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I haven't done much work--any work, to be honest--on the new new story since last Friday. Not because I didn't want to, but because I wouldn't allow it. As I said last week, there are two directions this story can take and, so close to the beginning, just past the initial set-up, this is the point at which that direction needs to be chosen, because the next scene is going to be the one to dictate if it goes for genre with a definite ending, or "lit'ry" with the open end.
I've been leaning more toward the open end because I think it will make for a better story, but the problem the past few days has been trying to get enough material, in my head, to make a story. So I've been staying away from it, trying to work out those parts in my head. There's nothing set, I haven't mentally written any scenes, it's more just a sense of my confidence in being able to write it at all having grown. I don't see the next scene in my head, but I know there IS a next scene, and one after that, and one after that. I can see them very vaguely, dark shapes behind a sheet, very unformed and indistinct right now, all grey and mumbly, but the closer I get, the more defined those shapes become until, hopefully in the next day or two (I've got Friday off), I'll be able to put some words down, pulling back the sheet and seeing, finally, just what those shapes really are.
Talk about working a metaphor to death. Anyway, that's where the new new story stands as of now.
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Twenty years ago, I read every comic that was being published.
That’s not true. But I read most of them, surely, from DC and Marvel. I also read a ton of the Dark Horse comics and some of the smaller companies as well. For a while, the majority of my senior year fast food paycheck was going to comics.
Over the next few years the cover prices got higher while the quality of the content got lower and eventually I was reading most of the comics, but keeping very few of them. This was possible because my friend Brian owned a shop down the street and every week brought me the new issues and let me return the ones I wasn’t keeping, which he then sold to some other dupe.
When Brian closed the shop and his family moved to Iowa, I stopped reading comics period. After all, I’d just had my second child and bought a house, so it’s not like I could afford them anyway. And for years and years I was totally content not reading comics, because I had collected enough books to keep me busy for the next several decades.
Then, in 2007, Marvel Comics started publishing Stephen King’s THE DARK TOWER comic series. The first arc covered Roland’s earliest chronological adventure, chronicled in Book 4: Wizard and Glass. I had read that this series would tell previously untold stories from that world, so I jumped at it, of course, and began collecting my first comic book series in a decade.
All was well. I went out once a month to get the new issue and I was content. And then Marvel started publishing a new series, Stephen King’s THE STAND.
Sigh.
Okay, I got that, too.
And then they started publishing Stephen King’s THE TALISMAN.
Well, one of the best books ever, I have to get those, too.
And then they started publishing Stephen King’s N. WTF???
While I’m sure it would be good for Marvel, King, and everyone involved if King’s entirely catalogue soon became a monthly Marvel Comics series, that wouldn’t be good for ME, so I sincerely hope they let it go at the ones they have now. I’m happy THE STAND and THE TALISMAN are finite stories with a definite stopping point, and I’m happy N is only going to be a few issues, then it’s done, too.
The Dark Tower, I could read those comics forever, so I’m in no hurry to see them end, but, still, I really think enough is enough for now. Just this month, here are the Stephen King comics I bought:
 
 
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I had a story, "The Room", accepted last year by a magazine, but once the acceptance came and I sent my usual thank you note, I never heard another word. I checked back every so often, thinking--hoping--maybe the story was published and I would see my name on this "in this issue" page of their website. If so, I would then query about a contributer's copy. But it was never there. So I checked again last weekend to find, to my horror, that the magazine had been closed.
I should have seen it coming; I've killed a LOT of magazines. So I decided to list the ones I can remember. Hopefully, this list is complete, but I wouldn't be surprised to find I'd missed a few. Anyway, here are the magazines C. Dennis Moore has killed, along with the titles of the stories that killed them.
Amalgamae ("Biscuithead")
Demons and Shadows 2 (anthology, killed by "The League of Liars")
Naked Snake Press (an entire press was killed by my novella "The Man in the Window")
Undaunted Press (another press was done in by my vampire collection, Icons to Ashes)
Bloodstained Productions (killed by my graphic novel, Fluke)
Autopsy ("Preparations")
Deadly Nightshade (another victim of "Preparations")
Black Petals (an early incarnation of this magazine was done in by "Inside")
Post Mortem ("Astrid Like a Candle")
Dead Winter (anthology, "Working for the Fat Man")
Strange News (anthology, "Maggie Andrews Gets the Facts")
Orbital Injection ("War is a Mixed Bag")
Into the Darkness ("Caduceus, Guises, and the Second Coming", sorry Dave)
42 Magazine ("The Room")
And those are the ones that closed after accepting my work, but before it was published. If you want to add to that, we can list the publications that closed shortly after publishing my work, Silver Lake Publishing (my collection Terrible Thrills), Night Shopping, Dark Corners, Savage Night, Dark Funeral, the Blackest Death anthology series, Scrybe Press, just to name a few.
Man, this list just doesn't bode well for my furture publications. Yeesh.
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I don’t want to waste any time this week on preamble, because the costume is just that bad. You have to see this:
This is MANHUNTER, AKA Paul Kirk, a big game hunter from a long time ago (Manhunter was active during World War II) who one day decided hunting criminals would be a bigger challenge than elephants and whatnot. Now, going back so far into the DC Universe history, I don’t know if this is the costume Manhunter started out in, or if it’s what he eventually wound up wearing, but either way, the fact remains, he did indeed wear it.
I can live with the color scheme. Red, white, and blue is always a good choice. But if he did start out in this in the 30s and 40s . . . what’s with those sleeves? He’s not Prince! And how many layers is he wearing? A white vest over that long, red . . . shirt? . . . can’t be comfortable, especially if it’s part of the trunks, as it appears it is. That’s gotta be pretty, um, snug. And the belt looks heavy as hell.
Overall, this costume is just plain about the silliest thing I’ve ever seen, but you know we have to mention the legwear. Sure, you want a bigger challenge than the average wild animal, but what kind of arrogance leads to something like this?
Does this look the least bit conducive to an action sequence?
Really, even in top condition, how fast you gonna be with medieval torture devices wrapped around your ankles? Man, those house arrest anklets were something back in the day, weren’t they?
I like this shot also as it highlights—as if it was needed—those sleeves. Holy sht, man. It’s like he’s trying to take flight with those things.
Manhunter has a long and confusing history, involving suspended animation, a healing ability, and teaming up with Batman to take out the organization that saved his life. There’s something about his pre-Crisis and post-Crisis history, which just makes things all the more confusing, but I can report, happily, that at one time or another, Manhunter was seen, at least once, in a better costume:
so he wasn’t ALL ridiculous. But that does nothing to erase the memory of those chandeliers he was toting around. Can you imagine those things in the real world? I don’t have any idea what function they can possibly serve that couldn’t be more efficiently designed—or easier to draw. I love Walt Simonson’s work, I think the man is a genius, but even he couldn’t make those things look good.
I can buy, in a real world application, the mask, the arm bands, I can even accept the vest/trunks combo. But those leg braces, jeez! I can only imagine earlier versions of his costume included things like this
In the end, Manhunter’s costume is a huge fail and further proof that some comic creators are simply not taking the time to make their characters believable in a “real world” way. And those are the characters who most often fail. Rightfully so.
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Man, yesterday was a rough one.
I woke up a half hour late to find myself host to a shiny new sore throat and achy joints. It was pretty awesome and led me to accomplishing absolutely nothing in the morning before work. I left work early and spent the day doing not much of anything. Still sore, but I'm still medicating, and hopefully it'll all fade away pretty soon.
This morning I added 449 words to the new new story, for a total of 990 so far.
I'm torn on directions I want it to take. I could go with the open-ended, more "lit'ry" story, or the longer, more exciting genre story. My original concept was the open-ended, but I'm seeing a lot of possibility for the genre version, too, and, let's face it, I'm more comfortable with that area anyway. We'll have to see which direction the story wants to go.
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I woke up this morning to find 50 free downloads in my Emusic account. So I got to downloading.
 
 
Not a bad way to start the day. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come. Yesterday was horrible. After finishing the "new story" the day before, I expected yesterday to be pretty decent. I was writing again, and that's always good, so what could go wrong? Well, a funk, that's what.
I don't know what it was, but I just couldn't shake it for nothing yesterday. I even left work an hour early, just called it a day. Part of the funk was writing. The new story is good stuff, and I really dig it, but I was just in the "what's the use" place yesterday. It was one of those moods where it doesn't matter what I've written in the past, because it's all for nothing anyway. I'll never sell any of it, and if I do get the odd acceptance here or there, so what? It'll either be in some cheap magazine that doesn't pay and no one reads, or it'll be in some royalty anthology that no one buys (or reads) because if I submit it to one of the very very very few paying magainzes with a readership, I might as well kiss it goodbye because those things never reply within a year anyway, so in the end, what's the point?
But as I worked through this funk, I knew part of it was because, with the new story done in first draft, it was time to start thinking about the next story. And, man, I had NOTHING. I started to think about all the other times I had nothing, and then looking at all the stories I've written. Then again, the stories used to come like rain back when, you know, and they were all good enough to write. They come fewer and fewer lately, and it seems every new story that does come can be traced back to something King wrote (dammit), but they still come. I was afraid to start the next story (which I said Monday was probably a vampire story, but the NEXT story is a vampire story, so this VERY next one won't be--yes, I have a system, don't mess with it) without some idea of where it was going because the false starts waste time. But then I thought of how many false starts I've written and realized most of the best stories I can think of that I've written all had false starts. Maybe it's just a part of the process. You have to get those few hundred words down to try to iron out the wrinkles, you know? Get SOMETHING on the page that will serve as a sort of guide, even if it's just to show you where not to go.
I wrote 541 words on the "new new story" this morning, and I like it. Not 100% sure where this story is going to wind up, but I know it won't be about vampires.
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I have long been a fan of Eugie Foster, ever since I read her chapbook Ascendancy Of Blood and realized only later that I’d made specific mention of one of her stories in an earlier review, which cemented in my mind that maybe I should pay more attention to her work. Later, when she submitted a story to an anthology I was co-editing, I had my fingers crossed it would be good, because I wanted the chance to publish her. “Perfidious Beauty” was the easiest “yes” in the entire process.
Unfortunately, as usually happens, I find an author whose work I greatly admire and want to keep up on, and they just start to get ahead of me and I lose track of everything they’ve published. With 32 anthologies listed on her website--that’s not even counting the reprints because I know for a fact one or two anthologies she’s in aren’t on that page--that’s a LOT of anthologies. Way too many for me to keep up with, which is unfortunate because I’d love to see if the work I haven’t read is as good as what I have.
Of the stories I’ve read from her, Eugie seems to specialize mostly in retellings of fairy tales. Her retellings of “Sleeping Beauty” and “Beauty and the Beast”--two of the stories I have read--were not only highly original, but wonderfully-written as well. Just check the excerpt in the Ascendancy of Blood review. Poetry.
So, as I do, I asked Eugie for a little more information for anyone else interested in whatever she’s got coming up:
“My novelette 'Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast' is currently a finalist for both the 2009 BSFA and Nebula Awards. Originally published in issue #220 of Interzone, it was produced as a podcast by Escape Pod and reprinted online by Apex Magazine for free listening and reading, respectively.
“I've also got a story, 'Mortal Clay, Stone Heart,' forthcoming in the DAW anthology The Dragon and the Stars, slated for release this May. Edited by Derwin Mak and Eric Choi, it will be the first collection of science fiction and fantasy stories written by ethnic Chinese living outside of China.
“And finally, I recently reprinted one of my favorite stories, 'Running on Two Legs,' on my website in dedication to the memory of Hobkin, who recently passed away and who was the inspiration for it.”
Also, her short story collection, Returning My Sister's Face and Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice, is available from Norilana Books.
For more on Eugie or her work, you can check her website, or click the covers below:
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This morning I finished the first draft of the new story with 756 words, for a first draft total of 3835. That's just slightly over what I imagined the story would be, which is also going to come down a bit in revision--possibly a lot. Which means the final draft will be pretty much about what I had anticipated. I think I'm getting pretty good the last several years in determining roughly how long the short stories will be, just based on the idea and how the first day or two goes.
I like the first draft, although the first half or more is going to need some serious overhauling, as the story further revealed itself to me as I got deeper into it and now those first couple days of writing don't match up with the last few quite like they need to.
Today's words were frenzied and passionate--to a degree. I wasn't sweating and pounding them out with a fury, but I definitely felt myself begin to slip into the "zone" toward the end, and it felt really nice. I hope the next story brings more of the same. I think the next story will be a vampire story. It's what I've always envisioned when I think of the title, which will remain with me for now--however, if vampire story has always been my first thought in association with the title, maybe I need to take it in a different direction altogether.
This story's going to rest a little bit before I do any revisions. Tomorrow will be another Special Guest Star spot here, then maybe a submission or two on Wednesday. But really I'll just have to see how things play out.
Today's words included:
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The first day of Spring in St. Joe brought about 4-5 inches of snow. Awesome. 6 hours of work on Saturday let to nothing but laundry and movies last night:
 (which was better than I'd expected),
 (which was about what I'd expected), and
 (which was awesome!).
But it's Sunday, which means a movie review. Today's is THE GRAVEDANCERS, #3 in the After Dark Horrorfest 8 Films to Die For. Here are some photos.
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The Marvel Comics villain Diablo may be one of the most ill-conceived characters yet, especially where his outfit is concerned.
Esteban Diablo (later De Ablo) was a NINTH CENTURY Spanish noble who moved to Transylvania to study alchemy. He concocted an elixir that retards the aging process, and then began a reign of terror over the villagers. Eventually the villagers had had enough and they captured Diablo inside a crypt where he remained until the 20th century when he was released by The Thing from the Fantastic Four, whom he later battled over and over.
Now I don’t have a problem with his history, per se. It’s the fact I’m supposed to believe he did it dressed like this that I can’t buy:
For REAL?
For the most part I don’t even have much of a problem with Diablo’s costume. I dig the purple (or is that pink?) and black, and the green even gives it a nice accent. But is this what he was wearing for 11 centuries? And why would he even need a mask back in the 700s? The tights I can buy; I’ve seen enough movies about knights and whatnot to expect tights, but the mask? And not only the mask, but the wing flaps on the mask? Seems a little excessive to me.
And the whole notion of mixing potions and stuff dressed in something like this?
But apparently Diablo did it.
Look at those shoulders, the detail in the chest decoration, the faux cape flaps dangling down. If those aren’t the marks of someone more concerned with his appearance than with his chosen craft, which is alchemy, then I don’t know what is. Actually, yes, I do know: the STACHE! It’s a glorious thing to behold, isn’t it?
Even the little embellishments on his feet bother me. They’re just goofy. And what kind of person from the 700s would think to put his underwear on the outside? Was this EVER a popular look outside of comic books? And I understand we are talking about a comic book character, but in analyzing these costumes in SSVV, we are doing so with an eye toward their real-life applications. And in real life no one’s going to wear this, I don’t care what century he’s originally from.
Honestly I don’t think I would have nearly the problem with Diablo that I have if I thought this costume was just something he put together when he was released in the 20th century, but I know my Marvel Comics enough to have every reason to believe this is always what he’s worn.
Yeah, not dressed like that he ain’t!
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Crap. It's right there. I can feel the end of this story sitting there, just staring at me, mocking me! 628 words today bring me to 3079. I actually deleted the last two sentences from yesterday, so that may be a little off, but either way I'm at 3079 words right now. Sometimes you can have the ending so clearly in mind, but not realize just how difficult it's going to be to get there. Then again, if I hadn't stumbled so much this morning just trying to get started, I could have added more. But it was a rough start. I almost just closed it and did something else. But I knew if I did that, I'd have a moment today at work where I thought about how little I accomplished this morning and I'd hate myself. So I had to model through it and get the words down so I could look at myself in the mirror today.
"Flash Forward" returned last night, finally, with a 2-hour episode. That I didn't watch. I DVR'd it, but instead spent the night watching one of the coolest movies ever
A guy at work loaned me the sequel and while I'm sure it's nowhere near as good, I'm going to watch it, of course, but needed a refresher on how it all started first. Still awesome.
After the movie, before bed, I debated with myself over whether to download and burn
or
In the end, I got em both. Now, time to get ready for work.
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It didn’t get as many words written today as I’d hoped, but I am right there on the cusp of finishing the new story. 410 words mean I’m at 2451 and I anticipate another 1000 words, maybe a few more, will finish the first draft.
I’m already looking at the story scene by scene, preparing to separate them so I can work on the revisions in little compartmentalized sections.
Today’s words were about
 ,
 , and
 .
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I finished and reviewed BOOK OF THE DEAD last night, then started almost immediately on
Jack Sawyer, twelve years old, is about to begin a most fantastic journey, an exciting, terrifying quest for the Talisman--for only the Talisman can save Jack's dying mother and defeat the enemy who is out to destroy them both. But to reach his goal, Jack must make his way not only across the breadth of the United States, but through the wondrous and menacing Territories as well.
The Territories lie as firmly in the imagination as Atlantis or Oz; they are as real as every reader's own vision of that parallel world evoked in the mind's mysterious eye. In the Territories Jack finds a world little removed from the earth's own Dark Ages: though the air is so sweet and clear a man can smell a radish being pulled from the ground a mile away, a life can be snuffed out instantly in the continuin struggle between good and evil. And Jack discovers "Twinners," reflections of the people he knows on earth--most notably the dying Queen Laura, the "Twinner" of Jack's own imperiled mother. But only a few can flip from one world to the other; Jack's late father could, the malevolent Morgan Sloat can, and so will Jack himself.
As Jack makes his way westward toward the redemptive Talisman, a dual array of heart-stopping encounters challenges him at every step--from a terrifying period when he's held captive in an Indiana home for wayward boys that is run by a sadistic religious fanatic, to sudden and murderous attacks by enemies of Queen Laura in the Territories.
Stephen King and Peter Straub have combined their talents to create an unforgettable epic of fantasy, adventure, and resounding triumph.
For my money, this is only one of the best books ever written, and one of the best-written books ever. At least that's how I remember it. I haven't read it since high school. I could be dead wrong. But I doubt it.
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I didn't quite make the 500 word goal this morning, only 488, but it's a good stopping point. I'm at 2041 words now and am anticipating maybe only another 1500 or so. I don't think I'll be working on it tomorrow, though; I've only got 2 stories left in BOOK OF THE DEAD and want to finish those tonight, which will mean the review tomorrow morning.
About this anthology, I can't believe it's 16 days in and I'm still reading it. For real? But that does appear to be the case. Part of it, I know, is the length of some of the stories. It's bad enough it's zombies, but some of these stories are 40, 50, 60+ pages. That's a daunting page count in a book of short stories. But I'm down to the last 2, so I just really want to finish it.
Meanwhile, among other things today I get to listen to
I'm not sold yet on these versions of the songs, especially "Red House" which doesn't seem to carry quite the punch the version I first heard on THE ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE does, but the title track is definitely good stuff.
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The new story grew by another 536 words this morning, bringing me to 1553 (should have been more, since I last left off at 1048, but I deleted a sentence or two this morning). I reached a point this morning where I thought the story was about to stall because I was at the part where I had to decide on a backstory for my main character. Well, first I had to decide if I wanted to include one or not, and if so, I then had to decide on what that backstory would be.
See, I've had an idea in mind the entire time I've been working on it just what this character's motivation might be, but I can't use it, because it's too close to the plot of another short story I ready last year or the year before. So I want to avoid that. But if not that backstory, then what? Because in all honesty, that is the backstory I imagine when I go over this story in my head.
But I had to come up with something else. And I think I have. I'm not sure if the backstory is, in the end, going to be presented as I've written it--it might be worked more into the narrative as it happens as opposed to set aside as its own info dump scene--but I think the motivation I've come up with fits in really well with the ending I have in mind, which also became a little more clear to me once I had the backstory issue worked out.
So what I'm saying is, the new story is coming along just fine. My daily output isn't as high as I'd like--I'd prefer 1000 words a day at least--but it's better than only managing 250, right?
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This morning's review is brought to you by the After Dark Horrorfest movie DARK RIDE. Please enjoy some stills from the movie, courtesy of the After Dark Horrorfest website:
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It must be pretty awesome, in a real-life comic book sense, to be a nearly-omnipotent being of energy, to have no discernibly physical form to be captured, especially if you’re an evil nearly-omnipotent being of energy on a campaign of terror in Coast City.
As a powerful and invisible creature, you’d think the world would be at your mercy. And you’d pretty much be right. So what’s a villain to do? Well, making himself easier to find would be a good start. I mean, how are you going to be tracked and defeated if you’re invisible? So why not try putting on a costume? And, just to make sure no one sees an empty Armani suit walking down the street and doesn’t think twice, why don’t you go ahead and make sure that suit is garish enough to stop traffic?
How about a nice orange and purple color scheme? Perhaps a shiny metal helmet with a space age fin on top, just to give it that last bit of oomph.
Welcome to the world of DC Comics’ “Invisible Destroyer”.
The Invisible Destroyer was in fact the disembodied subconscious of Dr. Martin Phillips who, only a day or so earlier, had been sketching a costumed figure on a pad of paper. He got to the point where he would be adding the face next when the phone rang, or his hot pocket was ready, or the hot pocket he already had started talking back at him, I don’t know. Whatever the reason, Dr. Phillips never finished his drawing. And when the doctor’s mind over matter experiment brought forth his own subconscious in a nearly-physical form, the entity decided to dress itself in the admittedly fugly costume Dr. Phillips had previously been sketching. And this is why Phillips went into science and not fashion.
The creature was pretty dern powerful, becoming even more powerful the more energy it consumed. Hal Jordan stopped the creature—a couple of times—proving those who worship evil’s might have every reason in the world to fear his power, Green Lantern’s light, but the Invisible Destroyer’s legacy lives on in the memories of those who not only can’t work past such a stupid name as “The Invisible Destroyer” (I think the costume with the big blank space where the head should be would be enough to clue us in that he’s invisible—plus, with such a strong name as “destroyer”, you’ve got to make sure you do your fair share of destroying things, but how long can that last? You can rampage through the city tearing sht up, sure, but eventually you get hungry, need a place to rest, do laundry, which you obviously need if you’re wearing a costume, so where do you get money for these things? The obvious answer for a villain is to steal what you need, but even if you decide to pay for lunch, you need money, so you rob a bank. You can go in and destroy the vault to get at the money, but at the end of the day your main goal was not to destroy the vault, but to get the money, so in this case the “destroying” aspect of the whole thing is really secondary and out of proportion to the “name = action” part of the equation. The Human Torch really is a human torch, Invisible Girl really is an invisible girl. Invisible Destroyer is pigeonholed to a pre-determined set of actions by a hasty name choice. Sure I’m overthinking it, but I’m still right), but also have to look at him.
The Atomic Skull was bad, with his skull face covered by a yellow half-mask, and then putting a skull insignia on his chest (redundant much?), but putting a costume—never mind such an ugly one—on an invisible character is just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of.
At the very least, lose the helmet; it’s going to make punching you in the gob way too easy when you’re spotlighting where your head is. Better yet, just lose the entire thing. As a nearly-omnipotent being of energy, what the hell do you need clothes for anyway??? To better help contain your energy in some solid form? Wouldn’t it escape out the neck hole and float away? If the purpose of a costume is containment, I’d think a seamless, enclosed suit do a better job.
We’ll overlook the color scheme, because we’ve definitely seen worse.
Sometimes I just have to wonder which played a bigger part in the creation of some of these losers, drugs or deadlines, because it sure as hell wasn’t a grand idea that just worked away at the writer’s subconscious until he simply had to write this character’s story. Invisible Destroyer had his legs knocked out from under him the second it was decided he would wear a costume. Matters were only made worse by giving him THIS costume. Poor bastard.
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I met Steve Vernon years ago when I was looking for readers for my story “Revenge of the Roach King.” I’d written the story for an anthology of noir tales but, never having written noir before, I needed some readers familiar with the genre to tell me how I did. I posted a request at the SMALL PRESS INSIDER message board and Steve was one of the people who answered the call.
The story didn't make the anthology, but Steve and I became friends pretty quickly. I read and reviewed his short story collection NIGHTMARE DREAMS, which led to inviting him to write a story for the BOOK OF MONSTERS I was putting together (which also resulted in one of the best Frankenstein stories I've ever read, Steve’s “The Endless Memory of Forever Burning Suns”), and then to me asking Steve to write the introduction for my own then-upcoming short story collection TERRIBLE THRILLS.
After reading NIGHTMARE DREAMS , I knew I'd be reading all of Steve's work I could get my hands on, starting with his next project, the novella LONG HORN, BIG SHAGGY.
“There’s things out there that you ain’t dreamt of! Like back-from-the-dead mountain men, green ghost rock spirits, carrion stallions, time-traveling mad scientists, and zombified buffalo for starters.”
But from there, it just seemed to get harder and harder to keep up with his output. Of all the writers I've met, Steve Vernon is definitely one of the hardest working and most prolific. There's Nothing to Lose, The Last Stand of the Great Texas Packrat, Hard Roads, Plague Monkey Spam, Left Overs, Gypsy Blood, and then his alliteration phase, Texas Terrors, Maritime Monsters, Wicked Woods, Haunted Harbors, and Halifax Haunts. And most of these were published over only a couple of years. This guy WRITES. I remember a time I was pretty prolific. I had nothing on Steve Vernon.
  
  
  
  
I asked Steve what he’s got on the horizon because at any given time it seems he's always got something “coming soon”.
“I've got a collection of short stories coming out from Dark Regions this summer. It's entitled Do-overs and Detours. A mix of unpublished and reprint fiction. An introduction by Richard Chizmar and a cover painting by Alex McVey. I've also got a four author, four novella weird western collection, FOUR RODE OUT, due out sometime or other from Cemetery Dance. No cover shot yet. Cover by Glenn Chadbourne with an intro by Ronald Kelly. I've also got a YA novel coming out this fall from Nimbus Publishing, working title DEEPER. No cover shot available yet.”
Told you. You can’t stop him.
With Steve’s non-stop output and other things like life getting in the way, I haven’t been able to keep up with all of his work as consistently as I’d like, but I do know for sure that any time I do come across a new Vernon title, I’m going to be transported and entertained for the duration. He’s not just a writer, Steve Vernon is a Writer with a capital W. He’s got the kind of drive and, even better, talent, that makes me feel like I’m standing still. And his dedication to the craft doesn’t end with writing stories, he also spends part of his time acting as a storyteller in and around Nova Scotia (where he lives) in schools and whatnot.
“I've been a member of the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia and a participant in their Writers in the School program for many years. Through this program I am hired to travel to dozens of schools across the maritimes where I meet with hundreds of school kids. I tell my stories and teach them about storytelling and writing stories. I teach them about the shape of a story, choosing a voice and mostly just give them a little inspiration. I am called back time and time again and the teachers tell me that kids who attend my workshop come away with a new desire to write.”
I wanted to spotlight Steve Vernon this time because, of all the Writers I’ve met, the ones I consider personal friends to one degree or another, Steve Vernon’s one of the few who still manages to amaze me.
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535 words this morning brings the new story (which I'm currently between titles on, but I do think "the new story" has an excellent ring) to 1048 words. I spent most of yesterday working over it in my head, and it was nice to go to bed and just let a story play out in my head like that. It's been too long since that's happened.
What did today's words cover? Well, there was
and then
and finally
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