On The Road Again......

So during this time of lock out and legally forced oppression we have decided to jump back into writers' groups for entertainment. I think groups are a good idea from time to time; to get one self out of the solitary status that is writing and try things out on the road.

I have started in Stamford with two groups and my poison is a piece already published, in fact published twice and critically acclaimed titled WHEELS BUNDLED IN RUBBER.

I chose a piece already published to demonstrate what I write as opposed to what I am currently experimenting with.

Reaction to the massively non-horror market has been mixed. An older crowd enjoyed its simplicity, its poetry. We had quit a marvelous critical discussion.

But a younger crowd hated it since it failed to touch on the question of bias in society. No I wasn't dealing with bias, I was dealing with the question of man making war against man and man's proverbial inhumanity against man.

These millennial children seemed to be stuck in a more microscopic view of societal ills; those they feel only involve them directly.

This is why the culture is doomed and this is why fewer people actually read to broaden their horizons rather than back their view of the world.

Shame.

Next week is New Haven and the wheels will be on the road again.

Milford Connecticut's 375th Birthday

No we are not among the list of local writers and authors included in the library bash to celebrate our talents as just local folks. The literary giants that walk among us see it fit not include a simple horror writer like me.

I guess my head isn't pointy enough for that tri-cornered hat.

According to several in the arts scene I am one step lower than a pornographer.

Recently I spoke with another gentlemen who relayed his parallel experiences as a horror and science fiction writer in his own town.

Mundane story telling's discrimination against horror, science fiction and fantasy writers is age old. I could tell about some of those writers who did all they could to demean the work of our forefathers  but frankly those frothing at the mouth bigots have all been forgotten.

Okay Nothing more On Law and Politics

But that decision really irks me. Enough with our bent moral compass let's get back to WRITING.

Anyway, I had a discussion the other day with two budding authors who thought me to crazy for the genre I toil in.

One: They initially had the idea I was hiding a hockey mask in right back pocket while the machete was in my left. Let me ask you, I said, if you write a romance piece does that mean you are over-sexed? "Well no... but.."

Two: Do you honestly think I cannot be trusted with women and children in the same room? "No, but the things you think of ...."

Imagination has always been the fuel with which we create our art. Let's not lose this sense and judge a book simply by its cover.

The Experiment Is Over I Have Pulled The Plug

Okay I tried the Efiction workshop for horror. If you remember we were told a story of mine titled JUST ANOTHER GHOST STORY was ready, or just about ready, for publication but it had to go through 'the workshop'. We submitted the story eight days ago and there were no comments. In fact there was little activity in any of the workshops; some over a month. I know things are slowing down; but my ADHDMOUSE and type AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA personality just wants to move my stories to publication. In short not a good fit and I pulled the plug. I just pray Efiction isn't just short of pulling the plug for lack of activity. We wish them well.

Santa Barack is Coming: WE THE PEOPLE not a political post but a post concerning copyrights

So in the wake of the election where getting stuff means more than Country, The White House has opened a site titled WE THE PEOPLE where anyone can write their own want list to the President. Gather up 25,000 signatures and The White House, since it has nothing better to do like put people back to work, solve the debt crisis or deal with China's invasion of Japan, or Israel being bombed every ten second, can attempt to fufill your Christmas wish everyday. One of the first is the Twinkie where people have called for a government takeover of Hostess---damn pressing issue. But another caught my eye which is gaining support. This a call to limit copyright protection om the net and in print. In other words, artists should not have copyright protection because 'they can make money in other ways'; and to arrest people who illegally violate copyright laws 'would be an invasion of privacy'. So everything should be free for me a talentless, intellectually lacking bum so I can sample or outright steal the product so I CAN make money on it as I claim it for my own. And if I should break the law an arrest is an invasion of privacy? Does that also apply to murder? Welcome to the future of the United States-- Land of Free Stuff and Home of the Lazy. This is not a political statement: property rights are under assault. Those who don't have or even lack the talent to have feel everything should be given them. The oresent administration to remain in power will placate them. Whine and it shall be yours. But to us writers who contribute to the culture of this great nation, be damned. This proposed peace of legislation is so poorly written you can tell what kind of talentless hack wrote it. I would reproduce it here but the administration who claims they are for preserving the free exchange of ideas and have no copyright on these tomes will not allow it to copied and reproduced. Comrades, once we lose our art we lose our soul. To the talentless, to the hacks, to the people whose only creative act is to hold out their hands and demand: history is full of socialist, facist and communist movements such as this; movements seeking the free exchange of ideas for the good of the collective at the expense of the creator. We have beaten these movements before and we will beat them again. If these individuals could only read history they would see, but then again that would require work and that is something this movement seeks at every cost to avoid. Freedom is never free.

One of the Best Movie Lines EVER!!!

Tonight serenading me at dinner was the Sci Fi Channel's 2012 filmed film "Rise of the Zombies". This particular apocalyptic romp stars LeVar Burton, Danny Trejo and Mariel Hemingway. Basically this is 'The Walking Dead' but on Alcatraz. Wait; zombies and prison---naw, nothing similar. The Daily News of New York gave it high marks. The Daily News is also good at wrapping fish. Anyway, just before part of the group, led by Mariel Hemingway, and note the irony in her name and lineage, is about to leave the besieged island and prison by zombies swimming over from San Fran Danny Trejo utters the most memorable line in this piece of cine and possibly one of the greatest lines in the history: 'We just sitting like sitting ducks." And I fancy myself a wordsmith? I think thunk thank not!

Horror's Newest Flavor of the Month Heaven Help Us All PART TWO

I think I may have broken a rib but let us continue... So, what is more horrifying than one serial killer. My God that is obvious---it must be two or more serial killers. True. But take it a step farther, what is even more horrifying than more than one serial killer---my God that is it!!!! EUREKA---A family of serial killers. Yes, that is right: A Daddy, a Mommy and even 2.5 children--okay 2 children serial killers. I bet their dog even gives rabies. This plot line was first introduced in 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' chain of movies from 1974. The X-Files, even Jason and his mother, and various novels and short story plot lines have followed. Last season, an episode of 'Luther' chillingly showcased two twin serial killers. This episode more than any other I have mentioned was, yes brilliant and terrifying in its random portrayal, but the majority are---Really? What is happening to this trope as with the prior themes; it is losing all of the character, the history, the sense of terror, the footsteps in the here and now. This trope by extending to an evil family set denies the characters of their twisted intellect and urges. It becomes a cartoon. Think 'Munsters' and 'Addams Family'. Intellectually we know there are no vampires. We know there are no werewolves so whatever damage was done to these tropes big deal we live with it and in a century or so they will rebound when the vehicles that destoyed them fade into their inevitable obscurity. But we do know there are serial killers out there. Families are more likely to kill each other than group together and kill as a matter of urge or sport. To turn this into an edge Addams Family or The Munsters or some stylized cartoon further numbs our sense of reality. No, this is not about rehashing Tipper Gore's idiocy about record labels'; or pushing bad data about horror stories, movies, television and the creating of murderers. This about the cartoonization and trivialization of this trope. How many horror writers out there have ever met a serial killer, let alone a cold blooded killer? How many understand the nature of these inviduals and their crimes? The old nurture versus nature arguement, you know. Few to none I believe. How many have sat in a maximum security prison across from someone who believes that murder and dismemberment equate with shopping? I thought so. When we write we need to suspend reality. True. But the only way this suspension truly works is if the writing holds onto something real and the suspension is still rooted in day to day life. The problem is this latest trope is simply piling words upon words like potato chips in a bowl, blood here, blood there, a limb here, a limb there with a brag about what the killer is about to do. It's the comics all over again. While these stories, in the short term, look tasty, once eaten they will leave your stomach in an ache and wanting for more. I don't want to be flavor of the month. I want my stories to live beyond me and the next post. To that end this year we have made great strides. I want my stories to be read by someone a hundred years from now and I want that future reader to squirm in his or her chair and not look upon my tale as some greasy yet popular potato chip of the day. Can we derail this trope now before it becomes even more comedic and limiting?

Horror's Newest Flavor of the Month Heaven Help Us All PART ONE

After the Vampire trope was trashed and destoyed several years ago for the next century, writers and producers took aim at the zombie trope and today I can report the same Sherman-like surgery and wake of destruction has taken place. Notably, the new season of AMC's "The Meandering Dud" or "The Walking Dead" continues to bore. Even using electrodes and battery shocks my brain cannot be stimulated by the overworked plot and kitchen sink approach. I have gotten to the point of humming "A three hour tour" each and every time the programs comes on. For God's sake, we can how the epidemic zombie rampage has come about but no one can tell me why every lawn is meticuously kept month and months after the apocalypse. Magazines and ezines are now backing away from zombie apocalypse story lines admitting they have played out. DING DONG -- WHO IS IT? THREE YEARS AGO. For a time there was confusion around the globe. What will us poor writers do? What can we turn to? What can we write about? Do we have to retreat to greeting cards to satisy our creative lust? Well since imagination is hardly promoted or sought in the arts we need to find the next best thing scientifically. We need to take our giant brains and apply the scientific method in order to develop the next horrific scream maker. But how can we do that you ask? How can we find something something interesting and more horrific that will satisfy a reader's curiosity and allow our immense talents to manipulate language better than any, and here is an oxymoron, skilled attorney, to delight and enthrall the public? What abour werewolves? No can't use them. They were collateral damage in one of those series that destroyed the vampire. What about werewolves in speedoes? See above. What taking history and a historic figure and merging it with horror? Yeah, great idea why don't you have Lincoln hunt vampires-----oh yeah that went well. What about the Devil? What about Satan? No, we must stay politically correct and we do not want to offend Atheists or Christians and what would the President and Islam think? No, we must find something that will appeal to all generations and all faiths and all political and socio-economic sensabilities. We need to get back to basics. We need to find the true base-line; the underying theme that unites us all. MURDER. Yes, murder. And what is more horrifying than than one murder? More than one murder. What about serial killing? Well that hasn't played itself out. Short pause for immense laughter from the writer of this blog.) Part Two coming after I finish laughing.

Please sign up for my course....

It is official we will be offered as a Creative Writing Course for Milford Adult Education in the Spring. So please. Please. Please sign up so I can actually teach the course. It will be fun. In all seriousness. I look forward to talking writing and working together to get new people published.

It Just Doesn't Do It For Me....

This is an up and coming new standard rejection from editors. I recently received one and other writers have reported the same reply. I think this is perhaps the most honest rejection one can ever receive from an editor because isn't it always about the editors gut? And after the editor, like a director, has the overall vision for the larger piece. And writing and publishing is all about fit in the end. One editor's rejection is another writer chance at a greater market that opens later. We have all had those.

Longer Works.....

Work and life have intervened and we are not writing as much as we would like or should be. The commitment here going forward is longer works and in fact looking into book proposals. So if we slow down, we haven't stopped; we are just looking to create more.

We Will Be Going Live....

Oh yes, live readings are coming to a place near you. Details to follow.

A F@#$%&g Good Read

I am amazed as to how magical the F word has become these days. I don't think at any time before have I ever seen the word in print as much as I see it now. And what really amazes me is the word's use, itself, as a stand alone story or as a stand alone column. Just the mere appearance of the word conveys a powerful postive feeling. Readers react so well to the word that in a recent column I read a columnist who simply summed up his thesis by saying that the character in the story in question was 'f@#$%d' without explanation or deduction, and yet the crowd went wild with comment after comment of praise. I am not a prude. Anyone who really knows me, knows I am in NO WAY a prude. Look, I believe language is a living and breathing, shape shifting organism and this is simply because language's bits and pieces are ever evolving and changing and devolving; ;anguage's organs and extremities become a cliche or passe only to be replaced with something new or something shaded differently. I can't wait for the F word to go that way because it means writers will be forced to write, have to create rather than swear like a ten year old and use a single word as a default rather than as literature.

Now That Is Writing............

Maybe because my birthday is coming. And maybe because as we get older we tend to get philosophical. Heard TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD's SIXTEEN TONS on the radion and man I appreciate those immortal lyrics now more than ever. That's writing.

A Year Is Almost Up

We revived the idea, really revived the idea, of writing as a serious exercise less than a year ago. I did this as a response to getting another year older and closer to my mortality. In this time I am happy with the foundation laid. There is still a lot of work ahead and a lot I wish to accomplish. As this year is almost up, in September, we already know we will have stories coming out through the end of the year and in anthologies at that. This is a good feeling. But one should never focus on the positive, should never rest upon past laurels, we need to improve, we need to produce longer pieces, better pieces, novellas and novels for example, and that is where we will place our efforts this coming year. I am not abandoning the short story or even flash fiction, they will come, but we want and should always want more otherwise we should pack it up and wait for the inevitable.

When a Rejection is a Rejection. Hey New Writers!

We all get them. No matter how many stories you sell and have published you will still have rejections. You new writers, take heart. In my case, not that I am anyone special, some of my best items have been ridiculed before making an impact somewhere else. The annals of music and literature are filled with misguided rejections. So take the rejection, hang it on the wall, file it away and keep plugging. True, rejections do bother and they should. It is only natural. One of my favorites is the good old 'sorry we wish not to publish ____ so good luck with that." 'Good luck with that'? What do mean by 'that'? Is my story something akin to needing to be lanced? Or the carefully worded "Good luck placing it elsewhere." I guess it was THAT BAD!? Many editors don't necessarily mean to be mean; but sometimes you wonder. Sometimes you wonder if 'open' submissions are actually 'open'. Or how about those who run on and on about all the 'big' names who will be included in their anthology and if you are chosen you will essentially be the only nobody and damn lucky you are! This is a marathon and not a sprint. Real writing matures and survives, the flavors of the month no matter what awards they may 'win' or self-congratulations they may manufacture do have expiration dates. Work on your craft. Write what you feel. Do your thing and don't worry about what others are doing or even saying. Write from your gut. We all go through this, just don't let them get to you.