The True Spirit of Christmas

Over the weekend, we took the kids downtown Toronto to Nathan Philips Square where we enjoyed a morning of skating and then lunch at the Eaton Center. We took in the sights of the Christmas decorations and of the fun Christmas windows on the Bay.

On the way back to the car, my daughter noticed some homeless people and I tried my best to explain their plight. Before reaching the car garage, a young woman stepped up to me and offered me a Christmas present. I politely declined, but she insisted. I didn't want to create a scene so I took the gift. Earlier outside the Eaton Center, it felt like we were assaulted by vendors, bible-thumpers, and activists and it had definitely put me off and made me even more reluctant to received this gift.

However, I read the card. From one stranger to another, wishing you a very Merry Christmas. I opened the gift. It was a toque and some hot pockets you slip inside of your mittens to stay warm. We didn't really need any of this, so I told my daughter to come with me. We went back up to the street and gave one of the homeless people the gift. The homeless guy was startled saying "Oh My Goodness" and wished us a Merry Christmas.

Damn that felt good. And that was the Christmas Spirit and how its really supposed to feel. It's not about fighting with a million other people in a mall over the latest gadget. It's about taking care of people. I'm an atheist and I find it so sad that the meaning of spirit has been diluted by the commercialism. Oddly though, some of the most Christian followers have embraced the false idol of Christmas commercialism. It's truly sad.

This experience has taught me a lesson I thought I'd share with you. And as well, I'd like to spent the holiday season enjoying friends and family rather than worrying about the commercialism and being happy with what I have, being content with what I have.

Merry Christmas!

Post-NaNoWriMo writer’s block

I experienced this last year as well. Coming off the marathon that is NaNoWriMo, I find myself creatively drained. I finished on the 27th of November and gave myself some time off, until December. But, come December 1st, my motivation was fleeting.

So in an effort to rekindle that motivation, I need to set out some goals.

1. Submit a Top Cow Talent Hunt proposal by Dec 31, which consists of an 8 page script and a synopsis.
2. Submit a 4,000 word short story for The Hero Comes Home 2.
3. Critique the submissions from my fellow Borderland bootcampers. There’s 16 submissions, including short stories and novel proposals. (Due January 26/13)
4. Start my reading for my latest Back Issue Magazine assignment. (Due April/13)
5. Do some research for my YA horror novel, Elegant Darkness.
6. Create a synopsis/plot breakdown for Elegant Darkness.
7. Re-approach my serial horror novel, End Times.

Holy crap that’s a lot of work for about 22 days.

Rejection-ville: Population Me

Received another rejection for a short story I submitted to the Urban Occult anthology by Anachron Press. I'm used to rejections, I have a thick skin, but what I do find discourteous is that lack of a reason why the story was rejected. As I've stated before, it's easy to slap on a simple "Due to time constraints, we regret we're unable to give specifics on our reasons for the rejection".

But I feel that's a cop out, especially for themed anthologies that necessitate a unique story rather than recycling a story in your portfolio. And don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting a three-page write-up or a line by line copy edit. But, I do feel that a simple sentence stating what the basic justification for the rejection would be the professional thing to do. Something simple like "Your opening just didn't grab me", "I lost interest by page two", or "The ending was too predictable". I'm sure the slush pile reader has to explain why a story has been rejected, even if it's something as simple as not following guidelines.

That's enough of a clue for the writer to revisit their piece. Writers need feedback to improve and if the writer takes the time to submit a story and a slush pile reader reads it, there should be some feedback generated.

Thoughts?

NaNoWriMo Winner!

I crossed the finish this evening at 50,031 words. I lot to digest, but I'm really pleased with the story that flowed out. I'll let it sit for a little while and then work on the outline and let the real first draft begin!

I need to catch up some reading as well as focus on reading all the story for the Borderlands bootcamp. So "The Elegant Beauty of Darkness" will probably have to wait until February 2013.

World Fantasy Convention 2012 wrap-up

The 2012 World Fantasy Convention was fun, intimidating, thought-provoking, and inspiring. Held within driving distance of Toronto, it was an easy decision to attend. The $225 price tag was expensive, but I can appreciate that the price and the limited number of tickets would keep the geek riff-raft away!

The con took place at the Sheraton Hotel in Markham, ironically the same place that hosted the PolarisCon earlier in the year which left a terrible taste in my mouth. Fortunately, this wonderful event has cleansed my psyche of the negative impression left behind by PolarisCon.

Imagine a gather of introverted writers, all coming out of their caves to meet and talk and network. Yeah, I have a difficult time imagining all that awkwardness. Maybe it’s just me! I’ve had a handful of stories published (for money, yes for money), but I haven’t broken in to any of the more significant or distinguished publications. I’m working on a novel, like everyone else at the con. I’m a professional blogger and comic book journalist/history (accredited by the San Diego Comic Con). I found it difficult to be taken seriously and had a few respected pros glance at my badge and then dart away from me.

Maybe I’m just too much of an introvert or too paranoid, but I got the impression from some professionals that they had no time to talk to anyone outside of their professional clique. And clique makes me think back to those awkward teenage years. Everyone has to start somewhere and I was hoping the “pay-it-forward” mentality would be a bit more prevalent. 

With that said, it wasn’t a complete void of thoughtfulness. There are a few classy professionals who have never made me feel that I was imposing or intruding upon them. And for that I’m thankful and appreciate the efforts they made to include me and to simply call me out by name and talk with me.

Highlights included the launch of Guy Kay's new book, an amazing panel on the Lexicon of Horror, the Chizine party where I talked comics for two hours with a PR rep from 2000AD, my cell phone going off during Peter Straub's reading, autograph session, dinner out with Ian Rogers, great food spread and beer at the hospitality suite, and panels, panels, and more panels.

NaNoWriMo 2012

What the hell is NaNoWriMo? It’s a fun acronym for the National Novel Writing Month. What the hell is National Novel Writing Month? It’s a month-long marathon in which you dedicate yourself to writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Yes, 30 days, one month and at the end you have a novel. Well, probably more accurately, a rough first draft. That’s roughly 1,700 words a day. It might seem like a lot at first, but you’ll get used to writing that much in no time.

How does one accomplish such a goal? Sit down somewhere comfortable and type. Reach 1,700 words. Repeat until you reach 50,000 words.

Signing up for this event is easy. Go to http://nanowrimo.org/en/dashboard and register. Next, tell your family, friends, co-workers that you’re embarking on this perilous journey. This notification swerves two goals: to get their buy in for the amount of time you’ll need to write each day and to use them as motivation (you don’t want to lose face in front of your family or friends, do you? Get back to your seat and finish your 1,700 words.)

Above all though, have fun with NaNoWriMo. Are you always telling someone that you have this great idea for a story or a novel? Now’s the time to put this great idea to the test. Sit down and write about it.

Don’t go back and re-write, don’t worry if it’ll suck (it will suck, it’s a first draft), experiment, go down tangents, explore your idea and have fun.

Another goal of NaNoWriMo in my opinion is to get you into the habit of writing 1,700 words a day. If you want to be a professional writer, you’d better get used to that number on a daily basis.

In 2011, NaNoWriMo had over 250,000 participants, but only 14% crossed that 50,000 word finish line. Can you do it? Can you become a novelist by the end of November? See you at the finish line!

Hit the 50k mark on Endless Night

I just pushed ahead of the 50,000 work mark on my novel, Endless Night. It's not quite the 90,000 goal that I set out to accomplish, but I'm happy with having reached 50,000. I've been finding it hard to write on the novel and feel that I've been thinking about it way too much and need a break from it.

NaNoWriMo is fast approaching and I need to set aside some time for preparation, characters, rough outline, and some log lines. Looking forward to the challenge. Taking a stab at the Young Adult market with this one, so we'll see what happens. Stay tuned.

My Favourite Horror Movies

Favourite Horror Movies (in alphabetically order):

• Alien
• The Legend of Hell House  (1973)
• Thirteen Ghosts (remake – 2001)
• Grave Encounters
• Session 9
• The Cabin in the Woods
• The Descent
• The Exorcist
• The Last Exorcism
• The Ring
• The Shining

My Favourite John Carpenter Movies

My Favourite John Carpenter Movies:

1. The Thing
2. In the Mouth of Madness
3. Halloween
4. Prince of Darkness
5. The Fog

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

Home strech...

Friday's the deadline for my novel portfolio for the Borderlands Bootcamp. I need a synopsis, character bios, and a 30-something pages opening for the novel. I've got a solid first draft of all them down, so its just a matter of polishing at this point. With the rest of the book unwritten, it will be interested to see how those first few chapters change or evolve as I progress through the novel.

Struggling a bit with the length of the synopsis. I want it to be long enough to convey the novel's core ideas, but not so long that people tune out. I'll be doing another pass at it to tighten up the sentences and make sure I'm using those strong verbs. Concerned as well that the summary won't really capture my own voice as I'm writing it very matter-of-factly.

Let's see what I can do in three days!

Outlining, outlining, and more outlining (and writing to yourself)

    I've spent a lot of time over the last few months outlining my novel. I've read a few books and looked at several formulas or breakdowns, like the basic act structure or the Snowflake method. The bottom line is that there's no easy method or formula. You have your idea and try as you might, it's difficult to wedge it into a formula or method. Use these as guidelines. They are incredibly helpful at getting your story ideas down on paper. But only spending time with your story can allow your thoughts to come together in a collective form that can be shaped and sculpted into a story.
   I genuinely feel that I have the beginning and the ending of my novel nailed down. At least for the purposes of the outline. I'm not going into the drafting process believing that either of those two parts cannot change. However, it's that murky middle that has me hung up. I know I need to spend more time on it and that's what I plan to do over the next few days, but I need to find a way to ramp up the story's energy during the middle and allow it to push the reader over to the climax.
   One of the more fruitful ways of spending more time with my story in terms of outlining or writing up the synopsis, is to tell yourself the story in a bit of a back and forth dialogue. As you're writing your outline, ask yourself questions, interrupt yourself, write away even if you're going on a tangent. It's all good. You'll be surprised at how useful it can be.
   That's it, go off and write to yourself!

I'm back! and with some news!

After a wonderful 17-day vacation, I'm back at work, but more importantly I'm back to blogging about my story as I make my way through the 90,000 or so words of my novel.

In the meantime, a nice piece of new to pass on: BIFF BAM POP! announced the September release of the STRANGE WORLD anthology http://wp.me/pAzGH-2v1 featuring one of my stories, "Dirt Man".


Featuring an introduction by multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry, Strange World: A Biff Bam Pop Short Story Anthology will also include the following authors and their stories:

Anne Michaud, Sister Mine
Andre Narbonne, The Face in the Well
Rathan Krueger, Blame Me
Ken Haigh, Lost in the Dark Woods
Kayla Tyson, Down in the Cellar Basement
Jim Morris, Crash
Lucas Magnum, Occupy Babylon
J.G. Chayko, The Storage Locker
Jason Shayer, Dirt Man
Glenn Walker, Live to Write
Ian Rogers, I Hate Needles
David Ward, Kitty
Andrew Burns, Medium Double Double

Borderlands Writers Bootcamp

I'm in! It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I know my last blog entry detailed how I had decided to put my Black Knight Towing novel to rest, but it wouldn't let me. Trevor Galloway kept coming back to me and demanded to be written about.

With the deadlines for the several arts grants looming, I buckled up on wrote up 3 chapters, about 40 pages of the novel and whipped them into shape for submission. I used the same writing sample as my submission to the Borderlands Writers Bootcamp. Earlier this week I received an email telling me I was accepted! I did a little happy dance.

Now, my attention has turned to what I need to do to prepare for this bootcamp. For September 1st, I need to provide: 

• up to 35 opening pages of my novel 
• synopsis or chapter outline of remainder
• brief but encompassing list of major and secondary characters and their biographies

It's going to be an exciting and busy summer!

Knowing when to stop

There's a point you reach when you realize that you're no longer making any forward progress. I've reached that point with my latest novel endeavour, Black Knight Towing. I've spent the last few months trying to pound out a story, but it's just not happening. Last year for NANOWRIMO I had used it as my subject and I ran out of steam with it as well. Maybe that's telling me something.

I know the general advice is to finish what you started, but it just isn't working. I'm spinning my wheels and I feel like I'm wasting the precious time before the World Fantasy Convention in November.

What the hell do I do now? Good question. Perhaps refocusing on what I want to write about. More reading, I know that with all the craziness in my life, the reading side of things has diminished, so that's an area I'd like to focus a bit more on.

Taking a few days off to write

Imagine that! With the renos and life in general getting in the way, I'll be taking three days off next weekend to write. I'm hoping to make some serious progress on my novel. Ideally by the middle of June, I'd like to have a couple of polished chapters that I can use for multiple purposes. Those purposes are the Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council grants, as well as my application to the Borderlands Writing Bootcamp. Wish me luck!

Still spinning my wheels...

I'm at a bit of an impasse. Lately, I've been turning all my attention to writing my novel. However, I've been having a lot of problems trying to plot the story. It really feels like I've got too many ideas for one novel and need to refocus. I'd also like to create a serial character, but the main problem I'm running into is where to start. Do I start with his origin or do I start with him as an experienced monster hunter?

Then the idea of creating a couple of chapter books surfaced and that actually seemed to work as I could create a chapter book of his origin and then one of a mission as an experienced monster hunter.

However, yes another however, I'm also eager to send in an application for the Borderlands Press bootcamp and they require the first two chapters of a novel. Sigh.

I guess I could pull the first two chapters from either of those chapter books to use as my writing sample. And actually, that might just work. The two chapters I send in don't have to be from the novel I want to workshop in the bootcamp. Just have to make sure that those two chapters are the best that I can produce.

Impasse overcomed. Now off to get some writing done!

Getting back on the horse!

Hey there. It was a crazy April that didn't see much writing get done. We're living in the main floor of a house down the street while our house undergoes a major renovation. Moving out this past weekend was crazy, simply crazy. I'm getting old. Still sore and tired from the two-day move. We're getting pro movers when we move back in.

I'm trying to get back on the horse and get some writing under my belt, but it's tough. I'm tired and don't feel like doing it. And I have more excuses, but that's all they are. I'm going to give myself a bit of slack, but I want to try do a bit of writing. I think my goal for tomorrow night is to look over what I want to get done for the month of May. I've got a lot of writing commitments and need to clear those off my plate before I can get to my novel writing.

However, I'm definitely more inspired to write about Trevor Galloway. I've stopped worrying about how to shape my novel and will try to break down the ideas I have into more digestible parts and write those. Right now I have two main story chunks, Galloway's origin as the Black Knight Tow Truck Operator and The Wendigo.

If you're reading this and are a writer, you might have run into something similar. How did you get back on the horse? Any advice?

Some great advice from Chuck Wendig

Chuck Wendig's novel, Blackbirds has recently been published and he shares some lessons he's learned along the way. An advance warning for the language that Chuck uses, it's raw...

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/04/24/25-things-i-learned-while-writing-blackbirds/

- The book isn’t real until it’s done. It’s perhaps the most important lesson: before you can do anything else, before you rewrite, edit, query, publish, whatever, you have to finish your shit
-  Sometimes to fix a broken pipe, duct tape won’t do. You gotta rip that shit out. You gotta put in new pipe. I destroyed Blackbirds to save Blackbirds.
- Writing — and querying, and publishing, and marketing, and loving, and hating — a book takes a lot out of you. It feels in some ways like a great gym workout, in other ways like a weird (not bad, not good) breakup. You’re left flapping in the wind, your little book-baby all-groweds-up, out in the world doing things without you. You can only hope the book doesn’t embarrass you.

Finding the motivation

It's such a strange thing. I feel compelled to write. I have stories racing around in my head that itch and wiggle and squirm until I put them down on the page. But, why is it so easy to find an excuse not to do that. It's work. Being a writer is fun, but writing is still work, hard work. We have an upcoming renovation where my wife has told me to lower my expectations in terms of my time to write, which is fair, but also give me an excuse. That's an excuse I don't want to use. I still want to strive to get something written each day, even if its nothing, at least it keep the writing muscles limbed.

Thinking about self-publishing, read this...

A great blog post about self-publishing: http://www.briankeene.com/?p=11268

Borderlands Press Boot Camp

What is the Borderlands Press Boot Camp?

"You will be expected to log in many hours of intensive analysis and criticism from your peers and the three guest instructors who will be guiding you through all the major elements of writing fiction. 

You will be required to read (in advance) the submissions of your fellow workshop participants. (ALL OF THEM) Your weekend will comprise of: 

- lecture (not a lot)
- round table critiques (definitely a lot)
- analysis by the instructors
- Q&A panel discussion
- readings (of your work)
- a special exercise or maybe more... 

Think you’ve heard enough?

In addition, you will receive a general understanding of the state of modern publishing—that is where and to whom to submit your material, the real deal on editors and agents, the characteristics of the genres, the perception of the difference between mainstream and literary fiction, and even a few words on marketing and publicity. Have your questions ready.

You will learn all the basic elements of writing and the processes needed to finish your manuscript and have it ready for submission to the market place. But more importantly you will get the much needed FEEDBACK that is often the missing factor which contributes to the success (or failure) of many writers.

Each instructor has a specific area they will be emphasizing. If you’ve never experienced a piece of fiction deconstructed (especially your own) and analyzed in a high-intensity workshop setting, be prepared to learn things about you, your writing, and  your ability to tell a good story.

You will discover this workshop is primarily concerned with analysis and criticism—
that is, learning how to give it out, and more importantly,  how to take it. Professional writers learn early on the ability to receive and implement critical feedback is the most important element contributing to the improvement of their craft. 

When writers learn to EDIT their own work with a critical eye, they discover the ultimate key to their success."

Sounds intimidating and like a lot of work doesn't it? Well, as much fun as I have writing, it is work. Hard and solitary work. But there are great rewards. Like getting paid for your first piece of fiction!

The qualification is now open and if you're accepted (and they only accept 24 students), your work-in-progress needs to be in their hands by September.

Duotrope

If you don't know what Duotrope is, stop right now and head over there (http://duotrope.com/index.aspx) and register. It's a great webpage that advertises writing markets. Sign up for their weekly email as well, I find it a great source of inspiration, even if I just read through the broad variety of markets and themes. Duotrope also has a handy feature that track publisher's response time which can be quite handy when you're sending out your stories.

First post of the year - 2012 writing goals

Yes, it's April, but that's okay. It's actually a perfect time to review my writing goals for 2012.

My goals to kick off the year were:


[  ] published 4 short stories
[  ] write a new short story each month
[  ] get two Back Issue! assignments
[  ] write my novel
[  ] contribute to Black Glove magazine


Revisiting them now:


[ 1/4 ] published 4 short stories (1 slated for publication this year)
[ 1/12 ] write a new short story each month (1 new story so far)
[ 1/2 ] get two Back Issue! assignments (1 out of 2 so far)
[  ] write my novel (hacking away at it)
[  ] contribute to The Black Glove (ongoing)
[  ] contribute to Biff Bam Pop! (ongoing)


As writing my novel is my primary focus this year, I'd like to break that down a bit more. Originally I started out with the following schedule aimed at getting my novel written for World Fantasy Con 2012 here in Toronto.

Mar - write 17,000 words
Apr- write 17,000 words
May- write 17,000 words
June- write 17,000 words
July - write 17,000 words 
Aug - Revision
Sept - Revision
Oct - Revision
Nov 1 - World Fantasy Con


So where am I now? I have about 19,000 words written, but I'm really struggling with putting together the overall plot.


I had a great chat with author Ian Rogers over the weekend and he reaffirmed that there was a market for good dark fiction set in Canada. So I'm mulling over whether to press on with my novel or to grab some pieces from the novel to flesh out something in the 10,000 word range as a chapbook.


I'm not sure where to go, but I guess for now, I can try and do both! We'll see how successful that is.


A tip of the hat to Daniel Huber for encouraging me to continue this writer's blog.