Tag Archives: blog train

A is for Apocalypse, Thoughts

Caboose on the A is for Apocalypse Blog Train

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Tracks 'n Train photograph by Rhonda ParrishLike all good things, the A is for Apocalypse blog train had to eventually come to an end. This is the caboose on our train, and I’m sorry to see it happen but it’s been a really good run so far. If you’ve missed any of the posts, you can check them out here:

A is for Apocalypse Blog Tour:

Rhonda Parrish ~ Apocalyptic Blog Train
Pete Aldin ~ How Will The End Come?
C.S. MacCath ~ Car #3 on the A is for Apocalypse Blog Train
Simon Kewin ~ A is for Apocalypse: The Blog Train
Milo James Fowler ~ A is for Apocalypse, C is for…?
Sara Cleto ~ A is for Apocalypse Blog Train
Alexis A. Hunter ~ Apocalyptic vs Post-Apocalyptic
Alexandra Seidel ~ A is for Apocalypse Blog Train
BD Wilson ~ Car 9: It’s the End of the World As We Know It
Samantha Kymmell-Harvey ~ A is for Apocalypse Blog Train – All Aboard!
Rhonda Parrish ~ Caboose on the A is for Apocalypse Train

I feel like, as the final participant in this train I ought to have something fantastic, something mind-blowing and world-shaking to share… but I haven’t. All the people who blogged before me and talked about the appeal of apocalyptic stories, defining apocalyptic stories and gave sneak peeks at the process that went into their A is for Apocalypse story? Well, they all pretty much nailed it. I could blog about those things, but I’d largely be repeating them.

Instead, let me tell you about something that scared the crap out of me.

Some people are scared of the end of the world (or the things that cause it like natural disasters, war, climate change) and I’m not immune to all those fears but let me tell you, they don’t scare me nearly as much as editing this anthology did.

I have control issues. Big ones.

I’ve been working on them pretty hard over the past few years; handing over control of the online version of Niteblade to BD Wilson for example, or making Alexandra Seidel our poetry editor — these were very big things for me. But neither of those things came anywhere close to how I felt when it came to this anthology. I was picking 26 authors, giving them the topic of ‘Apocalypse’, a letter from the alphabet and a titling structure for their story (Letter is for Word) and then promising to buy whatever story they produced as long as it wouldn’t send me to jail.

A guaranteed acceptance.

Dude… that was tough.

Even though I had only offered spots to writer’s whose work I loved and respected, even though I would be able to edit their stories with them before they were published, even though…

It was scary. Difficult.

And it wasn’t just scary for me. I have several contributors send me notes to tell me they were finding it scarier, more difficult to write their story for A is for Apocalypse than any other thing they’d written because they knew it would be accepted. Knowing that made them put extra pressure on themselves to make it as good a story as it could be.

The results are phenomenal. I don’t think I could have gotten the variety of stories, the high-quality of stories, that are in this anthology in any other way.

Twenty seven of us were brave together and the result is A is for Apocalypse. I’m so very proud of it and of us. Every one of us.

 

A is for Apocalypse edited by Rhonda Parrish, cover design by Jonathan Parrish

Praise for A is for Apocalypse:

“In A is for Apocalypse, the world ends in both fire and ice–and by asteroid, flood, virus, symphony, immortality, the hands of our vampire overlords, and crowdfunding. A stellar group of authors explores over two dozen of the bangs and whispers that might someday take us all out. Often bleak, sometimes hopeful, always thoughtful, if A is for Apocalypse is as prescient as it is entertaining, we’re in for quite a ride.”

– Amanda C. Davis, author of The Lair of the Twelve Princesses

“A is for Apocalypse is a clever anthology that I’d recommend to anyone who is a fan of hard science fiction.”

– Astilbe, Long and Short Reviews

A is for Apocalypse

Available now at:
Amazon (Kindle)
Amazon (Paperback*)
Kobo
Smashwords
CreateSpace Paperback
And also at Goodreads

If you’ve read and enjoyed A is for Apocalypse, please consider leaving a review for us at your favourite review site (Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing…) or if you’re not a fan of writing reviews, even just giving a star rating would make us happy. Every little bit helps.

Thank you!

*If you purchase the paperback from Amazon you ought to be able to get the Kindle version for free.

Hollow

Next Big Thing

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I try to blog every week, but lately it’s been difficult to keep my mind on writing-related stuff so when Linda Bloodworth invited me to to participate in The Next Big Thing blog train I agreed. Inretrospect that may not have been the best decision, because my current WIP is in very early stages, but I’ll answer the questions as best I can.

What is the working title of your book?

We’re currently calling it Hollow Children. I say ‘we’ because I am writing it and Danica is illustrating it.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

To paraphrase Neil Gaiman, I made it up. In my head. I’m sure I could come up with half a dozen influences for this story, but that would only touch on the obvious ones. The truth, of course, is that I just made it up. I combined dozens of thoughts and images, brainstormed with Danica and asked myself a lot of questions  and I came up with the very skeletal idea for this book. It’s fleshing it out that is going to be tough part.

Oh. As part of the brainstorming process Dani picked the image you see to the left there to be used as our cover picture sure we decide to self-publish this story. It definitely helped conjur up some ideas and lent a feeling to the story.

What genre does your book fall under?

Um. Yes. I’m not sure. We’re aiming for YA horror but it may end up more on the paranormal end of the spectrum. We’ll have to wait until the first draft is done to find out for sure, I think.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I don’t know. I suck at this game. For what it’s worth, I never pick actors/celebrities to represent my characters physically for me either. I suspect these two things are related 😉

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When her younger sister starts acting weird and disappears into the haunted hospital across the street it’s up to Morgan to rescue her and save her broken family at the same time.

Huh. That’s actually not terrible for something I came up with off the top of my head LoL

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Are those my only two options? LOL

I don’t know what is going to happen with this book. I need to finish writing it before I can worry about selling it. I would very much like to see it published with Danica’s illustrations though, which might make it more suitable for self-publication (I have no idea how difficult it would be to find an agent willing to sell a YA book with illustrations by an amateur artist but I imagine it’s not the easiest thing in the world) but… we’ll see. For the most part I prefer to have a publisher other than myself behind my work.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I’ll let you know when it’s finished LoL

Haunted Hospital, a photograph by Rhonda ParrishWho or What inspired you to write this book?

This question is remarkably similar to “Where did the idea come from?” The answer is, no one inspired me to write this story. The what of it is that Danica and I wanted a project to work on together and this the one we decided to do. It’s not anymore complicated or exciting than that, I’m afraid. The process of creating it may be, but we’re not deep enough into it for me to know for sure yet 😉

That being said, I was inspired to include the haunted hospital that is just a few blocks from our home as one of the most important settings in the novel because, c’mon, it’s a freaking haunted hospital. How could I not?

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Danica is a fantastic artist and her pictures will keep you turning the page just to see them. What’s more, Morgan is a sympathetic character who most people will be able to relate to and will really want to succeed in her mission.

And now I’m supposed to tag five people. The problem is, when I asked for volunteers to be tagged on Twitter and Facebook no one raised their hand LOL I know the posts got out there because I had one maybe and a couple ‘I’m not working on a novel right now’s but not a single yes. So. Here’s the deal. If you want to be tagged leave me a comment and I’ll tag you otherwise, um… here, in no particular order, are some of my favourite bloggers you could check out.

Beth Cato ~  Simon Kewin ~ C.S. MacCath ~ Milo James Fowler

Enjoy!