A Good, Bloody Time on the Mountain

Enter The Night is complete. I made the corrections that my proofreader suggested. This one's straight up horror. It's got creepy, abandoned buildings, escaped psychopaths, and a brutal storm that's bearing down on the characters.

I had fun writing this one and creeped myself out a few times (usually a good sign).

I'll be uploading it to Kindle and other e-book platforms soon. Trying to come up with a release date so I can build a little anticipation over it.

Here's the a draft of the cover copy for Enter the Night:


They came to the mountain to hunt ghosts. They ended up as prey.

The Iron Mountain Asylum once housed the criminally insane. The worst of the worst. Four men escaped the asylum and were never caught. The legends grew. Some said they lived on the mountain, killing anyone who crossed their path.

The contestants on a reality show called Enter the Night are about to find out if the legends are real. Six people. Non-stop filming. A week exploring the abandoned asylum and the military base near the mountain. The contestants will find out that there are things far more frightening on the mountain than ghosts.

Draft of Horror Novel Finished

The draft of Enter the Night is finished. I gave it an edit and now it's off to the proofreader. I'll be posting excerpts from it in the coming weeks.

I'm about 25 pages into writing The Last Ride. I initially envisioned it as a novella, but it has the potential to become a full novel. I've been working on this one longhand in my notebooks. I'm finding there's less distraction from social media and the writing's going well.

Got in a workout this morning and finished up a Batman sketch I was working on.

Hoping to see A Quiet Place next week. We have our tickets for Infinity War and are going opening night.

I just read James Scott Bell's How to Write Pulp Fiction. Currently reading Screenwriting Tricks for Authors by Alexandra Sokoloff. It never hurts to brush up on craft techniques, no matter how many books and stories you've written.

Writing Update 4/5/18

I have about twenty pages left to edit on Enter the Night. My plan to release it in late February got delayed due to some family issues. Should have it for sale by month's end.

The Last Ride, my apocalyptic novella (that very well might turn into a novel) is moving along. Getting a good chunk of writing done longhand by working on lunch breaks, etc.

Currently reading: The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis

There's a number of movies I'd like to see. A Quiet Place and You Were Never Here are among the current releases. Looking forward to Infinity War, Solo, and Deadpool 2 in May.

Writing Books That Will Improve Your Craft

I took a glance at my office bookshelf and figured I'd post about the writing books that are on my shelf/Kindle. This is by no means a complete list, but these are some of the books that helped me along the way. I still refer back to them.


1. Stein on Writing and Grow Your Novel by Sol Stein

2. The Kick Ass Writer by Chuck Wendig (Wendig also has a number of other writing books out, some of them in list form. All have great advice)

3. Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell (any of Bell's writing books are excellent). I also recommend The Art of War for Writers.

4. Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain

5. How to Write a Selling Screenplay by Christopher Keane

6. How to Write Page Turning Scenes by Holly Lisle (Lisle also has several other good books available on writing)

7. The 30-Day Book Marketing Challenge by Rachel Thompson (Thompson's website is also full of great tips for marketing and promotion)

8. The Novelist's Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes by Raymond Obstfeld

9.  Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time by  Jordan Rosenfeld

10. Zen and the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

11. A Writer's Tale by Richard Laymon

12. The Right to Write by Julia Cameron

13. On Writing by Stephen King

14. Self Editing For Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King

45 and Beyond

I turned 45 this past Sunday. My wife took me out and we had a nice dinner at the Griffon Gastropub in our hometown. She also made pizza and tacos over the weekend, plus some amazing cupcakes. The only damper on the whole thing was the hacky/phleghmy/cold/flu thing that latched on to me. I'm feeling better today and planning to put the finishing touches on Enter the Night.

At 45 I haven't gotten where I've wanted to be, writing-wise. Yet. I thought I was on my way in the world of traditional publishing at one point. I had sold my first novel, started working with a well-known agent, and got a two book deal from my publisher after the first. The relationship with the agent didn't go anywhere. I tried writing a thriller that was honestly the worst book I've written. A little lesson: You can't write a book from some template in a how-to book, which is what I tried at the time. Any instructional book that promises you'll be able to write a blockbuster novel is likely full of crap. Write true and write what you love.

I went indie shortly after that. It's had its ups and downs. The sales aren't where I'd like them to be, and some days it seems like every other writer on the planet is doing better. But I love the freedom and knowing I can write whatever I want, whenever I want.

At 45, I'm not there yet. I'm hoping to have many more years to write stories. With any luck, there are many miles to go and lots of stories still to tell. I'm going to keep writing and putting stuff out there. We'll see how it goes.

Horror Novel Nears Completion

Enter the Night is around 51,000 words. I have a few more scenes to write, and it will be done. Then it's an edit before passing it on to the proofreader.

I gave away a couple copies of The Damage Factory to some coworkers. They seemed excited to read it, and I hope I gained a few fans.

Saw Black Panther over the weekend and enjoyed it. Another solid entry in the Marvel universe. Great to see some strong female characters on screen, as well.

I've also done some preliminary work on The Last Ride, an apocalyptic novella. Mostly stuff in a notebook on breaks at work. I'll be ramping that one up as soon as I'm done with Enter the Night. 

Writing Update 2.18.18

I'm coming down the home stretch with writing Enter the Night. It's at about 47,500 words. I'm shooting for just over 50K words, although it might go a little longer. I also started writing a novella set in a flu-ravaged, apocalyptic world. It's called The Last Ride, and I hope to have it on sale sometime this spring.

I watched The Cloverfield Paradox on Friday night. It's been getting hammered by critics, from what I've read. It wasn't terrible, but it felt like a generic sci-fi movie to which they tacked on the Cloverfield universe. I liked the other two Cloverfield movies quite a bit (Cloverfield is one of my favorite monster movies), so this one was a disappointment.

I've been toying with the idea of setting up an Etsy shop for my drawings. Still not sure about that yet, but I suppose there's nothing to lose, and it's relatively cheap to list items on their site.

On the artwork front, I've continued with LOTR-themed drawings. This is a recent one I did of the Witch King. I took a picture of it on our dining room table. There's a bit of placemat visible on the right hand side. I'll either edit that out or take a new pic if I put this up for sale.

Writing Updates 2.5.18

I've hit the 43,000 word mark on Enter the Night. I should be wrapping up the first draft this month. I've begun some preliminary work on my next release, tentatively titled The Last Ride. It's a novella set in post-apocalypse America, and I like the premise. It should be a faced-paced, action filled read.

No huge plans for "The Big Game" tonight. Am I allowed to say Super Bowl? Are the NFL lawyers reading this? The family and I are going to eat snacks and hope for a Patriots loss and some decent commercials.

Writing Update 1.21.18

Enter the Night is at 37,380 words. My previous word count was a little off. It wasn't at 36,000, but 34,000. I was going off the top of my head with that count. Didn't get much writing done last week between Tuesday and Friday, as we had a crazy week. Got back at it on Saturday morning and rolling again today.

We've been watching the Marvel movies from the past 3-4 years in preparation for Infinity War coming out in May. My son suggested we catch up on the movies, and I've enjoyed watching them. We watched Guardians 2 on Friday night.

Currently reading Kill Kill Kill by Mike Leon and The Force by Don Winslow. I typically keep one Kindle book on my phone and another on my Kindle Fire.

Writing Updates 1.13.18 (And a little artwork)

I don't have an exact word count to post right now because my One Drive App is updating files at the moment and I'm waiting. Enter the Night is at around 36,000 words.

Someone at work came up to me and told me they didn't know I was an author. It's always kind of fun with this happens. Even better is when they say something like: "You write about serial killers? I love that shit!" Hoping I made a new fan.

Didn't get to any writing last night, but I did finish this pen and ink drawing of a certain wizard.

Writing Update 1.9.18

The draft of Enter the Night is at 33,672 words. Tonight I wrote a scene where one of the bad guys shows up at the lodge with his bow and arrow. Mayhem ensues.

The temperatures are back to "normal," after hovering around zero for the past week. It's in the thirties. Not exactly flip flop and shorts weather, but better than the deep freeze.

I also started a novella called The Last Ride. Just getting going on this one so far.

Writing Update 1.04.18

Continued work on Enter the Night. The current word count stands at 30,836.

I'm currently reading Chuck Wending's Damn Fine Story. Chuck has a number of excellent writing books available. Plus, he uses plenty of examples from Die Hard in Damn Fine Story to emphasize story techniques.

It's damn cold in the Buffalo area. There are over 300 schools and business closed for tomorrow. Going to try and stay warm.

Writing Goals for 2018

We spent a quiet New Years Eve at home with the kids, which is what my wife and I enjoy doing. We had drinks, snacks, and played Cards Against Humanity.

I hit 29,000 words on Enter the Night. I'm hoping to have a draft done by early February.

Dean Wesley Smith has a great blog post up about writing goals for 2018.

In looking at some of Dean's suggestions, I'm going with trying to hit a minimum word count of 250,000 for the year. That comes out to 685 words a day. I'm actually shooting for 750-1,000 words per day. I'm going to blog my progress here, also another one of Dean's suggestions.

I still think the best marketing is to get more of your work out there. That's the plan for 2018. I may also write some additional short stories on breaks at work. I'll see how this all pans out.

Hitting the 25K Mark

I hit the 25,000-word mark on Enter the Night. I'm guessing the draft will be around 55-60,000 words. I'm writing shorter books these days. I'm not under contract to produce a 100,000-word book, and for that I'm glad. Some of my earlier books, where I had to hit a minimum of a 100K, felt a little padded. And honestly, I tend to read shorter books these days. I don't have a ton of reading time, and I'm not getting any younger. Trying to get through as many books as I can. That's not to say I wouldn't enjoy a good, doorstop-sized epic now and then, but most of the stuff I read comes in around 250 pages.

Saw Star Wars on the second night and I loved it. It went against expectations in the best possible ways. I plan on seeing it again.

Just finished reading Chuck Dixon's Gomers, a cool little zombie novel. I've read a few of his books and I'm quickly becoming a fan.

The Day's Work 12.12.17

Snow continues to fall in my town, which is about twenty miles south of Buffalo. Did morning snow cleanup at 5 a.m. and a second round tonight. They're calling for more snow tomorrow, which I don't love, but it's Buffalo.

Have tickets to see The Last Jedi on Friday. I'm avoiding any reviews or posts to avoid spoilers.

On the writing front, Enter the Night is almost 25,000 words. I'm looking at an early spring release for this one.

Being Ready to Get More Written

I set my alarm a half hour earlier today in order to get some writing done. I find the first few minutes are often wasted figuring out where I left off or deciding which scene I want to write (I sometimes write out of sequence).

I think I'd benefit from being ready to go as soon as my ass hits the chair if I were more prepared. I'm going  to have the following ready tomorrow morning:

• My last scene bookmarked in Word.
• Some rough notes for myself as to where I'm headed.
• A copy of my story notes. I use a very loose set of notes/story points when I write.
• I also might start setting a timer again. I find I get more written when the clock is ticking.

We leave our desktop on, so I don't waste time booting up.  I'm hoping to maximize my writing time. If you have any other tips, let me know. Trying to squeeze everything I can out of each writing session.

Book Signing

I had my first book signing in years yesterday. I signed copies of The Damage Factory and a few other titles. It was a good turnout. I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my old friends from high school. We talked about old times, our families, and Star Wars, a passion of both of ours.

Trying to solve a story problem with The Walking Man that's kept me from finishing up the edits and releasing it. Hopefully will wrap it up this week.

Excerpt of Enter the Night

I thought I'd put up an excerpt of my work-in-progress. It's called Enter the Night.

The first chapter is below. It combines reality television with a whole bunch of mayhem. I think this one's going to be fun to write.

They came to the mountain to hunt ghosts. They wound up as prey.

Enter the Night
Copyright 2017 Anthony Izzo


One

Truth be told, the mountain gives Bob Grey the creeps.
He steers the cube truck up the winding road. Hits the wipers. Snow begins to pelt the windshield. There’s a blizzard coming down from the Canadian Rockies that will hit later next week.
“Getting icy,” he says into the Bluetooth headset.
“Take her easy,” Gary Meyers says. Gary is in the Dodge Ram behind Bob’s truck.
“What’s the name of this show again?” Bob says.
“Enter the Night,” Gary says.
“How about let’s get the fuck off this mountain? I’ll star in that show,” Bob says, and Gary meets this with braying laughter.
He steers the truck around a switchback and continues up the mountain. Takes a swig of coffee from his travel mug. It’s now lukewarm and bitter, but it’s better than nothing. “Why would anyone want to film a reality show up here?”
Gary says, “Couldn’t be Hawaii or South Beach, could it?”
“Honeys in bikinis and drinking on the beach. That’d be more like it.”
They’d passed the abandoned military base at the foot of the mountain, where rusted tanks and trucks sat abandoned behind chain link fence. Bob is glad they don’t have to drive up to the abandoned hospital near the top of the mountain. He’s grateful to be stopping midway at the lodge.
“Lodge should be coming up,” Gary says.
Bob spots the rustic sign in his headlights. It reads: Iron Mountain Lodge. He brakes and turns onto the road that goes to the lodge.
The road twists and turns. He wishes for a Red Bull and maybe some caffeine pills to keep him sharp. For now, he contends with shitty gas station coffee. Dozing off at the wheel up here would be deadly.
The lodge comes into view: it’s four stories tall. Miles of roof. Hundreds of windows. He knows it was a playground for the rich in the last century. The Rockafellers stayed here on a regular basis. Howard Hughes used to rent an entire floor for himself. Now it looks like it wants to swallow people whole. At least in the dark. It’s probably fine, maybe even nice inside.
He parks the truck near the front of the lodge. A massive covered porch runs the entire length of the building.
Lights appear in his side mirror; Gary pulls up behind him in the Dodge.
He spots the maintenance garage; that’s where they are to park the cube truck. It’s loaded with supplies for the week-long shoot.
Bob has driven truck all over the country. The current gig with Blackmore Productions isn’t bad. The pay is decent. He’s home for good chunks of time. But right now, he’s shivering and wants to be back at the Holiday Inn, where he can order a Philly cheese steak from room service and watch a pay-per-view movie.
He gets out of the truck and the wind screams. He holds onto his Blackmore Productions trucker’s cap to keep it from blowing away. He wishes he’d brought a winter hat.
Gary fumbles with the keys before inserting the right one in the lock. He gives it a turn and cranks the door handle.
“Don’t just stand there. Help me lift the bastard,” Gary says.
The hoist the garage door open and Bob spots a pickup truck with a snowplow attached. There’s also a vehicle with tracks that looks like it belongs to the ski patrol.
The boss wants them to leave the truck in the garage and the film crew will unpack it.
He notices an odd smell: body odor. Like someone hasn’t showered in a month. Once, he’d gotten a whiff of a homeless guy who accosted him for a handout in Nashville. It reminds Bob of that. “Smell that? It’s really rank.”
Gary says, “Probably a dead critter got stuck in here.”
“Smells so bad I can almost taste it. I’ll get the truck,” Bob says.
“I’ll guide you in,” Gary says.
As Bob walks to the truck, Snow whips into his face. The wind moans again. His warm room back at the hotel comes to mind again.
Bob picks up his pace and reaches the truck. He hops in the cab. As he’s about to start it up, he hears a high-pitched scream. Someone in terrible pain.
He keeps a .44 Smith & Wesson in a case under the seat when he drives. Bob’s kept it there ever since being beaten and robbed on a run through East St. Louis. He gets out the revolver and loads it. There are brown bears on the mountain and he sincerely hopes he’s not about to run into one of those.
Bob hops out, bracing himself against the wind. The snow picks up and the garage is now barely visible in the snow. It’s going to be a bitch driving down the mountain in this.
He reaches the open garage door. “Gary, you okay?” he calls.
The snow lets up long enough and Bob sees the man with Gary’s body draped over his shoulder. Blood drips down and stains the snow. The man looks back. He’s wearing some sort of old-fashioned, smoked goggles. A scarf covers his mouth and nose.
He turns and continues walking, carrying Gary like a sack of dry concrete.
“Hey! What the hell?”
Bob raises the Magnum, realizing Gary is in serious trouble, but he has no shot.
The man disappears around the garage.
Bob chases after him.

He catches up with the guy behind the garage, where the ground slopes downward. The man scurries down the embankment. He’s large but moves with the grace of a big cat. Again, Bob raises the gun, but he can’t shoot without possibly hitting Gary.
He can’t believe this is happening to his buddy. He’s known Gary eighteen years. They have hundreds of war stories from the road. Like that time at the Bunny Ranch near Vegas, which was legendary.
Bob reaches the embankment. It’s steep and rocky. There’s a good chance he’ll lose his footing and take a spill, but he has to help Gary. The stranger disappears into the blowing snow. Bob follows, sidestepping down the embankment. He picks his way over and around rocks. The snow stings his face. This is crazy.
Halfway down, his foot hits a rock and he falls forward. He tumbles down the embankment. His ankle turns with a sharp crack. Something pops in his wrist. He skids to a stop and ends up on his back.
Fresh blood dribbles down his chin. He tries to push himself to his feet, forgets about his injured wrist, and howls with pain. It’s sprained at the least, and the ankle feels just as bad.
Bob looks back up the embankment; he can’t see the garage. Even worse, he can’t see himself getting back up there on one leg. He peers down the embankment; the abductor is gone.
He’s lost the gun in the fall. He resigns himself to crawling back up the embankment and calling for help.
The ground crunches off to his right. It sounds liked footsteps.
Someone materializes out of the snow; he’s hooded. Is that a fucking gas mask? The person towers over Bob. He knows this is going to end badly.
The person hunkers down and there’s a terrible, hot pain in Bob’s belly. Something stabs upward and it feels like his insides are being torn out.



He screams, but it melts into the wind and carries over the mountain.

Draft of Horror Novella is Done

The draft of The Walking Man is done. Finished at around 27,000 words (about 105 pages). I think it's a nice length for a novella. I have a small scene to add, then it's on to editing and proofreading. The cover's below. This is the first story I've written based on cover art. The artwork caught my eye (I purchase the artwork from a stock photo site) and I came up with a story behind it. I like this approach and I'm going to look for story opportunities like this in the future.

The Walking Man Hits 20K Words

I crossed the 20,000 word mark on The Walking Man. It's looking like it might end up around 30K. I'm having a blast writing the finale. This is my first horror title in a while. The next one will be horror, as well. I'll likely alternate a few horror titles with some thrillers/crime stories.

I saw IT for the second time last weekend. Loved it even more the second time around. The film captured the spirit of The Losers' Club and the kid who played Richie Tozeir killed it. The new Pennywise was creepy as hell. There were also some nice touches, like Georgie's Lego turtle, Bill's Tracker Brothers t-shirt, and the 1990 Pennywise head in the clown room. I can't wait for the second movie.

I also have a book signing coming up. More details to come.