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“Celebrating All Things Spooky” Returns!

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, My Stories, Writing  No Responses »
Oct 032014
 

Last year, I ran an October special called “Celebrating All Things Spooky,” in which I… did exactly what the title says, in honor of Halloween. I wrote reviews of the survival horror game Anna, the horror adventure game Scratches, the excellent movie Arsenic and Old Lace, and the animated movie Grinch Night.

Another October is upon us, so it’s time for another round of spookiness! I kicked it off a year ago with an overview of my own horror writing, and I’m pleased to say that list has grown.

If you haven’t already, take some time this month for The Book at Dernier, my Lovecraftian serial published by The Red Penny Papers. You can read it online for free!

A young scholar eager to make a name for himself travels to the strange town of Dernier, where he uncovers a secret that should have forever remained hidden.

Of all my published stories, The Book at Dernier is probably my favorite. It has Lovecraftian influences, a cult, possibly a little inspiration from Silent Hill… I distanced myself from Lovecraft’s style later on, because it had too great an effect on my writing. Now that I’ve learned and grown as a writer, I should really go back to it.

Flash fiction became another big thing for me over the past year. My four cold and twisted romance stories published at Loveme.eu are basically horror, and several of my Specklit drabbles tell a horror story in only 100 words.

Those are all the new stories, but don’t forget to check out my older ones!

Now, let’s look forward to a good, spooky month of October!

NaNoWriMo 2014 Begins

 Writing  No Responses »  Tagged with:
Nov 032014
 

It has begun! I hope you enjoyed our celebration of horror, because now it’s time for something else–National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo!

The goal? Write 50,000 words in November!

I finished the first draft of Penteract of Blood in October, and now I’ve started a brand new novel for November, a fantasy story called The Nightbringer. It’s about an Inquisition and witch hunts (gee, I wonder what got those concepts stuck in my head), and I’m really excited to write this one.

For years, Amara has lived and worked in the kingdom as a law-abiding citizen, but her peaceful life is shattered when she is accused–and convicted–of being a witch.

All witches are condemned to death. That is the law, carried out by the Inquisition, and there can be no exceptions.

However, Amara matches the signs of the prophesied Nightbringer, a witch whose execution will bring devastation upon the world. To destroy her, she must be killed on a fabled altar no one alive has ever seen, located far to the north in a place no one has ever returned from.

Amara’s only hope is to prove her innocence before they reach their destination, but her fate is in the hands of the severe Inquisitor Gerhardt Valmer, who pursues his mission with single-minded determination.

Worse, the journey north is riddled with threats, and it seems as though someone–or something–is determined to see them die along the way.”

I stayed up on Halloween so I could begin writing as soon as November 1 hit. So far, I’ve written 4,276 words, which puts me slightly ahead of where I need to be. From here on out, it’s a matter of persistence. I need to make sure I keep writing and never let myself fall too far behind.

I have only a rough outline, because I feel half the fun of NaNoWriMo is inventing twists and turns along the way. I can’t wait to see where this month takes me and my characters.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo 2014?