To quote Ned Flanders...
Okely-Dokely!
Contrary to the above line, exclamation marks, more than anything else in prose, make me bang my head against my keyboard.
About myself...among other things, I teach Creative Writing to teenagers, and they sometimes make me feel like Mr. Litman in the episode of Seinfeld in which Elaine goes exclamation-mark-crazy.
However, I do like ellipses. And the occasional emoticon.
I've been writing for about a year-and-a-half, though that's awfully misleading. I teach high school and junior high English, Film Literature, and Creative Writing, and I'm also our varsity girls basketball coach. Add to this my wife and impending firstborn, and the only time I'm able (alright, that's a bunch of crap...the only time I've been WILLING) to devote to writing has been the past two summers.
Two summers ago, I wrote two short stories and got one published (amarillobay.org November 2003 edition). The other short tale is sitting in the trunk, where it belongs until I rewrite it. I also wrote 230 pages in my first novel.
Last summer, I wrote three short stories and a novella. I threw out (figuratively) the 230 pages I'd done on Starlight (the novel's working title--a title I like, although it's a little too Dean Koontzy), and started over.
Of the three short stories, one has been published (at fromtheasylum.com), and the other two are pending at different places. Of the pending ones, one ("The Follower") will be accepted because (I believe) it's very good. Not sure about the other one yet.
The novella ("Witching Hour Theatre") is pending at a good place, and my query was answered with "a definite maybe." My fingers are crossed.
The novel rewrite will commence after basketball season ends and will hopefully end in July, when our baby is scheduled to arrive.
Sorry for the verbosity, MacAl, but I figured I'd give you the full picture.
Last but not least...my horror tastes...
My favorite horror/spec fic writers:
1. Stephen King
2. Joe R. Lansdale
3. Richard Matheson
4. Ramsey Campbell
5. Peter Straub
6. Ray Bradbury
7. Jack Ketchum
8. Richard Laymon
9. Robert Bloch
10. 37 writers tied for 10th
My favorite horror short stories (excluding "The Great God Pan" and "Sardonicus," two masterpieces that I consider novellas):
1. "The Small Assassin," by Ray Bradbury
2. "The Companion," by Ramsey Campbell
3. "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," by Richard Matheson
4. "Canavan's Back Yard," by Joseph Payne Brennan
5. "Incident on and off a Mountain Road," by Joe R. Lansdale
6. "The Frolic," by Thomas Ligotti
7. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," by Flannery O'Connor
8. "Confession," by Algernon Blackwood
9. "Nona," by Stephen King
10. "The Haunter of the Dark," by HP Lovecraft