Tonight's Writing

 I wrote in Depravity for a little over two hours tonight.

I am on page 33 and just reached the first "plot point" and am on the cusp of act II.

Man, I love this screenplay.

It is my hop[e to still be writing it into Spooky Season and to hopefully finish it around Halloween.

I also came up with a new idea for a stage play.

It is an idea I have been tossing around for a while in my head.

I always had problems with it being a novel (something I have to work on) and only saw it as a screenplay because that was the only other logical option (other than, perhaps, a novella). 

Regardless, I think it will work quite well as a stage play.  

My first "Christmas Horror" Screenplay is Now Up on Kindle

 Okay, so a few things...

1.) This was my first attempt at Christmas horror. At the end of the day, it's basically Stephen King's Cujo but with a Christmas twist.

2.) I put quotes around "Christmas Horror" because I broke the cardinal rule in my (and many other people's) book about Christmas Horror: Christmas has to be integral, irremovable aspect of the story. Sadly, you can take out the Christmas element here and you'll still have a nature gone awry (Cujo rip-off) story.

3.) I started this script just before Christmas of 2024. Christmas celebrations and time with family took over and I drug my feet on completing this script until sometime in February or so. 

4.) Because it was not written entirely before (or around) Christmas, I feel like I lost focus a bit. The script is only 61 pages long. This is around the time when I found that my screenplays were not reaching feature-length (90 pages/minutes). I want to find organic ways to make this script into a feature, but I don't want it to seem as if I am padding out the running time and, thus, destroying the story's momentum and pacing. 

5.) As I was putting in my prompts to have Google Gemini create a poster / cover for this script, I asked it to show a rabid reindeer attacking a house adorned with Christmas decorations. Gemini told me that it couldn't portray an animal afflicted with rabies... Weird. So I told them to create a psychotic Christmas card from my prompt (I think I changed "rabid reindeer" to "demonic reindeer"... somehow they interpreted that meant "zombified"... I dunno). Anyhow, the only thing I liked about the "psychotic Christmas card" was the reindeer. SO I had them put the reindeer from the "psychotic Christmas card" into a normal Christmas card. Hopefully it work. I like it. 

As it stands, I think this could make a good straight-to-streaming film. 

Also, I just realized that I accidentally left the Google Gemini watermark (that annoying star at the bottom of my image) and I need to edit that off of there before I add the book to my Kindle Library.

At any rate, soon my first attempt at "Christmas Horror" will be available for all to read.

 Enjoy!

 

 

Not Tonight...

 I had ambitions to post Run, Run Rudolph and Painsville, but that will not be happening for two reasons: 

1.) It is clear that I have to re-read the script in order to edit them (Run, Run Rudolph needs some revisions for the story to make sense; Painsville has some problematic language... mind you, that language is in the script so the reader/viewer can identify the antagonists as the bigoted wastes of life that they are, but I can one of my own antagonists using it against me).

2.) I have adulting to do (new patient paperwork for a doctor's visit, research to determine how I will vote in the August 4th election, etc.) and I just don't have the time and focus to re-read those scripts, make the necessary adjustments and publish them just now. 

What's more, I don't think I will have the time, effort and concentration to do any writing tonight.

Perhaps next week.  

PETCARE Screenplay published to Kindle

Today I am going to publish at least two more of my screenplays on Kindle.

One of them I am unsure about.

It is titled Petcare and it is another one of my attempts at writing a short horror script intended for the (now long-defunct) Masters of Horror show.

Anyhow, I am unsure of this script because it contains horrific acts of domestic violence, including child abuse. 

Obviously, the script is aggressively against all of those abhorrent acts and (as is the case with most of my stories) the wicked do indeed get their comeuppance (in the most gruesome of ways). But the road leading to that retribution is tough to read and visualize. 

I don't know.

We shall see if I choose to publish it.

On the one hand, I want people to read this story.

On the other hand, I do indeed work in academia and do not want someone reading this script, missing the point and forming a witch hunt against me. That would be a constant worry for me.

I think I will let my buddy Tim (a proud parent) be the judge. 

After all, there's no rush.

I am writing many more scripts that will eventually land on Kindle.

And I have a full library on there now, even as I write this.

But in preparation for its eventual publication I have done a second draft (and taken out some problematic lines, as well as fixed some formatting issues and taken out some unnecessary plot devices that, in retrospect, didn't work... I also had to update a lot of the script, as it was written nearly 20 years ago!) and designed a one sheet for it (seen below). My buddy Tim even helped pick out the image for the poster.

Anyhow, my first Christmas horror script (Run, Run Rudolph) will be available soon, as will my first attempt at backwoods redneck horror (think Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, X (2002), Wrong Turn (2003), etc.) Painsville should be available later on today. 

 

 

 

STAGE BLOOD Screenplay Now Published on Kindle

 I am on a roll today.

I just published my screenplay, Stage Blood on Kindle.

Now, I should start off by explaining a few things:

1.) I wrote this script in fall of 2008 when I became obsessed with late nite T.V. horror hosts. We didn't really have one in St. Louis (though I did grow up catching any appearance of Elvira on TV when I could... and I was an obsessed Joe Bob viewer when we finally got cable and Drive-In Theater was on The Movie Channel (and later MonsterVision on TNT). During this time I was buying a lot of official (and some bootlegs) of TV horror hosts, both modern and classic. Thus, I wanted to translate this obsession (which still persists to this day)  into a story.

2.) This script it short. Sixty pages (which, in film language, translates to about an hour of screen time). The reason for this is that, at the time, Mick Garris' Masters of Horror anthology show was on Showtime (where it lasted for two seasons, before mutating into Fear Itself and landing on network television). Anyhow, I dreamt of one-day being considered a Master of Horror and being given the opportunity to write episodes for Garris' Showtime show. Thus, my scripts (Stage Blood and another, Petcare, which I plan to publish later on today) are the required length for that show.

3.) The cover art was created by AI. I don't like the monster at all. I pictured something bonier, more angular, more demonic, perhaps something from a death metal album cover. They gave me a skeletal purple rat. I also don't like how obvious the late nite TV horror hosts are portrayed in this picture, but c'est la vie. Also, the AI image generator I was using said, "I cannot show gore strewn everywhere".

Seriously?!

Come on!

I'm trying to create a horror movie poster here... what is problematic about some insane gore?!

Whatever.

Enjoy Stage Blood. 

 

 

  

Wolves at the Door Screenplay on Kindle

My Werewolf apocalypse (a concept I believe I am the first writer to explore) screenplay Wolves at the Door is now on Kindle.

So proud of this script.

I truly do believe it is some of my best work.

It was started in summer 2024 and finish in summer 2025.

The only person to have read it thus far is my friend Tim Scott. 

Incidentally, this is my third werewolf script.

I think the only other monster I love writing about more than werewolves is demons.

And Krampus 

(I have three Krampus scripts; one mostly written and the other two waiting to be written during future Christmases).

I believe all of these stem from German/European/Black Forest heritage.

Regardless, enjoy Wolves at the Door! 

 

 

Tonight's Writing

I am on page twenty of Depravity.

I am really loving these characters (especially my protagonist).

I cannot wait to get to the next scene, the next act... 

Successes with my writing (like I just had with Muscles & Wine) fuels me. And setbacks (like I just had with Personal Demons) drown away when I'm writing.

Truly the greatest feeling on Earth... to create.

Each day I read a little bit of William S. Burroughs' last published books of journals (Last Words) and one quote jumped out at me:

 “Yes, for all of us in the Shakespeare Squadron, writing is just that: not an escape from reality, but an attempt to change reality, so [the] writer can escape the limits of reality.”

Good words to end the night with.