Somewhere I heard the expression “teaching the dead to talk with us.” I don’t think, really, that’s quite what was said. I don’t know that “the dead” were involved at all. But the minute I thought it, I knew I had a story.
I’ve been watching shark videos and reels in the way many people watch funny cats or goats in pajamas. I see people who are shark experts swimming with sharks. I admire them.
And I wonder if there are consequences to messing with the order of things.
I don’t have the answers. Just a story. Here it is.
First, I declare I will be more active in posting my published stories here. Most of them are listed in the Recent Publications section, but I will put them here now, too.
This one came in a round-about way from a writing group with friends, as many of my stories do. Remember: It’s fiction!! (Although I have stayed in many a Super 8.)
It’s Appalachia January for me! I really love that region of the country, and would like to get to know it better. But for now, here’s what I’ve been reading.
Madame Cruller’s Couch by Elizabeth Massie at Stooges in Jackson MO with an Old Fashioned. Subtitle is apt: Dark and Bizarre Tales.
Brother by Ania Ahlborn at Walker’s Bluff (again) with a Blackberry Whiskey Lemonade. Just when you think it’s gotten as dark as it’s going to get, guess what? It gets darker. For me, Ahlborn is one of the scariest writers out there right now.
Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby at Walker’s Bluff with a Black Rose cocktail — a high octane heartbreak of a book. I’m actually about two chapters from finishing it. I’m slowing down because the high speed making me race too fast! NOTE: OK. I finished it. Might be the best last sentence ever.
So, I did something dumb today. I completely missed the driveway as I backed my truck into the spot, and got it stuck but good in the mud between the driveway parking space and the sidewalk. I don’t have an explanation.
Yes, I do. It was aliens.
So I came inside and made this reel from the story A Bedtime Story, from the book Better You Believe: A Collection of Horror by Tony Evans. I met Tony briefly at Scares That Care/AuthorCon in Williamsburg, Virginia last year. He’s part of the Appalachian horror writers’ scene. This story is one of my favorites in the collection. I hope you like my pseudo-spooky reading of it!
So. I’ve procrastinated productively. I’ve got character notes, timeline notes, outline notes, research notes, notes for my notes. I’m starting the prologue, draft 2, novel 1. (And being very dramatic about it, too, ain’t I precious?)
One of my tasks is to rescue my main character from the barely-there-outline she currently is. And I’m suddenly weepy about her, knowing what is in store for her, and I’m weepy for her son, and I hope this fucking novel is worth it. I mean, it is. I don’t have any choice though. Good, bad, or worst of all, indifferent, I’ve got to do it. But dang.
I’m starting out the year with a few anthologies I’ve been pretty anxious to read. I’ll read simultaneous with novels and other books.
Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, edited by Jonathan Maberry, is going to be great. I became a Weird Tales fan in the late 1980s, when Weird Tales was part of Terminus Publishing and under the helm of George H. Scithers, John Gregory Betancourt, and Darrell Schweitzer. The magazine covers were beautiful and lavish, and I can see some of the illustrations with my eyes closed. Weird Tales in that era introduced me to some of the best writers in horror at that time. I can’t wait to dive into this 100 year retrospective and forecast, edited by Jonathan Maberry, who is absolutely a perfect choice for this. (He’s also the editor of the current iteration of the magazine.
I brought the book with me to Route 51 Brewery, where I enjoyed a Pumpkin Ale, easily the best of its kind in the region.
I just finished Stories We Tell After Midnight, vol. 2 edited by Rachel A. Brune. I’ll have to get volume 1 now. It’s a Crone Girls Press publication. Support indie horror publishers and get this book! Seriously, the founders are terrific people who were very welcoming to me at my first horror con. After-midnight nightclubs, nursery rhymes gone awry, dating while cannibalistic, becoming part of an all-too-real movie premiere—and more.
I had this book with me just after Christmas at my favorite dive bar in Union County, Fuzzy’s, while starting out the night with an Angry Orchard.
I’m a little bit fixated on the Appalachians right now. I’m always low-key into that region but driving through a corner of it on the way home from Scares That Care / AuthorCon last spring poured fuel on the Appalachian-love fire. So I’m ready to tear into Tony Evans’ Better You Believe: A Collection of Horror. Also, I plan to attend AuthorCon IV in St. Louis in October. I don’t have a book yet, but I will have a manuscript by then, I hope.
I started reading this one at Blue Sky Vineyard, where my wine of choice that day was Seyval.
No secret that I love fairytales and folklore. Different cultures bring different flavor. In Irish fairy and folk tales, you’ll find a grimly manic humor in the darker stories. A common thread that comes all the way from the epics through the fairy stories is the concept of lost time. While you are in the thrall of the ghost or in the fairy glamour, time marches on and you are outside it. When you return to your senses, you will find the world has changed—maybe only fractionally—if you are lucky—but changed all the same. I had that idea in mind when I wrote this story.
Jinx. From Feed Literary Magazine
This one is published in Feed Literary Magazine, and I’m so grateful to them for giving two of my micros a home in the same issue!
The video is from the end of September, 2023. I was on my way from Archon, a sci-fi fantasy convention held in Collinsville, Illinois (home of the world’s largest catsup bottle) to the Grubville Opry, a listening room in Dittmer, Missouri, to hear my songwriter husband, Tim Crosby, play. I was at Archon for the first time because Jonathan Maberry was there. He’s a writing hero of mine. He’s incredibly talented, and staggeringly prolific. He’s got a great work ethic to match his talent, and he’s super cool to his fans. I had a great time at Archon. A fantastic group of people—friendly, creative, supportive of each other… the kind of people you hope you find at a convention when you know no one when you show up.
I filmed the reading alongside the Meramec River in Missouri. I stopped at the Minnie Ha Ha Park in Sunset Hills, Missouri to take a walking break. It turned into a filming break. There’s a little bit of background noise—it’s a popular park! The crow, pileated woodpecker, and black snake clips are from Coyote Creek (my backyard).
My writing comfort zone is flash fiction. It’s where I found my voice. And my first writing community. The process of writing a novel is vastly different from flash. I really love both processes. Writing this novel makes me appreciate the freedom of flash, and renews my respect for the creative process that happens there.
I approached the novel methodically. Or so I thought. I had a multi-page annotated outline to guide me. As it turns out, I hadn’t planned and plotted nearly enough! About 2/3 of the way in, I realized I had not thoroughly considered some of the most important plot points—like, why do you have TWO ghosts? Also, if you want the reader to like your main character, maybe spend some time making her likeable?
With flash, I rarely have even a smidge of an idea when I sit down to write. I use random-word prompts or picture prompts. When I start writing, I don’t know where I’m going. It’s free-falling. Sometimes it works and the words soar. Sometimes it’s more of a crash and burn. But it’s exhilarating. Even the flailing around can sometimes produce a nugget of a story.
I’m friends with and know so many writers, I feel kinda precious being all excited about draft 1, novel 1. But, having gotten this far, I can say I’ve learned tons about my own processes. For me, flash is instinct followed by thinking. Novel-writing begins with thinking and is aided by instinct.
I’m excited to dive into the second draft. I plan to have it in hand by AuthorCon St. Louis.
Epiphany Ferrell 