by mike | Mar 31, 2016 | Books, California, Ghosts, Life, Nightmares, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Uncategorized, Writing |
Over three decades later, losing my beloved German shepherd still hurts. I wrote about Barney back in 2012. As a writer I don’t often use the old cliché, “Love at first sight.” But that’s what happened the first time I saw Barney. This runty German shepherd, about two...
by mike | Feb 18, 2016 | Books, Horror, Nightmares, Research, Sword & Planet, Sword & Sorcery, Uncategorized, Writing |
In this post from 2012 I talk about how my dreams—good and bad—influenced so much of my writing, especially back in the day. What’s the deal? A guy who writes horror, fantasy and other weird stuff wondering if creativity is a curse? To be honest—no, not the majority...
by mike | Feb 11, 2016 | Books, Editing, Humor, Nightmares, Science Fiction, Uncategorized, Writers' Retreat, Writing |
Back in 2012, when I facilitated workshops at the Hunt Country Writers’ Retreat in Virginia, I finally got to meet Ken Kraus for the first time. Ken is a New Jersey-based writer of speculative fiction, and while I’d worked with him on and off for years as his editor...
by mike | Jun 22, 2015 | Ghosts, Horror, Horror Movies, Movies, Nightmares, Paranormal, Uncategorized |
I, for one, am glad that in recent years, horror filmmakers have decided that scaring the crap out of people is more important than grossing them out by spilling buckets of blood. The 2013 gem titled Mama, starring Jessica Chastain—a talented actress—is a prime...
by mike | Apr 20, 2015 | Books, Editing, Fantasy, Nightmares, Publishing, Sword & Sorcery, Uncategorized, Writing |
In last week’s post I discussed a movie, The Whole Wide World, which chronicled a brief period of time in the all-too-short life of writer Robert E. Howard. Best known for his stories about Conan the Barbarian, Howard is considered by many to be the “father” of the...
by mike | Sep 15, 2014 | Books, Bookstores, Native Americans, Nightmares, Uncategorized, Writers' Retreat, Writing |
That line, and Stephen King’s Misery—which I wrote about last week—are apparently inseparable. In the hope of finding some more material I entered “writers’ number one fans” into a search engine, and guess what: the first four links that show up are for Misery and...