Monthly Archives: October 2013

writing

Fiction – The Harvest: Bloodhound


Today’s Flash Fiction is a continuation of the story I posted for the corn related challenge a few weeks ago. I plan on adding to this story serially (cereally?) over the coming weeks. They’ll be available on my Wattpad
page as well. Wattpad is a story sharing site and everything is free. Enjoy the story!

Mikey slotted his coffee cup under the single cup dispenser. He promised himself when he left the force he’d never drink bad coffee again. This stuff wasn’t the best but it was light years beyond the motor oil at the station house. As it brewed he pulled out his Droid and flipped it open. He thumbed through e-mails and stopped when he got a notification his Dropbox business account was nearly full. That was odd since neither he nor his partner Vic were in the office today. He walked over with his coffee to the laptop on his kitchen table.

The screen came to life and it booted to the Ubuntu login screen. He didn’t think he’d ever be this geeky, but his son was in IT and wanted to make sure dear old Dad had access to all the latest tech tools in his new business endeavor. Set up correctly it all worked fairly well. He logged on and opened up the folder. It was full of pictures in a RAW format. The lack of any digital compression meant they were large, but according to his partner it meant they’d have more information and could manipulate the images better. He didn’t understand that part of things yet.

There were thirty pictures in all. He started the light box software. These were from the case they had taken on late last week. Vic had gotten a lead on the missing person and was chasing it down. Mikey wanted to go with him, but it was a one man job. These had been uploaded remotely, which struck him as odd. The pictures of the farmhouse and its interior were all normal enough. That was, until he got to the pictures of the kitchen. When the woman’s head stared out of the fridge at him it was a challenge for him to keep his composure. He did push his chair back, causing the coffee on the table to slop over the mug’s rim.

“What on Earth?” He pulled out his phone again and immediately hit the first number speed dial. The phone rang and rang, but his partner didn’t answer. Not good. That it rung, meant there was at least signal. Vic rarely left it in his car and it was only on vibrate when things were extra risky. If he had it on his person he’d answer and hang up after a three count. No answer meant it was in his car or he was incapable of answering.
Continue reading Fiction – The Harvest: Bloodhound →

writing

Chainsaws And Chicken Scissors

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I love to read and write smart horror. On of the marks of what makes horror “good” in my mind is the ability to take something common place and make it into something truly horrific. (For more on what I and some others think make for good horror check out Mike Plested’s podcast episode “Horror Comes To Get Published”.) Two examples popped into my mind this morning on the way into work and gave me the title of this post.

I don’t think you can google “chainsaw” wihtout getting hits referring to the 1970’s chainsaw massacre franchise or its remake. Tobe Hooper’s creation set the tone for many horror stories to come. The chicken scissors reference comes from a series of stories by Scott Sigler. In Infected, Perry Dawsey uses them to cut off some very tender bits of himself to stem the tide of an alien virus. Since using the kitchen implement in his stories, his fans all cringe at the mention of them.


Horror is certainly full of unique characters and implements of destruction. Freddy’s glove is a one of a kind item, but seeing a hockey mask or a creepy doll is going to happen with greater frequency. If you can tie a visceral reaction to that everyday object then you’ve succeeded in creating something that your audience can’t get away from.

What mundane object or situation has an author “ruined” for you?

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Review: Script Kiddie (Assured Destruction #2) by Michael F. Stewart


I reviewed and thoroughly enjoyed the first Assured Destruction e-book and reviewed it here. Since it was only $.96, buying the dequel was a no brainer.

Jan Rose no longer steals data from the old computers she recycles. She doesn’t need to. As the newest member of the police department’s High Tech Crime Unit, the laptop of a murderer has landed on her desk. Her job: to profile and expose a killer.

But that’s not all.

A creep lurks in the shadows, stalking a friend, and Jan must stop him before the hunt turns deadly. The clock counts down for Jan to save her friend, her job, her boyfriend–maybe even her life.

I have found a YA character that I can really geek out about. Michel has created several interesting characters in this world, but as it should be, the main one is the star. She makes stupid mistakes and the kinds of assumptions that aren’t limited to the teen set. When that happens, the author doesn’t go easy on her. Still Janus has a good heart and you want to root for her as she tries to do the right thing.

There are a few plot threads that form the main thrust of the plot and then there are the struggles that carried over from the previous book. The shop owned by Janus’ mom is in deep water and sinking fast. Janus’ mom has severe health issues and Janus still doesn’t trust her mom’s boyfriend. On top of all that, she can’t seem to make her boss, her principle, or her boyfriend happy. Michael does a great job of keeping all of these threads woven into a tight tapestry.

Michael also uses his book to introduce us to the world of hacking. You don’t have to have a technical background to enjoy the story and you’ll probably learn a thing or two. While my hacker friends might (or might not) find fault with those aspects of the story, I don’t. Any shortcuts he takes serve to move the story along.

I want to go back to Janus. I admire that he’s created an imperfect and thus realistic YA character. There might by the temptation to make the protagonist of your YA story a model citizen. Given the tremendous pressures she’s under, Janus makes the aforementioned mistakes. She lies, cheats, and steals. She does it all for reasons that she thinks is good, but he doesn’t let her off the hook. This gives her lots of opportunities for growth and development. I look forward to the next story to see how he continues to put the screws to her and and to find out what Janus will do under pressure.

I give this story five out of five gray hats.

Michael’s Site
Michael’s Twitter
Amazon Kindle Link

writing

Writing Tools

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I was listening to the Reader/Writer podcast on my way into work this morning. The topic was “One Question: Writing Tools”. The question, “what is your most important tool for writing?”, elicited some great repsonses, including not just software and hardware, but tactics. It got me to thinking about mine. It’s hard to list just one, so I’ll list three.

1) Write Or Die – This website and app is dead simple. You an find it at writeordie.com. The purpose is to just make you write. You set a time or word goal and it gives you a blank page. If you don’t start writing, or if you pause, it starts changing colors and playing noises. If you set the level of difficulty high enough it starts deleting words. The app is nice because it lets you save your text to a file, rather than the copy/paste of the web app. There’s also an app for the iPad/iPod. That app will let you export to Dropbox, email, the cipboard, or a text file. The thing I love most is that it’s helped me to turn off my internal editor. The words don’t always flow, but I don’t have the luxury of hemming and hawing over every sentence.

2) Google Docs/Drive – This is nothing new. Authors all over the world use it. I love the fact that I can keep my stuff in the cloud and have it all in one place. I have folders for my different works in progress. I can keep my spreadsheet for outlines in the same folder. When I’m done it makes it easy to share with my beta readers. I also use the app on my tablet.

3) My Commute – This isn’t an app or a strategy really. I’ve often thought about using the commute for verbal storytelling into an electronic recorder, but there you run into turning that into typed prose. What I use my commute for is two-fold. I listen to podcasts and I muse. The podcasts, a mix of writing and fiction, are often inspirational. The musings can result in getting my out of corners I’ve painted myself into. It can mean thinking about characters and motivations. It can mean new story ideas. This time is relatively distraction free and is invaluable.

What are yours?

writing

Watch Your Language

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I don’t read or listen to a lot of fantasy or historical fiction, but two things I consumed recently caught my interest. I just finished listening to The Ballad of Iron Percy and I’ve been watching Sleepy Hollow religiously. Both had instances where I wondered, “Would a character from that time period, or a similar time period, speak in that way?”

In the case of Iron Percy, the character of Elise Aranoun had what struck me as a very modern way of speaking. I don’t remember any idioms right off the top of my head, but more than once I thought about her manner of speech. Granted, the world it takes place in is completely fictional. That should give the author some freedom. More on that freedom in a bit.

Sleepy Hollow is more of a bit of historical fiction. Ichabod Crane awakens from a two century long nap and has no problem understanding or being understood. That’s not a big issue. He does need to be told about modern idioms, which is good, but while I know our language hasn’t changed a gret deal in the main points over the last two hundred years, I would think it would be a little more challenging. In a recent episode I was pleased that they had someone who spoke Middle English.

So, in a purely fantasy setting, where the world resembles in some fashion our own medieval times, how important is it for the author to use a more archaic form of English for speech, or at least to avoid modern phrases? I could see using the argument that what we’re getting is perhaps a “translation” of the happenings in the native language. The same would be true of historical fiction from a non-modern or non-English period. What do you think?

writing

Review – Ballad of Iron Percy by Ed Clark (Podcast)

I’ve been hearing about this podcast novel for a long time. It would come up whenever I asked what podcast should be next in my queue and for whatever reason it just wouldn’t make it into the queue. Finally, I have corrected that oversight.

Synopsis: It has been twenty years since the island nation of Great Hale conquered the New World and became an empire. Lord Percival Wilmore, the Hero of Naruna Isle, has been the governor of the New Jucata since the war’s end, and it has been his life’s work to make the colony a peaceful and prosperous part of the Halan Empire. By all accounts, he has succeeded. The city-states of Old Jucata have been dominated utterly, the old religion has been completely supplanted by the Halan faith of the White Veil, and Jucatan goods have made Great Hale the envy of the world. He is beloved by the people, and he has ensured that this Halan colony is built to last.

But New Jucata’s future is not as secure as it seems. As the head of state for the colony, Lord Wilmore is the highest legal authority in the land, and he is called upon to try a most curious prisoner. The events and outcome of this interrogation threaten to tear Halan Rule of Law apart and bring anarchy to the region.

Pandemona stands accused of being a Pak Shar – a dangerous and seductive demon previously seen only in Veil mythology. With her scarlet skin, lithe tail, and dainty set of horns, she certainly looks the part. Her way with words and alluring demeanor only serve to underscore this perception. Under Halan law, the punishment for being a demon is death by fire at the stake, but Pandemona is entitled to a fair trial by Lord Wilmore and the colony’s Curate before she can be convicted and executed. This interrogation is her only chance to escape. She must use all of her wit and guile to survive.

Is Pandemona really what she appears to be? What is she here to accomplish? Is she an evil and subversive creature, sent from the Abyss to torment mankind? Or is she simply disfigured and misunderstood? Whatever the truth may be, her presence is not a good omen.

The Ballad of Iron Percy is a song of glorious triumph, written to honor Lord Wilmore’s victory against overwhelming odds in the Conquest War. It is an iconic tune in New Jucata. The specifics of the verses vary in each separate rendition, but the overall tone is one of bravery, achievement, and joy.

Unfortunately for Iron Percy, his Ballad is not yet over…

Production:  This is a straight read. There is some good bumper music, but no effects or additional production values. The audio quality is very clean, but the version I listened to had some editing marks. The producer used audio cues to tell her where to cut and they were not always removed.

Grade: B-

Cast:  If you’re going to do an audio book and you don’t have the talent for reading, then please, please, please hire Veronica Giguere. You can find her at http://voicesbyveronica.com. She’s an author and an audio producer as well. She voices all of the characters and provides the narration and is one of those voice actors who remains in my top ten. She developed strong, consistent voices for each character, and while the red skinned lady in the picture steals the show, the rest of her performances are stellar. 

Grade: A+

Story: This is Ed’s first novel. It shows a little. Some of the prose could use a trim. Some things get over explained. Having said that, I love what he does with the unreliable narrator tropes. We get Pandemona telling her story over much of this, so it’s a little like Scheherazade regaling her captors. In fact it’s almost exactly like that. I imagine that’s on purpose. About half of it is this and the other half gives us other perspectives.

I do enjoy the world Ed built. The conflict between the church and the government is nicely done, as is the conflict between homelanders and colonists. The story has a lot of action and adventure, with a dollop of trollop-y action. (That means sex.) Ed also takes the opportunity of using the outsider’s perspective to examine what it means to be human. I  look forward to the sequel (which is apparently written, but yet to be released.)

Grade: B+

Verdict:  I highly recommend this podcast. Don’t make the mistake I did by waiting. Move it to near the top of your queue. It’s quite long, but worth every minute.

Grade: A

http://www.balladofironpercy.com/
Podiobooks

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Interview – Kickstarting Horror With Zen Davis

Zen sent me an email a few days ago to let me know about his new Kickstarter which can be found here – http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zendavis/asylum-33d. I love supporting up and comers in the horror genre so I thought I’d ask him a few questions.

1) Tell us a little bit about your background as a writer,

The majority of my writing has been private. The writing that hasn’t has been submitted been submitted on a regular basis to Francis Ford Coppola’s screenwriting website Zoetrope. I wrote and submitted many screenplays for peer review including Chloroform Kids, Pele, Ringtone, and Biohazard. I met a lot of interesting and creative writers there that helped me develop into the writer I am today. I suggest if anyone is looking for a site where people actually read your work and get back to you with great feedback, go to Zoetrope. Some members are bitterer than others due to a lack of success, but that can be said of any creative community really.

When college rolled around, my writing became more academic in nature. It was a whole new way of drafting content, and it took some time to grasp. I was particularly proud of my final paper for college when I graduated. Although I was docked a full letter grade for being a night late, my professor proclaimed that I had turned in the best final paper of any student that semester. I was ecstatic with the comment because the professor graded like a son of a bitch, and I’d worked my ass off to make him happy.

With school out of the way, I finally got back into creative writing. I wrote monster and item descriptions for a small Kickstarter game called EvoCreo and earned my first $100 in the game industry doing so. The project creator just rehired me to do more work since he liked what I did the first time around.

I also purchased an amazing program called Articy;Draft that I suggest any writer purchase. It’s available on Steam and it makes the process of outlining and developing your story a breeze. Now I’m working every waking hour try to get the word out about the Asylum 33D.

2) Why did you choose to crowdsource your project and what made you choose KS specifically?

I’m currently paying every cent to my name back towards my college loans. Once I get into law school, I will incur at least an additional $35,000 worth of debt per year. Over three years, that’s $105,000. With interest, I have no clue how I’d be able to afford printing the novel. Crowdsourcing my project is the only way to get it out inside of the next four years. Still if I have to wait four years to get this out, I have to wait four years. Eventually I intended to release Asylum 33D. Crowdsourcing lets me get to it a lot sooner however.

Kickstarter itself was an easy choice. It’s the most visible of all crowdsourcing sites.

3) You’ve set a very attainable goal at $3000. You’ve got some amazing stretch goals. Provided you make them what are the challenges you face in overcoming them and how do you plan to overcome them?

A building is only as strong as its foundation, and for Asylum 33D that foundation is the novel. It sets up our ghosts, our characters, our locations, and our story. Once we have that, everything else will line up quite nicely.

One of the ways I’ve mitigated issues with the stretch goals is that I’ve made everything digital. The art book, graphic novel, visual novel, and game will all be distributed digitally. No box copies. This will take out a lot of production guesswork that other projects face. When something is completed, it gets added to a server and mailed to the backer. Easy, easy-peasy, japanesey.

The art book will be the easiest of the stretch goals. It will be mostly in-bulk black and white art drawn quickly on a daily basis. Artists will be assigned portions of the books to read and once they finish, they will draw out story boards and concepts from the sections they covered. These images will be put together in a PDF and mailed to backers. No hassle, no haggle.

The graphic novel will be compiled in a similar way. The art direction will need to be dealt with in a more disciplined way so that everything remains consistent. The page count will need to be looked after since our budget can only cover so many pages of colored art. Luckily, the art book will have acted as rough draft for us. We will know exactly how many pages we need to tell our story and exactly what we need to cut to keep to our page count.

Now things get tricky with visual novel. The deal-breaking issue that needs to be dealt with here is the voice acting. It can’t suck. If it does, the entire thing is a wash. A misstep could ruin the entire tone of the visual novel. I intend to fully cooperate with the community in choosing our cast and show restraint and caution when deciding parts. Together we will make the best informed choice we can.

The game will be the hardest thing to get right. The gameplay is something that needs to feel right. Once again we’ll be cooperating with the Asylum 33D community to see what works, what doesn’t. Every backer will be involved from the pre-alpha stage. Their feedback will take seriously and be implemented at every opportunity. However, the limitations of the budget will also need to be made clear to them. Although $375,000 is a significant amount of money, there will have to be an understanding that we probably won’t be able to implement every request they have.

4) The art that you have on the KS page is amazing. What’s your relationship with the artists? Have you worked with them before?

Our relationship is pretty much a business relationship. We met when I decided to place an ad on Deviant Art. I usually use references to show the artists what I’m looking for and let them do their thing on a first draft. When they get back to me, I use MS Paint to make changes, if necessary, to let the artists know what aspects I’d like done differently.

The clown, for example, isn’t how Nicolas originally intended him to be. I was involved and drew out rough examples of the changes I wanted. He took care of the rest. I work similarly with the rest of the crew.

5) You and I share a love of horror. What are your influences?

“It” pretty much scarred me. I was 7 when I saw the film on TV and Tim Curry kind of violated my soul. That’s not hyperbole either. For the entire week after I saw the film, I was terrified of a clown popping out of the drain, ready to eat me whole. It was phobia bad. Just a constant everlasting sense of dread going to school, walking around sewer drains, and going to the toilet.

The book wasn’t much better. There was a small part where Mike Hanlon goes over various cases of children being killed. One I remember in particular was of a small child, about five or six, who was getting ready to potty train himself. Pennywise came up the toilet drain, hit the kid like a locomotive, and smashed the poor kid’s skull open. It’s been about ten years since I read the book, though I’m pretty certain that was in there. The first time I read the novel though was when I was ten… I needed better guardians.

6) What books are you reading now?

Barack Obama – The Audacity of Hope – I read a chapter a day while I study for law school.

The Walking Dead – Humanity sucks. The graphic novel. (guest starring: Zombies.)

One Piece – No currently running graphic novel series has made me weep more consistently.

7) What are your top 3 favorite horror movies?

01. Jaws – Changed the way people look at the ocean forever.

02. The Thing – The creature effects are amongst the best ever.

03. It – The second half isn’t as good. But the first half is breathtakingly horrifying.

8) What do you drink when you’re creating?

I’m usually dehydrated.

9) What’s your favorite swear word?

The same as Samuel L. Jackson.

10) If you could wield any weapon in combat what would it be and who would it be against?

A) Aerosol golden poison frog spray can. Dead before you know it hit you.

B) The Shark. I wanted Quint to live so bad. Right in those doll eyes… I miss Robert Shaw.

You can contact Zen through his website @ZenDavis.com or follow him on Twitter @ZenDavis

fiction

Fiction – Dead Kids Walking

This is the first part of a WIP for my second entry in the Wattpad Horror Smack Down. –

Tyrell couldn’t wait until Halloween. It was the one night a year that he and his friends could walk among the living without fear of being caught. As ghosts they still looked much like they had at the point of their deaths and in his case that was pretty ugly. His dad had gone nuts and stabbed him about thirty times with a butcher knife. As if that weren’t enough, the old man had taken hunks out of his corpse and ground it into sausage for his breakfast the next day. That had happened thirty years ago and he still hadn’t really gotten over it, not that anyone could blame him really.

His first stop was to pick up Aileen. The girl had developed an allergic reaction to something in her scarecrow costume and had suffocated to death. “Hey Ty!” Her voice was a little muffled. They tried to take off the mask once, but there was no seem. She was stuck in her costume for eternity, or until they could find a way to move on.

“Hey Aileen” Tyrell waved back. “You ready?”

Aileen laughed. “Yup. Not like I have to worry about my makeup anymore.” She arose from the sea of Jack o’Lanterns. The people that bought her parents’ house after they moved were nuts for Halloween. When they had all of the gang together this would be the last and best stop.

The walked to pick of Joey next. Tyrell marveled not for the first time that his shoes made noise. In addition to being visible and blending in, they could interact with the living and be looked on as one of them. He did a little dance, enjoying the scuffling sound.

“Eww, stop. Your dangling bits are making weird noises.”

Tyrell could imagine the frown. His shredded flesh and exposed organs were indeed making a bit of a sloshing noise. He supposed that would be off putting. A gaggle of other kids passed them going in the other direction.

“Awesome costume, dude!” A boy wearing a Clone Trooper suit from the dollar store gave him two thumbs up.

Tyrell waved at him and smiled. The grin faltered when he remembered how he’d earned his “costume”. With determination he plastered it back in place. He wouldn’t let his old man rob him of this night.

A little further up the road, a chubby kid dressed like a hobo waited for them. “Hey guys.” He had his hankie on a stick over one shoulder. His face was smudged with dirt.

“Howdy Joey!” Tyrell almost didn’t want to pick their friend up. Joey was always a bit of a downer. He actually had been a homeless kid in life and was killed by a fellow transient. Now he was forever stuck in what had become the paragon of the lamest costume ever.

“Only one more in our troop.” Aileen looked around. “she was supposed to be here with you.

Joey pointed up the street. “Becky went that way. She said she just couldn’t wait.”

Tyrell growled. She wasn’t the most patient of spooks. He looked for her white dress and saw it sparkling in the distance. “Come on!” He broke into a run, not knowing if they’d follow. He got to her just a few seconds ahead of his friends.

Becky was an angel, not literally, but after getting lost in a blizzard on her way to a church pageant, she had frozen to death. Her wings and halo were top notch but had been fake and still were. Her cherubic face, that of a ten year old, turned and greeted Tyrel l with a frown. “Took you guys long enough.”

fiction

Fiction – One Night At The Last Call

This is a bit of short fiction I wrote for a contest on Wattpad.

Iowa is a place, it turns out. Or at least it was before the bombs fell from the sky during the Last Great War (a war that was neither the last, nor particularly great, and may not have in fact been a war per se). I could see where it used to be from my window high above the Big Blue Marble. Well, to be honest, it’s the place scholars think it was. Large chunks of the North American continent no longer exist. I closed the history book (not a book and I called the quality of history in question) and looked back out at the expanse below. “People never learn from their mistakes.”

“Pardon?” Annabelle asked the question from her station behind the bar. She looked like a lovely girl, from the waist up. From there down, she was a mass of wheels, gears, and circuitry.

I looked at the AI bartender. “Just pontificating on the history of mankind, such as it is. Unlike ‘bots and ‘droids, we stink at learning from what has come before. That’s the reason why this place needs a bouncer.” As the self-described bouncer, or as we were known on most Alliance space stations Sentient Attitude Readjustment Officers, it was my job to make sure no one caused a ruckus in The Last Call. It was the last bar in orbit around my planet of origin. As such it was really the last bar “on” Earth, so long as you allowed the word “on” to include near Earth orbit. It inter-galactic terms it was close enough for horseshoes and hyperbombs.

She smiled. “Well we won’t need you much longer.”

“True enough. What’s the countdown til station implosion?” In spite of Saint Kane’s Fourth Rule, one of the many rules that scrolled around the bar’s walls, there was such a thing as a last call in this ironically named bar.

She displayed the timer across her voluptuous, bare breasts. “Ten minutes, thirty-five seconds, and some change. You’d best be on your way soon, Jonesy”

I sighed. She was right. There wasn’t much left for me to do. Only one sentient still drank, a Conjoined Marriage Unit only counted as one person for tax and IQ purposes, and they weren’t even arguing with each other.

“I may stay here.”

“Why on Earth would you do that Jonesy?” Annabelle cocked her pretty little head. I could almost hear the gears work from where I stood.

“I’m not sure there’s much to do for an old man like me.” I scratched at my graying beard. “Did you know I’ll be two hundred and four next month?”
Continue reading Fiction – One Night At The Last Call →

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Let Me Flattr You!

One of the questions I’ve heard more than once over the years is, “Can money be made from podcasting?” The answer is usually “Not really.”, but there are people that do it. Some of them do so indirectly. People listen to their podcast fiction and buy their book(s). Other’s have set up a “subscription” model through Paypal. Still others, at least in the podcast fiction world, go through Podiobooks where listeners can donate and the author gets a large percentage.

There are a few problems with these options. Some people don’t want to buy your books. They’re happy to listen to the podcast and then move on. They might, like me, want to throw you a buck or two for the entertainment you provided without adding to their collection of stuff. Other people have an undying hatred of Paypal. And on the creative side not everyone wants to deal with putting their stuff on Podiobooks (I’ve yet to), or their content might not be fiction.

Is there a solution to these issues? It turns out that there may be. It’s called Flattr. (I know, I know, again with dropping a final vowel.) How does it work? It’s pretty simple really. Sign up for free. Put some money into your Flattr account using a major credit card or Paypal. Then “Flattr” content creators that you want to support. Every month an amount you budget is divided by the number of Flattrs you distributed and 90% of that money is given to the creators. Flattr gets the other 10%.

There’s a problem with this, though. I can’t Flattr you if you don’t sign up for Flattr (well I can actually, but you don’t get any money unless you sign in). So help me to help you and other content creators. If you’re a fan of podcasting and other content creators, sign up and get to Flattr’ing. If you’re a creator, do the same thing, but also make sure to add a button or widget to your site and let us know that you’re using it and why.

Let me bottom line this for the consumers out there though, if you’re listening to, watching, reading, or otherwise enjoying something find a way to thank the creators. Comments are awesome. Retweets and shares are great. Getting paid is even better. Let them know how much you value what they do!