Collaborative storytelling - The Enchantress of Tanglewood (Part II)

Rules: Read the episode below. Then VOTE in the Twitter poll, linked below, with your choice on how you think the story should continue. To read PART I of the three parts, read HERE. VOTES from Part I tied for having the main character "Use a Wiccan Spell" and "Appeal to the Entity" (The last paragraph of Part I is repeated for continuity).... THE ENCHANTRESS OF TANGLEWOOD ~ Part II

(Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay) A fog formed around the thicket and coalesced around limb and leaf. The corpus of an entity emerged, its long limbs reticulating from downed wood. Its skin and breasts composed of the bark of trunks. Its long hair was formed of moss and lichen. And then it opened its eyes. Portals of darkness that swallowed Tarynn's attention. With words that spoke with the whisper of wind through the canopy, it said, "You have trespassed," and reached toward Tarynn. But Tarynn was prepared. No stranger to the paranormal, she had grown up in the ways of Wiccan practice, her mother a high priestess in the local coven. Quickly Tarynn reached into her pack, rummaged past her mushroom bag, snacks, and a butane lighter, and produced a robin egg and a branch of mistletoe. She cracked the egg and let the yolk run upon the end of the mistletoe. Using the mistletoe to flick the yolk toward the entity, then rotating to each of the cardinal points of the compass, Tarynn called out, "By the Horned God, he who is the Holly King, I entreat protection from the forces of nature that threaten me. Protect me, my God!" She flicked the mistletoe again, and continued, "And to the Mother Goddess, she who is maiden, mother, and crone, come to my aid and protect me! Envelop me in your light!" As she chanted, Tarynn kept a wary eye on the entity. The entity did not retreat. It stood there, her lichen hair waving in a breeze that Tarynn could not feel. But its mouth moved in a smirk as Tarynn called to her gods. Tarynn finished her spell, then stared at the entity. All fell quiet. She no longer thought of mushrooms. She only wanted to escape the entity and its woods. "I … I  demand passage out!" Tarynn finally said. "You may demand nothing," the entity rasped. "I am the Enchantress of Tanglewood." It stepped closer, its woody legs and feet crackling as it moved, lithely stepping across the forest floor until it was face-to-face with Tarynn. "What makes you think I am not in league with your horned god, girl?" Tarynn held her breath, unsure what to say. She dropped the mistletoe and decided to change her approach. She got down on one knee and bowed her head. "Forgive me," Tarynn said. "I did not realize I had trespassed. I ask your forgiveness. I only wanted to hunt for mushrooms." She looked up to the entity. "Will you show me the way out?" The Enchantress leaned over and placed a soothing hand upon Tarynn's cheek. "Your spell was not in vain, child, for I AM in league with your horned god. Here he is the Green God. But I have my own price for you to pay before you achieve your freedom. I shall transform you into the likeness of a mountain lion, and you shall do my bidding!" The Enchantress waved her birchbark hands, whispering arcane words in a chant. A fog formed around them both. As Tarynn looked into the fathomless eyes of the entity, she began to feel a tingling sensation inside of her and knew she was changing…. How should Tarynn respond in the conclusion of this story? Let the Sorceress transform her and do her bidding Fight the Sorceress and interrupt the spell Make a run for it Use her butane lighter to start a forest fire  --> Cast your vote HERE by the end of the month.

My first author event!

Last Friday I had my first author event, and I couldn't be happier!

The last Friday of each month is the Art Walk event in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Bookmine, one of three book stores on Main Street in that lovely little town, tries to feature a local author for each event.

Reading aloud from my book (photo by Mike Janes)

The owner, Gail, is a very pleasant lady and made a nice boutonniere for me. She's also been selling my book, Around the Corner from Sanity, there on consignment.

This particular Art Walk had a low attendance, generally. Perhaps because it immediately followed Christmas, or perhaps it wasn't well-advertised. But there were still a fair number of people who came in the store. I had great conversations with them, including one nice fellow who works for Amazon and bought a copy of my book. He was very interested in how my experience self-publishing on Amazon has been ("Generally very favorable," I told him). [HERE is my Amazon author page]

My book, Around the Corner from Sanity,
 on the shelf at Kalapuya book store
in Cottage Grove.

And I got to do a dramatic reading to a small audience. That was great fun! I read the first half of the story "Purgatory's Price" from my book, narrating in dramatic style, of course! One guy laughed and laughed. It was marvelous!

Afterward I took a few moments to check on my sales in the neighboring store, Kalapuya Books, too. It's always great fun to see my books on the shelf!

I'm definitely looking forward to my next author event, wherever that may be.

Cheers and happy reading!

Top 10 gifts for writers

So you have a writer in your life and it's time to get them a gift. Sure, they like much the same sort of things as anyone else, but you want something that appeals to their gift of writing, right?

The great news is that, outside of a computer, paper, and printer, and maybe some nice pens or journals, their material needs are pretty simple that way, and they probably already have those things. So what else can you do?

Whatever the occasion, the great news is that most of the things you can give them or do for them are free!

So here are the top 10 things that I think a writer wants most:

10. Buy their book or read whatever they wrote
Seems like a no-brainer, right? It doesn't matter if it's not your genre ("Sorry, but I'm just not into Old West scifi romances."), or you're put off by that double negative in the very first paragraph, or you don't like the scruffy nerfherder character that's introduced in the second chapter. For a writer, every time a page is turned it's an endorphin rush. (And nothing is more crushing to a writer than having their work ignored by the ones they love!). Yes, you may need to plunk down a little money to buy the book, but it's probably no more expensive than a fast food meal and tons more entertaining!

9. Compliment them 
After you've read their work, thank them for sharing their work and tell them what parts were your favorites. See their faces light up as you remind them that their writing isn't total sh*t and they aren't an impostor. We can't all be Stephen King or Louisa May Alcott, but surely some scene in that book that took them years to write touched you in a way that made a lasting impression, right? This gift is free!

8. Leave a review
If they published a book and you read it, then by all means leave a review on their Amazon page (or wherever it is posted online) and on review sites like Goodreads. It only takes a few minutes to click five stars, write up a quick few lines about how the book was awesome, and click "publish". And, yeah, it's free. For a writer, seeing that someone has liked your writing enough to share it with the world is "better than medicine" (as my grandma used to say - and she was a writer, too!).

7. Gift their book to someone
Yeah, that means you have to spend a little money. But you're buying a gift for someone anyway, right? Books are awesome gifts! And by doing this, you've gifted TWO people for the price of one (since the writer will get a small part of the price as a royalty, not to mention their eternal thanks for sharing their masterpiece!).

6. Ask them to sign their book
Doing a book signing for a writer is like putting a camera on an actor. It validates their worth as a writer and acknowledges they've done something valuable. Plus, this way we can pretend that in 50 years it will become a rare commodity after we've hit the big time!

5. Follow them on social media
Most writers who are serious about their craft will have a presence on social media. Chances are you are one of the one billion people who are on Facebook, 330 million people on Twitter, 800 million people on Instagram, or 291 million on Pinterest. Maybe even all of these. It only takes a moment to go to their pages and click "Follow" or "Like". One of the first things a potential agent does when considering whether to pick up the author is to look at the number of followers they have on these platforms. Click "share" or "heart" or "like" on their posts, too. And, yup, it's free and easy to just click that button!

4. Visit their blog and/or webpage
Most authors have an online presence with a webpage and/or a blog. It takes time and skill to make a webpage attractive and useful and to populate the page with information to help them sell their writing. Their blog, too, has articles and entries that they write -- another outlet for their writing -- that you can read and comment on. Simply visiting the page gives them a higher "visit" count that makes the page move up in the rankings. Oh, and if they have ads on their page, click them. It will earn them a few cents. None of this costs you anything, and you just may be entertained and informed by it.

3. Ask a bookstore to carry their book
If they are a published author, it can be difficult to get local bookstores to actually carry the book on their shelves, especially if the author is self-published or an indie author. Asking the bookstore manager or purchaser to please consider carrying it, because you're a fan, will get the author on their radar, and maybe they will actually sell the book in the bookstore because of it. It's worked for me! And other than a little bit of time to call or visit the bookstore, it's free to you!

2. Caffeine
Most of us writers have dayjobs, children, the usual stresses and chaos in our lives, like everyone else. Yet somehow we find the time and energy to write. I tend to write late at night. Some writers do it early in the morning. Or during the lunch break. But we're tired. Lordy, we're tired! We often give up sleep for this passion. So give us the gift of caffeine. Offer us a nice hot mug of coffee or tea. Maybe even splurge a little and get it from a good coffee shop, eh? Yeah, there's a little cost involved in this one, but unless you're importing the coffee direct from Juan Valdez and his donkey, Conchita, then chances are you can afford it. Heck, throw in some chocolate while you're at it...

1. Time!
Speaking of that hectic life... with the dayjob, children, etc, there is precious little time left to sit down, clear the mind, and focus on typing away on our keyboards, lost in our strange little worlds, or staring off into space while imagining the plots of our stories, or holding conversations with our imaginary friends. And all too often that little bit of time is interrupted by the kid running in and wanting to play, or the spouse asking why the trash wasn't taken out yet, or the phone ringing. Trust me when I tell you it is incredibly frustrating not to be able to write. Give the gift of time by allowing the writer in your life an hour or two (or more!) every day to focus, undisturbed, and create the next masterpiece. It costs nothing at all other than a little bit of patience and an understanding that you are still more important to them. Writing is art, and art requires focus and passion. They will be happier and more relaxed afterward, and their writing will be better quality, too!

And, um, do these things for me too, okay?  ;)

Cheers and happy reading!

Listen to an excerpt of Into the Ruined Lands

Recently I published a fantasy short story entitled "Into the Ruined Lands," on Amazon.  In the story, two teen girls go on an adventure in the dangerous volcanic Ruined Lands to find a healing herb, which will be given to the mysterious Old Mother Aya to make a healing potion and save the life of one of their younger sisters.

But the Ruined Lands are extremely dangerous, risking their lives to dangerous beasts, volcanic eruptions, or harsh geography. And girls are forbidden to go on such adventures. They risk the ire of their fathers and the condemnation of their culture.

Once again, Overwrite Podcast has generously agreed to read an excerpt. Click below to listen to this exciting moment in the story.




Did that get your interest? If so, click HERE to download the short story for just $.99.

Overwrite Podcast has read two other excerpts of my stories in the recent past. One (HERE) was from my fantasy book in-progress, Footman of the Ether, highlighting a magical animal called a "guise cat." The other (HERE) was an excerpt of the big action scene from my story "Rabbit Cry," where a woman is running from a murderous teen who has aroused supernatural forces, from my published book of paranormal stories, Around the Corner from Sanity.

Cheers and happy reading!

OFFICIAL RELEASE of Into the Ruined Lands - a fantasy short story

Yay! Another release!

INTO THE RUINED LANDS is a short story (really a novelette), just for Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. It is the first in a series of stories, set in the world of Irikara. Others will be published very soon.

Into the Ruined Lands tells the story of two girls, Talay and Shaali, who live in an patriarchal society that frowns on girls being self-assertive or adventurous. But Shaali's younger sister has a wasting disease, and treatments by clerics have done nothing.

So the girls turned to the mysterious Old Mother Aya, who is rumored to be a witch. The crone instructs the girls to go on a quest to the Ruined Lands, a volcanic wasteland to the west, to pick a flowering plant called sulfur wort -- a necessary ingredient for a healing potion.

But the Ruined Lands are dangerous, even for seasoned warriors, with volcanoes, volcanic gases, desert-like conditions, and horrifying beasts. Will the girls survive? And if they do, what punishment awaits them at home?

Read it HERE!

Cheers and happy reading!

My review of Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden

Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This graphic novel had a lot of unexpected turns. It was surprisingly moving, as it touched on important emotions.

Two young women unexpectedly come together as they seek to escape their lives and problems back home. Through beautiful graphics and dialogue, Walden portrays their emotional fragility as they travel through Texas, but through strange terrain and sometimes spooky moments. They also come across a lost cat, which turns out to have unexpected powers, and attempt to take it back to its home. There were times when I was a little lost about what the story was trying to tell me, such as by unexplained panels, or dialogue that wasn't fully fleshed out. But in a way I think Walden wants us to be a little lost, like the characters, so it worked. Be aware that there are a couple moments of "tough" content related to sexual identity and sexual assault. Though it isn't in any way graphic and is presented in a meaningful and thoughtful way, just be aware that this book may not be for the youngest readers or those who are easily triggered by such content. In the end, I think both characters come out of the experience a bit wiser about themselves and each other, though you are left with a bit of longing and worry for them.

View all my reviews

Cheers and happy reading!

OFFICIAL RELEASE of How Cold the Steel Hand - a robot story

I've just published a science fiction short story, and it's awesome.

Does technology make you feel more connected?
Are you sure?

HOW COLD THE STEEL HAND examines the juxtaposition of technology in how it can bring us together and yet give us a false sense of personal connection.

"Wow! Just...wow! What an incredible heartwarming and heart-wrenching story that is set in the future...! A short, but amazing read!" - Quoth the Writer Book Reviews & More @qtwreviews

Read it HERE.

In the not-so-distant future of this short story, telepresence droids, or "teledroids," are used in homes to interact with others, in battle as surrogate soldiers, or to visit far away locales. Gary Feltman is a young surgical specialist working from his compudesk in Chicago, performing surgeries via teledroid on patients across the globe. His important work and medical studies require constant focus and pull his attention away from family. Yet while he is connecting to others and saving their lives, the very same technology is shunned by his beloved Uncle Wallis, who lies dying from a cancer that Gary could have cured with his techniques. What would drive his uncle to make such a choice?

And in a world where technology is supposed to bring us together, why can't Gary seem to connect?

The cover image is from a local Eugene artist and roboticist, Gray Eldritch. 

Cheers and happy reading!

My review of Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It was a thrill to revisit Danny, all grown up and full of problems, and to watch as he finally overcame his demons and use his powers to help others. Then he mentors a child who is even more powerful than him and winds up helping defend her against the True Knot, a group of shining-eating entities that once were people.

There's a lot of great stuff in there. It's not a rehash of The Shining, but it certainly evokes memories of it. Doctor Sleep started a little slowly, and it definitely doesn't have the creepy feel that The Shining did. But Doctor Sleep is a more expansive story with a bigger picture. The character of Abra - the little girl that Dan helps - is very compelling and well-imagined. Her powers are incredible and, frankly, scary to imagine when hitched to the mind of a 12 year old.

No one can tell a story like King does, particularly when it comes to all the little stuff along the way and the dialogue that makes King so loved by the everyday reader. The tidbits of blue collar dialogue. The details of AA meetings and quotes. Snippets of well-placed lyrics and poetry. Little recurring visions.

From a writer's perspective, King had quite a few "point of view shifts", where the story suddenly jumps from one character's POV to another's. These annoyed me, but it's something King has always done. I prefer to stay in one character's POV until changing to another chapter. But this wasn't a big issue. The ending was satisfying to me, something I can't say about all of King's books.

One last comment: the book of Doctor Sleep follows the storyline of the book of The Shining. The movie does not. The movie for Doctor Sleep follows the storyline of the Kubrick movie for The Shining. And there are some HUGE differences between the book and the movie, like the ENTIRE ending. Both are equally satisfying, but in very different ways. Be sure to keep that in mind as you watch or read them back-to-back.

View all my reviews

Cheers and happy reading!

A great interview of me by Worldhoppers' Guild

Worldhopper's Guild is a great site for learning about up-and-coming authors, and I'm please that they recently featured me and my recently-released horror story collection, AROUND THE CORNER FROM SANITY.

As part of that feature, they also did an interview of me. Learn:

• How my dayjob as a scientist affects my fiction writing
• What quirks I have for getting in the writing mode
• Where I find my inspiration
• How my readers can best engage with my writing
• More!

Read the interview HERE.

(RELATED: For prior interviews of me, see HERE and HERE.)

Cheers and happy reading!

My book, Around the Corner from Sanity, is featured at Worldhoppers' Guild

Worldhoppers' Guild is a great site that features up-and-coming speculative fiction authors. I'm honored that they have now posted a page for me and my horror / paranormal humor story collection, Around the Corner from Sanity.

You can also go to their site to read, for free, the first story in the book, "Purgatory's Price" (What would happen if you had to play a game show to get into heaven?).

They also have featured other authors on their pages. It's a great place to peruse those authors and their content.

Also, watch for a Q&A interview of me, coming soon at that site!

Cheers and happy reading!

My review of "Diggum" by Isaac Thorne

Diggum by Isaac Thorne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a dark humor sort of paranormal short story available on Amazon for a dollar.

From Amazon: "Meet Diggum, the local graveyard caretaker, who lives in a small cottage at the edge of the lot. Diggum has spent most of his life angry with God, whom he blames for the devastating house fire that cost Diggum his family. But Diggum has a secret. It is a secret he will carry to his own grave. It is a secret that he hopes will finally get him his ultimate revenge on God."

My review:
I got a chuckle out of Diggum's dark humor. The main character had a very consistent, folksy voice. He was twisted in his logic, and his goal of burning remains so they didn't go to God was intriguing. Told in first person, it was a little window into the crazy old, murderous, cemetery caretaker's head. I won't give it away, but the ending is a paranormal treat. And I got some good laughs. Worth a dollar or a pound to purchase this quick read!

View all my reviews

Cheers and happy reading!

Collaborative storytelling - The Enchantress of Tanglewood (Part I)

Rules: Read the excerpt below. Then VOTE with your choice on how you think the story should continue.

The Enchantress of Tanglewood -- Part I

No one goes in the Tanglewood. But Tarynn dared, and she would come to regret it.

(Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay)

Mushroom hunters are an odd bunch. Part amateur mycologists, they can rattle off scientific names and quote cryptic ecological literature. Part forest rangers, they traverse difficult terrain as if born there. And part secret agent, they engage in espionage to find the clandestine mushroom hunting grounds of others while keeping their own secret.

It was this last quality that drove Tarynn to explore the forbidden forest. The first Fall rains had come. Prime time for chanterelle hunting in the drizzly woods of Oregon's Coastal Range. Cantharellus cibarius was easy to spot – a perky orange-yellow poking up out of the mossy and drab brown forest floor, its fluted stem rising several inches to a vaguely-oyster shaped cap. And if she was lucky, she might even come across king boletes.

The decades were replete with stories of missing hunters and hikers who wandered into the Tanglewood. Of bizarre and gruesome screams from its depths. Of strange mists that seemed to transport those who entered its margins. And children's tales of witches and devils wandering its dense foliage. But the lure of those delicately delicious fungi, sautéed in a bit of butter or put into a cream sauce, and her own personal patch to harvest, was more than enough impetus to challenge the spirits of the wood.

There were no trails. And after several hours of climbing over downed fir trees and wading through thickets of sword fern and wild rhododendron, Tarynn found herself lost. Worse, the day was waning fast. She had the distinct feeling of being watched with increasingly predatory eyes as the quiet woods seemed to close in on her.

Tarynn stopped and drank the last of her water, the hair standing up on the back of her neck. She turned at the crack of a branch. "Hello?" she called out. Only silence answered. Long shadows grew in the waning light filtering through the thick forest canopy and bramble.

Then the shadows moved. There was no breeze, yet the leaves fluttered. The limbs bent. The woods came alive as if a tempest roared.

Terror gripped her. She ran, but within minutes was stopped by a thicket so dense she would have to crawl and squeeze to get through.

Tarynn turned, her pulse beating in her neck, and faced a sight she could hardly comprehend.

A fog formed around the thicket and coalesced around limb and leaf. The corpus of an entity emerged, its long limbs reticulating from downed wood. Its skin and breasts were composed of the bark of trunks. Its long hair was formed of moss and lichen. Then it opened its eyes -- portals of darkness that swallowed Tarynn's attention. With words that spoke with the whisper of wind through the canopy, it said, "You have trespassed," and reached toward Tarynn.

How should Tarynn react?

1. Fight for her life
2. Appeal to the entity
3. Make a run for it
4. Cast a Wiccan spell

--> Cast your vote HERE.

Do you measure space monsters in meters or feet?

A couple days ago I was happily typing away at my space opera scifi novel in my favorite coffee shop, sipping on my chai latte, when my hero, Dirken Nova, saw a massive alien emerge from a tunnel....

Grimmag Ruby-Eye was the largest Eradini that Dirken had ever seen. He was easily twenty five feet long and perhaps ten feet wide. Like others of his species, he was basically a giant maggot with a wide, tubular body that wobbled as if filled with jelly.

But wait....  I stopped typing and read back over that bit. Something bothered me about it. Well, besides comparing an alien to jelly....

And then I realized. I was measuring this beastly alien using the English (Imperial) system. But isn't this a scifi novel set a thousand years from now?? Shouldn't it be a bit more scientific? Shouldn't it be metric?? Shouldn't that be eight meters long by three meters wide? (I'm rounding the value, here).

I'm a scientist by day. I work in the metric system all day long. It just makes sense. Everything is a base-ten and easy to convert between units. Well, except maybe for cooking.

Yet I'm from the United States and, according to my blog stats, the majority of you reading this blog are from the United States as well. The U.S. hasn't yet fully adopted the metric system for some inane reason. It's in lonely company, along with Liberia and Myanmar. If I say that something is three meters long, most of my fellow Americans would scratch their head and puzzle over what that would look like, maybe getting their cell phones out to look it up.

So I got some other opinions. I ran a poll on Twitter (Twitter's great for that!). And the response was overwhelming....

As you see, "metric" won the lion's shares of votes at 64%.

I think the most compelling argument that people made in the comments is that this is the future and science fiction readers are more likely to be fluent with science measurements, which are almost always metric.

One Twitter follower (ScifiFan) pointed out that a meter is not the same on Earth as on Mars, but it turns out he was using the old definition (originally, a meter was defined as "one ten-millionth of the distance between the equator and the north pole," which would certainly be different on different planets. But later it was redefined as "the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second." (Wikipedia) That's an easy number to remember, right?

So I'll go with metric.

As another Twitter follower (Benjamin W. Bass @TheDarkRabbit) commented:

In space, no one can hear you divide by 12....

Cheers and happy reading!

My review of The Starving by Jon Dobbin

The Starving by Jon Dobbin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I found The Starving to be surprising and original. First off, it's a horror/western genre mash-up, which in itself is pretty unique. Louis L'amour meets Bram Stoker (though this isn't a vampire story, it shares the investigative and pursuit quality of it). And it is a different take on an authentic North American monster from Native American mythology, though I won't spoil the nature of it here.

Three bounty hunters capture an Indian and travel to Colorado to collect their bounty. But their goal changes when they volunteer to help the local sheriff of a small town and his deputy hunt down a creature that is slaughtering and eating the citizens. Soon they, and their Indian captive, are caught up in a life-and-death struggle against a supernatural, ravenous beast that seems undefeatable, in the wilds of the wintery Colorado forests.

I consider myself a seasoned reader, but even I was surprised by the ending -- then surprised again. This is a tale that rides high in the saddle and will leave you hungry for more.

Buy the book on Amazon HERE.

View all my reviews

Cheers and happy reading!

Overwrite Podcast narrated an excerpt of my horror story, "Rabbit Cry"

As Halloween nears, the Overwrite Podcast is featuring spooky stories, and they chose my Around the Corner from Sanity, which is available from Amazon in paperback or Kindle, HERE. story, "Rabbit Cry," from my recently-released collection,

Overwrite features excerpts from a variety of different authors and genres, and has a contest to do so. If you're a writer, I recommend you submit to them. Entries are free.

So I sent them excerpts from a couple stories, and, to my great pleasure, they chose this one.

Listen to it HERE.

Nothing like a scary horror podcast to build up to Halloween, right?

They do such an amazing job. Enjoy listening!

Cheers and happy reading!

Check out my interview with Awesome Gang

Recently I was interviewed at the Awesome Gang website.

Awesome Gang is a website (awesomegang.com) and Twitter Profile (@ourawesomegang) which reviews books and helps authors connect with readers. It's a great place for readers to go to learn about new books and upcoming authors (like me!).

What to get to know me a little better? Check in out....

Please check out my interview, here: https://awesomegang.com/jason-kilgore/

They also posted a review of my book HERE.

Related: I was previously interviewed by a fellow fantasy writer. Marissa Byfield. You can read that HERE.

Cheers and happy reading!

OFFICIAL RELEASE of Around the Corner from Sanity

So I'm officially a published author of a book!

I'm happy to announce the publication of my horror / paranormal humor short fiction collection, Around the Corner from Sanity. 

Find it on Amazon, HERE:

Where does fear find you? Eerie entities from beyond our waking world are hardly limited to decrepit mansions or forlorn cemeteries. These fourteen tales of the paranormal will usher you into unexpected settings such as the homes of young couples, a corporate office, a Christmas gathering, a yard that needs raking, and more – places you'd least expect to find ghosts, demons, angels, or exotic gods stalking the living. Some tales will leave you laughing, such as "Purgatory's Price," in which recently deceased souls must play a game show to get into Heaven. Others conjure fear of the dark, like "Rabbit Cry," in which a young mother and her child are pitted against a murderous teen next door, arousing the attention of supernatural forces. Prepare yourself for a paranormal roller coaster that satisfies your cravings for both horror and humor by sending you around the corner from sanity.

Here's a review of the book:

"Kilgore is a master of dread. His stories build to a fever pitch with a satisfying (and often spooky) release. Kilgore's work holds the same intrigue and suspense of Edgar Allan Poe and W.W. Jacobs (of 'The Monkey's Paw' fame). Around the Corner from Sanity is a great book to read next to the fire - with all the lights on." - Jon Dobbin, author of The Starving

I can't be more overjoyed than I am at this moment!

Here is the write-up on Goodreads.

Currently it's just the eBook, but after a bit of formatting, I'll also be offering a paperback for it, hopefully this week.

I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Cheers and happy reading!

Podcast highlighting the "guise cat" in my fantasy novel Footman of the Ether.

The other day I was contacted on Twitter by the Overwrite Podcast, which features podcasts about writers and has a weekly submission contest. The podcasts are very well-done, entertaining, and are short, so it doesn't take up a lot of time.

In particular, Overwrite was looking for excerpts or information about "fantasy animals" by writers. I mentioned that I had such an animal in the fantasy novel I am currently writing, Footman of the Ether (which is a sequel to White Lands Dragon, that I am currently querying with agents).

The animal in question is a "guise cat" named Yaggu, who is the "familiar" of one of the mages in the book. Guise cats (also known as "ghost lynxes" are animals in the northern lands that are like lynxes or bobcats but have hair that can shift colors and patterns to match its surroundings, like a chameleon.

(photo source)

Leading up to the excerpt, the protagonist, a female mage named Torra Com Gidel, is having trouble sleeping after she and her fellow mages discovered that her home town and its magical institute have been destroyed by a powerful renegade spell cast by the Emerald Dragon. After nightmares, she goes outside and encounters her fellow mage, Master Annorov Donovan, and his guise cat familiar, Yaggu....


Listen to the podcast HERE.


She narrated the voice of Master Donovan with a Russian accent, which is how I hear him in my head.

The book is only about 60% done, so consider this a "sneak peek".

If you are a writer and would like to submit something for the Overwrite podcast as well, go HERE.

Cheers and happy reading!

Review of Ardulum: First Don by J.S. Fields

Ardulum: First Don by J.S. Fields
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great book by a female author -- all too rare for space opera scifi!

A young renegade woman, the only of her species (Neek) to be offworld, falls in with a couple humans to take on an authoritative species that polices their part of the galaxy. When a young girl of a species that the Neek worship suddenly falls into their company, they find themselves discovering her mystical powers while trying to protect her from those who wish her harm. Soon, a war between opposing factions breaks out over the little girl and others like her who have been enslaved.

The first book in the series, Fields built a great world (galaxy, really) full of original species and technology. The plot zoomed along, but unlike many such books did not depend upon violent confrontations to move the plot. I can't wait to dig into the next volume.

View all my reviews

Cheers and happy reading!

Finding Inspiration for Writing

Right now, here in western Oregon, there is a light rain falling. It'll rain for days -- a prelude to the coming winter months (which I call "the rainy season", which takes up at least a third of the year here). Though I like summer for its outdoor activities, I like the rain. It stimulates the writer in me. The pitter-pat of drops on the roof somehow activates my creative side (not to mention that I am no longer drawn toward outdoor distractions). I also keep a Pinterest site with images I find inspirational for creating my Strange Worlds (see them HERE, and please follow!).

The other day I ran a Twitter poll, trying to get an idea of where writers find inspiration for their writing.  Here's the poll and its results:

#Writingcommunity, which of these do you find most inspiring for writing?

(please also leave a comment to specify)#amwriting #amediting

— Strange Worlds of Jason Kilgore (@WorldsKilgore) September 9, 2019

Of those options, clearly music was number one. This was surprising to me. Quite often I hear writers saying that they need complete silence to do their writing. I know I can't write when I'm listening to music. But not everyone is the same, of course.

But sometimes I, too, like to listen to music BEFORE writing, to put me in a particular mood. Something adventurous for fantasy, for instance, or techno before writing sci fi. Often I tend to associate one particular song with one book, but the funny thing is that it usually isn't anything you'd associate with the plot or even the genre. For instance, for the fantasy novel I'm currently querying, White Lands Dragon, I often listened to R.E.M.'s "Texarkana" (it makes me think of eons of time). For my first fantasy novel, Chronicles of a Warrior: Death's Foreplay, I would listen to Marilyn Manson's "Disposable Teens" (probably because the main character is a teen boy who is being used as a spy, and angry about it). Neither of these songs is Medieval-sounding in the slightest, so you wouldn't think they'd work for fantasy books, but I'll take inspiration where I can find it.

The web is full of pages of how to get inspired for writing, so I'm not going to go into it all. But there's some good stuff there. For instance, THIS PAGE about how 50 well-known writers find inspiration, or THIS PAGE which has some ... unusual ... advice (99, to be exact). And, of course, there's a WikiHow page (isn't there for every process?).

But because writing is an art, and the artistic mind is unique to each person and each project, there are infinite sources of inspiration. And we "creatives" have a lot of equally creative ways to inspire ourselves.

What inspires you to create? Please leave a comment....

Cheers and happy reading!

Writing is in my blood

One question that writers sometimes get is: "Where do you think your love of writing comes from?"

I think a passionate writer might reply, "Where do you think your love of breathing comes from?" For me, writing isn't a silly little hobby to while away the still moments. I don't do it to humor anyone. No one makes me do it. And though I hope to make a living from it one day soon (and quit my day job!), I would still continue writing even if I had no hope of ever making a dollar from it. I HAVE to write, like any other devoted creator or artist (If you have a writer or artist close to you, this is an important thing for you to realize!). One way or another, I have always found an outlet for it. I published my first poem in the local paper in first grade, and wrote my first fiction story at age 10. 

Even so, I could also answer, "Writing is in my blood." You see, I come from a couple generations of writers. 

Books by my mom (now Bobbie Taylor)
and dad (Ray Kilgore)

My father, Albert Ray Kilgore (he went by "Ray"), spent his life studying philosophy. Though he died in a plane crash when I was three years old, he had written a book, The Fire of Heracleitus, which my mother self-published for him just after he died. This relatively short book follows a character, named Heracleitus, as he first renounces the world he knew and retreats to a mountain cave to probe his own mind in solitude. Then, upon reaching an enlightened state, he goes back to his people to share his enlightenment. Interspersed with poetry, the philosophies are part Pyrrhonistic observations of the the changing world, the death and rebirth of both your sense of self and the world around you into something better, and part Libertarian virtues about improving oneself without interference from those who would put up obstacles to it. I have to admit, having only studied the basics of philosophy in college, a lot of it surely goes over my head. As my Dad wrote in the preface page, "This little book, written during the winter of 1959, incorporates most of the philosophical ideas of my youth." He also published several magazine articles on flying and about a Western ghost town.

My mother, Bobbie Taylor, is also a writer. Throughout her life she has loved New Age philosophies and alternative explanations for the world. When I was a late teen, she was laid off from her career in banking. To make ends meet for a while, she pursued self-employment in digging and wholesale selling of quartz crystals (we lived in Arkansas at the time, where quartz crystals are mined). But she didn't feel they were just pretty semi-precious stones. She believes that quartz crystals and other such gemstones hold special properties. So she wrote and self-published an 11-page booklet entitled Crystal - The New Frontier about those special properties. In her words, from the forward in the book, "crystal is a tool we may use to amplify and focus our own mental and spiritual abilities." She also published a bit of poetry and a couple magazine articles on crystals and recipes.

Along the same New Age line of thinking, my mother has also believed that the prophesies of Nostradamus hold important information, if only they could be correctly interpreted and ordered. It took a couple decades of her working at it and studying Nostradamus's quatrains, but in 2004 she wrote up what she had learned and self-published, online, a book entitled, Nostradamus and His Prophecy Puzzle, It's Never Been Solved. If the topic interests you, and you think you might be able to build upon her findings to finish decoding his riddles, I invite you to download her book for free online HERE.

And then there's my maternal grandmother, Verna Lee Hinegardner. Grandma was a poet. In her lifetime she published 13 poetry books and chapbooks, some of which can be found for sale, used, on Amazon, and had her poetry included in many poetry anthologies. She was named by then-Governor Bill Clinton to the post of Poet Laureate of Arkansas, in 1991, which was supposed to be a lifetime post (though Governor Huckabee broke that tradition by naming another, much more Conservative poet to the position in 2003 over the objections of Arkansas poetry societies). Grandma served all sorts of positions with national and Arkansas state poetry societies. She invented a poetry form called the "minute" form. She won many, many awards, including being inducted into the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame in 1991, and a $25K family reunion in 1985. And for 22 years she published a weekly poetry section, called "Kaleidoscope," in the local newspaper (the Sentinel-Record). One of her proudest accomplishments was that she delighted in judging poetry contests for children for over two decades. 

Thirteen poetry books and chapbooks
by my grandma, Verna Lee Hinegardner.

My Grandma inspires me not just from her accomplishments, but because of the obstacles she overcame. She had severe rheumatoid arthritis which caused a lot of pain. By the time I was in college, my Grandma's hands were gnarled looking with large knuckles, bruising, and swelling. It hurt for her to type, and handwriting was even harder. But even worse than this, she went through a series of serious strokes that nearly killed her, and she lost the ability to read! But against all odds, she taught herself to read again and continued writing poetry, publishing books, and both entering and judging contests. It was incredible. When times are bad for me and it's difficult to write, I just think about the inspiration of my Grandma, and then it doesn't seem so hard.

Not long before she passed away, Grandma was interviewed by a local paper, when she was 92 years old. ″My goal is simple,” she said. “I want to write poetry that is easy to understand and hard to forget.” And it was. Her poetry didn't mess around with highly experimental forms or delve deep into symbolism. It wasn't esoteric. You didn't leave her verses scratching your head and wondering what the hell she meant. No, her poetry was mainly about family, living in the South, and old-fashioned values. Most of it was warm. Much of it was funny. And all of it reverberated with her. HERE is a video of Grandma, from that interview, reading a spoof she wrote of one of Robert Frost's famous poems:



What about you? Does writing run in your family? Please leave a comment, below!

Cheers and happy reading!

Poll Results: What pet do writers like most?

Last weekend I ran a poll on Twitter. I honestly wondered if writers were more likely to like cats or dogs, or other things.

"Rocket" helping author
D.M. Cain with her
manuscript.

I posted it in the evening and didn't think much more about it.

The next day, I was doing my weekly Saturday morning coffee shop writing session and opened up Twitter during a break. Imagine my surprise when there were 850 votes and counting! By the time the poll closed on Sunday evening (I had set it for two days), there were a whopping 1,687 votes!

The result? See below. Cats won, but only by 8% over dogs, 47 to 39%.

It's fun to read through the replies. See it HERE. Lots of writers shared pics of their furry (or feathered, or scaled) friends.

This poll was international, but here in the United States, at least, households have 30.4% cats and 36.5% dogs (source). So it would seem that authors DO prefer cats, particularly compared to the typical ownership her in the U.S.!

What kind of pet(s) do you have? Please leave a comment, below.

Cheers and happy reading!

Which kind of author are you?

What kind are you? Please leave a comment, below...



Cheers and happy writing!

"The Day I Shrunk!!"

Yesterday I was going through a scrapbook that my mom put together of memorabilia of my childhood. Good ol' Mom!

And there, on the 17th page of the scrapbook, I beheld what might very well have been my first real fiction story. Science fiction, no less.

Page 1 of "The Day I Shrunk!!"

It is entitled "The Day I Shrunk!!" I wrote it at age 9.

Written in pencil and cursive (really??), it spans three pages, and each page is labeled as a different chapter.

This sci fi tale of daring relates the exploits of a "science produkter" (a scientist?) named John "looking at science products" in a lab with other scientists. Then one day, when he "put some kind of pink stuff in a glass of hot water," a pink cloud suddenly formed over his head and started "raining some kind of crestal". The crystals made him shrink until he was only an inch high.

For some reason a hungry cat named Nibbles was in the lab and chased poor John into a tin can, which was apparently open and on the floor of the lab. After the cat fell asleep, John sneaked out, then ate some food crumbs, then hitched a ride in someone's pocket. But he got stuck in the pocket strings, was carried out of the lab, and had to cut himself free with his trusty pocketknife.

John managed to find his way back to the lab and found a "potion" on the floor. "Since he was a scientist he drank it and grew back to his own size." The End (I wrote with a fluorish).

The really remarkable thing about this story is that I DID eventually grow up to be a scientist making products in a lab (I've made a career as a cell biologist and microscopist and have worked for 20 years in biotech inventing and developing reagents used by scientists all over the world and helping them use them). Sadly, I've never invented a shrinking formula. Based on this story, I'd say that's probably a good thing!

Writers: what's the first story you remember writing? Please leave a comment!

Cheers and happy reading!

Critiquing Tips - Receiving Critiques

Recently I posted about my awesome writer's group, the Village Peeps, and about how useful they are for improving my writing.

Every writer's group is different in how they operate, but we have a model that we feel is very successful. It's important to have some ground rules to insure that the critiques are most useful and respectful, from both the critiquers and those being critiqued.

Here are our guidelines for you as the one receiving critiques:

• When you hand out the piece, set the critiquers' expectations, such as by telling if it is an early draft or a later revision, if it is a complete piece or if it is an ongoing work, and who the intended audience is. You may even wish for the piece to be read aloud. If the piece is very short (maybe only 1-3 pages), then the group may wish to do it in that session. Otherwise, it may be passed out for feedback in the next meeting.
• Make sure everyone in the group gets a copy of the manuscript to be critiqued. It is most respectful to hand out the pieces in person, if possible, but email is okay if the critiquer doesn't object to having to print a copy themselves.
• Be humble and respectful. Everyone has a different point of view, and there are times when the different critiquers will differ a lot. Remember, it is your piece, and only you have the final say on how the piece is written or know where you are going with it.
• Take a vow of silence, no matter how tempting it may be to try to explain why you agree or disagree with a critique. 
• Take notes as you receive critiques and listen respectfully to all comments.
• Be aware of visible reactions to your writing. Does it bring out passionate responses from critiquers?
• By the end, have a feeling for whether your manuscript is appropriate for its intended audience. What are its strengths or weaknesses? Did you hear specific suggestions for improvement?
• Once everyone has had a chance to critique, it is now your turn to ask clarifying questions. This is NOT a chance to try to explain why you disagree with critiques.

See my previous post for guidelines for as you as the critiquer.

Cheers and happy reading!

Critiquing Tips - Giving Critiques

Recently I posted about my awesome writer's group, the Village Peeps, and about how useful they are for improving my writing.

Every writer's group is different in how they operate, but we have a model that we feel is very successful. It's important to have some ground rules to insure that the critiques are most useful and respectful, from both the critiquers and those being critiqued.

Here are our guidelines for you as the critiquer:

• One person in the group should act as a "facilitator" to determine whose turn it is to give feedback. That person will also be the last one to give feedback to the writer and to make sure critiquers stay within the guidelines.
• Be humble and respectful. You are just one point of view.
• If you are the first critiquer, always begin with a positive comment. It sets a positive mood and helps minds open.
• It's a good idea to reflect what you feel is the main idea of the piece, particularly if you are the first critiquer.
• Avoid telling how you would handle a writing problem; it's up to the author to do the actual fixing and writing.
• Keep comments relevant to writing and avoid getting personal in your responses. For instance, avoid questions like, "Did that really happen?" or statements like "I had an aunt who was just like that character." What you probably mean is "That plot twist seemed implausible to me," or "When Matilda gritted her teeth, she came to life for me." Be more concerned with effectiveness -- how it was written.
• Be as specific as possible. "It's really good" is useless; "It's really lame" is damaging, and neither comment helps the writer revise. For instance, instead of saying "Your description of the cat was good," comment on where and how it was good, such as "When you describe the cat entering the room, I could tell it was a Persian without you saying so."
• State your comment one time only and be brief. If the writer needs elaboration, they can ask for it when it is their turn to talk.
• Write down your critiques on the manuscript, not just relying on the writer to take a note.
• Try not to re-state what others have already commented on. You can "pass" if everyone has already said what you would say.
• Do not comment on other critiquers' comments or belittle them. They are entitled to their opinions.
• "Line editing" (such as correcting commas or grammar) can be helpful, but try to focus more on the bigger issues.
• If you receive the piece to be critiqued for the next meeting, but cannot attend in person, then make sure to return the critiqued piece as soon as reasonably possible.

See my following post for guidelines for you as the one receiving critiques.

Cheers and happy reading!

Why You Need A Writer's Group

The Village Peeps at our holiday meeting
(plus Ann Marie, pictured below, who
took this picture)

Why have a writer's group? Because different points of view will improve your work. Because they are "beta readers", if only piece by piece. Because they share your interest and will share what they know with you, and you with them. Because they are part of your writer community.

My writer's group is the Village Peeps of Corvallis. I joined the group way back in the late 90s soon after it formed. We all (I think) had taken writing classes from a great children's fiction writer, the late Anne Warren Smith. Using her rules for giving and receiving feedback, decided to "take it to the next level" and form our own group.

Members have changed over the years, with a few members moving away (whom we still consider honorary members), and a couple passing away, and then others joining to take their places. There are eight of us at the moment, and not likely to increase (Margie, Marissa, Dean, Beverley, Monica, Donovan, Ann Marie, and myself). It's a good number for our style. We used to meet at the Good Samaritan Village, so we were the "Village People" at first.

Ann Marie (who took the pic
of our group, above) as she
gives a reading from her book.

No matter how polished I think my draft is, they will always find things that need changed. Without exception, every piece I bring in is made better. We are a diverse group, in terms of what we write. Only two of us write fantasy or speculative fiction. Others write more mainstream fiction. Some write autobiographical pieces (including one who just published an autobiographical book). One writes historical fiction. One is more literary. Though some groups are more focused in genre, I find this diversity to help my work due to the different ways of looking at the writing.

I don't make 100% of the changes they recommend, since, as the writer, I have the best idea of where the piece is headed and the audience I am appealing to, but I would say that the vast majority of recommended changes are made.

Thinking of setting up your own group? HERE is a good page about considerations. But I have a few of my own:

• Consider the best size of the group. I recommend a size of around 5-10 people. 8 is our golden number, for the amount of work we bring in. Too few and you don't get enough critiques. Too many, and you find yourself competing for getting your piece critiqued and you run out of time (I've been in a group like that, which had nearly 20 people in it!).

• Where do you meet? It could be at someone's home or a public meeting room. I know a group that meets in the back of a local book store. The Village Peeps currently meet in a meeting room at a local church (though our group is not religious in nature). We used to meet in the dining room of a retirement village. Wherever you meet, make sure that it is suitably comfortable, has enough chairs and table space, it's free of distractions, and it's accessible to everyone. Don't forget to have enough parking!

• Consider the format. Do you want only to read pieces that you take home and then deliver at the next meeting with your critique? Read it aloud in class? For us, we only occasionally do pieces in the session, and only if very short. Most are "take home" pieces followed by oral critique summaries at the next meeting. And we practically never read aloud.

• How often to meet, and for how long? For us, it's a couple hours in the evening, on the second and fourth Thursday of the month. That fits our level of productivity. Some groups meet only once a month. Others every week.

• Who facilitates the meeting? It's important to have someone "in charge" during the meeting to determine what order the pieces are critiqued and what order people give feedback. In our group, we rotate who facilitates based on alphabetical name.

• What rules to follow?  I have written special posts for this (see links, below). But every group is different. It's very important that the group has guidelines and that everyone follows them, to insure proper respect, the best feedback, and timeliness.

• HERE for the guidelines we use when you are the one giving the critique. 

• HERE for the guidelines we follow when you are the one receiving the critique. 

If you need more advice, please leave a comment, below, or go to the "Contact Me" form in the sidebar to the right.

Cheers and happy reading!