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Happy Women in Horror Month!

1/31/2015

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It’s that time again, the time when we take a look at female writers who specialize in dark fiction. For those who aren’t familiar with this yearly spotlight, the horror community observes Women in Horror Month every February. Why? Because, despite iconic female horror writers like Mary Shelley, women are sorely underrepresented in the genre. There are various theories as to why this is, the main one being that female stereotypes portray women as meek and incapable of writing the same caliber of horror as men.

I believe there is merit to the power of stereotypes. Just as people judge books by their covers, many also judge authors by outward appearance. I think far too many women’s works are going overlooked, never even given a chance, because of judgments made without so much as a glance at the actual text. As far as we’ve come in civilized society, women are still plagued by expectations that are both unfair and harmful. We are sex symbols, nurturers, homemakers, mothers—existing in a man’s world, our purpose in many cases being to exist for men.


Granted, feminism has helped to fracture these stereotypes, but it has not destroyed them. Are potential horror readers going to choose a book written by a knock-out blonde, a sweet grandmother, or a quiet but pretty young woman over one written by a gruff-looking guy oozing testosterone? I know a good number of women write under male pseudonyms just to gain equal footing with their male counterparts. And guess what? Their books sell notably better than the books they publish under their actual names.

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Women in Horror Month is our attempt at shattering those stereotypes for good, urging readers to give female authors a shot despite any reservations they might have about doing so. It’s about proving we can compete with the best of men, that we have what it takes to write stories capable of making you shudder and giving you nightmares.

So, what do you say?
 Do you have it in you to help us to make Women in Horror Month obsolete? Think you might take a chance on my traditional Gothic horror, Finding Poe, or my mixed-genre dark fiction collection, Jane, Volume 1: Revival?

I’d sure appreciate it.


As always, thank you for your readership and support!

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Words From the Grammar Nazi: Replacement Therapy, Part 2

1/30/2015

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She’ll point out every little mistake.  She’ll scream at you for using comma splices and split infinitives. She has no tolerance for fragments and run-ons. Today, she’s taken over the Cerebral Writer, and hate her if you will, she does know her grammar (and she only wants to help).

Today’s lesson: Make figuring out appropriate comma use a little easier by replacing them with simplified words or phrases that are easier to gauge.

Noun and Gerund Phrases

One issue I see often is comma placement between a nominal or gerund phrase and the verb phrase the follows. The longer or more complicated either of these nominal phrases is, the more likely it is that writers will make this mistake. By replacing more complicated phrases with single nouns or pronouns, you can test whether that comma actually belongs. Consider the following examples:

Example: “People who love freshly bloomed roses love the prettiest flowers.” Many writers might be tempted to place a comma between “roses” and “love,” but this is incorrect. Let’s replace the noun phrase, “people who love freshly bloomed roses,” with a single word and see how that looks:

Simplified: “They love the prettiest flowers.” No comma, right? Since nominal phrases, no matter what the length, are interchangeable, this means there also is no comma in “People who love freshly bloomed roses love the prettiest flowers."

Here’s another one: “He who plays the game best wins the game.” Tempted to use a comma? Simplify “he who plays the game best” with simply “he”:

“He wins the game.” No comma.

Here are a couple of examples containing gerunds:

“Taking the time to stop and smell the roses helps people find the time to appreciate the finer things in life.” Replace the gerund phrase, “taking the time to stop and smell the roses,” with a single word, such as “that”:

“That helps people find the time to appreciate the finer things in life.” No comma.

“Going over to her mom’s house every Sunday without fail complicates her weekly schedule.” Replace the gerund, “going over to her mom’s house every Sunday without fail,” with “that”:

“That complicates her weekly schedule.” No comma.

Verb and Adverb Phrases

Another big mistake writers make is placing commas between verb phrases and adverb phrases that follow them. Consider the following:

“She was running on the treadmill when the call came.” Tempted to place a comma between “treadmill” and “when”? Simplify the sentence by replacing the verb phrase “was running on the treadmill” with “she was running,” and replacing “when the call came” with “at the time”:

“She was running at the time.” No comma.

Conversely, many people will forego the comma when the adverb phrase comes before the verb phrase, which is incorrect. Always use a comma when an adverbial phrase comes at the beginning of a sentence: “When the call came, she was running on the treadmill.”

While you might have readers who also do not know the rules, there is always a chance that editors, agents, or reviewers reading your work do.  If you take the time to know and understand these rules, your writing will be sharper and you will be able to present it to the world with confidence and skill.

Until next time, my pretties, when we address pronouns. (Insert evil cackle.)


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Words From the Grammar Nazi: Replacement Therapy, Part 1

1/17/2015

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She’ll point out every little mistake. She’ll scream at you for using comma splices and split infinitives. She has no tolerance for fragments and run-ons. Today, she’s taken over the Cerebral Writer, and hate her if you will, she does know her grammar (and she only wants to help).

Today’s lesson: Make figuring out appropriate comma use a little easier by replacing them with simplified words or phrases that are easier to gauge.

Lists of Two

I’ve touched on this in a previous post, but it is such a common mistake—especially when it comes to verb clauses—it deserves the extra attention. Consider the following sentence: “We had so much fun at the party the other night and took tons of great pictures.” Do you think a comma belongs? Replace this sentence with the simplified version:

“We had fun and took pictures.” No comma.

How about this one: “They spent all morning decorating the house with streamers and balloons and had a lot of fun doing it.” Replace this sentence with the simplified version:

“They decorated and had fun doing it.” No comma.

So how could we correctly use commas in the above sentences? The answer: Make sure each is a fully independent clause, which means each has its own stated subject (someone or something doing something):

“We had so much fun at the party the other night, and we took tons of great pictures.”

“They spent all morning decorating the house with streamers and balloon, and they had a lot of fun doing it.”

Here’s one more: “They ate a hearty breakfast then ran a mile to work it off.”

Simplified: “They ate then ran.” No comma.

In this case, “then” functions similarly to the way “and” does. Look at it this way: “They ate a hearty breakfast and ran a mile to work it off.”

There are exceptions. If withholding the comma hinders readability, such as in the case of certain clauses with separate verb tenses or moods, use a comma between them even if they do not have their own independently stated subjects.

Example: “They spent all morning decorating the house with streamers and balloon, and might have had a lot of fun doing it had their attitudes been better.”

Simplified: “They did this, and might have had fun doing it.”

Also, two independent clauses (each has its own stated subject) can be a list of two when following words such as “because,” “as,” “since,” and thus should be treated as such.

Example: “They decided not to go since they had no money and it would be easier to eat at home.” To simplify this, think of the sentence this way: “They decided not to go because of this reason and that.”

Were the sentence lacking “They decided not to go since…” a comma between “they had no money” and “and it would be easier to eat at home” would become necessary: “They had no money, and it would be easier to eat at home.”

Finally, if you have a clause that reflects the actions of the subject rather than the object, a comma will complicate the sentence rather than clarify it.

Example: “She couldn’t believe he stood her up, and was rather upset.” The comma here clarifies that he isn't the one who is upset.



Similarly, if the subject is followed by two actions that need to remain segregated to avoid confusion, use a comma.

While you might have readers who also do not know the rules, there is always a chance that editors, agents, or reviewers reading your work do.  If you take the time to know and understand these rules, your writing will be sharper and you will be able to present it to the world with confidence and skill.

Until next time, my pretties, when we tackle noun and gerund phrases. (Insert evil cackle.)

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Book Blast: CRASHERS by Lindy S. Hudis

1/8/2015

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Today, guest author Lindy S. Hudis is promoting Crashers: A Tale of "Cappers" and "Hammers," a suspense novel based on auto insurance scams. Hudis will be giving away an autographed paperback copy to one randomly drawn reader. For your chance to win, enter using the Rafflecopter box below. For more chances, leave a comment and stop by other blogs hosting this tour.
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About the novel:

Fraudulent car accidents is a multi-million dollar racket, involving unscrupulous medical providers, personal injury attorneys, and the cooperating passengers involved in the accidents and who also receive a portion of the illegal proceeds. Such is the fate of newly engaged, Nathan and Shari, whose joy is tempered by the dark cloud of mounting debt. A chance encounter with a stranger in whom Shari confides her troubles, proves fortuitous: he tells her of a get-rich-quick scheme that will put her and her fiance on easy street. Seduced by the chance to move from hard times to good times in no time, she finds herself acting as a stuffed passenger the victim in a staged auto accident. Shari gets her payday, but getting out and breaking free of the insurance fraud underworld will take nothing short of a miracle. A modern day cautionary tale that uncovers how the innocent get lured into the scheme of cappers and hammers.

Excerpt:

As the blare of the clock radio on the night table jolted her awake, Shari  Barnes rubbed her eyes, blew her long brown hair out of her face, and snuggled into Nathan Townsend’s chest. She curled her body around his middle and took a deep whiff of his salty, masculine neck.

But she couldn’t ignore the voice on the radio.

“Monday morning traffic,” she sighed.

Nathan matched the sigh and put his arms around her. “At least you don’t have to drive over the hill.”

“Yeah, I would just die if I had to drive into Beverly Hills every day to work in a beautiful office.” 

Shari giggled and disappeared under their thick blue comforter for a few more moments of sleepy-headed bliss. She felt Nathan stretch up, and a moment later the radio shut off. Then he slid down next to her in the single bed they shared in their Studio City apartment, a few blocks north of Ventura Boulevard. The constant drone and rumble of another L.A. morning came clearly through the open window: cars honking, rock music blaring, the frantic scurrying sounds of the film shoot a few blocks away. Shari ran her bare feet up the inside of Nathan’s thigh.

He jumped. “Shit, your feet are cold.” He pushed her legs off of him.

“What time is it?” she murmured between kisses.

“Um, seven.” He nuzzled her neck and she felt him becoming erect against her.

“No time for that!” She threw off the covers. “Gotta be at work on time for once; gotta get my asp out of bed.”

“There’s a snake in the bed?” Nathan grabbed her with both hands and gave her belly gentle nips.

“Yeah, of the one-eyed variety.” 

Shari leaped to the floor and padded naked into the bathroom. She turned the hot water in the shower to high and stepped in, filling the small bathroom with steam.

She had just poured a green drop of shampoo into her palm and was running her hands together when the flimsy yellow and white shower curtain flew back and Nathan grinned in at her. She smiled back, surprised by neither his arrival nor the partial hard-on that preceded him.

“Mind if we join you?” he asked.

“There’s enough shampoo for everybody,” Shari said as she rubbed her hands across her scalp.

He stepped into the stall, pulled the curtain closed and began to lather her hair for her. She put her hands on his back, feeling the taut muscles and the water streaming there, but did not reach down between them. It took him about five seconds to realize it and hold her away.

“You okay?”

“Fine….”

“Don’t lie; I can always tell when you have something on your mind.”

“You know me better than I know me,” she said.

“You know it.” He pushed her wet hair over her shoulders. “Come on, give.”

“I was thinking maybe I should get a second job.”

“You’re worrying about money again?”

“Well, I have to shoot my student thesis film this year or I won’t graduate. But where am I going to get the money I need?”

“How much do you need?”

“At least five figures.”


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About the author:

Lindy S. Hudis is a graduate of New York University, where she studied drama at Tisch School of the Arts. She is the author of several titles, including her romance suspense novel, Weekends, her "Hollywood" story City of Toys, and her crime novel, Crashers. She is also the author of an erotic short story series, "The S&M Club" and "The Mile High Club". Her short film "The Lesson" was screened at the Seattle Underground Film Festival and Cine-Nights in 2000. She is also an actress, having appeared in the television daytime drama "Sunset Beach". She and her husband, Hollywood stuntman Stephen Hudis, have formed their own production company called Impact Motion Pictures, and have several projects and screenplays in development. She lives in California with her husband and two children.

For more about Lindy S. Hudis and her work, follow her on Twitter or Facebook, stop by her website, or check out her Goodreads author page. Crashers is available through Amazon.


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