When The Big Man Has Your Back

Did you think I meant THAT big man? I meant the OTHER big man. We sent letters to Santa before Christmas.  Imagine my delight when he not only responded to our letters, but to mine personally.  Nothing can stop me now, right?  There’s magic dust and elf elbow grease on my side! “P.S. -Mercedes, I am working on your book … Read More

Your First Hate Mail: My First Guest Post of 2011. Woo hoo!

“Your First Hate Mail: How Life Can Change After Working For a Magazine” has gone live at The Fictorian Era.  Go! Read it! Support them! But first, let me tell you about our little literary meet-cute. So I was at World Fantasy Con in October.  Besides geeking out over some of my favorite authors, I was also scouring the joint … Read More

How I Got My Agent: A Social Media Love Story

You know the story.  Author meets agent.  Author stalks agent.  Agent realizes that Author is everything that Agent ever wanted, and stardust falls from the sky as contracts are signed. Well, this story isn’t really like that.  It’s even better. I met my agent via Twitter. Twitter took me a while to get used to, I’ll tell you that.  It’s … Read More

Writing The Darkness

I’m working on a new short story for a very cool anthology. And frankly, the story is scaring me to death. It’s dark.  I write darkness.  There’s bravery and honor in it. I write bravery and honor.  But it’s branching out into subject matter that I generally choose not to discuss, especially concerning an old job that I had.  Half of … Read More

The Best CAPTCHA Ever!

I just typed in the best CAPTCHA phrase that I have ever seen:  Whoomort.  It’s obviously Voldemort’s free-spirited brother.

A Plea to the Internet

My very dear Internet, This is so difficult for me to say. We have spent every day together for years.  You’re here when I wake up.  You promise me songs and beautiful pictures of wildflowers and live video of Loch Ness just in case the monster decides to show up.  We’ve shared cups of hot cocoa together as you tell me … Read More

Ho Ho Ho: Horror and Holidays

Shock Totem has gone digital.  You can now buy every dark, sexy issue in a digital format.  Hooray, yahoo! But even better, you can pick up a copy of Shock Totem: Holiday Tales of the Macabre and Twisted for 99 cents.  Take a look at this beauty.  Isn’t this a stunning cover? This special holiday issue of Shock Totem features … Read More

Mason Ian Bundschuh’s “The Last Recall” is Live!

Mason’s awesome sci-fi thriller short “The Last Recall” is up at Crossed Genres.  Friend, fellow Interdimensional Wombat and member of the Illiterati, and also owner of the man feet that you see in the header, Mason is a jack of all trades.  Check out his super cool story here.

Heidi Sutherlin Has a Debut Novel! Brothers in Betrayal

The second that I heard Heidi Sutherlin was doing a blog tour for her debut novel Brothers in Betrayal, I jumped all over her and asked if she’d let me host.  Heidi is a friendly, delightful, witty woman, and that’s enough for me right there. But wait! Brothers in Betrayal looks fantastic! Check out this blurb. Elite Pacific Northwest software … Read More