Rhode Island Author Expo Spotlight – K. H. Vaughan

This post was originally posted on Martha Reynold’s blog and has been reposted here with author permission, minor revisions have been made.

Everyone writes, just as everyone does art. The difference is that some of us don’t stop. Most people are storytellers at heart, and I’m no different than anyone else in that sense. Even during periods when I wasn’t writing fiction, I spent a lot of time playing and running role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, and Champions. There’s a strong collaborative storytelling aspect to that form of gaming, and I was always drawn to that.

After many years of writing without success, I finally made some decisions about my goals and the process. The thing that led to creating publishable work in my case was switching from novels to short stories. I had two complete novels, some aborted attempts, and a screenplay, but the fiction wasn’t good enough to take to a publisher or an agent. I think the screenplay is adequate, but the novels are flawed. When I decided to focus on short fiction it was really a revelation. In a year I was able to go through the process of down-draft, revision, and polishing on about twenty-five pieces. I had over a hundred rejections, but I got some great feedback and made sales. I think that, had I continued to wrestle with the long form, I would still be struggling with down-drafts and structural problems. Instead, I have a growing number of anthology appearances and work as an assistant editor for Dark Discoveries magazine. I needed that experience, and think a finished novel is now more viable. I do enjoy the short form though, and will continue to write in that range. I may put out a collection, but I think that the pieces I have are too diverse in tone and genre to merit that just yet. Right now, I publish horror and some science fiction. No matter the genre, I tend towards darker themes. I’m interested in the horror of existence, human pain, and alienation.

As a kid, I enjoyed a steady diet of Creature Double Feature and Kung Fu Theater on WLVI-TV Channel 56 in Boston. Most of those films don’t hold up well when you go back and see them with adult eyes, but many of them did have elements of good storytelling or compelling moments. I think my more pulp sensibilities can be traced back to those influences, although I don’t think that often shows in my writing. There were also some wonderful films in the theaters, like Jaws, Star Wars, Alien, and Excalibur, that really stretched my imagination. My sense of myth is strongly colored by that period. I remember sitting in the front row of the theater the first time I saw Star Wars, and the sense of awe and excitement as the star destroyer emerged from the top of the screen and just seemed to keep going forever. What an amazing sense of scale. Despite that, I think that my writing influences are more in literature, philosophy, and non-fiction. I read a ton of science writing, history, and geopolitics. I love the research process, even though most of it doesn’t make the final draft. It’s part of how I process information. Hopefully that translates into stories that people enjoy.

K. H. Vaughan has a doctorate in clinical psychology and teaches at colleges in Rhode Island. He is a member of the New England Horror Writers and the Association of Rhode Island Authors. He can be found on Facebook and at http://www.khvaughan.com.

Rhode Island Author Expo Spotlight – Bob Sendling

This post was originally posted on Martha Reynold’s blog and has been reposted here with author permission, minor revisions have been made.

Compassion

There are lines of perception that flow freely through the meditative mind which need space to expand and be fully realized. I had a social discussion recently that confused me. I sat up most of the night trying to understand…here are my thoughts:

Someone was saying that there are so many poor people who take advantage of “the kindness of strangers.” Actually, the statement was not nearly that gentle. The assumption is that most of the people on welfare or government assistance of any type are just ripping off the hard-working taxpayers. You know the stuff…free cell phones, free food, subsidized rent, free medical care.

As I heard these words, I found myself tuning out of the conversational flow. I thought of the pygmy tribes in Africa who cannot get medicine because the government considers them ‘sub-human’ and will not ‘waste’ medicine on them. I read of a kind missionary who buried a two-year-old boy because he was denied treatment at a hospital…the boy was a pygmy.

Where do we draw the line that determines who gets help and why? How can we decide that people who test positive for drug abuse do not get welfare? This is actually happening in several states in America right now.

Some people who have material wealth seem to be erecting a wall around those trinkets. Thich Nhat Hanh tells the story of a farmer who was so obsessed with losing a cow that he spent all day, dawn to dusk, counting them. He lived in constant fear of ever losing one and lived a tortured life in the process. Do you count your cows? Are you a victim of the relentless efforts of big business to engage you in consumerism?

Do you wonder how your email inbox just knows what new trinket might interest you? My computer is being data-mined as I write these words. That’s why I get so many emails and ads about spirituality and blues music.

We are all members of the human species, we are all born into this world and by that birthright should share in the available resources. Why do many of us, who find a small piece of that wealth, turn with such bitterness against those less fortunate? I think if you consider this question with clear perception you will come to the conclusion that those who covet the resources of this wonderful planet are constantly finding ways to widen the gap. Peace and love.

Visit Bob online here.