Musings of Two Creative Minds

Don't trash that crappy first draft! Oh it may be full of grammatical errors that would send your high school English teachers into hysterics but that's not reason enough to throw it away.  And maybe the plot line may move like a 1920's Model T going backwards up the crooked mile, still is it truly worth destroying?  And perhaps most of the characters may be as shallow as a puddle, and probably deserve to be drowned in one, but do not throw that draft away!  Instead I want you read every last word, e ven if it's hard as hell to get past the first few pages, keep reading!  Do not stop until you've read the entire thing .   Why? I hear you ask.   Because, that shitty first draft may be the most important one you ever write. I'm being serious here folks.  And no I'm not going to be going on about how every journey in writing starts with a first draft, or something like that.  What I am going to tell you is that first drafts...

Book review time again.  Today I wanted to share with you my review on what I consider one of THE best  collections of vampire stories ever compiled.  It covers some of the earliest vampire tales known and finishes with more modern ones from the 1980's.  With the many takes on vampires we see these days from Anne Rice to Stephanie Meyer, I thought it might be interesting for you all to check out some other takes on the vampire genre done by other authors over the decades.  So without further ado, allow me to introduce you all to... THE PENGUIN BOOK OF VAMPIRE STORIES is one of the best anthologies I've ever found. Part of the reason is that it covers authors who've touched on this subject as far back as 1816 and goes up to 1984. There are a number of familiar names in this book like Clark Ashton Smith, Sheridan Le Fanu, Tanith Lee, and August Derleth to name just a few. But what fascinates me the most is seeing how the vampire legend is explored. ...

Well, 2013 was a rollercoaster of a year for me.  There were some great highs but an awful lot of lows that really made this a tough one for me.   Losing my father-in-law was probably the hardest thing to go through.  I looked up to that man so much and he gave me such great advice and encouragement.  To watch him fight the good fight and then lose to something other than the cancer, was gut-wrenching.  However, to see my wife's family pull together and know I was a part of them, helped a lot.  As did this Christmas.  This was the first one without him and was going to be especially hard for my mother-in-law.  Helen (my wife) and I had her and my brother-in-law over here for the holiday where we decked out the place and managed to create a magical Christmas in which it felt like he was right there with us the whole time.  We all felt his presence, and that made me feel so much better.  My debut novel "The Bridge" came out and 14...

The move is over, I'm settled in.  It's time to get back to the business of blogging and writing.  Thanks for all your patience everyone.  In today's Blog/Vlog installment, you'll get to meet an artist who helps me explain how to create characters in your stories, who feel more like real people.  Enjoy.