About Me

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Brian J. W. Lee is a writer. When he's not writing, he's plotting to plunge the world in a deep chasm of terror, darkness and screams. Sorry, did I get carried away?

Saturday 28 October 2017

Halloween is Upon Us

Hey guys, exciting times! With the Chinese 7th Month not far behind us and the western Halloween mere days away, there's a lot of ghosts, zombies and various spectres running around lately. As it just so happens, I've decided to let my freaks out of the their cages as well. You see...

The hell gates are open at almost no cost! Now that'd get them running loose...

Hope the reception for this bookception is exceptional awesome...

Remember this guy? He's now yours at the price of... NOTHING! Yep, this fella is now on a free promotion, so if you really don't feel like sleeping, you can go ahead and download him for FREE. The offer stays up until the midnight of the 31st of October. Here's the Link:

Keep your flashlight handy for this one...

And then there's this guy. Do yourself a favour. Get it! If not for me, then for the 19 other authors who decided to take me into their pack. It's an anthology filled with a great variety of stories, made only possible by the number of horror writers coming together in a ritual of pain and torture and fear to summon our Great Lord into our midst.

Descent Into Darkness is available at the price of NEXT TO NOTHING! At $0.99!

Also, the paperback is available in case you want it in the room with you... While you sleep...


Anyway, with that out of the way and the clown behind me dead, I'd like to take the opportunity to announce that I am about 50,000 words into my the first novella of a series of Pulau Purba novellas. I believe it'd be another 10,000 to 15,000 words before I'm done with it, although I'm always underestimating my word count, so take that to mean slightly more.

Happy Halloween!

Monday 23 October 2017

My New Writing Hangout

Hi guys,

Never fear, I've been busy!

Last week, I had a thought that'd been intensifying throughout the days. As the end of the year draws near, I grew more tired day by day. That, and I could only keep up a routine only for so long. I would like to think that I'm a patient man, and two years of the same thing is long enough. Anyway, my productivity's down, and I have been frequently missing my quota, only hitting it sometimes, while at other times, I was writing at around 500 words each day before passing out. On some days, I'd even skip out on it.

That was when I'd decided. It's time to change up the routine! Introduce something new!

I've died and gone to heaven.

I'd decided to spice up my writing sessions, at least once a week. Previously, all my writing was done at home, sometimes in one long marathon, usually in two 500-word sessions per day. It was all nothing but the writing - no distractions except classical music on my other computer.

The alternative:

Yum... Always love myself some meat off a poor victim... (Of course it's not human!)

I didn't think it would work. See, there's a Korean BBQ restaurant in the local shopping centre, and lunch there is at a very reasonable price. About $17.50 per pax after GST and service. I get to barbeque my own meals there, so the result is a slow meal with time in between, so I thought I could squeeze in some time in between.

Of course, there were many reasons as to why such an idea would fail. First, my meal would require constant attention, attention which will be pulled away from my writing. Secondly, with that barbeque tray in the middle, it gets a little crowded. Third, any restaurant's noisy.

I managed to pull it off and more. The problems I encountered weren't much to begin with. I was able to multi-task, I was given a large table because it's office hours and there weren't as many customers, and noise means little when you're in the zone.

I was able to write 1,500 words in one seating that day. I haven't done such a thing even during my Batam writing retreat, where about 1,000 words in one seating is the norm.

I've done this again today, and I managed to pull off 1,300 words, even with company.

While I'm still trying to understand how on Earth such a place could accommodate writing so well, I have a few ideas:

- I have to wait for my meat to cook. It gives me time to write.

- The cosy, campfire-like ambience is good for self-reflecting and internal dialogues and struggles while writing.

- Each meal lasts several hours with my writing thrown in, as opposed to 30 minutes tops.

- The barbeque and the meal justifies sitting in one place for several hours, whereas just sitting down in my room for the express purpose of writing is intensive and thus exhausting and taxing on my nerves.

It's incredible. I guess I have another weapon in my arsenal for good writing. You guys should try it! And it doesn't have to be human meat!

Tuesday 10 October 2017

A Night During the Descent Into Darkness

Hi guys, sorry for the late post!

Anyway, Descent Into Darkness has been out for two days now, and it's soaring in the charts!
We've just walked into the bar where H. P. Lovecraft's been conversing with Stephen King. We call it... The Night Club :D

Anyway, here's four more fellow writers who are with me in the anthology...

Cindy Carroll: She's been to many places alright...

Amazon Author Profile: Cindy Carroll

Cindy Carroll looks to be a highly versatile author, jumping from world to world - genre to genre, medium to medium. She has participated in many anthologies, so leaving your mind in her experienced hands shouldn't leave you with much doubts. Don't worry about waking up to find that decades have passed though, you'll probably only give hours if not mere days of your life to her writing... Well, let's hope so, or not :D

Scifi, horror, crime fiction - I wonder what's next? My bet's on fantasy. What's yours?

Max Lockwood: You can't see it in the picture, but he's wearing a belt full of revolvers and bullets. Lock & loaded!

Amazon Author Profile: Max Lockwood

Another seasoned writer, he has found his niche in post-apocalyptic fiction, and he doesn't just imagine it. He lived it in his life. Wanna survive a nuclear fallout? He's the guy you want to hook up with. If there's any writer who's going to survive the hell that is professional writing, it's him - so follow him, and your reading habit will last for decades to come. That is... If you can survive the horrors that will claw at you from his book.

He's covered two ways for the world to go Mad Max so far. Haven't read his story in our anthology yet, but I'd imagine a third one in there.

(Picture Unavailable: Just imagine someone cool and awesome here)
Delia Rai: Just entered the scene, but then again, so did literally every other writer at some point.

Amazon Author Profile: Delia Rai

I don't know much about Delia Rai, and neither does the great and mighty Amazon, but her story premise holds much promise: 'An unknown writer catapults into fame after he moves into a mysterious house with a locked door. An ambitious young journalist is sent to interview the writer, in the hope that she can find out if the rumors are true. Did the writer’s wife leave him or has something sinister happened to her? And why hasn’t the writer left the house in years? But the house is not about to reveal its dark secret without a price. Will she be willing to pay it?'

A strange writer and a missing spouse, and someone investigating him? I can already imagine a hundred ways things will head straight to the climax! The presence of three characters in the synopsis guarantees a story that isn't self-absorbed and there's much mystery that could be glimpsed in it. I say, give her your full attention?

Every writer, new and old, are like universes just waiting to be explored.

(Picture Unavailable: Just imagine someone with half his face torn off here)
E. E. Isherwood: He looks to be lurching around for a looooooong time...

Amazon Author Search: E. E. Isherwood

Now there's a zombie worth giving your brains to! This guy writes post-apocalyptic zombie fiction, and his zombie series has been searching for unwitting preys for a very long time... While I have my reservations about zombie media - you know how it is, as long as you do it right. Just look at The Walking Dead, and we don't have to look far to see the various zombie medias that had done well for themselves. Some of my favourite horror films are filled with zombies I had to wade through. Some pieces of horror media that has nothing to do with zombies will still have elements of it - if you know the symbolisms and analogies zombies are associated with.

We'll always need our zombies. Besides, it's not the only thing he's writing...

Monday 9 October 2017

A Night Before the Descent Into Darkness

Descent Into Darkness, the anthology I've participated with, will be out on the 10th of October. As a participating author of the anthology, it would be an understatement to say that I am thrilled and can't wait to see it happen.

But before that, on the night before it does (at least, according to Singapore time), I'm going to do my due duty and sit in an hour's vigil while the machinery of the great Amazon grinds and pushes the book ever forwards to the new release market.

Doing what, you asked? Well, as you know, it's an anthology featuring 19 other authors, other than me...


So what I'm going to do is to go through every single one of the authors in that book and introduce them to you. Full disclosure though: I am not exactly a socialite or something, so I hardly know them beyond a few nuggets of information. So in a way, this is also a way for me to atone for this grave sin, and to get to know my fellow anthology-mates a little better before the book's send-off to the million-headed judge that is the internet.

Now, let's begin with the man who started it all...

Tony Urban, probably while on the way to visiting the site of Cthulu's manifestation

Amazon Author Profile: Tony Urban

He's one major proof that author's don't just sit behind a desk and type on a keyboard all day long. We actually go out and do stuff, like, whenever. Hell, I certainly know that I don't, if only because I have a day job and friends to keep in contact with. With him though, he leans more towards the Indiana Jones type, it seems.

Who knows what dark secret of the Earth he has uncovered in his travels?

But other than that, he writes zombie fiction, and really ass-kicking ones at that.

Patrick Logan, staring off into the distance - Who knows what dark memory he was recalling...

Amazon Author Profile: Patrick Logan

He's done things that would certainly warrant a few horror novels or a hundred. Makes sense, considering that 'for more than a decade he spent his days chopping up body parts during his Master's and PhD degrees in pathology.' Now that explains that stare he's got in that picture.

I wonder what has he uncovered in those mountains of flesh in his pursuit of the ultimate truth?

He's also a writer of books putting a dark spin on every family member you could possibly have - it's only a matter of time before he moves on to Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, Grandmas and what not. Judging from his success, I'd love to see it happen!

(No Picture Available - Imagine an appropriate creature capable of summoning the dark to take its place)
Shayne Rutherford - A new author like me (Psst... Support us! Pwetty Pwease? *Waves coin bucket*)

Amazon Author Profile: Shayne Rutherford

There's nothing much I can pull from his presence in Amazon, but he does have one book out. But if that one book is any indication, the portal he's building to the netherworld is promising... So very promising... *convulses*

*Ahem* Anyway, it's a short story about a man spending the night at a haunted house on a dare. Halloween's fast approaching, so that's perfect, heh.

G. M. Sherwin, back in the 19th century when- I mean 21st century. Darn, I've given away his secret.

Amazon Author Profile: G. M. Sherwin

Another new author around the block who's in my league, he's taken a slightly different path from mine in that he's delving into both horror and science fiction at the same time, while I went along with horror and military at the same time.

So if you like a unique blend of sci-fi and horror, check out his stuff! He seems to be aiming to do everything at least once, if you look at his catalogue.

---
Well, that's all for now. The witching hour's fast approaching, and I've got my own demons to summon. Can't afford to fall behind on my demon quota, can I?

I'll introduce you guys to more of my fellow anthology-mates tomorrow :)

Wednesday 4 October 2017

My Most Outlandish Ideas for Books

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted much at all these past few weeks. I've been busy preparing my students for their final exams, and of course, writing - unless I'm having some R&R to recuperate.

But that's going to change now. As in right now.

Let's talk book ideas. For the past couple of years, I'm all Pulau Purba this, Pulau Purba that. I've been putting up horror show after horror show, most recently with 'Through the Abyssal Gates' and soon, with His Model Son and in the immediate future (maybe months away), Project Shadolure (working title).

But as you guys may have guessed from my offering in 'Through the Abyssal Gates', I'm not all horror-y, well, maybe 90% anyway, or 91%. I do have a clear goal with that in mind - I want to be able to expand far beyond my current horizons, explore beyond known space, to see what's on the other side. It can't be all chaos Gods and shape-shifting aliens, can it?

Okay, better not answer that...

Anyway, I do have plans to go into science fiction and fantasy, even contemporary fiction.

In 'Through the Abyssal Gates', I've achieved the sci-fi bit with Agoraphobe, a story set in an incredibly, really, very crowded Singapore - centred around a waitress' day in the 2nd century megapolis. Let's just say it's not a bright and hopeful future I depicted.

Then with fantasy (with a lot of sci-fi elements smuggled in), I've tried it out with 'Faceless'. Set in a world that isn't ours, a boy has to return to a forest his father was lost in for a few days, and find out what had made him terminally ill in other to find a cure, or at least the truth. It's more of a horror science fantasy heh... A three-way genre combination.

But I plan to go even further beyond that. Expect any of these, and likely a good number of these, to come out in the next five years:

- LitRPG as a genre has been gaining prominence lately. I cannot discount the fact that horror games have just as much impact on me as horror novels/books either. Therefore, I'm thinking of writing a Horror LitRPG... A love letter to all those horror games I've been playing, and which helped shaped the psyche that had given birth, with much blood and gore spewed forth, to my writings.

- 'Faceless' is just a testing ground for a fantasy world I have in mind. A blend of sci-fi fantasy, of technology and magic inseparable. I'm thinking of starting a series on this. This is going to mean a lot, a lot of world-building, so it might even dwarf my debut project.

- Believe it or not, I'm actually also considering writing a fairy tale for adults and children alike, set in the same world as 'Faceless'. I mean, that's how The Lord of the Rings started, right? With The Hobbit? I don't mind going down the same path as Tolkien if that's what it takes for me to ease into the fantasy (+ sci-fi elements) genre. An idea that's holding much sway with me for now is to create an entirely new race of creatures, in addition to mankind, for a story that's just as much about telling a good tale (hopefully I'm up to it though) as much as doing what fairy tales do best - including certain messages in, and some of those messages might be socio-political critiques. Gotta give back to society, right? Chip in for the human race directly for once, eh?

- As for science fiction, I have a metric tonne of ideas, ranging from subjects like colonisation and space travel to aliens and their effects on humanity, to inter-dimensional travel... The scary thing is that I think many of these ideas I have are worthy of not just short stories, but also novellas and full novels. That's a lot of stuff to write about!

- Lastly, I've been collecting shipping containers' worth of story ideas... There are dozens of them by now, bits and bobs of story possibilities that I haven't shared yet.

My brain is expanding everyday, overfilling with ideas... I think my skull's cracking... Soon, my brain's going to implode from the pressure and there will be a glorious shower of blood and grey matter!