Outsider Publishing
Rebels of the written word
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It’s been a long time since I sat down and blog what was going on in my life. For the most part, I have been focusing on writing and publishing tips. But this year has been a roller coaster of work and personal growth. Which has been an amazing roller coaster. Work- So, we willRead More
If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, did it really fall? There’s a strange kind of silence that comes after releasing a book. You spend months, sometimes years, shaping something out of yourself, imagining the moment it enters the world as some kind of thunderclap. Then six months pass and only a handful of people have bought it. No crowds. No sudden career shift. No dramatic validation. Just a few sales notifications scattered across half a year like pebbles dropped into a well. I thought I was supposed to feel devastated byRead More
8-Bit Theatre: Waiting for the Punchline, Fearing the VoidI didn’t binge 8-Bit Theatre. This wasn’t a weekend adventure for me.No, I lived with it.I was already a Final Fantasy obsessive when Brian Clevinger started posting those early strips in the way back of 2001. I knew the NES sprites by heart. I knew the game’s jank, its mystery, its accidental cruelty. I had notebooks full of maps and party builds long before wikis made that kind of obsession slightly more efficient.So when 8-Bit Theatre showed up, using those same sprites, that same world, and then immediately lighting it on fire,Read More
The Legend of Zelda (NES): Or, How a Green Kid With a Magic Sword Taught Gen X to Distrust Maps, Authority, and ComfortI had beaten The Legend of Zelda at least once a year for roughly 35 years. Sometimes more. Sometimes out of obligation, sometimes out of spite, sometimes because the world felt like itRead More
The Movie That Created Horror IconsHere’s the funny thing about Friday the 13th (1980):It’s not the Friday the 13th movie people think it is.No hockey mask.No machete-wielding undead juggernaut.No sleeping bag kills.No Kane Hodder.No “ki ki ki, ma ma ma” (that doesn’t show up until later, like some kudzu plant).And yet, without this scrappy, awkward, mean little film, modern slasher culture flat-out does not exist in the way we know it.Friday the 13th is ground zero, not because it’s brilliant, but because it’s effective, shameless, and timed perfectly. It’s a movie that figured out how to turn murder into aRead More
A Bloody Good Time, even if messy at timesLet’s get this out of the way up front: My Bloody Valentine (1981) is not the crown jewel of the slasher boom. It’s not Halloween. It’s not Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s not even Friday the 13th Part 4, which, if we’re being honest, is when that franchise reached peak. Hell you could argue it isn’t even Children of the Corn level (I said you could, not that I would.)But, and it’s a rather small but, 45 years later My Bloody Valentine is still here, still getting written about, still getting anniversaryRead More
Home, Ten Years Later The hum of David’s truck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike was familiar, a steady rhythm that had always marked the journey between the city and home. The late spring air was cool, and the sky above Pittsburgh still held a faint blush from the afternoon sun as he glanced at the GPS,Read More
A New Beginning in Ashford Hollow The air was crisp with that bite only the depth of winter could give, and the snow that had lingered for weeks now glimmered under the soft afternoon sun, hardened into glistening sheets of ice over the hills and the winding streets of Ashford Hollow. David pulled the heavy garage door of his workshop open, wincing slightly as the cold bit at his fingers. Even though the sun was high in the sky, the winter chill settled deep into the bones, reminding him that no amount of work or determination could entirely banish theRead More
New Year’s Eve: The Coal Drop Main Street in Ashford Hollow glowed under strings of multicolored lights, lanterns swinging gently in the brisk winter air. Snow crunched softly beneath boots as families, couples, and children, bundled in scarves and mittens, converged for the town’s largest celebration of the year. The scent of pine mingled with woodsmoke and hot cocoa, and the faint sounds of bells, laughter, and a distant brass band gave the street a hum of life that David hadn’t realized he’d missed so much.He adjusted the scarf around his neck and glanced at Joan, who was helping JadeRead More
The Coal Drop Countdown The week between Christmas and New Year’s in Ashford Hollow moved with the kind of pace that left David in a constant blur of activity, his hands perpetually dusted with glitter, tape, or bits of wire. Snow still lingered on the rooftops, and the streets glistened in the pale sunlight, butRead More
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The Media That Made Me: Friday the 13th
The Movie That Created Horror IconsHere’s the funny thing about Friday the 13th (1980):It’s not the Friday the 13th movie people think it is.No hockey mask.No machete-wielding undead juggernaut.No sleeping bag kills.No Kane Hodder.No “ki ki ki, ma ma ma” (that doesn’t show up until later, like some kudzu plant).And yet, without this scrappy, awkward,Read More
The Media that Made Me: My Bloody Valentine
A Bloody Good Time, even if messy at timesLet’s get this out of the way up front: My Bloody Valentine (1981) is not the crown jewel of the slasher boom. It’s not Halloween. It’s not Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s not even Friday the 13th Part 4, which, if we’re being honest, is when thatRead More
Coal Drop Christmas Epilogue
Home, Ten Years Later The hum of David’s truck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike was familiar, a steady rhythm that had always marked the journey between the city and home. The late spring air was cool, and the sky above Pittsburgh still held a faint blush from the afternoon sun as he glanced at the GPS,Read More