I’ve been diving into the shadows for a little over a month now under the guidance of the talented JG Faherty through the HWA Mentorship Program. And let me tell you, it’s been nothing short of invaluable. Faherty is not only giving me great feedback on my stories; he’s shared an abundance of wickedly good advice on the business side of horror writing.
In addition to his advice, Faherty has introduced me to the Bram Stoker Award Winning editor Michael Knost, and I had the opportunity a couple weeks ago to take Knost’s class on dialogue. As a horror writer with a background in playwriting, I thought I had a firm grasp on the subject, but I walked away with my mind warped by a whole new understanding of what dialogue can be. The class gave me several tools that have already improved my fiction immensely. When I saw that Knost was teaching another class this coming Saturday on creating characters, I jumped at the opportunity. If you’re a writer, I can’t recommend these classes enough.
I’m now in the final week of Clay McLeod Chapman‘s Poe POV class on Litreactor.com. Admittedly, I was a bit worried about its lack of engagement at the start, but once things got moving, it’s been great. Students scoured the internet for interesting newspaper articles then wrote from the POV of one of the “characters” involved in the story. I ended up writing about a man and his friend going noodling in Oklahoma and their encounter with a cosmic cryptid. I’m preparing to give “Blood and Teeth and Beard” a few more passes then will hopefully find it a home where it can haunt readers’ dreams.
And now the big news! I’ve sold a story to Cohesion Press for their upcoming anthology, SNAFU: Punk’d. Scheduled to be released on October 23rd, this anthology is shaping up to be the best yet of the acclaimed SNAFU series, where military action and horror entwine in the most fun way possible. My story, “Factory of Fear,” takes place in a dystopian world monopolized by biopunk corporations and follows a woman as she fights her way through a malevolent factory, battling genetically modified monsters, in search of her missing brother. This is my first published short story. It departs from my usual style, brimming with relentless action and copious amounts of gore, but I must confess, it was blast to write!
Coming up, I have three more months in the mentorship program with JG Faherty, where we’ll continue to explore nightmares and push the boundaries of my craft. I’m immersing myself in a short story for the Qualia Nous anthology edited by Michael Bailey. And on the 12th of August, I’ll be taking a novel-writing class from Jonathan Maberry.
Thank you for joining me on this delightfully dark journey. For more updates follow me on Twitter @cjwriteshorror and subscribe to my newsletter. Until next time, cheers!
