Carey Burns

Well, September is nearly here and that means my official 3 month long Halloween insanity will begin soon! I've already booked a room near Hell, Michigan so that I can attend the Ghoultide Gathering , created a Halloween House, and traced my friend's arms for a very creeptastic porch decoration... Writing has been a bust lately. I think I've let events in another aspect of my life stifle my creativity and that just stinks. Gotta stand up, shake off the negative, and let the weird out again. I invite you to do the same.

While perhaps not the BEST strategy for dealing with stress in life, it certainly is a delicious strategy. So much has been going on lately but nothing I want to blog about, so mind your business. (just kidding!) The Zombist is available for purchase so if you've got a hankering for cowboys and Indians and zombies, (who DOESN'T?) check it out! My little tale is the 2nd one, right behind Eric S. Brown. If you know zombies, you know who he is. Now that work is back to normal hours, I've had time to finish books I've started and am so happy! Empire by David Dunwoody is incredible and left me wanting more...I'm lucky, there is a sequel on the horizon. Yay! I'm also nearly finished with The Apocalypse and Satan's Glory Hole and the darn book is like some itch-inducing drug and I can't seem to put it down, no matter how dirty it makes me feel... Not much full-on writing going on but I've written a poem for a bad poetry contest. I think it's bad...

Well, I sent what I believe is the third email to Author Central (Amazon) to get a writer's page. My stories do appear in real books so I should be able to set up a page. You would think so anyway... Anywho, I still keep struggling with what background I want for my (eventual) web page and I think I had a breakthrough last night. With any luck, I'll get the artwork done this Friday. Or if I'm ambitious, perhaps tomorrow before my follow-up doctor appointment. The Writer's Block has me in its grip right now and I'm feeling a little morose. I do have ideas for stories, but no writing to show for it. Not a fan of The Block.

I'm giddy to announce that The Zombist is now available through Createspace and will be on Amazon very soon. I wrote a story called "Goldfield Goes To Hell" for this zombie western anthology and it looks like this will be a very big book. 450 pages big. I can't wait to get my copy to see what the other writers came up with! Here's another thing that made me giddy today. Gotta get into the Halloween spirit somehow!!

A nice, plump envelope filled with semiprecious stones was waiting for me on the porch last night so I had to make up a bunch of bracelets right away. My favorite is a big chunky strand of rough faceted seagreen jade. I liked it so much that I decided not to sell it. It kinda reminds me of Wilma Flintstone's necklace but honeydew melon colored. Pretty! And, I've got goodies coming to me so that I can make a little something wickedly adorable for Halloween. Here's hoping it turns out as well as I imagine it. I should be getting "The G.O.R.E. Score, Volume I" by Tony Schaab too. Yes, another book. I can't help it. I will be putting the brakes on book-buying soon so I can sink my funds into other things like...oh...I don't know...flooring. We've been putting it off and putting it off but it needs to get done. Ah, the joys of homeownership.

I don't know what it is or was in the air, but it had a hint of Halloween to it. Now, I've been feeling the Halloween itch for a few weeks now...doing double-takes at every splash of orange I see in the stores, daydreaming about how our front porch will look this year, craving caramel apples... There's nothing to cure the itch but to scratch it (metaphorically) and by jove, I've done it. I'm going to make a shadowbox shaped like a house and dress it all up in black and orange and scary things that go boo in the night. My supplies are on their way and I cannot wait to create something spooky all on my own. And I'm not stopping there. I've got oodles of scary stories to write to get me into the holiday spirit. I mean, we only have 94 days left, people! I gotta get busy!

So I knocked over the "To Read" pile of books on the coffee table and decided that I will give more time and energy to reading all the lovely books and writing up reviews for Amazon. Good times. Here's what's in store for me this week: Empire by David Dunwoody (loving this book so far) The Blooming by Tonia Brown The Apocalypse and Satan's Glory Hole by Tim Long and Jonathan Moon Hopefully...I'll finish all of these and then get to Bigfoot War by Eric S. Brown.