"Stay The Course" finished!

Not that that name sounds familiar to anyone. It's a short story two days in the making. I've written it for my upcoming serial killer-themed collection, Wolves At The Door. It's not the first story I've written for this collection, but I think it might be the star. A short synopsis (fuck, I hate writing these):

When Edward came back from a hunting expedition in the Himalayas, he brought back a lot more than the experience and the memories that came along with it. An itching craving followed him back home, a hunger he tries to satisfy as often as possible. It's just a matter of how willingly he can coax the pray to come home with him.

Yeah, like I said, I hate writing those things. But you get the gist. Good deal. Now I'm going to edit my novella, Secrets To The Grave. Until next time. Have a good night.

Looking Ahead.

So, I'm still pretty deep into the Iconoclast Saga. Part three is nearly finished, and I wanna say the series so far will equal out to about 30,000 words. I'll be releasing them as Kindle singles until the whole thing is finished, in which case I'm going to shell out for super professional cover art and offer the whole saga as an enormous omnibus. That's exciting.

Secrets To The Grave, my 28,000 word novella, is still in the editing process. It's exactly 100 pages along on Google Docs, and I'm on page 10. When I'm finished with that, I'll be sending it to my beta readers (volunteer now if you're interested) and after giving it another once over myself, I'll be publishing that. Look forward to it. Personally, I love it.

Also, my editor SHOULD be getting my full-length novel, To Claim Hell (Working title) back to me before the month is out. I've got plans for that one, as well, though I've been slacking on writing the sequel. Maybe if/when a deal is in place it'll be just the right kick in the ass I need to get productive with it.

Thanks for reading, guys. Until next time.

I'm pretty excited about what the future holds.

So yeah, these are finished. In need of one hell of an edit, of course, but they're finished regardless.

And I'm nowhere near done with this story.

How Ironic For a 69th post, right?!

In some rather sad news, the anthology I wrote those two horror/erotica stories for sent me the e-mail today telling me my stories weren't quite right for their anthology.

Man, those guys really screwed me over. Just bent me over and went to town. Balls to the wall, I'm talkin'. No Vaseline, Ice Cube style. I completely understand; like I said, stiff competition. No ifs, ands, or butts about it.

All right, I'm done with the sex puns. Seriously, congrats to everyone who made it into the anthology. Salud. Meanwhile, I'm going to try selling copies of these stories to some lonely soccer moms...

March has been a good month.

I've focused a lot on projects that are built for longevity. I've got parts one and two of the Iconoclast Saga written (Forlorn Skies and Naked Among Wolves, respectfully), and after a very, very thorough edit, both of them will be available on Amazon, hopefully within the next couple months. I've also got the serial killer-themed collection coming out, tentatively titled "Wolves At The Door." I just finished the first story today, Your Name Here, with plans to start the second story, Witch's Tit, tomorrow.

And starting on April 1st, EMP Publishing is open to submissions once again, meaning I'll get to put my editing chops back to good use. And remember, authors, I'm also offering my services on Fiverr (or you could just get a hold of me through my Contact Page). I'm pretty experienced when it comes to editing, so take a fucking chance on me, why don't 'ya?

On another note, I've stuck to my 2,000 words a day goal every day in March, and as such, I've written a little over 33,000 words in March. This is really working out for me.

Until next time, fucks. I mean, folks. Here's a gif to steal your attention away from the plague of daily life.

A New, Larger Collection of Stories - Coming Soon!

The collection is (tentatively) titled "Wolves At The Door." It'll include anywhere between six and eight original tales all tailored to the same theme - serial killers. Different murderers, why they feel the need to kill, how they do it, etc. This is something I'm excited about, and nearly every story is an original tale I've penned just for it. These stories include (just titles, I know; that doesn't tell you anything, but it's nice to know these things in advance, isn't it?) Your Name Here, Witch's Tit, Stay The Course, Sweet Dreams, Hotline Bling along with two tales I've previously written, Sweet Talk and Happy Birthday. I'm really looking forward to this collection's release and I hope that all of you will love it.

Until next time, friends. Hopefully the cover art will be ready soon. That way I'm not leaving you bastards empty-handed.

After Years of Writing, I've Finally Found It... A Routine.

I've spent my entire writing career (LMAO, CAREER) trying to find the secret to the best techniques for consistent writing.

There have been days where I wrote 5,000, 6,000, sometimes as high as 7,500 words. Inevitably, after these mega productive days, I wouldn't be able to write shit for days after. I'd burn myself out during that one day and it'd be hard for me to find the inspiration to write for days afterward. Try as I might to have convinced myself it was possible, I'm just not one of those guys that can pump out thousands of words daily (I'm looking at you Tim Marquitz, you arrogant jerk (just kidding, you're a really great guy)).

I can, however, easily achieve 2,000 words a day. Easy as pie. I've set and reached this goal every day for the last seven days. And I'm getting it done relatively quickly, for another reason. Another tick of mine I've been fixing.

I procrastinate. A lot of times, my mind wanders while I'm writing and, really, how many people can say otherwise? But me, I've always been the kind of guy that works best under pressure, so I set one super easy goal for myself; 500 words per hour. Sounds super easy, right? Yeah, because it is. Don't get me wrong, a lot of times I'll get more than 500 within that hour (1,400 yesterday, actually), but setting that super easy goal works best for me.

Another thing (I know; I've got a lot of flaws, but I'm aiming to be the best writer I can be here, 'ya know); I used to be really picky about the words I'd put on the page. I wouldn't put something into the first draft unless I was sure it'd be there on the final draft (essentially meaning I'd be trying to write a first draft and leave it at that). I wasn't doing what I should have been doing, something that's been working wonders for me; throwing literally fucking everything on the page. If an idea comes to my head, I put it in there. I don't go back and take out everything that didn't sound good until I'm editing the first draft and working on the second. Throwing everything on there and getting it out of my head makes the plotting that much easier and creates for a much smoother editing process. I'm not saying I'm writing a bunch of shit just to make my word count, don't get me wrong. But I forget about the 'less is more' rule. While I'm writing the first draft, anyway.

So, it's simple, really. 500 words per hour. 2,000 words per day. Meaning I'm writing for four hours a day and I'm able to call it quits after that short but very productive time spent in front of the computer. Before I would stare at a word document for a few minutes, come up dry, then go do something. Wash, rinse, repeat, and I would end up giving up, not writing anything and chalking the day up as a loss, telling myself I'll do better tomorrow.

Tomorrow is now. This is some of the best writing I've ever done, and it just keeps going. I'm super happy about it and I'm glad I can share my progress with you all.

This is pretty much the only music I'm listening to today.

Hell yeah!

That title was unnecessary. This was just going to be a post informing my readers that I've got a fantastic feeling about the story I'm working on right now. By the time it's finished, it'll probably be about 15,000-20,000 words, so it'll be the 3rd longest thing I've ever written. I'm pretty excited for this, as it's bare bones, old school horror. I hope you all enjoy it.

Also, I believe I'll be releasing another double short story combo this Sunday, consisting of my short stories "Still Beats Your Name" and "Beyond Redemption." When the cover art is ready, I'll post it. Until then, I'll leave you hanging, no doubt on the edge of your seats.

Have a good day, guys. Thanks for checking in.

My Mind's all Over the Place, But is that Really a Bad Thing?

On Tuesday, I started and finished a 5,600 word short story. I just sat down, pounded it out over a few hours, and it was done. Voila. That was a mighty productive day. Thus, I hoped it would carry over.

It sort of has, sort of hasn't. In the last two days, I've started six different stories, going various length into them before moving onto something else. It isn't exactly intentional; I don't crave to can the story in favor of another one just to repeat the process later on. My writing is just very stubborn. I have to want to write it. And when I get that new idea in my head, it's like my fingers refuse to type anything else.

I'm hoping that I'll one day get the urge to return to these stories; some of them are pretty promising and two of them are for anthologies whose deadlines are coming up.

Writers, does this ever happen to you? Do you have trouble sticking to one story at a time? Does inspiration take hold of you at the most random moment and dictate what you will and will not write?

Note; this is far from the first time this has happened to me, and yes, I've finished every story before now. So no worries on that front.