Carey Burns

Well, I've almost hit the 'send' button for my Cafe Doom submission five times but I keep chickening out. I'm used to having an editor or two read my stories and that's terrifying, but this will be out for other writers to judge. That scares the crap out of me. I need to just hit that button and let it be out of my hands but... Maybe later I'll have a wee nip of courage (aka Jose Cuervo) and 'accidentally' hit that button. Maybe. We'll see.

So I'm home alone on a rainy, dark day listening to my iTunes while writing but I keep hearing voices coming from the living room. I turn the music down, and all is quiet. I turn it back up and a few second later I hear voices again. It isn't the cats meowing at each other, but nobody is here. It's almost like when you're drying your hair and you hear a phone ring, but when you turn off the dryer, it isn't ringing. Are these voices just "chatter" or am I hearing something from beyond? Now I've done it, I've spooked myself. Let's change the subject, that may help. I'm nearly finished with my story "Death From Above" and I'm thinking of submitting it to Cafe Doom 's big contest. I'm just hoping that my dark comedy is dark enough for the judges. Only one way to find out... Yeah, still hearing them. This might just make its way into a story I thought of last night. Or not.

It is NaNoWriMo time again...this year I'm going to bust my butt to finish in time and I have 2 different book ideas to work with so it should be interesting. 30 days...50,000 words. Yipe. This means, of course, that I have to knock out several short story ideas and make a boatload of jewelry all before November 1st. I may need to clone myself. I'm nearly done with "Death From Above," which is a lovely tale of 3 friends (who happen to be vultures) and their quest to finally eat human flesh. Yes, it is a feel-good kind of story. Once I have it complete and error-free, I shall screw up the courage to submit it to a contest. Scary! In other scary news, I have a doctor appointment tomorrow for a full physical. It is scary because I've been having recurring dreams that the tumors I had removed returned and weren't benign. I'm sure it is just nerves, but it is scary nonetheless. And now in happy news, we have just over 10 days until Halloween!

I just got back from Hell, Michigan and boy is my skin burnt! Yeah...I know I'm not very funny. It was a fabulous trip: hit several haunted houses, met Creepy Clyde and attended the Ghoultide Gathering. Sooo much Halloween I could burst with orange and black innards flying out of me like confetti. I've learned that "Dracula Meets the Packrats" will appear in the forthcoming Groanology 2: Monsters, Madness, and Mayhem from Library of Horror. I can't wait for Drac's stories to see the light of day. The Library of Horror has another anthology that I'm subbing for, this one has ghosts in it. If anything on this planet (besides serial killers, sharks, the Bermuda Triangle or spiders) can terrify me, ghosts do it. I'm not sure why, but even hearing "true" haunting tales at night can keep me awake for hours and make me not want to go to the basement alone. True story.

So I ate lunch outside today and got bitten by several weird-looking bugs. I don't know what they were and can't seem to find a picture resembling them, so I'm just going to refer to them as The Little Bastards. Anywho, I was able to swat them away so they didn't feast on me too badly, but I started to wonder...what would happen if you weren't able to move to swat them away or squish them? Now I feel like The Little Bastards are crawling all over me. Yuck. There's a story here, but after writing about bedbugs, I'm a little hesitant to write about these things. I can only be freaked out so much before it stops being funny. In other news, I'm nearly done with a silly tale of three vultures that hatch a scheme to kill people. Just hope I can find a market for it...

Sheesh, it has been a long time. Let's see, I was delighted to learn that my flash fiction piece "Zombie 101" was accepted along with "Outbreak" into Rapid Decomposition-Living Dead Flash Stories, which will be a PDF compilation of zombie flash fiction. Very spiffy! I just submitted a silly tale called "Dracula Meets the Packrats" and this is a continuation of "Dracula Meets the Clutter Crew" which will appear in Groanology: Amusing Monster Mash-ups. I hate that post-submission queasiness but I think if I work my butt off writing something else, it'll take my mind off of the nerves. It's Halloween in my house for sure: the living room is decked out in orange and black and I'm busy making more scary houses. I've even made a sweet little Swarovski crystal spider and am plotting a way to make a bracelet out of it. Pictures to follow... The Ghoultide Gathering is just around the corner and I can't wait to see some incredi...

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.