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Wake Me Up Wins Silver Foreword INDIES Book Award #LGBT

A return to Bog blog central today, Sunday, the end of July, when the climactic action in one of my favorite horror novels, The Ceremonies, takes place . . . certainly auspicious. Many wonderful, lucky moments occurred since my last post. Has it really been months? Wake Me Up won a second book award. This is the last since Wake Me Up was not entered for any further award consideration. Two for…

Wake Me Up Wins 1st Place Somerset Book Award

Now that’s a headline . . .

A year ago I nominated my first novel, Wake Me Up, a complex literary crime novel narrated by the victim of a brutal beating while he recuperates from his medically induced coma. Since then, a lot has happened, and I didn’t expect Wake Me Up to make the cut since its publisher called it quits, and each of my books became abandoned tomes, instantly.

Now? I move forward,…

The Bog Zone—Author Interview #3 Andrea Murray

Enter if you dare, this curious dimension, The Bog Zone: Author Interview #3 with Andrea Murray

To read the first two curiouser and curiouser adventures in The Bog Zone, please click on these authors’ names and discover what makes these writers continue down the writer’s path. Eden Baylee and Eleanor Parker Sapia. (The artwork used to create The Bog Zonesigns were painted by George Bogdanovitch.)

Holiday Horror Part 30: A Play Demonic (The Queen’s Idle Fancy)

Another year comes round again, a sluggish beast moving at the same speed for time millennium, a forgotten remembrance graspable when concentrated upon.

“Here! I think I’ve got it!” The witless author takes hold of the reins.

This secret so immaterial a great wall could be built in the blink of an eye, in the decades, the centuries compounding, shrunk into seconds, ticking away. Life.

A Play…

The Volunteer Part 6: A #Horror Story

IN THIS CHAOTIC climate, a horror story is appropriate. The worst deeds of humans, turning monstrous, choosing dreadful paths to take . . . the road darkened yet compelling to those without a conscience, those who wish to get ahead without doing the work or those who simply lack empathy. Most of the scariest of monsters are usually human, born innocent babes, and then a transcendence occurs, a…

THE VOLUNTEER Part 5: A #Horror Tale

Meet the coach from Hell . . .

This is the latest installment of my ongoing semiweekly horror tale, The Volunteer. I hope you are enjoying the introduction to this mystery-soaked coach, a new volunteer on the courts of a small island high school’s girls tennis team. It’s February, and practices have begun, conditioning exercises commence—the most devious kind. Stay tuned. If you wish to chime in…

The Volunteer Part 4: A #Horror Story

Here’s the next part of my ongoing horror story, The Volunteer, the one about a father and husband trying to do his best, as always. He’s a people pleaser, and this comes with its own frailties. Watch how he handles the introduction to the new volunteer tennis coach. Is he impressed? He’d never admit to that. Judge for yourself. Read and please comment below what your thoughts are as the tale…

The Night (after Ray Bradbury): An Original Short Story

I haven’t shared an original short story in quite a long time. This one, The Night, is complete as it is at almost 2,500 words. It took six days to write, and is in honor of Ray Bradbury, an homage to his own short story titled The Night. This is my own updated take on a similar situation. I wanted to keep the 2nd-person point of view, and the set-up. A family of four with two sons (I added a…

The Volunteer Part 3: A #horror Story

“Pick what you love and do it well.”

That’s what our narrator of The Volunteer, the hapless husband and father of two budding teens, wants everyone to do by the end of the last chapter. He wants the youth tennis team he supervises to excel, but other, darker forces come into play, so to speak, and he’s left befuddled and helpless. Beware the desires of ruthless people, and pray you never cross…

The Volunteer Part 2—A #Horror Story

Eartha Kitt’n and Ajax The Gray wanted to share space with today’s chapter of The Volunteer . . . they patrol the perimeter.

Hello all The Volunteer readers . . . this is a weekly endeavor of pure pleasure for me . . . a story that combines my love of subtle fright and supernatural occurrences with everyday life in small-town America. Part 2 of The Volunteercontinues to delve into the life of a…

The Volunteer—Part 1 Of A New #Horror Story

So, here’s the beginning section of a horror story centered around a new volunteer coach for a girls’ high school tennis team in the Pacific Northwest. There’s something not right about him, but few will dare brave his wrath as practices spiral into darkness. I’ve read so many horror novels in this vein, and the ones that come close to this being an “homage” would be Bentley Little’s work. He is…

Killer Horror Film Quotes: 20 To Grow On

There are so many lines from horror films that stick with me. After watching The Witch: A New-England Folktale, the best line stands above all others, and it’s already being used out in real life . . . Here is the line and some other dialogue from fright flicks that I find memorable. What lines from films stick in your head, give you chills? THE WITCH: Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?

THE…

Here is a post that is short and sweet. I hope.

Lists of books intrigue me. I became a voracious reader in second grade, circa 1972, in the Granville Elementary School system, scolded more than once to put down the book I was reading during math lessons. This led to me being a library kid. I spent many an afternoon at the Granville Public Library reading away, visiting new worlds, learning about…

‘A Day In My Life’ #LifeBooksWriting

I worry a lot.

That’s my current lot in life. Worry.

There are dreams I had when younger, looking into a murky future, one with little skills beyond teaching, writing, remembering pop culture moments like a wizard, a trivia king, things that are seldom well paid. This is not a complaint. I make my own bed, tend to my own garden, create my own future, whatever that will be. I’m bobbing along in a…

Week four in the LifeBooksWriting author blog challenge unveils the best subject, the one I take the most care with: character inspiration. Of course, even this phrase has more than one definition. I take it to mean how I’m inspired to create fully rounded characters—the people in my dark tales set in mundane settings, usually, whose actions make readers think, feel, empathize, love, hate, trash…

Here’s the skinny . . . it’s not a secret. I often describe things circuitously with lots of commas dividing thoughts. Even when pressed to be clear. I have to tell stories my way, the only way I know how, and each person follows their own route to clarity, especially if that person is a writer. There are infinite ways to tell any tale. Today’s story deals with marketing, how there are 6 book…

Here I am, week two of the #LifeBooksWriting challenge, and today’s topic is a bullseye. Straight into the center of my very being, who I am, what I strived for most of my life. If you’ve heard this tune before, bear with me, please. Books are the most important material possessions I ever knew as a child, library free check-out, or owned. The best books? Those are the ones I wanted to own. The…