Trevor Schmidt's Blog

 What The Night Brings is now available in Hardcover, Paperback, and Kindle editions.

From the jacket:

In this dark, paranormal fantasy, Trevor Schmidt tells a tale of loss, addiction, and the lengths one would go to help friend or family. Riddled with elements of suspense and horror, readers are in for a thrill.

After suffering a devastating loss, Allan Blackwood and his best friend Edgar need a fresh start. Together, they rent an aging Victorian home in a small town near Boston, eager to start their careers and to put the past behind them. But the house has had its share of new tenants in the past, and strange occurrences have the residents of the town talking. As the two of them settle into their new home, it becomes clear why they received such a good deal on the rent.

Haunted by memories he can’t suppress, Allan treads a dark and dangerous path; a path which leads him to reexamine his own life and to take risks he’d never have fathomed. When Allan starts to experience intense episodes from his past, his visions take a deeply sinister turn.  

Now, he must discover the truth about his new Victorian estate before he loses his mind; or his life.

 It took a couple of years longer than I intended but my next book, What The Night Brings, is now available for pre-order in time for Halloween!

Release Date: 10/28/2021

From the jacket:

"In this dark, paranormal fantasy, Trevor Schmidt tells a tale of loss, addiction, and the lengths one would go to help friend or family. Riddled with elements of suspense and horror, readers are in for a thrill."
This book is a departure from my typical style and includes elements of suspense, fantasy, paranormal, and horror. I wrote my rough draft entirely by hand with a fountain pen in a notebook and the experience was an interesting one to say the least. I had a lot of false starts and at times the dark subject matter was difficult to write given the tensions and mood in the world today. Still, I think it's necessary to explore the darkness in order to recognize the light.
This book is inspired by the dark and imaginative tales of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, T.S. Eliot, and Dante's Divine Comedy. The story itself lived in my dreams for years before I ever dared touch pen to paper and took a reimagining of my own creative process to allow me to finish it.
I hope you enjoy this little sliver of my mind and take from it a message that's useful to you in uncertain times.

For years I only worked on one project at a time. While that's probably a smart move for most writers, it felt a bit like a prison to me. If I didn't feel like writing the novel I was working on I just wouldn't write. Maybe I didn't want to write it for a week, two weeks, more. When that happened I fell out of the habit of writing even a little bit every day. This is something that is essential to successfully completing projects. It's the essence of being a writer!

I wrote my upcoming novel What The Night Brings in a little black notebook with an elastic strap. For the most part I wrote it straight through, a paragraph to a page a day for about a year. Taking Neil Gaiman's advice, I alternated colors so I could visually see how well I did on a given day. This experience has led me to update my methods and iron out some kinks to make me a more productive writer.

Three Notebooks

By the time I finished What The Night Brings I realized that one, and even two, projects was not enough. Three is the optimal balance for me. However, there's a big caveat here which can't be ignored: each project is substantially different from one another to eliminate even a chance of confusion. I guess it's lucky that I like all sorts of genres and styles because it allows a certain freedom creatively.

After much trial and error I found my favorite notebook to be the Leuchtturm1917 A5 notebook as it is fountain pen friendly, has page numbers and an index, feels great in the hand, and has great color options. I color code my notebooks, so blue-green is a novel and emerald green is a collection of short stories. There was a massive sale last year so I may have splurged and bought about 20 of these things at half price. I won't have to worry about notebooks for a while.

Project 1

I consider my novels to be my 'main' project, so let's call that Project 1. Since I've finished What The Night Brings I'm moving onto 'Skin', which is a Noir Science Fiction Thriller set about thirty years from now. I'm about 15-20% done with where I expect this novel to land from a word count perspective.

Project 2

My second project at the moment is a collection of science fiction short stories. I was inspired by writers like Philip K. Dick and TV shows like Black Mirror to write stories that I would consider cautionary tales. In these stories I examine technology and society with the hopes of helping to make sense of where we're at and where we're going. I'm hoping to have this one completed by the end of 2022.

Project 3

My third project is another collection of short stories, but this one is more literary in nature. I'm deep into reading Kurt Vonnegut's Complete Stories and it struck me that there aren't many stories written today which have the same sort of message or tone that his had. A lot of his stories were moralistic, with a clear moral or purpose which stories today lack. Rather than focus on duping the reader with twists on twists, he wrote stories which reinforced a moral code we seem to have lost along the way.

As an example, my family and I were at a pumpkin patch and petting zoo yesterday and noticed that many of the workers were related, maybe cousins. I started thinking about a generational family farm and the economics of running a pumpkin patch. My mind turned to a rather surly worker who was surrounded by kids trying to pet his miniature horse. My imagination kept turning for a few hours after we left as I built a story for that worker. Why was he working there? Why did he hate his job? What would happen if he really saw the joy in those kids' eyes? Children help us to see truths we have been conditioned not to notice. I have the story in my head and will likely jot it down this weekend while it's still fresh.

While all of my writing classifies as a passion project this one really is the sort of thing that maybe only my mom will read. Still, I'll have fun doing it and I'll get to try out some different styles and devices. I honestly have no idea when this one will be finished, but no one's really waiting for it, right?

Writing Every DayI do most of my writing at night out of necessity. There are three notebooks by my bed and each night I pick the one I am connecting with the most that day. If I don't pick the same notebook over and over I start thinking about why (maybe I haven't been doing my outlines or I'm stuck on a plot point). Still, every day I should be able to make some kind of progress in one of my projects. That's better than the alternative!

A few years ago I saw a video and it sparked a departure from my typical writing methods. Tim Ferriss' interview with Neil Gaiman (linked below) encouraged me to purchase my first fountain pen, and it ended up leading to a bit of an obsession and more than a few distractions.

It's been years since I've published a novel and much of the reason is my newest method of writing. I wrote my upcoming novel in a notebook, with a fountain pen. Really, with a number of pens and almost a dozen inks. Again, a bit of an obsession. Still, I can proudly say that the novel is done and with my advance readers. If all goes well, I may be looking at an October 2021 release date, just in time for Halloween.
What The Night Brings is a supernatural fantasy novel with elements of horror. It's a stark departure from any of my previous works, which is yet another reason it has taken so long to publish. Writing in a new genre and in a new style has proven more difficult than I initially anticipated but has been well worth the reward. The novel includes numerous references to some of my favorite classic writers, such as Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft, and T.S. Eliot.
I think the act of hand writing a novel required me to take things slower which increased the depth of my writing. The language might have become more colorful, the sentences holding a different, more eloquent cadence than typing into a computer would have allowed.
Life gets busy. In 2015 I wrote three novels and several short stories but I was only working part time and attending a Master's program. I was single and had all the time in the world to write. Now I have a good job, a wife and son, and other responsibilities, all of which are quite important. Still, I've been making time to write, although at a slower pace, and to finally finish some projects. Sometimes all it takes is 30 minutes a day to work on something just for you to accomplish great things. I like to think the experiences I've had since my last novel was published in 2016 have made me a better writer and has given me so much interesting material to work with. 
Autumn is about change and I'm excited to share this new adventure.

Today I thought I'd do something a bit different from my usual posts. I've read a lot of interviews with authors out there on the Interweb and so I thought I'd try my hand at my own sort of interview using a combination of questions from Twitter and a few good questions I found online. To ask questions for future question and answer sessions, tweet me @TrevorSSchmidt and use the #AskTrevor hashtag!

1. From @Sydner_Writer on Twitter: "What was the first story you wrote about?"If you want to go way back, my first story was written on a really old computer when I was about five years old. It was called "Ben and the Dragon" and it was a supremely cliché fairy tale riddled with typographical errors. My parents were pretty impressed though because it was about two pages long. I still know people that dread a 500 word essay. I don't remember many of the plot details, but it involved Ben having to slay a dragon to save the princess, who was definitely modeled after Princess Peach from the Mario franchise. I'm happy to say I've gotten more creative over the years and written more intriguing roles for women in my books, especially in my latest series.
2. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?From the time I was nine I wanted to be an astronaut. I got a simple telescope for Christmas and looked at the stars and spent a lot of time wondering what was out there. Around that time I started reading science fiction as well as science books targeted toward my age group (like those Eyewitness books about the space shuttle and different things like that). One of the most common ways to become an astronaut back in the day was to be a pilot in the Air Force (Now they are mostly scientists). While I never made it to space, I did enlist in the Air Force which is about as close as I expect to get unless my situation changes drastically. Unfortunately my eyesight precludes me from flying a plane. Drat. However, I also knew from a fairly young age that I wanted to write, no doubt spurred from watching my dad publish countless books. I still have my books to hold on to.
3. When did you write your first book and how old were you?I wrote my first book in 2009 right after graduating college with a B.A. in English. I would have been 22 years old. It was a short young adult mystery geared especially to the 9-12 age group. I meant it to be a series, but to be honest everything changed when I wrote Memory Leak, my first science fiction novel. Not only did it sell tremendously better than my first book, Memory Leak was a far superior tale that interested me a lot more. It's not everyone's cup of tea because I experimented with an interrupting narrator, which played into the story nicely I thought. I don't want to give anything away, so you'd have to read it to understand.
4. How long does it take you to write a book?It varies based on length and whether or not it is a sequel. I have found that it's easier to write a sequel because I already have most of the characters hashed out and if it's a more linear series meant to be read in order I can spend less time world-building because the reader will already know some of the basics. However, I do try to add in enough so that if someone was coming to the story somewhere in the middle of the series they could still enjoy it. That said, please read them in order to avoid massive spoilers! Back to the question, once I've plotted out what's going to happen in the story and who my characters are, it takes me about three months to write and do the majority of the editing. You should note that I'm also not writing epics like A Song of Ice and Fire. I take a lot of my book length cues from Philip K. Dick, who I think had the right idea.
5. What do you like to do when you're not writing?I probably spend too much time on Youtube and playing guitar. Though I have cable TV, I hardly use it. I tend to favor Netflix anyway. I try to get out of the house and do things with friends as much as possible. On Fridays I like to play Pathfinder or something similar. Right now I'm doing a Dead Lands version of Savage Worlds. I can feel myself pushing my glasses up the bridge of my nose as I type. Also, it's always a good day for Magic.
6. What do you think makes a good story?A good story should have a conflict that gets the reader involved emotionally. I think it's also important to write realistic characters who the reader can grow to care about, even if the feelings they manifest toward that character is hatred. As a writer, I revel in the times I can get my readers to squirm just as much as the times I can lift their spirits. Does that make me sadistic?
7. What is your favorite color?Blue. No, green. Ahhhh!
8. Speaking of Game of Thrones, what's your perspective on the HBO series? Do you like where it's headed?
R + L = J (enough said).
9. Do you have any special talents?
I've played guitar since I was 11 years old. I recently bought a Martin GPCPA4 and I'm in love. When I was in my early twenties I toured in eight states from the West to the Midwest. It sounds a lot cooler than it actually was. If I'm going to travel, I prefer to travel overseas and not on long road trips. I've had enough, thanks!

10. What are you currently writing?
I am knee-deep in writing the third novel in The Corsair Uprising series entitled Death Wish. It will be released this summer (2015) and I'm shooting for July. Without giving anything away, this one is going to be both the end of a trilogy and the beginning of a much larger Universe that I hope will go on for a long time. There really is a lot to explore in the world I've created and there are so many juicy characters that I want to see more. If all goes as planned, Book 4 will come out sometime in the Fall of 2015 and should be an excellent read as well. Books one and two are available on Amazon in eBook form and at a bunch of retailers in paperback. You can visit my website to see a detailed list.

11. From @Simbelsim on Twitter: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I have wanted to write a book since I was around five or six, but the first time I really acknowledged that it was something I needed to do was Junior year of college. I changed from being a Business major to an English major. You don't know how many people asked me what I was going to do with my life with a 'useless' degree. Even though I'm not Arthur C. Clarke yet, I feel I've been fairly successful in the short time I've been doing it seriously.

It's Writing Wednesday!

Today's Topic: An extension of this highly popular post entitled 'Don't Stop the Flow: 4 Steps for Writing the Guts Before the Skin.'

Do you write to a quota? If so, how many words do you write per day or per week? Let me know in the comments below and your comments could make it into my next video!

Meet Cringer! Sometimes he turns into Battle Cat when he gets feisty.

Today I wanted to share some images I took using my Nikon D5100 with the standard 18-55mm kit lens and the macro setting (I was using the 55mm setting). I'm still learning all of the features, but I think some of these turned out pretty well.

Note: I learned that it's probably easier to do macro-style shots when your subject is stationary. Trying to get my cat to sit still was like, well, herding cats. I don't usually think about how fast he is until he shoots out of the frame. I ended up having to wait until he saw a bird or was chasing bugs outside the window. Seeing his tail wagging so rapidly was pretty hilarious.

I've been looking at getting a Nikon 35mm or 50mm lens with an F Stop of 1.8, but I'm thinking about holding off until I really get a handle on everything the kit lens can do. Unfortunately I can't seem to get my F Stop below 5 when shooting 55mm, so getting enough light into the lens is an issue. I also really like the look of having the subject in focus and the background blurred. Which settings and lens would you suggest to get that effect?

What do you think of the shots? Does anyone have any tips for using the Nikon D5100 that could help? Perhaps you have some tips for getting a cat to sit still? :-P


Extra Fun Facts:

- Cringer just turned 1!
- Cringer is a tiny cat. Seriously. He's pocket-sized.
- Cringer likes sleeping in his cubby hole (don't ask), cuddling, and scratching the couch even though there's a scratching post right there...
- He responds to no less than eight names. Not that he listens to any of them.
- Cringer always looks surprised. Always.

Here is the cover for my upcoming novel The Corsair Uprising #3: Death Wish! It is a little bit of a departure from the covers of the first two novels as far as the background. Tell me what you think of the cover in the comments below. Have you read the series yet?

For those who haven't yet read the series, here's a link to Book 1 and Book 2 to get you caught up. Death Wish comes out this summer, 2015, so you have a few months to get up to speed!

If you want to stay up to date on the latest news, bookmark my website or sign up for my monthly mailing list to be the first to know about book release dates, free book promotions, and more!

In a recent panel discussion, NASA's Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan predicted we would find evidence of alien life within a decade, followed by definitive proof within the next 20 to 30 years. I've talked about this previously, but it seems more and more respected scientists are coming out and talking about this. Now, I don't believe we will find intelligent life within 20 to 30 years, but I can definitely see us finding microbes or vegetation of some kind.

However, there is one thing that I've been thinking about for a while now that bothers me. If we do find some form of alien life, in whatever form it happens to come in, how will that affect Science Fiction? Will our visions of the future be limited by what we know? Will the futures we write about be extrapolations of this 'new' world where knowledge of alien life exists already?

The premise behind a lot of Science Fiction is that alien life surfaces and most or all people don't believe in it. If it starts being taken as a given that alien life exists, it will affect, necessarily, how authors write. If we do find alien life, there will surely be doubters, there will be new cults or religions formed, some may flee the religions that are currently out there while some others might flock to the religions to seek answers. There's a number of ways this could go from a storytelling standpoint as well as from a 'realistic' standpoint.

Do you think we'll find alien life? If so, in what form will we find it? How will the human race react? Is Science Fiction doomed? Leave your comments below!

On Friday morning, I took a stroll up into the hills outside Sparks, Nevada. I was hoping to find a desert landscape that would serve as the Planet Garuda, which is a fictional desert world that I created for my science fiction series, The Corsair Uprising. It was a beautiful day and I found that the desert landscape wasn't as barren as I'd thought. There were lizards, spiders, crickets, jack-rabbits, birds, and a number of other small creatures.

I hiked about a mile up the side of a large hill (I guess where some people live they'd call them mountains, but living near the Sierra Nevadas means they get downgraded to hills). I didn't know this before going out on my little journey, but there are some seriously massive rocks just jutting out of the Earth all over the high desert.

I continued walking up the side of this hill, realizing that running a few days a week was no match for the kind of workout I was in for. My pack had about 15 pounds of gear in total, which isn't a lot, but became far more noticeable the more I walked. Apparently being in shape and being in 'hiking' shape are two different things.

Before filming, I had made a list of a few shots I wanted to get, but on the whole I was pretty open to just seeing what I could find. The song I had created was about two and a half minutes long and I needed quite a bit more footage than that for the editing process. It took just an hour or two to get the shots I needed, but I hung around a while longer just to see what I could find. I'm really lucky I did, because I found this little guy (at right). At first he was a little skittish, but I followed him and he let me get my camera within a foot of his face. Pretty brave!

After walking around a little more, I found another lizard of the same species that was a little smaller, and that one did not cooperate so well. I decided after that it was time to head home and start editing. On the way back down the hill I saw something zip past me. It was a fairly large jack-rabbit and it was fast. Though I had my Nikon D5100 in my hand, I wasn't fast enough to get it on film. This thing was tearing by!

All-in-all I think my little adventure was a blast. I didn't see any tarantulas or rattlesnakes, so that always makes for a good day. I really lucked out seeing this photo-friendly lizard as well. To see the results of my project, I've embedded the completed video below. I added a yellow filter in the editing process to make it look more like the alien planet I had imagined, with a sun far more intense than our own. Enjoy!


To see more of my videos, visit my youtube channel.