Sunday, March 10, 2024

How Long Have I been Editing My Current Novel? (It's Complicated)

 


Not long ago, I was in a monthly meeting with the HWA - Virginia Chapter when I was asked how long I had been editing my current work in progress (WIP), and I was not ready with an answer. I am sure whatever I said sounded evasive, but honestly, I had to think about that question for a while, and was not quite sure what the answer was. The more I thought about it, the more I felt it may make for an interesting blog post about my process and since this is apparently going to be my second completed manuscript ready for submission to agents and / or publishers very soon, it may also make for great promotion for this labor of love.

The current project is titled Blood of the Werewolf, and as the title suggests, it is a werewolf tale. The setting is the early 1800s Great Britain (with a few key scenes in Tibet), which places it in the same universe as my first completed manuscript, The Sorcerer, which is still under consideration at a small press publisher at the time of this writing. I will one day blog about why I have chosen that location and timeframe, but the short version of that answer is, it is the era of literature I studied in college.

Anyway, I began my college career in the mid-1990s and it was around this same timeframe that I started thinking about becoming a author. It turns out to be a very long, hard, and slow process. One thing I did for fun and practice was to write novelizations of some of my favorite horror movies, such as those from Universal Studios. I had no intention of getting these published, but it was a way to try my chops at writing something of some length.

It made me start to think about writing my own stories about vampires, werewolves, and mummies, so I started writing a few longer pieces, more so for my own amusement once again than with any intension of trying to get it published. Once I had a few of these under my belt, I started thinking more seriously about writing a full length novel and hopefully one day getting it published. I decided that with some major revisions, these projects could be made into full length novels.

Those who say writing for yourself is very different from writing for publication are certainly correct. These stories needed a lot of work. In their original form they were only the length of novellas and novelettes as they ranged from 12,000 to 17,00 words. Most publishers like novels to be around 80,000 words. They needed extra scenes, backstories, more thoughts and emotions from characters and other elements to flush them out into full-length novels and make them much better stories in the process. At their heart, they were already novels, really, they just needed to be flushed out to reach their true potential. The first of these stories I did this with was what is now titled The Sorcerer, and in its final form it reached the industry standard for a finished novel at 80,000 words. The second is the one I am working on now, Blood of the Werewolf.

So to finally return to the question above (You do remember the question above, don't you, "How long have I been editing my current novel?") The original 17,000 word version was completed sometime in the late 1990s. Then it was placed in a drawer for a very looooong time. I completed The Sorcerer, and edited it I don't even know how many times, until I decided I could no longer edit it. I finally put what at the time were the finishing touches on The Sorcerer around 2017. And I finally started a major revision of Blood of the Werewolf. But the question now is, does revision count as editing? I would say that since this revision was so massive, it is probably does not count as true editing. It became practically a new story.

But then in 2019 I received a mentorship from Tim Waggoner through the Horror Writers Association. He gave me some good feedback on that novel and insight as to why it was not attracting agents or publishers yet. In order to make Blood of the Werewolf come out right, I had to put it down once again and edit The Sorcerer one last time. This took about another year, which brings us to 2020, the year of Covid. I did work on it some during the pandemic, but like many other authors and publishers, no one was as productive as we wanted to be during those odd two years.

The editing process for Blood of the Werewolf I believe started around 2020 or 2021 (not counting the major revision years). I am now very close to getting this one finished and should have it done very soon. I'm editing page 306 out of 363 and it now totals almost 79,000 words. I will make sure it reaches at least 80,000 words by the time I am finished. It may need one more pass through before I am comfortable sending it out to publishers and agents, but that should only be a light edit to clean up a few things and ensure continuity throughout the novel.

I feel as though I am getting faster and better at this, and I've never missed a deadline when I've been given one. I am also getting excited to write more follow-ups to these stories, as I have one more, Osiris, that is in a very rough draft at about 13,000 words, and I have notes on numerous others in the series. The fact that I have been able to publish more short stories, poems, and non-fiction articles in recent years also shows I am improving. And keep in mind that I also wrote many of those short stories, poems, and non-fiction articles in between revising and editing these novels. Wish me luck with these and other projects in the future, so that I can post this self-made meme once again:


Sunday, February 11, 2024

Recent Cons & Photos

 I thought I would do another one of those blog posts where I present some recent photos. I have been making a few appearances at various cons to sell books and sign people up the Horror Writers Association. I thought I'd throw in a few photos from last Halloween for good measure, so here goes.


Here is the table I set up at Monster Fest at the Chesapeake Central Library in Chesapeake, Virginia in October of last year.



It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my friend Paul Knight, who was sometimes known as Pauzilla. He always remembered me and my family on Halloween.


Here is another attendee from Monster Fest, who was working a puppet on that day.


I entered the costume contest at Monster Fest as a famous movie murderer from a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock and a book penned by Robert Bloch. I also moderated a panel on how to write scary scenes in horror which featured Red Lagoe, Pam Kinney, and Justin Cristelli.


Here are last year's yard decorations for Halloween.


The wife and I went out dressed as Jason Voorhees and Ahsoka Tano.


Here was the band for that night, Everafter, at Big Woody's in Chesapeake. I loved their costumes.


There's Laurie Camp as Ahsoka again at Big Woody's.


My daughter, Delaney, also got into the spirit of Halloween and dressed as Pearl from the movie of the same name.


Delaney always challenges me to do a difficult jack-o-lantern. This year, she challenged me to make a Frankenstein Monster. Of course that's Laurie dressed as a ghost in our driveway where we handed out candy.


An now we're up to January where I ran a table at Mars Con in Virginia Beach. This was a rather elaborate costume that I felt was photo-worthy.


A few other authors at Mars Con included, from back to front, Pam Kinney, Sidney Williams, yours truly, and Bryn Grover. It was fun meeting up with the other HWA members and talking with them.


And finally, Laurie entered the costume contest at Mars Con, again as Ahsoka, but don't call her a jedi.


Friday, January 5, 2024

2023 Recap


 It's time for another annual recap of my writing successes. I did a little a better this year over previous years, which I am very proud of, and would like to share here, not necessarily to brag, but to show where my work can be found and to maintain some sort of accountability. This is my third year running doing a blog of this sort at the beginning of a new year (the previous ones can be found here and here, so here goes.

Looking at the numbers, I made slightly fewer submissions this year, but had more successes. I submitted a total of 42 items this year compared with 48 the previous year. I usually shoot for 50, but will settle for as few as 35, so I was well over my minimum. Of those 42 submissions, 1 was a novel (a submission in answer to a request for a full manuscript in 2022, so I am counting it here). The largest bulk of those submission were, as usual, short stories, 24 of them in 2023. That is slightly lower than 2022 when I had 29 submissions. I also submitted 10 poems, down one from the previous year.

One area that helped grow my numbers and acceptances this year was a return to non-fiction submissions. I had 7 of them this year. I had zero  the previous two years. 

Now onto the successes, where I broke a new record this year with six total items being published in one way or another, seven if you count my self-published short story, which I still need to blog about. My previous highest number of published works was in 2018 when I had five works published, so that new record is something. Two of those published works from this year were those non-fiction articles. I also did very well with poetry this year with three poems getting published in two different publications this year. Of those short stories, only one was published, but it was at higher rate than many of my previously published short stories, at a semi-pro rate.

Speaking of money, while it may seem shameful to discuss how much money I made at writing, this is also a sign of prestige. More money means more success or more prestigious publications, so I will bring up the subject without giving away exact numbers. Let's just say I made more money with my writing this year than other previous years (excluding full time jobs I've had in the past and regular correspondence work I've done with major newspapers). For the first time, the majority of this money was made selling copies of anthologies at cons, although it was only a slight majority.

Now for the disclaimers. Some of the publications I made this year were not exactly very competitive. But there's a conundrum there. There are a few publications that love when I submit to them, and I enjoy doing it, but they don't pay, so they often do go to the backburner. I write to them when I am inspired by something that could lead to an article that fits that publication. I see no reason to snub them, especially when I consider the people running them my friends. While I grow as a writer, I will continue to strive toward publishing in larger and more prestigious publications, but I do want to remember everyone who helped me get there.

Friday, September 15, 2023

How Two Rejections Led to an Acceptance

Although I have not been blogging much lately, I have had a recent run of success in short fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. I recently published a short non-fiction article on a little-known blues artist from the 1930s named Robert Johnson in Mike Korn's Wormwood Chronicles. The article idea stemmed from a Facebook post I made to Mike's group, Dr. M's House of Weird, where I posted about this blues artist who was said to have made a deal with the devil to become a better guitar player. I found it so fascinating, it inspired me to research a little more about Johnson until I wrote my own article titled "Robert Johnson: The World's First (Satanic) Rock Star," which can be found here.

Then I found success for my poetry in, not one but two, publications. "Introverts Unite" will appear in the next issue of Teach. Write. My work has been published in Teach. Write. a few times before, and I believe it is very good literary magazine. Then I received another acceptance from the literary magazine associated with Norfolk State University's English department where I teach college English courses. The poem, "Environmental Generations," will appear in the issue published later this semester. I am particularly excited about this one because it will be the first time I am published in a literary magazine directly associated with a university.

Between those acceptances, I received an acceptance from a podcast, a market I had been trying to break into for some time now, called Creepy Podcast. My short story, "A Witch's Revenge," will appear as part of their 31 Days of Horror series in October. I am very excited to hear how this story will turn out after it is read by one of their talented actors.

It is an interesting story, how I managed to gain that short story acceptance. It actually starts with two rejections. I had previously sent another story to Creepy Podcast, but it received a personalized rejection that said the story I sent them had too much dialogue with too many speakers, and they prefer stories with one very few speakers and no back and forth dialogue. Meanwhile, I sent "A Witch's Revenge" to another publication, and it received a personalized rejection because that publication's editor said they did not like the fact that the story had only one character and no dialogue. So I got the idea that if one editor said they did not like the fact that this story had a single character and no dialogue, and the other publication rejected a previous story because they want stories with little to no dialogue, why not send the rejected story with no dialogue to the publication that wants such a story. And that's how I landed that acceptance with Creepy Podcast.

Meanwhile, I have also started making the rounds at several horror and science fiction conventions. I attended Fanta-Sci at the Chesapeake Central Library with the author of numerous books about Virginia folklore, as well as numerous short stories and poetry, Pam Kinney (pictured below), working the Horror Writers Association - Virginia Chapter table and sold copies of several anthologies I appear in as well as a self-published short story. Then I recently attended Tidewater Horror Con in Virginia Beach, and plan on attending Mars Con in Virginia Beach in January. Additionally, I started appearing as a regular guest on a YouTube channel discussing cult movies called MovieNaut. I will likely be blogging about all of these other ventures in the near future, but until then, see you at the cons.



Friday, June 23, 2023

My First StokerCon

I attended my first StokerCon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania recently, and took a few photos, which I shared below. I am from Erie, Pennsylvania originally, which is only about 2 hours north of Pittsburgh, so I figured if I didn't make it to this StokerCon, I may never make it to one. You can tell I am from Erie because I just measured distance in time. Anyway, there was a Taylor Swift concert going on not far away, so I could not get a hotel room at the actual con, but found one about 10 minutes away (and I just measured distance with time again. It's an Erie thing, although I imagine a few other areas do that too.). I started out getting a late lunch next door to the con, at the Hard Rock Cafe. I love Hard Rocks, and eat at one every chance I get, especially ones I have not eaten at yet, like this one.


I met up with my friend and author of many books, both fiction and non-fiction, Pam Kinney. We chatted at length about Pittsburgh and current projects. She always has something going on.


I attended several public readings, including this one with another friend I knew online, but this was my first chance to meet him in person, Rami Ungar, seen here in the middle with the top-hat. He was reading from his upcoming short story anthology, Hannah and Other Stories. Next to Rami is Gabino Iglesias, who won this year's Superior Achievement in a Novel for The Devil Takes You Home. He read from his current work-in-progress. On the ends are Jeremiah Dylan Cook on the left and Barbara Cottrell on the right.


I also attended several presentations and panels, which I often enjoy. I won't go into details about them because it would take too much space to do them justice in a blog post such of this length, but I always find them very informative and interesting.


The panel below is from the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference portion of StokerCon, proving genre fiction, even in the horror genre, can be considered academic.


Between all the panels and presentations, I was able to stop at a Pittsburgh favorite, Primanti Brothers. I love going to local eateries wherever I go. This location of Primanti's was within walking distance of the con and coincidentally was the original location. It is local Pittsburgh legend that their sandwiches were created because the owners forgot to purchase silverware, so they put the coleslaw and French fries into the sandwich. The steel workers at the time enjoyed the sandwich so much, they kept it as their staple. That's an I.C. Light (Iron City Light), the local brew, to wash it down.


I finally got to mee my mentor, Tim Waggoner, face-to-face. I blogged about some of the things he taught me when he was my mentor in a previous post. He also walked away with a Stoker Award during the weekend event. Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to talk for long because he's kind of a BMAC at the HWA, but we did talk briefly about current projects and he agreed to pose for the selfie. Perhaps another time . . .


I also went to the Mass Author Signing where I purchased a number of books from fellow HWA members and got many of them to autograph their books for me. In the center is Classic Monsters Unleashed, edited by James Aquilone. I've had my eyes on that anthology for some time because it contains new stories about all the classic monsters such as Dracula, werewolves, the invisible man, and others. Stories that will truly interest me. I am very much looking forward to reading these other books as well.


And that was my trip to StokerCon in Pittsburgh. It was a great time, and I hope to attend another one some time.


Friday, June 9, 2023

A Little More About the Origins of Classic Camp

 I've blogged on several occasions about this alternate ego of mine, Classic Camp, including discussing the name's origin, and more recently about one of my favorite movies that I feel epitomizes the name. The name Classic Camp represents my favorite topics, Classic film (especially Classic horror films, but not limited to those), Classic rock music, Classic literature, and sometimes I am embarrassed to say, but it's true, Classic pro wrestling, which I am not getting into here today, but perhaps one day I will.

So I thought some people may be wondering where I acquired my interest in all things Classic. The short answer is, I really don't know. It's just kind of always been there, somewhere in my DNA.

I saw a friend on Facebook recently criticizing the latest Stephen King novel, Fairy Tale, because it included a kid of 17 who was familiar with actor Jimmy Stewart and several of his works in the novel (I have not read that Stephen King novel, by the way). He said no teenager would know old classic black & white films like that. Well, I am here to say, I was that kid. Yes, even at 17. Let me put it this way, I listen to more 80s music today than I did in the 1980s. My friends and family will verify this.

I remember in the days before I got cable TV, so I must have been 8 or 9, watching a show on PBS called Matinee at the Bijou. It was just like being back at an old-time theater. It would start with a few trailers for movies from the 1930s to the 1950s. Then it would show a few cartoons, newsreels, a short subject, and finally a chapter out of serial, like Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. Each week they would show the next chapter of the serial. They even followed that up with a B-movie movie, like one from the Bowery Boys series, but it was usually edited for time.

My mother would often tell me about going to the movies during that era, how she had a crush on Leo Gorcey of the Bowery Boys. Both of my parents were older than most of my friends parents. They weren't even Baby Boomers, although I am a member of Generation X. Perhaps their advanced age contributed to this interest. I also grew up close to my grand parents who lived through the 1930s, so they probably had some influence as well.

Even after we got cable, some of my favorite shows were those from early television, such as The Jack Benny Program, Burns & Allen, and You Bet Your Life, as well as some of the early horror related shows such as The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I also started watching Night Flight on USA Network because their final feature was often an old, poverty row horror film from studios like Monogram or PRC. (I was a latchkey kid from the age of 11, so I watched a lot of television growing up).

When I became a teenager and my interests shifted from film to music, I started listening to the legends of rock, like Led Zeppelin, The Who, and The Doors, more often than listing to more contemporary bands of the time.

I have gathered a bit of a following online for these interests. For instance, I run a Facebook group, Classic Camp's Classic Horror Emporium, which has amassed over 1000 members. I assume many of the members follow the group simply for the nostalgia, and I'm fine with that, but to me it is more than just nostalgia. Old film, literature, and music are time capsules to how people lived and their attitudes during those eras. It's understanding where we came from as a society and understanding where we are going now. Perhaps that sounds a little corny, but my true feelings about it are in there somewhere.

I also try to over-glorify the past. I understand many terrible things happened in our history. Things like segregation, internment camps, antisemitism were rampant then, and unfortunately still exit today. And none of those things deserve to be glorified in any way. But I enjoy gaining a better understanding of what those attitudes were then, and I feel it does help me understand the world today a little better. Perhaps it even helps me understand how to better counter those negative attitudes today.

I do still follow some modern franchises though. I don't want to be that old man yelling at the cloud, or saying "Get off my lawn!" to the younger generation. In fact, I think some of the exclusive shows on modern day apps are some of the work on television and movies in decades. But I lay just a little extra attention if they simply provide a wink and a nod to any of the old Classics, even if it's just an Easter egg-style reference.

Anyway, that's what I have today. Please enjoy the short video below of the intro to an episode of Matinee at the Bijou, one of my favorite shows when I was just 9 years old.




Friday, April 21, 2023

'Tis the Season for Literary and Academic Festivals

Lately, I have been making the rounds to a number of literary and academic festivals and conferences. On March 16, I attended the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival in downtown Suffolk, Virginia, which is the city where I currently live. It was nice to talk writing and books with several fellow writers. I was also scoping this event out for a possible table for either the Horror Writers Association Virginia Chapter to get a table at the event next year, or for me to get a table by myself. I think the Edgar Allen Poe anthology I appear in would be a good fit for this event, and I know some of my fellow Virginia chapter authors also write and have published some mysteries.


While there, I attended a presentation on short story writing, because that was something that I do and wanted to hear more about what these authors had to say about it.


After the festival, I was notified by mail that I won a raffle for a bundle of books by one of the authors, Karen McCullough. I have not dug into these just yet, but some of them do look tempting, and I can wait to cut into them soon.


I also work in higher education, and spring is a popular time for many academic festivals and conferences, which we sometimes call "academic development." It helps for teachers to get together once in a while and confer with each other about what we are doing and share ideas. One such festival I attended was the Old Dominion University Spring Conference on the Teaching of Writing. Being an ODU alumnus, I always enjoy getting back on campus. Interestingly, while I was there, I ran into Kole Matheson, who did a presentation with me at the 2018 conference. Not only did he recognize me, he even remembered my Frankenstein project that I presented that year (hoping to work on that again this summer).

After that, I attended the Norfolk State University William Carroll Writers' Festival. I enjoy teaching English composition at NSU, which is a traditionally Black university. During this festival I was asked to do a public reading, so I read my latest short story, "Beheaded" which appears in Madame Gray's Poe-Pourri of Terror, and is available here (plug, plug). The reaction was a mixed bag of those who seemed to love it, and those were more than a little shocked (in a good way [I think]).


Later in the festival, I participated in a creative writing activity where we were given cards from the kids' board game Apples to Apples and asked to come up with something within a few minutes. I ended up with the card "Knock, Knock" and thought to myself, "What the hell am I going to do with this?" But then I just used a little stream-of-consciousness to see what followed, and I think I actually came with something pretty damn good. I might even try to sell it as a poem after a little editing to clean it up. That could be a good activity for others to try at home. This may have also led to me finding a new summer writing group🤞.

Lastly, just this week, I attended a professional development presentation at the other higher education institution where I teach, Paul D. Camp Community College. It was about latest practices on diversity and distance learning. Again, it's a good way to compare what I do in the classroom with some of my colleagues and provide ideas on how to improve.

And speaking of PDCCC, I was asked to add another literature class in the second eight weeks of the semester, which I was allowed to gear toward Romantic elements in literature, both during the Romantic movements in the United States and England and unto today. I do feel that teaching writing and literature improves my own writing, and would encourage anyone who is qualified to teach to do so. I may have to post a little bit more about this at another time as it lends itself to another topic.

That's about it, and looking at it now, boy have I been busy. Even if I have not had that much time to write lately, I have been immersing myself in the writing, education, and publishing field. This immersion, in my opinion is the best way to find success (I hope).