Adventures in Bat Country

I am writing a story with my wife Lisa titled "Letters to My Wife After the End of the World" and it is fun to coordinate.

I started my Witch of Endor story titled “Nothing Has Changed of the Sorrow in Store” and it has already surprised me. The best stories always do. This is about ghosts, fathers, daughters, and fear.

There is a secret that I've never really seen any other writer talk about. It might even be something that is unique to myself, but that I kind of doubt.

Putting words onto the screen and the page is a lonely solitary pursuit. It takes strong discipline and time. You have to give up playing video games as much as you want. The words and the stories fill up your mind. You can write a story and it might not see print for years, if ever.

The only way not to burn out is to have a community.

I have friends like Bree and Mario that cheer me on with my word count.

I have friends like Clay and Mungo that will go on strange adventures with me like trying to find the thirteen steps to hell in Maltby Cemetery or going to a drag show versus of Mary Poppins.

I have friends like Kerry that read my stuff and talks to me about the characters and cares.

I have friends like Jason Carl that remind me to network.

All of this helps me keep going.

And that’s really a secret. We have to build communities of support. We have to support each other and remember to be people as well as writers.

Thank you to all my friends that have helped pull me along.

I love writing short stories.

I'm working on a creepy future horror story at the same time as a very sad ghost story.

I liked being able to jump back and fourth.

Ghost stories have been underated of late I think.

My short story "Lucky Stiff: Or How I Learned to Love After the Apocalypse" shall appear in the anthology Zombie Erotica from Living Dead Press.

This is my second short story with this name, but as you can imagine both stories are set in a similar future.

I seem to be on a roll.

I woke up this morning to discover in my in-box that my short story "Moonlight in Scarlet" had sold to Aoife magazine from Samdot publishing.

Weird. I think I wrote that story almost a year ago.

I recieved a request for the complete copy of Dreams in the Dragon's House. I had almost forgotten that novel was out in the ether. It reminded me how much hope I had for that novel.

I also recieved two thank you letters for Dylan and the Dream Pirates. One of them asked serious questions that took me a couple of minutes to answer properly.

Inside of my office in the Evil Empire, I felt like I had made it today.

In other news, the revisions from the "Sky God's Daughter" has been completed and returned.

Now, I just need to tackle that damnable story that is very hard to complete somehow titled "The Fisherman's Wife" and I only have two months to complete it.

"Spirits Are Ruthless With the Paths They Choose" will be published in Literary Foray by Static Movement

"Valedictorian Speech, 2055" will be published in School Days: Tales with an Edge by Static Movement

This week has been pretty good for me in terms of sales.

"The Quality of Mercy" has finally been sold to the anthology Monster Party from Living Dead Press.

"The New Gods of the Lost Children" has been sold to the Mystic Signals and The Lorelei Signal. One is the on-line version and the other is the year anthology for the magazine. This is the special extended novelette version of this story. I've very pleased this is going to see print.

"In the Shadow of the Emerald City" has been sold to The Ethereal Gazette.

More information to come as it is released.

Last night I submitted "Geeks Gone Amok" for the Scalzi/Wheaton fanfiction contest.

At ten cents a word, I felt obligated to give it a go. The contest vexed me greatly, but I think I managed to get a few laughs. insatia didn't get the Scalzi jokes, which is OK. Fanfiction is for fans. http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/05/30/fanfic-contest/

I also finished off "Recovery" last night. This story took me two years to write. I think it taps out at 2,400 words. I was inspired by this story: http://www.impactlab.com/2007/12/01/indonesian-tree-man-has-bark-like-growths/

insatia poked me again and reminded me that it is time for me to start my next novel.

I wrote Abigail's Dragon / Dreams in the Dragon's House from 2006 to 2007.

I wrote Dylan and the Dream Pirates from 2008 to 2009.

It is time for a new story. The problem is that I have something like eight different and interesting (to me at least) concepts and ideas. I've spent a month going back and forth trying to figure out which one to tackle next.

Last night, I remember the writing exercise I used for the Short Story group. I'm going to take a week and write as many first paragraphs for a book that I can for each of the various ideas that I have in my brain and the one that excites me the most shall be the one. And with any luck, I'll write this one much faster.

This is a story that has been gestiating for a long time.

I based a little of the story based on a friend that has had a hard road, but always managed to get back up again.

This story is an experiment for me since it involves second person POV and the main character suffers from synesthesia.

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