Everything can be grist for the muse. Sometimes, writers draw on personal experiences. 'Ghoul' was just that.
'Ghoul' was what my world looked like, growing up in the late Seventies and early Eighties, and what I thought it looked like. A lot of my personal experiences went into it.
Being a writer involves writing. You've got to commit to sitting down and writing instead of Xbox or Netflix.
Don't just rehash what came before. Find new things to do with it, in your unique voice.
In late 2001, I contributed a short story called 'Castaways' to an anthology called 'In Laymon's Terms,' which was a tribute to Richard Laymon, who had passed away earlier that year.
'Castaways' was a play on what if a reality show like 'Survivor' was unknowingly set on an island inhabited by a sub-human race of creatures? Readers have often asked me to consider turning the short story into a full-length novel. So I did.
I tend to spend a lot of time building characters that the reader will believe in and sympathize with.
I've been a fan of 'The Defenders' since childhood, and Devil Slayer was always one of my favorite members of the team - especially during J.M. DeMatteis' wonderful run on the series.
