J.W. Donley

Author: J.W.

  • Intensive Writing Class Update

    —

    by

    J.W.
    in

    My writing life is a bit crazy at the moment. The reason? I’m on week seven of a sixteen-week intensive course on Contemporary Dark Fiction. It is an online course taught by Richard Thomas through Storyville Studio. And, boy, it is a lot of work. Most of last year I made monthly payments as my…

  • Lessons Learned from Josh Malerman’s Bird Box – An Essay

    —

    by

    J.W.
    in

    The first time I attempted to read Bird Box I did not like it. I made it only a couple chapters in, and the thriller style pacing turned me off. Over the months, the story bugged me until I picked it back up. That time I finished the full story and loved it. But, for…

  • Why’s my blog gotten so quiet? (& other news)

    —

    by

    J.W.
    in ,

    Why has my blog gone quite?!

  • Excelsior! Goals for 2020

    —

    by

    J.W.
    in

    A decade has ended and it is time to look forward and plan for the future, again. Unfortunately, I didn’t do too great with my goals from 2019. 2019 Goals Improve my writing Set a regular writing regimen Lose weight Review every book I read Go backpacking Really, the only one of these I accomplished…

  • Joe’s Favorite Books of 2019

    —

    by

    J.W.
    in

    Purposefully, I kept my reading goal lower this year. I wanted to focus on reading for quality instead of for quantity. That said, I hit my Goodreads goal of 50 books last week, as opposed to my goal of 75 for 2018. I would love to shoot for 100 books in a year, but I…

  • Joe Reviews: Blood Standard by Laird Barron

    —

    by

    J.W.
    in

    I’m pretty sure that I’ve mentioned sometime in the past that Laird Barron is one my favorite authors. He’s up there in my top five, fighting for the number one spot with Livia Llewllyn, China Mielville, Clive Barker, and Thomas Ligotti.I was leery of reading something not cosmic horror by Mr. Barron. Everyone else in…

  • Joe Reviews: The Secret Name by Eve Harms

    —

    by

    J.W.
    in

    Howdy! How are all of y’all doing out there on the interwebs? I hope well.I’m doing great! Do you know why?Because I had the pleasure of reading The Secret Name by Eve Harms!”Haven’t heard of it”, you say. Well, let me fill you in.If you’re like me and love libraries and stories involving demonic possession,…

  • Preview for December Patron Story: The Pigeon Lied – Part 2

    —

    by

    J.W.
    in

    Howdy!It’s almost that time again. Time for another Patron exclusive story! And here, to entice you to consider becoming a $3+ patron, is a sample from next month’s story.This is part two of my current short story in progress: The Pigeon Lied. In it, Rob is a small time thief involved with the Hell-adjacent criminal…

  • Podcasts for Horror Readers and Writers

    —

    by

    J.W.
    in ,

    For this week’s blog post I thought that I would let you all in on a little secret. I’m going to share my favorite podcasts for horror readers and writers. This is Horror First up, we have This Is Horror. This is, by far, my absolute favorite podcast. I am a paying patron and highly…

  • Joe Reviews: Worship Me by Craig Stewart

    —

    by

    J.W.
    in

    First and up front I must let you know that I was provided a digital copy of Worship Me in exchange for a fair review.Now that we have that out of the way, let’s dig in!What did I think of it? Well, it was good. A fun read that I would recommend to my horror…