July 30, 2008 @ 7:30 am
I’ve got two new stories out right now. Both are non-genre pieces, which is kind of exciting for me since I like showing people that, while I stick mostly to horror, I also write other kinds of stories.
“Camp Zombie” in Broken Pencil #40 is about an unusual summer camp for kids with sleep disorders. It’s actually one of three stories I wrote that made up what I call my “Sleep Cycle,” tales about people dealing with various sleep disorders. I used to suffer some pretty bad insomnia when I lived on my own in Toronto, and it ended up seeping into my fiction.
I remember back about ten years when Broken Pencil used to review my old movie zines and Dr. Pork comics. Now they’re publishing one of my stories. “Camp Zombie” will also reprinted in a best of Broken Pencil anthology coming out next year.
I don’t tend to discuss the money side of things, but I have to say I was a bit surprised at how much I was paid for this story. Considering the range of payment BP offers, I expected to get much less for something that was only 3,000 words long. Not that I’m complaining. I ended making more than I got for pretty much every horror story I ever sold.
The other story I have out is called “The Kid Pool.” You can read this one online in The Written Word. It’s about an unusual office pool that takes place during a hockey strike. Although I’m a proud Canadian, I think this was the first time hockey actually worked its way into one of my stories. I guess it had to happen eventually.
Anyway, I hope you’ll check out these stories, and if you do, I hope you enjoy them.
Cool cover there for Broken Pencil, now you have me wanting to read your “Sleep Cycle” stories — all of them.
See you are reading Coyote Blue, great book.
Thanks, Erik. I like it, too. BP always has decent cover art. I remember one issue they did on Canadian horror films and they had a nice still from Black Christmas on the cover. Verra nice.
I still have to sell the other two Sleep Cycle stories, but you should definitely pick up “Camp Zombie.” I think you’d get a kick out of it.
Loving Coyote Blue. I’ve got Bloodsucking Fiends next on deck. Moore rocks the Casbah.
The former editor of Broken Pencil used to be my writing instructor at George Brown. I can’t say he taught me a lot, but that class helped me realise that most people who dream of writing aren’t willing to put the work in to learning how.
True enough. I’m always amused by the “you need to have discipline, you need to commit yourself” type of articles on writing. It’s the kind of advice that should be obvious if you’re really serious about it. If you need to be told… well, you’re probably not going to make it.
It’s like trying to teach someone to be passionate about something. Either they are or they aren’t.
Moore is a phenom, discovered him in a bookstore in Maui about 4 year ago and quickly snatched up everything had out when I got home from my trip. If you like Coyote Blue, you will really like Bloodsucking Fiends. The only book of his that was so-so in my opinion was The Sequined Love Nun…
I think I have that one. Actually I think I have pretty much all of them. Snagged most of them used off Abebooks after I read Practical Demonkeeping. I have ideas for a couple of humourous sf/horror novels of my own, so it was nice to see that someone was doing it and that there’s an audience for it.