Is Stephen King Overrated?

My mother wouldn't let me anywhere near Stephen King's novels when I was a kid. Of course, that didn't stop me from reading them. Cujo was the first book of his that caught my attention because I thought the idea of people being terrorized by a demon-possessed dog sounded cool. Granted, Cujo is not King's best work.

But, to be frank, I never thought any of his work was that great. Even as a teen I got to a point where I couldn’t figure out why his books were so popular, and I thought, “You know what, I don't like these books. Why am I reading this?" From Carrie to It to Pet Sematary to Thinner, I thought King’s books were boring, wordy, unscary, and forgettable.

But that's not my beef with him. There are plenty of awful writers out there, and I just don’t bother reading them. But with King it’s different.

You see, he wasn’t all the rage when he first started writing. Throughout the early parts of his career, King was dogged by critics who called him out for his genre-specific, “popular” literary stylings, even as he was selling millions of books annually.

In the early 80s, The Toronto Globe called his novel Carrie "a clumsy experiment." The Los Angeles Times called Cujo "Paws" instead of "Jaws," saying, ‘[the book] doesn't work." In 1983, the same year that Christine and Pet Sematary were published, an essay in the Times suggested it was a slog for reviewers to read King's work, saying they would rather just have a beer with him than read his books. In 1986, the Times said, "Where did Stephen King, the most experienced crown prince of darkness, go wrong with It? Almost everywhere."

In 2003, King won the National Book Foundation’s award for distinguished contribution, and Boston.com writer and Yale professor Harold Bloom let the world know that giving King the award was wrong. He said it was “another low in the shocking process of dumbing down our cultural life.”

A recent article in The Huffington Post said King can’t write. The author, Michael Conniff, an instructor and writer himself, said Stephen King’s broad-stroke descriptions are actually hurting his work.

In an article in Salon, Dwight Allen from the LA Review of Books asked why is Stephen King so beloved? Allen dissected a bunch of his books and came to the conclusion that King is overrated as a writer and as a storyteller. He argued that sales do not translate to excellent writing, and questioned some publications that wrote glowing reviews of King's body of work.

So why is he so popular?

I think King’s saving grace was Hollywood. His books, though poorly written, were edgy, and edgy is always what catches the attention of Hollywood. Once movie makers started turning his books into feature films the Stephen King bandwagon really took off. Remember those two-night Stephen King television "events"—It, The Langoliers, Storm of the Century? When those mini series became trendy people assumed some literary masterpiece had landed on earth and they started they eating his books by the trough full.

And then King's popularity began to overshadow his shortcomings as a writer.

When King published the seventh volume of his Dark Tower series, The Washington Post gave it a gushing review, saying it was “a humane, visionary epic and a true magnum opus.” The New York Times listed his JFK assassination novel 11/22/63 one of "The 10 Best Books" of the year.

Ultimately, I don’t think the quality of King’s work stands up. In fact, I think it’s downright awful. For a guy who has taught English for much of his career, who had given lectures and written books about the importance of story, he spends a good deal of time drowning his stories in words.

But what do I know? King has sold over 350 million books so he is obviously doing something right. Readers have voted with their wallets, and they have crowned King… king. I’m glad that a fellow author has found success, I just wish it could be for the quality of his work and not because he won a popularity contest.

What do you think? Is Stephen King overrated?

Tell Me Again Why You Won't Read My Book

If you're still on the fence about my latest novel Rabbit Punch, here is a PDF download of the first 20 pages. Enjoy! Click to download.

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The biggest joy for any writer is having their work read. Nothing else means as much—not money, or book readings, or New York Times reviews. Just being read is its own reward. Well, for this writer anyway.

So when I come across people who aren't willing to give my book a chance, it's kind of frustrating, especially when they give me some of the excuses they've got for not reading Rabbit Punch.

Bear in mind the story is about the actions of an old retired boxer when he finds out his neighbor's 9-year-old daughter was abducted by pedophiles. He sets out on a one-man mission to punish those responsible. Think Death Wish in rural New England with some good old-fashioned Scottish flair.

I understand if content like this turns some people off. I've had several close friends and family members tell me they won't read it simply because they can't stomach this kind of thing. What frustrates me is that some of these people won't miss an episode of Criminal Minds or CSI, shows that depict the same kind of content I'm writing about.

One family member told me that Rabbit Punch goes against their moral beliefs, and they wouldn't want anyone in their church knowing they read that kind of stuff. But I've been in this person's home, and I've perused their bookshelves. I know what I've written about is no worse than what they've already read.

Maybe frustrated is the wrong word, because Rabbit Punch has received excellent word of mouth and great reviews. It's not like I'm dying for someone to 5-star me on Amazon. I think perplexed is a better word. Confused, maybe. They'll watch shows about murdered strippers and drug-dealing rapists, but they won't read a book about child abduction.

*shrugs*

Then again, maybe my twisted mind is just too jaded.

If you haven't decided to give Rabbit Punch a go, click here to download what is essentially the opening act. I hope you enjoy it!

My Latest Baby Goes Out Into The World With A Punch

There's something about the prospect of revenge that taps into the very animal inside us. It doesn't matter who you are. There's not a person on the planet who hasn't at one time or another wished for instant "karma" on someone else.

Movies like The Brave One, or Death Sentence, or the infamous slew of Charles Bronson Death Wish films, a revenge story hits us in the heart.

And so it was with no small degree of emotion that I penned Rabbit Punch. I started by asking myself what subject gets under my skin more than anything else. If someone did "_____" to someone I loved, I would totally lose my cool and go all Liam Neeson on them.

The answer, for me, was child sex trafficking. Considering I wrote the novel right after the birth of my firstborn son, "Rabbit Punch" is as raw and gritty as I could make it.

My other inspiration is real life hero Frank Corti, a retired junior boxing champion who served in the Royal Engineers. In 2009, at the age of 72, Mr Corti stopped a knife-wielding home invader using nothing but his fists. I've always enjoyed stories with a more mature protagonist because, simply put, old people are awesome!

Frank Cort

I can't name ONE horror movie starring a bunch of picture-perfect twenty-somethings that's actually scary. Why? Because young people scare too easily. There's nothing scary about watching a bunch of college students running from the boogeyman. Give me a character like Father Merrin from The Exorcist, a weathered old man who has seen it all. When someone like him gets scared, then you know the stakes are high.

All of this lead to the creation of the story behind Rabbit Punch as well as its main character, a 62-year-old retired boxer and tough-as-nails Scotsman, Glen McLeod.

From the back of the book

Glen McLeod learned to box the same way he learned to drink: through pain. Now 62 and a recluse in the rural community of Bath County, Glen spends his days with his garden, his dog, a bottle of hard liquor and harder memories.

That is until Lauren, the 9-year-old daughter of his next-door neighbor, is abducted.

When the county sheriff appears complicit in covering up the truth Glen begins his own investigation. The clues lead him to something more sinister than anyone expected. Caught between justice and revenge, Glen will discover what he’s truly capable of when he’s pushed against the ropes.

Indie Authors Need To Make Waves, Not Splashes

I've been taking some time away from Children of the Falls and the world of Edhen to focus on a new project. It's a short book that I wanted to write to market as quickly as I could, because as much as I love my gargantuan fantasy novels they do take a while to write. I want to output more books, learn to write better faster, and hook into a popular genre that can actually put some money in my pocket.

Whether us indie authors like it or not we need to be concerned with output. A novel every year or two is not enough. We need to publish more frequently. It's the difference between making a big splash and making waves. A splash lasts for a moment and its ripples quickly fade, but waves never stop.

These past couple of months have been a test for myself. I've measured how long it takes me to write a 70,000 word novel, what my average per hour word output is, and whether I'm more productive at home, at a coffee shop, in the afternoon or evening. It's yielded some interesting insights that have shown me ways I can improve.

For example:

• As much as I love to get a blended latte at Krispy Kreme and work in the corner booth, I've found that my average per hour word output drops from about 1,500 words to a thousand or less while working in a public place. Ouch.
• Interestingly enough I find editing is easier when I'm at a coffee shop away from home.
• At home I did my best writing between the hours of 10pm and midnight with about 1,700 words per hour. I can't focus enough in the mornings or afternoons to obtain that level of output.
• The quality of my work is best when I've outlined what I want to write. Even if that means taking five minutes before my writing time to consider what direction I want to take a certain scene or conversation. When I've got a map to follow the quality and speed at which I write is much faster.

The new mystery novel is a genre jump for me, but it's a genre that sells more consistently than medieval fantasy. The problem with fantasy is that it requires an investment on behalf of the reader. People want to be immersed in the worlds of Middle Earth, Narnia, and Westeros, but they're often hesitant to take the plunge. Getting familiar with a new world is a big undertaking, especially if the author is an indie guy like me.

I appreciate the loyal fans I have for Children of the Falls, but it's time, I think, to expand my horizons.

The new novel, Rabbit Punch, is a vigilante mystery thriller set in a small New England town similar to where I grew up. It was inspired by a news article I read back in 2014 about a 72-year-old retired boxer who defended himself from a 20-something home invader. When this punk kid broke into his home and attacked him with a knife this old man took him down with two punches. The paramedics who responded to the scene described what the kid looked like after being hit by this old former boxing champion—"It looked like he'd been hit by a truck." I found that amusing.

I love old people. I think they're undervalued and underserved in this country. I think they've got so much to say and so much wisdom we can glean from if we weren't so wrapped up in our selfish day-to-day lives.

I'm looking forward to releasing Rabbit Punch for people to read. It's a fun, fast-paced who-done-it story with a dash of brutal vigilantism. Coming soon!

One Of The Best Things About Having An Outline

To outline or not to outline? That is the question every writer must face.

I'm big on outlining. I don't use bullet points or any kind of outlining nonsense they taught in school. My outlines are different. My outlines are straightforward story maps that I make before I start writing a novel. Some of them are so thorough I consider them Draft One.

I outline for many reasons.

1. To quickly get a story out of my system (usually takes about five days) and see if it's even worth writing.
2. To help prevent writer's block further along in the process.
3. To plan foreshadowing events and character arcs.
4. To ensure my story isn't just a sequence of events, but that it contains subtlety and subtext.
5. To build, not just a story, but a world within my story.
6. To make sure I don't screw something up (she starts the story with blonde hair, but ends the story a brunette. Oops!)
7. To help me remember what the hell is going on. (What happened to that guy from Chapter 3?)
8. To hash out plot points in advance so I don't get stuck.

I could go on, but eight is a cool number so I'll stop there.

Recently I began work on a new novel, something I'm aiming to write to market and release later this year. While on vacation I created a very thorough, chapter-by-chapter outline. I practically storyboarded the entire book and in the process found a gem of a story that I'm very excited about.

I started writing the narrative about a week ago, and last night I ran into a conflict with the plot.

"What the frack? Are you kidding me? All that work outlining and I run into THIS?"

Here's what happened.

In a nutshell, I had a character who had written down the license plate number of a suspected child abductor. This character worked at a hardware store and the suspect had been a customer. The license plate number was taken to the police in the hopes of discovering the suspect's name and address. But I ran into a conflict when it occurred to me that the suspect had just ordered some building materials from the hardware store. His name and address were already on file. There was no point in going to the police with the plate number because the hero already the info he needed.

And a whole subplot went down the drain.

Fluuush!

*face palm*

"You're an idiot, Craig. You wasted all that time outlining and look where it got you. Welcome to Writer's Blockville, buddy! I can't believe—"

But then the answer to the problem hit me. Because I had created such a thorough outline, because I knew the arcs of my main characters and knew where the story was headed, my narrative was taking on a life of its own. The solution to the conflict in my plot was already in the story, I just hadn't seen it yet.

Had it not been for my outline I could've wasted hours, maybe even days trying to dig myself out of the plot hole. But after a few minutes of skimming my outline I had a solution.

Outlining has saved my life multiple times. There are good ways to do it, and bad ways to do it, and, in my opinion, downright wrong ways to do it. I'm not saying it's the only way to write, just that this is one example of how it has worked for me.

A New Novel In The Works

The rabbit punch is one of the most dangerous blows in boxing.

This term originates from a method used to kill trapped or injured rabbits. Rabbit punching has similar effects on humans, potentially resulting in unconsciousness, severe injuries to the neck and spine, and death. Penalties for rabbit punching depend on the offending boxer's intent and whether the blow leads to injury.

Definition

In boxing, a rabbit punch typically refers to a punch to the back of an opponent's head, the base of the skull or the back of the neck. This term is sometimes used to refer to other illegal punches, including blows to the kidneys and back. Because of this and the risk of penalization, boxers rarely intend to land such blows. However, unintentional rabbit punches commonly occur as boxers move quickly or lose their balance during a fight.

Origins

The term originates from a method used by rabbit gamekeepers or trappers to kill a rabbit without spoiling its pelt. Delivering a strong, sharp blow to the back of a rabbit's neck at a 45-degree angle dislocates its neck and severs its spinal cord. This is typically performed with a small, blunt object or by using a chopping motion with your hand. If performed correctly, it is thought to be one of the quickest and most humane ways to kill a trapped or injured rabbit.

Risks

Rabbit punching can have the same effect on boxers as it does on rabbits. A boxer can easily render an opponent unconscious with an accurate rabbit punch. This can result in serious injuries to the brain, neck and spine, with additional damage potentially resulting from falling unconscious. Similar to its use by rabbit gamekeepers and trappers, a rabbit punch in boxing is potentially lethal.

So?

I'm aiming to write to market a mystery/thriller. The idea originated from a cluster of ideas that have been bouncing around in my head for years. It has little to do with boxing, and everything to do with a "rabbit punch."

Dear Manuscript: I'd Rather Eat Grass - A Procrastinator's Story

Yesterday you sat idly and watched as I took my screen doors off their rollers. You listened while I used the garden hose to wash them free of the wind-swept dust that had been clouding my view of Maui's Mount Haleakala for too long.

My allergies will probably thank me later.

I knew you were there, Manuscript, listening, waiting for me to come back to you, but I didn't care. You see, I was procrastinating. I didn't really care about the screen doors. I just wanted something else to do.

Procrastination. Such an ugly word, and yet it plagues 95% of writers—the honest ones anyway. Since starting this blog post I've made my wife lunch, changed baby's diaper, checked my email about 500 times, participated in a lengthy web discussion about whether Iron Man has a catheter in the groin of his suit, replied to several Facebook posts by people I haven't spoken to in years, and Googled "why do dogs eat grass," because when I went to type "why do writers procrastinate," dogs eating grass was the first suggestion Google came up with and that sounded far more interesting at the time.

So why do writes procrastinate?

There are a variety of answers, none of which I know because the thing I've spent the last hour reading about is a case study of 49 dog owners whose dogs had regular access to grass and other plants. The study found that 80% of the dogs had eaten plants at some time, with grass being the most common thing eaten. Apparently dogs eating grass is so common that even wild dogs do it.

Believe it or not the most widely accepted scientific theory as to why dogs do this is boredom. I know. I scrunched my face at that too. Even though there may be dietary or nutritional reasons for some dogs to eat grass, most do it simply because their owners don't engage with them enough.

Huh. How sad.

I'm sorry to have ignored you, Manuscript. On the bright side I now have a nice view of Mount Haleakala, a wealth of knowledge on why dogs eat grass, and a brand spanking new blog to send off into the internet. I'll return to you shortly. For now I think I have some vacuuming to do.

Why do we vacuum?

You're doddling writer,

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Dear Manuscript is an ongoing series by author C.W. Thomas discussing his frustrations with those annoying voices in his head.

Click here to read more.

My Favorite H.G. Wells Quote

The Island of Dr. Moreau is by far one of my favorite books. I first read it as a teenager and have probably read it more times throughout my life than any other book.

As a kid I even memorized the final paragraph. To me this single section of text reveals a profound insight to the human condition. It suggests that nothing we do can fulfill us—not acquiring wealth, not garnering fame, not being in control or chasing after power, status, love, sex, drugs, or anything else. It points to a source of peace far beyond ourselves to something much more esoteric.

The story in The Island of Dr. Moreau is an exploration of humanity's animalistic tendencies. Are we, by nature, animals, or are we held to a greater standard by the concept of morality? If morality does exist, who decides what is moral, and can it save us from ourselves?

In Wells' story this concept is presented by the character of Dr. Moreau, a mad scientist type who creates a race of humanoid beings by genetically modifying animals—pig-men, dog-men, leopard-men, and many others, though sometimes with nightmarish results.

The curious thing about this tale is that without the continued medicinal support of their creator the creatures revert to their more feral natures. Once they became self-aware enough to recognize the cruelty of what Moreau is doing they turn on him, but in destroying him they destroy what they need to survive, essentially destroying themselves.

At the end of the story the main character returns to civilization and struggles to find peace after all the horrors he witnessed on Moreau's island. He turns to astronomy and finds something he did not expect.

And I quote.

"Ah-hem."

Taps microphone.

"There is, though I do not know why there is or how there is, a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven. There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope. I hope, or I could not live."

Hope.

Sometimes it's as vague as morality, but according to Wells we can't survive without it. It can't be found in what we can see, taste, or touch, not in our troubles or our worries or our fears, but from somewhere else.

And maybe it's found in different ways for different people, but this much is clear: as I watch our society destroy itself under its myriad of petty arguments on racism, gender issues, politics, ethics, religion, and more, it becomes increasingly apparent that people need to shift their focus. The more time we spend obsessing on all these issues, fostering dissension, hate, and fear, the further we fall from hope.

Update On Book 3 - Somewhere Around Chapter 35

The deeper this series goes the more the story takes on a life of its own. This wasn't entirely unexpected. The outlines of the first four books that were created, and the conceptualizing of the following four left plenty of room for flexibility. The final book has not been outlined at all. That one is in fate's hands.

But things have taken on a life of their own sooner than expected.

Last week two of the seven main characters were ready to have their narratives reach a climax, much sooner than planned, I might add. The setting changed. The timing changed. These two characters suddenly came together and wanted to have a big finale. Nothing wrong with that, just surprising is all. It's wonderful when characters take on a life of their own, but challenging as well.

The chapters that came as a result of this sudden merger were a delight to witness, with short, rapid-fire moments that bounce from character to character catching different beats of action as the story slingshotted to the end.

It won't be long now, and draft one of book three will be complete.

Stay tuned,

Dear Manuscript: No, You Can't Drive

We started out on this journey together with a working understanding of each other's roles. Or so I thought.

I was the driver. You were the road. I was making the turns, reading the maps, deciding if west was better than east or if a pitstop couldn't wait until the next Burger King where I could get a large fry and an ice cold Dr. Pepper.

But you decided Dr. Pepper wasn't worth waiting for. You wanted to stop at McDonald's for a far inferior Coke from a watered down soda machine. So you took over. I don't know when, but somehow you managed to wiggle yourself down into the driver's side and plop me in the passenger's seat strap me into a carseat in the back like a wailing infant. Just who do you think you are?

We need to find a way to work together again. I understand that you've got your own ideas, and that most of them stem from nothing more than intuition, but sometimes we need to plan ahead. (I'm sorry, but Prince Tristian Elle cannot become king of Tranent. It doesn't make sense, no matter how much you want it to. I think. Actually, I don't know about that one yet. It might be kind of fun.)

But I digress.

Let's reevaluate, because my plans for this series are flying wildly off course and I think it's because I've given you the reins one too many times. You had a few good ideas, but it's over. This is a partnership, not a dictatorship. We're like the United States from a hundred years ago, not this tyrannical do-whatever-the-hell-it-wants governing body ruling over us now.

So calm down with your fly-by-the-pants ideas and let's work together on this. We're only at book three with six more to go. Capisce?

Your backseat writer,

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Dear Manuscript is an ongoing series by author C.W. Thomas discussing his frustration with those annoying voices in his head.

Click here to read more.

Is Rewriting While Writing A Crime?

Is it okay for a writer to stop part-way through a first draft to go back and rewrite something?

Ooh, rewriting while writing. Tsk, tsk. This question comes up a lot among writers, and I don't entirely understand why.

Writing is a creative process. If you overthink it you'll lose that creative edge, that part of you that imbues the writing with the most... you. Keep in mind I'm talking about the creative aspect of writing here, not editing or proofreading or punctuation or any other technical aspect. Those come later.

In the beginning, you just need to get out of you what's inside you. Get that first draft done by any and all means necessary. If that means going back and rewriting something, do it! If you think it will slow you down then write a note to yourself about what you want to rewrite so you don't forget, and keep going.

Just write.

It frustrates me when I see writers getting hung up on questions like this. I've been writing novels since I was 15 years old, and it never occurred to me that going back to rewrite something as I was still writing might be wrong. I never asked if I should be outlining or not. I never wondered about what writing software to use. I just wrote.

And wrote, and wrote, and wrote.

The great majority of writers barely finish one novel. By the time I was 17, I had written three, one of which was published. To date I've completed nine.

Proceed with caution

If you do go back to rewrite something, don't start editing.

EXAMPLE
I'm working on chapter twenty-six of book three in my medieval fantasy series Children of the Falls. I just recently went all the way back to chapter one to re-write something—I wanted to write a secondary character into a certain scene. As I read through what I had already written I noticed typos, misspellings, passive voice, but I ignored all of it. I'll clean that stuff up in editing. My objective—my only objective—was to rewrite a portion of a scene to include a secondary character. That's it. Done. Moving on.

My point is simple. Do whatever you got to do to get that first draft down. Don't worry about how I do it. Don't worry about how J.K. Rowling does it. Stop perusing writing forums and Facebook pages asking formatting questions and comparing your process to the processes of others.

Just. Write.

Author Interview: John L. Monk

"Just ask yourself how many times in your life you've been forced to go to the emergency room. ... Even without the skills of our forebears, human life is delicate and nature is brutal."

—JOHN L. MONK

I came across John L. Monk's "Kick" while searching for something to read on a flight to Hawai'i in January 2015. John's intriguing story, sharp prose, and clever wit hooked me from the get-go and I've been a fan ever since.

Buy Hell's Children

His latest book, "Hell's Children," just hit the market. Though a departure from his usual genre it's a great read, and John's distinctive style isn't lost. The story revolves around a group of teenagers who find themselves the sole survivors of a sickness that has wiped out everyone over the age of sixteen. This story of survival pits society's "cabbages," teens who can only thrive in a coddling environment, against the "weeds," those tough-as-nails kids willing to do what it takes to survive.

To celebrate the release of his new book—and partly because I'm just plain nosy—I asked John for an interview, which he generously provided.

C.W. Ok, first of all, if the scenario in Hell’s Children actually happened, would John L. Monk be a cabbage or a weed?

J.L.M. Hah, I first conceived the whole "cabbages and weeds" view of the world by reading the autobiography of Ben Franklin and thinking, "Wow, he ran away at fourteen to start a business. Can you imagine the pampered, texting, video game-playing kids these days doing anything so gutsy, so ambitious?" I thought about the hard life Ben and the early Americans lived and how they could do so incredibly much: build a house from the raw materials at hand, feed themselves off the land, make their own clothing, birth a nation. Amazing stuff.

And to answer your question, I'd totally be a cabbage. I don't know how to do any of that stuff. Sure, I can fish, kill some poor deer or something and try to eat it. But to write the book, I spent a lot of time on Youtube figuring stuff out, reading articles online, that kind of thing. In a post-apoc situation, the Internet goes away. Danger lurks everywhere. Just ask yourself how many times in your life you've been forced to go to the emergency room. I can count six or seven times, all of them potentially life threatening. Even without the skills of our forebears, human life is delicate and nature is brutal.

The character Jack is unique. His survivalist parents taught him lots of stuff that’s lost on kids today. Is this how you were raised? If not, how did you devise Jack’s upbringing? Did you watch a lot of “Doomsday Preppers?”

Me raised like that? Heck no. I was raised by Jack Tripper and Andy Griffith and Whatchu-talkin'-bout-Willis. I watched a lot of TV. Ok, not entirely true—I went fishing a lot, ran out in the woods looking for snakes, shot guns while visiting my great grandparents in West Virginia, but that was about as grizzled as it got. My education was limited to whatever I could scrape from school and still get a passing grade. Mostly, I read fantasy and science fiction. That, at least, gave me some perspective on the level of my ignorance. To counteract that, I suppose that's why I got a degree in Anthropology. I learned a lot from that—how to think about people and understand why they do things. Empathy has been my biggest strength as a writer.

Oh, and about "Doomsday Preppers"—that show really bugs me. I love seeing all the preppers, what they do, all the ideas and stuff. But then along comes the stupid Nat Geo know-it-all at the end telling us (the audience) just how implausible the various doomsday scenarios are. And the arguments they use are pretty indefensible—provided there's no one around to defend against them, in which case they get to "win" or whatever. So I stopped watching it.

I couldn't agree more. The so-called "reality TV" is all about making fun of people. There's very little "real" about any of it.

If you want good survival stuff, go listen to podcasts like "The Survivalist Prepper Podcast" or "The Survival Podcast," or check out forums like "survivalistboards.com." The TV stuff is heavily-edited, exploitative, and unfair.

Your book explores some pretty dark aspects of humanity, and what teenagers of today might become in a world without electricity, supermarkets, and adult supervision. What sort of experiences have you had, or what research did you do, to capture all of that so vividly?

To be honest, I still remember what it was like in high school, on the playground, on the baseball team when the coach wasn't looking. Kids can be vicious, cruel, and shockingly stupid. And the ones that aren't are victims to the ones that are. Just look at some of the more famous "bullying" videos on YouTube and you'll see. But for a handy camera at the right time, those stories would never have seen the light of day. As for research, every day on Facebook turns up story after story of boys or girls beating up some old person for "disrespecting" them (if a reason is given at all). The research is all around us, it's abhorrent, and it's just getting worse.

Post-apocalyptic fiction isn’t a genre you’ve explored before. What made you decide to tackle this subject?

I've always loved the genre. I've read about twenty "Death Lands" novels by James Axler, "One Second After," "Lucifer's Hammer," "Alas Babylon," "The Stand," "Z For Zachariah," and a bunch more I can't recall. I love The Walking Dead. It's interesting to me. And there's an audience for it. I'm a writer. I sit in a chair for hours at a time sweating over commas and stuff—it's a lot of work. And when I'm done writing something, I want it to be read. Writing in a popular genre that I personally enjoy is a great payoff for all that work.

But despite the personal benefit (money, ego-stroking), I also wanted to talk about "kids these days." The story is sort of a wake-up call. Go read Angela's Ashes. Frank McCourt used to watch the men of Limerick ride the coal wagon to the mines every day. He describes all the kids standing along the road watching them, dreaming of the day they could do the same. Can you imagine "kids these days" wanting to work in a coal mine? Any kid caught wanting such a thing would be seen as an aberration—a "chump" for wanting to do hard work like a grownup. Smart kids in school are called nerds, at best, and beaten up at worst. Not that there's a lot of kids getting smart in schools these days, but that's another discussion.

Post-apocalyptic novels are the rage these days. How were you influenced by other books in this genre, and how did you design “Hell’s Children” to stand apart?

Those books I mentioned were heavy influences. I would read them and think, "What would I do in this situation?" With my limited survival knowledge, I rarely had a good answer. So that's another great reason I chose children to survive the apocalypse, and it goes back to the whole "cabbages and weeds" thing: I'm simply not that smart. I think I have a lot of empathy, so I know how kids would behave—how humans would behave. But knowing how to survive on my own without the benefits of civilization requires research. And research is time consuming. If I write about kids undergoing a terrible calamity (like all the adults dying), suddenly I don't have so much research.

Smart move. And it makes your story feel all the more plausible.

Exactly. Like me, the kids don't know very much. Shoot an animal, cut off a piece and eat it? Makes perfect sense to the cabbages in the story. For Jack's character, I had to research how to field dress an animal, and what parts you'd consume if you wanted to survive (hint: the organs—that's where all the vitamins and minerals are). So writing about kids was a great way to focus on story and less on data. Motivations and cause and effect. That's what people read books for. Not data.

I’ve always admired your prose. It’s concise, it’s clever, and very direct. Tell us about your writing process. What does it look like? How do you best like to work? Do you have any weird quirks? Do you write naked?

Haha. No, I've never written while naked. Too many dangly bits to deal with.

And thank you for the compliment on my typing practice—I try my best. Well actually, that's not entirely true. I make a serious effort to write something good, I read it a bunch of times, changing as I go along, get it edited, read it again two to three more times, changing as I go (putting in new typos and stuff), then I publish it. Then very nice readers tell me quietly about the remaining typos, which freaks me out (I get embarrassed about that kind of thing) and I go put the fixes in and hope nobody notices.

You do that too? No way!

And I write direct prose because when I try to write flowery stuff it comes out contrived. Sometimes I turn a pretty little phrase here and there, and that's always great. I try to get maybe one good turn of phrase in per chapter. Something memorable, if possible. Usually it's something funny. But I don't dress up every page in purple prose. And I don't have any weird quirks that I know of. I suppose you could say I pants all my novels, but a lot of people do that. I macro-outline the general story I wanna write, whether that happens or not. I jot a few sentences at the top of each chapter saying where I would like it to go (again, whether that happens or not).

What does John L. Monk like to do when he's not writing?

Read, eat, take naps, go to the movies, go out to eat (the dining experience), drink whiskey and hang out with my wife, or hang out with friends. I like fishing, but only if it's convenient, and right now it isn't. Really, I get a lot of enjoyment from the indie writing community. I love corresponding with other authors, seeing what they're up to, hearing them on various podcasts. Great fun.

What sorts of things have you learned about yourself while writing?

I guess the biggest thing I've learned is that I can start a difficult project, finish it, and not screw it up too badly. Finishing a novel is a major thing. Lots of people have tried, but only a small percentage of the ones who tried ever managed it. I've finished five so far, and that's a real confidence builder.

What books are you reading right now? Any new indie authors we should check out?

At the moment, I'm reading "Mutation" by Nerys Wheatley. It's a cool book with a different take on zombies. I'm also re-reading "Turning Pro" by Steven Pressfield. If you're a writer, read it. Also read it if you're anything else—the stuff in that book applies to just about everyone.

Have we seen the end of Jack and the “Hell’s Children”?

I sure hope not. I'm hammering away naked right now trying to write the next one! I hope to get it out before September, because of Amazon's horrible 90-day cliff where they drop you off the radar. But I won't compromise quality for speed. Once the book is ready, I'll think up a series name (ugh), slap that on both covers, and get it out there. Hopefully sales stay strong throughout. There's nothing more motivating than steady sales of book one when you're trying to write book two.

I think Jack is a fascinating character with a lot of potential. I look forward to where you take the story from here.

Read more about John's work at john-l-monk.com. "Hell's Children" is available now on Amazon, and don't forget to check out John's other books, including "Kick," "Fool's Ride," "Hopper House," and "Thief's Odyssey."

From Un-me To Real Me: The Birth of "Children of the Falls"

Part 7

We now return to the exciting adventures of Craig William Thomas, his turbulent start as a writer, his hatred for all things Twilight, and how a dip into the waters of self-publishing re-ignited his passion for writing.

---

If you're truly passionate about something you can't give up on it. Even if you try, your passion won't let you.

I tried to ignore my passion for writing for six years—there had just been too many disappointments and unfulfilled expectations. I thought I was done. I thought my interest in writing was a phase that had come and gone.

But passions don't die.

My employer had recently cut my hours to 20 per week. On top of finding myself with extra time on my hands, a royalty check from Amazon for some ebooks I had self-published lit a spark under my butt.

And that's when my desire to write returned with a vengeance. Unbeknownst to me an entire cast of characters had been building in my brain and they had a lot to say! Once I started letting them speak they wouldn't shut up. For a year I wrestled with sleep, anxiety, and attention problems as these characters poured their souls out to me. I couldn't write fast enough. The story just flowed.

Children of the Falls was born.

Where Serpents Strike Children of the Falls, Vol 1

Where Evil Abides Children of the Falls, Vol. 2

And this time, I didn't care about Stephenie Meyer and her crappy multi-million dollar novels. I wasn't writing to compete with her. Nor was I writing to impress some big publishing house. They could go play their money-grubbing marketing schemes all they wanted, preferably far away from me. I also decided I wasn't concerned about an audience. I had wasted too many years writing what I thought people wanted to read. It was clear to me that, good or bad, people would read anything, so trying to convince them that my work was superior to anyone else's was a waste of time.

I was writing for an audience of one—me. I was going to write my ultimate story. It would incorporate everything I love, take all the directions I wanted it to take, be as violent and scary and fantastical as I wanted it to be.

Sorry mom.

Children of the Falls actually began with an idea I had about nine years prior. The idea was simple: make an army of medieval super soldiers by training children from the youngest age possible. Think Spartan warriors meets kung-fu meets horror movies.

I had actually outlined a trilogy of books based on this premise called Edhen that I tinkered with over the years, but I was never satisfied with it. It served as the backbone to this new incarnation, expanding from three books to nine, from a trilogy spanning one continent with multiple kingdoms to three continents, dozens of kingdoms, multiple religions, languages, and cultures, and hundreds of characters.

It's been a fascinating journey, but something tells me it's just getting started.

---

Part 1: From Un-Me To Real Me: Discovering My Passion For Writing

Part 2: From Un-Me To Real Me: Writing For My Mother

Part 3: From Un-Me To Real Me: What I Learned From Horror Movies

Part 4: From Un-Me To Real Me: Giving Up On My Dreams

Part 5: From Un-me To Real Me: How Stephenie Meyer Killed My Muse

Part 6: From Un-me To Real Me: How Getting Laid Off Gave Me My Spark Back

Part 7: From Un-me To Real Me: The Birth of "Children of the Falls"

From Un-me To Real Me: How Losing My Job Gave Me My Spark Back

Part 6

If you're just tuning in, I've been recounting how I got started with writing novels at the age of 14, developed a love of horror movies, lost my spark when author Stephenie Meyer ruined my life, and ended up where I am today.

---

I always tell people, "If you want to get good at writing, go work for a newspaper."

Nothing will help you write faster, better, and conquer writer's block more quickly than having to write an 800 word story twenty minutes before deadline.

I know this from experience. I did it for five years.

Journalism was a good day job for me, but, as you may recall from my last entry, that was only until Stephenie Meyer, author of those soul-destroying Twilight books, crippled my interest in writing. Once that was dead, so was my passion for journalism.

So I moved into pagination, editing, and graphic design. My work caught the attention of a local marketing company that eventually hired me to be a full time graphic artist at their small publishing house. For years I designed book covers, illustrations, graphics, websites, business cards, digital books, book trailers, bookmarks, and much, much more. In fact I still work for them on a case-by-case basis today.

An itty-bitty sampling of my work.

Seeing the world of publishing from the inside out was a unique experience. I began to see just what kinds of difficulties publishers faced, how it has become a challenge for them to make a book successful, and how risky it is to spend months—maybe even years—preparing to launch a new author's work.

I also realized just how hard it was for an author to make a living writing books. Most of our authors went nowhere. Most of them suffered from what I perceive to be the biggest misconception among writers today—being a successful writer isn't about creating good writing, it's about marketing. There are tons of great writers out there, but few of them will ever be successful because they don't know how to market.

Our writers promised us all sorts of things.

"I have a huge email list that I'm going to use to promote the book."

"I've got thousands of fans on Twitter and Facebook, and I'm going to market to them!"

"I'm going to travel around to bookstores and libraries with my book."

"I'll use my professional speaking platform to spread the word about my book."

But few of them actually followed through. Once the book came out, the excuses started tumbling in.

"I'm just too busy right now."

"My speaking engagements are not really for my book."

"My email list is technically for my company, not myself."

"I didn't really have a good marketing plan."

"I don't know what to do!"

So the little marketing/publishing company that I worked for found itself losing lots of money. They couldn't afford to keep me on staff, but they didn't want to let me go either. They decided to cut my hours to part time while they reevaluated their business in hopes of hiring me back again if/when things picked up.

And then I found myself with about 20 extra hours a week on my hands. I spent some of it investing in some projects around the house that needed tending, and I did eventually get a part time job driving package trucks for UPS to help make ends meet.

But the real kick in the brain pan came when I got an unexpected check from Amazon.

Remember those two books I co-authored with my friend Mitch?

Well, after our publishing company failed to uphold their end of our contract, we asked for our books back. They begrudgingly agreed. Then, in an attempt to please our minuscule number of fans, we re-published the books on our own. (I had spent enough years designing books that setting them up was a breeze.) And the ebooks sold like hot cakes!

And that check from Amazon? It was almost enough to pay the mortgage that month. Wowzers!

I used to think there was no money in writing novels, but I was wrong. There was money to be had, but the method of getting it had changed.

My muse was coming alive again.

To be continued...

From Un-me To Real Me: How Stephenie Meyer Killed My Muse

Part Five

I've been reflecting on my journey as a writer, what drew me into the world of writing and shaped my style, and how my muse came to a sudden and depressing end...

---

For fourteen years I had been obsessed with writing. I had written about nine books, two of which had been published and a third had just spent three years in limbo with a publisher that didn't fulfill its end of the bargain. My co-author and I were at odds, and my "writing career" was not what I had hoped it would be.

I was discouraged, depressed, dissatisfied, and done.

Along came Stephenie Meyer in 2007 with a teen vampire novel called Twilight. For reasons I have never been able to figure out her books took the world by storm. When the movies began to hit in 2008, Meyer made millions off her three novels and four films over the next five years.

Here's the thing that pisses me off about Stephenie Meyer: her books were horribly written; the characters were boring, unrealistic, and one-dimensional; the pace of the story was dreadfully slow (she routinely violates the "show don't tell" rule of storytelling); the plot was thin and unoriginal, and YET teenagers devoured these books like candy.

I agree with author Stephen King, who, in an interview with USA Weekend, said, "Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good."

DISCLAIMER: If you're a fan of Twilight, I apologize. It is not the intention of this article to demean fans of the franchise. I'm a huge fan of the 1987 Dolph Lundgren film Masters of the Universe. It was a truly bad film, but there's something about it that awakens the kid in me and I simply love it. So if Twilight is your thing, I understand, but that doesn't change the fact that "Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn."

The Great Satan of Literature?

Before you ask, yes, I read the first book in her series, Twilight. I had to see for myself what all the fuss was about. I plowed through it in an afternoon, speed-reading through her horrendous over-use of adverbs, the atrocious dialogue, and her repetitive descriptions of the oh-so-hot male characters. I could spend hours picking apart Meyer's inability to structure a story, design characters of any depth, craft an intriguing romance, or write an action scene—and I have... all over the internet in fact.

Here's the thing...

I remember back in 1998 when Director Michael Bay released Armageddon, People magazine published a story on why some big-shots in Hollywood viewed Michael Bay as "the great satan of movies." Their point was simple: Michael Bay's over-stylized and empty-headed approach to filmmaking was devaluing the craft.

Michael Bay says, "Talk to the hand!"
as he walks to the bank.

I'm calling out Stephenie Meyer—though I am hardly the first to do so—to say that she's doing the same thing to the craft of writing, her and the slew of copycats and wannabes she inspired—yes, I'm thinking about you E.L. James.

Do I think my writing is superior? Absolutely! And I can point to a hundred other indie authors whose work is superior to mine who are worth all the books sales Meyer got and much more.

Here was Stephenie Meyer, a middle-aged soccer mom with no previous interest in writing, churning out the most basic, badly written, adjective-stuffed melodramatic teenage drivel and making millions, and yet thousands of other writers, myself included, with much better ideas and years of practice couldn't get a single publisher to take a chance on us.

The Real Problem

But Meyer's success put a big spotlight on the real problem—big publishers.

I began to realize that publishers aren't seeking quality work anymore. They're looking to fill a predetermined novel mold established by a marketing team to guarantee major sales. They don't care about content or genre or how good or bad an author is at their craft. They know the market and they want content to fill what the market wants as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Author Alan Moore said in November, 2015, “Publishing today is a complete mess. I know brilliant authors who can’t get their books published." He went on to explain that the reason is because publishing houses are afraid of taking risks on fiction. Moore’s solution? “Publish yourself. Don’t rely upon other people.” (Alan Moore Advises New Writers to Self-Publish Because Big Publishers Suck.)

Big publishers just want to meet the market demands and make as much money as they can in the process.

This is a major shift from just a few decades ago when publishing companies were all about discovering the next great American novel, which is a shame, really. The literacy level in America has been dropping for years. The LA Times, The Huffington Post, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and many other publications have been spotlighting this problem for the last ten years. Whether work like Meyer's is a contributing factor or just a sign of the problem is open for debate, but either way she, along with the companies that publish her, is not helping.

I suppose the fault is more than just bad authors and lazy publishers too. With the rise of self-publishing and digital books, combined with the increasing cost of paper and printing, publishers started realizing that the old way of doing things was no longer working. Editors no longer had the time to sift through stacks of manuscripts to determine which novel was most worthy of publication. The digital age was booming fast, more and more people were writing books, and publishers had to act as quickly as possible to keep money flowing in.

And they've been making bad decisions ever since.

So after reading Twilight and seeing first hand the kind of awful literature the market was willing to settle for, and after I had begun to get a glimpse of what the world of publishing was becoming, I decided I was done.

And my muse died.

To be continued...

From Un-Me To Real Me: Giving Up On My Dreams

Part 4

I've been reflecting on my journey as a writer, how psychological horror movies began influencing my style, pushing me beyond boundaries that my co-author wasn't comfortable with.

---

A QUICK RECAP

After my first fantasy novel had been published when I was 17, my friend Mitch came to me with an idea for another fantasy novel. He knew he wasn't the strongest writer, but he had great ideas. So together we spent several years crafting a trilogy and book one was published in 2004.

OK, MOVING ON...

The publishing company we were signed with was a small outfit based in Virginia. They were putting out quality work, but they had limited resources.

They also strung us along and screwed us over, but I'll get to that.

When my co-author and I submitted a sequel to them for publication in 2010 they seemed more than excited about its quality and content. We signed a contract that stated the book had to be published within two years or we, the authors, would have the right to shop it to other publishers.

Honestly, I don't know what happened. Maybe this small little publishing company bit off more than it could chew. Maybe sales of all its books were so bad that it started to go under. Maybe the personal problems assailing the executive editor were bogging things down. All I know is that two years came and went and our sequel still wasn't published.

I had sort of given up on it anyway. My co-author and I had reached some disagreements about the resolution of the third book in our trilogy and we couldn't settle on an ending.

A few character sketches I did for our book series.

A pensive old codger.

A dark warrior anti-hero sorta guy.

The bad guy... in case you couldn't guess.

So what happened?

I'm glad you asked!

When Mitch brought me his outline for the first book in our series he literally had a beginning and an ending, but no idea on how to get there.

So I did the writing. We'd meet, discuss our ideas, flesh out the story, and then I'd go home and write some chapters. A week or two later we'd meet and discuss what I'd written. And back and fourth we went until the manuscript was finished.

From my point of view I was the one who was living and breathing these characters. I was the one who was getting inside their heads and trying to figure out what they were thinking and what was motivating them. Mitch knew them very well also, just not as good as I did. I'll understand if I sound like I'm high atop a horse here, but both Mitch and I knew this was the case.

Now there comes a point with every book that I write where the characters start speaking to me. (Check out What My Non-Writing Friends Will Never Understand About Me if you're curious about how insane I am.) It usually happens if I've scripted something that goes against the grain of the character. I'll feel the character in my head saying, "No, this isn't what I want to do." And if I allow it the character takes my story in new directions far more interesting than anything I had conceived.

Mitch didn't understand this. So when one of our characters started speaking to me, telling me how he wanted the story to go, Mitch wasn't in agreement with the changes.

In fact, he had his own idea for a complete rewrite. He wanted to start the book over from scratch! Years of work and he wanted to start over.

I said, "No, thank you. I want to be done with this series. In fact, I want to be done with writing. We're barely breaking even on our book sales. The time and effort isn't worth it. There's no money in writing. I want to be done. I want out. We can finish what we started, but no WAY are we starting over."

And that little impasse is what pushed me into giving up on writing.

I admit, I was a bit depressed. There was other life stuff going on at the time that was stressing me out, but I think my interests were changing also. I thought my creative life was headed in a different direction.

And, honestly, it was time to go get a real job. I was an adult now and I needed money.

But my depression was about to reach new lows thanks to a little push from Stephanie Meyer, author of Twilight.

To be continued...




PS. Think it's time to give up on your dream of writing? Maybe it is. Read, Six Signs It's Time To Give Up On Writing, by Chuck Wendig, or here's a more palatable post, Signs It’s Time to Give Up on Your Dream of Being a Writer.

From Un-Me To Real Me: What I Learned From Horror Movies

Part 3

I've been reflecting on my journey as a writer, how psychological horror movies began influencing my style, pushing me beyond boundaries that my co-author wasn't comfortable with.

---

I was 15 years old when I saw the movie Se7en, with Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Spacey as a sadistic serial killer who technically didn't kill anyone.

The weird thing about Se7en is that it didn't scare me. It disturbed me. For weeks after seeing it I couldn't get it out of my mind. It was disgusting, but it was brilliant. It was horrifying, but it was beautiful. It was directed with perfection, but it looked utterly sickening.

Other horror movies that had a similar impact on me around that age included The Silence of the Lambs, Misery, Stir of Echoes, and In The Mouth of Madness.

Let me be clear on this one point—these movies didn't scare me. Very little scared me, in fact. My father taught me a lot about movies and prosthetics and fake blood, so my reaction to scary monsters wasn't to hide under the covers, but rather with wide-eyed fascination exclaim, "Whoa, what excellent make-up!"

But there was something about these psychological horror movies that stuck in my mind.  I couldn't figure out why I was so captivated by these stories and yet sickened at the same time.

It hit me in two parts.

First, I realized that these horror films were rising above the once popular slasher genre of the 80s by delving into something deeper—the human psyche. To me monsters like Chucky, Dracula, and werewolves, were nothing compared to the evil tendencies that lived inside people.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, I found that the movies that disturbed me the deepest taught me the most. Because after being so unsettled by something I felt compelled to figure it out. For example, after being traumatized by Se7en I dove into the Bible to learn about the Seven Deadly Sins (which are not the same ones used in the movie, by the way). I started reading books about serial killers and studied criminal psychology in college. I loved plunging the depths of human nature, the supernatural, and nightmares.

The movies that shook me up were the movies that got me thinking, got me learning, got me reading, got my creative juices flowing.

I don't know why I wasn't motivated by green fields with butterflies and rainbows. *shrugs* Whatever. We can't all be Lucy Maud Montgomery.

I believe there's a lot of truth in some of those scientific studies linking horror movies to depression, anger, and temperament. (What's Going On In Your Body When You Watch A Horror Movie, 5 Scientific Ways Watching Movies Effects You). Horror movies don't have the same impact on everyone, so take that with a grain of salt, but I don't think my binge watching horror movies was all that healthy for me at the time. Plus, there was other life stuff going on that was weighing me down and making me depressed.

And then the Un-me started to UNravel.

To be continued...

What My Non-Writing Friends Will Never Understand About Me

A character sketch of Lia Falls.

When I create a fictional character they come alive inside my head. Sometimes they're so vivid they start to... um...

...spmarm hmn sbt.

What?

Kombna ksi tish.

Can you speak up, please?

THEY SPEAK TO ME, DAMN IT! All right. I know. I'm weird. But it's true. I hear them in my head, and sometimes I talk back. I don't allow these conversations to take place in public because I'd rather not be introduced to tall men in white coats, a padded cell, and certain types of medication. So I'll carry on in private, thank you.

Maybe it is kind of crazy to have fictional characters speaking to you. Maybe it's like a multiple personality disorder. I don't really know.

All I know is that after I've imagined a character, after my conscious brain and my subconscious brain have come to a deep understanding of who the character is, I start to feel them like the memory of an old friend.

When I think of my friend Zack back in Vermont—big, tall, masculine, but with a little boy face and a teddy bear's demeanor—I can imagine him in any situation and know how he would react. A movie quote is never far from his brain. When he sticks his hands in his front pockets his thumbs always hang out. He's got a kind heart and a gentle nature. If someone picked a fist fight with him he would try to talk his way out of it first, though I've no doubt he could lay a guy on the floor with a single blow if he wanted to. Zack is built like a grassy hillside—he may look soft on the surface, but he's a rock underneath.

Because I know Zack so well, my imagination can predict his actions. If I were to try and write a story involving him, my will would not determine his behavior. His would. I might be able to steer his actions, but his character is still going to drive his narrative.

I've had stories take drastic turns as the result of a fictional character becoming so real to me that I feel them saying, "You're writing me all wrong. I would never do that. I would do this!" And the more I listen to them and follow their character the more awesome things happen.

In Children of the Falls this happens most frequently with the character of Lia. She was the first character who really came alive to me. Right off the bat I felt like I knew who she was. All I do is set her on her course and push her around with plots and tragedies, but I never need to script her response. It's probably why I enjoy writing her so much—I'm never sure what she's going to do.

I've tried explaining this to some of my non-writing friends and they just nod their heads with a somewhat vacant smile on their faces like a person opening a Christmas gift they really don't like. "Oh, slippers. That's... nice."

So if you're reading this and you totally understand it, that means two things. 1. You're crazy like me, and 2. I like you already. Aloha! Let's be friends :-)

From Un-Me To Real Me: Writing For My Mother

Part 2

My first novel made it to print shortly before my eighteenth birthday. Being a teenager with a book to his credit makes one really cool really fast. My friends started looking up to me in a different way, even some adults were giving me that silent nod of approval.

The local paper did a write up about me and published an extremely unflattering photo. All my relatives bought copies of the book and...

Well, that was about it.

I was still in high school. I barely knew anything about writing books, let alone marketing one. I tried to get bookstores and libraries to let me come do signings and readings, but most didn't return my calls and the rest didn't really believe that I had actually published a book. One store owner I spoke to on the phone laughed at me. I can't really blame him. I didn't know what I was doing.

It was no big loss actually. The book was awful. My best friend at the time, Mitch, told me that the story was great, but the writing was terrible.

Ahhh, honesty.

So I returned to my first love—art.

My mind was still stuck in the gutter of fantasy.

A demon/orc/monster/thing. I'm not sure
what I was thinking when I drew this. lol!

In my last year of high school I attended some writing workshops, seminars, and retreats, anything that was free that I could get my hands on. I started studying dialogue and watching more movies that were known for their depth and quality of storytelling—The Godfather, Braveheart, The Matrix, Toy Story, Reservoir Dogs... oh, and lots of horror movies.

"Wait. Horror movies with quality storytelling? You're joking, right Craig?"

It may sound strange, but the 80s and early 90s were the golden age of horror films where Hollywood did some if its best storytelling. Evil was evil back then, and horror movies depicted mankind's fight against it in a great number of ways. Sure, Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the Thirteenth get sidelined as being mere slasher flicks, but watch Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and tell me there aren't some amazing universal truths and life parallels in there.

Freddy doesn't think you're ready for prime time.

Freddy, Jason, Michael Meyers. They scared the bejeebers out of me, but they also helped develop my fascination with all things disturbing, which began to play into my style of storytelling.

But that didn't make my mother happy.

I remember trying to write a comic book about a trio of men who are captured, tortured, and then rebuilt into these mutant/cybernetic superheroes. The opening graphics showed them getting diced up by a bunch of robots with saw blades and machine parts.

My mother saw it and freaked out.

At the time, her approval meant a lot to me, so my fantasy writing was very watered down. I was writing what I thought my audience would tolerate—but in my mind my audience was my mother. If she approved of it I could publish it.

Jason Voorhees thinks you should write more horror.

Eventually that same friend who told me that my first novel sucked, Mitch, came to me with an idea for a book of his own. He needed help writing it because English wasn't his strongest subject. We ended up collaborating on three books, two of which were published with slightly greater success than my first minor efforts.

Still, I wasn't pushing the boundaries with my imagination like I wanted to. I wanted my medieval fantasy stuff to be more... mediEVIL. The middle ages were bleak. People were tortured in horrific ways. Children were slaughtered or died of terribly maladies. Women were raped and forced to be slaves. I wanted my stories to reflect that period and incorporate some of the horror elements I was psychologically drawn to, but Mitch wanted to keep our stories watered down. Considering our family-oriented audience at the time, he was probably right, but I was ready to start tackling more mature subject matter.

Because, frankly, horror movies had taught me one very important lesson...

To be continued...