All the Pretty Copies (Giveaway!)

[Quick note for writers: be sure to check out my latest post at LitReactor, “When Writers Do It Wrong: The Top 10 Ways To Annoy Your Twitter Followers,” and the third and final part to my query series at Writer Unboxed, “Query Letters Part 2: The Extras.”]


Anyone who’s a writer or lives with or loves a writer knows what a hard road this is. It’s full of dropped hopes and rejections and failure and disappointments. It really is. It’s a lot (a lot a lot) of hard work for very little pay. It’s big dreams and usually small realities.

The best way I’ve found to not just survive, but keep the love, is to celebrate! It’s too easy to let the happy little things fly past without stopping to savor them, much less announce them. There’s always the next submission, the next big goal, the next deadline, but if we don’t pause to appreciate how far we’ve come, we burn out fast. I do, anyway.

So I’m celebrating. And what better way to celebrate than with a giveaway?

My absolute favorite thing to celebrate (besides maybe initial acceptances, which I usually can’t share) are contributor copies. It is so much fun to get my very own copy of a publication I have work in. There’s something extra special about holding a print copy in my hands, but even digital release days are thrilling.

Lately I’ve been lucky enough to get a handful of contributor copies in the mail all around the same time. It’s made me stop to savor even more. Big or small, all of these lovely books contain my writing in them, and I’m awfully proud and grateful. Just look at all the pretty copies:

book bouqet 1

What’s in the bouquet?

51NQqb4oP+L._SX360_BO1,204,203,200_The Beauty of Death includes my sci-fi horror story “Vestige.” This one is more on the graphic side. Cool tidbit: this story was accidentally accepted at two different markets. (Market error; not mine, thank goodness.) I’m very happy with where it ended up. This anthology has tons of great horror by authors both famous and new. You can buy the ebook for $9.99.

 

TPC17-FrontCover-REV-web-190The Texas Poetry Calendar is an annual favorite for many here in my home state. It’s packed with talent every year, and the upcoming weekly calendar is no exception. 2017’s edition includes my poem “Rocking” – sort of a free verse love poem to my husband. Texan yourself or just a poetry-lover: You can order your calendar from Dos Gatos for $14.95.

 

Poetry Showcase 3HWA Poetry Showcase Volume III includes my poem “The Shed.” This is one of my favorite creepy poems, and I’m happy to be included in the Horror Writers Association’s annual anthology for the third year running. It’s always a nice array of styles and content. You can buy the ebook for $2.99. And for the first time you can order a print version for $7.99 at Amazon.

 

26831954Blurring the Line includes my weird short story “Honey.” I don’t know what to say about this one, honestly. It’s some of my craziest work, but so far several reviews have listed it as a stand-out. You can get a paperback for $14.81 or an ebook for $3.99 – now that’s a steal.

 

29402680Strange Little Girls includes my short story “The Cottage of Curiosities,” which is – you guessed it – a strange little story about a girl in an eerie situation. This one is horror-ish but not too steep for most scaredy cats. You can get the gorgeous paperback for $16.95 or an ebook for $6.99.

 

2015EncoreAnd finally, it is always an honor to have work in the National Federation of State Poetry Societies’ annual prize anthology Encore. 2015’s includes my poem “Strolling in Iambic Pentameter.” Ordering Encore is a bit of a chore, but for the determined, you can find the order form and information on this page and get yourself a copy for $15.

 


Back to that celebratory giveaway! I’m giving out three copies: one paperback each of Blurring the Line, Strange Little Girls, and HWA Poetry Showcase Volume III. To enter, simply leave a comment below. Since I’m shipping these, you must be in the US to be eligible. I’ll choose three names at random; the first person drawn will get to pick their first preference, etc. If you’d like to comment but don’t want to be entered, just make that note. You have until 11:59pm (CST) September 18 to enter. That’s one week, so please do spread the word! I’ll announce the winners on the 19th.

Good luck, and thank you so much for celebrating with me. And to anyone and everyone who buys and/or reads any of my work: thank you, thank you! It means more than you know.

Share this:
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail
Posted in My Works | 28 Comments

The Nine-Year Novel

photo by Phil Dolby

“End of the Day” by Phil Dolby

I’ve just finished drafting a novel that’s been nine years in the making.

Man, that felt good to type.

Nine and a half years ago, shortly after graduating from college, I had a realization that felt so profound it knocked me on my metaphorical ass. It was a literal wake-up-with-a-jolt-and-write-a-poem moment. That poem, to this day, is one that I think of as some of my very best work, and it came out in near-perfect final form. It was the seed of a novel that would not come out anywhere near quickly, confidently, or in its final form.

After graduating two years early, I had decided that I would take a year “off” (ha, ha) after college and try to write a novel. Now, the logical decision would’ve been to write the novel centered on the idea that had struck me so powerfully, but that’s not what I did. I didn’t know a lot about what it was like to be a full-time writer or how hard it would be to write a book, but I did know enough to guess that I had a lot to learn. My idea felt so profound to me that I was terrified of starting with it. I didn’t feel ready, or skilled enough. I wanted an idea that I still loved but that wouldn’t break my heart if I butchered it. I wanted a practice book.

I wrote a practice book, which served its purpose and is now permanently trunked. I didn’t know it at the time, but saving that special idea was one of the smartest decisions I’ve ever made, because my gut was right; I was absolutely not ready to write that book yet.

I spent the next nine years wondering if I was ready and when I would be ready and how I would know. I wrote about a short story’s worth of prose on the idea and stalled out. Over the years I would randomly be struck by more inspiration and additions to the story and its characters, and I’d write a section here or there, make notes on plotting or themes. Once I decided that I must be ready and tried to force myself through. I gave up. (And if you know me, you know I’m a finisher.) I resisted the gentle and loving pressure of my writing friends and loved ones who told me I was ready, not to be scared, to just go for it.

This was a lesson in trusting my gut. No one knew when I was ready but me. No one knew when it was the right time but me. No one was writing this book but me.

This book has always been a summer book. It spans the length of one summer and sort of epitomizes summer for me, so I always imagined I would write it during the summer. I tried a few times to write it at other times of year and it just didn’t feel right. And until this year, the summer timing just never worked out for me. I was either already mid-project on something else, swamped by life, totally burned out, or what have you. In the meantime, I wrote five different novels, a couple of poetry manuscripts, several picture books, and a few books’ worth of short stories, but I never felt quite ready to tackle what was (and is) an incredibly ambitious project.

Suddenly, this year, everything fell into place. I had several more epiphanies that felt profound and tied in with my book’s themes. I finally felt ready skill-wise. I had the time. I had the energy.

I started this new WIP from scratch (I’d grown too much to want to salvage any of my old sections) on my annual writing retreat with one of my writing besties in mid-March, which, thanks to an unseasonably warm winter, felt exactly like the beginning of summer – and kind of was. (The day after I got back from that retreat and starting my WIP was the day I got an offer of representation from my agent, by the way, so talk about timing.)

I never stopped from there, drafting the slowest I’ve ever gone at roughly 1,000 words a workday (with the exception of my retreat head-start). Occasionally I’d go over, but not by much. I wanted it to be well-thought and intentional, so I resisted my natural inclination to fast-draft. It was still rough, but it wasn’t rushed. I wasn’t sure how long the draft would be, but it ended up timing out almost perfectly with the end of summer. Here I am about to head into September, which is my official start to fall, with everything all wrapped up.

Oh, and did I mention that my ‘lucky’ (read: favorite) number is 9? Nine years in the making and 99,000 words on the nose, finished on a Friday afternoon at the end of a season. Yeah, that’s satisfying.

If it seems like I’m intentionally keeping details about the project itself from you, it’s because I am. What can I say? It’s a writer’s prerogative, and it’ll be years before this thing sees public eyes. This is a decade-long baby, and I’m very protective of it. This, too, is a lesson I’m learning. I don’t have to tweet about the subject matter, or send this to my beta readers right now, or let anyone read it, or even read it myself. It waited nine years, and it can wait one or two more in the incubator until I feel ready to revise all of that heart and guts I spilled onto the page. All I’m really willing to say about it is that it’s literary fiction with a hint of magical realism and not a drop of horror (yeah, I do that every once in a while 😉 ), and it’s the ballsyiest thing I’ve ever written.

The biggest lesson I learned from this WIP is to trust my artistic instinct. I’m so, so glad I waited nine years to write this book. And I’m so, so glad I didn’t wait ten.

So where do I go from here? First, I celebrate. Then I take a week or two off from drafting fiction. (I’ll still be doing other work.) Then I start on something new.

Something new? Hmmm… after a nine-year-in-the-making project and three huge WIP overhauls in a row, that sounds pretty damn good right now. Blank slate, here I come.

How about you all? Writers and artists, do you have a Big Project you’ve been waiting to make? Is it fear or is it incubation, and how do you know? I’d love to hear about it!

Share this:
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail
Posted in My Process | 29 Comments

My First LitReactor Column: Vampires in Wuthering Heights

Hi guys,

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve joined LitReactor! I’ve been following this blog for readers and writers for years now, so it’s really cool to be hired as a columnist. I’m truly honored. (And big thanks to now-fellow columnist Christopher Shultz for recommending me to the team!) Here’s my brand-spanking-new team member profile.

I’ll be talking horror and books, of course, but I may also branch out into grammar and craft lessons, reviews, social media for writers, interviews, and more. Who knows? I’m excited to see where this road will take me, and I hope you’ll join me there. 🙂

“Wuthering Heights” by Robert McGinnis; image by Tom Simpson

My very first column, based on my senior thesis in college, is called “Vampires in Wuthering Heights.” Here’s a snippet:

Vampires in Wuthering Heights. Seriously? Yes, seriously. This is no movie adaptation taking liberties; this is a valid interpretation with textual evidence to support it. Whether you choose to push that interpretation to metaphorical or literal levels is up to you.

But first, a spoiler warning: in the process of explaining my interpretation, I will spoil the hell out of this novel. And yeah, it came out over 150 years ago, but if you’ve had it on your to-read list, go ahead and bookmark this post and come back once you’ve read it. (And go read it now, because it’s awesome.)

Okay, let’s cut right to the chase. Within Wuthering Heights there’s plenty of evidence to read this plot: Cathy becomes a vampire, haunting Heathcliff for years before finally turning him into one as well, so they – joined at last – can roam the moors eternally as the undead.

Think I’m smoking something? Let’s break it down.

Brontë structured the novel unchronologically, but if we take the events of the book in order, the vampiric motifs begin with Cathy’s illness….

I’d love for you to go read the rest at LitReactor. Comments are closed here, but you’re welcome to comment there! Thanks all, and have a great week!

Share this:
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail
Posted in Updates & Announcements | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Traditional Horror Poetry? Work the Form!

Note: This essay was first published in the Horror Writers Association newsletter, in Marge Simon’s wonderful poetry column ‘Blood & Spades.’ Many thanks to Marge for inviting me to contribute and for allowing me to repost it here, so non-HWA members can read it too. I hope you enjoy!


Traditional Horror Poetry

Work the Form; Don’t Let the Form Work You

There’s a distinct bias against form poetry in today’s scene. In fact, many markets will specify “no traditional forms” or “no rhyming poetry” in their submission guidelines. Many critics or reviewers won’t touch it. Contests don’t take it seriously. And because of this, readers see less and less of it, and the younger generations write less and less of it.

The reasoning for the bias seems to be that “so many people do it poorly.” This is true. More than people who do free verse poorly? Not from what I’ve read. The difference lies in the fact that free verse, done poorly, hides its weakness more easily than form poetry done poorly, which shouts its weakness; a forced rhyme or sprung meter hits the ear far worse than a lazy, sentence-like line. Why is there so little quality form poetry being published today? I think that at least in part it’s because it’s not being taught, which is because it’s not being published, which is because there’s not enough quality work, which is because it’s not being taught.

I feel incredibly grateful for two things in the earliest years of my blossoming poethood: 1. Starting with the classics before working my way toward the contemporary poets, I had no idea there was such a bias against rhymed and form poetry. 2. I had a mentor right out of college (the wonderful Lewisville Poet Laureate J. Paul Holcomb) who taught me what many of the traditional forms are and challenged me to write them. Were my first attempts particularly earth-shattering? Probably not, though I do seem to have a natural knack for it, which I attribute to reading lots of rhymed poetry growing up (Thanks, Mom!). But ignorance is bliss, and I kept going, kept working and learning, and eventually I started producing high-quality work that was strong enough to get published despite the industry bias against it. By the time I realized how much so many people seem to hate it, I was already madly in love and doing good work, and there’s no turning back now.

I think the real trick to traditional forms is to think of them not as restrictions, but as tools that have the ability to unlock new effects one can’t achieve with free verse. You want to work the form to your advantage, not let the form work you. Of course much of this comes from being familiar with a broad range of forms. The scope of your idea, for example, will dictate whether it can fit into a haiku or a sestina. Likewise, how pithy or flowing do you want your lines? The brevity of a minute’s line is very different from the long-winded nature of blank verse. Then there are considerations of meter. Some people hate meter, period, but there are syllabic forms such as the englyn to play with, or even forms with no line length requirement at all such as the rondel. And there are forms with strict rhyme schemes, no rhyme schemes, and everything in between – and that’s not even getting into the anti-purist methodology of inventing your own forms or breaking the rules to make a form suit your needs!

In that regard, even free verse does, and perhaps should, come from a history and understanding of traditional form. Free verse should not be prose with line breaks; it should come from an awareness of poetic devices and formats, which include the broad range of forms. In fact, Billy Collins, notorious for his free-verse, has said that, “Any device that keeps a poem from falling into chaos is a form.” So indeed, whatever techniques give a free verse poem its poem-like qualities could even be considered a use of (if not adherence to) form. Even Mary Oliver, who rarely uses rhyme and almost never uses traditional forms, says, “A poem requires a design—a sense of orderliness. Part of our pleasure in the poem is that it is a well-made thing—it gives pleasure through the authority and sweetness of the language used in the way that it is used.”

A well-made thing, yes. I love that, don’t you? Perhaps part of the reason I admire form poetry is because it requires time and effort to do well.

Where then does horror collide with form? For me, the answer is very simple: exactly as with any other subject matter. I see no reason why dark poetry shouldn’t be given as much weight and time and effort as others. Perhaps one important consideration to keep in mind is the nature of rhyme and the perception of certain forms. Rhyme can strike the ear as playful and frivolous. It certainly doesn’t have to, but if a poet wants a poem to be serious, she should pay extra care to the nature of her rhyme. I personally enjoy some of my horror poetry with a little cheeky bite to it, as you can see in “The Centipede,” an ottava rima verse first published in the September 2011 issue of Underneath the Juniper Tree:

The Centipede

The centipede, he crawls along the floor,
in search of unsuspecting human flesh,
and not the bravest person can ignore
that many-legged and segmented wretch—
a monster from the whispered magic lore
about a creature that can bend and stretch
as if his body knew not earthly rules…
like that of vampires, goblins, ghosts, or ghouls.

I happen to like the sense of almost giddy relish that the rhyme gives this particular poem, so I embraced it, and by the end of the poem I had something really fun. Rhyme also has one very powerful advantage over free-verse (which I love equally, for the record): rhyme is primal. Our brains are hard-wired for it, so when that rhyme finally drops it’s incredibly pleasing to the ear. We seek it, and it becomes a vehicle of meaning almost aside from the content of the words. T.S. Eliot said, “Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.” Rhyme is a wonderful example of that, I think.

One interesting thing that can be done with rhyme is subversion. For this reason, the rondeau has become my all-time favorite traditional form. When one listens (or reads) a rondeau, expecting that rhyme, and is met instead with a lack, that unexpectedness, too, can be powerful. The rondeau takes a word or phrase from its first line and uses it as a refrain at the ends of the second and third strophes, which I find an incredibly pleasing subversion of expectation – with some repetition still there to please the ear and make the poem feel complete. Here’s an example: “Still, It Pulls Me” is a rondeau first published in New Myths Issue 27 in June 2014:

Still, It Pulls Me

The darkness pulled me, in those years—
delicious taste of sacred fears,
to satiate my appetite
for all things roaming in the night
with ghostly garb and toothy sneers.

Window through which the monster peers,
or gloomy path on which he nears,
for me did equally delight…
the darkness pulled me.

The blackened stain of bloody smears
revealed, once all the carnage clears—
it drew me like a moth to light—
inspired me to start to write
of lunacy and her sharp shears…
the darkness pulled me.

I certainly don’t propose that every poet become a traditionalist, or even that every poet publish rhymed or form poems, but I do think it’s incredibly valuable for poets to study what forms have to offer, whether those forms be historic, invented, or simply theoretical. Their use has given me some of my favorite dark poems, and I hope you’ve enjoyed them as well.

Share this:
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail
Posted in Poetry | 7 Comments

Have You Been Converted to Audiobooks Yet?

In the past year or so I’ve become a devout audiobook listener. I know some of you will think I’m waaaaay behind the curve, but I also know that some of you are probably still not believers yet. Let me tell you; I wasn’t a believer at first either. I associated audiobooks with boring childhood road trips and/or being too lazy to read. That bias had me seriously missing out.

I can’t do without my audiobooks now. I really can’t! I did get into them because of road trips – and they’re truly wonderful that; 14 hours won’t ever go by so quickly – but now I listen while I’m folding laundry, getting ready for bed, driving around town, going on walks, cleaning, and even during my lunch break. I feel like I almost double my available “reading” time, because now I can consume books when I’d never otherwise be able to. Hands free!

One of the most common reasons I’ve heard people express reluctance to get into them is a bad experience. Truly, the book you choose makes all the difference. A bad narrator will make any book miserable, and some books simply aren’t predisposed to good listening. I’ve found that complex, literary works are harder to concentrate on and follow aloud, so now I use audio for more of my leisure reads. Things that are fast-paced and/or funny are particularly fun, although I will say that there’s value to hearing exquisitely-written prose aloud too.

Another hesitation is price. Audiobooks are expensive! They take tons and tons of production hours, so it makes sense, but who has $30 to spend on every book? There are several alternatives. First of all, most public libraries provide audio rentals for free! Nowadays there are even temporary downloads, so you don’t even have to go pick it up in person or deal with CD swapping; you just get it on your phone. Library rentals are a great option for newbs who aren’t sure yet if they want to commit to audiobooks.

The option I’ve ended up with – and am madly in love with – is Audible. It’s a subset of Amazon devoted solely to audiobooks. Since it’s subscription style, you can pay for either one ($14.95) or two ($22.95) books a month, and any additional buys you make are 30% off. You also get access to tons of great free podcast subscriptions that include everything from short stories to comedy bits, and Audible runs daily deals for members that put specific books on sale for $2.99 each. The subscription prices drop even lower if you pay annually instead of monthly, so if you actually listen to the books, Audible is well worth the value.

If you do decide to give Audible a try, please use my referral links: get a free trial or subscribe to a gold membership! I’ll get a small amount of money and it won’t cost any extra for you. For everyone, your first month and two books are free, and you keep your books forever even if you cancel your membership. You can always cancel (or even pause) at any time, and if you ever get a dud narrator or crummy book, you can return it.

Another cool feature that Audible has is called Whispersync. I haven’t tried it yet, but if you buy a (discounted) ebook version of the same thing in audio, you can go back and forth between listening and reading and it’s supposed to save your spot. Has anyone tried it? It sounds too good to be true!

And to get you started – whether you check them out at your library, use your free trial, or subscribe through Audible – here are the four best audiobooks I’ve listened to so far:

I do get referral credit if you click through any of those books, too! (And I promise that’s not why I’m recommending Audible; I really do love it.) If nothing else you should do a free trial and listen to two of these amazing books for free. 🙂 I’ve posted raves about Beloved and Bird Box. I also have one about Gone Girl, but Flynn’s Sharp Objects is even better. And A Head Full of Ghosts was so good that I’m now reading a second book by Tremblay.

So, have you converted to audiobooks yet? Do you use Audible, the library, or something else? Recommendations for great listens are welcome!

Share this:
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail
Posted in Reading | 18 Comments