The Underground Kingdom

I am thankful for every rejection letter, bad review, criticism, competitive twat and self-promoter I've come across this year.

Because all these things combined remind me that, at the end of the day, nothing else matters except me, my screen and my words.

Hasn't been the best year for me, but when you're creative it's a rollercoaster unlike anything you've been on. Up, down and sideways.

So I appreciate those low points, b/c I believe you cannot succeed w/o wallowing in the valley. As long as you keep writing.

And that is exactly what I'll be doing. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Just got back from a fabulous time at Neoncon where I provided a "Writing for the Web" and "Marketing for Creatives" workshops. I was also able to get some gaming in with a few people and had a lot of fun. Still talking about the House of the Blooded LARP which was a lot of fun. The show had some growing pains but that was only because some of the events, like the Iron GM, were hugely popular.

Outside of Neoncon, we saw a few shows at the Luxor, which is one of my favorite casinos. I blogged my thoughts about Criss Angel's BeLIEve, but we also saw the aquarium at Mandalay Bay, Fantasy, the Titanic exhibit and the baby lions at the MGM Grand. BABY LIONS OMG SO CUTE.

Not to mention, the food was a-w-e-s-o-m-e. I love seafood. I see food and I eat it.

To take even more advantage of all the wonderful fun that Vegas has to offer, I guess I better get working on that best-selling novel. Right? RIGHT?

While I was there, I made an announcement that I've joined the How To Write Shop, spearheaded by author Lori Devoti, as a columnist. My first article went live this past week and is entitled, "Why Are You Writing and Publishing Online?"

Other news will trickle through the pipe as projects as released. Until then, I've got a lot of writing and research to do. Since this weekend will be rainy, cold with possible snow...the chances are good I'll be planted in front of my monitor.

Hope you're doing well!

Hi everyone,

Hope you are enjoying the holiday today. While every day is Halloween in our house, it's also (matt_m_mcelroy) our anniversary. Today we're celebrating lucky number seven, but we also enjoy sharing our fun with our readers, gamers, fellow authors, editors and game designers. This year, we've got some great Halloween content that I think you'll enjoy checking out.

Oh, before I get to the links, I'd also like to mention that Flames Rising Press is having a 50% off sale today. That means you can pick up my highly-rated e-book The Queen of Crows for only $2.50.

A Different Kind of Treat - Inspired by an old fairy tale, I wrote some flash fiction for FlamesRising.com.

Play Dirty: Happy Halloween - Veteran game designer John Wick tells you how to scare your players silly

I Heart Haunted Houses - FlamesRising.com contributor Jason Thorson talks about why he loves haunted houses.

Halloween and Fall Fest in Pinebox, Texas - Veteran game designer Preston DuBose wrote us this in-character piece for Halloween.

An Overview of Halloween - Author Nancy Greene provides her take on Halloween

There's a lot more Halloween fun over at FlamesRising.com, so if you're interested in the holiday, be sure to check it out.

This month, I had the pleasure of writing for free movie website Crackle.com. Not only did I get to pick whatever horror movies I wanted to write about, I got the chance to watch them for free on their new site.

Movies are available for free either online or through your PS3. If you don't like these films, be sure to check out Crackle.com's Halloween movie collection for some other scary movie options.

Here's a preview of my series entitled, "A Fan's Guide to Scary Movies."

• A Fan's Guide to Scary Movies: 13 Ghosts - The opening credits for 13 Ghosts really grabbed me. There's groaning, there's moaning, and there were thirteen ghosts rolling right down the screen. Immediately after the credits, William Castle popped up with a message to the audience about a "ghost viewer." At different points in this primarily black-and-white film, the audience was encouraged to use a pair of glasses to either see or avoid the ghosts by looking through red or blue lenses.


• A Fan's Guide to Scary Movies: The Blob (1988) - The Blob portrayed is pretty interesting to me. It's more than just pink goo that slithers its way across town. It's an amoeba that can ooze, twist, digest and grow. Sometimes it's fast and other times it's slow. Since this life-form has the properties of a thick liquid, it can get beneath you by worming its way through the sewers or drain pipes, too. The thing that I thought was pretty cool was that it can also spontaneously generate. Separate a piece of The Blob from the rest of its mass, and you have micro-blob!


• A Fan's Guide to Scary Movies: Mary Reilly - Mary Reilly is the type of horror movie that takes you by the hand and draws you into the bleak time period from the very beginning. Since this movie was based on a familiar story, the film's perspective is told from a servant who lives in Dr. Jekyll's house. This technique really worked for me. I felt like I was standing on the top of a long, winding stairwell and every minute that went by brought me closer to the bottom of a dungeon. The suspense here resonates through the oppressive lifestyle of the master-slave relationship; the wealthy doctor's staff has a big impact on the plot. In a way, every servant in that house gives the doctor whatever he needs by handing him his desires through an invisible wall.


• A Fan's Guide to Scary Movies: Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters - Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters is what I would describe as a "mosaic" movie that's driven by fast-paced, ass-kicking action. Set in seventeenth century rural China, there are several different characters and plots that keep the fight scenes fresh. The main storyline is about four, suave martial artists with over-the-top names like "Thunder." Together, they and their wise master hunt down a king vampire. Only problem is, their trusty vampire compass leads them to an estate where nothing is as it seems. Things quickly slide downhill from there.

Re-posted from www.mlvwrites.com. For more tips and updates, subscribe to my newsletter.

Just wanted to drop in to say that I'm knee-deep in Halloween content for FlamesRising.com. Although it's pretty much Halloween year-round in our house.

This weekend, we've launched a three-part History of the Tarot article series written by the fabulous chilledchimp. The first article is entitled History of the Tarot: Part One - Origins. Worth reading. Paula offers some recommendations for books, too.

In other news, I'll be a guest at Neoncon in Las Vegas, Nevada. Really hoping to get some gaming in.

For several reasons, I've decided against NaNoWriMo this year. While I've been hitting my goals, I really need to concentrate and eliminate as many distractions as I can. Part of the reason why I've been focusing so much time on getting my physical and virtual house in order.

DriveThruComics.com and DriveThruRPG.com are offering a charity bundle of digital comics, fiction and games. One hundred percent of the proceeds support Pakistan flood relief efforts. Press release below:

DriveThruComics.com, the first digital comics retailer, announced today that it is supporting the flood relief efforts of Doctors Without Borders by offering a charity bundle of digital comics and e-books. For a $10 donation, customers will receive $170 worth of products. One-hundred percent of the proceeds from the charity bundle will be donated to Pakistan flood relief.

“We’re happy to have this chance to help out a great cause like Doctors Without Borders,” said Matt M McElroy, Publisher Relations Manager for DriveThruComics.com. “We have some very cool titles from a variety of publishers donated for this bundle.”

The DriveThru sites, which includes digital gaming retailer DriveThruRPG.com, raised over $175,000 for the Haitian Earthquake relief efforts earlier this year. DriveThru has renewed its commitment to Doctors Without Borders because of their tireless dedication to provide medical assistance and aid all over the world.

“Discovering the power to make a difference, as we did with our Haiti efforts, was inspirational,” said Steve Wieck, co-owner of DriveThruRPG and DriveThruComics. “Once again we are driven to leverage our tools and our marketplace to reach out to those who suffer, and we are grateful that we have the ability to do so.”

In addition to the bundle at DriveThruComics.com, a similar bundle is also available through digital hobby gaming site www.drivethrurpg.com for $25. The Pakistan Flood Relief Comics Bundle will be available until Monday, October 25th at www.drivethrucomics.com.

About DriveThruComics.com: DriveThruComics.com is the first online retailer to specialize in offering digital comics for immediate download. Comic publishers include: Top Cow, 2000 A.D., Archaia Entertainment, Moonstone Books, Crusade Fine Arts and many more. Their continued mission is to support comic publishers and provide fans with a great selection of digital comics to download legally.

Morning everyone! The sun is shining, the weather is cooling off and the leaves are making crunch-crunch noises again. Since I've had a busy morning already, thought I'd share with you a few links and ask you a couple of questions.

Author Paul Jessup interviewed me on his website. He's been extremely supportive of The Queen of Crows. This is the first time another author has interviewed me. Other authors, like John Scalzi and Jim Hines, also conduct interviews around various topics. What do you think of the idea?

Today on my blog, I discuss semantics, word choice and personality and how it affects writers. This post is a spin-off of the phrase: Doesn’t matter what you say, just how you say it. After you read my thoughts, I'd love to hear what you think. How much do you think someone else's personality affects their word choice? Your personality?

Last but not least, I dressed up my dice by making a dice coffin for FlamesRising.com. It was only natural that I'd dress up my dice for Halloween; in addition to being our favorite holiday, it's also our anniversary. Rather than spending our time in a bar, we often dress up, game and have fun. Do you do anything gaming-related for Halloween?

Last week, I talked about why 13 GHOSTS is a classic horror film. For this week's article, I decided to talk about a different kind of monster -- THE BLOB.

Released in 1988, The Blob remake is the kind of horror movie that makes you groan, laugh and scream. Creepy violins and cheerful images of a small town set the mood. The first people you meet? Teenagers! The main characters are all the teenage icons you'd see in a lot of '80s films. The long-haired rebel with a motorcyle. The preppy teenager. The smart-ass younger brother. The jock. The sex-crazed slime ball. Everything about this movie screams the '80s: right down to the shoulder pads, the creepy priest and the pay phones. -- SOURCE: A Fan's Guide to Scary Movies: The Blob (1988)

If you're interested in reading my article, be sure to check out A Fan's Guide to Scary Movies: The Blob (1988). Writing this series for Crackle.com has been a lot of fun. Owned by Sony, the company has been really easy to work with and they're very supportive, so I'm glad to return the favor by sharing these with you. In the interest of full disclosure, I get free reign to talk about what I like and what I don't in these films; so what you read is my honest opinion.

Also, I'm not sure if you caught this not, but this week Crackle.com re-launched their website to be more contemporary. The site is bigger, bolder and a lot sleeker so it's a lot easier to watch movies and television shows. Don't believe me? Watch The Blob remake for free and don't be afraid to tell them what you think of their new look.

Reposted from FlamesRising.com

This morning my interview with Jeremy Jones was posted on BookLife.com. If you're interested, check out Hearing Bizarre Voices: Monica Valentinelli on Gaming & Writing.

Admittedly, I laughed when I read Jeremy's introduction about how I'm drawn to "mythology, archaeology and philosophy." Yes, I did want to be the female version of Indiana Jones when I grew up. And yes, I am drawn to philosophy. I remember when I was in college, I knew I'd never major in it, but that didn't stop me from taking a few classes. There was one in particular that I still laugh about. Didn't open a book. Got an "A." Seems like a million lifetimes ago.

I often get asked about my beliefs because I write horror and I've read so much on purported "taboo" topics like the occult. These days I avoid my "this is the way I think the universe is" discussions like the plague unless I know you. Remember, I have a few superpowers. Making people think (or boring/pissing them off in the process) is one of them. Instead, the easiest way for me to explain my core beliefs is mentioning one word: causality.

There's been a lot of talk about bullies lately. While I'm not going to open that door to my personal life, I will say this: I loathe the word "victim," because it gives people the impression that the "victim" is broken and they need to be fixed. In a bully-target situation, there are two forces at work. The target already feels like shit afterward. Focusing on that feeling can make things worse. The lack of attention on bullies, meanwhile, creates freedom for their actions. Years ago, there was an athlete here in town that tortured animals. He was popular, so it made the news. Has anything been done? *shakes head* Psychologists look for torture of animals to identify serial killers and murderous intent. Maybe that's why the "bully who got away" is a well-used horror trope. Hrmm?

Told you I was a philosopher. Meh.

On that note, it's time to light things on fire. I have water to burn and mac-n-cheese rabbit pasta to bring to life. And then? I get back to work.

While every day is Halloween for me, this time of year brings out the best in a lot of free television and movie websites like Crackle.com.

During the month of October, I'm writing about horror movies for Crackle.com from a fan's perspective. This week, I take a look at the classic horror film 13 Ghosts, which was produced by William Castle. For those of you who have seen the modern remake starring Tony Shaloub, I highly recommend you check out the original in black-and-white.

Here's a sneak peek at my first article in this series:

The plot of 13 Ghosts wasn't as straightforward as other horror films I've seen; several mysteries in this ghost movie intersected with one another. How did Plato control the ghosts? Why are they in the house? What does the attorney want? Who is the maid? Will the Zorba family stick around? While I don't want to give anything else away, I will tell you that this movie is nothing like its contemporary remake. -- SOURCE: A Fan's Guide to Scary Movies: 13 Ghosts

If you're a horror movie fan, I would like to invite you to check out A Fan's Guide to Scary Movies: 13 Ghosts.

What's new for next week? Stay tuned and find out!

Reposted from FlamesRising.com