Writing What Hurts

Hickory Nuts & Bones and Other Uncomfortable Tales Amazon

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Writing What Hurts – Thanksgiving

admin — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 05:09:05 +0000

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY PANTS!

Where do You Get Your Ideas?

Many years ago, I was a keynote speaker at the Lehigh Valley Writers Conference. The guest of honor was Harlan Coben. Being new to this sort of thing, I foolishly did not really plan what I would say. I did not understand, going in, that this convention was different from others I’d attended. There was a wide variety of guests, attendees, people, who read and wrote in genres far removed from my dark fantasy world. At that time I hadn’t really branched out, so mostly I wrote horror, and I’d only just begun to get some recognition.

When it came time for me to speak, I found myself alone, at a podium, in front of probably three hundred people who were interested in what the weird guy in the fedora had to say (it was me! I was the guy…) Just for a moment, I froze. My brain whirled back through the earlier parts of the day, and I remember one of the other guests, on a panel, being asked… where do you get your ideas.

This was the moment that I learned that not only do I like to speak in public, I am pretty good at it. I leaned on the podium and started with something like, “One of the questions I’ve gotten the most since I started writing is, “Where do you get your ideas?”

I led them through the story of how, trying to find the house of Author Elizabeth Massie, where a group of us gathered annually for a sort of party/convention called Pseudocon. Beth lived in the middle of nowhere in Virginia. I foolishly had sketchy directions, involving going past a particular barn, or silo. Anyway, long story short… we got lost. After driving and driving, we came to a sort of dark house. A car was parked in the front yard, and the dome light was on. I pulled in, much to the chagrin of my ex-wife, who did not want me to get out of the car.

When I did, she locked the door behind me. I found a guy sitting in that old car. It was up on blocks, and he was listening to the radio, just sitting there in the dark. I asked if he knew where the Massie’s lived. He said he did not, but that the guy inside could probably help. I shrugged and followed him in through curtains that were clearly hanging bed sheets. Off-key piano was wafting out into the night from the house, and there was a distinct odor, part cat box, part something else.

As we entered, he said “We’re a commune of musicians…”

I said, “Ah… so he plays piano and you play…”

“Radio.”

I won’t finish this story because the point is – I live my ideas. I gather them like some sort of weird harvest, and if I am fortunate enough to remember them when I get to my computer, I type them into a file and save it in the folder called “Ideas.” Also, I wrote all of this into an actual story, “Are You Lookin’ for Herb?” and you can read that in my collection THE CALL OF DISTANT SHORES. (universal book link, available everywhere)

This year I’m thankful to have written something new in there, and, while I was looking at the old files, I found this. It’s not finished, though it could work as is as a short piece… my Thanksgiving gift to all of you.

He Called the Raven Dreamcatcher

The boy came every morning, before dawn, waiting for the first light of the sun to break through the trees and frost the branches of the highest trees in gold. He sat on the same stone each day, watching for the raven. It never failed to appear – crying out to the daybreak like a long lost brother and stretching its great wings. It was old like the trees that separated it from the ground, old like the stars and sun and moon, and the boy loved it.

He called the raven Dreamcatcher, and he collected the feathers that dropped from above carefully, never gathering any that had not come from the great bird himself. At night he wove them with string and yarn and bits of cloth his mother cast aside, making the magic in the old way – the way his gran had shown him – the way others had forgotten.

He made a wheel of twigs, woven together with the strands like the silk of a spider’s web and he tied each feather in carefully, leaving their tethers loose to catch the wind. Each time he added one, he made a wish and recited a dream. Each night he hung it so that the light of the moon could not reach him, save through those whirling dancing pinions.

And as they danced – he dreamed – and he flew. Only the boy – and the raven – knew where…

* * *

In school, he kept to himself. There were other boys and girls his age, but they were caught up in shining bits of plastic, battery powered dreams that sang and repeated themselves, conjuring riches for far-off unknown masters. Books were safer, and he cherished them, reading during breaks in his studies and spending as many hours as possible in the stacks of the library, where the silence was most powerful.

He liked stories and poetry. He wandered the pages of history and drank in its lessons. His work was exemplary, but when it came time to speak, or to present things to others, he was shy and reserved. It became a problem for him because he did not want to call attention to himself but soon learned that an inability to speak freely in his classrooms would do just that.

One day, in English class, the assignment was to write a story. At first, instead of writing, he drew. He sketched the outline of the wheel, crisscrossed it with strings and threads, and then – with great concentration – drew a tight circle at the junction of several lines. To this he added a thread, tied and knotted carefully and winding off to a feather blowing in the wind. He closed his eyes, opened his mind and felt the breeze tease his hair. Though he was far away and did not realize it, it was then that he began to write.

News

I have begun editing the book that would not end. I’m about four chapters in and moving steadily, despite the pressures of the world. More on that next time, because this is getting long. The eBook of Hickory Nuts and Bones will be available soon, and Ingram is pushing the paperback out now, so you can ask your local library to order it. You can order it through your local bookstore. Let me tell you a story…

What I’m Reading

Completed my Kindle read of Cleave the Sparrow . Dark humor, satire, and very on point for the surreal situation 2025 has thrust upon us. My review is live on Goodreads, and soon on my website.

Currently reading: Blood of the Witness Tree by J. C. Vande Zande – picked it up from a post on Bluesky, just so you know that some of us actually buy and read one another’s books. It really is important to read, if you are a writer. Already learned something, because I was not aware of “witness” trees until beginning this one. About 10% complete.

About 72% done with The Essential Bukowski: Poetry – Sometimes so dead-on. Sometimes ranting… as expected. Poetry isn’t something I feel I should binge on reading, because each poem should have its moment of thought. Even the bad ones.

What I’m Watching

We are watching Pluribus now. That is powerful TV and so well cast. Apple TV continually presents higher quality programming than most of the other streamers.

We just finished The Beast in Me, which I found to be very well written, and acted. It was intense, tricky, and satisfying, and based on Robert Alan Durst, who was accused of killing his first wife, convicted later of killing his friend and suspected of many other deaths. Highly Recommended.

We also binged the first segment of the final season of Stranger Things because spoilers are a thing, and now no one can spoil it for us. It’s good, has lost none of its momentum, and we are sad that the next part is so far off.

The last show I’ll mention is The Man in the Middle – because I was not sure how they would pull a second season out of it after the ending of the first. It was great. The same warm camaraderie as the first season, the same interesting plot, odd characters. Again, Highly recommended.

What I’m Listening to

I finished the full-cast production of THE EL, by Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. – a story that (in the synopsis) is very much like the plot of the movie THE WARRIORS (but at the same time different – more modern) and interestingly, one of the narrators is the main character from The Warriors, Michael Beck, who played Swann. I would recommend reading this in paperback, or on Kindle, over the audio. My review is live on Goodreads. AUDIO SAMPLE

Buy My Books

Hickory Nuts & Bones and Other Uncomfortable Tales Amazon

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The Works of Vermin – Hiron Ennes – Review

admin — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 16:23:28 +0000

Since I did not read tha author’s previous book, Leech, I had literally no idea what to expect going into this. I started reading on my Kindle, but finished the majority of it in audio, so thisi s an audiobook review. The worldbuilding in this book is exquisite. The details never run afoul of one another, controlling people by perfume, living with infestations and venom and mutations, workers of all sorts with tattooed contracts they’ll never earn out, exterminating dangerous infestations and supporting the high-handed machinations of nobles, entwined with music and performance and romance.

My one quibble with the book itself is that I could not come to really like the main character. He’s an endless, thin stretched artist trying to protect a sibling in a world where he has little to no chance of success, and her does most of this a lack of spine. Still, he was true to his character throughout, and the way the story winds from present to past and reveals its secrets is astonishing. Will definitely look for more from Mr Ennes.

The narration from Max Meyers was mixed for me, and part of this wouldi be on the engineers who processed the audio. The boisterous characgters boomed out, but most of the characters that were intended to be the “good guys” spoke so low it was like a whisper, and too many sounded alike. Overall, though, with the exception of a tendency to mispronounce some words (again, this shoulid have been caught by whoever proofed the audio) he did a remarkable job voicing an incredibly diverse set of characters.

The beginning of this book gave me China Mieville and King Rat vibes, but beyond those opening bits, so differet I was swept away. Highly recommended.

The post The Works of Vermin – Hiron Ennes – Review appeared first on Writing What Hurts.

Writing What Hurts – October 5

admin — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 18:32:56 +0000

What’s Happening

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I’ve been writing for a very long time. Books are unique things, and there are types and levels to them. Some are fun stories. Some are comfortable, easier to write and easily recognizable. Then there are the ones that come out of nowhere, not fitting any of the normal themes. You can write an unforgettable book of any type. From a children’s picture book to cozy mystery, hard-core horror to space opera. It’s the connection to the story that determines the level. It can catch you by surprise.

For me, an example of this is my unfortunately titled novel Jurassic Ark. I set out to write a satire. I wanted to write something in the world of that guy Ken Ham, who created the a Noah’s Ark theme park and added dinosaurs, because he believed the world to be only about six thousand years old. I came up with that title, which turned out not even to be the first time it was used, and set to work. I even launched it with a chase scene with the main protagonist almost being taken out by a T-rex.

Everything from that point on was a book I never intended to write. It’s a fantasy. There is intrigue and magic. There are dinosaurs as well. What I didn’t anticipate was the way the idea that this family was creating a boat that would save them, while all of those they knew, all of those who helped them – everyone but their small family – would die.

I researched and made sure I had as much of the original mythology worked in as I could, not just what appears in the various versions of the Bible, but Jewish lore. Noah himself started out as a hardline authoritarian and his relationships with his children, and the people in the city below his mountain, evolved.

I think it’s actually one of the finest things I’ve written, but it’s not “Jurassic Ark,” and I am considering a re-release with an entirely different cover and title. The audiobook was performed by Joshua Saxon who really brought those characters to life. It’s not the great American novel, but leveled up along the way.

The book I’m writing now has been like that. I had a certain thing in mind to do with it, tying in as many horror tropes as I could manage and not lose track of the story. It has turned out, as the story is finally winding into the ending, that those tropes just dangling in the early parts of the book are the threads binding it together. Again – it’s much more than I expected it to be. The first draft is closing on 120,000 words, but it will be trimmed and revised in the first round of edits. I’ll be working on it after I send this newsletter.

Audio

This isn’t new, but I’m going to mention it because the paperback just became available (finally) and It’s a great book. Also, it’s Halloween time, and the narrator, Al Dano, did most of the Orangefield novels for us – Al Sarrantonio’s series set at Halloween, and I’m feeling a little sad after posting about him and his books in the Crossroad Press Newsletter. So…

Etched Deep & Other Dark Impressions – narrated by Al Dano – Audio Sample

Fourteen tales of madness, horror, fantasy, zombies, and dark magic, as well as fourteen original poems. Spanning more than two decades, the stories offer a wide range of glimpses into the creative process that has formed my career.

Contents include these short stories: “Through an Eyeglass Darkly”, “Fear of Flying”, “Moving On”, “One off from Prime”, “Headlines”, “Wayne’s World”, “Redemption”, “Swarm”, “The Purloined Prose” (with Patricia Lee Macomber), “Shift”, “Pretty Boys in Blue and Long Hair Dangling”, “To Strike a Timeless Chord”, “Etched Deep”, and “Unique”. Also included are the poems: “End of Days”, “The Acropolis”, “Clamdigger”, “Cuttlefish Squeezings”, “Thanatology”, “A Poem of Adrian”, “Gray”, “The Fishmonger”, “Revelation”, “Loch Ness”, “Mirrored Hearts”, “Dark Man”, “Banished”, “End of Days”, & “Longhaired Puppies”.

From Writing What Hurts

STYLE

Style is a word you see tossed about a lot in literary circles. There have been epic battles fought over stylistic writing vs. plot-driven writing vs. character driven writing. There are authors who understand words and punctuation and the painting of images in sequences of letters so well that they can twist and turn the language into intricate pretzels of brilliance…and there is an even larger number claiming “style” to hide a lack of grammatical skill, or a simple misunderstanding of the term.

My take on it is as simple as my take on most of the big writing arguments. In fact, let me qualify this by stating my opinion on most such squabbles up front. If you are arguing over style, or plot, or who is right about what aspect of the craft of writing, you aren’t writing. If you spend all your time worrying over how others work, or whether you are doing it “right” then you aren’t concentrating hard enough to create anything useful. Creation requires your full attention – don’t waste it on irrelevant nonsense, because, in the end, if you don’t create something it’s all so much wasted breath.

Style is what it is. While I believe you can recognize a style that you like, emulate it, study it, twist it and turn it – it isn’t your style until it develops into something so ingrained in your psyche that it occurs without thought. It’s like I tell my oldest daughter, who is fond of telling everyone how she likes to be random. If you are trying to be random, it’s not random. In her case, of course, I was proved wrong. She is very centered, but often random in ways I don’t expect. That’s not the point here. If you are trying to write with a particular style you may be in a developmental stage, but it can’t be considered your own. I would go so far as to say that even if you absolutely LOVE the style of another author, unless it molds itself to your mind and becomes something entirely new, you are writing in someone else’s style and can never be more than a reflection.

I wrote early on in this piece about influences. You can’t avoid them and shouldn’t try. On the other hand, you also can’t get caught up in them. Like drinking, or television, or video games – if you let yourself get too tangled up in one influence or another, you will lose yourself, and if you don’t personally have anything to say, why are you writing? If you don’t believe your own words, in your own voice, will reach out and grab people – or get your message across – or do justice to the voices in your head, what is the point? It’s not arrogance to believe you are as good as anyone out there, it’s mental survival. Never strive to be second best, or the next “so-and-so”–strive to make what you are a thing that others envy and want to emulate. Be the first you.

And with that in mind, a bit about style. Just like everything in the arts, you have to be careful with that hat that says “stylist” on it. The publishing world, and subsequently the world of readers and consumers, is very fond of labels. The thing about literary labels is that they come with their own particularly sticky and difficult to wash off adhesive. If you write a horror novel, and it does well, you are a horror writer. You can overcome this over time – particularly if you are a successful author, like Dean Koontz, or Billy Martin (Poppy Z. Brite) – but it’s not an easy task.

The problem from the publisher’s side of the fence is a simple matter of marketing. To create a best-selling author, you begin by publishing and marketing that first book – and you build on it. You try to create a recognizable brand – a product you can quantify, qualify, and pop onto the right shelf. If the aforementioned horror writer turns in a mainstream novel, or a mystery, you have to either build parallel paths (possibly with one genre under a pseudonym to keep from getting it all messy) or start all over in the new genre, building that brand. I get this – and you should too, if you plan on putting that stylist hat on. You still have to write what moves you and connects with you if you want the work to be special. Don’t let marketing or worrying over success make your writing a chore.

For one thing, if you are going to be a stylistic writer, you had better have the standard styles down pat. You’d better be able to communicate and articulate, punctuate and prove it. If you become a rule breaker, you have to be able to prove you know you broke rules, and didn’t just do it because it sounded “cool.” You’ll get called on it. The problem with writing as a stylist is that most of the readers who are interested in that type of writing are a more literate crowd, and they are quick to flush out “poseurs”.

Also, think long and hard about your reasons. Some authors, Caitlin Kiernan comes to mind, write the way they do because it’s the way they write. Kathe Koja has a “voice” that has been present since her first novel. It’s not an affectation, in other words, and I believe that to be effective, style can never be an affectation. It has to be a naturally occurring voice.

That brings me to the actual point (sometimes I really get there if you stick with me). The point is, we are all stylists. Your ‘style’ is how the words come out when you are in your ‘zone.’ The Zone, for me, is that place where I’m working – the words are flowing – and I am not thinking about them at all, just pounding the keys and letting it flow. That’s the natural state of my work. It is possible to force that work into other voices, and styles, but a rare occasion when I can pull it off without losing something in the translation.

It’s also important to understand what stylistic means. There are any number of quirks that can distinguish one literary voice from another. Short sentences, long sentences, punctuation that uses flips and tricks to reach an end, stream-of-consciousness, quirky first person, clipped phrases …you get the idea. Early in my career, I used WAY too many ellipses. Sometimes I still do. I used to think it was part of my “style” and now I know, sadly, that it’s a flaw in my grammar. I also overuse the em-dash, and now it seems people are trying to equate that with AI assisted writing. (narrator: it’s not).

One of my pet peeves in writing could, I suppose, be considered nothing more than a stylistic preference. The use of the word “could” to modify verbs irritates the crap out of me. If you take a paragraph full of “He could see the campfire from where he stood” like sentences and change them so they read in the immediate, real-time way I think they should, you get “He saw the campfire.” Over a few pages, this can tighten and trim up a manuscript with incredible swiftness and aplomb. That’s what I think. In practice, I see everyone from Stephen King to John Grisham tossing the “could” word at verbs and that is their choice. It only bothers me when I notice it one time in a jarring sentence, but from that point on it can irritate me right out of my happy place

The point of this short aside is just to note that this is a quirk of my own style. I’m not necessarily right, or wrong about it, but in my own writing you’ll not find me using that sentence structure very often. It’s the tip of a huge iceberg. I will be getting further into my own style as we progress and hopefully examining where elements of it came from – why they stuck with me while others did not – and how this may, or may not relate to your own writing. Stay tuned.

What I’m Reading

On the Kindle I’m still reading The Works of Vermin, an ARC for the upcoming novel by Hiron Ennes. I’m about 16% in – it’s a long book. This is a seriously wonderful book and even this early on I highly recommend it. Because it’s so long I’ve pre-ordered the audio as well and will switch when I’m done with my current listen.

About 60% done with The Essential Bukowski: Poetry

What I’m Watching

Movies – just watched The Man in My Basement – which was a very cool idea that I think fell a little short of the message it might have presented, but still put forth some powerful images and themes. It’s worth the watch, but is a movie (fair warning) with very few outside scenes, and a lot of monologue from the main characters, Corey Hawkins and Willem Dafoe. It’s a strange one.

Still watching Franklin & Bash, Peacemaker, and Only Murders in the Building and have added the new season of Murder in a Small Town, which is not very intense, but good, comfortable filler. Also catching up on recent South Park episodes… like you do.

What I’m Listening to

VEIL – by Jonathan Janz – Performed by John Pirhalla (who reminds me a bit of the late Frank Muller). A few chapters in… very creepy stuff. I am about 36% of the way through it. There are a variety of themes here, family dynamics, an apocalyptic event, with all the associated bad actors acting badly… fully invested now and ready to find out where this leads.

The post Writing What Hurts – October 5 appeared first on Writing What Hurts.

Writing What Hurts – Sept 28

admin — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 18:24:23 +0000

What’s Happening

Don’t forget to subscribe and share. Subscribe at my website

You can also subscribe to the growing Crossroad Press Newsletter at our website.

Every aspect of life is currently crazy in one way or another. Still studying crazily for a certification that I should have gotten years ago… I know this stuff, but tests are tricksy, and I’m a little out of practice. Major changes happening at the day job, including my own job being in full or partial jeopardy starting in January.

Thankfully, Trish is doing great after her surgery. This Thursday we have the follow-on appointment and after that things will start to slowly slide back into whatever the new normal is. When I finish putting this newsletter together, I’ll get back to the very end of the novel in progress and hopefully by tomorrow, I’ll either have a first draft, or that minus a wrap-up chapter. The big action / ending is in progress now, and I can’t stop thinking about it. That, by the way, is much preferable to not being able to figure it out.

Last week I ran a contest asking for three-word poetry prompts, but I put it too deep in the newsletter and no one made it that far, or something. I got two sets. I’m going to let that continue for a while in the hope I gather more, so, here’s the deal. Send three-word prompts to David@DavidNiallWilson.com and I will write a poem that uses the three words. Please don’t just try to think of three words that are hard to put in a poem, because I can still do that, but the likelihood of that poem being god are low.

Here is another quick example of a prompt, and poem, from a different time I did this to give you an idea.

gargoyle, sarcophagus, saxophone

He only played for angels,
The dead,
And for those who listened
Through the cracks between worlds.
His horn was silver, polished and clean.
He had bought the reeds from an old woman
At a rummage sale,
Purported to be crafted
Of wood harvested
From the tree of Good and Evil
But priced to sell.
He leaned into the steps
Leading up to a raised sarcophagus
Framed by huge, brooding gargoyles.
The moon hung between,
Hovered as if suspended on a string
To light the way back
From somewhere far away.
He slipped the notes into Birdland
And black poppies grew
In the grass at his feet.
Dark, winged things fluttered
And danced,
But he paid them no mind.

They had taken him to a club once,
A night-bird dive
Drenched in guilt and lust,
Exhaling anger and inhaling longing.
They had asked him to play,
Seated in a pool of light on a darkened stage.
The angels had peered in at him
Through shuttered windows.
The dead had clawed and scratched
At the walls, and the floor.
Staring faces confronted him with
Envy.
Hate.
Greed.
And he’d gone silent.

He only played for angels,
The dead,
And for those who listened
Through the cracks between worlds.
In that club, the cracks
Had been doors,
The dead had ordered whiskey,
And the angels clung to the shadows.
The reed
Crafted of wood
From the Tree of Good, and evil
Would not take
The vibration from his lips…
The horn could not sing.
In that bar at the crossroads,
There was only Evil,
And though he’d sensed the moon,
Shining far above,
He had not felt its call.
It was not the music of the Angels,
But only – of their fall.

I am still auctioning off books from my personal collection with many more to come. None of our kids is really a reader except Katie, and she leans more toward Poppy Z. Brite than the older authors. I would rather these find a good home and honestly, the shelves look crazy with the ridiculous number of books weighing them down.

What’s New?

The paperback of Etched Deep & Other Dark Impressions is live now. This collection brings together fourteen tales of madness, horror, fantasy, zombies, and dark magic, as well as fourteen original poems. Spanning more than two decades of my career, the stories offer a wide range of glimpses into my creative process.

Contents include the short stories: Through an Eyeglass, Darkly, Fear of Flying, Moving On, One off from Prime, Headlines, Wayne’s World, Redemption, Swarm, The Purloined Prose (With Patricia Lee Macomber), Shift, Pretty Boys in Blue and Long Hair Dangling, To Strike a Timeless Chord, Etched Deep, and Unique. Also included are the poems: End of Days, The Acropolis, Clamdigger, Cuttlefish Squeezings, Thanatology, A Poem of Adrian, Gray, The Fishmonger, Revelation, Loch Ness, Mirrored Hearts, Dark Man, Banished, End of Days, & Longhaired Puppies.

New Audio

My short story “If You Seek for El Dorado,” featuring Edgar Allan Poe is in this one, just released.

Blackest Knights – Performed by Reuben Ashcroft – AUDIO SAMPLE HERE

Honor is just a word.

Throughout fiction, there have always been heroes who have fallen from grace. Champions of honor, decency, and order who have become villains through some traumatic event or a deep personal flaw. Blackest Knights is a collection of 19 tales by some of independent fantasy’s best authors that follow a collection of those heroes who fell to temptation. From tales of bloody-handed hypocrites to space pirates, you’ll find some truly fascinating works within.

Contains fiction by: David Niall Wilson, C. T. Phipps, James Alderdice, M. L. Spencer, Paul Lavender, Ulff Lehman, A. M. Justice, Matthew Johnson, Frank Martin, Allan Batchelder, Martin Owton, Richard Writhen, Jesse Teller and Michael Suttkus.

From Writing What Hurts

I remember clearly a cruise I took on board the USS Guadalcanal, one of the ships I served on in the US Navy. I had two computers at the time – I took the older one with me to the ship. It was an old 386 with Word Perfect 6.0 loaded and ready. Along with that computer I had a Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 500 – the sturdiest, most reliable printer I have ever owned. I took a drawer full of ink cartridges, and a case of paper. I remember sitting down before I left and figuring out that, at 250 words per page, there would be half a million words printed if I used that entire case. I came very close.

I was the Leading Petty Officer of the Electronics shop during that period. I didn’t have an office of my own, but I had a UHF transmitter room that I sort of took ownership of. Most of the equipment in that room was mine to maintain, and there was a workbench that would hold my computer. I also had a large “boom box” and a box of CDs. Those became the soundtrack for several novels; not all written on that cruise, but at the very least revised and completed. I had floppy disks with all my books and stories, and I worked constantly. The ship served dinner between 4:00 and about 5:30. After that, every night that I did not have duty, I was in that room, typing away, until around 11:00 PM – sometimes later.

Depeche Mode and Concrete Blonde were my friends. I memorized the first two Crash Test Dummies CDs and learned to love a band called Ten Inch Men, whose album Pretty Vultures is still one of my all-time favorites. The singer from that band, Dave Coutts, went on to sing for “Talk Show,” along with members of the Stone Temple Pilots. I met Dave, and several other members of Ten Inch Men, when they found my review and comments on their music in my Live Journal online. Again – another story.

The point is the words. You just don’t see how they add up until you let yourself think about it. Most professional writers I know claim about 2,000 words per day of output. In those days on the Guadalcanal, I averaged 3500-5000 a day and had days that topped 10k. These days I fall in the 1500 -2000-word range, but here’s the thing.

Back before that whole site imploded and became a scandal, one of my favorite things was participating in the National Novel Writing Month challenge every November. 50,000 words in thirty days. When you say it that way it seems like a horrifying challenge. When you break it down to the reality – 1,667 words a day – you see that a lot of working writers write more than that every month. If you add in what I do for the Crossroad Press site, and the blogs I write to promote my work, I’m sure I’m still doing the 5k a day shuffle myself.

So, in reality…if you concentrated, you should be able to churn out 3-6 novels a year with some regularity, although broken up by revisions, short stories, essays, reviews, etc. Writers write, and though there are certainly times this is less true than at others, a steady stream of words produces a prodigious output over time. I have been at this a very long time and have determined that I do not – at this point – want to know how many words I have written. In fact, I cringe at the thought of it and want to run away, pulling out what little hair remains to me and go screaming off into the night. I’ve written so much, and yet, I feel as if there is so much still to accomplish. There are so many stories waiting, and now they are piling up against the end gate as I plow into them, trying to fight my way through in the allotted space of a lifetime.

You can get buried in the words. You can get lost in worrying over the numbers. In the end, those that can’t be held back will escape your fingers, and your personal mountain of words will grow. I’ve decided to make mine tall enough to touch the sky, beautiful enough to attract climbers and wildlife, and solid enough to withstand time. Foolish, simple dreams that make me smile, and keep me working. I have always loved the mountains.

What I’m Reading

On the Kindle I’m reading The Works of Vermin, an ARC for the upcoming novel by Hiron Ennes. I have only started this book, but I am getting strong early China Mieville King Rat vibes from the world, the elegance of the prose. It’s drawn me in fully in only a couple of short chapters.

I just finished the anthology Long Division: Stories of Social Decay, Societal Collapse, and Bad Mannersand my review is live on Goodreads.

About 40% done with The Essential Bukowski: Poetry

What I’m Watching

Movies – just watched Drive Back – This is a surreal, dark, intricate film. It’s not in any way a normal slasher, or horror movie. I’d give it five stars for sure, and I didn’t even know it existed until we stumbled on it. We also watched and very much enjoyed Megan 2.0. Not what I was afraid it would be, another creepy doll movie, but heading directly into I Robot territory.

Still watching Franklin & Bash, Peacemaker, and Only Murders in the Building.

What I’m Listening to

VEIL – by Jonathan Janz – Performed by John Pirhalla (who reminds me a bit of the late Frank Muller). A few chapters in… very creepy stuff, and more to follow once I have gotten deeper into the story.

Completed my listen of MOONFLOW by Bitter Karella – Performed by Venus Rose Fischer. My review is live on Goodreads.

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UNIVERSAL DAVID NIALL WILSON LINK

The post Writing What Hurts – Sept 28 appeared first on Writing What Hurts.

Writing What Hurts

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 19:42:43 +0000

Another collection in paperback, three word poetry prompts

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It’s been a long couple of weeks. Without going into details, Trish was in the hospital for surgery, out because the surgeon wanted her blood pressure to be under control, back in the hospital a week later and the surgery went fine. Also, heart checked and in good shape. Still recovering, and I am cheerfully filling in as both of us at home. I have gotten slightly less done on the writing and publishing fronts than usual, but stress relief is therapeutic, and good things are still happening.

The novel in progress has been a lot of fun and will probably have a first draft before the end of the week. It is also a cautionary lesson about that old adage less is more. As I’ve mentioned, the initial hope was to include as many horror tropes in one form or another as possible and still provide a strong, interesting story. With that in mind, I did not miss many opportunities to add in details that, at the time, were just there for the visual and in no way integral to the plot.

As I near the very end of this monster (It’s about 116k now) at least three things I just tossed into the mix because I thought they were fun have come front and center to turn the ending upside down and inside out. Not only are those early threads now incorporated, but readers unfamiliar with my newsletter, or my social media accounts, will believe I did it on purpose. These are the things I love about writing – the things I did not know, or expect, when a project started, and that feel as if they were handed to me by some part of my mind I can only connect to through words. I can’t wait for people to read this.

Anyway, I have laundry to fold and cats to entertain, so let’s get on with the meat and taters of this newsletter.

What’s New?

Last week I ran a contest – a call for one-word prompts to become stories for an upcoming project. It started slowly, but in the end I got 46 words. I have them stored in a spreadsheet with contact information for those who submitted. When the project reaches print, I will ensure that signed copies go to those whose words I used.

For fun… if you read this and (before midnight on Tuesday, the 23^rd ) send me sets of three-word prompts, I will write poems for each. Who knows what might come of that, but I’ll be nearly certain to call the project Raptured. Please send prompts to david@davidniallwilson.com

Here is an example of a past 3 Word Poem to give you the idea. Please, don’t just choose obscure words with the thought it will make it more difficult. It will more likely make the outcome less interesting.

Prompt from author Wayne Allen Sallee: pitchfork / derby / marionette

AFTER THE WAR

After the war,
Power lines down,
Powerless,
Buildings crumbled,
Windows, doors, stone
Shattered,
They came back.

They dug trenches,
Graves for the lost and
Lifeless.
Still clawing at the bars
Of cells and cages
Still seeking freedom
In death.

Long dead leaders
Locked them away.
Profane.
Different, and banished.
And left behind.
When the war came.
Forgotten.

The graves were pits,
Fires stoked and bright-hot coals
Glowing.
The only freedom remaining
That of ash and dust
And wind

In slow motion circles,
Like some macabre derby
Run by skeletal men
With barrows and carts,
They loaded and unloaded,
The fire-zone for that alone,
Lifting bodies with spades
And shovels.

It played out like a final
Pitchfork tine puppet show,
With rotting marionettes for actors
And the barren fields as stage,
The players flinging limbs
to an uncaring sky
As they flopped
And dropped
And burned.

After the war,
The cleanup crews
Wore tears for makeup
Crying the lost home,
And for lost homes.
Waiting for the dead sun
To rise.

After the war.

By Monday: The paperback edition of Etched Deep & Other Dark Impressions will be available. This will be book 3 in “The Short Fiction of David Niall Wilson” as we work through the many collections I’ve had in digital over the years.

Here are a couple of links. This Universal Book Link is publishing and should be live by Monday. This Amazon Kindle link will display the link to the paperback once it’s live (It’s in review). This book is also available in unbridged audio, performed by Al Dano.

From Writing What Hurts

There are too many influences in a writer’s life to categorize them all. I think you can break them down into categories though – or periods. I grew up in small-town Illinois. I was a nerdy book reader, not great at sports but participated anyway, picked on by several different groups and types of other students and friends with some great kids. From that period, I brought Vonnegut, Bradbury, Lovecraft, and Tolkien with me. I left behind The Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Abraham Lincoln and Kenneth Roberts, whose historical autobiographies kept me glued to the page for days at a time and taught me the truth behind history – that it’s rewritten repeatedly and just a form of fiction. The book that set me straight told the full story of Benedict Arnold, who was far from the traitor we are taught in school. I also left behind a ton of comic books, and somehow never re-acquired the love of reading them I had as a boy.

What came next were my US Navy years. From those I brought Stephen King, Salvador Dali, the music of Steeleye Span and a thousand rock groups, the ability to play guitar and the first few novels of my career. I left behind mountains of fantasy trilogies, elves, goblins, and other such critters, even as I moved to and through Dean Koontz and on to Clive Barker. I also left behind my first publishing venture – a magazine called The Tome – the editing of which was eye-opening and deeply influential on my career, as well as my writing.

I’m cutting each of these periods far short. I visited countries and continents in the US Navy, lived in Spain, joined a Bike Club (Tiburon MC) – visited Masada and Jerusalem, Rome and Pisa and Florence, Greece and Crete. I loved lost, married and divorced. In other words, I lived – a lot. All of that is in my writing if you look for it, though it may not be easily discernible to anyone who didn’t share all that experience (a person, in other words, who does not exist).

You can gain absolutely nothing from huge chunks of your life and be influenced forever by just a few moments. What you take from a book might be a short quote you can’t shake, a style of getting a particular bit of plot or information across, a conversational tic. Stephen King’s characters often say, “I had an idea that,” or “I had the idea that,” and that sticks with me. I haven’t used it, but I recognize it in his work and smile when I see it.

Since we’re still in the introductory part of this book, I’m going to close the door on this influence thing for a while with the note that throughout the pages of this book, the things that have influenced me will become apparent. I’ll tell you stories. I’ll reference other writers and talk about things I like or do not like in their work. I’ll say repeatedly that all opinions are subjective, and that these are just mine…something I have learned to say through the influence of Mr. Richard Rowand, editor of the late and much missed STARSHORE MAGAZINE – who published my first major genre piece, “A Candle Lit in Sunlight,” which later became the novel This is My Blood. He used to tell us – right before hacking our work to bits – that we should keep in mind that all reviews are subjective.

Before I continue, I’m going to sit back and listen to some Hank Williams Senior and follow that with Charlie Johnson’s Birdland – music picked up while being influenced by Poppy Z. Brite’s novel “Drawing Blood,” though ol’ Hank was with me since my childhood (and you can read about that in my novel Deep Blue). Onward.

What I’m Reading

On the Kindle I have Long Division: Stories of Social Decay, Societal Collapse, and Bad Mannersand I’m about 72% through it. Just about to dive into the Eric Larocca story. There are some great stories here. I will hold off mentioning them until I finish the anthology. I will note that, having mentioned how I usually rate anthologies in earlier newsletters, this one is slightly above normal so far.

Also on the Kindle, The Essential Bukowski: Poetry. The brutally honest images these poems present are a serious lesson for any author / poet / creator. I will also note that, in the hospital waiting for your wife to get out of surgery, maybe this isn’t the best choice of a reed.

What I’m Watching

Banner & Cash – something we somehow missed when it came out. Holds up beautifully, funny, entertaining and a great chance to see stars we watch on current shows in earlier roles.

We are also still watching PEACEMAKER. Good stuff.

We are nearly done with he five episodes dropped of Murder in the Building. New season is great.

Finally watched the new Superman and concur with most of the world. It’s a great movie, with some messages, some humor, but the start of this one is Krypto.

What I’m Listening to

In audio I am VERY MUCH ENJOYING Bitter Karella’s novel debut, MOONFLOW. The characters are crazy. The plot is crazy, but it is very well written, there are no cardboard characters, and despite leaning toward humor, there are deep issues at stake, and a solid horror backdrop. Also there are mushrooms and a cellphone glitch. UPDATE – 86% complete. Review to follow this week.

Buy My Books

When You Leave I Disappear: A Novella by David Niall Wilson – Shortwave Publishing

The post Writing What Hurts appeared first on Writing What Hurts.

Writing What Hurts – A CONTEST!

admin — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 19:23:04 +0000

What’s Happening

Just as a warning, I won’t always just talk about writing here. The world is a mess. This year has been strange in so many ways. Today I’m going to talk about health care. I have a good job. I have health care through that job. I also have Medicare because I had to have it to keep my Trinet for life from my military retirement. These are some baseline facts.

We rarely use the benefits, but recently Trish had a surgery scheduled, and a lot of aspects of health care were right there on display. Start with a primary physician who charges $85 for a visit if you just pay, and hundreds of dollars more if you have insurance. Follow with all of the pre-approvals necessary, and the health-care professionals who seem to brush past this and then look confused when charges come in.

The big downside of capitalism is that once anything is privatized it no longer serves anything but profit. Period. Medicine is priced ridiculously. Health care is priced ridiculously. Insurance is expensive and only in business to deny as many claims as possible… not because any sort of medical professional made an informed decision, but by AI and a list of points intended to find a way out of paying that is handled by a group of (not medical professional) people on a committee or board. Everyone knows all of this. It’s critical.

My point is, I knew all of this, but until we spent a couple of days in the hospital the totality of it didn’t sink in. Down to basically forcing you to buy your prescription from the hospital on the way out, which is overcharged to the insurance, which causes the insurance rates to rise. (This despite our preferred pharmacy being included in the questions they asked).

Thankfully, Trish will get her surgery next week. Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to be covered by multiple insurance plans currently. It all just makes me sad, and angry, because our country is heading toward privatizing everything. That means profit, stockholders, and executives will determine pricing in a world where the price of everything is rising. Everyday Americans are sitting around watching Fox News pundits who make a ton of money and have no worries tell them everything is okay. It’s not. It’s getting worse, and worse, and I hope we soon find a way to right the ship.

Anyway… that’s what’s happening here and sorry to burden you all with it, but if you are reading this, I assume you care a little about what I’m thinking and doing and planning. Without further ado, let’s get on with it!

What’s New?

CONTEST! There is a new project I’m working on. If you have read my novella When You Leave I Disappear, you will be familiar with the strange website that provided writing prompts to the main character, who then wrote short stories based on them. They were single word prompts, like “Shunned”. I am running a contest. Send a one-word prompt to david@davidniallwilson.com before midnight on Sunday, 14 September 2025. If I choose your prompt to write a story for this new project, you will receive a signed (if you want personalized) copy of the book. No details will be available for a while, but this is a big deal for me.

Not required, but if you are familiar with the novella you will have a better idea the types of one word prompts that are likely to be chosen.

★ Finalist – Manly Wade Wellman Award★ Finalist – Montaigne Medal★ Nominated – Best Commercial Fiction – Hoffer Award USA Today bestselling author David Niall Wilson’s When You Leave I Disappear is a literary horror novella in which a bestselling author’s imposter syndrome draws her into a darker and darker…

shortwavepublishing.com/catalog/when-you-leave-i-disappear-a-novella-by-david-niall-wilson

From Writing What Hurts

1 – High School Years

Back in high school I had some unique individuals as teachers. One, for instance, was Mr. Monts. I may be botching the spelling of his name, it doesn’t matter. Mr. Monts was famed throughout the school, both for being the best and the strangest history professor in the school’s history. He began each new class by listing Monts’s Laws on the blackboard. I don’t remember all of them, but there are a few that stuck with me. A Student is one who studies. An instructor presents information. A Teacher is one who teaches.

And Mr. Monts was a teacher. Some of his students were allowed to skip class completely. He made the deal first day that if you came to class on the day of exams and maintained an “A” average you did not have to come to class. Everyone came anyway. You never knew whether he would be talking about the American Revolution, or reading to the class from the Just-So stories by Rudyard Kipling. He had the perfect voice for it – and I’ll never forget hearing him read about the Great, gray, green, greasy Limpopo River. I’ll also never forget what I learned in his class – that experiences like he provided were what education should be about. Not a list of deadlines, some memorized facts that sift in and out of the brain and disappear. Lessons – some about history, others about life. He was a great teacher.

I was probably blessed when it came to teachers. My creative writing teacher, Nell Wiseman, recently retired, I believe, has won acclaim for her work in Illinois education. I wrote a great number of poems in her class – that is what I remember best. We had to complete a poetry notebook that was turned in to an Illinois women’s literary society (don’t recall which one). First prize was something like $10 – more money then than it is now. I wrote what I thought was a very creative poetry notebook, and one of my poems – the Ballad of Daniel Dunn (notice the alliteration?) won second prize. What I remember best is that my poem about a bear caught in a forest fire due to a careless smoker won first prize.

Except I never got that prize. I had sold the poem (and an entire second poetry notebook) to a friend. He won first prize, and he didn’t even share the money. That was the down side. The upside is that at that moment in time, I knew I could write. I was certain of it. I had competed against all of the kids in my school who thought they might be interested in creative writing, and I’d taken first and second place. Of course, I had a lot to learn about what it meant to be able to write. That knowledge came years later, but that was the start.

I also had a teacher named Mrs. Plath. She was a very strict disciplinarian, but she truly seemed to love books. In her class I discovered Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (I had to go to the desk and ask her, after reading most of the book, if she was aware of all that happened in that book because I was afraid I’d get in trouble for writing about it). I also wrote a long poem called The Torture Chamber (lost to history) as an extra credit assignment, and a short story titled “The Thing at the Top of the Stairs.” That story, years later, was rewritten and actually published in 365 Scary Stories. Even at that age I was writing the sort of thing that would draw my creative attention later in life – and fairly well, I think. Still…I didn’t take it as seriously as I needed to. Later in this book I’ll talk about turning points, and how I think my career would be different if I’d applied myself even a little bit sooner than I did, but that is digression.

My early life was filled with teachers. My grandfather, an absolutely amazing man, taught me a lot about life – about being honest – about working with my hands. He took me fishing and taught me to polish stones to make jewelry. He taught me to make a Vinegar Sling and the wonders of foods like “brains and eggs” and homemade yogurt by the mason jar. He escaped a nursing home once, stole his own car from his house (a bronze VW bug) and drove it eighty miles to my house for a visit. He was a great man, and he blessed me with a plethora of images, ideas, and stories that continue to color and populate the worlds and stories I create.

You never know when you will encounter a teacher. You never know what the lessons will be, or when you’ll put those lessons to use. I was fortunate enough to have a wide range of influences at a very early age, and to be gifted with the sort of memory that not only recorded them all in detail, but that can sift them and rearrange them and put them to good use. The best of your stories come from your life; the things that have mattered to you, brought you to tears, scared the crap out of you and brought you to your knees with pain. All the rest is trappings and fluff…the important words flow when you are writing with emotion.

Most of what I’ve written that I believe matters in more than a superficial way came to me when I was writing what hurts. That’s what this book is about, at its core. Writing what hurts, what blinds, what uplifts and what captivates. Writing in that zone where the world fades, and you disappear into the words. Writing things that, when others read them, make you hold your breath and cringe in the fear that they’ll hate them, or not understand them, or laugh…

I suppose a book about writing needs to be broken into sections of some sort. Characters. Plots. The tools of the trade. I’ll get to all of that. First I want to establish the ground floor of this house of cards. I call it that because, in the face of someone else’s methods, dreams, and career, all that I write might blow away like it was caught in a stiff wind. Writing is a solitary occupation, and no two writers occupy the same little world, in the end. You take what you can use, discard the rest, and focus on the work. Let’s get to it.

What I’m Reading

On the Kindle I have Long Division: Stories of Social Decay, Societal Collapse, and Bad Mannersand I’m about 38% through it. There are some great stories here. I will hold off mentioning them until I finish the anthology. I will note that, having mentioned how I usually rate anthologies in earlier newsletters, this one is slightly above normal so far.

What I’m Watching

Banner & Cash – something we somehow missed when it came out. Holds up beautifully, funny, entertaining and a great chance to see stars we watch on current shows in earlier roles.

We are also still watching PEACEMAKER. Good stuff.

What I’m Listening to

Buy My Books

The Whirling Man & Other Tales of Pain, Blood and Madness

The post Writing What Hurts – A CONTEST! appeared first on Writing What Hurts.

Writing What Hurts: September Rising

admin — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 02:37:10 +0000

What’s Happening

First, I want to assure everyone that, despite the fact I’m going through some personal things, it doesn’t affect Crossroad Press in any way. We are solid, self-sustained and not going anywhere. There have been some concerned notes, and, while I appreciate people reaching out and offering support, I hope you all trust that, if something were going to happen to Crossroad Press, I would let you know. We have watched companies come and go for a lot of reasons, and I have always said that the important thing is communication and transparency. We’re good, or I’d have told you. I am confident that my own issues will work out as well, but I wanted to let everyone know up front not to worry about the publishing company.

The novel continues to grow, and my mind continues to rebuild earlier parts in anticipation of the revision. It’s going to be my longest novel any way it shakes out. There is just too much going on to shorten it very far, though my tendency to put things in the beginning that end up being for my own benefit and getting cut may help with the length. Another issue I often have is including too many characters. I’ve been working around that by splitting them up, and in a crazy haunted house with shifting paintings and connected timelines in the past, it’s not too difficult to keep them apart.

I am coming to what I hope will be a dramatic conclusion soon. The details seem clear when I’m about to fall asleep or dozing in my recliner. It remains to be seen how that translates to words.

Here is a teaser… the synopsis in progress. It’s commercial, and I like it, but it does not encompass at least a couple of major elements… and I’m not certain it needs to…

“When psychologist-turned-influencer Stephanie Danvers buys the eerie Coyne House to stage a week-long paranormal experiment, she gathers a volatile mix of skeptics, scientists, and sensitives. What begins as research for an online program becomes a slow spiral into terror as the house’s strange history and a mysterious entity inhabiting a ruined mission blur the line between science and the supernatural. For the guests, survival means uncovering whether Coyne House is haunted, cursed, or alive before it consumes them all.”

NEW!

My collection The Whirling Man & Other Tales of Pain, Blood & Madness has been updated. New cover, new format, and the paperback (finally) is live. These are stories of mine that, in some way, deal with madness. Everything from serial killers to fairy tales. It spans many years of my career, and is only $13.99 in paperback, and $3.99 in eBook. The audio is currently taking auditions so stand by for that. More of my collections, previously available only as eBooks, are getting facelifts and new paperbacks. Stay tuned.

What I’m writing & Planning for 2025/26

I’ll try this in bullet form…

· A Dagon story featuring Cletus J. Diggs… and catfish people.

· A Shoggoth story that is a mashup of Lovecraft and the Brothers Grimm

· A novella combining government and corporate greed with virtual computing

· Compiling and adding new material to an Old Mill, NC Cletus J. Diggs / Donovan DeChance collection.

· Compiling all the many Edgar Allan Poe stories in a single volume (with more new material)

· A long-awaited book of poetry

· And possibly completing Writing What Hurts… the semi-biographical book on writing I’ve been working on for years.

What I’m Reading

Still reading the Patrick Barb edited And One Day We Will Die: Strange Stories Inspired by the Music of Neutral Milk Hotel anthology. Will be something I believe you should see on awards ballots all over. I have not read a story in this book yet that I don’t feel could receive nominations, and I’m 60% of the way through. That’s a seriously high score for an anthology, at least in my experience.

What I’m Watching

We are nearly through Sherlock Holmes and Daughter, after finishing the first season of The Hunting Party. That one feels kind of hurried, and the setup is too pat and weird. Rather than a deep backstory, it relies on a single hour to handle every killer, which makes it kind of entertaining fluff, but not something I’d go out of my way to get excited by. Sherlock, on the other hand, where else can you see Wonder Woman’s god of war incarnated as the world’s greatest detective? It’s fun, not dark, but on the cusp of dark, and building. I hope it returns for a few more seasons.

What I’m Listening to

I completed Nights Master by Tanith Lee in audio – my Goodreads review is Here, and I’m filling in a gap I should have filled long ago now, listening to Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, narrated by William Dufris. So far very entertaining. Not as snarky (so far) as the later works, with a lot of very cool political and scientific tidbits.

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