The Story Behind The Story #1 First Impressions

Welcome to the first in an on-going series where I explain how my ISFDB listed stories came into being.

As most people only ever normally see the end result; the story itself, I thought it would be fun to tell the story of what caused that story to exist.

_________________________________________________________________________

First Impressions, published by The Sirens Call, April 2014.

Contains spoilers for original story, so if you haven’t read it, go do that first, link as below:-

Click to access SirensCallEZine_April2014.pdf

.
.
.
.
.
A bit of spoiler space.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Spoilers coming up. If you haven’t read the story, do that first. Then come back.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Did you go and read it? I did ask nicely.
.
Story ideas can strike at any time, this one happened to occur to me on a Sunday evening as I was preparing my sunday tea. I was cutting up things for a salad, and the strangest of thoughts struck me.

Wouldn’t it be fun to take a really well known story and turn it so far around, it became an entirely new idea?  Then I thought again. How about taking said story, retaining as much of the original content but completely subverting it into a new direction no-one had ever tried before?

And there was the birth of First Impressions.

I wouldn’t say I am obsessed with the Red Riding Hood mythos, but you are more than welcome to accuse me of that. I won’t deny it either.

It’s a simple idea, but I was asking myself this question, “Don’t you think that cloak reminds you of something?”

So I stood there slicing up tomatoes, saying out loud what that red hood cloak reminded me of.
When I stumbled across it.

Vampires. The classic Hammer vampire always wore a black cloak with a red lining.

Then my brain asked this, “What if Red Riding Hood was a vampire?”
That’d explain why she was so confident about walking through wolf-infested woods to Granny’s house.

I finished making my salad, I went off and ate it, and then started writing that story.

Apart from the addition that Granny was also a vampire, the idea stayed exactly as it started.

That was the first horror story I ever had published. And as of today 19th April 2018, it still is.

Advertisement

So you think you own everything I’ve released?

Oh no you bloody don’t!

Yes, it’s me, your friend and humble author, sweary Ray!

So back in 2012, I was pretty active in the Goodreads forums and took part in an anthology that was eventually published on Amazon.

It was (and still is) called “A Splendid Salamagundi“.

My contribution was a VERY short story called “No World For Vampires“, which until recently even I didn’t have a copy of in my own archive.

I’ve since corrected this massive oversight.

This book has won the Indie Book Bargains award for best anthology for 2012!

I don’t own a copy of “Salmagundi” but will do once I get all my ducks in a row & get it off Amazon. I’ve since gone on to appear in another anthology from Crimson Cloak Publishing called “Steps In Time” (my story is called “The Waiting Room“) and I’ll be featuring in “Deserts Of Fire” later this year.

That’ll be my first proper paying gig as the two above stories were given for free.

Obviously there’s all my free stuff on Smashwords & Feedbooks. There’s “Survival” (for sale exclusively on Smashwords) and my other pay titles available solely through Amazon.

There’s stuff online too at some of the free flash fic outlets. If you check my Goodreads profile there are a couple of exclusive stories on there as well as things on my blog & my Facebook feed.

A Splendid Salmagundi
Best Anthology

I’m In An Ezine!

http://www.sirenscallpublications.com/

My story “First Impressions” is now available in Ezine 14 of The Sirens Call. It’s on page 13, unlucky for some but not me in this case. I’m totally overjoyed at getting one of my horror stories accepted as it’s not really a genre I am very well known for.

You can either read it online or download the Ezine for free.
Any and all feedback is welcome.

News On An Update, It’s Good!

Remember THIS blog entry from me?

“Had some good news today, not sure if I can share any details as yet so it’s just going to be listed as “good news” until I know that I can reveal more.”

Well now I’ve had the Okay to tell you what’s occurring!

One of my horror stories has been accepted by The Sirens Call eZine! SQUEE!

Yes, horror isn’t a genre I am traditionally known for which is why this is a big deal to me. It’s not a paying gig but they are a good site and it’s cool exposure.

As yet the release date isn’t finalised, I’ll let you know when I find out.

More?

And another story submitted to The Sirens Call, closing date march 31st.

Take this as a statement of intent, if I see a market that’s open to submission & I’ve got something I think will fit then I’m submitting to it.
If you don’t enter, you can’t win.
I now have 6 stories out there. 6 chances.