My Writing & The Best of Old Time Radio

Over the past several weeks, a number of people who have read or have heard me read aloud some short stories from my upcoming collection of fiction, What Lies In Wait, have commented that the stories would make intriguing radio plays and they remind them of those old time radio shows that aimed to give listeners a late night chill. There’s likely a good reason for this, as old time radio has long been a quiet passion of mine. Over the years I have been listening to a wide variety of suspense, mystery, horror, and crime radio programs from the 1930s through the late 1960s, using the Old Time Radio Internet Archive, which has hundreds if not thousands of episodes available for streaming or downloading. To say they have affected my storytelling in recent years is probably not giving them enough credit, as I’ve become absolutely fascinated with the eerie tension within these stories

If you like podcasts like Serial, or if you are an audio-book junkie, you’ll love some of these old programs, and many are complete with their original commercials for everything from Wheaties to wine, coal to car batteries, and even U.S. war bonds. I throw them on my iPod and ride the subways of NYC listening to some of the best actors and writers to ever lend their talents to radio, people like Ray Bradbury, Humphrey Bogart, Vincent Price, Dorothy L. Sayers, Lucille Ball, Orson Welles, and many others. Below are my Top Five favorite programs that I highly recommend for all of you out there. 

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Lantern Lit, Vol. 1 Archived at the University of Buffalo

Fellow poet John Dorsey passed on some great news this weekend, saying Lantern Lit, Vol. 1, which contains my mini-chapbook of poetry 'The Darkest Bomb,' will be archived at the University of Buffalo. The book also appears in the stacks at my alma mater, Southern Vermont College, but to have a book in the university system in my home state is awesome news. John also says that the book will be part of Hugo House's April Book Expo, so if you're up in Seattle after March 29, be sure to check it out. And if you still want a copy or are interested in the other books released by Dog On A Chain Press, please visit their website, Thanks for the support!   

What Lies In Wait: Crawling Closer Every Day

I'm getting closer to having my next collection of short stories - What Lies In Wait - ready for all you eager readers out there, if only to help you level out your uneven coffee tables and couches. In all seriousness, I'm hoping you'll enjoy these fifteen eerie, pulpy, humorous, and memoir-ific tales, exploring all kinds of genres and stories, everything from a young boy's adventures while running away to the circus, a woman's struggle to decide what to do when the ghosts in her house portend a coming evil, and even a lumberjack stranded in the deep woods who finds himself hunted by an unspeakable, writhing beast. I'm getting back some fantastic edits and feedback from test readers, and there's some proofreading left to do, but the book is getting closer to a release with each passing week. Stay tuned! 

Writing Progress Report: January

The first month of the new year has been productive, even if my submission output to magazines and agents has remained minimal (something to fix this next week). So far this year I have:

1. Completed a full revision of my hardboiled dystopian mystery Reaper City, cutting it down from 109,000 words to 103,000 (after having cut it down from 130,000 last spring). This book has been in the works since 2007 so I’m hoping that this revision will be the one to finally earn the book a home somewhere.

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22 Steps to Self-Editing a Book While Eating Thai Food in Chuck E Cheese

Self-editing is one of the most widely discussed “craft” topics for writers and everyone has their own B.S. methods and tricks. Most of the tricks are just common sense, such as AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS, because you will never not ever catch all of your own typos, but you can try! (And you should try…nothing is worse than typos. Not taxes, not typhus, not anything.) Here are a few things I suggest.

1. Oh god, just hire someone else to do it. They’re probably better at it than you. No, not probably, they are. I just read six websites that all said something like “The author is the best person to edit their own work” and that’s such a load of garbage. You are certifiably the worst, because you know the material too well. Find someone who doesn’t know it at all.

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2015 Resolutions: A Year of Sundays, Shopping Bags, and Positivity

Ah, resolutions…that list of promises we make to ourselves that we damn well know we won’t likely keep...and yet sometimes they do work out. Last year’s list of resolutions (which disappeared when I transitioned websites) went pretty well actually, aside from my promise to do more overseas travel. That didn’t quite happen, but with some bumps while transitioning from 9-5 work to freelance, that was expected. But overall, my own resolutions went well even if 2014 was rather dour overall. Not the worst year I’ve ever had, but far from the best.

Somehow this rebirth into 2015 feels extraordinarily promising. It’s the most positive and ambitious I’ve felt in early January since the beginning of 2011, when I first moved to NYC. I have writing projects to work on, I’m feeling healthy and upbeat for the first time in ages, and most of all, I’m putting the old problems where they belong: in the rubbish bin with NYE party hats and dried up Christmas trees. This year is all about breaking new ground, starting new traditions, and saying yes to having fun. In that spirit, here are some goals I plan to keep.

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Six to the End (from the pages of Berlin)

My new poetry chapbook Berlin (from Maverick Duck Press) is flying out the door, and I thought I'd throw up a sample poem for anyone who would like to see what the chap is all about. The poems were all written during a week in Berlin, Germany in 2010 and contain plenty of noir sentiments: streelamps, trains, sidewalks, corner cafes, nighttime skylines, hotel ghosts, and more. You can order copies for $6 via the publisher or by emailing me at jhdwriting@hotmail.com. If you already own a copy, you can leave a review and rating at Goodreads.com. Thanks!

 

Six to the End

out go the lights

six to the end like empty chambers

of a smoking gun dead

 

broken heels running in the night

up the wet street, up the wet sky

blonde hair gracing the face of the moon

 

every dream has a hole

and every hole pours red hope

into pools of abrupt sermon songs

 

there isn’t a street without a crack

and there isn’t woman without a spine

to hold up her coat, or feathered summation

 

the women, they reload quick

and then men, they hurry for knives

every villain eager for a hero

every heart beaten to a pulp

 

and the empty shells slip from the gun

clatter onto the glass table

roll across Venetian blinds like mice

 

in the alleys there are tigers

in Macau there are fires

in morgues there are long dreams of masculine fear

 

all down the potter’s lane, cemeteries in a row

six to the end like waiting chambers

six to the end like autumn lovers gone