Words & Other Strangeness

 Last night I finished reading Hell House by Richard Matheson. It's not the first time I've read the book, but for whatever reason this time just seemed to be more enjoyable than previous read throughs. Maybe it's because I'm working on my own haunted house novel? Maybe. If you've never read Hell House, I highly recommend it if you're a fan of the Old Dark House genre - it definitely lives up to its name! The basic plot of the book goes something like this: A eccentric millionaire hires a parapsychologist to determine the facts if life after death is real or not, and is sent to an old mansion in the middle of Maine called the Belasco House a.k.a. Hell House due to its sinister reputation. The parapsychologist, Dr. Barrett, is joined by his wife, Edith, along with a Spiritualist medium called Florence Tanner, and Benjamin Franklin Fischer, who was the most gifted physical medium in America in his prime, and the only survivor of the previous attempt to "find ...

 Hey all. It's been a bit, hasn't it? Sorry my updates have been so scarce; I've had a lot going on over the last few months and honestly haven't felt like sitting down to write anything. That being said, here are the two major things that I feel are worth writing about: Yesterday I filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. My lawyer assured me that my case looks pretty textbook and everything should go smoothly in the courts. Honestly I was a little scared to do this at first, but after contacting said lawyer at the beginning of last month and talking everything through, he eased my concerns and made me feel not so bad for having to file. Something like 400,000 Americans file for bankruptcy every year, so while I'm not super proud to be part of that statistic, I am happy that I will be getting a fresh start and actually have hope to one day be a home owner, or at leaser someone with good credit, or both. Shit....why not both? My second tidbit is that yesterday(after the meet...

***BE BACK SOON***  

 Hi there! It's been a little bit, hasn't it? Sorry about that - I've been going through kind of a rough patch in the last few months. I was let go from my day job back in June, and since then I've been super stressed out about money and finding work which has affected my writing output. To put it kindly, my creativity has ground to a halt and I don't like it.  This isn't to say that I've given up or anything; I'm just not in a good space mentally to sit down and write anything. I've tried, believe me. I wouldn't say that I have writer's block, more like writer's burnout. I can write stuff, but it all comes out rubbish and then I get frustrated and just walk away and find something else to do.  I also seem to be going through a period of insomnia. I don't think it's insomnia in the truest sense, but all I can say is that when I try to sleep, my brain won't shut the fuck up and after a couple hours of laying in bed I end up bac...

 Hey everyone! If you're reading this, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me, and I hope you're all doing great! So it's 7:45 am and I slept a grand total of about two and a half hours last night. Summer is definitely in full swing and it was about 93℉ here in Portland yesterday, which is totally gross and makes it hard to sleep. Also, my partner snores really loud, so that doesn't help either 😖 Anyway, I'm working on a short story that I plan on submitting for a flash horror anthology called 'Campfire Macabre', which is published by Cemetery Gates Media . They're asking for stories with certain themes, and of course, the one that I picked was My Last Trick 'r Treat. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, so naturally, I'm more than happy to write a story that takes place on the spookiest night of the year! I'll have until August 15th to submit the story which seems like a long time, but I'll need t...

 Hi! I'm Blake and welcome to my blog, Words & Other Strangeness! This blog is going to serve as a sounding board for short stories and other writings as a way to motivate myself to work towards my dream of becoming a published author and to work on my craft. I'm not sure what you will find here in future posts, but I hope you will find my stories entertaining enough to follow my blog for new stories and updates on my writing journey. Until then, take it easy!