K.E. Skedgell

 Lakeview Cemetery, Nash ville MI. Photo by Rhonda Cook   V ampires have been a passion of mine for twenty plus years, ever since my friend Jennifer introduced them to me in our early teens (and to Ouija boards and ghosts and other fun things). Her and I would go for walks through the local cemetery, a place we often hung out since it was so quiet and peaceful, and one of the prettier small town cemeteries I've been in, but I could just be partial. Another friend, Samantha, and I often walked the cemetery too, and it was her and I who wrote vampire stories together and stories about many other things, spook and non-spook alike. Something about the mythical creature has always allured me, perhaps it is my fear of blood (and needles) that, in some ironic way, has kept me intrigued with them. Or maybe it's their immortality, or strong yet weak nature. Maybe because they are denizens of the night. Whatever it is, I don't think about why I like them, I just do. Lake...

For my friend Rhonda, who likes to mash. Ha ha! The Monster Mash -- Bobby "Boris" Pickett Album -- The Original Monster Mash (1962) The Monster Mash--With Legos! I was working in the lab late one night When my eyes beheld an eerie sight For my monster from his slab began to rise And suddenly to my surprise He did the mash He did the monster mash The monster mash It was a graveyard smash He did the mash It caught on in a flash He did the mash He did the monster mash From my laboratory in the castle east To the master bedroom where the vampires feast The ghouls all came from their humble abodes To get a jolt from my electrodes They did the mash They did the monster mash The monster mash It was a graveyard smash They did the mash It caught on in a flash They did the mash They did the monster mash The zombies were having fun The party had just begun The guests included Wolf Man Dracula and his son The scene was rockin', all were diggi...

I 've been a member to a couple of writing forums for a few years now, and one common complaint I see over and over again is the lack of non-writer's understanding of how hard of work writing really is. Sure, anyone can put words to paper, or to computer screen, but there is more to writing a coherent story than where Johnny did this and Susan said that. It involves more than just an understanding of basic grammar and spelling and to be able to string together words so the reader understands what is going on in the story. For some people, that alone may be enough of a challenge, to write a story that makes a smidgen of sense. But for writers, it goes much deeper. It's not about writing sneakily placed metaphors, nor so much as delivering a message to the reader. It is about emotion, making the reader feel and see and touch and smell and taste what the characters in the writer's story does, to make them feel sadness, despair, happiness and love. To take the reader from ...

György Ligeti -- Requiem, II Kyrie Composed 1963-65 Hungarian composer György Ligeti's work at its most creepy. This is the second part of a four part work called Requiem. This part is used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as other works from Ligeti.

A s the title says, I made some nice progress on my WIP the past couple of days. Yesterday I wrote a total of around 1850 words, and today 2270 words to finish chapter 26, which ended with a total of 9300 words, a longish chapter. I had written 3000 words in one day once, but that hasn't happened again. 2000 is nothing to snark at. I'm dreadfully slow at writing, it takes me hours to write 2000 words. Sometimes the words will flow for a few hundred in about twenty minutes or less, other times a mere fifty give me a headache for an hour or more. Or I'll obsess on one lousy word, unable to move on for minutes upon minutes at a time until that word I'm trying to come up with decides to pop up in my brain. Such is writing. So since I have finished this last chapter, now begins a new one, and this one jumps forward in time a few months, because nothing really of any importance happens until then when all hell starts to break loose. Some chapter openings come to me easy ...

Y esterday my former employees pulled the final straw, burst the final bubble, pushed me over to my breaking point. I couldn't do it anymore; I tired of the back-stabbing, name-calling, the having someone else do my job for me because I don't feel like it, the rotten attitudes, the always having to get someone into trouble, the high school mentalities and the drama that goes with them—everything! And also, I had worked for this place for five ridiculously long years and I had finally reached the pay amount I was making ten years ago at a different job — a whopping $8 an hour. This finally came about only on the last pay period, and though I deserved to be making more considering I rarely called off, was never late, did my job better than any of the other employees (yes, I truly believe this), so on and so forth, I come to find out that people who had been there only a year or even less got bigger raises and were making more than I was. I. Was. Hot. I decided then and there I ...

The Cure --Lullaby Album -- Disintegration (1989) On candy stripe legs the Spiderman comes Softly through the shadow of the evening sun Stealing past the windows of the blissfully dead Looking for the victim shivering in bed Searching out fear in the gathering gloom and Suddenly! A movement in the corner of the room! And there is nothing I can do When I realize with fright That the Spiderman is having me for dinner tonight! Quietly he laughs and shaking his head Creeps closer now Closer to the foot of the bed And softer than shadow and quicker than flies His arms are all around me and his tongue in my eyes "Be still be calm be quiet now my precious boy Don't struggle like that or I will only love you more For it's much too late to get away or turn on the light The Spiderman is having you for dinner tonight." And I feel like I'm being eaten By a thousand million shivering furry holes And I know that in the morning I will wake up In th...

Jill Tracy -- The Fine Art Of Poisoning Album -- Diabolical Streak (1999) It's quite an elaborate scheme The fine art of poisoning The dose to comatose Slyly administered Not for the frail of heart The vengeful must play their part A friend to the bitter end Or so they say Nice and slow Misfortune will flow Peril in the nursery It seems a tainted pastry One bite what a dreadful fright She was such a delicate little dish A pleasant parlour gathering Quicksilver concealed in a ruby ring Two lumps or three I have always adored bergamot tea Nice and slow Misfortune will flow But who will know?

T his past week has been my most productive in months when it comes to my manuscript. I finished a chapter I had been hung up on for three months (well, except for a few lines of dialog, but that requires some research that I'm just not in the mood to do for the moment, but have left a reminder in red in the spot what needs to be done), started and finished another chapter, and now I'm about three pages into another. Most of this one will be a cut and paste job from a file I use to write possible future scenes that spontaneously pop up in my head and must get written down, even if I don't use them, into this chapter I'm working on. I have two scenes in this particular file that are going in there, and I hope to get this done today. They'll require a little tweaking, but most of the two scenes should stand as is. I have a lot of other future scenes written already for the second half of the book which will mostly just require gluing the scenes together with the sc...