Writing To Be Read

I truly enjoyed some of the poetry included in this anthology by Mishka Zahkarin, as poetry is one of my favorite genres. The poetry included in “From the Spleen of Fiery Dragons” is unique and unusual, ranging from beautiful love sonnets, reminiscent of Shakespeare, to the truly bizarre and disturbing. Obviously, Zahkarin’s talent runs the gamut of poetic form and style, with some rhyming and some not, but most speaking of the bleak existence of one who searches for more, but doesn’t really expect to find it, (which is kind of depressing), intermixed with the poetry of love, (or at least, lust), that takes you aback and makes you draw in breath:

In Our Place

In waking dreams,

she comes to me…         

I see passion in her eyes—

believe it the tempest of a kiss…

I feel her touch,

The urgency of her embrace,

                  flesh to flesh,

minds and bodies intermingling…

the inferno of our desires

rampaging unchecked,

consuming—fulfilling—

                 overflowing—

each’s essence surging

through the other,

as if two souls

               might soar as one…

Humor finds a place within Zahkarin’s works, as well, leaving no choice but to chuckle:

MEAT! (reprise)

I told her we should pork—

but she said not to give her any beef…

I said she was only acting chicken—

but she told me: “Go fish!”

(I haven’t got any nines…)

The poetry of Mishka Zahkarin is rich and varied, and definitely worth reading. It reminded me of all the reasons that I love to write poetry: the freedom it allows; the structure it offers; the fun of playing with words that it offers… In The Spleen of Fiery Dragons, it is evident that each and every poem, whether you like them or not, is written straight from the inner fire of his being; emotion and feeling pouring forth. His small anthology was very enjoyable and I would recommend it to poetry lovers from all backgrounds, as there seems to be a little something in there for everyone.

The New Year has begun, and we’ve almost made it through the first month. My personal resolutions have already pretty much been left by the wayside. I still smoke, (haven’t even tried to quit; too much stress, I tell myself), I still eat, and I haven’t really exercised anymore than I did last year, (although I have been doing more around the house since my husband has been ill, I don’t know if sweeping and vacuuming actually count as exercise).  

My professional resolutions, I’m proud to say, are still in the forefront of my mind and I have actually been working on them. Getting serious about my writing career and preparing myself to meet that full time writing goal has kept me busy. Of course, the actual writing has to come first or I will be ready and have nothing to show for it, so the creation of Kaye Lynne Booth professional writer has to come a little bit at a time, squeezing in my “remodeling job” whenever I can. (I took a short leave from work, to care for my husband, and I thought perhaps that would free me up to write more, but alas, I have spent most of that time on household responsibilities and have probably written less, which is why the first month of 2010 is almost past and you haven’t seen my first blog post until now.) I am making progress in the right direction, although it is slow, however. A new laptop has me transferring and merging files, so that all my work will be better organized. I have begun the remodeling of my website that I had planned on doing since last June, and work on the illustrations for my children’s book has been kicked into high gear, as my illustrator, Aidana WillowRaven and I collaborate on where we really want this book to go. I also have made efforts to get out there in cyberspace and strengthen my networking connections, and I have several people that are anxiously awaiting a release date for Heather Hummingbird, although probably not as anxiously as I.

The point here is that things change and we have to take we need to take control of our lives and guide the direction in which those changes are headed. Resolutions or not, if we just sit back and watch the world go by, we may not like where we end up, in both our professional and our personal lives. We are the only ones that can make things happen in our lives, but that, my friends, takes some effort on our parts. My personal appearance and physical condition are probably not going to change much, until I get serious and do something about them, while my writing career may just take off into new directions, because that is what my efforts are being expended. I may not be happy with where my physical self is going as I watch the pounds pile on and my sleep is interrupted by my smoker’s cough each night, but I am happy with where I see my writing endeavors leading. For better or worse, things will change. They always do. The better or worse are for us to decide.

As I was contemplating this post, my oldest and dearest friend asked me to read a poem that her son wrote. The poem talks about the past, the future and the uncertainty of change. I think this young man has a lot of potential. I thought it fit well with my subject matter here and requested permission to publish it. My thanks goes to Brandon for granting it to me. So today, instead of my poetry, I will close this post with that a future Colorado poet for you to enjoy; a new poet for a new year. May 2010  be a good one for all of us.

The Sands of Time

The sun once again breaks the horizon,
With the ball of fire my hopes begin risin.
The past is far gone and future is near,
My once foggy mind is starting to clear.The cold wind blows but worse pain has been felt,
A new beginning and new cards have finally been dealt.
Grit my teeth at the past lettin go is a war,
But it’s time to look forward, rekindle the core.Takin steps on each path with each step comes a choice,
Must not follow my instinct but only Gods voice.
Ill walk straight and narrow on my given path,
Nothin will stop me not even hells wrath.The past is now gone into the depths of history,
What happens next in life is simply a mystery.
Each memory passes into the sands of time,
Never felt better I’m back in my prime.The day is done the sun falls into night,
Awaiting tomorrow’s promising light.
My body falls asleep but my mind has awaken,
God with me through all I’m never forsaken.-Brandon Boyd-

The second book in Cynthia Vespia’s Demon Hunter series, Seek and Destroy has a little of everything that lovers of the supernatural might be looking for. Costa Calabrese is back, with his friends Telisa and Paralay, for more action and adventure in the dark realm. This time, love plays a role in motivating the demon hunter’s actions, pushing him accept the unrequested lot that he has been given in life and to face evil head on, in darker forms than ever before. Shape shifting demons, walking dead, dragons, werewolves, the hounds of hell, and even the dark lord himself await Costa and his friends in this adventurous journey that leads across the storming seas and straight into the pit of hell. Along the way there is self-revelation for Costa, especially when he thinks that he has lost the one he loves forever. For good to triumph over evil, Costa must come to terms with who he is and learn to take control of his fate from here on out. To find out if Costa and his friends can conquer their fears and win the battles that lay before them, a copy of Demon Hunter: Seek and Destroy can be acquired through the Cynthia Vespia Book Store. I highly recommend that you get your copy today.

Well it’s that time. Time to start a new year and that means resolutions. According to Colorado Springs author, Cicily Janus, in her Huffington Post article, A New New Years Resolution: Redefining the Tradition, most of those resolutions involve weight loss in order to achieve that perfect, stick thin figure that is socially acceptable in our modern culture. She’s right, of course. This society puts high emphasis on attaining that Barbie-doll figure that really isn’t healthy at all, which is why anorexia and bulimia are so prevalent today. I think the ancient Greeks had the right idea concerning the ideal female figure, portraying women that had a little meat on their bones. They weren’t fat, but they looked healthy, not sickly like some of today’s ideal women. I bet you never saw any Greek Goddesses starving themselves on fad diets. Of course, they could just readjust their toga and look good without major alterations to their enire wardrobes, too.

My new year’s resolutions do involve loosing weight, but not for a Barbie-doll figure. I need to loose weight so I will feel better both physically and mentally about myself. I don’t like the way my extra weight makes me feel and I want rid of it. My plan for accomplishing this goal will include a healthy exercise regime along with a sensible diet. Probably, I’ll include getting rid of the cigarettes on that list, as well. Maybe I could combine those two into one resolution to improve my health in 2010.

My main resolution, though, involves my writing. Over the last few months, I’ve finally begun to generate a small income from my writing. My goal for 2010 is to make enough from my writing to be able to do it full time. Actually, that has been my goal for a long time, but now I’m in a position where I could actually make it happen. Best of all, it is a resolution that won’t fall by the wayside and be forgotten by mid-March, because I already work at it every single day, so I really don’t have to make any major lifestyle changes to accomplish it. All I have to do is keep writing and work diligently to find new paying outlets for my work. Fortunately, I subscribe to several great newsletters and writing blogs that are filled with ideas on how to do just that. Anyone who wants to make a living off of freelance writing can benefit from these publications, as they are all very helpful, so I will post them here for any of you who might have a similar goal on your resolution list.

Editor Unleashed: http://editorunleashed.com/

Smart Writer’s Newsletter: http://www.writersgiveaway.com/treasure/

The Urban Muse: http://www.urbanmusewriter.com/

On the Premises: http://www.onthepremises.com/index.html

The Pedestal: http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/page.php?pid=17

The Writing Bug: http://the-writing-bug.blogspot.com/

Writing, Etc…: http://filbertpublishing.com/current.html

Writer’s Digest: http://filbertpublishing.com/current.html

3 Chix: http://www.3chix.com/

Writer Gazette: http://www.writergazette.com/

Writing My Way Into the New Year 

I wrote my way through many years

All to no avail

No one knocking at my door

Though my writing was for sale

Last year things began to change

I got some writing gigs

I made some pennies this past year

But nothing really big

Now the New Year will be different

I can feel it deep inside

The money has begun to flow

My sail’s begun to glide

I feel big things in store this year

My writing is just right

Success is just around the bend

It starts with New Year night.

Copyright ©2009  Kaye Lynne Booth

We all know that the strongest emotions in writing are conveyed in the words that evoke passion with you, the writer, but have you ever stopped to examine which emotions those are? I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the emotions that evoke the most passion on the page are love, anger, fear and grief. Perhaps that is why these are favorite themes in music, as well as in poetry and, even in the historically epic tales of the distant past.

Notice that all but one of these would probably be considered negative emotions. Why would it be, that so many negative emotions are so strong, but only one positive one?  Are the negative emotions felt more intensely? I think that perhaps they are. Perhaps love, as the strongest felt positive emotion by far, may just be the only positive emotion that even comes close to being as intensely felt as negative emotions are. I think that is why these emotions have been used in themes throughout history so often and so well.

If you doubt this, take a moment to compare any story that you have read where a character was happy, perhaps even elated, to one in which a character is enraged or overcome by grief, or afraid that a monster lurks just around the corner. If the tale is well written, you probably experienced some of the character’s anguish yourself, or sat on the edge of your seat on pins and needles until whatever was on the other side of the was revealed. However, even though you understood that the character was happy and why he was happy, you probably didn’t feel a smile cross your own face, did you. Now look at your favorite romance or love story, and again, you are able to put yourself in the character’s shoes and feel all the love that she feels, in a comparable intensity, because love is right up there in intensity, because love is passionate.

We’ve all heard that you must have the negative so that we can appreciate the positive. We need sadness so that we can feel happiness in its absence, hate in order to truly love, etc… But I ask you, if that is true, why then are not the negatives and positives equally balanced? Is love so intense that it takes anger, fear and grief, all three to balance it out? Those three negatives are pretty powerful, yet we have only one positive that comes close to equaling any one of them, but is that positive really equal to the three of them put together?  Think about it. Fear can be immobilizing, anger can throw one into a murderous rage, and grief can consume one’s whole being. Love can be consuming, and can even provoke a jealous rage, but then it becomes jealousy, which is yet one more powerful negative emotion. That’s a lot for love to compete with.

I don’t know the answer, but whatever conclusion you reach, there is one thing for certain. It is our job as writers to convey that intensity, that passion; that terror; that fury, onto the written page and through to readers in a way that makes them experience the same emotions that our characters are feeling, or that we ourselves are trying to communicate. It’s funny that in life, we often hide our emotions and don’t reveal our true feelings to others, but as writers, we must learn to do just the opposite and put those emotions out there for everyone to see.

In a college English class, a student teacher assigned us to write a descriptive essay and as an example, he played a tape of a descriptive essay for us in class. His example was in the form of a narrative, and I went home and wrote a narrative that described what it felt like to play the “Asteroids” arcade game, which I was very much into at the time, (you know, back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth). I put my soul into that essay and when one read it, one could feel the excitement of battle, the fear of near misses, the elation of watching your target be blown to bits. It was probably the best thing that I had ever written up to that point in my life and I was proud of it. The student teacher, however, dropped everyone in the whole class, because we all turned in narratives and he claimed that they did not meet the requirements of a descriptive essay. My essay was dropped down to a “C”, and I latter found out that mine would have been the only “A” in the entire class, which did make me feel a little better, but I went all the way to the Dean’s office trying to appeal my grade on the premises that: one, his example had been a narrative, but then he acted surprised when every person in the class turned in a narrative; and two, it was an excellent piece of writing and should have been graded upon its merit as a quality piece of writing. What made it a quality piece of writing was the emotions that it conveyed, even if it did not fit the guidelines of the assignment, which our dear student teacher had obviously not made clear. So I was a better writer than he was a teacher. I wonder who got a better grade? More importantly, I wonder who learned a more valuable lesson from the experience? The lesson that I learned was not the differences between a descriptive essay and a narrative, (I still believe a piece of writing can successfully be both simultaneously), but how to portray my emotions on the written page. It was a lesson that has stayed with me to this day and I believe that it is one of the most valuable lessons a writer can ever learn, and a necessary one if you plan to write well.

False Smile

Everyone tries to be so nice

I smile and it feels like my face

Will crack into little pieces

I hold that false smile until they can’t see

Because I don’t want them to feel bad

Don’t want anyone to know

That I’m dying slowly with each passing day

Rotting away on the inside

No one knows

No one sees

My fading inner self

All they see is my false smile

They don’t see below the surface

To see what is really going on or who I really am.

Copyright ©2009  Kaye Lynne Booth

I recently caught one version of A Christmas Carol on television. Although there have been many versions of this classic story, they all stick pretty much to the same basic theme that we are all familiar with, from the original version by Charles Dickens. There was nothing particularly different about this one, but as I watched, I began to think about what my own Christmas Carol would be like. What would the Christmas ghosts reveal to me, were I in the place of Ebenezer Scrooge?

We would all like to think that our Christmas ghosts would have no surprises in store for us, but if we are honest, we have to admit that the ghost of Christmas past would probably be able to dig up a few occasions when we could have been kinder; a few opportunities where we could have been helpful to someone else, but were to busy or in to much of a hurry to bother with it. I can think of several occasions when I turned down invitations to go do things with my friends, when maybe they just really wanted to spend time with me, or maybe they were lonely and needed some company. Would my acceptance of their invitations made them have a better day? I wonder if it would show me things that I could have done that would have made it so my son would be here with us this Christmas day. Perhaps I could have been there to listen at some point when I did not take the time out to do so, and that one conversation would have let me say the right words to him, to give him strength in his time of pain.

I know my Christmas present could show me a lot of things that I currently regret, but I already know about those. I think that my Christmas past would reveal to me the relationships in my life that are not as good as they could be; the ones that I need to work on. My kids are scattered over Colorado, and I don’t get to see my grandkids much. It seems that we are always trying to plan a trip to see one or the other of them, but something always seems to get in the way. More often than not, it is a lack finances that prevent us from going to visit, so in some ways I may be more like Scrooge than I care to admit. Perhaps the ghost of Christmas present would show me what I could do differently, so that we could make those trips and get to know my grandchildren. I think relationships are one of the most valuable things that we can have; friends, family, and loved ones are more precious than many people are willing to acknowledge. To quote an unknown author, “A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.” For me, this is the true meaning of Christmas. The kids will always love you when they open their presents, but when they show their love in the absence of gifts, that is the true spirit of Christmas.

Of course, Christmas future is the real mystery. That’s the one we’d all really like to see. I wonder what my current actions will bring about for Christmases to come. Would I see my own death, alone and unloved, as Eebenezer’s was? Or would I see the friends and family that I hold so dear, mourning my death and missing me at their own Christmas futures? It is something to ponder. I work in the health care field as a C.N.A. I have built relationships with each one of my residents. Even though some of them probably don’t know my name, their smiles light up when they see me and I know that I’m fulfilling an important role for them, but I don’t think that is who would be at my graveside. Yet, I do think that those relationships are important, because I feel that I make a difference in their lives. Margaret Fishback Powers once said,

            “100 years from now it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of     

              house I lived in, how much money I had in my bank account, nor what my     

              clothes looked like. But the world may be better because I was important in

              the life of a child.”

I think that this statement is very true, but I would add that if you are important in the life of an individual, no matter what age, you have made a difference in the world. This is what is truly important in life; making a difference in the lives of others.

That may be the entire purpose of the story. Charles Dickens wanted us to think; to look inside of ourselves and consider what kind of Christmas Carol each one of us would have. I think that overall, I could accept what my Christmas ghosts have to show me. Could you live with what your ghosts would have to show you?

The Perfect Christmas 

To make the perfect Christmas, all you need is love.

That’s all God had to offer, when he sent his son from above.

Christmas isn’t tinsel on the tree or billions of tiny lights,

You know what really matters, are those you kiss goodnight.

It isn’t Christmas cookies, baked to a golden brown,

But the time that’s shared in making them; all the children hanging round.

Christmas isn’t presents either, as so many seem to think.

It’s the spirit that they’re given in, love flowing to the brink.

So before you pull out the decorations, and start trimming up the tree,

Bake Christmas treats, sing out the carols, and wrap the gifts so neat,

Stop and take a moment, to reflect on what Christmas is really about.

If you can feel the love around you, tell the world; just shout it out.

Copyright ©2009  Kaye Lynne Booth 

I just finished reading Demon Hunter: The Chosen One, by Cynthia Vespia. For fans of dark fantasy, this book is a must read. It has all the qualities dark fiction readers could want: adventure; mystery; demons; werewolves; vampires and more. There is evil lurking in the shadows and young Costa is searching for who he really is. As he unlocks the secrets of his past, he finds himself facing a frightening and dangerous future, should he choose to follow the destiny that he reveals to be his. Used to facing adversity alone, he must learn to accept and depend on the help of his new found family, who teach him the meaning true friendship. Through these lessons he learns not only who he is, but also where his strengths and weaknesses lie, and how they can best be put to use to accomplish the tasks that lie ahead. This medieval tale will take you on an adventure into the darker realms, with characters that you come to care about and love. As in all such tales, good must triumph over evil, but will Costa learn his lessons fast enough and well enough to accomplish the task? A truly good, old fashioned legend and lore adventure novel that leaves readers thirsting for the sequel, which, fortunately, is coming out this month. Once you read this one, you won’t want to miss Demon Hunter: Seek and Destroy. Both are available in digital format and can be purchased through the Cynthia Vespia Book Store.

Note *Please comment and let me know if you’d would like to see more book reviews as a permanent feature of Writing to be Read*

Thanksgiving is only a few days away, and I know everyone has different things that they are thankful for. As writers, we may be thankful for some unusual items that others may not even consider. For example, we writers might be thankful for our ink cartridge not running out before our entire manuscript is printed, or we may be thankful to the inventor of ink pens, because we no longer have to dip our quills, or for trees that provide paper, so we don’t have to print on papyrus. Okay, so maybe these aren’t the first things to cross, even a writer’s mind. Personally, I am thankful for my laptop and the Internet, because without these two things, I wouldn’t be writing Writing to be Read or anything else for that matter. I tried writing way back in the Stone Age, when you still had to use a typewriter and lots of white out, and submit your work in manila envelopes with a SASE, if you wanted it back with your rejection slip. I carry my laptop almost everywhere with me and write in some pretty unusual situations, but that’s how you can tell that I am serious about writing. I can also say that I am thankful for spell check, because it just makes my life so much easier.

I am also thankful that I can now say that I am a paid writer. I am finally making money for my words of wisdom. It is with a feeling of satisfaction that I walked into the bank and cashed my first paycheck in October. I haven’t quite my other job, the one that I have to actually leave the house to go to. I’m not making enough to say good-bye to the drudgery of working for someone else just yet, but I can feel it coming. It has not been an easy road to travel and I have often gotten discouraged, but my perseverance is finally paying off.

I am also thankful for all the other wonderful authors that I have come to know through my profiles and reviews. I have a whole network of fellow writers and authors, who I social network with, and they are all some pretty great people. Some Colorado authors that I have grown particularly fond of are Beth Groundwater (Colorado Springs); Warren Hammond (Denver); Barbara O’Neal (Colorado Springs); Annie Dawid (Westcliffe); Mary Peace Finley (Eastern Plains); JoAnne Sundell (Grand County); Susan J. Tweit (Salida); Bill Trembley (Fort Collins); Nancy Oswald (Cotopaxi); Jessy Randall (Colorado Springs); Laura Resau (Fort Collins); Kent Haruf (Chaffee County); Cicily Janus (Colorado Springs); and Robert Spiller (Monument). Through social networking on sites like Writer’s World and Facebook, I have also met some writers and authors that may or may not live in Colorado, but are awesome, just the same, such as Art Rosch (Petaluma, CA; Cynthoa B. Ainsworth (St. Petersburg, FL); Scott Martin Locke; Cynthia Vespia (Las Vegas, NV); Christopher Scott Silva (Frankfurt, Germany); Carol Berg (Fort Collins, CO);  Mark A. Cooper (Sarasota, FL); Gary Val Tenuta (U.S.A.), Signe Pike (New York, NY) and many others. In addition, I became acquainted with my illustrator for my children’s book, Heather Hummingbird Makes a New Friend, who is also my agent for the same, Aidana WillowRaven. She does excellent work, which I am very pleased with so far, and I can’t wait for her to be finished. I have also made a wonderful friend through my poetry, who is a talented artist, Mitch Barrett (U.K.), who will feature my poetry with one of his painting series, (?). So you see, writing has really expanded my horizons, and I am thankful for that.

Of course, I am also thankful for all the regular stuff. The blessings that I have received in the form of friends and family are always there to be grateful for. I am thankful for my 15 year old son, who is growing into a young man, oh, so fast. I am thankful for my older children that have made families of their own and given me 13 beautiful grandchildren. I am thankful for my loving husband of 28 years. I am thankful for the roof over my head and the food on our table.

Last, but not least, I am thankful for all of the wonderful people out that that read Writing to be Read and Southern Colorado Literature Examiner! Without you guys, I would not have been as successful as I have without you all reading my stuff. So now, I would love to hear all the things that you are thankful for, as writers and as readers. I hope you will leave a comment and let me know about all the wonderful blessings that you have received for this holiday season, so that we can all give thanks together. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Best Part of Thanksgiving

Could it be the turkey, all roasted golden brown?
Could it be the Jello mold, all jiggly and round? Could it be the salad, filled with lots of greens?
Could be the mashed potatoes, thick with sour cream?

Those of you that follow the Southern Colorado Literature Examiner will know that November is National Novel Writing Month, (or NaNoWriMo for short). To celebrate, The Office of Letters and Lights issues a challenge each year to all writers. For more information on this, check out my article; Write a novel in 30 days for National Novel Writing Month. Anyway, so it sounded like fun and I decided to try it. Starting November 1^st, I’m going to begin writing a novel. Only problem is, I don’t have the slightest idea what I am going to write about. I need inspiration, and of course, this is when my muse decides to take off for parts unknown on vacation. So, between now and then, I have to come up with some ideas. Inspiration can be found in some of the most unlikely places, and I am always on the lookout for new places to look. So, here a few online inspiration spots where I have found my muse hanging out. Muses stick together, so perhaps you’ll discover yours in on of the following places.

·        oneword.com – On this site, you are challenged to take one word and write against the clock for a period of sixty seconds to see what you can come up with.

·        Writer’s social networks can often bring information, just by listening to what other writers have to say. I have my own network, Writers’ World, which includes a group called Inspiration Corner, where writers can keep a journal of things that have inspired them and share that with others, as well as sharing inspirational quotes or links to inspirational articles and blog posts. There are many other networks out there, too, such as The Writer’s Box, The Writer’s Network, AuthorNation, All Who Create, IMPnow, My Writers and Authors, etc….

·        Follow your favorite writing blogs. (Don’t forget to put Writing to be Read at the top of your list). Some of my favorites include Editor Unleashed, Writer Unboxed, Chinese Whisperings, Writing About You, Electric Alphabet, The Blog of Fascination, The-Writing-Bug, and Urban Muse.

My apologies. I did not get this finished as quickly as I had hoped and in the interim have been too busy trying to get this novel thing together to come up with a poem for this post. I know this is kind of my signature for Writing to be Read, but I’m hoping you will all forgive its omission just this once. It’s either that or post it way after the fact, which doesn’t seem like the good choice to me. Until next time, Happy Writing!

Well, it’s that time of year once again, I fear. October is a time of fear, isn’t it? During this month you are liable to see a little of everything that scares you: spiders, bats, witches with black cats and pointy hats; ghost, ghouls, and goblins too; werewolves, vampires, and zombies galore; mad scientists, Frankenstein, psychos and more.  I think that for writers, this is a great time of year, because we can let our imaginations run wild and never worry that readers will think we are just too far out. That may be true the rest of the year, but in October, readers just chalk all of outrageously dark stories up to the season, and they assume we’ll return to our normal selves, (as opposed to our Halloween transformations), and write about normal things once again as soon as November comes round. Of course, there are writers, like Stephen King, that can get away with writing scary stuff all year long. His readers just know that he has a warped mind and they love him for it.

As for me, I’ve got a whole series of scary Colorado articles swirling around in the head of the Southern Colorado Literature Examiner, so be sure to pop in there once in awhile to see what I’m brewing up. I am currently reading Retribution: An Anna Strong Vampire Novel, by Jeanne C. Stein in preparation for its review, for starters. I’ve also got an idea for an article on Colorado ghost stories, and maybe one on books about Colorado ghost towns, as well. I’m on the hunt for a Colorado author of dark fiction for a profile and my eyes will be open for any other good scary Colorado literary stories.

Of course, I couldn’t leave out Writing to be Read. A big fan of horror myself, I enjoy the master of the macabre; the one and only Stephen King, but I also enjoy great reads, such as Anne Rice’s Vampire and Mayfair Witch series, Dean Koontz, John Saul, Clive Barker and Peter Straub.  For this site, I thought I’d try to encourage some reader participation, so here’s the deal. This month I want to hear who your favorite author of dark fiction is. They can write horror, sci-fi or even just some very intense thrillers. All you have to do, is leave a comment at the end of this post. You don’t have to be a member of the site, or anything, just leave a comment telling me who is your favorite and why. At the end of the month, I’ll publish a list of all the books that readers think are the scariest. So that’s it, kids. Just let me know who does it for you. Who writes the novels that make you want to sleep with the lights on, or the ones that won’t let you sleep at all.  

Spooky Things

Black cats and witches hats

What a scary time of year

Ghouls and ghosts and goblins;

All that you might fear

Vampires and werewolves

Shape shifters, too

Monsters of all shapes and sizes

Sent to frighten you

Creepy, crawly, slimy things

You don’t want in your bed

Flesh eating zombies;

Walking, talking, living dead

Not so friendly aliens

That stir the urge to run

Wait, where are you going?

The fun has just begun

Copyright ©2009  Kaye Lynne Booth