I am finding my way back to lurid lit

With an article about writing itself. We as a community need to take this craft seriously. Check it out.

I Have Nothing Against Self Publishing

But I do have something against the arrogance of many of these self-publishers who have an attitude that they are policeman, judge, jury and executioner.

I encourage people to get their work out there no matter what; and that includes self-publishing but the question of quality is certainly higher with a third party publisher.

Why do I have to do this?

All these longwinded writing genius creators spew and spew that you HAVE to write at least 1,000 words a day to be a great writer.

Enough.

There is a large difference between writing and typing. Writing is crafting and two hundred well crafted words are better than the stream of conscious turd in a punchbowl collection many of these self described authors could ever regurgitate.

Write comfortably. Write meaningfully. Write well.

Write and don't listen to these people.  

Are We Becoming Obsolete In Our Time?

For the most part it seems that, as far as platforms are concerned, that websites were replaced by Facebook and blogs have been replaced by Twitter. Just recently I was invited to enter a contest where the story could only fit in a comment box.

While I am a great fan of brevity, my fear is that we have fallen out of love with the written word. That the emotions we seek to evoke will become as impersonal as a post it note.

While it is true that the art of writing lies in finding the right word, that simple word shouldn't shield the reader from the greater, broader experience.

If we continue in this trend a symbol will someday replace language. If you think I am crazy just look at signs on your local road.

Words shouldn't be spared but embraced; but embraced in a natural flow and rhythm that can only evoke emotion in the reader be it love, hate and/or comfort.

Editor's Notes: Creative Writing, we don't need no stinking creative writing

My class has been suspended because of lack of interest. Okay no problem, but a gentleman recently contacted me stating that he decided against my class in favor of self-publishing. This concerned me.

We all know I have nothing against self-publishing but please people let's not rely on self-assessment solely to determine our voice.

Sounds ridiculous right? But let's be fair, the vast majority of anything is generally bad. And rejection is a great teacher. Do we want to be better or prolific?

I want to be both and I want to be pushed and critiqued.

I want to know my work exists because others like it rather than knowing I can afford $50.00 for a cookie cutter cover.

Dare to dream. Dare to fail.  

Editor's notes: Simplicity

I am always  amazed at the simplicity of the human mind. Or should I say the simple minded. Why do we need labels to determine what is good or bad or best?

A recent writers' group discussion that sucked me in had to do specifically with this issue. The vast majority of writers took the stance that if a story or author appeared in a 'best of' anthology well they are considered the best and damn the rest.

We all know that many best of anthologies are a poor man's award and awards are the arbiter of talent.

Just ask Cary Grant and Jerry Lee Lewis. And look at all those book awards that Lovecraft won.

We all like to win awards. They are nice. But arbitrary and certainly not the only measure. After all Kanye West has 21 Grammys and Pink Floyd 1. Does that mean Kanye is a more influential and greater music talent than the Floyd?

Ah, the new math.....

Editor's Notes: The Muse

A romantic concept that many of us embrace and try to pigeon hole on a loved one. But understand as you study the history of literature that love is not what creates the best works, it is loneliness and despair.

True love is fleeting and life is fragile. Relationships are volatile and most of our choices are mistakes.

The only muse is within. It is the voice in your head and heart that drives you. It is not a woman or your dream lover--it is the spark within.

Never fool yourself or perhaps try it so that in the loneliness and despair that will follow when she walks out the door for that younger and sleeker model you'll find that great work deep down in your gut.

Editor's Notes: It's Amazing To Me...

How many writers are more concerned about how many words they have written in the course of a day, month or year rather than what they have sold or published. True, creating the product is important, but a story in a drawer or a manuscript on a shelf means little unless it is out there for consumption.

Many writing instructors stress the churning of verbage each day, as if we would forget how to type or hold a pencil, or howmto take the top off a pen if we skip a day.

Quality over quantity. Revise. Cut. Prune. And get it published.

The true measure of a writer is not some arbitrary counting of words, it is how those words are strung and what impact they have on a reader.

Editor's Notes: Life Experience And Writing

With almost everyone claiming the tags 'author' or 'writer' as their surname a lot of clarification needs to enter the equation as to who is truly authentic and who is a mere characterture.

I think this is necessary because the mere glut of words churned out each day and the 'writers' who pride themselves on writing so many words, so many things, most of which don't even see the light of day have choked us.

Our culture is largely based on garbage. Our art and entertainment are the equivalent of fast food with very little lasting value other than bloat.

As most of you are awere I write largely fiction. I look at what I wrote at age eighteen and in my twenties and hold it up against what I write about today and there is no comparison. The richness  of how I tell a story is shaped not only from my experience at writing but my experience at experience. My imagination has been shaped by my life experience and situations I have found myself in and people I have met all along this journey. When I teach writing I urge my students to draw upon their wells of people, places, and occurrences in their lives to drive their vision. You are what you write. Your signature is there in every piece and your personality and history is the life's blood to what you create.

Before you can conquer the world I think you need to see it.

Lasting literature only happens when their depth not self-serving and fanboy fanaticism over shallow and tired tropes. We all need to strive for more both in our lives and in our writing.

Time To Stock The Cupboard

I don't have much out there. My time has been spent with my business and my submissions have dwindled. But three have gone out today and we are planning now to plow ahead and finish the year, God willing, with a flurry.

Pulling the Plug on THE RED LIGHT

I've decided to clean out a drawer of my incomplete manuscripts and riffs. I do this from time to time in an effort to keep things fresh.

THE RED LIGHT was one of those tales. I felt a lot of promise for this one. I even posted about my excitement for this one. In retrispect however, this is one of the strangest stories I have ever worked on. The initial concept sounded good in dreams but just couldn't get it going on paper.

I have over three thousand words in the original draft but the problem was it read more or less like a preamble. I could never get the story to hook the reader.

I cut it back to six hundred and seventy words but it just didn;t have the 'juice'.

Writers need to be ruthless and show tough love for their 'children'.

THE RED LIGHT is unplugged.

It's Not Me It's You

Another magazine has gone to the dimension known as hiatus. The Foghorn who only took pitches and offered $1,000.00 per published short story seemed too good to be true.

And it was.

They published some issues but in their statement of surrender that seemed to ramble longer than their submissions requirements the blame was spread between contributors for sending in so-o-o much work and for readers who never read.

Gee, I thought it was money.

The lure of cash in this amount suckered us all but when editors don't reply to queries and basically treat contributors as the real 'hired help' those of us who wish to be fans get a sour taste.

I'm sorry this experiment in fiction failed but editors and publishers need to work with writers, particularly those who fail, as those who fail will always read to get a better handle on what the periodical wishes for.

Lovecraft

Made you look.

As with any marketing there are certain buzz words or branding that work better than others. Because of the lack of readership overall and because the shelf life of any book is less than the blink of an eye meaningful titles, clever titles; titles literarily tied to the content are no longer needed unless of course you are big name author and your name in print overwhelms the book title.

Exactly when literature became breakfast cereal is a date I cannot pinpoint. However, like our
grand experiment in freedom, sometime in the 1990s our standards really began to slip.

Like the great concept albums of rock and roll and inspirational political speeches in general, literature suffers from the sound bite and quick hit. Fads make money for some publishers but leaves writers in the cold usually tied up for months working for less than French fry cook.

Writers need not look to the constant stream of being prolific of having something to post on Facebook daily or even hourly. Writers need to spend time with their craft and listen to their gut and muse. Remember time itself is not a sprint but a marathon and the true test of the writer comes down the road not here at the corner.


 

My Manifesto Going Forward And A Change Of Direction

I posted this on Facebook this morning to the two or three people who actually might care:

"Well it looks like anthology entrant has bit the dust. What looked like to be a break out year I have lost eight anthologies between November 2013 and now because either publishers have gone belly up or have just given up on the project because they been distracted by another shinier new penny. Since this was the last of my stories sitting and rotting for the better part of the year I have definitely learned my lesson. As I have told a number of good people I am changing the way I do things. I understand the problems publishers have in this present business climate; but I also understand that I am not chasing they way I did and will spend more time building up my catalogue again of available tales and will only do business with people I trust rather than what appears on its face via submission sites to be a good fit."

Good things have happened but great things have been stalled. So few anthologies and publishers thereof are trustworthy these days. Within the last year, as I have stated, we have seen the growing trend of 'a friends only anthology' as well as 'token' anthologies where characters beliefs, race, religion and sexual preference are mandated.

These have added to the erosion started by the unprofessional who for some money given them by the parents, grandparents or a doting aunt or uncle can set up publishing companies with no clue.

Writing should stand the test of time and that means beyond the shelf life of the next book and until publishers take that to heart they will continue to fly into the proverbial glue strip hanging under the naked light bulb of history to be forgotten.

More Horror Discrimination Among The Literati

Recently an editor/owner of a start up ezine cast the net for writers to write pieces for his new ezine. The pieces requested are non-fictional informational pieces although in the last few days he has expanded his catch to include short fictional pieces to bolster the articles.

I sent all the normal pleasantries including links to my site but warned him that I did write horror. I suggested he concentrate on my articles and my column at Lurid-lit.com.

The reply was surprising in this way -- and I paraphrase for space and time ---- your stories 'I fear the stories may be a little abrasive for our audience'...

Abrasive? First, the ezine does not have an audience -- it hasn't published yet. Second, I understand who you wish to target but wishing and hitting can be two different things. Third, I pointed him in the direction of the non-fiction and he reads the fiction to base his opinion.

What do you think happened? Again I hear from writers all over the country who tell me the shunning they receive because they write horror. The literati feel we can write nothing more.

Sad. Here in Milford I have been compared to a pornographer by individuals who haven't read a word of my writing and again I am judged by someone who wouldn't take the time to read my work.

Sad that this is the state of media today and with a start up --- tomorrow.

Editor's Notes: Evolving or Devolving?

There was a time when a 'literary magazine' meant a broad collection of writing with short stories, essays, poetry, novellas, criticism, etc. housed between the covers. A cornucopia, better yet a rainbow representation of something for everyone one a variety of subjects seeking to capture the largest audience in their net.

Over time anthologies ruled the roost huddled around one broad general subject and all else was dropped save for the short story. But the broader subject be it 'science fiction' or 'ghost stories' was still served by a collection of tales serving the subject with diverse takes.

But the broad focus in the past three years has become funneled. Publishers' prompts are shifting their genres with fishing line hooks fixing writers in one place with little room to swim about. Many of these publications have become story collections that pay homage to the cover illustration.

By dictating subject, the composition of characters, and in many cases lines of dialogue and setting, we get away from the story itself and the imagination that works into it. This style of seeking diversity and correctness limits writing to nothing more than an assembly line endeavor rendering creativity and deductive thought to its cheapest level.

Fewer sampler publications survive and even fewer have sought to be born.

The reading public? Well, like many writers, its the human thing to seek safety and find solace and comfort in one's own little corner of the universe with like minded individuals.

Like 'The Whitman Sampler' that ignited taste buds to new combinations, inclusion for all is vastly becoming a homogenized sterility.

I pray over time that I will be proven wrong.    

Editor's Notes: Who Loves You Baby?

I know one editor who doesn't, but he seems to write enjoy excoriating everything from my subject matter, style and my over all knowledge of what a novel or short story is.

This is so enjoyable to me I just send stuff just to get the reaction. I have sent pieces that have been already published; I have sent pieces that have already been accepted and the response is always the same: a restrained destruction of one's credibility as a writer.

Why? You have to ask him, but for some reason as with all walks of life certain people just don't get along.

My point is merely this; yes, sometimes it is personal and as a writer, as an artist, as an adult rise above it. Leave those who find it necessary to label you as pedestrian or ignorant of what the essentials of writing are to their own devices and follow your gut and your bibliography.

And when the novelty is over; when you have collected enough to laugh over with friends and colleagues or use as a teaching tool or publish in a book go on your merry way and drop the BS altogether.

Be Careful For What You Wish For

Is everybody miserable? I every hateful? Does everyone dig themselves into some kind of narcissistic sandbox hole? My God, this LinkedIn experience has been nothing but combative. Considering the fact many of these writers seem to do nothing else but troll this site to snipe I think the Algonquin was a nicer crowd.

Editors Notes: The Meaning Of GALL Has Been Defined

With so many horror anthologies becoming incestuous; and several publishers are now noting in their submission guidelines that their friends are getting first shot a new publishing phenomenon is beginning to rear its head.

'Kickstarter' the shamelessly new way to public pan handle is becoming extremely popular. Here people pledge money for your artistic project or home repair, etc. and you get a chance to live out your dream on the dime of someone else.

Sounds a lot like the current Welfare state that our President has changed for us in America.

I am sent inquiries two to three times a week to hand over my dollars to help a new or in some cases established publisher I ignore most. I recently had a case where I was told directly that if I didn't pay in I wouldn't be published.

I walked.

Today I was told there is no room for my submission because all their friends had responded but I was still expected to pay into Kickstarter for the good of the project.

Why? Because people know I have a day job and I'm not just the proverbial writer these days who sits in their mother's basement expounding on Facebook as to their importance to literature. Their are guys in their forties doing this.

I told the publisher to grow up and pay for their own projects themselves. They want stories fine, but I am tired of people putting the bite in me.

Never pay to play.

If anyone wants the name of the publisher and project send me your email.
 

Editor's Notes: Today We Walked Away From An Anthology

I have a story that was accepted for publication in an anthology  but the publisher went belly up. I have since tried to place it but have met with three distinct rejections.

One told me the enjoyed it and then proceeded to criticize every aspect of it.

Another told me I don't know how to write a story and proceeded to explain how stories are written.

And today we find the third where I was told it was publishable but anti-climatic. Now this was after I was accused, in a off handed way, of plagiarizing a scene. I respectfully explained where the scene came from; in other words that it was part of a recurring childhood nightmare.

Right off the bat I can see the publisher and I are going to be really good friends.

I ended this story having the character who represents the embodiment of evil go off into the world to do his deeds. My idea is that evil is ever present. Yet anti-climatic for this publisher who wants a knock down Armageddon battle and he gives me two days to re-write it to fit this scene.

And by the way, going back and looking at the guidelines; the pay itself should have made me think twice about submitting in the first place.

I decided to walk away.

My opinion is that while horror should make you uneasy and make you jump it should not be simplistic.

Editors like doctors need to have a bedside manner.