Monday, September 23, 2013

They Are Waiting - Caren Widner Hanten - Biggest Aha Moments in Writing



When Draven first asked me to do this, I wasn’t sure I could come up with a good Aha! Moment. I didn’t think I had one. But upon reflection, I realized that many Aha! Moments are subtle, happening without us even realizing it. I actually have several Aha! Moments I could discuss, my first story sold, being a winner of the 2011 Cemetery Amateur Writing Contest, joining the HWA, but I would like to talk about my first significant contract. That is when I really thought I might be able to succeed in the horror industry.

Having written for most of my life, I never considered submitting to a publisher until after I’d hit my thirties. My first short story written as an adult was accepted by Dark Moon Books in March of 2010 for the premiere issue of Dark Moon Digest. I placed a few more stories during the year and was fairly proud of my progress. When Dark Moon put out a call for an Extreme Horror anthology, I sent my story in and went about the wait. Two months later I got an email from the publisher, praising the story and asking if I could write more in the same vein. I said I could, proved it with two more stories, and a year after my first acceptance, signed a contract to write the whole book myself. I had envisioned years of occasional acceptances and many rejections before I would be able to bring out my own collection, but in March of 2012, Dark Moon books released Ad Nauseam: 13 Tales of Extreme Horror.

No two writers walk the same path and no two journeys are exactly the alike, but if you set your heart to it and do the work, those Aha! Moments are out there waiting for you.




A member of the Horror Writer’s Association and the 2013 Bram Stoker Awards® Committee, C.W. LaSart has been published by Cemetery Dance Publications, Dark Moon Books, Nightscape Press, Evil Jester Press and many more. Her collection, Ad Nauseam: 13 Tales of Extreme Terror was released by Dark Moon Books in the Spring of 2012. Find out more at CWLaSart.com.

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