On this Harvest Moon. . .

Harvest, my first foray into self-publishing my fiction, is now available in the Kindle store. I first wrote this story as a sophomore in college for my creative writing course. In fact, I'd actually been working on something else, an old-school gothic tale. I struggled to with the language on that one, trying to find a slow, methodical tone, something that took its time but culminated in true terror. The story had potential, but I needed to take a break and get some inspiration, so I stepped away from the computer, grabbed a collection of H.P. Lovecraft's work, and sat down to read "The Rats in the Walls," one I had always managed to overlook in the past.

Thankfully, I picked the right story. Not because it sparked my imagination, but because if I hadn't read that one at that time, I might have ended up being accused of plagiarism. Although our stories led to different climaxes, everything else about "The Rats in the Walls" was so similar to what I'd been working on that I simply couldn't return to it.

With only a couple of days left to turn in the assignment, I opened up a new MS Word document, lit a candle, put on some rain sound effects to block out any other noise, and hunched over my laptop. Taking a deep breath, I began typing, hoping that the literature gods would give me something with which to work.

The result was the first draft of Harvest. Although not exactly a perfect story -- I didn't feel as though the thoughtful middle sections lived up to the (hopefully) sinister beginning and ending that bookended them -- I liked it; having no time to plan it out, I had the pleasure of discovering the plot as I was writing it, and I always meant to revisit it, to give it the treatment it deserved.

Now seemed as good a time as any. Hearing Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" on the radio moments before I pulled into my driveway with the intention of heading inside and working on a writing project certainly helped.

As usual, I'm not completely satisfied with the work, but I doubt I'll ever be with anything I write; it's just not my nature.Still, I hope readers enjoy it. If you happen to read it, please leave me some feedback in the comments section. It always helps.

Until then, peace out.