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Outbursts of Horror - by authors Manuel Melendez & El David

Anyone that really knows me, knows that I LOVE the horror genre.  Not so much the straight up slasher flicks (even though I occasionally delve into these as well), but the type of horror stories and movies that needle their way into the soft base of your brain and force their way malevolently into your dreams.  You know what I'm talking about.  There are some movies that disturbed me so much that I will probably never watch them again (ahem, The Exorcist), and novels or stories (ahem again, Event Horizon).

Now, I know what you're thinking... how can this guy call himself a horror aficionado while he admits to shying away from some horror?  Especially what many consider classic horror at that!  Hey, all I can say is that we all have our foibles...

I still adore the horror genre however, as can be evidenced by the majority of what I have on my bookshelves, my movie collection, and even what I write myself.  Horror is a genre that can only properly affect the reader if it is well-written enough, subtle enough, and - dare I say? - vicious and/or evil enough to suspend the reader's belief in the mundane and ordinary, and plunge them headlong and screaming into a place that defies logic, sanity or rescue.  I found this in an unusual book entitled, "Outbursts of Horror" by Manuel Melendez and El David.  This book is different from other contemporary horror novels by being a compilation of not just prose, but poetry as well.  I found myself captivated by the authors' ability to capture the part of my imagination that hungers for darkness, while feeding my almost visceral need for excellent writing.  Outbursts of Horror is, of course, also a treat for fans of Latino literature.  Manuel Melendez and El David have lavished nuggets of their Puerto Rican heritage throughout the book, making it that much more personal and passionate.  I thoroughly enjoyed Outbursts of Horror, and I can honestly say that it holds a place of honor on my bookshelf.

Authors need reviews!

Swiss-born British philosopher and author, Alain de Botton, once said, "Writing a book is like telling a joke and having to wait two years to find out whether or not it was funny."

A lot of authors, especially indie and self-published authors, feel this way.  Authors basically pour their heart and soul, not to mention time and talent, into a project only to wait in frustration to find out the honest opinions of their readers. I mean, don't get me wrong, a positive and supportive email, text, or call from someone telling you that they enjoyed your book is GREAT!  But reviews are different.  Reviews can be read by anybody and everybody!  Reviews can increase an author's readership and fanbase, especially reviews on Amazon. Yet many readers, even if they profess to love the author's work, do not go the extra step of leaving a review.  It's possible that the reader is intimidated by the idea of leaving an opinion of an author's work in a public forum.  Well, they shouldn't be.  The person writing the review should understand that they are doing the author a tremendous favor!  Reviews can even wind up being an author's bread and butter in a way, by letting potential readers know about their work before they make up their mind about purchasing or reading it themselves.  And a review doesn't have to be an essay, far from it!  Three simple words are all that's needed, "I loved it!" "I liked it!" or even, "Not that good."  Three little words can bolster an author's confidence, keep them informed, help them make future writing choices, or just let them know what you thought of their work.

Author Jan S. Gephardt stated recently in an article titled, "Have you thanked an author today?"
"The truth of the matter is, it's really hard for any author - traditionally published or indie - to help more people find his/her book, especially when he/she is just starting out.  Traditional publishers set an author loose upon the world with a stamp of approval - somebody already thought this was good.
But a new author is allotted no advertising budget by his/her publisher, and no promotional help.  So once the book is produced, they're in the same boat as the Indie (just making less money on each sale).
No matter how it's published, readers need to now about new books that they might like.  And author's careers, and their future as producers of more excellent books may absolutely live or die by how many people find, enjoy, and share the information about their book.
One excellent way to get out the word about a good new book is through reviews that readers write and post on Amazon (definitely!), but also on Goodreads, other review sites, on social media, on one's own blog - anywhere possible.
Reviews don't have to be long either, most people won't read past 50 - 100 words.  A review short enough to Tweet is better than no review at all."

So, reviews are important.  Besides, a nice review can help bring a smile to your favorite author's face.  So next time you find yourself with a couple of extra minutes on your hands, please write a review... that hardworking author will be glad you did!

The Ant Men test

When I was a kid, I read everything that I could get my hands on.  It got to the point that I started reading the labels on our canned goods at the dining room table.  My teachers, in an effort to feed my voracious appetite for words, gave me old textbooks and readers to take home... all of which I promptly and greedily studied and scrutinized.  By this time I had also read every book in the school library.  Now, along with my love of reading, I also longed for adventure (as if living in East New York, Brooklyn during the '60's & '70's wasn't adventure enough!).  I loved westerns, Sci-fi, action-adventure, horror... anything that involved danger and feats of derring-do!  I loved the idea of adventure in faraway lands, with an element of danger to spice things up! 

One day while at the school library, the librarian recommended a book that had just arrived in their collection, it was titled, "The Ant Men" by Eric North.  The colorful cover immediately caught my attention, and I spent the rest of the school year reading the entire book over and over, from cover to cover, at least ten times!  It wasn't that the book was particularly that great, but it contained all of the ingredients necessary to keep me thoroughly engaged!  I loved it (imagine, more than 50 years later and I still remember it vividly)!  When the next school year started, the first thing I did was to rush to the library and checked this same book out of the library.  Then, as I leafed through it's pages looking for all of the great illustrations that I remembered, I was dismayed to find that the drawings were all gone!  When I reported this to the librarian, she told me that the book never had those illustrations.  Apparently my imagination, coupled with the vivid storytelling in the book, had been enough for my mind to make up a bunch of artwork that didn't really exist!

So why am I telling you this story?  Because my question to you today is... does your writing pass the "Ant Men" test? 

Now, I'm not saying that your work must have the power to conjure up non-existent illustrations in the minds of your readers, but your work must still have the ability to capture your reader's attention - if not their imagination.  A reader must be able to momentarily suspend their existence in their world in order to immerse themselves totally in yours.  Your reader must be able to trade places with the characters in your book.  Your protagonist's concerns must become their concerns, the things that make up their world and their life experiences, must for the time that your reader is involved with your work, become what they see, hear,taste and feel.  If not, then sorry but you have failed your reader.

Katie Oldham, author of the "Love of your Life series, once said, "Have you ever realized how surreal reading a book actually is? You stare at marked slices of tree for hours on end, hallucinating vividly."

And that's pretty much the gist of it.  You want your readers to forget about the reality of things, and instead choose to believe in the reality that you have created for them.  You want your writing to be vivid enough for them to believe in it as much, or even more, than you do.  You want your words to form the artwork in their mind that brings them back for more.

Does your writing pass the Ant Men test?

Haters Gonna Hate (Reprinted from 2015)

Writers write. Painters paint. Knitters knit. Haters hate. Yes, unfortunately the phenomenon of various people disliking you for no real or obvious reason exists. I hope you're not shocked... or even dismayed. That's just the way it is and always has been. Remember the story of Cain and Abel? Joseph and his brothers? Haters gonna hate.

  Why am I bringing this up? Because I talk to a lot of writers and artists, and one common topic of discussion is how often a person's creative work is met with negative comments, open derision, or even outright hostility. Unfortunately, especially among aspiring and new writers and artists, this can be devastating. At the very least the actions of a "hater" can cause someone to second guess their work or even their career choice.

  Don't let this happen to you. The vast majority of people in the world are not only not creative, but don't understand the creative process. Some of these folks, not all but some, even feel that it's their duty to "offer" their version of they think of as "constructive criticism."  It is much easier for these folks to pick out real or imagined flaws with your work than it is to say something encouraging. I remember that right after my first novel was published, I excitedly handed out free copies to family and friends.  To my dismay, I learned that most of them never bothered to read it, and the only comment I received from the one person that claimed that they actually did read it was, "It has a lot of grammatical errors."  Do folks do or say these kind of things out of some sort of bias? Jealousy? Anger? Actual hate?  Do they actually believe that they're helping somehow? Who knows? But what I do know is that the subtle or not so subtle poison they so willingly offer to a creative person can have the effect of discouraging a creative soul and in extreme circumstances even sabotaging a budding or existing art or writing career. And that's a doggone shame.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about folks that offer up actual insight concerning your work, or truly constructive criticism, or sincere feedback. I'm talking about those folks that casually toss you negative remarks about your work (or writing in general); sometimes in an off-handed, I can't be bothered kind of way. I remember one person telling me that he placed my book in his bathroom since that's where he does most of his reading... was I too sensitive in feeling mildly insulted?  Was that his way of telling me what he thought of my novel?  I know that I would never tell someone that I keep his/her work in my bathroom.  I know an extremely talented and creative person whose work was constantly disparaged by an art professor to the point where this artist was on the verge of giving up.  The artist however stuck it out and is now much sought after in the art world... including by that same professor who, having forgotten his negative haranguing of this artist, now praises those same exact works of art he once ridiculed and tries to get her to attend his conferences or exhibitions.  The thing is that this person's actions show that his initial disapproval was triggered by something other than simple artistic opinion. Was racism involved? sexism? Did he have a knee-jerk dislike for this person's lifestyle? Either way, he was willing to destroy this person's self-esteem and budding artistic career.

  So what can be done? Well, there's not much you can do about the hater other than staying away from them or just not including them in your creative process. But there is something you can do about YOU. Creative people are notoriously thin-skinned. You have to toughen up and realize that some people will just never support you or see what you do as being a worthy enterprise. In that case, suck it up, dust yourself off, and get back to work. Not everyone is going to be a fan. Just like not everyone can write or paint or play the cello or crochet a capelet. You have something special to say via your art so get to it, that takes precedence over the negative mewlings of any naysayer.

  And haters? Well, they're just gonna hate.

Louis Reyes Rivera

“Always there is need for song… And every human has a poem to write..." - From the esteemed essay “Inside the River of Poetry,” by Louis Reyes Rivera.

Louis Reyes Rivera (1945–2012) was a fellow Puerto Rican born in Brooklyn, New York, and already a legend when I reached out to him and asked him to speak at my organization's first writer's conference.  In 1969, it was Mr. Reyes Rivera that fueled the CCNY student movement that led to the creation of the Ethnic Studies Department, he also cofounded "The Paper," the first newspaper run by Puerto Rican and African American students at the school.

Louis Reyes Rivera’s well-known devotion and work in matters of social justice led to his extremely active role as a union organizer.  He was also instrumental in helping to establish the Freedom Party, and was also involved in the Writers for Mumia initiative.

Affectionately referred to as the "Janitor of History", Rivera’s many honors, and awards included a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, a Special Congressional Recognition Award, and the CCNY 125th Anniversary Medal. Committed to the progressive and political power of jazz as well as poetry, Rivera appeared at dozens of jazz clubs and festivals and was inducted into the Brooklyn Jazz Hall of Fame.

One of his best known works is a 150-page epic poem "Jazz in Jail" that he was able to finish just before his passing in 2012. In a Spring 2009 interview with Eric Serrano, Rivera explained its purpose: “This project began roughly seven years ago. What happens if Jazz (personified) gets busted and put in jail? For what? For trying to stand against the exploitation of music by the music industry… For trying to bring together all of the music that comes out of the Diaspora—Reggae, Samba, Mambo, Calypso, Merengue, Hard bop, Cool bop, Be bop, the Blues, Mother Blues (the mother of Jazz), Grandpa Dirge, Grandma Praise Song, Work Song, Birth Song, the Chant—into one huge convention of the music, a family reunion – Let’s discuss our condition… So I had an opportunity to pay homage to poetry and music, to show you the conditions inside a prison and inside the court room, and I could even trace the history of it.”

So it was that this talented, accomplished poet, writer, essayist, historian and activist came to my writer's conference and blew everyone away with his eloquence,  and his mastery over words. I will always be grateful to Mr. Reyes Rivera for his presence at the conference, and many of us should be grateful for his many positive and creative contributions to the people of New York City, and for the community of persons of color in general. Wepa!

The 5-senses of Writing

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it's raining, but the feel of being rained upon. (E. L. Doctorow).

It has often been told to a writer:  "Don't tell me, SHOW me!"  As a writer, it's often simple enough to get totally involved in your writing and thus get lost in the storytelling.  In doing so we forget that we're not simply telling a story, we're asking our readers to believe in it; to immerse themselves in the world that we have created and to invest their five senses in it.  Unfortunately too many writers approach their stories as if their characters, and their readers, are devoid of one or more of these senses: Seeing, Hearing, Touch, Taste, and Smell.  This makes their writing, despite how good the story is, hard to fully invest in. 

When I was a kid, I took a book out of the school library titled, The Antmen.  It was a great story! When the summer ended, I made a beeline to the library and took the book out again.  But I was disappointed when I found that all of the wonderful illustrations had been removed!  When I reported this vandalism to the librarians, I was shocked when they told me that the book had no illustrations inside, except maybe one at the beginning of each chapter!  Apparently, the story had been so vivid that my mind conjured up a bevy of non-existent artwork to go with the story!  That's what you want from your readers.

The characters in your book must not only go through their paces in moving the story forward, but must also allow you to see, taste, feel, smell, and hear what they are experiencing as they live out their lives in your novel. Is that lemon meringue pie tart? Does it melt on the tongue?  Just how crusty is that crust?  Just what does the rain feel like on your protagonist's face? Hands?  Is it just sunny out? Or does your heroine find it uncomfortably warm?  Is it making her sweat?  Does it evoke memories of other times she was hot?  Or uncomfortable? 

Don't be afraid of experiencing the world that you created.  Let your characters walk you through old neighborhoods awash in the scents of fresh baked bread and a recent rain.  Let them invite you to run your fingers through the rough stubble on their chin. 

So go ahead, live a little.  And use all of your senses.