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What Inspires Me
When asked what inspires me, I think of the 1985-92 television series Ray Bradbury Theater. During the intro segment, Ray Bradbury walked into an old cage elevator and came out in an office full of memorabilia and toys. He referred to it as his “magician’s toyshop.” All he had to do was look around and…
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The Best-Laid Plans…
Good morning, all, and welcome back to the Web. Forgive me, dear readers, but I have lost my way. For a good many years now, I have written stories and novels of fantasy and the occult. I’ve written a fantasy novel that has received praise for not being overrun with elves, dwarves, and goblins (check…
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Valdis Damien van Dyne
Pierce Mostyn not only has Cthulhu to think about, he also has Valdis Damien van Dyne. In case you don’t know, Pierce Mostyn is the hero in my Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations series. He is the G-Man assigned to fight the Ultimate Evil. Ultimate evil from our point of view, that is. But along the…
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10 Favorite Tales of Terror
It is a human trait to have favorites. Shoot, it may even be a trait of living things. After all, my cat has her favorite toys, food, and places to sleep. And so it is with fiction. We all have our favorite stories. Today I am going to share with you 10 of my favorite…
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The Steampunk Aesthetic
Earlier this month, I was a panelist at the Wild Wild West Steampunk Convention in Tucson, Arizona. During the convention, I had the opportunity to sit on a panel with K.W. Jeter, the man who coined the word “steampunk” in a 1987 letter to Locus Magazine. In the letter, he spoke about fantasies set in…
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Did I Write That?
Let’s talk about the subconscious mind and its effects on writing fiction. I’ve studied and practiced the art of fiction writing for a short time: four years, two months, and four days (4 to 8 hours per day, most days.) That’s a lot of hours. About two years ago I phoned my ‘favourite reader’, and…
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Terror of the Gut
Bantam paperback foldout cover. Artist unknown. For a long time now I’ve held the view that between HP Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, it was Howard who was the consistently better writer. The operative word being “consistently”. At his very, very best, HPL probably outshines REH — but not by much. And it may be…
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A Little Horror
Welcome to the web, fans of darkness. I come before you today to offer a decided change of pace. You see, a good number of column-inches have been presented here of late, touting the work of the late H.P. Lovecraft, the father of Cosmic Horror. I’ve enjoyed the work of the Master, and have commented,…
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Cosmic Horror Without Lovecraft?
Cosmic Horror without Lovecraft. Hm. Yet that is what someone on Twitter proposed in response to my previous post. So I asked myself how about sword and sorcery without Robert E Howard? Or Sword and Planet without Edgar Rice Burroughs? Nah. Not possible. When a writer is responsible for creating or defining a genre or…
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Suspending Death
Only two of my grandparents were alive at my birth and both of them had passed away by the time I was eight years old. My dad suffered a heart attack and died when I was just thirteen. I’d give anything to have more time with any of them. Because of this, it’s perhaps no…
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