Way back, when I first started getting the idea that I could write stories, I began with some short stories like most writers do. I popped out a few shorts here and there, but nothing much of worth until I wrote THREE-HEAD FULL FISH TANK back in 2004. That story appeared in an obscure anthology called Chimeraworld #3. My first paid gig. I'm on the road to success! Cha-ching.

Well, it turns out I was never meant to be a short story writer. I get carried away too easily and too fast - imagine that! - and so every time I sit down to even attempt a short story it explodes. Four hours later I have an entire social structure, multiple warring religions, and cults, and I need a wiki to keep track of the bestiary . . . it's total flickin' chaos, man!

So I banished that ghost a long time ago and only stick to longer works of fiction now. Novellas are the shortest I can go. My wife, Lita Stone, says I've got a natural knack for novellas. Problem is with that is the follow-through.

See, here's what the layman doesn't know about storytelling (Okay, there's volumes and volumes of books on what the layman doesn't know, but stick with me here, 'kay? Great!)

Anybody can come up with a groovy idea, or premise for a story; and anybody can pop a character or two out of their head, or envision a sprawling urban or wasteland setting.

The creative portion of writing is the awesome fun part! It's why so many people want to jump into this pool, 'cause they think it's easy to make a big ol' SPLASH!

But what many avid readers have figured out by now is that most indie writing is terrible! Badly executed, formatted, edited . . . no offense to any indies - I'm one myself - but we got to recognize that we've got a lot of bad apples making the whole bushel have this weird fetid odor that reminds you of your eight year old's dirty socks after a July day in Texas. (Yep, some of you know EXACTLY what smell I'm talking about.)

I'm no Stephen King, or Koontz, or Barker, or Spector, or or Laymon etc.

But here's the value of an indie author: It's like listening to punk music - if you're not a fan of punk music listen to some Hank Williams III's Putting The Cunt Back Into Country for a down home comparison.

Nashville and Hollywood and big NYC publishers aren't evil, and you won't hear me making that argument either. I like some big commercial stuff. But personally, I prefer to dance in the Fringe Zone (not the Fringe group mind you, that's all a buncha melodrama.)

Anyways, Indies are like punk music, right? There's bad punk music, and there's good punk music, and there's all sorts of subgenres of punk music, but what real punk aesthetics likes to promise is fun, uncensored good times.

That's what indie authors can offer: raw, uncensored writing that has't been surgically altered by commercially-oriented houses whose primary goal is return on investment. Indies get to cut loose and see where the chainsaw drags them.

That's why I dig hardcore horror, too. Splatterpunk, grindhouse, gorror. That ain't all I'm about, though, so don't peg me as one of those cheap shock-jock writers who can only make you feel the emotional equivalent of a chicken with malaria.

Slow crawling horror is some beautiful stuff, too. It's all beautiful. The ghosts and the witches and the serial killers, and the mutants, and Satan, and rabid animals, dark cellars, cobweb infested attics, and deep dark caves, and uncharted waters, Gothic mansions, mist-shrouded graveyards, and funeral homes where Angus Scrimm drinks nasty ichor from hypodermic needles . . .

Beautiful stuff, man.