A Blog about my productive week or Did you know Gary is An Asshole?
I finished the first two stories for my collection this week, and a third should be done by time this blog goes live. I have three more do next week. It’s been challenging but rewarding to write this collection so far. I’m not into judging my own work’s quality, as you are always your own worst critic and I have at least some self-awareness so I know I cannot judge it fairly, but (there is always a but) this is arguably the proudest I’ve ever been of work I’ve done.
Three Sisters Fight A Ghost is one of the most personal stories I’ve ever constructed. Now I’m not a sister, nor have I ever fought a ghost (well there was that one Ghast but my understanding is they are slightly different and I do not want to be accused of giving false info), so obviously this is a case of what I’m writing about isn’t the same thing as what I’m writing. Now obviously in a horror story about ghosts there is a lot of subtext and imagery, well mine is no different in this case. It is certainly different, just not in that way. It was a hard story to write but one I needed to write. I hope that it helps somebody to read it and that they get what I’m trying to say with it. There are some really heavy themes and It might upset some people with its content and that’s Ok, I didn’t write it for those people.
I also finished one called “Truth Through Television.” This is a simple story about a couples love of a TV show. Well, the husband Gary’s love of said show, and how he feels that it has saved his marriage. This one was slightly easier to write but still not easy. Gary is an asshole. No other way to say it. Now to be clear this will be obvious after you read the first few paragraphs and by the end you going to hate Gary or feel incredibly sorry for him depending on how you interpret the story. And yes this one is another one where you do not get the entire context of the story, but it is fully laid out and explained in the actual text, you just need to understand what it is you are reading.
The story that should be done by time this goes live is “The Hollowed.” This is a much easier write as it’s a “basic” alien invasion body horror story. Now easier doesn’t mean easy, as I based our narrator on someone important to me which added some emotional gravitas to it for me, hopefully I’ll do justice to them in the writing, and it will for the reader as well.
Next week is a busy week as I should be finishing three other stories “Outbreak” a pandemic story, kinda. It’s way more complicated than that but that is the starting point. “The Monsters Reside on Roma”, while yes the name is an obvious homage to “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” and it is in some ways a thematic response to it, but the story itself takes a very different direction. This one is about a family and the meaning of the word “monster” in that context. This one is going to hurt to write almost if not as much as “3 Sisters” as it has a huge amount of autobiographical stuff in it, I’m not saying that shit played out like it does in the story, that will be no shit after you read it but it’s based on events from my childhood (it in and of itself one hell of a horror series). The final story I have to finish is “Prey”, and honestly I’m just not going to tell you anything about it because anything I tell you will influence how you read it, hell technically even mentioning that was more than I should have done. This story isn’t a very personal one, nor is it heavy with subtext, it is a bit more straight forward horror, just not in the way….Just going to need to read it true believers.
Other than that been doing some behind the scenes stuff for Christmas Chaos, which should be dropping black Friday. You can order your copy here: http://outsiderpublishingcompany.com/shop/
