Category: Blogging

Notables

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

There are still some seats left in the class I’ll start teaching in a few weeks at the University of Akron (Akron, Ohio) – ‘So You Want To Be A Horror Writer’.  A description of the class; including cost, classroom location, dates/times and how to enroll can be found here.

Adam P. Lewis recently had two short-short stories picked up for the upcoming Anthology – Daily Bites of Flesh 2011 (tentative release December 2010).  One of the stories, ‘The Pond’, features charaters named after my fiance’, Sheryl, and myself.  I’ve read the story already and found it quite good – even though something not so nice happens to me during it.

As you know I had a film showing/book signing last weekend.  There are still plenty of DVDs of Cake Batter available (see below post on how to order), but I also have a few (6) copies of Night School that I brought back with me.  The first six people that email me will get it for only $15.00 (that’s 10-bones off the cover price).  Shoot me an email (address can be found under the Contact page to your right) if interested.

The Results

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I’m back home (actually I got home around 4pm yesterday but ended up passing out for 12 hours so I wasn’t able to post this until now) from my film showing/book signing that took place on Saturday at the JR Clarke Public Library in Covington, Ohio.  I can’t thank enough the library staff and all the people that came out to see me.  In fact, at one point during the afternoon a group of about 20 people pulled up chairs and it became a fun question/answer type thing.  Great times.  Below is a photo of me at the library courtesy of my fiance’, Sheryl.

  

After the showing/signing at the library, I made my way over to Around About Books in Troy, Ohio.  Great store that has a ton of well-organized books (two floors worth of them).  If I didn’t have other places to be I could have spent hours combing the shelves in search of treasure.  It was also the first time I got to meet the owners in person and just as I expected they were nice as could be.  I left 6 copies of my novel there to place on their shelves.

After the event and stopping at the bookstore, I then spent the next four hours eating and drinking with a buddy of mine that I haven’t seen in years.  Good stuff.

Then it was back to the hotel where I poured myself a drink, watched a horror movie on tv, and let the day slip away.

Can’t wait to do it all again…now back to the coma I was in…

What’s been going on…

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I’ve been extremely busy the last month.  During this time I’ve been working on the following:  finished a novella for Bad Moon Books, started a new novella (publisher to be named later), did a photo shoot for new promo pictures (which I’ll share in the next day or two), did an interview for a newspaper, getting ready for the release of Cake Batter next month, arranging everything for my film showing/book signing next month, talking with another film production company that is interested in working together, continue to receive positive replies for my column, ‘Ty-ing Up the Genre’ on Hellnotes (I believe the list of guests is up to around 30, now) and I’ve been reading like a madman – of course.

Just a tad busy, eh?  Uh, yeah.

The Vanguard

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

You may remember that about a week ago I got an email from Dean Harrison asking me what my definition of horror is for his college newspaper.  Of course I went into a little more detail than just giving a flat definition and then sent it off to him.  You can read the article I wrote here.

Using mine and other various sources, Dean then wrote an article of his own about horror literature for his college newspaper, ‘The Vanguard’ at the University of South Alabama (Dean is a Contributing Editor at the paper).  Though Dean was supposed to send me a copy when it came out (and, hell, perhaps I’ll still get a hard copy – though, I more like busting his balls about it now), I did find the article that was published in ‘The Vanguard’ on April 12th.  You can read the article here.  Well done, Dean!

Where’s the Posts?

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

You might be wondering where all the new posts are at.  Two reasons.  One, news has been slow over the last week.  And two, I’m currently writing a novella for a specific publisher and am putting all my creative effort into getting that finished asap.  Even though I can’t tell you which publisher it is, yet, I actually just finished writing the first half of the story and sent it off to ‘them’ for review.   I’ll of course keep you informed.

Oh, I did mention that the 2nd Annual Richard Laymon Book Contest is coming…  Well, I just received confirmation that the books are on the way to me from California and should be here within the week.  So make sure you check back later this week if you’re waiting for that to begin.

Until next time…

Adding Fuel to the Fire

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I mentioned back in my first column on Hellnotes that the following authors and publishers would be doing special guest appearances over the course of the next year or so.  Among these names were; Maurice Broaddus (will be featured in the April column), Tim Deal, Jason Sizemore, Scott Sandridge, Jack Ketchum, Michael Knost, among many others.

It’s now time to tell you who some of these ‘many others’ will be (in no particular order): Tim Lebbon, Mike Oliveri, Wrath James White and Jeff Strand.  You can find their respective websites under the Links section to your right.

Pretty good, eh?!  I think so.

Until next time…

Withdrawing a Submission

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

Sometimes it is necessary to withdraw a submission from a publisher.  This can be because the story was accepted as a greater collection of work at another publisher or for ‘creative differences’ (which can include a wide variety of things).  Having said that, today I formally withdrew my novelette ‘All In the Line of Duty’ from Suspense Magazine.  This 13k word story was in their possession since September 2009 and after repeated promises by the editor to find an issue (the last promise was the March issue, which is now out and it wasn’t included) to place it in, I had to take matters into my own hands and withdraw the accepted submission.

For those of you that might be in the same position, you have to carefully weigh the pros and cons of such an action.  As for my case, there’s something even bigger in the works for the novelette…and a few more of my short stories.

Good Luck and Stay Tuned!

Another one bites the dust

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

Pulled into this Borders in Fairlawn, Ohio today and saw the above sad sight.  Borders, along with the other large chains and independent bookstores, have been hit hard by the economy and although I scored some books at 30% off, I would gladly rather see this store remain in business and pay full price for the items that I want.  One day I wouldn’t be surprised to see 90% of the brick-and-mortar stores go by the wayside and the rest of the people that aren’t already buying their reading materials online to do so at that time.  But for me, nothing will ever beat the feeling of walking into a bookstore, picking up the latest horror novel, reading the back cover blurb, the smell of the fresh printed paper or the look of excitement of those people that are true lovers of the written word.  Today was indeed a sad day.

A few items of interest…

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

An annoucement will be coming in the next few days that may be of interest to you regarding some promotional items that will be on sale for the film, Cake Batter.

as well as…

A new contest will finally start again in the next week or two.  Because of the length between contests, I’m making sure this one is a BIG one.  The value of the prize will be well over $200.00.  This item is horror related but not a book.  

Check back soon for details on both things!