Exploring the Great Divide

Garbage. Unsatisfying. A waste of time. Audience rating of 53% on Rotten Tomatoes.

And yet also:

Awesome. Incredible. The epic we've been waiting for. Critic rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I'm talking, of course, about The Last Jedi, AKA Star Wars Episode VIII, AKA the newest divisive chapter in the long-running saga. What amazes me is how there seems to be absolutely no middle ground in reactions this time, aside from a very, very small few. I find it interesting enough that instead of doing a review for the movie like I intended, I'm going to try and explore the possible reasons for this, as a fan and a storyteller. For the record, yes, I saw it and enjoyed the hell out of it. That said, I do understand why some fans may not care for it. I hear your complaints, and am going to try and address them here.

Or I'm just going to talk out of my ass for a little while. You decide.

Fear not, I have kept this all spoiler-free as far as The Last Jedi is concerned. All the others are fair game.

Jeremy Todd Speaks, and So Do I

A little late sharing this out, but I did an interview with The Gal in the Blue Mask book blog , and it went up a few days ago. As an added bonus, you can also check out a character interview she did with Jeremy Todd, the "author" of THE JOURNAL OF JEREMY TODD! Make sure to give them a look!

Jeremy Todd's interview.

My interview.

Both will be up on the Publicity page very shortly.

MUDCAT: Release, Pre-Order, and Promotion

The time is coming fast, now: MUDCAT is about to escape into the world.

The date is set: December 5, 2017, and you can pre-order it now using the link on the right side of this page! Digital edition will be $3.99, the paperback is TBA (but yes, there will be both)! Stay tuned for updates regarding the promotional tour stops online as they are announced by JEA Press.

Make sure to also keep tabs on their page at http://www.jellingtonashton.com/ for more information as well!

Cover Reveal: MUDCAT

You know what? I love this so much, I'm not even going to build it up first. Without further ado, here's the full print cover for MUDCAT!

Click the image to make it bigger, so you can enjoy it at full size!

Thanks go out to the appropriately named Michael "Fish" Fisher for his incredible work on this one, and for elevating my "B-Movie" theme into an "A" cover.

Look for it to escape very, very soon!

#MudcatLives

The Fun of Writing Fantasy

I have two loves when it comes to fiction: horror and fantasy. Just as I've lost myself in a novel by Stephen King or Jack Ketchum, Richard Laymon or Brian Keene, so, too have I gone to other worlds in tales by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Patrick Rothfuss, and George R.R. Martin. By extension, I've tried my hand at writing fantasy, too, to mixed results.

One of the first original novels I did was fantasy. I intended for it to be the first of a series, and while I think there were some good bits, most of it was utter garbage that will hopefully never see the light of day--at least not in the form it is now. A few years ago, I tried again. I got through a few chapters, and then I put it down. It just wasn't time.

Then a friend and I came up with a fantasy world for a Dungeons & Dragons game, and something clicked. I picked that in-progress novel back up, read over it, and realized it wasn't as bad as I thought at the time. So I went back to work on it. And finished it. And then finished the second book in what will probably be a trilogy called The Time of Ashes Cycle.

Here's the problem: I'm a pantser by nature. That means I have a story idea and start writing. I don't plan things out, I don't think very far ahead, I just let the characters and story pull me along. Fantasy, due to the intricacies inherent in the genre, doesn't work well with pantsers. Therefore, I've had to do a hybrid plotter / pantser thing that I am totally not used to.

I Definitely Know How to Run My Mouth

September is creeping into October, Halloween is almost upon us (yay!), and looking back, I've had a productive summer. THE JOURNAL OF JEREMY TODD came out near the end of July, I hit Scares That Care Charity Weekend days later, and I've done three different podcast interviews that came out since then where I've talked about JEREMY TODD, CONSEQUENCES, and dropped some hints about my forthcoming novel from JEA Press, MUDCAT. In case you missed any, here they were:

Arm Cast Podcast Episode 165, Recorded Live at Scares That Care
Armand Rosamilia had a revolving door on his guest seat during this one, so in addition to the segment where I appear with Wile E. Young, you can also hear him chat with author and podcaster Tommy Clark, super fan Tim Feely, podcaster Elizabeth Katheryn Gray, and author and podcaster Frank Edler.

The Horror Show with Brian Keene, Episode 130
Brian was slammed with helping to keep Scares That Care running smoothly, so I got the privelidge of being Mary SanGiovanni's first solo interview that Sunday morning, with Dave Thomas providing occasional comments as well as running the technical end of things.

Unnerving Magazine Interview Series, September 25, 2017
I had a chat with Eddie Generous from Unnerving Magazine about the origins of JEREMY TODD, Stephen King's hit or miss movie adaptations, and other things for his Author Interview series.

In addition to those, I also made a cameo appearance in The Mando Method Episode 47, where I was a member of the live studio audience at Scares That Care, and was occasionally pulled in by Armand and Chuck as they talked about their experiences at the con.

I'll be adding all this to my Publicity page soon, but for now, you can feel free to follow any or all of the links above and see what I had to say. For that matter, check out their other episodes as well, as all of them are entertaining and - in the case of Mando Method - quite informative, especially to anyone who wants to try their hand at this insane profession of writing for a living.

You'll Float, Too: My Review of Stephen King's "IT: Chapter One"

Adapting a novel to another medium is no easy task. Add in a previous adaptation that has achieved a level of cult success, and things get even harder. When the work in question is from Stephen King, a man whose career is littered with a series of hit-or-miss (mostly miss) adaptations to the screen, the task might even start to border on the impossible. Finally, consider that the source material is a whopping 1,000+ pages, and many would prefer to give up before they even begin. The odds are almost guaranteed that you'll produce something closer to Maximum Overdrive than you will to Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile.

Thankfully, IT gets it right.

There's a balance to adapting a novel to a visual medium, be it comics or television or movies. The printed word allows you to get inside your character's heads, to be the character in a way. Since a book can be as long as it needs to be, the story can be a slow-burner to develop the characters and the world and the problems. Movies and television have a set amount of time to tell the story, so often such luxuries fall by the wayside. In Hollywood, it's generally accepted that 1 page of script is the equivalent of 1 minute of screen time. A thousand hours is longer than most television series ever get, much less a movie. So how do you adapt it, and do it right?

By getting to the essence of the story and the characters, and not spending a large amount of time on the fluff.

Real Ghosts from the Past: The Story Behind THE JOURNAL OF JEREMY TODD

Every story starts somewhere. For CONSEQUENCES, it was a local legend from my high school days. For THE JOURNAL OF JEREMY TODD, it starts more recently, but it does dig into things that happened as far back as middle school for me, and also digs into things that keep themselves hidden in the dark recesses of my mind, only coming out on occasion when I’m feeling especially vulnerable. Writing the story helped me to deal with those to some degree, and hopefully writing this “story behind the story” post will help me finish exorcising them. Will it get rid of them? No, they’ve been there too long, and have become a part of who I am. But hopefully they’ll lose what little remains of their sting, and that’s more important, anyway.

Since JEREMY TODD has only been out for a couple of weeks now, I’ll try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible for those who haven’t managed to get very far into it.

One of the themes in JEREMY TODD is bullying, and how victims of bullying deal with it as they get older. This is the first and only time I’ve ever gone into a story with even that much of a theme in mind. Usually, I just have the story idea and then I write it. I might find something during edits, some subconscious thing that crept into the story somewhere along the way, but it’s never a conscious decision. This time, it was. Everyone has their hot-button topic, the thing that sets their blood to boiling until the rage is nearly strong enough to consume them. For me, that topic is bullying.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Scares That Care 2017

This year, I decided to check out the Scares that Care Weekend in Williamsburg VA. When I first announced I was going to attend (as a fan this time around, not as a working author), I had several people ask for me to give a run-down on how it was and what I thought of it, so that’s what this is. If you’re curious about a first-timer’s experience as a member of that strange mid-ground world of both a fan and a writer, read on. If not, well, feel free to skip to the pictures and then move along.

A quick note on said pictures: most were taken as I met folks, and being a writer, authors are where most of my attention fell this weekend. There are some groups on Facebook where you can see the awesome cosplay pictures from the con, as well as the other actors and movie guys, so feel free to check those out as well.

Thursday

GPS declared this to be a ten-hour trip, so my friend and I decided to leave the Nashvillle area at around four in the morning (Central time) in order to arrive at the hotel just as it became check-in time. The trip actually took eleven hours, and neither of us got much sleep the night before, so Thursday already had all the earmarks of a strange and interesting day before it even got started.

Partners in crime! With Somer Canon.

The only event for Thursday night was Scaryoke at the hotel bar, so after kicking back and trying to relax, and grabbing a bite to eat, we headed from our hotel down the street to the Doubletree where the convention was being held. Almost immediately I ran into Somer Canon, whom I’d become Facebook friends with, and got the chance to finally meet in person. As I stood there having a beer and chatting with Somer and her husband, Kane Hodder decided to start messing with me over the length of my hair, and proved he is one of the funniest and nicest assholes in the business. Kane managed to pull C.J. Graham and Steve Dash into the joke, too, meaning I had not one, but THREE Jasons giving me shit. Kane promised this would be going on all weekend, and I had no doubt he was sincere. Want to insult me? Go for it. I took shit from Jason Freakin’ Voorhees, okay? You got nothin’.

The Journal of Jeremy Todd - Cover Reveal

As I mentioned in that last post, I've been waiting with tremendous anticipation to show you guys the cover for THE JOURNAL OF JEREMY TODD, and now the time has finally arrived! So here it is, without further ado (click for larger image):

You can read more about this one over at the Sinister Grin Press blog, where you will also learn the cool idea that's going to make this not just a book, but an experience.

I'll be posting some updates about the idea of making this into an actual journal later on, but for now I want to thank Matt Davis for this incredible cover, and also Kevin Robel from Robel Graphics for the awesome interior graphics and artwork!

This one will hit in both digital and paperback on July 15th, but you can pre-order it now for your Kindle over at Amazon!

Waiting is the Hardest Part... But It's Worth It

We've all heard that little homily before in regards to something or another: "waiting is the hardest part." When it comes to publishing, it's a fact of life. Still, once you accept it, you can deal with it. There's a wait between finishing a first draft and starting revisions, and another one once you send the manuscript out for editing, and once more when you submit it somewhere. For all of those, you simply work on something else and the wait doesn't seem so bad.

When you're in the final countdown to publication, though, that wait is suddenly MUCH more intense.

As I write this, the release date for THE JOURNAL OF JEREMY TODD is just over three weeks away. We're in the final stages, in other words. That means ramping up the promotional aspect of the release, putting finishing touches on the text so it's as clean as it can be, and the part that's been exceptionally thrilling for me: dealing with the artwork.

This one's a little different from what I've done before, in that there's actually interior artwork as well as the cover art. I can't explain why, exactly, at least not yet, but there is. When the idea was first tossed out there a couple months ago during the planning stage of the cover art, no one was really sure it would pan out. Then I was talking with my editor, the always wonderful Erin Al-Mehairi, and we came up with the skeleton for that artwork, and it became a little more real.

And then, last weekend, I saw it for the first time.

There's a moment when you're putting a book out where it all suddenly becomes real. Maybe it's when you see the listing on Amazon, maybe it's when you send in those final edits, maybe it's the first time you see the cover. For me, it was seeing that PDF proof of the interior art. My first thought as I waited for my phone to download the file was, "holy shit, this is actually happening." Then I opened it and saw the art.

It's a good thing I was alone in my car at the time. Otherwise, someone would have thought I'd lost my mind.

I giggled. I barked out a laugh. Then I giggled again. Each page I scrolled through was its own moment of surreal excitement. Vague images that had only existed in my imagination so far as hazy ideas suddenly exploded into full, living color. I skimmed it, pulled off the road, parked, and then looked at them again without worrying that I'd end up crashing if I didn't pay attention. When I got home and loaded it up on the computer, so I could see it in its full glory, the reaction was the same: uncontrollable giggling and smiles. At least my family already thinks I'm nuts, so I didn't have to worry about what they might think of it.

There's still a bit of waiting to go. We'll be revealing the cover very, very soon, and more details will follow between now and July 15th when the book is unleashed. Still, it's those little moments that make the wait worthwhile. Once you all get to see it, and I no longer have to remain somewhat vague, I hope you'll all agree that the wait was well worth it.

The Journal of Jeremy Todd - Synopsis Reveal

I've been talking about it, now it's time for you to finally get some idea what it is. Without further ado, here's the official synopsis for THE JOURNAL OF JEREMY TODD, coming July 15th from Sinister Grin Press!

"I am not crazy.

Then again, maybe I am. I’ve learned that’s not for the person in question to decide, but rather something decided by others, usually after everything’s happened that’s going to happen to tilt their decision one way or the other. I can think whatever I want, but that’s not going to change how anyone else feels, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it.

I’ve had some issues. That I won’t deny. But am I crazy? I suppose that’s going to be up to you to figure out.

I’ve done things that many people would consider crazy, that’s true. Some of the things I’ve had to deal with—and the way I’ve dealt with them—might also play into the crazy verdict. Still, I maintain that I am not crazy.

Well, maybe just a little bit. But I don’t think anyone with a kind heart can begrudge me that. I’ve earned my crazy, if you want to see it that way.

But here, you figure it out. This is my journal, my story, a snippet of my life for a month or so. This is what happened to me around the time of my high school reunion. This is what I did, and why I did it. The story not only of that reunion and the events surrounding it, the ones you’ve probably read about in the papers, but about the things that happened during high school that make it necessary for things to play out the way they did. This is what happened to me, and to Roger, and Nikki, and Chris, and all those kids who thought I was simply a target in school and treated me as such. This is the true story of what they did to me, and what I did to them in return.

Read it, share my pain, and then you tell me if I’m crazy or not. I’m sure you’ll understand. I’m sure you’ll make the right decision.

I’m sure you’ll agree that I’m not crazy.

And who cares what that judge thought, anyway?"

And Breathe...

I'm finally doing it. I promised it before, and ended up going back on it time and time again, but this time I'm actually going to follow through: I'm taking a break.

I've discovered as I've worked my way through OBSESSED (formerly CLUTTER) that the words have been coming harder and harder. Where I was finishing a chapter a night, now I'm doing good to finish a chapter in three or four days. The story's there, it's just not coming as easily as it once did. At first I thought it was because of some of the things I was trying to do with this one, but then it occurred to me that it was more because I was creatively exhausting myself. So, to try and reverse that course, I'm going to take a break.

As it stands right now, I've got about three or four chapters left to go with OBSESSED. I'm going to finish those up so the story is out of me like some terrible childbirth, and then I'm going to shift my focus to other things until sometime after Scares That Care in July. I've got ideas and things on the bench, but I"m going to hold off starting them for now. One, the third book in the Time of Ashes Cycle, has a long planning period before I can even think about digging into it, as well as a third and second draft respectively on the first two books in that series. I've also got what may turn out to be a modern-day fairy tale rattling around in my head, and while I'm excited to start on it, I know I'm not where I need to be to write it just yet.

Instead of new stuff, then, I'll be working on revisions for the literal mountain of manuscripts I've accumulated over the last couple of years. I really want to get my post-apocalyptic tale cleaned up and submitted (got a couple of targets in mind), I need to finish getting the Cochran books squared away, and then I've got the stand-alone stuff to fine-tune as well. Somewhere in that I'd like to play with some of the less broad tales floating around in my imagination, and maybe send some of those into the wild (anthologies? Patreon? newsletter? all or none of the above?). I also need to get back to focusing on the business end of this somewhat, too, since I've got THE JOURNAL OF JEREMY TODD launching right before Scares, and MUDCAT in the pipeline for edits and publication soon, too. I want both of these to do well, so that means I need to pay attention.

So, a breath. A break. And then back to the insanity once my gray matter recharges. Of course, knowing myself as I do, I'll probably get too restless to actually relax and will be right back into the thick of it before I know it.

A Simmering Pot of Life

It's been an interesting couple of months.

First, I've been trying to get used to a new day job. The biggest change is my schedule. I've gone from being home on or about midnight at the latest most nights, to walking through the door at 2 or sometimes even 3. Since most of my writing was done when I got home from the old day job, that's been an interesting transition, to say the least. I've slowed down, and while I say it's temporary, I have to wonder at that. I wrote at a breakneck pace for all of the last year and a half, which has made me wonder if I was going to reach a point where I would run out of ideas. That hasn't happened yet, thankfully, but I'm starting to see my newfound slower pace as a blessing in disguise. I still write most every night, but now I'm finding myself relaxing into it, letting the scene flow rather than racing along until it was done.

This has ended up making me love my craft more, strangely enough. By slowing down I've discovered I get deeper into my character's heads, spend more time on their thoughts and feelings about what's happening around them. This is a good thing, I think. I reserve the right to change my opinion if this current project lingers on too long, but for now, I can say with confidence that I've rediscovered what I love about this writing thing in the first place.

On the health front, things are continuing to improve. I've had to get my meds adjusted, but that's part of the process. I successfully went from smoking to vaping, and have now gone down to the lowest nicotine content available for it. If things continue as I expect them to, I should be nicotine-free in about a week and a half, at most. I won't lie; that's something of a terrifying prospect. Nicotine and creativity have always been linked for me, and I do have the worry that if I no longer have the nicotine, I won't have the creativity, either. I know it's silly, but I can't help wonder about it. I'll laugh at myself in a couple of months when I look back and see I had nothing to worry about, but for now, I'll just have to wait and see and trust that things will work out for the best. Strangely, I'm confident they will.

Good news on the publication front: THE JOURNAL OF JEREMY TODD is moving along for release this June. I spent a pleasant couple of days discussing cover ideas and art direction with the guys at Sinister Grin, and came out of it even more excited than I was before about this one seeing the light of day. We've got an awesome idea in mind, and I can't wait for everyone else to lay their eyes on it!

Something fun: if you'd like to tell me in person what you think about it, or any of my other stuff, you'll get your chance this summer! I won't be working it, but I will be attending Scares That Care at the end of July, so feel free to say "hi" if you see me there!

There are other things going on, but unfortunately, I can't talk about them just yet. Suffice it to say, my career is on the track I wanted it to be, and I couldn't be more thrilled about that. Believe me, I'll be letting everyone else in on them as soon as I can.

That's it for now, just a quick little update to let everyone know what's going on with me lately. I hope to talk to you all again soon!

Much Can Change in a Month...

If you’re not interested in a personal post, you might want to skip this one. If you’re only here to check up on the progress of my writing or things of that nature, you might just want to skim it. If, on the other hand, you’re actually interested in me as a person and not a writing machine, stick around. You just might learn something.

As I write this, it’s my forty-second birthday. My age and the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything are now the same (kudos if you caught that reference). I’ve already talked about how my life changed over the last year in regards to writing, so I’m not going to rehash that. What I AM going to do is talk about some of the other massive changes my life has undergone, and most of them in the last month.

Some of you may know or have picked up on the fact that I quit my day job earlier this month. I wish this was because I was earning enough from writing to support myself, but that’s not the case. Actually, the reasons are more important than that.

I’m one of those people who won’t go see a doctor unless I’m at death’s door. I don’t know why, that’s just how I’ve always been since I got old enough to make the decision for myself. Well, shortly after the New Year, I broke down and went to get checked out. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure several years ago, but like an idiot, I stopped taking my medication for it. Things became stressful at the day job, with people showing up to work when they wanted to and things of that nature, which only made my health issues worse. To cope, I was self-medicating to some degree, up from the normal couple of beers or so I’d drink while writing to killing a fifth of scotch or bourbon in a couple of days. I was smoking like a chimney, and generally doing everything I could to kill the stress I was feeling. The problem was, I was killing myself, too. My heart had started beating so hard it was nearly coming out of my chest, and to say I felt miserable would be an understatement.

So, afraid I was going to have a stroke or a heart attack literally at any moment, I broke down and went to see the doctor. Ever hear the old adage your life changes in an instant? I understand that now.

Let me get this out of the way right up front: I’m not dying. Well, no more than any of us are, at least. That doesn’t mean I don’t have things to deal with, though.

They took my blood pressure five times over the course of that two-hour visit. The average reading was around 140 over 110. In case you don’t know, that’s the danger zone, folks. I was informed that had I not come in, I would have most likely had that heart attack or stroke within a week’s time. They did an EKG right then and there, and didn’t like what they saw. I was put on some heavy-duty medication and told to come back in a week. They also scheduled me to have an ultrasound on my heart, which I did. The end result was that my left ventricular and aortic chambers were enlarged, and I have a slight murmur. I was, in effect, killing myself, and being quite successful at it.

I did some serious soul-searching that night after I got home and filled my wife in on my stupidity to that point. I realized quite clearly that if I didn’t make some serious changes in my life, I wouldn’t have a life to change for very much longer. Change number one: the drinking went from borderline alcoholic back to reasonable again, FAST. A beer or two a day? Fine. A normal-sized Scotch or bourbon every now and again? Still okay. My wife even told me I am allowed to have a glass of red wine every day, should I so choose (since red wine’s good for the heart; what a kick that I only liked blushes and whites, isn’t it?). Going to bed half-drunk (if not fully drunk) every night? Over. Done. Not happening.

Change number two: the smoking. I haven’t quit, but I’ve cut back. I’m evaluating options for how best to quit altogether, and will be putting those into action within the next week or so.

And change number three: quit the stress-factory that my day job had become.

For those of you who worked with me or just wondered why I’d done that, there’s the reason. A bit more complicated, but that’s it in a nutshell.

Now, maybe it seems insane to leave a job I’d held for nearly seven years, and that not only paid my bills but kept me insured. Why lose my health insurance during a point in time where I obviously need it the most? Well, my stress levels dropped almost immediately, that’s why. I’d rather fret over trying to figure out how to pay bills and medical expenses than keep making reasons to need that stress in the first place. Money stress is one of those normal, everyday things we all deal with. The rest of it wasn’t. And without the rest of it, the money stress doesn’t seem nearly as bad anymore.

There’s been good stuff, too. Most of it after I started trying to get myself back on track, funny enough. Less than a week after leaving the old job, I had a new one. That has proven to be a stepping stone to another job, that will have a more stable income, and benefits down the line, if not immediately. I had a wonderful response to a story I submitted to an anthology (that I can’t talk about at the moment), and while I didn’t make the preliminary ballot, I did end up on the reading list for the Stokers—off a self-published debut novel I didn’t expect to do anything at all. I’ve actually felt closer to my family, and have learned to appreciate my life more. Maybe it was a horrible way to get there, but emotionally and physically, I feel better than I have in a very, very long time.

So why make this post? Let me be clear about one thing: I am NOT looking for sympathy. I did this to myself, so it would be pretty foolish to expect anyone to feel sorry for my stupid decisions. If you want to pray for me, or send me good vibes, by all means do so. I’ll take all of both I can get. But don’t feel bad for me. I made my mistakes, caught them, and am trying to correct them. That’s just life.

No, I’m making this post so maybe it can serve as a warning or a help for others. I am living proof that you shouldn’t muck around with your health. If something’s wrong, get checked out. If your job is killing you, find something else. Life is too freaking short to subject yourself to a slow suicide.  There will never be a point where you are completely worry-free, so don’t even try for that. Just try to make those worries as small or compacted as you can. Find something to make you smile and hold onto it for all you’re worth. Simply put: don’t just exist in life, actually LIVE it!

Okay, I’ll step down off the soapbox now and wrap this up. I think, ultimately, I made this post because I needed to point some things out to myself, to take stock in a public way so there’s no chance of me lying to myself down the line. I did it to clear the air and dispel some rumors that flared up at the old day job after I left. And I did it because, well, I’m damned proud of the changes I’ve made in the last couple of weeks. I wish I hadn’t been forced into making them, that I’d simply come to them naturally, but things happen as they’re supposed to. All I can do now is capitalize on that.

Thanks for sticking around through this, and I’ll talk to you all again soon!