I wanted to thank everyone who read my short stories leading up to Halloween. I had an enormously fun time writing them, but it's probably pretty obvious that I'd rather write than do just about anything. Your responses were really supportive and wonderful and you gave me a lot of confidence in my fictional writing capabilities. I've never really shared my writing with others and just considered it a hobby with the goal of getting published "some day." Well, after Halloween I was so empowered, that I'm finishing off "The Thicket" my erotic horror novel and preparing to send that off in the next few months, followed by two other novels a romance horror/series manuscript and a SciFi manuscript about--talking to ghosts, of course! I found that there seems to be other people out there who want to read the kinds of things I enjoy writing and wish to read myself.
I've had a few people tell me I should write short's every now and then and I do plan on doing that. As I come up with more theories, I'd like to occasionally write a short story that incorporates it into the plot.
I promised to tell what my favorite short's were that I wrote and I loved them all for the dear reasons any "parent" has for their "offspring" but my fav's were:
October 13: Graveyard Guardians: This one came from my own experiences wandering graveyards at twilight and I loved the concept of the guardians being the statuesque trees that stand sentinel in these places.
October 16: Cotton Candy, Carnivals, and Clowns: I have a fear of clowns like anyone else but the idea of going to a carnival alone, getting over the fear of clowns, and then finding out they're scared of us...that was thrilling.
October 21: The Haunted Dales: This was a classic haunted house story. I was able to put a bit of the haunted formula into it by incorporated limestone in the haunting solution.
October 27: Cave Dwellers: That one just gave me the creeps. The movie "The Descent" really creeped me out and any stories of alien babies in caves...yikes!
CONGRATULATIONS! I am so happy you finished your manuscript. Now get it out there! Don't delay! Even if you need to polish, get the synopsis done and start querying. It takes agents and publishes FOREVER to respond. But I've also found when you still need to add some polish and start the querying process is when, wouldn't you know it, everyone wants to see it! So make sure it doesn't need a whole lot of tweaking, just minor polish, but don't delay...get it out there!
ReplyDeleteOh, and I thought your shorts were fun and clever. My only regret is I wasn't able to comment on them all!!!!
I'm super happy for you! I've really enjoyed reading all your stories. I look forward to seeing you in print! How exciting and please keep us posted! :)
ReplyDeleteOh I almost forgot! I watched Stephen King on the Bio channel. His story is so inspiring and it made me think of you. Watch it if you get a chance! :)
ReplyDeleteCourtney;
ReplyDeleteThanks. The novel isn't completed yet. The short story writing made me look at it differently to make a few tweeks which means I have to go back over it and change it in many places. I don't mind because now that I have the vision of it, I feel good about it. In fact, I've submitted about 4 romance novels in the past (early 90s) and one of them was actually the almost identical plot to a movie that came out years later called "Twister." That was frustrating! But, the editor at Silhouette was so nice and she did help me to realize that, although I can write romance, I needed more tension. So, I turned to horror--yahoo! It was definitely the right niche.
Becca; I will have to check out his bio. That sounds cool!
Yes indeedy -Congratulations Autumnforest!!! I am so glad we were able to help with the confidence -you sure deserve it -and i am sure "The Thicket" will be published!!! Courtney has very good advice from what I have heard from knowing people who write on the web!!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed every one of your Halloween shorts and I am so glad you will do some from time to time-and am very happy your major project is taking off!!
I think the fact that you won that award is a very good omen indeed for the future!!
It would be impossible for me to name an absolute fave for your series as I enjoyed them so much -I definitely agree that if I had to the "Haunted Dales" and the "Clown" stories would be on my list-best as always to you my friend and I can't wait to see how things are going with this in the future!!!
Dev;
ReplyDeleteIt really had me thinking about the possibility of taking the shorts and doing a little editing on them, adding a few more, and making a 31 days of Halloween compilation book. Hmm....