A Few Words from Ron
I am so pleased and honored that Third Coast Publishing enjoyed my little tale of betrayal and revenge by way of voodoo and felt compelled to publish it. And for only 99 cents, I hope you will enjoy a good chill from it, too.
Writers are always being asked where they get their ideas. More often than not, they say that they hate that question. However, in the case of "Insecticide", there is a short story about the short story and I'm happy to share it here, briefly.
Many moons ago, I worked for the now defunct Borders Books. When I started there, the company was still owned by the Borders Bros. and employed a bevy of quirky characters, many of whom I still call friend. I was acquainted with several other writer/booksellers. I had just read some bit of disgusting trivia about how cockroaches, if they should, by chance or by malice, come to have their heads removed, will only eventually die because of starvation and thirst, and not, as you might think, by the simple fact of no longer having a head.
I thought that this creepy bit of knowledge might make the basis for a fun writing challenge. I challenged my fellow writers to write a story based loosely or otherwise, on this fact. We wrote and we shared and several of the stories were very impressive. "Insecticide" was my contribution. I liked the idea of using the roaches as a tool of demons at the behest of a wizened old voodoo practitioner. And I shall say no more because some of you haven't read the story, yet. By the way, there is the briefest of teasers here: http://thenautilusengine.blogspot.com/2011/12/insecticide-teaser.html .
I've always enjoyed a good creepy tale. Lansdale , King, Koontz, McCammon, Skipp and Spector, Schow, Morrell, Barker, all primed the pump in the eighties and nineties. I think that that timeframe with the emergence of cyperpunk, a renewed interest in zombies and some well-written vampires by the likes of Rice (don’t get me started on Twilight which I hate to admit I sort of liked but seriously removed all the scary from our favorite creatures of the night) really bostered the genre. Dell had just started their Abyss line of contemporary horror with authors like Kathe Koja and Brian Hodge. Awesome anthologies like Metahorror, Book of the dead, and Hot Blood, as well as every spooky campfire story ever told convince me, that while their are some truly fantastic and memorable horror novels out there, the short form is where horror really shines. Whereas anticipation certainly plays a part in a good scare, the short story form allows you to focus on one healthy scare, rather than having to sustain you through the peaks and valleys of a lengthy plot, and often subplot.
In order to help shed some light on newer voices in the areas of speculative fiction, I run a small online venture called The Nautilus Engine. The Nautilus Engine is a webzine of spec. fiction and anything that I feel would appeal to its fans (movie trailers, book reviews, science and tech news, etc.) It’s a labor of love and neither I nor the contributors make any money from it, but it’s been a terrific jumping off place for some amazing writers. With my current, very positive experience with Third Coast Publishing, I would recommend that the best of my contributors consider placing material with TCP. It certainly broadens the audience and provides some added legitimacy to the process (and a few pesos never hurt, either!).
This is turning into a much longer guest-post than I intended, so I will wrap things up, but I am just thrilled to be in TCP’s stable and I look forward to having some thoroughbreds in there with me soon. One-trick ponies need not apply!
~ Ron Warren
Ron Warren has many creative ventures in addition to writing and editing. He makes his bread and butter from photography (weddings, corporate events, headshots, models, product, real estate, etc.). Please consider Ron for all your photography needs in the Detroit metro area. He also designs book covers for print or electronic publishing.
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Apiring Author Book Covers: http://www.wix.com/activeverber/abc
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