I'm glad to report that my short story ‘The Stranger’ has been bought by Pages of Stories. For me this is a huge step forward, as I now only need to get one more story sold at professional rates. Then I can apply for membership at the Horror Writers Association – which is one of my many medium term goals.

The story itself took almost two years to complete, as it went through multiple, excruciating rewrites. It was also the first story I wrote where I concentrated more on character b...

I’ve been stressing this day for quite some time now, and I knew whichever way it went, I should try my best not to pay any attention to it. Vengeance of Hades, a story I wrote about two years ago for the Dark Minds Anthology, has been reviewed by none other than D.F. Lewis.

I made up my mind long ago not to let negative comments influence me, just as I decided not to let positive comments go to my head. I know a lot of writers who don’t even read reviews of their books or stories. ...

I’ve been going through a few of my unpublished stories this weekend for possible publication (after doing a bit of editing of course), when I decided to write a short blog on what to do before you press that send button. It’s already difficult enough to get those stories published, so don’t make it even harder by looking unprofessional or just plain stupid.

1)     Reread your story out loud.
This will greatly improve chances of noticing unnecessary words or awkward flow.

2) ...