Melinda peered through the cracked outer window, watching the dazzling fires dance as the atmosphere burned away. “My God, nature is amazingly beautiful, even when it’s trying to kill you. At least it makes a gorgeous final Christmas display.” Hearing a sob, she turned from the deadly fairy lights to look at the grizzled veteran […] 
I’m co-scripting a graphic novel with Peter J. Wacks, and Chaz Kemp is doing the art honors. The GN is called Behind These Eyes, and it will be published by Villainous Press. One nice thing is that it is getting published online at http://villainouspress.com/comic/behind-these-eyes/, so you can pop over to check it out. The electronic version […] Now that we have Netflix, Tonya (my better half) is watching every episode of Cake Boss. Of course, I’m writing, plotting, and planning my short stories and novels while this goofy show is playing in the background. After episode 16 of season 3, where they travel to Italy, it struck me that some reality shows […] The generally accepted format for numbers in prose differs from technical writing. Most of the time, technical documentation will deal with more numbers, especially measurements and statistical data. When writing a large volume of numbers in this instance, stick with using the Arabic numerals. It keeps the numbers in context, and is easier to compare […] 
The protagonist is the one character most writers dwell on. It takes a fine balance between making them likeable and having them seem either arrogant or totally worthless. A good protagonist usually makes or breaks a story, while the antagonist, or villain, is usually tossed in as a reason for the protagonist to exist. This […] 
Is it time to consider writing professionally, at least part-time? Writing professionally means writing as though you need to pay the rent – tomorrow. You need to devote time to your craft. You need to develop effective habits. Remember the old adage, Practice Makes Perfect? It’s wrong – practice makes improvement. Developing a good writing […] One thing that still surprises me is how the horror/dark fiction genre authors treat each other. For the most part, I’ve decided that the genre is really one large family. Perhaps because the genre isn’t as fractured as others, it removes the cliquishness that can pop up in other fields. Science Fiction, for example, has […] 
I had the good fortune to meet Mandy DeGeit (pronounced de-gate) at KillerCon 4 in Las Vegas. A force of nature in a tank top, she’s one person that does not blend into the background. Mandy, a new author on the dark fiction/horror scene, is currently known as the woman who spoke up after having […] 
Tonya and I attended KillerCon 4, an annual horror-genre convention held in Las Vegas every September. We stayed at the Stratosphere, where the con unfolded over the long weekend. We drove our little “creeper” van, which probably cost us more than a flight, but we enjoyed each other’s company on the trip. Tonya spotted a […]