Richard Crawford's World

w00ts required

I just got notification that my short story "The Bride Price" has been accepted for publication. (…)

A review is in

"The Fix", a website that reviews short fiction, has a review of Issue #33 of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. (…)

New stories on my website

I’ve just added a couple of new stories to my website, so please share and enjoy. (…)

Don’t taunt the fear demon.

So the other night I was in bed, trying desperately to let go of the day and fall asleep, and I was almost there when a little tiny voice broke in and said, "Maybe… maybe I’m just a boring writer."
There’s nothing better for waking you as you’re drifting off to sleep than a good shot of self doubt and insecurity. (…)

Graphic Novels

In addition to my other writing projects, which I can barely keep track of as it is, I also have an itch to write a graphic novel. (…)

Buy it! Buy it now!

Current Mood: Accomplished

Finally!  The horror collection Don’t Turn the Lights On (formerly Room 636), which contains a reprint of my short story "Who Remembers Molly" (one of my personal favorites) is now available for purchase.  You can buy it here, from the Stonegarden Press website.  Mind you, I haven’t read any of the other stories in this collection myself, but it’s got "Who Remembers Molly"… So what more do you need?

*nomicon

Current Mood: BusyOne of the villains in The Solitude of the Tentacled Space Monster is a professor of antiquities who, as a hobby, has applied his knowledge of dark and arcane secrets to many different fields of human knowledge.  Among the books he has written are these:

Agrinomicon. (…)

Ooooh, purty!

Current Mood: Excited
This is the cover of the next issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.  See, there’s my name right there, second on the list.  How exciting is that? (…)

Writing question of the day

How on Earth am I supposed to tell someone that the cat peed on the copy of their novel manuscript I was critiquing?
Any of my writing buddies who might have an answer to this one, let me know.

Finally! Whoo hoo!

Current Mood: Accomplished
This is the cover of Don’t Turn the Lights On, an upcoming anthology of horror stories based on classic urban legends, and which just happens to contain a reprint of my short story, "Who Remembers Molly?".  The anthology will be available on March 30, but you can pre-order it now for only $10.95 from the Stone Garden Press website. (…)

The King of Oblivion

"The King of Oblivion" is an awesome song by Seven Nations, a Celtic rock group based in Orlando, Florida.  It’s one of those songs that makes me go, "Hmmm," whenever I hear it; I love the lyrics, but I have no idea what the song is about.  The one or two other people I’ve spoken to who know the band and love them are similarly baffled by the song and its strange imagery.  I’ve looked online (not very intently, I admit) and found no references to any mythical, legendary, or folkloric entities called "The King of Oblivion"; in fact, almost all of the Google results for a search on the title are about the band. (…)

On to the next step

Last night I finished The Lord of Nightmares.  When I finished The Return of Deacon Dread last year, I was sort of surprised to discover that it was only part one of a longer story, and I was similarly surprised (but less so) this year.  So apparently it’s a trilogy.  Today I figured I may as well use the rest of National Novel Writing Month to start pounding away at Book Three, The War of Dreams.  So far, I’ve written about 2,400 words.  Since I’m an ML for NaNoWriMo this year, I can’t very well just do nothing; I still enjoy hanging out with the other participants and chatting with them and having word wars with them.  So, you know.  What the heck.

NaNoWriMo: The Completion!

In a marathon session last night (and early this morning), I finished up The Lord of Nightmares, my 2007 NaNoWriMo novel. (…)

Time Sinks

Current Mood: Busy…Being evidence that my blog can indeed consist of more than just Twitter updates. (…)

NaNoWriMoProRe*

*NaNoWriMoProRe: National Novel Writing Month Progress Report
Day four of National Novel Writing Month, and I’m at 6,126 words in The Lord of Nightmares.  Usually I like to be much further ahead at this point, but at least I’m keeping pace… Well, after I add another 542 words today I will be.  I think that part of the problem that I’m having is that the tone of the story and its reading level are different than I’ve attempted in the past.  Those of you familiar with what I’ve written before probably won’t notice much of a difference in style and subject matter — there’s still that horror element, and that humor element (at least, I hope so).  However, I’m doing my best to cut back on the naughty language that I realized seems to permeate my stories, and that’s a little difficult.  However, what has been more difficult than I had anticipated was avoiding some of the more blatant sexuality which I was surprised had showed up in the draft of last year’s novel.  There’s my villain Chelsea Whetstone, for example, lieutenant to the Lord of Nightmares.  A theme that I’ve developed with her in the earlier draft was that of control: Chelsea desperately wants to be in control of her destiny and of every situation around her, but at the same time she feels like her body sabotages her at every turn by being "painfully girly" at inopportune times.  She wants to be intimidating and controlling when she’s angry, for example, but she’s never been able to control the fact that when she gets angry, she cries. (…)