A Halloween Horror...

Mr. Jeff Swenson (who helped me get my IT Support webcomic online) recently commissioned a pulp horror story from Yours Truly as a Halloween treat for his Freethunk website.

It was a lot of fun to get back into commissioned writing again, especially something that was designed to be short and punchy like this. Entitled "Witch Fire", it's currently online for you to read here. (The illustrations on the page are mine, too.) 

While writing this piece a couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me that composing a decent short story (at least, in the horror and ghost-story genres) is not so dissimilar from writing a joke, or a gag. If the punchline doesn't work, nobody's really going to care how well-written and beautiful the prose is up to that point, if the final lines just unravel themselves and flop off the page in a flaccid anticlimax. I thought about the classic works by M.R James, Le Fanu, Poe and Lovecraft, where often the whole dynamic of the thing is channelled in towards the last paragraph, the last few lines, or even the last half-dozen words - the needle-sharp point at the end which pokes the reader and makes them cry "Owch!". It was one reason why I decided to go with a triple-whammy ending on this one, because it is Halloween, a season of excess. I hope at least in that respect that I succeeded.

Perhaps I had some of those classic old Hammer House of Horror episodes floating through my mind too, where the final scene is built up to have the viewer chittering over the end credits, or even a Twilight Zone quickie.

I'll have more prose up on Freethunk in the future too, it appears. More on that nearer the time...

The Secular Trinity...

After a bit of trial-and-error, I succeeded this evening in adding a new dimension to the Fenriswulf site. Take a quick glance at the top of the main page, just underneath the title bar, and you'll notice some new hyperlinks.

The first of these has just been added, leading to an information page of characters featured in Maranatha and the other forthcoming books in the Trinity Chronicles series. It also features  sneak preview of some of the illustration work which will feature in the new books. I figured that the Fenriswulf page ought to be a little more forthcoming in promoting the book (and subsequent series) which kick-started the whole project in the first place, so now the heroes and villains of Maranatha have their very own page.

Next up will be a page for plot synopses, and any other interesting trivia and bits-and-bobs that the casual browser may find to be of interest. Suggestions, of course, are more than welcome.

Spring Cleaning...in Autumn?

It's getting darker, colder, and Fenriswulf's Chaz is spending a lot more time indoors again. With that comes the availability of more time to spend on books and writing. The "Trinity Chronicles" (begun with Maranatha) is still shaping up very well, and the prequel "Venus in Saturn" now looks set for a 2011 release, with the first of half a dozen interior illustrations recently completed. The third book is being written concurrently, and that too is coming along nicely.

Somewhat inspired by a fellow writer, Chaz has also trimmed down this very Fenriswulf site with a view to adding more content relevant to books and prose. The site had begun to gain some fat, and as a result, the comic-book and more lowbrow content has migrated to its own dedicated home page, led by the scruffy kings of cutting-edge underground toilet humour, Arf & Mo.