I haven't been writing for the past four months, and I'm trying to understand why, out of nowhere, I suddenly get the urge to WRITE WRITE WRITE like there's no tomorrow.

Maybe it's something like Mars being in retrograde, or some sort of biological cycle - something I have no control over, but I've been trying to put the pieces into a sensible whole.

And I think I've hit on something: I write when I'm bored, and since I am bored most of the time, I'm a perpetual writer.

I will be the first to tell you, I am not a fan of horror.

When I was little, even a scary episode of the X-Files would make me have nightmares for a week. I have an overactive imagination.

Even movies like Gravity I would consider horror because after the movie is over, I'm not going to be thinking about the graphics, or how great the acting was, or the emotional journey of the characters. I'm going to be thinking - for weeks - about how freaking scary space is.

Which I already knew, by the way. Thanks, though.

But now I find myself in the position of having a work in progress that I want to add an element of horror to, but I have no idea how to do it.

So I started off slow.

I'm a big fan of Welcome to Night Vale, which employs Lovecraftian ideals of horror around every turn, but treats it with such eye-rolling and shoulder shrugs as to make it mundane.

Lovecraft was known as the writer of gaps and he wrote around and between things but never at them. I honestly appreciate his style and the way the Night Vale uses it.

Stephen King is another horror writer who I've been meaning to read. Though I've seen a lot of criticism of his recent books, I know him to be a fantastic writer. I've read several essays of his that were just amazing. So I'd love to read more of his short stories and get more into his style.

I was also directed to Richard Matheson, who wrote I am Legend and was a frequent writer for the Twilight Zone. Every time I looked for classic horror stories, Matheson's name came up over and over again. I loved the movie I am Legend, even though I hate zombie stories, and I would love to read the actual story.

I want to reach out to you, dear reader, who is likely more of an aficionado of horror than I. Do you have any recommendations for great horror short stories? Any favorite authors whose techniques in the field you admire?

TELL ME YOUR WAYS

Interestingly enough, my current Work in Progress has zombies in it. If you have read other entries in this blog, you know how much I insist on hating zombie stories, and I do.

So, I wouldn't call this a zombie story in the ideological sense. As we learned in the third episode of Life: Narrated, our podcast, zombies are used to complain about social woes with impunity. Anything from capitalism, to immigration, to kids spending too much time on their smart phones. (if you haven't listened already, you should! It's interesting.)

But this story brings the zombie back to the basics, I guess. Where there's a necromancer whose in control and the zombie - in life a very important person who died under unclear circumstances - is used as a political pawn more than anything.

I'm halfway through my second pass at editing and as much as I love the story, there is going to have to be some serious structural edits in the next pass.

For instance. In the original, the necromancer is picked up by the army and they hitchhike to a secret military installation.

They hitchhike.

How secret could this military installation be if everyone keeps hitchhiking to it? Why would a seriously outfitted government agency not invest in a car? What kind of two-bit operation is this, anyway?

I honestly have no idea what I was thinking.

No, I do know what I was thinking, because I wrote that scene after hitchhiking on the back on an oil tanker - I was sitting literally on top of the tank - and thought, wow, this would be an awesome scene in a book.

But some things that happen in real life shouldn't go in novels because the details just stand out too much. Instead of focusing on the main point - which would be the military being interested in the necromancer - the reader will be like... but why are they hitchhiking? And why are they on an oil tanker?

All that aside, I haven't reached the 'Oh god why am I doing this? Is this terrible or awesome?' stage of editing, so I'm still feeling pretty chipper.

An update about the podcast! It's been going on! We've been learning stuff!

Namely that a certain someone COUGHMattCOUGH makes a terrible host when he is slightly disinterested in the topic.

We had another podcast in which we were supposed to talk about narratives in general, but I didn't really communicate what it was supposed to be about, and it didn't go very well. It ended up with me babbling a lot and getting off topic. EVEN THOUGH WE HAD A DOCKET.

Long story short, I'm going to be a better communicator next time about our new topic: ZOMBIES.

I am super into this now because my Work in Progress (WiP) is about zombies - not necessarily the way you're thinking. There's really only one zombie in the story, but he's an important zombie.

But not a romantic zombie. Let's be clear.

Anyway, I've been reading up on Vodou and African myths about zombies and anthropological theories so I'm all fired up to talk about that aspect of it. Add to that the fact that none of us really like zombie narratives but want to know why they are so prevalent in the past couple of years and we're gonna have a good time! 

Maybe even a special guest. (Insert suggestive eyebrow waggling here)

OH! And in keeping with the theme of this month, you should check out Shawn T Anderson's short story on Internet Troubadours - Kill Tokens and Taffeta - It's great! All zombiefied and whatnot.

I'm still not sure if I'll post the final edited version of Life: Narrated Episode 2 - it depends on what happens during the editing process which I am scared even to start.

Also: I just finished the first edit run through of my WiP y'all! I'm excited!


Whew. That's all the updates for now. A real post is forthcoming, promise.

If you have a suggestion for what we should talk about in our zombie podcast, leave a note!