The Datsun took off under a cloud of smoke. Four bald tires left black lines in the snow.
And everything was very quiet.
Snow dusted the gravestones, so very white. I thought about the white rose sitting all alone in my apartment, and the gray little neighborhood where Tina and Julie lived. All those houses that no one seemed to care about. Maybe one of them was waiting for someone to come along and give it some special attention.
I found, to my surprise, that I was making plans again, but this time they were the kinds of plans that were meant to be shared.
And, standing there in the snow, I began to wonder how soon my miniature rose would flower.
Afterword: Head, Heart & Guts
The best writers work with their head, their heart, and their guts. By that I mean they have the intelligence to create compelling stories, the compassion and understanding to bring the characters that populate those stories fully alive, and the gut-sense to know what to do with them. These writers see the bigger picture. They trust in who they are and what they believe. That's what comes through on the page, and that's what touches the reader.
See, when it comes to writing, it is all about you. It's about the way you see things, and the way you set those things down on the page. That's not as easy as it sounds, of course. Sometimes it's hard to be honest, especially with yourself. But it's the only way to go if you want your fiction to be real.
To borrow the words of an older, wiser writer: "You can't fake a worldview." That's true no matter what you're writing about. It's also a difficult concept to grasp when you're first starting out. You may think your writing isn't about you at all. You may convince yourself that you're simply telling a story about a haunted car, or a couple of guys fighting off a cult of devil worshippers, or a ghost on a tropical beach. And, sure, you are writing about those things, but you'd better get a little more than that down on the page if you want those creaky old conventions to come alive.
Get yourself down on that page. Give your words a pulse. Make your characters breathe. Do that and you may find that you're writing about a little bit more than a car, or a couple of guys battling a cult, or a ghost. You may find that you're really writing about secrets, or friendship, or the power of love.
In other words, you're writing about the way you see things.
You're writing about the way you feel.
That, friends and neighbors, is what it takes to make your fiction real.
You've already got all the tools you need to do the job. Your head, your heart, and your guts. Think of them as three compasses that can guide your work. Think of them as three scales that can weigh your decisions and decide your direction. Think of them as the three most important tools a writer can use...in writing, in business, and in life.
Individual Copyright Notices
"Foreword: The Passion of the Norm" © 2005 by Edward Bryant, appears here for the first time.
"Introduction; Learning the Trade" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"Little Bookshop of Horrors" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"Mr. Fox" © 1992 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Mr. Fox & Other Feral Tales, published by Roadkill Press.
"Hard-Boiled Horror" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"The Baddest Son of a Bitch in the House" © 1992 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Mr. Fox & Other Feral Tales, published by Roadkill Press.
"Rejection, Resolve, & Respect" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"Black Leather Kites" © 1991 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Chills #5.
"The First Dance" © 2004 by Norman Partridge, previously appeared in a slightly different form in Cemetery Dance #50.
"Save the Last Dance for Me" © 1989 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Cemetery Dance #2.
"Building Your Sandcastle" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"Sandprint" © 1992 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Mr. Fox & Other Feral Tales, published by Roadkill Press.
"Seeing the Wizard" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"Vessels" © 1992 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Mr. Fox & Other Feral Tales, published by Roadkill Press.
"On Zombies...and Hunger" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"In Beauty, Like the Night" © 1992 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Mr. Fox & Other Feral Tales, published by Roadkill Press.
"A Keyboard Built for One" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"Body Bags" © 1993 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Grue #15.
"You Can't Write with a Bowling Bali" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"Cosmos" © 1990 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Noctulpa #4.
"An Oxblood Stetson Hat" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"Stackalee" © 1990 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Cemetery Dance #5.
"A Couple of Wolves at the Door" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"Tooth & Nail" © 1994 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Palace Corbie #5.
"Coming Soon: The Small Press Apocalypse" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"The Entourage" © 1994 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Thunder’s Shadow #4.
"The Care & Feeding of First Novels" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
Kiss of Death, Chapters One, Two, and Three © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appear here for the first time.
"A Few Recommendations" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"Dr. Frankenstein's Secrets of Style" © 1997 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in The Horror Writer's Association: Writing Horror, edited by Mort Castle.
"A Word from the Editor(s)" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"Treats" © 1990 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Blood Review #4.
"Writing for Them & Writing for You" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"Velvet Fangs" © 1993 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Haunts #25.
"The 3" X 5" Secret to Good Outlines" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"¡Cuidado!" © 1991 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Chilled to the Bone, edited by Robert T. Garcia.
"The Macbeth School of Horror" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"When the Fruit Comes Ripe" © 1995 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Grue #17.
"It's the Steak, Not the Sizzle" © 2004 by Norman Partridge, previously appeared in Cemetery Dance #50.
"Walkers" © 1991 by Norman Partridge, first appeared in Not One of Us #8.
"When Opportunity Knocks..." © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
"The Season of Giving" © 1994 by Richard T. Chizmar & Norman Partridge, first appeared in Santa Clues, edited by Martin H. Greenberg.
"Afterword: Head, Heart, & Guts" © 2005 by Norman Partridge, appears here for the first time.
* * *
[1] In those days, you had to hunt for computer repair shops. They weren't easy to find. To tell the truth, It wasn't easy to find a place to buy a computer, either. You sure couldn't walk into Best Buy or Fry's and slap down a credit card—you had to find a computer store, and then you had to deal with a salesman... the kind who'd probably learned most of his tricks selling used cars.
[2] Now editor of a little magazine called Cemetery Dance. Small world, ain't it?
[3] I don't believe anyone had actually coined the phrase "desktop publishing" at that point.
[4] When The Horror Show went the way of The Twilight Zone a few months later, I knew I'd missed my chance. If might seem funny—because, in truth, The Horror Show didn't pa
y much—but the fact that I never got a story in Dave Silva's fine little magazine is cause for great regret to this day.
[5] A few years later, I finally got an Ink-jet printer and switched over to using Times New Roman. The first time I submitted a story to Rich Chizmar In that font, he called me up and told me: "I can't get used to this... it just doesn't look like a Norm Partridge story!"
[6] Biggest disaster: a summer morning. I'm finishing up my first novel, Slippin' Into Darkness. I sit down at the computer to spellcheck the final manuscript and print it out. I pop in the disc. I try to open up the file for Chapter One... and files start disappearing from the disc directory. One after another after another.. .until the entire disc is blank.
I stare at the little black & white screen. I don't breathe for about a minute. I eject the disc, insert it and try again. Nothing...nada...zip...it's blank. Okay, I think. Don't panic. And I don't. I reboot my computer. The happy smiling Apple face appears. The desktop loads up. Everything will be okay, I tell myself. You were smart to make that backup disc.
I insert my backup in the drive. I click on the file for Chapter One.
And the files start disappearing. One after another, until the entire disc is blank. I sit there, staring. I try reinserting the discs...again, and again, and again. They're dead.! curse the gods. I curse my luck. I go to the computer store. I buy a box of brand new discs. I spend the afternoon creating documents, saving them, making sure they open when I eject and reinsert the disc.
Next morning, I start retyping a 367 page manuscript.
Yes, I had a hard copy.
I wasn't that stupid
[7] I bought lots of those from Doug. l hate to admit it, but I sure wish I still had my William J. Johnston rockabilly horror novels (how can you beat books with titles like Rockabilly Limbo and Rockabilly Hell?). And my Guy N. Smith giant crab novels. And my Swords against Darkness anthologies. Yeah. I especially miss those... they were actually good.
[8] “Perhaps the book's standout is Norman Partridge's 'Guignoir,' a novel's worth of tough, weird, hard edges crammed into a short story. This is a genuine noir about brothers working for a traveling carnival's monster show and the hostile California town in which they play. Partridge's tale is William Lindsay Greshsam (Nightmare Alley) for the '90s. Powerful stuff."
[9] Not that Tomi didn’t make such chores worth my while – there were lots of free haircuts involved!
[10] If you've got a copy of Cannibal Dwight's Special Purpose, look at the stapling job. That way me!
[11] I barbequed pork chops there. For breakfast. Poppy Brite took one look at them and turned green
[12] Simple editorial equation: name recognition = Joe Reader reaching for his wallet. It may not seem fair, but that's the Law of the Jungle when it comes to selling short fiction. Get used to it.
[13] I'm talking an extremely broad view and an extremely small werebat. (maybe one that flutters around in the margins or something). The way I see it now, I was off the mark with my submission any way you slice it.
[14] And a damn good one. He's written several fine dark suspense tales over the years. I wish he'd find time to write more of them.
[15] These days aspiring writers will want to check
[16] Check this; in his editorial in CD #1, Rich was already looking ahead to a Richard Christian Matheson feature he had scheduled for CD #3; needless to say, this kind of planning was head and shoulders above the modus operandi of your average small press operator, and it wasn't just talk—Rich followed through, and the feature appeared as scheduled.
[17] Hell, I know how you feel. Logic doesn't always enter into a writer's decisions. Or to put it another way, sometimes you just have to scratch where it itches most. I've already mention how badly I wanted to sell one of my stories to The Horror Show when I was starting out, and it still bugs me that I never got to scratch that particular itch. If Dave Silva revived his magazine tomorrow and was paying a penny a word for fiction. I'd probably send in a submission.
[18] And often you'll be paid on publication for your short stories, not on acceptance, so figure that a few of these checks may still be in your future rather than in your pocket.
[19] And even if you were to see that money this year—and manage to keep all of it in your pocket—just how long could you live on $20,000 when you figure in the day-to-day costs of housing, food, health care, etc.?
[20] My WFC estimates are based on the cost of this year's con ;travel is from my home to the convention site, based on the best price I could get online (planning well in advance).
[21] Convention restaurants and bars are notoriously overpriced.
[22] This was a great surprise to me. Growing up, I figured there were plenty of writers who made a living writing short stories alone. Maybe I can be forgiven that naive impression—after all, I cut my teeth on all those paperback Ray Bradbury and Robert Bloch collections that were published in those days. Of course, as it turned out I was right about Bradbury, but he's probably the only fantasist who ever reached financial success based on the strength of his short work alone (his true novels have been few and far between). Bloch probably equaled Bradbury in short story production and definitely surpassed him in novel output, but I'm sure Bloch could never have made a living writing short stories alone, even though his work set the template for a certain kind of horror story for an entire generation of writers and readers, and in its own way was just as original and ground-breaking as Bradbury's.
So that's lesson number one. Following are couple of other instructive "writing career" snapshots I'll share with you. Early on, I became friends with a talented fantasy writer who was everywhere in the anthology/magazine market of the eighties and early nineties. This woman had stories in a great percentage of primetime books—theme anthologies, anthos featuring media characters, etc. Editors loved her stuff. I thought she had it made, and so did most of the young writers I knew. And she did have it made when it came to producing good stories, because she was at the top of her game and turned out engaging fiction even when she was playing in someone else's sandbox (i.e. writing for theme anthologies). But she reaped little financial reward for her efforts. One night she told me that in her best year she made ten grand writing short stuff. She wasn't necessarily in the business to make a potload of money—she had a good joe job—but ten grand. And she was everywhere.
Another writer—an award-winning science fiction novelist—saw his career hit a slump in the late nineties. He started doing a lot of work-for-hire projects to stay afloat, but the grind wore him down. Though he was intelligent and capable, he saw writing as his only option—even as his publishing opportunities (and his checks) began to shrink. While he continued to be extremely productive, the quality of his work suffered. When I suggested that he try to find a decent joe job to ride things out, he told me, "I can't do that. Norm. I've never had a regular job, and I'd be terrified to try and get one. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't even have the balls to put in an application at Wal Mart."
And this was a writer whose work had been optioned by Hollywood, whose books were plastered with quotes by the best names in the business, and who was a regular on award ballots. If you're a reader and I told you his name, you'd probably be cranking your jaw off the floor about now. But that's the way it is with most writers who have a good run with New York publishers. Readers take it for granted that they've got it made for life. Believe me, they don't. If you want proof flip through some old issues of Locus, Twilight Zone, or Cemetery Dance and jot down the names of writers who were hot ten or fifteen years ago. List the phenoms and Wunderkinds who'd published their first novels to critical acclaim. Google 'em. You'll find that a good percentage of those folks aren't even working today.. .and it's my bet that what stopped most of them was the cold, hard reality of writing fiction for money.
Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales Page 39
