Tag Archives: extreme horror

In anticipation of screams: Friday Update

12 Friday Jan 2024

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News:

Question Not My Salt is becoming more and more real. It has its own Goodreads home, with an enthusiastic early 5-star review from Horror Reads. I know reviews are for readers rather than writers, but it’s the first written review I’ve had from a stranger under this name, which is exciting.

Among the highlights: “I was not prepared. I read the synopsis, yet, I was NOT prepared! This book is like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Hannibal Lector on an episode of Master Chef. […] It doesn’t take long for weirdness to turn into outright horror though. I won’t be providing details because that’s a ‘pleasure’ you need to read about for yourself.”

QNMS is a short, vicious, relentless, hopefully fun ride. To endure it is to enjoy it. In the Dollhouse was easy to write but emotionally difficult, while QNMS was a blast to write and edit, and it’s received such good feedback so far.

As you probably know, preorders are an important part of determining a book’s success. Extreme horror isn’t for everyone, so if you’ve got squeams, check the Content Warnings, but if you liked Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original or spicy reboots), the Hannibal series, and The Menu, QNMS should be a delight.

Here’s the preorder link. I wrote QNMS in March and edited it in July and then finalized it for Christmas, so although it’s about a Thanksgiving feast, it can be read at any time. Or you can save it for Thanksgiving, if you want.

Works in Progress:

It was a struggle, but I finally got all the short fiction for this month done. I’ll edit them in dribs and drabs as the deadlines approach and between other projects. Don’t get me wrong. I wanted to write them. My brain is just tired and my attention span is shot due to burnout.

But now I’m in editing mode on the novelette Hear You Scream for an upcoming submission call. While I had to deal with some really bad cramps this week, that’s behind me, and I’m getting better at concentrating, at least on something that is Not Writing. Honestly, there aren’t a lot of edits in HYS. It was pretty tightly written from the start. I’ll decide at the end if I even need to give it another pass.

Once this is done, I’ll edit one of the short stories, then work on A Woman Alone edits for another submission call.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Ending in Ashes by Rebecca Jones-Howe

Music I’m Listening To:

Christmas playlist
Halloween playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Legion (late Christmas movie)
Frozen (first watch, finally)
Holidate
The Grinch
Holiday in the Wild
Meg 2: The Trench
Black Swan
Silent Hill
Great British Baking Show: Holiday Edition series (finished)
Hoarders series (finished)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series (watchalong)
Angel series (watchalong)
White Collar series
Transplant series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

a touch
caress
with painted lips

lines led by
the edge of a knife

leave me addicted
to the color
red

Blue Christmas: Friday Update

22 Friday Dec 2023

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News:

My flash fiction “The Green Room,” a rare-for-me historical story about an early haunted house attraction, is posted for $5 and up tiers at Crystal Lake for the Shallow Waters flash fiction contest. I’m going to be honest, the fact I wrote and edited it while overwhelmed in November is evident to me, but I still like it, and I wrote it to explore an idea that I might end up running with in a novella or novel later. The theme for this month was Reflections for the end of the year.

In other news, we’ve finalized the back cover copy for Question Not My Salt:

Come for Thanksgiving Dinner. Stay for the Feast.

Sierra’s first American Thanksgiving promises to be unforgettable when her college roommate, Zoe, invites her to the Samuels family feast. But as the ten-hour banquet unfolds, it becomes clear this is no ordinary holiday gathering.

With everyone bound by a chilling rule—eat and drink exactly as served, and enjoy it, or face dire consequences—the traditional celebration quickly takes a dark and macabre turn. Will Sierra survive the Samuels’ sinister hospitality or become part of a feast far more horrifying than she could have ever imagined?

Question Not My Salt is a gripping tale blending the terror of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the culinary horror of Hannibal and The Menu.

I don’t have a hard date for pre-orders and release, but we’re aiming for February 2024. I’ve also updated my Content Warnings page with the extensive warnings for QNMS. It’s a short novel, but it’s pretty packed. Great fun, though.

Works in Progress:

I finished other name‘s Tattered & Torn (Meridian 6) at 118,394 words. About 8K of those words were cut when I starting rewriting the beginning, but I kept them in the file to continue measuring total word count. It’s an average-sized Meridian novel, but man, this last week was not fun at all. I couldn’t accomplish the 5K/day that I’ve been doing before because my attention span was completely shot. I think I overdid it by working at that pace, plus editing, since mid-October. It’s hard for me to tell myself that this is work when I’m essentially not paid and I generally enjoy myself. I continually have to remind myself that I am, in fact, working and I can, in fact, burn out. I also have a mild sinus infection. However, this puts me much later in the month than I wanted to finish the novel, which creates a dilemma.

Over the next few days through Christmas, I’ll be working on less demanding short fiction. Then I have to start the next Meridian novel and try to be finished by mid-January, which will demand a return to the 5K/day word count. I’ll take New Year’s off, and probably most of Christmas, too. Let’s see if I can make this last push to get this writing sabbatical closed out.

Of course, I’m still writing plenty in the new year, but once I get a job, I’ll have to return to grabbing time as I can find it, and I won’t be doing as much short fiction.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire

Music I’m Listening To:

Christmas playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Godzilla Minus One (so good)
Alien: Covenant
A Castle for Christmas
Where Are You, Christmas?
Christmas Inheritance
A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby
Holiday Baking Championship series
Holiday Wars series
Elf on the Shelf: Sweet Showdown series
Christmas Cookie Challenge series
Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition series
Hoarders series
White Collar series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series
Found series
Transplant series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

Is that thought mine?

Does it belong to me or
arise from the sticky muck
of memory of someone else’s
voice and motivation?

Let those with eyes say aye
Let those with ears hear through
the canal and from within
Do you seek? Do ye find?
Do you have another glass of wine?

Disassociation with a demon
paint by numbers Did I mean
to make this picture was this
on the front of the box?

I swear I didn’t do that
I wouldn’t do that
How can you think I would do that?
What kind of person do you take me for?

And which one?

If the Fates allow: Friday Update

08 Friday Dec 2023

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SONY DSC

News:

I forgot it was Friday there for a bit.

There actually isn’t a lot of news. A handful of rejections. The only thing is that I’m a finalist in Crystal Lake Shallow Waters for this month, themed Reflections for the end of the year. My story “The Green Room” will be popping up later this month—on December 19, if I’m counting right. Y’all know I love reading other people’s flash fiction and that it’s like having a new themed anthology every month for a minimum of $5 a month, and the reading, commenting, and voting is so interactive. Reminds me of Livejournal fanfiction.

In real life news, I had what is probably my last physical therapy session. I still have a little way left to go, but I have my exercises and instructions and, barring reinjury, should be able to manage my own PT. My bank account thanks me. My elliptical machine thanks me, too, since I can start slowly building up my time on it again (in about five-minute increments a week, unless I start experiencing problems). It’s been almost six months to the day that I tore my muscle on the stairs. I know now that I probably have to be mindful of my calves, Achilles tendons, and ankles, that they’re prone to stiffness. But I’m almost back to my normal.

Works in Progress:

I received my edits back from Ken for Question Not My Salt right at the end of NaNo2023, so I was able to take a needed break by editing. It actually wasn’t much, so I still seem to be doing pretty well cleaning things up in my pre-sub edits. Go me! I sent those back three days later, requested blurbs from some people (so hard to ask), and now I wait. I don’t know whether there’s a proofreading round. We’ll see.

Now I’m back to writing Tattered & Torn (Meridian 6) for the other name. Taking that break in the middle of writing it makes it hard to jump back in. My brain is telling me, ‘But it was done, no, it’s done, no more.’ And I’m telling my brain, ‘No, you have about 25-30K more words to write.’ And my brain is telling me, ‘Done! Done! Done!’ It’s a really fun game we play.

Hopefully, by next Friday, I’ll be done and starting the small number of short stories I’m scheduled for before tackling the next Meridian novel to close out the year.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire

Music I’m Listening To:

Christmas playlist

Things I’m Watching:

The Ultimate Gift
A Christmas Prince
Single All the Way
Contagion
Outbreak
The Silencing
Prometheus (stealth Christmas movie)
Primal
Holiday Baking Championship series
Holiday Wars series
Elf on the Shelf: Sweet Showdown series
Christmas Cookie Challenge series
Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition series
Celebrity Jeopardy series
Great British Baking Show series (finished)
Hoarders series
NCIS series
Dancing with the Stars series
The Mentalist series
White Collar series
Murder, She Wrote series

Poem of the Week:

was that my sin, a flaw?
for the thermals to drive
my feathers up in a swell
until i fell in a dive
for a final swan song
about the evils of ambition?
how dare i enjoy the
thrill of flight
instead of succumbing
to fate? how dare i fight?

In the pitch black night: Friday Update

27 Friday Oct 2023

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News:

Finally got the paperback for Puppeteer (Thorns 4) up on Amazon, so I should be able to share my Puppeteer playlist here soon when I get a minute.

My very short story “Sight Unseen” is out now in Novus Monstrum from Dragon’s Roost Press. I’ve written some pretty nasty things in my time, but “Sight Unseen” is what one might call ‘cozy horror.’ The editor’s eleven-year-old niece was a big fan, and I told my parents that this was one they could read. Sometimes I just like to write a nice spooky story. I think a lot of people of my generation who just want to be able to afford a house will really appreciate this one.

“Caregiver” seems to be doing well in advanced reviews for The Book of Queer Saints Volume II, including in this review in Ghouls Magazine. The QS2 ebook is actually available for pre-order now, to be delivered to your Kindle on October 31 for Halloween.

Yesterday, I took part in my first Twitter pitch party, PitDark, which is specifically for horror and horror-adjacent works. I’d witnessed them in the past but hadn’t had a finished project to pitch. It’s not ideal with Twitter as it is now, and due to the fact that it mines tweets for AI use, but I really wanted to give it a shot. Honestly, pitches in general are very similar in structure even when people do them, and I’m not too fussed about AI knowing how to do it, too. It’s the flash poetry I share that’s more of a problem. I don’t know what I’m going to do about that. If I put them in an image, it’s common courtesy to include ALT text, but then the ALT text can be mined… What a minefield.

However, as far as the pitch party goes, I did end up getting some like-requests for both things that I pitched. It’s no guarantee of anything, but it’s still pretty cool to have interest.

In real-life news, I’ve had two physical therapy sessions, and my therapist gave me exercises to do at home to help between sessions. The first session, I had a lot of weakness and resultant pain, but just a week later with the exercises, my strength has improved a lot, and differently than healing without the exercises. I’m out of the boot again and can walk almost normally in shoes. Still struggling barefoot, especially on hard floors, but my legs are definitely in a better state to support the injured muscle, and my gait is a little smoother than it was pre-reinjury. I’ll be back to PT in two weeks, and I have new exercises to do, so we’ll see where we are then.

I also finished another trip around the sun, and I’m closer to forty than I feel I should be. I don’t particularly like birthdays or New Year’s. I’m always so disappointed with where I am. My writing is about all I have to be proud of at any given time. However, regardless of how I feel, I can still enjoy the best doughnuts in the DFW area, have a wonderful birthday dinner and eclair cake, and plan for a pedicure next month (so a broken toenail can heal, no relation to the leg injury).

Works in Progress:

I’m still working on In the Dollhouse We All Wait, hoping to hit 70K tonight. I entered in my last few chapter names, so the end is actually in sight, although I’m still not positive how the last chapter is going to go. I have options, but I’ll probably decide when I get there. I’m still hoping to finish before the end of the month. Before Halloween would be even better, so I can have a short break before hitting NaNoWriMo, when I’m planning to finish two novels, even though I’ll probably have some edits to do in between meeting word counts.

Two novels in November for other name, and maybe two novels in December, for other name and mine? It’ll all depend on the editing demands, really.

However, although I went into it knowing that it would be very extreme horror, I think I’ve decided that ITDWAW is a very ugly story. There’s not even much in the way of humor. I think Question Not My Salt has a little delight to be found, but not Dollhouse. And maybe there’s a place for very ugly stories, but I don’t know how I feel about writing it right now. I want to finish it, no question, especially when I’m so close and the writing is moving smoothly, but I don’t know when I’ll get back to it for edits.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate
This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.

Music I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist
Thorns series playlists
Hannibal playlist

Things I’m Watching:

The Menu
The Exorcist
The Great British Baking Show series
Halloween Wars series
Halloween Baking Championships series
Outrageous Pumpkins series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series
Scream Queens series
Kitchen Nightmares series
Good Bones series
Helix series

Poem of the Week:

Submerge in slime,
surrounded by gross. A
person can get used to
anything. A rhyming verse
stripped of its second,
taboo of the perverse
becoming normal when no
longer forbidden fruit—
cruelty easier than you
might believe of yourself.

Get out while you can: Friday Update

20 Friday Oct 2023

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News:

After the wealth of news last week, there’s not much this one. I received another really nice rejection and a few form rejections. I submitted some more poems, but sub calls are kind of quiet lately.

Brother and my niece are in town, so that’s fun!

Works in Progress:

I’m editing something that was accepted to an anthology with an as-yet-unannounced table of contents, and I continue writing extreme horror novel In the Dollhouse We All Wait. I should hit 40K words tonight. I think it’ll end up around 70-80K words in the end. I slowed down due to vaccinations, a bad period with really bad period cramps, and now with family in town, but I’ll be back to 5K a day starting Monday and should finish the novel by the end of the month. I’m alternating between loving it and hating it, which is pretty typical, and I think once I clean it up in edits in the new year, I’ll like it more.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate
This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.

Music I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Unfriended
Haunt
Oculus
Us
Get Out
Jennifer’s Body
Cello
Wishing Stairs
Halloween Wars series
Halloween Baking Championships series
Outrageous Pumpkins series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series
Scream Queens series
Kitchen Nightmares series
America’s Got Talent series (caught up, WTF with that finale)
Good Bones series

Poem of the Week:

A plague came to the house on Sunday.
It started as fatigue, a slow puddling
faint on the linoleum tile, outstretched
arm reaching for the counter edge or
a phone, but the cat settled next to
the slow, kindling fever drooling from
open mold mouth and dribbling from
mucus-thick nose and eyes and ears.
Wake up from fever dream to fever dream,
condensation on windowpanes from sudden
change in temperature, your hot flashes
their own weather system. Cat left,
too hot and wrinkle-faced against the
smell of you, seeping through pores
and from orifice. Gag, retch, vomit,
shit, a new puddle on the floor.
Burning the wick and melting the fat
from the inside out, fever a fire,
and the day outside sunny and bright.
A plague came to the house on Sunday.

Tasting Salt: Friday Update

13 Friday Oct 2023

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News:

So I have absolutely wonderful news that I’ve been sitting on until we finalized the contract, but my short novel Question Not My Salt is going to be published in 2024 through the new Crystal Lake Entertainment extreme horror imprint Torrid Waters.

Texas Chain Saw Massacre + Hannibal by way of The Menu, this isn’t just girl dinner—it’s family dinner. Come for Thanksgiving. Stay for the Feast.

Now, this is unflinchingly extreme horror, which means blood, guts, sex, gore, and a bucket full of content warnings, so it’s not for the squeamish. I’ll provide more details as we get closer to the release. But this is my first non-self-published novel through this name (erotic romance is a different kind of business, so what’s written under my other name is not comparable). It still feels surreal that I can say that someone else is publishing my book.

My dense submerged horror story “Arms Race,” finalist in the Crystal Lake Shallow Waters flash fiction contest, was posted on Wednesday. The contest is still going with Boat/Ship/Sub horror, and reading and voting is a lot of fun, worth the $5 tier.

There’s a release party for The Book of Queer Saints Vol 2 on October 30, with live readings. (I’m an alternate.) If you’d like a pre-Halloween celebration, this is a great place to listen to some excellent queer horror.

And of course, as shared in the previous post, Puppeteer (Thorns Book 4), is officially out as an e-book (Amazon, all other vendors). Now’s a great time to get into the Thorns series, because book five is off to its editors and will be coming out May next year for a mid-series conclusion.

No luck with the short story collection or a short story that was shortlisted and rejected right on the margin, both which were really disappointing. I’m still not entirely sure whether I should break up the collection and sell piecemeal or hold it together until the new year. I just submitted one of the poems to a call, so I guess I’ll see. (On a side note, the portfolio I sent has some of the best poems I’ve written, and it’s striking how I’ve improved as a poet. It’s going to be deflating when they’re likely rejected, but *shrugs* such is the job.)

In personal news, I selected a physical therapist, so I’m headed to PT next Monday. I’ve never done PT before—new experience. I’m worried about pain, but hopefully they can help me with my gait once I get out of the support boot again, and I’ll have some real guidance on how to take care of myself, even though I’d hoped to heal on my own (much cheaper). The muscle pain in both legs from a few weeks ago has calmed down. I’m still careful, but at least I’m not despairing. I didn’t realize how bad it was until things got better.

My personal goal of finishing unfinished TV shows continues. I knocked Under the Banner of Heaven and season 1 of Interview with the Vampire off my list, and I’ll continue AHS: Cult next.

Works in Progress:

No rest for the wicked. I finished the Meridian Book 4 edits and submitted it to the publishing house (accepted, since it was part of a series and they get first refusal, but they haven’t refused me yet).

I wrote two short pieces and polished them for submissions.

Now I’m working on my next horror novel, which is even more extreme than QNMS, so I’m intimidated by it and prone to procrastination. Still, I’d like to reach 20K words on In the Dollhouse We All Wait by the end of the weekend. Not sure at this point how long it’s going to be. I’m estimating somewhere in the 70K-word region, but it really could go either way.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate
This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.

Music I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist
Haunted Mansion ambience music

Things I’m Watching:

Muppet Haunted Mansion
Rob Zombie’s Halloween
The Haunted Mansion (2003)
Interview with the Vampire series (caught up)
Halloween Wars series
Halloween Baking Championships series
Outrageous Pumpkins series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series
Scream Queens series
Under the Banner of Heaven series (finished)
Kitchen Nightmares series

Poem of the Week:

say you want the healing to begin
but you offer no salve
no salvation
no service administration
you don’t want peace
doesn’t matter if
people are in pieces
as long as it’s
quiet