“I’m going to find as many of them as I can – the makers and their progeny.”
Haven’t read The Matriarch? Don’t miss these excerpts:
“Clean and Professional” † “Everything Old Made New Again” † “Middle of the Road” † “He Said He Was the Devil” † “An Awakening In the Cellar”
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I had a thought today…
If there is a single defining moment in one’s lifetime when they abruptly and irrevocably become an adult, when every trace of their daydreaming and childhood wonder is at last extinguished, I’m both happy and fortunate I haven’t experienced it yet.
That is all. Carry on.
Janiss’s eyes snapped open, immediately wincing at the bright red and blue patrol lights flashing in her rearview mirror. Outside of her car door, a policeman shined a light into her face.
How long had she been daydreaming?
After turning the key on her ignition to roll the automatic window down, the clock on the center console told her it was 5:30 AM. It had only been about twenty minutes and sunrise was still over an hour away. Whew! For a moment, she wondered why Travis and Cole wouldn’t have noticed her if they had passed by; she assumed they came back through Weston since she knew Cole lived in that direction.
“Are you having car trouble?” the man asked. She recognized him: Officer Strickland.
Read the rest of this excerpt at Cedarcrest Sanctum.
I’ve done professional renderings for various companies, but now I usually only do this kind of work for myself.
This is a cosplay I’m putting together for conventions, based loosely on James Spader’s excellent show “The Blacklist” on NBC. I mentioned to my wife that it’d be fun to get suited up and do a fake poster called “The Bloodlist” with the tagline “Never trust a horror writer,” so she dared me.
Done and done.
You: “I don’t think you’re telling me everything.”
Me: “I’m never telling you everything.”
How much is enough? Is there ever enough?
A thirst for blood is arguably THE defining trait of a vampire. They drink it to exist and helpful humans are readily available; what varies from story to story is the actual need.
The first consideration is what the blood is for. In a modern twist, vampires may be portrayed as biological, needing blood due to an inability to manufacturer their own or requiring some essential element that only living blood contains. In such cases, the vampire may be susceptible to blood diseases or the effects of substances such as drugs or alcohol. For the more traditional “mystical” type, “the blood is the life,” allowing the vampire to literally take the life force of the living into themselves to empower an animated corpse.
In either case, how much is enough? How long does it last? How often must the vampire feed?
Continue reading “Bloodletting: Vampires Shouldn’t Go Thirsty”
She is NOT the last…
The Matriarch novel officially has a sequel in final editing.
Supernatural horror thriller, mature content.
Coming soon – in final editing now.
She is NOT the last.
“I’m going to find as many of them as I can, the makers and their progeny.” When a woman in white is encountered along a lonely highway in Jackson County, West Virginia, an unusual number of vampires are discovered.
Once their mysterious maker is found out, Janiss Connelly will have until sunrise to stop the killer – but only if the remnants of her previous life fail to destroy her first.
Get the details and sign up for updates at CedarcrestSanctum.com.
Where we write can influence what and how well we write. Do you have a special place set up or just go anywhere and begin?
I admit I can write wherever, but I’m most comfortable at my custom-created dual-monitor workstation with twin goose-neck lamps and dual cupholders (yes, cupholders). Decor includes scythes over the windows, reaper statuettes down the wall in the corner, and an evil-!#$%ing closet (obviously). My trusty actual-wood chair keeps me attentive and on task.
Show us your writing space or desk!
The Spooky Chronicles: Forget Me Nots
Read it for FREE – right here, right now on your browser!
Andres M. (Rating: 4 of 5 Stars) – I had my reservations… (an) undead kid who goes to school and stuff? I must confess that I was a little skeptical of how that could work. I was terribly mistaken. Yes, this story is about a young kid with an unique condition, his heart doesn’t beat, his blood doesn’t flow, and his lungs don’t breath; yep, he is an undead, but with a soul, conscience, and a spirit of adventure and investigation. We are taken to a Lovecraftian story, and we experience it from the view point of a very special kid, who is eager to “see” what’s beyond, the monsters, the horrors. All and all it was a very cool story.
 The prequel to The Spooky Chronicles! There’s something sinister about Chesterfield Mansion, and “Spooky” Spencer Lawson can’t wait to find out why. Locked inside on a stormy night, Spooky and his fellow fifth graders are tasked to find thirteen skeleton keys before the stroke of midnight, but their host and his trusted minions are secretly watching for one of those children… the one who won’t be missed. eBook ISBN: 978-1-4762-6296-3 |
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The more you edit yourself, the better you’ll become. Knowing the grammar rules and how to apply them is part of the process; the rest is actually finding the errors in your own work. The more mistakes that you find and correct yourself, the easier of a time your actual editors will have finding the things you’ll STILL miss.
Continue reading “Self-Editing Techniques (Before Submitting to an Editor)”
I just wrote a piece over on Vamped.org about my take on vampires. Here’s a bit:
One issue I’ve noticed in a lot of paranormal fiction is scale: getting too big too fast.
All the vampires have a werewolf bodyguard, legions of angels are waiting behind every storm cloud, and the sewers are bursting with more vampires than rats.
In these kinds of stories, it’s almost a given that the protagonist will catch the eye of someone too big for them to handle, setting up a final confrontation with world-changing ramifications. To quote Riley from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “I suddenly find myself needing to know the plural of apocalypse.”
I offer a different viewpoint: less is more.
Read the rest over at Vamped.org!
Kevin A. Ranson 