Happy Halloween!

The only time of year when you're allowed to talk to strangers.

This year I'm going to go as Death (with a scythe). I hope a lot of old people will answer the door when I ring the bell. My little brother is going to go as the Black Spiderman. I'm going to take him around the neighborhood in celebration of this special day!

I'm going to enjoy this day before tomorrow appears on the horizon. Because tomorrow is a special day for us aspiring writers. It's not a holiday. It's definitely not a holiday. It's more like a literary version of a woman giving birth. You force yourself to go through the torture of it so as to create something special in the end. So it's certainly a special day. But it's definitely not a holiday.

So are you writers out there ready for tomorrow. Because tomorrow is NANOWRIMO!

I can already feel the bags forming under my eyes.

P.S. - Even if you're not a writer, you must still prepare for the day after Halloween. Be sure to have an abundant supply of toothbrushes, floss, toothpaste, mouthwash, and maybe some Pepto Bismol for upset stomachs.

Draculas review

Draculas is a novel written by Blake Crouch, Jack Kilborn, Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson. They worked together to create this work of horror that I was too afraid to read at night.

This novel is freaking scary and gory, with a lot of bloody scenes. They said that if you're tired of the romantic vampires from Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, you should read this book.

When I heard that, I thought that this novel would have vampires that were similar to the ones from Dracula by Bram Stoker or Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice.

But I was wrong. These vampires aren't sophisticated, or charming, or good looking. If you take away what's left of their humanity, that's the kind of vampire you will find in this book.

I guess they are more like vampire beasts. A more violent, devolved form of vampires.

Their thirst for blood is so addicting that they would feed on each other for sustenance. They would even drink their own blood if the thirst is too strong. Which results in so many gory scenes that will just give you nightmares. Seriously, there is this one vampire child who calls the blood, "red candy". If that doesn't give you nightmares, I don't know what will.

And of course, some of the heroes in this novel is a guy with a big chainsaw, and another guy who has a giant gun collection, in which he named one of his guns, Alice.

If you like horror books with a lot of gory scenes, then I would definitely recommend this book. However, I'm only going to give this book a 3 out of 5, because it had too many B-movie elements in it. Plus, this novel had some silly comic moments that were just unnecessary. Did you really need to write a scene with a vampire clown, or the scene with the vampire amputee in a wheelchair?

But I've got to say that I love how the book ends. Like that scene where the leader of the vampires ...(spoiler...spoiler...spoiler...spoiler).... That was just awesome. I'm definitely going to read the sequel in 2011.

If you love horror novels, read this book. You can buy it as an ebook for only $2.99 at Amazon

Start Over

After much debate, I decided to scrap my novel and start over. This does not mean that I'm giving up. I'm simply just reassessing my situation.

The progress of my novel has been going really, really slow. It has taken me months just to spit out less than 30,000 words of cow manure. And during those months, I had to battle with writer's block dozens of times... and losing.

So I've been spending this past week researching everything I can to improve my writing, getting rid of writer's block, etc.... And do you know what I've discovered?

Outlines!!!

I have learned that a good, long and detailed outline is a fantastic way to write a novel without writer's block. The outline that I wrote for my novel was only 2 pages long. However, according to other authors, their outlines took 20 to 40 pages to write! As a result, they rarely suffered writer's block.

When I first wrote my outline, I thought that it should be short. It was almost like a skeleton, with barely any meat in the writing. I thought that if there weren't too much details in it, I would be able to easily bend and twist the details of the novel to suit my needs and make any changes along the way.

But according to some other authors, their outlines were really detailed. Because of this, they were able to write a rough draft in less than two months. I'm not saying that it was smooth sailing, but it sure made writing novels a whole lot easier for them.

So I'm going to do the same thing. For the rest of October, I'm going to rewrite an outline that is at least 20 pages long.

My novel may be down, but it will rise from the flames, better than ever.

And when November comes around. Boom! I will start writing my novel during Nanowrimo. I will write 50,000 words in a month (and maybe even more than that).

So wish me luck, because I'm going to need it.

The Versatile Blogger Award

I have just received "The Versatile Blogger" award from Donna Hole. Thank you, Donna!

I'm glad that someone finally recognized me as a versatile blogger. And by versatile, I mean blogging about a bunch of random topics that only vaguely have anything to do with reading or writing books.

Now to accept this world renowned, prestigious award, I have to:

1) Thank and link back to the person who gave me this award. Thank you Donna Hole!

2) Tell everyone 7 things about myself

3) Pass this award to 15 other bloggers

4) Contact the bloggers that I've picked and tell them about the award

So here are the 7 things about myself that you may not know:

1) I attempted to write my first novel in the summer between 8th and 9th grade. I got to around 60 pages before I got bored with it.

2) I'm addicted to watching web shows like I Heart Vampires and Little White Lie.

3) I don't believe in the Roswell incident, but I do believe that there is life on other planets. I'm not talking about intelligent aliens. I'm talking about alien trees or alien bacteria. Not all life has to be technologically advance.

4) I want to take a trip to London someday

5) I have a phobia of china dolls. Actually, I'm afraid of any inanimate object that looks like a human with staring eyes that never blink. But china dolls are the scariest.

6) I love chocolate. And I also love coconut. So yay for Almond Joys!

7) I want to write a book, but I'm really lazy.

And now to pass on this award to 15 other bloggers (I have such a big heart. It's even bigger than a whale's):

Kiersten (Kiersten Writes)

Jess (Big Deal to Me)

Liz (8 Bit Words)

Julia (Writing Jewels)

Clarissa (Listen to the Voices)

Chelle (The Prairie Library)

Chazz (Chazz Hart)

The Bookish Snob

Stephanie (Natural/Artificial)

Heather (Little Squeed)

Petty (Pen and Paper)

Kah Woei (The Books of My Life)

Misty (Writer's Block)

Missie (The Unread Reader)

Natalie (Between Fact and Fiction)

So thanks again to Donna Hole for passing on this award to me. And a gigantic, whale-size THANK YOU to all of you who read my blog!

John Smith