It would be a disaster to not give me a read!
We all have something we're afraid of, and if someone denies that, they're probably lying unless they have a complete lack of emotion in general. Sometimes things we're frightened of are straightforward, like heights, spiders, the dark. I find spiders adorable, though, but that's something for another time. There's some common fears I don't have,…
Continue reading ➞ Horror: Dolls & Clowns? No Biggie for me. Wide Mouths? Gah!
Hey everyone! My favorite thing about writing is how we, as authors, can twist and craft things into our own world. Some people keep the traditional lore of a monster, which can be fun, but I like to rip that to shreds and build my own stuff. That is especially the case with common paranormal…
Continue reading ➞ Why I Twist Myth & Monsters in my Stories
Image by M. H. from Pixabay Analog horror is one of my favorite genres that has spawned over the past few years. Well, not really 'born', as 'found footage' stuff has been around since before the Blaire Witch Project, but 'analog' is something on the internet in particular, creepy short videos to tell a story…
Art of my character by this artist! Love or hate sexy vampires, they exist, and they have a huge impact on the paranormal genre. We all know the answer to the question above. It's due to the haunting allure of vampires, and there's a huge amount of 'sexual fixations' (Like my euphemism for 'fetish'?) surrounding…
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay Being scared for fun is a blast, if you know you're in a safe spot and not actually in danger. That's the appeal of horror, after all! In this article, I'll explore what tickles my fancy and puts a shiver down my spine. Remember, horror is subjective, so what…
Continue reading ➞ Something Scary: Horror Elements that Frighten Me
The Backrooms. I cover lore on this, check out my tiktok. Gods, I love liminal spaces. I tend to talk about them a lot, and may have an article similar to this somewhere... wait... let me search... nope, nothing comes up when I look up 'liminal'. I've written so many articles that sometimes I need…
Claws of Midgard by Des M. Astor Ouch. To be honest, agents really do not like my story, and I will not lie and say all these rejections didn't hurt. I tried very hard to push my story, but in the end, agents said no. That's okay. Self-publishing is my choice, and while feedback on…
Continue reading ➞ Over 50 rejections, but I’m publishing anyway!
This is a bat-form of my avatar! Oh my has it been difficult to grow on social media, especially tiktok. I'm still establishing myself on youtube, but I've found a bit more success on TikTok. After some research, I found out that you should release a video every single day, which is super difficult given…
Continue reading ➞ Growing on Tiktok & Youtube – My journey so far
Image by Khusen Rustamov from Pixabay I pretty much started out with first person when writing via Red Viper. The book started out on Wattpad, its first iteration, anyway. I admit, nowadays I do regret not writing it in third person, but perspective hopping is a lot of fun and has worked out for the…
Continue reading ➞ Many Perspective, First Person – How I do it, and Mistakes I’ve Made.
I am SUPER excited to announce that The Dancing Crow now has an audiobook! It was pretty expensive but incredibly worth it. I'm excited to see where it goes, because it allows so many other folks to actually experience my story. Plus, my narrator, Rein, for the book is badass! He sounds exactly like I…
Continue reading ➞ I made an audiobook! Here’s what I learned.
Des M. Astor 