And on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/...

/bump!

Oh! I must read this soon! I've just been so exhaustingly busy lately! Good luck with all your writing for this month! <3

/bump

Been hard to find yet again, due to finishing the werewolf romance novella. I'm about ready to send the thing at long last.

Also working on a Halloween flash fic or two.

Good luck with your submission! And I hope you fun with your Halloween fics! I know it's your favorite season, and I'm really looking forward to it this year!

I'm working on one that's inspired by some wacky hijinks during a book sale in Salem. It was after sundown, the booth was shadowy, and I was reaching around the free candy bowl to fix something and startled my friend Scott W (one of our hangers-on).

Scott W: "I was looking at the candy bowl. I didn't expect that hand."
Me: "Like there was a disembodied hand going for the candy?"
Rob S: in a spooky voice "The Hand... that takes... the candy..."

(I should add, Scott W is like 6'5" and his body mass would make two of me, so a big guy like him getting spooked by lil ol' me is hilarious.)

Me: "Oooh. Great title for a story." I may have jotted it down, as well as some riffing that Scott and Rob did, so this one's a hoot to write.

Oh my gosh! That sounds amazing!

I just wanted to say that with all the craziness happening in the news lately, your stories are like bright, cheerful autumn leaves in the gloom, and it's storytellers like you who give us something to look forward to! <3

The fiction I create, or my crazy memories with the writing tribe?? Or both?

Both? Both is good!

Both! It can totally be both! There's a quote from the novel The Robe by Lloyd C Douglas (Tagline: "The story of the soldier who tossed for Christ's robe and won!" it's not 100% accurate-but I enjoyed it) that says men have often destroyed, bringing about the downfall of countries, institutions or other men, but it's a far rarer thing to create or heal.

Haven't read The Robe, though it's one I keep meaning to read around Easter (though I've seen the 1950s movie version when it was on a local classic movies channel this year). But that is totally the truth.

Also, sometimes the stories behind why I wrote a story can be as involved as the thing itself.

Like the time I legit got inspired to write a comedy-horror story about mermaids fighting zombies... after seeing two gumball machines side-by-side, one with little mermaid figurines, the other with zombie figurines.

Aww, mermaids vs zombies! I don't think I've read that one, though I believe I've purchased most of your short stories on kindle! (But there are a few I didn't read last year because I was "saving" them for this Halloween, so I guess I'll have to check ) That's definitely a cute backstory though, and inspiration can come from the weirdest places.

I enjoyed the book version of "The Robe" better than the movie--but perhaps that's because when I attempted to watch the movie, the characters didn't match the image in my head! It's always the trickiest part of book vs movie adaptations! Some people manage to love both!

With me, it can be hit or miss, I do occasionally like both the version on the page and screen, but there are cases where you wind up liking one version better!

"Mermaids vs. Zombies" was in a charity anthology that unfortunately is no out of print (though I still have a few copies for sale on my Alibris page) Also, I think ot

it's on the Patreon & ko-fi pages...

I'm the kind of person who can find something good about both a book and its movie adaptation. I get cross and wicked, as Jane Austen would put it, with the "book vs. movie version" noise that goes on.

I mean, granted, there are some wretched movie adaptations, but sometimes a wonk movie adaptation works if you don't think less about it as an adaptation of that particular book?

Oh yeah! Like I think usually you can figure out quite early in reading/watching if you enjoy the book or movie better, so there's no point in ARGUING about it. I think there's cases where some books, including those of Miss Jane Austen herself, are so good, possibly no film adaptation is going to quite live up to it!

On the other hand, there are cases where you have a short story or book, that's not BAD, but where a filmmaker sees a potential that goes far beyond what the original writer might have imagined. And the films come to overshadow their origins, to the point people are surprised it originated on the printed page to begin with!