Updates, the Counter of Responsibility, and the Next Big Thing

Good evening my friends and readers, it has been a while since we could sit back and talk a bit.  Things are beginning to get rolling again over at Wicked East Press.  It’s a good thing to see and is a very good press to work to work with.  The delays have been settled and the anthologies Chained in the Attic (with my story “Amos’s Song”) and Fresh Ground: Coffee House Flash Fiction Vol. 3 (with “Safety First”) should be getting the last touches and off to the printers soon.  I am waiting to iron out the details, but it looks like the month of December will see me debut in a magazine.  It is an e-zine, but I’ll take it.  A print mag is still a goal however.  October 2013 will also see another story published and there will be more on it once we get closer to the release.  So the wheels of progress are moving into the 2013 year.

Now that In Memoriam (and if you haven’t picked it up yet go here to get it)  has been released, I’ve been slowly getting back to the grind.  The plate has been filled with many short story projects and I’m loading up on longer works as well.  Tonight, I’m going to start a weekly counter to show what the progress for the novellas and novels looks like.  As you may know, Southern Devilshas been a project that has continually kicked me in the balls.  It started out as a novella, turned into a possible novel length idea, and now after reworking and cutting the crap out of it… it has turned into a novella trilogy with a follow-up novel.  If you like the Civil War and zombies, this is for you!

Southern Devils Bk.1- 17,000 out of 30-35,000 words.

Next on the list is a novella that has the potential to turn into something longer.  The world could be bigger, but if I feel the tale is told enough in the novella, I’m calling it a day on the subject for some time.  I would tell you some things about it, but it might give too much away.  There is a man who has blocked out his memory of everything before the car crash that killed his wife and daughter.  When he starts to experience weird visions and notices he is being followed, he embarks on a journey to expose the mysteries of the Red Veil and try to remember a life forgotten.

The Red Veil- 3,000 out of 30,000 words

I have two tales set in White Creek in the works including my first novel.  The novel builds on the themes touched on during In Memoriam and makes the history of White Creek come calling during the bicentennial celebration.  The other is a novella about two key characters appearing in the novel and will be nice lead-in to the White Creek mythos.  For years, evil has seeped out of the soil and it has possessed many of White Creek’s residents.  A state policeman stationed in his hometown of White Creek must come to grips with his past and how it relates to a copycat killer who seems to be the reincarnation of the killer he escaped from twenty years earlier.  And what about the dragonflies?  Both will really lay the ground work for the next few years worth of projects including a short story collection based on the town’s residents and legends (this is separate from the other non-themed collection I’m working on now).

Sins of the Fathers (working title)- 4,500 out of 80,000 (goal-might go shorter)

Wings of the Dead- 2,500 out of 25,000

There you have it, what I have going on for the time being.  Every week I’ll update the progress and you can yell at me if you see me getting behind.  If you ever want to know more, please feel free to ask.

I will have a post on Wednesday as I have been tagged in the Next Big Thing blog hop (thanks to Wesley Southard for the tag!).

So for now, good night…

In the Beginning…

Hello all you ghouls out there!  Tonight we open the casket on the subject of being the new guy in the room, the one just now striking out on their own, and the one who will make mistakes.  Nobody who starts writing  is a pro from the start.  It takes time and it takes some luck, but if you lack skill the luck can’t help you get very far.   In the long run, your mask gets thrown off and the real you steps forward.  Am I a pro?  Hell no, but I can see the writing get better with each tale I write and that’s how it should be.  When I go back and look at some of the old stuff sitting on the hard drive, I cringe.  That is my focus for tonight, it is a learning experience when you start out.

I have been pretty lucky in my dealings with publishers so far (except for one and I pulled an awful story I submitted  just to prove he was accepting anything).  I’ve worked with Armand Rosamillia, Eric Beebe, Jessica A. Weiss, Adam Millard, the crew at Pill Hill Press, and the guys at Knightwatch Press.  All of them have been very supportive and its been super to be a part of their press.  I owe each of them for giving my work a place to scream bloody murder at the world.  They are all professionals and I hope we can continue to work together in the future.

It hasn’t all been smooth though.  I started out with rejections and my first acceptance into an anthology was cancelled.  It did sell later so everything is cool there.  Have I always sent stuff to upstanding publishers?  We want to get stuff out anyway possible at first and the answer is no, we don’t always send to the right places at first.  The above comment about the pulled story is why.  I sent something in I knew was crappy (it was the second story I’d ever written) and as I expected, he took it.  Then there was a large e-mail shouting match about the contract and I pulled the story.  I did it partly because I wanted the story buried again and also because the guy was an ass.  This same person just rewrote a friend’s first story without telling her and then said some very unsavory things.  It will be ok though, what comes around goes around and his day is coming.

Those are the issues we deal with starting out.  Some of us don’t have fairy god-parents who we rely on to make our career happen.  Most of us have to put the fingers to the keys and put the boots to the floor trying to make it all happen.  Do we make some rookie errors?  Yes.  Do we learn from them?  Yes. 

In the end, I’ll know I have my career because I fought and bled for it.  I pushed and scratched for it, avoiding all coat-tails in front of me.  You know what?  I’ll sleep better and my work will be better for it.  I’m not going to do it half-ass and expect others to push me through.  I’m an adult and I can take care of myself.  Things have happened quick and it only goes up from here.

Well, I’ll stop there for this evening so I can write some more and drink some more too.

Goodnight…

Some Random Musings…AVENGERS!!!!!

Ok, I’m going to take a moment to wax poetic about The Avengers.  Marvel Studios did an incredible job bringing their superhero franchises together in one big kick ass movie.  It helped they had this planned all along with each movie adding something toward the whole (if you stayed after the credits that is…).  The outcome was one of the best superhero movies ever made.  If you have not seen it, go fix that right now…I’ll wait…just go.  They also set events in motion for the second Avengers movie and I can’t wait to see one of my favorite comics villains on the screen.  It was funny because only a handful of us in the theater knew who it was.  I know DC plans a JLA movie, but they are getting to the party late and have to relaunch all their franchises to get it set up.  I don’t want another Batman reboot, I want a fourth Chris Nolan Batman flick! 

Enough about that and now some random thoughts.

1. Watched the new Muppet movie again tonight and in all honesty, it brings a tear to your eye.  I have some, let us say depressed, moments in my life where I let the inner darkness take hold and I spiral down into a bad place within myself.  I’ve had this issue again lately and it screws up my writing because I begin to doubt myself and what I write, like each word is testament to how bad I am.  The movie’s ending is really uplifting and I needed that message right now.  No matter how bad things get and when everything hits rock bottom, there is a dignity with pushing forward and holding your head up high.  Kermit’s speech about doing that was a badly needed pick-me-up and brought a smile to my face.

2. Pugs want to rule the world.  I believe they would already if they weren’t so lazy.  If my pug is how the rest of them act, I’m surprised they found the will power to stop eating and procreate… Hey, I call ‘em like I see ‘em.

3.  My experiment with writing a story with another author is going really good.  He’s liked what I’ve contributed so far and that’s gone a long way to silencing the doubt that had crept in again.

4.  Father Grim’s Storybook from Wicked East Press is now at the printer.  When it becomes available in a few weeks, I’ll be happy to see my story “As I Crossed Lincoln Bridge” in print.  The story was really tough to write and is one of my favorite pieces.  It is based on a little known rhyme and when I took it dark, I took it reeaallllyyyy dark.  As a father of two sons, the ending was the most gut-wrenching thing I’ve ever written and it haunted me for a few weeks afterward.  Putting myself in the head of the father was rough and led to the ending being what it is.  The ending in the book was not the one I planned, but grew organically out of how the story had taken hold of me.  The cover is sweet too!

5.  Don’t forget the contest if you haven’t signed up to follow the blog yet.  May 15th is the date and the winner selected from all blog followers is a signed copy of Rymfire Undead’s Undead Tales 2 with my story “The Reaper Rides”. 

Well that should do it for tonight so,

Goodnight…

The Year So Far…(and a pretty good one to boot!)

I started out the year with some modest goals while I tried to build on the beginning success of last year.  2011 was my first full year of writing and I finished the year with 10 stories in 8 anthologies.  My goal was 5, so I thought I did ok.  Raising the bar higher for 2012, I found myself with 5 stories already finding homes in 2012.  The running total now is 15 tales in 13 books, so be sure to collect them all!  This year should also see the release of my first novella if everything stays on course and according to plan.  I’m not going to say much at this point except that the manuscript is in the editor’s hands and we will begin polishing it up soon.  My goal is to have it ready for the book signing I have lined up in October.  More to come on the event later…

The anthologies getting to print have been steady this year so far also.  Ten Silver Bullets, Zombie Writing, Short Sips: Coffee House Flash Fiction V.2, Undead Tales 2, and a new printing of Undead of Winter have been released since the first of the year with several more coming shortly.  The shelf in the office is growing larger and looks more impressive with every release.  Good trend to have and to celebrate the release of Undead Tales 2, I will have a drawing from all blog subscribers on May 15, 2012.  Anyone who is an active subscriber and comments on this post by that date will be entered to win an autographed copy of the anthology.

I enjoy the spinning of yarns for those who like the darkness hiding in the everyday recesses of life.  If you read and follow any new or established author, go to their Amazon page, their Facebook page, or their Twitter @BrentTAbell (click on the word and the nice little link will take you there or you can get there from the links on the side of the page) and ’LIKE’ them or the books they’re involved in.  Let all of us know if you liked it or not, give some feedback, or just tell us you’re reading us.  That my friends is what keeps us going, not some blind ambition to get rich.  Well, if I can, I won’t turn it down.

I have stuff to do on some projects, so be sure to take a few minutes and do some liking!

Goodnight and here are the new release covers…

Back to the Grind and Ranting!

I have returned.  I return a different person, a new man.  I’ve tasted the forbidden cigars of Cuba, got smashed on rum punch while jumping into the Caribbean, and found out there is more rum in the islands then I can consume.  The last one was a tough pill to swallow for me.  Before I go any further, I would like to state a few facts and how absurd our country is.

The islands and Central American countries I visited live in a poverty most of us never, ever have to experience.  Once you leave the nice beach fronts, the reality of the local economies set in.  The jobs most of them have is to be our guides, drivers, and clean our condos.  Behind the façade of the nice sand and tourists traps lies lands with great need of food, shelter, and infrastructure to improve their country and prospects for a brighter future.  Returning to the states, I was once again bombarded with the messages from our leaders and the vile venom they spew back and forth at each other.  The parties combined will spend almost $2 billion dollars to buy the presidency.  $2 billion to pollute our airwaves with mud and name calling, dragging each other through the dirt and grime.  $2 billion dollars that could improve the lives and prospects of many other people in countries less fortunate than ours.  Would we rather see the money spent on families who live in extreme poverty so we can lift their economies or would we rather watch commercials where one candidate calls the other an asshole and the other counters back with something witty like, “well you are too!”.  No, let them do something righteous with their war chests, see if they can rise up and do something worthwhile, and let them take a stand to the world by stopping the whoring for votes.  Please feel free to discuss below, I’m very curious to see how others feel about this situation.

Now, for something lighter.

A few things are at the press and very close to coming out.  Wicked East Press’s (WEP) Short Sips: Coffee House Flash Fiction Vol.2 is at the press and should be released shortly.  The story I penned for the Cemetery Dance Amateur Writing Competition last year titled, Rivals, is in the book.  It has been updated with parts being tweaked.  I felt the need to make some changes before I did anything with it.  I posted the CD version at 4 in the morning and some items needed further clarification and fleshing out.

This weekend should see the release of Rymfire Undead’s Undead Tales 2 on Kindle and in print.  My ’zombies on a train’ tale, The Reaper Rides, can be found there.  A good little story about what happens when at the beginning of the zombie plague, nobody is sure what is going on.  Some other things might come out of this if I can stop blogging and just write.

A little flash story I wrote called Safety First was accepted for WEP’s Fresh Ground: Coffee House Flash Fiction Vol. 3.  It won’t be out until 2013, but I dedicate it all my friends at work.  When they hear it, they’ll know it’s for them.

Lastly, I am in contact with another author and we are planning to pen a few stories together for the hell of it.  I’ve never done this before and the results should be pretty good.  We are just starting to get the ball rolling, so I’ll let you know how that pans out.

Lots of stuff happening and I hope to have a novella update soon!

Goodnight…

The Journey Part 1: Novella Thoughts

For those who are new to the blog, or who will be, let me introduce myself.  I’m a man of wealth and…wait that’s the Devil, not me.  I’m Brent Abell, newbie author and general pain in the ass to most who know me.  I like my books bloody, my music heavy, and my movies scary.  Right now in my DVD player is The Devil’s Rejects, my computer is playing Mastodon, and I’m reading J.F. Gonzalez’s Fetish and Armand Rosamilia’s Dying Days 2.  I drink my beer and I like my rum and Jameson’s.  My mouth gets me in trouble and if you are my friend, I wouldn’t be able to bail you out of jail because I’ll be sitting next to you in the drunk tank.  Job?  Not happy right now, but who is?  What do I want to do?  I want to write.

I started small, thinking that is how you start off.  Beginning with short tales of dread, I believed I had to slave away making next to nothing just to get my name out for the public.  I was right and I was wrong. 

I needed the short stuff to get a sense of what I wanted to do.  When I was in high school, I loved to write and would come up with stuff I would read to a group of friends when the mood took us.  After school, I stopped and never picked up a pen, pencil, or mouse to write fiction for a long time.  Two years ago I picked it up and it’s been a hell of a ride since then.  I have 14 stories in 12 anthologies, most of which have come in the last 9 months.  I thought I was doing right…

…Until it came to the novella.  I decided it was time to move up in length and I wrote my first novella.  It was a labor of love that brought many disagreements to my house, but I wanted to tell the story I wanted to tell.  I wrote and re-wrote until on the advice of James A. Moore at Horrorfind, I sent it off.  

Without giving too much away, the story revolves around a woman and how a deadly choice she makes brings her and her loved ones on a collision course between two entities, one natural and one supernatural, on missions of revenge.  All choices have consequences and the clock is running out.

The novella is being work on with an editor now.  I’m not going to go into details because the project is very early in the process.  I’m going to update the trail of the novella here on the blog as I go through the steps of getting it published.  Tonight I spoke a little about the story to set the  stage for the rest of the Journey.  When I have some news, I’ll be sure to share.

On March 21st I will have a guest blog by author Armand Rosamilia on his tour promoting his new novella Dying Days 2.  He has a great interview and there will be a contest tied Armand’s tour, so stop back by and check it out.

Lastly,I leave you with the cover of Wicked East Press’s Chained in the Attic anthology with my story “Amos’s Song” the first of the White Creek cycle.

 That does it for tonight.  If you’re new please join the conversation by following here, Facebook, and Twitter.  It was a pleasure meeting you and I hope you’ll come back and hang again.

Goodnight…

Come and Hear “Amos’s Song”!

This afternoon, I received word that “Amos’s Song” was accepted to Wicked East Press’s Chained in the Attic anthology.  It is my fourth story with WEP and I would like to thank Jessica A. Weiss for her continued faith in my work.

Now a little about the story for the newly titled “Why Did I Write It?” segment…

Last year while working at a booth at our local Fall Festival the idea magically appeared.  The booth was next to the stage and I worked during the amateur hour competition.  The way I portray the tap-dancing acts is spot on and they gave me the biggest headache.  In typical form, I started to kill them in my mind and this little tale about revenge came from my experience.   There are some things spoke of that might not make sense…yet.  Fear not because all will be explained (please keep reading).

This is also the first published story taking place in my town of White Creek.  The town was created because I hate having a series of stories set in a real place.  I didn’t feel like I can destroy a town properly while a reader thinks about the real place.  With that in mind, I decided to go the new town route and create my own stomping ground.  Currently, I am working on a group of stories to introduce the town and its main characters.  There will be many tales that interconnect in some way, but can still be enjoyed on a story by story basis.  One of these is the completed novella and three other stories round out the group so far.  My goal is to put it together as a collection and introduce the world to the most cursed place on Earth, White Creek.

In closing, I feel odd.  The story is my 13th and I hope it proves to be lucky for me instead of a portent of things to come.  It is also the third story accepted this year already and I hope to have many more.  I will leave you with one last thought,  beginning authors don’t have a lot of name recognition yet.  Do something nice for a new author, go to Amazon and check out their author page.  Once you read about them, like them and pick up some books they are in to show support.  Like those books, review them, and follow them on Twitter and Facebook, or follow their blogs.  We aren’t doing this for the money, we are doing it for our love of storytelling and we want to know our work is not falling on blind eyes.  Go and like the hell out of some starting authors and make their day (including me .

Goodnight…

The Year That Was 2011

Well, this is it.  Here we are at the end of 2011 and it was one hell of a year.  When the year first started, I had just  finished out 2010 with a fun reading at Mo*Con IV and a few rejection slips from editors.  That was pretty much my writing career till 2011.  Considering I didn’t start writing until mid 2010, I didn’t expect much.  I heard all the stories and such about, ‘doing your time’.  Well, I guess I did enough time, because 2011 was a very good year.  The first half was slow, but once April hit, all bets were off.

It started in February when I was given the chance to read at Horrorfind 13 in September.  It meant I had to skip Mo*Con, but I was ok with that for this chance (and to the guy who does the selecting - thank you, I still say I owe you more and you know who you are).  I now had a conundrum…what should I read since I didn’t have anything published yet?  April brought what I thought was the answer when my first acceptance came for “Stonewall” (that anthology has been cancelled and brought back from the dead to be published at some point in 2012 I hope).  It was followed closely in May when “A Winter’s Feast” was accepted.  Stories went out and rejections came back for a few months.  Late summer and early fall would prove to be a storm.

I tried to spend most of the summer working on my novella, “In Memoriam” (I am preparing to get the first three chapters out based on the synopsis I sent out).  The short stories were on the back burner, but some didn’t want to be buried.  Through the next three months I had eight more stories accepted.  I only set myself a goal of five.  Come on, let’s be realistic, it was only my first full year.  So, if you want to see what’s coming or what is out to buy, check out the Biblio page.  There is even a nonfiction piece that will be out in January and I will give you more info when I get it.

That brought me to Horrorfind 13.  It was the most fun I could have had.  I drove with my partner in crime Wesley Southard to the great state of Pennsylvania for a weekend of books, booze, and good friends.  I learned tons from people I hadn’t seen in a year and from some new friends as well.  Then I had the reading.  I wish I would have done better, but I was nervous and it showed.  I decided to read “A Winter’s Feast” for my time in the ring.  I picked it because it was my first story to see print and because it was the only thing I had the book for.  It was sweet to be up there and read from the book.  I highly recommend it!

The year ends and I’m gearing up for 2012 with the work on the novel and another novella or two.  The short stories will keep coming and ten is the goal for 2012.  I will take some of the stories plus some new ones for a collection or two in the fall (I hope if things go well).  I have not forgotten the blog followers, you guys have a story coming just for you.

The thank you’s for 2011- My wife (my pre-pre-reader who busts me up before Troy gets me), kids, and pug: you guys are the greatest family a man can have.  To the following for their advise: Wesley Southard, Brian Keene, James A. Moore (who told me to stop screwing with “In Memoriam” and get it out there), Tim Lebbon, Bob Ford, Kelli Owen, Christopher Golden, and to John Everson and Jeff Strand for the interviews.  Troy Green for being my pre-reader from hell (and kicking my stuff in the teeth – you make it better) and to Armand Rosamilia (Rymfire Books), Jessica A. Weiss (Wicked East Press), Eric Beebe (Post Mortem Press), and Jessy Roberts  (Pill Hill Press) for trusting my work and putting it in print.  Lastly, I want to thank all who have read and followed the blog this year, 2012 will be even better! 

The top ten books of 2011 will be up on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day for you to take a look at.  If you haven’t read some the books on the list, go get them and enjoy the rides they will take you on.

Goodnight…

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Whatever (Buy A Book)!

Like I said in the title, what ever it is you celebrate… have a happy one!  To make all your family’s dreams come true this holiday season, give the gift of books.  What?  Do I know of any good ones?  Why yes I do!  As you can see to the left…Daily Flash 2012 from Pill Hill Press is now out (and please the bottom of this post).  I have two tales in it and there is a ton of great stuff in it from many great authors like my friend Wesley Southard.  The book is 366 stories, one for each day of the year, and each is 500 words or shorter so that you can read each day’s story in a few minutes.  Taking the train, taking the bus, stuck in traffic?  Pack this tome with you and never be without entertainment.  Now about my stories…

“The Conversation” is the November 23rd story and is a very personal one.  This was the one where I bleed on the page.  Every time Brantly speaks, the words coming out of his mouth are my words and my feelings.  It needed to be told.  I originally had a longer story planned, but I could never make it work the way I wanted it, so I tossed it out.  Problem with this story is that due to the subject matter, it hung around in my head.  When I saw the submission call for Daily Flash, I sat down and tried again.  The result is something I hope you enjoy, I bled it out for you.

“On the Wings of Darkness: A View From the Dark Frontier” will find you when the calendar flips to August 26th (I might have the dates flipped- if I do forgive me).  While trying to form an idea for a series or a collection of interwoven short stories, this was the first part of the concept I came up with.  Now that I’ve had time to work it the overall arc more, some stuff has been altered slightly from how it is described in this story and you’ll have to read about it later.  This one was hard to write due to trying to pack it full of background, but still try to tell a story about how one man views the new world he finds himself in.  I had fun with it, so you are allowed to have fun too!

This week also saw another anthology with a story from me go on sale.  Wicked East Press’s Under the Stairs came out with my story “Calvary Hill”.  I guess I’ll give you a quick story note on this one too.  I never really set out to write a Western and strangely enough, I find myself doing it again right now as we sit here talking books.  This one started out being focused on something and then I found myself more intrigued by the other main character more.  In fact, two characters from the story appear in the new story and the town is penciled in to pop-up again when I get the chance.  Calvary Hill still has more story left in it, blowing through the empty streets like tumble weed in the desert wind.  Overall, I enjoy the story a lot. 

I have updated the Biblio page with links to the four books with my stories at this point.  The links can take you to multiple places to shop, so have at it.  If you like something you buy, please go back and leave a review or press the like button on the book’s page.  As long as I know you want to read them, I’ll keep writing them.  This page should be changing soon as it will morph over to brentabell.com or something close to that and I am going to set up a fan page on Facebook so I can separate things over there (you are ordered to ‘like’ it when I’m done).  My Amazon Author’s Page is up and looks nice now that there is more than one book listed for me.

So, have a happy whatever and support your local and other small press authors this Holiday Season.  Goodnight…