Self-Promotion

Today, a day later than I should be blogging, I am going to take the time and do some shameless self-promotion. Yesterday I was on Facebook ( Robert Male @ Facebook ) going through groups and seeking out people I lost touch with over the years. A question came up, can I see your sites. I compiled a list, but when it came time to pass on this information I went ahead and did it in a private manner. I believe there is a time and a place to toot my own horn, promote, and otherwise advertise myself. Certainly this blog is an appropriate place. So here goes.

This is my main business site... R.M.T.P. Co.

Here is a place to keep up with what I'm writing... Robert G. Male, Author of Horror and Thrillers

I run a site called... Bob's Reviews

Here is my storefront for my horror fiction... R.M.T.P. Co. Bookstore: Scary Short Story Collections

It is partially defunct and not wholly written by me but here are writing examples of a more generic nature (while the site above is safe the horror itself requires some warnings)... Rifts: Coalition Wars

You are of course already here at... R.G. Male's Dark Corners

I designed a site for the local chapter of the Horror Writers Association... HWA Ontario

I have a MySpace profile... Bob Scares @ MySpace

I have a Windows Live Space... Atramentus Gloaming

I am a member of the Artzone community (this may require joining to see my other art)... The Male Bob @ Artzone

My Artzone blog is here (this may require joining to see my other art)... The Male Bob's Blog @ Artzone

Here is a small art project I undertook recently... The Adventures of Atramentus™ and Scintellatus™ - Part 1

I have a video I rendered over at YouTube (hopefully better stuff on the way)... My YouTube Profile

Mood: besieged.
Music: The Grouch by Green Day and Misery by Green Day.

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Dating Stories

It seems like now is a poor time to be writing. It's perhaps harder than ever to write a story set in the present without including something that will quickly leave the story feeling dated. Technology of different stripes can be ignored certainly but more of them are becoming ubiquitous and should be involved. A good example is the cell phone. Cell phones can vastly change the playing field of a story. It's something of a downer to see every story involve there being no cell phone coverage. It's a cheap cop out to trying to craft a story where being able to immediately reach someone, even help, can still leave the characters with their conundrums.

The first of the Poltergeist movies was such a story that defies being changed if the time setting of the story were to be updated. The Freeling family was surrounded by neighbours, able to call upon the best people to try and help, and still the horror would not relent and the mood could not be dampened. The writers didn't need secluded woods, downed phone lines, or any kind of physical isolation. Yet isolation engulfed the movie's family just as fully as the haunting frightened them.

Phone calls aside there are other ways that the ever changing and evolving technological landscape will affect modern, current, fiction. Does the character have a CD player or an MP3 player, or is it in his phone? Is the character watching a DVD or a HD DVD or a Blu-Ray disc when the terrible event happens? Is the secret knowledge hidden in a book, or on a website, or stashed on a USB drive? Encoded on a blog? Did the stalker find his victim on MySpace or Facebook? Did he stick a GPS tracker to her car? Keystroke logger? Does the cell phone bearing crowd witnessing an accident have camera stills of it or streaming video? The options are there, and changing too fast or not they should be put to best use.

Mood: down.
Music: Vicious Circle by Quiet Riot and Poison Apples by Motley Crue.

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