Face your fear - Issue #6
YouTube Channel launch
For those of you who missed it, I launched a YouTube channel in January, I'm hoping to produce content slowly at first, just one every two weeks or so, I'd rather have engaging content rather than just me rambling on, so if you haven't already, head on over there and hit subscribe, like the videos if you actually like them, and found out about some great books you may not have known about.
A big shout out to Andrew Robert (aka the Book Dad) who designed my logo and opening credits, and Catherine Fearns, music diva extrodinairre that composed all of the music clips - if you ever need any music clips, check her out on Instagram and Twitter. There are links in the comments of my videos.
Making 2022 "Exceptional"
Whilst I don't make New Year's resolutions, I have (for over 15 years now) a tradition that I've kind of become superstitious about. Coming up to 00:00 on new years day, I try to focus on how I believe the coming year is going to be, and summarize my feelings into a word, which generally just pops into my head. Now I'm not the groundhog from groundhog day or the football result octopus, but I have tended to get the general impressions of the years right (most years). And this year, the word that popped into my head was Exceptional.
Now it might very well be true that you can manifest or change outcomes by concentrating on achieving something by channeling yourself towards things that help achieve a goal you have in mind, but be it deliberate or luck, I'm aiming to make this year exceptional. How?
Well, so far, I've been accepted into the Horror Writers Association Mentor Program. I'm working with a Bram Stoker Award winner on producing more, motivating myself, and getting out of my writing pause. I decided to commit to writing, and to give myself goals, I'm focussing on short stories to go for submission to anthologies, whilst slowly continuing with The Masocheist and The Dawn Chorus. Why?
Firstly, I'd like to produce a collection of shorts, as a taster for readers, and eventually to use as a reader magnet - a book to be able to give away for free to provide examples of my writing. Plus, the shorts will (hopefully) appear in anthologies and show readers what they can expect from my longer novels.
I only started this process this month, and I've already made a submission this month and am gearing up and polishing a second ready for submission later this month for another, with a third started yesterday. I have to say the spark and enjoyment is back, and I'm really happy with the story that's out there. More news on the submissions as I receive replies. Wish me luck!
How's the Masocheist coming?
The short answer - slowly. The Sadeiest was similar in that I would go months at a time with nothing written, then write a whole chapter, no problem, and it would, more or less, be exactly the finished product. I have crit partners that suggest the odd word change here or there, but my stream of conscious writing is pretty much what you get in the final product.
You might think, if you've read the Sadeiest, that that can't be true given the complexity of the storytelling - or rather, the weaving of threads, but it really is that way - I'd had a long time to consider how I was going to tell the tale, so I'd already planned in all of the threads, it was just a case of writing them down. The Masocheist is the same, I know the whole story - the ending, the elements I need to get there, the individual character arcs - and the big reveals. But this time, I'm not waiting for inspiration. I'm making it!
I've finished a war section involving Famine (or Need, as they call themselves (my first non-binary character - Famine is a lack of whatever it is you need - and your needs dictate how you perceive "them"). It was a long process because I needed the scene to be - well - nasty. It's a battle, and I couldn't skip on the gore and brutality. You had to feel the hopelessness of the defenders and the absolute brutality of the attackers. Plus I had to educate myself on African tribes, language, dress, beliefs, and names and their meanings. I wanted it to sound authentic.
In related news, Daniele Serra has agreed to a series of covers - He's doing The Sadeiest, The Masocheist, and The Dawn Chorus - I want some continuity amongst my covers - I can't wait to see what he comes up with. Below are some examples of his work.
What I've been reading
To finish, a quick glimpse...
So here's a quick section of The Coffin Maker, a submission I have out in the world at the moment.
Enjoy!
The coffin maker (segment)
“Hold her steady, Boy.”
My muscles flexed in agony. I put my weight behind the wood again, my arms splayed out to each side despite their protests as he worked the plane over the surface of the board, his fists red with effort as the tool glided with ease, a sliver of wood left bereft in its wake.
“You see how it curls, Boy? It’s almost a song. A note trilling into existence. That’s the devil coming out. Hidden in all the wood we shape. We smooth and glide, pound and press, bend and beat him out, to a tune of our making. Can you hear it? Can you feel him shaking?”
My arms were raw, bloody stubs, I could no longer feel my fingers, they had cramped into one position long since, but my will held my trembling body rigid against his movement. I felt nothing but my own exhaustion, too tired to respond. The only trill I heard was the farting I made through effort. Trill? My arse.
He raised his face, his eyebrow arched, then smiled and stood, and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“That’ll do.”
I released the wood and stood, my back grated bone against bone as I straightened, my hands still clenched together, unwilling to uncurl, held tight around a phantom board.
The bastard laughed at my discomfort.
“Let’s make the tap holes.”
He lifted the base molding with ease as if it weighed nothing and brought it to the worktable as I flexed my stiff fingers and rubbed my wrists. He was still smiling. “Why do we make the three tap holes, and why are they placed where they are?”
I took a deep breath and tried to picture the passage I had read from the hand-written journal he lent me. His notes and thoughts a jumble. I had no idea. He must have seen it in my eyes.
“There are two reasons we drill the tap holes. Gerard could recite both after a week under my guidance.”
Gerard was the apprentice who had died after a fight - over a girl – down on the rocks on the shore 10 years ‘fore. He was untouchable. Everything I did wrong, Gerard had done perfectly. Nails that I hit incorrectly would never have been hit in the same way by Gerard. Tools that should have been ready to hand would have been waiting, ready, 10 years previous. As a ghost, in death, he was untouchable, a perfect memory of competence.
I hated him with a passion.
“Two are centered at the base of the feet, just below where the heels of our client will rest.”
Our client. A dead, cold, disintegrating bloated corpse.
“The coffin is placed with a slight decline, barely noticeable so that any shift of the corpse over time results in the remains collecting at the lowest point of the coffin. Corpses lose fluids, and those fluids collect in the skin, which gradually disintegrates, yet the fluids released by the body previous to that slow destruction lay in the coffin, underneath the corpse. What is that collection of fluid called, boy?”
“Ichor, Sir.” That I knew - it was my private nickname for the arrogant bastard.
“Correct. And ichor is what starts the 50-year decomposition process of the coffin from the inside. Moisture, soil, the weight of the earth itself - all take their toll from the outside, but that disintegration is also speeded from the inside. A coffin without tap holes has no drainage, the ichor releases gas which builds and pushes against the containment. That pressure tests a coffin in its infancy. Here.”
I glanced up. I had concentrated on my hands, flexing my stiff fingers to feel the blood pump through them once more, and had not seen him approach. He held half a loaf of bread out to me. It had been made by my brother, David. I could tell from its texture. I nodded thanks and attacked it with a passion. I had not known I was so hungry. He would use our downtime to discuss rituals. Always the teacher.
As always - stay safe - wear a mask, get vaccinated.
Be exceptional this year.
