Eartha Kitt’n and Ajax The Gray wanted to share space with today’s chapter of The Volunteer . . . they patrol the perimeter. Hello all The Volunteer readers . . . this is a weekly endeavor of pure pleasure for me . . . a story that combines my love of subtle fright and supernatural…
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So, here’s the beginning section of a horror story centered around a new volunteer coach for a girls’ high school tennis team in the Pacific Northwest. There’s something not right about him, but few will dare brave his wrath as practices spiral into darkness. I’ve read so many horror novels in this vein, and the…
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There are so many lines from horror films that stick with me. After watching The Witch: A New-England Folktale, the best line stands above all others, and it’s already being used out in real life . . . Here is the line and some other dialogue from fright flicks that I find memorable. What lines…
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Here is a post that is short and sweet. I hope. Lists of books intrigue me. I became a voracious reader in second grade, circa 1972, in the Granville Elementary School system, scolded more than once to put down the book I was reading during math lessons. This led to me being a library kid.…
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I worry a lot. That’s my current lot in life. Worry. There are dreams I had when younger, looking into a murky future, one with little skills beyond teaching, writing, remembering pop culture moments like a wizard, a trivia king, things that are seldom well paid. This is not a complaint. I make my own…
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Week four in the LifeBooksWriting author blog challenge unveils the best subject, the one I take the most care with: character inspiration. Of course, even this phrase has more than one definition. I take it to mean how I’m inspired to create fully rounded characters—the people in my dark tales set in mundane settings, usually,…
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Here’s the skinny . . . it’s not a secret. I often describe things circuitously with lots of commas dividing thoughts. Even when pressed to be clear. I have to tell stories my way, the only way I know how, and each person follows their own route to clarity, especially if that person is a…
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Here I am, week two of the #LifeBooksWriting challenge, and today’s topic is a bullseye. Straight into the center of my very being, who I am, what I strived for most of my life. If you’ve heard this tune before, bear with me, please. Books are the most important material possessions I ever knew as…
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This is a brilliant day. May 6th, post Cinco de Mayo recuperation, a Friday I hope to fill with more sunny moments. I’m writing a weekly blog post on different subjects important to being challenged as a writer. Follow me along on this journey every Friday from now until they come to take me away.…
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It’s not often in any writer’s life where professional reviews drop and go deep into the work, beyond the basic plot description, into subtext, themes, often overlooked moments that pull a work together. The Manhattan Book Review did just that with my first literary crime novel about a dysfunctional family, Wake Me Up. I’m thrilled and floored to…
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