Okay, here’s the concept: I post installments of my novella set at an Orlando horror convention and you folks get to follow along with me. I would offer about a fifth of it each time, which I’m guessing will be about ten pages, and any feedback I get will direct my next ten. Maybe. Anyway, by the end, I’ll have a juicy story to adapt into my next screenplay and we can all say we were there. Or something.

Despite my still being a little lost in the fog with the idea, I think it would be cool to present a serialized narrative here to spice things up. I seem to have grown a bit in visitors, and they have also directed me to this decision. You see, back in August of last year I posted an open letter to Emile Hirsch inviting him to have a look at my screenplay for The Collection: Legend of Fortunate Son as I thought he would be perfect for the lead role of Patrick, the gloomy metalhead painter who stumbles upon some ancient magic that brings his colorfully horrifying creations to life. He eventually learns how to control them – mostly – and uses them to address some serious issues in his life with both positive and negative, heroic and tragic results. The idea was to create a new kind of superhero group that was scary, twisted and more than a little sick. And while I didn’t get any responses from Emile, his agent or Jodie Foster (yet!), I did end up getting about fifty hits a day from what I’m guessing are mostly young women Googling his name. Welcome, ladies! I bet you’re just thrilled with what you found. 😉

Well, maybe I can pay them back for misleading them so. The novella I plan on posting is called HorrorCon, and it follows the trials of a young girl named Eliza as she attempts to return to the world of horror convention vending after having suffered a horrible and tragic event in her life six months before. She questions her love of horror and pretty much everything that her life was about prior to the terrifying and painful incident and, despite every attempt to get it together again, begins to discover that continuing life may just be too big a challenge for her. Then she meets a fascinating, older stranger with a dark, mysterious past and an encyclopedic knowledge of vampire lore who is selling and signing his popular Dark Doctor novel series at a table across the room. What he teaches her about survival and vengeance over the course of the weekend will force her to make some serious decisions; decisions that may help her finally escape the real nightmare of her horrible past, but also change the course of her future in every imaginable way. I’m entertaining a pitch title called Lost in Transfusion and am really enjoying writing my first female main character.

Huh? What’s that you say? You were looking for info on Emile’s upcoming role in Speed Racer and don’t much care for horror? Ahh…well, off my stoop then, you horny little brats!

Just kidding. To be honest, I’m really excited about HorrorCon. It continues my exploration of smaller, more intimate horror stories that sneak up on you and unsettle rather than make you jump. Oh, there will be jumping, but I’m hoping that when the time comes to shock there will be so much emotional investment in the main character that the jolt will be more from turns in the plot and twists in her plight than from one of the costumed attendees surprising her from behind a bush. I’m also keeping in mind budget limitations and a minimum of locales so that the logistics of the story will be easy to follow and allow the reader to focus more on the inner lives of the characters. And I can’t lie, my original impulse was to write something that would attract industry interest that may believe in my style of writing, yet may also be a little tight with the scratch, knowwhatI’msayin’?

Speaking of industry interest, I’ve recently been in touch with some awesomely cool folks who took interest in Welcome to Cydonia and I must say I’m extremely grateful for their contacting me. Hopefully I will be able to show them enough to continue the correspondence and I can only say I’m thrilled to death with the developments thus far. Cheers, guys, for getting me and my vision, and thank you so much again.

So what say you, good readers, about this novella lark? Are you in? Or are you more interested in a story about some dude who, like, spends the entire time in his car with his fat little brother Spridle endangering the life of a poor, defenseless chimpanzee named Chim-Chim?

PETA!!!