Stories and Writing and Books – OH MY!

I openly admit that summer is my most favorite season. I love being outside, I love nurturing my garden, and I love taking my laptop out to my patio to work.

But of course, there are some wonderful aspects to autumn as well. All the time spent tending to my garden rewards me with the harvest of raspberries and nectarines, and this year with watermelon! The cooler air is wonderful for taking my dog for a walk. And of course, Halloween, the Autumnal Equinox, and Day of the Dead are all part of this season! Fall is a very productive time for me in a creative sense as well For some reason, my brain begins to process things in a different way. I begin to see story ideas in new and inventive forms, and I feel the pull to spend inordinate amounts of time writing things down, polishing existing work, and focusing on the goals I set at the beginning of the year.

This is not to say that I am not focused during the summer; I definitely am! But it’s as if my creativity and my desire to write go into overdrive! I know that for a lot of people who write, winter is a very productive time for them. But I suffer terribly from Season Affective Disorder, and the winters where I live are often marked with temperature inversions the turn the air into toxic oatmeal. The view from my window becomes like the view from inside a fish bowl that hasn’t been cleaned.

I struggle during the winter to do anything other than curl up in a ball and pretend I can hibernate like a bear. So here we are, early into the changing season, and my imagination has already begun to run riot. It seems as though every day I have a new idea for a book or a character or a short story I want to write I wake up in the wee hours with energy and thoughts that I have to write down so I don’t lose them when I return to sleep. It’s a wonderful, invigorating time. But then all this new energy has to work with the restraint of having commitments to projects already. I have revisions headed my way for Death’s Kiss, a young adult novel that should be making its debut quite soon. I was invited to submit chapters to an agent I met at a conference. And I have already started another novel that is being forced to wait for these first two projects to step aside.

But this is a good problem to have! It is an embarrassment of riches and that makes me very happy indeed. So I will do what I can to pursue these many inspired ideas and try to maintain some sort of balance in the process. I know what ‘s coming, and I know it will be hard.

For now, I’m going to focus on taking advantage of all this energy, all these ideas, and try to make the very most of them I can. Hopefully, if I do this the right way, I’ll have lots of exciting, positive announcements when spring rolls around!

Lost in My Own World

One of the great pleasures of writing is the ability to get lost in your own world for a while. You have the opportunity ditch the “real world” for a while and play God as you build your own universe and manipulate the lives of the critters who occupy it. Sometimes I only get to spend a brief time immersed in my alternate reality, and sometimes I get lost in there for days. Yes – days. I get so wrapped up in my characters, in their conflicts and their challenges, that even when I’m back in my own reality, I carry them around with me, worrying about them, fretting for their issues, listening to their conversations.  My characters are very real to me, and their dilemmas – even though I created them – are also very real to me. I dream about them, I wonder about them; they are like friends and sometimes family to me. I become detached from where I am because where they are is so much more interesting. While I love the experience, it sometimes annoys my family just a little.

Recently, I’ve been working on a sequel to Beautiful Monster, and I was so wrapped up in getting my main character through a difficult scene that I completely tuned out my environment. My oldest daughter had been talking to me about helping her out and watching my grandson when I left this universe for the one I’d created. She continued talking to me for an extended time, but realized that I was no longer part of her reality. At that point, she began reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb to me, and I didn’t actually clue in until she started singing it. Without even realizing it, I had agreed to babysit for the better part of two afternoons before my daughter realized I’d checked out. Naturally, she held me to my promise to watch her son.

 

You’d think by now my family would be used to this, but I guess used to it or not, they still get annoyed by it. I’d like to tell them I can change, but the truth is, the only way I’m going to change is if I give up writing . . . forever . . . and that’s about as likely to happen as a tidal wave in the Sahara. I’ve given up writing once. By choice even. It wasn’t a good outcome. I’d much rather have a root canal without anesthesia than go through the pain and withdrawal caused by not writing. Just the thought of not writing makes me anxious and jittery, so you can imagine how bad it would be to actually stop!

I’m trying to stay a little more grounded though. It would be bad to drift off into my own Never Never Land while watching my 2-year-old grandson. That has disaster written all over it.

I’m also trying to be present with my family. Even though I’m really not choosing my own reality over them, they don’t necessarily understand the distinction. I can appreciate their feeling that they somehow take second place to my make-believe friends and family, even though that clearly isn’t the case. But they’ve all compromised a great deal for me to follow my dream. The least I can do is give them my full attention. Well, to the best of my ability anyway.

So if you happen to come by for a visit, or we meet up somewhere at a conference, don’t be offended if I suddenly go glassy-eyed and appear to be deaf. It’s not you. It just means I’ve slipped into my own world again. I’ll be back soon. Or if you can find your way in, you’re welcome to join me! 

 

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Mimi has had a rough year.

My former writing partner and I have parted ways. Mostly amicably, but I’d be lying to say that on my side of the fence it was easy and without anger. Frankly, that’s all I’m saying about that. I disappeared for a while, but I couldn’t stay invisible for long. There’s far too much mischief for me to get into!

This year marked the one year anniversary of Beautiful Monster – a fine accomplishment of which I’m fairly proud. But it’s now part of the past and it no longer holds the meaning for me that it did in the beginning. I’m moving forward – but more about that in a moment.

In August of this year, my horror short story Rita was accepted for the Axes of Evil anthology that will be coming out in February of 2014! Chuppa Cabra House is the publisher, and they are FUN! to work with! Hoping to do a bit more with them at a later date.

And even though it was written under my kinder, gentler moniker, I will take a little credit for Death’s Kiss being accepted for publication. My name won’t be on the cover, but I’ve been assured of a hefty acknowledgement by the author! This one comes out early in the new year, but no specific release date yet!

Kind of an up-and-down year, but I’m looking forward now, and things look good from this vantage point!

First up is finishing another short story entitled Snow Queen. This is a bit of horror and a bit of naughtiness rolled into one rotten main character. It’s one of those “Be careful what you wish for” stories, and I’ve so much fun with it thus far. It may find a home in another anthology edited by my friend Alex S. Johnson. We’ll see. For now, I’m just enjoying the thrill of really giving this character what she deserves.

Now, that project I mentioned before. I’ve been working on a sequel to Beautiful Monster, but told from Brenna’s point of view. If you’ve read the book, that makes sense. If you haven’t – well! Why haven’t you? Brenna is a very different girl these days, and there are some interesting twisties and turnies in this story. Yes – Sterling will be there, but he isn’t the main character. And for those of you hoping for more – sorry. This will be it. We’re gonna stick a fork in this one.

Another horror novel is swimming around in my head and taking on a life of its own. I love studying phobias, and I’ve always wondered what would happen if a phobia ceased being irrational and became something real! I’m mapping out the story and the main character, and I’m trying to give this one a good ending – believable and desirable. Sometimes, what I want to do personally isn’t really what’s best for the story. Don’t let my sweet appearance fool you. I’m vicious to my characters.

So tomorrow I way farewell to the dregs of 2013 and I welcome the promise and excitement of 2014. It’s like meeting a new lover before you’ve ever touched! Just the promise of something new serves as the aphrodisiac! Welcome 2014 – I anticipate a delicious time with you!

‘Tis the Season

Many writers, including me, love the Halloween season, Rarely during Easter or Thanksgiving is it acceptable to discuss decapitation, speculate on demonic possession, or compare your favorite serial killers. But during the month of October, you can focus on all the gore and horror you want without anyone necessarily running in fear.

Horror writers are a unique breed among writers. We enjoy concocting terrifying and gruesome ways of tormenting our characters and terrorizing our readers. You might expect that from us, but what you’d be surprised by is that – with limited exception – we’re pretty normal people. We love our family members and don’t wish them to become victims of dreadful crimes. We snuggle our pets and regard them as family. And we like the kinds of things that our neighbors enjoy. What makes us different is our ability to look into the dark places that most people avoid eleven months out of the year, and to draw upon the fears that most people keep quiet. We like to muck around in the psyches of very scary people to try to understand what makes them tick. And we are not afraid to step into our own dark places and dance with those inner demons for the sake of a good story.

Like writers in other genres, we seek to convey a genuine emotional experience; it’s just that we deal with emotions such as fear, anxiety, discomfort on a level that most genres don’t approach. The thing is, what we really do as horror writers is provide a service: we allow readers to address fears and anxieties through the safety of a story that belongs to someone else and not the reader him or her self. We release that emotional tension via make-believe people who really never were hurt, tortured, murdered, or in any way harmed because – well, duh – they aren’t real.

Modern psychology has held for years that facing fears helps us to overcome them. By staring what terrifies us head-on, we grow stronger and gain the ability to handle those issues more effectively.

All that being said – I will still never touch a tarantula! Ew!

 

Take advantage of the service provided by your friendly, neighborhood horror writer! You might just be surprised how much you like it!