Mystery of Jack the Ripper Solved?

According to recent reports, a researcher has uncovered the identity of Jack the Ripper, the famous serial killer of London in 1888. But did she name the right man?

Hyam Hyams

Sarah Bax Horton, a former police volunteer and great-great-granddaughter of one of the original investigators, identifies the killer as Hyam Hyams, an alcoholic and ‘wandering lunatic.’

Hyams already figured on the list of over a hundred possible Ripper suspects. Ms. Bax Horton might be right, but it’s astounding that over 130 years of professional and amateur sleuthing have not resulted in a definitive identification.

Could the Ripper have come across an artifact, a device, that rendered his identification impossible? If so, what was that device and what became of it?

I explored those questions in my ebook Ripper’s Ring. Read it to learn how the serial killer might have remained undetected. Follow the progress of the only Scotland Yard detective who stood a chance of solving the crimes.

Perhaps you’ll conclude that, after thirteen decades, the guy who correctly fingered the guilty perp is—

Poseidon’s Scribe

My Newest Book — Rebel Spirit

Ever heard of CSS Hunley? A hand-cranked submarine from the U.S. Civil War, it accomplished the first successful submarine attack in history.

I’ve written a fictional story set aboard that sub. One of my few ghost stories, Rebel Spirit follows the experiences of a man nicknamed Scowler, a member of the sub’s first crew.

In 1864, Northern warships blockaded Charleston harbor, permitting no waterborne trade. In desperation, the South tried an unprecedented attack from underwater, by submarine. Earlier inventors had attempted submarine warfare without success. Many in Charleston hoped the Hunley, named for its inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley, would prevail. 

Think of Rebel Spirit as historical horror. Well, mild horror. For the most part, I’ve adhered to historical accounts while telling Scowler’s story. My tale makes no reference to the politics of the war and does not glorify the South’s cause. As a former submariner with an interest in history, I’m awed by the bravery of the men who served aboard such a dangerous, cramped, man-powered craft.

In real life, researchers have salvaged the Hunley and it resides in a museum in Charleston. I hope to visit that museum one day.

I invite you to read Rebel Spirit. For $3.99, you can buy it at Amazon. It’s a ghostly story of the sea brought to you by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

P.S. I’m planning to speak at Penguicon, a scifi conference in Southfield, Michigan, on Saturday, April 22. I’ll provide more details in the next blogpost by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

Author Interview (Updated) — Todd Sullivan

Readers with long memories will recall I interviewed Todd Sullivan once before. I decided to interview him again because a lot has happened in his writing career. He’s got two novellas being published soon.

Author Todd Sullivan

Todd Sullivan teaches English as a Second Language, and English Literature & Writing in Asia. He has had numerous short stories, novelettes, and novellas published across several countries, including Thailand, the U.K., Australia, the U.S., and Canada. He is a practitioner of the sword-fighting martial arts, kumdo/kendo, and has trained in fencing (foil), Muay Thai, Capoeira, Wing Chun, and JKD. He graduated from Queens College with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, and received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgia State University. He attended the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the National Book Foundation Summer Writing Camps. He currently lives in Taipei, Taiwan, and looks forward to studying Mandarin.

Here’s the interview:

Poseidon’s Scribe: Since I last interviewed you in September 2017, what have you been writing?

Todd Sullivan: Funny enough, I’ve still been writing from the same narrative universe that that 2017 story, “Wheels and Deals,” published in the Dark Luminous Wings anthology, took place in. My current novella, Butchers, is a vampire story that takes place in South Korea. But the actual storyline, along with several other short stories that were published between 2016 and 2018, all exist in the same nightmarish reality.

P.S.: What are the titles of the other stories?

T.S.: “Gwi’shin,” published in Eastlit Journal; “Transubstantiation,” published in Aurealis Science Fiction & Fantasy. “Chingu,” published in Tincture Journal. “The Ascent Made Him Plunge,” published in The Big Book of Bootleg Horror 2. They’re all connected.

P.S.: You’ve been busy, and successful in getting your stories published. Congratulations on the publication of Butchers. The book cover is eye-catching. If you had to describe this novella in three words, what would they be?

T.S.: To coin Public Enemy, “Fight the power.”

P.S.: The story is set in Seoul, South Korea. Why did you choose that setting?

T.S.: I lived in South Korea for ten years, three of which were spent in Seoul. The very first incarnation of this story took place on a small island at the southern-most tip of the country called Jeju. Jeju will still play a pivotal role in how the ongoing narrative unfolds. If one can imagine the narrative universe as a typhoon, Jeju is the center of the maelstrom.

P.S.: So many horror stories deal with vampires working alone. In Butchers, there’s an entire vampire organization with initiation rites, rules, a mission, and rogue members. What can you tell us about this group?

T.S.: The Gwanlyo is, in many ways, the tyrannical employer. Mindlessly cruel, and diabolical, with arcane regulations that seem to serve only one purpose: to torture their employees.

P.S.: The novella’s protagonist, Sey-Mi, sounds fascinating. Please tell us what she’s like at the beginning of the book.

T.S.: Kim Sey-Mi is a graduating high school senior who, like Alice, tumbles down the rabbit hole. She meets strange and terrible figures, and the question is will she become one of them: a strange, terrible person.

P.S.: You describe this as a novella of extreme horror. Why will this book appeal to horror and vampire fans?

T.S.: As a vampire fan myself, I have to admit that it doesn’t take much to make me fall in love with a vampire story. I think a lot of vampire fans share a similar sentiment. I think, though, that Butchers is a unique take on the mythology. It combines Korean culture with Western horror to create an exciting fusion of ideas. I think even a vampire fan really appreciates a new take on the undying genre.

P.S.: Is the launching of this book coming soon? How can eager readers find out more, and buy it?

T.S.: Butchers is available to purchase now in ebook and book form. The official launch date is December 5th, and there will be a Facebook event from 10am to 12am EST where I’ll answer questions, and where an attendee can win a free copy of the novella.

P.S.: I understand this will be the first of a series. What can you tell us about the second book?

T.S.: The Gray Man of Smoke and Shadows is a stellar tale that focuses on a character introduced in Butchers: Hyeri. I had a lot of fun writing Hyeri, and I knew that the next book in the series would be about her. There’s no point in wasting a character this good.

P.S.: You’ve also got another novella soon to be published, called Hollow Men. I love its cover image as well. Please give us three words to describe this book.

T.S.: Death comes easy.

P.S.: Please describe the setting of this work of epic fantasy. Where and when are you taking your readers this time? What makes this setting different from most other works in this genre?

T.S.: So, Hollow Men takes place in a fantasy version of medieval South Korea. The story revolves around men who go on quests to become heroes. The story also deals with the politics of being a foreigner in a homogeneous society. And it’s different because it fuses the east and west in a tale of swords & sorcery. It’s a D&D campaign that takes place in the Hermit Kingdom.

P.S.: What are the fantasy elements in the story? I understand there’s a heroic quest, a magic sword, and a knight. What else will readers encounter?

T.S.: I guess the narrative touches upon the ideas of globalism. We can say that we are all just the human race, but do we really believe it? Actions speak louder than words, and if one were to look at the actions of the world’s people, can one really say that we truly believe we are all of the human race? So imagine this quandary using the metaphor of the fantastical, and that’s Hollow Men.

P.S.: Please paint a word picture of Ha Jun, your protagonist.

T.S.: Ha Jun is a young man who increasingly realizes that the world is trying to kill him. And he’s simply trying to figure out how to stay alive.

P.S.: When and where can readers get this book?

T.S.: Hollow Men’s expected release date is December 9th, 2019. It would make a great Christmas gift for teen readers.

P.S.: It certainly would. You also intend this novella to be the beginning of a series. Can you give us a glimpse of the second book, and what connects the two?

T.S.: Life is a constant struggle. That’s actually the general theme of this fantasy series. One keeps fighting, and either one dies, or one survives to fight again. There is no peace. There is only the hustle, the struggle to survive.

Poseidon’s Scribe: Where can readers go to find out more about you?

Todd Sullivan: Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Thanks, Todd, and best of luck with both novellas and both resulting series.

December 1, 2019Permalink

To Fight the Unbeatable Foe

Pole to Pole Publishing just released a new anthology, Re-Terrify: Horrifying Stories of Monsters and More, and it contains a story of mine, “Moonset.” In that tale, my protagonist must “fight an unbeatable foe,” as in the song “The Impossible Dream (the Quest)” from the musical Man of La Mancha.

For Re-Terrify, the publisher wanted reprints, previously published stories that had appeared elsewhere. I’d written a horror story called “Blood in the River” that had appeared in Dead Bait, published by Severed Press.  As written, it was unsuitable for Re-Terrify, so I revised it.

In the story, detectives at an El Paso police department are questioning a murder suspect. The suspect claims to be about four hundred years old and to exist as a kind of vampire. At moonset, he turns into a vampirefish, a candiru. At moonrise, he turns back into a human male. In either state, he is invincible. Once it becomes clear he is telling the truth, the police are faced with the problem of defeating an invulnerable monster.

That much remains the same in both versions of the story. How did I revise it? Aside from changing the title, I changed the protagonist from male to female, fleshed out her role at the police department, heightened the tension, deleted a couple of scenes, and added a more dramatic final scene. 

The real-life candiru is scary enough. It wedges its barbed head into the gills of larger fish and sucks their blood until gorged. The antagonist of my story has that hideous capability in both his forms. In his human shape, he can spring blood-draining barbs from his fingers, and from a lower body part.

Neither bullets nor fist blows affect this villain. Nor do the traditional wards used against vampires. In both his forms, this shape-shifter is invulnerable to any attack.

What is my hero, Kendra Monroe, to do? How do you fight an unbeatable foe?

To find out, you’ll have to buy Re-Terrify and read “Moonset.” I look forward to reading the other stories in this anthology, too. In the meantime, that song from Man of La Mancha is now stuck in my head, and I have nobody to blame except—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 20, 2019Permalink

Author Interview — Ken Goldman

Just when you thought I’d interviewed all the fascinating authors out there, I found more! Meet Ken Goldman, another writer with a short story in Quoth the Raven.

Ken Goldman, former Philadelphia teacher of English and Film Studies, is an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association. He has homes on the Main Line in Pennsylvania and at the Jersey shore. His stories have appeared in over 885 independent press publications in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Australia with over thirty due for publication in 2018. Since 1993, Ken’s tales have received seven honorable mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. He has written five books: three anthologies of short stories, You Had Me at Arrgh!! (Sam’s Dot Publishers), Donny Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (A/A Productions) and Star-Crossed (Vampires 2); and a novella, Desiree, (Damnation Books). His first novel Of a Feather (Horrific Tales Publishing) was released in January 2014. Sinkhole, his second novel, was published by Bloodshot Books August 2017.

And here’s the interview:

Poseidon’s Scribe: When and why did you begin writing fiction?

Ken Goldman: I began writing before I learned to write. Prior to entering kindergarten, I was already drawing pictures to tell stories. I had a cartoon strip from elementary school through Freshman year of college – Sharky the Blimp. The strip turned risque as I got older because someone told me Sharky resembled a flying phallus. But my serious writing began in 1992 when I came in second place in the Second Annual Rod Serling Memorial Foundation’s Writing Contest with a story I’d written as a homework assignment. I figured, hey, someone may pay me money for this stuff. And the rest, as they say, is history. Fiction, but history.

 

P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books?

K.G.: I always loved Ray Bradbury’s stories, and as a teacher, I always included him in my curriculum. As mentioned above, I was a huge Rod Serling/Twilight Zone fan; I was awed by the sheer imagination of the guy. As a film buff (and also a Film Studies teacher) I used to study every frame of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, and Psycho sealed the deal for me as a horror writer. I wanted to have that same effect on readers, and I try to add some sort of Hitchcock-type twist to every story I write. I also loved the old EC Horror comics (Tales from the Crypt stuff) for the macabre humor. For humor, I loved to read Woody Allen’s books, and I still read Dave Barry. Bios too, of anyone I find interesting. I incorporate occasional absurd humor even in my horror tales. (A rabbi and a werewolf walk into a bar…)

 

P.S.: How did you come to love the horror genre and why do you write horror?

K.G.: Why do people pay good money to ride the roller coaster only to get the hell scared out of them? It’s fun! As a kid at the amusement piers, I used to stand outside the haunted house ride just to hear the screams and laughter of the people inside. And as a teacher I taught film courses on Horror, never failing to get asses filling those seats every day — and sometimes jumping out of those seats too! Writing horror just comes easy to me. I’m sure a therapist would score several Bermuda vacations with me as a patient.

 

P.S.: Your story “Get the Door for Me, Will You, Edgar?” appears in Quoth the Raven. Please describe the real-life incident that prompted this scary story.

K.G.: I thought you’d never ask. I always taught a unit of Poe’s tales practically every year of my career, so Poe and I have a pretty good history. During one class (and during a heavy thunder storm, as in my story) I mentioned to my class how cool it would be if, by our discussing Poe’s works so thoroughly, we could somehow channel him — that is, make him appear in my classroom. I directed everyone to look at the door and picture Poe opening it and coming through. Of course, nothing happened. Not right at that moment, that is. Because when I returned to the lesson, maybe five minutes later, the door swung open — on its own! The windows were closed, so it wasn’t the wind. What was it? Or who was it? You got me.

 

P.S.: Aside from the “Edgar” story about an inner-city school English teacher, how has your background as an English and Film Studies teacher in Philadelphia influenced your writing?

K.G.: How much time have you got? Literature from the ‘greats’ has taught me some incredible writing tricks, and it’s amazing how much you learn about writing from teaching literature. I loved authors’ use of thematic symbolism (think Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 — and so many others.) Short stories? Poe, of course, Shirley Jackson, O. Henry. Characterization? Don’t hate me for this, but Shakespeare is up there. Also Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men), J.D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye), and William Golding (Lord of the Flies). And, yes, I’ve even brought Stephen King’s work into the classroom just for the sheer fun of his brand of horror. I’ll shut up before this comes off as an English lesson.

 

P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?

K.G.: Getting the idea for a new story is tricky because it seems practically any idea a writer may have has already been taken. So I observe just about everything for material that may inspire me to take an idea in a slightly different direction. The easiest aspect of writing? The first draft! I just let the words spill out, and I do damage control later. Once I’m on a roll most stories almost write themselves.

 

P.S.: Reading the comments on your second novel Sinkhole, I was struck by the words “gripping” and “intense.” Why do you think readers use those adjectives with this novel?

K.G.: I like to think that Sinkhole really is gripping and intense. I take a lot of time to merit those descriptions. Writing to me is rewriting, and I do a lot of that, sometimes tossing out great chunks of the first draft to tighten the plot—or sometimes even to change the direction of the story itself if I get better ideas. I’m my own worst critic. (Three stars *** for this answer)

 

P.S.: After noting your book makes several pop culture references, one reviewer said your book “feels like a genre that hasn’t been invented yet. Until now.” Do you think that’s true? Why or why not?

K.G.: I think that’s because I tend to genre-blend, if there is such a word. Sinkhole has horror, but there’s also some sci-fi elements, as well as: a Western sub-plot, slug-like monsters as well as murder-driven soul deprived humans, time travel, back stories, sex and love and cheating spouses, some porn (gasp!), good characters who do bad things/bad characters who do good things, macabre humor and dark horror with several twists at the end that I hope you won’t see coming. So, yeah, I guess that’s maybe like a genre that hasn’t been invented yet.  But I’ve got the copyright now!

 

P.S.: You’ve made no secret about admiring Stephen King’s works. In what ways are your stories similar to his, and in what ways different?

K.G.: I don’t purposely set out to copy Stephen King because there already is a Stephen King. But I read most of his novels so the influences are there, especially his characterizations. I like the way he creates tight camaraderies among his characters in life or death situations, even when they’re complete strangers. On the other hand, I try to select plots that in no way resemble his, although sometimes a King-like plot will sneak in. (Note to King: Feel free to admire my work.)

 

P.S.: Your first novel, Of a Feather, has garnered some excellent reviews on Amazon. Please help us understand the book’s protagonist, Socrates Singer.

K.G.: Socrates Singer is your basic teenage outcast. His few close relationships mean everything to him, so when one goes bad and death claims another, he has difficulty coping. As a result, his ability to control hundreds of birds gets out of his control. He doesn’t set out to create mayhem, but his emotions do get the best of him.

 

P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us about it?

K.G.: This is a little sad, but okay. I recently lost my pet parrot that I’d had for over 35 years. ‘Baby’ was like a muse, always at my side when I wrote, and I do miss that. I just completed a short story called (get your handkerchiefs handy)  “Baby, Come Back”:  A young woman loses her pet parrot and discovers a place that will clone the bird for her. That’s all I’m going to tell you!

 

Poseidon’s Scribe: Sorry to hear about your parrot, but even in death, it serves as your muse. What advice can you offer aspiring writers?

Ken Goldman: Read. Write. Then read some more. Then write some more. Reread, and rewrite. Lather, rinse, repeat. The end.

 

Thanks, Ken. My readers can find out more about Ken Goldman on Facebook, on Linkedin, on his Amazon Author Page, on Goodreads, and on Google+.

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 20, 2018Permalink

Happy Bicentennial, Frankenstein

Two hundred years ago, author Mary Shelley wrote a remarkable novel— Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus—which endures in popularity and bears an increasingly meaningful warning for us today.

Title page from the original 1818 edition

(Yes, I know I’m a few months late. Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones published the novel on January 1, 1818. Amazing that a publisher was working on New Years Day!)

Today, we know Shelley’s novel mainly from its numerous movie incarnations and from the term “Frankenstein monster” itself, which has become shorthand for creating something with unintended negative consequences. I’ll be commenting on the original story, though, not its later derivative works.

Boris Karloff depiction of the monster, from the 1931 movie

In my own stories, I explore the relationships between people and new technology. That is a key aspect of Frankenstein. In fact, that novel is one of the first ever to consider that theme.

Inventors typically create new technology to improve human life, to meet a need. However, the introduction of new technology can also bring about undesirable changes, including fear, active opposition, unforeseen faults in the tech (bugs), and inventor’s regret.

Not only does Shelley show us all of these aspects in Frankenstein, she turns the table on the whole technology impact concept; her sentient technology reacts to its own existence in a world of people.

To us, her novel seems well ahead of its time. Two hundred years ago, the Industrial Revolution had just begun. Electricity was a new and exciting phenomenon, not yet harnessed for effective use. Scientists were discovering elements and chemicals at a rapid pace.

Up to that time, fiction authors had written of golems and homunculi, humanoids created from magic. No stories yet existed of creating human-like life through science.

Perhaps, to readers of Frankenstein in 1818, then witnessing an explosion of scientific discovery, it might have seemed as if the animation of dead human tissue might well be next week’s news. Two centuries later, we have a better idea of how difficult the feat is. We can manipulate DNA to some extent. We’ve achieved remarkable results in extending human lifespans. We can revive the recently dead through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and other techniques.

Mary W. Shelley

Still, we can’t do what Dr. Frankenstein did…yet. Nonetheless, when I said Shelley’s novel contains a particularly relevant warning for us today, I was referring to science’s quest to create artificially intelligent, sentient, self-aware “life.” This achievement may be decades, or only years, away. The ability for humans to create thinking, human-like life by means other than reproduction will be a breakthrough of far greater impact than any previous scientific development in human history.

We now find ourselves in the role of Dr. Frankenstein before he created the monster. We can consider the ethics of our actions in advance. We can ask if we’re insane even to pursue the enterprise. We can examine and plan for as many possible consequences as we can imagine.

Mary Shelley gave us a novel full of these consequences to consider. From twenty decades in the past, her visage warns us to be careful. She’s cautioning us with a worst-case scenario. If we fail to prepare for these consequences, we’ll have only ourselves to blame.

Thank you, Mary, for your wise counsel. On Frankenstein’s bicentennial, we’re still recklessly curious beings who discover how to do things before thinking whether we should, and before taking appropriate precautions. Maybe things will turn out fine, and much credit will go to you, for your prescient advance notice. Conveying my belated gratitude back through two centuries to you, I’m—

Poseidon’s Scribe

Author Interview — Gregory Norris

Recently, author Gregory L. Norris stopped by my sprawling complex here at Poseidon’s Scribe Enterprises, and I took the opportunity to interview him. After all, (like me), he has a story appearing in the upcoming anthology In a Cat’s Eye.

norris-photo-1Gregory is a full-time professional writer being romanced by his muse. He has thousands of publication credits to his credit, most in national magazines and fiction anthologies. A former writer at Sci Fi magazine, he once worked as a screenwriter on two episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and he’s the author of The Q Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He’s had two paranormal romance novels reprinted as special editions by Home Shopping Network as part of their “Escape with Romance” segment – the first time HSN has offered novels. He has fiction forthcoming from Cleis Press, STARbooks, Evil Jester Press, The Library of Horror, Simon and Shuster, and Pill Hill Press. Gregory judged the 2013 Lambda Awards for excellence in GLBT writing in the SF/F/H category. In 2014, Gregory was hired as screenwriter on two feature films, including the terrifying horror movie, Brutal Colors. Twice, his short stories have notched Honorable Mentions in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best anthologies. Norris lives in and writes from the mountains of New Hampshire, in a beautiful old New Englander house called Xanadu. His career has been featured numerous times in print interviews, on radio, and on television.

 

Now, the interview:

Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing? What prompted you?

norris-photo-2Gregory L. Norris: I grew up in a tiny, enchanted cottage situated between a lake and vast, dark woods, and was raised on a healthy diet of creature double features and classic SF/Horror TV—shows like Dark Shadows, Lost in Space, and, especially, Gerry Anderson’s deep space parable, Space:1999. The morning following the premiere of the latter, I picked up my pen, put it to paper, and wrote the first of my stories, which are still archived in my filing cabinets. I was ten-years-old then, and dabbled with writing stories, novellas, even a novel, up until I was fifteen. That summer, sadly moved from the enchanted house to a suburban neighborhood, I began work on a novel that featured my few friends as the lead characters. Those friends took stabs at writing their own stories, but stopped after the first few pages—some, following a couple of paragraphs. But they all held onto my tale, wanting to know what happened next. On a sleepover on a muggy July night, possessed by the muse, my pen tore across the page to THE END of that novel. I was so filled with an emotion I now think of as eight-pointed stars—inspiration—that I picked up the pen in my exhausted hand and started work on another story. I knew then how much I loved writing. Nearly 1200 short stories, novellas, novels, and screen- and teleplays later…

P.S.: What authors most influenced you? What are a few of your favorite books?

G.L.N.: As a young reader, I absolutely loved—and still adore—Edgar Allen Poe. And it’s been my pleasure to be published alongside him in two anthologies by the fine folks at Firbolg Publishing. To this day, I can still recite his brilliant ‘Lenore” by memory. I also loved the Dark Shadows novels by Marilyn Ross (a pseudonym for author Edward Daniel Ross). I have most of them, hand-me-downs from an uncle, in the bookcase in my Writing Room as we speak. These days, I’m influenced by my talented contemporaries. On Tuesday nights, I am blessed to sit in a conference room in my downtown and listen to my fellow creatives read their newest pages in the weekly writers’ group I helped found. Last year, I devoured author Roxanne Dent’s novel, The Janus Demon, and loved it so much that when I was done I started again with Chapter One—a highly recommended joyride of a read. Anything by Roxanne and her sister Karen Dent is a joy for the senses.

P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?

G.L.N.: I write full-time, and learned a looooong time ago how important it is to be organized. For instance, at the end of every workday I make sure to carry my coffee cup out to the kitchen sink. Mentally, when I enter my Writing Room the following day, it’s clean, organized, and welcoming me to sit and write without distraction. I’ve cleared most distraction from my home and work life as well. When I travel to retreats—I leave on October 12 for my sixth of 2016 to a luxury retreat center for writers in Vermont—I make sure that my Writing Room is immaculate and will welcome me home to continue the good work I’ve done on the road. Difficult? Years ago, I realized how important it is to get out of one’s way, to not make excuses, to just dive in and write. And to love the process. That, to me, is the easiest. I love to write. I love my stories. They’re my babies, and even the homeliest among them is a joy and I am devoted to giving them all, at the very least, a first draft, a life, even if that life is only lived to THE END in the confines of my home office and not out in the publishing universe. Granted, they howl at me in the night, all of them (at this point, as I type these words, 107 of the little incomplete bastages, all demanding my attention).

norris-photo-3P.S.: From your website it seems you mostly write horror. What other genres have you written in, and which one is your favorite?

G.L.N.: I do write a lot of horror. I love the genre, and all its sub-genres—tales of giant monsters, SF Horror, ghost stories, grand guignol, the quiet chill. But I write and publish everything, including Mystery, SF, Fantasy, Romance, Erotic Romance, Literary/Mainstream. Even Westerns! I used to say I despised Westerns, because when I was a kid, that’s what came on after the creature features. Then in 2013, I was hospitalized for five days with a cyst, and the only things on the TV during the wasteland of daytime television were classic Westerns. I wrote in my hospital bed with those Westerns playing in the background, and left the hospital with a chunk of fresh pages as well as three ideas for Westerns, all of which have been written and sold. As for a favorite, well, like individual stories I don’t have a favorite genre. I love to write, regardless of the particular world my tale is set in.

P.S.: In what way is your fiction different from that of other authors in your main genre?

G.L.N.: I suppose the easy answer is my point of view, my creativity. Every year at this time, our writers’ group is given a half-dozen prompts to write from for our Halloween meeting. If the prompt is, say, “Jack O’Lanterns,” well, my story is going to be different from the dozen others shared that night. I write mostly without fear, write what I want to write, and write with that same rush of inspiration I so remember from that July night when I was fifteen. It has, knock on wood (in this case, my desk—the dining room table we ate upon in my boyhood enchanted cottage, which was given to me when I was fifteen and confessed I wanted to be a writer to my mother), stayed with me past my fiftieth year.

P.S.: How long have you been writing full-time? (So few authors are able to!)

G.L.N.: I’ve been writing full-time since 1995, when I was hired to write sports/adventure stories for the late, great Heartland USA magazine. Over my twenty years with that publication, I traveled to the X-Games, covered Building Demolition, and interviewed tons of celebrities and sports stars. I also wrote for the Sci Fi Channel’s official publication, did articles for Soap Opera Update, Cinescape, and a significant number of national newsstand publications. At a buck a word, it was easy to write full-time. When those magazines went away, I focused on my short stories and novels, along with the occasional screenplay. I never forgot a golden bit of wisdom by author Grace Paley when she was asked the secret to writing full-time: “Low overhead,” she answered. We bought a fixer-upper and fixed her up and have no mortgage, and, through hard work and determination, have paid off all our other bills, so when writing work comes in, which it does constantly, we’re able to enjoy it, such as in the form of those six writing retreats in 2016—which included two trips to Vermont, one to the slopes of Mount Monadnock, and one to the Isles of Shoals.

P.S.: What was it like to do some screenwriting for the Star Trek Voyager series? How was writing for TV different from, and similar to, writing for the book format?

G.L.N.: Voyager was a trip! I must have pitched over a hundred ideas to nail the two. The second, which became the fifth-season episode “Gravity”, came as a result of, exhausted to the point of passing out on the night before one of those pitch meetings with Paramount, dreaming about members of the crew being stranded inside a gravity well. I woke up, jotted the notes down, and pitched it that same day. Two weeks later, it was contracted for and became the episode featuring the back-story of Tuvok, the ship’s Vulcan tactical officer. Screenwriting is another personality of writing—skeletal framework, mostly dialogue and action. While on the island retreat in early September, I belted out thirty pages of a mystery screenplay that I hope to wrap in Vermont during this coming week.

P.S.: What are the predominant themes in your fiction?

G.L.N.: That’s a very good question. So good that I struggled to come up with a clear answer. If anything, I would say that in my Science Fiction, there is wonder for the vastness of the cosmos. In my Horror, the elegant stroke of fear along the spine, which I so remember from my boyhood spent on Saturday afternoons in front of the big, boxy TV set hooked up to rabbit ears. There were days when, following movies like Attack of the Mushroom People or Majin, Monster of Terror that I was too freaked to go outside and play. And the rest of the time in my work, I hope the theme, whether in romance or erotica or any other genre, is Love.

catseye_final-72dpiP.S.: Your story, “The Neighbors’ Cat,” will appear in the anthology In a Cat’s Eye. Please tell us about it.

G.L.N.: In May, I flew out to Hollywood to attend the Roswell Awards, where my short story “Mandered” won Honorable Mention. It’s a big deal—at the Roswells, winners see their stories staged by famous actors of Film and TV. At one point, I was on stage with Dee Wallace and Jasika Nicole, who we loved on Fringe. I departed early on a Saturday morning. That morning, a neighbor’s cat was parked outside my sun porch door, harassing our two cats. We love cats. That neighbor, not so much. So I remarked, “Even their cat’s an a-hole.” ZING! By the time I landed in Hollywood and was at my hotel, an entire story developed. I put pen to page and belted out the first half of a story in which a neighbor’s cat brings warning of the nefarious goings-on in the house next door.

P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?

G.L.N.: I am, today, hopefully putting the final words down on a Space:1999 fan fiction story called “The Tomorrows” which has seriously challenged my German heritage—we’re not supposed to cry, and I’ve blubbed nonstop since starting this novella, which I wrote to read at my September 18th wedding (we had a very short ceremony, followed by an amazing all-day writers’ group salon). I’ve got various projects lined up to take with me to Vermont, including short stories and the mystery screenplay, and then I’m using November to commit to National Novel Writing Month—my goal is to write an SF novel I’ve been invited to submit to a publisher. I’ll use December to focus on short fiction and to wrap up my 2016 (my goal is to complete everything I began this year, and not send a single project to the Works-in-Progress drawer of my filing cabinets). In January of 2017, I’ll begin work on a novelization of a Gerry Anderson made-for-TV movie that I’ve been hired to pen from the original screenplay.

Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?

Gregory L. Norris: Write from the heart, and with all your heart. Love the process—it will translate onto the page to your readers. Don’t assume writing is easy; it isn’t. But like any passion that is spun into a trade, the ‘work’ part fades, and it becomes a calling. As for rejection, we all get passes and passed over. It’s part of the process. I always, always assume the story or novel or script I’ve just hit ‘send’ on is going to get rejected. And when they don’t, when they bring home their contracts, I’m overjoyed. My formula for success is as follows: Write, Finish, Polish, Submit. Grow up and mature as writers, but never grow old.

 

Thanks for stopping by, Gregory! Readers can learn more about Gregory L. Norris and his stories at his website or on Facebook.

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 14, 2016Permalink

The Envelope Please…

All the votes are in, and the critters.org site has released the unofficial tally of their critters_header2015 Preditors & Editors Readers Poll. In the Horror Short Story category, Steven R. Southard’s RippersRing72dpiRipper’s Ring” came in…

…drum roll, and dramatic pause…

4th out of 17.

That’s great, and I’d like to thank all the wonderful people who voted for my story. It’s an honor to make the top top10shortstoryhten (top five, even) of the nominated horror short stories of 2015. I’m proud of “Ripper’s Ring” and gratified that readers think enough of it to send in their votes.

One caveat—apparently the results are unofficial at present. If those standings change, you’ll learn that news right away from—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 17, 2016Permalink