I Seep Toward My Petri Dish: An Update and Story Prompts

5 01 2017

Almost 150 people are following my posts through WordPress. Various others drop by thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and links from where I have published.

Thank you, all of you, for your attention.

I’ve been struggling to figure out what I can do to be worthy of that attention. I can give writing advice, but I keep finding links to other writers that say what I was going to say anyway.

 

feeings-wheel

 

Like this Feelings Wheel. They seem popular, so I’ll keep doing that.

Most of you like strange but true stuff and story prompts.

slime-preview

Like this one where Slime Mold Solves Problems. Read this! It’s so cool! So yeah, I’ll keep doing those.

I’m 35K into a sequel to my Stoker Jury Recommended novel “The Flesh Sutra”.

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Have you read this? Professional writers agree “The Flesh Sutra” is cool.

The working title is “The Flesh Frequency” and it is set in 1971 San Fransisco. It’s not going to be as body horror as TFS, but I’ve got some frightful stuff happening in the Carruthers House as some paranormal investigators go in to figure out strange goings on.
I’m trying to pull a little slight of hand that I saw done in the haunted house movie “Session Nine” (have you seen it? It’s creeeepy!). In the meantime, happy little ideas have allowed me to vent on things I liked about the era, like the music was pretty boss; and about things I do not like, like the predatory sexuality, drug abuse, and the sun-blinded optimism of the times. The Breendoggle makes an appearance. Look that up and get skeeved.

Also, I am working with my publisher Noble Fusion Press to better promote our quality works from our award-winning, attractive authors.

So here I am, my own little slime mold intuiting my way to the petri dish of agar, which for me would be my own quiet apartment in a metropolitan area and a healthy relationship, hoping this year brings you plenty of sugar and other genotypes with which to fuse.

That was forced, yes, but I have to keep an edge.





More Story Prompts and Resources

29 06 2016

Dan Brown is paying to have one-of-a-kind esoteric volumes digitized for the internet. Click the picture to learn more. Prompt: What the hell is the green crap these guys are eating? Why?

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beyond

Wonder what the Koran really says? Wonder about Jainism, Sikhism, Discordianism, Swedenborgism, or the SubGenius Manifesto? Try Sacred-Texts.com. Click the guy giving the moon to the sun. Prompt: Now that he can see beyond, what will this lad do? Why?

newblue

This blue hurts to look at. Friggin’ blue powder, just sitting there being smug. Scientists found this pigment by accident. Prompt: Did it want to be found? What will it do now that it’s going to be used by art school students?

Click this painful bastard and learn what science meddled with this time.

 

 





StokerCon in Las Vegas, Baby! Also, Want To Beta Read My New Novel?

5 05 2016

I’ve finished my new dark fantasy/horror novel titled “Diesel Dead”. Elevator pitch is “Later this century, physics attacks humanity. A man with a secret can help bring civilization back from the brink, if he can overcome his PTSD.”
The book is now 43K words with zombies, diesel-funk, fire spirits, a high-tech ruling class, and quite a bit of bleakness.
Wanna read it? Drop me a line!
Meanwhile, I am preparing to go to StokerCon next week. I have signed up for seminars with rising young authors and plan on networking like hell. I hope to keep you updated through the convention about my impressions and learnings.
Right now, I am writing four synopsis for use in John Skipp’s brainstorming class. These are:

  1. Bev’s Demon: a novella set in the near future, a woman is crisis is shadowed by a mysterious being. The problem with this is my politics may be getting in the way of making a better story.
  2. Babbage’s Mandala: A head-smacking new take on the Difference Engine. So many places to go with this idea. Characters in search of a plot.
  3. Sequel to “The Flesh Sutra”: Tentatively named “The Flesh Frequency”, it will be set in 1970’s California. I have  POV and reveal scene and that’s all.
  4. Dagnoxy: Old friends from highschool convinced me to try my hand at comedy again. So I have a character and an idea as to where he should go. If The Talented Mr. Ripley and Terry Pratchett were to have a baby, Dagnoxy would sell it to make spell components.

An editor for a small pub is also critiquing the first 100 pages of “Diesel Dead”, and I’ll share what she has to say.





In Time For Valentine’s Day!

4 02 2016

It’ll make you appreciate why you’re single, or appreciate your sane and safe sweetheart even more. Click and read this preview to gain this adoration.

 

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Regarding the World Fantasy Award Trophy

21 01 2016

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I’ve just worked up the nerve to express something that’s been boiling.

I believed the trophy needed to be changed decades ago. Why?

Four reasons.
1. My reaction on seeing it as a teenager: “This is the goddamn ugliest award.” It is as hideous a piece of ’70’s kitsch that ever graced a flea market discount bin. How stoned was the awards committee when they approved it? Don’t care that Gahan Wilson was the designer. It looks like strangulation sprayed with chrome paint.
2. No one person should be identified with an abstract. “J.C. Campbell Award for Best New Writer of Fantasy”? Sure, that’s specific. No problem. The World Fantasy Award is supposed to reflect All Of Fantasy in the Entire World. What face could possibly mean that to even a majority of people? Tolkien? Even if we put J.R.R. Tolkien’s head on the award, it makes the award too European for the “Entire World” award. The Stoker Award is a spooky tomb-house. The Nebula is a beautiful lucite nebula. The Hugo is a plastic bullet-shaped rocket. Make WFA award a big dragon or sword.
3. Lovecraft had only a marginal effect on fantasy, because he was a horror writer.
4. Look at it. It is the ugliest damn thing I’ve ever seen, much less wanted to win.

Some want to replace Lovecraft with Octavia Butler’s head. Do not do this! How badly will that sculpture be botched? What conversation will will be huffing over fifty years from now due to either Butler’s shortcomings or the change in values?





A Best Friend Is Releasing A Novel From Tor Books

1 12 2015

Lawrence M. Schoen is one of the most innovative and surprising authors in science fantasy. He has brought heartfelt personal symbolism together with golden age space opera traditions in his new novel “Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard” from Tor Books. He has impressed the luminary Walter Jon Williams and I have little doubt Lawrence will cast a broad light to expand visions of sci-fantasy. Have a look, get acquainted, and please pre-order!

BarskFinal





My Nation of Final Girls

3 07 2015

I love my country. I wish it had more sense.

###

The movie scene opened on a little neighborhood of beautiful victorian houses.

A flash of lightning revealed a girl bursting from the front door of a house. “Help me!”

She limps from a bleeding slash on her thigh. The rain clung to her fit and slim form, but enough to show she wears a thorough layer of undergarments. She stumbled and fell in the mud. Looked back at the shadow in the doorway. Made her way to the porch of the neighboring house. Forced open the front door. We know she is The Final Girl.

She peered into the dark. “Hello?”

Her voice echoed through the dusty hallway. The furnishings gleamed with wood luster, brass fixtures, and endless affluence.

A hand grasped her shoulder. The Final Girl screamed.

But its only another girl. The resident explained: A plague had swept through the house, killing nine out of ten of the residents.

Did The Final Girl think a hand had made way for her to make her life easier? Did The Final Girl look into the darkness and feel it look back, waiting?
Something had to be here. Something to use to survive. To make it safer than the house she ran from. She stayed.

More Final Girls fled their houses. Fled through storms and shadowy forests. Stumbled onto the porch and pounded on the door.

There are murderers in the forest. Murderers out there in the storm. Some Final Girls tried to reason with the residents and negotiate a refuge. Others were hysterical from their flight and had seen too many in their sleepover parties butchered. Drunk with fear and rage, they killed and chased the residents into the basement. The Final Girls must be sure they are free. They pursued happiness.

In the living room, Final Girls gathered and created a government that knew no one can be trusted. They fought to see who rules, because no one knows the wisdom from suffering more than the one in charge.

They said to each other “Remember when we were chased? Remember when we fought to this place to be safe and dry? Remember how we fought to keep them from taking our lives?”

They knew what its like to be a victim. They crept to other houses to steal and buy other people. The people are forced to labor to make the house stronger. The first residents looked up as the new arrivals clomped and stumbled above them.

The Final Girls in the rec room invented machines to do the work of the stolen people. Those stolen have holidays to celebrate their own survival. They fought to rule and lead with their wisdom.

The house stayed quite safe. Vermin swept away. No one dared peer in the windows. The Final Girls ate well. They exercised. They made weapons from fireplace pokers and baseball bats and kitchen knives. They crept to the houses that they fled. They set those houses ablaze and danced.

“See what we’ve done! See what we can do! See…who else is being chased!”

The Final Girls flew into the woods. Into the houses down far-away streets. They fight to save their friends. They killed the shadowy figures in the forests or down in those basements.

The Final Girls leaned on the boarded windows, fingers splayed, eyes wide and mouths open, listening for the slightest little sound.

###

We will never believe ourselves safe until we stop looking in the shadows calling everything we see a monster. There will never be end credits.





Alex Gave His Life For Her. Olivia Tested Death For Him.

1 07 2015

He gave the lives of dozens of others to keep her.

A school of mystics failed their test to keep her from him.

Nirvana was not enough for them. Several Hells could not hold them.

Now the world and the spirits are in their way.

 

As heard on Pseudopod.org…

“In THE FLESH SUTRA Tim W. Burke has charted a diabolical, metaphysical odyssey for his main characters, a journey that will take you through Death itself… and back out the other side.”
— Shawn Garrett, Pseudopod

 

Sample “The Flesh Sutra”.

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Love In Doom

24 06 2015

Imagine that couple you know, those two most talented people in your life, and they are in love.

But they’re afraid. Frightened of death and of losing one another.

Jealous of anyone who may catch the other’s attention. Screaming fights. Dishware flung. Punches thrown.

Sometimes they are sorry about bringing other people into their drama. Other times they just want to forget and move on.

Now…imagine they could alter flesh with their touch.

They are sometimes very, very sorry about the drama.

 

As heard on Pseudopod.org…

“In THE FLESH SUTRA Tim W. Burke has charted a diabolical, metaphysical odyssey for his main characters, a journey that will take you through Death itself… and back out the other side.”
— Shawn Garrett, Pseudopod

 

Sample “The Flesh Sutra”.

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The Paris Review Has Visions Of Satan.

21 06 2015

And they mention that mini-meme about the “Kid’s Demon Summoning Game ‘Charlie-Charlie'” which some dumbass thought up to try to go viral. Do NOT use the Charlie game in a story or movie. You will be embarrassing yourself.

Now…here’s some psychotic’s visions of Evil.

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