, but the year was 2010.”
“How did you travel here?”
Motioning behind her. “I drove my Jeep.”
Shaking her head. “It simply isn’t possible to travel here by car. This is the year 3020.” Raising her hand skyward. “Mass destruction has reduced this city to what you see now, and only a handful of survivors remain.”
“Where are they?”
Turning her head to the side. “I don’t know, but I know there are others.”
“Maybe that child has eaten them all.”
“Some perhaps, but she cannot help it. I keep her caged usually, but I need to let her out sometimes. I cannot stand her whimpering.”
“How did she get like that?”
Leading the child away, she ignored his questions. He followed her from a distance, following when she entered an alley. Afraid to follow, yet afraid not to. 
She opened a door and turned to him. “You may come in if you want. I will cage the child, so she won’t be a threat to you.”
What Roger found inside wasn’t what he expected. There were rows of cages on one wall, and the mysterious woman placed the child within one as she promised. He saw the child sitting with a haunting look in her eyes. If she hadn’t tried making a meal of him, maybe he would have felt pity.
In the center of the room, there stood a lab table with straps attached, and along one wall were test tubes filled with colored liquid, blue, red, and green.
“Was this a lab?”
“It still is a lab. I have been searching for a cure for Millie’s affliction. She is such a sweet child when you get to know her. After the Rapture, I found her wandering the streets. Most people were transformed into the forgotten.”
“The forgotten? Are you saying the Rapture has already taken place?”
“Yes, New York City is the herding place for those deemed unworthy for saving.”
“Who could be that heartless to decide such a thing.”
“Many angels fell, and put their hands upon this city in spite. Even believers were banished, there was no food, and they became hungry, but once they fed, they became inflicted with a virus.” 
Walking to a bookshelf the woman removed a book. It’s worn leather cover had an image of a sickle with an arrow through it and in gold letters was the name “Book Of Lies.”

Looking up puzzled, Roger became confused. “What is this book of lies?”
“It tells the story after the rapture.”
Opening the book, Roger read the first passages.
Darkness is welcoming as a blanket on a cold night, enveloping the city. Now is not the time to be caught alone as already you hear the cries of the Forgotten. They remain hidden in the daylight, and the Sunshine Children as they are known, knew it allowed them only a brief respite. The Sunshine children take cover just as the last ray of the sunset evaporates. 
As daylight fades, and the Forgotten rise and extract themselves from the cracks and crevices that once offered them shelter. No longer able to exist as day dwellers, they were forced to recede into the night. Lost to all they knew, they will be forgotten forever. 
Considered to be mere animals, although, they still hold human form. Already the Sunshine children’s numbers decrease as the Forgottens’ rise, soon they will outnumber them. 
“So the fallen angels decided this?”
“We have been cursed to live here as the heavens closed without accepting us in, there are many false prophets that were allowed in, but for us, we were forced to live here in fear and uncertainty.”

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Write a book reader will love


If you're writing a book, why not write one that readers will love.

Write as many point of views as possible, editors love head popping too. Start with having a character know things they shouldn't like what Pete is thinking. I have been known to think I know what someone else thinks, so that can work.

Descriptions: make them as confusing as possible, readers love to stop reading and look up words in the dictionary. Just think how smart they'll think you are!

Neither make it sing or clear. The more confused the reader is the more reviews they'll write. Negative reviews are not always a bad thing. Better yet, have a battle of words with the person that wrote a negative review, it will sell more books! Just think about all the extra blogs that will be talking about you. Free publicity is always a good thing even if it's bad. Right?

Write as many sub-plots as possible. You don't have just one book but four. An introduction of a nonessential  character is always good in the middle of the book too.

Ramble on and on about what color the grass is on one side of the lawn and what color it's on the other, and tell us all in detail why it's like that. That works for Stephen King.

Leave as many gaping holes in your book that a mac truck could drive thru, that spells sequel. Above all, leave more unanswered questions as possible in the end!

Update


I submitted a query and the first two chapters of my novel "The Bone Extractor" to an independent publisher. Now it's time to wait, and I hate it when I don't receive a confirmation email. The publisher's website looks great, and I like what they stand for, always a plus.

I'm hopeful but realistic, I have gone this route before, but this time the book is much better. It crosses many genres: thriller, suspense, and it has romantic elements, but it's not happily ever after. I think horror fans will love it too.

My aim has always been: be gruesome, but don't overdo it, be romantic, but don't let it overtake the story, be suspenseful, but stay in the realm of a thriller. I hope in the end I accomplished what I set out to do. Write a good book that you don't have to wait halfway through the book, for something exciting to happen. Most of the chapters leave you hanging and wanting to know more, and in the end, you'll still have questions. Isn't that what a good book does?

Friday, May 6, 2011

Year in the life of a writer

I wish I still possessed the actual date I started my, now finished novel. I know when I first starting writing it, I wrote the first twenty thousand words in a month. 


At the time I had a another novel that was submitted. I later received a rejection, and it will never be seen again, laughs. It was that bad. It had a cool name though "Insanity." (I think the publisher was too kind in her rejection letter).


The Bone Extractor had humble beginnings, but it started off like a rocket. Somewhere after 40,000 words I lost sight, confidence, and let too much bull shit get in the way to mention. I didn't write for another three months.


I always found my way back, and I wrote what I could when I could. In the end it took me a year to finish, and another three months to rewrite the parts that needed rewriting. The editing I needed a bit more help doing. 


When I looked over the documents - I had at one time completely ripped it apart and started it back over again. I saved most of them thank goodness, because I did my research and put it back together the way it was in the beginning. In the end I have finished the best version of my novel that I could write. 


If I learned anything it is to never quit writing. So what if I have never been published, I finished a novel, and that's a great accomplishment. I feel great about it too, because I earned it. I poured all of my soul into this thing and hope someone will want to buy it. You need to feel good about what you do, no matter what it is. 


I read an insane amount of writers blogs, and hope they take the time to read mine. I tell my kids they can do whatever they set their mind to, and I'm living proof of that. I may never be a best selling author, but  I will continue to write.  











Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Bone Extractor

I have finished rewriting my novel "The Bone Extractor" and my editor Barbara Pappan has just sent me all the edits. I will, at this time, be going through it again and make sure it's smooth as butter. I will also be making a few minor changes.


I appreciate my editor more than you could ever know. Writing this book has been an eye opening and learning experience for me, and if not for my editor, this book would never be as good as it is. Not just because of the editing, but for the advice she gave me. I found the right person and listened to what she told me, and I challenged myself like never before. 


Nick Rose will be doing the cover featuring Kane Hodder who played Jason Voorhees in four of the Friday The 13th movies, and he's also in the Hatchet series. For my cover there will be no mask involved, no pun intended. He has the perfect face for what I imagined my character Bonesaw to look like. 


I'm working on a query which I plan on sending to an Independent publisher, and I hope they'll like it, if not, you'll be seeing it on Amazon as an ebook. It's no secret I've been leaning that way the last few months. I know that will mean more hard work on my part to get my name out there, but even with a publisher you need to do that.


The Bone Extractor should appeal to crime story buff's and horror fans alike. I love love/hate relationships and think you'll love where this story takes you.


I hope you'll continue to follow me on my journey.