You maul 'em, we haul 'em

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, lend me your ears ... because I like to collect them.If you've been keeping up, you know that my novel has been revised, printed, and is waiting to be read by the few chosen souls I trust deeply with my work, which translates to the only people that I could get.I've been working nonstop on Sowen for the last several months, and I think I need to put it away for a week, let it get a little cold, and finish off some other projects I've been neglecting.I've switched gears to a very adult, very horrific short story called Garbage, Inc. about a guy who kills a woman. Yes,...

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Finished Draft!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, let's get this party started!Well I'm sitting next to my revised draft of Sowen, all 396 manuscript pages, about 70,000 words binded and pretty looking.  With a computer it's easy to forget how large a manuscript actually is, then you spend nearly forty-five minutes printing your novel at work, after hours, hoping that your boss doesn't see you. Not that I would...

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Monster Stamps and Monster Fish

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, let me take your coats. Please warm yourself by the fireplace while I get my -- That? It's, err, nothing. No, it's not a knife! Please, I thought you people knew me better than that ...Anyway, saw Adam McCauley's Monster stamps on Tor's blog.But if you're a Disney fan like me, you gotta go with McCauley's Rarely Seen Disney CharactersDo I smell theme park?<<<<>>>>It's...

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Fresh Eyes

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, Happy Fat Tuesday!I've almost completed the second revision of Sowen, and I'm ready to start coercing some family members into reading it. This will be the first time fresh eyes will read my novel, and I am awaiting the blank stares and uncomfortable silence that will follow. It's why I have to pick family members, you see. The story still needs lots of polishing, but...

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Mondays, Poverty, and Zombies

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, dōmo arigatō misutā Robotto!Ah, another Monday, where the coffee cannot be strong enough, the workday cannot be short enough and the paycheck cannot be displaced enough. Yesterday, at my local grocery store, I had an interesting encounter at the checkout line. In front of me was a well-to-do looking woman wearing a new fox fur coat, perhaps faux fur, Gucci sun glasses and...

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Tarantula Hawks & Revisions

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, welcome!Only about 100 more pages to edit in the second revision of Sowen. I've been averaging about 30 pages a day, which is way above normal for me, and I am excited that the finish line is starting to come into view.I'm currently working on a scene that features tarantula hawks, nasty little things. You get stung by one of these wasps and you'll wish you died instead. Fortunately these wasps don't care much for us humans. They prefer to keep company with, yes, you guessed it, tarantulas. The female tarantula hawk paralyzes a tarantula, and then lays its eggs inside...

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In Which Dreams Get Murdered... Again

Rejection! Sweet, glorious rejection! Yet another sign the publishing world knows I'm still standing out in the cold, waiting to be let in. Three rejections in one week, all very formal and formatted: Thank you [insert author's name here], While your story is exceptional, we cannot accept it at this time ... yadda, yadda, yadda ... you suck. Sincerely, Murderer of Dreams And then I pick myself up, dust myself off, and do it again, hopefully a little better than the last. ...

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Process & Demons

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, welcome! But please take your shoes off before entering.Wow! I mean what about that last post, dear readers. You're probably asking yourself, can he top that? I mean sometimes I intimidate myself, but ... Today I thought I'd talk process.  I am currently in the second revision of Sowen, my YA dark fantasy series, and it's been a rough ride getting to this point.  I think anyone who writes-- professional, hobbyist, whatever-- can agree there is a point in the writing process where the demons gather, whispering taunts and dares--You suck!  So and...

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Where Friday the 13th and Valentine's Day Meet

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, welcome to my home. Today and tomorrow are an amusing mix of traditions, one of fear and superstition and the other of love. Friday the 13th will end and Valentine's Day will begin. And during that transfer--that equinox between fear and love, if you will--lovers will embrace while murder takes place and both climaxes will intertwine. Ah, I feel a poem coming ... Today is the day, A day you might say, For a heart and a rose, A knife and a smile, With you and a lover, Or another. Now doesn't everyone feel better? I wish I could see all of your smiling faces behind...

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First Post

A first post ... what pressure. Well then, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, let me introduce myself. The name's Robert Gray. As in The Author Robert Gray! Haven't heard of me? Really? You can't find me in a search engine either? Right then... I'll let you know everything there is to know about me. I write horror and fantasy fiction. Impressed? No? Figures.Currently I'm working on a YA dark fantasy series called Sowen. And you, dear reader, are probably asking why title a series with such a stupid name as Sowen (pronounced Sow, like cow and en like in). Maybe I just won't tell you if that's...

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