Matthew R. Stitt // The Writer’s Archive

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  • Vampire Diary: Something I Do Understand

    Vampire Diary: Something I Do Understand

    Juliette Kings's avatarVampire Maman

    Dear Diary,

    The cat has gone missing. I looked everywhere. Damn me to Hell I can hear or smell any prey but I cannot find a cat. My cat. The cat of the damned. My frustration increases by the hour. I haven’t given her a name. She has not told me what she wishes to be called. I don’t know how to call her.

    ~ Vlad

    —————————————–

    Dear Diary,

    Last night. A woman as beautiful and seductive as Helen of Troy held me in her embrace and let me into her trust. I drank her blood then sat as she slept and thought about my cat.

    The woman woke and asked me why I looked so sad. I told her I’d lost my cat. She told me to put up a sign.

    I didn’t understand. She smiled and called me a dumb blonde. I am so confused. I don’t understand…

    View original post 523 more words

  • Work in Progress

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  • New Task – World of my Artwork

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    So I was able to complete my 1st draft of City of Zombies.  It was really a test for how far I could go and whether I could finish anything.  I think it went well and I am now in the editing phase.  Next task will be to work on my Art.  It has really been ignored for the last couple years.  So the plan is to do the same thing.  Every Wednesday I will work on some picture using art from Pinterest

    https://www.pinterest.com/kingsboro2008/to-draw-list/

    I will not pressure myself to finish it in one day.  The only rule is to work on it.  I still have to post every Wednesday so I will likely post about it.  Pictures of my progress may come every week or every other week.

    My writing has not stopped and I need to continue to make progress with my novel and new work.  There is a bug in my ear regarding the Long Black Train.  I’ve been wanting to work on that and expand.

    This will require some major world building, which I’m still working on.  City of Zombies was also a world builder exercise but I was able to base it off of things I see everyday.  The world of the Long Black Train is dark and filled with magic and monsters.  Mythology of a huge source of material for a writer.  Many of the monsters are based off them.  The Long Black Train is no different but my question is:

    Is there a lack of originality because I use mythology?   Just like the Man tests I deal with all day long.  Does mythology make me less of a writer like dressing in pink could make me less than a man?  (Note: My comparison is  tongue in cheek)

    Tongue in cheek?  What does that mean?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue-in-cheek

    Apparently the tongue in cheek was an indication of contempt.  Still not sure what that would look like but oh well..

    The picture above… I got lost in a tangent…

    So standby for updates on my new task, my new writing and general thoughts..

    Thanks

  • Deep P.O.V. Part One—What IS It? How Do We DO It?

    Author Kristen Lamb's avatarKristen Lamb's Blog

    Image via Flickr Creative Commons, courtesy of FromSandToGlass Image via Flickr Creative Commons, courtesy of FromSandToGlass

    Writing is like anything else. The trends and fashions change along with the audience. For instance, Moby Dick spends an excruciatingly long time talking about whales, namely because the audience of the time probably had never seen one and never would. If we did this today? Sure, feel free to walk around in a literary gold-plated cod piece, but er…

    Yes, awkward.

    Epics were also very popular. Follow a character from the womb until death. FANTASTIC STUFF! Why? Because no one had HBO, Pinterest or Angry Birds. Books were a rare indulgence usually reserved for a handful of literate folks with the money or connections to get their hands on…a book.

    Also, since writers were paid by the word, their works were padded more than a freshman term paper. Their motto? No modifier left behind. These days? We have to write leaner…

    View original post 1,442 more words

  • The Wagon… (Take that Writer’s block.. )

    The wagon jerked as the tractor pulled forward.  Erik, Sean Dean and Steve Summers fell from the wagon.  The infected horde stepped forward as all three men struggled to stand.  Erik looked up and watched as an infected, middle-aged woman stood over Steve Summers.  Her eyes were pale and hollow.  The skin on her face torn and hung under her right ear.   Steve screamed as the woman fell to her knees and began to pull at anything that may tear easily.  Steve had fallen on his chest and struggled to turn over as the infected woman tore open his thin shirt.  The infected woman grabbed and pulled at the overweight man’s waist.  Steve screamed as his skin stretched.  His daughter, Kali, screamed as she watched from the wagon.  Erik stood and shoved the infected woman backward.  She fell into the tall grass but was quickly replaced by two other infected men.  Sean Dean stepped forward and helped Erik lift Steve from the ground.  The two infected men stepped forward.  Erik, Steve and Sean turned and ran toward the wagon as it slowly pulled away.

    Sean caught the wagon first and attempted to rejoin the others.  The driver of the tractor suddenly fired over the heads of the remaining prisoners on the wagon.

    “Get off my wagon!”  He shouted and fired again.

    Sean struggled to climb aboard ignoring the driver.  The driver threatened to fire into the small crowd upon the wagon and Sean slid from the wagon.  His brother, Andrew leapt from the wagon followed by Kali and her mother, Andrea.

    “What are we going to do now?”  Andrea shouted.  Steve threw his torn shirt into the grass.  He ran to his wife, ignoring the cries of his young daughter.  “We will be fine,” he said as he redirected Andrea toward the right.  A horde of five infected stumbled forward.

    “Is this Michigan avenue?”  Asked Andrew as his brother, Sean helped him too his feet. “Let’s go,” Erik said as the infected began to surround them.

    The group ran nearly two-hundred feet when Erik stopped and leaned on a small car buried in rust and green vines.

  • When in doubt wear a dress

    When in doubt wear a dress

    Juliette Kings's avatarVampire Maman

    “I’m not going to crawl under a building again. It is going to be a hundred degrees out today. That is bad enough if you’re a regular person but we’re Vampires. Remember? Aaron?”

    I have five siblings – all male. I am the youngest of the brood. Aaron is smack in the middle.

    When I arrived at his downtown law office I was greeted by Aaron and our brother Val (short for Valentine). Val is between Aaron and me. I’d brought my almost sixteen year old daughter Clara with me.

    “Wear a dress,” I told her.

    “Why?”, she had to ask. They always have to ask.

    “So your Uncle Aaron won’t ask you to do anything. So he won’t ask you to crawl under a building or into an attic crawl space, or between a wall or into a sewer. You know how he is.”

    When we were small…

    View original post 534 more words

  • Do You Submit like a Man?

  • Ah!! Writer’s block

    AH!  I have writer’s block.  😦

    I’m trying too hard.  I have a lot of noise.  My girls are bugging me.  Anything to explain away the fact that I have no way to explain what happens when you’re stuck in a field of grass with zombies.  I have rewritten it in my head and I think it sucks.  I made some changes to the post before it and it’s thrown everything into chaos.

    This is an attempt to free-write my way into the sunset on the other side of the moon.

    Stuck in the grass with hungry sub-humans eating your neighbors. What a terrifying thought but where are the words?  Basically, my story is now stuck… No forward progress.  I’m really going to have to go back a few to regain this.  .. … ….

    Signed

    Unhappy 😦

  • New Titles

    Gah, I lost my post.. 😦 Not happy
    Anyways, I was trying to find a new title for City of Zombies.
    I have settled on a couple
    1. Erik Moore and the Monster Hunters
    2. When God Throws Stones
    SubTitle: Erik Moore and the Monster Hunters
    — I really like this one ^ with/without the subtitle
    3. The Vampire, the zombies and the scientist
    4. The Network within us All
    5. The Fall of Gabriel
    6. Building a City of Dead
    7: I Gotta Go Get My Daughter
    — No Really I do 🙂

    Thanks for listening..

  • Zombie Problems

    Zombie Problems

    Jack Flacco's avatarLooking to God

    I wouldn’t want to be a zombie. Although some may not agree, a zombie life seems much too complicated a life to live. What’s complicated about it? Okay, I’ll agree that roaming about seeking of whom they may devour sounds simple. It’s not. There are elements that zombies have to take into consideration when doing the roaming about.

    World War Z World War Z

    For Monday Mayhem, let’s have a look at what those elements are.

    1. Predators—As strange as it may seem, zombies have a natural predator. The hunted is the hunter. Humans do not take kindly when the undead mess around with their turf. Even if zombies can tear human’s apart, humans can pose a great risk to zombies. Humans can band together to destroy zombies permanently.
    2. Water—As much as zombies could rule the earth, toss them into water, they’re useless. They might float but more than likely they will sink to…

    View original post 445 more words