When Inspiration Knocks

I'm sure most authors would agree that there are times when inspiration doesn't just knock lightly, but pushes the damn door down, insisting that you drop just about everything you're working on to write, write, write. One must heed this call. In my opinion and experience, if the driving force is lost, the story most often is lost with it. Even a detailed set of notes that are later retrieved when there is a spare moment will not suffice, for during the period when the inspiration is fresh and new, bright and driving, the story will come out like lightning from my fingertips.

I was hit with the an inspiration uppercut just the other day. It was Thursday, I believe. I heard a news story on the radio that was so desperate and unbelievable that my mind went wild with the possibilities. The story was about a family whose house was foreclosed, and when they wanted to do something good as a result of their misfortune, they were completely taken advantage of by not one person, not two people, but a slew of greedy, heartless fools who really should have been prosecuted for breaking and entering if nothing else. Yes, I know my description of the story is vague, but I'm keeping the details to myself, as they play an important role in the story I am writing.

This got me thinking about the state of our society. Here we are in the midst of a Presidential election, the economy sucks about as hard as a twenty dollar whore, and people are either being pushed to desperate measures or using their ignorance and the struggling state of their existence as an excuse to run amok. How far can or will it go? How desperate will people become? Or is the current state of our economy just a great excuse for petty crime?

Inspiration hit me hard -- just about gave me a black eye! So as soon as I was finished with a short story re-write I had been working on, I immediately began work on a short story I am calling "Like Ants on a Carcass". I wrote about 1,000 words last night, and just as soon as I sign off on this blog post I will write more. The way it's going, I may finish the first draft in one more sitting. I had intended on finishing a novel I began in the summer tentatively titled "Paint it Black", but I learned a while back that I must heed my muse lest the inspiration die away and all I'm left with is a note, an idea, and nothing more.

Cheers and good writing!

Post Mortem Press to Publish My Novel People of the Ethereal Realm

The title says it all! Post Mortem Press will be publishing my novel People of the Ethereal Realm. This novel has a bit of a history, having been accepted for publication by four publishers in the past several years. Without getting into detail, there were a variety of reasons it was not published before Post Mortem got their hands on it. Bad contracts and publishers dropping off the face of the planet may have all been for the best. I've worked with PMP before, and I am looking forward to seeing this book on their 2013 roster.

The tentative release is for February, 2013. I, of course, will make updates as the novel progresses through the many steps toward publication.

Here's a quick blurb about the book:

Barbara comes to Adam at night while his wife is working the graveyard shift at the hospital. She is but a dream in the mind of a frustrated man whose life is on the verge of collapse, but Adam has something she wants and she will go to any extreme in acquiring her desires.

Gerald lives a lonely life in the Boulevard, a ghetto on the wrong side of the tracks. He's blind, but where his sense of vision is obsolete, his ability to communicate with the souls of the dead is acute. He fears nothing, having grown up on the mean streets, but on the night Barbara visits him that is about to change

 

Who is this mysterious woman and what does she want so badly that she'll destroy anyone and anything that gets in her way? Can she bring two men from different backgrounds together for her bidding? How many people will have to die, and how many will wish death was the end?

 

A New Interview

Recently Rebecca Snow asked me to do an interview. If you would like to know a little something about me, here's your chance. Take a trip into the Isolation Tank, and after you're finished, take a look around. There are lots of goodies to check out on her blog.

Thanks, Rebecca!