Short Story on Amazon -- Bad Day at the Blood Bank

Bad Day at the Blood Bank is a standalone short story, that originally appeared as The Lobster Trick in Once Upon the Longest Night.

If you’re at all interested in it, I’d love for you to check it out and leave a review!

Here’s the concept:

Tough-as-nails security guard Jacqueline loves her job.
After all, what's the worst that could happen at a blood bank?

But when an armed group invades the building, Jacqueline and a handsome lab tech find themselves isolated and under siege, fighting for their lives.

As the invaders tighten their stranglehold, Jacqueline will need all her strength and street-smarts to survive the night. It seems her once-cushy job couldn't get any worse. Until she discovers the lab tech's shy smile may hide a sinister secret of his own...

Bad Day at the Blood Bank is a single-sitting read perfect for fans of fast-paced supernatural thrillers with a snarky sense of humor.

Sounds fun, right?

Behind the scenes, I’ve been experimenting with self- publishing, getting back to speed on how the system works and what the best ways to get stories into readers’ hands.

I gave it a new title, designed a cover, wrote a blurb, and ran some ads.

This whole process has taught me a lot, and I’m planning on putting it into use on sharing more Carter Archives stories, along with a few books that would be a good fit for self-pub.

Can a Word macro really improve your writing?

Yep! One of my favorite tricks to tighten text and strengthen descriptions is to use a custom Word macro.

In early drafts, it’s easy to filter words or overused terms to creep into your prose.

Filter words distance the reader from the sensation you’re describing.  (“I heard car horns blaring and felt the heat radiating off the blacktop.” vs “Horns blared and heat radiated off the blacktop.”).

Overused terms are the ones that always seem to slip into your writing. Everyone has their own terms… one of my mine is ‘just’. (“I stood just at the brink.” vs “I stood at the brink.”)

It’s easy to miss these problems on an edit pass, and running a Find and Replace is overkill. You don’t need to eliminate every instance, just the ones that weaken your writing. (The use of ‘just’ in that sentence is totally intentional, thank-yoou-very-much.)

A custom Word macro can highlight the words or terms you’re looking for, allowing you to easily find them and decide whether to edit on a case-by-case basis.

Don’t always work in Word? Me either! I often export prose or game scripts from Scrivener and Google Docs into Word, then run the macro. I pull up both docs on dual monitors and make edits directly in my working software.

(Hat tip to Brian Justus, who shared this tip and taught me a bit of Visual Basic years ago!)

Ready to learn more? Here’s a Microsoft tutorial on creating your own macro in the comments.

Deepen Your Worldbuilding with Knock-on Effects

When you’re hip-deep in worldbuilding, details are your greatest tool and worst enemy. 

Details ground your audience in your world’s reality, but diving too far into details can make them change the channel or put down the controller. Because let’s face it: who really cares about your fantasy world’s aqueduct system?

Inspired by a post from Susan O’Connor, I started thinking about worldbuilding and urban planning, and how to convey details without making players drink from a firehose of exposition.  

One killer trick? Show knock-on effects.

Imagine a sub-plot or side quest about a criminal enterprise stealing water runoff from public fountains. That’s weird, right? You audience wants to know: How can they make money that way? Why is it illegal in the first place?

Now the player WANTS to know about the backstory. We can explain that in our fantasy world homes and public spaces fed by aqueducts were required to have fountains, where the runoff water flowed into the streets. This provided public sources of running water, and the runoff flowed into the streets, cleaning the dirt and dung that built up on a daily basis. A public service so essential that our fantasy city has strict proscriptions against using runoff for personal use.  (I lifted all of that from ancient Roman cities, btw)

Now, imagine walking down the street of our fantasy city. You feel the press of bodies, the rattle of mule-drawn carts, the cries of vendors hawking wares, and under it all… trickling water.

These small details set the stage for the side quest, so that our exposition will feel natural and satisfying, rather route and encyclopedic.

Because details are like spices -- you need to have enough to trigger tase buds, but not so much that the core flavors are drowned out. 

LOVE SPELL hits Amazon's Best Seller Lists

I’m delighted to say that the first issue of Love Spell has hit multiple Amazon’s Best Seller lists. As of this writing, we hit the top on both the Mystery, Thriller, & Suspense as well as the Supernatural lists for Graphic Novels. (And we’re #2 on Horror!)

Bestseller lists are weird things, and that’s even truer on the rapidly cycling algorithms of Amazon. But for all of that, I’m very proud to see this book with an orange Bestseller banner.

Issue 2 is coming together with gorgeous artwork, and Issue 3 is already being scripted.

If you want to ride along for a tale of weird horror it’s the perfect time to join us!

Horror, Etc. the Resurrection

So, one of my favorite podcasts crawled back out of the grave a few years ago.

During its original run, Horror, Etc. cast long shadow cast across the horror landscape. Over the years, Anthony Mann and Kingstown Ted impacted the way horror was discussed on podcasts and influenced countless horror fans. Horror, Etc. introduced us to lesser-known work and re-contextualized classics in ways we’d never thought of before. (I’ll never forget the mind-blowing moment when I heard them describe And Then There Were None as a proto-slasher.)

I’ve written before about the show’s impact, and how many of their listeners turned out to create genre work, including me. Honestly, Horror Etc. is like the Velvet Underground of horror podcasting — not everyone knows who they are, but everyone who listened started creating on their own podcasts, novels, comics, Etc.

And again, this influential podcast came back from the dead three years ago. Yet somehow, I’ve never given them a proper shout-out on this site.

If you’re at all interested in checking out the show, the revival is a patreon-supported effort. For me, the mix of recommendations, insightful commentary, laughter, and nostalgia I get from the show is well worth the monthly fee.

Don’t want to pay? Check out the iTunes page from the original run. That’ll give you a feel for the vibe, and let you decide if you want to join in the creepy fun or not.

As for why it’s taking me so long to put together this post, I can only say to Anthony and Ted… “I learned it by watching you, okay?”

*(Seriously, I have no idea why it takes me so long to do some simple things.)

Introducing.... Love Spell

Holy Heck, it's a comic book!!!

I’m massively excited to announce my latest project: LOVE SPELL a horror comic made with visionary artist Jonathan Luna.

Dark, hilarious, and creepy as hell, Love Spell is the story of five college students who perform a ritual to make their crushes reciprocate their feelings, ending in demonic disaster.

I love comics. I even worked with a crew of friends to self-pub a line of comics way back in the 90s.

This is an opportunity to collaborate with an extraordinary artist on a fun (and wild) storyline. Jonathan is a visionary creator, with a distinct style backed up by over twenty years in the comic book industry. (Check out his work on titles like Alex + Ada, Girls, and Marvel’s Spider-Woman.)

If you’d like to give us a push, there are two things you can do, and they only cost a few minutes of your time:

1. Tell a friend!

   If you know someone who’d dig a book like this, let them know about it. Share on social media, and spread the word in general.

2. Register for notifications.

   This one is so cool. Love Spell is in “pre-launch” right now. If you go to the page (at this link) you’ll see a banner, a bit of text, and a button that says, “Notify me on launch”

   
   Clicking notify will simply drop you a notification when the campaign goes live — this costs absolutely nothing, but it’s shockingly helpful!

   
   Because here’s the thing… Kickstarter uses that “Notify” button to determine which projects get featured on the front page. If we get enough clicks on that button, we’ll get a MAJOR boost in attention. (Because, of course, we all live and die by the algorithm these days.)
   
   Now, heads-up: you’ll need to have (or sign up for) a Kickstarter account to do this. Kickstarter accounts are free, and I think it’s a great way to connect with creators, but I wanted to let you know in advance!

Titanshade $0.99 sale!

Great news! There's a flash sale on the Titanshade ebook over at Amazon, but only till 12/7.

At 99 cents, this is the lowest price it’s ever been. If you've been meaning to boost the amount of disco wizards, noir detectives, and monstrous(*) face mandibles in your life, NOW is the TIME!!

https://www.amazon.com/Titanshade-Dan.../dp/B07DT3HZFZ/

(*) or maybe they're sexy face mandibles. I'm not judging. You do you, my friend.

New Game -- What Sprouts in the Dark

I took part in Adventure Jam 2023 — hundreds of small teams worked for two weeks to produce the best possible adventure game they could.

I was in a team of two — myself and the artist ILikeThePixies — and we produced an illustrated text game about a cat on a spaceship facing down an invasive fungus. It’s called What Sprouts in the Dark, and it’s completely free to play in your browser.

Check it out here!

Mini-movie review: SANTA JAWS

For our Christmas Eve viewing, my lovely wife broke out a low-budget gem I'd never heard of... Santa Jaws.

We were expecting a casually slapped together, barely coherent CGI mush. Instead, it's a well-executed film that fully embraces the silly concept and is a fun watch from beginning to end.

The production values are surprisingly high, with sound, cinematography, and lighting all better than expected for a film with this kind of budget. The plot has holes but we were having too much fun to care about them.

Now, this film *definitely* benefited from us coming in with low expectations. I don't want to over-hype it or you'll be disappointed.

But it's one of those films where a talented director and crew made the most of what they had to work with. And that alone is kind of a Christmas Miracle, right?

Keanu Reeves and Lazlo Hollyfeld from Real Genius

It occurred to me the other day that the 21st century Keanu Reeves looks a hell of a lot like John Gries’s Lalzo Hollyfeld in Real Genius.

Now I think universes are merging, and I don’t understand why the internet isn’t talking about this.