Heliosphere is a-comin'!

I have my schedule for this year's Heliosphere April 5-7:

Friday April 5th

What Would Immortals Care About?
Ballroom 5 - 3:30-4:45

Saturday April 6th

Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading
Ballroom 4 10-11:15 am

Books and Brews
Ballroom 6 - 2:30-3:45 pm

Small Scares: The Art of Suspenseful and Horrifying Short Fiction
Ballroom 1 - 4-5:15 pm

Sunday April 7

Can you succeed as a Writer if you are a Recluse
Ballroom 7 - 11:30-12:45 am-pm

Also, an anthology that I co-edited is on the final ballot for the Stoker Award. More on that later!

Welcome Oliver Baer!

In a guest post to this blog, Oliver Baer tells us  of how he came to write his addition to Hell's Heart:

“Down and Out Under R’lyeh” is one of the letters to the editor from Cthulhu Sex Magazine. The Letters to the Editor was an idea born initially to get feedback from our readers. It did not succeed in producing the feedback we wanted. So, I proceeded to write the letters as a story. 

This part of the story is from a group of letters from a translator to the publisher of Cthulhu Sex. The translator was hired to relay messages to and from the unspeakable horror in the basement that is the editor. She is locked in there with it. Her story is not a pleasant one. After escaping from the basement, she is taken in by some people who seem to want to help her. She is pregnant with the creature’s child and they offer to take care of her. This letter is meant to be her relation of a tale they tell her to calm her, a lullaby of sorts. It does not really calm her. It is also the introduction of the midwife/guardian of the child to be born.

In creating this, I was trying to come up with an idea of what to do with the translator once she escaped and was out in the world. I could not have her wandering around pregnant especially since I introduced another character that helped her escape. I knew where I wanted her to end up but the question was how to have her report that. 

I decided to go to a bar I frequented to think things through. As I was talking to one of the bartenders, an attractive brunette, she said that I should write a story about her. I told her that I was currently writing for the magazine and wasn’t sure if she wanted to be a character in an erotic horror story. She said, “Why not?” I said I’d see what I could do. I knew about the bartender’s life from previous conversations. She was in her 20’s and had been diagnosed with MS several years before. She was an aspiring actress during the day and, at the time of this letter, she had started going out with a guy who played darts at the bar. They fell in love and got engaged. 

As I sat there thinking about what to write, the other two bartenders, a blonde and another shorter brunette, decided they wanted in as well. Once I started talking about the details of what they wanted me to do to them, the blond seemed less interested to the point of her saying just don’t do anything too nasty to me. The shorter brunette started suggesting ideas. I let her know the ones I liked but said that I could not promise anything.

I thought about it for about a week and decided that the letter would be a story within a story. I made the aspiring actress bartender the main character of the story within the story and then fit in various pieces from previous letters so it would be continuous with the rest of the letters. I even utilized the short brunette’s ideas in some fashion.

I went into the bar on a Saturday evening. I sat in a corner and started writing. It flowed onto the paper as the bartenders poured drinks for me and the other patrons that trickled in. After I was done, I realized that I had not put the other bartenders into the story. I had no idea how I was going to do that. I stopped writing, went to play darts and hang out with people.

Over the next week, I thought about how to get them in there. It seemed to me that I should include all of them so that it did not seem like I was playing favorites. At the end of the week, I had figured it out. 

In the story, which included an actress whose name was Nelly Lynne Glennticus (a combination of the bartender’s actual name and her betrothed’s) is brought back from the dead and transformed into a reptilian creature. I modified the other bartenders’ actual names and wrote them in as previous failed attempts with this transformation. I ended the letter with the idea that the midwife/guardian of the child to be born would also be named Nelly Lynne. When I submitted the letter to the publisher, he decided that since it was a story within a story it should have a title unlike the other letters.

Another Women in Horror month

I was co-editor on A New York State of Fright and I can say we have some wonderful women writers represented in this anthology of terror!

Join us for readings in honor of Women in Horror Month by female authors from the New York State of Fright, the latest anthology that grew out of the NY Chapter of Horror Writers Association. 

Readers include:

Meghan Arcuri

Alp Beck

Elizabeth Crowens

Amy Grech

Charie D. La Marr

Kathleen Scheiner

and emceed by Carol Gyzander and James Chambers.

Women in Horror Month (WiHM) is an international, grassroots initiative, which encourages supporters to learn about and showcase the underrepresented work of women in the horror industries. Whether they are on the screen, behind the scenes, or contributing in their other various artistic ways, it is clear that women love, appreciate, and contribute to the horror genre.

We'll be reading from 7pm to 9pm at the classic literary venue of KGB Bar, on the second floor. Fair warning - there is a long flight of stairs and no elevator. While there is no admission charge, we ask that you try to support the establishment with the purchase of two beverages and a nice tip for the hard-working staff!

Please join us for a chilling night of New York horror! Invite your friends, and bring some with you!

Welcome to the world of Hybrid Authors!

Those who have followed me for the past 7 years know that my first novel, Chasing The Trickster, came out from Damnation Books in 2011.

In 2012, I had the sequel, St. Nick's Favor, ready to go. Unfortunately, the contract from Damnation for this sequel, part 2 of a series, wasn't to my liking. I gave it a pass. Leaving me with a series waiting to get the first book rights back in 2014.

In 2015, I decided to go with Damnation Books for my third novel, Finding Perdita. It's a stand alone and so I had a contract I could live with.

Sadly, the owner of Damnation Book's mother became ill, and sold the company. I don't blame her, I would have done the same for a family member who needed me. And the hope was that the company would be in good hands with Caliburn Press.

Caliburn tried. I got my cover, shown here done by Dawne Domnique, which I loved and two edits. What I didn't get was a release date which my contract specified would be within two years of the signing of the contract. I took back my rights last year.

And mourned.

I grieved a lot. In my years at Damnation Books, I fell in love with the authors and editorial staff there.

But that's how sausage (and books) are made. With the exception, perhaps of the big six or is it now big five or four(?), publishing companies come and go.

So years after Finding Perdita coulda, woulda, shoulda been published, I have the proof copy in hand.

I hope that traditional authors won't kick sand in my face. I don't think they will, because unless it's their first rodeo they know that this is a crazy, heart-breaking business.

Welcome to the World Finding Perdita!

And to show my love, reviewer's ebook copies are available for gratis. Just email me: lorned@nyc.rr.com for a PDF. If you can, please leave a review at Amazon.com, explaining that this was a review copy, and leave a review.

Many thanks and wishing you a wonderful New Year!

Happy Krampusnacht!

Welcome to the Blog Hop, featuring Amy Grech on this blog and if you click on the links below, Jake TS Wryte, Phillip T. Stephens, Alex Binkley, Carole Ann Moleti and yours truly. All are writers that I have known and greatly admired for many years and most have stories in the Hell's Anthologies, as well as many other publications. So without more ado...

AMY GRECH

Amy Grech's story  “Burning Love” is pure horror in flash fiction size and can be found in Hell’s Heart, October, 2018

Copies can be had at www.amazon.com

Amy writes: 

I wrote this story around Valentine’s Day, inspired by all of the philandering men out there…

I admire Stephen King— an Aunt introduced me to his novels when I was 12. I started with Cujo and have been hooked ever since!

  

Other authors that influence my writing include: Franz Kafka, H. P. Lovecraft, Joyce Carol Oates, Edgar Allan Poe, and Mary Shelley.

Amy Grech has sold over 100 stories to various anthologies and magazines including:

A New York State of Fright, Apex Magazine, Beat to a Pulp: Hardboiled, Dead Harvest, Deadman's Tome Campfire Tales Book Two, Expiration Date, Fright Mare, Needle Magazine, Real American Horror, Shrieks and Shivers from the Horror Zine, Space and Time Magazine, Tales from The Lake Vol. 3,Thriller Magazine, and many others. New Pulp Press published her book of noir stories, Rage and Redemption in Alphabet City.

She is an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association and the International Thriller Writers who lives in Brooklyn. Visit her website: at Crimson Screams. Follow Amy on Twitter: twitter.com/amy_grech.

To continue on the blog hop:

Amy Grech 

Jake TS Wryte 

Phillip T. Stephens

Alex Binkley 

Carole Ann Moleti  

Krampusnacht Run Blog Hop

Welcome to the Krampusnacht Run Blog Hop

From December 5th (Krampusnacht) to New Years Eve you will be able to enjoy the blog posts of:

Amy Grech, Alex Binkley, Carole Ann Moleti, Jake TS Wryte, Phillip Stephens and myself.

Just follow the links at the bottom of each post, starting here. Or jump to any blog you'd like.

I'll be kicking it off tomorrow with Amy Grech's blog post about her submission to Hell's Heart, "Burning Love."

Busy Busy Busy

What a year it has been!
After publishing Hell's Bells, decided to go with theme of love gone amok with Hell's Heart:

Over the summer, Oasis Community Garden in Hell's Kitchen hosted Summer Dark 2, with the help of James Chambers of our local Horror Writer's Association.

It went very well with 3 authors reading their works on Friday evenings in June and July.

I also had a very romantic cruise for my 25th wedding anniversary, getting to check out graveyards in Bar Harbor Maine and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

And in honor of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, I was pleased to participate on a panel at the Bronx Music Heritage Center.

This month I will be hosting the Krampusnacht Run Blog Hop starting Dec. 5th (Krampusnacht) and going to New Year's Eve. Please check back for all the fun!