Hello, monstrous lovers of comics, games, and horror in all of its forms. I have a lot of cool things to talk about, and I want to discuss REJECTION. It can feel like your throat just got cut, but it is what a creative person (or any person attempting to better themselves) is going to see the most, as they make the climb up the mountain to becoming competent in their chosen field, or garner any kind of success in their craft. Here's the secret of getting better; you have to think of rejection as an order to upgrade. Everything that gets better must go through hardship or push-back from time to time. Your muscles get bigger as they encounter resistance, and it's the same with everything. Having received rejection means you are in the fight of getting better.
Not too long ago, I received four rejection emails before I even climbed out of bed. They made me smile like a mad man (I am going to upgrade soon)! I will now go and rework these stories and make them better, make my craft better -I will upgrade myself! As a creator you have to be part self masochistic, part self-delusional, and not give a shit about what naysayers tell you. They chose a safe route and they will reap safe rewards. Now, there is a danger to putting yourself out at rough seas, your self-esteem boat could be dashed upon the rocks of rejection and failure, but what is life for, surely not to play it too safe.
You also can't get lazy when you start getting more acceptance. I used to play baseball in my high school days, and when we won we would go out for pizza to celebrate, and when we lost we would do the double practice. We practiced harder when we lost. We weren't training for a pizza-eating contest, we were training to win ball games. It's Ok to celebrate a victory, but always practice like you lost and need to improve, because there is always someone out there working while you are playing. I task you with renaming rejection and seeing it as fuel instead of something that demoralizes you creatively.
WHAT DO I HAVE COMING OUT & WHAT AM I PLOTTING?
I had really wanted to get my Invisible Man story accepted into the Classic Monster's Unleased anthology edited by James Aqulilone and published by Crystal Lake (received over 600 subs and raised 50K on Kickstarter), but I received an order to upgrade instead, but a minute after hearing this I subbed it to three other paying publications and because I was introduced to Crystal Lake I subbed a brand new story "Santa Fe by Sundown" to their Author Challenge (themed Trapped) and made the cut. The story will be voted on by Patreon members (starting tomorrow Jun5th. The winner gets paid publication and an author spotlight. If you are a Crystal Lake Patreon member or going to be, give these great stories a read and support authors who entertain you. Congrats to the others that got chosen. www.crystallakepub.com/
“On a Swing” by Patrick Malka “Where Am I?” by Rie Sheridan Rose “The Last Candle” by Justin Zimmerman “Whispers in the Mind” by Brian B Baker “The Horde” by L.F. Falconer “Layover” by John M. Floyd “Traps of the Dead” by Douglas E Wright “The Cupboard Under the Stairs” by Karen Bayly “Breathless” by Thomas Joyce “Diamond Dust” by Victor DeAnda “We Never, Ever, Ever Tell Big Secrets” by Carolyn Divish “Trapped Below” by Rex Hurst “Department” by J. Brian Reed “Santa Fe by Sundown” by Craig E. Sawyer “Lesser of Two Evils” by Lorraine Sharma Nelson “The Inside of the Outside" by Angus McIntyre “In the Hands of an Indifferent God” by Mark Allan Gunnells “The Thing” by Jay Bechtol “You’re Safe” by Nicole Luttrell “Deeper” by Linda J. Marshall “Tooth and Nail” by Wofford Lee Jones
I got my story "Never Take Candy from Strangers" accepted into the CLOWN-themed Noir/Crime/Horror anthology entitled "Serious as a Heart Attack" due out in a few months. It will be edited by Weirdbook editor Douglas Draa and published by Shlock. A great lineup of authors on that one.
THE MONSTERS WILL BE FREED IN JULY!
My Horror/Adventure comic "The Forbidden Museum" will launch in July is steadily building followers on its prelaunch page (sign up to be alerted). We have an amazing colored cover by Tom Mandrake and James G. Brown (I will show it
in the next blog). This is going to be something lovers of classic monster movies will not want to miss.
Prelaunch Link:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/craigesawyer/the-forbidden-museum-1-horror-adventure-comic-book?ref=clipboard-prelaunch
Trailer: https://youtu.be/ul1rxin3a8k
You go into a drawing for a Mezco Frankenstein's Monster action figure just by signing up on the prelaunch page. The figure is an amazing likeness of the legend Boris Karloff. No purchase necessary to win. Drawing will take place after the Kickstarter in August.
Mars City Vice #2 is coming along great and will be mailed to backers in July.
Have a great weekend and watch or read something scary!
Craig-
Comments