Don’t miss this raw and authentic interview with Chris Goldberg. He tells the honest truth about optioning IP for film and the current state of the industry.

He’s rarely interviewed, so I am so grateful he’s chosen to share his story with us.

Prefer to watch your interviews? See it on YouTube.

Chris Goldberg is veteran in the film industry and is heavily involved the book-to-film world. He’s the founder and force behind Winterlight Pictures and is working on over 25 projects at places like A24, Netflix, Sony, Plan B, 87Eleven, and Lionsgate to name a few.

He’s been been involved in huge hits like The Martian, and The Fault in Our Stars. Some of his projects currently in development include The Maid with Universal Pictures, and Biter staring Zöe Kravitz.

Here is a notice in deadline.com about one of his projects which involves Patrick Hoffman’s The White Van.

Black Label Media’s Molly Smith, Rachel Smith, Thad Luckinbill and Trent Luckinbill will produce alongside Chris Goldberg at Winterlight Pictures, who brought the project to Singer and Black Label Media, with Black Label also financing. Seth Spector will executive produce.

Here are some of the highlights from the interview:

AF: Can you tell people a bit about who you are?

CG: You were one of the very first people I met on Substack when I started, so it’s really great to be here talking with you. I’m a producer and a writer. I started my career in New York as a literary scout, finding books to turn into movies for Fox. I did that for about ten years, reading constantly and reporting back to executives on what might work as film or television. After that, I moved to Los Angeles and worked as a development executive.

About five years ago, I started my own production company, Winterlight Pictures, and at the same time I began writing again for the first time in about twenty years. Substack has been a completely unexpected experience for me. I didn’t go there with a big plan, but it’s turned into a creative home and a place where I’ve met people—like you—who share similar interests in storytelling, film, and the business behind it all.

AF: What is Winterlight Pictures, and how does it fit into your work as both an executive and a creator?

CG: Winterlight Pictures is my production company, and it really allows me to combine all the different parts of my background. When I was coming up in the industry, there was very much an attitude that being an executive and being a creative had to be separate. If you were a producer or development executive, you weren’t supposed to be a writer.

For a long time, that separation shaped my life. I always wanted to write, but I was deeply immersed in developing other people’s work. Now, having my own company gives me the freedom to wear multiple hats. I can develop projects, produce them, and also create my own material. That balance works for me in a way that it never could when I was under a studio contract.

AF: You’ve mentioned before that you stopped writing for a long time. Why did that happen?

CG: When I was coming out of NYU, I was very focused on being a writer. I met director Whit Stillman when I was about twenty-one, and I asked him for advice. I told him I was about to take a job as an assistant and reader at Fox, and I asked whether he thought that was a good idea.

“If you want to be a writer, go work at a gas station. Don’t take that job.”

Whit’s advice to Chris

His reasoning was that I’d be reading five-hundred-page books for studios every weekend, and the last thing I’d want to do afterward was sit down and write my own work. He was completely right. I took the job anyway, and I didn’t write again for almost twenty years.

AF: So, should you have taken that job at the gas station?

CG: I don’t regret it exactly, but I do think about it a lot. For twenty years, I worked with writers, read constantly, gave notes, developed scripts, and helped shepherd projects forward—but I didn’t write myself. When I finally came back to it five years ago, it felt like rediscovering a part of myself that I’d put away.

At the same time, I gained an incredible education. I saw how projects really get made, how many drafts it takes, how notes shape a script, and how ideas evolve. So while I lost time as a writer, I gained perspective that I wouldn’t trade.

AF: How did that background shape you as a writer once you returned to it?

CG: My version of the “10,000 hours” was working at Fox. (Authorial note: Malcolm Gladwell famously said it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve true expertise.)

Writing loglines, reading submissions, and getting immediate feedback from executives rewired how my brain works. You learn very quickly what makes an idea pop, what feels urgent, and what feels commercial.

I also learned by watching writers revise. Seeing draft after draft, watching how notes land, and how stories change in response—that’s an education you can’t really get anywhere else. All of that informs how I write now, whether that’s short fiction or something intended for film or TV.

AF: Do you ever wonder what kind of writer you might have been if you’d taken a different path?

CG: All the time. I wonder what I would have written if I’d stayed raw and untrained, or if my taste would be different if I hadn’t spent years reading commercial thrillers and studio-driven material. I missed out on a lot of literary work during that time.

But at the same time, this is the brain I have now. For better or worse, it’s shaped by the industry, by development, and by thinking about story through a cinematic lens.

AF: Hollywood is a rarified circle, and hard to break into. Can you tell us about it?

CG: It absolutely can be closed off. I was privileged enough to be able to intern unpaid and work low-paying assistant jobs while bartending. Not everyone can do that, and that creates a lack of economic diversity in the industry. It’s a real problem.

That said, even people who’ve been in the business for decades don’t feel secure. The industry has been contracting—first the pandemic, then the strikes, now layoffs and uncertainty around streaming and AI. Even very established people feel under the gun.

AF: You sold a short story to Netflix. Did that change things for you?

CG: Not in the way people imagine. The story, Bunny Never Sleeps, was optioned and developed, but ultimately dropped during the strikes and internal changes at Netflix. That happens to about ninety-five percent of projects.

It didn’t change my life financially, and it didn’t get made. But I got the rights back, and now it’s one of several projects I’m still exploring—possibly as a novel, or as a script I write myself.

AF: Are short stories a pathway into film and TV?

CG: There’s an active market in Hollywood for high-concept short fiction that most writers don’t realize exists. Studios and producers buy short stories all the time because they’re quick to read and easy to imagine as films.

Publishing doesn’t really have that same market for commercial short fiction, which is why I ended up on Substack. I already had film interest in my stories, and Substack gave me a place to share them rather than letting them sit on my computer.

AF: How hard is it to sell a script, especially without connections?

CG: It’s extremely hard, especially in television. TV is very hierarchical—you usually work your way up through writers’ rooms. Features are slightly easier because it’s a one-time commitment rather than a multi-year relationship.

There’s also a lot of scamming out there: submission fees, questionable festivals, and people promising access if you pay. Writers have to be very careful.

AF: Can you explain the difference between a manager and an agent?

CG: Agents work at large agencies and represent many clients. Managers tend to be more hands-on, take fewer clients, and help develop material. Managers can also be producers and help package projects.

For writers trying to break in, I usually recommend starting with a manager rather than an agent.

AF: How does someone actually find a manager?

CG: Research and targeting. Look at projects similar to yours, see who represents those writers, and reach out thoughtfully. Personalized outreach matters. I still cold email people all the time, and it works when it’s smart and specific. (Authorial note: Chris suggests the best place to find a manager is by scrolling through Deadline deals.)

AF: You’re currently developing a project based on the viral dating show The Button. What drew you to that?

CG: My wife introduced me to it. It has massive pre-awareness—over a hundred million views—and a whole ecosystem of reaction content. Anyone under thirty knows what it is.

I partnered with Cut.com and Gunpowder & Sky to explore adapting it as a scripted rom-com. My vision is a feature film that explores what happens behind the scenes and what chaos erupts when two people meet on a show like that.

See a clip of The Button here!

AF: What does the development process look like for something like that?

CG: We create a deck, find a seasoned rom-com writer, develop the concept, get approval from the rights holders, and then take it out to studios. It’s a long process—often years.

AF: Do you option IP with your own money?

CG: No. I usually partner with companies or rights holders. Development is expensive, and the failure rate is high. Partnerships are the safest way to do it.

AF: Any final advice for writers and filmmakers?

CG: Do your homework, be strategic, and don’t assume people on the inside have it all figured out. Everyone is struggling in some way. There are paths in—short fiction is one of them—but it takes patience, persistence, and a lot of work.

Want to find and follow Chris?

Substack: Max Winter

https://www.instagram.com/winterlightpictures

Prefer to WATCH this interview? CLICK HERE

Robert Stahl is a long-time writing friend of mine and we met because he follows my monthly short story call lists. This Texan native also makes the most blood-chilling (and fun) little horror movies.

Check them out!

You Better Watch Out (trigger warning: gory)

Trick (trigger warning: really spicy and gory)

Think Robert Rodriguez.

I saw his latest Christmas horror short on YouTube and decided a catch-up in 2026 was a must-do.

Learn more about Robert at www.robertestahl.com.

We also talk about his recent anthology Show Me Where It Hurts

Angelique: One thing that really stands out about you is that you’ve actually made horror movies—something many writers dream about. Can you tell us about your short films?

Robert: I’ve done two short horror films, both under ten minutes. I wrote and produced them and worked with a very talented local director. The first was a gay slasher short called Trick, and the second was You Better Watch Out. The second one won Audience Choice at a local film competition, which I’m very proud of.

Angelique: Is filmmaking something you see as profitable, or is it more of a passion project?

Robert: Those films were definitely passion projects. They’re more expensive to make than they are profitable. For me, they were a way to learn the process and train myself. I do have ideas for full-length screenplays, but with a full-time job, it’s all about finding the time.

Angelique: Your production quality is impressive. It feels like the industry should be snapping this kind of work up.

Robert: Thank you. I think it’s possible to get there eventually, but I have to focus on one project at a time. Right now, that focus is writing fiction.

Angelique: Let’s talk about your short story collection. Why did you choose to work with JournalStone instead of self-publishing?

Robert: I wanted the experience of working with a publisher. I liked the reputability and the extra validation. I shopped the collection around for about a year and a half, got plenty of rejections, and eventually connected with JournalStone after seeing other authors I respected working with them.

Angelique: What did that publishing process look like?

Robert: They handled formatting, cover art, ebook versions, and distribution. It was a very smooth process, and I’d recommend them to other writers.

Angelique: Was it financially worthwhile?

Robert: I’m not retiring anytime soon, but it did reasonably well. It’s a profit-split model, not an advance, and everything was very transparent. I’d happily work with them again.

Angelique: There’s a lot of talk online about big numbers and writing income, but not much honesty about expenses. What’s your take?

Robert: Exactly. There are many ways to lose money in publishing. My experience with JournalStone was straightforward and fair, but writing—especially short fiction—is rarely career-changing income.

Angelique: Do you see novels or novellas as the next step?

Robert: Definitely. When you go to conventions, authors with more books have more opportunities. I want to build my inventory—novels, novellas, maybe comics or screenplays.

Angelique: Are you aiming to make writing your full-time career?

Robert: I made peace with the fact that I do this for love, not money. If something big happens, great—but that’s not my focus. Having a day job lets me create without pressure.

Angelique: I think we write horror for similar reasons—processing difficult things in the world. Is that true for you?

Robert: Absolutely. I’ve had a dark inner world since childhood. Writing horror helps me channel it. My mother had dementia, and that experience directly inspired one of my stories, Family Time. Writing gives me a way to work through those emotions.

Angelique: That comes through in your work. Your film You Better Watch Out barely has dialogue, which I didn’t even notice when watching.

Robert: That was intentional. We wanted to challenge ourselves and rely on visual storytelling. There are maybe a couple of spoken lines, but it’s mostly pure action and atmosphere.

Angelique: What’s your main focus going into 2026?

Robert: Building more work—hopefully another short story collection, a novel or novella, and continuing to explore screenplays and comics. I just want to keep getting better.

Angelique: And where can people find you?

Robert: I’m on all the socials, and my website is robertstahl.com, where people can also sign up for email updates.

If you want to hear my ORIGINAL interview with Robert, check it out here. He also reads his short story “Treats.”

Welcome to SEASON 2 of Read Me A Nightmare!

We are shifting the focus of this podcast a little and focusing on interviews and insights to help YOU sell stories in 2026.

The Last Girls Club is OPEN for submission right now.

Prefer video? WATCH the interview here.

Horror - Theme for Spring’s Issue: Haunted - Jan 1-15 - 2500 words or less - pay .015 cents per word, $15 USD max - sub sims welcome - no reprints.

Haunted. In the night; in the dark. We’re going old school Shirley Jackson “and the furniture laughed” creeping dread. It doesn’t have to be a house, it could be a submarine, a tent, a treehouse, a rabbit warren, whatever. Save the monster until the very end. We want growing shadows, days lost, locked doors that are suddenly ajar, lost journals in random cabinets. Do your worst, but give us your best.

More about this market: I want stories from the female gaze (think Aliens, Resident Evil, Hereditary, Tank Girl). I’m tired of reading what men want to do to us. I want to read what we want to do to them. Bring me smart female protagonists whose first inclinations are not to seduce the guard to get out of situations; they’ve got skills, they can get violent easily. I’m fine with them developing over the course of the story into someone like that, but please don’t revert to clichés unless you have your tongue firmly in your cheek. Please don’t use graphic rape for fridging purposes. If it’s part of a character’s backstory or development, fine, but don’t shoot the damn dog just to piss off your main character.

My focus is horror, supernatural, and creeping dread. I’m not averse to extreme/slasher horror. I always love a bit of sci-fi or dystopia, but it’s not our focus, so if it’s your venue, make it scary. If you spackle a layer of women’s issues into it, even better; such as disenfranchisement, slut-shaming, violence against trans people, racism, misogyny, sex work exploitation, inequitable emotional work and housework, whatever exists in this world that pisses you off, feel free to put a metaphorical ax between its eyebrows.

SUBMIT HERE

(Listen to the podcast to hear more about this particular call.)

I volunteer my time helping the short story world for free. But if you could join the next tier, not only will you get free books (with market insights), you get extra content to accelerate your fiction career!

My Insights: I sold a story to Eda for the Fall 2021 issue, The Gay 90s, and through the editing process became fast friends with this truly gorgeous human being. There is only one Eda Easter in the world, and I don’t know if that is a blessing or a curse. I just know I absolutely love her. Lucy and the Cosmic Comet ride was my way of processing the Heaven’s Gate mass cult suicide. As always, I like to take something dark and put a positive spin on it.

At the bottom of this post, you’ll find links to the last two episodes I recorded in Season One with Eda. This includes little excerpts from her writing, including a chapter from Killer RV.

Cool things referenced in the interview.

Last Girls Club Patreon

Villian Class

Angelique: I’m here today with one of my favorite people, Eda Easter of Last Girls Club magazine. Let’s chat.

Eda: We’re live!

Angelique: You wanted to talk about the spring theme for Last Girls Club, which is “Haunted.”

Eda: Yes—and haunted can mean a lot of things. Haunted treehouse, haunted suburb, haunted warren—I don’t care. I wanted to do something lighter, because the winter issue was secret police, ice, and desperate times.

Angelique: Very dark. Very serious.

Eda: Very boots-on-the-ground. So I thought, let’s shift toward something more Shirley Jackson–style haunted. Let’s lighten it up—which is funny, because that’s what counts as light for us.

Angelique: I love it. Ghost stories are the most fun. The Haunting of Hill House is one of my favorite books and movies of all time.

Eda: My favorite line is “and the furniture laughed.” That moment where you realize everything is coming for you—even the ottoman. An evil ottoman!

Angelique: Now you’re staring at your ottoman, aren’t you?

Eda: Absolutely.

Angelique: So tell me, what is it about Last Girls Club? You really embrace the feminine gaze. Punk rock feminist.

Eda: Angry women. I realized that’s the core of it. Angry women are not crazy. So many of my favorite characters are women who would burn things down—or had to be killed off or “fixed” so they could be happy and get married.

That’s why I hated Cruella. They framed her as evil because she was ambitious, great at her career, and didn’t want to give it up for a kid. That really got under my skin.

Angelique: Okay, note to self: don’t watch if I don’t want to be enraged.

Eda: You should watch it because it’s enraging. Disney is insidious about enforcing norms for girls.

Angelique: And we’re all Tank Girl around here.

Eda: Always.

Angelique: I love evil heroines. They’re my favorite. I spent so many years caring if people liked me, if I was “nice.” Now I’m like—no. As long as I’m fair and I can live with myself, that’s enough.

Eda: That’s how they hobble you—by making you afraid of being disliked. And people think I don’t edit myself, but believe me, there’s a lot on the cutting-room floor.

Angelique: I can’t even imagine an unedited Eda Easter. This planet couldn’t contain it.

Eda: We’d need another reality. But I’m learning something interesting through this villain challenge: villains aren’t the bad guy. They’re the mirror to the hero. They’re organized. They have a plan. A vision. The hero just stumbles along improvising.

Angelique: And the best villains are sympathetic. Everyone is the villain in someone else’s story. Their motivations make perfect sense to them.

Eda: Exactly. Once someone decides you hurt them, everything you say becomes loaded. Suddenly you’re cheerfully malevolent.

Angelique: “Cheerfully malevolent” is an incredible phrase. I might adopt that for 2026.

Eda: Think about how many mothers kept their daughters in line that way. Cheerful malevolence is powerful.

Angelique: That’s horrifying—and not how I’m mothering my kid, but I can see how it can happen.

Eda:

For this issue, I want creeping terror. Lost days. Hidden journals. Urban legends. The lights dimming when someone enters a room. I don’t want the monster upfront—I want it unfolding slowly. Old-school haunted.

Angelique: You’re inspiring me. I might finally write another story for you.

Eda: Do it.

Angelique: Let’s talk about your own writing. Where are you taking it this year?

Eda: I want to finish my grief book. It started as Widowed: Two Stars, Do Not Recommend, and now it’s Widowed: Five Stars—Rocky Start, Excellent Ride.

It’s not self-help. It’s about how unhinged you get—and how you survive it.

And I’ve outlined a few books already. One is called SS Mother. It’s about a cruise ship full of retirees—and when they descend on islands, the locals are like, “Oh no, not again.” Cheap, cranky, eating dinner at four… but also mafia, drug running, all of it.

Angelique:That sounds amazing. Also, I still want Killer RV 2. People ask me about it all the time.

Eda:Killer Cruise.

Angelique:Yes! Killer Cruise. We just planned your future.

Eda:Now I have to write it.

Here are Eda’s last two interviews if you want more of this marvelous creator.

This episode was originally created for the Stark Reflections podcast and hosted by Mark Leslie. I’m rebroadcasting it here on Substack for my short fiction writing friends.

If you're a short story writer, or would like to be, you can’t miss this episode!

Mark and Matty wrote an absolutely wonderful guide called Taking the Short Tack: Creating Income and Connecting with Readers Using Short Fiction, and this conversation is based on advice from that book.

I consider Mark one of my mentors, and I learned so much from a consulting session with him (you can book your own HERE). It was on his advice that I reused my shorts in collections and braved a Kickstarter.

Matty is a new find for me, and not only have I fallen in love with her, but I’m also obsessed with her character, Ann Kinnear. (This protagonist solves mysteries AND talks to dead people.)

Here is a bit of what you’ll hear…

Mark’s Take: Short Fiction Builds Careers Over Time

Mark started writing in the 1980s, when selling short stories to magazines was the way to break in. Editors looked for proof you could deliver clean, compelling writing in a tight format.

But decades later, Mark still finds short fiction valuable because:

* You can sell it multiple times (first rights, reprints, anthologies)

* You can collect stories into themed mini-books

* You can serialize audio versions on YouTube or podcasts

* You can use them in Kickstarters or special editions

* You can pair them with long fiction for reader magnets or bundles

In Mark’s world, a single story has many lives.

Matty’s Take: Short Fiction Serves Your Existing Readers

Matty didn’t start in short fiction—she added it after she had two suspense novels out. But she realized:

* Readers wanted more stories in the same world

* Short fiction let her keep fans engaged between novels

* Standalone shorts sell surprisingly well as ebooks

* Holidays & seasons create perfect mini-launch moments

Her readers binge a full series… and then can keep getting a fix with the shorts.

Short fiction becomes continuity glue.

But Angelique, I’m not ready to do a full novel series? (Yup, I’m not quite there yet either.)

This is my method and how Mark grew his career:

* Write a story

* Start with the highest-paying markets

* Work your way down

* Track your submissions

* Push for pro rates when possible

* Sell reprints after first publication

* Later, collect the stories into minis or anthologies

Why this works:

* You build credentials quickly

* You build relationships with editors

* You grow an audience organically

* You can resell the same story multiple times

* You keep building a library of IP

A 3,000-word story at pro rate (8 cents/word) earns $240—as much or more than many books earn in a full year.

Short fiction can pay.

Matty uses short fiction a little differently:

* Standalone stories for $1.99

* Available on Amazon, her website, and especially Curios

* Seasonal releases (Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.)

* Shorts tied directly to her existing series

* Audio editions added for bonus value

Why this works:

* Readers already love her worlds

* They will pay small amounts for more content

* Direct platforms give better revenue splits

* Audio + ebook bundles add high perceived value

* No waiting months for rejections

* No rights tangles, no contracts to decode

Tools, Platforms, and Services

Here are the most useful tools that came up in our conversation.

So, I’d never heard of Curios before, but it’s Matty’s fav tool. (Here is her store) https://www.curios.com/creators/mattydalrymple-X449BR

CURIOS

Perfect for direct sales.

* Writers keep 100% of the list price

* Readers pay the fees

* Has its own e-reader and audio app

* Allows ebook + audio bundles without price-parity issues

* Costs around $20/year

I personally use Gumroad, but in two years, I’ve earned a total of $3.74, so I’m not sure it’s working for me.

BOOKFUNNEL

Matty, Mark, and I use BookFunnel to:

* Deliver reader magnets

* Deliver short story collections

* Send ebooks securely

* Reduce tech headaches for new subscribers

* Host downloads for Kickstarter backers

* Track who actually downloads the book

DRAFT2DIGITAL

For print copies of short stories:

* D2D Print auto-builds your wraparound cover

* As long as you reach ~24–30 pages, it works

* Great for in-person events, swag, bundles

* Extremely low print cost

These are powerful as:

* giveaways

* Kickstarter add-ons

* “buy-two-books-get-a-short-free” convention deals

Rights, Risks, and Pitfalls

Watch out for:

* Markets that count public drafts as “published”

* Anthologies grabbing all rights forever

* Ambiguous language around audio or film rights

* Submission platforms that default to “public”

If you want to learn more about short fiction contracts, Michael La Ronn has a great video HERE

Using Short Fiction to Build Novels

Matty writes short pieces inside her Ann Kinnear world.Mark has reused stories across platforms for 20+ years.And I’m now writing my stories inside the universe of my novel-in-progress.

(You can join the adventure! I’m posting my Roxie stories on Substack as a serial fiction experiment.)

The benefits:

* You find your world’s voice faster

* You test ideas in real time

* Readers become invested before the novel even launches

* Editors help you refine aspects of the world

* You get paid while you’re still writing the book

* Your future novel launches to a warm audience—not a cold one

Takeaways from this chat

1. Never pay to be rejected.

Submission fees? Skip them.

2. Decide on your path: submissions or direct-to-consumer.

Both work. The trick is consistency.

3. Track your submissions religiously.

Create your own spreadsheet, Duotrope, Submission Grinder. Whatever works for you!

4. Be patient with markets; be fast with your writing.

Editors may take months.You don’t have to.

5. Resell everything you can

ReprintsPodcastsMini collectionsKickstartersYouTube audiosAnthologiesDirect salesPrint chapbooks

6. Use short fiction to feed your series.

Your novels will thank you.

7. Short fiction isn’t a side hustle. It’s a toolkit for:

* improving your craft

* expanding your universe

* growing your readership

* testing ideas

* earning real money in small bursts

* building your author identity one story at a time

I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did! So much GOOOOOD stuff here.

And wait… There’s more!

I’m hoping to have Matty Dalrymple on as a guest in the very near future, and feature some of her short story writing!!

Those collections/anthologies I created on Mark’s advice?

Right here:

And if you want to dive deeper into “Taking the Short Tack”- look HERE

Edo van Belkom shares his original YA horror story, followed by a candid and entertaining chat.

They picked on the wrong kid… It’s not her face that’s scary.

Plus, learn how Edo drove (literally) to writing success and a full-time career. And… why he chooses to hold down another job.

We start this episode with a reading of “To Be More Like Them” performed by Karen Shute, one of our voice actor regulars. This short can be found in Death Drives A Semi.

Then Edo van Belkom regals us with career anecdotes and writing advice.

Edo’s first short story was reprinted in Year’s Best Horror Stories 20, launching a career that has produced over 200 stories and won both Bram Stoker and Aurora awards. He’s written more than a dozen novels including SCREAM QUEEN, BLOOD ROAD, MARTYRS and TEETH, plus a 15-year serial for Truck News Magazine following Mark Dalton, a former detective turned truck driver. His work spans horror, action-adventure novels for Harlequin’s Deathlands series, erotica, and three books on writing craft (Writing Horror, Writing Erotica, and Northern Dreamers). His Silver Birch Award-winning YA novel WOLF PACK inspired the 2023 Paramount+ series created by Jeff Davis and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Find Edo at https://www.facebook.com/edo.vanbelkom

Pack a lunch, climb on the school bus, and hang on tight. It’s time for a ride…

If you enjoy these interviews, help me keep making them! Join the next tier. Kind of like one Starbuck’s coffee a month.

AF: Listeners just heard your story “To Be More Like Them,” which is creepy and disturbing. Can you tell me the inspiration behind it?

EVB: I convinced the publishers of the Wolf Pack books to let me do anthologies for young adults. The first one was Be Afraid, and my whole idea was to have teenage problem stories with a horror bent. I had no experience doing YA back then—my job was to sell books and get work, so I bullshitted all the time about my experience and abilities. I put out the call for problem stories with a fantastic twist, and I had to write one myself. At the time I was working part-time as a school bus driver. I’d go out in the morning for an hour and a half, then have a six-hour block in the middle of the day to write, then do the run at the end of the day. It was a great job—stress-free because when you parked the bus at the end of the day, you didn’t have to worry about that job anymore until the next day.

AF: And the school bus kids inspired the story?

EVB: When I was driving the school bus with these private school kids—who were supposed to be better and everything—they were absolutely vicious. If anyone showed a sign of weakness, they jumped on that person in a group. That’s all in the story, that whole experience. There’s nothing more cruel than a bunch of kids finding the weak one in the pack and just tearing them to shreds. The ending, which I’m very proud of, came from reading a similar ending somewhere. I often do that—I read a lot of stories and think, “Ah, that’s how you end this kind of story.” I said I didn’t know anything about young adult books, but that book was a Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book of the Year finalist and also won a Children’s Book Center Our Choice Award.

AF: So this story was truly the inspiration for Wolf Pack?

EVB: I have to give credit to my wife, who at the time was working as a children’s librarian. She was always saying I should do young adult. The adult career kind of stalled with my mass market paperbacks Scream Queen and Blood Road—whether they didn’t make it into stores or wasn’t the right time, sales decided maybe it wasn’t for me. So I moved on to young adult. The idea stemmed from Be Afraid—what if a forest ranger finds wolf cubs after a fire and brings them home, but realizes they’re werewolves, part human? I pitched it over the phone to the editor at Tundra Books, Kathy Lowinger, and she said it sounded great.

AF: And it won the Silver Birch Award?

EVB: It won the Silver Birch Award, which is voted on by elementary school children in grades four and five. There’s a list of ten books, and kids have to read a certain number before they can vote. To be on the list, you have to have 5,000 copies in print, so it went into a second printing immediately, and by the end of the year it had a third printing because all the schools in Ontario participating in the program had to buy a copy. I won by a landslide because I didn’t lose any of the girls, but all the boys loved it since it was an action adventure. One of my best experiences ever was at the award ceremony by the Lakeshore with thousands of kids bused in from all over. They’re all screaming, holding up your book like it’s a rock concert. I walked out on stage with a werewolf mask, tore it off, and they’re just screaming and cheering.

AF: Amazing. For authors in the trenches looking at how they want their career to look, this is what success looks like.

EVB: It’s easy to say I made it, but I ended up taking a regular job because things didn’t fall into place as nicely as they could have. Wolf Pack was made into a TV show twenty years after the book was published. If the TV series had happened at the time, I would’ve continued on with that boost, but it came twenty years later.

I had certain goals—I wanted to be in mass market paperback, which I did several times. I wanted to be in a major magazine—the best I did was Cemetery Dance, the top magazine for horror at the time.

I did premier anthologies like Year’s Best Horror Stories with my first published story, and Best American Erotica 1999. The hard part is being consistent and working all the time. I did twelve years full-time.

AF: You were a full-time writer for twelve years?

EVB: My wife and I had an agreement that it would be five years, but that just rolled past. My last full-time year as a writer, I made something like $40,000, which was respectable, especially for a Canadian writer. But I was doing everything—teaching night school courses, writing articles, writing trivia questions. It was a real grind.

There’s a saying in artistry: it’s okay for me to suffer for my art, but it’s not okay for everyone around me to suffer for my art. So I decided to take a job and kept writing part-time.

AF: Tell me about your serial in Truck News Magazine.

EVB: I did a serial story about a trucker detective, Mark Dalton: Owner Operator, that ran for fifteen years in Truck News Magazine—fifty-five stories total. One chapter every month, so three stories per year. It paid very well—I got professional rates, eventually a standard $350 a month, then bumped up to $400. That’s almost a payment on something. Then they asked me to do a graphic story arc with a new truck driver immigrant to Canada, which lasted three years. At one point I was making $800 a month on that, which is pretty good for writers.

AF: How did that gig start?

EVB: When my first short story collection Death Drives a Semi came out, I was always looking for places to promote my work. I found Truck News Magazine at a truck stop and thought maybe I could send them a press release. I looked through the staff box and saw the editor was John G. Smith—I wondered if he was the guy who worked at the Brampton Times when I was working there as a daily newspaper reporter. Turns out it was. I gave him a copy of the book—there were three stories in it about truck driving. At first he said they could reprint one or two, but then said the stories weren’t really trucking industry positive, since the trucks go crazy and people die. I suggested writing something specifically for them—a former private detective who takes his truck on the road and can’t keep his nose out of other people’s business. The first year or two I’d go in and we’d discuss the next story, but after a while it was just whatever I wanted to do.

AF: What made you the most money over your career?

EVB: Without a doubt, the Wolf Pack series deal with Paramount Plus was by far the biggest. But over the course of ten or fifteen years, the truck driving serial was the best steady income. Then there were the mass market men’s magazine stories—I did fifty-five of those, too. I started at $250 US and could write them fairly quickly. Those checks were important early on. After a while, it became a grind—you can only explain sexual positions so many different ways. I used the name Evan Hollander for those because I wanted the focus to be on the real stuff or the good stuff.

AF: You also did the Deathlands books for Harlequin?

EVB: I did two Deathlands books for Harlequin Gold Eagle. They wanted 90,000 words, so I decided to write a thousand words a day for ninety days. My favorite anecdote is from Joel Lansdale—someone at a convention asked him how to write a novel, and he said, “You sit down in a chair in front of a typewriter, and you don’t stop typing until you finish the book.” That’s it. We had a family cottage then, and I’d take my son up there. I’d sit in the kitchen and do a thousand words, then we could go do whatever we want.

AF: What are you working on now?

EVB: I wrote four stories this year and sold two. One of the guys who took a story from me is saying they’re doing a novel line and asked if I’d be interested in contributing, which is great. I’ve got a year and a half or so to retirement, and I’m trying to ramp this up again. It reminds me of the pressure I was under when writing full-time—there’s an opportunity, so I’ve got to spend my waking hours thinking of something substantial.

AF: What’s your day job now?

EVB: For the last twenty years, I’ve been a prisoner escort officer with Peel Regional Police. I work at a courthouse in Brampton—we transport prisoners from the jail to the courthouse, from the cells in the basement up to the courtrooms. I drive a truck, so you could say I’m still a truck driver.

Ths content is free! Please share with other horror fans and writers.

AF: So what are our takeaways? Always have a day job or consistent source of income?

EVB: Yes. Even when you’re successful, it’s so helpful to have a constant paycheck. And you try many different angles—sometimes you get the constant gig like the truck gig, which was phenomenal.

AF: Where can people find you?

EVB: Facebook—your granddad’s social media.

https://www.facebook.com/edo.vanbelkom

I post fairly regularly. I’m also on Instagram, X, and Threads. Just type in Edo Van Belkom on any social media platform.

I have a bunch of videos on YouTube—some talk about Wolf Pack.

https://www.youtube.com/@edovanbelkom9304

Today’s episode features a short story read by the author, Robert E. Stahl.

Hungry Waters was originally published as the winner in the November (Halloween) 2024 issue of Flame Tree’s Flash Fiction Newsletter Contest

https://www.flametreepress.com/newsletters/flame-tree-fiction-newsletter-november-2024-monster-masquerade/

Robert E. Stahl recently released his first collection of short stories!

We chat about the publishing process, the world of short (and long) story writing, horror movies, and meander down other ghoulish paths of creation.

Learn how he made an award-winning short horror film, “Trick” for $2000!

You can even watch it free, here.

I provide most of my insights and interviews for free, but there are goodies for those who join a paid tier.

Put on your swimsuit, and grab a tin foil hat. We’re going swimming in some dangerous waters.

An interview with Robert E. Stahl

Horror author and movie producer

AF: You're a full-time writer?

RES: Oh, literally, like all day long.

AF: That's hilarious. You must really love writing to then sit down and spend your extra hours back at the keyboard.

RES: Oh, must I? Yes, I do. Sometimes the challenge is after a full day at work to find that urge to come home and do more writing. But that is why I'm here. I think that's why God put me on Earth is to write. So it's a blessing that I have that problem.

AF: “Hungry Waters” won the Flame Tree flash fiction prompt, didn't it?

RES: It did win. I submitted that for an open call that was called Monsters and Masquerade. It’s about a killer wave pool that's actually an alien in disguise and it's eating people. So yeah, I was happy to have that one picked up by Flame Tree. Super excited. That was my second win. Back-to-back in two months with Flame Tree. Which is an anomaly that I think rarely happens. And I've sent stories into Flame Tree since then and have not had them picked up. So my streak is officially over.

AF: So let's talk about your collection. What made you choose a more traditional route versus indie?

RES: Probably ever since I was a kid, I wanted to connect with a publisher. That was the white whale I'd built in my head of what I wanted for myself. I think a publisher can also give you a little gravitas when it comes to marketing—a little extra boost. They’re also a source that vets the stories. So they're curated.

AF: So let’s talk about the incredibly visceral art you chose – or they chose – for it.

RES: That is all me, girlfriend.

AF: You have lovely teeth, and those teeth are pretty horrific.

RES: You have to read the collection to understand why I chose teeth for the cover, but I was looking at some of the covers that JournalStone has done in the past. They do a great job with covers, but I wanted something a little different—something that would stand out, just being simple, a graphic and scary. So I landed on this idea of the teeth.

AF: Have there been many pre-orders or how are sales so far?

RES: I'm trying not to look at sales so far. It's only been on sale for about 10 days. So I'm trying not to just bog myself down with all that stuff. I'll check eventually, but right now I'm not really worried about it.

AF: Let's talk about the movie making... tell me how that happened.

RES: Sure. So I'd always been interested in filmmaking and I love movies and I love to write. About five years ago I started playing around with screenplays—just turning some of my own stories into screenplays just to see what it felt like. And then I got wind of a local film competition. It's in Dallas and for beginners. So, basically it's a competition where they give you a certain amount of time to make a movie. For example, three months. A short film that’s less than 10 minutes. So I started networking with some people that I met there, and all of a sudden I had a script. Then I had a director and a team. So the group of us just busted our butts. And in three months came up with a short film called Trick. We entered the competition, and to everyone's surprise, including mine—we won first place.

AF: What sort of budget do you look at to make these kinds of movies?

RES: Every little thing you do costs money. So you have (hopefully) some kind of funding. I funded a lot of it myself. I did a little GoFundMe and a lot of people contributed there also. And then I had some people donate their time—like some of the talent. The crew just donated their time to make this movie.

I was lucky enough to find people that had a passion for film and we connected and shared the same passion and they were willing to do that with me. You always go over budget. It's really hard to manage all of that stuff.

AF: So how much did Trick cost, if you don't mind me asking?

RES: Trick was probably less than $2000.

AF: What’s your next big writing goal?

RES: Just to keep moving forward and taking on new things. I'm currently working on a comic book script. That's my goal for this month. I hope to do novels and novellas probably by the end of the year, and to keep writing short stories. I probably have enough to fill out half of a collection. So I just need about 12 or 15 more.

AF: What is the next thing I can see from Robert?

RES: I'm working on that comic book script. I'm studying them. I have an idea that I'm going to develop and there's an open call that ends on the last day of this month, and I'm going to send it in and see how I do.

AF: Any last words of advice for authors chasing this dream?

RES: They say that no writing is wasted writing—that we learn through everything we do. I think sometimes when the world gets to us, we just have to remember thatthere's something in us that really loves to do this thing no matter which aspect it is. And we just have to keep our nose to the grindstone and keep hoping for the best – learning and getting better.

If you’d like to read the anthology I published and featured Robert in, here it is!

Treats is a Halloween-themed tale with some serious creep factor.

https://books2read.com/CursedandCreepy

Thank you for listening/reading!!

Why Substack is a no-brainer for fiction writers

I came to Substack when MailerLite began charging me after I passed 1000 subscribers. Who knew how much AWESOMENESS I would find on this platform?

Please take a peek at my short video, but here are the highlights

* Your newsletter is delivered for free. And your podcast. Win. Win.

* Discoverability! Substack is the new cool place to hang out for authors. My list doubled in just a few months.

* Pretty dang simple to use. (Hey, if I could figure it out…)

* The paid option is wonderful. You don’t have to use the pay wall, but you have the option to create tiers of supporters. I keep mine 98% free.

* You actually own your list. If Substack vanished tomorrow, you still have your readers.

* Really nice people hang out here.

*

If you want to join my little posse of paid subscribers, here’s that button!! You get free books, a free masterclass on ad copy writing, and my undying thanks.

Basically: if you’re a storyteller, it’s a fun way to share your work, grow your fanbase, and find other weirdos just like you.

How do you win Writers of the Future and what happens in Hollywood?

This podcast features a short story read by the author, Robert F. Lowell.

A Monstrous Bid was originally published in Flash Fiction Online in Feb 2024, can be read here:

https://flashfictionmagazine.com/blog/2024/02/19/a-monstrous-bid/

Robert F. Lowell (Fred) is a friend from my writing group, and he just returned from the Writers of the Future gala because his story was a winner and can be found in Volume 41, which was just released! We’ve also shared a TOC in the LTUE anthology Dog Save The King.

Here is his self-written bio:

In previous professional lives, Robert researched and wrote about international relations, weapons of mass destruction, and terrorism. He taught at universities in the US, Costa Rica, and Switzerland and was kissed by a dancing horse in Siberia. Now he expands the universe of online learning as an instructional systems designer and writes about swords, sorcery, robots, aliens, and magic rabbits as a member of the Wulf Pack Writers Group. He, his Lady Wife, and at least one dog live in a town with very expensive weather on California’s Central Coast and travel in search of enchantment. His friends call him Fred.

Thanks for reading Writing & Selling Stories with Angelique Fawns! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Get your bidding card ready, and let’s listen to this short sci-fi story before we peek behind the curtain at the Hollywood gala for Writer’s of the Future winners.

A chat with recent WofF Winner, Robert F. Lowell

AF: Our listeners have just heard “A Monstrous Bid”, can you tell them about your inspiration for the story?

R.F.L.: A couple of years ago, Scott Noel, the editor of DreamForge, who’s a great guy, put out a call for stories featuring futures where material scarcity was a thing of the past. Of course I immediately thought, if there’s no scarcity, if everybody has everything they want, what conflicts could still exist that would make interesting stories? Would there still be any material things, or non-material things like status, that people would fight for? About the same time, Lady Lowell, my brother-in-law and his wife, and I went to an auction for vintage and classic cars. That made me think, what would people bid if there was no need for money? And those two ideas came together.

BTW, I have another car-related story in the anthology “Magic Malfunction,” which debuted this month from Raconteur Press.

AF: You just returned from your week in Hollywood! Give us an insider’s scoop of what happened there.

R.F.L.: Writers of the Future is the world’s biggest amateur talent search for speculative fiction authors. There’s a parallel competition for illustrators. I was blessed to be one of the winners last year. There is a monetary prize, but the biggest prize by far is the weekend workshop in Hollywood. It was led by Jody Lynn Nye and Tim Powers, with contributions from giants of science fiction and fantasy, including Larry Niven, whose stories got me hooked on SF, Orson Scott Card, Katherine Kurtz, Kevin J. Anderson, Robert J. Sawyer, Mark Leslie Lefebvre. It was intense – sometimes they had us going from 8:30 until midnight. It ends with a gala dinner and awards ceremony, like the Oscars except more fun, where they announce the grand prize winners. My story “Kill Switch” didn’t win the Golden Pen, but my artist Jordan Smajstrla won for her absolutely brilliant illustration for my story.

Seeing her illustration at the art reveal was the best part of the workshop for me. The worst part was the 24-hour story, because I like to plan my stories and let them simmer after I write a good draft. but I got through that and proved to myself that I could do it.

AF: Tell us about your writing journey and your strategy for winning this contest?

R.F.L.: I’ve been writing non-fiction for almost 40 years for various jobs and published a number of books and papers, but I’d always wanted to write a book that I would actually enjoy reading, and hope others would enjoy too. When covid hit, two things came together. One was that I started running online Dungeons & Dragons games, which I hadn’t done for decades, for my friends because we couldn’t get together in person. That got me thinking, “I’m spending so much time and energy designing characters and coming up with plots for a few friends, whom I love, why am I not doing that for readers? Second, covid marked the first time that I seriously thought I might die very soon, so if I was ever going to achieve my ambitions for writing, I better get started. So I took a creative writing class, went to the Life, the Universe, and Everything symposium for SFF creators when that began again after covid, found a great writers group in the Wulf Pack Writers, and started submitting stories to Writers of the Future.

For “Kill Switch,” I was experimenting with different genres and mashups of genres, and thought I’d try a hard-boiled detective story. I made my hero a robot because that allowed him to have both strengths and weaknesses greater than ordinary humans, both of which figure importantly in the story. I set it in a dystopian future San Francisco in homage to Raymond Chandler and other writers of hard-boiled fiction, because I’ve visited the city often, and because it broke my heart by becoming so expensively dysfunctional. It may be getting better now – I hope it doesn’t resemble my story when the at the time it takes place, which is the 150th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge.

AF: Why do you think “Kill Switch” impressed the judges?

R.F.L.: One thing I think was the mashup of genres reflected in the characters, which give the story kind of a retro-futuristic vibe. That’s reflected in the moral lines that the major characters cross and recross. I think the plot twists and the way they turn the hero’s strengths against him also played a big role.

AF: Do you have any advice for other authors who wish to send stories to Writers of the Future?

R.F.L.: First, base your story on a high concept or “big idea.” Don’t write just another military SF about badass space marines or romantasy with dragons and count on your original setting or magic system to get you in. Think of something that’s not well-explored in most stories you read and have your characters dive into it from another angle.

Second, find some people whom you can trust to give honest feedback and get comments from them. These could be other writers – I can’t overestimate the value of a good writer’s group – or they can be readers who don’t write. Positive and negative comments from both these perspectives are invaluable.

Finally, just do it! Keep writing and your style will come. Entering the contest is free and you can send in a story every three months. You can write a new story every time or, if you have one you really believe in, revise it and give it another chance. Don’t worry if your stories don’t do well at first. Mine certainly didn’t, and now with more writing experience I can see why they didn’t much more clearly. Some writers enter for decades and have lots of amateur publications before they win. So just do it!

I provide most my material for free, but it takes lots of time. If you feel like supporting this podcast and newsletter, please join a paid tier.

What is the secret behind the skull of the Peking man?
Plus, how does one become the most famous sci-fi writer in Canadian history?


Robert J. Sawyer is our guest today and he reads his award-winning story, "Peking Man."

Robert J. Sawyer is one of only eight writers — and the only Canadian — to win all three of the world's top Science Fiction awards for best novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. He’s also won more Aurora awards than anyone in history. 

He recently received the L. Ron Hubbard Lifetime Achievement award in April at the 39th Annual Writers of the Future Awards Gala. His varied career includes script writing and television series production, including ABC’s Flash Forward which aired in 2009-2010. 

You can find his latest print novel, The Oppenheimer Alternative, a science fiction reimagining of history, on Amazon:

The-Oppenheimer-Alternative

The interview that follows the story is full of good advice for authors at any stage of their careers and some cautionary warnings about the advent of AI. 

Dim your lights, grab your nail file, and let's curl up for the award-winning horror-tinged tale, "Peking Man."  

How do you win Writers of the Future?

Coordinating Judge Judy Lynn Nye answers a selection of questions put together by the Wulf Pack writing group.

ADDED BONUS. Jody Lynn Nye also reads her story "Superstition."
Superstition first appeared in Furry Fantastic an anthology featuring otherworldly animals published in October 2006.
You can also find this story in her collection Cats Triumphant.

Jody Lynn Nye is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of fantasy and science fiction books and short stories, many of them with a humorous bent.

Before breaking away from gainful employment to write full time, Jody worked as a file clerk, book-keeper at a small publishing house, freelance journalist and photographer, accounting assistant and costume maker.

For four years, she was on the technical operations staff of a local Chicago television station, WFBN (WGBO), serving the last year as Technical Operations Manager.

In 2016, Jody joined the judging staff of the Writers of the Future contest, the world’s largest science fiction and fantasy writing contest for new authors. She is now its Coordinating Judge.

Learn more here:
https://jodynye.com/

Enter the writing contest here:
Writers of the Future

Check out the latest anthology here:
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Vol. 39

Grab your favorite black cat, and let's curl up for a dark story with Jody Lynn Nye.