It Has Begun...

Tonight I have started writing (and am already on page 3) my 20th screenplay, Depravity.

It is my first serial killer screenplay.

Essentially, it was inspired by the art on death metal album covers... and my forever-idiosyncratic mind asking, "What would it have been like if Faud Ramses, in H.G. Lewis' Blood Feast, or The Killer in Mardi Gras Massacre, had been successful? If their rituals had been finished and the ancient beings they were worshiping actually appeared?"

I am wearing my Wes Craven tribute shirt and burning a candle I got off Etsy called "Summer Thriller"... won't lie: don't love its smell, but no matter.

Onward I write...  

Just Sent Circle M+P PERSONAL DEMONS

So, after talking about how Circle M+P (Circle of Confusion) requested Coil back in 2007 (they also requested my first werewolf script, Cubs, in 2009) I decided I would submit Personal Demons to them... again.

See, I submitted it to them in 2015 (right after I got done writing it) and received no response.

However, that was before Stranger Things and  It came out and changed the landscape ( I guess I was ahead of my time...?).

That was also before Personal Demons had all of its festival wins.

Anyhow, below is the query letter I just sent...  

"Dear Circle M+P,

 

I have recently completed a supernatural horror screenplay entitled Personal Demons that I would like to submit for your consideration.

  

Personal Demons tells the story of a group of horror-obsessed teenagers in a sleepy Rocky Mountains mining town who have decided to hunt and kill a demon that has crawled from a nearby cave and murdered one of their friends.  In preparation for their hunt the group must grapple with everyday high school problems (parental concerns, school intervention and religious differences) that threaten to tear them apart.

 

This script infuses my love of 80’s horror (Monster Squad, Ghostbusters, Night of the Demons, Evil Dead and Pumpkinhead) into a story concerning unique and brash characters, which I fashioned partially after students I have taught during my tenure in education… and partially after myself.

 

Personal Demons is a bit of grounded horror that, while visceral and chilling, plays out in a very fun way, similar to its contemporaries (such as It (2017/19), Final Destination and the Duffer Brothers’ Stranger Things).

 

Personal Demons just had its 19^th festival accolade. Most recently Personal Demons was an official selection at the Independent Horror Movie Award (2025), Dunwich Horror Fest (2025), Underground Indie Film Festival (Apopka, Florida; 2025) and The Thing in the Basement Horror Fest (Seattle, WA.; 2025). Personal Demons also won Best Feature Script at the 2024 Independent Horror Movie Awards (Summer Edition).

 

The completed screenplay is 96 pages long. I also have a succinct but comprehensive video pitch for the script available here.

 

Currently, I work as a college English professor and my work has appeared in Dark Moon Digest, Midnight Times, Shadow Voices and Damnation Magazine.

 

If any further information or materials are needed, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Thank you for your time and consideration and I look forward to hearing from you.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Erik D. Harshman"

 

Yet Another Screenplay Published on Kindle!

I love this momentum I have going.

Gotta love Summer Break! 

Just used Chat GPT top create yet another cover for my very first screenplay (written around early 2004), called Coil.

 So... originally I just wanted to write a big snake / nature gone awry horror movie (I'd seen, and loved, Anaconda (1997) in theaters and was really enamored with a straight-to-video horror movie called Boa that came out in 2002).  

However, I had an idea to combine two of my favorite sub-genres of horror: nature gone awry and theological horror.

I am a huge fan of the obvious theological horror titles: Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, The Exorcist, Gregory Widen's The Prophecy and Stigmata. 

Not sure I was successful in combining the two here.

Also, this is my first attempt at a screenplay so, please, be kind.

I hadn't started using Syd Fields' three-act structure yet and, really, I was just writing what I thought was cool and trying to tell a story in 90 pages or so. Though, if I'm being honest, and if memory serves, I was really struggling to fill the pages at one point.

Regardless, here you go: a theological / nature gone awry screenplay about what would happen if the U.S. Government found the Garden of Eden and wanted to exploit its natural (and divine) resources for military use. And what happens when that pesky snake (that got Adam and Eve kicked out of the Garden) decides to intervene and turn the soldiers on one another.   

This script will never get made.

People would want the snake to suffocate, crush and eat people... you know, like in Anaconda (1997).

This script is ultimately too weird for Hollywood... Which is hilarious, as the agency Circle of Confusion (now just Circle Management & Production) requested this script in 2007 after I sent them a query.  

But I digress. 

Hopefully somebody will find something worth enjoying in this story.  

 

New Screenplay (MoMo) Added to Kindle

 So... I added a screenplay I wrote in 2011 to my Kindle Library.

It is called MoMo and it is about Missouri's own bigfoot/Sasquatch MoMo (the Missouri Monster).

I had a blast writing this thing in 2011.

Those were good memories: just sitting down at my desk and writing until the muse left me for the evening.

I got so much written during those times. 

But I digress.

I quickly had Chat GPT (again, don't judge me.... AI is still evil, but it is useful when you're in a rush and you need an image) to create a cover for this script and I had to take out some... socially problematic language.

 

 

See, the main antagonist (a redneck named Mort) is a huge bigot. I had some scenes that showed this (in, perhaps a rather heavy-handed fashion) and I knew immediately that I needed to take out those scenes.

I also had other scenes that highlighted the many theses of the script (that nature unites us all... that humanity is wasted on (certain) humans... that there is truly only one race: the human race) but, alas, some of them could be misconstrued as problematic, so I took them out.

It is indeed exhausting to have to censor yourself when putting art out into the world because of what people might think and how this perception might impact you socially, professionally, etc.

But alas...

The next two scripts that I think I will list on Kindle is my screenplay adaptation of Humansville and a theological horror film I wrote in 2004 (my first screenplay!) called Coil.

And I haven't even started putting my David Kemp novels up on Kindle yet.

This is exciting.

If nothing else my work is being put out there.

Whether anyone actually reads it, cares or wants to produce it and represent me is a whole other conversation.  

 

 

 

I Think I Made A Sale...?

I think I made a sale on Amazon...?

 

I got this email...

 

This royalty payment notification is for Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) sales recorded in the US Kindle Store. Payment will be made to your bank account and should appear in your available balance within 2 to 5 business days after the Payment Date. Details of the payment will be available on the Payment Report ( https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/reports) after it has been processed by your bank. If your KDP account is registered on the KDP Japan site, you can check your Payment report at https://kdp.amazon.co.jp/self-publishing/reports.

Payment made to:	ERIK DAVID HARSHMAN
Payment number:
Payment date:	2026-06-23T00:00Z

*****************PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL******************** 

 

And I got $1 and change deposited into my bank account.

 

Well, that's awesome.

 

Not because of the money. But because someone is actually reading something I wrote.

 

 

Ideas

First, I think I have an idea for a new David Kemp novel.

I need to run it by my boy Tim Scott before I meditate on this further. 

But I think (I hope) it's a good one.

I have also realized that I need to come up with a really good cosmic horror idea.

Something entirely me, but born of my admiration for Lovecraft, Dan O'Bannon, Junji Ito/Uzumaki and Bloodborne. 

 

Two More Screenplays... Live on Kindle!

 So... I have put two more of my horror screenplays up on Kindle.

Both are werewolf (perhaps my favorite monster to write about after demons) screenplays.

One is an allegorical story about divorce and the hell children are put through by their parents (and surrogate parents) called Cubs.

The other is my love letter to Hammer films and period-piece gothic horror movies like From Hell (2001), Brotherhood of the Wolf, Neil Jordan's Company of Wolves and Nosferatu. It also takes place in the German countryside... perhaps my favorite place in the world (and where my family originates from).