Author: Seana Moorhead

Or Why I Cannot Complete My Novel. 

My latest excuse.  

I recently heard about the third quarter phenomenon in relation to running. It is said to the hardest part of a race. The beginning is when you are fresh, your muscles and body ready; the second quarter is when you are still feeling good: you have found your pace; a rhythm. The last quarter, you can see the end and can make that final push. But the third quarter: that is when it can feel like hard work. No end in the site and the freshness of the start is long gone. The interesting thing about the third quarter is that it doesn’t matter how long or short a race is, the third quarter can feel to be the hardest.  

It’s that time of year again.  I recently told someone that as I get older, the more I wish we could cancel Christmas. On my more optimistic days, I wish we could go back to a time when Christmas was about getting together with family to eat a decadent meal finished off with some concoction of traditional cake with dry fruit preserved in alcohol. But let’s take away all the presents, the tree, the tinsel, the endless Christmas music, fake snow decorations, the wood-stick deer with bows around their necks, the blow-up plastic oversized lawn ornaments and most importantly the fat man in the red suit. I’m ready to fire him not because he doesn’t do a great job but because he represents everything that has commercialized Christmas into some too long-standing season of what used to be a great holiday.  Maybe its time to hire the aliens for an invasion to finally kill off the show.  Yes, somehow I have moved from Team Cindy-Lou to Team Grinch.  

I previously wrote about reading 3 classic horror books: one about a haunted house and ghosts (The Haunting of Hill House), one about a monster created (Frankenstein) and the classic vampire story (Dracula). I decided it would be fun to find contemporary horror novels in similar subplots. What better way to celebrate the start of autumn? I also looked for stories written outside of the English speaking counties. I wanted to find stories with different voices and perspectives. I found it interesting to look for contemporary stories from classic novels and how writing styles and the choices that authors make have changed or in some cases, stayed the same, over time.  

In my January blog, I shared my goal of writing, editing and polishing a short story to submit it to someplace… any place! I broke down the steps to achieve this goal in 2023: the first step was to research various fantasy short story contests (see my blog in January). So how am I doing on this plan? 

True Story: When I was in high school, one of my English teachers had us submit a short piece of writing to at least 2 magazines for publication as part of our requirement to pass his course. The goal was not to get published but to understand how to get published and experience the process. Back then, we had to flip through a massive book that listed every magazine with their criteria and how to submit. Then you mailed your story or poem with a self-addressed stamp envelop so that you could receive your rejection letter.