Musa Publishing Releases The Red Girl–TODAY!

I’m terribly excited to announce The Red Girl, the debut novel  by fellow horror writer Luke Walker, is out today!

Here is the description from Musa Publishing’s website (because I can’t possibly sum it up better). Now, tell me you aren’t intrigued by the time you’re done reading it:

For five friends, Hell is their hometown.

Stu Brennan and his friends are trapped in a world horribly familiar and completely alien. Their hometown has become a city of human and inhuman monsters since the suicide of their friend Geri created a link between the real world and a world of nightmares. Now if Stu and his friends are to escape from Geri’s hell, they must face the darkness that lives in her past. And bury it before it buries them.

But while they are trapped outside the known world of all good things, Stu’s wife is in terrible danger. She’s searching for her husband, unaware of the evil that is searching for her, eager to hurt her in the same ways Geri was hurt so long ago. If it succeeds, there’ll be no way back for Stu and nobody to protect the person who means more to him than anything in the world.

His baby daughter.

I don’t know about you, but I’m particularly looking forward to seeing how Walker handles the “world of nightmares”. Sounds pretty wicked to me. >:)

READ AN EXCERPT from the book and an interview with Luke on Diane Dooley’s blog!

It’s Alive! The Serialized Novel Rises From the Dead

Imagine it’s the late-nineteenth century. You’re still getting used to things like…the light bulb, the sewing machine, the typewriter. There’s this new advance in science called “pasteurization”.  And something groundbreaking —perforated toilet paper on a roll. Life is good.  (At least this is what I gleaned from Wikipedia. I’m actually terrible with history )

So, there you are, in the nineteenth century, enjoying all that it offers (see above). And you are reading the latest installment of your favorite serialized novel (let’s just say it’s Dickens, you like Dickens, right? If you don’t, just play along).

But wait—it’s not the nineteenth century, it’s the twenty-first—the age of smart phones and ereaders. The age where everyone is too busy to commit more than a few moments a day to reading for fun. The age that is perhaps best suited for serialized novels, when you think about it. Yet, somewhere along the lines they died out.  Wouldn’t you say it’s about time we brought them back?

Many of you know that I slush read (in my spare time—haha) at Every Day Fiction. But what you may not know, is that the folks at Every Day Publishing are also behind a new project called Every Day Novels.

In the tradition of Every Day Fiction–which delivers daily doses of flash to your inbox, Every Day Novels will deliver a chapter a day. Serialized.

The first one is set to launch very soon—and guess where the very first author is from? Seattle, of course!

Lifting Up Veronica, by K.C. Ball, gets things started in January.

Here’s the blurb:

The novel follows Michael Kovac, a sociologist from Ohio State University, as he travels to rural West Virginia in the summer of 1960 to shoot footage for a documentary during a week-long tent meeting at a Signs Followers church. The Signs Followers are a Christian sect best known for their practice of handling venomous snakes and participating in other potentially deadly practices…

Serialization begins Monday, January 23, 2012, and will run for fifteen weeks. One chapter a day. They call them “bite-sized”. I call them “potty chapters”. ;) But something tells me that the marketing team might frown upon my name for them.  (though I am impressed with the totally unintentional and clever tie-in with the toilet paper thing from above.)

Oh, and the best part?—the subscription is only $5. Plus, you get a copy of the entire ebook at the end. Pretty good deal, if you ask me.

For more on Every Day Novels and Lifting Up Veronica—and to sign-up for your subscription today, go here: http://www.everydaynovels.com

Besides being a (soft) marketing effort for the peeps I work with at EDF, and a shout out for local writer, I am behind this project as a reader as well. In fact, I’d really (reallyreallyreally) like to see Every Day Novels expand its serialized offerings into other genres in the future

To give them your feedback on the project and suggestions for what you’d like to see in the future, go here: http://everydaynovels.com/blog/readers-we-want-your-opinion/

New Story Up at Nanoism

That story I was talking about in my last post? The microfiction story that was my (little) Big Finish to my 2011 Write1Sub1 challenge–well, I SOLD IT!

I titled it Withdrawal (for my own purposes, but Nanoism doesn’t publish titles.

It’s funny because, when I wrote the story, it was longer than 140 characters. That’s what Nanoism, a Twitter-fiction publication, dictates. It had a very specific plot, too. As I condensed it, to fit the requirement of the publication, I took away words, changed words, and added other words. It was a little like working a Rubik’s Cube until everything lined up just…so.

In the end, the story turned out much broader and more open to interpretation. There are only two characters, and one is only talked about. Substitute any combination of people into the two roles and the story takes on a slightly different meaning. My husband I a have already played around with 3 variations tonight. It’s been fun.

I was really happy with it and am very excited to be appearing at Nanoism.

You can find the story here.

Write1Sub1: My Big Finish

It’s December 31, and you know what that means?  I have completed my 2011 Write1Sub1 short story challenge! What an amazingly productive year writing wise.

My big finish was actually a tiny story. It was both my Write1 and my Sub1 for the month, a microfiction story called Withdrawal.

To recap what Write1Sub1 is…not sure I ever really did a good job explaining it before…it’s basically a challenge that you set for yourself where you write a story, and submit a story, once a month or week. But it’s malleable. Some people set the goal of writing and submitting two per  month or week, for example. And if you get ahead one month, you can slack off the following month   Er—that might just be my rule.

Actually, I joke, because I didn’t do that. Even when I got ahead, and wrote an extra story in one month, it just felt wrong counting it as my Write1 for the next month.  I insisted on writing a new one in the following month, too.

However, I had nothing against resubbing a rejected story from one month to the next, and counting it as my new Sub1. *shrug* It appears that I do like bending the rules…just inconsistently.

I also seemed to have no issue taking a fail-to-launch story from 2010 and rewriting it as new in 2011. Especially early on in the year when I didn’t have a lot of new ideas.

Again. Malleable rules.

Unfortunately, I didn’t sell any of my stories from Write1Sub1 this year, despite the increase in production. In fact, I only had two story sales this year period. The first had been subbed in 2010 and the other was a reprint. So, they don’t really count.

But maybe 2012 will be my productive selling year. *crosses fingers*

I want to take a minute to thank all my Write1Sub1 buddies–you guys have been great at keeping me motivated. Just being held accountable to a group kept me going during the months when I wanted to pull out. And I met some of my most favorite betas through Write1Sub1, too.

If it weren’t for Milo, Simon and Stephen who kicked this all off, I wouldn’t be here today. Thank you for all that you’ve done and you continue to do for the writing community. By the way, they are continuing the challenge for 2012, for those of you are interested. They are calling it: Write1Sub1 RELOADED. More details on the Write1Sub1 Blog.

Special thanks to Shelley, Alex and Victoria–you guys rock. Your (sometimes) brutal honesty balanced with encouragement has been priceless. I feel very fortunate to have had you on my team.

And a BIG thanks to the guy who lured me into the whole thing with the promise of sushi. Which, for cyber-sushi, wasn’t half bad. What was even better, though, was his continued support and cheer leading. Not just for me, but for everyone who was participating. He was always there with encouraging words. For all of us.

Oh, and besides the cheer leading? I was also fortunate to score a copy of his new ezine Comets and Criminals from him. If you haven’t read it, check it out. There are some truly beautiful and haunting stories in the first issue. I can only imagine that the second issue will deliver the same or better. Thank you, Samuel, for pulling me into this. It’s been a great year!

Last, but certainly not least, (this is starting to feel like an award ceremony) I want to thank my husband for being the sounding board for all my crazy ideas. And for being my first beta for everything (in other words, the one who is supposed to tell me if what I’ve written should never, EVER be shown to anyone, before I mistakenly flip it to other betas and horribly embarrass myself. ) And also for never, EVER telling me that.

And thanks to my kids for being such good sports all the times I waved them away, telling them to leave me alone while I was writing. I’m gonna be better about that this year. I promise. Well…at least nice.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Powerhouse: My November W1S1 Report

Exhausted.

That’s what I am. Only one more month to go in my Write1Sub1 2011 challenge. I have to say, I am ready for the end.

Don’t get me wrong, the last year as been GREAT in terms of productivity (something I attribute to the W1S1 challenge and all my cheerleaders and betas–you know who you are!). But I’m ready to close out and take a break from writing short stories for awhile.

I still have a few lingering on my hard drive, though. They need revisions before submitting. So, I guess I’m not totally done with them yet. There will be some time in the new year spent polishing and submitting, I suppose.

Anyway, *clears throat* on with my November report. This last month I actually managed to exceed my monthly goals. I subbed three stories in November and I wrote two. Pretty decent. Perhaps my most decent month ever. Now, if I could just sell something… EDIT: I just got an acceptance! Whoo-hoo! And a reprint, too! (not a W1S1 story, though—it was just breaking news, I felt.)

Man, I’m ALL over the place in this post.

So…December? I think it’s going to be flash or microfiction this month. A quickie on my way out the W1S1 short story door.

…before I begin the 2012 Novel Challenge in Jan.

October Country: Write1Sub1 Check-in

Just a quick check-in to say I’m still on track. Barely.

Doing pretty good with the subbing, in fact I subbed 2  this month. (Apex doesn’t know it, but I’m gonna keep submitting to them until they eventually accept me. )

The writing one for the month didn’t go quite as well. This month I decided to follow a prompt from a writer’s group. The theme: horrotica  (horror + erotica). Not my first go at this type of story, I have one horrotica credit to my name actually. But I still consider myself VERY junior in this space.

The story this month?  TRAIN WRECK. I’m not kidding. And it’s nothing to do with the sex scene—that part actually came out okay.  It’s the rest of the story that is so terrible.

Started in the wrong spot.

Poorly plotted.

Rushed and cheesy ending.

Dialogue that’s stiff (HA—no pun intended).

It’s just a mess. And it pains me to spend so much time on something, and be so disappointed with it in the end, you know?

It’s too bad, too, because it was an idea I was really excited about. I’m just not sure what happened between the idea storm that began it all and the shit storm that ended up on the paper.

I think with some TLC after I take a chainsaw to it, it will be better. >:) Which is exactly what I intend to do tomorrow.

Happy Halloween!

The Music that Gets Us

Opening today at Seattle’s Experience Music Project is an exhibit called Can’t Look Away: The Lure of Horror Film. It promises to be a very interesting look at the role horror plays in our human experience.

Fun stuff to do there:

• A scream booth, were you scream on cue as you watch horror footage in a soundproof booth.
• Shadow monsters, where you watch your projected shadow morph into a monster.
• And (appropriately, given the venue) an exploration of music and scoring techniques used to stir up suspense, dread and terror!

Which brings me to what I wanted to talk about today…the music that gets you.

Music in a horror film can scare the viewer as much as the images that it’s set to.  Don’t believe me? Just ask my mom. I regularly tormented her with Tubular Bells (AKA The Exorcist theme) when I was in Jr. High.  >:)

For her, The Exorcist was the scariest film she’d ever seen. I think partly because when it came out, it was visually and thematically(?) ahead of its time.  I just thought the song was cool. For me, the music didn’t hold the same meaning as it did for her.  At that point in time I had never seen the movie, I’d only read the book, which did not scare me, by the way.

So, what’s the song that does it for me? Mrs. Aylwood’s music box in the movie Watcher in the Woods.

If you know me, you know that I can hardly type the words Watcher in the Woods without having a mini-panic attack. I *think* it may have been the first scary movie I ever saw as a kid, and it has stuck with me BIG time.

Anyway, that movie kicked off my obsession with music boxes. I began collecting them sometime around my 12th birthday (that’s a few of them above). I think it was part of that push/pull fascination that we have with the things that frighten us.

I have a very vivid memory of trying clothes on in a thrift store once and hearing, from a cross the store, someone open up a music box that I swore played the very song that frightened me so much. Needless to say I fled the dressing room and the store pretty quickly.

However, after that incident,  I started going to thrift stores myself and opening miscellaneous music boxes—you know, sort of daring myself to do it—to see if I’d ever come across *that* song again. But I didn’t. What I did come across, though, was an assortment of other hauntingly beautiful music box songs.

I’d imagine who the previous owners were (little girls mostly, I figured) speculate on who’d given the music boxes to them,  and wonder why they were now on the shelves of dirty thrift stores and not on their dressers or in their keepsake boxes.

At home, I’d break open the ones I bought to see the inner workings, to watch the cogs turn and the music come out. It can be quite mesmerizing. I’d even experiment with putting them on different surfaces, to change the tone and the volume. Sometimes I’d turn them all on and let them play together—a crazy mish-mesh of tinkling.

So, how about you? Any scary songs/music from a movie that  gets you every time?

Write1Sub1 September Report: Pillar of Fire

Man, I sure felt like I was on fire in September! I got quite a bit done, I think. Including, not one, but two subs out! (I thought it was three, but I just checked my sub tracker and one technically fell in August.) Anyway, I hit up Gloaming with a little second person piece and Leodegraunce with something angry, since that was the theme this round.

Got my rejection from Leodegraunce yesterday. Not surprised, though, I think I was up against a lot of stiff competition for that one.

But, I’m starting to get a little restless. Haven’t sold a story since January, so this month I also spent a good deal of time revising some previous W1S1 stories that I hope to submit in October.

My Write1 for September was a response to a prompt about “horror in the workplace”. Which I equated to a story about Facebook   Don’t ask me how that happened.

I enjoyed writing it >:) and so far feedback has been good. However, it came out a little more like light fantasy. Er…well, “light”, as in, I didn’t get too into the details of the fantasy world. Finding a market for it is going to be a challenge, I think.

But I can’t think of a more fun way to spend my Sunday morning! Off to Duotrope now!

August There Will Come Soft Rains: Write1Sub1 Report (…a little late)

So, I know it’s technically September, but I just realized I never checked in on my August Write1Sub1 progress. I blame vacation.

I had a looong (sorta still on it) vacation, beginning with an empty house for a week, then a week and a half  traveling across the country to essentially soak in a massive hot tub and drink 24/7.  You can see how my sense of time would be askew, right?   I am having such a hard time transitioning back into the real world, it’s ridiculous.  And also, my lust for my own hot tub has gotten completely out of control.

As you can imagine, though, this environment was PERFECT for writing. I was kinda blissed out for about 3 wks.    I also didn’t have regular access to the internet, so no distractions. What came of it?  A new (handwritten) short story about a woman who’d made a very big mistake and has to reveal it to her husband. Only, she can’t remember what it was.

As usual, my sub one was taken care of pretty early on, and is now on the short list for publication, though I’ve yet to hear the final word. I even exceeded my subbing goals and subbed 2 others this month, one of which was my first attempt at selling a reprint. So…we’ll see how that goes.

Alrighty, back to daydreaming of hot tubs. *sigh*

The Feminist Lean

Remember when I posted about the weird things that prompt story ideas, and I asked you all to share yours?

Remember when one of my loyal followers came by and mentioned a story she’d written based on a road she’d seen called Hungry Hollow Road?

Wanna read that story?

Well, you can. You can find A Womb of One’s Own by Diane Dooley in the Summer issue of Golden Visions Magazine.

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Dooley’s work. She writes horror, so obviously we have that in common. But, what I also see occasionally in Dooley’s stories–and particularly this one–is a lean toward feminist horror.

Now, this is a term that I’m not fully prepared to define. So don’t ask me.   Honestly, I’m not sure I can. I’m not sure anyone can. I know I have yet to find a definition that fits, leading me to believe that it’s not so much about the definition, than it is about the discourse.  The conversations surrounding it. Touching it. Even if you never hit it exactly on the nose.

Stay-at-home mom, work-outside-the-home mom? Tramp stamps? A step backward? A step forward? Who knows? I sure don’t.

Virginity, monogamy, menstrual cycles, pro-choice, pro-life, breast size, waist size, body hair….All I know is that I sure like talking about it.

I can say, for me, feminist horror  is anything of a dark nature about the image or role of women in society. Our society. Alien society. Any society, really. It doesn’t matter.

I can cite some examples of author’s: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood.  Or stories: The Yellow Wallpaper,  Rosemary’s Baby, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Astronaut’s Wife, The Changeling, Birth, The Birthing House (that last one there could be equally about masculinity, but I won’t muddy the waters here)…anyway, I could go on and on.

I’d say about 1 in 3 of every story I write could be seen as feminist horror. More than likely you’ll find my main female character is either pregnant or just had a baby. Or wants a baby and can’t have a baby, or is forbidden to have a baby, or is being used to produce babies, or…well, you get the picture.  Because, to me, that is one of the things that defines being a woman. Not the ability or desire to have a baby, I know not every woman has that, but more the fact that we were equipped and designed to do it. And that gap there between what our bodies were made to do, and what we in fact decide to do with them.

Can’t have a baby? Well, there’s all kinds of guilt surrounding that. Whether you feel it or not, someone is bound to try to make you feel bad about it.

Can have a baby? Wonderful! But you know you are never doing it right, right? (see how far my eyes have rolled back when I say that? )

What do you mean you don’t *want* children? Shame on you. You bad, bad WOMAN. (Ha–I bet you thought my eyes couldn’t roll any further back in their sockets! LOL)

Anyway, regardless of whether it should be or not, the subject of childbearing and child rearing is RIPE with the basic elements of horror–fear and anxiety. Failure. In whatever way you define it. And, ultimately, it’s just one facet of the whole feminist horror thing. It just happens to be one of the ones I find the most interesting.