My short story "The Law" in "Dark: A Horror Anthology"

Y'all have already seen this, right?

Dark: A Horror Anthology is my first print publication. Some of my short stories have appeared online, and there's my former columns at Paperback Reader and other websites, but Dark represents the first time anyone can go to Amazon.com and search by name to find an honest-to-goodness book.

Of course, if you WERE to purchase the book through Amazon, I'd like to ask that you use the link at the Mail Order Zombie Marketplace as this helps support Mail Order Zombie, too!

Goal/blog check-in

We're about four-and-a-half months into 2010, and I wanted to 1) come up with something new to post here at House Improbabilia, and 2) check in on my goals that I posted back in January. While checking in, I may need to tweak some of these goals or maybe even make some more drastic edits.

Goal One - Maintain my bi-monthly column at Paperback Reader.
I really enjoyed writing for Paperback Reader, and my Papercut column still had some steam. However, without going into too many details, I've stopped producing the column over there. I'd like to thank the editor Bart Gerardi for running both Papercut and my previous column Derek's Open Letter over the years. I learned some valuable lessons about myself as a writer during my time at Paperback Reader, and I hope to continue to grow as a regular horror writer of some sort elsewhere in the future.

Goal Two - Non-fiction book project Number One.
I'm in talks with an artist who may come on board this project as, at the very least, the art deisgner of the cover. The text is nearly 75% complete, and I'm working to have something to show in the next few months (hopefully sooner!)

Goal Three - 2010 Novel Number One.
Goal Four - 2010 Novel Number Two.
For the past couple months, these two novels have been jockeying back and forth, each one trying to take center stage. I've decided which one is going to get the most attention and I still anticipate this one being completed by year's end. Novel Number Two? I scratch down a few notes when something comes to mind, and I'll let it brew for a little bit longer while I work on Novel Number One.

Goal Five - Non-fiction book project Number Two.
I'm riding the accelerator pedal on this one - there are stretches during which I make some headway on this, and then there are stretches during which I'm working on something else. I need to see Non-fiction book project Number One finished first, I think.

Goal Six - As much short fiction writing as I can.
Still on the plate.

Goal Seven - Not quite a fiction or non-fiction project, but there's still some writing involved, so there you go.
Goal Seven needs to be shelved for the time being.

"Loose Thoughts on a Light Rail"

This blog is supposed to be dedicated to my writing process, my writing progress, my writing success, etc.-ess, but I've not posted much in terms of actual writing. Let's change that.

In 2008, the online publication The Harrow: Original Works of Fantasy and Horror published my short story "Loose Thoughts on a Light Rail" in Volume 11, Number 5. You can find it at their website right . . . here.

Cannot live on zombie movies alone?

So far, this blog has been less about my actual writing projects and more about the behind-the-scenes decision-making and questioning about my writing projects, and this post isn't going to be any different.

Man cannot live on zombie movies alone. I know . . . I know . . . Strange thing for the producer of Mail Order Zombie to say, eh?

Here's the thing - I've got a handful of other "geek loves." Non-zombie horror movies. Star Trek. Indiana Jones. Robert E. Howard. Lovecraft. Comic books. I'm a little all over the map when it comes to some of this stuff.

I don't think there's anything wrong with that . . . far from it. Sure, sometimes it's hard to blend Captain Kirk with Captain Rhodes, but I keep it all fairly compartmentalized in my head.

Where it does start to become a stumbling block is when start putting pen to paper.

I'm not a known commodity. I don't have a well-known brand. So is it wise to throw something like a dark fantasy story into the mix while working toward building a horror/zombie brand? A superhero story (of all things)? At what point is it okay to diversify my output?

I don't have an answer to that. Do you?

Trying to run with the distractions

I've come to expect a certain . . . pattern when it comes to my creative endeavors. Over the years, I've never quite learned how best to avoid this pattern; I've just learned to expect it to rear its ugly distracting head when I feel like I've got a groove going on one or two projects already.

I get distracted with other potential projects.

I've been lucky with Mail Order Zombie. I've been able to keep producing the podcast on a weekly basis for over two years, and even if I have been hit with other project ideas, there's still always a new MOZ every week. There are other podcast ideas that have come and gone since I first dipped my toes in the podosphere, and I even put out one singular episode of something I called Mixtape of the Macabre (which will sadly end up being one of those podcasts that never makes it past the first episode, methinks); I spun MOZ Presents: The Munchies off from Mail Order Zombie, and this has let me branch out a little bit, but new Munchies episodes have been few and far between.

Normally what happens is this: I make some headway on some sort of creative project (more often than not, it's a piece of writing), and then something else will pop up. Eventually, I end up with three, four, five different projects going at once, and I burn out before anything's actually completed. I used to tell myself that it was a good thing that I was "so creative" (yes, I realize how that sounds!), but after a while, I end up finding more frustration that completion. I suppose it's a matter of discipline.

And it worries me that it's happening again.

I've been listening to a lot of audio drama podcasts lately, and damn if I haven't been thinking about what it might be like to produce one of my own. How in the hell is THAT supposed to fit into my 2010 goals? How do I make the time to do something like this where there are still nights when I stay up WAY past my bedtime producing Mail Order Zombie? (Thankfully not as many, but still . . . )

I've got a few ideas, and I think within the next few weeks, I'll be revisiting my 2010 goals and maybe rewriting them. Hey, editing is part of the writing process, right?

Progress Check

I haven't updated here as much as I would have liked, but I HAVE been making progress on the various writing projects I mentioned in the last entry here at House Improbabilia.

• Goal One - My Paperback Reader is still rolling, and it's still fun!
• Goal Two - I'm a little behind whatever schedule I was hoping for, but it's still coming, and it's still coming along strong.

Again, a bit vague, right? Trust me, I think y'all would rather I spend more time writing my actual writing projects than a blog post, right?

I like that, Heather - goals, not resolutions

A good friend of mine - Heather over at Out of the Green - posted earlier this year that she's not making any New Year's resolutions. Rather, she's setting goals, and her reasoning made a lot of sense to me, so I'm following suit, and setting goals for 2010.

Some of my goals are personal (dealing with health and finances, for example), and some of them (the ones I'm sharing here) are more writer-ly.

• Goal One - Maintain my bi-monthly column at Paperback Reader. This should be easy and a no-brainer; my "Papercut" column is part editorial, part critique, and I've got plenty of thoughts about the horror genre that I can put to virtual paper.
  
• Goal Two - Non-fiction book project Number One. Yeah, yeah, I'm being purposefully vague here, and I will disclose more as I get closer to seeing this one completed . . . which, if I can keep my head down and nose to the grindstone (and that's the very last time that I, as a writer, will use that clichéd phrase), I can see being completed in three months time.
  
• Goal Three - 2010 Novel Number One. I'm working through an old National Novel Writing Month novel I completed in 2006, expanding the text, changing the perspective and fleshing out the characters a bit more. I've started work on this already, and would like to see a finished draft by summer.
  
• Goal Four - 2010 Novel Number Two. This novel features a character that will appear in my contribution to the upcoming anthology Dark, scheduled to be released later this year. I'm as excited about this one as I am about 2010 Novel Number One, and look forward to learning a bit more about this great city in which I live(-ish - technically I don't live in Portland, OR, proper) as I hope to tie some of this novel into the history and geography of the Portland, OR, area. The goal for this is to see a first draft completed by the end of 2010.
  
• Goal Five - Non-fiction book project Number Two. This is a big one, with a lot of work to do and headway to make. I'm looking forward to tackling this as it's been bubbling around in my brain for at least a year now, and it's about damned time I throw those words down. More details as this project becomes more concrete.
  
• Goal Six - As much short fiction writing as I can. There are some markets that have asked to see some of my work, and I can't let them down! Besides, I can always go back to a short story to keep the writing gears turning if any of my novel or non-fiction projects give me any grief.
  
• Goal Seven - Not quite a fiction or non-fiction project, but there's still some writing involved, so there you go. I meant to complete this project in 2009, and I need to touch base with the collaborator with whom I was working, but I think this will be a fun project to get off the ground and shop around.
  

Wow. That seems like a lot, huh? I should probably got off of this blog and get to work . . .