The Ready Writer

Hello, Hello! We are past the halfway point for Camp NaNoWriMo and my current word count is 5,166 words of my 10,000 word goal!  I'm busy busy busy but I'm still trying to get the words in when I can. Not much else to update on, so I will do some shameless self-promotion! Be sure to pre-order the horror anthology "Death & Pestilence" by Sands Press, coming out June 15, 2017 which features one of my short stories  here . Or, if you are not in the mood for something scary, you can purchase my children's book here . That's all for now! Memento Mori &;

Hello, Hello! Camp Nanowrimo Update:  4592 words. American Gothic Update: This series will be coming in May.  April is tooooo hectic for me to be able to pen it out, but its coming next month :)  For my post today, I just wanted to share a couple of small things that have inspired me lately.  I wouldn't say that I am in a slump, but words are flowing a little slower than usual.  Maybe its because I'm a writer with 2 day jobs, or because I'm working 6-7 days a week.  I dunno.  It doesn't matter in the scheme of things. As many of you know, I'm working on my first novel projects.  One that I plan on publishing traditionally, and one that I plan on publishing serially.  But as a short story writer, I feel very much out of my comfort zone.  A friend of mine came last summer and helped me immensely with the outlining process (which is not the same for everyone, but I didn't even know where to start). But outlining is ...

Hello, Hello! Lets start with some updates: It's Camp NaNoWriMo!  I set a goal for myself to get my project to 10,000 words.  I'm at 4470 right now.  This month is a crazy work month for me (Medford Comic Con is gonna be awesome though), so I'm not sure I'll hit my 10,000 BUT I am chugging along.  Squeezing in words as best as I can. Okay, now on to some suggestions! PODCASTS I am a huuuuuge fan of podcasts.  In fact, I haven't listened to music in....months? because I am constantly listening to podcasts and audio books.  I've recently discovered some new podcasts. I. LOVE. True Crime.  I have loved true crime forever.  I collect all of the Time Magazines about Serial Killers.  I have books on serial killers, I have an encyclopedia of violent crime, I watch True Crime shows, etc. etc. etc. This is a true crime podcast, but what makes this one great (to me) are the hosts.  It is hosted by two smart, savvy, fun, l...

I have written about writing resistance before, but seeing as I am currently in a slump, I thought I would bring the topic up again. I'm having some troubles with a short story. I wrote one for a deadline and because I had only finished the draft the day it was due for submission, I didn't get a chance to edit it.  It got rejected (which wasn't a huge shocker to me), and quite frankly I was a little relieved because that meant that I could polish it. I found another place that was accepting submissions, so I thought "Perfect!" and I got to editing. Only I wasn't really editing.  I was just cutting. My story was well over the word limit for this particular journal, so I just started cutting.  I chopped and chopped and chopped and eventually I just had a collection of fragmented sentences that were sort of going in a direction, but not really telling a story.  In the midst of all of this cutting, I missed the deadline for that journal too. So I scr...

First off, what do you all think of the new theme? I am liking it a lot better. Secondly, you get 2 posts this week! This one, and another shorter one on some writing updates this Friday.  I also have some suggestions, but I may put those in a 3rd post sometime next week (I have 2 podcasts and a documentary that are really great, and horror lovers will love). OKAY.  Now lets talk atmosphere. Last time, we went through the intro of Resident Evil 7.  Now I want to talk a little about a section later in the game. At one point in the game, you have to retrieve an arm in order to make a serum.  That's all I'm going to say about that.  I don't want to spoil more than I have to. What makes this part of the game so great, and so scary, is that it not only creates great atmosphere  but it draws on one of any horror lovers favorite tropes: Scary kid stuff! So to retrieve the arm, you have to go through the terrifying house that takes up 2/3rds of the game...

Hello Everyone! This is Part II of my Scary Video Game series.  We are talking about Resident Evil 7, which is one of the newest, and one of the scariest video games to come on the market. Before I go on, I'm gonna post this first: THIS POST WILL CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS If you haven't played the game, or watched someone play it, you may not want to read on. Okay. So the reason that I want to talk about this game is because it surprised me. All I had known about the Resident Evil franchise was that it had zombies in it.  And while I am not offended or even dislike the zombie genre, a lot of it relies on the fantastical, gross, and the jump scare.  However, Resident Evil 7 doesn't rely on that. That isn't to say that it doesn't  have those things, in fact, it has a lot of those things, but when I think of "what kind of horror" this game is, I would have to say that, at least for the first 2/3rds, it is an atmospheric horror. Why? Because for th...

Hello! I'm back from vacation, my SO has a new job, Lent has started, so now life is ready to get back to normal. I'll write a post on writing progress later, but first, I want to write about....video games. I know.  I'm a librarian, writer, and reader, what the heck am I doing writing about video games? Well, I am all about the scary experience.  What draws me (and many others) to the genre is how it makes us feel.  Not like "the feels" but physically how we feel.  We may sweat, or get the chills, or goosebumps. Our heart may race.  We may see things out of the corners of our eyes.  And horror enthusiasts LOVE that.  That's what horror writers strive for.  That's what horror readers crave.  But there is one outlet that seems to be doing it the best.  Video Games. Video games are interesting because they give the player the first person experience.  When books are first person, you are reading from the perspective of s...