Category: Blogging

Settled & Ready to Write, again

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I finally have all my things here in the suburb of Toledo, OH, where I’ll be living for the time being.  This was after 5 round trips back and forth from Cleveland to Toledo.  Needless to say, that’s alot of miles and gas money for a 7 day period.

Now it’s time to finish putting my crap away and start working (writing), again.

The top three things on my ‘To Do’ list are as follows:

  • Edit the novella that I finished writing about a week ago.
  • Continue talks with a magazine (I can’t tell you which one quite yet) about writing a serialized story for them, which would appear in parts in 2 or 3 issues in a row (this is a print magazine).
  • Start working again on my ‘novel-in-progress’ (currently at 25k words) about a ‘monster’.

Just the above items should keep me busy for awhile.  Besides what I just stated above, there is also the ‘Cake Batter’ film, which is in the works, as well.

Busy, busy, busy…but that’s the way it should be!

The End Is Near…

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

Finally finished the novella tonight that I started in the middle of May.  In fact, I think it turned out pretty well.

I’ve also, of course, have been moving to Toledo this week.  Made three round trips (1 1/2 hours each way) so far, but the next one should be my last.  I also have an interview for a ‘day job’ on Tuesday, as well – so I guess you could say things are finally starting to look up.

Now it’s time to relax after a long week of moving and celebrate the completion of the novella by, how else, going to the bar for a cold brew.

Hope ya’ll are enjoying your weekends…I’ll be seeing ya again in a few days after I’m settled in Toledo.

Now back to your regular scheduled web-surfing.

The move to T-Town and some updates

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I rarely, if ever, mention personal stuff on here, though I feel like making an exception this time.  Well, that and some other stuff.

As you know, I currently live in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.  Though, in one week from now I will be moving a hour and a half west to T-Town or better known as Toledo, Ohio – The Glass City.  This is not only because I have yet to find a ‘day job’ after being downsized in February after being with the company for 5 1/2 years, but also for personal reasons, that I won’t be mentioning here. 

With the move looming, I find myself looking back at the last nine years here in Cleveland, after graduating college in 2000.  The city and people have provided me with some good and not so good times.  I often wonder how things would have turned out if I wouldn’t have moved here after college.  Not that I had much choice.  Ya gotta go where the job takes you, ya know!?  Which is why I moved here to begin with.  The best thing to come out of living in Cleveland, of course, was the birth of my youngest daughter.  She rocks!

Anyway, at this point I am pretty much starting over.  Starting at the bottom and working my way back up, again.  Not that there is anything wrong with having to do that.  Ultimately it  may build my character.  That or it will just kick my ass and leave me lying in the gutter.  Either way, I am pretty much exhausted at this point in more ways than one.  It IS time for a fresh start.  Either way, I plan on continuing to pursue my writing career. 

There is one thing currently in the works (that I haven’t officially announced, but if you cruise the page you’ll see what it is already) and I am still awaiting word from a publisher on my short story collection that I sent out for consideration.  In addition, I am about 2,500 words away from finishing the novella that I mentioned here.  Though, there has been a little bump in the road with one of the authors I mentioned disappearing on us.  So, at this point, I have contacted another author and inquired if he would be interested in the project.  Then, after my novella is completed, I will be moving onto the ‘novel-in-progress’ that I had to put aside when Night School was published.  Currently, I’m at 25K words and my goal is to have it completed at the end of this summer and then sent out for consideration.  After that, I’m going to be switching gears a bit and venture into writing something else besides horror (don’t worry, I’ll come right back to it), that someone suggested I give a try.  I’m not going to mention what genre it’s in yet, though you can see quite a bit of ‘it’ in Night School.

That’s it.  Some random thoughts and some updates to tide you over until the 2nd (2 of 2.  The first being the hardcover edition of Night School coming out) major annoucement that I mentioned was coming a week or two ago, finally gets made official.

With that, I’ve got the SUV packed up and ready for a drive to T-Town tomorrow, er, today!  Time to get some rest and hit the road bright and early.

Lauren Conrad pens a novel – WTF?!

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

Tell me it ain’t so!  Lauren Conrad, star of The Hills, has written a novel, L.A. Candy, which was due out in stores on June 16th. 

Believe it or not – it is about a girl who moves to Los Angeles  for an internship and winds up being the subject of a reality show…humm…sound familiar?  If you want to see some photo’s of Conrad, her book and read an excerpt (though, I have no idea why you would want to), click here. 

As far as I’m concerned, this is a prime example of another one of these ‘stars’ writing a book, that more than likely can’t write worth a lick and getting published (but will ultimately sell a crap load of them) all because of their name.  Oh, and is it just me or does Conrad look like a bobble-head these days or what?  Damn, why do I even care?!

Another Coffee Shop Movie

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I mentioned awhile back that I scored at the coffee shop, picking up three old-school horror flicks.  Well, I just watched another today, Wolfman (1979), written and directed by Worth Keeter and staring Earl Owensby, Kristina Reynolds, Julian Morton, Sid Rancer and Ed Grady.  By far, Ed Grady was the biggest name in the film, staring in; The Notebook, Dawson’s Creek, Children of the Corn III, Matlock, among others.  In all, Grady has stared in more than sixty movies and television shows.

From the back of the movie:

An early 20th century family has been under the spell of an evil and ancient bane.  Colin Glasgow comes home to bury his father who died after a long illness…or was he murdered?  Colin discovers his father’s will has been altered.  His investigation leads him to his father’s grave for answers.  After discovering his father was under the curse of the werewolf, he finds the spell is being kept alive by the mysterious Reverend Leonard (Ed Grady) who performs santanic rituals along with Colin’s cousins.  Colin falls under this spell after being attacked by wolves in the graveyard.  Even though he remains under this spell, he fights to break this evil curse and release his family from their awful fate.

This movie was just OK.  Even being only fifty cents, I probably wouldn’t have bought it if I had known ‘how’ it was.  But, hey, don’t take my word for it.  If you ever see it in one of those 50-cent bins, pick it up and give it a try…then again, maybe not…unless it’s marked down to 25-cents…and even then…nah!

LIVE from Nashville…

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

It took 8 1/2 hours to drive from Cleveland, OH to Nashville, TN, for a weekend filled of fun at Hypericon 5.

After the drive we checked out the hotel bar/grill, only to find that they had a limited selection of food.  We ended up driving a short distance to Shoney’s.  The fish n’ chips were great – the southern sweet tea was tasty.  After dinner we returned to the hotel bar for a night cap.

I was on my second beer when it happened.  A guy walked into the bar and asked the bartender if she was serving food.  Naturally, I turned around to look who was talking – it was Brian Keene!  After introducing myself and giving him a gift of appreciation for what he does as a horror author, we spent the next few hours drinking and talking.  Good times!  In fact, if I don’t meet anyone else during the convention, those few hours spent in the hotel bar were well worth the drive.

So that’s what happened yesterday.  As for today, I am now dressed and getting ready to head down to the convention when it opens to the public in 30 minutes.  As the weekend progresses, I’ll try to update you with what’s going on.  Better yet, if you’re in the Nashville area, come down and enjoy the Con for yourself!

Update:  Below are the panels I attended this afternoon and the authors who were involved.  I highly suggest you check out each of their websites and decide which of their books are right for you.  Please Note:  If authors are part of more than one panel, the link to their website will only be provided once.

Panel:  What Are We Reading?

Description:  Authors discussed what they’re currently reading, as well as their favorite authors and literally influences

Authors:  Brian Keene, P.S. Gifford, Steven Shrewsbury, Kimberly Raiser and Wrath James White

 

Panel:  Writing Realistic (and unrealistic) Fight Scenes

Description:  Authors discussed what makes a realistic fight scene as well as their pet peeves about common writing mistakes

Authors:  Jonathan Maberry, Julianne Lee, Glen Cook and D.A. Adams

 

Panel (last one attended on Friday):  Diversity In Horror

Description:  Authors discussed the wide range and types of horror

Authors:  Wrath James White, Ronald Kelly, Brian Keene and Maurice Broaddus

 

Saturday Update:  Didn’t go to any panels or the art/dealer room this afternoon.  Instead, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe Nashville, walked along the famous Broadway Street and looked in some shops and then finished our site seeing trip up with a visit to 132 acre Centennial Park near downtown Nashville.  Overall, it was a nice afternoon seeing some of Nashville.  I can definitely understand why people love it here.  The people are great and there are tons of things to do during the day and night. 

That’s all for now.  There are a few panels I am going to this evening and possibly a film screening.  I’ll update more later tonight.

Update:  I was originally going to attend two panels this evening.  Though, after attending the below panel, it seems that both topics were covered, so I don’t need to listen to the other one.  Below is the panel I just got back from.

Panel:  Writing For The Opposite Gender

Description:  Writers spoke about how they approach writing about characters of a different gender or from the POV of the opposite sex.  Also talked about, tips on how writers create interesting characters, and when the use of stereotypes are necessary.

Authors:  Jonathan Maberry, Matthew Warner, Alicia Benson, John Everson, Scott Nicholson and Sara Harvey

 

Weekend Wrap-Up:  Back home now in Cleveland, OH.  There were a few panels on Sunday, but instead of going to them, I enjoyed a 8 1/2 hour drive home.  The convention was a blast!  I got to meet, talk to and party with several of my favorite authors and got to meet several authors that I had never heard of before, but will now be checking out their work.  Overall, the trip to Nashville, TN, was well worth the long trek.  In fact, I’ll probably do it again next year.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention something that I was informed about on Saturday while checking my email.  I’m not going to tell you exactly what was in my email, yet, but there will be some big news (two-fold) coming up this week, so check back often!

I Scored At The Coffee Shop!

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I was at a local coffee shop in Berea, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland) yesterday to get my usual drink of choice – Iced Coffee – when I peered over my shoulder and spotted a bin full of movies priced at only 50 cents.  Needless to say, I said, “hold on” to the barista and headed on over to the bin.  As I started to dig through the movies, with the help of my 2 year old, I started to notice that a few of them were of the horror variety.  Though, as you might imagine these movies weren’t new or even close-to-new releases.  For the most part they were all movies and shows from the 60’s and 70’s.  But, that didn’t deter me from finding a few movies that caught my interest.  Among them are: Wolf Man (1979), Fangs of the Living Dead (1969) and Scream of the Wolf (1974).

I watched the Scream of the Wolf, tonight, staring Peter Graves and Clint Walker.

From the back cover of Scream of the Wolf:

Adventure writer John Weatherby, played by Peter Graves (Mission Impossible) is called in to investigate a series of brutal murders that has investigators confused.  The clues are not clear and leave no clear trail.  The tracks left at the murder site appear to be that of a wolf, or a man, or both.

Lost in his search for answers, Weatherby contacts his old friend Bryon, played by Clint Walker, a mysterious hunter and recluse, to help him track this unknown killer.  His friend is not much help but may know more than what he’s willing to say.  The suspense and terror builds as danger lurks in the shadows of the night.  SCREAM OF THE WOLF will keep yo on the edge of your seat and remind you to stay in at night and lock your doors because you never know what could be lurking in the shadows of the night!

I’m not going to say much about the movie itself, except that I enjoyed it.  The movie was fast paced (it was only 80 minutes long) and had some classic 70’s music, which I was bobbing my head to!  Oh, and I definitely didn’t see this particular ending coming.  Overall a pretty good early horror flick!

Oh, did I mention Scream of the Wolf was written by the one and only Richard Matheson (I Am Legend)?  Cool!

Sittin’ on top of a hot stove…

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I’m not actually sitting on top of a hot stove in the kitchen, but I and Night School were recently given a shout out by jharmon on May 27th on a site called, BookStove.

The title of the article is, ‘Five Horror Novelists You (Probably) Haven’t Heard of…Yet’.  The blurb about me is at the top of the page. 

You can read what jharmon had to say about me and the book, by clicking here.