‘Arithmophobia’ Blog Tour – The Terror Tree

by Stuart Conover | Nov 5, 2018 | Articles, Guest Post

The Terror Tree

Authors are like crows. But instead of gathering up shiny baubles and pieces of twisted tin, we collect slips of paper scribbled with ideas. We hoard thumb drives and online internet files crowded with our unhatched eggs and precious chicks. There are chicks that have been coddled, fed and nurtured, but for whatever reason haven’t been pushed out of the nest to test their wings. And the eggs? We’ll peck at them from time to time but for whatever excuse we conjure up, we don’t feel like sitting on em.  Okay, enough with the crow talk.

You get my drift.

So, what do we do with those ‘chicks’ that haven’t been kicked in the ass to catch wind?

One word. Author collections. Alright that’s two. You got one for free.

Collections are not to be confused with anthologies. For the newbie (and you know who you are) an anthology is a collection of VARIOUS authors usually set to a theme. That theme can be as general as halloween. Or it can be specific, such as, “serial killers in love with their weapons but the weapons are planning a coup”.

An anthology is the efforts of many authors crafting their best story to somehow meet the theme.

Whereas an author collection is ONE author compiling their chicks, I mean stories, to create a body of work.

An author collection can be themed but doesn’t necessarily need to be. That being said, there should be something that binds the ideas. Be it genre, era, your romantic tales, or your mystery infested narratives. In my case, Arithmophobia is a specific running theme.

Arithmophobia is seeded in the genres of horror and humor, but each story was developed  upon the numbers of 1-9. So the theme of my collection is examining the magic and mystery that begins at the intersection of life and the single digit.

My book was hatched from nothing more than a tiny piece of disgusting belly button lint I found in a Wal Mart parking lot. But from that belly button lint grew arms, legs and sense of bravado! Eventually, Arithmophobia was born.

What doesn’t work are stories that have absolutely NOTHING in common. Meaning, your first story is a little horror piece about cannibals but your second is a straight up romance and your third is an essay on childbirth. As creepy as I find all of them, there is no way to cobble them together to create a cohesive book. There are too many genres to make any reader happy.

As long as there’s a cohesive element that ties the book together, even if it’s simply these are my scary stories, then you can create a collection.

Now what about the hatchlings that came flying back to you? Yeah, you know the ones. Like all parents, we think our story babies are wonderful and everyone should love them. But they come home with a note pinned to their drool stained shirts telling you that they failed arts and crafts because they ate glue and peed in the corner and punched Jimmy in the nut sack. But not in a GOOD way. These unloved offerings are your ticket to a collection.

And don’t let fame dissuade you from crafting your collection. No author’s work – from Stevie King, (he digs when I call him that) to Danielle Steel – began as staples on a bookshelf. They wrote, they struggled, and they were eventually published. So sift through your shiny bits and tasty crumbs. Check your nest for cracked eggs and ugly hatchlings. With a bit of incubating, hatching, feeding and preening you can set your collective chicks out into the blue to land in a few homes or poop on a few heads.

Isn’t that really what you want? Come on, who doesn’t want to poop on a few heads?

It sure as hell gets you noticed.

About the author: Ruschelle Dillon is a freelance writer whose efforts focus on the dark humor and the horror genres. Ms. Dillon’s brand of humor has been incorporated in a wide variety of projects, including the irreverent blog Puppets Don’t Wear Pants and novelette “Bone-sai”, as well as the live-action video shorts “Don’t Punch the Corpse” and “Mothman”. She also interviews authors for the Horror Tree website.

Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and online zines.

Ruschelle lives in Johnstown with her husband Ed and the numerous critters they share their home with. When she isn’t writing, she can be found teaching guitar and performing vocals and guitar in the band Ribbon Grass.

Book Synopsis for Artithmophobia:   Adam is a young preacher, with a loving wife and a child on the way. His family, his congregation, and his affinity for one particular science fiction movie are enough to keep him happy with his life. But when a new member of that congregation begins to haunt him at seemingly the worst possible moments, he begins to question the weight of his life’s responsibilities. Can he handle being “the one” – the one so many look to in times of need?

Detective Oswald Quinn is not so happy with life. His marriage has not turned out quite as happy as Adam’s, but his responsibilities have become just as heavy. The latest of these burdens have led him to the investigation of a serial killer who seems to seek perfection in the number 3.

Meanwhile, Scott seems completely unburdened by responsibility, save for his endless pursuit for a full glass at the bar. The drinks should be flowing freely on May 5, or “Cinco de Mayo”. But on this date, Scott discovers a failure much more haunting than an unquenchable thirst.

Arithmophobia is a collection of short stories that leads you on a journey to consider the sometimes haunting, sometimes humorous impact of numbers. Whether it be the value we assign to our lot in life, a date on a calendar, or the numerical magic that mother-nature can offer, Arithmophobia’s nine stories examine the magic and mystery that begins at the intersection of life and a single digit.

Author Links:

Website: www.ruschelledillon.net

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ruschelledillon.author/

Twitter: @RuschelleDillon

Tour Schedule and Activities

11/5    Horror Tree  https://www.horrortree.com        Guest Post

11/5    Shells Interviews    http://shellsinterviews.blogspot.com/  Author Interview

11/6    Breakeven Books  https://breakevenbooks.com      Author Interview

11/7    I Smell Sheep          http://www.ISmellSheep.com      Review

11/7    Sonar4 Landing Dock Reviews  http://sonar4landingdockreviews.blogspot.com/            Review

11/8    The Seventh Star   http://www.theseventhstarblog.com    Guest Post

11/9    Sapphyria’s Books https://saphsbooks.blogspot.com/      Guest Post

11/10  The Book Lover’s Boudoir          https://thebookloversboudoir.wordpress.com/            Review

11/11  Jazzy Book Reviews         https://bookreviewsbyjasmine.blogspot.com/           Vlog or Guest Post

11/12  Willow’s Thoughts And Book Obsessions            https://wssthoughtsandbookobsessions.blogspot.com/   Review

Amazon Links for Arithmophobia

Print Version: https://www.amazon.com/Arithmophobia-Ruschelle-Dillon/dp/0998113271/

Kindle Version: https://www.amazon.com/Arithmophobia-Ruschelle-Dillon-ebook/dp/B078BXK2DN/

Barnes and Noble Link for Arithmophobia: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/arithmophobia-ruschelle-dillon/1127683404?ean=9780998113272

Guest Post: Rejection Sucks

by Stuart Conover | Jul 5, 2018 | Articles, Guest Post

Rejection Sucks

I could tell you “Never give up on your dreams” or “Never give in” but you would sit there and say to yourself “Who are you to tell me what to do, you are not the one struggling”

 

“Do you think I like rejections?” I can hear the wheels in your head turning.

 

Guess what rejection is going to happen, it’s what you do with the rejection, either grow stronger or step away.  I mean this sincerely, there is going to be rejection no matter what you do.

 

The job interview you thought went well, instead they give the job to someone else.  The date which you thought was awesome, you start planning the next one and it turns out he or she had the most awful time.  It’s rejection and its going to hurt.

 

When you are a writer and start to send what you write out to others to view. You are opening yourself up to an entirely different form of rejection.  It is scary but it is something you have to learn to deal with.

Nobody can fault you for what you do when you get that rejection because after all it sucks. You are allowed to react, it doesn’t matter if it’s the first or the last you will still feel it.

 

There are a few ways you can handle it, first of all cry your eyes out and swear you will never write again.  You figure you are not good enough therefore you should quit.

Also the rant and rave angle is a very good choice. This option is when you say things such as “They wouldn’t know good writing if I slapped them upside the head”  or my personal favorite “Who the hell made them God?”

 

There is also the  crying and wondering why you even tried, this one has a tissue box and snacks of your choice. It can also involve screaming into your pillow or quite possibly beating the stuffing out of it.

 

If after receiving a rejection you start to think “Why am I torturing myself this way? I obviously just have no idea what I’m doing. You could start to write short stories, flash fiction which could help you to get you on track again. Submitting short stories is easier than trying to submit a longer story.

 

You could also ask someone you know and trust to read it. What they can do is tell you where you may have gone wrong. As a writer sometimes it’ hard for us to see what is wrong with what we created simply because we are so close to the story.  Other people might be able to spot the incorrect verb usage or god forbid using a crutch word. Yes they do exist and yes we use them trust me on this one. I have a list of ones I use so its a normal thing.

 

If  you start thinking maybe there is something wrong with your plot or characters, you could read some stories, in the genre you are writing it might give you some ideas on how to fix your story or it might show you what people are reading right now.

 

There are many more things you can do, those are just a couple I can think of off the top of my head.  Everyone has their own ways of dealing with rejection. You could do any of these or even a combination of them but once the upset, frustration and anger are over you have 2 choices.

What you need to do after you have had time to process it is think then act accordingly. If the rejection gave you some ideas on how to  fix the issues then if you chose to do so you can put those ideas to work. If they simply told you the answer is no, you can either improve it or just send it to someone else.

 

I have been told things are subjective after all it is human beings you deal with.  They have their own feelings, thoughts and emotions. If you think about this way, there are days when you wake up, read what you wrote and think “This is the best thing I have ever written” you also have those days when you read it and think “What utter crap is this.”

 

I have had so many rejection emails, if I ever wanted to print them out, I would be able stretch them across the world. I admit I get angry, occasionally the wall ends up with a few dents in it.

 

After I react depending on how close I am to the story.  I will either try to fix it or there is a chance I will put it aside for a while then work on something else.  It depends on how I feel about the story. I will be honest and say I have a file of stories I started but never finished. I also have stories who have been rejected and they just sit in my computer like lost boys without Peter Pan to lead them.

 

What I don’t do is give up. If I were to be honest there are days I tell myself it is not worth the fight. I make the decision to stop writing, tell myself I am done but then the urge to write something overwhelms me and I find myself getting excited to try again.  You will hear people talk about how hard it is, they are right but what you don’t hear very often is how rewarding it is.

 

I am not talking about getting the book deal of your dreams, the first check you get that can pay for more than a single cup of coffee. I am talking about how what you do means something to someone.

 

That is what I find rewarding which is why I will never give up. I may never be a New York times best selling Author but if one day someone says to me “What you wrote touched my heart or scared me out of my wits” this  will be all the reward I need.

 

If you have a dream, just keep going after all rejection will come and go but the dream. The dream is why you keep going.  No matter how hard it may get you just have to keep going. Every word you write, every song you sing brings more beauty into this world that wasn’t there  before.

 

Kim Plasket

Kim Plasket is a Jersey girl at heart relocated to sunny Florida. She enjoys writing mainly horror and paranormal stories and lives with her husband and 2 kids. When she is not slaving away at her day job, she can be found drinking coffee with fellow author Valerie Willis and planning the demise of some poor character. Currently she has several short stories featured in anthologies such as ‘Demonic Wildlife’ and ‘The Hunted’, also has a story in an Anthology Titled Fireflies and Fairy dust with more to come.

You can follow her work on Amazon.

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