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Sounds perfectly haunting! Love a good scare. (Hugs)Indigo

I am so behind on reading my Shock Totems. I found some under a pile of TRB books : ( I blame it on not having a bookshelf for said pile. Luckily, now I do!

Woot! For the Shock Totem review. It's an awesome issue.

Indigo - I hope to sustain a bit of the scare/amp up the mystery. Thanks!

Natalie - Huzzah for bookshelves!

Cate - Thanks! I'm thrilled to be a part.

Oh my god, you have mirror people too. I'm going to run, screaming now. (So much scarier than cutting. Oh my god. SO SCARY.)

Ooh, nice passage.

I've never been too attached to my darlings, but I've noticed I am a bit more vicious than I was a year ago. Just threw a few hundred words in the word chipper the other day on a story I'm revising. Got it down to a streamlined 2,300 now.

I tend to have long openings that most editors don't like, and I *do* have trouble cutting them a lot of time. usually because those first pages were the origin of the story I wrote.

But more and more I'm learning to kill them too.

Hi Aaron,

Man, been busy with school lately, but I dug the posts you put together in the last weeks. Lots of good stuff...

That snippet of "In Hollow Fields" is excellent. Such a nice set-up for the tale (reminds me of early King, with the creepy rural setting) that I had to pick up a copy!

Hope things are going well...

Thanks, Gef. The chipper is our friend.

Tony - You did a great job weaving the important bits into "Uprooted".

Daniel - Thanks! I hope you like The Bottom Feeders. It's my "early" work.

You had me at... The Sons of Chaos and the Desert of the Dead.

I'm getting much better at the hacking and chopping. Just need to figure out how to deal with the spatter.

I'm excited about the Desert of the Dead... not so much about the edits.

:\

I like what I see here.

I'm going to echo what a couple of others here have already said. First, nice passage. Want to read more. Second, I'm with Cate, love that title.

I have a tendency to not kill my darlings but just put them aside. I can't count the number of times that I've pulled something from a story only to later drop it into something else where it's a perfect fit.

I was really attached to all of my darlings, then I realized they all couldn't last. So now, I even put down whole stories if I feel they don't work for me.

BTW, I love the excerpt and the titles.

I remember years back when I first joined my crit group I would take along chapters where whole paragraphs would be lined through. Paragraphs I had agonised over and quite liked. It wasn't until later I agreed that they didn't need to be there, despite how much I liked them.

Aww, the edits are never as bad as we think they'll be, Aaron! It'll be fun. Come on! (Am I succeeding in being coaxing, here? Not that I have a vested interest in this story or anything. Just saying, it's going to kick ass.)

I find that I'm less and less attached to particular sentences these days too. And I like that. Feels like I'm doing it for someone else, not just for, you know, my own amusement.

That's never as much fun.

Edits: the writer's bane.

I dont mind it so much anymore. I'm finding it easier to cut the slough from stories. It still takes me ages though and I have to admit, I always keep a copy of the original version. What can I say? I'm faithful to my old friends.

I'm intrigued about that story passage. Look forward to reading it!

Milo - I do too. I think.

Jarrett - I have a similar file but haven't updated it in over a year. I think some spring cleaning is due.

Tyhitia - Thanks!I have a sad file of "dead" stories.

Danielle - I find myself doing the same thing after years. I'll go back to a story I loved and realize it was lousy.

Katey - I hope so (on kicking ass). I actually like to revise; I just don't like starting.

Craig - I used to keep original versions, too, but then I realized I had a file filled with stories I'd never touch again. I still have that file...can't bring myself to deleting them.

Very nice review, Aaron! :)

I'm sure you'll paint your characters in the right light. And while the "stero-type" is derived from small minded people, some who didn't think to look deeper than what was in front of them, the retro decor (bed sheets, etc...) is still somewhat nostalgic.

Heh! I love retro decor. (and t-shirts, and movies...)

That was actually one of the things I was like overly impressed with about LD&D. I mean, I EXPECT you to write something that I wake up thinking about the next day. (The next week, in the case of that book, which is huge, but anyhow...)

But I thought a lot about that with John, myself. So yes. Huge props.

**LD&D SPOILER ALERT**



Katey - John is exactly why I don't plot a book. I didn't even know about his sister until we arrived at the camp, if you get my meaning.

Oh my god. Isn't it weird when the stuff that holds things together the best just HAPPENS?

<3 it!!

Nice positive review, Aaron, although it was pretty heavy on the spoilers. I finished the book last week and thought it was excellent. I need to get my act together and put together a few words of praise for it.

You can still get bow and arrow sets here but I think they're more Robin Hood.

I'm sure that it's a very fine line to walk. I have no doubt that you'll handle it well, Aaron. I have Loathsome cued up as my next book to read. Looking forward to it.

Katey - Fred is my tour guide. I've stopped questioning him.

Michael - I thought the Moreau reference was a little...off. Maybe not? Glad you liked the book.

Cate - I'd gobble up Robin Hood. That's the good stuff.

Alan - I hope you enjoy!

I actually thought of Moreau too. It's not spot on, and certainly doesn't seem as if it was inspired by it, but I thought it invited comparison, anyhow. Random thought!

Not reading the review until I've finished the book (not far to go now) as I didn't want any spoilers, but it's good to hear the great reviews are coming in.

Nice! Doubly so, in fact. (I just wanted to say "doubly"). That cover art really is cool.

Congratulations on the Oz and UK productivity--that cover is brilliant!--and, well...

Hee!! *dance*

Tony - I was pretty stoked when I say it.

Katey - *dance* (of the dead--haha)

That really is a super cover!

Loving the Midnight Echo cover.

Any time I'm tempted to set something *insert historical time here* I remind myself how much research it would entail. Then I cry. It's not that I didn't pay attention in school, I just have a really bad memory.

Nice!

Cool. I've downloaded my copy and will be reading it soon.

This post is replete with cool! I'm picking up a copy of Cate's collection, and congratulations on cracking into Midnight Echo. Terry Dowling is one of the best weird writers. Really dig his fiction (thoroughly atmospheric).