The Obituary of Sheldon Higdon

Thursday, March 8, 2012

The Obituary is Closing its Pages! BUT...

This here blog will be shutting down soon. Not sure of the exact date this blog will be deleted from the web, but it will be deleted in due time.

But!

You can follow my blogs, guest blogs, my interviews with others, and book reviews I'll be doing over at my brand spanking new website. So it's not all doom and gloom. I just wanted to streamline everything into one place.

I hope all of you that follow this blog will head on over to the new site. Instead of following the site like you do this here blog you can join my newsletter, Higdon's Horde. It's FREE to join and easy to unsubscribe when you want to. I hope you don't though.

I'm not one to bombard you with constant emails with the newletter. Once per month or every two months unless something cool happens suddenly then I'd shoot you a special newsletter.

The newsletter will give you contests, giveaways, news, etc. Plus more down the road which are in the works.

Right now, there's a special clue that you can discover on the new website which will take you to another new Secret Site (this a wordpress site) which will have free stories in the near future. It's a secret, and I haven't spilled the beans about it so you'll have to find it yourself. :) Once there you can follow the secret site. A listing of those who follow is at the bottom of it.

So please support this author and come and play at my new website! And join my newsletter for the morbid fun that's coming.

And yeah, I haven't given you the website addy. :) Not until it's live, which will be very, very soon. Probably before you finish reading this.

Stay Evil,

Sheldon

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Shock Totem: Holiday Tales of the Macabre and Twisted 2011 Giveaway!

On December 23rd I will be giving away five (5) copies of Shock Totem's Holiday Tales of the Macabre and Twisted, 2011, to those who have signed up for my author newsletter, which can be done HERE. (It is free to sign up and easy to unsubscribe if you wish to do so.)

Inside this wonderful issue is my holiday memory called Irony is a Cruel Mistress. Also inside these pages are authors such as Jack Ketchum and Kevin J. Anderson, to name a few.

Happy Holidays!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Hearing Voices Speaks with Comic Book Writer Kurtis J. Wiebe!

Before breaking into comics last year with his debut title, Beautiful Creatures (Red 5 Comics), Kurtis was a freelance writer, turning his talents to copy writing for Fantasy Flight Games. Once he discovered his passion for graphic storytelling, he pursued the art form relentlessly.
His hard work paid off, with three titles hitting the shelves in Spring, 2011. The Intrepids, a bizarre James Bond-type action series (Image Comics), Green Wake, a horror mystery series (Image Comics) and a hard edged crime graphic novel, Snow Angel (Arcana Studios) are prime examples of his wide range of both genres and themes he can utilize to best capture an audience.

HV: Where did the idea for Green Wake come from?

KW: The basic premise came about when I’d been asked to do a series of filler shorts for the back of Riley’s first Image series, Proof. Riley wanted to work on something pretty different from that series as a sort of break, and it was a great opportunity for me, so obviously I signed up.

From there, I came up with a detective story set in the 1930’s about a man who’s hire to track own a missing girl who ended up in a town dominated by a cult. The more I thought about the town as being a character, the quicker the story came to me and the grander it became. I asked Riley if he’d want to move forward with a bigger project which eventually became Green Wake.

Since then it’s been hours over coffee and Skype meetings to create what we finally put to the page for the first issue.

HV: There seems to be a Lovecraftian influence in Green Wake. If this is true was it intentional or did it slip in unaware?

KW: Intentional. That influence will start to be a little more obvious as the series goes on, but it’s had a fairly direct impact on the story so far, especially in the building blocks of Green Wake the town. I think people make that connection because of the frog people, a sort of homage to Innsmouth.

I love the monsters in the Cthulhu Mythos, and the concept of ancient monstrous gods from before time. That is so fascinating and horrifying.

HV: Who were/are influences on your writing?

KW: I’m all over the map on this one, I think because I never really stick to a genre with any of my work. I’ve loved Brian Wood for a long time, though I don’t know that his style has influenced my work rather than inspire it to be the best I can make it. I follow Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Brian K. Vaughn, Kurt Busiek, Steve Niles, Jonathan Hickman, and a host of other prevalent comic writers. I buy comics because of who writes them, not who illustrates them.

I definitely learn something new from my favourite authors every time I pick up their work, which is an awesome experience.

HV: Green Wake isn't your only title. Can you tell us more about your other titles?

KW: I’ve had three other titles published since 2009, the first being Beautiful Creatures from Red 5 Comics. It was received in a very positive light by the reviewing populace, but as I was a total newcomer the series was a failure, we barely sold 1000 copies. I learned a lot through that experience, in both writing and marketing.

In creator owned, you are your very own marketing machine, and the success of your book can, to some degree, depend on your willingness to put in the time to put the word out.

I followed that up with Snow Angel, but that wasn’t released until this Spring; it was delayed at the publisher for years. It’s a crime noir graphic novel about a young woman growing up with a man that works as an enforcer for a major drug cartel. It’s a bit like if Scarface starred Selma Hayek instead of Al Pacino.

Then I had Intrepids come out a month before Green Wake; it’s a story about a group of orphans who fight mad scientists, a little like Scooby Doo meets X-men. Definitely a more all ages book than anything else I’ve done.

HV: For future comic book writers can you tell us how you came to publish through Image Comics?

KW: I was professional. I treated my approach to getting published with a major company as though I was applying for the most important job in my life. I went to the Emerald City Comicon in 2010 with a clean, crisp pitch with full colour pages, sketches and a plot summary, all combined into one neat comic format printout. It was beautiful and I heard from a few people that the pitch was the talk on the editor circuit.

Beyond that, I also put together a personal writer’s portfolio, a glossy 32 page book that featured a handful of comic shorts that displayed a wide variety of genres and styles. It cost a lot. $350 for 20 books, but it was all worth it when C.B. Cebulski (Marvel’s talent recruiter) said that the book is exactly what writers need to do, but not one of them does. It made such an impression that a year later we met again at Emerald City Comicon and he remembered me.

You want to get published? Make someone believe it. Be professional.

HV: If you could work with anyone in creating your next comic who would that be and why?

KW: Ben Templesmith. I’ve loved his work since I read Hatter M, the comic tie in to the teen novel series. It was so different, and given I’d just started back into comics the same time the series came out, it was a real eye opener to how the medium could be used.

Fell was released shortly after that, combining my love of his art with Warren Ellis’ writing. I respect that he’s so popular, yet his style is like nothing else out there, and he loves monsters with tentacles. I can write the hell out of monsters with tentacles.

HV: Who are some comic book writers and titles that you suggest others should check out?

KW: How about a quick list?

1) I Kill Giants – Joe Kelly

2) DMZ –Brian Wood

3) The Other Side – Jason Aaron

4) Y: The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughn

5) Wet Moon – Ross Campbell

6) The Coffin – Phil Hester

7) Sweeth Tooth – Jeff Lemire

8) Phonogram– Kieron Gillen

9) Swamp Thing – Alan Moore

10) Kamikaze Pizzeria – Etgar Keret

HV: What future projects do you have in the works?

KW: I have 3 new series coming out in the first half of 2012. The first will be released in February called Peter Panzerfaust, which I’m selling as Red Dawn meets Peter Pan. It follows a bunch of French orphans fighting Nazis in World War 2 and I’m blending it with the Peter Pan mythology.

I also have 2 unannounced series coming after that, but their titles are Goblinettes and Grim Leaper.

And this year still a bit more to offer from me yet, as my novel Between Worlds comes out November 18^th from Bundoran Press. It’s been a busy year, for sure!

HV: Thanks for stopping by Kurtis.

You can find Kurtis at the following links:

Green Wake Comic Website: http://greenwakecomic.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kurtisjwiebe

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/kurtisjwiebe

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Guest Blog by Benjamin Kane Ethridge

THAT ONE’S GOT NO CHARACTER!

You’ve heard about character-driven stories and plot-driven stories. I’m going to assume you’ve heard what I’ve heard, which is that a character-driven story is better. Well, I don’t agree with that statement in total. It completely depends on what the story needs and that quality differs between genres and authorial style.

Let’s take five academy award winning films for an example. All of these movies have components of character and plot, but the focus usually locks firmly on one method of storytelling over the other. Some of these films may be debatable, or easily labeled a hybrid of great characterization and plot. If you study on them long enough, however, you’ll probably arrive to an overruling conclusion about which is more important for the given story’s success.

Crash (2005) – plot-driven. This movie is filled with characters but the audience is only given surface level information: that guy’s a reformed thug, that woman’s a racist bitch, etc. It’s what happens to these people and the particular sequence that makes the film notable.

The Departed (2006) – plot-driven. Certainly Leo’s character is in the foreground, which makes the conclusion more effective, but really the circumstances he encounters in the chaotic world of organized crime drives the story’s operations.

No Country for Old Men (2007) – plot-driven. Since the villain in this story is a force of nature, rather than a man compelled by human impulse, the course of events occur much like a tornado bursting into the story every fifteen minutes. This is a strange exception where plot is character.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – character-driven. The hero’s love for the girl drives every action of this film. Even his best friend wrinkles the plot with a personal decision near the film’s end. The emotional journey is more important than the physical one.

The Hurt Locker (2009) – character-driven. It’s not what happens to the main character when he disarms a series of landmines, it’s the fact that he is, himself, a ticking time bomb and the uncertainty of what he’ll do creates this movie’s forward movement. Does the sequence of events even matter in this movie? Is that what you take away? Not to me. I’d say that the biggest take-away is this guy is nuts.

It’s satisfying to have a good blend of character and plot, but there’s this gut reaction, despite the circumstances of the movie, when some folks say, “Ah, the characters were flat.” Sure, everyone likes strong, memorable characters, but are they always necessary? There’s a reason why characters in B grade porno films are one-dimensional. Scarce detail needs to assure the audience they’re watching a story and not just a sex marathon. Truth is, the audience doesn’t need excellent characterization in this case. Nothing more needs to be said about the lonely rich woman who wants the gardener to water her petunias.

If you watch a really good TV series, you’re bound to say there’s great characterization. Well, of course, because you’ve sat on the sofa with that character for ten seasons; there’s been a lot of time to paint a full picture. But the pilot episode? Pretty flat characterization given the time constraints of a single, twenty-two minute show, and somehow, despite this flaw, people kept watching! The plot must have been enough.

Consider Twilight Zone episodes—the characters are almost always wafer thin. It’s the situation, the weirdness, the fantasy, the plot, that powers those stories. In the episode, “Time Enough at Last,” all we need to know is that the Burgess Meredith loves books beyond everything else. Do we need to know how the events of his life led him to become a bibliophile? That’s unnecessary. In this case, a simple character detail is just another cut in the blade of a key that unlocks a demented anecdote. And we love it.

I’m not suggesting writing stories with weak characters. Make the characters serve your story, or make the story serve your characters. Judge the right investments for your tale. Sometimes it really doesn’t have to be all about the who, but rather the what.

Benjamin Kane Ethridge is the Bram Stoker Award winning author of the novel BLACK & ORANGE (Bad Moon Books 2010). Beyond that he's written several collaborations with Michael Louis Calvillo, one of which is a novella called UGLY SPIRIT, available in 2011. He also wrote a master's thesis entitled, CAUSES OF UNEASE: The Rhetoric of Horror Fiction and Film. Available in an ivory tower near you. Benjamin lives in Southern California with his wife and daughter, both lovely and both worthy of better. When he isn't writing, reading, video-gaming, he's defending California's waterways and sewers from pollution.

You can catch Benjamin at the following links:

Website: http://www.bkethridge.com/Main.html

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/benjamin.kane.ethridge?ref=ts

Twitter: http://twitter.com/bkethridge

Friday, September 16, 2011

Hearing Voices with Joe McKinney

Joe McKinney is the San Antonio-based author of several horror, crime and science fiction novels. His longer works include the four part Dead World series, made up of Dead City, Apocalypse of the Dead, Flesh Eaters and The Zombie King; the science fiction disaster tale, Quarantined, which was nominated for the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in a novel, 2009; and the crime novel, Dodging Bullets. His upcoming releases include the horror novels Lost Girl of the Lake, The Red Empire, The Charge and St. Rage. Joe has also worked as an editor, along with Michelle McCrary, on the zombie-themed anthology Dead Set, and with Mark Onspaugh on the abandoned building-themed anthology The Forsaken. His short stories and novellas have been published in more than thirty publications and anthologies.

In his day job, Joe McKinney is a sergeant with the San Antonio Police Department, where he helps to run the city’s 911 Dispatch Center. Before promoting to sergeant, Joe worked as a homicide detective and as a disaster mitigation specialist. Many of his stories, regardless of genre, feature a strong police procedural element based on his fifteen years of law enforcement experience.

A regular guest at regional writing conventions, Joe currently lives and works in a small town north of San Antonio with his wife and children.

So sit down with Joe McKinney and feel free to leave any comments to the following conversation.

HV: Why Zombies?

JM: Initially, it was because I fell in love with George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. That’s the movie that got the ball rolling and failing to give it the credit it is due is simply criminal. Later, I fell in love with zombies because you could actually do something with them. You could tell a story, sure, but you could also use them in all kinds of metaphorical ways. You could do anything with them. As a writer, that kept my interest going. But the real answer to your question, the simple answer, is that I find zombies just plain cool. I don’t think vampires are especially scary. Sorry, but not even a little bit. Likewise, serial killers stories are just plain weak. Ghosts can be scary, but more often times than not miss the mark. For me, zombies are horror’s high water mark. They’re not new, not by any stretch of the imagination. We’ve had revenants ever since we started telling stories. But with zombies, we’ve turned the revenants into a mob, and that is truly scary. The zombie mob is horror for today’s world.

HV: If--and when--the Zombie craze dies out will you continue to write in the sub genre or will you hold off and write in another genre until it resurrects once again?

JM: I definitely think we will see a waning in popularity for zombies at some point in the next decade. Exactly how long the bubble will keep expanding, I don’t know. It’s only natural for public opinion to grow hungry for something else, so I don’t think anybody will be surprised when the trend starts to slow down. But if the last forty years have taught us anything, it’s that zombies don’t ever go away. They just fade into the background for a little while before surging back into popularity. I’m actually kind of looking forward to that inevitable dip in the zombie’s popularity. Currently, I write crime fiction, science fiction and a lot of non-zombie horror, but the zombie stuff is what sells because it’s such a hot topic right now. When zombies start to fade into the background, it’ll give me a chance to show what I can do in those other areas as well. As a writer, I consider that a golden opportunity.

HV: What is there left to write about in regards to Zombies, seeing that there is so much of it out there? Is there such a thing as over saturation with them?

JM: I have always admired Brian Keene. Love him. Think he’s a fantastic guy. And I know he has some very definite opinions about this particular question. I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but I think if you asked him point blank, he’d say that it’s all been done and the genre is now lumbering along on life support. I’m pretty sure that’s why he chose to begin his outstanding graphic novel series, The Last Zombie, at a time right after the last zombie was put down. Come to think of it, Max Brooks may have had the same idea, which explains why World War Z takes place after the war against the walking dead has been won. The thing is, I don’t buy it. Granted, setting zombies up against Jane Austen or dropping them into other books can make the genre seem rather silly, but neither that, nor the amazing proliferation of crap writing in the zombie genre can really kill the storytelling potential of the zombie. Furthermore, I think looking at what else the genre has left to do kind of misses the mark. It’s not a matter of what the genre can do, but what writers and filmmakers can do with the genre. There really is no limit on creativity, or on meaningful stories. That being said, yeah, I think we can over-saturate the market. That hasn’t happened yet, despite the massive amount of stuff getting cranked out each month, but it’s only a matter of time.

HV: Besides Zombies, what other genres would you like to write in that you haven't?

JM: Well, I’ve written in my three favorite fiction genres already - horror, science fiction and crime. I would really like to do some non-fiction stuff eventually, specifically history. I’m a huge fan of Texas History, with a strong interest in the Hill Country and the Texas-Mexico border, and eventually, I’d like to write some popular history focusing on Texas during the first three decades of the 20th Century. As for fiction genres I haven’t touched yet, I’d like to try my hand at YA. That’s a great emerging market right now, and one that will continue to produce some great literature for a very long time.

HV: Who--in your mind--do you consider to be on top of their game right now as a writer? What work of theirs would you scream to the world to read?

JM: That’s actually a pretty long list. We have a glut of major league talent these days, and I have a running list of about thirty or forty writers I’m always eager to read more from. Let’s see, among the established writers who are working at the top of their game right now, I’d list: Joe Hill, Brenna Yovanoff, Bob Fingerman, Laird Barron, Stephen Graham Jones, Carl Hiaasen, Brian Hodge, John Langan, Ernest Cline, Adam Troy-Castro, Sarah Pinborough, Miguel Riojas, Sarah Langan, Jonathan Maberry, Dennis LeHane, Lee Thomas, Paolo Bacigulupi (I never miss anything by him), James Morrow, Cory Doctorow, and bunches more. Like I said, we’ve got an amazing group of writers
working today. I feel fortunate as a reader.

HV: How about up and coming writers?

JM: That’s another long list. I know I’m going to leave a lot out, but some of the emerging writers I always try to catch are: Nate Southard, Jeremy Shipp, Norman Prentiss, Paul Tremblay, Gary McMahon, RJ Sevin, W.G. Marshall, Matt Darst, John Garumba, E. Michael Lewis and Iain McKinnon. Like I said, that’s not even a sampling of the talent out there. Those are just the first few who came to mind.

HV: For the newcomers to the writing business what advice would you give to them as they enter this tough industry?

JM: This is pretty simple, actually. First of all, if you want to make any sort of living at writing, you’re going to have to treat writing like a business. That means you show up to work everyday and you put in a full day’s work. You keep up with the competition, the markets, the trends, and you constantly strive to make yourself better. And when you put stuff out there, you do it in an organized, professional way. When you send stuff out, even if it’s just a query, you make damn sure there are no typos, no routine grammar mistakes. I cannot tell you how many people tell me they want to be writers, and yet have no qualms whatsoever about sending out stuff that’s loaded with routine errors. It’s just disgusting, really. But above all - and I cannot tell you how important this last point really is - never forget the value of a handwritten thank you note. It’s a lost art these days, which is too bad, because taking the time to put a few quick thoughts down with a pen and paper can turn a routine sale or chance meeting at a convention into a lifelong friendship.

HV: What work can we expect from you in the near future?

JM: It’s been a busy year so far. I’ve released two novels, Flesh Eaters and The Red Empire, published eighteen short stories in various anthologies and online sites, and edited two anthologies, The Predatory Kind and The Forsaken. The Predatory Kind came out last month and The Forsaken, an anthology of stories set in and around abandoned buildings, should be out sometime before the end of the year. In just a few days I’m going to be releasing a zombie novella called The Crossing, which will be available exclusively as an ebook. I also have a short zombie novel called On the Road to Marvin Gardens coming out from Creeping Hemlock Press in January, a coming of age horror story called Lost Girl of the Lake coming out in February from Bad Moon Books, a collection of my zombie short stories called Dating in the Dead World and Other Stories coming out in March from Creeping Hemlock Press, a six part graphic novel called Blood in the Water coming out in the summer, also from Creeping Hemlock Press, and the fourth (and perhaps final) book in the Dead World series coming out from Pinnacle in September. In between those projects I have another ten or so short stories that will be appearing in various anthologies, including a big one in the new Zombies vs. Robots anthology put out by IDW. I keep an up to date listing and do regular announcements on my website, Old Major’s Dream.

HV: Thanks, Joe!

You can find Joe McKinney at the following links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1279984186
Website: http://joemckinney.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @JoeMcKinney