Zombies, Vampires and Texans! Oh, my!!!

My Stalker and Me

2009-12-21T20:05:00.002-06:00

This whole writing thing is weird enough without a stalker ending up in the mix. The fact that someone would take so much time and put so much effort into trying to destroy someone makes me sit back in my chair and scratch my head. I find the passion behind love enthralling, but the passion behind hate is unsettling to say the least.

I decided to write about the situation on my blog because a lot of this has been in the open where people could see what was going on. I never did respond to her and I don't plan to now. But for those of you who have caught glimpses of the things that were going on, here's what happened.

My stalker appeared soon after As The World Dies: The First Days was published. I received an odd message from a woman telling me she was supposed to be the first female zombie genre writer. I had no clue how to answer to that. I had published my book because the fans wanted it. That I had inadvertently derailed someone's plans to be "the first" was not something I felt I could or should apologize for.

Our beginning, obviously, got off to a bad start.

We move through similar circles. but we were never friends. Once I sent her a message when I heard something terrible had happened in her life, but we remained in distant orbit from each other.

Negative comments made by this person began to trickle in to me over time. The accusations were easily dismissed: I was lying about my sales, I didn't have real ISBNS, etc. I shrugged it off, amused more than anything. I had documentation that said otherwise and I did not feel the need to defend myself.

The drama between this person and one of my best friends began to escalate before Horror Realm. I had my fingers crossed that nothing would happen at the con.

At Horror Realm I met this person. I tried to be nice, but I always felt uneasy. I had three interactions with this person that I felt were tense. I ignored them and continued to have a good time.

Since Horror Realm, the tension around this person steadily increased until there was a massive explosion. She leveled accusations against not only me, but two other people. A slew of comments were left over the Internet attacking me and my writing. The administrator for one website where she tried to leave an inflammatory comment warned me that I was in someone's crosshairs. They provided the comment and the I.P. address. The I.P. address was easily tracked back to my stalker.

Fake Amazon.com reviews popped up for the As The World Dies books. They sounded like her tone, reiterated her previous comments about me and my work, and were nasty assaults on me personally, not the books. My fans discovered them first and told me about them. I found the first one to go up to be amusing, but when more began to pop up, I realized she wasn't going to give up. She even went through and tagged all the positive reviews as unhelpful. I do not mind bad reviews. If someone hates the book, that is fine by me, but these reviews were personal assaults.The fans were already commenting back and reporting the reviews, when I sent my own email to Amazon. Amazon investigated the reviews and then pulled them.

(BTW, thank you to all the fans who stood up for me and books.)

It didn't end there. In fact it got much worse not only for me, but the other two people she's been going after. It finally blew sky high Saturday night and I took actions to limit her access to me.

Stalkers seriously suck hairy, rotting zombie balls because no matter what you do, they just don't stop. I'm pretty sure she will continue to bash me (and the others) wherever she can. I have placed her on Ignore across the board and have zero intention of responding to her. Should I see her in real life, I will walk away and not acknowledge her.

I did learn a few valuable lessons out of this whole thing.

1. Agents are awesome. Hannah's simple "This will not affect anything in your career" instantly alleviated the stress I had felt briefly. She also assured me that she had seen this sort of thing before from people jealous of writers.

2. My lawyer is awesome, too. He gave me simple guidelines on how to deal with the situation and told me what lines would need to be crossed for legal action.

3. My friends are amazing. They helped me collect the posts she was spewing out and compile a folder just in case the harassment escalates anytime in the future. They also encouraged me when I felt frustrated and gave me very good advice.

As for my stalker...well, she's still out there and I hope that someday she finds her own peace and her own success.

Meanwhile, on my side of the world, things are looking really good. I can't wait for 2010.

I think it is going to be AMAZING!!!

I'm a Zombie!!!!

2009-12-20T17:41:00.001-06:00

BRAINZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!

Hehehehe...Of course, I'm flipping off the camera man for taking a photo of my bad errr..chewed up side.

My Coolest Review Ever!!

2009-12-19T01:55:00.003-06:00

I found this review on youtube.com.

I have NO idea what he says, but he smiles at the end and holds up two thumbs. I assume it's good.

As The World Dies: The First Days Makes Top Ten Zombie Books of the Decade

2009-12-18T12:52:00.002-06:00

Today did not have the greatest start for me. A sinus headache that has been nagging me for three days threatened to evolve into a full migraine first thing this morning. I was an hour late to work and grumpy as could be. Thoughts of crawling back into my bed and hiding my aching head under a soft pillow instead of sitting at my desk at work kept flitting through my mind.

And then I saw a Twitter post that perked me right up. My head is still aching, but now I'm smiling. I saw a link for the Top Ten Zombie Books of the Decade. As The World Dies: The First Days made the list!

I'm so excited!

The Tale of the Vampire Bride is Now on Kindle

2009-12-15T19:46:00.001-06:00

The Tale of the Vampire Bride is now on Kindle!! I'm so excited that it has gone up so quickly.

Download it today!

A Chat with the Bryce Beattie, the Storyhack and Indie Author

2009-12-15T07:56:00.000-06:00

Along time ago in an a galaxy far, far away...or...at least it feels that way.

A long time ago (about a year and a few months), when As The World Dies The First Days was first released, I was approached by Bryce Beattie about an interview for his blog Storyhack. You can read that interview here. Today I get to turn the tables and find out why Bryce decided to self publish and if he has any advice for new writers.

As I have stated before, I have received quite a few requests for information on writing, publishing and requests for me to critique the work of new writers. It is very difficult for me to respond to each and every person, so I am doing this series of interviews to provide valuable information from writers who are moving forward in their careers.

Rhiannon: Why did you begin writing?

Bryce: I began writing "for real" after I got into old pulp novels. I loved the energy and the excitement in those old stories, and I was convinced I could put the same oomph into stories of my own.

Rhiannon: How many short stories and/or novels did you write before starting on Oasis?

Bryce: I'd written a few short stories before. Nothing I'm terribly proud of. Oasis was my second attempt at a novel. The first attempt was a science-fiction dystopian detective novel that I was co-authoring with a high school buddy of mine. We didn't get too far, but it was fun while it lasted.

Rhiannon: Why did you decide to post it online on a blog?

Bryce: I was realistic about the chances of getting my first novel published. It just seemed like every "real" author I talked to or read about had written two or three novels before getting published. Since I figured I most likely wouldn't be getting published anyway, why not post my work online.

Posting fiction online has it's bonuses. You can get 'live' feedback. You can build a readership. As you build a readership, there is also the bonus of having to write, or people complain. It forces you to find the time.

Besides, I was sure there'd be at least one person that would find it amusing besides myself.

Rhiannon: How long did it take for you to build a steady readership?

Bryce: I'm not really sure. I don't remember there being a day where I woke up and said, "Wow, I totally have steady hits to my site now." I know that it took longer than a year, though.

Rhiannon: Does the constant feedback from your readers encourage or discourage you?

Bryce: Oh, I love even the negative feedback. I'm an attention whore. I feed off of all of it.

Rhiannon: Why did you decide to self publish Oasis?

Bryce: If figured it'd be better than letting it decay on a hard drive somewhere. Plus I really, really wanted to throw it on a coffee table and when folks came over I'd say (nonchalantly) "Oh, yeah. That's my first novel." Now that I have the novel, all I need for that dream to come true is a coffee table.

Rhiannon: Had you submitted it to any publishers or agents before you decided to self publish?

Bryce: I submitted Oasis to one small publisher that specialized in post-apocalyptic "literature." I sent them the submission with the first three chapters and everything (this was before I had actually finished the book), then waited about six months. I hadn't heard back, so I went ahead and self published.

The day after Oasis went live on Amazon, they contacted me asking for the full manuscript. Alas, they were not interested in a reprint at the time. So, who knows where that would have gone?

Rhiannon: What was the hardest thing about self publishing?

Bryce: Well, once the book was finished, I thought the publishing process was easy. At least until the "OK, now what do I do with my published book?" Phase. Marketing the self published book, then, is the hardest thing for me.
Followed closely by editing.

Rhiannon: Have you noticed any stigma placed on your book because its not from a "traditional" publisher?

Bryce: Not so much that the book was self published. I get more flack in the real world due to the genre.

Rhiannon: What are your plans for the next book? Are you subbing it to traditional publishers or will you publish it yourself?

Bryce: I'm currently writing and posting the sequel to Oasis, called "The Journey of St. Laurent." Right now, I'm not planning on subbing it anywhere. My current plan is to form my own imprint and then go use LightningSource.

The book after that, though, will be more of a mainstream thriller, and I'll probably shop it around.

Rhiannon: Why did you decide to write about zombies?

Bryce: Well, at the same time I was getting excited about writing I was playing an online game called Urban Dead, so I had zombies on the brain.

Rhiannon: Do reviews help you in anyway?

Bryce: The well thought out ones do. And of course seeing many stars in Amazon would give me a warm fuzzy and make me want to write more.

Most of the time, though, reviews are just two lines of either pure love or excessive hate. Without mentioning anything specific from the book, one of the reviews on Amazon compared my work (unfavorably) to a bean burrito from Taco Bell.

Rhiannon: Do you feel you are developing a solid fan base?

Bryce: Well, I'm making a lot of friends online and I'm getting more and more regular comments on my blog, so I'd say "Yes."

Rhiannon: What is your latest writing project?

Bryce: As I mentioned, I'm writing the sequel to Oasis, and I've been off and on outlining about four or five other books.

Rhiannon: Do you plot our your novels or do you just see where the words take you?

Bryce: In general I make an outline using the first few steps from Randy Ingermanson's "snowflake method" of writing a novel. When I lose interest in outlining, I start hammering it out, then revisit the outline as needed.

Rhiannon: From where do you draw inspiration?

Bryce: Fiction influences include mostly old stuff, including the works of Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroghs, Robert Leslie Bellem, Lester Dent (Kenneth Robinson) and other great pulp authors.

From a certain standpoint, I'm inspired by modern authors like Dan Brown and Stephanie Meyer, inasmuch as every time I pick up one of their books I think, "Hey, if THIS can make a zillion bucks, maybe there's still hope for my books. I'd better get writing."

Rhiannon: Do you have strong support from your family and friends in you writing endeavors?

Bryce: My wife is fanatically supportive of my writing. She's a bigger fan of it than I am. And if you'd ever met my ego, you'd know that was saying something.

Rhiannon: Would you encourage other fledgling writers to self publish?

Bryce: Absolutely. I say follow your dream and if self-publishing helps you get there, do it.

Rhiannon: What is the one single piece of advice you wish someone had given you when you first started out?

Bryce: Read out loud everything you write! I feel very strongly about this one.

Rhiannon: What is your long term writing career goal?

Bryce: About six or seven books down the road, I'd like to write one that actually changes a lot of people's lives for the better. Whether I ever make any money or not is moot to me. I love writing, so I'll be doing it until they pry my spacepen from my cold, dead hands. Of course I wouldn't mind making a good living as a full time author, either.

For more information on Bryce and his latest works, check out his blog Storyhack here.

To purchase his novel Oasis, click here.

The Passing of ZA Recht

2009-12-14T23:28:00.005-06:00

I wish I could say ZA and I were good friends, but the reality is that we spoke a few words to each other at Horror Realm, shook hands, and went on our busy way. I remember his twinkling eyes and his a smile under a big mustache. It's a pleasant snapshot in my memory.

When I heard of his passing last week, I felt the bitter bite of remorse that I had not spoken to him for longer. He was so very young when he died just on the brink of the next big step in his career.

All weekend I kept searching for any news on his passing. I admit, I did not want to believe it. I wanted it to be a mistake or a stupid hoax. Sadly, this is not the case. We had mutual friends who are now in mourning, and I hope and pray his family and friends find some measure of peace during this difficult time in the outpouring of affection from his fans.

Tonight, I read this article on his passing.

It's a tiny article, but at least it is something nice. I think the author expresses what many ZA's fans are feeling about the loss of his future works. This is a tragedy on two levels: the loss of a loved one to his friends and family and the loss of a favorite author to his fans.

When Stephen King was hit by that van, a lot of people were afraid he would die. I felt immensely selfish because I was horrified at the thought of never reading the end of the Dark Tower series. Other authors have died with incomplete works left behind and their fans are left to wonder what the future would have held for their favorite world and its characters.

I'm glad that ZA's family has vowed to put out the last book. I hope it helps their healing as they put this tragedy behind them.

Plague of the Dead will be released by Pocket Books in late December. It is available for preorder now.

Updated Information from Premuted Press:

In the wake of Plague of the Dead and Thunder and Ashes author Z.A. Recht's
passing last week his family has set up a non-profit memorial scholarship fund.
Donations may be sent to:
Z A RECHT SCHOLARSHIP-MEMORIAL FUND
P O Box 193
Bunker Hill, WV 25413

BIG NEWS!!!!

2009-12-10T22:05:00.006-06:00

My apologies for the long delay in posting. A lot has happened since I last posted and this entry is to get you up to date.

I do plan to continue my interview series starting with Bryce Beattie, the self-published author of Oasis. You can read my review of his novel online at either amazon.com or goodreads.com. He's a very interesting fellow and you can check out his blog here. He was one of the first bloggers to interview me right after As The World Dies: The First Days came out, and I'm excited to turn the tables on him.

I also hope to interview genre favorites such as Dave Dunwoody, Rob Fox and many others. The whole idea behind the interview series is to highlight all the various ways writers began their careers and how they have progressed since their first published work. I also hope to interview the fabulous Jacob, owner of Permuted Press. He has been extraordinarily supportive of my career over the last year and has always given me good advice.

Now..for my big news...

I have a literary agent!! Her name is Hannah Brown Gordon and she is with the Foundry Literary + Media agency. And she hopes to take As The World Dies to the big NYC publishers and the foreign markets.

So...how did this happen?

Well....let's recap for those new to my blog.

As The World Dies was born online in August 2005. It was a flash of inspiration that had me write what was to become the opening scene of the series. I named that scene “Tiny Fingers” and considered it a short story. The immediate response was positive and readers asked me to continue. And continue I did until early 2007 when I finally finished the last scenes of what is now As The World Dies: Siege. Over those two years, I had well over 100,000 hits on the story and amassed a huge following. As the final reviews came in on the end of ATWD, I felt a great sense of relief and pride in the work. It was still a surprise when fans began clamoring that I should have the story published. Emails poured in asking that I have the story published so they could pick up a copy at their local bookstore and keep on their shelves. To the fans that loved the story so much, it was a no-brainer that someone would pick up ATWD and publish it.

So I pulled down the original and began studying the publishing world. I waded through blogs, writer’s forums, countless helpful books, websites, and joined writing groups. I wrote and rewrote query letters, studied how to write a synopsis, and got subscriptions to the Writer’s Market and other magazines. As I got deeper into the reality of the publishing world, I realized the chance of making a living off my writing or hitting it big were really slim to none. But the fan emails continued to pour in and I kept on sending out query letters. Over and over again, I was told my story was not what they were looking for at that time. I was referred to Permuted Press and found that submissions were closed. I sat at my desk and wept.

It was my husband who looked into independently publishing the books and encouraged me down that path. I was initially very resistant. I still had the dream of the literary agent and the big NYC publishing house. But I began to study how self publishing (Indie Publishing) works and how to avoid the vanity presses. My husband and I decided to put out all three books in one year, utilizing our friends with English degrees as editors and calling upon our artist friend for the covers. It was a lot of hard work and we made some mistakes, but we finally got the first book out.

The first month it sold 25 copies. My Mom bought one and another friend bought one. The other 23 were fans. The second month that number was over 60. My brothers and friends still hadn’t bought a copy, so I consoled myself with the thought that strangers were buying the books. The third month, the sales went up over 100 paperbacks sold for the first book. The numbers have steadily increased since that time. We’re selling between 400 and 500 paperbacks a month now of all three books combined.

Jacob contacted me about joining the Permuted Press family. My hands were trembling when the official offer came in. I read it over carefully and was so nervous I didn’t remember a thing I had read the first time through. I spoke at length with Jacob about Permuted Press and what it would mean to be published by the company. I was deep into the second book revisions and a little overwhelmed. I talked to my husband, best friend and mom about the offer. I paced through the house. I cried a little. Then I turned it down. I decided to continue on the course my husband and I had decided upon. I told Jacob that after the third book was out I would begin to consider other publication paths. He has remained a good friend and supporter since then and has always given me the best advice.

The second book came out in March. Sales continued to increase. One day when running errands, I told my husband about the fan emails I was receiving asking me if I was going to have a movie or TV show made of the books. I thought it was funny. I jokingly told my husband I wanted As The World Dies to be a TV show. When I got home, I took a nap. I woke up to an email from LA asking me about the TV/Film rights.

I could not believe it, but it was true! Someone in LA was interested in my books! What was really fun about the whole story was that he was attracted to my books because Jenni resembled his wife on the cover so he clicked on it to find out what the book was about. He read over the synopsis, liked what he read, and ordered the first two books.

After two failed attempts to find an entertainment lawyer, I received a referral for Barr Potter with The Fox Law Group out of LA. He is such a great guy and was very helpful in guiding me through the process of getting the option signed. The producer had already told me he was flying to Horror Realm to see me and hopefully sign the option, so I was already excited when I received a call from a publishing house the day before the convention. I told my lawyer about it just before I got on the plane.

At this point, I was in a state of shock and wondering what was going to come next.

At Horror Realm, I signed the TV/Film option and wondered what the publishing house had in mind. In the end, I would decline the offer, but it did make me realize it was time to seriously consider securing a literary agent. My lawyer had advised this right before Horror Realm and I realized he was right.

My lawyer sent out feelers. Within two weeks, I was sending off my books to Hannah Gordon. I spent a week wondering what would be her final assessment of the books and my writing. When the email finally came in that she wanted to talk to me about representation, I burst into tears then started dancing around the house. Just to have someone interested on that level was an amazing feeling.

When we finally spoke on the phone, I was a nervous wreck, but it went really well. It was strange to hear the opinion of someone at the upper end of the industry on my writing and my story. I had tears in my eyes through most of the conversation, and my heart was thumping so hard in my chest it almost hurt! By the end of the conversation I knew I wanted to sign with her. She believes in my writing, and I know she will do her best to sell the trilogy.

The final agreement was finalized the day before Thanksgiving, which gave me a whole lot more to be thankful for. The next week I received the paperwork with Hannah's signature already scrawled across the bottom. I could barely hold the pen as I signed. It was a big moment for me.

That night I told my husband that securing an agent, who believes in my work, felt like the ultimate reward for the years of failed submissions and countless hours writing. I felt happy not only for myself, but for the diehard fans that pushed me from the very beginning.

"Well," my pragmatic husband said to me, "that's all good and fine, but I hope she SELLS it now."

What comes next? I don’t know for certain, but I do know having a literary agent has the power to open new doors. The Foundry Literary + Media has a very good track record and have a staff of literary agents that have a lot of experience in the industry. I have a feeling 2010 is going to be a year of learning a whole lot more about the publishing industry. We’ll see what it has in store for me and As The World Dies.

As always, I want to thank YOU, the fans, for your support in your emails that pushed me to keep going and reach higher. You guys and gals are AWESOME!!!

THANK YOU!!!

Upcoming posts:
The Stalker and Me
Bryce Beattie and Self Publishing Your Dreams

The Tale of the Vampire Bride is now available!!

2009-12-07T12:29:00.001-06:00

The Tale of the Vampire Bride is now available!! It just went live at the publisher's online store. Amazon.com will probably have it in 10 days. Disregard the estimated shipping dates from Createspace. They are greatly exaggerated. You'll get your book pretty quickly.

https://www.createspace.com/3405740

Special thanks to Dr. Pus and his Library of Horror Press for publishing my latest novel!

All Lady Glynis Wright ever wanted was the freedom to live her life as she pleased. Unfortunately, her aristocratic parents want her to marry well and settle into a life of luxury. When her family becomes guests to one of the most fearsome and powerful vampires of all time, Glynis finds her fate is far more terrible than an arranged marriage.

Trapped in the power of her new master, she fights for freedom, revenge against her creator, and the chance to be with the one she truly loves.

Bloody, horrific, romantic and rich in gothic atmosphere, The Tale of the Vampire Bride is sure to thrill fans of the terrible, yet romantic vampires of literary past.

Some Quick Thoughts, Updates, and an Exclusive Sneak Peek at The Tale of the Vampire Bride

2009-11-18T08:22:00.004-06:00

November has not gone the way I anticipated. I had it all planned out and was ready to dive into writing my new novel. My husband had been informed I would be ignoring him for basically a whole month, I made sure not to make any big plans other than Thanksgiving, and was ready to buckle down in front of my new 27" monitor.

And it all got derailed.

Nothing bad occurred. In fact what is brewing is actually really good. Good for my writing career and good for my readers. I can't speak of it quite yet, but I hope to be able to tell the tale by this weekend. But this new development definitely rearranged my priorities for the month.

Meanwhile, The Tale of the Vampire Bride is on its way to publication. The publisher has mailed me the proof copy and I hope to review it this weekend. I can't wait for it to arrive in the mail and hold it in my hands. This is a very important book to my dark little heart and I can't wait to share it with you. If all goes well, The Library of Horror Press should be releasing it very soon.

Nicole Hadaway was very nice to shine the spotlight on me on her blog's Writer's Wednesday. There is an exclusive sneak peek to The Tale of the Vampire Bride in her article, so if you're curious about the novel, please make sure to check it out.

Check back soon for more interviews that will hopefully give you perspective on your own writing career.

The Complete Cover for The Tale of the Vampire Bride

2009-11-16T09:57:00.001-06:00

The Monsterous Superhero Powers of a Small Press-An Interview with CosCom Entertainment

2009-11-13T08:52:00.003-06:00

It seems so long ago when my husband and I decided to independently publish As The World Dies: A Zombie Trilogy over dinner at Plucker's. I remember the night well: my initial reluctance to the idea, my delicious sweet potato fries, my rum & coke, and how my husband was adamant that we could get As The World Dies into the hands of the fans.

After dinner, we went home and I sat at my computer (which died while working on the revision of the trilogy) and began to study self-publishing. It was during my research I came across Coscom Entertainment and read up on the publishing house. Like Permuted Press, they were closed to submissions. As a small publisher, it seemed evident that it was doing well and I found that encouraging.

Six months later, As The World Dies: The First Days was released and began to rack up the sales. I was surprised to receive an email from A.P. Fuchs, the owner of Coscom Entertainment, giving me some very good and solid advice. I was impressed that he reached out to me. I was greatly encouraged by his gesture.

Upon reflection, the last year has been an amazing learning experience. My views on the publishing world in all its forms has wildly swung back and forth over the months as I have struggled to find my own niche and determine what is the best route for my future. For a period of time, Coscom Entertainment's example inspired me to consider starting my own imprint.

I'm very happy to present an interview with A.P. Fuchs of Coscom Entertainment today. Though his publishing house is closed to submissions, I think he has some thought-provoking advice on writing and publishing that I'd like to share.

Rhiannon: A.P., tell me a little about the background of Coscom Entertainment.

A.P.: I'll give you the short version, but a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . .
I started writing short stories in June of 2000 because my original aspirations to be a comic book artist didn't pan out. My plan was to write 5 or 6 short stories, all parts to a whole, and release it somehow as a serial. The story began changing shape a bit as I wrote it and it became the prologue to my first novel, A Stranger Dead. Once A Stranger Dead was done, I set about the task of finding a publisher. Being completely naive about the industry, I ended up getting suckered in to a deal with a vanity press called 1st Books Library (now Author House). The whole procedure going from manuscript to actual book was a nightmare, took a long time and cost A LOT of money. Awful. Being soured by 1st Books, I went to Iuniverse for my second book, a poetry collection called The Hand I've Been Dealt. Working with IU was way smoother, but still a vanity outfit nonetheless.

Ironically, out of the above two experiences, I fell in love with the book publishing process and since part of my original goal of being a comic book artist was to one day release my own stuff under my own label ala Image Comics, I decided to officially launch the company I created in high school called Coscom, but since I was doing books and possibly comics, I went with Coscom Entertainment.

Rhiannon: What exactly does Coscom mean?

A.P.: Cos = Cosmic, Com = Comics. That's how I got the name way back in high school.

Rhiannon: A lot of starting out writers always aim for the big NYC publishing houses. You own a small press. What is the main difference between the big houses and small ones?

A.P.: Besides small ones being more fun?

Well, I can't really say that seeing as how--though I've had brushes with publishing folks in NYC--I've never published with one.

In all seriousness--and based solely on what I've heard from those who've published with large presses--the small press typically allows the author more creative control and input into the final product, a MUCH faster turn-around in turning manuscripts to actual books and getting them to market, and more freedom in terms of what you can publish (i.e. you can explore themes that a large house might not want to for fear of "offending the masses.")

Rhiannon: You don't accept query letters and work with your inhouse authors and artists. You do invite authors to work on certain projects. What can an author do to catch your attention?
A.P.: Right now my choice to not accept queries is solely based on my present workload being massive and to deal with submissions on a regular basis on top of all that is not feasable at this time.

To catch my attention, I might approach you if I've, say, read a short story of yours somewhere and really liked it. I might ask you if you're working on something longer and/or novel-length.
To be honest, it's kind of hard right now to get me open to looking at something of yours--again, due to time constraints. I have a lot on the go right now.

Rhiannon: How do you discover new talent?
A.P. :See above.

Otherwise it's via the usual way of getting a query, liking what I read, then asking for the first three chapters and going from there.

Rhiannon: You work with the extremely prolific Eric S. Brown He is famous for being able to turn out manuscripts very quickly. Is this a trait you look for in your authors?

A.P.: To a point, in that if it's going to take you a year to write a book, I don't want to wait for it. The thing with publishing is that it's very much a business of timing and striking certain markets--in our case within the monster and superhero genres--when that particular market is hot. In a year from now when you finally turn in your book, that market might be done or could have died down. You'll be unhappy and I'll be unhappy. No one wins.
I like writers to be able to crank out a quality book in three months or less. That's how long it takes me and I just don't get writers taking a year or two to write a book (unless it involves a silly amount of research, of course). To me, that means they're not writing every day and, if they are, they're only typing up a couple hundred words or something. I mean, that's not even enough to get some momentum going in a story never mind actually completing one.

Rhiannon: Coscom Entertainment publishes superhero and monster stories. Why did you settle on these two genres?

A.P.: These are the two base genres I'm personally a fan of. If I'm going to sink time and money into this business, I want to be able to love what I'm producing as well.

Rhiannon: Which one has been the most successful?

A.P. : Monsters. Easy.

But that market is kind of an exception market in that it's a niche, one were you can come in with new stuff all the time and find an audience.

With superheroes, bringing new stuff into a realm where Batman and Spider-man dominate, that's much harder. However, I'm proud to have brought not just my own creation, Axiom-man, to market, but also Frank Dircherl's The Wraith and Jon Klement's Rush and the Grey Fox (now Velocity Girl and Xuàn Hú) along the way.

Rhiannon: Coscom Entertainment has recently started carving out a niche for itself in the revisioning of classic novels. What inspired you to go in this direction?

A.P.: I was originally going to bring Axiom-man and Dracula together sometime in 2008, but got busy with other projects. So this year is the year Coscom Entertainment is putting many mash-up books out to make up for lost time.

Rhiannon: How have the mashups been accepted as a whole?

A.P.: People love it. Some think it's funny, others cool. Only a few think it's stupid. Personally, I stand behind them. As long as there are cool ways to twist an old tale and you have license to do so, hey, why not? It's about the story and these are fun stories.

Rhiannon: I hear you are writing a mashup with Dracula. What can you tell us about that novel?

A.P.: It's called Dracula vs Zombula and I'm writing the story of Bill Vanhelsing, Abraham's drunken brother who's a zombie killer. His quest leads him to Zombula, the real ruler of the undead, the first to rise from the grave.

Rhiannon: You are a publisher and a writer. How do you manage to do both?

A.P.: By not sleeping.

Actually, I'm fortunate to do this full time so it's merely an issue of budgeting my time accordingly, giving X-amount of hours to publishing others then making X-amount of hours available for my own work.

Rhiannon: How does one job affect the other?

A.P.: The publishing part puts pressure on me as a writer in terms of being sure to put out good work that, on the whole, people dig. As much as any writer wants to be loved by all, that's just not possible because you can't please everybody. However, if you win over 7 or 8 out of 10 people, you're on the right track. The idea here is it would be a shame if a crappy writer was publishing others.

Fortunately, most people like what I'm doing. I get fan mail now and then so that must mean something.

Rhiannon: As a publisher, what is your number one piece of advice for a fledgling writer?

A.P.: Follow the guidelines. I'm huge on this. If you follow the guidelines to the letter, it shows you take this stuff seriously, in turn opening up the publisher or editor to want to work with you.
I mean, would you want to work with someone who can't follow a few simple instructions? I don't.

Rhiannon: As a writer what is your number one piece of advice for a fledging writer?

A.P.: Don't stop. Write at least 5-6 days a week. Write a lot and read a lot. It's common advice but one many writers don't adhere to. A lot of people like to talk about that book or story they're gonna write and never get past the idea stage. I've encountered way too many artists and writers who are dreamers and never doers. It's always a case of "one day, one day, after I fill-in-the-blank."

In short, three words: get it done.

Then go from there.

Rhiannon: What is the most common mistake you see among starting out writers?

A.P.: Dreaming too big. Let me clarify: I'm all about dreaming large and going the distance. Coscom Entertainment is built on that. I've eaten so much garbage from friends, family and folks in the business about how I personally went about getting my stories out there. If I listed the opposition I've faced, I could easily publish a full-length book on it.

Back on point, many starting-out writers dream about being the next James Patterson or Stephen King. They want the giant mass market deal with a NY house, a six-figure-plus advance, tons of press, praise from reviewers, the movie option and the fame. They start with that goal and even sometimes think themselves worthy of that goal, and that's fine. Shoot high.
But then it doesn't happen.

And they get discouraged. And bitter. And angry.

Let's face it, those movie-star-like deals happen to newcomers once in a blue moon, which is why such deals do make the media. They're rare. Very rare. Most writers hold down either a full- or partime day job to make endsmeet.

So what I would suggest for starting-out writers is to take a pragmatic approach to the business and understand that, yes, those dream-like scenarios do happen, but also accept they are few and far between and for them to just follow the old submission pattern of querying an agent(s). If that doesn't work--and assuming the agent(s) is passing not because of writing faults but just that they're not interested--then shoot for the mid-range presses. If that doesn't work, go small press. If that doesn't work, then look at POSSIBLY self-publishing (but doing it right, not going with a vanity outfit).

Rhiannon: You're very open about your faith as a Christian. How does this affect your writing and your publishing house?

A.P.: Obviously I can't put out any ol' thing I want, whether it's my work or someone else's. Many would view that as censorship or creatively stifling or whatnot. But the truth is, when a person objectively looks at anything Christ called sin, all those things, in the end, aren't good for you. Yet people get in a snit about it because, frankly, we as humans like stuff that isn't good for us.

I follow a few rules when writing or publishing others and so far it's worked out:
1) no cursing or blasphemy (and, really, stories don't need that stuff anyway; if a writer can't think of other words or notions better than four-letter curse words, they're not much of a writer to begin with)2) no graphic sex scenes3) no gore or blood and guts solely for the sake of gore or blood and guts4) same with gratuitous violence (if this serves the story, that's different and will be looked at)

Rhiannon: Would you say your horror novels are faith-based?

A.P.: More or less, though they're not preachy or anything. They just take place in a Judeo-Christian reality because that's the reality we live in and I try and make my stories as close to our world as possible, then asking, "If these fantastic elements came into our world--like superheroes or monsters--how would it most realistically play out?"

Rhiannon: Will horror fans from all backgrounds still enjoy them?

A.P.: I would hope so. It strikes me that readers--even people--in general have zero trouble with something told from, say, a Muslim point-of-view or Buddhist point-of-view or whatnot, but the moment something is told from a Christian point-of-view, suddenly they get upset.
Makes one wonder why that is. For me it just cements what Jesus said about His people being hated because of Him, but to also remember that He was hated first. It just attests to the fact that, yes indeed, we do live in a Christian reality.

Rhiannon: Tell us about your newest releases and what we can expect in the future.

A.P.: For my own work, I got the following coming up hopefully before June/July 2010:
1) Zombie Fight Night2) Possession of the Dead (Undead World Trilogy, Book Two)3) Dracula vs Zombula4) Axiom-man: City of Ruin
As for Coscom Entertainment, I'm aiming for the following before year's end:
1) Emma and the Werewolves by Jane Austen and Adam Rann2) Blood Hunger by A.M. Esmonde3) Praise the Dead by Gina Ranalli4) R.I.P. by Harrison Howe5) possibly one or two more
Thanks for the chat, Rhiannon. I had fun.

A.P. Fuchs can be contacted via his personal site at www.axiom-man.com or through Coscom Entertainment at www.coscomentertainment.com. Be sure to also check out his zombie trilogy, Undead World, at www.undeadworldtrilogy.com

Also check out Eric S. Brown's books from Coscom Entertainment, The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies and World War of the Dead. You can read my interview with Eric S. Brown here.

The Cover For The Tale of the Vampire Bride

2009-11-12T08:34:00.002-06:00

What do you think?

An Interview With Kody Boye, Boy Author Extrodinaire

2009-11-04T13:50:00.005-06:00

Kody Boye is very young. He's not even out of his teens yet. But he has already been published in numerous times in anthologies and recently had his first novel released. He has another project about to be published (I'll let him talk about that) and has numerous projects lined up. He is prolific, extremely talented, well-respected, and considered to be a talent to watch by his peers and readers alike.

He absolutely blew away the audience at his reading at Horror Realm in Pittsburgh and definitely held his own during the question and answer session. He is articulate, good-looking, talented beyond his years, and just beginning his career. I suspect he will one day be a superstar author.

Rhiannon: You're a very young writer. How old are you?

Kody: I was born in April 1992. That makes me seventeen.

Rhiannon: What age were you when you started to write seriously?

Kody: I was fourteen when I looked at myself and what I was doing. After a while, I said, 'I'm going to do this.' Six months later, my first short story was published.

Rhiannon: Were you encouraged by a teacher or parent?

Kody: Teachers, mostly. I had a teacher in the fourth or fifth grade that assigned an object-specific creative writing assignment that I absolutely loved. I lost that 'tick' for a while until about sixth grade, when I started pushing myself into my writing again. An Idaho History/English teacher encouraged me to continue writing when I was bumped into the second level of English and learned that I was into writing.

Rhiannon: Where do you gain your inspiration?

Kody: I try to pull inspiration out of wherever I can. Sometimes I'll play with words in my head and they'll inspire stories. Other times, I'll see an image or a flash of something and a whole story will start to revolve around it. Although I'm more of a read-it-off-the-page learner, visuals do a lot to inspire what I write. I'll see fields of poppies and the transgendered children that run through them and skeletons hanging in closets and think, 'That's really something.' So, yes--I pull inspiration from wherever I can.

Rhiannon: Since you are so young, do you struggle with any particular aspect of your writing?

Kody: I've always had a confidence issue, which was, sadly, caused by the often traumatic abuse that childhood could give you. I was mercilessly bullied up until I left traditional high school at fifteen. Any name in the book you can think of I was called. So, naturally, I was (and still am) a rather inward person. My writing, while the strongest point and talent I have, often falls under my perfectionist scrutiny. I'm easily frustrated and can get really emotionally about the thing I'm the best at, so I'll doubt myself and my work a lot. Oftentimes though, it's just me beating myself up too much. I've had stories that I've had doubts about be accepted with much praise by the editors and publishers who take them.

Rhiannon: Did you gain all the writing skills you needed from school or have you self-taught yourself?

Kody: General education did nothing to further my talent. It's sad to say that in this day and age, schools (and the people who run them) aren't allowed to be as free with the extracurricular activities they allow their students, but that never stopped me from pushing myself to be the best I can be. Except for the few critique groups and general feedback I've received from fellow writers and editors, I'm entirely self-taught. I don't consider this a bad thing though. I think that, believe I've been able to go through the school of hard knocks, I've been able to develop a style that isn't hindered by any particular rules or set guidelines. I see my lack of guidance as a blessing more than a curse.

Rhiannon: Your mastery of the written word is amazing. At your reading at Horror Realm in Pittsburgh, people were in awe. Did this come to you naturally?

Kody: I'd be lying if I said my talent was anything other than natural. As I've said, other than the few critique groups and general feedback I've received, I'm entirely self-taught. Persistence and hard work has been what's allowed me to get as far as I have. I've had my highs and lows, and I've thought about giving up due to stress and personal issues, but I've never been one to back down from a challenge. Who's going to help me if not myself? No one. So, since I have nothing better to do for the time being, I write. Better to busy myself typing away at a keyboard than sitting around and eating Bon-Bons all day.

(Rhiannon's Note: I see nothing wrong with eating Bon-Bons all day and sitting around all day.)

Rhiannon: Which writers inspire you?

Kody: Stephen King and his vivid imagination, Poppy Z. Brite for her no-holds-barred style, the late Tristan Egolf for his eccentric and flavorful style, and Jennifer Haigh and her mastership of the family psyche, just to name a few. I could go on and on about which writers and what books have inspired me, but I doubt you want an essay.

(Rhiannon's Note: Again, I don't make the list. I gotta step it up!)

Rhiannon: Do you think you will remain a genre writer?

Kody: At this point, nothing's holding me back from moving outside the realm of a particular genre or genres. I write what I enjoy. For the most part, that's horror and dark (or darker-themed) fiction. I'm happy with what I'm doing right now--I don't see why I'd move out of it. 10. Which genres do you enjoy? Horror, dark fantasy, mystery, thriller, some science fiction (though I can't read hard sci-fi; it makes my head spin,) and contemporary fiction. I'm not picky--if something's interesting and well written, I'll read it.

Rhiannon: There are so many options open to writers today. I know you have been published in small presses, but you have talked about independently publishing as well. How do you decide what path is right for your individual projects?

Kody: It depends on what the project is, how personal it is to me, and how marketable it might be to a publisher. Normally, I'm gung-ho to submit to a publisher, but sometimes I have to hold back and reconsider just what I want to do with my work. I can't specifically delve into the process of how I decide on what to do with a work, because each project is different in several ways.

Rhiannon: Do you tell the publishers your age or just let your work stand for itself?

Kody: Back when I was first starting, I used to tell publishers (if only because I wanted them to be aware that I was underaged should I need to sign a contract,) but I kept getting responses such as, 'We won't give you leeway just because you're younger' or no response at all. Nowadays, I let my work stand for itself and make the publisher aware that I'm underaged if I do happen to be accepted into something they're publishing.

Rhiannon: You are openly gay and write about both gay and straight characters. Have you found any resistance from publishers about including LGBT characters?

Kody: Not particularly. I've had nobodies that hide behind screen names and computer screens lash out at me for my work, but other than that, I've found no resistance or criticism for those looking to put out the best work they can.

Rhiannon: Your first full-length novel had some sharp criticism against it. A lot of people seemed bother about gay characters in a zombie novel. I read all the Amazon. com reviews of Sunrise, but I felt Patrick Dorazio's review echoed my sentiments about the book. He wrote:

"Knowing that this story was written by a teenager and that some of the
characters, including the main character, are gay before I started reading
Sunrise provided me with the chance to look at this story a little bit
differently than I might have if I knew nothing about the author or characters
in advance of reading the first page. Kody writes with a enthusiasm and perhaps
writes this tale more as an idealist than a realist in many ways. The romance is
idealistic, his hope for a world, despite the fact that it is torn apart by
apocalypse, is idealistic, and the relationship in these pages not only between
the two main characters but all the key characters is probably idealistic. Is
that in any way wrong? Not by my reckoning. I have read quite a wide array of
zombie stories over the past few years and I certainly feel there is room on my
shelf for a book written by someone whose is perhaps writing with a less jaded
perspective. "

How do you feel about his review?

Kody: The idealism in my older writing is more than evident, particularly because, up until recently, I never had any experience intimately or romantically. I think the review keys into the main flaw in Sunrise, but does it in a polite and dignified manner. I really appreciate Mr. Dorazio's thought out approach to the novel.

Rhiannon: By your request, Sunrise was pulled from circulation. Will we see it again?

Kody: Yes, Sunrise will see the light of day, but probably not for a while. As it stands, I have two projects I can work on writing-wise after I finish my dark fantasy novel--the rewrite of Sunrise, a bizarro novel called The World is a Happy Place, or a more traditional teenage love story called Breathe Air. I'm not sure where I'm going yet. In the long run, my heart will tell me what's next.

Rhiannon: You have a new book coming out. Can you tell us a little about it?

Kody: An Amorous Thing, which will be published by Lame Goat Press early next year, is a short story collection revolving around the theme of affection. It will feature fifteen stories that revolve around love/compassion and how it affects us, whether it be good or bad. The stories range in theme from magical, malevolent bells to more contemporary manners like gays in the military.

Rhiannon: What lessons did you learn from Sunrise?

Kody: I learned one really important thing from Sunrise--if someone wants you to know what they think about your work, they'll reach out to you. There's no point in putting yourself on an emotional rollercoaster of ups and downs if you don't have to.

Rhiannon: What are your goals for your writing career?

Kody: My biggest short-term goal is to try and get an agent when I turn twenty-one. My writing seems to work in sevens. I learned how to write when I was at least seven, my first story was published when I was fourteen, my first novel was published when I was seventeen; you can pretty much see the pattern there. For now, I just want to keep pushing forward and hopefully make writing a full-time thing. I'd like to be able to support myself and my future significant other with what I'm doing, but even then, that's idealistic. There's thousands of writers out there trying to make it big. I got a head start because I'm so young--I plan on making the most of it while I can.

Rhiannon: Any advice to new writers about submitting their material to publications?

Kody: Other than making sure your work is as perfect as possible, I don't have any other suggestions. Read the guidelines, proof your work, send it off and wait for the best--that's all I can offer.

Rhiannon: What is the most important lesson you have learned during your short writing career?

Kody: You're never one step ahead--you're always one step behind.

An Interview with the Fantastically Funny and Macabre Author, Timothy Long

2009-11-03T07:57:00.000-06:00

To rehash yesterday's post, I am conducting a series of interviews with several authors at varying stages of their writing careers. My hope is to give fledgling writers some ideas on how to shape their career path and help them gain perspective on the process of getting published.

The first author in this series is Timothy Long, author of Among the Living and The Zombie-Wilson Diaries. I firmly believe you will be hearing a lot more about this author in the near future. He has one of the more original and refreshing voices in the zombie and horror genre.

Rhiannon: Why did you start writing?

Tim: To silence the voices in my head. I know that sounds funny but to me writing has always been about characters and I have always had oddball characters running around up there wondering when I would let them out.

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I think for some people it is just ingrained, the need to jot a bunch of words on paper and thrust them at your friends. I also love reading and have often thought I could do a better job. But the reality is that no matter who I am reading or what they wrote I have the utmost respect for them for finishing a piece and putting it out there for the world.

Rhiannon: How old were you when you wrote your first piece?

Tim: 4th grade. I wrote a version of Little Red Riding hood where Red tortured and killed the wolf after running circles around him. My teacher was not amused. Also, since I was that young I didn’t really know how to do things like SAY “Little red riding hood stuck her tongue out and blew” and instead tried to spell out the sound. I’m pretty sure I got an F on that little endeavor.

Rhiannon: Your first two books are about zombies, but were also very funny. Do you see yourself as a horror writer?

Tim: I write across a lot of genres. I have stuff published as sci-fi and social satire but I really do like to write darker material. Even my humorous pieces have horror in them. I had a really amazing writing teacher last year named Michealla Roessner and she was the first one to encourage me to think about writing in the genre. I was reluctant because I honestly didn’t know if horror even sold – unless your name is Stephen King or Clive Barker. Go into a Border’s and walk past the Science Fiction / Fantasy section and you will see a cubby hole marked Horror. It is minuscule. What I did not consider was how large the virtual community at large is. There is a huge market for horror. I just had to find it.

There are scenes in my books that creep me out and I consider them horror but I don’t want to be writing zombies forever. Don’t get me wrong I love the genre a lot but there are many things to write about where I can experiment with the baser (and funnier) side of human nature.

As for the funnier side. There is a character in Among the Living that developed into a wise-cracking, vodka swilling drug dealer that had to be in for the comic relief. I have heard a lot of people say the book is funny and I’m glad because it offsets the dark tones of the rest of the novel.

Rhiannon: What was the first writing piece you ever published?

Tim: I did a lot of editorial work for gaming sites in the late 90’s early 00’s. I had stuff coming out every week and for a while I was even the game editor at Gamers Depot of GD Fest fame. I loved doing game reviews but mainly because I got free games and swag.

My first published story was "The Book of Dan" for Fantastic Horror www.fantastichorror.com It is a dark piece of social satire about a world where everyone is allowed to get away with one murder but they must wear a mark proclaiming them to be a murderer afterwards. The story centered on a road rage incident gone awry. I didn’t consider it horror but they did.

Rhiannon: How long did you have to submit before you received an acceptance?

Tim: A few months. They have a voting process there on the forum but they eventually caved in. I just hung out and pestered them long enough to get in.

Rhiannon: How did you come about writing for the Library of the Living Dead Press?

Tim: I was in a Borders looking at the tiny horror section for a new Robert McCammon book when I came across a bunch of zombie books by Permuted Press. I forgot why I was there and bought 3 of them on the spot. Wow a publisher that concentrates on zombies! How freaking cool?

So I looked them up and found out they had a very active forum with a lot of the authors hanging out. I had been working on my own version of a zombie novel and I was immediately thinking that I had found a publisher. Well it turns out that they were not taking submissions at the time.

I came across a sub-board for Library of the Living Dead and saw all of the open submissions. Well I sat down that night and wrote a zombie short story called "Time to Feed" which would become part of Among the Living. I was taking a writing class at the time and we had been discussing 2nd person point of view. Well I wrote a story from a zombie’s point of view as he died and came back.

I sent it in and it was accepted in less than a day. After that I started bombarding the publisher with stories over the next few weeks. Wow, someone that loves zombies and would buy my stories. I have written almost exclusively for them ever since.

Rhiannon: What is the hardest lesson you have learned about writing?

Tim: I think every writer can identify with this one. I hate that I have to eventually let my babies out into the world. I will pour over stuff over and over until I think it is perfect instead of letting others read it and offer advice or critiques. I once worked for a good 20 hours on re-writing a story over the course of three weeks and the story really suffered for it. I should have cut the cord after the third edit.

Rhiannon: How did The Zombie-Wilson Blog come about?

Tim: Zombie-Wilson was a little blog I started to advertise for my first book Among the Living. Another hard learned lesson for writers is that it is not enough to just have a book published. You have to work hard to get people to hear about it. It isn’t enough to just throw it out there and expect to sell a million copies, as a new writer you have to come up with creative ways to advertise. Contests work well but I am finding that nothing gets the word out faster than free stuff. Zombie-Wilson could have gone horribly wrong from the start, I was worried that it was too crass to put out there but at the same time I was giggling like a six year old every time I started writing it.

It wasn’t until about the tenth entry when I decided to put a stat tracker on the site. Up until then I was writing it, posting about new entries but I was getting very few responses. I didn’t think anyone was even reading it. In fact there was a two week period where I just sort of forgot about it.

So I put a stat tracker on and I was shocked to see that about a hundred people a day were visiting. By September I was getting about 3000 people through a month.

Rhiannon: Did you pitch the novel to the publisher, or did he come to you?

Tim: Well, the first time Doc Pus read one I think he broke out the recorder and did one for the podcast. He loved it from the start and said “This is gonna be the next book.” But it took me a while to get it through my thick skull that there were people enjoying it. I wrote it sporadically but as I got deeper and deeper into it an entire book unfolded. What started as a joke had taken a life of its own. We talked about doing it as a novella but I thought it would work better if I expanded it. So that is how the full book came out. I also promised the publisher that I would fully flesh out each day for the book and put in missing entries. The finished product runs about 10,000 words longer than the blog and makes a hell of a lot more sense.

Rhiannon: At Horror Realm, your blog was the most talked about story at Horror Realm. All the authors were discussing the latest blog entry and laughing. Have you found a lot of support among your fellow writers overall?

Tim: Really? I didn’t know that but I am very flattered.

The thing about writers is that we work alone. It isn’t unusual to lock myself away for days and only peruse message boards that I usually hang out on. If I am in the writing groove pretty much nothing else can get in the way. I think over all the small and independent market is filled with wonderful people that go out of their way to help each other out. It’s kind of like being the cool kid on the block - and yet we are content to work for hours without the thought of another human being around us.

I know one of the best emails I ever received was an acceptance for a story in Eric S. Brown’s collection Wolves of War. He loved it, raved about it and when you hear that from a fellow writer it is like a burst of inspiration. You feel like you are really on your game.

Rhiannon: What sort of writing career do you envision for yourself?

Tim: I would love to write full time but I know the realities of the business. It is very hard to make enough money at it. I have a great job that pays the bills and I am content to write and see where it takes me.

Rhiannon: Are you happy being published by a small press? Are you aiming for a bigger publishing house soon?

Tim: I love my publisher. How many writers can email their publisher and get a response the same day? I won’t say that I haven’t dreamed of a big publisher getting interested in my stuff. Every writer wants that.

I have a tremendous publisher in Library of the Living Dead. He is a one man army that is on his way to the top. I see nothing but good things in a future with them.

Rhiannon: Who are your favorite authors?

Steven Erikson for showing me what epic really means.
Neal Stephenson for writing serious novels that make me laugh out loud.
Richard Morgan for putting the noir in sci-fi and dark fantasy
Stephen King for being the first writer I developed a genuine love for at a very early age (love him or hate him, he is a master story teller)
Robert Jordan and G R R Martin for the fantastic worlds they create
Christopher Moore and Terry Pratchett for making me laugh.
Peter F. Hamilton for his sweeping space operas

(Rhiannon's Note: Damn, I'm not on the list. Much...try..harder!!)

Rhiannon: Where do you find your inspiration?

Tim: I watch a lot of movies. In fact Zombie-Wilson sort of grew out of Shaun of the Dead and this really bad movie called Survival Island about three castaways on deserted island – one being a ridiculously hot girl whose hair was always perfect.

I read about a book a week and certain people like Robert Jordan I will read over and over again because I love his books. I listen to my friend’s stories. I just have to look at my kids and wife when I am feeling uninspired. Somehow they bring out the crazy in me, but in a good way.

Rhiannon: How do you feel about me editing your book? (Yes, this is a trick question.)

Tim: I'm thrilled and honored to have you on board for The Zombie-Wilson Diaries. You have been a big supporter from the beginning and your encouragement was one of the driving forces behind turning the diaries into a full book. It is one thing to have a popular story online but it is quite another to have such a well know genre writer behind it. I think you have a keen eye for detail and will help me take the book to the next level.

(Rhiannon's Note: Hehehehe...I guess I need to do a good job editing now!)

Rhiannon: What advice would you give anyone trying to become a writer?

Tim: Have you exhausted every other avenue of employment yet?

The first rule is to set a daily goal and do it. Don’t come up with excuses to write, just write. Even when you don’t feel like writing or you feel uninspired, just write. Did you write 500 words yesterday? Shoot for 1,000 tomorrow. Persevere. Even if you think no one could possibly enjoy your writing you will find an audience. Trust me, every writer goes through this and it is all part of the normal creative process.

To reiterate – Just Write.

--

There you have it. Our first author interview. I hope it gave you some food for thought and inspired you to keep tapping away at your keyboards.

You can purchase Timothy Long's first novels at the publisher's store or Amazon.com. You can also read the rough draft of The Zombie-Wilson Diaries here. For more information on Timothy Long and his upcoming projects, check out his website here.

I Want To Help You With Your Writing Career...But...

2009-11-02T11:00:00.000-06:00

One of the hardest things about my new found success (small as it may be), is that a lot of other writers trying to find their own path to writing success approach me for advice, help with their manuscripts, and request for referrals. Sadly, I have to tell them I can't.

This isn't because I don't want to. I actually do. But since As The World Dies: A Zombie Trilogy took off and began selling like mad, I have found my life consumed by my writing career almost every moment I'm not at work (or completely brain dead in front of a TV show or video game). Like 95% of all writers, I have a day job. When I come home, I have a husband, furry babies (aka pets), housework, and other mundane things waiting for my attention. Add in the writing projects I have piling up and I barely have time to do anything other than pass out at the end of the day.

I used to devour three to five books a week. I now nurse a book for weeks. I squeeze in reading right before I go to bed and usually fall asleep after 15 minutes. I have a huge stack of books to read, but no time to read them. I now dedicate a lot of time reading over the stories I'm editing for the Library of Horror Press anthologies. Also, I have been asked to blurb books on occasion and I try to read these as quickly as I can. So do I have time to read some one's manuscript? Sadly, no, I don't. Do I have time to critique stories? Write lengthy emails with advice? The answer is no. I don't have the time for personal responses.

But, I don't want to leave potential writers hanging with no advice whatsoever. If you read through my blog, you'll see my own path was a bit odd. As I tell everyone, the road to success is different for every writer. There is no one set path, one set way, or one magic formula. I want to help you on your writing career path, but I definitely don't have all the answers. But what I can do is interview other writers and ask them about their path to their own success.

The first author to be interviewed will be Timothy Long, author of Among the Living and The Zombie-Wilson Diaries. Check back tomorrow for an in depth interview with one of the best new voices in zombie fiction and horror.

The Amazingly Beautiful Cover Artwork for The Tale of the Vampire Bride

2009-10-30T12:29:00.002-05:00

Detra has done it again.

Absolutely amazing!

Pretty When She Dies: A Vampire Novel-Read it online for FREE!!

2009-10-29T10:04:00.004-05:00

Pretty When She Dies: A Vampire Novel is now online for your reading pleasure. Most of you are well acquainted with my zombie novels, but may not be too sure about this whole vampire thing. I don't blame you.

A lot of people have grown weary of the sparkly vampires, the romantic hero vampires, the angsty vampires, and the vampires who are just human with fangs. The TV series True Blood has done a very good job of combining the angsty, romantic vampire hero with the blood-thirsty monster of old. I think that is why it has been so popular.

Pretty When She Dies: A Vampire Novel is a modern vampire tale where the vampires are NOT nice. It has plenty of blood and gore to satiate the horror fan while incorporating humor, solid characters, and dangerously sexy moments to round out the tale.

If you're nervous about reading my vampire novel, here is your chance to read it for FREE. If you like it, awesome, if not, I understand. But if you do like it, please write a review on Amazon.com, tell your friends, and/or buy a paperback copy.

And if you like Pretty When She Dies: A Vampire Tale, you may want to read my upcoming novel from the Library of Horror Press, The Tale of the Vampire Bride.

Read Pretty When She Dies: A Vampire Tale for free HERE.

And thanks for your continuing support.

Coming Soon

2009-10-25T16:46:00.004-05:00

Just to give all of you fans a heads up, my short story "Fleeing" will be in the upcoming werewolf anthology "Wolves of War" edited by Eric S. Brown and released by The Library of Horror Press. As soon as a get a drop date on the book, I will post it here.

Check out the cover!
Though the theme is werewolves and war, my short story is not a shoot 'em up, blow 'em up tale. It's a little tale about a soldier being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I really love it, and I hope you will, too.

What the As The World Dies Trilogy Taught Me...Part One

2009-10-16T17:00:00.001-05:00

This is an odd kind of post. It reminds me of those annoying writing assignments the teacher always made you do when you returned from summer vacation. Only this time I want to write about my experience writing the As The World Dies Zombie Trilogy and what I have learned along the way.

Embracing Inspiration
I was at work on day, about to take a break, when a vivid image appeared in my head. It was of a woman in an ugly pink bathrobe standing on her porch, looking down at the bottom of her front door where tiny little fingers were reaching for her. It was an intense image. Stark. Powerful. It demanded my attention. I had never thought about writing a zombie story before, but I could not resist the inspiration. I immediately wrote the first mini-chapter of book one called "Tiny Fingers" and posted it as a short story on a forum. When the readers asked, "Is there more?" after a bit of hesitation, I realized there was. A whole lot more.

And As The World Dies was born.

What I learned: Follow my inspiration and see where it leads.

The Process
Because As The World Dies was on a forum with regular readers, I was pushed/forced/urged to keep writing and not disappoint the fans of the story. Up until this point in my life, I had fooled around with story ideas, but it took forever for me to get to the finish line. Having the story online being read regularly, and having constant feedback, kept me writing on an almost daily basis. It still took two years to finish the story, but it would have been done sooner if not for some personal tragedies in my life.

What I learned: I can start a huge project and finish it. I have the discipline and ability to write a series of novels. It takes a daily commitment to the work and I can't slack off.

Note: I finished the rough draft for Pretty When She Dies in a month after I finished As The World Dies. Revising and editing took a few more months, but I proved to myself once again I could turn out a book and not falter before the end.

Reviews
When the story was online, I had nearly daily reviews. Some people were avid fans and loved everything about the story. Others were clearly not fans and did everything they could to tear down the story and me. At first my mood was greatly influenced by this constant feedback. I would be ecstatic when the reviews were good. Depressed when they were bad. Finally, I realized I could not let them have that much power over me. I just had to do the best job I could.

What I learned: Read the reviews, glean from them important information (writing strengths and weaknesses), and determine if it is constructive criticism or someone trolling. Reviews can be powerful tools for helping fans find authors who produce work they enjoy, but as a writer, I cannot allow them to control my writing or my moods.

Fans
When I began writing As The World Dies online, I did not really think about the fact that I would end up with a fan base. In fact, my first piece of fan email completely floored me. But after awhile, I came to realize the story did have fans. Something in the story was resonating with them, and they were very open about sharing their thoughts. Of course, there were the naysayers, but the majority of responses were extremely positive.

It was those original fans that helped me recognize my own worth as a writer and inspired me to keep going. They were the ones who pointed out my strengths and weaknesses and urged me on to find a way to publication when all I could do was cry and consider giving up.

I do try to respond to all my fan email (though I'm way behind right now) and thank each person for their support. I know that the fans are the main reason the trilogy has been so successful. Word of mouth is a powerful tool.

What I learned: Fans can be an amazing asset to keeping me on the writing path and encouraging me to higher aspirations.

They can also end up being great friends. (Here's to you, Uno and Morris!)

So Much To Write...So Little Time...A Quick Update On Future Projects

2009-10-15T23:46:00.001-05:00

This is a quick rundown of what you can expect from me in the near future. I'm hoping to submit to a few more anthologies soon, but I've been really busy with getting The Tale of the Vampire Bride ready for publication.

As this list expands, I will update it.

Novels
The Tale of the Vampire Bride from Library of Horror Press November 2009
Living Dead Boy from Library of the Living Dead Press 2010

Short Stories
"The Two Mothers" Vampology from the Library of Horror Press
"Fleeing" Wolves of War edited by Eric S. Brown from Library of Horror Press
"Vengeance" Ladies of Horror from Library of Horror Press
"A Terrible Moment" Zombology VI-Flash Fiction from Library of the Living Dead Press
"BeHexed" Witchology: Tales from the Cauldron from Library of Horror Press

Editing
The Zombie Wilson Diaries by Timothy Long (Novel) for Library of the Living Dead Press
Witchology: Tales from the Cauldron (anthology) for Library of Horror Press
Wolfology: Tales of the Full Moon (anthology) for Library of Horror Press

I am doing a lot with the Library of Horror and Library of the Living Dead Press at this time, but I hope to submit to a few other anthologies in the near future.

In addition to the books and anthologies I'm already committed to, I will be writing the following in the near future:

Pretty When She Kills (the sequel to Pretty When She Dies)
The Last Bastion of the Living (a new zombie novel set in the future)
Untitled supernatural post-apocalyptic novel

EEK!

I almost feel overwhelmed.

As things develop, I will definitely keep you informed.

Piracy and the Indie Author

2009-10-13T15:36:00.001-05:00

It's tough being an Indie Author at times.

You write for months and months on your novel until at last you are done. But you're not really done because you have to:

1. Rewrite, revise and edit

2. Have your test readers dive in and point our where you screwed it up

3. Seek out qualified people to edit your work

4. Hire an artist to create a beautiful cover that will leap out at readers

5. Format the book yourself and work endless hours fixing any errors

6. Deal with the POD company you select whenever there is a gaff and deal with the headache of frustration while doing so

7. Promote the hell out of your upcoming book

8. Publish your book, sit back, and watch the sales trickle in

And I do mean trickle.

It can take awhile for an Indie book to find its audience sometimes. Even though As The World Dies had a big fan base, the first month As The World Dies: The First Days was out it sold 25 copies. It would take two more months for it to get its legs and take off.

I know I've been very blessed. As the first book plows toward 3,000 books sold and the two followups continue to rack up sales, I know that this is not the norm for an Indie book. If anything, it is highly unusual. Of course, all expenses to publish and the promote the book have been paid out of my own pocket.

So then how does it feel when I see my books on the bit torrents or other similar sites?

I hope the downloaders like the book and buy the paperback version.

My husband uploaded the books for me for one simple reason: someone was going to do it. It might as well be us. We might as well make sure it's a good copy, with a good cover, and contact information for those who enjoy the book.

Piracy is going to happen. We can't stop it. So we decided to use it as a promotional tool to build up my reader base.

Has it worked?

Sales continue to grow for the books we released on the torrents. Recently, I began posting Pretty When She Dies: A Vampire Novel for free on its own blog. Sales have picked up slightly. I was ticked off when someone posted it for free on Scribd, but mostly because I felt it stole my thunder in posting the novel for free on blogspot.com.

I did find a yahoo question a week or so ago asking for a download link for As The World Dies. The person who responded said they had bought it off Smashwords and uploaded it. They actually seemed quite pleased with this, as though they were somehow giving it to "the man." Though, in this case, it would be "the woman." The question has since been deleted. (I had nothing to do with that, btw.)

One of my friends, a fellow author, was upset by all of this. He felt I was being robbed, since I an an Indie, and I do want to be a full time author one day. He was afraid that by having my work out there for free, I am losing money. I told him not to worry That it is okay.

And it really is.

The reality is this: people buy books all the time and loan them to friends. Libraries have been doing that for years. If someone buys an electronic copy and passes it on, I can't argue that its not the same thing. All I can hope is that the person downloading the free copy will like the book enough to snag a paperback for their shelf the same way people have bought a book after reading their friend's copy.

Do I lose sales because of the downloads? I think I probably don't. People downloading any type of media are usually A) broke or B) they have never heard of the book/film/show/band/game and want to see if it sucks C) they were not going to buy what they believe should be free anyway.

Frankly, I believe having a strong, loyal readership will benefit me in the long run and if it takes free copies on the bit torrents to build that readership, then that's okay by me. As The World Dies grew its fan base while it was free online.

But...I do hope that one day they buy a book. :)

yWriter 5 Class October 17, 2009 on Skype

2009-10-13T07:09:00.000-05:00

I'll be hosting a class on yWriter this Saturday on Skype. I swear by this program. I love it so much. It has made my writing life a lot easier in so many ways.

What you will need to join the class:
yWriter 5
Skype
a headset with a microphone
any notes you have on your writing project

Download yWriter 5 here: http://spacejock.com/yWriter5_Download.html
Download Skype here: http://www.skype.com/ and sign up for a FREE account

I am an organic writer, not a plotter, but yWriter still helps me immensely. For you plotters, you'll love this program even more.

yWriter helps you:

track your word counts
build a character database
easily move scenes around from chapter to chapter or inside of a chapter
create an outline
create a synopsis
plot
keep track of your deadlines

..and countless other important writing tasks.

If you plan to join us, please email me at gothgoddessrhia at gmail.com with your Skype user name so we can call you the night of the class. I believe ZombieFarmer will be taping the class for her podcast.

Horror Realm-Day Three Recap

2009-10-12T07:13:00.001-05:00

Despite getting to bed very late and the pine in the air absolutely killing us, we woke up pretty excited about the day. Saturday's schedule was pretty packed and I hoped to make it to at least one or two events. Since I'm an Indie Author, I didn't really have the luxury of leaving my table for long periods of time.

After a quick breakfast, we headed into the dealer room and got settled in. It was packed as soon as convention opened and I sold quite a few books that day. There was a lot of joking going on throughout the day.

My arch-enemy (not really), Robert Best kept saying, "Hey, Rhiannon Frater!"

To which I would respond, "What?"

"YOU SUCK!" he'd chortle.

"Not as much as your book!" I'd yell back.

Later, I snagged a photo of Rob buying As The World Dies; Siege to use against him on my blog. His wife handed him the money and made him buy it. It was awesome to see him embarrassed. Then he was a smart ass and said, "I need toilet paper anyway." To which his wife said, "Rob, be nice."

Dr. Pus had made up a really awesome poster with plenty of space for people to get autographs. The convention goers didn't seem to understand what these posters were for, but the authors went nuts buying them and passing them around. Also, since so many of the Zombology I and II authors were in attendance, people were snatching up the books and having them autographed. It was chaotic and fun as books and posters were flying back and forth along the tables.

Ken Foree came by my table for a little visit. I asked him sweetly to pose with NomNom, my zombunny. He took NomNom and I snapped the picture as he said, "Why the fuck am I doing this?" And I said, "My best friend made it and I want her to see NomNom with you." He laughed then I took a picture of him with Eric S. Brown. I think Eric almost collapsed from excitement.

Later, my husband watched my table as I ran off to the Ken Foree panel. It was freaking hilarious. I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time!

I came back to my table and my husband took a little break. I was chatting with Rob Fox when all of the sudden Dr. Pus started podcasting "live" from his table. The next thing I knew, people were running to our corner of the room to witness the magic of The Library of the Living Dead Podcast. Dr. Pus was almost immediately on a roll, roasting all of his good librarians. Everyone was holding up their phones, cameras, and video cameras to catch the action.

Doc was on a total roll when he introduced me. Sadly, I was having trouble with my asthma and leaving to get my inhaler when he called me over. He was sweet as peaches to me when I told him, then he roasted me once I left. LOL

Check out the "live" podcast here.

All through the day, Steve, the producer who bought my series, kept checking in with me before rushing off to the next panel. We were waiting all day on our final contract from the lawyers and we were both anxious to sign. We received the document Saturday evening, but we couldn't get the printer to work at the hotel. Despite our frustration, we decided to go ahead with the party in Steve's room to celebrate the signing.

That night after the vendor room closed, we went upstairs to the nefarious Rm. 711 for the Permuted Press pizza party. We hung out for awhile, chatting and having a good time. The room was so packed, people were spilling out into the hallway. Steve arrived and we headed downstairs to celebrate the signing with a quiet meal. To my surprise, Tony Todd stopped by the table to congratulate me and asked to keep him in the loop in the tv show gets made. I was floored.

We caught the American premiere of "Zone of the Dead" starring Ken Foree after dinner. He actually apologized for the movie! Frankly, I thought he was the best thing in it other than the zombie gore and some really good zombie makeup. It had a few really good moments. Yeah, it was over the top goofy fun most of the time, but watching it with a room full of zombie fans made it a blast. I have to admit we were all making sarcastic comments and I even got shushed! At least one person took it seriously.

Afterward, we all headed up to the producer's suit and it was packed instantly. It was the honeymoon suite, so several people sat in the huge hot tub in the center of the living room. It was fun and a little crazy. We got two complaints from the hotel and finally had to shut down the party.

We ran around for the rest of the night meeting up with friends in other rooms before finally heading back to our own room.

I fell asleep almost instantly despite being excited that the next day was the final day of Horror Realm and that I would finally sign the TV/Film option for As The World Dies.

Library of Horror Press to Publish Rhiannon Frater's Vampire Novel, THE TALE OF THE VAMPIRE BRIDE

2009-10-11T21:14:00.000-05:00

Big news!

The Library of Horror will be releasing my new vampire novel this November! "The Tale of the Vampire Bride" is inspired by the old Hammer Films and the original Dracula tale. It is chock full of gothic atmosphere, seductive vampires that will tear your throat out, opulent Eastern European settings, and bloody feasts. I'm very excited to have Dr. Pus releasing this novel.

I will keep you posted the closer we get to the release

All Lady Glynis Wright ever wanted was the freedom to live her life as she pleased. Unfortunately, her aristocratic parents want her to marry well and settle into a life of luxury. When her family becomes guests to one of the most fearsome and powerful vampires of all time, Glynis finds her fate is far more terrible than an arranged marriage.
Trapped in the power of her new Master, she fights for her freedom, revenge against her creator, and the chance to be with the one she truly loves.