Author: Ty Schwamberger
I’m Going To Hell
Ok, so I’m literally not going to Hell. At least I hope not, yet. But, I have been asked to visit. Ok, so that’s not entirely true, either. But, I was asked to write a monthly column on hellnotes.com beginning in February.
The name of the column will be ‘Ty-ing Up The Genre’ and will first appear on or around February 15th.
The basic concept of the ongoing column is to discuss writing and publishing in the horror genre. Not only will I be hosting and writing a few of the columns myself, but I have also secured a hefty guest list, as well. Some of the guests that will be either writing an article for a given month or doing an interview with me include: Scott Sandridge (Fear and Trembling Magazine), Tim Deal (Shroud Magazine), Maurice Broaddus (horror author), Jack Ketchum (horror author), Michael Knost (horror author & editor) and Jason Sizemore (Apex Books).
The first column that will appear on February 15th will be written by me and will be titled ‘An Introduction’. The March 15th column will be titled ‘Up-and-Comers’ and will be an interview with three of them in the genre. The April 15th column will be titled ‘So You Want to be an Editor’ and will be written by Maurice Broaddus. The lineup of the other participants will be announced as the become available.
So, come February 15th, I’m officially inviting you to join me in Hell…I promise you’ll enjoy your visit!
Cake Batter Trailer
You’ve been waiting patiently and the time has finally come to check out the trailer of the short film, Cake Batter. The original short story was written by me and adapted into a screenplay and filmed by Warren Provencal of Shadetree Films. The DVD (which will contain extra features, a bonus film and more) will be available for Pre-Order on 1/11/10. Enjoy!
Update (1/9/10): The original Pre-Order date of the film has been put on hold for now. Shadetree Films and I are currently in talks with a company to distribute the film and therefore cannot self-distribute until the meeting(s) have come to a conclusion. As always, I’ll keep you up to date on what’s going on.
Win a FREE copy of Writers Workshop of Horror
For those of you that didn’t win this great book when I did the contest for Writers Workshop of Horror here’s another chance courtesy of MichaelKnost.com.
‘Want to win a signed (by editor Michael Knost) copy of Writers Workshop of Horror?
I will give away a copy each week for the month of January.
Visit www.MichaelKnost. com and fill in the entry form, then send.
I will draw a name out of a hat (yes, an actual hat) and announce the winners on the same website. I will also contact each winner via email.
You need only make one entry to be eligible for all drawings.
Good luck!
Michael Knost’
Update: Just received word back from Michael, that this is Open to those outside the U.S., as well.
The T.D.T Project
I mentioned here that I will soon begin another anthology (novella) project with two other authors. This will be my second undertaking of such a thing and I suspect it will be just as great as the first. Though I can’t provide you with the theme of the story, yet, I can give you the working details of the project itself.
What: Until decided, it will be known as The T.D.T. Project. This future book will be an anthology, containing three novellas (around 25k words each), each written by a different person with an overall common theme.
Who: Tom Erb, Dean Harrison and myself.
When: The self-imposed soft deadline for completion of the novellas is Early Spring.
I’m excited to be working with these up-and-comers and I think you’ll agree once it has been written and published you’ll be just as excited by the content as we will be writing it.
Concept Cover Art for Cake Batter DVD
While the teaser trailer for Cake Batter is still a week (or two) away, Warren with Shadetree Films, thought it would be a good idea to share the concept artwork for the cover of the DVD (shown below). In addition, Warren has informed me that the official Shadetree Films website will be up and running soon and will be accepting pre-orders for the short film at that time.
In Gord We Trust
I am constantly amazed by the number of people who still haven’t read Gord Rollo’s body of work. My first encounter, as many people, was his Leisure release in 2008 of The Jigsaw Man. I actually wrote a book review for Withersin Magazine back in April of this year on that very same book. I was then able to meet and hang out with him for the first time at Context 22 earlier this year, as well.
Not only is his work bloody exciting and well written, but he’s a hell of a nice guy to boot. Since Context we’ve become friends and when he told me he was knee-deep writing his next Leisure release, I not only became excited to eventually read something new by him, but also knew that more people need to start reading his previous work now to get excited with the next book that’s coming out soon.
You can check out Gord’s site here. Believe me, you’ll have a bloody good time!
Book Reviews Published
The next two in my near-ending series of writing book reviews for Withersin Magazine have been published.
Horror Writing Class Details
I mentioned here that I am the newest Part-Time Faculty member at the University of Akron, in Akron, Ohio, and will be instructing a class in Spring 2010, called, ‘So You Want To Be A Horror Writer – How to Write Scary Stuff and Get It Published’. You can now visit UA’s site and read the final class description, class topics, location, dates and times and cost by clicking HERE. You can then go to the top of the page and use their Online Registration to sign up and pay for the class.
For those of you that are seriously interested in the class, below is a Class Objective & Outline what will be covered during the 5 class meetings.
Learning Objectives –
Some of the skills that will be taught during these sessions include:
- Turning your idea into a book or short story
- Developing characters, plot, pace, and more
- How to stay focused and avoid distractions
- Finding time to write with a busy schedule
- How to find a Publisher
- How to promote your work after it has been accepted and released by a Publisher
Topical Outline –
- Turning your idea into a book or short story
- How to come up with ideas that a general audience or a particular niche would enjoy
- How to expand on a general story idea and be able to compose an effective novel or short story from it.
- How to organize your thoughts so they are coherent throughout the entire story
- Developing characters, plot, pace, and more
- How to write believable but fascinating characters
- How to format your plot so that readers will stay focused on the story
- How to space out character descriptions, action, sub-plots and general scenes while not making it boring for the reader
- How to stay focused and avoid distractions
- How to find your own time to write without the worry of outside distractions of a busy life
- How to keep your eye ‘on the prize’
- Finding time to write with a busy schedule
- How to find time each and every day to write if it is your passion
- How to find a Publisher
- Where to look for a publisher of books and magazines that accept short stories
- To self-publish or not
- How to promote your work after it has been accepted and released by a Publisher
- How to use all the media outlets; magazines, the internet, radio, newspapers, etc, to market and promote yourself and your work
So, if you live in the Greater Cleveland/Akron area and are truly interested in becoming a horror writer or just an overall better writer in whatever your chosen genre might be, this class may be just right for you!
A Word From Shadetree Films on Cake Batter
Warren Provencal with Shadetree Films wanted me to give you all the latest update on Cake Batter.
Sorry (everyone) that its been a while, but with the holidays and all things slowed down a bit. Now that we are in between holidays I have gotten Cake Batter most of the way there. I have been working on a trailer but I just didnt think that it was doing the story quite right. So I have backtracked slightly on it but the new concept will be entertaining in its own right. Our principle “Kristin Deyling” (aka Mary) will be coming in to do a voice over for it on Friday December 11th. The new trailer is most of the way there so I expect to have it to you (everyone) early next week.
Ty Schwamberger 