What is it about being scared that captures the imagination and enthusiasm of so many people?
I know for me, I love the thrill of the unknown. Give me a pool of darkness and the sound of footsteps, and my imagination runs wild! Perhaps my overactive imagination is why I loved – and was scared witless – by The Blair Witch Project when it first came out. I bought into it wholeheartedly and my brain created terrifying images of what stalked those poor students as they tried to make their documentary.
I went and saw Annabelle: Creation this past weekend and, boy, was it a ton of fun! I was on the edge of my seat, gritting my teeth, and scanning the frame for any hint of what was terrorizing these poor orphans as they endured a stay in a perfectly secluded haunted farmhouse. That film was yet another excellent exercise in chasing fear for me. I love a good ghost story more than anyone, and I’ve been lucky enough to know some amazing tellers of said ghost stories.
As August winds down I find myself drawn more and more into that realm of fear. Scary stories are so much fun to read, and equally fun to write. I can’t say exactly what I’ve been tinkering with, but it’s definitely in the realm of haunted houses and unexplainable curses. For some of you long-time readers, you probably were lured in by The Entity. I have a soft spot in my heart for that series. Sometimes it won’t let go, no matter what I work on next. My imagination just loves those quiet woods, underground crypts, and watchers in the walls.
With the initial Aberrant Trilogy wrapped up, I’m in the planning stage on what to work on next, both in the Aberrant world, and others. This is honestly the first year that I’ve worked on multiple projects at once, so there are a lot of things cooking. I may not be the world’s fastest writer, but I do have a plan (thank goodness for Google Docs). The reason for being so cagey is because I’m trying to keep my actual writing time sacred, and shutting out the influence of outside opinions that may sway my muse. Writing is hard enough as it is! Us creatives don’t need any doubt thrown on us while we’re in the middle of a draft.
All this is to say that I am hard at work on a few different projects. While others in the indie publishing game are cranking out quickly, I’m trying to keep up with my own imagination and produce exciting continuations of a few different stories. If these stories are interesting enough for my brain to follow in my free time, I hope that the end results will be exciting enough to read.
If I haven’t said it already, I will say it now: Thank-you to everyone who has checked out my books and reviewed on Goodreads and Amazon. I am incredibly grateful for the feedback. It means the difference between me writing a story and throwing it into a drawer, and me actually publishing the work. Quite a few stories have ended up in the drawer years ago. I’m glad to be past that stage.
I’ll update this blog as I make progress on my projects. It shouldn’t be too long before another one is finished. I am also hoping to tackle NaNoWriMo again this November, so I’ll be working from an outline on that. The dog days of summer are coming to a close, and it’s time to get back into the swing of things!
I hope you’re all well, and I’ll catch you again very soon.
Franklin Kendrick 