Release the Monsters!: Monsters and Mayhem are stories of creatures and an evil ghost

 

One day, when I posted on Facebook that I planned to submit micro fiction stories to a website, a person on my friends list asked, “Do you think you could do a book of these?”

 

I saw that comment and thought, Challenge accepted!

 

This particular person owned a publishing company and I had the idea of submitting such a book to his company. So I reached out to him to inquire how many words the manuscript should be. He gave me a number and I got to work writing stories for it.

 

Later, however, when I submitted the manuscript to his company, an editor contacted me asking if the book could be longer. So I threw in some flash fiction stories to replace some of the micros, since the number of micros in the book did not increase the word count number. The flash fiction stories for only 7 stories in that book made it work.

 

That publishing company ended up shutting down before the book could be published, so I just held on to it. I got busy with other things, all the while keeping an eye out for a new publisher to submit it to.

 

Then the day came when I learned of a new press that would be opening soon. And this press was interested in publishing my book of 7 stories! However, it was some time before this new press got off the ground, but it recently launched and my book of stories was the second ebook it published!

 

Monsters and Mayhem was published by Twisted Dreams Press on August 28 and I am thrilled to see this “surprise book” become available for everyone to read. I’m glad I took that person up on the challenge to put this book of stories together. Who knew that going from submitting micro stories to a website would lead me to creating a book of micro and flash fiction stories?

 

Monsters and Mayhem is available as an ebook from Amazon. It was edited by Jennifer Horgan and the cover was designed by Rebecca Cuthbert.

 

Here is the book’s blurb:

 

“Beware of the monsters who will strike at every turn! They are on a rampage through neighborhoods, hiding on top of roofs, or lurking within your dreams just waiting to materialize.

 

Beware the scary creatures that could tear you from limb to limb or steal you away into the night!

 

These seven flash and micro fiction stories offer new tales of monsters and the destruction they leave in their wake.”

 

Here is an excerpt:

 

 

Swallow Pond

 

 

“It’s called Swallow Pond.”

 

The woman looked at her hiking companion, a man in his thirties whom she had met last week at a bar. “What?”

 

“That pond out there,” he replied, pointing at the small body of water the two of them had been staring at. He kept his gaze on the water. “It’s called Swallow Pond.”

 

“Funny name for a pond,” she replied, smiling humorously as she looked at it again. “I wonder if it really does swallow anything.”

 

He was silent for a long time. She turned her head to look at him and found him smiling at her.

 

“Do you really want to know?” he asked.

 

“Sure,” she replied, shrugging.

 

He grabbed her and pushed her into the pond. She screamed, but then took a deep breath as she hit the water. To her horror, the pond really did swallow her whole!

 

She groaned as sharp edges that seemed like teeth chewed her up as she descended through a water funnel. The sharp, piercing teeth tore into her body, crunching up her skull and gnashing her to bits until all that was left of her were bloody pieces that drifted to the bottom of the pond.

 

 

And here is the book’s buy link

 

 

Wasteful Writing?

This week found me busy revising two things: A novelette and a short story. The short story ended up taking all week for me to revise, because it ended up being a lot longer than the first draft. It also ended up being something entirely different than the first draft! Part of the revision process was to do research on my story’s main symbol, which is a tree. My research helped me to “flesh out” the story and have everything happening with that tree make sense.

 

The novelette I revised also ended up being a lot longer than its first draft. There were times during the revision process when I couldn’t figure things out. When this happens, I usually step away from the writing and do other things while I try to figure that out. In this case, I went on a drive with my son. At one stop, I was suddenly inspired, so I whipped out my phone and started writing in the Notes app. After we got home, I transferred what I wrote to the story file, but I noticed that what I’d written could be better. I fixed it up and was satisfied with it enough to move on.

 

In both cases, I started to wonder: Was the time I spent writing those first drafts wasted? And did I waste my efforts in writing something that ended up being terrible?

 

In both cases, I believe the answer is no.

 

If you want to write something, you have to start somewhere – even if it’s a first draft that will ultimately never see the light of day. (How many first drafts actually get published?) Also, it’s important to write anything you feel could be USEFUL to your WIP, even if you feel the writing sucks.

 

The point is to write. Plant the seeds of your idea by getting it down onto paper, then “water” it by revising it so that it can grow into something wonderful. Something you can be proud of.

 

Even if you don’t use something you wrote in your final draft, it’s still something that helped you to keep your focus on the work at hand and stay connected to your writing process. Any writing is better than no writing at all, and it is definitely not a waste of time if you manage to get the words onto the page instead of keeping them in your head.

 

And while I’m on the subject of writing, here is a quote from the August 23, 2024 issue of C. Hope Clark’s newsletter, FundsforWriters: “As writers, we are an endless supply of words. Each line we write improves us. And the more we have to practice at our craft, the better we get.”

 

The Opportunity to Interview More Writers

With my monthly newsletter, I am able to interview an author who has a book coming out that month. But as more authors have joined my network, more books by authors in that network are released each month.

 

In other words, there’s usually more than one book coming out by an author I know each month. If only I could interview all of them!

 

As an author myself, I know just how helpful forms of publicity for our books can be. Authors do most of the grunt work promoting their books, so any extra promotion would be awesome!

 

And interviews are just one of the ways we can get this promotion.

 

Another way for authors to have their books promoted is through book reviews (I have a book review blog for this purpose), appearing on podcasts, sharing videos on TikTok (I was so glad to discover CapCut to help me create promo videos!) and, of course, signings.

 

But being interviewed somewhere helps a lot. It’s a great way to share about a book and get more people to learn about it.

 

I enjoy interviewing people. I have been conducting interviews for a variety of writing purposes for years. (If you want to read some of my interviews, go here  and scroll down to “Interviews.”) So, with my new horror blog on the Unveiling Nightmares site, I figured it’s a great way to interview authors who I can’t interview for my newsletter! Plus, I can post on this blog as often as I would like, so it means I can interview more authors with new books out.

 

Because this blog is on the site of one of my publishers, I try to stick to promoting books they publish on there.

 

But who knows what could happen in the future? I just might start including interviews with authors of books published by OTHER publishing companies on my writing blog. It could happen!

 

What’s New This Week?

 

On my horror blog, Dawn Lives in Darkness, you can read my interview with debut novelist Destiny Pifer, author of the new horror novel The House That Echoed Madness

 

New Book Reviews

 

On Dawn Reviews Books:

 

“When Going Home Again Means Going Back to Evil: Toxic Maternal is a horrifying story of a mother’s ruthless quest for immortality”

"The Horrors of Childhood: The Children's Horror Has Doomed Adults Reliving Childhood Fears"

 

On Amazon:

 

I recently reviewed Creep This Way: How to Become a Horror Writer With 24 Tips to Get You Ghouling by Rebecca Cuthbert

 

On Reader Views:

 

My review of the horror novel, Black Rose Cocoon by A.G. Flitcher

 

My review of the poetry book, Pieces of Me by Monique Rardin Richardson

Book Update

 

I finished writing my FIRST children’s horror book and submitted it to the publisher.

 

I also finished writing another novella. Both of the books are for Halloween releases!

 

Revision continues on a novelette that is also slated for a Halloween release. It’s one of three novelettes that will be published in one book!

 

I am still gathering stories of true paranormal encounters as well as true ghost stories for a nonfiction book. Interested? Email me details about your story at DMCWriter(at)gmail(dot)com. There is no limit on how many stories you share for this book but it must be TRUE.

 

The writing continues on the Valentine’s Day novel as well as two other novels that don’t have a deadline. (Gasp!) Actually, I’m kinda glad I’m writing novels that don’t have a deadline, like the other books do.

 

 

What’s New at SPARREW?

 

Note: The August issue of the SPARREW Newsletter goes out on the 24^th but I will share just one more July link on that day!

 

Check out my interview with author Brian J. Smith here

 

 

Going Ghost

 

Image by HANSUAN FABREGAS from Pixabay

I write a lot of different kinds of stories, but one common type of story that I write is the ghost story.

 

When I was writing for the Shadowlands website, I wrote about all things paranormal. This included ghosts and hauntings. When I wrote a haunted houses book with the late Canadian author, Martha Jette, some of my real paranormal encounters were added to the manuscript.

 

I am also working on a nonfiction book about true paranormal encounters.

 

Why do I write about ghosts so much? Maybe because I have seen a lot of ghosts. Or it’s because I have lived in a couple of haunted houses. In fact, with the house I live in now, there has been quite a bit of paranormal activity. But the activity doesn’t happen every single day. Or even five minutes.

 

Let me repeat this: Paranormal activity in a house that has this kind of activity does not happen Every. Single. Day. Or every five minutes.

 

This is important to remember because I am currently writing a novel of a family that lives in a house where a malevolent spirit resides. I have written some scenes of paranormal activity taking place in the home, but I don’t put it into each consecutive chapter. Some of the activity is a little terrifying as well as extreme, so I understand that periods of calm need to happen in between them. (That is, of course, until I get to the climax!)

 

I think having witnessed paranormal activity myself has helped make me a better writer of fictional paranormal encounters. With the many things I have witnessed happen, plus the research I have done in other cases of paranormal activity, it ensures that I don’t overdo the “ghost stuff” in my stories or write it in an unrealistic way.

 

Then again, some paranormal activity can itself seem unrealistic, especially if it’s coming from a malevolent spirit that’s trying to scare away new residents in the home!

Working in a Loop

 

You know how you want something to happen, but you can’t figure out HOW to make it happen?

 

You know, how you get tired of something not going the way you want it to for so long? That frustration over Once. Again. Not working on a goal that you hope to accomplish?

 

That happened to me recently, with my ability to work on my books. I just couldn’t figure out how to find the time to work on them on top of everything else I was doing. Weeks and then months would go by when I would look back to see what I had gotten done each week, and very rarely was I satisfied with the amount of work I was getting done on my books.

 

I have several WIPs in different stages of production. I have books to write, books to revise, and books to edit. (Yes, they’re all mine.) So, yes, I was getting frustrated that I wasn’t spending enough time working on any of them. If I didn’t get these books ready to submit, they would just sit there, unfinished, forever!

 

And I didn’t want that.

 

See, in addition to my books to work on, I also have a backlog of books to review. (Many thanks to all the authors for their patience with me!) I also have to make time for my new gig. Plus, I try to get something “freelance writing” done every Monday through Friday. So it was hard to find time to work on the books. My morning writing usually went to writing other stuff – mostly, stuff for the freelance writing.

 

So as July came to an end, I told myself, “August will be different.” Even though I didn’t know HOW it would be different.

But somehow, the universe figured that out for me.

 

The first day of August rolled around and, do you know what happened? I was able to work on some of my books! I was hoping to spend time working on 10 WIPs (there are many more!), but I was only able to work on four.

 

But, that’s okay! That is STILL work done on my books!

 

Here’s how I made it happen:

 

I made a list of what books I NEED to get done soon. One of them has a deadline and another is for an open call that will be rolling around soon. A third is for a new imprint I’m hoping to have ready in time for Valentine’s Day. And, et cetera. You get the idea.

 

Then, on August 1st, I started my day working on the book that is at the top of my list. After I finished, I started reading one of the seven books I am reviewing, which I also listed, in order of priority. After that, I would tackle any one of these things: Something related to freelance writing, work on the newsletter, something to write and work in any one of my “weekly” things like posting on my horror blog or writing something for the Substack (which will now be sent out on the weekends).

 

Then I would go back to working on the next book on my list and repeat the other things.

 

As for any of the other WIPs and other books on both lists which I am not able to get to during the week, I’ll work on them during the weekends! In addition to the other weekend stuff which I usually do.

 

This method is working well so far. I am STILL able to tend to my other writing responsibilities while getting work done on my books.

 

And because I like to keep myself accountable, at the end of the day, I write down how many books I was able to spend time reviewing. This is why I keep the ones with deadlines at the top of my list. As long I get some work done on THOSE, then it was a good day.

 

It’s a system that works for me, and I’m so happy to be moving forward on my books again. I’m just thrilled that I’m able to work on my books as often as I would like to.

 

It’s a method that works for me, and if you too have been stuck in trying to figure out how to find time for a project, I hope you find a method that works for you too.