In the beginning...

Hi, my name is Doug Blakeslee and I'm an aspiring writer. This has been something of a dream of mine since I was in high school and just realized in the past few years thanks to encouragement from friends. I live in Portland Oregon, divorced, single, and sold my first short story [Madame] this past year to Smart Rhino Publications [http://smartrhino.com/home.html] for the anthology “Uncommon Assassins”. A second short story [Perfection] is due out in 2013 in the anthology “Zippered Flesh 2”, also by Smart Rhino publications. My current focus is to write short stories for various calls and rewrite a previous NaNoWriMo attempts.

A bit more about me. I enjoy cooking and trying different ethnic foods. Other hobbies include role-playing games, board games, and computer games. Recently, one of my favorite MMO's, City of Heroes, announced that it is shutting down. I've played the game since it was launched 8 years ago and, thanks to the friends that I made there, is the reason I've focused more on my writing. During the past few years, I've written fanfic in collaboration with other players regarding characters we created for the game. This helped me grow as a writer and get rid of a few bad habits. For the last six years, I've participated in National Novel Writing Month, not finishing my first two years, but succeeding the past four. This is the seventh year [2012] and I'm on course to finish up on time. For seven months of the year, I have season tickets to the local Western Hockey League club, the Portland Winterhawk. These are kids who are working towards the NHL and often come from all around the US and Canada, plus a few transplants from Europe. Most are in the league to polish their skills and catch the interest of an NHL team.

Here's a few of the current calls that I'm looking at:

Zombies in History & Civil War Ghost Stories – They have two horror submissions related to history. For the zombie part, I've got an idea focused on the Bombing of Dresden in World War II. What if the Allies “knew” something was going on and the planes weren't off target. No ideas on the Ghost Story yet.

Night Terrors III - They are offering pro rates, which would go towards the Horror Writers Association qualifications. It's all about the horror.

Mythical Horror – Find a myth and modernize it with a horror theme. Lots of possibility here.

Pulp Heroes – The Shadow, Doc Savage, and other early heroes of pulp fiction.

Urban Mythic - – Back in 2011 I answered a call for a romantic superhero novella, which was part urban fantasy, part superhero. My first submission to anything. Still have the rejection email, it was very polite. The story is going to get a rewrite to make it more urban fantasy, a big time edit, and then submitted once the window opens.

Sword, Sorcery, and the Mythos - Think Conan vs. the Shoggoths. Sort of one sided, but could be fun.

Splatter Punk - More horror ala Clive Barker, Poppy Z Brite, and Robert McCammon. Blood, blood, with a side of blood.

That brings us to the end. Before we go, I would like to pimp my friend Christine Morgan's writing, both at Sabledrake Enterprises and the official Christine Morgan website.