new life

It is strange that my writing come when it will, that I can never predict when I will feel the compelling need to be creative.  The only time I feel really alive is when I am being creative.  I began the year thinking that I was burned out, that I had written too many books in too little time and now it was time to take a rest or risk people getting sick and tired of seeing yet more scribbling from mine pen.  But I have a difficult time saying no to editors who ask for fiction.  These past many months I have written so many wee things for various anthologies and such that I can no longer remember them all.  Of course, I'm too clueless to make a list of stories that have been placed.  So one day I get a surprising email with a contract for a story that I don't remember having written!  In ye past fortnight I have written and sold two wee tales for a couple of anthologies that invited me to contribute.  I relish this creative activity and hope that it continues.  I am now

working with David Barker on the short stories we need to write to replace our novella, "The Revenant of Rebecca Pascal," whut is now to be published as a separate illustrated limited edition hardcover.  Our magnificent artist for the book, Erin Wells, has finsih'd ye jacket painting, and I love it.  The color scheme for the book, I believe, is green and yellow, my two favorite shades, and Erin's gorgeous painting is moody and beautiful.  The wee novel is my attempt to write horror fiction that has strong, cool, powerful women characters, and thus it is rad to have a woman artist illustrating the book as well.

I am now beginning to dream the idea for a Gothic Lovecraftian piece I want to write concerning St. Toad's, inspired on the sonnet by that name from Fungi from Yuggoth.  Whereas most of the new things I have written have been under 2,000 words, I want this new thing to be at least 5,000 or 6,000.  I have in mind something similar to "Inhabitants of Wraithwood," with an extremely atmospheric setting and a number of very strange characters haunting its chambers and crypt.

I am looking forward to The H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and World Horror Convention, both being held in Portland, Oregon this year.  This year there will be an actual author's signing session at the film festival, on Saturday night, and that pleases me very much.  Chris from Dark Regions Press will be bringing gobs of copies of the book I wrote with Jeffrey Thomas, ENCOUNTERS WITH ENOCH COFFIN, and I hope to sign many copies.  And then we hope to have THE REVENANT OF REBECCA PASCAL ready to sell at WHC, and both David and I will be there to sign copies.  Hope to see some of y'all at these fun events.