Rish Outcast 138: Anybody Wanna Buy Some Coffins?

Okay, finally.

Here is the episode where I cart out my salespitch for the oft-delayed "Ten Thousand Coffins" novella/audiobook. I talk about its inspiration, the frustrations in getting it out there, and dance around the central conceit of the story.  Hey, could you just buy it so we can move on?

You can't always get what you want, after all.

Oh, I heard 10,000 Maniacs' cover of Because The Night yesterday on the radio (yes, I still listen to the radio.  I am THAT old), and was reminded of where their name came from* and wondered if that's where my title came from.  I recall toying with calling it "A Thousand Coffins" and then upping it to various numbers, depending on how the title sounded.  I think I picked 10,000 because it sounded the best spoken aloud (better than 50,000 or 20,000, anyway), but it could have sounded good because there was a band years ago called Ten Thousand Maniacs.

Here's a link to the TEXT VERSION.

And here's one for the AUDIO VERSION. This one has the WhisperSync option available, and I'm curious, have any of you ever read/listened to one of those WhisperSync books? How does it work, exactly?

Thanks to Austin "Danger!" Douglas and Gino "Bridge Out!" Moretto for the cover art!

To download the episode, just Right-Click HERE.

To support me on Patreon, just Left-Click HERE.

*There was a gory B-movie (I think by Herschel Gordon Lewis) called 2,000 MANIACS, and the band misremembered the title as 10,000 MANIACS.  When they learned of their mistake, they had already gotten used to the band name.

March Gladness - Day Final 4/26

Good news, guys.

I had allergies yesterday, took a pill, got groggy from it, finished editing a story (for another podcast), and fell asleep . . . never having written the whole day.

Yeah, the good news is that this little experiment is over.  After who knows how many days, I didn't write, and the chain is broken, and I am relieved.  Part of me wonders why I wasted so much of my time in the first place.

The bad news is, I didn't even get a novel's worth (according to the Hugos definition) of words in this whole run, over all the stories and sketches and rewrites I worked on.

But now, I can move on to editing and podcasting, and maybe even publishing.

April Words:15,424*
Total Words: 38,778

What a relief.

*This may go up, if I write again this month.  You never know.

Marchpril Madness - Day 56 (4/25)

This was, all things considered, a pretty impressive day for writing.  Not because I got a lot of words (I didn't), and not because those words went anywhere (they didn't), but because, after a super long day, a long night seeing AVENGERS (it was after three when we got out of the theater), I still sat down to write before I went to bed.

I had an idea for another Star Wars story before the movie started, and met my cousin for a taco before we saw ENDGAME, and bent his ear talking about Darth Vader running into somebody he had saved during the Clone Wars as Anakin Skywalker.

I dunno if the idea is a very good one (any Star Wars idea is wasted work, since they can't go anywhere but onto the Delusions of Grandeur podcast, which no one listens to [not even you]), but I sat down and started writing it, getting the main points down, in case (as often happens), the whole thing faded away after going to sleep.

Words Today: 572
Words Total: 38,778

So, was today the end of my streak?

Avengers Spoiler . . . uh huh.

March Madness - Day 55 (4/24)

I often feel pretty young, even if the calendar tells me otherwise.  Sure, the white hairs in my beard, or the way I feel like a refrigerator is on my back when I squat to tie my shoes SHOULD be a reminder that I ain't so youthful anymore, but I'm so mentally and emotionally immature that I seldom think about it.

Today, I turned on the radio, and a seldom-played Sting song called After the Rain Has Fallen started playing.  I grooved to it for a moment before thinking, "Man, it's nice when one of the new Sting songs gets played instead of just the usual old hit--"

But then, I realized that After the Rain Has Fallen came out in 1999.  Which was twenty years ago.  Heck, I'm gonna put that in bold.  Twenty years ago.  And I still think of it as a NEW Sting song.

I'm as old as the hills.

Anyway, as far as this daily goal of writing goes, I think I'll focus on publishing a little bit in May.  I could put out the last episode of "Tales of eBay Horror"* and see if I couldn't get a short story or two put on Amazon.  I could send out lines to my little audio sketch and see if there's a fan who would like to voice the bartender.  I could record a couple more pieces for future Outcast episodes too.**  I could even go over to Audible to see if there are any books I should audition for (the only reason I mention this is because an author I produced a book for in the past asked me to go audition for a second book, which is a real honor . . . unless you think doing another whole audiobook for free is beneath me).  You never know.

I got very little work done today. But I got some more revising of "My Friend," and that's fine.

Words Today: 335
Words Total: 38,206

*Well, the last episode of Season One of TOEH, anyway.

**Any suggestions?

March Madness - Day 54 (4/23)

Will today be the day?  The day I break my streak?  The day I throw in the towel?

It could be.  It's after one-thirty, and I haven't written yet (of course, if you wanna be pedantic, I probably miss the deadline if it's after twelve and I haven't written yet).

But I'm not at all tired, so I think I'll still manage.

I drove down to my dad's house today for the first time in the season to mow the lawns.  I'd done it a few times when I went down with my brother or my mom, but today was the first time I'd done it alone.  I took my microphone and recorded an episode of my podcast, but it wasn't a very good one.  But still, much like writing, making new episodes is better than not doing it at all.

Being alone in that house after dark, I was reminded of my childhood fear of the basement.  I would have a recurring dream when I went down there and saw . . . someone standing among the half-finished main room there, someone I didn't know, who was malevolent and somehow alien.

I've had that same dream into my forties, so I imagine it'll continue long after the house is sold and someone else is living there.  I think there's probably a short story in that, but I don't believe I have written it yet.

While I was there tonight, I did go downstairs briefly, and the childhood memory returned to me.  I imagined turning the corner and seeing my father standing there, nearly three years in his grave.  A chilling thought . . . but I wasn't scared of that.  My dad and I had our differences (more than our share), but was never afraid he'd do me serious harm when he was alive, and I don't fear him now that he's not.

So, it would have to be someone else's ghost that I saw down there, someone I don't feel was a good person, and hence, might have sinister designs on me after their death.  That's a little scarier.

After I had finished, and it was time to go, I locked up the house and went through the back door (locking it behind me), then had to walk around the house in almost total darkness (the moon didn't rise until after one, for some reason).  That's another horror film scenario, and it would be pretty cinematic to walk right into someone in the shadows beside the house . . . or turn on my keychain flashlight and see someone standing in the weeds where the garden used to be.

Delightful, my mind is.*

But I realized just now that I'm stalling, writing this blogpost (now after two am) instead of writing a story.  Blogs don't count, the Word God once said, so I really ought to stop this and start on the actual writing.

...Well, not much.  Somehow, it's 3:28am, and I only managed three hundred words.  I spent a good long time on Wikipedia, though.  So there's that.

Words Today: 345
Words Total: 37,871

*No idea why I phrased that like Yoda would have.  Very sorry, I am.

April Madness - Day 53 (4/22)

Big seems to be writing every day, and has easily passed me by in words for the month (I believe he writes at least 500 words each day, often more, while I could write a single sentence and consider it a success).  My friend Jeff in Germany has also been writing every day in April, and he finished a story, his first in a decade or so.  That kind of achievement is pretty swell.

There are days when I want to do this stuff, and there are days when I don't.  Same with blogging.  Today, I'm happy to while away the hours updating my blog and creating alternate logos.  Tomorrow, I will probably feel very differently.  Ah well.

In the end, I spent a good few minutes revising today.  And it felt good.  Which is great, considering I honestly thought today was it, that I wouldn't be writing every day anymore, especially after barely managing any words at all yesterday, and not really caring about it.

I was thinking about next month, and what I should focus on, and that I haven't kept up on my podcasting or publishing (or even selling) since I've been writing and blogging about it at the end of every night.  We'll see what happens in May, but hey, at least today's count is pretty good.

Words Today: 1,765
April Words: 14,172
Words Total: 37,526

Rish Outcast 137: Todd, Jenny, and the Ugly Doll (Part 2)

So, in this one, I continue my walk, I finish presenting "Todd, Jenny, and the Ugly Doll," and I talk about the trouble with scary dolls.  

Dang, why wasn't that the title of this one?  "The Trouble With Scary Dolls."



If you'd like to download the episode, simply Right-Click HERE.

If you'd like to support me on Patreon, simply Left-Click HERE.

If you'd like to make a one-time donation to the show, not-so-simply find the PayPal donate button on the main page of the blog HERE.

Logo by Gino "Scarier Doll" Moretto.

Music by Kevin McLeod of Incompetech.com, and "Creepy Doll" by Jonathan Coulton, both under Creative Commons 3.0 licenses. 

What dolls scare you?  Lemmee know in the comments.

March Madness - Day 52 (4/21)

More allergies today, but I guess that's the price you pay for the end of winter, and the onset of summer.

I made an unpleasant discovery this week, when I realized I couldn't find my second memory card I use for recording audio.  I tend to record on one until it completely fills up, then switch to the other one while I edit (presumably) the stuff on the first one.  When the second fills up, I switch, and by then, I should be able to delete a few files from the first.

Until I lose one, that is.  I came back from Nevada last month, still editing a couple of audio projects, and when I went to switch my cards . . . I only had the one inside the recorder.  I looked around for it, and had no luck.  I even checked my suitcase, and decided since I hadn't seen it since that weekend I was away, I must have left it in Las Vegas.  But my uncle, who let me stay in his guest room, says he can't find what I'm describing left in there.

So that's vexing.  I have a couple of recorded stories on there, some panels I taped at my writing conference, a couple of unreleased podcasts (including a show Big and I started in 2016 or so and never completed), and the next episode of That Gets My Goat, which we recorded with Marshal Latham.  Big and Marshal have their recordings . . . but mine has vanished like a Rish at a social occasion.

A week from now, that TGMG will be no longer (as) relevant, so sadly, even if I do someday find the second memory card, I'll berate myself to no end and consider not even releasing it.  And that's if it's not forever lost.

The bright side (and it's an awfully dim one) is that it means some of the plans I had for my podcast this summer will have to be replaced, and I could end up doing something really cool then), but I hate that all those hours of work (not just mine, but Big's and Marshal's too) might come to nothing.

Now I have to think about writing . . . and I'm not able to.

I gotta write SOMETHING.  But what? *

Words Today: 236
Words Total:  35,761

*Started on a ghost story, though I'm not sure it'll amount to anything.

March Madness - Day 51 (4/20)

I suppose, if my math is right (and it seldom is), this makes fifty days I've written since I started this crazy exercise.  Fifty ain't bad.

Apparently, today is a holiday of some sort.  Although I didn't celebrate it, I did experience First Day of Allergy Season, and then some.  I ended up taking three Benadryls, and by afternoon, I had a really hard time staying awake.  Of course, the Season has only just begun.

Yesterday, I jotted down a few lines (very few, actually) for a new "Dead & Breakfast" story, and I pitched it to my niece today.*  She seemed to like the plot, but really liked the settting (the haunted bed and breakfast in Idaho).  So, at the end of the night, I sat down and started in earnest, on the first scene of the story.  I got a pretty good number--almost a thousand words, and I really ought to give it two more minutes, just to push me past that milestone, but I'm going to go to bed now, and see if I can't catch up on some sleep.

Maybe you should too.

Words Today: 977
Words Total: 35,525

*This one ended up being "Touching the Other Side," which I finally put out there around Halloween.

Marpril Madness - Day 50 (4/19)

All writing days can't be great ones.  I was busy the whole day, gone from morning till night, so the fact that I wrote a few words (on a new ghost story) is fine by me.

And you too?  Well, that's a relief.  Thanks.

Words Today: 354
Words Total: 34,548

Marpril Madness - Day 49 (4/18)

I’m at the library again today (first time this week), and our friendly neighborhood homeless man is in his usual seat, either sleeping and snoring . . . or breathing as Darth Vader would after taking a lightsaber to the junk.  It’s really quite disturbing, and reminds me of the Stephen King story “Gramma,” where a little boy is left alone with his dying grandmother, and her raspy breaths terrify him and light his imagination on fire.  Apparently, one of King’s earliest memories was the sound his own grandmother made as she lay dying in her bed, and he mined it for that story (which, coincidentally, shares its ending with at least three of my own stories.  Coincidentally, did I say?).

Abbie Hilton posted on Facebook this week that she finished one of her novels, after a day of writing that produced over five thousand words.

Five thousand.  We could almost buy our own ship for that.

It would be impressive if I could manage five hundred today, but instead, I’m blogging away, like I actually make money from it.*

I'll have to compare the "Misery" file from yesterday to the one from today to decide how many words I wrote. 

Sigh.  I don't really want to do that.  Do I have to?

Words Today: 1317
Words Total: 34,194

Actually, that's quite good.  I think I'll do this again at least once a week.  Until I stop.

*I told Big yesterday about Abbie’s accomplishment, and I told him that I couldn’t produce 5000 words in a single day if I was paid ten dollars a word.  He, being a bit more pragmatic than me, thought that he could, and I wonder if he’s right.  It seems to me that, if you were capable of writing that much in a day, surely you would have done so by now, say, on a day back in 2013 when you were feeling super inspired.  If you haven’t ever done so before . . . I just don’t think you’re capable.  It would be like George R.R. Martin finishing a novel in less than a decade.  And they DO pay him ten dollars a word.