Come to my workshop and meet new authors at the Lewisburg Literary Festival

The Lewisburg Literary Festival is FREE

Lewisburg is a beautiful, charming small town in southern WV, home to cute little shops, art galleries, caves, restaurants, an indie bookstore, and, every August, the Lewisburg Literary Festival, one of the highlights of my year. This year, come out on August 4th–5th for this totally free event that brings nationally known authors in to speak—past authors include Garth Stein, David Sedaris, and Jeannete Walls. This year, the featured Mainstage Authors are Lynda Rutledge, Silas House, Eric Eyre, and Joy Callaway.

Lynda Rutledge
Silas House
Eric Eyre
Joy Callaway
Continue reading

2023! It’s one more than 2022! Reviewing 2022 and new #amwriting goals for 2023

Happy New Year 2023

Every New Year’s Dayish I review the previous year and make new goals. Last year I posted a stock photo of a silly sheep, as well. No ewe this year.

2022 review

2022 had a lot going on. Job changes, moving, first-time homeownership—all this, to say nothing of writing-related goals. But we’re here to say something of the writing-related goals. So let’s get to it. What were my 2022 goals?

  • Finish Gobbler of Fire —Yes, though not nearly as early as I planned.

  • Write another adult novel —Not even close.

  • Write another short story or two — Yes, and it is… interesting.

Continue reading

Meet me @ the Lewisburg Literary Festival this weekend

It’s back, baby!

One of my favorite events of the year, the Lewisburg Literary Festival, is finally happening, after, as with many things, a long COVID-related hiatus. I’m so happy to be seeing my friends again and meeting new ones. Headline speakers this year are CBS Sunday Morning correspondent (and native West Virginian) Conor Knighton, record-breaking Appalachian Trail thru-hiker Jennifer Pharr Davis, and Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau. If you’re a writer, you’ll want to check out the free workshops from thriller novelist S. G. Redling and poet/professor Elizabeth Savage. Anybody familiar with the LLF will know that there’s also much more that will be happening all around town… A full schedule should be posted to LewisburgLiteraryFestival.com this week, but just trust me, if you’re anywhere close, you should make plans to come see it (it’s free).

Let’s meet face to face

Of course, I’ll be camped out in the vendor’s area in the GBV visitor’s center, along with other great authors you can meet and buy signed books from. Along with my novels, I’ll have some of the last available copies of the out-of-print first edition of my weird horror novella, Unknowing, I Sink. So don’t miss out; let’s hang. Can’t wait.

#lewisburgliteraryfestival2022 #lewisburgwv #greenbriarcounty #hashtaglewisburg #downtownlewisburg #wvwriters #garrytrudeau #conorknighton #jenniferpharrdavis #lewisburgliteraryfestival #books #HashtagWV

Canal Town Book Fest May 27 & 28

If you went to this month’s Writers Can Read open mic night in Huntington expecting to see me, I’m really sorry to have disappointed you. That morning, I got hit with a nasty stomach virus. I will work with Carter to get rescheduled for another month. I hope all the best to those who went and shared their words. I’m bummed I missed out on all that fun.

It took me a few days, but I finally got my strength back after that stomach bug (though now I’m battling a minor cough, but not sure if it’s allergies or what—I tested negative for COVID this morning). So I’m definitely on board for the Canal Town Book Fest happening on the 27th and 28th in Dover, Ohio!

Click here to make sure you get all the details, but the short story is that there is an Opening Night Ceremony on Friday evening, 6:00pm, at the Dover Public Library, with a guitar performance by Bill Hall and an interview with featured author Julie Anne Lindsey. Then on Saturday, in connection with the Canal Days Festival, come meet authors and buy books at the author fair set up from 10:00am to 3:00pm at the corner of Wooster Ave and 3rd St.

Keep tabs on their Facebook page for all the latest info and announcements. See you there!

May 16th Featured Reader at WRITERS CAN READ in Huntington WV

Come out to Heritage Station in Huntington, WV on Monday and hear Jeffrey Mangus and me reading excerpts from our books. But it’s not all about us—bring a little something of your own to read!

I always love visiting Huntington and can’t wait to see everyone there. Big thanks to Carter Taylor Seaton for organizing this amazing event every month. It’s an honor to be friends with such a talented and generous writer who works so tirelessly to promote others in her community.

Writers Can Read Open Mic Night in Huntington #huntingtonwv #writerscanread #heritagestation #openmicnight #wvwriters #downtownhuntington #myhuntington #supportlocal #westvirginia #HtownWV #VisitHuntingtonWV

Reading at Marion County Public Library

Join me in a couple weeks at the Marion County Public Library! On Saturday, April 9th, I will be reading excerpts from my books, speaking, and selling signed copies in the Exhibit Room. The event will begin at 2:00 and will go until 3:30. I’m so ready to be out and about. Please set your calendar to meet me there.

Registration is required! Please click here to visit MCPL’s event page and sign up!

#mcpl #marioncountypubliclibrary #authorsigning #authorreading #horrorfiction #books #libraries #supportyourlibrary #booksigning

Happy New Year: 2019 in review, and 2020 #amwriting goals

Boy, 2019 was rough for me, for reasons which I will not detail in this post. But ever since I’ve started this blog, I’ve done one of these year-in-review/looking-ahead posts, so here goes. Please forgive my lack of pictures and GIFs—the internet connection where I live is exceedingly slow and unreliable, and I must avoid that kind of thing unless I’m at the library or coffee shop or some other place with high speed internet that won’t poop out on me in the middle of my work.

2019

Last year I set some goals for 2019. I did not meet any of them (well, I sorta met one).

2019 goals:

  • Finish the Bigfoot novel – Nope.
  • Find a publisher for Schafer – No. (but to be fair, this is not completely under my control)
  • Write at least five stories – Yes…ish.
  • Plan a successful WV Writers literary event in my region – No longer the Region 2 Rep.
  • Pass the English Literature CLEP Exam – Haven’t taken it.

This Bigfoot story is becoming about as elusive as Ol’ Sassy himself (have I made that joke before? I feel like I’ve made that joke before). I did make some progress in the fall, after finishing a novella (more on that in a bit), but I ended up putting it off again. I came up with another book idea I was more excited about at the time. My wife and some other people also think it is a pretty good concept, so I decided to set aside Sasquatch in favor of this one while I have some enthusiasm and creative juices flowing (kind of a gross expression, right?). So, thanks especially to Emily and John Little for encouragement in making this decision and telling me there might be something special in my new idea. I’m already making quicker, steadier progress on that book than I had been on Bigfoot. I’m not totally scrapping that one, though. I have some really good writing already done for it, and if I can pull off the rest of the story well, I think it will be a good one. I’m just not ready to finish it, I guess. But I have a good feeling about the new book.

Still have not found a home for Schafer (a novel I wrote in 2017 about an evil hypnotist, though I have yet to hear back from a number of publishers, any of which I would be very happy to work with.

I had planned on writing at least five short stories in addition to finishing the Bigfoot book. This is the only sorta check-mark on the list. At the beginning of the year, I started on a short story that I just could not finish. While I wrote in fits and starts, and did not make quick progress on it, it continued to grow into something exceedingly strange, ungainly, and lovely. At last, in September, I wrote THE END on this little monster, which came out to 21,300 words. So, it’s the length of five short stories, even though it is a single novella.

This is actually kind of cool, as I have been interested in writing a novella sometime in the future—only I ended up actually doing it by accident. As my 2019 goals were otherwise unmet, I’m going to fudge this one and give myself the credit. A novella is cool, yo. I’m not sure yet when or how it will be made available to the public, but I have some ideas.

For a moment I was the Region 2 Representative for the West Virginia Writers, and had some plans for that which never panned out. Coincidentally, as of November, I don’t even live in Region 2 anymore.

English Lit CLEP exam hasn’t happened yet. Should be soon, though. Transportation issues are complicated at the moment.

I’m not going to get into all the reasons that 2019 was hard on me. One of them, however, was an unexpected job change for my wife and a move from Bartow to Parsons. Emily and I are glad we were able to stay in West Virginia (and we love being in Tucker County), but the last part of the year was extremely chaotic and stressful. I am surprised I don’t have any noticeable gray hair after all that happened (I did catch one or two strands during the ordeal, but they’re gone). We still don’t have it all figured out, but we’re getting used to our new situation, and are both extremely grateful to God for what we see as His quick provision in a very uncertain and desperate time. I try to use this website to focus on my fiction rather than religious commentary, but I feel I would be wrong if I did not briefly utter a quick word of thanksgiving here. Things could have looked much worse for us at the end of 2019. We are greatly relieved.

In fact, there were some very bright spots to 2019. I had a whole lot of fun at all the book events I attended. At the Lewisburg Literary Festival, I broke my total sales record for that event. Same at West Virginia Book Festival, where I should have brought more books—I sold out of Little One! I was honored to be guest at the Haunted Majestic this October, a haunted house boat floating on the Ohio River near Huntington.

And, like I said before, it felt good to write my first novella. It is a very weird story, though. Who knows what will happen with it.

I saw only one of my short stories in print for 2019, “The Puddle Girl of St. George” (ironically, my wife’s new job is located in St. George).

And while I only saw one story newly published, I received some really encouraging responses concerning other unpublished work about which I’m not ready to go into detail. Suffice it to say that I finished the year with greater confidence in my ability and the quality of my short fiction. I hope to have some more exciting, less vague-blogging news for you later this year.

2020

Honestly, while I do have some writing goals to set forth, there is some practical, real-life stuff which is going to have to take precedence over my writing. But related to my continued pursuit of a profitable fiction writing career, I reckon the following are worthy targets:

  • Finish the new novel (and maybe get a bit more done on the Bigfoot story)
  • Get Schafer published
  • Get the weird novella published
  • Attend Camp Necon

Yeah, I already put down my deposit on Camp Necon. It will be my first time attending, and I’ve heard great things. This year, it will be held in Salem, MA, which is pretty cool, because I don’t think I’ve ever been to Salem.

Other than that? I feel like I’m forgetting stuff that should be in this post. But I gotta tell you, I’m too tired right now to care. Have a happy new year, everybody.

one more thing

PS — I haven’t drawn up a “Best of 2019” list yet, and I don’t know if I will—even less likely to do a “Best of the Decade” list. But I wanted to quickly recommend Michael Wehunt’s newest novella, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Bad Can Ever Happen Here, published by Nightscape Press last September. You can click that link to buy it directly from the publisher, as a limited, numbered paperback, autographed by the man himself, Michael Wehunt, one of my favorite contemporary writers. Only 118 copies remain at the time of this writing.

OK that’s it. I gotta go make dinner. So long!