Upcoming Poetry Publication: Uneasy Bones

Rebecca is proud to announce that her poem, Unfitting will appear in Uneasy Bones, Moon Hollow Press’ upcoming anthology on the discomfiture of womanhood.

Upcoming Fiction Publication: Blood Type

Rebecca’s short story, Taxing Youth, will appear in the upcoming Blood Type anthology.

Upcoming Fiction Publication: Unmeaning

Rebecca’s short story, ‘Unmeaning’, will be featured as one of Human Echoes’ Short Echoes series.

Upcoming Fiction Publication: What is it for?

Rebecca’s short sotry ‘What is it For?’ will appear in the charity anthology When Darkness Calls by Screaming Spires Publishing. Proceedings from the anthology will be donated to Pictor School in Cheshire and Autism Awareness.

Someone Else’s Writing: Brian McKinley

Hi Brian! Could you tell us a little bit about ‘Ancient Blood’? What inspired you to write a vampire novel and what do you bring to the genre that’s new?
Ancient Blood: A Novel of the Hegemony is the first in what I call “The Order Saga” which, according to my current plan, will span multiple series featuring various characters that all share one universe. Similar to what Marvel is doing with their various franchises and combination Avengers movies, I suppose, though I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. Many things inspired me to write this novel and I could probably write a lengthy article just on my inspirations, but I’ll summarize by saying that I wrote it because it was the kind of vampire novel I wanted to read and no one else had written it yet.

I think what I bring to the genre is a combination of an epic scale story that, ironically, features very detailed and multi-layered characters with an ambition to stay as close to the real world we know as I can. There are fantastic elements in this series, but I do my best to work within the world that we know rather than changing that world to introduce the fantastic. Does that make any sense?
What would you say is the hardest part of the writing process for you? Are you the kind of writer who plans their plot out or do you like to dive right in and see where it leads you?
For me, the hardest part is the actual writing! I love the creation, the planning, and even the polishing and editing afterward, but I struggle to make myself sit down and type out all those damn words! By the time I get to actually writing a scene, my mind is so far beyond that, sometimes in another story altogether, so it’s hard to get the actual work done. I’m the type who tries to plan out every detail I can prior to writing so that I have a detailed road map to work from. I still feel free to deviate once I’m in the scene, of course, but all the planning ahead of times makes me confident that I can find my way back to the important points.
Do you write yourself ‘into’ any of your characters? Which of your characters would you say is most like you and why?
There’s parts of me in every character I write. I think there has to be, because you really only have yourself to base a “person” on. You can incorporate parts of other people, too, but that’s usually the surface aspects or the opinions on which you and your character differ. The character who is most like me is Avery, the viewpoint character of Ancient Blood: A Novel of the Hegemony: he’s a combination of me and a few friends I’ve known because I needed an “average” person that the reader could relate to as a narrator. He’s not entirely me, of course, since he’s missing certain parts of me that didn’t fit and I’ve added other parts and exaggerated still others. You really can’t capture all the complexity and contradiction of a real person in a fictional character; even in realistic fiction, characters have to have clear motives and be mostly consistent in their behavior. Real people aren’t like that because life is so much messier than fiction.
Are there any other writers who you really admire? What was the last thing you read and would you recommend it?

 

I greatly admire Stephen King, both for his versatility and talent, but also for the way he doesn’t let his enormous success turn him into something he’s not. He’s still realistic about himself and pretty humble. I’d like to think that I could be like him if I were to have similar success.

I recently became a huge fan of Charlie Huston’s Joe Pitt novels, which are a great gritty noir take on vampires. I also love Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files both because of the accessible writing and the fantastic world-building.
Finally, do you have any hints and tips for other aspiring writers?
Keep reading, keep writing, and no matter what people tell you about the market, write the kind of books you would want to read. Write what’s in your heart, truthfully.

 

Ancient Blood is available to purchase on Amazon.com. For news and updates from Brian, why not visit his website or find him on Facebook?

Forthcoming Fiction Publication: Zombie Lockdown ** Neon Magazine Issue 33

Rebecca’s short story ‘Isolation’ will appear in May December Publication’s Zombie Lockdown anthology.

 

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Issue 33 of Neon Magazine which contains three of Rebecca’s poems is now for sale. Her poem, Timothy Hawkins, is a part of the free preview online and you can download a copy for free (or a small donation if you’re feeling generous).

Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll Results

Thanks to everyone who voted for Rebecca in the Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll! In the hotly contested horror short story category, Rebecca’s novella Fever in the Blood placed 12th, in the e-book cover and artwork category, Rebecca’s cover for Blood Lust placed 11th. She also placed 11th in the authors category.

Upcoming Fiction Publication: To Kiss the Bride

Rebecca’s short story, To Kiss the Bride, will appear in Angelic Knight Press’ forthcoming 50 Shades of Decay anthology.

Someone Else’s Writing: Brad C. Hodson

Brad C. Hodson: “Reach for the heavens with all the fury of hell.”

Brad, how would you describe your style of writing?

 

My writing style…

I like to play with the style a bit and feel that, to a certain extent, the style should cater to the mood that an author is attempting to engender. That being said, every author has certain stylistic markers that define their voice. These days I tend to pay more attention to the musical quality of sentences, trying to create and maintain a varied rhythm that (hopefully) picks up the reader and carries them along. But, again, this varies. In DARLING I tried to get out of the way as much as possible, to keep the prose clean and simple and sharp. Style-wise, I suppose my models for the book were Matheson, King, and Laymon. DARLING was written four years ago, though, and, if I were to write it today the models might be more Hemingway and Straub. This dynamic quality is one of the things I love about writing (and, really, about art in general). DARLING is a book I could have only written as it is at that point in time. As I grow older, my tastes will keep changing and my writing will (hopefully) continue to change.

 

Your brand new novel, Darling, is scheduled for release by Bad Moon Books. Could you tell us a little bit about it? What inspired you to write it and are you happy with the result?

 

I’ve always been a fan of haunted house novels, from Henry James to Shirley Jackson to Stephen King. Growing up in the foothills of Appalachia, there was a strong undercurrent of folklore always about, from my grandmother’s stories of headless railroad workers to phantoms that haunted country backroads and leaped in front of passing cars (usually filled with drunk teenagers, but still…). Writing a haunted house story set in that locale and using that storytelling tradition seemed like a no-brainer. But heading into it, I instantly hit a snag. I wanted to do something new, to bring a fresh perspective to the haunted house tale. I hit upon what could be responsible for the phenomena that happens at the apartment building the book centers around, something that, in the end, makes the book not a haunted house story at all. But it feels like one and, if what I set out for works, it should give the reader a feeling of “home” within the familiar tropes of the genre while surprising them and taking the story somewhere unexpected. Worse case scenario, Phillip Simpson’s gorgeous cover will look good on your bookshelf…

 

Are you working on anything at the moment? Is there a piece of your work which you are especially proud of?

 

I’m currently expanding a novella I’d written last year titled THE MUD ANGEL into a novel. It’s a murder mystery set in Florence during the flood of 1966. It centers around families that have been feuding since the Renaissance, a lost work of Dante’s, and necromancy. I’m really excited about it and feel (as I’m sure every author does with every novel they write) that it’s deeper and more mature and has a stylistic integrity that I’m very proud.

 

I have another novel that revolves around pickpockets living in catacombs beneath Rome. It’s a sort of comedic adventure with elements of FIGHT CLUB and THE BEACH. It’s non-genre, so my business acumen with where I should place it is pretty non-existent so I’ve got a bit of a learning curve there. I’ve also written a play about Lord Byron that, if the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise, will be staged internationally within the next year.

 

Are there any other writers who you really admire? What was the last thing you read and would you recommend it?

 

The list of writers I admire could go on and on. To keep this short, I’ll stick with the living.

Within the genre, it’s hard to beat early King and early Barker. Peter Straub is fantastic, as is Richard Matheson. Dan Simmons I’ve always admired, not simply for his work itself, but his sheer refusal to be pigeon-holed in any one genre. Lisa Morton has to be mentioned because of her sheer work ethic. Even if I didn’t like her work (which would be impossible because it’s amazing), the sheer volume of short stories she has published in a year is breath-taking. The list could keep going. The horror genre is experiencing a kind of Renaissance right now, in my opinion, driven largely by the small press. There are so many great authors coming out, many new and fresh, that it’s hard to say at any given moment who I admire the most. It’s unfortunate that most people think of “Friday the 13th Part VIII” or “SAW V” when they think of horror, because the literature that’s being released right now is ground-breaking. Even only the genre could get ditch the baggage that the film industry has placed on it… Not that those movies aren’t fun (they are), but they represent such a small fraction of what horror is and what it could be that they have become an albatross around the genre’s neck as far as public perception goes.

 

As for the last thing I read, that would be a tie. I tend to jump around between books quite a bit and might read two books at the same time. The last two I finished were THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James and THE BURDEN OF INDIGO by Gene O’Neill. Oddly enough, I’d never read James (something I’m quickly correcting – THE ASPEN PAPERS is the next thing on my “to read” list), but THE TURN OF THE SCREW really is one of the finest ghost stories every written.

 

As for THE BURDEN OF INDIGO… Pick up a copy if you haven’t read it. Pick it up NOW. Just make sure you have the weekend free because you won’t put it down. Gene O’Neill has this quality to transport you into this bizarre world where the color of your skin takes on an entirely different meaning. If this isn’t a Summer blockbuster at the movies within the next few years, then Hollywood really has lost its touch.

 

Finally, do you have any hints and tips for other aspiring writers?

 

I feel odd answering this because, in many ways, I still feel like a beginner.

I will say that the old saw, “Read wide and outside of the genre” holds true. I didn’t mention them above because I was focused on the genre, but what I learned from reading Elmore Leonard, Dennis Lehane, and Nick Hornby would be hard to pin down. And that’s not even getting into the Big Dead Greats like Hemingway or Flaubert.

I guess the other thing I’d say is reach high with your work. Don’t ever write something that you want to submit when you think you’re writing is “good enough.” Keep pushing, learning, growing. I used to fight at an amateur level, something that, oddly enough, tends to relate to writing in so many way. A coach I had once said, “When it really counts, you will never rise to your expectations but merely fall to your level of training.” Writing is an art that requires passion, but it’s also a craft that requires skill, skill that may take thousands of hours to develop. Someone asked for advice at KillerCon and, thinking of this, I said (half-joking): “Reach for the Heavens with all the fury of Hell.” The more I think about that, the more I actually like the sound of it. Passion and inspiration, on their own, do little. You combine them with the skill and the burning desire to be the best damned writer you can ever be… Well, now you have a potent combination. Now you have the foundation to be a writer.

 

Brad C. Hodson’s book, Darling, is available on Amazon.com. You can read a preview here. For more about Brad and his work, why not visit his website.

Three P&E Readers’ Poll Nominations – vote for Rebecca L. Brown!

Rebecca has been nominated in three categories for the 2012 P&E Readers’ Polls!

Fever in the Blood, the first in the Fever trilogy is a contender in the Horror Short Story category.

Blood Lust’s cover art has been nominated in the Book/e-book Cover Art category.

And Rebecca herself has been nominated in the Author category.

 

If you’d like to vote, you can either visit http://critters.org/predpoll/ or follow the links below:

Horror Short Stories: http://critters.org/predpoll/shortstoryh.shtml

Cover Art: http://critters.org/predpoll/bookart.shtml

Author: http://critters.org/predpoll/author.shtml

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Many thanks to all of my friends and fans. Having taken a look at the other contenders, I’m honoured just to be nominated!