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Hey guys! It has been a really crazy week - I went on an impromptu road trip, recorded an episode of a gaming show, and got a bunch of free books. With all of the excitement I didn't get to share some exciting news with you guys. My writing.com anthology finally came in! For those of you who are new to the blog, I found out last year that I had one of my WdC pieces accepted into this anthology, and have been waiting for my copy to arrive since late last year. There were some surprises in here now that I've actually gotten to read the collection. The first is that the story I have featured is The Dragon of Westmont, which I didn't know until I came across it. I was led to believe that the piece of mine they had selected was Sole Survivor. That means that I've been officially recognized under my own name for both fantasy and horror, which is pretty neat. The second cool surprise was that my story was up near the front, since it was apparently an editor's pick. I have to admit, that made me feel pretty good about the story, although I don't normally think of it as one of my best. Anyway, it was really cool to see my name in print. Even if the book isn't a huge deal (and I'm not getting paid for it) all of my previous publications have been independent and or online. I was very honored to have been chosen for the anthology and it was great to see my name alongside so many talented writers - many of whom I'm lucky enough to consider friends. That's what has been going on with me lately - and my cool writing news for the month. Other than that it's been a lot of writing in hotel rooms and scratching reviews on the back of fast food receipts. With any luck, I will have some more cool updates on projects and work stuff soon, but in the meantime, thank you to everyone reading this. I appreciate you guys checking in, and it feels really good to know that people are actually looking for updates on my work now. All the best, Cat Voleur
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.Hello readers (and potentially listeners)!
Episode #137 of the Horror Addicts Podcast was released today - and I'm in it. It's for the Next Great Horror Writer contest, which I'm participating in. I have a 100 word horror story in the episode and I have some sound clips in there - you guys can hear me try to answer questions about horror while I'm all doped up on cold medication. That's fun. (Actually I recorded all of my answers AND bumpers for this season of the podcast while on cold medication, so you guys potentially have several weeks of that to look forward to.) For anyone wanting to check that out, here is the link. Horror Addicts Podcast Episode #137 I also got called the resident goth for this year's competition, which I thought was cute. Nobody has called me a resident goth or any other kind of goth since I was nine or ten, so it definitely brought back some fond memories. As long as there are no goths listening who are going to be offended by my overly bright hair or my Blink 182 tattoo or my occasional splatterpunk fiction, I am happy to claim that title. Listening to this was quite the revelation for me. Hearing the talent from the other competitors and getting to experience their work being read by such great hosts, it made me feel incredibly lucky to be participating alongside such wonderful writers. I am working on the next challenge, trying to balance it with my regular submission schedule and it has been difficult, but I think I'm starting to get into the swing of it. Now if I can get this nasty cough to go away so I can spend a little less time in bed, things are going to be great. Thank you guys for reading and extra thanks to those of you who follow the link. -Cat Oh boy.
So when I signed on to do this NGHW contest, I knew the first challenge was going to be incredibly hard on me, but man did I screw it up. I'm not even 100% sure my entry qualifies - so there's a very good chance I'll be starting the competition off with a 0 point round. Which is pretty much par for the course in my writing career thus far. The issue was mostly just bad luck in scheduling, which I knew was going to be an issue when they first told me I was being considered. My trip up North had just been moved forward and I knew I was going to be on the road for a few days in the middle of the two weeks I had for the challenge. In the days before I knew I had a lot of packing to do (and a lot of things to squeeze into the time I had remaining with my boyfriend.) In the days after I knew that I was going to have a lot of unpacking and job-hunting to do. I almost backed out of the contest when I realized that - but I figured I could handle missing or doing poorly on one challenge out of thirteen - even if it put me at a disadvantage. Unfortunately with my anxiety issues, that's easier said than done. On top of the scheduling conflict, there was the fact that the challenge incorporated two aspects of horror writing that I consider two of my greatest weaknesses - and when I got the challenge information I was almost entirely convinced I wasn't going to be able to turn in anything at all. When I got within a couple days of the deadline and got my first chance to actually work on it properly, I was almost positive I'd be getting a zero. Running on almost no sleep I typed up the entry I had scratched in my journal in the hotel room lobby last week and got it edited down - having to rewrite it over and over to even out the structure and make my word count goal. After about a million drafts I finally got a version that (while I was not particularly happy with) I thought should qualify, and I formatted it and sent it in. Then I realized that I misunderstood the challenge completely. This isn't me. I mean, procrastinating is 100% me - but I'm always very, very careful with contest information and usually with contest entries. I quadruple check the challenge prompts with my outline, send the rough draft out to test readers with whatever information I have, and then spend days editing and polishing my piece. Something like this has never, ever happened to me where I just remembered something wrong and then didn't catch it. I knew this challenge was going to be rough. I knew I didn't have time to get this first entry up to my usual standard, and I knew that there were going to be setbacks. I just thought I'd be able to do better, and it hurts deeply that I was wrong. The stress I felt initially when I realized I messed up brought on one of the worst anxiety attacks I've had in awhile, and my initial instinct was to quit. I wanted so badly to send in an email, explain that between the sleep deprivation (seriously, I haven't slept more than a couple hours at a time in about a month at this point) and stress of moving cross country I had royally fucked up, and I don't think I can handle being a part of this. I didn't do that. I wanted to, and maybe I should have, but I didn't. I knew this challenge was going to be the worst one on me, and even though I messed up - I knew that was probably going to happen going in. Even though it's making me anxious to the point of feeling physically ill, I feel like I can push through it. When I lose points, or have my entry for this round disqualified completely - it's going to hurt. I'm probably going to be a mess that day and feel like a failure. But I'm going to get back on my feet and tackle the next challenge to the best of my ability, because going into this that's what I said I was going to do. I came here to vent some of my anxieties about this and to remind myself that there's a reason I'm doing this. I don't want it to seem like I'm making excuses for myself - because I do know that I could have done better. It just helps me to document my side of the story, and to have a record of why I messed up, what I have to overcome, and how I plan to grow from the experience. For the record, I do plan to learn from this, and I'm not going to let it stop me from trying my best in every single challenge that comes up from this point on - and with any luck I'll get a little better with each one. With even more luck, I'll go into the next challenge better rested and in lack of that, at least I'll know what to look out for. So that's sort of where I'm at today. It's not the best place honestly, but it's not the worst place either. I've been in places so much worse than this. Thank you guys for reading, those of you who did, I know you're probably not hear to listen to me whine, and I'll be done with that for awhile. It did feel really good to get this off my chest though, and now I'm going to go relax, and prepare myself for the next steps in my writing misadventures. I hope you are all doing well, and that I'm not coming across as overly incompetent - even though it often feels that way. Sincerely, Cat Hello Readers,
I just wanted to let everyone know that I am once more settled down, and no longer on the road. I am back up North staying with my family as opposed to staying in Sweet Home Alabama (which is neither sweet nor my home.) This is some bittersweet news for me. I get to be around my cats again, but I miss my snake. I get to rejoin my gaming group, but no longer have access to the gaming computer or PS4. I'm in a more open political environment, but am freezing to death. There are more bookstores up here, but there's no beach.I have a bit more of a social life, but it will be months before I can see my boyfriend again - and I already miss him dearly. But, enough of that. I'm here now and because I'm no longer in the car, I'm going to start up work again. Since it's the first of the month, I'll also be sharing my work plans with you guys so you know what sort of writing things I'll be up to this month. The first thing I'll be working on is my NGHW challenge entry. I am almost done with it, but am cutting the deadline pretty close. (It figures I finally get into an awesome contest and have to move in the two weeks my first challenge is due.) Once I get that in (and probably the next one in since we'll be receiving the challenge information very closely after I submit the first challenge) my top priorities this month will be blogging and submissions. The blog of course is just my horror things. Although I haven't been able to keep up with my online writing obligations the best on the road, I have been stockpiling article ideas, taking notes for upcoming reviews, and have even reached out to a couple authors for interviews. I think once I get that up and running the momentum will be pretty good - like it was that first week, but hopefully even better. As for the submissions, these are the things I'll be working on this April:
And of course, there's my plague manuscript which I am now entirely devoted to finishing. These are all projects which are not exactly pro-government - but I swear that they're all being written to fill certain guidelines in anthologies - it's not just my own political bitterness showing through (though political bitterness is one thing that I do have an abundance of as of late.) Anyway, I am off to go write some microfiction. I will hopefully be getting back on this blog soon to show you guys some cool stuff about the NGHW contest that I missed sharing with you because of my trip. In the meantime, thank you for reading and know that I'll be wishing you all the best. Sincerely, Cat Hey guys,
Remember that big news I told you to look out for? Well this is it right here: I'm expanding the horror blog. I am so excited to have been chosen to participate in The Next Great Horror Writer Contest, but it is going to be a big time commitment and I just don't feel like I'll be able to compete at my highest level while also trying to freelance and run a horror blog. Something had to give and I'm tired of putting my blogging goals on the back burner for financial reasons. So, I am now going to be transitioning into full-time horror blogging. It's a big change but it's been something I've been wanting to do for awhile and I feel like it's a step in the right direction. Instead of doing work-for-hire projects as a ghostwriter I'll be getting my name out there in a field I'm passionate about while being able to contribute to a community I love and support creators I believe in. The horror blog on tumblr is still alive and well, but I'll now be posting the majority of my original content first and foremost on the new WordPress site which can be found here: In Defense of the Horror There are going to be some additional expansions to this as well, but I'm determined not to overreach just yet. In the near future I'm going to be looking into doing more with this, potentially creating exclusive video/audio content and setting up a Patreon account for myself but in the meantime I'm just going to try and re-establish a small following. Moving from one blogging platform to another can be tricky, and I don't want to mess this up. So that's it! Thank you guys for reading and for the support. I have some stuff coming up on there that I am really excited about and I hope to see some of you over there. All the best, Cat Hey guys!
I have been officially selected as one of the of the contestants in The Next Great Horror Writer Contest. I'm incredibly excited an honored to have been chosen for the contest and to be competing alongside so many talented writers. You can read more about the contest and the other writers selected by clicking here. I have a lot of things left to do in preparation for the first challenge, which will start on the 20th of this month. That being said I'm going to wrap up this entry, but stay tuned. I do have another big thing that I will be announcing very shortly. As always, thanks for reading and you'll be hearing from me soon. -Cat I missed posting this when it came out a couple weeks ago, but here is the link finally. It's for the 31st issue of The Siren's Call eZine (which also happened to be their fifth annual Women in Horror Month Issue.)
Issue 31 I was honored to have my short story "Advice from a Friend" featured alongside so many talented women. The zine is completely free to read, so you guys should check it out. Hey everyone,
I'm sorry that I'm so late on my March project forecast. I am working hard, it's just hard to know at this stage which things are going to work out best and are worthy of being shared with you, my lovely readers. A lot of my efforts, as usual, have been going toward my horror blog. My queue is almost completely organized and I have rough drafts for a lot of upcoming articles, reviews and masterposts. I'm also trying to branch out some and bring in a wider variety of content. I have an interview lined up with a writer who I'm really excited to be working with, and I've had the honor of working on some pre-release reviews. There has been some talk of relocating that blog from its primary tumblr platform to somewhere with a little more visibility, potentially WordPress. The notion has been floated by me on more than one occasion that perhaps my blogging passion might make a better full-time career than a side project, as I seem to have a knack for it. I might also be participating in a contest for horror writers. I might not be, so it's a little premature to start name-dropping, but I am being considered as a potential contest. I will hopefully be able to let you guys know a little more about that in a week or so. A big part of qualifying for that (which again, might or might not happen) has been filling social media requirements. I am now the not so proud owner of a Facebook page where I am friends only with my significant other. I'll also be tidying up some of my information here to include some recent publications, taking the horror blog out of the hiatus section, and other such small things. Another part of that has been tidying up a couple of older manuscripts and desperately trying to pick which one has the most potential. Understandably that's very hard for me to do objectively since I have different levels of attachment to all of them. It looks like I might have to just clean up all of them to see where it gets me, which as I'm sure you can imagine is very time consuming. SO! Now that you know some of the things eating away at my time, I will bring you your monthly dose of what fiction things I'll be working on this month (aside from The Battle of the Three Manuscripts):
And that's about it. Balance this out with my novels and my nonfiction adventures, and it's going to be a pretty busy month all in all. Thank you guys so much for reading. Keep an eye out for those small site updates I was telling you about (I'll be sure to let you know when they're all finished.) I'll also be posting that short story that I had published last month, for those of you who would like to check it out. -Cat Hey everyone!
I'm just writing this to give you guys a heads up about some changes to my social media activity during the next couple months. Thanks to the absolutely wonderful NGHW contest, I have been getting a lot more attention than I am used to - primarily on my Facebook, which I had never used before last week. I will spare you the hour long rant about why I've never used Facebook, and skip right to the part where I tell you that I have caved, and will be setting up my page a little more properly today. Although I'm still not a fan of the platform, there is a lot of networking to be done on the site and since I need to sign in every day to check on the contest group - I figured that I might as well make the most of this chance. I don't know if I'll be staying on Facebook after the contest ends, but I do know where I'll be most active the next few months - and I'm here to pass along that information to those of you who might be interested in keeping up with my work or getting into contact with me. You can click the link on the left to find my account and subscribe/follow/creep on accordingly. Next to the link will be what sort of things you can expect to see from me there, and how often.
If you'd like to contact me I recommend doing none of the above - because most of those sites have a history of eating/hiding my messages. As always, the best thing to do if you'd like to reach me is just to fill out the form on my contact page or email me at [email protected] Thank you guys for checking this out and for your interest in my work/ramblings. I know all the writers say this, but I really do have the best readers. -Cat Hello,
I just got some bittersweet news that I thought I would share with everyone about a short story that I submitted to a body horror anthology last year. The press that was releasing it is going to be shutting down soon. My short story however did make the cut, and will be included in their last ever anthology (which will be released later this year in e-book form.) I'm really sad to hear about the press, and obviously this was not the exciting first print publication moment that I had dreamed of for myself (especially considering that the book will no longer technically be in print) but I am overall, glad that I get to be included in their last story collection and honored that I got to be a part of something so great, if only for a little while. I will be posting more about the short story and the anthology as I get more information, but I wanted to give you guys a heads up about that and share the news with you, bittersweet though it may be. In the meantime, thank you everyone for reading. -Cat |
Chapter 16 BlogJust a place for me to give updates on my work and mission of publication. Archives
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