All Things Writing: interview

With Research Randy and the Mystery of Grandma’s Half-eaten Pie of Despair now available for pre-order (at your favorite bookseller), the publicity train has fired up and left the station.

My first stop was a very enjoyable interview by Bryan Nowak for his podcast All Things Writing. Besides running a successful podcast, Bryan is amazing writer of science fiction, mystery, and horror. Learn more about Bryan here.

We talked about world building, the craft of writing, my books new and previous, and some other interesting tidbits.

You can listen here or find the All Things Writing podcast on your podcatcher of choice.

Thanks. Hope you enjoy.

Tom LucasLeave a comment

Cover Reveal Time!!!!

Wow, I’ve been sitting on this one. Very pleased to present the cover for Research Randy and the Mystery of Grandma’s Half-eaten Pie of Despair, coming out Halloween 2023.

Pre-orders for print and e-book available on Amazon as well as most booksellers.

ARCs and press kits are available for book reviewers and book bloggers. Leave a comment below and we’ll set it up.

Book Description:

The stars of a beloved series of children’s books, the clever Research Randy and his supernaturally sensitive sister Charlie, solved many cases in the idyllic coastal town of Serenity Bay to the delight of many readers over the last 30 years.

But now, suddenly transported to the creepy hamlet of Effingmouth, they find themselves in a bizarre place where nothing is what it seems, people are strange and secretive, and something awful lurks in the shadows.

This might be a mystery they don’t want to solve.

Research Randy reads like YA horror and can be if you want it to be. It’s also a weird mash-up of cosmic horror, eldritch terrors, nostalgia trip and a meta love letter to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos.

Hope you check it out!

Tom LucasLeave a comment

Inspiration for Creative Writers

In the 2023 edition of The Writer’s Path, 8 more alumni of Full Sail University’s writing programs share their paths from graduation to success in their own words, without skipping over the adversity that stood in the way of their goals. Full of inspiration and motivation, The Writer’s Path proves that everyone’s journey to success is different… and seldom easy. Featuring essays from Gonzalo Ravelo, Khadijah Iman, Justin Anderson, Zach Perilstein, Marelize Roets, Francisco Ruestra, Keren Green, and Adam Kuta, with an introduction from educator and author Dr. Tom Lucas.

Something about my personal and professional life outside of creative writing…I have been an educator for nearly 18 years now. Until recently, I was the department chair in a creative writing BFA. Dream job, really. I taught a class on world building for just over ten years. I’m still in education, but since earning my doctorate (that’s why it’s been a minute since my last book), I’ve moved up the food chain.

Recently, I was asked by one of my former students and amazing writer, Wes Locher (check him out, especially if you are into video gaming and comics) to write the introduction to this year’s edition of The Writer’s Path.

Being a creative of any kind is tough. This is certainly true for writers, who spend all damn day in their head overthinking everything (ok sure, not all of them, but only the ones I trust). You spend a lot of time worrying about how it’s all going to work out. This short book, along with the 2022 edition, is a collection of inspiring essays for creative writers who are out there fighting the good fight.

This ebook is free on Smashwords. You can download it here. It’s also on Amazon for nearly free. Any money made from these titles on Amazon gets donated to organizations in need (such as ProLiteracy Worldwide and Literacy, Inc.). 

I hope you will find it as inspiring as I do.

Tom LucasLeave a comment

Research Randy Release Date Revealed

BREAKING NEWS!

FILE UNDER: NO LONGER THEORETICAL

It’s as real as my regular bouts of existential dread…Research Randy and the Mystery of Grandma’s Half-eaten Pie of Despair will be released upon the world on Halloween 2023. Finally, when people ask me when the next book is coming out, I have a legit answer. In the relatively near future expect a cover reveal, pre-order link, reviews, interviews, podcast appearance, and all manner of obnoxious promotion (self and assisted).

WHOOOOOOOOOOO DJ HORN DJ HORN WHOOOOOOOOOOO DJ HORN DJ HORN WHOOOOOOOOOOO

Photo by Thiago Miranda on Pexels.com

Tom LucasLeave a comment

Contract Signed! New Tom Lucas weirdness coming your way soon!

I’m pleased to announce that I have signed a contract with Beating Windward Press for my upcoming book:

Research Randy and the Mystery of Grandma’s Half-eaten Pie of Despair

The stars of a beloved series of children’s books, the clever Research Randy and his supernaturally sensitive sister Charlie, solved many cases in the idyllic coastal town of Serenity Bay to the delight of many readers over the last 30 years.

But now, suddenly transported to the creepy hamlet of Effingmouth, they find themselves in a bizarre place where nothing is what it seems, people are strange and secretive, and something awful lurks in the shadows.

This might be a mystery they don’t want to solve.

Research Randy has come a long way, from a pitch workshop at Bizarrocon 2015, to a handshake deal at AWP in 2018, and spending time bouncing around inboxes. Now it finally has a home. Randy is my tribute, love letter, pastiche, critique, satire and parody of Lovecraft and his mythos. Consider it Encyclopedia Brown Vs. Cthulhu. How’s that grab ya?

Fully illustrated, I consider this my most involved fiction writing project to date. I will be updating my blog as the project develops. Expect some fun stuff in the near future.

Tom LucasLeave a comment

New book available!

Hello all,

It’s been a while. Hope you are doing all right considering this strip-mall apocalypse of ours seems never-ending. I hope you are working, healthy (and the same to you and yours). I’ve been busy…I am back in school working on an Ed.D. and putting final edits in for a novella I will have out some time next year! For now, just a small victory for my writing: I snuck my way into the TOC of Ghost Parachute: 105 Flash Fiction Stories. Yep, 105 stories are in this collection, so there is sure to be something that grabs you and gets you thinking. There is also some spectacular art accompanying many of the stories for the more visually inclined.

Ghost Parachute has been around for a minute. As a literary magazine that publishes almost all of its content online, it’s a real treat to see it in print form and on my shelf. It’s even sweeter to be included in this curated set of fine flash fiction. Ghost Parachute has been good to me over the years (you can find links to my stories they have published on my Written Works page. Great people and well worth the support. Support indie writers and publishers — it helps keep us caffeinated and creating.

Check out Ghost Parachute: 105 Flash Fiction Stories on my Books page.

Tom LucasLeave a comment

Big plans for Halloween.

Hey Folks,

The fine publishers of Ghost Parachute broke my small drought by adding my fun satirical spin on 2020. It’s a flash fiction all about MONSTERS!!!!!

Read it here.

Earlier this year I wrote about having a hard time getting motivated to write. I am still struggling with that a bit, but I have also entered a professional doctorate program, so I have been to the gills with homework. Good, but UGH.

Still trying to chip away at the novel, bit by bit. Hope you are moving forward, slowly or quickly as well.

Tom

Tom LucasLeave a comment

I’m Plagued Out, Man.

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Photo by Kuma Kum on Unsplash

It’s been a while since we talked.

How are you? Seriously, how are you?

Are you working?

Are you safe?

Healthy?

How are your friends and family?

I’ve been damn lucky.

My wife and I are working and have everything we need to get through this crass, banal dystopia we are all struggling to get through. Something I have tried to do, and to a relative level of success, is remember that there are so many out there trapped in dangerous situations and that I have nothing to complain about. So, if you are out there and things are painfully bad, terrifying, or you have lost someone this year, my heart goes out to you.

Not prayers though.

I donate money to organizations that ACTUALLY help.

With this being said, this is a processing post. It’s a light word salad of writer whines, a brief yet rambling shuffle of thoughts that may sound familiar, or might feel a bit, ehhh…trivial.

It’s fine if you just move on, especially if you are dealing with real problems.

But, if you are a fellow writer and you have had a tough time of dialing in and getting some writing done during the hell carnival of pain that 2020 has turned out to be (and we are only halfway through – what a fun thought), then you might enjoy some asynchronous commiserating.

AN EFFING STRUGGLE.

That’s what writing has been for me this year. I haven’t had a win for a good stretch now – no new publishing credits, a novella that can’t seem to find a home, and my current manuscript is currently somewhere in the long middle. I can’t see the end, I have my doubts about the beginning, and I am lost in the deep weeds. It’s been so long since that writing-sparked dopamine hit. No rush, no thrills, just the grind of it all. Feeling very flat indeed.

My professional writing hustle, the script writing (marketing stuff) has slowed but is still going strong enough to remind me that I make money writing. It’s not a hobby. It’s paid, real work.

This helps.

Barely.

I’m not a fast writer. If I am working with a set deadline, I can lean in and get about 1500 words a day. 2000 if I am willing to accept that half of them will totally suck. Since the plague fell on our collective houses, I am able to get about 300-500 in a day before…

I. JUST. CAN’T.

I’m slowly crawling forward, but at least I am moving. About two weeks ago, I broke 50k on my current novel project. I had hoped to be into a second draft by now. Sigh. I feel like I have been writing this for YEARS. It’s more like a year but time is passing so strangely now, right?

Stuck at home for thirteen weeks. Haven’t been published in two years or so. Fighting a war of inches with the creative writing. Disturbed more by each passing day, the spiritual cost of this year immeasurable. Not sleeping that great. Bored beyond all known levels. Looking for hope lurking in the shadows that only grow longer as the hot, punishing sun blasts us from above. Stuck in my head, desperately fighting a stalling passion engine before I smash into the ground…

Not the best headspace to be stuck in. I hope it’s better for you but it’s just such a strip mall of a hellscape out there. Not even good enough for straight to video. The worst science fiction movie I’ve ever seen.

I dunno, I just thought the apocalypse would look so much cooler.

And here I am (and maybe you too), hitting this keyboard. A one man army of a 10,000 chimpanzees pounding on keyboards hoping something comes out of it that makes sense.

And gets published.

Man. Ugh. All right enough of this.

I’ll leave you with this promise. If you keep trying, I will too. After all, this blog post is almost 700 words. That’s at least 200 more words than I thought I would write today.

How about that?

Later, skaters.

Tom Lucas11 Comments

Here’s 30 Seconds of Writer Inspiration If You Need It.

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The world is on fire and fevered egos threaten the utter collapse of civilization. I find each day more difficult to de-toxify than the last. Maybe if we’re lucky, a heretofore unknown meteor will smash into the earth and hasten our inevitable extinction.

Oh, and I got another rejection on my novella.

A bit of a tough morning but this isn’t a pity post.

Far from it. Whenever I get a rejection, I give myself a couple of hours to feel disappointed and then I get back to it. Whether it’s a yes or a no, the next step is starting another project.

Submitting and rejection are a part of the process. In my non-fiction writing life, I write scripts for marketing videos and they are routinely revised as they go through a company’s marketing and legal departments. I embrace it.

And this is only the second rejection for my Cthulhu vs. Encyclopedia Brown novella, and there are many fine publishers still out there. I have no doubt it will find a home.

The first rejection was much more difficult as it was a solicited manuscript. A handshake deal. After many months of waiting (not unreasonable for a small press), I was told “we are going in another direction.” I really love this publisher too. Great people, cool books, and they have mean hustle.

So it goes.

Many writers and publishers fill my news feed. On any given day, there are two things I can count on – someone announcing a book release and seeing an ad for Geico auto insurance. It can feel like standing on the side of the road watching the cars zip by. A bystander while the world moves on.

Maybe you can empathize.

I grew tired of this feeling. My solution was to set aside an hour every morning (6am-7am) for writing projects.

Anything that moves me forward, even if only inches.

I’ve been doing this for about 5 months now and have revised and added new content to a current manuscript, revitalized a few professional relationships, conducted a ton of research as I had a comic book thing taking off for a hot minute there. Currently on pause as the artist just had a baby. Of all the nerve! I’m also working on school applications as I have decided to pursue a doctor of education.

Once this manuscript is done, I’m moving to one that I have in the drawer that is already at 60k words. Also, plans for revisiting the universe of Pax Titanus in the next year or two.

In short, if things aren’t going your way, remain undaunted. Don’t ever stop.

Like sharks, we have to keep swimming.

 

Tom LucasLeave a comment

Writing a Screenplay: How to Make Your Ideas a Reality

Ideas are cheap. If you are a creative, you should have a deep, deep well of ideas to draw from at any given moment. Ideas pop up while you’re stuck in traffic, while doing yard work, or when having an existential crisis at 3am on a Tuesday morning (not that I would know anything about that). Your results may very.

IMO, It’s really about the execution. How do you take an idea for a story and turn it into something viable, something that will speak to people in a meaningful way?

Or perhaps more relevant — How can you take an idea for a story or a screenplay and turn it into something that will sell?

Artistic integrity aside, if you are writing for an audience then you are dodging cars at the intersection of Art Street and Commerce Boulevard.

I don’t have all the answers for you, and with today’s market constantly changing, I could hardly tell you what’s a GOOD idea for a story. Well, I could but that would be in highly subjective terms.

That being said, perhaps this can help:

Last week, I sat down with two of my favorite colleagues, Susan and Carol, to discuss where to get ideas from, how to determine if they are viable, and how to develop that idea. We had a great time, so I imagine you will too.

Tom LucasLeave a comment