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About Duncan Ralston
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Blog postBefore I get started with all these free and cheap horror links, I have a quick story about an epidemic we went through in Toronto and elsewhere nearly 20 years ago. Feel free to skip it, if you like. I graduated college for Television Broadcasting the year SARS happened. It was the same year Arnold Schwarzenegger, as governor of CaleeFORnya, tried to terminate the Canadian film and TV industry. With this one-two punch, I ended up working as a baker at Tim Hortons for a year while plastering re
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Blog postMy parents live in a small island community out on the Georgia Strait. There's a path from their house down to a beach littered with oyster shells from the leases that run just offshore on their side of the island. The steps going down the hill are old and rotten but serviceable. During one visit I stepped on a stair which was apparently home to a nest of angry wasps. I got stung on my head, my back, my arms and legs before I was able to make it to safety. I guess I had an allergic reaction bec
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Blog postIf you're just starting out in the indie/small press world, there are lots of things you'll discover by trial and error. Even if you've been at it for a few years or more, it's a constantly shifting landscape that's often difficult to navigate, particularly without the proper tools at your disposal. Trends and platforms change so quickly it's entirely possible this post may be out of date in a few months. This is going to be a long and in-depth post because I want to cover as much of what I cur
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Blog postOkay, I apologize for that clickbaity title. Of course 3 stars hasn't transposed 5. But I do want to talk about the 3-Star Review and why I generally like them. This started last week when I received a couple of 3-star reviews for my new novel, Ghostland. Both were great reviews. (Just so I'm not mistaken, I appreciate all of my reviews and the readers who provide them, whether they liked the book or didn't think much of it.) The first of these reviews was critical and made several excellent
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Blog postWhile plotting the next installments in the Ghostland trilogy, I've been finishing off a complete rewrite of a novel I first wrote back in 2012. This was technically my first completed novel. What writers often call a "trunk novel." The original manuscript is collecting dust in a box in my closet and will hopefully never see the light of day. (Unless someone Go Set a Watchmans me after I'm dead, which is frankly unlikely given that I am no Harper Lee.) The Midwives was an idea that cam
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Blog postIf this is the first you've heard of cult horror author Rex Garrote from me, read this post first, then this one. None of this will make any sense unless you've read the previous posts. For those of you who've been following along with me as I dig into this bizarre mystery, something extremely interesting happened today on Twitter - where nothing interesting ever happens. *wink wink* I was going about my day when I got tagged in this tweet. For clarification, @userbits is me. I've blurred out e
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Blog postThis is the fourth and final (?) installment of the Rex Garrote Mystery posts. If this is the first you've heard of Rex Garrote, for context read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. "People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden." - Narrator/Jack, Chuck Palahnuik's Fight Club So... who is Rex Garrote? By now you've heard more than enough about him from me - and if you've been paying attention, you've likely figured out that he's a figment of my imagination. You may also know that he's the
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Blog postHave you ever experienced the so-called "Mandela Effect"? Wikipedia describes it as the phenomenon of remembering something that didn't exist or happen. It's also called "false memory." But for anyone who's experienced it themselves, it's hard to imagine your own brain could make up something that never existed and then wholeheartedly believe it did. One of the most famous examples of the phenomenon - aside from the namesake, where thousands of people allegedly believed Nelso
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Blog postMy first brand-new horror novel in - has it been two years already? - well, however long it's been, the book has finally arrived! GHOSTLAND is finally out today. Short synopsis, "Jurassic Park meets The Shining," or "Jurassic Park but with ghosts." But for those of you requiring more, here's the full synopsis: 1. The Synopsis People are dying to get in. The ghosts will kill to get out. Be first in line for the most haunted theme park in the world - GHOSTLAND! Discover and exp
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Blog postWell, things just got a lot weirder. This is an update to last week's post, which you should read here before you go any further. Last week I posted about my experiences with the Mandela Effect/false memory phenomenon, specifically in reference to the apparently obscure horror author Rex Garrote, who may or may not exist. I spoke with many of you about it on social media. Some people thought I was trolling, for obvious reasons - what's another harmless lie to a guy who makes stuff up on a daily
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Blog postI’ve always had a soft spot for Clive Barker's Nightbreed. I am well aware it's not the greatest film in movie history. But it's stuck with me all these years. I first watched it in 1991, after it was released to VHS. By then I'd already read the book it was based on, Cabal, which I'd picked up at my local library. It wasn't my favorite read from Barker, I'll admit. I had already gotten used to his more detailed works like Imajica, The Damnation Game and The Great and Secret Show. Epic works of
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Blog postI'm not much of a conspiracy theorist. I don't think the moon landing was faked, that 9/11 was an inside job, that there are aliens at Roswell, or that Oswald had a partner in crime. But I am very skeptical of, and cynical about, Amazon's marketing services, their mysterious "algorithms," and "cost-per-click" advertising in general. It may be a bit overly ambitious of me to tackle this topic. I've done a fair bit of research but I'm in no way an industry expert. So please tak
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Blog postEveryone who's ever decided writing might be something they want to do for the rest of their lives - or at the very least keep as an intensive hobby - knows the feeling. What should I be writing? What's the book that will get me to the next level in my career and in my "craft"? What's the concept and who are the characters that readers will fall in love with - that I'll fall in love with long enough to let it take up so much of my time and my life? What the f*ck do I do now? Here's how
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Blog postA Look Back at the Many Covers for My Debut Horror Collection, GRISTLE & BONE. Man, Gristle & Bone has had more covers than the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"! Since I self-published it in early-2014, it's had as many covers as years it's been out! So let's go way back and take a look at the earliest cover, with original artwork by my younger brother, Morgan Ralston. Original cover I was pretty happy with this one at the time, and I still have a soft spot for i
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Blog postI've been thinking about this a lot lately as I get asked this question a fair bit, so I thought I'd wade in on the subject. How do you know when it's finished? Be it a screenplay, a short story or a novel - how do you know when the damn thing is done? And not just done, but ready to be kicked out of the house to fend for itself? That is to say, when is your creation ready to be judged by industry professionals and/or readers? What I like to say: "You can just feel it." When you're fin
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Blog postThere's a term I like, coined by author Dean Wesley Smith over on his blog, called "writing into the dark." This means writing without an outline, without an overall plan, without a safety net, and without much by way of process aside from sitting your ass down and pecking away at the damn thing—be it a novel or a short story or a screenplay—until it feels right. Actual video footage of me at my desk. Some writers call it "pantsing it." As in, writing by the seat of your pant
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Blog postThe creative process in gif form. Some people have asked if I have a writing regimen. I've been writing about 10k a week since January. That's good for me. I usually get about 1000 to 1500 words a day (I write slow - editing during so I have less to edit after), except on weekends when I usually take a break to do life stuff. So this is on average 2k per day in a five day work week. It helps that I'm enjoying the stuff I'm writing. I've had a helluva time banging out my latest thriller novella
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Blog postThere sure has been a lot of "advice" swirling around the blogosphere / Twitterverse / #bookstagram / every other made-up internet destination this past week. Most of it has been centered on what is and is not allowable behavior by authors*. And since I like being told what I can't do about as much as wheelchair-bound John Locke (the character, not the philosopher - but probably him too), I've decided to take on the task of breaking down these dos and don'ts. *For the purpose of this p
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Blog postHi. My name is Duncan Ralston and I'm a Constant Reader. To clarify, for those who don't know the term, it means I'm a long-time Stephen King fan. It's a term of endearment he's bestowed upon his readers. To me - and I'm sure to many others, probably even King himself - "Constant Reader" doesn't mean you only read King, nor does it mean you've read every word he's ever written, from the Dark Tower series to The Cannibals, his unpublished 1981 draft of Under the Dome (King completionist
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Blog postIn the fall of 1994, I quit Stephen King cold turkey. Mid-book, I threw up my hands (and the book) in frustration. “That’s it! I’m done with Stephen King!” And I brought the book back to the library unread. Oh sure, I would later gobble up all the movies and “television events” I could get my hands on, like a reformed junkie sneaking back to the old digs for a little taste. I couldn’t miss out on The Stand, The Shawshank Redemption, Storm of the Century, The Green Mile, and Rose Red, not when
Books By Duncan Ralston
The Many Deaths Of Edgar Allan Poe
Oct 7, 2020
by
Matt Shaw ,
Paul Flewitt ,
Christine Morgan ,
Mark Cassell ,
Justin M. Woodward ,
Duncan Ralston ,
Andrew Freudenberg ,
Gary McMahon ,
Tim Lebbon ,
Jeff Burk
$0.99
This title will be released on October 7, 2020.
The Method: A Twisted Psychological Horror-Thriller
Jun 19, 2018
$4.99
$0.00 Free with Audible trial
$9.47
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