Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · 7d

I have a (hot?) take for the Riyadh comedy festival debacle.

I think the comedians should have gone and performed for free. Make a point you're not gonna take Saudi Arabia's money, but that you're still willing to share your art with the world.

Societies can improve through art.

#Riyadh #comedy

Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · 10d

Finished my book! (Spores!)

Now comes the part of murdering my darlings (oh no!) to get this baby ready for prime time.

I'm sharing a chart with the evolution of the word count, for those who are data curious (big plateau in the middle was a long revision).

#writer #writing #horror #mystery

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Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 30

This week I wanna share that my short story SANDBOX has been officially published by James Gunn's Ad Astra!

It's one that's near and dear to my heart, a bit philosophical, and brimming with tension! Check it out!

www.adastrasf.com/sandbox/

#sci-fi #writing #shortstory #author #writer

Sandbox - James Gunn's Ad Astra

A look around. An empty white room with no windows. Features present: black leather armchair. White fluorescent lamps, constant buzzing from furthest left lamp (probable cause: defective ballast unabl...

www.adastrasf.com

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Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 27

This one is just a 9-minute read!

In this post I'm discussing the important concept of the Plot Twist and it's much more important cousin, the Turn!

What's the Turn? Well, you have to read the article to find out!

medium.com/@richardmaya...

#Writing #Creativewriting #Writingadvice #Writer

Turns and Twists

It was a bright and windy morning.

medium.com

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Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 16

Hey! I'd argue that if you'd dropped it sooner, maybe you would've seen the same results, faster :)

There's merit in reworking a story, but I think you learn more by trying different things than by trying to redo the same thing again and again (especially if it doesn't seem to be working)

Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 16

Your writing is really good, so I think if you can get some traction online it could be a banger series! Maybe also consider waiting a bit and trying trad pub? Not sure what route you prefer... Trad pub always has market considerations, and I don't know how vampires are doing atm!

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Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 15

This is some really good stuff! I really wanna know about this book now!

✨ Hylia ✨ @priestesshylia.bsky.social · Jul 14

Creeping onto to the internet in the middle of the night to pass around another short story

This one is a sort of tragic romance, and piece of backstory for one of the characters in my book

open.substack.com/pub/hylia/p/...

Take Me Instead

You make my teeth ache in the best way.

open.substack.com

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Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 15

Just published another 5-min read on Medium! This one is about a contentious topic: what do you do when the book you're writing doesn't look any good?

Read the post to find out!

medium.com/@richardmaya...

#writing #creativewriting #writingadvice #writingtips #writer #authorlife #writingcommunity

Sunk Cost Wri

This is gonna be a contentious one.

medium.com

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Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 14

Thought of the day:

- Introvert writers might be better at sitting down and getting things done (they want to be alone with their creation!)

- Extrovert writers might be better at marketing their work once finished (they're born salespeople)

Agree? Disagree?

Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 13

High five for the eco-horror crew 🙌

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Katharine Tyndall @katharinetyndall.bsky.social · Jul 13

Why you'd like LET IT FESTER:
🍄 It's smart eco-horror with creepy cryptids and queer romance
🍄 It's a hundred thousand years of geological history made flesh
🍄 Weird horror involving freaky fungi and bronze-age burials
🍄 It's gay as hell

#BluePit📖 #BluePit #h #a #q #lgbt

Creepy picture of a slimy brown slug (suspected Arion vulgaris) munching on trooping fungi (suspected Hypholoma sp)

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Reposted by Richard May

David Farrow @davidfarrow5734.bsky.social · Jul 13

HOUSE OF LEAVES x CLOUD ATLAS

For generations, Belgrave House has been growing, hiding a terrible secret. In this novel, spanning 100 years and 5 distinct eras, follow the stories of those who enter Belgrave. No one will leave unchanged… and some may not leave at all.

#BluePit 📖 #W #A #LGBT #H

top left: creepy mansion overlooking lake at night, top right: open door covered by vegetation, bottom left: big tree in empty landscape against gray sky, bottom right: black and gray spiral staircase from above

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Reposted by Richard May

Lilith Murphy || Writer @lilithwrites.bsky.social · Jul 13

DISSONANCE

A psychological thriller for readers who like

🩸Protagonists who can't trust their own mind
🩸Family secrets that come back to haunt them
🩸Small town lies
🩸Psychological warfare

Bonus excerpt attached! #BluePit 📖 #A #H #W #LGBT #DIS #WF #ND #OV

Excerpt
“Before we do the press conference, I need to go somewhere.”
“Where?”
“Montgomery.”
Zack’s head tilts downward, shadows casting over his eyes. “To talk to that teacher?” His tone probes at her, and even though it was a question, it feels much more like a threat. “You’re not investigating, are you? You know how dangerous that is, right?”
She expected nothing less from him. After all these years, he was still their protector. Alex leans close to him, palms resting flat over her thighs and holding on desperately. “Please,” it strains her to hold eye contact, skin tingling, but she persists in boring her gaze into Zack’s. She begs, she challenges. Do not fuck with me. Please give me mercy. “Just take me?”
His stare holds just as firm. Where Alex is a scrappy, determined thing, Zack has looked into the maw of something darker. His irises are inky and he uses it to barb through her. She blinks first.

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Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 13

This looks amazing! Such great art!

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Reposted by Richard May

Ji 🪚 @sawduhst.bsky.social · Jul 13

🫀With 2 weeks left to their scouting mission, people wait for word back from their astronauts, eager to flee to a new home away from Earth. Unbeknownst to them, the co-pilot just got infected with an alien parasite, exposing the planet's deadly underbelly.
#Bluepit #Bluepit💥 #A #NA #SF #H #Q #LGBTQ

Cover page for the sci-fi horror pitch REDWORM, outlining specific content warnings such as: depictions of blood & body horrror.

Second page of the sci-fi horror pitch REDWORM, showing the logline, page length, demographics, comp. titles, and genres of the story. specific text on the image will be pasted below:
LOGLINE:
6 Astronauts are sent to scout a new planet for human re-location, only for one of them to get infected by an alien parasite, and must now make a dire choice: to either let people flee the rapidly decaying earth to a new treacherous planet, or to deny mankind it’s last hope of survival.

LENGTH: ~150 pages

DEMOGRAPHIC: Adult/New Adult

COMP. TITLES:
Venom ( Donny Cates, 2018),
PARASYTE (Hitoshi Iwaaki),
Dorohedoro (Q Hayashida)

GENRE: Sci-fi, Horror, Psychological

Third page of the sci-fi pitch REDWORM containing sample pages of the story. these pages depict bruce, the lead character of the story, hearing thuds in the night. he leaves the base to investigate the source of these sounds in a cave. he soon finds vein-like structures in the cave, seeming to lead to the source of the sound.

Fourth and last page of the REDWORM pitch, displaying the last two sample pages. The scenes in these pages depict bruce stumbling upon a beating heart on the cieling of the cave, suggesting that this planet is alive & its own living organism. drops of unknown liquid ooze from the heart, containing other worm-like organisms within it. the final sample page shows one of these worms poppnig out of the heart, and falling onto bruce. The worm breaks through the helmet of his space suit, now digging its way to bruce's brain.

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Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 13

keeping my fingers cross to try and live up to those comps! 🤞

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Liz Lassiter✨️is querying✨️ @lizlasswrites.bsky.social · Jul 13

#TheBookery has:

🥨 Food descriptions galore like #LegendsAndLattes
🦄 Magical menagerie like #ThePhoenixKeeper
👨‍🍳 Cute shop (and shopkeeper!) like #TheSpellshop
🫂 Found family like #TheHouseInTheCeruleanSea
🔥 Sassy fireplace like #HowlsMovingCastle

What's not to love?!

#BluePit📖 #A #F #R #WF #Q

A graphic in the style of a Netflix title card describes The Bookery:

Pride and Prejudice meets Studio Ghibli in THE BOOKERY, in which a bankrupt witch, her sweet-as-sugar pastry chef tenant, and the judgemental phoenix nesting in his bakery’s oven join forces against the magical real estate developer determined to bulldoze their shop—and the unconventional family they’ve built within.

Along the bottom are comparative titles: The Phoenix Keeper, The Spellshop, The House in the Cerulean Sea, Legends and Lattes, Howl's Moving Castle, and Kiki's Delivery Service.

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Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 13

Indeed it is!

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Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 13

Thank you! They include some of my all-time favorites ^^

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Richard May @authorrichardmay.bsky.social · Jul 13

So many great cosmic horror offerings at #BluePit!

Someone has to make a list to keep track of those goodies! Eldritch monsters feeling the love!

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Reposted by Richard May

Elaine Buckner @elainebuckner.bsky.social · Jul 13

My Darling Dreadful Thing X The Wicked Deep

When Clover's empathic abilities awaken, a ghostly presence visits her dreams, offering escape from others' emotions. But as kindness turns to obsession, Clover suspects they want to inhabit, not liberate.

#BluePit #BluePit📖 #YA #H #OV #PN #M #F #Q

Red-hued poster style of a veiled woman in distress

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Reposted by Richard May

jenn (is querying and writing) @kotegentarri.bsky.social · Jul 13

THE BRIDE OF THE KING IN YELLOW 💛

two lovers struggle against class and religion to be together- but can a play that turns all readers mad be their freedom?

Themes of:
-class/religious pressure
-eldritch horrors or insanity
-existential purpose/fate

#BluePit 📖 #A #H #SP #Q #DIS #amquerying

Title page for the work "The Bride of the King in Yellow"
A gothic, masked figure in a red, ornate costume faces a shrouded, eerie figure in tattered yellow. Bold, stylized text and yellow vintage wallpaper

A collage/moodboard of nine surreal, ominous images with a red and yellow color scheme. Features figures, landscapes, and abstract scenes evoking mystery and tension, and gothic energy.

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Reposted by Richard May

jenn (is querying and writing) @kotegentarri.bsky.social · Jul 13

A MASTERY OF SELF 🎬

an actor is trapped in a nightmare of an identity crises after playing too many roles🖤

-speculative hollywood
-friends to lovers
- eldritch horror or real doppleganger?

ALAN WAKE II + THE TWILIGHT ZONE

#BluePit 📖 #A #H #SP #W #DIS #WIP

A moodboard of nine black-and-white images, featuring surreal and mysterious elements: a man in a cracked mirror, hands with strings, formal attire, shadowy figures, spirals, blurred crowd, and a woman with pearls, conveying intrigue and tension, Old hollywood dark energy.

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Reposted by Richard May

jenn (is querying and writing) @kotegentarri.bsky.social · Jul 13

— A DROWNING AMBITION —

a zealous journalist turns up missing, so their rival makes it his mission to find her.

he finds her at a strange lighthouse…
she doesn’t recognize him at all…

and there’s a strange monster lurking on the bottom floor…

#BluePit 📖 #A #H #SP #W #DIS

A moodboard of nine images conveys a mysterious and eerie tone of mystery and thriller. Elements include a hand on fingerprint documents, turbulent ocean water, anonymous figures with cryptic text, a spiral staircase, a quote on moral dilemmas, a tentacled creature silhouette, missing person posters, a stormy lighthouse, and a bulletin board with clippings.

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