Cover Reveal: HYSTERIA by Stephanie M. Wytovich

I'm very excited to reveal the cover for Stephanie M. Wytovich's newest book, HYSTERIA. Coer art is by the multi-talented Steven Archer. Links to the pre-order page for the book and Steven's Etsy store appear after the cover and blurb. If I recall correctly, copies of the book will be available this Friday evening at the In Your Write Mind Writer's Workshop author signing. Enjoy!

SUMMARY: Asylums once used to confine those deemed mentally unfit linger, forgotten behind trees or urban development, beautiful yet desolate in their decay. Within them festers something far more unnerving than unlit corners or unexplained noises: the case files left to moulder out of sight, out of conscience. Stephanie M. Wytovich forces your hands upon these crumbling, warped binders and exposes your mind to every taboo misfortune experienced by the outcast, exiled, misbegotten monsters and victims who have walked among us. The poetry contained in Hysteria performs internal body modification on its readers in an unrelenting fashion, employing broad-spectrum brutality treatment that spans the physical to the societal, as noted in Stoker Award winner Michael A. Arnzen's incisive introduction.

Preorder link: http://www.rawdogscreaming.com/books/hysteria.html

Steven Archer's Etsy link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/egolikeness?ref=shop_sugg

Zombie Poetry: The Discovery of Fire

Today’s entry is a zombie poem, inspired by playing with The Fridge of the Damned refrigerator magnets, put out by Raw Dog Screaming Press. I highly recommend you get a set. As of this writing, you can still purchase a copy here.

The Discovery of Fire

Crackling flames sear and char flesh

marinaded in blood.

A dead man shuffling by turns his rotted face

as smoke wafts through the remains of his nostrils.

A sense,

a memory perhaps?

Sparked in a brain transformed by virus

it reaches out through the zombie haze

and he turns.

Rotted steps pull him

across the scorched lawn

towards a smoking bundle that used to be an infant.

Later, as he chews tender medium-rare muscle from the tiny limbs,

he remembers steak and barbecues.

Smell, the most powerful trigger,

overrides the raw desire for simple gray matter.

He finishes the feast

as the rest of the dead shuffle by in pairs and groups,

then rises,

driven by a new sensation

a thirst

and sets out on his quest for beer.

Copyright © 2013 Chris Stout

Foresaken: Some Flash Fiction for You

Hey gang!

In the spirit of Spring and bunnies and flowers and all that shit, I thought I'd present you with a piece of flash fiction. Enjoy, and let me know what you think! I might make this a regular thing.

Foresaken

The day after zombie souls breached the Gates of Heaven, God was spirited away to an "undisclosed location." As the streets of gold flooded with blood and angel tears, a single voice could be heard crying: "Eloi! Eloi! Lema sabachthani?" Those of the heavenly host left alive shuddered at the plea, now turned into a chilling prophecy. In the fields of slaughter, filled with the fresh corpses of their brethren, there was movement: here a fluttering robe, there a torn wing twitching. A trumpet blast sounded, rasping and out of tune. The survivors covered their ears and rent their garments and prayed with renewed fervor.

At last, the true horror of Resurrection was revealed-

Copyright © 2013 Chris Stout

Word Count Check In

As you may recall, I mentioned in a previous post that I hoped to write 250,000 words in 2013. Spread over the year, that comes out to 20,834 words a month. So how did I do in January?

I just barely made the word count. 20,858 to be exact.

January was a brutal month. Bitter cold, extended illness, my day job and my sideline work as an editor... All that left very little room to write. I think I managed one complete short story, a couple of flash fiction pieces, and beginnings for two possible novels. I am sure that spreading my writing so thin also was counter-productive.

The problem is, without a nice batch of time to devote to writing, it is very hard for me to get in the flow of whatever world I am trying to create. It is much easier to write the start of something than it is to slog through the middle. So that is why I have so many disparate pieces.

Going forward, I may actually break tradition and start working from an outline. At least that way I won't have to try to figure out what is happening next or who should be involved. I'll probably still write the occasional flash piece. Even if I never create one that is publication worthy, at least it will gets words down and prime the pump.

And now February is under way. Yesterday was a goose egg. Work just overran my schedule. Today has gone a bit better. Hopefully tomorrow will as well. Because without my fast start in January (4300 words in 3 days,and no missed days the first week) I would have fallen far short of my goal. So I have some mileage to make up.

Which means it's back to work for me.

Starting 2013 with a Sneeze

Well, today we’re one week into 2013. I figure this is a good time to do a quick check-in.

I’ve officially been sick more than half of the year so far. Not fun.

On the plus side, I’ve written every day so far. My total word count so far is just over 8000 words.

I also have been interviewed by fellow writer and friend Stephanie Wytovich. You can get a peek into my madness here.

I’m hoping to have a couple of short stories published by the end of January. Still not sure what to do with the sort-of finished novels hanging over my head. I’ve been trying to start a new one, but these guys keep gnawing at me. I think I need a writer’s retreat so I can spend some in-depth time working them over. When I’ve figured out what to do with them, I’ll let you all know.

In the meantime, I need more tissues. Stay healthy. Being creative is much easier when you aren’t blowing your nose every two minutes.

Committing to 2013

I have a confession. I hate commitments. Personal or professional, it doesn't matter. I like knowing that I have an escape plan, a way out. It's not so bad in my personal life. If someone doesn't like it, they are free to walk away. But in the professional world, it's a career killer. Wondering why I haven't blogged in nearly two years? Curious as to why it's been nearly a year since I published anything under my own name, and over six months since I published anything at all? Lack of commitment. I'd love to blame my day job - and I often do - but that is something I could always leave, if I were willing to commit.

I always, ALWAYS, hedge my bets. And while it makes me feel safe, it also means I have very little to show for my efforts. Sales are slowing down now. And because I didn't commit to anything in 2012, I have no new material to help boost them. January will be the first month in over a year that I won't get paid any royalties. And that stings.

So it's time to change.

I'm miserable when I'm not producing fiction. But before I quit my job and dive into the lifestyle of a working writer, it's time to assess what I want to accomplish, and then <gasp!> commit to a plan that will help me succeed.

I'd like to see myself doing 5000 words a week. 50 weeks a year. 250,000 total new words of fiction in 2013. At the speed I write, that is only 5-10 hours a week.

Can I do it? Maybe. With 55 hours taken up by my day job and commute, I'm already facing a tall order. Add in time spent editing, maybe 15-20 hours a week, and it becomes even more daunting. Maybe the goal is too high. For sure I'm going to be tired more days than not, even before I try to write. When will I see my family? What about...

There. See how easy it was to almost talk myself out of it? Sneak Preview: I bet I fight the same battle, with the same arguments, every time I sit down to write in 2013. But I will try to persevere. Likely I will fail on all fronts. And fail big. I'll be lucky to get half the words down that I say I'll write. I hope I fail so hard. Because you know what? Even if I only make it halfway to my goal in 2013, that'll still be 125,000 new words that I write. At my average length, that's one novel and more than a half-dozen short stories. I'll take it.

So here's to committing, whether to success or failure, in 2013. Happy New Year.

March Price Experiment and Numbers

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. School is getting hectic. Anyway, I wanted to pop in real quick while the numbers are still fresh.

So in the month of March, I dropped the price of Days of Reckoning to $0.99. I did this originally so I could gift a copy. Amazingly, while it was at the new low price, I sold 8 copies. So I left it there for most of the month. Results? 31 copies sold on Kindle. This represents 6 times the number I'd sold in any given previous month. Which means I made just as much as I did when it was at $2.99.

I also released a short story, Charmer, in the middle of the month. It sold three copies. Shorts are a harder sell, and I'm guessing that being listed with a full novel at the same price also hurt its chances.

I still only managed one sale of Days on Nook, and it looks like I scored a sale through Sony as well. Still don't know if any of my downloads from Smashwords were paid or not. I really hope they go to a monthly reporting system soon.

So for the month of April, I'm leaving both at $0.99. I should be doing a guest blog later this month, so I'll link to that when it appears. And I'll be buried under a mountain of schoolwork, as usual. May 15 can't get here fast enough!