Yep, I just finished a new book. Uploaded it a few minutes ago.
I’m positive this one’s gonna be a Best Seller straight out of the gate! Okay, I’m dreaming. What do I know? I just turn on the faucet and let the creativity flow until I’ve got enough to fill up a book. Then I publish.
Sometimes I’m not quite sure how to classify my writing. The Civil War ghost stories are pretty easy, of course. And The Pirate Tales was obvious, also. But what about some of the other stuff?
Most of my writing is dark, and I like to say my stuff resembles Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury. Mostly it does. But then what is Science Fiction? What constitutes “dark?” Sometimes people say my writing is too dark, and then other people claim I’ve called it horror and they don’t think it is dark enough.
I like to think my stories are like episodes of The Twilight Zone, or Alfred Hitchcock Presents. A lot of times that is the case, and sometimes the stories are just variations of this.
It might help if I clued people in to the writers who have been the biggest influence on me. So here goes:
Along with PKD and Bradbury, there is Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs (these last two were early on in life). And then there is Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and Stephen Crane (One only has to look at my Civil War tales to see the influence of these gentlemen).
Okay, and then there is John D. MacDonald. I’ve read a ton of his stuff, and he has influenced a bunch of writers (I think I mentioned that in a recent post, or possibly a book review—I did read a Travis McGee recently).
Lawrence Block and John Lutz have had a huge influence on me. I love all of LB’s books, especially the short story collections. John Lutz (author of Single White Female, in case you don’t happen to be familiar with the name) is very similar to Block. I’m a big fan of two of Lutz’s detective series: The Fred Carver series, and the Alo Nudger series.
In any case, if you read any of these author’s short stories, you’ll probably find the style similar to mine (or rather, mine will be similar to theirs—not that I’m anywhere close to being the masters that these two authors are, but I’m trying). The exception would be when I veer into the Sci fi or speculative, futuristic genre.
I don’t necessarily try to write like these guys. It is more a case of my writing the types of stories that I like to read—and I like these guy’s stories, a lot!
Now, with the Civil War ghost stories I was deliberately going for the Bierce, Crane, Poe vibe. That should be obvious to anyone who has read my tales.
So, this new book I’m calling Dark, Speculative Fiction. I’m not exactly sure, but the term “speculative fiction,” as far as I can tell, just means the setting is in the future. You are just “speculating” as to what the future will be like. So, I guess it is mostly Sci Fi going by a new term. There may be other definitions. And, the term might only be new to me. In any event, I’m appropriating the term to classify my newest release.
Because, hey, the stories are mostly futuristic in this book (near future) and so I’m only speculating. And the stories are most definitely dark. Anyway, it’s a mix of mystery, suspense and horror, as usual.
I sincerely hope everyone who reads the book enjoys it! If not, hey, I’ll write more! I’ll keep on cranking them out and hopefully there will be a story along the way that appeals to those who might not like these. I’ve got millions of stories in me!