2024 Accountability Post

It's time for my annual accountability post where I discuss how many submissions vs. how many works I had published in the preceding year. I've been posting about my productivity of submissions since 2021 (and it can be read here), but really I have been keeping track of my submissions as far back as 1999. I started putting them into an Excel file since 2010, and I have been submitting larger numbers of works pretty consistently since 2017. You can see my 2022 accountability here, and my 2023 accountability here, if interested.

At some point, I realized that the publishing game is at least partially a numbers game. You have to make large numbers of submissions to see any positive results, unless you want to self-publish. And there is nothing wrong with self-publishing. As you will see later in this blog post, I actually self-published my first short story and poetry collection earlier this year and blogged about it last month. It started a few years ago when I read a blog from an author who said they try to reach 100 submissions per year. It inspired me to see how many submissions I could make each year. While I found I could not reach 100, I did find that 50 was an attainable number. Unfortunately, I no longer remember who wrote that original blog.

So this year, I did not quite make my 50 submissions goal. However, this was because I chose to work on longer works this year. I finally completed my second novel-length manuscript, Blood of the Werewolf, and began submitting it to agents. Additionally, I started working on my next novel, a mussy story titled Osiris. Because I spent a good portion of my writing year working on longer works instead of shorter works, I give myself a pass at not quite making the 50 submissions goal.

So, here are the numbers. I had a total of 41 submissions for publications, which is not too shy of my 50 submissions total. This includes seven book submissions to agents and small presses total, including my first completed manuscript, The Sorcerer, the aforementioned Blood of the Werewolf, and my first completed short story and poetry collection, Classic Camp's Classic Horror Emporium, which I submitted to myself for self-publication. Yes, I am counting that one. This exercise is supposed to be motivational after all. It is available on Amazon here, in case anyone is interested.

The rest of the list includes 22 short story submissions, which was the largest number as usual. I had 11 poetry submissions, and one essay or non-fiction submissions. I had only two successes, and it was a tough year for me for fiction and poetry, especially considering one of the successes was my self-published collection. My other success this year was my article on Fay Wray, which was published at Ravenous Monster.

There you have it. Fee free to see how you measure up. I have a relatively low bar this year for anyone to compare, but that is what I have been up to. I am still out there writing and submitting, but like last year, so far I am concentrating most of my time and energy on longer works. Hopefully, it starts bear fruit soon.

I'm About to Become a Full-Time Writer (For 3 Months [Again])

 I hold three jobs that actually pay the bills. Like most writers, I like to consider my writing a job, a fourth job in my case. Sometimes I consider my membership to the HWA still a fifth job, since I attend meetings, and am the Virginia chapter's events coordinator, but it does not pay me any money. In fact, it costs me a little in membership fees, but I enjoy it nonetheless, and it does provide me connections and opportunities to the publishing world. My main gig that pays the pills is teaching as adjunct faculty at two higher education institutions, which means my summers are (mostly) off. I have a third job that pays a few bills, and I continue working there during the summers, but I still work far fewer hours during the summer months than I do during the school year.

So one of the main things I do during the summer is write, and write a lot more than I do at any other time of the year. It is my most productive season. Most of the short stories, poetry, and non-fiction projects I've published in the past were written during the summer months. That does not mean I do not write at all during other times of the year, but I do have months where I can devote more time to writing and publishing than other moths. My annual writing schedule is something like this:

January: I'm off the the few weeks, but recovering from the holidays. I still find quite a bit of time for writing.

February and March: Early in the semester, I have some time for writing, but once essays start coming in that need grading, my writing time starts to dwindle.

April: Essays pile up to nearly unmanageable levels. Very little writing gets done.

May: First half of the month is finishing up finals and grading, but once final grades are posted I write nearly a full time schedule.

June, July, and August: The nearly full time schedule continues and I can usually be pretty productive during the summer month. Even when classes first start up in late August, not much needs grading yet, so I still find quite a bit of time for writing.

September and October: Since I write primarily horror, these can also be particularly busy months, attending cons as well as classwork starting to pile up. Still, because I primarily write horror, it is also a particularly inspiring time of the year, so I can usually continue to work in at least some writing time.

November: Essays and other classwork piles up again, so not as much writing gets done, with the exception of Thanksgiving break.

December: Not much gets done in the beginning of the month, and after classes end, I usually plan a trip to see family for the holidays, but I still usually work in a decent amount writing time after the fall semester ends.

And if you don't think there's that much grading to do when teaching college English, here is a photo of a stack of items needing grading I took in days before everything was turned in digitally:

I read about 1000 pages of student writing per semester. I could be reading War and Peace twice annually.

But then the summer comes and I get to pretend to be a full-time writer for three months out of the year (albeit a very poor one, since I also do not get paid over the summer). Still, I always feel as though I could have and perhaps should have been more productive during those summer months. I do create an annual summer writing to-do list (along with a summer honey-do list I make up with the wife, where I work around the house and complete some household chores that need attention). So that end, (um, the writing one, not the honey-do list), I thought perhaps if I published my summer writing to-do list here, I will hold myself accountable and be more productive this summer than in years past, so to that end here it is:

1. Make a Word file of all my class notes, (One school I teach at is changing over from Blackboard regular to Blackboard Ultra, so my files may not be good any longer. Besides, I have been meaning to do this for a while now. I even applied for a stipend to have my notes published as an Open Educational Resource)
2. Finish putting together the short story and poetry collection for self-publication. This is a project I started during the spring semester, and it is pretty close to being finished already. It will feature most (but not all) of my previously published short stories and poems, and a few new short stories I have been shopping around for a while, and have decided to add to the collection.
3. Finish editing Blood of the Werewolf. It is so close to being ready to send to an agent or publisher. It only needs about 50 more pages of editing, and maybe one last quick passthrough for continuity. This is a top priority this summer.
4. Work on a rough draft of Osiris, the next in my series of historical horror tragedies. I'm thinking about joining Camp Nano to punch out a good portion of a rough draft in July.
5. Edit the short story "The Vampire's Coffin" which I did for a writing group recently. It's pretty short, so this should not take very long.
6. Finish that next section of Franksploitation non-fiction book and write the proposal on Frankenstein in film. I'm embarrassed at how many years this appears on the list and does not get done. Especially, since the sample chapters are actually pretty close to finished.
7. Edit and resubmit a non-fiction article on Ed Wood to a literary magazine. I have done this a few times, but still have not found the right market for it.

Aside from all that, I will continue to do my usual submitting more poetry and short stories to various publications. Chances are I will still not get all of this done even this summer, but it never hurts to shoot high. My hope is that publishing it here will help make me more accountable and hopefully more productive this summer.

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.

2022 By the Numbers

Every year I do this post to publicly state how much I am submitting and how many of those submissions result in successfully publishing one of my works.  Perhaps it will help any readers to gage themselves against what I have done each year. Perhaps many writers submit far more works than I do. Perhaps many submit far fewer. The idea of doing this began when I read a writer's blog (sorry, I cannot remember who) and they said they submit around 100 works per year. I decided I would see how many works I could submit each year. I found that I could submit between 35 and 50 works per year. I now try to work toward that 50 mark as much as possible. I have also found that the more works I submit each year the more of those works end up getting published, on average anyway.

So anyway, here are this year's numbers. I submitted a total of 8 books, although it was actually the same book submitted 8 times, which brings up another point. This is the total number of submissions, which means if the same book is submitted many times (8 in this case) it still counts as 8 submissions. The same holds true of short stories, poems, etc. I am working very hard to finish the follow-up to that first book, and I think I am getting close to deciding to self-publish that first book if I receive a few more rejections. Which brings up yet another point, some of these works I am still waiting to hear back on, including a few submissions of this novel.

I also had 29 short story submissions. Unfortunately, only one of those were successful this year, but again, a few of those submissions are still waiting on replies. That makes this year an anomaly in that I submitted more items than most other years, 48 total submissions, my second highest number of all time, but I had only one sale (again, so far). That success was "Beheaded" which appears in Madame Gray's Poe-Pourri, pictured above, and available on Amazon here. I also blogged about that particular sale here.

I had 11 poetry submissions, without any sales, and no non-fiction submissions this year. Just for comparison, 29 short story submissions is tied for my second highest, and 11 poetry submissions is tied for fourth highest. Eight novel submissions comes in second highest.

The most submissions I ever made in a year was 2018 where I hit 53, and it got me the most published works in a year as well with five total. This year saw my second most total at 48 as noted earlier. Third was in 2019 when I reached 47 total submissions, followed by 2021 with 44 total submissions, fourth was 2010 with 42 total, and 2020 with 35 total.

My goal for the coming year may be a little lower as I would like to start working on my longer works once again, namely my follow-up novel, and that Frankenstein project and hopefully get them both sent out to potential publishers or even agents.

I keep track of these on an Excel spreadsheet, and only recently started keeping track of total submissions each year. I find it helps me compete with myself to keep getting my works out there. If you see fit, feel free to tell me how many submissions you made last year, and how that looks compared to your other years. If it makes you feel better, I've had a lot of years with only a handful of submissions and even a few years with goose eggs.🥚😊

 

Synchronicity and Another Eulogy

Some time ago, I posted about the loss of my father. During the summer of 2018, after dad passed away, I read a book to help me get through the difficult time, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. In it, she discusses the year after she lost her husband, how it took about a year for her to fully realize she had truly lost a loved one. She describes scenes of continuing to expect to see him when waking up in the morning.

Didion is fantastic writer, known not only for her memoirs, but also (and perhaps even moreso) for her engaging essays. She was extremely talented at both fiction and non-fiction as well. I often use her essays in classes I teach.

Over this past Christmas, I unfortunately lost my mother. In a strange case of synchronicity, Didion passed away at the same time my mother went into her hospice care, which did not last long. I found this interesting timing, having read the above mentioned memoir after the loss of my father.

To further compound that synchronicity, I also had a horror poem about death titled "Old Forgotten Grave" published in an anthology titled Alternative Deathiness. The anthology contains numerous short stories and poems about death. I'm particularly proud of this piece and this publication, partially because it also contains a short story by a best selling author, Jim Wright. I wound up reading my short poem in it at mom's eulogy as requested by other family members, who seemed to find piece fitting for the occasion.

I'm not looking for any condolences for losing my mother (although if you did leave some, they would be greatly appreciated), but I thought this was an interesting time to point out how writers sometimes think or look at things. We look for and often find meaning in life's events. Surely, anyone else can do the same, but perhaps it is because writers make it a habit of doing such things that makes reading so important and enjoyable.

Although I Have to Say Goodbye to the Summer.

Summer is just about over 😥. Being a horror fan and a horror writer, this is bitter-sweet. Summer is still my favorite season of the year, despite the fact that Halloween comes in the fall. So as I say goodbye to the warm weather and sunshine that summer brings, I at least get to say hello to some good television, stores filled with spooky decorations, and my favorite cereals making their return.

But the end of summer is also a time to reflect on what writing accomplishments I've managed to accumulate this year. I managed to publish only one work so far (several pieces are still out, awaiting response), a poem at Lite Lit One. But I also managed to write the first two chapters of Franksploitation,and had a meeting with my unofficial academic advisor about the project. He was very positive and encouraging about it. He even mentioned a book contract possibility already.

My total word count for the summer was about 25,000 words. I was hoping to produce almost double that, but I hit a wall during the second half of the summer, and couldn't seem to produce much of anything. I'm still working to get over that wall, and I think I'm pretty close. Of course, now my semester is starting again, so time to write will once again become an hiderance. Among those words, was about 9,000 words toward the Franksploitation nonfiction project, about 7,000 words toward my current fiction work in progress, Blood of the Werewolf, three band new short stories, and several new poems. Reading the blogs of other educators, I can console myself with the idea that no one ever seems to reach their summer writing goals.

I also found a new writers group to join in nearby Smithfield, Virginia. I never realized there was such a rich writing community in little Smithfield, but there are several published authors in that writing group, and we attended a presentation from another published author for one meeting. They provided valuable feedback on some of those new short stories I wrote this summer.

Additionally, I attended several events with the Horror Writers Association Virginia Chapter, where I was able to do some public readings, and talk with other published authors. I count this as more valuable experience.

As summer winds down, I'm mainly concentrating on my teaching duties. I starting teaching part time at another community college, along with my already busy schedule of two other higher education facilities. During the summer, I managed to land two interviews for full time positions with higher education facilities, but was unable to land either of those positions. This is still encouraging as it means I am gaining ground in this field. I will continue to write and submit, and hope for the best, while trying to pick up on more tips and helpful hints along the way to make me a better writer. Good luck to you as well.

Finding Time

They say time ⏰ is a human construct. It doesn't really exist, except that humans have devised a way to measure it. If this is true, it is good news to the writer, because we are at a constant battle with it. Things have been pretty busy for me lately, which is why I haven't had much time to blog, and is why I've decided to talk about what to do when real life is leaving you with little time to write. I had the end of another semester recently, which is always a busy time of the year. Then I had a honey-do list of activities that was ignored for longer than it should have been. Along with all of this, I've had some personal issues that required a lot of my attention. Obviously, this has left me with little time to write or blog. So I thought I would take some time to talk about what I have accomplished in these last (good lord, has it been almost two months already) since my last blog, and how to steal as much time as possible to write during life's little moments like these.

I did manage to finish the introductory chapter to my book on Frankenstein in film, Franksploitation, and I'm writing the first chapter. My goal is to get a few chapters of this completed before the end of the summer. I also managed to outline the rest of the book, and make lists of films I would like to cover in each of those chapters. Just this week I also managed to write a mystery short story. It's the first mystery I've managed to complete, but not the first I've attempted.

I've read some writers who claim a writer has to write every day, regardless of outside influences. I suppose this may be true if you've already reached the level of writing full time as the main source of your income, but for many of us this is just not realistic. However, I will say the shorter the breaks the better, and it is important to steal a few moments whenever possible. I am much better at night, sometimes just before bed. Sometimes I have to quit because I'm just so sleepy I cannot concentrate any more, but if I can get in even a few hundred words, I call it a victory. If you are more of a morning person, you may want to plan on waking up early.

The main thing is to keep going, keep writing, and keep trying. Even if this means taking breaks that last, days or even weeks. Just don't beat yourself up over it. Write as much as you can whenever you can. I've had a few personal setbacks lately, and it can be hard to remain positive. But when this happens, it is equally important to remain focused on the goals and keep striving to improve.⏰⏰

My Second Scholarship Haul

Some time ago, I won a scholarship, and a short time after, I posted about my first scholarship haul. Recently, I made my second scholarship haul (pictured above), which I would like to discuss today.

Starting with the lower left is a book titled It's Alive: The Classic Cinema Saga of Frankenstein by Gregory William Mank. I was very excited to get this book because I still remember pouring over it as a ten-year-old kid after borrowing it from my local library. Published in 1981,this was the very first book on Frankenstein films, and although it is chock-full of interesting stories about the development and creation of the classic Universal Frankenstein films, it is also filled with out-dated information. For instance, it talks about deleted scenes, such as the Monster tossing the little girl, Maria, into the water as though it is a deleted scene in the original 1931 film. This scene has been restored since the 1990s. It also mentions that Mary Shelley visited the actual Castle Frankenstein in Gernsheim, Germany. However, it is very unlikely Mary and her husband, Percy, ever visited actually visited the castle after all, even though they were within ten miles of the castle.

And this evidence is presented in the book to its right, Making the Monster: The Science Behind Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Published just last year, Making the Monster by Kathryn Harkup is proving to be a fascinating read. It examines all of the science mentioned in Mary Shelley's novel and explains exactly what she was referring to in the book. Yet, it is more than just an annotated version of the Frankenstein novel, because Harkup proves to be a great story-teller, making this an extraordinarily fun read. While It's Alive is currently out of print (I had to hunt down a used copy), Making the Monster is available from Amazon and other book sellers. I highly recommend it.

The two DVDs at the top of the photo are seasons one and two of a television show titled The Frankenstein Chronicles. While I haven't had a chance to view it yet, it has been receiving rave reviews from all over the globe. I think it was originally produced by the BBC, and one should be advised that the DVDs will not play on most DVD players in the United States, unless you have a region-free DVD player, like I do. 😁 It is available on NetFlix. (I didn't provide a link because I don't have NetFlix.) The story follows a private investigator looking into mysterious murders that may or may not involve a certain mad doctor and his creation. I'm very much looking forward to it.

I will likely have two or three more hauls from the scholarship money as I still have not used up even half of it yet. I've outlined two more chapters for an academic conference I'm attending (stay tuned to this blog to find out how that went), and I plan on using much of my summer writing and researching as much of this project as I can. Wish me luck.

The Origins of Classic Camp

I am Classic Camp, and I really should have done this blog post some time ago to let everyone know exactly how I earned this moniker. Although this really should have been one of the first blog posts I ever made, as they say, better late than never. I have been known in some circles as Classic for over 20 years now. It comes so second nature to me now that I almost forget some people may not have any idea how I earned the name at this point. So here it is:

I first earned the name "Classic" in college. I was a staff writer for the college newspaper, The Speciator, and worked my way up to News Editor and then Features Editor. As such we had a certain amount of space for weekly editorials and features. Often the other editors would complain that these articles would come in late and sometimes at all. Between semesters, we had a meeting about what to do about this, so I suggested doing a weekly column on one of my favorite topics, classic rock music. I could use cover art for each feature to add a graphic and even one or two trivia questions. We just needed a title for the weekly feature, so one of my fellow newspaper editors suggested Classic Camp.

The column became a big hit.I did columns on rock groups such as Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Bob Marley, Janis Joplin, and many others. While sitting in class I would hear other students discussing the feature, and my professors brought it up in class from time to time. People began to refer to me as "Classic" Camp. After a semester, even my professors were calling me "Classic" Camp.

Well, not everyone loved it. At one point a group of art students got together to complain that they weren't receiving enough press coverage, and even named my column as part of the problem. To counter this I tried to prove by writing a column on the Sex Pistols, but in doing so I also proved that music is an art form and even a group such as the Sex Pistols contained artistic elements, such as the style of music fitting the message of anarchy within the lyrics. Secretly, of course, I like art and felt it did indeed deserve more coverage, so I even began dedicating a section of the features pages (which I was editor at the time) to upcoming art events and shows.

After college I joined the message boards on the Internet Movie Database, and needed a name, so of course, I chose Classic Camp. To this day I still have a presence online as Classic Camp, including my own Facebook group, Classic Camp's Classic Horror Emporium. It has been an adventure, which I hope will not be over any time soon.

My First Scholarship Haul

I received my first haul from the Horror Writers Association Rocky Wood Memorial scholarship for Non Fiction Writing recently (pictured above). I'm pretty sure the contents at this stage will make sense only to me, but I will attempt to explain them anyway.

The books with the face cover are my methodology, Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad (or pentad on dramatism). It is considered a pragmatic approach to analyzing literature, or any other rhetoric. I will post more thoroughly on this at a future date.

Next to Burke is the first film purchase, Jess Franco's Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein. I have a few other outlets to get films, but am pretty sure I will not be able to get this one from any other source, so I placed it in this first order. It's also a film I've been trying to hunt down for about 20 years. Jess Franco is (sort of) the Ed Wood of Europe, I like to call him. He makes horrible films, but has a certain amount of enthusiasm for the horror genre, which I can very much appreciate.

Below that are two books that I chose to order first because I think I can use them for far more than just this project. The Golden Turkey Awards is a list of the worst movies ever made. It didn't have as many Frankenstein films in it as I had hoped, but it is a fun read.

Next to that is a far more serious study, that of homosexuality in film, The Celluloid Closet. It is essential for one chapter, but it is a very important chapter, the one on James Whale's Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, which I will examine together. Whale was one of the first openly gay figures in Hollywood. I would also like to use the book to write another article or two on Whale and the horror genre in general that will be separate from this book project. The book doesn't look exclusively at horror, but LGBTQ images in Hollywood.

I've also finalized the title of my book, Franksploitation and the Rhetoric of Filmed Frankenstein. I will be posting much more about it in the future, so please keep checking back, and don't be afraid to subscribe.

Photos from Monster Fest 2018

Here are some photos of my presentation, Franksploitation, Frankenstein exploitation films from the 1950s to the 1970s, at this year's Monster Fest. I'll provide more information on this even soon.

About That Scholarship

Last blog post I talked about some recent successes I've had as a writer. It's been a while, but I finally have a few. On the other hand, I also had another rejection letter in my inbox the other day too. Anyway, the biggest of those success was winning the Horror Writers Association Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for Non-Fiction Writing. This has led to some interesting developments so far. One of the schools I work for, Paul D Camp Community College, set me up to be interviewed by the local newspaper, the Suffolk New Herald,  for an article. I also notified my alma mater magazines. We'll see if they choose to cover this or not.

This is not some ego burst, but an attempt to draw up some interest in the project to hopefully sell books whenever I can finish it and get it to an agent and/or publisher. I'm also working on a presentation for Monster Fest next week on this very project.

I actually applied to both the Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship and the regular HWA Scholarship. Sometimes you have to throw your hat into many rings before one decides to take you in, just like my last blog post, "Throwing Shit Against the Wall." After they reviewed all applicants for several weeks, I received an email asking if I could be more specific about what I will do with their funds. So I did several things to accomplish this. The easiest was to create a wish list on Amazon.com.

I also knew I might need money for photos for the book, but I had no idea about the legalities of even using photos for books. I did know one thing, however, I knew David J. Skal wrote what I consider the best horror book I've ever read (and I've read a few), with The Monster Show. I friended Skal on Facebook, and interacted with him enough. This was not enough for me to say I "knew him" but enough to know he seems very approachable about this topic. So I Googled his name and found his author page, which provided me with his email, and I asked him about how to get photos. He proved to be as approachable as I previously thought as he replied to my email within 2 hours. I added this to my budget.

The third part of my budget was to purchase research articles. I work for two different higher education facilities, which allow me access to their article databases. These databases are enormous, and can provide a large amount of the information I'll need to write the book for free. However, while the majority of these articles are free, sometimes you have get an inter-library loan to get some of the articles. And these inter-library loan articles are often not free. I searched for some articles I knew I would have to pay for to get an idea of how much to budget for this. I found two articles that I felt were exemplary, one cost $6 and the other $36. So I budgeted as though these were the higher end and lower end of the articles I'd need.

They reviewed this for about another week or so, and then sent me an email telling me I won the scholarship. Now some of my colleagues at Paul D Camp are asking if I can do a presentation on my progress as I go. And I still need to contact someone to help me with the methodology, but that's a topic for another blog post.

Throwing Shit Against the Wall

I am from a blue-collar town in Pennsylvania, Erie to be exact. For whatever reason, everything up there relates back to various excrements and the crotch. We don't say a business went belly up, we say it went "tits-up." If an idea didn't work out, we say it "shit the bed." It's just part of the colorful way we talk.

So when we're trying all sorts of things to be successful, sometimes we'll say we're just "throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks." For some time now, I've been doing just that, and FINALLY, I have a few things that have stuck. Mind you, most of these things I was working on all summer in the hopes of drumming up some business during my slow time of the year as adjunct faculty. But then when things began to come in, it really began to pour.

First off, I spent part of my summer shopping my resume and a few clippings around to a few of the newspapers in the area to try and drum up business, keep busy, and bring in a few extra dollars. Well, they finally got back to me as soon as classes started again. I'll still work in a few articles into my busy schedule. I feel it is important for a writing teacher to continue writing for an audience anyway. And getting paid for it is always better than not.

Then the poem I sold at the beginning of summer is finally published in Teach. Write. Here it is. I seem to have a regular place to publish some of my more literary works since this is the second time they published my work. I have a personal essay I worked on over the summer that still needs some work, but when I do send it out, I will likely send it to them first. I like the publication a lot, and I think the piece is a good fit for them anyway. Their homepage is here.

Third, and most importantly, I just won the Horror Writers Association Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for Non-Fiction Writing for a non-fiction book idea I have on the history of Frankenstein in film. This is actually a really big deal. They split the award between myself and another writer, Joseph Maddrey, who seems like a real heavyweight, having published eight books and written and produced over 50 hours of documentary television. It's a tremendous honor just to be named in the same breath with someone with these kinds of accomplishments.

I'm sure I'll post much more about this scholarship and the project in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, since winning this scholarship, I've received two more rejection letters in my email, but somehow, they don't seem so bad now.

My Writing Life Lately

Every once in a while, I should do a post about what I've been working on, and that will be today's post. First off, my house is finally calming down after my dad's passing. We emptied out some of the house and toted it back to Virginia. I finally got the last of those boxes put away today. I've done a little writing and submitting, so this is what I've been working on.

I finally finished my latest short story, "The Gargoyle Chair", and submitted it to a horror magazine and anthology last night. It's a weird fiction story. This publication pays pro rates, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I also submitted a poem to a publication that published me before. I received an email confirmation today, and apparently the lady running the publication remembered me. That's a good feeling, but certainly not any sort of guarantee. More fingers crossed.

I also pitched an article idea to a newsletter. I heard back, but have not received a green light yet. I'm hoping it pans out because it will involve some horror research. I don't want to name any of these publications in a public forum like this unless they green light my stories for obvious reasons. running out of fingers, so toes crossed on this one.

I submitted my current novel, The Sorcerer, to another agent. We'll see how that goes.

I contacted the Horror Writers Association about getting me into their mentoring program for some research I did a while back. I'm trying to do more research, so I can get into a PhD program next year.

Finally, I managed to find a slew of literary journals that cater to horror fiction and films, thanks to the Horror Writers Association. I've been researching each one of them, and going through papers I wrote back in college to see what can be shaped up to send to some of these, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet.

I guess that's about it for now. Here's a shot of the desk I used to use. I'll get a shot of my current writing space once I get my room straightened out.

How to write a Eulogy

I wrote my first eulogy recently. My father passed away, and I felt obligated as the family writer to write one for him. That's him pictured with me in the late 1970s at my grandparents' house. I'm not sure I'm really over it yet, as I've found it very hard to do any writing since he passed almost two weeks ago. His eulogy was the last thing I wrote until this blog post.

I feel I did really well on the eulogy and received several positive comments, so I thought I would post today about how I went about writing it.

First off, I approached the eulogy as a college essay, with an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. I even included a thesis statement. Basically, mine was that my father had a rough upbringing but fought to become a very good person in the end. There was a lot more to it than that, but for the purposes of a how to blog post, I think that suffices.

Then I went through the various stages of his life. His upbringing, how his father built their house (and my father and his brother continued working on it until it finally sold in the early 2000s). Something about his time in the army, and then of course how he met my mother. A little something about when my sister was born and then when I was born, and finally the end concluded that portion.

But to ensure things do not become too sappy or depressing, it is good to put in a few humorous stories. I had one that everyone commented on afterward. It was about how my father used to teach me things, such as when he would play board games with me when I was a child, he would never let me win. When I asked if he could let me win, he would tell me that's not how life works, you have to work for everything. Later, when I married and we had a child, my daughter would play board games with my father (her grandfather), and he would ALWAYS let her win.

I finished up with a positive note, which I think is also important in writing a eulogy. I talked about how my dad didn't like to look back but forward to the future. To keep growing, and advancing, and moving forward. So here's to you dad, I finally put down a few words since your eulogy. Here's hoping I get down a lot more.