Research is Key

My YA novel is plodding along nicely but I'm working my butt off on the research front.  As Dead Diary is a high school ghost story, I'm going to be devouring 2 different forms of research - YA novels and haunted house movies.

So this blog marks the first in a sequence of posts - Researchorama.  I'm going to be reviewing every YA novel I read this year and writing up a little quick reaction to the horror movies I watch, too.  To start it off, I'm going to stick up my haunted house list I'm going to try to watch and feel free to add to it in the comment section:

• The Haunting (original and remake)
• The Orphanage
• The Innocents
• The Woman in Black
• The Sixth Sense
• The Others
• House on Haunted Hill (original and remake)
• Ghost
• The Innkeepers
• Paranormal Activity (as many as I can stomach)
• Poltergeist (yay!)
• The Grudge (original and remake)
• The Ring (original and remake)
• Memento Mori
• The Shining
• Silent Hill

As I watch each, I'll mark them off and write them up.  I will also be doing Tweet-alongs on my Twitter feed as I watch them, too.  So feel free to follow and contribute where you can.

Apologies for these first few posts being thoroughly boring.  I'm just getting back into doing this!

Sweet dreams

Em

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder...I Hope

Okay, so six months ago I started this blog and then hopelessly abandoned it.  I am a bam.  Apologies.  Things are going to change and I'm targeting for at least one post a week (preferably two).

So let's get started.

Project Update:

My initial project is plodding along nicely.  In attempt to motivate myself, I'm working on a silly little Diary-format mini-novel in the hope to start a bit of a buzz.  It's called "Dead Diary" and is based in a school for the recently deceased.  Think Beetlejuice meets Monster High.  I'm really enjoying working on it and am using Camp NaNoWriMo to push myself through it.

I've got 3 chapters in the bag so far so I'm going to haul my butt through it and start posting little snippets as soon as possible.  The story follows Lissa - a fifteen year old girl who dies suddenly and is approached my a stranger who takes her to a boarding school for teen ghosts in an attempt to stop them from going mad in the afterlife.

It's kind of fun.  I'm liking it.  I've never written in diary entries before so that's something new.  The main character is starting to really click with me, too.  She's sassy and scared and dealing with lots of terrible stuff but is still determined to be herself.  In a few chapters, I'll probably totally lose control of her and she'll become her own person like so many of my characters do.  Either way, we'll see how it goes.

Expect an excerpt in the next few days!

Welcome to the Mad House

New blog! Exciting stuff.

Welcome to my brand new blog thatweegothgirl.  I'm Emma Kathryn and I write horror and dark fantasy.  But now, dear reader, I'm taking to writing for young adults and teenagers.

In case you've never read any of my stuff before, you don't have to worry, just trust me that it's usually pretty weird.  I've written several horror stories which have been published in American, Canadian and Australian anthologies (and yet none in Scotland, hmmmm...) and have also published a superhero novella independently through Kindle.  I'm currently working on a comic book with a fantastic American artist but this isn't why you're here, is it?

Instead, you're hopefully here because you're interested in my fiction for young adults and are curious as to what I'm all about.  You are exactly the type of reader I'm looking for and who I hope will keep coming back.

My plan for this blog is a simple one.  I want to document the writing process for my first ever series for young adult readers.  It doesn't even have a name yet, just an idea.  It's about a girl, who's a little strange, travelling to the north of Scotland in the search of her father.  If I'm going to talk teacherly, it's about identity and finding out who you are.  Or, if I'm going to talk about the things you actually want to hear about, it's going to be chock full of fantasy stuff.  Fun times.

I'm one of these annoying people who takes a crap-load of pictures of random nonsense so wait until you see all the rubbish I'll fill these posts with.  First up is a sneak peek at the notepad I'm using to take notes for this series in.  I'm a bit of a Tim Burton fangirl, hence the notepad:

It looks tidy right now, what with the little post-it tabs on the side and the cover still looking pretty but give it a few weeks.  I'll keep posting Notepad Status Update as you see it looking scabbier and messier and "well-loved", which is what I'd much rather call it :)

Anyway, we'll leave it there and see how things go.  Be sure to follow me on Twitter and keep checking for news.  I'll keep leaving updates and little snippets of writing and I look forward to hearing from anyone reading these posts.

Stay spooky!