Long Chills: Journeying the Middle Ground of Horror

 

 



When you're a writer, you have choices... many choices. First or third person narrative? What plot to explore? What place in time will the particular piece of fiction take place, the cast of characters, etc., etc.  Then there is the selection of fiction length to consider. Does this particular idea merit the bumper-car or Scrambler version of a short story? Or does the mother of all roller coasters -- the full-length novel -- suit your needs? Sometimes the choice comes easy... sometimes it takes a little soul-searching and consideration to make up your mind.


And sometimes you have no choice but to travel the middle ground.  That means penning a long fiction piece or a novella. Unlike short stories, which normally run between 1,500 and 4,000 words, or novels, which stretch between 90,000 and 120,000 words (or even more), the long fiction story runs the gamut between 5,000 and 9,000 words and the novella between 9,000 and 20,000 words. Sometimes an idea warrents a longer treatment than a short story and a shorter one than a novel. Thus, rather than a vignette or an epic journey, you set out to write a substantial adventure through the particular genre you happen to specialize in. I, of course, prefer the kind with with spooks and spiders and things that go bump (and bite) in the night.


My newest e-book release, Long Chills, presents 13 of my most popular novellas and long fiction stories in one beefy collection. Everything from the RK classics "Flesh Welder", "The Winds Within", and "Midnight Grinding", to "A Shiny Can of Whup Ass" and "Evolution Ridge" from After the Burn.  It also contains four freshly-penned novellas from the first four volumes of the Essential Ronald Kelly Collection, plus many more from various horror magazines and anthologies over the past 27 years.


Long Chills, which was published by Crossroad Press, is now available at Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Smashwords. If you like your scares intense and your shadows long and deep, head on over and check out Long Chills!