Joe Mynhardt > Quotes

“Fiction should always challenge what you believe in, and make you think hard about what it is to be a human being.”
― Joe Mynhardt, Horror 101: The Way Forward: Career advice by seasoned professionals

“Reality is strange, exhilarating, and tragic. Sometimes reality is well beyond our understanding.”
― Joe Mynhardt, Horror 101: The Way Forward: Career advice by seasoned professionals

“you can’t empathize, if you can’t or aren’t willing to put yourself into someone else’s place with all the compassion and insight you can muster—to find their character through your own character—you have no business calling yourself a fiction writer.”
― Joe Mynhardt, Horror 101: The Way Forward: Career advice by seasoned professionals

“this thing—his thing—still well and alive inside me. # I dreamed of clawed hooks and sexual abandon. Faces covered in leather masks and eyeliner so dark I could only see black. Here the monsters would come alive, but not the kind you have come to expect. I watched myself as if I were outside my own flesh, free from the imprisonment of bone and conscience. Swollen belly stretch-marked and ugly; my hair tethered and my skin vulnerable. Earthquake beats blared from the DJ booth as terrible looking bodies thrashed, moshed and convulsed. Alone, so alone. Peter definitely gone, no more tears left but the ones that were to come from agony. She was above me again, Dark Princess, raging beauty queen, and I was hers to control. The ultimate succession into human suspension. Like I’d already learned: the body is the final canvas. There is no difference between love and pain. They are the same hopeless obsession. The hooks dived, my legs opened and my back arched. Blood misted my face; pussy juice slicked my inner thigh as my water suddenly broke. # The next night I had to get to the club. 4 A.M. is a time that never lets me down; it knows why I have nightmares, and why I want to suspend myself above them. L train lunacies berated me once again, but this time I noticed the people as if under a different light. They were all rather sad, gaunt and bleary. Their faces were to be pitied and their hands kept shaking, their legs jittering for another quick fix. No matter how much the deranged governments of New York City have cleaned up the boroughs, they can’t rid us of our flavor. The Meatpacking District was scarily alive. Darkness laced with sizzling urban neon. Regret stitched up in the night like a black silk blanket. The High Line Park gloomed above me with trespassers and graffiti maestros. I was envious of their creative freedom, their passion, and their drive. They had to do what they were doing, had to create. There was just no other acceptable life than that. I was inside fast, my memories of Peter fleeting and the ache within me about to be cast off. Stage left, stage right, it didn’t matter. I passed the first check point with ease, as if they already knew the click of my heels, the way my protruding stomach curved through my lace cardigan. She found me, or I found her, and we didn’t exchange any words, any warnings. It was time. Face up, legs open, and this time I’d be flying like Superman, but upside down. There were many hands, many faces, but no”
― Joe Mynhardt, Tales from The Lake Vol. 1

“Write horror. Don’t let ANYONE ELSE tell you how to conduct your muse. They’re all sour-grapes, wannabe, no-talent bums who WISH they had your skill and motivation. So go forth, my son, and write HORROR.”
― Joe Mynhardt, Horror 101: The Way Forward: Career advice by seasoned professionals

“horror MUST stimulate the reader’s mental pressure points more effectively and more consistently than other genres.”
― Joe Mynhardt, Horror 101: The Way Forward: Career advice by seasoned professionals

“The horror equivalent of the Hero’s Journey: some Poor Bastard’s Descent into Hell.”
― Joe Mynhardt, Horror 101: The Way Forward: Career advice by seasoned professionals

“The only way to silence self-doubt is to write. Each word you pen is a battle won against fear.”
― Joe Mynhardt, Shadows & Ink: Mastering the Art of Horror Writing and Publishing

“Love is the best kind of magic. Love can save you and protect you. Even from beyond the grave.”
― Joe Mynhardt, To Hell and Back

“Anyone can pull off special, but to consistently be nice? That took a quality most relationships lacked.”
― Joe Mynhardt, To Hell and Back

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” —Jack London”
― Joe Mynhardt, Horror 101: The Way Forward: Career advice by seasoned professionals

“So consistently show up to do the work. Consistently put in the time and effort. Consistently endeavor to improve. Consistently strive to get beyond your influences and develop your own voice. Consistently make each day’s work its own reward.”
― Joe Mynhardt, Writers on Writing Volume 1 - 4 Omnibus: An Author's Guide

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise don’t even start.”—Charles Bukowski”
― Joe Mynhardt, Writers on Writing Volume 1 - 4 Omnibus: An Author's Guide

“Studies on creativity generally conclude that it thrives best when space is made for it, on a regular schedule. That’s what showing up is all about.”
― Joe Mynhardt, Writers on Writing Volume 1 - 4 Omnibus: An Author's Guide