Reading Lovecraft for Halloween

by | Oct 30, 2016 | journal, writing and publishing

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” – H.P. Lovecraft
I love this quote. Fear is what drives us. It lies at the core of our being in the cells of our ancient brain and arises when triggered. We cannot help but respond. We fight, we fly, we freak.
I recently attended a workshop with thriller writer, Michael Slade, on writing dark fiction. Slade recounted some of our deepest fears:

death
dismemberment, disfigurement & deformity
the dark
closed in spaces
crafted people, dummies & dolls
creatures & monsters
the Other
and most frightening, I think,
fear from within

Am I going insane? Sci-fi horror writer, HP Lovecraft delves into several of these fears in his stories, often combining them to create the ultimate fright.
In this post, Kristen Twardowski, provides insight into Lovecraft and his work.
Though Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s …
Source: Reading Lovecraft for Halloween: 4 Short Stories and Other Fiction

25 Rejection Letters to Famous Authors

by | Oct 20, 2016 | journal, writing and publishing

This is what drives Indie publishing. I sincerely hope these letters were placed in files and not actually sent to authors. I really don’t understand what drives commercial publishing beyond money. To that end I’m going to a workshop tomorrow called “Inside the Mind of a Publisher” at Surrey International Writers Conference. I will let you know what I find out. My thanks to Kristen for another remarkable post.