THE HOUSE OF STERNBERG

Be My Yenta

2012-03-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

Writers hear it all the time: "You have to market yourself."

It's a mantra.

"You won't find a publisher unless you have a digital presence and unless you've proven that you can tap into a network."

So, here's my question, and one I pose seriously, "What's the best way to market yourself?" Me? I think it's forging relationships and moving through social networking building bonds with a community, not just for self-promotion, but because you enjoy being part of that community. Others obviously take a different view. They tend to speak up only occasionally, and usually when they have something to promote.

"BUY MY BOOK!"

And this is not just a message delivered once, but many times across several platforms. There's one horror writer I won't mention who is a human sandwich board moving through Facebook.

I'm asking. What is your idea of promotion? What should a writer do to market himself intelligently and efficiently? I want free advice here. Be my yenta (Note..for my non-Jewish friends..yenta is a matchmaker, but also a meddler, gossip, and advice giver).

If It Looks Like A Penguin

2012-02-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

I had sworn off conventions. A year, I said to myself. Maybe two. So much for such proclamations. Penguicon, here I come.

I complain a good deal about genre conventions. I whine. I shuffle my feet. I pout. I pout a lot. Ultimately, I go and in spite of myself, I have a good time. The reality is these conventions are a great chance to get to see old friends, to meet new folk, and to talk about things which usually end up being marked as "strange" in normal company. Where else but a convention could you listen to an earnest discussion about the correct depiction of magic in fiction? Or hear fellows on a panel almost come to blows over whether or not steampunk is an actual genre or subgenre or esthetic?

So, here's to my friends, The Curmudgeon will be there. And if you attend any panel I'm scheduled on, I promise to be just as cantankerous as always. And also, if things go well, my collaborator Christine Purcell and I will be doing a reading from our upcoming novel The Breach.

Drifting Into Digitization

2012-02-19T14:40:00.000-08:00

You may have missed this, but Sideline Music Magazine has announced that by the end of this year most major labels will have abandoned the Compact Disc. Not that this should be a surprise to anyone who has tried looking for a recent release at one of their local outlets. From now on, if you want to buy music, you're going to have to either stream it or download it.

This is also the future of the film industry. And certainly books. Of course, there are those who will go into this future raging against the dying of the light. Johnathan Franzen, for instance, who responded in an interview with The Guardian, "Maybe nobody will care about printed books 50 years from now, but I do. When I read a book, I'm handling a specific object in a specific time and place. The fact that when I take the book off the shelf it still says the same thing – that's reassuring."

Perhaps the most persuasive argument against the digitization of our world is offered by a friend of mine, Jon Zech, author of Buck and Tangee: Things That Happen (a book to be released later this year).

"Some day anthropologists will look at our leavings and wonder what happened. Why did our civilization suddenly stop producing anything artistic after the first decade or so of the twenty first century? One can't conduct carbon testing on bits and bytes. We're all really just one giant electromagnetic pulse away from a new Dark Ages, aren't we?"

Lovestruck

2012-02-18T10:57:00.000-08:00

I'm a sentimentalist. Truly. I know, I know...it seems like I'm always writing about things popping out of the darkness and making away with innocents. However, I have my soft side. I wrote the following bit of flash fiction many years back. I thought I would share it with you, although I wish I had remembered in time for Valentines Day. Here it is, in podcast form.http://www.stewartsternberg.com/podcasts.html

What's Not To Hate?

2012-02-16T06:40:00.000-08:00

Writers love to write about writing. I think it's a defense against the Sisyphus Syndrome, the feeling that you are forever rolling a giant rock uphill and accomplishing nothing. And we love the romantic image of the author and do our best to present that image where possible. But let's stop for a minute and celebrate things we hate about writing. Really hate.

1) Hours of Lonely Toil
Yep. That's romantic. Sitting at the computer, trying not to get sucked into the distractions of all the cool stuff online, and realizing that while I am struggling to make something happen, the world is having "the-best-time-ever!!!" just outside my window.
2) Rejection and Critique
Who doesn't love getting rejection letters? And if the impersonal rejection isn't enough for you, how about those critique sessions in a writers' group. What? Some of you are in groups where people pat you on the back and tell you how extraordinary you are? I've heard those exist, but...
3) Money!
Yeah, I know. We all wanna be Stephen King. I wrote a short story and sold it for fifty bucks. That may not seem like a lot, but hey. So, if I spent twelve total hours on the story writing and re-writing, then I made 4.16 cents an hour. That's below minimum wage. And if I average into that amount all the other stories I've worked on and never sold, then I figure I end up owing about ten thousand dollars to Barnes and Noble, just for the privilege of dreaming of being on a shelf somewhere.
4) The Disposable World
Alas, memories are short. If you published once, you better publish again. And just because they loved you Monday, it doesn't mean they'll love you Tuesday. The marketplace changes. You better keep your ear to the ground and listen for the sound of advancing change. If your book is on a shelf somewhere, and if you were published by a small press, then the chances of that book lasting on that shelf more than a month or two before the book store sends it back to the publisher is slim. Hey! What have you done for me lately!
5)The Illusion of Fame
So, you're published, and maybe you get a handful of reviews that are favorable. Maybe on Amazon, or Goodreads. Maybe someone will say something nice about you on a blog. In the end, it's you and the keyboard. You're not a baseball player hearing the crowd roar over a home run. You're not a rock star with groupies beating the crap out of one another to touch your sweaty brow. You're not a crazy politician with a fanatical following who scream your name as a form of argument. You're---you. Just you. And even if you realize some of your major goals, you'll pretty much just be lucky to occasionally be invited to a few things and have some fans say a few nice things about you.

Presto--The Writer As Magician

2012-02-14T06:27:00.000-08:00

I've seen people struggle when sitting in audience as a magician performs works of wonder. They feel perhaps that something is being put over on them, that they are the butt of a joke. Others feel that magic is for children, and that illusion is below them. Me? I sit in awe and delight.

Writing is like that, isn't it? A good read asks the reader to suspend disbelief. We then watch things unfold and coincidences or behaviors which would never fly in real life are accepted as a necessary device to let the characters develop and the plot unfold. And the more we are drawn in and the more we care about the characters, the more defined our suspension of disbelief.

The best writing is like the best magic trick. It begins simply and is inviting. Misdirection serves to keep the eye away from the craft behind the scenes. The reader absorbs symbolism, subtext, and metaphor almost at the subliminal level. Perhaps some writers demand more of a reader. Perhaps their plots twist, their characters are more complex and contradictory, and the prose requires patience and reader involvement.

In the end the goal is the same--- to touch the reader. To have the reader revel in the reveal.

Upcoming Anthology

2012-02-05T08:54:00.000-08:00

Why publish a for the love ebook anthology? First, it's a chance to expand a bit and see how it feels. Second, as a cancer survivor, I like the idea of doing something for charity. I would have raised money for prevention of sexual and physical abuse (maybe next time), but the subject and the name of the anthology just didn't seem right -- Weird Arousals.

I also liked the idea of not doing a traditional genre collection. The other editor is Joe Ponepinto, who works for the L.A. Review, and is primarily a literary author. Strangely, our sensibilities and literary philosophies blend. This promises to be a fascinating eclectic mix of fiction!

The call for submission --

For The Love...

Weird Arousals is an ebook anthology of short fiction that deals with sexuality and the human condition in all its strange, mystifying and sometimes evil incarnations. We are seeking submissions of short stories between 2,000 and 7,000 words, in the following genres: horror, fantasy, slipstream, steampunk, paranormal or any other recognized speculative fiction category. Stories should be strong on character as well as plot. No straight romance. No slasher stories, no porn, no excessive gore.

Deadline for submissions is April 30, 2012 or until filled. Publish date is anticipated to be September 2012. Simultaneous submissions will be accepted as long as you tell us up front (and immediately withdraw the story if you sell it). All proceeds from the sale of this "for-the-love" ebook anthology will go to cancer research. Send inquiries to Stewart Sternberg at silvagol@yahoo.com

Heard From the Other Room

2011-12-18T07:34:00.000-08:00

I swear I heard this dialog between my large terrier mix, Leo, and my cockapoo, Bernie..in reference to Old Matilda.

Bernie: The cat was stalking you, for God's sake!
Matilda: Look at the puppy.
Bernie: She's a frickin' cat.
Leo: She's just a kitten, let her play.

MATILDA

Bernie: It's against nature. You let that thing start stalking us and she'll be on us in our sleep, ripping our throats and tearing the flesh from our bones. I say we start a pack hunt.
Leo: I'm not pack hunting a kitten. Go smell the kitchen floor. It will relax you.
Bernie: You smell the freakin' kitchen floor. I'm going after the freakin' cat!
Matilda: Look at the puppy.

LEO

Bernie: For God's sake, it's a cat! What the hell. Someone call the doggie metalodge.

BERNIE

Is There A Cultural Bias in Ghost Hunting?

2011-10-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

I went to Conclave yesterday and attended a panel on ghost-hunting. Listening to the two panelists, something occurred to me. I was struck by how most of the examples of hauntings occurred in settings which were not in areas with heavy Latino or African-American populations. Also, I was struck by how many of the identified "hauntings" occured in either wealthy or rural areas, or sites with ancient histories---old museums, old libraries, old mansions,etc.

What about some house in a depressed area in Chicago? What about a trailer park somewhere in Austin? What about an apartment in a low income housing complex in St. Louis?

It gave me pause.

Having lived most of my life in Detroit, and having done research on the metaphysical within the city, I know people who have either claimed hauntings, or beliefs in things which can be considered paranormal. Some white, some people of color, some poor, some well-to-do.

So, why, I ask, is ghost-hunting so "white bread?" At least that's my perception. I don't think I've ever seen the crew from the "Ghost Hunters" heading into a house in a depressed neighborhood. Sure, they've gone to a building in a rough area, but they were usually there to go to an old theater or factory owned by someone outside the community.

I posed these observations to the panelists. One responded that most ghost hunting shows were appealing to a certain demographic, and were therefore focusing on their pre-conceptions of what a haunting should look like. Or, it was offered, perhaps different cultures are less likely to be receptive to outsiders.

Maybe. But I think the door is left wide open for other conclusions.

All Writers Are Mentalists

2011-09-02T07:28:00.000-07:00

When I was much younger, I was fascinated by cold-readings. I didn't want to be Watson, I wanted to be Sherlock Holmes. The idea of being able to study someone and make deductions from dress, mannerisms, speech, etc...was irresistible. In fact, I became quite good at it. And then I saw how it could be taken a step further; using that information to actually influence someone else. Suggestion is a powerful thing.

I suppose writers do this to a degree. We study people, try to imprint their behavior and language in our mind, and then make deductions about their motivations or inner turmoil. And we transfer this to paper, inviting the reader to follow our thought process, inviting them to arrive at the same conclusions which we did, and sometimes we invite them to form their own from the evidence we present. And like the onstage mentalist, we try our hand at suggestion, re-directing the reader with description, or pacing, or minor characters, as we are manipulating their emotions and laying subliminal clues through foreshadowing so that when something is revealed there is a satisfactory emotional impact.

All writers--all good ones--are mentalists.

Coming October...

2011-08-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

I grew up with The Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond, and The Outer Limits. These anthology shows gave us classic stories from the likes of Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, and Harlan Ellison. The writing was often crisp and the stories bits of carefully crafted heaven. The episodes didn't always work, and not all anthologies gave us memorable stories. I think Tales of the Crypt was uneven, and Hammer's House of Horror was too often derivative.

Still, I love horror and science fiction anthologies and look forward to FX's upcoming series American Horror Story. I say this even though it is created by the people who gave us Glee, and even though early word of it is that the show goes for shocks over tone and content. So enjoy the trailers, which are well done, and let me know what you think. Maybe Rod Serling is no longer with us, but perhaps this new series can evolve into something worthy of his memory.

Trailers From Hell

2011-07-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

If you like the filmgoing experience, then odds are you like trailers for motion pictures. There's nothing like the little excitement you get at seeing a peek of some eagerly awaited motion picture. However, watching teasers and trailers, it's easy to forget that they are in some way an art form at once exquisite and kitschy, and for some of us a spark igniting tremendous memories.

Joe Dante has used his fondness for these bits of Americana to launch a website where he and his friends have gathered together a marvelous collection of trailers. Dante is the director of such films as Gremlins, The `Burbs, and The Howling. His fondness for the trailer obviously comes from his stint as a trailer editor for Roger Corman, a film maker known for working on the cheap and is famous for his Poe inspired films often starring the late Vincent Price.

His website Trailer From Hell is a treasure trove of trailers, and it is made special by the additional commentary provided by Dante's "gurus,"directors and producers who also have tremendous fondness for this snippets of goodness. Among the gurus, you can find Eli Roth, John Landis, and Guillermo del Toro. Do yourself a favor and check out this site. It is a treat. If you are especially a fan of horror or science fiction, especially from the sixties and seventies, then it's a positive gold mine.

From The Little Beastiary

2011-07-21T07:12:00.000-07:00

Lovecraft saw amazing things, and I'm thinking they were real. Except---maybe they were also very, very small. Small as in 1/2 milimeter in size. This picture is of something called a hydrothermal worm. It's something to think about when the bedbugs stop being creepy enough for you.

This is from the folks at Red Orbit, who published this picture taken with a FEI Quanta SEM electron microscope and the photo is credited FEI/Philippe Crassous

Night Vision- new fiction by Stewart Sternberg

2011-07-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

July 4th is the official launch date of Rick Moore's online publication White Cat Magazine. This pro-pay site is an attempt to draw in excellent writing and discerning readers by offering literature of a broad array of genre. Mr. Moore has been blogging for several years, and this new venture is a logical move for him to express himself and extend his influence further into the writing community. We here at House-of-Sternberg wish him great success, although considering his entrepreneurial spirit, he should do just fine.

Oh, and if you need more motivation to check him out, his launch includes a work of dark fiction from your's truly. Night Vision. I hope you find it disturbing.

Benjamin, do you want me to seduce you?

2011-06-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

I am currently wrapping up reading Charles Webb's The Graduate, published in 1963. It was a free Kindle read---so I figured, what they heck? But reading it, I was struck by how closely the film followed the book. I mean almost line by line and quote by quote. It's impossible to read the line: "Benjamin, is that what you want? Do you want me to seduce you?" without hearing Anne Bancroft's growly cougar voice.

Of course, Webb's writing is so sparse, it could have served as a script. So sparse that one wondered how it got published---this is Heminway sparse, with little to no description. And perhaps its sparsity is part of its brilliance. The novel's humor isn't slowed in any way...instead there is satiric setup and delivery with the commentary coming in the white spaces.

Webb is an interesting individual, and an author who never really capitalized on a chance to make it big in the literary world. While most people have read seen the film, relatively few who enjoyed that experience read the supposedly semi-autobiographical novel. Not that The Graduate wasn't a best seller in 1963, but it could have opened so many doors to the eccentric Mr. Webb, who has written several other novels.

In 2006, Mr.Webb wrote the sequel to The Graduate. The book, which many approached skeptically, detailed life for Benjamin and Elaine Braddock some twenty years after the end of the first novel. According to the description for Homeschool, the story once again involves Mrs. Robinson, who moves in with the couple in their upstate New York abode after the death of Mr. Robinson. She digs in and the couple contrive to drive her out by bringing in a counter-culture family of homeschoolers. Admittedly the premise sounds weak; it probably wouldn't have passed as a pilot on Fox, but many who have read the book have given it mild acceptance.

Once More Unto The Breach

2011-06-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

A few people have asked whether The Ravening will see a sequel, and what else I might be working on. Well, I have a short story or two which should see publication, but I will hold off talking about those, except to say that they are in the Lovecraftian arena; however, yes, there will be a sequel to The Ravening. The working title is Zagreus Rising, Book Two of The Ravening.

Besides Zagreus Rising, which I promise takes the story in unexpected directions, I'm wrapping up The Breach with Christine Purcell.

The Breach is steampunk. For those of you who might not follow this subgenre of fantasy and science fiction, I'll just say it takes place in early Victorian England. And while I'm not spilling much about the plot at this time, anything with airships fashioned after designs by Leonardo DaVinci, and featuring the lost tomb of Alexander The Great and the manipulation of realities, can't be all bad! Hopefully, this is the first of the adventures of the irresponsible if not charming Peter Styles, and the brilliant and courageous Ember Quatermain.

What is Story?

2011-06-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

One writer said: "Story is about character development, it's about the connection between the reader and the protagonist." Another author said, "It's about what happens." Yet another said, "it's the connection between author and reader."

And all are right.

I recently wrote about story when putting together an introductory unit for a class I am constructing with Joe Ponepinto on creative writing. As I started constructing the introductory material, I stopped and considered what a nebulous term it was.

Everyone story , intuitively, but when it comes to defining the term the responses are often amazingly varied. And yet within the different answers is the heart of the definition.

To put it simply, "story is the aggregate of plot, character development, theme, and setting." Rather a sterile description. However, it helps us understand the phrase "that was a bad story." For usually when the statement is elaborated upon, we hear that the reason the story was bad was because the author failed in developing character or the plot was poorly constructed. Or perhaps the parts simply failed to gel as a whole.

And yet, the idea of story in terms of elements of writing still doesn't do the concept justice. Rather, one needs to go back to the most elemental basis of story, the idea of the communication of culture and knowledge between generations and the critical fulfillment of a need for the writer to connect and to share with an audience on an primitive level. This is the essence of story. It is the force that captured the hunter who held sway around a campfire before there was written word. It is the force that guided the hand of the artist who painted his emotions and ideas on the wall of a cave.

Story is our shared identity, and without it, we are lost.

Review: AREA 51

2011-06-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

Summer's here.
Need something interesting to read? I did..and so I picked up a copy of Annie Jacobsen's Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base. This fascinating book gives us a new look at one of the favorite subjects of conspiracy theorists. Furthermore, it's a peek back at the Cold War mentality that so gripped this country during the forties, fifties, and sixties- a time when the American psyche was balanced between hope and desperation, between innocence and snarky awareness. This era, often distorted through romanticization (is that even a word?) and a need to reshape history for various reasons related to ideology and political correctness, is a complex and compelling time to study. And while Ms. Jacobsen doesn't set out to examine culture, her book nonetheless gives insights to that time and adds another piece to the puzzle.

So what's in Area 51? Annie Jacobsen's researched the topic, pouring through declassified material and interviewing employees who were once sworn to secrecy.. Her writing is convincing and ultimately the secrets revealed are what you would expect them to be. Area 51 was a site used for developing new weapons systems. Here scientists and the military worked on all manner of stealth technology and delivery systems.

The book is a quick read, and compelling. And of course, Jacobsen throws a few curves through the narrative, such as when she dishes speculation about what was recovered at Roswell. I won't spill the beans on that one, but if you want more check out the videos below (all from news.cnet.com), specifically the third video.

A Musical Interlude

2011-06-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

I posted this some five years ago and stumbled upon it again while browsing through the archives. This is a priceless bit of musical video...enjoy

Forgetting To Remember

2011-06-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

Is it my age that makes me worry about memory loss, or cell phone radiation? That being said, after recently procuring a copy of Moonwalking With Einstein, a pretty interesting tale of an author who covered a memory competition and ended up training for one himself, I decided to do something about my own difficulties with memories, namely my inability to remember numbers.

I'm in awe of people able to hear a phone number and tuck it away for immediate recall. Me? I have six seconds to write it down or my eyeballs bleed. I might decide to use one of the methods in the book, but more immediately, I will probably embark on an experiment with what is called the "Consonant System Mnemonic." It's also called The Major Memory System.

Essentially, you assign sounds to numbers and then make up words to recall them, and with large numbers the words can become a sentence or a larger picture. If you're interested, there's a great explanation of how to achieve this on the website litemind.com .

I will be experimenting with this system and report back on my progress if I can remember to do so.

Writing Darkly

2011-06-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

Must...survive...two more weeks...till end of school....

Okay, with that out of my system, I must say it's been a long year. God bless summer, and god bless the hours ahead devoted to writing.

And may I indulge in a bit of self promotion? Of course I may.

I've been experimenting with a blogging system called SCOOP IT. It's been fun,and it makes blogging easy. You steal from other people. Okay, you don't steal, but instead you promote other people's writing in your own format.

Anyway, I would love for you to check on my site: WRITING DARKLY, and let me know what you think. Check in regularly, and I'll see what I can do to keep things interesting on there. Also, I feel free to check in on my twitter account some time.

THE BREACH ....is opening

2011-05-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

Lesson One..Write Simply

2011-05-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

Writing Is A Labyrinth---
This picture from Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth"

When reading authors who effortlessly glide through prose, painting amazing pictures with words, some new writers attempt to emulate them without understanding how the beloved author is executing his craft. As a result, the writing comes out convoluted, with pretty words slapped down for the sake of prettiness as opposed to function.

I embrace the enthusiasm of these new writers, but sometimes learning to fly should occur only after one has managed to walk a straight line. Before leaping into bursts of metaphor and executing impressive literary gymnastics, I urge new writers to take a deep breath and consider the basics. And nothing is more basic than clarity.

If you are going to tell the story of someone walking down the street, then tell the story simply. Begin by making sure the reader sees it. Don't attempt to laden it with atmosphere and tension. Not yet. Just show us the man walking. Once you've mastered the ability to write clearly, the rest will follow.

"He walked down the street, his hands in his pockets. Occasionally, he looked over his shoulder. At the end of the street he stopped. He stood there for a long time. Wrapped in a heavy coat, he ignored the cold and the threat of rain."

See? Basic. Clear. Simple. If we want to go back and add some atmosphere, we can do so.

"He walked down the street, hands thrust in his pockets. Occasionally, he checked over his shoulder, pale eyes worriedly scanning the neighborhood. At the end of the street he stopped and stood for a long time. Wrapped in a heavy coat, he waited, ignoring the cold and the menacing clouds moving in above. The weather was the least of his concerns."

The second paragraph isn't that much different, but it increases tension and gives you more character description. The tweaks made do not impede clarity. Quite frankly, some of the changes in the second paragraph water down the tension from the first.

And if I started a story with this paragraph, but had no idea what I wanted to write about, I might now stop and ask "who is this guy?" "what is he worried about?" "Where is he?" etc. If nothing else, it's a good writing exercise.

Ambition is a fine thing for a writer, but over-reach can kill a work and add to frustration. Who needs that? Instead, read some folk who knew how to write clearly and simply, but who knew how to do so with power. Hemingway comes to mind. Robert B. Parker is another (no, Parker wasn't a great writer, but he knew how to efficiently move a story forward---the man was the epitome of economy). Maybe clarity alone won't sell a manuscript, but without clarity, I promise rejection.

Writing Like Stanislavski

2011-04-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

There are certain truisms that serve as inspiration for me. Here is one: "Stories are about people."

That should be written backwards on the forehead of everyone who writes so that they see it whenever they look in the mirror. We can love plot, we can focus on theme and genre, we can talk about word use and grammar, but unless we write about people and give the reader someone with whom to identify, we are not writing our best. How can there be catharsis, that satisfying purging of emotion that Aristotle wrote about, unless we first care about the protagonist?

But the issue of how to develop character is far more complex than agreeing on the importance of character development. Anybody who has taken any literature class has heard the teacher's mantra: "Character is developed through what the character says and how they act, and how other people respond to them." But oh, how difficult to incorporate this development seamlessly into a narrative!

In the last few weeks I've been reading up on Stanislavski, the person who gave "method acting" to theater. Stanislavski believed actors preparing for a role should give careful consideration of a character's psychological motives and that they should have personal link with the character. They should, if possible, become the character. But what about writers? If a character springs from a writer's mind, then shouldn't he already have that link? Already have a grasp of the character's psychological motives?

Maybe, but then again maybe not. In my opinion, many authors approach characters by sweeping a paint brush across a canvas. They have some ideas, and they believe the character will define himself as the tale progresses.

"I want to discover the character as I write," someone told me once. "I can always go back and edit out inconsistencies." Hearing this made me worry that the character might become merely a projection of the writer at that point in time, and not have a life of his own (admittedly an illusion since a writer creates the character). If a protagonist is clearly set down ahead of time, then character becomes the centerpiece of the writing.

Like Stanislavski, I want my characters to be real for me. I find a picture of someone who I believe represents my character, and then from there I proceed to write a biography. It can be long or short, it can provide excessive backstory which will never make into the writing process, or a brief sketch---but it gives me a framework for understanding who I am dealing with. It establishes a foundation.

Peter Styles and Ember Quatermain (yes, the daughter of the great explorer), protagonists for THE BREACH, a steampunk novel which Christine Purcell and I are at this point shopping around, were created in just this manner. In fact, since THE BREACH is a collaboration, it was even more important that they become solid characters for the authors. Since two minds bring two different perspectives, having a pre-established profile kept us consistent and on the right path.

I know there are many people who don't want to write this way. They believe a work should be organic, that it should evolve through a natural process. They want to discover who they are writing about. And that's fine. There is no one way to write. However, discoveries often take you down false trails and you have to backtrack and rediscover the one that feels right. The reader often doesn't have the patience to follow you down those false trails if you forget to go back and edit them out, or worse, leave them in because they are interesting for you and satisfy your vanity. A false step for a character can pull a reader out of a story and thus destroy the suspension of disbelief necessary to build the connection between writer and audience.

Creative Writing or Literature Classes?

2011-04-06T06:36:00.000-07:00

I was chatting last night with someone about classes in creative writing. I've taken a few, but didn't gain as much from them as I gained from taking literature classes. Listening to other bad writers as an interested but distracted teacher tried driving home elements of plot, character development, and POV, using neat catch phrases like "show-don't-tell" and "Stewart, what the hell?" made it difficult for me to appreciate the venue. If you get my drift?

Literature, on the other hand, was mellow. Studying proven authors, seeing how they utilized theme and motif, and how they developed character arc along with plot helped me understand how elements of writing fit together. It was far easier to understand the concept of voice in a literature class than it was to find my voice in a creative writing class. Perhaps it helped that literature classes didn't pressure the student to submit his own work, a potentially ego threatening proposition.

So, am I suggesting literature classes are the path for the would-be writer? No.

Approaching one's development as a writer isn't an all or nothing proposition. It is a process. And perhaps what I came to understand about a structured approach to learning writing is that one needs a balance. The literature classes are valuable, as are the creative writing classes, and when they are combined intelligently they are the best hope a student has of developing skills through an appreciation of what he saw in the works of others.

When reading advice from famous authors, one will always hear two strong themes. First, write---only by practicing one's art can one improve it (of course, by practicing, we mean with a self-critical eye). And second, read. Read and study other authors, not with an eye for imitation, but for understanding how that person executed his craft.

Is It Penguicon Time Again? Where's The Tron Guy???

2011-04-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe I won't be on a panel about zombies at the upcoming Penguicon, and yet it is so. That doesn't mean I won't be in the audience taunting the panelists. Of course, I shall have to hide from editor Chuck Zaglanis, who insists that I behave myself. And while Chuck may be able to stalk me, he won't be able to keep me away from fellow troublemakers Daniel Hogan and Christian Klaver. No, he won't. And my collaborator Christine Purcell, with whom I am working on The Breach, the first of the steampunk series, The Dark Reality Chronicles, will be bad. Very, very, very bad (notice the bold faced 'very'?). And furthermore, there's Rick Moore. Enough Said.

If you're interested in participating in my bad behavior, then join me at one of the various panels I'll be on: Social Networking for Promotion, Writers' Groups (somewhere my own group just did a collective gasp), and Is It Steampunk Yet? (the answer to this question is, of course, yes it is.)

And if we're really lucky, the TRON GUY will be there.

Harold And Maude---an old friend

2011-04-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

Do you ever wonder why a particular film touches you? The film may not even be very good, and it may only be one scene, but it reaches you at a deep level, provoking all manner of emotional and intellectual response. And what happens when you try and share the experience with someone else? Yes, they often patiently slip side-glances at you, trying to smile encouragingly at your enthusiasm. And even worse, what happens when you watch that film a second time and feel nothing???

The litmus test, of course, is being able to watch a motion picture over and over again, finding new levels of appreciation. Sure, the original blast lessens with time and exposure, but the film becomes an old friend, someone with whom you enjoy sharing time together, and whom offers you new things to discover. Casablanca is one of my closest friends, so is Harvey, starring Jimmy Stewart. And who can forget The Big Lebowsky? I wonder what these titles reveal about me?

And then, there's Harold and Maude. Some of you born after 1970 are saying, "Never heard of it." Don't feel bad. It was a flop at the theaters, although the American Film Institute has it listed as one of its one hundred funniest films. I suppose a motion picture about a twenty year old who keeps playing at killing himself striking a romantic relationship with a seventy-nine-year old woman isn't exactly the sort of topic matter which immediately strikes folk as a typical date flick.

I'm not sure why I identify with the story so strongly. Perhaps it's the theme--- it's about outsiders finding one another and learning to appreciate life in what has become for each, a lonely and sterile existence. They're odd ducks, funny and snarky, and the film is blackest comedy. That being said, it is also filled with comforting optimism and it reminds me of the importance of living in the present and trying to appreciate the people around you.

Looking At Theme (part two)

2011-04-02T06:22:00.000-07:00

An imaginary conversation to further develop the earlier post. Before reading this, you might want to check out Looking At Theme

   The first author shook his head.
   "Maybe theme is something to consider if you're writing 'literary' work, but I write genre."
   I mulled over the statement and responded, "Why should genre writing be exempt from development of theme as a major component of the writing?"
   "Because people don't necessarily want to be bogged down thinking about what something is about," someone countered. "Because people want a story. They want something to happen. If you have interesting characters, and people care about them, and they are doing something, then who cares about theme. As long as the action is kept going, people are happy."
   "All stories have theme, even if the theme is buried. Even if it is unintentional," I said. "I'm just suggesting the work is stronger when the author is working with theme in mind."
   "All stories have theme? What about Twilight?" someone asked with a snarky tone.
   "The theme is about the difficulty of the outsider. Bela is an outsider, the vampires are outsider within the greater society, both because of their behavior and their innate status. There are subthemes there as well, such as man's separation from nature, the intolerance of people for those different from themselves..."
   Someone laughed.
   "Maybe the weakness of Twilight as a narrative, and its lack of durability as literature, is because the themes I just mentioned aren't planned and don't work together as a whole. It's a mire of themes, but they're there, and they obviously speak to the reader, considering the sales."
   "What about movies? What about Iron Man II?"
   "It's about how members of one generation sometimes pay for the sins of their fathers, it's about the dangers of excess and the danger of power without responsibility."
   "With great power comes great responsibility," someone said. "Spiderman."
   "What about Get Me To The Greek? The one with Russell Brand? It's just a goofy comedy."
   "It's about the personal price we pay when we surrender integrity for gain. It's also about the cost of excess, the importance of friendship, and the shallowness of society where there are no checks and balances on behavior."

Looking At Theme

2011-04-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

I apologize for what follows...no, I don't.

There is a breed of writers who come late to the craft, feeling they can slip into their work with a superficial understanding of literature. Hey, they like to read, don't they? Then what the heck? These folk tend to do a good deal of mimicking of their favorite authors without a deep appreciation of the underlying writing principles. Many flock to writers' groups, present their efforts and receive feedback without giving consideration to dedicating themselves to improving their different problem areas. Instead they concentrate on the one short story or chapter without addressing the overall issue, which is sort of like turning up the volume on the radio to cover the sound of an unpleasant engine noise.

I have therefore decided to do a series of posts, not necessarily as a writer, but as a teacher. I thought I would examine certain literary concepts which span all genres. If someone reads what I have to offer and it sparks ideas or self-examination for improvement, so much the better. If all it does is allow me to revisit certain ideas for my own introspection, then that's fine, too.

THEME

This is perhaps one of the most important concepts for me as a writer and as a reader. It also seems to be one of the most difficult ideas for some writers I know to grasp. "Not all stories have theme," someone argued. "I just write. As long as I tell a good story, what's the problem?"

My response is that where the writer gives careful consideration to theme, you have a stronger story, one where the characters and the plot have greater impact. The theme is quite simply the glue. If Yoda were teaching a class to Jedi writers, he would explain : "Theme is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy and your writing together."

Theme, quite simply, is what a story is about. It's the underlying idea. In Christina Myers-Shaffer's excellent book The Principle of Literature, A Guide for Readers and Writers, the idea of theme is defined this way:

"Unlike topic (the subject of the story, such as war, love, business, or children), the theme is what the story is about, its plot, setting, and character blended with the writer's perceptions to make a statement about a subject." Some folks will attempt to classify conflict as theme, stating all stories boil down to either man v. man, man v. nature, or man v. himself. This simplified attempt to compress an idea is wonderful for multiple choice quizzes, but not so good for picking apart complicated concepts or for giving a writer or reader a true sense of what an author is trying to accomplish.

The theme of a story is usually not directly stated, but instead revealed through the characters' words, actions, and through plot. While some themes may stand out to the readers, others may not be so apparent. And sometimes, to make matters worse, a single work have different themes, some even competing, others layered.

Perhaps for the sake of clarity, it would help to look at an example. I will use a well-known work which I hope most people are familiar---Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.

The novel is about the coming of age of a young girl, but to present that as the dominant theme ignores the other themes which are part of her loss of innocence (although I would argue Scout doesn't entirely lose her innocence). Perhaps the richest complementary thematic thread to this is the idea that lack of understanding and acceptance causes tremendous damage to people who are perceived by others as different.
This theme is front and center, and given voice in her father's admonition: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view---until you climb inside his skin and walk around in it."

When you stop and see examine the characters and the plot development in To Kill A Mockingbird, it's easy to see how the author has woven together some possible disparate threads into a unifying and satisfying whole. Without the theme, you have a number of touching elements coming together, but they have no anchor.

Aristotle wrote about this idea of creating a whole in The Poetics. He addresses the idea of unity in writing (and we can express unity as being the combination of elements of writing in forwarding a theme or idea. According to Aristotle:

"As therefore, in the other imitative arts, the imitation is one when the object imitated is one, so the plot, being an imitation of an action, must imitate one action and that a whole, the structural union of the parts being such that, if any one of them is displaced or removed, the whole will be disjointed and disturbed. For a thing whose presence or absence makes no visible difference, is not an organic part of the whole."

Perhaps the easiest way to break it down is to describe the theme as a compass. When a writer sits and considers elements of plot or how a character behaves, he might stop and ask how these things fit into the theme he or she has chosen as the spine of their work.

Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?

2011-03-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

I've been recently thinking about the term "steampunk." The steam part I get, but the punk part still makes me uneasy. What exactly is this growing sub-sub-sub genre and what is its relationship to "splatterpunk," "cyberpunk," and the ever popular "romancepunk." Okay, I made that last one up, but it's coming.

First, what exactly is punk? It's was, and is, an ill-defined self-indulgent, nihilistic, anti-authoritarian movement which began in the late seventies. It mocked commercialism while steeping itself in the commercial. A youth movement, or niche, it changed as its adherents aged and moved on. What was punk became goth, which became emo, which became..

But what about as a form of literature?

Cyberpunk, popularized by authors such as John Shirley, John Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Lewis Shiner, is characterized by stories with an emphasis on technology and characters marginalized by society. The heroes are loners and outcasts who fight to maintain their dignity and identity in a global society where uniformity and not individuality is a state of being. In cyberpunk the anti-authoritarian thread, woven with a hint of anarchy, ties plot, theme, and character together.

Splatterpunk? The term, which was allegedly coined by David J. Schow, probably has a greater place in film than literature. The term splatter refers to violence. Gore. Blood and guts. Chainsaws. Meat hooks. Instruments of torture. Get the picture? And if we add the term punk to that, we would expect a literature which focuses again on marginalized characters, loners and outcasts. One suspects the violence and the characters in "punk" lit is aimed folk feeling powerless who might identify with someone acting out the anger which burns.

Which brings us to steampunk. The steam refers to science fantasy, usually set in a bygone era, where parallel science has developed allowing computers and airships to exist before their time. These alternate histories are perhaps a rebellion against the world of hard science fiction where it seems the modern reader might need a degree in engineering or biochemical science to understand what is going on. Perhaps that's the punk part, the idea that the literature itself is a form of rebellion. Maybe its fans feel that through the work they are able to retreat to a time where the technology was safer and where the individual had more control. And like its siblings splatterpunk and cyberpunk, the characters are often on the outside, trying to cope with a world gone wry. They are misfits before the onslaught of industrialism has taken the artisan from behind his bench and stuck him on a faceless assembly-line.

A Correction

2011-03-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

I would like to take a moment to make a correction. In a bio I wrote for The Ravening, I stated that High Seas Cthulhu, an anthology in which I had a story published, had been nominated for a Stoker. This was an error on my part. I sincerely hope people will forgive me for this mis-statement. At the time I wrote the blurb, I was under the impression this was the truth, perhaps wishful thinking or pure exuberance. I would like to thank Rick Moore for bringing this to my attention.

The Marketplace

2011-02-18T07:32:00.000-08:00

How does a writer proceed with a marketing plan?

A friend of mine sold several novels to numerous small presses. All well and good. However, most of these titles have not seen distribution through any major outlet, and therefore his ratings are slim. These ratings don't relate to the quality of his work, but rather how well he sells, how much of a brand his name may be or stand a chance of becoming. It's difficult to sell well if one doesn't promote one's work, or if that work isn't on display somewhere for the casual or not-so-casual shopper.

A few folk have waved away this concern. "It doesn't matter where you're published, as long as you're published," some say. "If you're good enough, you'll shine through. Persistence will pay off. Eventually, the larger publishers who pay more will recognize you and be forced to buy your manuscripts and market you."

Others may comment, "There's always the electronic publication path. Sell your book on Amazon." Or, "I don't care about the corporations. They don't care about me. I know I can do well self-publishing and be my own boss." Hmmm.

With the business in such flux, the choir of discordant voices is understandable. Look at how many titles are being cut by publishing houses, look at Border's current bankruptcy and the recent celebration of the rise of the ebook. Look at the drop in actual readership, and especially the drop in young readers. Look too at the manufactured author, the one chosen by a multinational corporation and promoted to godhood even before a book is released (not that I'm blaming Justin Cronin for jumping at the opportunity).

In the end, what is the unknown and unloved author to do? My personal belief, for what it is worth, is to have a marketing plan, one which is adaptable and comfortable. Study your market, look at the call for submissions; if you haven't been published, then turn to the net and seek publication there. If you are published, then (my opinion) be careful of the ratings. If you have a novel, try and sell it where there is distribution. If there isn't distribution, your ratings drop and it will become harder for a publisher to interest a distributor to push your book through the chains. If you're an author who had ratings and saw them plummet two or three books in, then perhaps its time for a name change and reboot of a career. Or not.

There's no one path. But I believe stumbling into the marketplace without some knowledge and foresight is a guarantee of failure. The author who writes without a marketing plan is the author who would do well to buy a lottery ticket each time he or she sends out a submission. Actually, that might be a good practice for anyone sending out submission.

The Beauty of Group

2011-02-12T10:06:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting writers group session the other night, which once again showed me the value of the group process for writers. We were discussing one author's first two chapters and several of us began focusing on character development. What began as single, orderly observations became an amazing riff with folks rapidly building concept and feeding off one another's perceptions. Loud, unruly, manic, it was what a group should be, a positive and re-energizing synergistic explosion.

I'm not saying a group shouldn't have structure, or that people shouldn't wait in turn, but sometimes it is liberating to let the discussion follow an organic evolution. And Christine Purcell, my collaborator on The Breach, whose job it was to ride roughshod on us, let the banter and ideas flow, reining us in at last by care-taking the person whose work we were critiquing and making sure ideas were summarized and needs were met.

Any group is a tricky animal to groom and maintain. Too often some groups fall into a predictable groove and tedium ensues. Mixing it up, changing or rotating leadership, trying different activities and letting things evolve rather than forcing them are often the difference between a productive outing and a fulfilling experience.

Don't ....Just...Don't

2011-02-08T12:08:00.000-08:00

I know you'll be tempted, but don't do it. Don't dare ask.

From The Valley of Scorned Books

2011-02-05T17:32:00.000-08:00

When to let go.

Some folk have no problems tossing aside a book. They get to page fifty, decide it isn't worth their time, and without a qualm, pitch the offender. Me? If I get to page ten, I'm probably going all the way. A book has to be something extraordinarily horrible for me to give it the heave ho. I'll curse the author, the editor, the publisher, their parents, wives, immediate and extended families, and rend my clothing---but I'll finish the damned book.

In the last few years, I've only abandoned three or four reads. One was the work of a well-known and successful genre author who heavy-handedly beat me up with his ideology (one diametrically opposed to my own). Another was a book sent my way by a publisher who asked for a review (I made it through half the novel before deleting it from the Kindle). I wrestled with this one, trying to decide how to say something, anything, which might be used for promotion. In the end, I remained silent. What else could I do?

I wonder what my inability to abandon a book says about me as a person? Is it part of the strangeness that makes me think the furniture dances when I head off to bed? That the plates convene a some sort of meeting? Or that books sit on a shelf, waiting their turn, hoping to read and enjoyed and then reshelved, rather than cast aside in scorn.

The Shadow At the Entrance

2011-01-30T11:35:00.000-08:00

As I entered Barnes and Noble I was presented with a salesperson hawking THE NOOK, B&N's e-reader. Now, I have nothing against The Nook, although I am a Kindle Person myself. However, as I watched the salesperson and the interest in this reader, and as I watched the employees behind the cash registers, at the cafe, and milling about as they serviced the different shelves and fielded questions from customers, I wondered what they were thinking? Were they looking at The Nook and seeing their future? Were they considering a recent article where the number of e-books sold last quarter constituted a sizable chunk of the market.

A great many folk will point out that a tremendous number of folk love books...that which they can hold in their hands and collect. Ignoring the diminishing number of titles being released and the collapse of the magazine fiction market, these folks point to the cost of an ebook, which isn't always a bargain when one is considering new releases.

I am not taking one side or the other in the e-book v. book challenge. I am merely an observer. I was also an observer in the cd v. vinyl war and the famous mp3's v. cd apocalypse. I recognize change is inevitable and while some will dig in and rail against it, the less stressful path is to either throw open one's arms and welcome the new, or else take the role of quiet observer. But be careful folks, it ain't about the aesthetics, it's about the economics, and who can control more while squeezing the most out of it.

Capitalism isn't about philanthropy.

Looking For The Ravening

2011-01-21T20:21:00.000-08:00

Someone told me they purchased a copy of The Ravening from Barnes and Noble. They went into the store, asked for it, and the store ordered it. When it came in, the person picked up her copy. Apparently the store ordered at least five copies of the book, probably figuring if one person ordered it, surely there would be more customers.

I decided to visit Barnes and Noble. There's nothing quite inspiring as seeing one's book on a shelf. I looked...and looked...and looked...and nothing. Puzzled, I went to the service counter and asked if it was in stock. "Yes," said a bright young man, and proceeded to lead me to it. The books were on a bottom shelf, impossible to see, in the general fiction section!!!

"This is a horror novel. Shouldn't it be with the other horror novels? Maybe sitting next to some of the other zombie books?"

He shrugged. I nodded and went back to the general section, bending over sideways so I could see the title through the deep shadows of the bottom shelf of the general fiction section.

It could have been worse.

Oh..and a post script...if any of you have read the book and liked it...would you consider posting a few kind words of review on either the Amazon site or the Barnes and Noble site. Heck, you could even spread the love through Goodreads.

Rejection..The New Pragmatism

2011-01-07T05:15:00.000-08:00

With the new year comes new opportunities...and some rejections, but such is the life of a writer.

I recently had a discussion with some other folk about rejection, something people should expect to receive more of as the number of publishing venues shrinks. The discussion trended toward...

1) What was the fastest you've ever been rejected (my own self? Three days..fastest acceptance? A few hours.)
2) What was the most frustrating rejection? (One friend received someone else's form letter)
3) What was the most encouraging? (When I was twenty, I sent a short story to the New Yorker and received a personalized, several paragraph hand-written response).

Mostly, when I've had a story returned and thought about it, I tend to find something to change, or I realize I should have done a better job researching the market and meeting the editorial needs. I've also had the opportunity to talk to editors and hear their stories about psychotic writers, but I'll let others speak to that.

The Ravening

2010-12-29T10:23:00.000-08:00

People who have preordered The Ravening through Amazon have received notice the books are shipping. It should also be available in some local bookstores. If you go to purchase it and the title isn't in, by all means march up to the manager, grab him by the collar, and express an urgency to see it on the shelves. Even if you don't want to read it and it isn't on the shelves, grab the manager by the collar and express this urgency---it will give the manager something to talk about and help him understand a nuance of customer service.

I am currently at work on the sequel, tentatively entitled Zagreus Swarm (Zagreus being the virus in the first novel).At any rate, I hope those of you who read The Ravening will enjoy it. Thanks to all who have supported me. Especially, my wife.

SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY HISTORY MONTH

2010-11-30T06:42:00.000-08:00

My dear friends, I am calling on you to help me start a movement. This December, let us take another step in further promoting one of our great loves---Science Fiction and Fantasy. Let us declare December to be SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY HISTORY MONTH.

What? Why does it have to be promoted? you ask. Aren't we inundated with it? Isn't there more genre in film and on television than ever? Isn't the fiction market dominated by genre?

Perhaps, but as lovers of the genre, we owe it to ourselves to promote quality work and to invite the young into our fold ,giving them a perspective and understanding of the traditions and tropes of our literary world. Consider the political and cultural influence of science fiction and fantasy, and how it has helped us vent our angst, voice our identity, and celebrate our optimism.

I think this idea first hit me with a statement from a fan of the Twilight Series who railed against The Wolf Man because the creature depicted wasn't beautiful, like Jacob, and was able to be killed by a single silver bullet. I rolled my eyes, but it occurred to me that for many of the younger audience, this was their first and only exposure to such staples of fantasy as vampires and werewolves[and I include horror in the sci-fi and fantasy realm]. While many will argue fans of Twilight are actually fans of romance more than fantasy, the argument can be made that as people mature and cast about for different fare, they will find a wealth of rich fantastic literature and film, but only if we keep the memory of such work alive.

I worry who will read the work of Robert E. Howard, Joseph Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Donald A. Wollheim, Usula K. LeGuin, Anne Maccaffrey, Arthur C. Clark, Gene Wolf, and JRR Tolkein, Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, Leigh Brackett and their ilk some twenty years forward. The only way to influence the future of literature is to continue to promote the work of the past which we feels best represents that which made science fiction and fantasy such an important part of our culture and identity.

So spread the word, perhaps put a button on your blog..December is Science Fiction and Fantasy History Month.

The Gift Season

2010-11-17T14:36:00.000-08:00

What do two old men do when they missed the time slot of the movie they were supposed to see? Why go and hang out at the local electronics store, of course! Yes, we played with the large 3d screens, bowled with the XBOX Kinnect, and played with the computers. It was sheer heaven. However, this got me thinking...what do writers want for Christmas from their local electronic stores? Allow me to deliver the writer's wish list, the top five toys for the writer in your family.

1. Kindle (or an ebook reader equivalent). The joy of carrying around a library in your book bag. I know there are those who will shriek at the idea of hastening the demise of paper based printing, but you can't deny the devices are here to stay and they are practical. Especially for students who get weary of dragging a heavy book bag around.

2. Apple IPAD (or a notebook equivalent, and there are many on the way). How can you argue with such a practical toy...er, make that tool. Access the net, read the newspaper, write, etc. Like the Kindle, it's a perfect reading tablet, but it's so much more versatile.

3 I-Pen Digital Writer This is a cool little item. It's sort of a mouse, but not. Actually, it's a writing utensil which immediately translates actions to the computer. Sounds complicated. Check it out. For forty bucks, some people might consider this a stocking stuffer.

4. The Live Scribe for people who didn't think the I-Pen was cool enough. The Live Scribe records everything you hear and write so you can recall anything with a simple click.

5. A Gift Card Yeah, it feels like a cop out, but who doesn't like a gift card to their favorite book store?

Is It Greed or Memorex?

2010-11-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

There's The Exorcist, then there's The Exorcist, the 25th Anniversary Edition, then The Exorcist (Extended Director's Cut), and The Exorcist (The Version You've Never Seen). Now you can also buy The Exorcist (Extended Director's Cut and Original Theatrical Version) for Blu-Ray.

I am not against people making money, but as consumers do we need this many versions and cuts of a single film? At what point do we take a stand and say "no more."

This week, Avatar is being re-released theatrically, with additional footage. You know what that means? the release for the three disc "extended collector's edition" has already been scheduled.

What about books? Will we ever see a point where additional chapters are added to an existing manuscript to further whore an author? Hmmmm. Considering we've already seen the unwarranted release of The Stand: Expanded Edition: For the First Time Complete and Uncut (Signet), the answer is "yes."

Promotion

2010-10-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Heading out to the World Fantasy Convention, I come prepared, with a small stack of business cards that I did myself. Why not pay and have it done right? Mostly because I am not convinced people still use business cards. They don't fit anywhere, and in an age where everything is easily digitized, I think perhaps their time is at an end. Which means the most important information on a card is your email and blog address, as well as your web page.

Business cards---They're disposable. Hard to handle, easily lost, and quickly forgettable.

Is It Scary?

2010-10-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

A group of people in a former writers' group, a bad writers' group---er, a group of people who actually didn't write well---spent hours in meaningless discussion about what was frightening, or how to write 'scary' stuff. Often such a conversation would begin: "What's scares you?"

Of course the answer should have been an easy one. Since everyone is different, everyone is often afraid of different things. Although there may be some universal tropes. What we should have been discussing was how to make character development in fiction more compelling. Why? Because unless we believe in and care for a character, we don't care what happens to that character. Stories are about people.

Some people writing horror make the mistake by starting off a tale by thinking in terms of the payoff, or the scare. They focus on the mood, throwing several stereotypical images at us, pausing after each one to ask "Scared now?.....what about now? Now?"

Not that there's anything wrong with establishing tone and setting immediately, but when tone and setting are the major focus of your writing, you end up with something a modern reader is going to abhor. It's akin to sitting around a campfire while your Uncle Edgar says, "There was this guy, see? And he was on a date and they heard a sound, see? And the guy went to investigate and a hook killed him. See? And the hook is still out there!!! Scared yet?"

Of course, a young child hearing such a description will nod yes. Probably because Uncle Edgar is scary as hell. So is the night. And so are the other kids around the campfire who live to give wedgies after lights out. In this case the fear is driven by immediate survival concerns.

When I want to write a horror story, in my mind I begin with something like : "There's a guy. He's the first mate on a slave ship and he's had a terrible experience in the war. He is trying to live up to his father's expectations and is having difficulty dealing with the cruelty and inhumanity of the slave ship."

That person became Avery Tressler and the story became "The Others," published in the anthology High Seas Cthulhu.

In writing The Ravening I began with by creating this character, and fleshing him out in just a few strokes to get me going.

"Ken Tucker is in the woods, hunting for his family. He is a city dweller, feeling lost in his current environment. He is protective of his family, and devoted, but he knows in the new reality of a society beset by the Zagreus virus, that his current skills as urban dweller and teacher are probably insufficient for survival."

So, what's scary? It's scary that poor Tressler is being locked below decks with the slaves and thing stalking them. It's scary Ken Tucker, insecure family man, is beset by creatures that stalk his family. It's scary because we care and believe.

Time To Stop

2010-10-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

I've noticed a sharp divide between horror and something else in film. I'm not sure what to call the something else---it certainly has horrific elements in it, but the sub-genre isn't entirely horror. In my opinion.

Back in 1931, when Todd Browning exposed the theater-going public to Freaks, the content of the motion-picture was considered so offensive and tasteless that it was banned in many venues. It wouldn't be truly re-discovered by the horror community until its re-issue in the sixties. And after thirty years it had lost something---it was still strange and depressing, but perhaps it had lost its ability to shock.

In the late sixties, with the Vietnam war coming into the living rooms of America, film makers would have to work harder to disturb jaded tastes. Shock is easy to affect, after all, compared to building suspense, character, and developing plot and theme. Shock is simply a matter of looking around the market place, seeing where the current lines are drawn, and then going a step further.

Hence, Texas Chain-Saw Massacre, Nightmare On Elmstreet, Friday the 13th, Last House on The Left, Halloween, etc. Now, I know some reading this list will shake their heads and say: "Those are classics!" However, I assure you at the time of their release, that across the film-going community they were often considered lacking of merit. They were evidence of the rot in society and the corruption of the teen audience they were often aimed at. Today many youthful audiences consider the above titles quaint.

In the last few years I've had the opportunity of watching films the current teen generation considers their own. Hostel, the Saw series, Cabin Fever, etc. Little more than snuff film. they are freed of the obligation their predecessors felt to pretend to be something other than a succession of violent images for a video game gobbling consumer. No longer do we have to worry about pacing or plot. Characterization is no longer an obstruction. This sub-genre of shock horror, this hearkening back to the sideshow is freed from any obligation or concern over consequence.

Which brings us to The Human Centipede.

The plot is simple. Two women traveling through Germany break down and seek a phone in the middle of a rainy night. They are drugged by a demented scientist who is intent on creating a human centipede--surgically joining three people by joining mouth to anus and cutting certain ligaments so the co-joined victims must crawl. What is his motivation? None is really given? What do we know about the characters? Next to nothing. Suspense? None.

No.

And to be honest, The Human Centipede, as disturbing as it was, doesn't disturb me. No. What disturbs me is what comes next. With the door being kicked open a little more, with the bar being dropped a little further, with an audiences' collective sensibility being further numbed by an appalling succession of images---what's next? That's what scares me.
And considering this, you should be scared too. In fact, it's possible Human Centipede has already been surpassed as the most tasteless and morally bankrupt film of all time. There is currently a film available entitled A Serbian Film , wherein one of the characters is described as watching a film in which a man helps deliver an infant and then proceeds to rape the newborn. I haven't seen A Serbian Film, and I won't.

It's time to take account of who we are and what we want for ourselves and our children in society.

Last Man Standing

2010-10-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

Miranda from Battle Creek Michigan and Chuck Zaglanis were the winners in Conclave 35's LAST MAN STANDING trivia contest, and so they walk away with the prize---two death scenes in the upcoming sequel to THE RAVENING, a post-apocalyptic novel by Stewart Sternberg. And Miranda, I promise gore.
At the event, I read the passage from the upcoming novel where last year's winner, Jason Lindsey, bought the farm at the hands of the book's villain, Cameron Lowry.

The contest allowed a person to receive a question of a decade of his choice and, after hearing said question, either decide to answer or pass to someone else. Strategy, strategy, strategy. Since most of you couldn't be there, here are some of the trivia questions the winners had to fight over.

One recurring character on Get Smart was an android, played by Henry Gutier. What was the name of the android?
What was the name of the atomic submarine in the television show based on the film “Voyage Beneath To The Bottom of the Sea”?
While the original Night Stalker was set in Las Vegas, and its sequel in Seattle , what town did the series take place in?
This Quinn Martin, 1968 sci-fi series saw actor Roy Thinnes portraying architect David Vincent, trying to warn the world about an alien presence?
Dr. Sam Beckett is a time traveler in what series?
A dead cop is assigned by the devil to return 113 escaped souls to hell. Name the Fox show
The demon with yellow eyes is a recurring character in which CW television show?
The Clone Wars television series has been extremely successful in ensuring a continued presence for Star Wars in popular culture. A new character was added to the canon, a padawan for Annakin Skywalker. What is her name?
In what 1983 show would we see Dr. Jonathan Chase, crime fighter, transforming into different animals to bring criminals to justice?
Eternia is home to what sword wielding hero?

the answers are below

answers.......
1) Hymie 2)Seaview 3)Chicago 4)The Invaders 5)Quantum Leap 6)Brimstone 7) Supernatural 8)Ahsoka Tano 9) Manimal 10) He-Man

Find A Mentor

2010-10-10T16:23:00.000-07:00

At Conclave this weekend, I had the pleasure of working with a writers' workshop, offering critiques and suggestions for unpublished writers. One of the discussion topics which emerged (a topic raised by author Lois Gresh) was the importance of finding a mentor.

Stewart Sternberg and friend at his author's reading

Lois explained that she had reached a plateau and invested money in work-shopping her work with an experienced author. She explained it was a critical point in her career. Rick Moore discussed being part of the mentoring program through HWA and receiving guidance from Gene O'Neill. William Jones, publisher and editor, has mentored authors both through the SFWA and HWA. There is also a mentoring program through the National Writers' Union, a member of the UAW.

How one finds a mentor is sometimes a matter of earnest work and sometimes a matter of luck. Some mentors can be life-changing, and some can be a detriment. There are no guarantees. And a mentor doesn't necessarily have to be a published author, but perhaps a teacher, or a peer with more experience with whom you can through teamwork grow and mature as a writer. It's important to network and to learn from others, formally or informally.

The Author-Publisher Relationship

2010-10-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

I've always told authors that for the most part, they shouldn't worry when sending their work out to different publishers. My belief is that publishers and editors are basically honest and ethical people, and if they aren't they don't stay in business long. I've also maintained that the genre community is fairly close-knit, so if someone were to do something stupid to an author, like try and steal his writing, the community would rally around and stand together in protest.

Rick Ferrel Moore sent me a story some years back for critiquing. The story: "Electrocuting the Clowns." It was a good story. I made my comments and he accepted them with grace, and then wisely ignored most of my feedback. Imagine our surprise when his tale started appearing around the web with another author's name stuck on it. I won't go into detail about this here, if you want, read Rick's own account. I am sure based on Rick's efforts and others who have allegedly been wronged by this individual that he will eventually find it difficult to continue his scam. For instance, I am positive that a bookstore where he is scheduled to do a book signing, with this information coming to light, will cancel his appearance.

All this being said, let me return to my original premise...I don't think authors should fear for their work, especially in the age of the internet. While the net might make it easier to suck people in, it also makes it harder to hide. Search engines are a wonderful floodlight. My students have found that out. When they have attempted to plagiarize text in the past, all I've had to do was cut and paste a sentence or two of their writing into a search engine and voila, I would be able to find out if they were cheating.

A friend of mine who taught English at the college level is fond of telling how his students, when given an assignment on Poe, would "google" the topic and sometimes copy information from an essay on a blog, rather than come up with their own thoughts and research. Unfortunately for them, the blog they would plagiarize belonged to their instructor.

I still maintain that as a whole, editors and publishers are a trustworthy lot. As authors we must submit. Bottom line. However, we can lower the chance of becoming prey for the unscrupulous by first checking where we are sending our material and by making sure we keep copies of email and cover letters. However, even the most careful author will get burned. It's part of the price of doing business. It won't make it any less painful. That being said, the writing community will continue to police itself and those who continue to lie and cheat will find themselves boxed into a corner until they are toothless and without credibility.

Autumn Song

2010-09-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

The days have been getting cooler, and driving home, I see the first hint of color. The skies have changed, too, there is different feel to the clouds, a quickening that one doesn't see in the summer. This is my time of year, and as the days shorten and the fragrance of apples and pumpkin complement the whisper of leaves, I hear Melville...

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can."

When I first read this opening from Melville's Moby Dick, many years ago, I remember it resonating with me. No, autumn doesn't make me crabby, but it does tend to push me toward the sea, or it rather it fills me with a sense of wanderlust. When the wind blows and the temperatures drop, I have an urge to strike out cross country, or just to move for the sake of moving. It's a primitive calling.

I'm fearless in autumn. I know when I die, it won't be in this season. While Spring may be a time of renewal for some, autumn is the season that gives me life.

October? Must Be Time For CONCLAVE

2010-09-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, I will be attending the upcoming Conclave. For those who may be attending, and by chance passing by this blog, I urge you to step up to me and say: "Hello, Stewart. Oh, hey...here's twenty dollars!" Although I may urge this, I'll be just as happy if you say hello and don't give me the money. Okay, maybe not as happy.

So, what panels will I be doing this time? Well, if Charles Zaglanis is to be believed, I'll be participating in those below. If you show up, I promise a surprise. And if you come to my author's reading, I have something extra in mind. Hint....no, no hint. Show up.

Podcasting for Fun and Profit
11:30am Ballroom 5 Daniel J. Hogan, William Jones, Stewart Sternberg

Writing Groups, Workshops and You
3:00pm Ballroom 5 Stewart Sternberg, Charles P. Zaglanis, Christian Klaver, Christine Purcell

Author Reading: Stewart Sternberg Saturday 6:30pm Ballroom 5

Monsters of Today: Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies
9:30pm Ballroom 5 William Jones, Stewart Sternberg, Lois Gresh, Tim Curran
Writing Your First Novel
10:00am Ballroom 5 William Jones, Stewart Sternberg, Tyree Campbell, Lois Gresh, Tim Curran

Mercenary Wordsmiths
1:00pm Ballroom 5 William Jones, Stewart Sternberg, Lois Gresh, Tyree Campbell

Cheappucino Anyone?

2010-09-06T07:44:00.000-07:00

Ever heard of cheappuccino? (the kind of coffee one would buy at 7/11 or McDonalds)What about geriatric bypass? (the act of denying one's actual age to give the impression of being younger) Lapflaps? (actually I would prefer the definition that came to mind when I first saw this word--that being said, the definition on record is "pieces of paper that fall out of magazines and into your lap").

Apparently the good folk at Urban Dictionary are keeping abreast of things so we won't have to and compiling lists of slang, along with definitions. I'm sorry, but I don't necessary buy that any living person uses "geriatric bypass" in a sentence. Although I will start saying Cheappucino, that's just spot on.

The site, which has been around since 1999, will send you words and definition to facebook, or twitter, or even an phone app. It's obvious meant as a bit of fun rather than a serious attempt to track changes in cultural linguistics. Give it a visit and see what HBIC might be, or what a "Stall stall" is.

Me? I plan on following on twitter. It's a chuckle. Be warned, sometimes it can be a bit risque.

The Last Exorcism Reviewed

2010-09-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

The first of my video reviews. I will be improving production values, I promise. Maybe makeup? Music? Maybe a wig? I will also try and do a better job finding a format where the synch between video and audio is matched better on Youtube.

Sweet September

2010-09-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

Apologies for my absence from here.

I hope with the new school year starting and the imposition of a schedule, that I can return to regular postings of at least twice a week. Much of my online writing has been posted elsewhere. For instance, I've been posting a good deal to Elder Signs Press. I've been encouraging others in the writing community to join me there. It's good for self-promotion and it's a wonderful networking opportunity.

I also completed a posting about vampires for The Innsmouth Free Press which should appear this month. In October I'll do another for them about Edgar Allan Poe. Hopefully, if they'll have me, I'll continue submitting to them once a month. The people there are a good deal of fun and worth reading. I also need to contribute something soon to SQT's site.

In addition to the above, I continue pounding away at the sequel to THE RAVENING ( which is available for pre-sale on Amazon and still set for a November release date). The sequel is called THE ZAGREUS SWARM. It is gelling more readily than the first novel, and I'm hoping fans will connect with it.

Christine Purcell and I are forging ahead on our collaboration of THE BREACH, a steampunk novel. Originally we had hoped to have it ready for submission by the end of October, but we're not sure if that's realistic now. No later than spring though. When we write it we write fast. We're hoping this is the first novel of a series.

And finally, I am still struggling to get a website together. I promise it is coming soon. I am also going to be appearing at Conclave in October, and will also be traveling to The World Fantasy Convention.

Whew!

Talking

2010-08-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

In the last week I've been giving a good deal of thought regarding how people present themselves to one another. Without disclosing my own politics, I've communicated with several people from the other side, listening, debating, and in the end making a point of asking: "Would you vote for me?" And I was surprised each time by a "yes."

When I asked why, the people all responded that while they disagreed with many of my ideas, they thought I listened to what they had to say and would lead in a fair manner, making decisions based on ideas based on merit and not on my ideology.

I mention this because it reinforces the idea that we need dialog. We need to sit down with one another and not blast away at differences, but rather begin by finding commonalities and use that as a foundation for consensus. We must abandon our talking points, challenge our sources, and make a convincing argument from the left or the right by offering step-by-step solutions.

Don't get me wrong, I've been a political activist. I've shouted out my views, attacked my critics, and displayed my anger in t-shirts and on bumper stickers. And yet, I will bet you not one person from the other side ever looked at me, smacked his forehead and said, "You know, he's right. Gosh." Instead, all I've done is further alienate the people I should have been talking to.

People say, "We can't change society." We can, but it begins with one-on-one discussion and the change ripples slowly through the fabric of society.

This week in Royal Oak the Dream Cruise will see numerous folk from left and right trying to politicize the event. I'm not sure what gun control, abortion, gay rights, or climate change have to do with automobiles (okay, maybe climate change), but it's not the right venue and no one will be converted. People will stand toe-to-toe and the divide will deepen.

Me? I'll keep talking to people. One at a time. I'll try and control myself and not be stupid ( that's an enormous challenge for someone who enjoys drama and confrontation). Where conversation is pointless, where ideology refuses to yield to discussion, I will not engage, but give that person his or her time to find their own way.

It's not right or left, it's about people. We communicate (and that means listen as well as speak), or we surrender to the most base part of our natures.

Hollywood and Arkham

2010-08-15T11:19:00.000-07:00

People who want Lovecraftian cinema usually have to settle for low budget, poorly conceived, poorly executed slush. While many out there will protest, screeching that The Re-animator was a cult classic, let's be honest, the pickings have been slim. Sure, we've eaten our popcorn, taken refuge in horror with Lovecraftian flavor, but seldom do we see an honest attempt from a major studio to deliver Lovecraft.

That may change. Apparently Guillermo del Toro will be delivering a large budget version of "At The Mountains of Madness." I'll remain skeptical until principle shooting is wrapped up and rumors have started leaking. Perhaps I'm still sour over stories about the Bond franchise (don't get me started), but past experience has dimmed my expectations over Hollywood and Arkham.

Until ATMOM's release (let me be the first to turn the title into an anagram), here is something which might amuse me. I'm actually looking forward to seeing this.

Pesky Sentence

2010-08-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

A writer recently suggested "the anatomy of a sentence" as a discussion topic for a writers' group. Yes, I responded in a pithy snarky manner, but I actually paused and gave this topic some thought. HEY!!!! STOP!!! Don't run away, it won't hurt. Let's talk about the sentence. I'll be brief.

A student recently read my work and said, "You use fragments and run-on sentences, why can't I?"
My response: "I'll fail you."

So how am I able to use single words as entire sentences and justify fragments? How can I abandon the subject+verb predicate structure. Mayhem! Craziness! People running naked in the streets!

If you follow a linguistic approach to grammar, you might say a sentence is merely an utterance, regardless of how it is constructed. An utterance is a natural unit of communication conveyed in a manner common between sender and receiver.

Still awake? Work with me here, people.

The sentence as a language unit, when it is part of an utterance, or is expressed as an independent utterance, has grammatical boundaries as well as grammatical completeness and unity.

The sentence "Hmmmm" for instance, is primarily an utterance and has none of the accepted grammatical elements we associate with a sentence, such as subject and verb predicate. It is merely an onomatopoeia. However, used alone as an utterance, it may be allowed a grammatical completeness and therefore has the grammatical boundary of the period.
I'm not suggesting we abandon traditional grammar. However, writers need to pace their content, delivering words with a 'feel' or rhythm. Varying sentence structure, and how a sentence is delivered is critical in keeping the reader involved.

Country Exile

2010-08-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

Writers note detail. We gather it in, and then selective expel it to create mood, or plot, or character. Observation is an important talent, and one which needs to be cultivated. I've worked at this skill, developing a stream-of-consciousness description of what I see.

It has driven many a student crazy.

Usually in an English class, I'll pounce on an unsuspecting teen, beginning a rapid commentary as they enter the room, describing out loud what I see and hear.

"John entered the room, shaking his head as he moved to his seat. He slumped into his desk, slightly red-faced, refusing to look up or acknowledge his teacher. 'Stop,' he said. 'Stop,' he said again, but more firmly."

Making the move from city to a rural area helped make me more aware of the importance of observational details, perhaps because the contrast is so stark that it demands definition.

For instance, in Detroit, I found comfort in the "whump-whump-whump" of an overhead police helicopter, or the lonely thump of bass from a passing vehicle with its radio turned up to deafen. Sirens? Let me roll over and return to snoring.

In the rural area there is usually deadly stillness. The world holds its breath. Oh, occasionally if you listen, you might hear something far off. Late at night, you can make out a low thrumming noise, which is a freighter moving slowly down the St. Clair River. Or if it's misty, you'll hear the fog horn as it passes. But except for the 4th of July, when every mother's son for miles around sets off firecrackers (it's their idea of 3D entertainment), the night brings a quiet that intimidates even the animals into muting their late night calls. Sure, there's an infrequent window of quiet in the city, when one can hear a car passing from a block over, or the hum of electrical wires, or the changing of a stoplight, but the stillness is punctuated by little sounds.

In the country, the stillness is punctuated by more stillness.

Perhaps the gift of being a writer and working on observational skills and detailing the world around you is that you see things with an appreciative eye. The world doesn't pass in a blur, it slows down and demands to be noticed.

Tongue

2010-07-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

As an educator and a student of human nature, I am always trying to understand behavior trends. During the last school year, as I was trying to get together a series of photographs to represent my kids, I couldn't help but notice that almost every shot of someone's face had a tongue sticking out sideways. It was either that, or they were puckering their lips in a carp-like fashion.

What? I ask the kids about it and they usually shrug and give me the most succinct answer they can muster: "Dunno."

An anthropologist would say sticking out one's tongue is an early form of non-verbal communication. It can also indicate delayed physical development.

I've read some responses on the net trying to explain this behavior, all of them unsatisfactory. Usually a teen writing about it tends to use txt-speak, offering numerous emoticons and spellings like "gurl" "cuz" and "sez". The answers given are just as pithy: "Cuz we're crzy!!!" "It's kewl."

Now I figure most of us are fairly bright. I'm interested in you trying your hand at an explanation...for instance: "Overexposure to chemicals is causing a regression to a primal lizard state." See? I can accept that. Or: "It's seizure activity." Or even: "It's a new mating ritual designed to discourage procreation."

Just don't tell me "It's all good."

I know better. I've seen enough to know that just ain't true.

My Five Most Chilling Film Moments

2010-07-16T12:34:00.000-07:00

Two fun blogs (The Vault of Horror, and The Horror Digest) have recently devoted time to discussing a potential list of the most chilling moments in horror film, or as they've put it: The Top Ten Willy Inducing Moments. As a lover of horror, I have to take myown turn at a similar list. I'll give you only five though.

1. "The Bag Scene" in Audition. Unfortunately, I can't describe the scene in this outstanding Asian horror film because it is a major spoiler. Let me assure you though, you could take seven or eight scenes from this work and put them on the list, Audition is that disturbing. You don't even want to know what is going on the picture on the left. For those who have Netflix, I do believe it is available on instant viewing.

2. The appearance of the ghost of Miss Jessell in The Innocents. An understated moment, and all the more chilling for its subtlety, the scene is filmed in daylight, and firmly establishes the link between the children and evil spirits haunting the estate, as well as developing the theme of the corruption of the innocent. This 1961 black and white film starring Deborah Kerr, based on Henry James' Turn of the Screw, is amazing for its unsettling atmosphere and sustained tension.

3.Some horror films take time to set the table, not revealing the horror until the tension has been firmly established. Night of the Living Dead establishes its eerie feeling over the opening credits, with cinematography looking as though the camera was first covered with burlap before shooting. Within minutes of the famous line: "They're coming to get you Barbara," the dead are on the move and the relentless pace continues until its depressing ending. Below, if you wish to peek, is an excerpt.

4.Interesting how so many of my favorite horror films are black and white. I suppose there is something about the ability of monochromatic cinematography to create an eerie sense of reality and fantasy. Hitchcock's Psycho has to make my list. Before the blood spattered cinema of today, Hitchcock worked to scare rather than shock an audience. Psycho's Norman Bates is creepy and threatening even by today's standards. My moment from this film? The shower scene. And by the way, let's stop and give a passing nod to the brilliant score by Bernard Herrmann.

5. I would have embedded this, but embedding was disabled by Warner Brothers. Here, instead, is the link, if you wish, to Merrin's arrival in The Exorcist. It's a short scene, but beautifully filmed and thick with tension when viewed within the context of the motion picture. Essentially, the scene involves a cab pulling up in front of the house at night. The Georgetown neighborhood's streets are damp and the air is dense with fog. This moment is moment of quiet, a brief respite from the horror that has come before it, but it is also a caution to the audience that something even more horrible is about to occur. The image was so powerful, it was used in many of the posters when the film was first released.

The Man In The Hat

2010-07-15T09:14:00.000-07:00

I am still working on my website, trying to make up my mind what I want. I am not sure though how different it is having a website than having a blog. Oh it used to be tremendously different, but with the advances in blogspot and wordpress, I keep asking myself if I should be so hurried to get it done. That being said, the first Stewart Sternberg newsletter should be coming around in the next couple weeks. You'll see a button on the right here, and eventually on my website, for those who want to sign up. Also, if you want to hear my daily rants, observations, whines, tickles, and exaltations, check out my twitter account.

Finally, I have been volunteering at eldersignspress.com as a blog editor. So far I've had folks such as Lois Grech,(post upcoming), William Jones, Lee Clark Zumpe, Stephen Mark Rainey, Charles Gramlich, Christine Purcell, Sidney Williams, Chris Welch, Charles Zaglanis, and Theresa Lucas contributing observations, reviews, and interviews. Come to think of it, we haven't had an interview in a while. And, there is always rumor that Ferrell Moore and the elusive Rachel Gray will become involved. Don't bother looking for Rachel, she is as invisible as the late J.D. Salinger. I will be adding more contributors in the coming weeks. If you have a mind to write about genre, and you don't mind keeping company with the above names, drop me a line and we'll talk. Always looking for more voices.

Visit Elder Signs Press' blog, and listen in on the site's twitter page.

Vampire-Werewolf Triangle

2010-07-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

So there I was watching Twilight: New Moon, and I get to thinking...what's with the recurring love triangle thing with werewolves and vampires. Laurell K. Hamilton has Anita Blake struggling with the triangle between hunky werewolf Jason and hunky vampire Jean Claude. Charlaine Harris has Sookie Stackhouse mooning over hunky vampire Bill and hunky werewolf Alcide (and several other shapeshifters along the way). Patricia Briggs has Mercy Thompson and her love triangle.

What the hell? Is there a struggle between being attracted to hairy guys, but wanting to wake up to Mr. Smooth? If this pattern happened once or twice, but it is a dominant trope or theme. Guys going to the bar take note..try shaving half your face, turn first one way and then the other when hitting on a woman, throw her off balance.

Movie Bob wrote: "The vampire is the slick sophisticated guy, the werewolf is the butch blue-collar guy, the girl can only pick one..."

Is that what is really happening, is there some sort of class statement going on? I find that hard to believe. However, if it is so, then I would be fascinated to see a detailed demographic of the fans of this twist in paranormal romance to see what their backgrounds are, politically and economically, as well as their ages. Are they twenty-somethings? Are they employed? Are they older women?

Or is it something else.

Is it instead possible that the vampire represents one type of sexuality and the werewolf the other. The vampire is slick, seductive, his lovemaking is slow and a form of wish-fulfillment. In his ability to reach into the psyche of the woman, he is the ultimate male --- sensitive to her needs, even the needs she never knew she possessed. On the other hand, the werewolf is a beast. He doesn't care about her needs, but is driven by raw lust. No real committment here, unless the commitment follows the path of the pack.

Wanna date a werewolf? Hide the breakables.

The above ponderance about this triangle sounds flippant. However, I think it is something worth discussion. Maybe even on a panel at a convention, with Edward fans on one side of the aisle and Jacob fans on the other. As writers, it's worth analyzing audience behavior and understanding how to direct our narratives to reach an audience intentionally or unintentionally.

And what about zombies?

You notice no one is interested in bedding the zombie? It would be sort of like being married. Your husband watches TV and occasionally shows interest, but his performance is mundane and predictable.

Thinking About the Young Adult Market

2010-07-13T08:19:00.000-07:00

I have written before about trying to anticipate trends in public taste where literature is concerned.

Who knew that the YA market would bleed into the adult arena to the point where so many readers of the Twilight Series were over the age of eighteen? Who knew the young adult market, energized by Rowling's Harry Potter series, would soar to such heights?

Some people in the market have posited that into the YA arena, there's a developing "literary" influence which I would argue has been there all along (I won't bore anyone with another tirade about "literary" fiction). Some have also pointed to the importance of that manufactured market as a way to instruct young people in issues related to social awareness and self-worth. Even with a book such as Twilight, which one would think of in terms of literary cotton candy, critics have found messages regarding female empowerment and a Mormon philosophy. Want to peek at the debate, here is a posting from The Motley Vision, a site on Mormon arts and culture.

Like it or not, the YA market has been the fastest growing market on the shelves. Step back from discussions about vampires and zombies and see the venue in which they have been dominating audience. Vampires? At this time I would wager the audience is predominantly female, with the majority between 16-25 years of age. The venue? Books. Sure, we can fall back on Buffy and the film versions of Twilight, but instead consider how much adolescent literature being pushed through Barnes and Noble is centered around vampires. The world of wizards, fairly dominated by males, has just about run its course and been shoved aside.

And speaking about boys? While many may embrace the world of the vampire, I would argue the love of zombies is predominantly male, following the above age span of 16-25. I would also bet that while the vampire has strength in literature at this point, zombies have come into their own basically through cinema.

This is changing. One only has to look at the explosion of animated dead novels and short stories suddenly becoming available. How deep an impact will zombie's make? That remains to be seen, but probably not as deep as the vampire's indentation. The walking dead have a different and limited appeal. When writing The Ravening, a survival horror novel which features zombies, I knew the appeal wasn't an identification with romanticization of the monster, as it is in vampiric fiction, but instead with the people struggling to survive (also I should note The Ravening isn't YA)

I don't know where the future is in YA, or what will next grab the imagination of boy or girl audiences. Where is the next Eregon? The next Harry Potter? The next Twilight? I'm sure the corporations will let us know.

All this being said, I would argue that vampiric and survival horror fiction, will retain an audience. Even when the folk at Barnes and Noble relegate it to a back shelf, or take away its identification tag altogether, even when the vampire is no longer en vogue, the vampire will still sell, reclaimed by its original audience and beloved by those who prefer the shadow to the sunlight, the world of the weird to the mundane and hyper-real.

Silly Season Is On Fire This Year

2010-07-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

In journalism the mid to late summer is sometimes referred to as "Silly Season". Mostly because the dog days of summer tend to offer up few major news stories and so serious media sometimes turns to something frivilous to hold reader interest. This summer, I think the season has started early. Bigfoot, Men In Black, UFO sightings, vampires, and other spirits of the night have all made appearances and we're only in early July.

Perhaps we need "Silly Season". With the other news so dreadful these days, especially with two wars, and suffering economy, and an oil spill which just keeps on giving, we can use some distraction.

So what "Silly Season" tales have been hitting the headlines?

One story which hit the press last week involved a woman who crashed her car by ramming it into reverse to avoid hitting a vampire. As I mentioned in tweet, thank god it wasn't a zombie.

Bigfoot? Of course there are Bigfoot stories revving up, one newspaper recently provided information of a sighting involving a 10 foot tall creature described as having "beautiful hair." I wonder if it was in a mullet? Another story, this one from North Carolina (no, I'm not going to insert a snarky comment here, it would be too easy and you deserve only snarky comments where they reflect wit and true snarkiness) involves a 911 call. It's a compelling listen. As hilarious as the caller is, asking: "Would I get in any trouble if I shot and killed this beast?", the 911 operator is priceless in her attentiveness.

The always reliable Fox News this June published this non-sensational headline for the discerning reading audience: Vast UFO Cover-Up a 'Cosmic Watergate,' Says Nuclear Physicist.The headline says it all. Even the other, more reliable Rupert Murdock toy, The Wall Street Journal, recently jumped into the season with this headline: Italian MEP Worried About UFOs.To be fair, it was a covered by many different news sources.

In you were reading the Tucson Citizen this week, you would have seen a story about a haunting at a Bank of America. The banks have been haunting me for some time, so I was pleased to read this. Turnabout is fair play. Another newspaper, on a different haunting, led off with headline: Possible signs of ghosts found at museum. The story, run by the Washington Examiner from an Associated Press feed, was an account of a Mason Dixon Parnormal Society investigation.

Finally, I'll fess up to my own Silly Season tale. Below is from a blog posting a year or so ago.

In 1995, while living in Detroit, I remember turning on my radio in the morning and hearing that something had crashed in Windsor. Apparently a fireball had been seen over Ohio and travelled over Michigan before crashing into a trailer park there. Later that morning, a second story followed where a representative from emergency services told the press a craft had been found in the wreckage. He later denied this, claiming to have been joking at the time. By late afternoon the radio stopped broadcasting information about the story. News of the fireball was played down and the fires in the trailer park were instead attributed to arson.

I don't know what happened, but such a story was grist for Silly Season. It should have been plastered everywhere. And while CNN and few other sources gave mention to the incident, it received none of the attention one would have expected. It amazingly whispered into nothingness.

Some UFO enthusiasts have started calling this "The Windsor Incident"
One website even has a blurred videoclip .

Most Detroiters I talk to scratch their heads when I bring this up.

It was Silly Season, after all, and we all know what sort of stories play in Silly Season.

A Long And Meandering Post About Writing

2010-06-30T06:31:00.000-07:00

A warning.
What follows is a long and often meandering post about writing. I suspect people who write genre may find it of some interest. I'm not sure I'll be able to say the same for people who just want to pick up a book and have a good time. So with that caution...

When I hear writers interviewed, especially genre writers, they are inevitably asked the question, "Where do you get your ideas from?" The author generally smiles beatifically and mush-mouthes his or her way through a response which is guaranteed to cause scores of readers to bleed from their eyes.

Stephen King once described writing down a list of possible titles and sticking it to his refrigerator. He then went down the list, title by title, ripping each one from the sheet as he went along, and fashioning a story for each entry on the list. I've actually tried this, and I must clearly pronounce---I am no Stephen King.

However I do try to find inspiration from different sources..hoping something will spark an idea to file away for later use. To be honest, I don't do much story writing now unless it is in response to a "call for submission". Not that the story will sell, but nothing motivates like the lure of the marketplace.

I recently read an article in Scientific American. with the intriguing title: "Is The Universe Leaking Energy?"

Without even reading the piece, I jotted down three ideas to later develop into something. God bless writer's groups (hear that Gwen?) for helping me develop the ability to create from prompts. The ideas?

1) An expedition sent to the fringes of the known universe finds reality breaking down as the energy that keeps it together dissipates.
2) A group of scientists find that their experiments at the sub-atomic level are somehow bringing about enormous changes in the far flung universe.
3) In deep space a prison ship escapes and heads into a wormhole only to be spit out at the edge of the universe, where different rules of physics are at work, stranding them in a vast dead zone.

Now, note the above are quickly jotted ideas. They aren't stories. Stories require the presence of characters. All fiction, all good fiction, is about people, after all. Still, looking at this process, finding one idea which might have potential (I sort of liked the third idea), one can now begin to actually plan a story, putting personalities in conflict, presenting obstacles to be overcome, internally and externally.

And since we're on the process of writing, let me refer to a little read essay by H.P.Lovecraft who described his process of writing. (not how he received his ideas, but the actual process). Below is a short description of his steps, in his own words.

1) Prepare a synopsis or scenario of events in the order of their absolute occurence--not in the order of their narration. Describe with enough fulness to cover all vital points and motivate all incidents planned. Details, comments, and estimates of consequences are sometimes desirable in this temporary framework.

2. Prepare a second synopsis or scenario of events - this one in order of narration (not actual
occurrence), with ample fulness and detail, and with notes as to changing perspective, stresses,
and climax. Let additions and alterations be made whenever suggested by anything in the for mulating process. (Mulating???? Only Lovecraft)

3. Write out the story - rapidly, fluently, and not too critically - following the second or narrative-order synopsis. Change incidents and plot whenever the developing process seems to suggest such change, never being bound by any previous design. Remove all possible superfluities - words, sentences, paragraphs, or whole episodes or elements - observing the usual precautions about the reconciling of all references (my bold face---this is economy, Rick take note)

4. Revise the entire text, paying attention to vocabulary, syntax, rhythm of prose, proportioning of parts, niceties of tone, grace and convincingness of transitions (scene to scene, slow and detailed action to rapid and sketchy time-covering action and vice versa... etc., etc., etc.), effectiveness of beginning, ending, climaxes, etc., dramatic suspense and interest, plausibility and atmosphere, and various other elements.

These four points are great. Sadly, Lovecraft was an author who hated characterization, and his stories suffered for it. Instead, he proudly proclaims in this very essay that he feels his main purpose was not necessarily to tell a story, but to create an atmosphere in his work, a feeling of the weird. It's a shame he didn't feel the need to do this through character and conflict, working on an arc which allowed the reader a satisfactory catharsis.

The late Isaac Asimov discussed writing in his memoir I,Asimov. Looking at his explanation of his process and Lovecraft's, I tend to veer closer to Asimov's in my beliefs. Asimov wrote:

"Of course, it also helps if you don't try to be too literary in your writing. If you try to turn out a prose poem...I have therefore deliberately cultivated a very plain style, even a colloquial one, which can be turned out rapidly and with which very little can go wrong. Of course, some critics, with crania that are more bone than mind, interpret this as my having "no style." If anyone thinks, however, that it is easy to write with absolute clarity and no frills, I recommend that he try it."

Somewhere an MFA grad is shuddering. Shudder on, because I leave you with some thoughts on writing from another author considered an important figure in science fiction, Robert Heinlein. Heinlein had five rules for writers...

Rule One: You Must Write
Rule Two: Finish What Your Start
Rule Three: You Must Refrain From Rewriting, Except to Editorial Order(Okay, I take exception with this. I'll hope he meant one shouldn't keep endlessly playing with one's work before sending it out. Sometimes a story is done, and an author should accept it as complete and move on. Too many people get caught up polishing, polishing, polishing...)
Rule Four: You Must Put Your Story on the Market

Rule Five: You Must Keep it on the Market until it has Sold

Teddy Bear's Picnic

2010-06-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

Don't ask.

A Shill Game

2010-06-23T07:05:00.000-07:00

I wrote the below blog posting a couple years back. At the time, Fox had just given four million dollars to a writer whose books were hardly tearing it up on bestseller lists to write a vampire novel. What irritated me was that this was not a genre writer, and had no track record in genre. That meant Fox would have to market the hell out of him, creating a bestseller and convincing a genre audience this was a must-have. I haven't read the The Passage. It might be an incredible novel. However, knowing the manner of its creation and marketing, it is somewhat tainted for me.

If you want to find out how many cds sell, if you want to find out how a certain film does in terms of box office receipts, this information is fairly available. Yet why is it that if you want to know how many copies of a certain book title passed through retail, the information becomes a bit more difficult to obtain.

Don't believe me? Go ahead and try and do a search of a particular title to see how many copies were sold. You can ask the publisher, but that's no guarantee that information is going to be forthcoming.

Now you're probably thinking: what about bestsellers lists like the New York Times' survey? You'll notice no number of books sold is detailed there.

If you want information, you have to subscribe to Nielsen. You know, the same people who magically rate your television watching. Nielsen keeps track of retail sales but you have to pay. It will cost about eighty dollars for one title, with discounts available if you want to see more. And even then, the information doesn't take into account some of the smaller presses' distributions.

Why is this important to anyone writing? Because we're basically masochistic people and the more we hear about how difficult it is to succeed in our profession, the happier we are. And also, at some point a writer needs to ask: how many copies of a book sold is a sign of success. It helps to be able to track other writers and titles and do comparisons. It helps too when writing and marketing a title. Shelf lives are short and retailers are picky about what risks they want to take with their floor space. Scratch that. Retailers don't take chances.

Except...

A story is circulating through the literary world about a bidding war that recently went down for a writer's unfinished manuscript about vampires in an apocalyptic setting. A bidding war? Who was the author? Stephen King? Anne Rice? Laurell K. Hamilton?

No.

The author's unfinished manuscript will be published under an unknown non-de-plume. And even if you did know the writer's name, chances are you haven't heard of him before nor read his prior work. The author is Jordon Ainsley (real name Justin Cronin). His prior work? A book you've probably not heard of: "Mary and O Neill", one of those literary pieces few people read which also manages to win the Pen/Hemingway Award. The what? And then there was also "The Summer Guest".

No history of genre writing. No track record with the fans.

And yet Mr. Cronin or Mr. Ainsley if you prefer, gets almost four million dollars for an unfinished manuscript in what will be the first of a vampire trilogy.

HEY!!!! FOX!!!!! If you want unfinished manuscripts and outlines, I got some for you!!! You want vampires? I'll give you vampires. If you want to read more about this go here.

The world of publishing remains a mystery to me. I guess my problem is that I see the world through left wing glasses. Maybe if I clean them and try putting on my "Capitalism Is Neat" basenball cap, it would make a little more sense.

Or not.

Modern Film Criticism: Part Two

2010-06-14T06:40:00.000-07:00

Having just written a review for Charles Gramlich's Cold in The Light, I want to continue with the theme of an early post about reviews, initiated by SQT here. Essentially, what is the value of a review and why should we pay any attention to it?

Let's be honest, reviews can be and are bought and sold. When you have five major corporations dominating media, how can you trust a critic from The Wall Street Journal or any of the Fox networks discussing a film produced by Fox? This was amazingly evident in the release of Avatar. Here was a brawling film with an anti-war, environmentalist theme to it, produced by a man who has openly called out several Fox personalities like Glenn Beck, and yet Fox's arsenal was amazingly silent. Had this film not been distributed by Fox, it would have been shredded by the Fox outlets. Don't believe me? Take a peek at how Fox dealt with Happy Feet.

Neil Cavuto, one of Fox's opinion folk said:
I saw this with my two little boys. What I found offensive — I don’t care what your stands are on the environment — is that they shove this in a kid’s movie. So you hear the penguins are starving and they’re starving because of mean old men, mean old companies, arctic fishing, a big taboo. And they’re foisting this on my kids who frankly more bored that it was a nearly two-hour movie. And they’re kids!

Now, compared to Avatar, Happy Feet was subtle in its underlying thematic content. However, Avatar, which killed at the box office, made a ton of money for Rupert Murdock. It would not surprise me to learn a memo went through the Fox offices cautioning all personnel to leave this film alone.

Using critics to protect the media and to maket titles is nothing new, but when you have so few corporations controlling what is out there, it's a dangerous thing.

Is Dancing With the Stars news? I ask because during the season, it was not unusal to find a five to seven minute segment on the local morning news affiliate about the previous night's show, treating it with the same enthusiasm and diligence that the crew would have given to local news coverage. What about American Idol? Or 24? Or Lost? While these shows are definitely powerhouses in popular culture, do you believe for a minute that the local news affiliates for the networks who produced both 24 or Lost didn't pollinate other shows to promote these television events?

Trusting a critic to give you an unbiased review is about you taking the time to do your homework. Reality is, you'll have to see what corporation that critic is aligned with, then read through past reviews and see which ones you believe best represented an honest assessment of a work of art.

When I critiqued Charles' work for Elder Signs Press's blog, I did so because I had just finished reading it and wanted to discuss the piece. I liked the work and expressed why I liked it. I have no affiliation with Invisible College Press, although I know Charles through online communication. While I enjoy his work, it didn't stop me from being slightly critical of how he began the book. However, in writing a review, it's important to give the reader a balanced understanding of what is good about a piece and who this piece is written for, and where it might fit in from a genre perspective (if that work is genre).

to be continued

Urban Myths for the Casual Film Goer

2010-06-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

Some of this is the stuff of urban legend, and it tends to be fun and helps boost DVD ratings. Most of the incidents described in the films below can be written off to coincidence --- the law of probability as opposed to a supernatural influence.

What is a cursed film and when is it considered to be so?

No fast rule applies to answer that question. Was The Exorcist cursed? What about Poltergeist?

Consider the anecdotal evidence paraded for evidence. The list below is for The Omen.

Scriptwriter David Seltzer's plane was struck by lightning.
Star Gregory Peck, in a separate incident, had his plane struck by lightning.
Director Richard Donner's hotel was bombed by the Provisional IRA .
Gregory Peck canceled his reservation on a flight. The plane he had originally chartered crashed, killing all on board (a group of Japanese businessmen).
A warden at the safari park used in the "crazy baboon" scene was attacked and killed by a lion the day after the crew left.
Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers.

I haven't researched the veracity of any of these claims. However, does the above, even if true, reflect anything out of the ordinary? A film is made over the course of two years and hundreds of people are often involved in production. Given those figures, isn't the likelihood of something terrible happening fairly hight?

Another old chestnut always cited when this topic is brought up around the digital campfire is Poltergeist (and when we speak of that film for urban legends purposes, we're including the two dreadful sequels). What could possibly happen to a crew doing a film about a family moving into a house over an old cemetery?

First and foremost, the incredibly tragic deaths of 12-year-old Heather Rourke (septic shock) and 22-year-old co-star Dominique Dunne (murder). The usual accidents and rumors pale beside the tragedy of the untimely deaths of these two young people.

Of course, there are some projects so cursed they can't even be made into film. Take a look at the novel A Confederacy of Dunces. This work by John Kennedy Toole was published ten years after the author's suicide. This wonderful piece of black humor is begging for an independent film treatment. Originally Harold Raimis saw the possibilities and cast John Belushi and Richard Pryor in key roles. Hmmm. When that fell through due to those actors' illnesses and subsequent deaths, comedic superstars Chris Farley and John Candy were considered.

As recently as 2005, the film was recast by another film maker, Steven Soderbergh, with Will Ferrell in the lead role, along with Drew Barrymore, Mos Def, and Lily Tomlin (those who know this book should be salivating at this casting). That was back in 2005, there's been no progress on the production as of this time. Why? According to one source, Will Ferrell's response was "It's a mystery."

Modern Film Criticism --- Part One

2010-06-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

My friend SQT did a blog posting "Do Reviews Matter," which fired me up and got me thinking about the substance and context of the modern review and the role of the modern critic. As a former film critic myself, this is a subject which tends to make me over-react. So...the beginning of the following is from my comment to her post...it then takes off on its own and will be the first of several postings on this topic.

The world of the modern critic began to change with Siskel and Ebert (I think I need to write a blog about this), whose show ran from 1975-1980 on PBS as Sneak Previews and then from 1980-1990 on ABC as At The Movies. Prior to their show, most reviewing was in print form and fairly removed from the motion picture audience.
Siskel and Ebert made reviewing a contact sport, and attracted a fairly impressive following.

People were able to identify with these two. They were so freakin' ordinary it hurt. It was like listening to your uncles argue on the sofa after a bad Thanksgiving dinner. Soon, people were emulating them, reviewing film with the eye of the common man....and infusing their response to film with an occasional term from critic-speak. Let's face it, prior to Siskel and Ebert, you never heard anyone casually reference cinematography or editing when discussing stepping out of a theater.

Perhaps another element that gave life to the critiques of Siskel and Ebert is that they removed the perception of "snootiness" from the practice of critiquing film. Prior to these two and several personalities who became their contemporaries, film critics had an elitist paradigm for what constituted significant cinema. Most filmgoers across America weren't going to stay awake for Ingmar Bergman, or for Francois Truffaut. Nor was the average American appreciative, no matter how well intended, of a film review which made them feel inadequate.

Siskel and Ebert gave us reviews which judged each film at two levels--first at its technical level, touching on those elements of film-making that we expect critics to pay attention to ( editing, score, cinematography, direction, etc), and then at a contextual level.

If these two watched a horror film, they would first note how it succeeded at craft, and then how it fared when compared to other films of its ilk. Fans of genre suddenly felt respected. Where previous critics often made genre enthusiasts feel puerile and embaressed for their likes and dislikes, Siskel and Ebert gave them respect. They weren't patronizing. Consider this excerpt from a review for John Carpenter's 1979 Halloween, which would have been easy to dismiss as a low budget film for teens.

“Halloween” is a visceral experience -- we aren't seeing the movie, we're having it happen to us. It's frightening. Maybe you don't like movies that are really scary: Then don't see this one."

In this written review, Ebert is contextualizing his statements. "Maybe you don't like movies that are really scary...." In other reviews, he would also contextualize the film with comments like, "this is strictly a film for fans of romantic comedy, and as such it stands up well alongside Notting Hill and Runaway Bride."

Although Siskel passed away from a brain tumor in 1999, Ebert is still writing. He is struggling with thyroid cancer and has had difficulty with numerous reconstructive surgeries over the last several years However his his wit and intelligence continue to burn brightly. He is still a major critic. Even his damned tweets are entertaining, and he tweets a lot! Warning though for those who may follow him on twitter, Ebert is a left winger who often makes stinging political comments.

Begin Again and In Beginning We See The End..What?

2010-05-28T06:33:00.000-07:00

As summer approaches, I can't help but think about the magical beginning of Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. Of course, my official summer is still a few weeks off, but these words haunt me....

"It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow. You had only to rise, lean from your window, and know that this indeed was the first real time of freedom and living, this was the first morning of summer."

What a beautiful bit of prose and how efficiently it sets the stage for this slice of Americana set in the Midwest during the twenties of the last century. As I start to work on the beginning of The Ravening's sequel, I've been giving beginnings some consideration, not that I would ever compare my writing to Bradbury's.

I can't help but thinking about how many times I've groaned at an opening page, rolling my eyes and steeling myself to be patient with the author. I also think about how many great beginnings set the stage and invite the reader in.

"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticising anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantage that you've had."

This simple opening from Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, sets the stage for the major themes regarding privilege and substance. It could be a throwaway, but given what will follow in the novel, it is a subtle beginning, a gentle nudge.

Here's another artful opening:

To the red country and part of the gray countryof Oaklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth. The plows crossed and recrossed the rivulet marks. The last rains lifted the corn quickly and scattered weed colonies and grass along the sides of the roads so that the gray country and the dark red country began to disappear under a green cover. In the last part of May the sky grew pale and the clouds that had hung in high puffs for so long in the spring were dissipated. The sun flared down on the growing corn day after day until a line of brown spread along the edge of each green bayonet. The clouds appeared, and went away, and in a a while they did not try any more. The weeds grew darker green to protect themselves, and they did not spread any more. The surface of the earth crusted, a thin hard crust, and as the sky became pale, so the earth became pale, pink in the red country and white in the gray country.

The above is the first paragraph of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Here, the land is a major character, and it weighs heavily on the other characters and the driving themes of the book. Steinbeck's poetic description of the earth in transition as the land is corrupted and the people of Oklahoma are forced into transition, is careful, measured to be a rumble of the coming darkness.

Sigh.

So, given these magnificent starts, how shall I approach The Horde? Ah, from the sublime to the ridiculous. That being said...

"The Horde", the working title for the new novel begins...

The first time Martin Hamilton heard the word Zagreus, he was sitting in an easy chair thinking how much he hated his grandmother and how it might be time to do something about it. Although Gran gave him money and bought him things, his patience frayed. Her health sucked, she wheezed constantly, and her ancient heart teetered on the verge of surrender. She couldn’t last more than another year or two. Maybe. But a year or two could be a long time. Looking at Gran, thinking about the three people he had killed, he knew this would be different. He wasn’t sure how, but different.

Ghosts? Really?

2010-05-24T06:17:00.000-07:00

Is the ghost story dead?

I watch "Ghost Hunters", in awe of the adventurers creeping around some deserted asylum, calling out to spirits and chasing after sounds that would send me flying in the opposite direction, and I ask myself, is there something more here? Something that is a reflection of our sensibilities regarding the supernatural?

If you think back to some rather creepy ghost stories, tales that might have been written thirty, twenty, maybe even ten years ago, you have to ask yourself if it is possible that advances in science and rampant pragmatism have killed this subgenre? Maybe. But to be honest, if I thought something supernatural was going on in my house, I wouldn't be walking around with a tape recorder, trying to engage whatever it was in discussion for the sake of an EVP.

So if you were going to write a short story about a ghost, and wanted it to be frightening, what would you do? Giving the ghost a history and a personality is always chancy. The more you know about the unknown, the less terrifying it is. Do you set the story in an old house or location, or try setting it in a new apartment or office building?

Traditionally, ghosts don't actually hurt anyone. Malign spirits are instead demonically influenced. The danger of the haunting spirit is the fear factor and little else. In film, it's perhaps easier to pull off a fright in this area. Consider some of the more successful films you've seen in the last decade:"Ring", "The Others", "The Sixth Sense", "Paranormal Activity". Each of these films pushes the genre, shifting our expectations and delivering a novel experience, but an experience which doesn't do well with a second viewing.

Me? I've never written a ghost story. I've written about returning gods from other dimensions, vampires, zombies, serial killers of all shapes and sizes, magic gone wrong, and malign entities, but never about a returning presences that goes "boo!"

Maybe I'll try if I have some time this summer.

Maybe I'll try ghost hunting.

However, if I actually do try my hand at this and hear or see something, I make no promises. I'm probably running and doing my best not to look too much like Curly from the Three Stooges.

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!

2010-05-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

"It's alive. It's alive!!! It's Alive!!!!"

Ah, Dr. Frankenstein. I love when science takes us into the realm of dark fiction. According to a story being reported through various news services , scientists have developed the first bacteria cell controlled by a synthetic genome. Obviously, it's a far cry from pumping electricity into a body cobbled together from corpses stolen from graveyards, but it's still pretty exciting.

Sure, there are practical applications. Perhaps an algae to solve global warming by devouring carbon dioxide (of course one would wonder when it would know to stop), or the speeding up of vaccine production. But practicality be damned, as a writer of fantasy and horror, I want to think about how this plays out as a mcguffin in future works of fiction. And what's even more frightening, what is the down side of this? How long before such a development is used for military purposes?

Seems like the creation of life is something that we should applaud, and then stop and think about. It opens a door that can't be closed again. Perhaps before we walk blithely through, or more likely, before we allow something on the other side to make its escape, we should pause and think hard about implications.

I knew someone who would talk about cautious thinking. That person was fond of saying, "Before I do something, I always try and ask myself what the downside might be. I even try and think about what downside I'm not seeing."

Ultimately, this is cause for celebration. While Igor is out getting the bubbly, let's bump fists and chant: "It's Alive!!!" Then, let's stop and glance a few times over our shoulders.

Scads

2010-05-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

Within the next week I shall begin my own website, the focus on Stewart Sternberg, the writer. I plan on keeping this blog going, but the website, I've decided will have fictional content, regular cartoons (my dad always wanted me to be a cartoonist, so I thought I would give it a go), and various entertaining items to keep people engaged. I'll also be starting a monthly newsletter, which will include reviews, news about my projects and activities, as well as promotions of other writers and their works. My goal is to try and keep this all interconnected, creating a facebook-twitter-emailnewslettery-webery-kind-of-thing. I'll let people know when the first newsletter is heading out.

On a non-related subject, I love Simon Clark.

I have found some of his work to be chilling. He knows how to engage readers and is able to take the mundane and make it horrifying. His book "Blood Crazy" had me ripping through pages, jaw slack with horror, eyes green with envy over his skill. His book "The Tower" wasn't as creative, but still it was a worthwhile read. I also applaud "Night of the Triffids", "Vampyrrhic", and "Nailed By The Heart"

Yes, he can write. Yes, he can scare the poop out of you. However, Mr. Clark has been churning out work these last several years, and I am sure he is doing well in sales. What concerns me though, with the quantity of output, is the effect it might have on quality.

Currently, reading "The Ghost Monster", a potentially outstanding ghost story, I am stumbling over some clunky writing. It almost feels rushed and mailed in. I've felt that way with some of Stephen King's work and other authors who produce a tidal wave of titles.

Is it possible for an author to produce too much too quickly? Can a market be saturated? Can someone lose his touch? As much as I loved both Robert B. Parker and Donald E. Westlake, I am sure no one will argue that there were books later in the careers of these authors where it seemed that the writing was shallow and uninspired.

Not that I'll ever write such quantity or quality as the above names, but it makes me stop and think about when a writer should take stock of what he or she is churning out, taking into account what is owed to the reader. It also makes me appreciate the work of Jim Butcher. He continues to write his Dresden novels and they continue to deliver. Maybe they're a little predictable at times, but dammit, when you're a fan of Dresden, you know what you want and Butcher makes sure you're satisfied.

It's Just A Click Away

2010-05-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

With a click The Ravening is on Amazon, along with an author's page . Another click and I have an author's page on Goodreads. I am twittering like a fool and even creating a page for a fictional church, both on Google and on Facebook. I'm going to conventions, planning on signings, and doing all manner of writerly things.

However, in writing the sequel to this book (I'm hoping to have it done by fall...and who knows, maybe out next year some time?) I am struck by what I enjoyed so much about writing THE RAVENING--- the characters. Well, the characters and the "cool" scenes (I will be posting one of those scenes here in a few days).

God help me, I actually feel for this family that I've torn apart and submitted to all manner of horrors. Eighteen-year-old Erik, who realizes how a plague has cheated him of his future. His eleven-year-old brother Sam, emotionally scarred and attempting to cope with childhood redefined. Karen, their mother, whose humanity is tested when her family is torn apart. And Ken, the father whose former coping skills and knowledge are insufficient in helping him deal with a cruel and unfamiliar environment.

And then...the villains.

I don't mean to brag, but I do write a powerful baddie. Cameron Lowry is a vile and frightening individual. You won't like him, but you won't be able to turn away from him, either.

It's funny how, in starting work on a sequel, that I suddenly realize what it is that has made "The Ravening" special for me.

CHURCH OF THE EXALTED

2010-05-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

In the end days people will come together and find comfort in the knowledge that their lives are meaningful and that their misery has not been in vain. As the dead rise, call them not zombies, but know instead that they are proof of the glory of God. The walking dead are The Exalted.

Come and worship at Church of the Exalted! Hear Sister Mercy sing and know the color of darkness.

My Andy Rooney Minute

2010-05-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

Allow me to do my Andy Rooney impersonation as I offer some quick tech thoughts

Why can't they create a super slender flexible I-Pad that can be folded up and shoved into one's pocket?
As cell phones get smaller and smaller, I think they become more difficult to use. Either we say this is limit, or else let's just implant the damn things and get it over with.
Don't you hate phone apps you can download for free, or for a friendly minimum price, and then find out they're only useful with an unacceptable monthly subscription fee?
Video-game instructions. Really? I can't remember the last time I read them. I usually just pop the machine into the console and either work the tutorial or figure it out as I go along.
Some genius out there has developed an inexpensive device that lets you text while you drive by using a voice activated system. Do we really need this? How many times have you struggled with some idiot driver only to realize that they are being distracted by a cell-phone.

By the way, allow me to introduce you to a fun guy. Brian Briggs, who runs a tech humor site and who served with me on a panel at Penguicon. It was great to meet him and great to click so fast with someone. I certainly hope he and I can swing doing another presentation somewhere together again.

Panels of Plenty

2010-05-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

At different conventions I've been to over the last few years, I've developed some ideas regarding what presenters should and shouldn't do. I speak from my perspective as a teacher and as a former outreach person who would often do speaking engagements before large and diverse groups of people.

First, I think presenters should remember that attendees have smacked down some cash to be entertained and informed, and to become part of a convention culture.Therefore, I think anyone on a panel who comes unprepared is doing a disservice to those present. I think there is a danger of an author being put on a panel where he or she is ill prepared. The result? The panelist bluffs through content, tugging focus away from what was originally supposed to be discussed, and instead turning what could have been an intriguing fanfest into some sort of irrelevant ego stroke.

Second, I believe authors can be too self-serving. I understand we are there to promote our work, but sometimes displaying too much ego is a turnoff for fans. The best presenters seem to be the ones who engage the audience, asking questions of them, soliciting dialogue, developing a sense of immediacy and intimacy. In this situations, self-promotion is often made more palatable with a dose of self-deprecation.

Third, and this is painful, there are some who shouldn't do panels. Being a writer doesn't mean you have a natural ability to put yourself over. Public speaking may come naturally to a few, but good public speakers become so through experience and an understanding of the dynamic that is the speaker/audience relationship. When I go to a convention, I try and bring to a panel the committment that when a person leaves a panel discussion that they have a sense that they've been part of an unique experience. I also try and use techniques I've developed as teacher to keep people interested and to keep them surprised and guessing what might be coming next. It's more difficult to do this when you are one on a panel of four or five and different personalities are tugging at one another for the spotlight, rather than working together.

Voices In The Night

2010-04-26T05:10:00.000-07:00

My three dogs sleep in the bedroom with my wife and I. The following conversation was overheard at around 3:00 am.

"I'm bored. Let's watch TV."
"Oh, yeah...say, why don't we just put on 'The-I-Don't-Have-Opposable-Thumbs-Show'?"
"I'm just sayin'. We could wrestle? Wanna wrestle?"
"No."
"Dad's asleep, he won't care."
"No."
---------silence--------
"Hey, Leo, I think there's someone outside."
"What? No, don't do this."
"I think I just saw a shadow. Yeah, there!"
"Please don't.."
"There's definitely someone out there."
"Stop before you....g-r-r-r-r-r"
"He's at the door!"
BARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARK

--------silence following much disturbance and shouting--------

"So, that was fun."
"I hate you more than the vacuum."

What Did You Find?

2010-04-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

I have just sent Chuck Zaglanis, editor, my latest revision of THE RAVENING. He had been threatening me, saying that if he didn't receive it soon, I would have to start watching "Glee". I already subject myself to "24". One Fox show is enough, don't you think?

But it occurred to me during the revision process what a friend technology has become for the writer. I won't spend a long time here dwelling on the internet, but instead let's look at a simple feature of Microsoft Word. I refer to the "Find" box. By entering the following search terms and examining each occurrence, my writing was stronger. Passive voice...be gone! So what are these words or phrases?

"that", "had been" "seemed" "was" and "and then". Hmmmm...I seem to be missing something here. Ultimately, I've found doing this is more powerful than using Microsoft's pathetic "grammar check".

Unfortunately, I think I neglected to do this for the last part of the manuscript. I hope Chuck isn't reading this.

Oh, and before I forget, consider using Wordle as well. Wordle is a cool little website that allows you to make word clouds. Try pasting an entire manuscript into the box and let the site do it's job.

It is one way of seeing what words you might be overusing and abusing.

Penguicon...Really? Yep!!!

2010-04-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

What do "Digital Storytelling", "Writing Groups--How To Start and Keep One Running" , "Non-Obvious Reflections of Contemporary Culture in Science Fiction" and "The Emergence of the Female Superhero" have in common????

Me!

Yes, it must be convention time...and your's truly will be on the above panels and annoying fellow writers and fans at other events during the upcoming Penguicon April 30-May 1. at the Troy Marriott.

Also in attendance will be such luminaries as William Jones, Patrick Rothfuss, Spider and Jeanne Robinson, and numerous other folks including Cherie Priest, The Ferrett, Jim C. Hines, Daniel Hogan, and many others whom I am looking forward to seeing again or meeting for the first time. Seriously, there's going to be a horde of interesting people coming together and some serious gaming fun. The organizers have done a great job of creating an interesting and exciting event with something different happening constantly.

Writing about writers writing about writing

2010-04-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

Writers love to read about writing. I think it's more a reflection of our own neurosis than any genuine desire to improve ourselves. This is made especially apparent when one considers the crap that's out there.

That being said, I've done a search and have found some interesting links. Probably the most interesting being the one from the Guardian, which compiles several rules about writing written by writers. Among those listed are Elmore Leonard, Anne Enright, Neil Gaiman, and Richard Ford. Some of the rules are on the light side ("Don't be one of those writers who sentence themselves to a lifetime of sucking up to Nabokov" "Do not place a photograph of your favorite author on your desk, especially if he is one of those who committed suicide") and some are bit more serious ("Do it every day. Make a habit of putting observation into words).

I also spied an interesting essay by Molly Young, who wrote in response to above Guardian article. I even found an interview with Ms. Young asking her about the piece she wrote in response to the article.

Some of the essays I read fell into the realm of education. This one was fascinating. It demonstrated how writing badly was a way to demonstrate or to learn how to write well. Don't laugh, take a look and think about it. The opening paragraph alone is worthy of repeating:

"Deliberately writing badly can be an effective way to learn to write better, because knowing when it's bad is an essential element in knowing when it's good. In terms of learning theory, the negative examples produced by writing badly help define what the positive examples are (Davis et al. 227)."

Who Needs Integrity?

2010-04-05T21:44:00.000-07:00

"So, let's say that the publisher is the wholesaler who peddles the goods to the consumer, either directly or through a retailer. The author supplies the wholesaler."

She examined me with scorn. "That's a horrible way to look at it. What about art?"

What about art? I always ask fellow writers about their goals. Without exception, serious writers say: "To be read."

But when we start talking market, they become flustered and angry, feeling as though someone is trying to control their creativity. Yep, it's sad when the real world intrudes upon the fantasy, when we realize that writing is hard work and when we understand that compensation is often based on market forces such as supply and demand.

"I want to be read, but I don't want to compromise my integrity," she said.

"You find a need and you fill that need," I replied. "That's why you look at submission guidelines for publishers and why you examine what your audience wants. I can appreciate integrity, but how much integrity do you need to masturbate? Isn't that what a writer is doing when he or she writes for herself? The person who says 'I write what I want to write,' is a person whose gone blind and, or, has hair on his palms."

"You're crude," she said.

"I'm just expressing integrity."

"There has to be more than the market. I spent a good deal of money on a college degree. My MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) is worth more to me than an editor's red marks on my manuscript."

"That's the problem with going back to school, eventually you have to re-enter the real world and actually find application for what you've learned. You know, I once did a search for MFA and the job market. Pretty much the only real place for an MFA to use that degree is in education. Unfortunately, higher education is a hard nut to crack, especially since many schools are hiring less and less full time instructors and instead going with adjuncts who they can work harder and pay less..without benefits."

"You really are a cynical sonovabitch."

"I'm just channeling my inner Raymond Carver," I said. "Or one could find work somewhere in the shrinking publishing industry. Maybe work in helping edit a magazine. But then that takes us back to the marketplace, doesn't it?"

"I just want to write," she said.

"I want to be a movie star," I answered.

Mr. Demille?

Finding Common Ground

2010-03-31T05:14:00.000-07:00

When friends get together, they often have the most idiotic discussions imaginable. In instances of male-bonding, the stupidity often reaches thermonuclear levels. Earlier today, perhaps working through the trauma it left on my mind, I recalled the amazing debate that occurred in the basement of a friend as we studied a war game's map (it spanned an entire ping pong table and a hex-grid superimposed on the map allowed us to plan our attacks using tiny cardboard squares called "chits".............I'm sorry, I'll get back to the story).

"What do you mean you don't believe in right and wrong?" asked Bob, his voice deepened with frustration.

Survivalist Brian, who also had the nickname "He-Who-Disturbs-the-Cosmic-Winds-While-Sailing-On-A-Sea-of-Minutia", shrugged. "I don't believe in right and wrong. It's all relative."

I should point out we all had nicknames in the basement. Brian's was based on his anal retentive nature as well as his tendency toward flatulence. Bob's nickname was "He-Who-Is-Cognizant-Of-All-Points-In-Space-and-Time-and-Yet-is-Master-of-None."

"What if I killed your family," said Bob.

"That would be your right."

"That's stupid."

"But then I would have the right to come back and kill you in return. You can't expect to do something and not have a consequence."

"And who gives us these rights?"

I could admit that this is the point where three people turned to me and screamed obscenities, but if I did you wouldn't have the true flavor of the basement. I was not usually allowed to move my own "chits". As they were very tiny and I am fairly clumsy, I usually ended up dropping them and scattering things about.

"No one gives us these rights," said Brian, returning to the discussion.

"Then how are they determined to be rights?"

"They just are."

"So they're an absolute?"

"There are no absolutes. Everything is relativistic."

He-Whose-Sexuality-Is-Often-Questioned-and-Yet-To-Be-Established-Beyond-a-Reasonable-Doubt spoke up. "If everything is relativistic, then there's no God."

"Oh there's God," Brian said. He was Irish Catholic.

"You can't have God in a relativistic worldview."

"You can if God Himself is relative."

Bob made a strangled sound and lunged across the table, upsetting the chits and scattering several mechanized divisions across Europe.

People turned and screamed obscenities at me out of force of habit.

Don't Look Now...

2010-03-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

Reviewing some of my writing over the years, it's interesting to see how often I've utilized superstition either as foreshadowing or as a way of setting theme. It's also served me well as a plot device and a mcguffin.

Superstition---it's one of those words that everyone knows and yet struggles to define. Essentially it's an accepted notion not based on "reason, knowledge, or experience". Yet, that limited definition doesn't really do it, does it? It doesn't capture the spirit of the word of the concept. After all, we could apply that to people who form opinions based on bias without really knowing what they are talking about, especially in politics.

No, I think any use of the term needs to include references to the supernatural, to luck and prophecy. After all the word itself means to stand outside the ordinary.

As a writer, using the supernatural allows me a way into a reader's mind. Consider these superstitions about death and tell me if you don't have a slight sense of discomfort. I know some of them are absurd, but don't think about it, let it work at an emotional or affective level.

The smell of roses when none are present is a harbinger of death.
If rain is allowed to fall into an open grave, someone in that family will die within a year.
A bird crashing into a window, or one getting into a house is a sign of death.
A white moth inside a house is a sign of death.
A recently dead person appearing in your dreams to hold you is a sign of death.
If you hear three knocks and no one is there, death is close by.

Of course, it's silly, isn't it?

My superstitions? I never EVER make mention of a possible snow day at school. Even if the weatherman is talking about a foot of snow and a glance outside the window shows me flakes the size of hams, I insist on saying: "Well, I'll see you tomorrow." What's sad, is that my kids at school have taken this on as well. If someone starts to make mention, they'll panic, holding up warning hands and hushing him before he commits a grievous error.

Claiming Ownsership

2010-03-11T10:45:00.000-08:00

We so love to classify things. To qualify them." There is something in human nature that feels by naming one has control or authority. By reducing something to its parts, we have authority. We take ownership. It's a side of human nature that is exploited even in our reading. Consider these genres and subgenres

Mystery- "The Who Dun it?" "The Locked Door Puzzle" "The Medical Mystery" "The Courtroom Drama" "The Suspense THriller" "The technical Thriller" "Police Procedural" "Professional Detective" "Amateur Detective" "Romantic Mystery" "Noir Hard Boiled Mystery" "Paranormal Mysteries" and of course "The Caper".

Fans of any of these subgenres will argue that each is distinct and has its own conventions and fan base. And I suppose there is truth to that. I suppose that when one is in the mood for a crime caper, or specifically a comical crime caper, that nothing will fit as well as Donald E. Westlake or maybe Janet Evanovitch. What about Gregory McDonald? Or if one wants a techno-thriller, getting an Agatha Christie novel just won't do.

Still, I worry about overclassifying things. How many times have I heard fans argue about "type" of genre until I thought my ears would bleed? Especially fans of science fiction and fantasy. That being said, the subgenres change. Don't believe me? Look at Barnes and Noble and ask for the "Horror" section. You won't find one. It used to be there. Now "Horror" has been slipped in with regular fiction.

Most recently the absurdity of extremes in marking literature and film was succintly rendered by a young woman who complained on a blog about the most recent version of "The Wolfman" (based on the screenplay by Curt Siodmak, penned in 1941). She was irate because the monster was hideous and not the sort of beautiful wolf that she associated with "Twilight". She was also offended because the monster was able to be killed with a single silver bullet. Who ever heard of such a thing??!! And for her, the entire film was nothing more than a rip-off of Stephanie Meyers.

Ownership.

The Turtle Is Singing

2010-03-04T08:21:00.000-08:00

I promised to boycott the Detroit Tigers for their personnel management these last couple years. Their deals for Gary Sheffield, Dontre Willis, and Nate Robinson have broken my heart. I was outraged at the trade of Granderson to the Yankees, a team that should be sent to baseball Hell. I know I said I would boycott them, but dammit...it's Spring.

Spring.

And I can't feel the earth warming without turning my thoughts to the national pasttime. With temperatures rising and snow melting I keep hearing Ernie Harwell's yearly spring training pronouncement:

"For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land."

And of course, each year James Earl Jones seduces me back with this endearing monologue:

Zombie On!

2010-02-25T08:22:00.000-08:00

As the author of a soon to be released zombie novel (The Ravening via Elder Signs Press) I worried about this. What if I couldn't dress up like a zombie, I asked. What if I couldn't shuffle down the street scaring small children? Well thank God this issue has been dealt with. Apparently in Minnesota, a U.S. Court of Appeals, in a three to one ruling, decided that anyone has the right to be the walking dead.

The case came about as a group of people were arrested for disorderly conduct. Apparently their makeup and their behavior was unsettling. Actually, the group was protesting rampant consumerism during the 2006 Aquatennial (I have no idea). The judges decided they were exercising their right to freedom of expression and that the seven zombies had the right to pursue their requested $50,000 in damages each. Well, at least they have their integrity.

So as a lover of zombies, all I can do is pump my rotting fist and cry out "Arr--gghghh--hhh!!!" Unfortunately, the dead's vocal chords don't always function properly. If I could, I would stomp my dead feet and shout: "Zombie on, brothers and sisters!!! Zombie on!!!"

The Tireless Imagination

2010-02-23T17:05:00.000-08:00

I leaned forward and said: "When I was a kid I remember sitting in the living room and watching the lunar module touch down."

He nodded at me with a thirteen year old's patience.

"I used to stare at the stars in the sky and imagine we would have moon-bases and trips to Mars. I imagined flights beyond the solar system and meeting other citizens of the galaxy."

I could tell he thought me quaint.

"What future do you imagine?" I asked.

With bland acceptance he said: "2012".

Waxing About The Marketplace

2010-02-20T09:39:00.000-08:00

I sat one night and listened to a Detroit classic rock radio station. A rocker was being interviewed by a DJ who kept talking about dinosaur rock and why the music business struggles in the face of downloads, etc, etc, and blah blah. But one thing that fascinated me was the rocker, who specifically discussed deliberately recording on mediocre equipment and listening to it on equally mediocre sound systems.

"I don't want to know how we'll sound on high end stuff. Everybody sounds great on high end. I want to know how we'll sound on some piece of crap somebody buys at the department store or at a local drug store."

When I first heard that, I thought it to be rather profound, for about ten seconds. Still, like most things I encounter, I tried to apply it to writing. Of course, I immediately considered the analogy of writing for the mass market v. writing for my own artistic integrity. I know they can work together, but I started asking myself, "what would be the equivalent of testing the product in a literary setting?" I'm not a marketing expert and I don't have the resources to have someone test my material for me with a prospective sampling of fans.

There's no single answer to this. I suppose one can join a writing group of peers, trying to find people who are close to the market you are trying to reach. One can put samples of writing on the net or on the blog and see what the response might be. There are countless forums and message boards around, but again, I'm not sure of the integrity of those responses, especially if the responses come from other writers who are looking at your work as competition, and with a jaundiced, critical eye.

I suppose there is no substitute to reading a niche as a reader and knowing what that reader wants. If you're going to write a zombie novel, you should know what's working in horror and what's not. You should also have some sense of what elements of a zombie novel are popular with readers. What made Romero's film work as opposed to some of the other low budget pieces that crumble from within. One can argue there is no commonality between film and writing, but both rely on character, timing, and theme to help suck a reader in and deliver a promising work.

Just thinking out loud...hoping to pacify the voices in my head telling me to do something horrible with peanut butter and under-arm deodorant (if you know what I mean).

Avenues of Expression

2010-02-15T07:51:00.000-08:00

Yep, I changed the blog again..back to black. The last color setting was a bit too cheery. This feels right, and so does the banner.

I have been working on "digital storytelling" --- something that is being used a bit by language arts teachers to encourage their students to express themselves using technology. It could be something as simple as stringing together a bunch of pictures with music or dialogue, or it could be producing video or mixing other media. Frankly, I think it's a high-falootin' term which some folk use to justify expression in lieu of the self-discipline and patience necessary to sit down and write a work of fiction, or to read something, for that matter. Most digital storytelling is passive, after all. Watching something produced on "movie maker" is akin to watching a show on t.v.

Here is a short video on the topic...

All this being said, we shouldn't be too quick to dismiss the digital storyteller. Perhaps what we need to do is step back and consider some of the potential. What if we separate, for a moment, broaden the role of writer and give him a few more hats. Why not make digital storytelling a form of performance art that incorporates all manner of medium.

Here is an example. You buy a book at a store, or download one online. You read a chapter and at the end of the chapter you are encouraged to log onto a website that is a companion piece for the book. Logging onto the site and registering triggers a sequence of activities. Perhaps you can watch video of a backstory for the characters of the novel. Or a program, depending on responses you give on the website, has one of the characters in the novel call you at home or on your cell phone. This would be a voice recording, of course. Or perhaps you would start receiving email from that character.

Interactive novels have been done before. Most of them have been for young adults, based on role play games, with a question at the end of a chapter: "Do you open the door? Then turn to page 35. If not, read the next chapter. Sort of a computer program model. Still, it raises the question, are there other methods of stepping outside the printed page and the traditional reader-writer relationship?

Watching the above video, you probably thought: "But all they are talking about is a form of 'show and tell', a multimedia narcissism. They're just slapping an old concept with a new term because it now has a technology component. True. But that doesn't mean there aren't pathways for the writer to explore as another form of expression, or better yet, a way to promote one's work. In the next few weeks I'll be putting up a small promo for "The Ravening", for instance.

There are many wonderful avenues for expression as a way to promote and complement one's writing. I say why not have fun with it and try and explore the possibilities?

The Writing Community

2010-02-13T16:30:00.000-08:00

I have received word from the HWA (Horror Writers Association), that I am now an "active" member. This means I am now able to vote for the Bram Stoker award. I'm looking forward to becoming more involved with the organization, mostly because I think networking and mentoring are important to the writing community, inside and outside the genre.

As a writer I am driven to read other's work and offer suggestions, to share opportunities for submission and publication when they become known to me, and to offer encouragement when possible. Maybe it's the teacher in me. Still, I think it's hard enough to face the task of succeeding as a writer, of facing your true greatest obstacle (yourself), and the towering wall that is the world of publishing, without someone to help cheer you on and to give you a gentle push. Even if I never publish at the level I strive toward and even if the person I am encouraging has no readers other than those in a local writer's group, it's good to know that we are part of a network and community.

So let me pause and offer thanks to some people who have given me a helping hand, who keep me pushing forward. First, William and Deborah Jones, Rick Ferrell, Chuck Zaglanis and Kevin Music (we slyly call ourselves the Midwest Genre Society). Also Jon Zech (who has been with me through many writers' groups---many of which I think I had a hand in destroying) and the members of the Writers-by-the-Woods. And of course my wife Jamie, who actually likes my writing. Go figure.

It's good having friends.
And Grasshopper (you know who you are), keep your eye on the ball.

Keep It All

2010-02-06T09:57:00.000-08:00

Let's write about writing.

I finished a horror story called "Night Vision", about a woman seeking to cure her boy of blindness, with the help of a strange "hoodoo" woman by the swamp. And now I'm sitting down to rework something called "The Lunchbag", a short story written to beat another writer over the head in a writers' workshop (hey, different things motivate and the buffoon deserved it).

I've changed much as a writer since these two stories were first written (although as a person, I think I may have regressed emotionally), and I think the changes I'm making will help sell them. Which brings me to the point of the posting... never throw away or delete anything you've written. And for God's sake remember to regularly back things up.

When you write, whether you're just playing with paragraphs that never go anywhere, or actually trying to craft something around an outline, put it in a folder. Call it "misc" or "junk" or "works in progress". And revisit it every so often to see if things have changed or if they can provide some new element of inspiration. Of course, if you revisit your old work and don't feel you have anything to change, then you might want to rethink your growth as a writer.

Butt....

2010-02-03T05:47:00.000-08:00

I went to see my doctor because I needed a refill on a couple of prescriptions. It's a game we play. He won't give me a refill unless I come in. It's his way of getting his hands on me.

"I should probably have a blood test," I said. "Oh, and can you give me that test they do for prostates?" As soon as I said this, my doctor's eyes lit up and out came the industrial strength glove. I should have kept my mouth shut. I won't describe this process, other than to say I regained a limberness I hadn't had since high school.

"And we'll have to do an ultrasound?"

I've had ultrasounds, so I wasn't concerned. Until he showed me where and how they planned to accomplish this. "I get drugs right?" I asked.

"No, no. You'll just clean yourself out with an enema and we'll send something up there. It's nothing."

"I'm not doing this. Give me a colonoscopy. Give me drugs, then we can talk."

"You have blood in your stool, you're going for the test."

"I've had cancer before," I argued. "What the hell? Besides, I've had my H1N1 shot."

I thought I had won the argument. Then he called my wife. Are they allowed to do that?

So...Feb 8th.

Follow Me..or at least don't ignore me

2010-01-30T11:21:00.000-08:00

The brilliance of the internet is its ability to bring people together and to create a sense of connectedness. Since I've begun to post blog entries some years back, I have made several contacts and friends through an online communication flow. Also, as a writer, I've been able to listen closely to a market base and keep an ear on what the consumer is hankering for.

Many folk will discount the importance of Facebook or Twitter, but while some people may consider them to be a ridiculous waste of time (and they can be), if they are used intelligently, they can be a wonderful tool. For instance, I use Twitter to keep track of different news items from different groups and publishers, as well as to see what websites different writers may be trying to point people to. Furthermore, I've used Twitter to promote this blog and my educational blog. To separate Stewart-the-Writer from Stewart-the-Teacher, I have two Twitter accounts.

Twitter and Facebook have gotten some bad ink thanks to people who feel the need to update people with meaningless posts such as "I'm on my porch..." "now I'm in the livingroom" "now I'm eating burritos" and "I wish I hadn't eaten those burritos".

Before passing judgement one way or another, I urge you to explore Facebook, Ning, Twitter (at least "follow" me if you're a Twitter user) and Plurk. Me? You'll catch me on all those networks, including Masters of Horror, Crimespace, Lost Zombies , The Horror Cafe, and even The Sherlock Holmes Social Network

Where Are All These Zombies Coming From?

2010-01-25T18:46:00.000-08:00

I have been reading all manner of zombie books and film for some time now and I am always fascinated by what happens to spark the event. Actually, the reason for the zombie "plague" is usually little more than an interchangeable vehicle getting the action going. Still, it's interesting to compare the causes of plague and to see what effect they have wrought on the plot and character development.

For instance, in "Night of the Living Dead", the grand-daddy, we have no idea what creates this nightmare other than the radio acts funny and there might be something going on with a military satellitte. In the book "The Cell" by Stephen King, the origin of the plague is equally vague, with some mention of terrorists programming cell phones to alter peoples' brains and inadvertantly creating some sort of hive personality. In the "The Rising", Keene's successful novel, the zombies are the result of life-forms who animate corpses following a scientific experiment that opens a dimensional gate ( I won't describe the scene where the protagonists are ambushed by zombie deer and other small game).

In Pallid Light, which just had a release party at Confusion, author William Jones takes a different approach. In his novel, the phenomenon that brings about the creation of the walking dead (a much better term than zombie, if you ask me) is a mysterious event preceded by, but possibly not linked to, a mysterious storm and strange colored lights in the sky. The story unfolds in a short period of time, the action and tension building quickly, giving us the tagline "with the flip of a switch the world ends."

When writing The Ravening, I knew it would be a virus, and at first I thought of it as just another throwaway device. However, when I started researching viruses, I warmed to the more horrific possibilities presented by viruses as an apocalyptic catalyst. Simply put, viruses are scary as hell. Zombies and viruses are a perfect marriage.

To appreciate the horror and destruction that a virus is able to perpetrate upon our world, all one has to do is take a look at the spread of AIDS or look back to the turn of the last century and see what happened during the great influenza epidemic. These health events have become part of our pscyhe. Look at the response we had as a society to H1N1 virus. People were nervous. The threat of a "super-flu" will keep people indoors and away from heavily populated areas.

At the risk of sounding callus, the fear of infection from something as primitive a lifeform as a virus, is a writer's playground!!! Add to this fear the reality of bacteriological warfare and the existence as such places as Plum Island, and what's not to love.

For my novel, The Ravening, I created the Zagreus Virus...a name based on Greek mythology. I wanted to suggest rebirth, since religion is a major theme of the novel and the creation of zombies is a perversion of Judean-Christian resurrection mythology. According to myth, Zagreus was a son of Zeus. He was destroyed by the Titans, who cut him into little pieces and devoured him. However, his heart remained, and Zeus absorbed it to resurrect his son.

Ah, backstory.

I have also implied in my novel that the virus is constantly mutating, adaptaing, as though it has the awareness of a more sophisticated life-form. While this is aspect is never elaborated on in the book, I am writing a sequel where more questions will be answered and more posed.

In the coming weeks, I will be dropping additional information about the novel and soon will give you a sample of the first couple chapters. Hopefully, you won't get tired of this, but rather have your interest piqued to the point where you are clicking on a link in Amazon to pre-order (that link will be available soon enough).

What An Angel

2010-01-22T08:18:00.000-08:00

During the eighties, we saw resurgence in fascination with angels. Not sure why. Perhaps given the tensions between the Soviets and the Reagan administration at the time, it made some sense. Also, if I'm not mistaken, there was much discussion about organized religion and the religious, with the Moral Majority up and coming. That being said, some folk saw angels everywhere and felt their presence at all times. It's as though each person was assigned some supernatural guardian to watch over him or her. To each his own.

Things seems to have shifted though, and continue to shift. In the nineties, I remember seeing a film called "The Prophecy",which, while it may not have been a great work, was at least intriguing.

The concept was that the angels have been war, that two factions have turned against one another over the issue of jealousy for God's affection for the human race. Perhaps the most memorable moment was Viggo Mortenson's turn as Satan as he attempts to put an end to the battle because, after all, the angels are intruding on his territory. Watch this scene, a bit dark and a bit long, but Mortenson is deliciously creepy.

A couple years back Keanu Reeve appeared as Constantine, a demon hunter who also finds himself in a battle between angels and demons and has a face to face with The Dark One. Feel free to watch the below scene, again, a bit long, but I do enjoy this interpretation of Satan.

More recently, the under-rated television series "Supernatural" has effectively dealt with this theme. Two brothers, or hunters, who take on all manner of monster and demon, eventually, through the last several seasons of the series, find themselves in the middle of the Apocalypse and through their actions and interactions with angels and demons, find themselves dealing with Lucifer himself. Some of the creative forces behind this series were responsible for "The X Files" and they in plotting the story arc of the show, they did something "X-Files" creator Chris Carter never seemed to be able to do, keep a together a tightly woven and consistent mythos. Of course, when one has the Christian and other religious mythos to work from, the job is mostly done for them. Still, although it felt like "Supernatural" started out as a horror version of "90210", it became something unique and often brilliant and witty.

And now, the angels are coming again in the form of "Legion", a motion picture which is described in this manner: " When God loses faith in Mankind, he sends his legion of angels to bring on the Apocalypse. Humanity's only hope lies in a group of strangers trapped in a desert diner and the Archangel Michael. (Sony Pictures)"

Really? I don't know about this one. When Hollywood releases a film in the dead of January, it's always a bad sign. When the producers refuse to give it an advance screening for critics..it's a worse sign. I'm afraid that much of what I've heard about "Legion" confirms my fears.

However, I still think there is something here. Folk have asked "What do we do after the vampires and zombies have played out?" I think the answer is in angels. As we approach 2012 and as talk of apocalyptic misery increases, so will the appeal and appearance of divine creatures, coming to both torture mankind and save him.

Me? After I finish my next zombie novel, tentatively called "The Horde", I'm writing me some angels. But they won't be all fuzzy and pink, and not one of them will be named Clarence.

A Roomful of BOB

2010-01-17T10:45:00.000-08:00

I have a friend named Bob. I love him. He's an educator in a women's prison (he once suggested I apply there, then we both laughed and laughed). He's also a history freak, a major gamer (although its mostly chess these days) and an aficionado of classical music and fine wines. He's a brilliant individual who follows his own path. Unique.

Imagine my surprise then when last night my wife and I attended a Mensa get together and I found myself in a roomful of Bob. I'm not saying they were all into fine wine and classical music, but there was a strange ambiance in the air, an ambiance one finds at different fan conventions, an aura of sheer---nerdhood.

Mensa is a group of people who have passed an intelligence test come together to socialize and bask in their intelligence, or at least to find an acceptance they might be denied in the world of the normals. Instead of long discussions about Klingon and the inconsistencies in Cameron's "Avatar", they talk about --- Klingon and the inconsistencies in Cameron's "Avatar". Instead of awkwardly looking for camaraderie and perhaps finding a possible date for an undateable soul---they awkwardly look for camaraderie and hope to find a possible date for an undateable soul.

Much of the evening was spent playing games.

I noticed an absence of the usual fantasy and science fiction activities that one would find at a genre convention. Instead there were a good deal of games that Mensites (my term), would play to affirm their Mensitiness. I'm not saying these games were any more complex (they weren't), or that they relied on a special knowledge (they didn't), but one could imagine a game manufacturer sitting in a marketing meeting saying: "Put it in a plain box and include obtuse and intentionally confusing instructions, the Mensites will eat it up." Much like the manufacturers do for the genre community when they say "Put it in a box with an alien and a half-naked broad on the cover and include obtuse and intentionally confusing instructions and the fanboys will eat it up."

My wife keeps at me to take the Mensa test and to join their horde. I refuse..."I don't know my IQ and I don't want to," I protest. "What if I take an IQ test and find out I'm an idiot who's been overachieving all these years."

"You won't," she coos and daubs at the drool at the corner of my mouth.

Mensa and Furries, there's not a lot of difference other than the costume.

Shape Of Things To Come

2010-01-10T15:32:00.000-08:00

Here is a preview cover for my debut novel from Elder Signs Press, to come out Nov. 2010. Cover art by Malcolm McClinton. This release date gives me time to figure out how best to market it. A zombie novel, a novel of the apocalypse, a novel for fans of action and suspense, but most importantly, and I promise this, a novel about people. I worked hard to make this a character driven piece.

How Do You Teach Creative Writing?

2010-01-06T07:37:00.000-08:00

How do you teach creative writing?

I've been an English teacher for sixteen years and have taught all manner of writing, much of it expository. However, I have always struggled with the idea of teaching creative writing, whether with a group of high schoolers or college students.

Sure, we can teach the basic concepts of plot, character, development and theme. We can help students dissect the works of other writers, looking at how those authors practiced their craft and how students might be able to cherry pick from that ideas to help in their own development. We can ask students what their creative intent was in their story and discuss reader reaction and ways to deliver that intent.

However, at the risk of buying into Jon Zech's theory of talent and craft, I sometimes think that writing classes should be a culling process and that those students who have been indentified as showing promise should be invited into a more advanced class where they can receive individualized attention. I also believe in the ideas of a mentor taking a less experienced person under his or her wing and helping to develop that person's talent. How Italian Renaissance of me.

That, however, can be exhaustive, too. I have often received numerous short stories and novels from people asking for feedback and other forms of assistance. Their position is that even if I'm not approaching their work as a writer, I am approaching their work as a teacher. I mention this because I don't necessarily think I have the credentials as a writer to mentor anyone. Still, mentor and peer support are critical elements in most writer development. It's one of the reasons that writers' groups are popular. Of course, some could argue a writers' group is a matter of the blind leading the blind.

One of my fellow writers, Joe Ponepinto, has always promoted the idea of a writers' community, a network creating bridges between writers of different skills and different disciplines. When I joined the Horror Writers Association, one of the things I liked is that they had a mentor's program. I have never taken advantage of it, but I was pleased that they offered a helping hand for new writers.

Ultimately, people can learn skills but to be able to apply those skills in a creative manner is key. Jon would argue that you could teach people writing skills, but you can't teach writing.

The Horror

2010-01-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

She looked at me. "So, um, what do you write?"

I wanted to say: "Fantasy. Dark fiction. Black comedy. Mysteries. Thrillers. It depends... all sorts of genre." What I said was: "Horror."

Although I have submitted many things to many places, including a novel of black comedy called "Palpable Illusion", the only success I've had is as a horror writer. To date my published short stories have included a comic tale about a demon escaping Hell through the body of a little girl, a tale about a father taking a son on a fishing trip and using faeries as bait, a story about two young boys discovering the darker nature of God, and three Lovecraftian tales, one on the high seas, one set in the mountains in the west, and a third set in a New England college town.

Horror.

And soon a novel--- The Ravening.

So, I'm a horror writer. I should point out that I am in good company as I look at some other authors who have written in the genre. Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Algernon Blackwood, Henry James, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Machen, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Robert Bloch, Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Joyce Carol Oates, H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Ambrose Bierce, Richard Matheson, etc.

Okay, maybe I'm not quite in the same ballpark as these individuals, but I'll settle for a suburb and catch fly balls outside the stadium.

"You write horror?" she asked.

"Horror?" he seconded.

I nodded, growing more secure, feeling the niche and becoming comfortable in it. Even horror writers need love.

"Cool," they said. "Cool."