Category Archives: writing

Tall Tale TV Celebrates 300 Episodes

Hey! Spring is right around the corner…even though we’ve already sprung ahead, but whatever…am I right?

What’s great about Spring? Spring break? Spring cleaning? How about the simple idea that the weather is starting to get nice?

Whatever your reason for celebrating Spring, I’m celebrating the 300th episode of Tall Tale TV! My friend, Chris, has officially uploaded his 300th episode on his YouTube channel.

If you’re still defrosting from Winter, you might not have heard about Tall Tale TV. It’s a great channel, though. Chris, a talented voice actor, who performs readings of innumerable tall tales, has been growing his list of writers and fans for three years.

Tall Tale TV is a wonderful channel that not only showcases wonderful talent, but it also promotes up and coming writers, and it brings to fans across all genres little glimpses of novels, and sometimes, full short stories!

If you’re a writer, Tall Tale TV is the perfect place to find new fans. If you’re a reader, or you have a penchant for audiobooks, you’ll get to hear a piece of literature you may have never before heard.

Tall Tale TV has featured many of my excerpts, and many more of my excerpts will soon be promoted, so keep an ear out for those. Just make sure to give every episode a listen; you might find the next hidden gem!

You might also want to hire Chris to voice your next audiobook! I know I’ll be employing his services for Otherside. He’s already performed an excerpt of my novella, but I love the guy so much, I’ll be hiring him for the full audiobook version.

You can listen to his performance of Otherside here.

You can listen to his performance of Noodlin‘ here.

You can also to his performance of Necessary not Casual here.

Whatever genre you enjoy reading, or hearing, Tall Tale TV has something for you. Be sure to like and subscribe. I mean, c’mon, it’s free, and you can listen to 300 excerpts and some full short stories.

Support your fellow artists. Support your fellow Americans. Support anyone who spends their own time and effort helping other artists.

Gaming past, present, and future

A Nintendo Entertainment System

A Nintendo Entertainment System

Hi, everyone. I’ve brought you many game reviews such as; The Legend of Zelda, The Wind Waker, Chaos World, and Actraiser. I usually bitch about gaming in my reviews, so this time, I’m just going to bitch about gaming—satirically of course—no review.

 

This all began when I first learned about Steam. Reading through what Steam is, and how the platform works, I couldn’t help but feel out of touch. I mean, it’s awesome for game developers, indie or otherwise, who want to release games and get traction, but I don’t get why gamers would buy games through Steam and then play them on Steam, but then I had to consider just what gaming is, or rather, what it is to me.

 

Like most dudes in their 30s, I began my gaming sojourn with an Atari. I think it was the 2600, but it might have been anything. From the Atari, I was upgraded to the NES. My first game was the Mario and Duckhunt twofer. They were games. I played them. They were okay. Then, I got Simon’s Quest, and you can read my Castlevania reviews here.

Castlevania II Simon's Quest

Castlevania II Simon’s Quest

Simon’s Quest blew my shit. The music, the story, the monsters, the magic, the mayhem! Oh my God, that was some serious shit to me, and I was like 6 years old then. Games went from incomprehensible lines and pixels, to plumbers jumping on mushrooms, to bad ass vampire slayers destroying evil curses, and then I got Life Force. Holy freaking cow, games then turned into a space adventure, fighting mind-boggling aliens through unimaginable alien worlds!

Life Force NES

Life Force NES

Holy fracking shit, I then got Megaman 2! Robots running and gunning, blowing other robots to shit, and stealing their weapons only to fight more, bigger, badder robots?!?! WHOAA!!!

Megaman 2

Megaman 2

Of course, I calmed down a little after that. R-Type wasn’t a novelty. Final Fantasy wasn’t a magical journey. I liked those games, but the feelings evoked were never the same. It’s like the first time you get laid; you, like, can’t believe it’s happening, and then it’s over. Sure, you do it again, and you get better, and sometimes things are different, but it’s never the same as your first time no matter how bad your first time was.

So, to me, gaming is like sex? Wait, where was I going with this? Oh, right, Steam, and all that.

Yeah, so gaming, for me, was a way to immerse myself in a foreign world where there were new rules and new adventures, and then there were multiplayer games. This is back when multiplayer games were played by people in the same room, on the same console, looking at the same T.V. screen. Yeah, it was a great way to get socially awkward kids, who were bad at sports, together and do something they liked, socially, together, physically, in the same room.

Now, most multiplayer games are played alone, which is weird to me. It’s cool that people from different countries and cultures can do something together, but no one is hanging out in the same basement, playing games together as a social gathering. I mean, these are games. They just happen to be video games. Would you want to play Monopoly with three other people in three other countries? Games are supposed to being people together, but I digress.

The real question is: Why do we like videogames? Why do we play them? The sights, the sounds, the stimulus? Sure, but they also evoke emotions, memories, and we often enjoy something that someone else imagined; something we could never imagine ourselves.

Now, the same thing can be said for books, T.V., and movies, and maybe this is why some people like watching other people play videogames, but that’s another concept that blows my shit to dust. People watch other people play videogames.

I like books. I read about things I could never do, like, say, fall in love with a vampire. Can’t happen IRL. I like movies because I get to see things I can’t really see, like a dragon setting a village on fire. I like T.V. because I get to see people do things that people don’t really do, and the consequences are often humorous; I like comedy shows like Seinfeld; yeah, those guys would’ve been dead or jailed long before season 9, but, here’s the kicker, with a videogame, I can interact with all those qualities.

I can’t play a movie, book, or T.V. show, but I can play, interact with, a videogame, and suffer consequences like a game over. I can share those interactions with other people in the same room as me when playing multiplayer games. I have no desire to watch someone play Wind Waker unless that someone is in the same room with me, and I can fuck with them. Then, they hand me the controller, and we take turns, but the idea is that it’s a social gathering with gaming as the activity. Otherwise, I’m just gonna’ pop in The Edge of Tomorrow!

This makes me wonder why gaming companies even release games anymore. Why don’t they just make FMV shows? If people wanna’ watch a game, watch an FMV show. I loved Reboot. I love watching MLP and Overwatch, too, but that shit’s on special sites. You know what I mean!!!

On the other hand, I can’t judge or condemn people for what they like. I also support E-sports. I mean, gaming contests have existed since gaming was a thing, and if someone who plays basketball for a living can earn a living, why not someone who plays NBA Live? A game is a game, right? And if we watch people play real games, why not watch them play virtual games or video games?

I could play basketball, but I’d rather watch it on T.V., so who can say what’s what?

I guess, in the end, I just feel out of touch. There are so many games out there, good and bad, that I will never play them all. I’m not going to download every single NES rom from emuparadise. I’m not going to get to play every game on the SNES. Hell, I just learned about Neopets at the beginning of 2019. It took me 14 years to learn that the game existed, so I have so many games to discover and play, for better or worse, that I’m just not willing to exert the effort required to stay on top of the contemporary gaming trends.

I think the newest game I played was Ark, and that shit fell flat on its face after like 6 months.

Fortunately, indie game developers are making more and games for dudes like me. Unfortunately, I don’t know where those games are released or how I can play them. I guess I could sign up for a Steam account and even buy Steam hardware, but then I’d be saving my games and game files to the Steam cloud sever, and if people stop playing on Steam then all that shit vanishes, but my NES still works, and even if it didn’t, I could buy one of those mini-NES’s with the built in games.

For me, the whole point of gaming is to bring people together, but it seems like technology is pushing people apart, and we’re trying to make games like real life, but if real life was so great, we wouldn’t be escaping it to play games, get me?

I mean, consider that before movies, we had books. Now, we have movies…but we still have books! To me, the NES is like a book, and no matter how great it is to own every copy of Harry Potter on your e-reader, it’s so much cooler to own the whole print series, and you read it over and over again, right? You don’t read it once, and then trade it in for A Song of Ice and Fire, right?

I don’t know. Maybe, I’m just getting too old for this shit. Oh, yeah, Harry Potter and A Song of Ice Fire all suck, so eat that!

Anyway, you can find and read all of my game reviews here! Thanks for reading this post about my issues with aging and gaming. Make sure to fuck around this website and check out my original stories.

A Moment with Scott Kinkade

God School by Scott Kinkade

God School by Scott Kinkade

Scott and I connected on LinkedIn after a discussion about the professed death of LinkedIn groups. To that effect, I made an offer to anyone who would like to guest post on my blog, and Scott was the first to take me up on that offer. Since I told him to post about anything, he decided to let everyone know that God School will be free on Amazon for a limited time.

18-year-old Ev Bannen was just hoping to get admitted to college. He never expected to be recruited to a school for gods, where he’ll be spending his days building up his strength, learning to answer prayers and getting an education in religion alongside aspiring god of money Jaysin Marx, the lovely but troubled Maya Brünhart and anger-prone ginger Daryn Anders. But the organization of evil gods, Zero Grade, has plans to unleash hell on earth, and Ev and his friends soon become targets. What’s more, someone close to Ev is not who they claim to be, and their betrayal may doom mankind forever. Ev steps up to save the day, but does he even stand a chance in hell of defeating a legendary deity?

Second edition published June 2018. It fixes the errors in the original.

Download God School from Amazon

You may have noticed the snippet at the end of the blurb about fixing errors….

The truth is that every writer’s every project is prone to innumerable errors, and as I have written copiously myself about this very subject, I’m happy to reiterate; your spelling and grammar software can not replace a human editor. Here’s what Scott has to say on that same topic.

Imagine going to the Amazon page for your books and seeing reviews about how your work needs to be edited before release. How would it make you feel? Would it make you question your writing skills? Well, it certainly didn’t make me feel so good. But it did kick my butt into gear and set me on the path to being a great proofreader.

But let’s rewind a bit. More specifically, let’s go back to 2010 when I self-published my first novel, Mirai: A Promise to Tomorrow. I was so proud of that book. And you know what? It sucked. Nobody liked it. I don’t even like it.

However, it was a necessary learning experience. It taught me valuable lessons I would need for my next novel, The Game Called Revolution. That one ended up being much better received. I would go on to publish seven more novels… and on none of them would I use SpellCheck. I was so confident of my proofreading ability, I thought I didn’t need them. Well, you saw the above reviews. Obviously, my skill wasn’t up to snuff.

Then, last year, I left a stable job and couldn’t find a new one. I was burning through my savings at an alarming rate, and something needed to be done. It was around May 2018 that I found Caitlin Pyle’s online “Proofread Anywhere” course, and I realized I could become a proofreader and live the self-employed dream.

Caitlin’s course taught me the in’s and out’s of proofreading, and it came with numerous exercises to hone my skills with. Now I have real confidence in my abilities and am ready to put them to work for clients. I founded Proofread Excelsior LLC last year, primed to tackle the challenge of growing my own company.

But you may be asking yourself, “Why do I need a proofreader? I’ll just use SpellCheck.” Take a look at the following picture of my current WIP.

 

proof

I proofread that after I ran multiple spelling and grammar programs. It’s proof positive that you can’t rely on them. You need a trained human eye on your work.

Now, I’ve seen people make the argument that “I’m an indie author and so my work doesn’t need to be held to the same standard as mainstream books. That’s not what it’s about.” Let’s say your book is poorly edited but you publish it anyway. You’ll surely get fans that don’t care about the shoddy work. But your book won’t go on to become a classic. It won’t achieve the success it could have had. It will die in obscurity.

It’s all about respect. You need your writing to be as polished as possible so people take it seriously. And, really, you’ve got to be able to take pride in what you do.

I agree with Scott on the fact that all work needs to be properly polished before release, but I have also found that many people who call themselves “editors” can’t read or write their way out of a paper bag, so for all of you out there who want to know how to find a good editor, I have one piece of advice: Go through my editing and free resources tab.

I also want to stress that proofreading and editing are two different animals. Proofreading is the means by which another reader finds technical errors in a written work. Editing is the artful ability to transform a sequential account of events into a story worth reading.

Nevertheless, proofreading is paramount because your mind will see what it expects to see, and your software just won’t do the job right, so be sure to drop by proofreadexcelsior.com

Thanks, everyone for reading this guest post by Scott Kinkade. Don’t forget to check out his books on Amazon!

 

 

My Family Guy script for The Item

family guy

family guy

I woke up at 1 43 am and wrote this on February 12th of 2019. It took me less than 3 hours.

The Item, a Family Guy episode written by Aaron Dennis of www.storiesbydennis.com

This screenplay is based on Family Guy, a Fox show. Feel free, Fox TV, to adapt as much of it as you like.

Enjoy The Item

Peter is driving a little cart in a mall during closing hour. He’s driving some old woman through a lingerie store towards the exit. It looks like maybe she works there.

Peter: Night, Beatrice.

Beatrice: Good night, Peter.

She steps off the cart at the glass door. Peter opens it, knocks her out with one punch, and pushes her out the door with his foot.

Cut to Brian who is looking at a corpse in a Brookstone. There are lots of recliners.

Brian thinks: Man, I haven’t seen Peter kill anyone in forever.

Cut scene to 45 minutes earlier when Peter stabs a teenage girl who was taking a picture with her cell phone. He grabs the phone and runs off screen.

Back to Brian rifling through the corpse’s inner jacket pocket. You see he is looking at an item in his hand, but you don’t see the item. He pockets it. Brian is then walking up an escalator, which is off. Before he reaches the top, Peter rolls up in the cart and begins to drive it down the escalator. Brian flips out but manages to hop into the cart unharmed.

Peter: Hold your horses. Hold your horses. Hold your horses.

They barely make it to the bottom of the escalator, gingerly reach the doors, and then Peter floors it through the glass doors.

Mall parking lot.

Peter: Where does the saying hold your horses come from?

Brian: It’s from the past, when people stopped and held their horses.

Cut scene to 50 minutes earlier. The teenage girl has her phone out and is telling Peter and Brian to hold their horses.

Peter: God, you’re beautiful.

He and the horse are hugging and staring lovingly into each others’ eyes. Peter can’t help but to kiss the horse. The horse kisses back. Peter flips out because the girl is still taking pictures, so he kills her and takes her phone.

Mall parking lot.

Peter: Did you find it?

Brian: It was in the Brookstone manager’s pocket. How did you manage to miss it?

Peter shrugs.

Show opens. Peter and Brian are inspecting the item in the kitchen, but you still don’t get to see it when Lois walks in.

Lois: What’re you two up to? You’ve been acting weird all evening.

Peter: Nuh-uh, you’re the one who is actin’ all weird.

Lois sighs: You’re acting even goofier than when you were possessed by the ghost of Dr. Mengele.

Cut scene to Peter in an SS outfit sewing Meg and Chris back to back.

Brian is standing by plucking petals off a daisy, saying: I love you. I love you not. I love you. I love you not.

Chris: Ow! Dad! Please, stop it. I’m supposed to be watching my educational program!

Meg: Yeah, get off of us, you fuck tard!

Peter finishes sewing them and runs off. Chris shuffles over to a remote and presses the button. You hear porn sounds. He looks happy. Meg looks despondent.

Back to kitchen.

Brian: That wasn’t as bad as when you got Stewie that Ka-Ge-Ki machine.

Cut scene to Stewie. He is the Ka-Ge-Ki guy in jeans fighting The Motorcycle Gang Warriors from the arcade game.

Back to kitchen.

Lois: Well, just promise me you’ll stay out of trouble. Our lawyer bill is already puttin’ us in the poor house.

She starts pulling groceries from the fridge to cook dinner. Peter and Brian walk outside.

Outdoors.

Brian: So, what do we do now?

Peter: Quagmire was in the Navy. Maybe, he knows someone who can help us out.

They walk to Glen’s home.

Quagmire: Get that big, brown ass inside. I’m gonna’ throw a saddle on you, and ride you so—! Peter, what-uh, what’s up?

As Peter and Brian approach Quagmire, a horse walks up to Glen’s opened door. You see the horse and Peter exchange a somber glance.

Peter mutters: Slut. Hey, listen, Quagmire, Brian and I found somethin’ interestin’. We figured maybe you know some seamen what can help us out.

Brian: I think he means someone in Naval Intelligence.

Quagmire: What is it?

You see they are showing Glen the item, and he looks puzzled.

Quagmire: Where’d you get it?

Peter: Never mind that. You know anyone?

Glen looks displeased. He gives Brian a dirty look.

Quagmire: My dad might.

Brian looks uncomfortable, and says: Maybe, I should, uh, be getting off of this ride….

Peter: Nonsense. Who cares that you fucked Quagmire’s dad. It’s the 90’s!

Brian: It isn’t, but you’re right. We’re all about tolerance now. A straight guy can nail a dude who identifies as a girl, and he’s not gay, so—

Quagmire: Alright! Alright! Alright! Just go home. I’ll call ya’ in the morning.

Back in the house, everyone is sitting down for dinner.

Lois: Anyone seen Stewie?

Cut scene to Stewie fighting another Ka-Ge-Ki guy.

Back to dinner table.

Peter: I ain’t seen ‘im.

Lois: Well, I’m gettin’ worried. I’m gonna’ check on him. Chris, eat your vegetables.

Meg: Yeah, Chris, eat your vegetables.

As Lois leaves, she mutters: I shoulda’ had those abortions.

Joe and the police are inspecting the mall, which is an obvious crime scene. Cleveland walks up, and the entire police force draws their guns on him.

Cleveland: A black man can’t even get a damn Orange Julius.

Peter, Glen, Ida, and Brian are meeting up in someone’s old, beat up RV. The twitchy guy is looking over the item, which you still can’t see it. Ida smiles awkwardly at Brian, and Glen grumbles.

Peter: So? What do ya’ think?

Navy guy: Nowadays, people are storing information in all kinds of trinkets. I’m not really sure what this is.

Peter: Bitcoin? Is it Bitcoin?

Ida: What’s Bitcoin?

Brian: A joke.

Quagmire: I mean, where do you spend it? I’ve tried to use it at every online porn shop I can find, but even the Chinese sex doll shop in Shenzhen doesn’t take it.

Navy guy: Yeah, it isn’t Bitcoin, but it sure does look like an information storage device. Where did you say you got it?

Peter: I killed the Brookstone guy for it.

Quagmire: Why?

Peter: It was shiny, and I wanted it.

Brian shakes his head, adding: I’m the one who recovered it.

Peter: And you’re a good boy, Brian.

Brian shyly shuffles his foot, saying: Well, shucks, Peter.

Navy guy: Well, if you ask me, it’s probably secret black ops data. Like deep, dark stuff; the kind of deep, dark stuff you know you’re not supposed to get into, but damn does it look good.

Brian and Ida glance at each other, and Ida mutters: I love it when someone gets in deep and dark.

Quagmire: For fuck’s sake.

At the Griffin house, on the couch, the family is watching TV. Tom Tucker is talking about the mall crime scene.

Tucker: Quahog police believe this is the work of Donald Trump, who so obviously wants to find a new animal to glue to his scalp. In other news, a gang comprised of what appear to be a bunch of Japanese calling themselves The Motorcycle Gang Warriors is terrorizing the city. If only we had a wall.

Kinney: That’s right, but fortunately one fighter can stand up to them.

Cut scene to Stewie fighting another Ka-Ge-Ki guy.

Back to news.

Tucker: We’re all just waiting for Tom Brady and the Patriots to get back out on the field and embarrass the rest of the NFL. Now, Ollie with the weather.

Ollie: It’s hot!

Tucker: Thanks, Ollie.

Lois: I hope Stewie didn’t get out. It sounds like this town is goin’ to shit.

Meg: Maybe, you should get off your ass and go find your baby.

Peter: Shut up, Meg.

Lois: Whatever happened with that thing you were gonna’ show Ida?

Peter: This thing? No one knows what the hell it is.

Lois takes it. You see her inspecting it. She hands it back to Peter.

Lois: Well, if it ain’t a vacuum cleaner, I can’t help you.

Peter holds up a gold coin, and says: Everyone is stupid but me.

He unwraps the coin and eats a chocolate coin.

Brian: You committed murder for a chocolate coin?!

Peter: That’s right, Brian, but not just any chocolate coin. It was the first chocolate coin…made fresh this mornin’.

Stewie strolls up still dressed like the Ka-Ge-Ki guy. There’s no room on the couch.

Stewie: Make some room before I start beatin’ some ass.

You hear the game ask: Are you ready? Then, the Ka-Ge-Ki music starts up.

The end, assholes.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. I also hope someone helps me get this thing produced. I really don’t even care about money, I just wan the credit for writing a Family Guy episode.

I know the show’s dynamics have changed, but if you ask me, the writers have all forgotten how to write jokes. Family Guy is supposed to be about jokes and 80’s references. I don’t need a cartoon trying to teach me the “right way” to live life, but I sure do want to rot my brain out for 30 minutes, so, yeah, share this please.

Also, here’s a link to Ka-Ge-Ki, so you can see it!

 

How to make money writing

money

I met an acquaintance for lunch. He works for a book review company, and we were speaking about writers. He went on to say that independent writers are just terrible.

I asked him why he held that opinion, and he enumerated his reasons; the story is sloppy, the plot meanders, the pacing has issues, the characters and dialogue feel contrived, and overall, they just don’t seem to understand how to write.

Playing devil’s advocate, I asked him what made mainstream writing superior, and he replied that mainstream writing doesn’t suffer from the same pitfalls.

I then asked if that meant that every book he reviewed by a mainstream writer was perfect.

He said no. There were several books by mainstream writers that he read that were quite bad.

I asked if they suffered from any of the same downfalls he had enumerated regarding independent writers, and he admitted that that was the case.

I pointed out that mainstream writers have editors, and before I finished, he interrupted, saying that that was a problem for independent writers. They don’t use editors. They just write a story and think it’s ready for publication.

I went on to finish my thought; mainstream editors must not be that great if mainstream books suffer from the same pitfalls as independent writers. He frowned and didn’t know what to say.

I then pointed out that independent writers do in fact hire editors to clean up their manuscripts, but they don’t know that the editors they’ve hired are crackpots. How can they know? Who is there to tell them?

He nodded, but added that there are plenty of competent editors out there who not only work for publishers, they also do freelance work.

Yes. I agreed. I told him the real problem isn’t independent writing, or writers. The real problem is the independent publishing system. It’s too easy, too accessible.

I can sit down and pound out one page of crap in 2 minutes. I can have it published to the whole world, even major book distributors, in 5 minutes.

He said that was indeed the problem. Someone needs to sit down with these independent writers and explain to them what they should do after they write a story and before they publish it, but that all that information was available.

Indeed it is, but no one is forcing these writers to access that information.

In the world of major publishing, it’s very difficult to have a story published. There are numerous checkpoints along the way.

Let’s assume a new writer has just completed their manuscript, and they want to achieve major publication. The first step is to query an agent. If the agent likes the query, they’ll want to see the manuscript. If they like the manuscript, they then want to know how large the writer’s fan base is. Which awards have they won? What other publications do they have? Is their story marketable to a wide enough audience for the publisher to make a profit?

Then, if everything looks good, the agent goes off to query publishers. When a publisher finds an interesting manuscript, they provide the writer a contract. The publisher then has its own checkpoints.

They design a cover. They pick the title. Their marketing department designs the blurb and marketing strategy. Editors clean up the manuscript for a broader audience. Every effort is made to provide that book with the highest possible chance for success.

Who is doing any of this for independent writers? Who teaches them how to write a proper query? Who is teaching them which agent is best? How do they win awards or build a fan base if they’ve never published before?

Who is teaching them how to find an editor? Who is teaching them which is editor is best? Who is teaching them how to design a cover, pick a title, or write a proper blurb? Who is paying for services rendered? Who is then selling their book?

I pointed out to my acquaintance that there’s nothing wrong with independent writers or their writing. They’re just working blindly, alone through an enigmatic system that isn’t designed to help them succeed. It’s only designed to allow them accessibility.

He agreed.

I added that the mainstream publishers have made it even more difficult for great writers to succeed, and that the ones who are succeeding aren’t doing so because of their superior writing; they’re succeeding because they have a better understanding of the publishing system.

There are also hundreds of independent writers who have done so well on their own that major publishing houses approach them in order to sell them a contract. He agreed again.

The truth is that there are innumerable, amazing writers out there. They are so creative and imaginative, and they have these phenomenal tales to tell, but they are just clueless when it comes to presenting those stories, and they are clueless on how to distribute those stories. They are also very, very impulsive; they get their great idea, they think they can pound it out in a month during NaNoWriMo, and then run off and publish it for the world to see.

No. No. No.

All of these writers need to slow down, like, way, way down.

These writers then think they need to join these contrived writer groups who promise to make their stories available to hundreds of thousands of readers.

Now, I’m not talking about peer editing groups, or groups of writers who work together to share their knowledge. I’m talking about those groups, which act like distributors; the groups that accept books. That’s really what they’re doing; they’re signing up new books, not new writers, and they promise to sell those books to consumers, but they don’t actually do that. They just try to engage those writers in joining blog tours, giveaways, and review exchanges, but none of those things are effective because there are no consumers there. No one is going to those groups looking for a new book to buy.

What a writer needs to do is slow down.

Write that story. Get it all down. Fill it with absolutely everything. Then, step back. Stay away from that story. Forget all about it. After months, go back and read it as a reader.

The writer will then notice redundancies, plot holes, pacing issues, and an overall sense of confusion because the story is no longer fresh in their mind. That’s the time for the rewrite.

Some chapters will be too long and boring. Some will be too short and feel rushed. The contrived dialogue must be rewritten to sound like organic conversation. Some passages will have to be restructured and organized. There can be found better and more clear and concise ways to provide information. All the extra fluff–the stuff that doesn’t add anything to the story–will have to be cut.

Once the rewrite is complete, that writer will then need to make that story available to a very small, niche audience. To do this, one simply asks for beta-readers. Beta-readers come in all shapes and sizes, though, and some of them will skim  over a 100,000 word book in a day or two, and their feedback cannot be productive.

Did you read Harry Potter in a day? Did you read it only once? You have to read a book slowly, numerous times to get all there is to get from it.

The good beta-readers will take their time to figure out what they like about a story. They take their time to figure what they didn’t like. They will explain why it was good or bad, and what they would like to see change.

It’s that writer’s duty to take all that constructive criticism and apply it if they believe it will enhance their book. However, enhancing that book doesn’t mean making it better in the eyes of the writer. It means making it a better experience for the reader, and that’s another problem.

No one is teaching this simple concept: Write for you. Publish for your audience.

The version of Harry Potter that you read and loved is not the version that Rowling wrote. It’s the version the editors cleaned. It’s the version the publisher approved.

Now, during the time it takes to secure beta-readers and receive feedback, the writer should be experimenting with different covers, titles, and blurbs. They should also be shopping for editors.

After the second rewrite is accomplished with the help received from beta-readers, the writer needs to hire an editor. A real editor will spend at least a few weeks carefully reading the book. Their job is to take that sequential account of events and transform it into a story that readers will enjoy experiencing.

While the editor is doing this, and hopefully communicating their thoughts with that writer, the writer should be talking about their story with an audience. Otherwise, who will be buying the book once it’s published?

Eventually, the writer will receive feedback from their editor. A good editor’s advice should be taken to heart, and their changes should be made, not for the writer’s sake, but for the readers’. Once those changes are employed, the writer needs again to step back, and forget all about their story. After a few months, they need to go back and read it again as a reader, but they also need to consider what kind of publishing is best for them.

If they want major publication, they need to consider all those concepts provided earlier; finding the right agent, proper querying, and perhaps even hiring a review agency, which reviews arcs, so they can prove their story will be appealing to a large public.

Most of these services will be expensive, and a lot of people don’t want to spend money, but an independent writer can’t even hope to compete against major publishing all on their own. The big houses have endless resources. Being an independent writer doesn’t mean doing everything alone; it just means being responsible for everything.

My acquaintance and I discussed all these concepts at length. We both agreed that if such a methodology was employed by all writers, it would no longer matter if a book was published by a major house or self published. Of course, the number of sales can vary greatly since the big houses include marketing and advertising departments. In the case of independently published writers, they will then need to spend more money to purchase book release services, but here’s the thing; major publication forces a writer to spend a ton of money anyway, more than you might imagine.

Let’s assume this writer does go the mainstream route. The contract is signed. The book is perfected and released. The big house offers a $2,000 advance. That’s an advance, a promise that the book will recoup that $2,000 within the first six months to a year of publication. If it doesn’t, that writer might lose their contract and their edited version of the book, title, cover, and blurb because the company owns all those rights.

Now, if the book is successful, at least $2,000 must be earned by the publisher before any royalties are paid to the writer. In order increase the chances of this occurring, the publisher will instruct the writer to purchase 5,000 copies of their own book. This automatically places that book on The New York Times Best Seller list, so everyone can say, “Hey, it’s a best seller, so you should buy it, too!”

5,000 copies of a book at cost is still very expensive, probably about $25,000. Then, that writer, who is under contract to do all this is, is instructed to parade around the country and sell their book in person, on their own dime. The company books the events, but the writer has to cover their own expenses, so a year of touring adds another $25,000 to that writer’s expenses.

Suddenly, that $2,000 advance doesn’t seem so great, and this is precisely why most writers have day jobs. Of course, if they survive their first year, they ‘re in a great spot; they can easily secure publication of any book they write after that first one, but it still won’t guarantee that the royalties will outweigh the cost of touring the second book.

It takes quite a few books and many, nerve-wracking years to achieve financial independence. That’s why you get writers like Ursula K. Leguin, who have been published by major houses for years, who go out and set up GoFundMe accounts, asking consumers to cover all these costs.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if a writer is independent or mainstream. There are millions of mainstream writers you’ve never heard of, who have day jobs. It is very difficult to become a wage-earning writer, and there should be no rush in trying to achieve that.

Another offer made by mainstream houses is a chance to option movie rights. The best selling writers’ books are always movies. More people read Harry Potter after the movie came out. What writer doesn’t want their book turned into a movie?

Movie options can be obtained by independent writers as well. It isn’t easy. It might cost a pretty penny, and a writer might have to hire a lawyer in order make certain they aren’t being cheated out of royalties from products like action figures, video games, or apparel.

This enigmatic process bypasses millions of writers. That’s why I’ve used my own experiences to outline a strategy that will lead every writer to success.

I don’t promise millions of dollars in revenue, but I do guarantee that any writer who takes their time and studies my strategy can make a profit from their writing. For just 99 cents, I offer you the following:

How to Become a Successful Writer Secrets the Mainstream Publishers Don't Want You to Know by Aaron Dennis

How to Become a Successful Writer Secrets the Mainstream Publishers Don’t Want You to Know by Aaron Dennis

This manual brings to your fingertips all the practical knowledge required to build your long term writing career. Any writer of any level will benefit from the material within this comprehensive guide. From the neophyte to the professional, anyone who reads this book will learn everything from formulating an idea for a story, to practicing the art of the short story, to writing proper fanfiction, and writing an original novel.

This book not only teaches how to write, but also how to market, edit, publish, and all with exercises and even free resources. From start to finish, the ideas presented are done so in an easy to understand and entertaining fashion. By the end of this manual, you will not only know how to write, edit, publish, and market your book, but you’ll know what kind of publishing is right for you.

Why don’t publishing companies want you to know these secrets? Publishers run an exclusive good ole’ boy club, and in doing so, they choose who they help to succeed, and who they help to fail, but when you learn these secrets, you’ll know that no writer needs a publisher in today’s internet age. Bypassing a publishing company not only allows you to maintain control and earn the bulk of your income, but it relegates the old, dinosaur, publishing companies to obscurity.

Buy How to Become a Successful Writer from Barnes and Noble

For just 99 cents, you will learn at least one thing that will help you to earn more money from your writing. You know 99 cents is worth making just a few more sales every month, but if you’re still not convinced, that’s okay. I provide everyone with numerous free resources. Just check out my Editing Services and Free Resources tab. You can enjoy numerous articles regarding all aspect of writing and publishing.

Thanks for reading this post. I wish you success throughout your writing journey.

The Cayneian Audiobook is now Available

Cayneian: A Man From Blood By Aaron Dennis

Cayneian: A Man From Blood
By Aaron Dennis

A man stands resolved. Dysart, clan Bloodhammer, has returned to the island of Volgunther to purge it of the evil called Salamandrus. He has given his tongue, so that he may speak no contracts. He has given his manhood, so that he may not know his power as a man. He has given his mind, so that no God may take pity upon him.
Wielding the forbidden power of Sang Daemanus, Dysart imbibes the blood of Daemons to cast his spells, to grow his strength, to fuel his powers, but will he be able to stave off the bloodlust before the evils upon the island claim him?

Check out this Kirkus review on Cayneian, A Man from Blood:

This series opener sees a warrior determined to free an island from a Daemon’s grasp.
Dysart of clan Bloodhammer has lost his sloop and is now washed ashore on the island of Volgunther. He’s immediately
set upon by savages, but thankfully a man named Talbot saves Dysart with his bow and arrows. At his nearby cabin,
Talbot learns that his guest has no tongue. Then Dysart draws a rune in hog’s blood on his throat, which allows him to
speak. He explains that his people, the Cayne, once inhabited the island. They also woke a Daemon called Salamandrus,
making a pact with the entity for power that involved the ritual of Sang Daemanus. Later, they sealed the Daemon away,
but “instead of ending their service to Salamandrus, they departed from this place, hoping to retain their power.” Dysart
has come to end his people’s accord and make Volgunther a hospitable island once more. After obtaining an axe and
other supplies from Talbot, he travels east toward a settlement. He saves a pyromancer named Randall from wolf men
and drinks their blood to receive heightened senses and healing abilities. But Dysart concludes that his rune for speech
will fade without the esper oil derived from a plant somewhere on the island. Randall joins him, and they head for Etmire
Abbey, where they encounter the Order of the Cross. Dysart will need every ally he can find as he battles through
monstrous hordes toward Salamandrus’ lair in Castle Golvundehr.
Dennis (War and Glory, 2017, etc.) squeezes all the gore he can from his muscular imagination to enhance his novel,
which recalls the viscera-strewn adventures of fantasy icons like Conan and Elric. Readers learn early on about Dysart’s
magic: “Animal blood is effective, if weak. Human blood is potent, if unsavory…but Daemon’s blood makes us
unstoppable.” This results in a marathon of grisly dispatches—encounters with frog men, murderous plants, zombies,
and worse—that propel the hero but also fuel his addiction to power. While the plot is somewhat linear, the gruesome
premise shines blackly throughout. Dysart not only needs blood, but he’s also traded his tongue, his testicles (“that we
might not realize our own power as humans”), and his mind as an initiate of Sang Daemanus. Fighting at his side are
characters like Pattius, a thief; Marcus, a knight; and Reman, a young orphan. The author often fleshes out these warriors
just enough to draw from readers a meaningful wince as he sacrifices them to Dysart’s cause. A dreadful ambience
hovers even in quieter moments, as in the line “Only darkened hills loomed in the distance. Everything else was flat
grassland molded by gusts of wind.” The dialogue during combat scenes is appropriately maniacal (“Blast you, croakers!
Fall to the wrath of Randall!”), yet Dysart is capable of speaking beautifully. In cautioning Talbot, whose family is dead,
he says: “Hold their memory dearly, and do not rush to see them.” Though the violence grows monotonous, a finale
bristling with invention redeems the work.
A bloodbath that should impress readers of the grimmest fantasy tales.

This review is attributed to “Kirkus Reviews”, and you can follow the link to my review on their site.

For now, the Cayneian audiobook is available through a couple of retailers. More retailers will be making the audiobook available over the next few weeks.

Buy Cayneian on Google Play

Buy Cayneian on Scribd

Buy Cayneian on Nook Audiobooks

You can still download the ebook for free until January 1st, 2019 via Smashwords

Finally, I have 30 giveaway codes for the new audiobook! If you already have an Authors Direct account, the book will simply appear instantly in your library, ready to play. If you don’t have an account, visit authors-direct.com/redeem to enter your giveaway Code and email address. They’ll automatically create an account and send a link to download the Authors Direct app, where the audiobook will be waiting in your library.

Since I only have 30 giveaway codes, I can only give them to the first 30 people who email me, asking for a code, so don’t be shy! Email me right now dennis@storiesbydennis.com and ask for a Cayneian giveaway code.

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett, Epic the First

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett, Epic, the First, is an ongoing compilation of adventures. I have recently begun to combine the short stories and have edited them to read as chapters in a novel, and yet they retain their individuality. I am proud and very happy to bring them together in this first epic.

the adventures of larson and garrett epic the first

the adventures of larson and garrett epic the first

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett began long, long ago when I was a lad, myself; I used to spend one night a week rolling dice while our dungeon master, David, narrated the outstanding story. Eventually, those who lacked the sobriety required to survive the adventures died off, and Larson and Garrett were the only two heroes to remain, and yet the other members; those who died, those who wandered off, those who came and went are remembered.

Let it be said that the Adventures of Larson and Garrett are in no way plagiarized; these are not cut and pasted transcripts from sessions of Dungeons and Dragons, no. The Adventures of Larson and Garrett outgrew their own medium, and they took on a life of their own, a life that no longer adhered to the rules and regulations; they became an entity, a thing-in-itself, and after many, many years, they have been recreated.

The following compilation of stories are very loosely based on just a handful of gaming sessions, and to be perfectly honest, little more than the characters themselves have been replicated, yet the spirit of the sessions has remained, and I want to pass them on to you, but act soon.

Once the first novel has been edited to completion and published, I will be removing the free short stories, however, the novel will remain free for download for a limited period. For now, I just want to share the stories, though, so be sure to nab these awesome adventures now!

You can download the first ten stories for free here. The link is for the whole series!

The Sleeping Tree

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett The Sleeping Tree By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett The Sleeping Tree
By Aaron Dennis

A Werewolf in the Dark

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett A Werewolf in the Dark By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett A Werewolf in the Dark
By Aaron Dennis

Infestation

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Infestation By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Infestation
By Aaron Dennis

Trouble in Atjibur

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Trouble in Atjibur By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Trouble in Atjibur
By Aaron Dennis

Garrett’s Tale

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Garrett's Tale By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Garrett’s Tale
By Aaron Dennis

On to Xorinth

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett On to Xorinth By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett On to Xorinth
By Aaron Dennis

Investigating trouble

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Investigating Trouble By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Investigating Trouble
By Aaron Dennis

On the Honor of Thieves

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett On the Honor of Thieves By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett On the Honor of Thieves
By Aaron Dennis

Assault in Stormguard

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Assault in Stormguard By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Assault in Stormguard
By Aaron Dennis

A people Defiled

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett A People Defiled By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett A People Defiled
By Aaron Dennis

How to Become a Successful Writer by Aaron Dennis

How to Become a Successful Writer Secrets the Mainstream Publishers Don't Want You to Know by Aaron Dennis

How to Become a Successful Writer Secrets the Mainstream Publishers Don’t Want You to Know by Aaron Dennis

Do you read much?

What kind of career have you considered?

Do you enjoy writing? Have you even thought about writing a book? Or writing poetry? Or maybe just writing some short stories?

Do you know anything about editing or publishing manuscripts?

Maybe, you do read, and you do write, but you don’t really know what it means to clean up your writing for an audience, and you don’t really know how to publish your work. That’s okay.

Maybe, you’ve tried to write, but you can’t come up with an idea. Maybe, you think your idea is just a rip-off of an existing idea. That’s okay, too.

Maybe, you’ve been writing for a few years, and you even published some books, but literary agents won’t take you seriously, your writing groups aren’t helping you sell, and you just can’t seem to attract that target audience. It happens.

Regardless of where you are in your life, in your writing career, if you’re so much as considering putting thoughts into words, you need to check out How to Become a Successful Writer: Secrets the Mainstream Publishers Don’t Want You to Know by Aaron Dennis.

This manual brings to your fingertips all the practical knowledge required to build your long term writing career. Any writer of any level will benefit from the material within this comprehensive guide. From the neophyte to the professional, anyone who reads this book will learn everything from formulating an idea for a story, to practicing the art of the short story, to writing proper fanfiction, and writing an original novel.

This book not only teaches how to write, but also how to market, edit, publish, and all with exercises and even free resources. From start to finish, the ideas presented are done so in an easy to understand and entertaining fashion. By the end of this manual, you will not only know how to write, edit, publish, and market your book, but you’ll know what kind of publishing is right for you.

Why don’t publishing companies want you to know these secrets? Publishers run an exclusive good ole’ boy club, and in doing so, they choose who they help to succeed, and who they help to fail, but when you learn these secrets, you’ll know that no writer needs a publisher in today’s internet age. Bypassing a publishing company not only allows you to maintain control and earn the bulk of your income, but it relegates the old, dinosaur, publishing companies to obscurity.

How to Become a Successful Writer Secrets the Mainstream Publishers Don't Want You to Know by Aaron Dennis

How to Become a Successful Writer Secrets the Mainstream Publishers Don’t Want You to Know by Aaron Dennis

Buy it from Smashwords today

For just $.99 you can have all the knowledge at your fingertips. Believe it; there is something you are doing wrong, or something that you are not doing, or something that you’ve misunderstood, or something that someone misconstrued to you, and without reading through How to Become a Successful Writer: Secrets the Mainstream Publishers Don’t Want You to Know, you are setting back your writing career.

Acquiring one simple piece of knowledge can be just what you need to boost your sales. Isn’t that worth $.99?

Acquiring one simple piece of knowledge can be just what you need to better reach your target audience. Isn’t that worth $.99?

Acquiring one simple piece of knowledge can be just what you need to know in order to hire a competent editor. Isn’t that worth $.99?

Acquiring one simple piece of knowledge can be just what you need to begin your writing career and on the right foot. Isn’t that worth $.99?

Acquiring one simple piece of knowledge might just keep you from throwing away 5 years of signing on with a hybrid press claiming to be an independent publisher, and all without them ever selling your book. Isn’t that worth $.99?

For anyone so much as thinking about writing a story; for anyone who has kept their nose to the grindstone for the past 5, 10, 15 years, How to Become a Successful Writer: Secrets the Mainstream Publishers Don’t Want You to Know by Aaron Dennis is an easy to understand guide that not only introduces topics about which you may not know, but it expounds upon numerous topics about which you must know to achieve long term success.

Do yourself a favor and get this book today.

How to Become a Successful Writer Secrets the Mainstream Publishers Don't Want You to Know by Aaron Dennis

How to Become a Successful Writer Secrets the Mainstream Publishers Don’t Want You to Know by Aaron Dennis

Buy it today from Smashwords

Also, don’t forget about my November deal!

smashwords affiliate ebooks sales

smashwords affiliate ebooks sales

Learn more about selling books as an affiliate right here!

Selling ebooks as an affiliate marketer for Smashwords

Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgivings, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and whatever else. What you celebrate is none of my business. My business is writing, and my business is selling, and I want you to be a part of my business.

 

I’ve talked before about how you can sell ebooks as a Smashwords affiliate without the requirement of any kind of 3rd party software. I’ve talked about how easy it is, how it’s all free, and how I set up my ebook sales in order to ensure that you, the readers, the reviewers, the sellers, are getting the biggest cut.

 

I normally give out 25% of my profits, and sometimes I juice it up to 35%, even 50%, but since the holidays are coming up, I want to do even more for you.

 

It’s no secret that with holidays comes a great deal of spending; the kids want new toys, the wife wants a vacation, the hubby wants new tools; there’s always something. Every year you end up spending more and more money, so I want to make sure that for the entire month of November, you can earn more money.

 

If you haven’t been selling books, my books, I implore you to read this article. How to earn money from reading.

 

If you have been selling books then you already know how easy it is to earn money as an affiliate. Regardless, now is the time to get a jump on selling my ebooks. For the entire month of November, I will be giving you, the sellers of my books, 75% of the profit.

smashwords affiliate ebooks sales

smashwords affiliate ebooks sales

 

If you sell just one book per day, you can still earn nearly 100$ for the month of November. That’s a few gift cards you can buy for the in-laws, or whatever. Of course, if you’ve been selling my ebooks, you’re probably selling two or three a day, maybe even more, and that means that for the month of November you can bring in 500$ by exerting just a little bit of extra effort.

 

Now’s the perfect time to send your friends and family on over to your blog, vlog, or website, and tell them to buy some ebooks as gifts directly from you!

 

Go earn some extra holiday money by selling my books through Smashwords. Your Smashwords account is free; all you need is an email address to get started, so be sure to check out this article, which explains, step-by-step, just how easy it is to start selling ebooks. How to earn money from reading.

 

Thanks for reading. Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas. God Bless, and buy your family some nice gifts with the money you earn from my hard work.

 

To help out, here is the link to my profile on Smashwords so that you have easy access to the list of my ebooks.

Michael Myers ch 4

michael myers halloween

Before I dive into Michael Myers, a Halloween fanfiction, I want to remind everyone that this is pretty much your last chance to get my titles for free or at a discount via Smashwords.

The Smashwords promo ends on July 31st, so get in there now. You don’t have to just get my books; many authors are discounting their titles for the rest of July.

If you don’t have a Smashwords account, it is completely free to make, and many books are always free for download, while most of the rest are reasonably priced, so now is the best time to take advantage of Smashwords.

Anyway, back to Michael Myers, a Halloween fanfiction….

I must admit that while writing this, I ended up keeping Michael as a boy for far longer than I had intended. I also believe this little, horror, fanfiction is going to be a bit longer than I had presumed. Unfortunately, I’m having to divide my time between the Halloween fanfiction, touching up War and Glory, Lokians 3, and setting up The Dragon of Time 3, Dragons Falling (Working title).

There is also another book I’ve finished writing and will probably release that one around Turkey Day, but enough BS. Here’s the fourth chapter of Michael Myers, a Halloween fanfiction….

It had taken two days to get everything under control after Michael and the kids killed Marla, the orderly. Loomis had sent his reports to Lt. Reichstag in the meantime, and when she showed up, she demanded Loomis to show her the boy.

Michael found himself inside one of the rooms with the paper covered bed; the rooms that always had a man in a white coat. He sat on it, crinkling the paper in both hands. There was always an odd smell in the room, something light that made the insides of his nose feel funny.

Disregarding any kind of ordnance, Reichstag, a tall, blonde woman dressed in a black uniform with colorful ribbons, pulled a cigarette from a pack, placed it between her lips, and lit it. She took a long inhalation before blowing out a cloud of smoke. The scent quickly assaulted the boy’s palate; Loomis glanced at her with a wince.

“Separate him from the rest,” Reichstag ordered.

“You want him in B block?”

“A block.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the doctor shook his head when he spoke. Reichstag glared at him. “I have to tell you, he can’t grow up to follow complex orders. He’s not the kind of patient for A block.”

“Leave that to me and Ushiro,” Reichstag was indifferent. “You just make sure he starts getting the proper dosage.”

“He’s too young! Most of A block have already gone through puberty. You remember what happened with Jones. You want a repeat of that?”

Reichstag shoved Loomis by the shoulder, her cigarette dangling from her lips. She took another drag then.

“It doesn’t make any difference. If I have to put him down, I will.”

“You don’t put anybody down,” Loomis frowned. “You have me do it….”

“Then, you’ll do it.”

With that, the woman left. Michael was still crinkling paper when Loomis pulled a stool with wheels from the corner. He sat on it and scooted closer to the boy.

Scrutinizing the gashes and bruises covering the boy, Loomis suffered a moment of doubt or remorse. There wasn’t much of an alternative; Reichstag’s superiors funded Smith’s Grove, and they had placed Loomis in charge because of his service record, and his ingenuity in the field of biology. His job was to create forms of super soldiers, but not every boy and girl was cut out for A block.

“I guess you would have gotten killed one way or another,” Loomis sighed. “Still, B block would have been better; all they do is charge and shoot whatever’s in front of their eyes…but A block…they require precise cognition, forethought, planning. You don’t understand any of that, do you?”

Michael started nodding the way Ushiro had taught him, but Loomis knew it was just an action; he had been trained to nod after a question. Loomis looked to the counter behind him. There was a jar of cotton balls; he took one and placed it in the boy’s hand. He rubbed his face with it. Loomis shook his head in dismay.

 

****

 

Months went by. Michael was relocated to a very bright room. There was a single, padded bed, but there was no space to move around. There were no other children in the room either, but he did have his very own cotton ball.

Every time the lights went out, he went to sleep. When the lights came back on, someone slid a tray of food through a sliding transom. After he ate, Loomis came in to give him a shot, and then he was led through the hallway with a few other kids; most of them were big. None of them ever made eye contact.

Finally, they were herded into a very spacious room. The lights were way overhead. The room had all kids of strange things; there were big, black, rubber tires, there were heavy, round, metal plates, big, red bags. There was even a big square that had stairs and ropes around it. Kids fought each other on it.

Every day, after Ushiro forced them to run drills, he made them fight. Sometimes, something soft was placed over Michael’s eyes; the first time it happened, he just stood there, but someone kept shocking him with the prod and yelling to move—it made sense; if he moved, he didn’t get prodded until he wound up in a spot where he couldn’t move anymore because there was something hard and smooth. Then, he got zapped again. Other times, there were blocky things, which he had to crawl over or climb onto, but after a while, Michael learned how to move without being shocked at all.

By honing his other senses, the boy quickly memorized Ushiro’s maze. One time, he even smelled Reichstag’s cigarette, and he heard her voice; she was there, speaking to Ushiro.

“He’s pretty good for a rug rat,” she said.

“Yeah, but the bigger kids still whip his ass in the ring. He’s got guts, and I don’t think he feels pain, but he sure as Hell hates the prod. Fortunately, he’s learned to stop trying to take it from me, and at the end of it all, he’s just happy to get back to his room and diddle his face with cotton.”

Reichstag laughed. “Loomis says he’s responding to the drugs, too.”

“Yeah, he must’ve already grown two inches and packed on some muscle, but I have to admit…I think Loomis might’ve been right….”

“About?” Reichstag sounded angry.

“I just can’t imagine you’ll be able to give this kid a target and expect him to deduce the best methods for hunting it down; he’s a killer, sure, and he can easily move through this maze, but what if I change it? He’ll have to memorize its layout all over again; he can’t improvise.”

“That’s really not my problem.”

Thanks for reading Michael Myers, a Halloween fanfiction Ch 4.

There’s still a long way to go, and I have a few more chapters written out. If anyone has any comments or suggestions, please let me know. Thanks again. Like, share, all that!