Category Archives: Writing

Now At Horrific Scribes: “Scheduling Issues”

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Today marked the publication of my story “Scheduling Issues” over at Horrific Scribes!

This is a story I first wrote a version of maybe 20 years ago, when I had just ascended to the management group at Red Storm and was really uncomfortable about certain aspects of having done so. The draft I wrote then was overlong and overwritten and lacked a certain maturity, in that the core of the story is the conversation between the protagonist and his wife, and at that point I was freshly married and honestly didn’t understand how marriages worked years into the arrangement.

So I messed with it for a while, and then I moved on to other stuff because I couldn’t get that one where I wanted to go. It faded into an old working folder that got passed along from computer to computer over the years and pretty much lost in the process, until a couple of months ago, when in a burst of procrastination I decided to tidy up my hard drive and accidentally found that lode of long-abandoned fiction.

Like a fool, I opened it and started reading the 20-odd stories in various stages of completion in there. Some were absolutely terrible. Some were very much “product of the times” pieces that would no longer speak to anyone. And a few still clearly had good bones, and if I could polish the language and cut about 30% (mostly adverbs), I might have something.

This was one of those stories, largely because of that quiet conversation between loving husband and wife in the middle. There’s no fight. There’s no fireworks. Just a moment of raw, painful honesty that opens the door to both liberation and destruction.

So give it a read. And think twice before your next meeting.

 

Writing Update

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Just got in off the road from GDC, just about to roll out to AuthorCon, but I’ll talk about both of those later. In the meantime, here’s an update on my current writing projects…

  • Just finished my second short of the year, a non horror ghost story called “Letters To The Dead”. It’s with readers now and I am looking forward to feedback.
  • I should have two stories hitting next month: “Used Sleep” in Space and Time, and “Paws” in Black Cat Weekly.
  • I have six stories out for submission, plus another two I am looking for the right market to sub to. Another story has been pulled from the submission rotation because upon due consideration, it seemed likely that the underlying themes might get misread in a way at odds with my intent.
  • I have one completed novel on sub with a publisher and with agents. I am also waiting to hear back from a publisher on a second novel pitch, featuring my recurring Reb Palache character.
  • I owe one anthology a story that is mostly complete. I have been asked by another editor to send a story along. Beyond that I have eight stories in partial stages of completion, which I intend to wrap up this year.
  • My non fiction book The Video Game Writer’s Guide To Surviving an Industry That Hates You, has a release date. I should be getting proofs shortly, and I had a great chat with my editor while at GDC. I will be announcing the release date and preorder links as soon as the cover art is ready.
  • I have two unannounced projects in progress. More details soon, I hope.
  • My card game, Squatches and Scotches, is under review by multiple publishers. I look forward to hearing back, hopefully with good news.
  • And I am keeping up my ongoing twice a week LinkedIn posts on game narrative, for reasons I will go into another time.
This….feels like a lot, especially on top of a writing based day job that I enjoy immensely. Some folks want to know how I can do it. Some folks think I am lying.
I am not lying.
The secret is twofold. One, many of these projects have evolved over time. I am not writing all the things every night. These are carefully prioritized and sequenced to ensure things are actually getting knocked out as needed.
Two, a steady application of words every night goes a long way towards creating substantial output. I have had my 10000 word days and even a 20000 word day or two. But I find hitting a hard minimum of 500 words per, with room to do more if my muse is feeling randy, ends up producing more than you would think.
Throw in the facts that my romantic partner lives in Albany, my cats have gone on to The Great Comfy Couch In The Sky, and I fell out of the television habit in 2016, and I generally have plenty of time to write every night.
Your mileage may of course vary. But this is what I’ve got.

Swing Batter Batter at PseudoPod

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I am very happy to share with you the news that my baseball-themed horror story “Swing Batter Batter” is live over with the fine folks at PseudoPod! It’s a fun story and I’m very proud of it. Hope you enjoy it!

ECGC Talk Video Goes Live on YouTube

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Earlier this year I was cajoled into giving a talk at East Coast Game Conference. I hadn’t given a talk at a game conference with a powerpoint in years – mostly I’ve been concentrating on narrative roundtables at GDC, as well as helping put together the content for the Game Narrative Summit and ECGC. But this time I went ahead and did it, talking about the differences between writing fiction and writing video games. Enjoy!

Ghost of a Marriage Audiobook Is Live

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Remember when I said that Ghost of a Marriage was coming out the first week of February? Well, it looks like Audible is ahead of the curve because the unabridged audiobook is available now! Narrated by Sam Rosenthal, it clocks in at seven and a half hours of spooky goodness. So if you’re the audiobook type, it just might be down your alley.

Happy New Year and Thank Yous

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Wishing everyone out there a very happy new year! I’d like to take this moment to say thank you to some folks who have been instrumental in my writing this past year. So big thanks to:

  • Robin Laws, who green lit the first Reb Palache story many years ago for The New Hero
  • Josh Schlossberg, for publishing “On Seas of Blood and Salt” in The Jewish Book of Horror
  • Alex Hofelich and the rest of the wonderful folks at PseudoPod for publishing me – I am honored to be among their roster of authors
  • David Niall Wilson and the fine folks at Crossroad Press, for picking up Ghost of a Marriage and getting set to bring it to the world in February. (Hint – now would be a great time to pre-order!)
  • Jeff Strand, Mikko Rautalahti, Jesse Scoble, Rachel Zane and Laura Hickman for reading the manuscript and providing invaluable help on it, some of which I was smart enough to take.
  • Bridgett Nelson for reading and editing some of my short fiction and still speaking to me afterwards
  • John McIlveen, for reasons that will have to remain mysterious for now
  • James A. Moore, Mur Lafferty, Maurice Broaddus, Rhianna Pratchett, Anna Megill, Annie Reid and so many more for being shining examples of the craft
  • Toiya K. Finley, Richard Rouse III and Alexander Bevier for collaborating in putting on an online gathering of game writers that was good for the soul
  • Susan O’Connor and Tom Abernathy, my co-conspirators in curating the Game Narrative Summit at GDC
  • Walter Rotenberry and company at East Coast Game Conference for allowing me to once again curate their narrative content
  • Pauline Martyn, James Charles Leary, Tom Knights, and Justin Achilli for secret things
  • All the writers who agreed to let me interrogate them in Five For Writing
  • And all of you for reading this

So a giant thank you to everyone for all that you did in 2021. Here’s to 2022 and happier days!

Good News, Everybody!

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I hope everyone out there had a wonderful winter holiday, and here’s wishing all of you a glorious new year filled with good news and happiness.

I do have some glad tidings of my own to share. It gives me great pleasure to say my story “Swing Batter Batter” has been accepted by the wonderful folks at PseudoPod and will be running some time next year. Yes, it’s a baseball-themed horror story, so let that fuel your wild speculation while we wait for it to come out.