New Concepts and Activities

This blog is mostly a general update, but I also have some good writing news to share. I'm glad to say my short story "Marrow" was accepted into "No One Can Hear You Scream: An Anthology of Deep Space Horror." I'm very glad that worked out because I thought "Marrow" was a good concept and I've been looking for a good home for that story for a long time now. I had to cut about two thousand words out of it (this was very difficult for me to do, but it needed to be done) and I found that when I was finished the story became much more fast-paced and was actually much better. Still, I think when the rights run out for this anthology I'll try to get the full version published somewhere else. There were a lot of interesting setting descriptions and character development scenes I had to remove. Still, the one critique I had of the story was that it was a little too slow starting out. That problem was fixed for this anthology, so overall I think it's a better story now than it was. I'm still waiting to hear back from "Arkham Tales: A Magazine of Weird Fiction" where I submitted "Waterspouts" and the "New Bedlam e-zine" about my story "Sleep Like the Dead" that I resubmitted. Please, wish me luck.

Currently I'm reading "Insomnia" by Stephen King. This is yet another book I don't recommend reading until you have a lot of time on your hands to read it nonstop. It's been very difficult for me to put it down. This book causes insomnia if you don't get to a good stopping point. This is also the first book where I've actually caught a glimpse of the actual Dark Tower, which I thought was very interesting. I'll write a more thorough review when I'm done. It's a six hundred and sixty three page book, and I'm on page four hundred and fifty five, and I only started it last week. Yep, I'm addicted, but I do tend to read obsessively.

I'm hoping to get some more books for my birthday. I'm going to at least ask for "Reliquary," "City of Saints and Madmen," and I think that my friends are going to buy me the first book in "The Dresden Files." I've heard good things about all of these books, so I'm looking forward to it. And, if there are any others that I decide I want that I don't get, there's always the library.

I just was inspired to write another novel as well. I had a concept for a steampunk novel set in a fantasy universe a long time ago. I wrote a short story based on the concept, but it wasn't my best story, and it didn't get into the anthology I was working towards. Still, it's for the best, because now I'm ready to expand on that story into a series of novels. I've been writing notes for a few days now, creating a mythos for the setting of the books. It's a story of fey, winged humans, and normal humans at war with one another in a world where steam rules industry, and people make pacts with spirits and elementals to help them power their machines. While I don't have the full plot worked out, I have created part of the setting and most of the character concepts. Hopefully this week I can roughly map out the world so I know what boundaries I have to play in. Let me know what you think of the idea. I was inspired by many different things, and the universe has the feel of a Hayao Miyazaki film combined with a great deal of steampunk literature.

Other than that, I've been doing my usual housework, visiting with my family, and writing at a story or two. Still, I have a new addiction now, the game Heroes V. (For those who have never played it, it's a turn-based strategy game where you hire a hero to guide your army, gather resources, and build up your armies in an attempt to overtake the towns of other heroes. We've been playing cooperatively and it's a lot of fun. Oddly, since it is a fantasy setting, in some ways it's inspiring as well. It's odd, but sometimes when I don't feel inspired, certain video games will inspire me. (Oblivion was one that really helped aid in my inspiration, because since it was both an adventure game and a role-playing game, I could picture the sort of things the character might be thinking or feeling and it was a good exercise for my imagination.) Maybe I'm just odd that way...

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this blog and I hope you're having a good Monday. Take care. I have a book to plan.