My Favourite Zombie Movies

My Favourite Zombie Movies (in alphabetical order):

• 28 Days Later
• Dawn of the Dead (1978/1990)
• Day of the Dead (1985)
• Dead Snow
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• Rec
• Zombie (1979) also known as Zombi 2

Favourite Horror Movies - A Countdown

As a horror writer, I'm often asked what are my favourite horror movies. As with everything, that list changes  over the years. Also, that list has grown, in fact so much, I thought I'd try to split my recommendations into 4 parts:

1. Favourite Horror Comedies
2. Favourite Zombie Movies
3. Favourite John Carpenter Movies
4. Favourite Horror Movies

So I'll start off listing my Favourite Horror Comedies (in alphabetical order):

• Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
• Army of Darkness
• Return of the Living Dead 
• Shawn of the Dead
• Tucker And Dale Vs. Evil

I'll post the rest of my lists over the next week. So go out and enjoy some Horror flicks!

The Bitter Sting of Rejection...

Today I received a rejection of my submission, Prometheus Undead, to the Dead North Anthology. I'm disappointed. I thought I had a really good shot at this anthology.

One of the more disappointing things, and this applies to a lot of other publishers out there, is that they're very vague about why the story was rejected. In my case, "Sadly, this doesn't find our needs." However, I have sent a quick reply, thanking them and wishing them good luck on the anthology, but also asking them why my story was rejected. I know there are a lot of submissions to these themed anthologies, but I think if someone takes the time to write a 4,000+ story, the least an editor can do is explain in a sentence or two why it was rejected. I'd like to know if there's something I can do to improve the story or my writing, or to find out if there were too many similar stories that were already part of the anthology.

To their credit, they replied with the explanation that it didn't grab them. So, now it's time for me to perhaps look at the story's opening and find a way to get things going a bit faster, to clear a bit of the clutter out and get to the story.

# # #

Last Friday, I also received a letter telling me my Endless Night novel proposal was rejected by the city of Toronto Arts Council. I wasn't really surprised as these awards usual stir clear of genre fiction.

# # #

On a positive front, my first draft of Endless Night has pushed passed the halfway mark at 45,000 words.

Feeling accomplished

I hit the 41,000 word mark on the first draft of Endless Night. I want to hit the halfway mark by the end of this week.

Submitted my short story, Prometheus Undead to the Dead North Anthology (http://silviamoreno-garcia.com/blog/dead-north-guidelines/), so cross your fingers for me!

Getting organized and setting new goals

It's difficult trying to set up your goals and align your efforts with deadlines. As I mentioned in a previous post, I try to scout out potential short story markets and set up a schedule based on those.

Earlier in the year, I had set an ambitious goal of having the first draft of my novel Endless Night completed and even having a second draft of it done by November for the World Fantasy Convention. However, that goal become derailed as I really struggled with a lot of plotting issues. However, my efforts to submit proposals for grants and for the Borderlands Boot Camp helped to solidify the project.

Now, I'm trying to hit a minimum of a 1,000 words a day on Endless Night. So, between now and WFC, there's basically 6 weeks and with trying to pound our 7,000 words a week, that's at least 43,000 words combined with the existing 35,000 words would get me into the 78,000 words area or 87% of my goal.

I'd like to do NaNoWrimo again this year, but to try something different just to change my mind. That will give me the necessary time away from Endless Night and give me the month of December to close out those 90,000 words.

Along with these writing efforts, I have the following goals/deadlines:


Short story for September 30th - Dead North (reused an existing story that I liked a lot, 85% complete)
Short story for October 15th - Stories from the Asylum (haven't started)
Short story for October 31th - Urban Fantasy themed anthology (haven't started)
Prework for NaNoWrimo
Short story for November 30th - Urban Green Man (haven't started)
Comic book script and synopsis for December 31st - Top Cow Talent Hunt
    - complete research: read up on Top Cow comics
    - pick a character from the list to write about; think outside the box in terms of the character

Okay, now I'm feeling guilty enough that I should get back to my writing!

Milestone #1 reached!

Over the weekend, I send off my package for the 2013 Borderlands Bootcamp which included an outline of the characters, a 5 page synopsis, and a 32-page opening which was 2.5 chapters (just over 7,000 words). Happy Dance time!

 Okay, enough with the celebration, time to keep moving. Back to novel writing. I've updated my Scrivener document with the Borderlands content and created rough scene place holders that will allow me to jot things down and write the actual scenes. It's a great view of your novel. If you're at all serious about your writing, it's worth investing in Scrivener (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php).

Also, there are a few good short story anthologies that have opened for submissions lately that I'm hoping to take a stab at over the next few months:

September 30th - Dead North - http://silviamoreno-garcia.com/blog/dead-north-guidelines/

October 31th - Urban Fantasy themed anthology - http://www.elektrikmilkbathpress.com/submissions

November 30th - Urban Green Man -

http://www.urbangreenman.com/submissions.htm

I also made some progress on the word count on my novel pushing it to just over 32K.

Short Story Markets

Looking to place a specific short story? Looking for inspiration from an actual paying market?

Here's a list of some of the writing market resources I regularly visit.

Dark Markets - http://darkmarkets.com
D.L. Snell's Market Scoops - http://www.dlsnell.com/search/label/antho
Duotrope - https://duotrope.com/recentupdates.aspx
Ralan.com - http://www.ralan.com/m.antho.htm