Tag: writing

Name The Title – Contest, revisited

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I mentioned here about the ‘Name The Title’ Contest that is currently going on until the 15th.

I mention this again, because I received a request yesterday from someone asking me if it were possible for me to post the names of the short stories that will be in the collection.  I thought about it for a bit and decided that it might help some of you that are already sending me title proposals for the ‘short story collection.’

Below you will find the names of the stories that have already been written and a few words on what they are about.  Please note, these are the stories that will be sent to the publisher for the collection.  Although, there may or may not be additional titles and/or some of the below titles might be removed at the publishers discretion.  In addition, if you see a ‘*’ by a title, this means it’s a previously published story which will still be part of the collection, but you can read them now either online or by buying the magazine in which it appeared.

Below are the story’s current titles in no particular order.

‘Rebirth : The Rise of Pharaoh Masika’ (about a mummy brought back to life)

‘The 7th House’ * (haunted house attraction)

‘The Legend of Johnston’s Creek’ (creepy story about a creature that lives in a local town’s creek)

‘Cake Batter’ (a wife’s revenge)

‘Gnomus’ * (evil garden gnome)

‘Jacob’s Mind’ * (monster story)

‘The Ringmaster’ (about a circus where some creepy stuff happens)

‘Thirst’ * (werewolf story)

‘Web Blog’ (about the main female character in Night School)

‘One Brew Too Many?’ (the consequences of underage drinking & driving and premarital sex)

‘All In The Line of Duty’ (cop/zombie story)

That’s about it.  If you are interested in learning more or wish to enter the contest, click here.

Name The Title – Contest

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I mentioned here that I’m currently working on some short stories that will ultimately become a ‘short story collection.’   As of right now, I’m almost done with the second to last story (it has grown to a long-short-story with over 10K words) that I want to include in the collection.  Of course, after I am done with this one, I’ll still have one left to write.

Authors take great pride with the content of their work, whether it’s a novel, story story or a collection of shorts.  Along with the stories themselves, authors enjoy coming up with a suitable title that not only the publisher will like, but for their fans, as well.

This is where you, the fans, come in.

The gist of this contest is as follows.

–  Come up with a title (never seen before) that is suitable for a ‘short story collection.’  Try to stay away from common titles, such as, ’13 tales of terror’ ‘a collection of scary tales’ and the like.  Delve into new territory, experiment, see what you can come up with.  Remember, this will be a collection of shorts dealing with all aspects of horror (monsters, madmen, strange events, etc), so the title should be something that will grab the readers eye when it’s sitting on the book self.

What will you win, you ask?

–  The person that comes up with the best ‘title’ for the collection will win a starring role in the last short I will write for the collection.  Yup, that’s right, you’re full name (or only your first if you choose) will appear as the main character in the story.  The only thing is, I can’t guarantee ‘you’ will still be alive at the end…

–  You will be mentioned in the acknowledgements in the front of the book

–  You will receive a copy of the book, free of charge, once it’s published and released

Sound good?  It should.  This is your chance to make a contribution to the genre that you love and possibly have a wild ride in the process – but only in the story.  🙂 

How to enter and rules:

– Email me with your full name (first, last), email address and one or two ‘titles’ (please don’t list a whole slew of them, one or two is fine), by April 15, 2009.  

– The suject line of your email should read, exactly: ‘Contest Entry for Short Story Collection’  If it doesn’t have this suject line, I can’t guarantee you that it will be read.

– One entry (email) per person, only. 

– If your chosen the winner, you will be notified by email on or before April 30, 2009.  So, if you don’t receive an email by the end of this day, you’re not the winner.

Good Luck!

 

As a side note…if you haven’t yet checked out the book trailer for Night School click here.  Then go to the Storefront and buy the book!

How To Kill A Zombie

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

I mentioned here that I’m currently working on short stories that will comprise a ‘short story collection.’  Though the majority of these stories are already written, I have about 10,000 words left that I need to write to in order to meet the minimum word count requirement of 50,000. 

I mention this, because with the next story I’m about to begin, tonight, I am going to go with a zombie theme – it will be something different – not like the usual – ‘ya gotta shoot em’ in the head to kill em” scenario.   I have never written about zombies (but do enjoy reading books and watching movies about them), so it should be interesting what I can and will come up with that is different from the norm.

I say all this because as I was recently cruising the internet looking for zombie info and ran across a ‘How To Kill A Zombie’ Poster (you can view the poster online or download it into PDF) and thought that if any of you are into zombies, as I am, you might want to check it out.  Click here to view it.

Pretty cool stuff – Enjoy!

Short Story Published

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

My short story, ‘The 7th House’ has been accepted for publication in Sinister Tales (Vol. 4.2).  The magazine is a print publication. 

About ‘The 7th House’ :

A couple visits a traveling haunted house to see the attractions. At the end of a somewhat boring night, the owner of the attraction asks them to visit the 7th House, which is by invite only. The couple accepts the offer.

What started as a simple visit to a haunted house ends with a decision that one of them will never forget.  

 

The release and availability date of Sinister Tales, Vol. 4.2 will be announced shortly.

Night School (Knife) Project – Part II, the newspaper interview & an annoucement

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

If you have been following, The Beginning and Part I of the Night School Knife Project, click here for the next few steps, which are posted on the JDB Knives message board.

If you are interested in checking out the interview I did with the Piqua Daily Call that I mentioned, you can visit the paper’s website to read the article.

In addition, I wanted to make the annoucement that I have begun my next project. 

As many of you know, right before Night School was accepted for publication, I was 20,000 words into a new manuscript.  Though, once I knew Night School was going to be published, I put the ‘novel-in-progress’ on hold to concentrate on promotion and marketing activities. 

Now that Night School is off to a running start, I can finally begin working on something else.  Well, ‘begin working’ might not be entirely accurate. 

What I decided to do this time around, instead of continuing with a novel, I am going to do a ‘short story collection.’  This collection will be about 200 pages long (about 50,000 words) and will include three previously published stories, as well as, nine or ten new and original ones.  Of these stories that are new and have not been published before, I only have two or three to write, before reaching my page count goal.

As of last week, I received word from my publisher, that whenever I would like to send in the manuscript, they will be ready to review it.

I suspect I should be able to accomplish this in the next month.  Which would mean a mid to late 2009 release date on the book.  As always, I’ll keep you posted.

Enjoy!

New Excerpt of Night School

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

You can now read a newly posted excerpt of Night Scool by checking out Freebies.

You can also read the first chapter here.

In addition, if you would like to hear an audio clip of me reading an excerpt of the book, click here.

To buy it, visit the Storefront. While you’re there, pick up a Night School T-shirt and Werewolf Mag #9.

Enjoy!

The Good, The Bad & The Temptations

Posted on by Ty Schwamberger

First, the bad.  Yesterday, I lost my ‘day job’ so I have to start looking for something to do inbetween my writing.  So, to quote Melvin from The Temptations on the song Ball of Confusion…

And the band played on.

So, round and around we go.

Where the world’s headed, nobody knows.

Now, the good. 

I mentioned here about North Coast Voice Magazine doing an article and review about Night School in their ‘Hot Off The Press’ column.   Today, the ‘hard copy’ of the issue is available all over NE Ohio and also can be read online, by clicking here.