(If you're reading this on Goodreads, I encourage you to click the link for the website. Goodreads does not transfer the format to my blogs well, and it makes it look like one choppy long paragraph, which is frustrating because I've wanted to put sample chapters on here, too, and they don't transfer well, either. If anyone knows the tech issues of how to fix it, don't be afraid to tell me. Until then...)
I'm having a lot of fun writing these days. I feel the context changing. For years I wrote with a purpose, wanting to say something powerful, meaningful, and hoping I could change the world with a great idea. I wonder if every artist feels that way. The word is still roughly the same, if not worse than it was thirty years ago, so I guess I didn't change the world as I'd hoped.
For years it felt like I had to get a lot of darkness and heaviness out of my system. That's okay. If you write, you should get that stuff out and pave the way for more ideas. But back in those days, I always wanted to say something significant. Usually that message, especially with horror, was about recognizing darkness and evil in the world, in others, and mainly, in ourselves. Sometimes that darkness gets the best of us if we're not careful. That was my philosophy with a lot of my work. I think it's a good philosophy and a powerful one that fiction can get across and become something more than just a story. It's beautiful either way.
These days, the gears have shifted, and though I'm not relying so much on heaviness of emotion or something profound to say, I'm just just trying to write for the fun of it, and I'm experiencing more joy in the process. I think I'm having more fun writing than I have in 30 years. That's strange to say, but it's true. Go figure.
Recently, I have gone over Hill Haven Creeps and the Halloween King for the fourth time, but there a comes a moment in certain drafts where you have to get away and let the idea rest for bit. Start a new project. I'm loving writing so much, that even though I'm putting Hill Haven aside for a few weeks, I decided to work on book 2 of the Lovecraft Mysteries and the antics of Macky and Millie. This one will focus on the the town of Arkham and Herbert West: Re-animator. I'm a few chapters into the rough draft, but I'm enjoying it so far. I miss Macky and Millie and their bantering back and forth. They are a lot of fun to write about. I never intended for these to be a series, but now that I have book 2 under way, I'm started to think of books 3 and 4 already. The creative process is a beautiful thing in that regard. It has a life of its own, and I just have to agree to the changes and where it takes me.
There is also a children's fantasy somewhere in the near future I'm excited to get to. But one thing at a time . . .
Until then, I hope you are discovering fun new tales of imagination . . .