Guest Posts at Alex's, Anna's, and the Colorado HWA

Hello and Happy Monday! I never post on Mondays anymore. But this week I'm guesting on other people's blogs. Drop by and say hi!

Monday, March 6:

I talk holiday horror movies at Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog

9 Random Facts Gleaned From a Tour of the Coroner's Office (Colorado Horror Writer's Association)

Friday, March 10:

What Draws Me to Write Horror at Elements of Emaginette

I discuss the Easter Sunday Massacre, a real-life holiday crime, over at DeAnna Knippling's blog

If you're willing to host me as I roll out Happy Ghoulidays II, you can sign up at this Google Doc link.

The Barnes & Noble paperback pre-order is now live for Happy Ghoulidays II! Amazon coming soon, among other online retailers.

IWSG - Painful Mistakes & Summer Bludgeon Pre-Order

Hello! It's that time again. Time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group.

But first, I have two teeny bits of news: I will NOT be at the Overdue Book Signing event this weekend because there's COVID up in our house, so I've had to cancel. There will still be lots of great authors and their books there for anyone who wants to go!

Also, Summer Bludgeon, which includes my short mystery story "The Class Ring," is now available for pre-order in e-book on Amazon from Unsettling Reads. There will also be a paperback, but it's not available for pre-order at this time. 

Heavily inspired by the film Grease, the story traces what happened after the events of the film...and involves a murder mystery.

33 Original Tales About Summer's Darker Side

Inspired by an earworm from a song in the 1978 film, Grease, "summer lovin'" became “summer bludgeon.” Voila! A new collection was born. The stories, poems, and art included in this collection highlight the dark corners of our hearts. They pull back the curtains and show us people at odds, broken relationships, romantic love gone terribly wrong. Cold deeds and chilling words unfold against the simmering backdrop of the "warmest" season of the year.

 

Buy Summer Bludgeon from Amazon

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the IWSG serves to provide a place for writers to seek support and give it. Anyone can participate. Simply click on Alex's name and put your blog on the linky list, then hop around and visit others on the list, especially this month's co-hosts: SE White, Cathrina Constantine, Natalie Aguire, Joylene Nowell Butler, and Jacqui Murray!

The optional question this month is: When the going gets tough writing the story, how do you keep yourself writing until the end? If you haven't started the writing yet, why do you think that is and what do you think could help you find your groove and start?

I'm skipping the optional question this month, although my post sort of answers it in the end. 

I was really down this past weekend, due to some family issues, and then in the middle of what was a terrible weekend, I saw the news of a release for a book that was very similar to my current WIP. I've been working on this WIP off and on for probably about a decade now, which is shocking to consider, but I put it aside multiple times to work on my fantasy project, short stories, and book releases, and there were huge chunks of time where stuff with my dad, my family, and my jobs took precedence and my writing faltered. Plus, it started out as a short story, and I loved it so much that I decided to expand it into a novel and add a second POV. I've written about it on here multiple times through the years.

Now the other story being released is set during a different time period and has several other differences. What's similar is the feel. They're both horror comedies about killer critters. I guess that's where the similarities end. But it got me further down when I was already struggling. I've let similar issues make me drop a project in the past.

This time, instead of letting it sink me completely, I sat down on Saturday and finished the first draft of the book (I was 5000 words from the finish when I sat down.) I came very close to scrapping the entire thing. But this time I didn't let that happen. As soon as I get through some big work deadlines this week for the day job, I'll be jumping into revisions. Am I still mentally struggling with the doubt? You bet. But this is a project I love, and I'm not letting it go because of something that has nothing to do with me or the story.

Had I written this post on Friday or even Saturday, the tone would be very different. It took me several days to get to a positive place about it. Even as I sat there typing away at the final chapters, I was feeling dismal. This was a decade of my work. What I really wanted to do was curl up and let the numbness take over.

Now I'm just feeling that much more determined to finish it and get it out on submission, because the stories ARE different, and what this tells me is that there's a market for that type of story. Right?

I'm also excited about starting work on my next two WIPs. And maybe I won't take so long to write the next one so that this doesn't happen again. 

Not only that, but I've written, edited, and submitted one new short story per week for the last month, and I'm feeling pretty productive.

Okay, submission stats for the last month. I do this each month with my IWSG post to keep myself accountable. May stats:

24 submissions

10 rejections (feel the burn!)

0 acceptances

6 stories withdrawn from markets that either went under or were taking too long so I could resubmit

25 stories currently on submission

Note: I'm having issues with Blogger. Other than signing in and doing things on the back end, I can't stay signed in to comment on people's blogs. I can't even respond to comments on my own blog without posting as "Unknown!" I'm working on it and will get around for visits, but not today. Hoping I'll feel better tomorrow from the COVID and will have the energy to deal with the issues so I can visit then.

Have you been submitting? How are you doing? What are your insecurities? Have you ever had a similar situation to my IWSG post? What did you do? Did you scrap it or plunge forward?

May you find your Muse.

St. Elmo & Cover Reveal!

I'm just going to have to apologize in advance for the kazillion photos on the rest of this post, but I finally got to go up to St. Elmo, a ghost town in the Colorado mountains that's one of the most preserved ghost towns in the U.S. In fact, it's so well preserved that some of the houses are still inhabited, and those inhabitants not only run a general store, but lovingly preserve the empty houses. I'm not going to lie, there's a part of me that would absolutely adore living in one of those houses. I'm a sucker for a ghost town and, basically, anything having to do with the old west.

St. Elmo was a mining town (gold and silver), founded in 1880. The railroad went up to it, and the population boomed to about 2000 at one point. The tracks were abandoned in 1922, and the last family (the Starks) left in 1958. I'm not sure when people started moving back in. You can take snowmobiles up to an even higher, older, less preserved town called Tin Cup in the winter, and take a 4WD vehicle up in summer. We didn't get to do that this time, but what I REALLY want is to go up there in the fall to get photos of St. Elmo with the aspens golden around the houses, and I'd like to take the Jeep up to Tin Cup, as well.

Before I post the bazillion photos of St. Elmo, I need to let you know that my second collection, Bruised Souls & Other Torments, is up for pre-order (Kindle) at Amazon, and will be be available in e-book and paperback this Friday, the 13th! Click on the title above to pre-order the e-book!

Fear resides in the soul.

A welcoming widow with a twisted appetite; a war-time evil lurking behind the face of a child; a father’s love gone horribly wrong; a deadly government solution; a new job with a demonic pay scale; a woman trapped in a mysterious house with no memory of who she is or how she got there. These are a mere glimpse of the terrors that lie in wait in this collection of horror short stories, sure to grip the psyche and torment the soul.

If you'd like to help spread the word, I'm holding a blog hop Friday the 13th for a little creepy fun. The sign up form and information can be found at the bottom of this post.

Finally, I was interviewed by the Functional Nerds (well, one of them, who is also a good friend). You can listen to the interview HERE.

Okay, back to the photos. One of the things that I found interesting was how deep the snow was. Of course, a snow plow goes through there now, but when you look at these photos, imagine what it would have been like before snow plows, to be up on top of this mountain with snow halfway up the doors, and have to get out to hit the store. Note that I also made sure to post a picture that included an outhouse. Pretty sure they were using chamber pots in the winter, because no way would I have wanted to walk through four feet of snow to go to the bathroom, especially in the middle of the night.

Also mind blowing is the fact that some of these houses are inhabited. You'll notice which ones are updated with paint, outdoor furniture, and that sort of thing (one of the houses has a satellite dish--I don't believe I got a picture of that).

Part way through our time in St. Elmo it started to snow. It was so peaceful up there, even with a couple other tourists wandering around. A hush existed over everything. I could imagine the quiet of snow season up there. Then again, I could also imagine the cabin fever and other issues associated with heavy snowfall and having your access cut off from everywhere else.

Have you visited any neat ghost towns? Does your area have broken down homesteads scattered about? Will you be joining me on the blog hop? (Thank you to those who have signed up already!)

May you find your Muse.