I apologize to my readers for not having another review up yet.  I definitely need to write one for Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker (which I wasn’t super-thrilled with) and I am currently reading Frankenstein for the first time, so I will owe a review for that as well.

Those of you keeping up with my NaNoWriMo progress may see that I’m a bit behind in my word count.  A LOT behind, actually.  I am HOPING to be able to increase that, however I have a great deal going on in my life, writing-wise, at the moment. I think that a 10th anniversary WINNER badge from NaNoWriMo would be very cool.

A couple friends and I have decided to start a right-leaning political blog.  We are planning on having it open to everyone on Monday - I’ll post an announcement and, of course, add it to my blogroll under “My Other Sites.”  This blog will remain blissfully politics-free.

I have also joined a small critique group, The Muse Macabre, a part of the Muse It Up club. We critique one submission a week and I have a critique due this week and a submission due on Dec. 1st.  So, do I submit the story that I already have written, or do I write another story by then?  The more I think about writing another story, the more I want to do it, but I don’t want to lose focus on my novel either.  So, we’ll see.  

So these two things, PLUS this blog, PLUS my Mama Bear blog, PLUS my schoolwork (which I really don’t want to do but you know how that goes)… Plus, in January, I’m hoping to get a couple books to review from Rhonda at Niteblade magazine for the next edition. 

Now I just need to figure out how to get PAID for all of this!

4,820 words.  So far. 

So, yeah, I’m behind in my NaNo writing. And my brain is already starting to kick in that I write like shit, that what I’ve written isn’t any good, that I’m just not good enough to write a novel, and all that jazz. Yay.

So, what I need to do is just to sit down with it and WRITE anyway.  I know where to go - I’m just struggling on getting there.

So - just write, right?

But, in other wonderful news, I have joined Holly Lisle’s “How to Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers” and so far, week one has been fairly helpful.  I’m hoping that this will help me in my ultimate goal: being a full-time author.  I will be placing an advertisement for Holly’s school on my blog soon. 

This is so freeing.  I don’t know why I’ve never done this before.

I have a plan though.  I write 1700 words a day forward in my novel.  After I reach that mark, I’ve been going back to look at what I’ve written - not to try and improve it or to change it or to rewrite it but to add things that I may not have added in the first time around.  Does that make sense?

It’s like watching a movie a couple times.  The first time you get the basics.  The second time, you get the finer details.  :)  But I can’t do this the entire month - I can’t be rereading the entire novel all month.

So what I’ve decided is that each day I review what I did the day before (after pushing forward for the 1700 words a day) and add in things I should have added before or make sure that the continuity is correct.  I think this is a good idea (for now anyway), so we shall see how it goes from here.  However, if I stop reaching 1700 words a day, I can’t look back anymore REGARDLESS of any problems like whether it’s night in one scene and five minutes later, it’s daytime, etc.  The idea is to write the 1700 words a day and reach 50,000 in a month!

So, on we go.  Currently my word count is 3,664, from a goal of 3,400 for today.  So, again, I’m over. :)  I’m gonna make it - I know I am.

One last piece of information: I am absolutely stunned at how supportive everyone on my Twitter list has been towards me in this endeavor.  If I ever questioned the sanity of adding a whole bunch of people I really don’t know from Adam to a list to watch their updates and to have them watch mine… I’m sorry.  I love my Twitter’ers

To all of you: we can so do this!!!

As of 12:00 am Mountain Daylight Time, I am taking part in this wonderful madness called National Novel Writing Month.

For my first day, it’s not so bad. Currently, I have 1,871 words to my novel and that more than meets my stated goals of 1700 words per day.  You may laugh at me, but I already think I’m a success!  Hey, each time we meet a daily goal, we are one step closer to meeting our monthly goal.  And each time I meet that daily goal, I am telling the professional procrastinator who usually takes a hold of my brain when I try to do something to LEAVE ME ALONE and to let me do this.

So far, I think my work sucks.  But I’m expecting it to suck, in all honesty - now I get to look forward to the end of the month when I have my first draft and decide whether to expand on it by rewriting and editing, or if I want to put it in a drawer and leave it there a while, or do I want to set fire to it so that I will save humanity from the horror of the worst first draft ever.

This is going to be fun.  Off to plot some more, I am!

In three days, November begins and with November comes National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)!

The idea is to write 50,000 words in one month.  I have been preparing for this all month and have had to hold back my ideas even though they’re raring to escape now

The working title of my novel is The Book Collector. It’s about a woman who ends up trapped in a horror novel and has to find her way free before the Chronophage gets to her.  Note: Chrono- meaning “time” and -phage meaning “eater.”  There’s a great deal more that I could tell you, but for now, this is enough.  And rereading that sentence… I’m going to need a better selling technique because that sentence was awful!

I do intend on keeping my blog updated as to my progress during the month of November. So feel free to leave comments - share your plot, characters, encouragement, whatever! Good luck!

It has been a while since I have read anything by Clive Barker.  I enjoy his work, but I still think Steve is a better read.  Steve’s writing FLOWS and it’s that flow that I want to capture and exploit for my own benefit.  But I must also read others in the genre.

I was thrilled to see Mister B. Gone in the Barnes & Noble I happen to frequent.  And, now that it has come out in paperback, I have purchased it and instead of reading another Steve novel at the moment, I thought I might indulge in a Clive novel.

I remember a long, long time ago that I thought that Clive was going to retire from writing.  Looking around on Wikipedia, I assume that I was wrong, but after a glance at his novel publications in the past few years, perhaps he meant that he was going to work on other aspects of the Art.

I have read most of Clive’s works, with the exceptions of Coldwater Canyon and Galilee, the latter I do happen to have on my bookshelf.  I also have both Abarat books waiting to be read as well.

So far, Mister B. Gone is rather interesting, it’s first words being “BURN THIS BOOK.”

This morning, I finished Lisey’s Story by Stephen King.  Here are my initial impressions:

Lisey’s Story is the story of Lisey Landon and her grief through her acceptance of her husband’s death, author Scott Landon.  In many ways, this novel definitely feels written for Tabby, Steve’s wife.  In 2000, Steve was hit by a drunk driver in a van as he walked down the road near his house.  Since that time, I have felt that this experience is deeply buried in Steve’s works, whether blatantly obvious or hidden between the passages.  This novel has more of a personal feel to it than his others as if telling the story of Steve and Tabby rather than Scott and Lisey.

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My goal is to write horror novels better or as well as Stephen King.  I know that is a rather silly statement and that I should write the best that I can, tell the best stories that I can in the best way that I can.

But his writing has many qualities that I enjoy and would like to emulate in my own writing.  The only way to develop these qualities is to figure out what they are, study the Master’s use of them, and to, ultimately, make those techniques my own and then build on that knowledge to better my own writing.

When I finish Lisey’s Story, before I go on to Duma Key, I think I’m going to read one of Steve’s early works.  Maybe ‘Salem’s Lot, Cujo, or Christine, being the ones I have on my shelf.  I want to see and feel the difference between early-Steve and later-Steve, how he started as well as how he’s ended up.

You learn to write by writing and studying the Masters, right? Well, the Masters of Horror, in my opinion, are Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, and Clive Barker. I have never read Ramsey Campbell or Brian Lumley and they are also listed as excellent horror authors.  I will be reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley for the first time soon and also will probably read Dracula again. H.P. Lovecraft wrote an essay regarding what he called “weird fiction” entitled “Supernatural Horror in Fiction.”  I have a collection of the stories that Lovecraft has mentioned in this essay and I will be reviewing those stories as well.

So this is what I want to do with this blog.  I want to dissect Steve’s genius (and the genius of others in the genre, but we’ll start with Steve) and find out what it is that makes me want to read his works. Why do I keep coming back for more?

Two exit questions: first, what other horror/thriller/suspense authors should I try?  Second, what do I call my imaginary readers?  Steve calls his “Constant Reader,” but I can’t take that as my own… or can I?

It has been a long time since I have read anything new from Stephen King.  In 2004, Stephen released the last book of his Dark Tower series and, while the end of the novel was definitely the end that fit the series, there were bits and pieces of that particular book I was none too happy about.  However, I will save that for a later time/article.

A friend of mine that I hadn’t talked to in a long time told me that, even though I was disappointed with the last Dark Tower book, I should pick up Lisey’s Story, published in 2006, as known to Barnes & Noble employees as “the red book.”  So I have begun reading the book.

For the sake of those who have never read the book and who want to avoid spoilers as to what the book is about, etc., I have split thist post.  If you continue, beware - spoilers ahead.

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Last Friday, I submitted this sample review to Niteblade Magazine.

“The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre”
Del Rey, Ballantine Publishing Group, New York (1982)

By Kari J. Wolfe

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.  And the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”  — H.P. Lovecraft, from “Supernatural Horror in Literature”

“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.” — “The Call of Cthulhu

Before King, Barker, Rice and Lumley, there was Lovecraft.

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