Blog – Guy Anthony De Marco

Warm light and a curl of green mist spill through a slightly open door into a dark stone corridor — a speculative scene shown through detail, not labeled.

Show, Don’t Tell in Speculative Fiction: Active Voice for Magic, Tech, and Horror Scenes

Here is a scene I see in a lot of first drafts. Mine included. The portal was opened by the

A single manuscript page with gray placeholder bars in standard manuscript layout on a dark slate desk under a brass lamp, beside a fountain pen, a typewriter key, and a faint star chart.

What Is Shunn Format? A Speculative Fiction Writer’s Guide to Standard Manuscript Format

Shunn format is the standard manuscript format most SF, fantasy, and horror markets ask for. What it requires, modern vs. classic, and free templates.

A printed manuscript covered in red-pencil scribbles on a dark wooden desk beside a brass telescope, a folded star chart, and a lit candle in warm lamplight.

Blog On Writing

How to Self-Edit a Speculative Fiction Novel Before You Hire an Editor

Self-editing a novel in SF, fantasy, or horror? Run these six revision passes before you hire an editor, from structure and world rules to clean copy.

A writer's desk at night with a glowing amber lamp, steaming mug, open notebook, and manuscript pages, beside a rain-streaked window where autumn leaves drift past a crescent moon and dark, otherworldly spires.

Blog On Writing

November Novel Writing Challenge: A 30-Day Plan for Speculative Writers Without Burnout

How many speculative fiction writers does it take to draft a novel in November? Just one, but she’ll spend the

Dim basement with a chest freezer and spilled Halloween candy under a bare bulb

Books and Stories Freebie Stories

Halloween Treats

I love the day after Halloween. All the leftovers are mine to eat, except for the occasional morsel I toss

Authors You Should Know Blog

Hugh B. Cave: Pulp Polymath at the Edge of Classic Science Fiction

Hugh Barnett Cave was born in Chester, England, on July 11, 1910, and died in Vero Beach, Florida, on June

An open book with blank final pages on a candlelit desk, as a long clawed shadow creeps out of its spine toward the viewer and a dark doorway stands ajar behind.

Blog On Writing

How to End a Horror Story: Endings That Keep Scaring After the Last Line

It’s almost Halloween, which means a lot of you are sitting on a horror story with a great opening, a

Guy Anthony De Marco on a panel at the 2012 World Horror Convention, seated at a table with a microphone in a Yurei Press polo.

Blog On Writing

Writing Science Fiction with a Technical Background: From Navy and IT Tech to Speculative Fiction

I spent about 11 years in the U.S. Navy working on electronics, helicopter avionics, and advanced computer systems. Then I

Harl Vincent, as depicted in the September 1929 issue of Air Wonder Stories

Authors You Should Know Blog

Harl Vincent: a Voice of Early Science Fiction

In the late 1920s, science fiction was still finding its magazine home. Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories had given the field

Sauron from Lord of the Ringses, my precious.

Blog On Writing

Villains

The protagonist is the one character most writers dwell on. It takes a fine balance between making them likeable and