Category Archives: The Writing Life
2021 Wishes & Intentions Update
I’m a couple of weeks behind on this, but January 2 was Wishes & Intentions Day! My friend Heather and I write—just free-flow, no premeditation—things we’d like to accomplish, achieve, receive, or do in the new year. On Wishes & Intentions Day, we open the envelope for the prior year, see how many we got, and then make our new one.
In 2021, out of 63, I accomplished Read the rest of this entry
This writing chick’s got fingers crossed for an even more fabulous year …
Another year has passed … for me, it’s “Already?” Well, they say time flies when you’re having fun, and quite honestly, my 2021 was pretty awesome. I went to or held a few really fun virtual parties (including my 50th birthday!), and got to visit some favorite and new places: twice to Mystic, a few times to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, to a retreat on Cape Cod, and to Salem for the first time. I attended the HP Lovecraft Film Festival. Horrorfest with my cousin returned. I read some amazing books, both issues of 34 Orchard were successful, and I was honored to participate in two online readings as well as be a guest at a few online high school and college classes. And me and Nathan got to spend many an evening watching movies in the comfort of our living room–something we have always enjoyed, but never seemed to have much time to do pre-pandemic.
But it was the Read the rest of this entry
The perfect accompaniment to “Carving Grace” …
Acapella group VoicePlay performs “Hoist the Colours.”
Our month of celebrating figureheads has come to an end. If you’d like to know more about real figureheads and their mythology, there are loads of resources—I didn’t spend any time this month talking about the real things because honestly, there are experts out there who have researched and published information that is much more eloquent and accurate than anything I could’ve written; there’s no point in paraphrasing something someone else did much better.
Here are some links if you’d like to learn more about figureheads and what it requires to make them:
The Historic England Blog: A Brief History of Ships’ Figureheads
https://heritagecalling.com/2019/01/31/a-brief-history-of-ships-figureheads/
Martin Jeffrey—Ship’s Figurehead Carving (he’s a real figurehead carver)
Daily Art Magazine: Wild Women of the Waves – Art of Ships Figureheads
https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/art-of-ships-figureheads/
Need a little bit of atmosphere to take with you? Here’s an acapella version of “Hoist the Colours” by a group called VoicePlay that’s absolutely unforgettable.
VoicePlay’s rendition of “Hoist the Colours”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO8NEsx9m58
“Hoist the Colors,” while many think it’s a legitimate sea chantey, is not. It was written by Hans Zimmer for one of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean films, but that doesn’t make it any less creepy. It’s so good it’s really hard to tell it’s not authentic—and I think it’s a perfect fit with “Carving Grace.”
Haven’t read “Carving Grace” yet? If you’d like to—and you’d like an anthology full of lots of other fun creepy creatures—you can pick up a copy of Wicked Creatures here: https://bit.ly/WickedC
A visit to Mystic Seaport’s Figurehead Exhibit
“Carving Grace” has an enormous back story of inspiring experiences. One of them was a visit to Mystic Seaport’s Figurehead Exhibit, which Nathan and I visited in February 2021. At that point, I’d started the story, and I felt I needed a kick.
While vaccinations had started to happen, we wouldn’t be eligible for ours until March. We desperately needed to get away, and because most of the seaport is outdoors, it seemed the perfect place to secure a change of scenery (we’d also gone there in September of 2020 for our anniversary).
Nathan and I on our way to Mystic, CT for a special birthday/Valentine’s Day escape (to also do research for “Carving Grace”). The weather was beautiful. Winter overcast, but definitely not too cold; it was the perfect atmosphere. In my mind, Mystic Seaport itself is what the community of Timber Inlet—to a point—looks like.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
It’s funny–as a horror writer, I always get the question, “what are your plans for Halloween?” The answer usually surprises people–NOTHING.
Halloween comes at the end of four to six weeks of celebrating fall, horror writers events, writing scary stories, cocktailing it up at an old cemetery, decorating like crazy, at least one weekend-long short film festival, reverse trick-or-treating at the day job, prepping the Fall issue of 34 Orchard, and eating too much candy. It’s a month crammed with FUN…and when the actual day arrives? I’m done. We don’t get trick-or-treaters where we live, so Halloween is a blessed day of rest.
Today, I’m going to watch some of my old favorites: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1973), Chernobyl Diaries (2013), The Blair Witch Project (1999), The Forest (2016), The Uninvited (2009) and Lake Mungo (2008), among others. And maybe I’ll lay in bed and READ! …and, of course, I’ll have cake. No holiday is complete without cake.
From our house to yours … Happy Halloween!
Do you have a writing bug?
I do, apparently! I was reading my then-newest short story to a couple of friends on my back porch, and this cool little guy landed on my manuscript. I loved seeing the words through his wings! Read the rest of this entry
Bye bye, beach!
An amazing storm appears on the horizon at Scusset Beach, MA, September 10, 2021.
I’ve been privileged enough to enjoy a week at a writer’s retreat with some friends in Cape Cod, and I head home today.
I wanted to just work my butt off, but I quickly realized that what I needed was just some peace, and some relaxation. I got a few things done—a fraction of what was on my worklist—but if you know me at all, you know that, if I’m going on a retreat, I bring three times as much work as one human can do in that amount of time.
Even my horoscope told me I needed to just relax!
It was a week full of surprises, too! Among them Read the rest of this entry
HORROR & HIGH HEELS interview on tap!
The Dark Discussions podcast network did an interview with me about my work and my horror faves here in their Horror & High Heels interview series!
You can read the interview here: https://www.darkdiscussions.com/articles/horror-high-heels-interview-with-kristi-petersen-schoonover/
Want to read the rest of the articles in the series? You can do that here!
Elizabeth Black, horror writer
https://www.darkdiscussions.com/articles/horror-high-heels-interview-with-elizabeth-black/
Mariam Michael Draeger, Hostess of The Grimm Exchange
https://www.darkdiscussions.com/articles/horror-high-heels-interview-with-mariam-michael-draeger/
Holly Amber Church, Film Composer
https://www.darkdiscussions.com/articles/horror-high-heels-interview-with-holly-amber-church/
Nora B. Peevy, artist, photographer, writer
https://www.darkdiscussions.com/articles/horror-high-heels-interview-with-nora-b-peevy/
It’s been a banner week!
There are weeks when, as a writer, I don’t feel so accomplished. This morning, I had one of those moments … and then I did a tally of what I got done this week:
Gave feedback on a friend’s synopsis
Gave feedback on another friend’s short story
Gave feedback on Chapter 1 of yet another friend’s novel
Designed and mailed out the 34 Orchard Issue 3 announcement postcards
Created the back cover copy for Tidings (my husband did most of that—he used to market books, so …)
Watched Aliens and recorded the 10th anniversary episode of Dark Discussions (I can’t believe it’s been a decade!)
Completed edits on several of the stories for 34 Orchard
Finished several sets of tiny newspapers for my annual holiday chapbook mailing … I have to make 320 sets; I have only 114 to go!
I guess I really did deserve that bottle of wine and a nice early bed time last night!
Back to work!
A clever present!
I love presents. I love giving them (there are people who will tell you I do it too much), and I love getting them, too. While any present is magical no matter what it is, sometimes you get one that just stands out.
With COVID having shut down our day-job office except for a couple of us holding down the fort (yes, I’m one of them), our holiday celebrations weren’t happening. One of my co-workers, though, brought me a really interesting gift:
“There’s weed in the food” towel accompanied by “roach clips.”
…get it? WEED and ROACH CLIPS? She’s only a little older than me. What cracked her up the most was that she had to explain to her twenty-something children what a roach clip was (I guess kids now are all into edibles. Just … I’m sorry, not as much fun). “Ah,” she said, “the good old days!” Heck—I remember when we wore them in our hair in the 1980s. I was 12. My parents weren’t happy.
Anyway, I love my roach clips, and I think this is just about one of the most creative presents I’ve ever gotten. My husband the exterminator? Not thrilled. Doesn’t enjoy opening up the cabinet and seeing them crawling on the chips … which means more for me, right?
