K. Marvin Bruce

Every year about this time I begin to panic.  The myth of perpetual growth suggests that each year should lead to more publications than the previous one, and by November it is clear that I’ve started to slip from my previous lofty goals.  I have reached a total of 18 published stories now, in a total of eight different venues.  Have I grown as a writer? September saw the panic start.  Some journals, particularly those run by college or university departments, only open for submissions with the start of the school year.  A family crisis the first week of September set my plans off kilter for a couple of months.  Now that I’ve regained my footing, it looks like I’ve fallen behind. Over the holiday weekend I was able to send out five of my multiply rejected stories for yet another sortie against the established publishers.  I’ve been working on building my Twitter following in the meantime, but my fiction writing has been suffering.  Every ...

I don't know about you, but Daylight Savings Time always messes me up.  I set clocks ahead, or back, and end up being dazed and confused for days afterward.  This is distressing because my writing is based on a regular schedule. Writers often rely on routine.  I awake early, so you might think an extra hour's sleep would be welcome.  Instead, I awake in the middle of the night, confused as to what time it really is.  My bedside clock and my phone disagree.  Who's right? Who's write?  My routine is to stumble out of bed into my writing chair.  I try to scrawl down my thoughts before the day interferes.  Days always interfere. On Daylight Savings morning, I'm already confused when I awake.  I sit down to write and find myself growing sleepy.  The day stretches on and on, but I'm not inspired.  I'm just tired. Writing is my routine.  Like an infant, I suffer without it.  Regular hours, or even just regular mi...

I remember reading an interview with Joe Hill, Stephen King’s son.  It was when I was reading his perfectly titled Heart-Shaped Box .  In the interview he mentioned the kinds of things he thinks about when out and about in the world.  His macabre thoughts are similar to mine. Joe Hill, however, is a bestselling author.  His father is one of the most successful writers currently alive.  Even though Stephen King writes other than horror occasionally, now that October’s nearly over his classic works come to mind. As does the dilemma of the unknown writer.  My parents don’t write.  One of them is deceased, so that is probably a good thing, but neither one of them was educated and writing is not something either enjoys/ed.  Nobody could tell me how to get published. I started writing at a young age.  I attempted my first novel in middle school.  It was also the first manuscript I ever tore up.  I’ve had eighteen short storie...

I have a problem with writing.  Actually, I have a problem with sleeping that leads to a problem with writing. I’m a morning person.  My circadian rhythms are chirping away at about 3 a.m.  I’m usually up and writing by 3:30 because I commute and I don’t live too close to the city.  This has become my habit.  I’m sleepy most of the time so I try to “sleep in” on weekends.  I’m up before 5 anyway. The problem is when I sleep in my mind is less sharp.  I get out of bed less tired, but less inspired.  I spend so much of the rest of the week weary that I look forward to that couple extra hours of slumber only to discover that the days I don’t have to commute I can’t write well.  What to do? I know that writers, historically, have kept idiosyncratic hours.  Staying up nights drinking, and such.  In today’s culture of running in place just to pay the rent, that’s not really an option.  Other people at work wonder why I d...

I have a problem with writing.  Actually, I have a problem with sleeping that leads to a problem with writing. I’m a morning person.  My circadian rhythms are chirping away at about 3 a.m.  I’m usually up and writing by 3:30 because I commute and I don’t live too close to the city.  This has become my habit.  I’m sleepy most of the time so I try to “sleep in” on weekends.  I’m up before 5 anyway. The problem is when I sleep in my mind is less sharp.  I get out of bed less tired, but less inspired.  I spend so much of the rest of the week weary that I look forward to that couple extra hours of slumber only to discover that the days I don’t have to commute I can’t write well.  What to do? I know that writers, historically, have kept idiosyncratic hours.  Staying up nights drinking, and such.  In today’s culture of running in place just to pay the rent, that’s not really an option.  Other people at work wonder why I d...

Advice from writers to writers is cheap.  I try not to give advice beyond “there’s no right or wrong way to write,” but still I’m influenced by others who say how to write.  After all, you have to please others, no? I’ve been told you have to write short to write long.  The idea being that if your short pieces get noticed then you’ll be in a position to say more.  (I.e., write short stories before trying a novel.)  Then I asked a New York Times bestselling author.  He said, “If I had done that, I’d have never gotten published.” Another chestnut we’re freely given is that we shouldn’t make our readers work to understand us.  Pander to the reader.  This past week I started to read a novel, again a New York Times bestseller, and some thirty pages in I still have no idea what’s going on.  Now, I do hold a doctorate in the humanities so I think I know how to read.  Somebody’s bucking the advice and making plenty of bucks at it. ...

The other day I asked a friend to define “gothic.”  Heavy, dark, supernatural—these were a few of the words suggested.  When autumn comes my thoughts turn gothic, and I’m always looking for good gothic things to read. I have blogged in the past about how reading literature that isn’t great is good.  I’m serious about that.  You can learn a lot by reading poor writing.  Some gothic literature is more the former than the latter.  Like Dark Shadows novels. Dark Shadows was running on daytime television when I was a child.  As a teen I began to read the novelizations, by Marilyn Ross, whenever I could find them.  Belles lettres they’re not.  Gothic, most decidedly so.  That’s why I keep coming back to them.  They aren’t scary.  In fact, they’re formulaic and predictable.  But so, so gothic. Spooky mansions, the Maine woods, forlorn vampire, faded wealth.  Even, yes, dark shadows.  The stories crea...