Tag: entertainment

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Horror Short Fiction Contest


The polls opened today for the reader’s choice fiction contest presented by The Bold Mom blog. A grand total of 76 stories were entered into this contest including one of mine. “Ceres,” #22 in the lineup, has a lot of competition so I’m asking for your help in voting for my story. I understand you may not want to read 76 short stories. I hope you will at least read mine from the link I have provided. The polls are open for one week, so you have plenty of time to read a couple other stories.

This is one of my favorite stories I have written. The first title of this story was “Vampires of the Caribbean” and the idea was pirates and vampires. Who wouldn’t love that? As the story evolved, I decided to change the name of the story to the name of the ship. Ceres was the Roman Goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. Other than the ship being home to its sailors, this wasn’t the reason for the name. The Greek counterpart for Ceres is Demeter, which is the name of the ship on which Dracula travels to London in the Stroker novel.

I’m excited to be a part of this contest and also to have the opportunity for others to read my work. With the vast number of stories in this contest, I’m apprehensive about winning. Nonetheless, I’m spreading the word as well as I can, and I hope you will enjoy it. Click the Bold Mom link to vote and click “Ceres” to read the story. Thank you in advance for your vote. It is greatly appreciated.

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Free eBook Downloads


Today only! Labor Day Special, all my eBooks are free to download on Amazon for Kindle. This includes fiction and poetry books as well as my latest collection of poetry, Men Are Garbage. Get your free download, give them a read, and I would appreciate a review. You can find all my works on my Amazon Author Page. If you have any trouble or if you miss your day to download, leave a comment and we can chat about how I can send you a free copy, but you must comment on this post on September 4 or after.

In other news, one of my unpublished stories was accepted for publication on Jitter Press. Once the story is published, I will post the link for you all to enjoy. This is exciting for me as it is the first story I’ll have published in the traditional sense. So far, I have only self-published all my work but continue submitting stories to online magazines. I’ll never give up and never surrender. It might take 45 years, but I will publish things and make a living from writing. I’m also nefariously plotting world domination with my spider minions.

I plan to have another small collection of fiction released in preparation for my larger paperback collection of short horror fiction titled “Morbid Museum” which feels never ending. I have a few stories to finish and a few more that still need revision. Also, I’m planning to begin writing another novel in November. I have many plans for my writing and never enough time to do it all. That’s the way life is, I suppose. Regardless of how long it takes, all these projects will be completed eventually. This does not mean I’ll be rich and famous but I’ll at least be able to say I accomplished something.

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Starting a New Project


I have realized I can handle many of life’s challenges when I have something to occupy my mind; a project on which to work. Often, I feel the need to work on multiple projects simultaneously as one does not keep my attention for long or I don’t believe I have the time to give something the attention it needs. Mostly, I get bored and start a new project that interests me. I have gotten better at returning to unfinished projects and completing them. If I had enough money to survive and could still work on my projects full-time, I believe I would be better at finishing things before they lose my interest.

But I digress. I have started a new project. At least I have started researching it. I feel the horror genre in general is not taken seriously by society’s majority. Both horror and science fiction are coming of age and it’s time for them to be taken more seriously by both creators and consumers of those creations. These genres often hold creations that are popular with the masses but are rarely considered by the scholars or academics as noteworthy of analysis. My argument is subjective, but I think it is time we saw more horror at the Academy Awards or Pulitzer Prize winners.

I want to offer some insight into the horror genre, specifically supernatural fiction. The horror genre is too large for analysis and even the sub-genre of supernatural fiction would take years to analyze. To help me narrow down some of my research I will only look at works created in the last 30 to 35 years with a couple of exceptions. I will look at television programs, films, novels, graphic novels (comics), music, and video games. Within each of these sections I will offer case studies of works that have transcended their original media and have expanded into various other media such as comics becoming films and television programs and vice versa.

Even with narrowing down my search parameters, this project will require a couple years of work before completion. My main argument is why this kind of fiction is important and should be taken seriously and what this kind of fiction actually does for those who consume it. I believe there is just as much value in supernatural fiction within psychology as well as entertainment. In the way comedy can help achieve catharsis so to can horror. This perhaps is why the two work so well together. Entertainment exists to help people find and achieve catharsis with life’s struggles.

I already have a list of works I will research so please don’t send suggestions. I like the list I have compiled, and I will make small changes as I go. I may even change my overall argument. For now, any support you can offer is greatly appreciated. You can offer financial support by wither purchasing one of my books on Amazon or donating to my Patreon page. You can also support by sharing my work with friends and liking and following on all the social medias. I appreciate any help anyone can offer.