Eldritch Hollow

Home of K.T.Tate, published author of cosmic horror & weird tales. Mainly short stories and flash fiction. This blog is for my journey from a hobby writer to a published author and beyond (Female, 30+, UK,). Publication history and other details on my website -  http://www.eldritch-hollow.com

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Author week

I had been using this week off of my day job to see if I could author full time. The good news is that I think, yes, I could. However, that is because I learnt a few hard lessons this week.

1: I was actually pretty burnt out from my day job and full time working as an author was just not possible. So, I didn’t get as much done as I hoped, but I did get the rest I needed.

2: I seriously need a better schedule rather than just the deadlines of when submissions are due.

3: 10:20am is a strange and evil time. That is exactly when distraction and procrastination would kick in. Which would be fine if it lasted 20 mins and I just took a break. But no, it often went on till after lunch. This doesn’t happen in my day job and I still have no idea how to sort it out.

All in all it was a goods learning experience.

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Life lessons

Learning is so important. Being an author is not just about writing stories but also about running a business. So that is what I have been doing this week. Researching what I need to do to get all the tax and legal stuff correct and how much it is going to cost. Not quite as exciting as writing about eldritch horrors but almost as mind boggling.

The rest of this week has been filled with reading and watching horror. I really should review some of the films I watch. Would you read that? Also being annoyed that Color out of Space, much like Underwater, is not playing anywhere in the UK it seems. Certainly nowhere near me. I really want to watch both of those. But I’m going to see the Invisible Man this week. Might inspire me in my writing.

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A win

I won Eerie River’s February writing competition. The theme was witches and horror. My story, A Friend in Need, will be featured as Patreon exclusive content and then in their ‘Best of’ anthology next year. I was ecstatic when I found out I had won.

Going forward there is so much to write for and although I am back to drabbles it can still be a lot for a chronically ill person working full time (I need to write at least eight 100 words, and four 600 words). But I am sure my love of stories will call back my monstrous muse and we will conquer this mountain.

In other news, I have been designing an author logo. I use the Funko Cthulhu plush as my icon on social media but as I don’t own his design I thought it was about time to design my own proper logo. I hope to finish it next weekend so will hopefully be able to share it with you then. Unsurprisingly, it has tentacles

And I am also now plotting out a poetry book (or 3). Got a little plan about subject matter and I am going to take it slowly and see how it goes.

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Good news

The poem I submitted last week has been accepted and will be featured in an anthology coming out in a month or so. I will put more details up when the publisher has finalised everything. It should also have a free ebook copy, so you can read my work too on my website.

This week has been so busy. I completed two longer short story submissions. Admittedly one of those stories still needs final polishing and submitting tomorrow but I still count it as an achievement. I should hear about the first short story in a few days.

I’ve also been reading more this week. Mainly Thomas Ligotti on my lunch breaks (reviews on Twitter) and marketing/business manuals by the Creative Penn. I’ve started to plan out what books I want to write and release over the next few years. I'm quite excited by all the possibilities.

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Something new

So this week has been for new things. Firstly, I have written some poetry. I don’t usually write poetry as I prefer first person prose. But I was inspired by a friend last year to draft something and then just had the inspiration now to flesh it out and actually do something with it. Poetry is strange and I have no idea if it is good or not.

Secondly, I am writing without editing. Usually I edit as I go but I am trying a different method. This one involves writing it out as a first draft and then revising it when complete. I am not sure how well this will work for me but we shall see. I have limited time at the moment and am hoping this helps to defeat the procrastination I often fall into when editing during. So far all it is doing is causing weird mild anxiety. But we shall see if it pays off when I am done.

This coming week I hope to get a lot more writing done as there are 2 deadlines approaching.

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Bye bye January blues

This week I got a rejection. I am not too surprised as the story was a bit strange for the brief but rejection always knocks me a bit. On the bright side however, I now have a completed story. Which is an achievement at the moment as January has completely kicked my butt. But February is Women in Horror Month so I am hoping my fortunes change.  

I did however, finally get on Twitter. I am just following interesting people and blogging about the short stories I read on my lunch breaks atm. I need to do a bit more research on the whole hashtag and etiquette thing as I have no idea how twitter works.

I did get to binge October Faction on Netflix though. I loved it. From the monsters to the diversity & representation to the amazing twists, it was all really enjoyable. So not much to update this week really. But hopefully things will pick up soon.

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Love is in the air

This week I have been working on romance stories. It counts as a romance as long as someone is in love, right? Or something?

Ok, correction; this week I have been working on stories about demons enamored with mortals. And no, not big red horny demons or even kinky tentacle demons. More, emotional energy sucking parasite creatures that crawl into your soul with promises and corrupt you from the inside so they can feed. It’s romance from the demons p.o.v. at least.

Unfortunately, I haven’t actually had much time to write this week due to illness and an unexpected hospital visit. But I am ok now mostly. I can’t believe that January is nearly over already. Got to try and make this last week count.

I've also started reading Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe by Thomas Ligotti. Review up next weekend.

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Reading more than writing

I finished Wounds: Six stories from the boarder of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud. This book is amazing. It has such a good use of language. Much like Lovecraft, Ballingrud manages to paint a horrific picture whilst also withholding enough details to let your imagination run wild. I could not put the book down because I wanted to know more. It was just so engaging.

The six short stories are not connected expect in that they are set on an earth in which hell is seeping through. Some have little hellish influence, such as Wounds, whilst in others you can sail all the way to Hell itself. The way in which the author describes Hell and its denizens is familiar and yet unique. And angels, well, that was brilliant.

To be honest, I loved everything about this book. Ballingrud writes how I wish I could write. I only wish there was more of his stuff to read. Wounds can be found HERE on Amazon. Oh and if you have seen the film adaptation on Netflix of Wounds, I can tell you that his other stories are less creeping dread and more actual Hell on earth.

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Schedules, StokerCon and Submissions.

Life has been really busy this week. It’s mainly been really good; a combination of being back at the day job, family celebrations and creative bustling. But it has made me realise that if I want to actually have time to write anything, then updates, blog posts and non-urgent emails are going to have to wait till Sunday. Thus, I will be updating my Facebook page and website blog every Sunday with all my writing news for the week.

Big news for this week is that my story, ‘Feed your Demon’, can be found along with some amazingly masterful horror in Darkness Reclaimed by Eerie River Publishing. And what is better is that the book if FREE! Join the Eerie River newsletter, get a free horror anthology. I was really happy to contribute to this.

Another bit of exciting news is that I am going to StokerCon. It is the Horror Writers Association yearly convention. This year it is being held on the English coast and thus I am attending. It is really exciting for me as so many incredible authors will be there, including some of my favourites. I am currently using the attendee list to add books to my reading list. The talks and scheduled events already up on the website look fascinating and I honestly can’t wait.

Lastly, I am still writing. Got two things out for consideration currently. I have updated my calendar with all the opportunities I want to submit work and plan to start a new story tonight.

So, that’s it for this week, now I just need to see if I have the correct offerings to summon my muse…

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Professional rates

So as my goal for this year is to further my writing career I was looking at membership to the Horror Writers Association. I can see all the good that it does and I am currently trying to see if I can attend Stoker Con too, their big horror writers convention, as it is in the UK this year. However, to join as a professional writer you must for short stories have sold 7500 words worth of stories and been paid at 5 cents plus a word.

Now one issue with this is that a lot of places I have looked at pay 4 cents a word, so much so that I was surprised that they asked for 5.

And secondly that means that I guess I now have a price for my works. I mean, I write because I love it, but do hope to one day make some money from it but I never thought about the work as a salable asset before. So at 5 cents, that’s $5 (£3.80) for 100 words, $25 (£19) for 500 words, $50 (£38) for 1000. But considering I submit to anthologies all over the world and exchange rates change, how does this work? My current publishers are Australian and Canadian. Might go and ask the Facebook page....

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So much choice

Having spent the last few days updating the graphics and visuals for my various media sites, it is nice to get back to actually writing a story. There is so much to write for at the moment that I feel like a shoggoth at a cultist social 😋 I've also had another acceptance which I can't talk about until I have the contract and the publisher tells me so. But that was great news to wake up to 🖤

But I can talk about the 5 Lovecraftian mythos drabbles I have in this awesome collection about forgotten Gods; (You can pre-order on Amazon as well).

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2020: Risen from the deep and ready to write.

In April 2019 I started writing and submitting short speculative fiction and horror stories. By the end of the year 31 of those stories had been accepted for publication over various collections, magazines and anthologies.

Having got to grips with the writing/submitting/publishing part of the authoring, this year I really want to try and tackle the social media and marketing side of things. Unfortunately I don’t think praying to Elder Gods is going to help me with this so it might be an uphill struggle. I’m sure I’ll get my tentacles round it eventually.

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It feels so good to get back to writing again. I have the opportunity for some Lovecraftian drabbles and I really, really hope that they are accepted and published. It isn’t my usual publisher but I am just not inspired by their calls at the moment, specially as they fill up so fast and with great competition. But my muse is lurking and my brain is filling up so that is good.

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Risen

I’d love to compare my return from writing hiatus to that of the phoenix rising from the ashes, however it is much more like necromancy. Between the chronic pain and ever present Xmas cheer I think I’d rather be sleeping, but nope, my muse has donned her robes and is pulling me up from author death, filling my mind with ideas.

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The beat goes on

The two drabbles I wrote the other week have been accepted. That’s two more anthologies. I am going to have a pretty book shelf by the end of this.

I’m not writing too much atm as I am costume creating for a comic con and also drawing for Inktober. Not to mention limited time due to work and limited energy due to my current flare up of chronic illness. But we keep going.

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Productive

So I actually wrote a thing yesterday and submitted it, so that was good.

I’m going to reclaim one of my stories from a publisher as I think they might have gone under as their website hasn’t updated since May and they won’t reply to emails.

I’ve decided to take part in NaNoWriMo this year. I’m gonna write my demon stories and make an anthology. I thought about this last year but wasn’t published back then.I think I’ll do much better this time round.

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She has returned!

Not me, although I am still here, I mean my beautiful tentacled muse. I don’t think she is fully back yet but more like I know she is back in the country and is sending me text messages. Hopefully she will return to the creative office of my mind this weekend, full of the terrible and squamous glee that inspires me to create.