It’s that time of year when we writers must consider whether to join the annual Short Story Challenge. Unlike NaNoWriMo or Inktober or other creative challenges, the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge is a contest, with prizes. And it’s a challenge with a twist: All stories are written…
I blame my cousin.
While this is not strictly a Halloween story, it’s certainly in the spirits of the season, both macabre and prankster, so I’m going to share it.
In the early 2000s, we purchased an estate property and eventually built a house, where we now live. The property needed a lot of work, from the many piles of trash which needed to be cleared (so large that they photographed from the air as buildings in our property tax assessment and we were being charged for them) to the old farmhouse where I lived mostly alone for a year, which had ancient and damaged wiring so that I had very limited choices regarding electricity, which couldn’t be heated above 56 degrees in the winter with a furnace which could snuff a light at two feet, and which turned out to be a structural death trap the local fire department refused to enter. Also possibly haunted, but that’s another story.
Tonight some friends from church held a “decompression night” and invited a bunch of us over to blow off steam. We had stress balls to squeeze, bubbles to blow, putty, over-sized Jenga, punching bags, wrapping paper swords, cornhole, video games, and a Nerf shooting range (with paint for the darts to mark your shots).
They’d set up a villains gallery for target shooting, with four rogues to take fire. There was the demogorgon from Stranger Things, Harry Potter’s Delores Umbridge, and–
…Oh, wow.
I’ve mentioned before my annual maze project, and I’ve just completed this year’s.
It’s a challenging task, since I got into the habit of making some literary reference, usually related to a project published that year (first found out by Google Maps in 2015), and since I’m working without much of a plan in vegetation taller than my eye level, just working with spatial awareness and distance guess-timates to produce my pattern. But I have to say, I’m pretty proud of how 2018’s trail came out:
It’s today! Blood & Bond, The Shard of Elan #2, is set free upon the world.
At When Words Collide this year, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Joe Compton of Go Indie Now. I have to say that Joe asked some really good questions, different from the typical author interview, and I had a blast talking with him.
He also really did his homework, pulling up photos of this year’s trip to Japan and my dogs!
Warning: today’s ranty-meter is “moderate-high.” Today’s post is ultimately a tip, but it’s going by way of a how-not-to first.
After I left When Words Collide in Calgary, I drove south and followed the Extraterrestrial Highway (NV SR 375) to tiny Rachel, Nevada (population 54).
I’d signed up for the ET Marathon — the half, actually, because I’m not cool enough to do a full marathon. I’d booked the race and my room long before #StormArea51 was born. I arrived early and holed up in a mobile home to work on Blood & Bond.
So I was driving along in my car, enjoying the sunshine, listening to streaming radio. I thought to myself, “You know, I’d really like to hear ‘Tubular Bells.'”
And within five seconds the current song ended and “Tubular Bells” began playing.
It’s cover reveal day!
Let’s get straight to the good stuff, because I do love this cover.
