Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos · 3 Comments

Creativity leeches

Pointless grumbling follows.

Have you ever experienced the effect certain people, who I call “creativity leeches,” have on you? People who surround your every day life (co-workers, family members, friends, acquaintances etc) and who are so negative about and within their own perspective of the world (or the part of the world you and they coexist in) that dump on you their bile.  People that seem to be afflicted with a perpetual facial sourness and they want you to have it too. So much so that their efforts wear you down? I don’t mean people who will criticise your work (be it stories, music, movies or any other form of art) but people who will actively attempt to destroy your way of thinking, your perspective of life, people who will do their utmost to diminish you as a person, as an individual, your skills, your ethics, your intelligence. In short, the work you produce at its entirety. People who will look down on you from a self-perceived pedestal that for them seems like the top of their (tiny) world. People who actually think they have authority and some sort of power over you. You know the kind of people I’m talking about?

I’ve recently come across such a person (who, by the way, did not start off as such, but evolved into it – guess I failed to see the cocoon), and it amazes me how easy it was for them to create an environment where I can’t function or create, even when I’m away from them. It’s all part of me being worn down. Every time I attempt to edit my work, or write something new, or add a few new ideas in my ideas folder, I find myself drained, absorbed over too many inconsequential thoughts that make me feel like a stretched wrapping film before the first tear appears.

Part of the fault lies with me, since I allowed them a foothold into my head, so I too am to blame. I firmly believe that these people should be isolated and left on their own devices as much as possible. Some may say that I’m being too harsh. Perhaps. However, there are other people who surround both me and the leech, and they too feel this negativity. The funny thing? The leech’s behaviour affects them too. They too failed to notice the cocoon. Guess not everything coming out of cocoons is meant to turn into a butterfly. Apparently, some turn into blood-sucking leeches. Or in my case, creativity leeches.

End of pointless grumbling.

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Getting back on track + poll

Quick reminder that the giveaway, Bad People With Guns, will end on September 5, so if you intended to read one of the available books but haven’t obtained one yet, you should hurry, especially if you’re a fan of thrillers, suspense, mystery, or crime fiction in general. Go here and download stories from Anna Willet, J. L. Stowers, Sara Cobb, and Simon Royle.

In other news, I’m happy to announce that the last of my betas got back to me. Unfortunately, they didn’t manage to finish Through Stranger Eyes. In their words, “I haven’t had the chance to start it yet. Sorry, but I can’t do it.”

It happens. Life always gets in the way of things and sends our best intentions down the drain. That’s why it’s important to reach out to more than one beta reader, and to have a decent personal relationship with them, so that they don’t feel that they’ve put themselves in an uncomfortable or awkward position when they have to tell you, “sorry, I don’t think I can make it.” Remember, betas are hard to find, they want to help, and perform an important task for us writers for free. Cherish them and understand that they too lead demanding lives.

So, what this means is that as soon as I get back to my computer (still waiting for you, summer, to bugger off and let me enjoy some cool days), I’ll go over the notes the rest of the beta team returned (I was lucky enough to get (feedback from four people!). I expect to have a hard time going over one beta’s notes in particular, since they gave them back handwritten, which means I will have to transfer them into my digital copy. And I have their thoughts recorded on a couple of audio files, so I’ll have to transcribe them too. Which is good, ’cause I can’t make out most of their handwriting. Oh well.

This is one of those moments where I sympathise with all editors out there.

However, here’s the thing: the first thing I noticed, from almost all the betas who gave me feedback, was that they enjoyed one of my secondary characters more than the protagonist. In fact, they liked that character TOO much. I’m not sure if there’s an underlying problem with this. What I mean is, I’m not sure if my main character is badly written or if that secondary character is so dominant that overshadows everyone else in the story. If the latter is the case, I’d have to figure out a way to trim her dominance a bit, which I’d rather not do (the truth is, I too enjoyed writing her scenes). If the problem lies with my main character and he is badly written, then I have the feeling I’ll need to rewrite A LOT of my story in the next months.

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever read a book that, to you, one of the secondary characters stood out far more than the protagonist? Did this bother you at all? I’ve made a poll for your convenience. I would appreciate it if you could share this with your friends, as this will save me not only time, but part of my sanity.

Bruce Campbell from Evil Dead 2

Writers answer here

 

Readers answer here

 

Thank you 🙂

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos · 2 Comments

I missed a week

Last week I failed to post something here. Excluding summer holidays or Christmas, this was a first. The truth is I was swamped with a lot of things happening. Nearly all of them related to writing. In fact, they were related to promoting my writing. You may have noticed that I now have a newsletter (did you notice the pop up? If not, then look to the right of your screen; there’s subscribe option there as well). A good friend (thank you, Abbie) suggested I should join a newsletter swap platform to build up my readership and network. And she was, as always, right. So I joined Bookboast.

For the past two weeks or so, I’ve been trying to tweak my newsletter, gain readers, start a group promotion (the intention was to join one, but I ended up leading it, hence why I was overwhelmed), choose a low-cost advertising service (impossible to afford Bookbub or other similar sites at the moment), figure a few things out about Bookboast, network with other writers, getting in touch with two of my betas here in Greece, and more. I hope you can see why I was overwhelmed and why I didn’t post anything last week. If I wanted to tackle all these different things and maintain a relatively low degree of sanity (which I very nearly lost for a couple of days), I had to educate myself. For that, Julian Coleman, another fellow writer I met through Bookboast, suggested I took a look at Nicholas Erik’s guides on how to market books and how to gain exposure and readers. So now I’m trying out some of the things he suggests. Next week will be a period of seeing things unfold, and the week after that will be the one to evaluate results and learn
from the mistakes I made during this week.

So, what do I have to show for it, you ask?

Myself and a few other writers joined forces and started the group giveaway I mentioned earlier, titled BAD PEOPLE WITH GUNS.

Nowhere near what I would have liked the banner to look like, but being on a borrowed computer, without photoshop, it’s the best I could do.

If you’re a fan of thrillers, crime fiction, short stories, and suspense, and you like getting free stuff, you may want to check this giveaway out. There, you will find stories from Anna Willet, J.L. Stowers, Sara Cobb, and Simon
Royle, which we believe will entertain you. The giveaway will only last until September 5, so hurry.

Not a suspense or thriller fan? Horror is more to your tastes? I got you covered.

My latest short story, At Horizon’s End, will be free today, August 27 and tomorrow, August 28, to download from the Kindle shop.

At Horizon’s End – Horror short story

I’m convinced you will like what we offer you. When you read our stories, please leave a review. It’s what sustains writers.

Finally, if you want access to some exclusive items, new authors’ interviews, Q&A with authors about their work, free sample chapters, deleted scenes, alternative endings etc, then sign up to my newsletter.

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Reviews and behind the scenes for At Horizon’s End

It’s been a week since my latest horror story, At Horizon’s End, went live and it has already garnered a couple of five-star reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, as well as on reviewers’ blogs. You can read these blog reviews here, here, and here. If you’re looking for a quick read, and you’re into horror with a twist of sadness, At Horizon’s End may be a good fit for you.

Some people asked how I came up with the idea and the title of the story.

To explain the idea, I’d have to introduce you to my way of developing stories. Originally, the idea was to have Death in a conversation and a mortal, contemplating Death’s job. For some reason, to this day, I picture them talking over a chess board. I don’t know why, but the image is stuck to my head. Anyway, that idea branched off into having the mortal being the next one Death would take. Which seemed interesting, only I’ve already published
something similar earlier in my career. So, I decided that the mortal should be a child, because of the antithesis it would create (children represent life and future, whereas death, well, the end of life and future).

At that moment, the idea of having something as massive and hard-to-process as death, contrasted with a child’s innocence simply appeared out of nowhere and it made sense. So I revised the story accordingly. But then I had to do something to answer the question, why would Death be talking or playing chess or interacting in any way with a child? That was the final blow to my chessboard picture. Bye bye chessboard.

Instead, I came up with the idea of having Stella’s mother’s passing (Stella is the child in the story). Which, in turn, led to the idea of having Death second guessing himself when he took the child’s mother. Given my Greek heritage where Charon (a name we still attribute to Death here in Greece) ferried the dead in a one-way trip, my story’s Death was also unable to return someone from the afterlife to the lands of the living. Which finally gave rise to the question, how would Death handle such a problem? To answer that question you’ll have to read At Horizon’s End.

How I came up with the title is a different issue. In the story, there is mention through Stella’s memories of the way her mother used to refer to the afterlife. Now, at the time I was listening to a song from Paradise Lost (a band I like a lot), called As Horizons End. Though the song has absolutely nothing to do with the story, it was one of those moments where epiphany knocked on my door. In my mind there was no better way for a parent to explain to their four-year-old child the concept of death. How can anyone explain to a child that they will never see each other again and at the same time attempt to relieve the pain of loss? How else better to soften such a blow, if not by telling them that they will meet again at some point? So when I heard the song, it just clicked.

Lastly, you may want to take a look at the Interviews section. Viking Reviews was kind enough to interview me a couple of weeks ago. If you want to know a little more about me, but never dared ask, this is a your chance 😉

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Two weeks until next story (At Horizon’s End)

The day draws near when At Horizon’s End will be available, and that day is none other than July 30. The story is about The Man Behind The Bar (a fancy name for Death personified) and the idea of altering the nature of something eternal and inevitable, like the passing of a mortal life, a phenomenon that in a way obeys a force that seems (to us) to making arbitrary decisions on who goes and who stays. A force that, to an outside observer (perhaps another eternal being), never makes a mistake. Which birthed a question: what if?

What if? I’m a firm believer that this question has driven mankind to great lengths. I wouldn’t be surprised if scientists in future years conclude that everything humanity has achieved through its multitude of cultures and civilisations, relies on that simple, two-word question. What if?

So, in lieu of that, what if Death actually made a mistake? What would Death do to set things right? How far would he go to rectify that mistake? How much would Death’s nature change through his constant dealings with mortals? Would it? Would concepts like love and family seep into him? Could Death, if he were a person, gain a human element? If so, what would that be?

These question were the driving force behind what inspired me to write At Horizon’s End.

As it is, the story breaks some rules. In particular, the story uses two point of view characters: The Man Who Fed on Tears and Stella, a four-year-old girl. Technically speaking, when it comes to creative endeavours, there are no rules. More like guidelines, but it’s not very often one gets to have two point of view characters for this length of a short story. However, every once in a while, it’s okay for a writer (or any creative person for that matter) to break the rules.

What if it leads us to something new and great?

At Horizon’s End

Available: July 30

Story blurb:

The Man Who Fed On Tears always knows whose time it is to remove from our world. His existence is one of a symbiosis between his need for the tears and woe he causes to those closest to the deceased, and the natural order of life and death to which he is bound to obey. He never questions himself or his actions and has never made a mistake. Until now.

Stella is a four-year-old girl who misses her mommy and wants to see her again. She doesn’t yet understand the concept of loss, so when she sees close family members crying, she tries to stay cheerful and optimistic. After all, Mommy said they’d see each other again when the time comes At Horizon’s End. So if they’ll meet again, why is everyone crying?