When the body dies, the soul should be free to leave.
But what if the soul gets trapped? What if it’s left inside to listen…to think…to plot revenge…
What if it manages to bring the body back?
You Only Live Once, the brand-new horror short by yours truly, is available now from Amazon and Smashwords.
Since I stumbled onto Hell Yeah Horror Manga a few days ago, I can’t stop thinking about Japanese horror. North America has nothing on the Japanese in terms of visual horror impact.
To illustrate my point:
“Fushigi no Tatari-chan”
“Corpse Party Blood Covered”
“I Am a Hero”
Even taken completely out of context, as these are, they’re immediately effective. (Tell me at least one of these won’t show up in your dreams tonight…)
I read horror comics when I was a kid, and “normal” comics when I got older. It’s been a while, but I’m getting the urge to pick up the habit again.
Any recommendations?
“What does this say?” is my new mantra. Thanks, Ms. Nine, for the insight.
Reblogged at sniderwriter.com
You’re not new to writing. You’ve been writing most of your life. Everybody writes, even if it’s only a to-do list. My granddaughter is only four and she writes her name followed by all the letters she’s learned so far. She hands me her completed page and asks, “Grandma, what does this say?” What does this say? Indeed, when the writer wants the reader to find meaning in her written word, a loop is formed. The reader and the writer are one and the same.
Finding meaning is a scary prospect. What does your writing mean to you? Is writing a requirement for your day job? What do you need to write? A report? A progress note? An invoice? A manifest? If you don’t want to ask the reader what does this say, then your writing becomes an artifact, a crumb in the continuum of man’s time on…
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I’m editing my newest horror story tonight. It should be ready and up by this weekend sometime. This is my favourite part of writing: when it’s almost ready for you guys to read. It’s like watching someone open something you bought them; half the fun is had by the person who knows what’s in the box.
Things I need:
-an image of a coffin that isn’t stupid
-a few more hours of editing work
-a strong cup of coffee
Keep an eye out this weekend for the new piece. It…goes in a new direction from my other stories (WINK), and I’m pretty happy with it.
In the meantime, check out my previous stories:
Double Creature, which contains the shorts ‘Screee’ and ‘Boogeyman’
I figured out why I was having problems meeting my daily word quotas.
It wasn’t hard enough.
I’m a hugely competitive person, and I tend to only really enjoy things that at first seem insurmountable. Looking back, I think I set my initial word goals too low. I had decided on an arbitrary number, that I knew I could accomplish, so as not to get frustrated and give up.
Instead, the opposite happened: it was too easy to reach my goal, which made my subconscious decide it was not worth doing. Something done by rote becomes boring, and what’s the point of doing something boring?
Way to screw me, Brain.
SO: my solution is to increase the number of words I expect out of myself. I’ve set my new goal at nearly double what it was before, and it seems to be working. Suddenly my brain is processing it as Shit! That’s a lot of words! Better work harder! and the ideas are back. The numbers are back.
Since there’s a worry now that I can’t possibly reach my new goal every day, I have to try harder, which makes me focus more.
My tip of the day: write scared.
Horror Necklace from VonErickson
Vinyl Sticker Decal from BlackfinGraphics
Zombie Wreath from CREEPYSTUFF
I’m not even sure what this is, but it’s strangely calming to watch. Make sure you have your sound on.
(Not a screamer, promise.)
(via Kill All Skellys)
PS – re: yesterday, I WROTE MY GOAL TODAY. BOOYAH. I’M BACK.
Confession: I have not written nearly as much lately as I should.
I have a four-year fold out calendar in my Filofax meant to track and chart my daily writing output. This should have been a blog post with a photo of how I’ve set that up, but let’s face it: my output lately has been abysmal, and I don’t want you to see it.
I’ve been busy, sure. It feels like I’ve been running from one thing to the next for weeks. Part of it was working the Dreaded Morning Shift, wherein I start work at six and become human around noon. Part of it was crafty little things that (enjoyably) ate up my time. I have new ideas for new stories churning out of my head all the time but…I haven’t actually gotten anywhere with them.
I think I’m stuck, a little, on where I’m taking this series of stories. I knew where I wanted to go when I started, but the author of those plans feels like a different person. I tell myself it will take a lot more time to write a novel-length work. Of course it will. But I’ve been missing that high of publishing a new short every couple of weeks. Instead I’ve passed the honeymoon phase of this bigger project without readying myself for the long-term.
It sucks. It’s a bitch to have so many things pulling at the hem of my skirt and (what seems like) no time to get them all done. If I want to give my BIG PLAN a chance to succeed, I really need to work out a firm schedule for writing. Not just when I feel I’ve got time, because clearly nothing gets done that way.
I’ll be pulling out my well thumbed (but never finished) copy of Getting Things Done tonight. And I’m thinking about using a 24-hour timetable in my planner. Something’s gotta give if this thing is going to go anywhere.
Writers: when do you write?
This picture’s a .jpg — it shouldn’t move. It’s just a picture, right?
But if you look closely, really closely, I think I can see her breathing…
(via Hell Yeah Horror Manga.)
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