31 Days of Spoooktacular: Reflection

I'm still reeling a bit from the convention yesterday. I'm not a person that really likes big crowds of people and I don't like big crowds of exuberant people. So yesterday was a bit overwhelming. But, as I mentioned briefly in my last blog entry yesterday, there is something invigorating about being surrounded by a bunch of … Continue reading 31 Days of Spoooktacular: Reflection →

31 Days of Spoooktacular: Rock and Shock (The Prequel)

I know I've already talked about this once already, but I cannot stress enough how excited I am about Rock and Shock. Pinhead and Michael Myers and Jason and Candyman are all going to be in the same room together at the same time. And I will do my best not to call them that … Continue reading 31 Days of Spoooktacular: Rock and Shock (The Prequel) →

31 Days of Spoooktacular: The Learning Curve (Part 2)

A few months ago I talked about reading older horror authors in order to see what had come before and learning from it. Just reading modern work is like reading the stuff that came before, but diluted, with six degrees of separation. You'll see a little bit of Matheson and Lovecraft in a Stephen King … Continue reading 31 Days of Spoooktacular: The Learning Curve (Part 2) →

31 Days of Spoooktacular: The Prequel

I hope you enjoyed yesterday's descent into madness. I hope I never have to do that again. But it did give you a little taste of what to expect in the coming days. For the next 31 days, I plan to post more Spoooky Beer Reviews, horror movie reviews, and my occasional over-philosophizing about the … Continue reading 31 Days of Spoooktacular: The Prequel →

Entry X

So! For the second time this year, I've forced myself to write ten entries in a single day. I'd feel bad about making this last entry a cop-out, wrap-up entry, but I don't. So there. In the future, I'd like to avoid this little bit of tom foolery. Shouldn't be too hard. All I have … Continue reading Entry X →

Hallowed Days

In ye days of old, I did something terrific and scary and awesome to celebrate Halloween all month: I would write a short story every single day and post it on my old blog. I called it Thirty-One Days of Horror and the last time I did it, I raised the roof and brought down … Continue reading Hallowed Days →

Learning the History

If there's one thing that I'm particularly weak on, it's my horror history. I don't read a lot of horror to start and I read even less of the older examples of the genre. Sure, I'll pick up some pulps or read more Lovecraft than can fill the forgotten tomb city of R'lyeh, but for … Continue reading Learning the History →

Paring It Down

For most people, editing is about excising. You trim out all of those unnecessary words and details and phrases and commas. You said too much. You described too much. You gave him too much to say. Stephen King even comes up with a basic formula for editing your story that goes as follows: First Draft … Continue reading Paring It Down →

A New Story Is Up: Carolyn

Over a year ago, I wrote a story called For Carolyn and it was published on Tales from the Zombie War. There were a few comments asking for more about both Carolyn and her mother, Alex, and while I normally ignore comments asking for a sequel, I actually had an idea about them and where … Continue reading A New Story Is Up: Carolyn →

An Analysis of Fear

Over the years, I've made Horror my thing. I've watched countless horror movies. I've read countless horror stories. I've viewed the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. I've worked out the formulas for the non-Euclidian shapes of Lovecraftian geometry. I've sampled the wares of multiple cultures; the giallo films of Dario Argento, the existentialist nightmares of French cinema, and … Continue reading An Analysis of Fear →