I was on this email discussion list called Writers Unite, which actually has little in the way of stimulating discussion (I was considering unsubscribing but never got around to it), and, last weekend, the list owner decided in her divine authority to sign all her list members up for some other list she ran, called Horror Writers. As a former fanatic reader of horror writers like Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz, Clive Barker, and Brian Lumley, I tolerated this, even though it bothered me a bit that someone would sign me up for a list without my permission.

The discussion on the new list is very mediocre, containing at best a few insightful comments and at worse (and as usual) a whole bunch of inside jokes and gags. There is also much bragging, as many of the writers and editors on the list sound well-published. Still, I find myself glancing at the messages at least briefly before deleting them and last night was no exception.

Just before I leave for rehearsal (I'm playing Toby Belch in a roaring twenties take on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night), the list gets a message from the administrator saying that she needs a couple more poems and a short story ("by tonight!!!") for her print zine called "Monster Mush" with the theme: "It came from the kitchen." I go to rehearsal, and I get out early for once, grateful that I can finally go to Hope Fellowship on a Wednesday night. Before I leave for Hope, though, I sit down and write out a little poem called "Dust to Dust" which I believe just might be corny enough for a horror rag. I get back from Hope an hour or two later and I start writing my girlfriend an email, when I get another message from the editor saying that she wants to use my poem.

The whole thing took place over a span of just a few hours--I heard the request, wrote the poem, and sent if off, and it was accepted and (I believe) published all in the same evening. That's technology for you. At any rate, I think I'll stay on that Horror Writers List for awhile.

Oh, and a fantasy parody I wrote was accepted by Jackhammer a few days after my last "Writing News" last month.

Filed under Acting, Eggplant Literary Productions, Jackhammer, Journal, Poetry, Prose and Poetry, Submissions, Theatre, Writing, Writing Life

Comments: Discuss this entry at LiveJournal