CL WERNER ON WRITING: An Interview

I met C.L. Werner, in the virtual world, while writing for FLASHING SWORDS EZINE wa-ay back in, eegad, 2006-ish. (When Howard A Jones was editor so...a while ago.) I had read some of his shorter works for Black Library, which led to picking up some of his novel-length works, the first being the Matthias Thulmann: WITCH HUNTER omnibus. Once I read that, I was hooked.

So without rambling like a fanboy, here is Mr. C.L. Werner...

Oh, and his most recent work is the image above: LORD OF UNDEATH

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CREATIVES HELP BOARD: When did you first realize that HEY, THIS WRITING THING. CREATING FANTASTIC TALES. WELL...IT KIND OF ROCKS!

CL WERNER: The first piece of writing I can recall working on was in elementary school. I did a Sherlock Holmes story that ran over fifty pages of loose leaf. So I guess that would be the first thing I wrote. The 'bug' as it were didn't really hit me until I was finishing up high school. I tried my hand at horror short stories, submitting to any magazine I'd stumble on. Nothing landed and over the course of the next ten years the only things I placed were in small press magazines like Eldritch Tales and Cthulhu Codex. Not until I had a piece accepted into Black Library's Inferno! Magazine did I really get that sense of finally creating something that would have a wider reach.

CHB: What was your very first published piece?

CLW: My first published work was a scenario called 'The Old Dark House' for the Call of Cthulhu RPG which was published by Pagan Publishing in Alone on Halloween. That was in 1991. I didn't have another paying published piece until 1999 with 'A Choice of Hatreds' in Inferno! #22. That was the first piece of fiction that I was paid for writing.

CHB: There may be probably many obvious answers, but compared to that first piece, how has your writing, writing skill, writing focus changed?

CLW: I think any writer will improve as they continue to tell stories. The more you read, watch, experience – all of that will inform new ideas and characters. Any book or movie can teach you new things about style and pacing, tone and direction. What works to sustain a mood or what makes for an engaging character. To be certain, you can also learn a great deal about what doesn't work from these things too. A badly written book can be even more instructive than a well-crafted masterpiece, highlighting things to avoid and some of the pitfalls that can sabotage a narrative.

Over the years, I think that the biggest thing which has changed in my writing is an appreciation for different perspectives. To be certain there are rare instances of a character who is unabashedly evil, but for the most part everyone believes themselves to be justified in what they are doing. A thief rationalizes his robberies, a tyrant has a defined rationale for his manifold oppressions, a tyranid has – well – the expansion of the species. Each character, no matter how despicable, is something I try to approach as an individual, to make them more than just a one-note simulacrum of villainy. It makes the contrast all the more vivid and unsettling when a murderer has all these fine qualities yet at the end of the day is still the perpetrator of heinous crimes. And by the same token, it is equally disarming when the noble hero is endowed with some less than sterling attributes.

CHB: What is your writing routine? Tons of coffee? A full nights sleep then hit the keyboards?

CLW: Much of my writing is done at night, when it is quiet outside and the air is a bit cooler. The dark, I suppose, lends itself to some of the grim things I write about. Sometimes I'll have marathons where I write for nine and ten hours at a stretch. Other times it is difficult to stay at it for two in one sitting. The dreaded curse of writer's block can sometimes be mitigated by jumping ahead in the narrative and coming back to the problem spot, which is usually best approached after stepping away for a little while. I find if I try to jump without that break it causes a sense of disorientation – a befuddlement so far as the pacing of the piece goes. I'm always very aware of pacing and try to ensure scenes are neither too ponderous or too abrupt (unless of course that is the intended effect).

On the matter of coffee, I'll likely be branded a heretic but I can't stand the stuff. Even the smell of coffee disturbs me. In hot weather I resort to energy drinks and in cold weather it is lots of tea.

CHB: Are you a plotter or a pantster? (I hate that latter word for folks who loosing plot and fly by the seat of their pants, but, meh, guess it fits.)

CLW: Detailed outlines are something I always try to work from. As mentioned above, I find that having a map of where the story is going will allow me to jump ahead of any problem spot I encounter. When I start a new chapter, I'll go to the outline and break down each individual scene and then lay them out in sequence within the chapter. Then, as I write, I can see at a quick glance how much material is yet to go. I can judge the pacing more closely, so if a scene with a dragon eating goats runs into a thousand words I can then evaluate how much more story I'm trying to fit into the chapter. Except when I'm going for a particular effect, I try to keep chapters between 5,000 and 6,000 words, which I feel is the ideal size for a reader to tackle over their lunch break, riding the train home from work, or some other situation where their time is restricted. If I find that there's a bit more story than I still have room for in the chapter, I'll evaluate if a scene should be moved into the subsequent or preceding chapter. Working like this, I've come to attack a novel in blocks of three chapters at a time – which is fine early on but becomes a problem if your deadline is in arrears.

CHB: What is the best way to market one's written work, in your opinion.

CLW: To be honest, I'm not certain what the best way to market one's work is. There are so many options out there these days. The scope of anthologies and magazines to submit short stories to is much broader than it was in the days before the internet. There are a great many small and mid-range publishers out there that either have open submission windows or will have 'open calls' at set periods of the year. This includes some of the tie-in publishers as well, so if a writer is an enthusiast of a particular game or film series or what have you, then it might not be remiss to keep one ear to the ground.

Online retailers have made self-publishing a much more feasible enterprise for those of us without hefty inheritances to squander or wealthy relations to exploit. The pitfall of this route is that the onerous of generating buzz and advertising the book falls on the author, and not all of us are so skilled at marketeering as we are at composing. Beyond the time involved writing the book, there's usually some manner of fee for listing the volume with the retailer.

One thing that I was always advised against, and which I will pass along, is to be very wary of any business that wants you to pay them to publish your book. This is different from services that offer editing and formatting – in this instance we're talking about businesses that promise to do everything but write it. There's a reason that so-called 'vanity presses' have a bad reputation as they can be predatory and promise far more than they deliver. Approach anybody who wants you to pay them to be published with a wary eye and do your homework before agreeing to anything.

CHB: Words of advice for new writers?

CLW: The first and most important thing I'd advise any new writer is to look very long and hard into why you want to write. If it is for the passion of story-telling, if it is something you'd do even without a dime of remuneration, then I think it is something you have to pursue. Constantly improve your craft, when you read the work of someone else, analyse it like a mechanic taking apart an engine. See what makes something effective work and see how you can develop your own technique to be as effective. When rejection comes, and sadly it will, try to see if there is any hint to how to improve in the editor's feedback – but by the same token recognize when the fault is simply that it wasn't the kind of story that was right for that particular market.

If you are pursuing a career as a writer for the financial aspect, go in understanding that a great many authors have to maintain day jobs to make ends meet. The big celebrity authors who make a zillion dollars a year are very much the exception rather than the rule. It is a very fortunate creator who can achieve a degree of success where they can comfortably extricate themselves from the daily grind and devote all their resources to writing. A goal to pursue, but also a caution to bear in mind.

CHB: What does being able to write, to put the story "on paper" do for you? (Obviously put a little extra cash on the table, but what else. Myself personally, it often gives me something to look forward to when the day job and life are rough.)

CLW: For myself, personally, being able to write gives me a sense of accomplishment. It is the one thing in my existence that at all excuses it. I've seen for myself that my writing has helped carry readers through tough times in their lives, providing them with an escape from their troubles even if only for the briefest spell. I've had a few writers say they drew inspiration from my own stories and that helped them develop their own skills and pursue their own publication. It is a very humbling thing to consider having such an impact on somebody's life and ultimately makes it worthwhile. Even if you don't become rich, even if your work doesn't become famous, even if you fear there will be no posterity to leave it to, you can still help others through your work. Sometimes you're even blessed enough to find out about it. It's the old adage about the stone thrown into a pond – you don't always see the ripples or where they go, but the ripples are there just the same.

Thanks for your time, Clint.


AUTHOR BIO
C. L. Werner has written a number of pulp-style horror stories for assorted small press publications, including Inferno! magazine. Some of his Black Library credits include the Chaos Wastes books, the Mathias Thulmann: Witch Hunter novels, the Brunner the Bounty Hunter trilogy, and the Thanquol and Boneripper series. Currently living in the American south-west, he continues to write stories of mayhem and madness set in the Warhammer World.

AUTHOR LINKS
Website
Facebook

Some other great interviews with C.L. Werner (not associated with this blog)
The Bloghole Interview
Interview on Snowbooks Site
MengelMiniatures Interview

Russell Slater -- FIVE THINGS LEARNED WRITING

Russell Slater is a writer and author AND small press publisher located in West Michigan.

Here, he talks about FIVE THINGS LEARNED WRITING his Classic Monster (in my words) novella, ACIPENSER.

 

 

Something in the lake… 4th of July Weekend!

 

Time for flags, barbeques and late night fireworks. For the residents of a sleepy West Michigan community, the carefree days of sun-soaked bliss are about to be interrupted by a deadly abomination of nature…lurking in the depths of a local lake. ACIPENSER

 

Vietnam veteran Silas Sobel loves Green Lake. He watches over the water – protects it. When he witnesses a mysterious attack on a pontoon of partiers, his claims are dismissed as wild stories. Setting out on a lone mission, he utilizes unconventional methods to capture the proof he needs. As the town slowly realizes the truth, they find themselves woefully unprepared to combat the hideously mutated monsters of Green Lake.

 

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FIVE THINGS I LEARNED while writing ACIPENSER

 

FYS – Finish Your Shit.  Don’t look backward (until the end). 

 

1. FYS

This is the most important acronym for a writer.  Put simply: Finish your shit.  Great words of advice.  Twenty half-written stories are useless, whereas a terrible yet fully-written rough draft has a future.  Get it done, maintain momentum, and don’t stop until you write “THE END.”  I’m still working on this.   

 

2. ACIPENSERS don’t have teeth – wait, yes they do! 

 

When I chose the Lake Sturgeon as my “Green Lake Monster,” I soon was disappointed to learn that these fish don’t even have teeth!  Somehow a giant mutant fish that gummed people to death didn’t seem as frightening as rows upon rows of serrated steak-knife teeth.  So we gave him chompers – deadly, pointy ones.  Coincidently, I did learn later on that certain species of Acipensers in Eastern Asia are predatory fish, and do in fact have teeth. 

 

3. We’re famous!  (not really)

People aren’t like cockroaches – in fact, they like the spotlight.  I love writing stories based locally, and I knew by creating a fictional lake monster in a community near where I live, I would be scaring my friends and neighbors.  Knowing there are many “Green Lakes” out there, I specifically had my cover artist (Jordan Richardson) put an outline of “our” Green Lake as a glare in the monster’s eyeball.  It’s just something small, and discrete – not something you’d normally notice, but when locals say, “Is this about our Green Lake,” I can point to that small detail, and they instantly smile.  Some area readers like to guess which characters resemble actual people.  

 

4. Great art will sell your book

Yes, people do judge a book by its cover.  An awful story with a great cover will outsell an awesome story with a terrible cover.  We are visual creatures, and we buy visual entertainment (whose actual content is mostly unseen –movies, books, magazines) based on the package it comes in (or cover).  Work with talented artists who can convey your story through a great cover.  The reader should have some idea what the book is about based on the cover – when readers pick up a copy of Acipenser to thumb through, they have a pretty good notion that the story involves some type of terrifying monster with sharp teeth.  Too many covers on the market today, whether through independent or traditional publishing houses, appear too generic.    

 

It took Jordan and I several months to develop the final look of Acipenser.  He went through many variations, and after several sit-down meetings and dozens of emails exchanged, we finally got it right.  I love the final look of the monster – so much so, I got him tattooed on my left shoulder. 

 

5. It’s all good: Feedback

Feedback is our emotional payment for our work (physical payment in the form of cash, checks, and credit are nice too).  After pouring heart and soul into a project, hearing the response from readers can be satisfying, encouraging, or maybe disheartening.  Even if a reader gives you blunt, at times rude, feedback – it’s all good.  Our first reaction when receiving negative feedback may be to snatch the nearest solid object and thump them over the head with it, but resist the urge.  Bite your tongue.  Smile.  Say, “thank you for taking the time to read it.”  Think about their feedback – does it have merit?  Yes, the truth can sting sometimes.   Use negative feedback as a learning experience. 

Toughen thy skin until it becomes an armor shell that can absorb whatever a reader throws at you. 

 

Positive feedback makes us writer-types puuuuurrrr.  “I liked it,” or “it was an enjoyable read” are nice to hear, but what really gets me purring is the feedback with details.  Stories of readers’ reaction to your material are great.  I recently had a woman who lives on Green Lake tell me how her teenage daughter bought a copy of Acipenser, and then invited her girlfriends for a sleep over.  They took turns reading it aloud to one another and then went swimming in the lake at night. 

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Russell Slater is a Michigan author and head of Peninsulam Publishing (Publishing stories Made in Michigan). In addition to his published novels, his work has been featured in the (Wayland) Penasee Globe, Allegan County News, Flavor 616 Magazine, Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine, Engraver's Journal and the Volunteer: Civil Air Patrol Magazine. He enjoys creative writing in multiple genres, from alternate history political thrillers, to sci-fi/horror, and children's books. He lives in a rural community with his wife and son.

 

 

 

Peninsulam Publishing and Book Links

 

www.peninsulampublishing.com

https://www.facebook.com/peninsulampublishing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rob E. Boley - Five Things Learned Writing (the first half of) the SCARY TALES Series

Rob E. Boley discusses his five things learned writing 

 

The Scary Tales Series

 

I love writing lil’ tidbits like this because it forces me to do something that surely does not come naturally to me: thinking. See, I’m much more of a do-er than a think-er. I’m the guy in meetings who’s tapping his feet, doodling, checking his email, or slamming his head again and again into the table. Why? Because I don’t want to talk about it; I want to do it. I’d rather sing it than bring it. I’d rather bite than bark. I’d rather walk than talk. I’d rather write than outline.

Which brings me to my first point . . .

1) Solid stories fall together, not apart.

On the scale of pantser-to-plotter, I’m almost entirely a pantser, which is to say that I have a general idea where my story will end up, but I have only the vaguest of notions how my characters will get there. There are pros and cons to this approach, but the biggest positive is that my characters continue to surprise me.

I can tell you for sure that the vast majority of the coolest swerves and most riveting developments in The Scary Tales were unplanned. These little moments were spontaneous outgrowths of the characters and their situations, and I had as much fun discovering them as my readers will (hopefully) have reading them.

But these moments don’t always happen. I’ve had many a story die on the vine, and it’s usually because something was missing—either the characters didn’t have a strong enough arc, the tension was too wobbly, or the destination ultimately wasn’t all that interesting. I’m a firm believer that if a story has a solid foundation of characters and conflict, it will fall together, rather than apart.

Fortunately, with The Scary Tales, everything has fallen together wonderfully, and that’s at least partly because of my next point . . .

2) Fairy tales are rich soil for fiction, especially horror.

My Scary Tales series started as a simple Snow White zombie short story, but that story quickly blossomed into a novella, a novel, a trilogy, and ultimately a full-on series. At last part of that growth is because of the rich metaphors and iconic characters associated with the Snow White fairy tale—as well as fairy tales in general.

I’ve read a ton of fairy tales—especially by the Brothers Grimm—since I started working on the series, and these stories are full of compelling characters, horrific acts, tense situations, and depraved twists.  Some of the most fascinating of the original Grimms fairy tales aren’t widely known, such as The Singing Bone or Thousandfurs. So if you’re looking for some dark inspiration, I’d recommend exploring some of the lesser-known of these tales.

They will make you laugh out loud with their absurdity or cringe with their grotesqueness—or possibly both, which hints at my next point . . .

 

3) Everyone brings their own story to your story.

I’ve had some people read That Risen Snow and tell me about how they simply couldn’t put it down because they were so anxious to see what happened next. Others have told me that they thought it was laugh-out-loud hilarious. Still others have told me it was scary as hell. These are all valid interpretations of the material, mind you.

Likewise, I’ve had all manner of response to the characters. Some readers have absolutely hated Merry, one of the seven dwarfs who is plagued by depression and who makes some questionable decisions throughout the novel. Others seemed to sympathize with the little guy and considered him their favorite character. I’m always thrilled when my writing elicits any strong emotion from readers, but I wasn’t expecting their responses to vary so widely. Edmund Wilson summed up this phenomenon with this great quote: "No two persons ever read the same book."

Of course, if you want to provoke any sort of response from your readers, you have to keep them engaged. That happens with tension, which for me is an outgrowth of my next point . . .

4) Imagining terrible things happening to your characters beats the hells out of worrying about terrible things happening to you.

At some point while writing this series, I came to a realization about how writing makes me a happier, healthier person. See, when I was a little kid, I worried about everything. I worried about the penny I swallowed poisoning me. I worried about getting in big trouble for the basement window I broke. I worried about going to the doctor or playing sports or talking to girls.

As I got older, I outgrew a lot of my anxiety but it still remained as my default “negative” emotion. Some people get angry. Some people feel guilty. I worry. After my daughter was born, I was surprised both by how much I loved her—but also by how much I fretted over her. Maybe it’s no coincidence that I started writing fiction after I became a dad. I’ve learned that the writing acts as an outlet for that anxious fidgeting of the mind. Oh, I still spend a good chunk of every day conjuring up awful things that might happen, but these are things that will happen to my characters, not to myself or my loved ones. That benefits me as a person, because I’m not a nervous wreck, and it benefits my readers because it keeps the tension flowing in my stories.

A tense reader keeps turning the pages until they run out of pages, which brings me to my final point . . .

5) Some people really fumping hate cliffhangers.

If I could change any one thing about That Risen Snow, the first book of The Scary Tales series, it would be the abruptness of the ending. I won’t give any spoilers here, except to say that the story ends with a pretty major cliffhanger.

By and large, the book has great reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, but the few negative reviews mostly concern the cliffhanger ending. Some people like cliffhangers. Others tolerate them if they care enough for the characters. A very vocal minority hates the shit out of cliffhangers and would probably eat your firstborn child if you have the audacity to write a cliffhanger. Seriously.

While I think the first book ends more or less at the best spot in the overarching story, I wish I’d finessed the final scene a little more. The subsequent books all end with some degree of tension, but the endings are more poignant and subtle. Rest assured, Book 9 will not end with a cliffhanger. All will be resolved. And almost no one will live happily ever after . . . 

 

Author Bio:

Rob E. Boley grew up in Enon, Ohio, a little town with a big Indian mound. He later earned a B.A. and M.A. in English from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

 

He’s the author of The Scary Tales series of dark fantasy novels featuring mash-ups of classic fairy tale characters and horror monsters. His fiction has appeared in several markets, including A cappella Zoo, Pseudopod, Clackamas Literary Review, and Best New Werewolf Tales. His stories have won Best in Show in the Sinclair Community College Creative Writing Contest and the Dayton Daily News/Antioch Writers’ Workshop Short Story Contest.

He lives with his daughter in Dayton, where he works for his alma mater. Each morning and most nights, he enjoys making blank pages darker. You can get to know him better by visiting his website at www.robboley.com.

Author Links:

Website: http://www.robboley.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/robboley
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RobBoleyAuthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4097555.Rob_E_Boley

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rob-E.-Boley/e/B00FSM1AD6

 

Book Links:

 

That Risen Snow: A Scary Tale of Snow White & Zombies

Available in paperback and ebook.

Ebook currently on sale for free!

·  Amazon.com

·  BN.com

·  Google Play

·  Kobo

·  iTunes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That Wicked Apple: A Scary Tale of Snow White & Even More Zombies

Available in paperback and ebook.

 

·  Amazon.com

·  BN.com

·  Google Play

·  Kobo

·  iTunes

 

A Scary Tales Box Set (Books 1-4)

There’s no better time to get caught up on The Scary Tales! This special box set contains the first four books of The Scary Tales series. That’s four complete novels for only $7.99!

 

·  Amazon.com

·  BN.com

·  Google Play

·  Kobo

·  iTunes

L. ANDREW COOPER: Five Things Learned Writing LEAPING AT THORNS

by darkheroicfantasy

Leaping at Thorns: Fifteen Impalements Penned by Andrew Cooper arranges 15 of L. Andrew Cooper's experimental short horror stories into a "triptych" of themes--complicity, entrapment, and conspiracy--elements that run throughout the collection.

The stories span from the emotionally-centered and violence-mild "Last Move," about a mother and son whose cross-country move might be complicated by a haunted U-Move truck, to the almost unthinkably horrific "Charlie Mirren and His Mother," also about a mother and son, but their lives take a turn that might be traumatic for readers as well. While "Worm Would" offers a psychosexual fantasia on the sheer grossness that is a flatworm, "Tapestry" uses absurd, sometimes comic violence to take Jessica, the young professional protagonist, into a political nightmare. The absurd reaches dark extremes in "Lachrymosa," a story of almost pure hallucination, and stretches back toward the comic in the brain-and-tongue-twister "Heart on a Stick." The 'conspiracy' panel of the triptych, from "The Fate of Doctor Fincher" to "The Special One," is a series of standalone stories that each adds important details to the fictional world and grand scheme of Dr. Allen Fincher, who also lurks in the background of Cooper's novels Burning the Middle Ground and Descending Lines.

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Leaping at Thorns (BlackWyrm, 2014), collects 15 unpublished horror short stories that originated in moments throughout my adult life so far—the first draft of the oldest story in the book I wrote when I was 19. Until published, and sometimes even after, I continued to revise, edit, tinker… so the stories, as well as the book as a whole, have almost twenty years of development. To discuss what I learned over that time period (which includes my entire post-secondary education and career as a professor first of English literature, then of writing and communication, now of film and digital media) would tax the patience of a tax attorney. So, below, I've focused on a few things I've picked up during the final phase, getting the book out to the world.

1. It’s okay to be a sick son of a bitch.

My publisher presented me with a certificate granting me the honorific status of “Sick Son of a Bitch” for having written and published Leaping at Thorns, which is indeed a brutal and sick collection of tales. I am genuinely proud of this certificate, prouder of it than most of the honors I’ve been lucky enough to receive in my life. First, I’m proud because it means I’ve found a niche and a community where the stuff I’ve been producing my whole life—with no idea, until a few years ago, if I’d ever really publish my fiction—is not only tolerable but actually exciting because it’s sick. And while I don’t think my publisher had this dimension of sickness in mind when he created the certificate (he’s far too kind and sensitive), the truth is, the nasty edge of many of these stories comes straight from my own history of clinical depression and possibly much deeper (untreated but resolved) mental illness issues that arose in my early twenties. My writing really comes from two places—dealing with sickness in my head, something we all have to one degree or another, and dealing with sickness in the world. I abhor violence anywhere but in fiction, but in my fiction, the violence really ought to put people in messed up states of mind. The book isn’t for kids, but for adults, this experience can be profound and productive, or so I’ve heard—and so it’s okay that this particular sick son of a bitch named L. Andrew Cooper is providing it.

2. For writers who refuse to follow trends, short story collections are awesome.

While I’m hoping for more reviews (the book has only been out for a month), most reviews and interviews related to Leaping at Thorns so far have pointed out that many of the stories, which I label as “experimental,” carry a significant “WTF” factor. I don’t really believe in realism, and I think editors who insist on rational character motivation and conventional narrative resolution tend to take a lot of the horror out of horror—few things are more horrific than phenomena that frighten us but defy logical explanation. Some of my stories, therefore, don’t fit into mainstream magazines and such that demand for authors to provide readers with more conventional experiences of stories with easy-to-follow characters and beginnings, middles, and ends. For my genre, horror, I’m also risky in avoiding pre-sold character types. Don’t get me wrong—I love me some good zombie, vampire, werewolf, and ghost stories, and some of the creatures that show up in my stories are arguably variants on these monstrous archetypes—but nothing in Leaping at Thorns speaks directly to these pre-existing horror markets. So again, one of these stories by itself is a homeless oddball. But with 14 friends, each story in the collection has a context where the absence of the more familiar trappings of contemporary horror is a unifying factor. The stories work better in a collection because the collection creates trends within itself.

3. Present-day me and years-ago me are different people.

I revised and edited all the stories in Leaping at Thorns in the months prior to publication, so they’ve all been filtered by my present-day brain, which belongs to a publishing author who thinks about things like audience accessibility—i.e., I think about the fact that readers might benefit from some WTF but at least need to have something to hold on to while they read. However, the me that first drafted many of these stories, particularly the oldest stories in the collection, didn’t give much thought to audience because he wasn’t thinking about publication. My 19-year-old self, for instance, was still obsessed with William Faulkner, stream of consciousness, sentences that go on for pages without full-stop punctuation and with embedded phrases locked inside other embedded phrases… a lot of that sort of stuff had to go because it would do a disservice to my audience. However, certain moves I see myself making in stories like “Hands” and “Light,” both older, I know I would never make in writing a story now, but they’re moves I would have no problem with another author making. So in preparing this book, I had to learn to draw a line between audience-unfriendly prose that had to go and narrative moves that another me made that deserved to stay.

4. Same stories + different me = easier publication.

One could say that my marvelous present day skills at revision and editing make all the difference. I don’t believe that, though. While some of the stories in Leaping at Thorns had never seen the light of day, I did send a few off to rejections. I eventually stopped submitting stories almost completely, as there’s little money and a lot of time involved in the revolving submissions processes. However, once I had a couple of novels, some good reviews, and a bit of a following, I started sending out some stories again… some of the same stories broadly rejected before… and got picked up immediately. I’m not famous or anything, but I’ve climbed a few rungs. This is just to say to other aspiring writers: if you’ve ever suspected that the quality of your writing is not at issue, rather your market position, you might very well be right.

5. Maybe, just maybe, I don’t have to consider “L. Andrew Cooper” to be a fictional character.

I’ve been very fortunate to work with BlackWyrm Publishing, a small press that lets me publish my grim stories—my novels Burning the Middle Ground and Descending Lines—my way. Each of those novels is politically charged, a bit more intellectual than standard horror fare, but chock full of brutal violence and page-turning suspense. With each, though, I felt worried that I had to keep my inner nerd at bay. The novels are, plainly put, less experimental than Leaping at Thorns. The recent short story collection is the biggest risk I’ve taken so far in terms of actually letting my deep nerd side come out and play with the sick son of a bitch side, and in that sense, it’s more who I am, both the past me and the present me, than anything I’ve published. The result is that Leaping at Thorns is simultaneously the sickest and most intellectual work of fiction I’ve published. And so far the reaction seems to be not only that this revelation of me-ness is not only okay but perhaps the best work I’ve ever turned over to the public. So maybe when I’m wearing my horror writer hat, I don’t have to pretend that I’m not also a complete geek for the history of philosophy and virtually every form of art our species has invented. Maybe the sum of the me-s is a viable author figure for the body of work I’m building. So maybe being “L. Andrew Cooper” can be the same thing as being myself—whatever that means.

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Author Bio

L. Andrew Cooper thinks the smartest people like horror, fantasy, and sci-fi. Early in life, he couldn't handle the scary stuff--he'd sneak and watch horror films and then keep his parents up all night with his nightmares. In the third grade, he finally convinced his parents to let him read grownup horror novels: he started with Stephen King's Firestarter, and by grade five, he was doing book reports on The Stand.

When his parents weren't being kept up late by his nightmares, they worried that his fascination with horror fiction would keep him from experiencing more respectable culture. That all changed when he transitioned from his public high school in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia to uber-respectable Harvard University, where he studied English Literature. From there, he went on to get a Ph.D. in English from Princeton, turning his longstanding engagement with horror into a dissertation. The dissertation became the basis for his first book, Gothic Realities (2010). More recently, his obsession with horror movies turned into a book about one of his favorite directors, Dario Argento (2012). He also co-edited the textbook Monsters (2012), an attempt to infect others with the idea that scary things are worth people's serious attention.

After living in Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and California, Andrew now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where he teaches at the University of Louisville. Burning the Middle Ground is his debut novel.

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Links

L. Andrew Cooper's Horrific Scribblings

Leaping at Thorns (Amazon)

Leaping at Thorns (B&N)

BlackWyrm Publishing

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Praise for LEAPING AT THORNS

"Reading Leaping at Thorns takes me back to my childhood, and those sleepless nights of reading Stephen King’s Night Shift and Clive Barker’s Books of Blood. Cooper can scare, shock, and more than that, get you to think about things you never considered before, and perhaps, were frightened to even contemplate. A real triumph!" — Michael West, bestselling author of Cinema of Shadows, Spook House, and The Wide Game

"Leaping at Thorns, a new collection of short stories from L. Andrew Cooper, will leave you paranoid! The stories make even the bravest souls cringe in shock and horror. For fans of the genre, this is a rare and fantastic treat, sure to give you gooseflesh and nightmares!" — John F. Allen, author of The God Killers

"Once you start an L. Andrew Cooper story, you can’t stop, even if you have to squint between the fingers of your hand as it covers your face. Here’s a collection of 15 such stories. Modern horror at its best, Enjoy." — R.J. Sullivan, author of Haunting Obsession

"Cooper both frequently and brilliantly focuses on the human element in his tales with the protagonists’ flaws and pains exposed for the reader to vicariously revel in while the darkly delightful antagonists/archfiends of all shapes and sizes often take a back seat in the storylines, which many would argue is the hallmark of great writing. Highly recommended!" — G.L. Giles, author of Water Vamps

"Each story reads like a frightening nightmare from which you don’t want to wake." — Christopher Kokoski, author of Dark Halo

"Cooper’s imagination delves into the bizarre, creating horrific images through windows in our minds to view." — Brick Marlin, author of Land of the Dead

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Note: I had the pleasure of getting to know Andrew Cooper two ways, one, he reviewed my TRANSPORT (Book One) short novel for Seventh Star Press, and interviewed me a bit after the fact. Two, I met him at the Imaginarium writers convention in Louisville KY 2014. I had the opportunity to talk to him and sit in on his LEAPING AT THORNS book launch. His publisher, BlackWyrm, gave out all sorts of free goodies at the launch. I even acquired a "tapeworm" as Andrew has a story in the book that involves a tapeworm.

Andrew is a very nice gent, and very talented. I recommend his book. (Plus a book of short stories is always fun because if you don't necessarily enjoy the piece you are reading, there is another one a few pages down.)

PJW Nov 2014

Armand Rosamilia: Five Things I Learned Writing CHELSEA AVENUE

by darkheroicfantasy

 

 

 

"I don't come across books like Rosamilia's CHELSEA AVENUE often. Infused with the dreamlike quality of memory, Rosamilia here fulfills the full measure of the promise I first saw in his DYING DAYS series. Beautifully dark, this book held me entranced. I couldn't get enough!" -Joe McKinney, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of DOG DAYS and PLAGUE OF THE UNDEAD 

 

Some things never stop until the deed is done.

 

On July 8th 1987, in Long Branch, New Jersey, The Haunted House Pier and Murphy's Law club fires destroyed not only local landmarks, but everything Manny Santiago found dear.

And it isn't over.

 

The entity responsible for killing Manny's family and wreaking devastation in the small seaside community has reappeared. Again. And is growing in power.

 

 

Now every July 8th it returns, and this time survivors of the fires, including Manny, are being led back to the now-vacant lot on Chelsea Avenue, where the entity intends to finish what it started in 1987 once and for all.

 

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1. I couldn't have written this book when I originally got the basic idea back in about 2001. I wasn't ready to write a novel-length story with so many characters, and especially the fun/toughness of having every chapter set on the same date but a new year. 

 

2. Even though I hadn't been back to New Jersey and the Long Branch area in over twelve years, I could picture everything like I was there. I spent many nights in the town and especially on the actual Chelsea Avenue, and I hope it shows. I learned I could write from memory, in essence. 

 

3. I definitely learned I am a much stronger and confident writer now than when I thought up the idea, because over a dozen years ago I had no idea how to execute such an intricate storyline. Most of my tales are pretty straightforward and easy to follow. Chelsea Avenue was a much bigger story, with multiple plotlines and characters, and all of them having to be written in a 24 hour period on the anniversary. 

 

4. The elemental evil forces in Chelsea Avenue were actually created back in 2001, and I used one of them in my Tool Shed horror novella (look for a re-release soon, by the way) but realized even though the two stories are tied together, they are both separate entities... at this point...

 

5. This is the best story I've written so far, and I'm very happy with every aspect of it. While my many Dying Days zombie stories are great sellers, I'm hoping readers will latch onto Chelsea Avenue and explore my non-zombie horror work. 

 

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Armand Rosamilia is a New Jersey boy currently living in sunny Florida, where he writes when he's not sleeping.

He's written over 100 stories that are currently available, including a few different series:

"Dying Days" extreme zombie series
"Keyport Cthulhu" horror series
"Flagler Beach Fiction Series" contemporary fiction
"Metal Queens" non-fiction music series

He also loves to talk in third person... because he's really that cool. [He wrote that, not me. But, yeah, will admit. He is THAT cool. -- PJW] He's a proud Active member of HWA as well. 

You can find him at http://armandrosamilia.com for not only his latest releases but interviews and guest posts with other authors he likes! [I guess I need to offer him more M&M's to get on his good side.--PJW]

And e-mail him to talk about zombies, baseball and Metal: armandrosamilia@gmail.com

 

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/armand.rosamilia

Twitter:

@ArmandAuthor

Website:

http://armandrosamilia.com 

 

 

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Chelsea Avenue can be found at:

Amazon Kindle

(Note: Paperback edition will be available shortly.)

 

 



I'm also a big Cthulhu fan so I just had to search down

and put this cover of Armand's KEYPORT CTHULHU book.