Stingers Will Be a High School Set Work

I have some news that I've been bursting to share. I've been holding back for a few months now, because it hasn't been confirmed yet.

Now, I can finally talk about it.

I am ecstatic to announce that my book, Stingers, is going to be a set work for the Grade 9 English class at Bracken High School in Alberton, South Africa, next term!

To have something I wrote studied, interpreted, and picked apart by students is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to my writing career. It's scary too, to be honest, and I hope I get to hear what the kids thought.

Let me explain briefly how this came about. My brother's girlfriend is a teacher at the school, and she read Stingers as an e-book around the end of 2015. She absolutely loved it, and immediately ordered a print copy for their school library.

Since then, she's strong-armed most of the faculty at the school into reading it, and they've all been very impressed. So last year, when it came time for them to choose set works for 2017, one of their choices was Stingers.

Apparently, the education department has a requirement that all South African schools focus more on books by South African authors and, well, I'm a South African author, and I was top of mind.

Besides, Stingers is about what happens when High School bullying goes too far, and what could be more relevant? In fact, it fits well with the subjects of both English and Life Orientation (both of which are required subjects in Grade 9).

I'll definitely post more when they start next term, and I hopefully get to find out how it's going.

Book Review: What Fears Become (An Anthology from The Horror Zine)

About the Book

From classic horror and pure suspense to Twilight-Zone-style dark fantasy, WHAT FEARS BECOME relentlessly explores our basic fears and leaves you with twisted endings that will make your skin crawl…

This spine-tingling, international anthology contains contributions from the critically acclaimed online horror magazine, The Horror Zine, and features bestselling authors such as Bentley Little, Graham Masterton, Ramsey Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale, Elizabeth Massie, Ronald Malfi, Cheryl Kaye Tardif, Melanie Tem, Scott Nicholson, Piers Anthony, Conrad Williams, and many more.

Edited by Jeani Rector of The Horror Zine and featuring a foreword by award-winning, bestselling author Simon Clark, it also contains deliciously dark delights from morbidly creative writers, poets and artists who have not yet made it big―but will very soon.

Come and discover…

WHAT FEARS BECOME

My Review (3 / 5 stars)

Like most anthologies, this one's a bit of a mixed bag.

Some of the stories were scary as hell (I especially remember the one about the Ouija board). Others, I didn't find particularly scary, but I thought the stories were excellent, just the same. I think they weren't scary for me because I'm so desensitised to horror; I'm sure many of them would give other readers nightmares.

Still other stories - there are LOTS to choose from in this collection - were kind of... "meh". I remember commenting to my wife that, strangely, most of the stories I didn't quite like were from highly prolific, multi-award winning authors. That made me think that the big dinosaurs have had their day, and it's time for young blood in horror fiction.

The artwork is both scattered throughout the stories themselves, and contained in an entire section all of their own. And some of it is spectacular!

On to the poetry. Hmm.... Well, let me say, that I just don't "get" poetry. I read a few of them, but I only really enjoyed the ones that rhymed. And not all of those, either. After that, I skipped to the end of that section. I DID try, but I don't think I'm equipped to appreciate all the nuances, and I don't understand the rules. So my impression of the poems in this anthology hasn't factored into my rating; it just wouldn't be fair. Still, if you love the art form, you'll probably appreciate at least some of them.

The stories, though, are all well edited, and lovingly collected. If you like horror, and you like short stories, I'd say pick it up. The stories you do enjoy will probably outweigh the ones you don't.

Click here for a list of places you can buy the book.

Things you were taught at school that are wrong

I recently came across this article on the interwebs, talking about the things you learned about writing and the English language, which are actually just plain wrong.

These things included:

1. You can’t start a sentence with a conjunction
2. You can’t end a sentence with a preposition
3. Put a comma when you need to take a breath
4. To make your writing more descriptive, use more adjectives

Forgive me if you weren't taught these things. Maybe it's a South African thing, but I remember learning every one of them. And they are, in fact, just plain wrong.

The reason why I say they're wrong is this: There are no "rules" in the English language. There are what you might call "guidelines", yes, but no rules. This is because English is and has always been constantly evolving, and (unlike, say, French) there is no official body governing its usage.

You should probably start sentences with conjunctions, end them with prepositions, and use adverbs sparingly, because of the images they conjure up in a reader's mind. But in my books, I've done all of those things and more.

Remember, writing (particularly fiction, but to a lesser extent, any kind of writing) is all about making the reader feel something, so if there were any "rules" in English, I would say those rules are all about thinking carefully about the reader's expectations of what is "correct", and the emotion you want to create in the reader's mind.

"No rules in English, you say? Tell that to thesis moderators!"

Well, let me elaborate a bit on that "rule":

When you're writing for an audience, it's important to think carefully about that audience's expectations. If you give them something blatantly contrary to their expectations of what is "correct", your actual message will be lost on them - which in the case of a thesis or other academic paper, may result in a fail, and in the case of a work of fiction, may result in a negative review or even a refund.

Unless you're deliberately trying to be ironic. But if that's the case, you need to make sure it's clear that's what you're doing (without actually saying so, of course - it's an art). And bear in mind, humour is difficult to convey and many people just don't "get" irony under any circumstances.

What do you think? Did you get taught any of these "rules" when you were in school? What other ones can you think of?

"Don't split infinitives" comes to mind, too. I remember hearing that one, years ago, and it used to be quite popular. I haven't heard it in a while, though - Stars Trek broke it, to spectacular effect; I think that's many of its proponents up!

I'm sure similar things will happen to all the other rules on this list, given a few years/decades....

The Day Job Beckons

As you may or may not know, the vast majority of authors also work day jobs, sometimes completely unrelated to the world of writing and literature. In my case, I'm a computer programmer.

That doesn't mean our books aren't just as good as the likes of Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, or James Patterson; it just means we haven't yet reached the level of critical acclaim that those literary rock stars have.

Anyway, since I didn't win the Lotto in December, and didn't make enough in book sales to cover a year's salary (if you'd like to help with the latter, by the way, feel free to buy a book), it was back to the grind for me on Monday.

I must say, I'm kind of looking forward to it. I've been gone for three weeks, and although I've received a couple of e-mails and phone calls from clients in that time, I'm keen to go see if the place is still standing. There are also plenty of new challenges and lots of new code to write.

What about you? Are you back at work yet after the December break? Or did you even have a December break (my wife didn't - she worked right through, only taking weekends and public holidays off).

What Did You Get for Christmas?

First off, a very happy New Year to you! I truly hope 2017 brings you everything you hope it will, and that for you, it will be a good year.

Wow, an author's life, hey?

I got quite a few Christmas presents from friends and family last week, and what's the one I'm most excited about?

Business cards and branded glasses/screen cleaning cloths from my wife. Now I feel like a professional business man!

You better believe I'm going to be handing out these cards now, in spades. And the cloths too, any time I see someone wearing glasses or carrying a tablet.

What did you get for Christmas?

Do You Believe in Guardian Angels?

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!

So, it's been a really long time since I've published a book. I won a short story competition about a month ago, and I've been actively promoting the books I do have, but my heart yearns to click the "Publish" button on something more substantial.

Well, I have a confession to make: for the past six months, I've been working on the first draft of my first full-length novel (the others so far having been flash fiction, short stories, and novelettes).

As yet untitled, it's about a man who dies and gets recruited to be a guardian angel. He has some adventures with people from the mortal realm that he's been assigned to protect, and learns some important lessons about humanity and himself along the way.

The finished product is still a long way off, don't get me wrong, but I've been on leave from my day job for the past week, and have had time to put in some serious writing on it.

I'm comfortable I'll have the first draft ready by, say, March 2017, and shortly thereafter I may just be posting again, looking for beta readers!

What do you think? Does this sound like a book you'd like to read?

Want to Name a Character?

In the meantime, I thought it would be cool to offer you guys the chance to get involved. Have you ever wanted to name a character in someone else's novel?

Well, I'm giving one person the chance to do just that. All you have to do is to write a review of one of my books:

• Tales From Virdura, 
• Heaven and Earth: Paranormal Flash Fiction, 
• Billy's Zombie, 
• Stingers, 
• Heritage of Deceit, or
• A Petition to Magic

Once you've written the review, post it online somewhere. It could be anywhere that's publicly accessible, be it Goodreads, Amazon or some other retailer, or your personal blog.

Then, post a link to your review in the comments for everyone to see, along with your proposed character's name and gender, and perhaps a brief physical description (he or she must be a modern-day human; No dwarves or elves).

If you've already reviewed one of my books, review another one! Only reviews first posted between now and Friday, 27 January 2017 will be counted.

Your review doesn't have to be favourable either. Whether you loved or hated the book in question, I want to hear it. I promise that the winning review will be picked completely at random, from all the reviews I get in, on here and other platforms where I'll be announcing the contest.

Your character may end up just having a cameo role, or they might actually end up being pivotal to the story. If you win, I'll be in touch with you to work out the details.

Whatever you do, do not put any personal contact info in the comments! It's extremely dangerous to publish e-mail addresses, phone numbers, etc. on the Public Internet, and I'll disqualify anyone who does so.

If you win, I'll find a way to get in touch with you privately.

2016 Blog Stats

Around this time of the year, I like to take a look at how my blog did. Where the most traffic came from, where the most traffic came from, the most popular posts, that sort of thing. I hope you'll find it as interesting as I do; maybe you'll also discover a post you never knew I wrote, which you'll find exceedingly useful - who knows?

Top Countries

During the course of 2016, the countries that gave me the most views were:

1. United States
2. South Africa
3. United Kingdom
4. Brazil
5. Germany

I don't think the top four are any surprise. Although it's a pity that the United States beat out South Africa, for views to a South African blog. Come on, my home country. Give me some views!

Brazil and Germany are interesting, though. I'm pleasantly surprised, but I wonder what the Brazilians and Germans see in my blog. If you're reading this post from one of those countries, why not pop me a comment and let me know?

Top Searches

Two searches completely dominated hits to my website this year. Click the links to see the Google Search Results for those respective terms.

1. witch of wellington
2. cartoon island survival tips

No surprises there - those are both flash fiction stories I wrote. Obviously, people love those stories so much, they're actually searching for them!

Top Posts

1. My Favourite Books of 2016 (from 13 December 2016)
2. Win a $10 Amazon Voucher (from 5 January 2016)
3. The Witch of Wellington (from 11 November 2014)
4. #SAIR2016 Was Amazing! (from 3 May 2016)
5. Why People Hate Reading Fiction (from 17 May 2016)

It's great to see some of my old posts still getting views, especially one from 2014! That one, The Witch of Wellington, is probably what people view after searching for "witch of wellington" (duh!).

As you can see, my humble little blog is still rather small, but I'm hoping that posts like this one will help bring it into the limelight, as readers like you find it and get excited about the things I share.

Merry Christmas!

Oh, and by the way, there's less than a week to go before Christmas. I truly, sincerely, hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful, blessed festive season, and that you stay safe out there.

As per usual, I will be in church from 23:00 on Christmas Eve, and we'll be out of bed really early on Christmas Day to open presents. What's your Christmas tradition?

Anyway, try to remember the reason for the reason, and if you're drinking, please don't drive.. Your life isn't the only one you put in your hands, any time you get behind the wheel.