Can't Say The Results Were Unexpected:

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

So if anyone asks, you can describe me as a violent, malicious, lustful heretic. But you knew that already, right?

People Out of Context

Something I like to do in my short fiction is place a stereotype or recognized cliche character in a radically different setting. Would you recognize Kurt Cobain if he was bagging your groceries? How would Conan the Barbarian feel if he was employed in a washing machine factory? What sort of presidential candidate would Odysseus have made? Would I vote for him? Would the rest of America? What if he was running against Hannibal Lecter?

Context can be very important to understanding a person. And yet, finding the keys to the locks that opens them up sometimes involves a change of scenery, to remove them from the setting that makes them so familiar. Give someone a haircut, clean up their speech, give them a new job, but have you really changed them? Would you even recognize them?

Is that a pulp hero who is taking your order? Could the woman ringing up your bill have been a Mata Hari or a Marlene Dietrich given half a chance? How do we know?

Feeling better

Two cures for feeling crappy:

1) write a really psychotic piece of fiction. The new novel now has an antagonist of some depth.

2) Mess with someone.

Weird experience

Feeling: Tired and Sad

For the past couple of weeks I've been wondering what I should progress with. Should I finish up a couple of short stories I've had ideas for but haven't had time to actually write, or should I plunge straight into the next novel, with an eye toward finishing the first draft by the end of the year?

I've been going back and forth. The prospect of a new novel scares me, but I feel like I really ought to simply because that's where I want to be going.

And with other things going on, I've allowed the mental discussion to drag out. Over the Labor Day weekend, we had some friends up, including their two young kids. So, I was a little stressed when I went to sleep last night. I woke up at 2, couldn't get back to sleep, so I got into the reading chair and read Perdito Street Station for an hour and a half, then lay in the dark, waiting to drop off. It took some time.

I had a dream. I was researching the novel I've been thinking about writing, running around New York City scouting locations, but whenever I tried to get pieces of paper to write my notes down, all I could get my hands on where tiny triangles and scraps.

When I woke, I had a head full of ideas. For me, one of the most productive times for ideas the border between sleep and waking, when my guard is down and anything goes in my imagination. So I had the luxury of adding onto these ideas and molding them in order to fit the story. End result: two pages of notes, and I'll be starting the novel, after I write my query letter for novel 1, rework about 200 words of Novel 1, rewrite that short story for Cthulhu 2012, and write my essay on Robert Bloch.

Other than that, I feel like shit this morning.

It says "King"

Your result for The Godzilla Personality Test!...

Godzilla: King of the Monsters!

Godzilla. The Original Badass. Congratulations, Mr. Mutated Dinosaur.

Bad News: You tend to have nuclear meltdowns on rare occasions (Godzilla vs. Destroyah) and you have a weakness to this thing called the Oxygen Destroyer. So you're not completely invincible.

Good News: You might as well be though. You've fought every monster out there and you usually come out on top. Sure you had your goofy moments in the 70's but really you are one bad son of a bitch, and everybody knows it. You have a lot of respect and people know when to get out of your way. Congrats, you're like the Fonzie of giant monsters! Oh and you tend to get mad whenever someone screws up the environment so hey good for you.

Take The Godzilla Personality Test! at HelloQuizzy

Book or Film?

Mood: Cranky and possibly ill

From PG Tremblay

Copy the list below.
Mark in bold the movie titles for which you read the book.
Italicize the ones that you’ve watched.
Tag 5 people to perpetuate the meme.

1. Jurassic Park

2. War of the Worlds

3. The Lost World: Jurassic Park

4. I, Robot

5. Contact

6. Congo

7. Cocoon

8. The Stepford Wives

9. The Time Machine

10. Starship Troopers It would been nice if the film of the same name had anything to do with the book

11. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy I've experienced this in all available media but play and towel. All were better than the film.

12. K-PAX well, when it was Man Facing Southwest

13. 2010 (but no 2001? huh?)

14. The Running Man

15. Sphere

16. The Mothman Prophecies

17. Dreamcatcher

18. Blade Runner

19. Dune

20. The Island of Dr. Moreau

21. Invasion of the Body Snatchers

22. The Iron Giant

23. Battlefield Earth

24. The Incredible Shrinking Woman

25. Fire in the Sky

26. Altered States

27. Timeline

28. The Postman (see comment on # 10)

29. Freejack

30. Solaris

31. The Invisible Man

32. The Thing (Who Goes There?)

33. The Thirteenth Floor

34. Lifeforce

35. Deadly Friend

36. The Puppet Masters

37. 1984

38. A Scanner Darkly

39. Creator

40. Monkey Shines

41. Solo (Weapon)

42. The Handmaid’s Tale

43. Communion

44. Carnosaur

45. From Beyond You know the film's going to be wacky when the story it's based on is done before the intro credits.

46. Watchers

47. Nightflyers

48. Logan's Run

I am very surprised by the people who haven't read the Wells work. And the beginning is very weighted on Creighton, isn't it? Shouldn't there be more King?

I Like My New Hat

Mood: Enjoying A New Hat

I've never quite understood the appeal of being an editor. I've always thought I'd always write and never edit. I'd rather be on the creative side of things, coming up with the plot, hammering out the characters, all that sort of stuff.

Well, now that the Secret Project underway, I'm rather unexpectedly in the editor's seat. Over the weekend I received my first piece. It's wonderful. It's like a perfect jewel delivered to me, born of my idea, yet expressed in a way I never would have considered. Quite the giddy and unexpected thrill.

Sale!

William Jones has just let me know that my story "Dreams of Raw Flesh" will be included in his forthcoming anthology Tales out of Miskatonic University


Although I don't you know the full Table of Contents, I do know that Charles Gramlich and Lon Prater also have stories in the collection. Awesome.

I Like Your Market and Would Sumbit To It Again

Dark Recesses Press sends out really good rejection letters. I'm going to try extra hard for that market next time I've got something to send out.

And they've given permission for me to repost the letter, so here it is:

Good evening John,

Thank you for submitting your story, "Death on the American Family Farm" to us at DRP. We enjoyed reading it and even pushed it for further consideration; however we have decided to pass on it. Ultimately the ending was its downfall. Most of the readers felt it was rushed and a little flat.

That aside, the opening characterizations are magnificent and a lot of fun to read. You did a great job of filling the story in with small details that others may not have included. Instead of feeling wordy, it felt colored in.

I don't need to wish you luck in the future placing this story, I'm sure you will.

Keep writing,

Shanna Wynne

Dark Recesses Press
http://www.darkrecesses.com

The dark recesses of your mind are our playground... and we don't play fair.

This is a great rejection letter. Someone took some time to compose it, which means they really do care about me submitting at a later date. They liked the story enough to give it a second read (which I'm starting to think of as a 'bridesmaid' rejection). They told me what they think is a flaw, and again, I agree with them. Wish I could find these problems by myself, but I'm learning.

I'm very encouraged. Thanks Dark Recesses Press!

Why I live in Vermont

Mood: Hanging in there

Despite the mood I wanted to once again show you why I live where I do:


That said, Cthulhu's Dark Cults is available for pre-order on Amazon


Cthulhu's Dark Cults
Schemes of the Secret Masters
Edited by David Conyers

Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu® is an endless source of imagination of all things dark and mysterious. Here we journey across the globe to witness the numerous and diverse cults that worship Cthulhu and the Great Old One. Lead by powerful sorcerers and fanatical necromancers, their followers are mad and deranged slaves, and the ancient and alien gods whom they willingly devote themselves are truly terrifying. These cults control real power, for they are the real secret masters of our world.

"Introduction" by David Conyers
"The Eternal Chinaman" by John Sunseri
"Captains of Industry" by John Goodrich
"Perfect Skin" by David Witteveen
"Covenant of Darkness" by William Jones
"The Whisper of Ancient Secrets" by Penelope Love
"Old Ghost" by Peter A. Worthy
"The Nature of Faith" by Oscar Rios
"The Devil's Diamonds" by Cody Goodfellow
"Requiem for the Burning God" by Shane Jiraiya Cummings
"Sister of the Sands" by David Conyers

This book is one in an expanding collection of Cthulhu Mythos horror fiction and related topics. Call of Cthulhu® fiction focuses on single entities, concepts or authors significant to readers and fans of H.P. Lovecraft. This collection of ten stories features the cults which first appeared in classic Call of Cthulhu gaming supplements such as The Masks of Nyarlathotep, The Day of the Beast, Horror on the Orient Express, Shadows of Yog-Sothoth and others.

Published by Chaosium Inc. 2008