I've just finished watching Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and the words "For Ivan" pop up in big text over the Ghostbusters theme playing triumphantly in the background as the movie fades to… Read More

I'm not sure I can consistently keep up both a Facebook author page and this blog.  I'm keeping both, but if you don't see a lot of action here for a while, check Write Sinister on Face… Read More

Cubes and SpheresThe blue robots had always carried the spheres.  That was how it was, and it had been that way since anyone could remember.  The blue robots carried spheres, and t… Read More

I keep rereading "Ferryman," the story that I've sold to publishers twice now. Not to toot my own horn, but I daresay it's a damn good story. Best I've ever written, by a long shot. If yo… Read More

Werewolf Astronaut hit 50,000 words today, with at least another 10,000 left in the story.  I'll get this draft done soon.  It needs a lot...just a whole lot of editing to get it r… Read More

 I had a five day weekend over the Christmas holiday, and I spent a goodly amount of time working on The Werewolf Astronaut.  I'd been extremely stuck on the novel for quite a whil… Read More

 Hey, Not a Pipe Publishing has accepted two of my short stories into an upcoming anthology of queer sci-fi!  As part of that, I’m now on their website!  Check me out! … Read More

 Sinister friends!  I’ll be reading my short story “Don’t Count the Boxes” on Sunday, Aug 14 at 1:30pm central time on the discord server of the podcast Goo… Read More

And then it was the next morning.  The Morning.  The time machine was finally, really, actually ready.  I’d gotten all the calculations right, and I knew exactly what… Read More

 First round results are in, and my cosmic horror story "Don't Count the Boxes" got 3rd place in its heat.  Exciting!  Definitely a story on par with or possibly better than "… Read More

Read my latest review on cultofwhatever.com! Read More

 My most recent article on cultofwhatever.com is live.  This time I'm going into my five favorite tabletop RPG podcasts and why you should listen to all of them.  Check it out… Read More

 Here's my review of Picard Season 2 Episode 4, The Watcher.  Hell of an episode Read More

 It's a right cracker of an episode.  Read my review here: https://www.cultofwhatever.com/2022/03/star-trek-picard-s02e03-review-assimilation/ Read More

 I'm writing reviews of the new season of Picard for CultofWhatever.com.  See my latest review here: https://www.cultofwhatever.com/2022/03/star-trek-picard-s02e02-review… Read More

An excerpt from The Werewolf Astronaut (working title). In this excerpt, a brave lycanthrope hunter named Angela is doing some research in a bookshop owned by the descendant of a famous aut… Read More

Weird fiction fans, check out the podcast The Good Friends of Jackson Elias.  Fascinating in depth analysis of weird writers especially those central to or influenced by Lovecraft.&nbsp&hell…Read More

 Are you here because you might want to hire me to write for you but you're weirded out by all the "sinister" talk on this blog?  Fair enough.Why sinister?  Well, it started a… Read More

 Listening to Abstract Void and working on my novel about a werewolf and a cyborg and a vampire and some aliens and a bunch of other stuff that happens.  The music of Abstract Void… Read More

 The first round of the NYC Midnight short story competition is underway, and I'm in it as always.  My prompts are: horror, superstitions, and a treasurer.  And of c… Read More

Hello Sinister readers...So, 2021 happened, am I right?  *waits for awkward laughter masking existential dread and a vague yet oddly familiar sense of ennui*What am I up to, you ask?&nb&hell…Read More

 Hi FODs,Thanks to Ben and Adam for running my P1 today!  The timing couldn't be better, actually.  I'm definitely looking for new freelance writing gigs, and I'm happy to ans… Read More

 A sweet little love story I wrote for NYC Midnight a few years back.Gambit   The smile floated off of Eric’s lips and performed a dance of giggly, embarrassed giddine… Read More

 A Lovecraft homage I wrote a couple of years ago.Keep Portland Weird Well, of course this was a myth.  Portland wasn’t weird, any more than any other city in America.&n&hell…Read More

 I dig this little story I wrote a while back - not sure I can ever publish it because of copyright questions on the characters, but I'm putting it here as "fan fiction."  Thr… Read More

 Here's the story I wrote for NYC Midnight back in 2017 that was published last year in the anthology On Loss.ResolutionI dropped my equipment in the back and slammed the van’s do… Read More

Coming soon: Write Sinister, Episode 0. In which I record a "test" episode and learn how to podcast by releasing it and seeing what happens.Featuring a Lovecraftian short story I wrote sever… Read More

Last night, Neil Gaiman himself took a few milliseconds out of his day to respond to a tweet I sent him.  His response - three simple words, "Just keep going."No kidding, no snark, dead… Read More

Tonight I used a prompt from my 10 year old nephew as a way to flex my writing muscles in preparation for the daunting task I have set myself for my upcoming podcast, Write Sinister, which y… Read More

Dear everyone else in the world: Most Americans didn't vote for this hideous, racist, incredibly stupid, obstinate, *expletive deleted*, unbelievable jackass. We are SO SORRY that he got e… Read More

Write Sinister will be a left-handed podcast about writing, the Universe, and everything.It will focus on writing that deserves the moniker "sinister."The word "sinister" is historically mal… Read More

Write Sinister officially exists! On Facebook.https://www.facebook.com/writesinister/In preparation for the hypothetically imminent launch of this theoretical podcast, please comment here (o… Read More

(abbreviated version)Q and Bond are walking down a surprisingly long hallway.Q: James, did you get the wristwatch?Bond: What wristwatch?Q: The wristwatch I sent you.Bond: You sent me a wrist… Read More

Hey, I have rebooted my scootering blog.  It can be found here.  I just traded my Piaggio Fly 150 for a brand new Vespa GTS 300, and I am just having a blast with it.  So, if… Read More

Episode 1 of Write Sinister is recorded! I'm working on editing it and making it sound good. Well, it's recorded using the microphone of a laptop and Audacity, so it's not going to sound fan… Read More

Secure, Contain, ProtectIt appears to be a repository of technical documents relating to anomalous and very strange phenomena, entities, creatures, and other weird stuff observed, cataloged… Read More

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."  - Douglas AdamsYes, I was supposed to have my first podcast episode released last Saturday the 24th. … Read More

Just picked up this book. Should be good inspiration for the podcast. Thinking of adding the occasional book review as well. Speaking of the podcast, I should be done writing the first few e… Read More

Somehow, against all conceivable odds, I have made it into the finals of the NYC Midnight short story competition.  Therefore, instead of working on my podcast this weekend, I'll have 2… Read More

I just finished the script/outline for episode 1, in which I will introduce H.P. Lovecraft's definition of "weird fiction" and read "The Nameless City," the first in the Cthulhu mythos cycle… Read More

I've spent the weekend hammering out my story for the 2nd round of the NYC Midnight competition, but I wanted to update you on development of my new podcast.I've already received several sto… Read More

Alright, I'm going to start a podcast. And I'd like to read some of your stuff on it! I can't pay you anything, and at first, your stuff will just be thrown into the cosmic aether, unnoticed… Read More

I'm pondering starting a podcast.  I've been listening to a lot of them lately, especially Cthulhu & Friends, which is a group of people playing a Lovecraftian tabletop game, a… Read More

The short story collection I'm working on takes place in a world I've been working on creating for quite a while. It's not Earth, but it's not a defined "alien" world colonized by humans. It… Read More

A ResolutionI hereby resolve to blur the lines between fiction and reality, to break through dimensional walls, to mess with space-time, to turn the multiverse upside down and shake out its… Read More

Went to a writing meetup tonight and wrote 1700 words of a brand new short story.So what I've got now is: 1) a world that I've created and have a pretty good sense of, and 2) two really good… Read More

Alright- new game. Give me the name of a fictional object. Just the name. For example, "Whirling flooper." I will then describe said object in a hopefully clever and amusing paragraph. For e… Read More

Here's a 75 word story I wrote for this writing forum.  The subject is "Outsiders."PonyboyPonyboy glanced out the window. There were so many new skyscrapers that Tulsa’s art deco… Read More

Give me the bones of a story - beginning, middle, end, as much detail as you'd like.  Add character names, plot elements, genre, tone (should the story be serious or funny), etc, w… Read More

A Reddit.com/r/nosleep serialized story. Something's afoot in a popular video game Read More

The story of Chelandia continues Read More

The rumbling had stopped.  People were out in the street with flashlights checking on damage.  It was classified as a minor earthquake, and the news was assuring everyone that it w… Read More

The train let me off a block from my apartment on the eastern fringe of the city.  I clutched Hopley’s journal to my chest along with several other books on arcane languages that… Read More

Here's a new short story, all shiny and fresh from my brain parts.  Enjoy!Superhero            We'd all had enough of superhero mo… Read More

I'm rewriting Shooter Vanished as a traditional noir 1st person from the perspective of my PI (yes yes I know I've rewritten this damn thing so many times...)  Here's a sample:***&ldquo&hell…Read More

I responded to this post on io9 with this story:                It was called the Pimple, and Henry Ford hated it… Read More

A tale of eldritch horror continues...I brought the dread stone with me to the downtown library, that edifice of stone and books that harkened back to an earlier era where learning was king… Read More

I've been reading a lot of H. P. Lovecraft lately, and it seems that his Elder Gods have wrapped their eldritch tentacles around my feeble mind.  They have demanded that I write this st… Read More

I made a new thing.  It's called Dispatches from Chelandia.  It will chronicle the adventures of various people in a world I created for the novel I'm currently stuck on.  The… Read More

No text here.  All spoilers in comments.  These are my own thoughts about Star Wars.  They are spoileriffic.SPOILERS Read More

The smile floated off of Fallo’s lips and performed an intricate dance of lust, satisfaction, bliss, and just plain old giggly, embarrassed giddiness in the air over Morra’s lump… Read More

It's international left-handers day!  Southpaws of the world, unite! Read More

Dang, did I accidentally come back to July 11 instead of May 26?  Well shoot.  Sorry, had to run off and fight the Daleks and all that.Actually, I've been engaged in a singular pro… Read More

The world still misses you, Douglas Adams.“Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some think… Read More

Something I'm writing right now that isn't connected to anything else I'm writing, except that it seems to take place in the same world as one of my many stalled novels.  Anyway...read… Read More

It's way too nice outside to sit and write, so I'm going out!  The none of you who would normally be here will have to write on your own.  :) Read More

Hey Sinister Writer(s)! I know I'm shouting at an empty warehouse with these posts, but hey, this is working for me, so I'm going to keep doing it.  You, for any definition of the word… Read More

Welcome to the first Wednesday night edition of Sinister Writers Club.  If you're up for making a blank page less blank, say hi!Today's soundtrack: Massive Attack on shuffle. Writing pr… Read More

Gibson says "ignorance" may be the key to keeping a sci fi novel sounding fresh.http://io9.com/william-gibson-on-how-ignorance-may-keep-your-novel-fro-1700788213 Read More

It's been a long day at work.  You're tired.  All you want to do is have a beer and sit in front of the tube and veg out and then do it all again the next day.Instead, why not join… Read More

I have an author page on Facebook!  You can connect with me there!  Here's the link! Sorry, got a little overexcited there and used too many exclamation points. First 10 people to… Read More

Because I'm having so much fun writing this thing right now, here's Chapter 2.  Chapter 1 can be found here.I still don't have a good title for it, but it's up to 11,000 words now, whic… Read More

Hey, look - it's the first chapter of this thing I'm writing now.  It doesn't have a title yet.  Tell me what you think!1.Geoff slammed the crumpled door again. It failed to click… Read More

Greetings, sinister writers!  Let's spend an hour creating worlds out of words.Today's soundtrack (or, as Cecil would say, today's 'weather'):"Neon Lounge Seduction" playlist on Google… Read More

The Sinister Writers Club will have another go at it this Saturday at noon pacific time.  Come join us!  Write something!  Share it! Brainstorm with your fellow writers! Be ex… Read More

....is this thing on?Ok, as promised, here's the first installment of Sinister's hopefully regular feature, which I'm now going to call the "Sinister Writers Club."  Yeah, that's catchy… Read More

It occurs to me that I'm much more productive if I have other people counting on me.  If I'm just relying on my own motivation, no deadlines, no expectations, no shared experience, then… Read More

Just to whet your appetite. Jasmine had her keys in one hand and an armful of groceries in the other.  She pushed the button on her clicker.  Her car lights flashed and the do… Read More

Governor Christie,I am disappointed and saddened by your decision to veto the hopes and dreams of thousands of loving New Jersey families.  Your stand in favor of marriage discriminatio… Read More