woot! woot! That's the sound of publication

two nice things for today:

1) 365 tomorrows are going to publish another of my stories. Yay!
2) 365 tomorrow did one of my stories as a podcast! Double yay!

stupid better ideas, or better stupid ideas

Reasons to be irritated: I was most of the way through plotting the follow up to Jack In The Green, needing only to write up the chapter by chapter plot when a better idea whacked me over the back of my head. An idea so much better that I'd have to go through and change pretty much everything. So now it's back to the drawing board.

Reasons to be delighted: it really really is a better idea. A new character, a new voice, possibly even a new love interest (or at least a frisson). The book will be a better place with this in it.

Jacks and Queens

Nearly done with Jack In The Green. Just the last chapter to finish.

Then again, it's been "just the last chapter to finish" for coming up to a week now. Momentum died a little at 50,000 words.

I'm just tired, and this hasn't been a good month for personal reasons.

On the plus side, I wrote fast and I think i wrote well, and I already have the idea for the sequel, The Queen of the May. Not sure if I'll hold off and write that next year, or say the hell with it and do it now.

Time will tell, I suppose.

in between the micro wrimo and the pico wrimo

so yeah, it's NaNoWriMo.

As is now traditional, I'm writing. Aja and I came up with the idea for a supernatural romance novel called Jack In The Green. It's about the Green Man, and I think it will be pretty good. Started it yesterday, hit the 5000 work mark at about midnight last night. Looking good.

long time...

every now and then, life gets between you and your writing. I've still been writing, I just haven't been blogging about it. Did some stories I really liked lately but also had some dry patches.

Next month, I'm taking part in NaNoWriMo. I'm not expecting greatness, but if it gives me the carcass of a novel in a month, I can skin and dress it after that. It's going to be based on an idea Aja and I had ages ago, a fantasy romance about the Green Man.

I wrote a lot of the outline today, I think it could be pretty good.

gods, new and old, small and large

doing a series of short stories that deal with the gifts of the gods. After I wrote the first one, Aja said she wanted to see others about the gifts being wasted. I like that as an idea and I want to combine it with the idea that there should be no such thing as an entirely positive gift from the gods. There's a Cranberries album (I think) called Equally Cursed and Blessed, and I think that in narrative form these two aspects should be the same thing. A god only gives you misfortune to see how you rise above it. A god only gives you power to see how you waste it.

that's because gods are bastards

that's because gods are us.

As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport.

scary things

wrote another story, one that Aja said was "awesome and scary"

and now I'm thinking about scary things.

I've never been good at writing truly frightening stories, or at least not stories that I find truly frightening, because the things that actually frighten me are things I don't want to think about. However, when I do try to frighten I have a couple of simple rules.

Monsters aren't scary. Big strong demons that kill aren't scary.

What's scary is what people are willing to do if they don't think anyone's watching or they don't care if anyone's watching, or if they like it when people watch. What's scary is seeing something horrifying, truly disgusting, the kind of thing that is called "inhuman", and understanding that the person who did it was genetically almost exactly like you, was raised in a household fairly close to your own, in a culture fairly close to your own. The most disturbing thing is when the monstrosity comes from someone entirely, completely human.

Because that's the ultimate fear. Both of the ultimate fears.

The first fear is that someone you have always known and always trusted could turn on you and do these terrible things to you.

The second fear is that you could turn on those you love and do these things.

The first is a reflection of the second, and its scary because civilized feelings are learned. Underneath them is an animal who has evolved cruelty and creativity as survival traits.

Zombies and vampires aren't scary because they're monsters. They're scary because they were human. Werewolves aren't scary because they're wolves, they're scary because they were men.

The most terrifying thing we have ever experienced is a human being with the inhibitions turned off.

You wake up in the middle of the night to the sight and smell of blood. Something is dead in here, and there's a killer in the room. Is it more scary if you're next, or if the killer is you?

That's where good scary stories should be. Not the terror from outside, but the voice in the back of your mind.