This is a list of archived entries published in February 2005.
I’ve added a new Projects section, where you can read about the various writing projects I’m working on.
I’ve also added Tom Bruno to my SOI section–Tom is a friend of mine and a fellow worker at Widener Library. He’s also a scholar of ancient history and languages and is currently working on a novel. It [...]
I’m taking an independent study course, which means I determine the syllabus and reading list and just meet with a professor once every other week to talk about it. The course is on early horror fiction, and the syllabus was inspired by my desire to read some of the authors who preceded and influenced H.P. [...]
I’ve posted a new story to the Fiction section: “Johnny Sniper and the Cave of Fear”. It’s a WWII-era horror story, though it owes more to Robert E. Howard’s work in the genre than that of HPL.
I finished a four-page treatment (i.e., plot summary) of my “Dunwich Horror” adaptation last night. It will be critiqued/savaged [...]
At one point, my friend Brian DiPaolo and I considered making a website devoted to his character “Johnny Sniper.” Johnny is–well, he’s hard to describe, but if I had to do it in one sentence, I’d say he’s your archetypal all-American soldier (with violent jingoistic tendencies). I wrote this story in anticipation of the site, [...]
I’ve decided to put “Advanced Operators” on the backburner. The story has become a victim of my difficulties with plotting. I’ve revamped the story so many times I’m no longer sure where it’s going. I don’t like the characters very much, and I can’t use them to propel the story (as I usually do) because [...]
Progress continues on “Advanced Operators.” I’ve got three or four other stories pounding at the door of my mind, demanding to be written, but AO is filling up the creative room, floor to ceiling, door to window, like an overfed shoggoth. Nothing else gets written until this beast is finished.
But Jack Sheed wants in, let [...]
Still working on “Advanced Operators,” which has gone from a Lovecraftian novella, to a Stephen King-ish novella, to a Lovecraftian short story, and now to a Fritz Leiberesque short story.
The jury’s out on whether it will have any of my own style, but I’ve been particularly inspired by this passage from Leiber’s “Smoke Ghost”:
Have [...]
This holiday-themed tale was written sometime around spring 2004. I can’t remember exactly what suggested the idea to me, but it was one of those instances where the story nearly wrote itself in a day or two (or maybe just a few hours). It’s an example of what one might call “Christmas Gothic,” of which [...]