Category: Uncategorized

Pantser & Plotter: Head-to-Head on the Chopping Block

On By Renee S. DeCamillisIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Are you a panster or a plotter? This common question often pops up in conversations when a group of writers gets together. Some declare their way is the best way, the right way, the only way to write a good story, but then there are others who just do what works best for them, ignoring the adamant proclamations from others. As for me, I’m a pantser at heart, but I have found benefits from doing a little plotting every now and then. And especially as of lately, I am noticing the benefits of stepping back from the story to look at the big picture, and then brainstorming ideas of where I see the story going, and feeling where the story is trying to lead me, where it’s tugging at me and directing me. And that often incorporates a little plotting.

Quite a few years ago I took a writing seminar taught by a well-respected and very successful author. I admired her enthusiasm, her work ethic, and her organized way of approaching the task of writing a novel. I am a very organized person by nature, so I thought I might want to adopt her approach to writing. Maybe it would help me produce better work. I took her seminar because I wanted to know her secret to success, and I must admit—I also wanted to learn how she was able to produce her plethora of successfully published novels as quickly as she had.

Though I am an adamant believer in quality over quantity, I can’t deny the fact that I am always trying to figure out how other authors are able to produce a lot of work—good work—in a short amount of time. I see so many authors producing a novel a year and more, and many of them have spouses and children and day jobs. Some of them even double as visual artists or performing musicians on top of all that. And many of them are also very active online on social media, drumming up hype around their work and connecting with their readers, fellow authors, and many others in the publishing industry. How do they fit it all in? I often think—they must be plotters? (I don’t want to think they stay locked away, ignoring their spouse and children and responsibilities, doing nothing but writing because that is not a work ethic I feel right to adopt. I do not want to miss out on my child growing up.) I ask this plotter question because the author who taught that seminar followed a very specific formula for writing a novel, mapping out everything ahead of time, right down to what needs to happen in each section of the book and by what page number it needs to happen. She even knows how the story ends before she writes the first chapter or even the first page. Knowing all that ahead of time must make the writing process that much quicker, right?

I don’t know.

Before that seminar ended, I remember looking at my friend beside me and saying, “How the hell is anyone supposed to know the whole story before they ever start writing? I cannot work that way. It feels too forced, too formulaic.” And my friend agreed. I came out of that seminar feeling more frustrated than before I had gone in, and I thought, If I need to adopt that way of writing to find success, I will lose my head.

For a long time, I was adamant that plotting out the whole novel in the way the author taught us in that seminar was an unnatural way to write stories. It felt too inorganic, like taking a book/story template and filling in all the sections with scenes of the story, then tying them all together with transitional sections. The whole idea left a bad taste in my mouth. And, to be completely honest, I still feel that way today. But…

Now that I am writing the third book in The Bone Cutters Series, I only made it halfway through chapter two before realizing I needed to take a step back and do a little plotting. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still don’t like the idea of plotting out an entire book before the story starts, but plotting sections here and there throughout has helped me tremendously. Plus, now that the story is on its third installment, I didn’t go into this book with as many fleshed-out ideas as I had for Books 1 & 2. I figure, that is most likely why I felt the need to pause to plot so early on with this one. Or maybe I just need to throw a bunch of new ideas into my Inspiration Cauldron and stir up a magical Story Potion.

I am curious if other authors, especially pantsers like me, who have written a sequel, a trilogy, and/or a series have had this problem before. Do you map the books out ahead of time, know what’s going to happen in each one and where the story is going? Or do you just run with it and keep writing your way through each book, figuring it out along the way?

As a pantser, the process of writing through it to find out what happens in the story is an exciting journey for me, like reading a new book or watching a new movie. That’s part of the reason why I prefer to write that way. I love not knowing exactly what my characters are going to do, not knowing what obstacles might pop up for them along their journey, not knowing what hoops they might have to jump through to achieve their goals. Like life. But even before writing Book 3 of The Bone Cutters Series I have sometimes stepped back during the middle of writing a story and had to do some plotting to help the writing process along. And now it appears to me that pantsers and plotters can learn a lot from one another, and adopting strategies that you may have thought were not for you might help you craft your next amazing story.

But, oh hell no, I cannot and will not plot out and outline a whole story or book in advance. Nope. I’m not that way. I need to keep it real and alive, dancing and fighting and fucking across every page. This process fuels me. It’s fun for me. Outlining is not fun for me. It sucks the joy out of my creativity. And if I lose enjoyment out of the process, then what’s the point? My lack of enjoyment will outshine anything I try to create if I do it that way.

To all the writers who happen upon my little newsletter here, what does your writing process look like? Are you a pantser or a plotter? Or are you a little of both? What about your writing process do you think other writers can learn from? Are you an author who produces a lot of work each year? Do you produce a lot of published works each year and still have a day job, a family, children, multiple creative projects? If so, how do you work it all into your “regular life” schedule? Have you written a sequel, a trilogy, or a book series? If so, do you plot the whole thing out ahead of time, or in pieces, do you outline your work, or do you pants your way through the whole thing?

Please, comment below with your answers. I’d love to get a discussion going around these topics, and hopefully we can all learn a little something new from one another.

Now, back to writing more horror fiction. Chat soon. In the meantime, stay spooky and keep creating!

~~~Peace~~~

Renée

Suicidal Thoughts Bled From My Fingers

On By Renee S. DeCamillisIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Written 12-12-2024, published here 12-17-2024

I recently finished writing the toughest story I’ve ever written and submitted it to the amazingly supportive publisher. And by “tough” I don’t mean it was difficult to write because I followed a different format or story structure or utilized tropes or concepts that involved a lot of research and whatnot. No. The book I speak of took no research at all. All it took was mining through my past traumas, digging up the raw feelings from my past, cutting open old wounds and digging below the scar tissue so I could write the tale with outspoken honesty. No, it is not an autobiography, but I did pull from past experiences to put it all together. The book I speak of is called Try Not to Die: By Your Own Hand, and it’s about suicide and its aftermath. It’s a co-authored project in the Try Not to Die Series from Mark Tullius and Vincere Press. It is set for publication near the end of 2025.

I recently lost a dear friend to suicide a year ago today: on December 12, 2023. His name is Joey, (Never forgotten!)

and he is missed dearly. Mark at Vincere Press came to me soon after Joey’s death, when my wounds of loss still festered raw and bloody and painful, and asked if I had any interest in co-authoring a TNTD novel with his close friend Wes Levine on the subject of suicide. Mark told me that after he read my first book, The Bone Cutters, he knew I was the perfect author to write candidly about a protagonist suffering from suicidal ideation. (For those who aren’t already in the know: The Bone Cutters’ and Chisel the Bone’s protagonist is suicidal.) Mark and Wes have both lost loved ones to suicide, and Wes’s loss, like my own, had been recent, triggering their idea for this book. Without hesitation, I agreed. I have always wanted to take part in a co-authored project, and writing about this subject, I had thought at the time, would help me process my feelings of shock and loss after losing Joey. Well, let me tell you—writing that book made me face and process many more difficult occurrences from my past. I, too, was once suicidal.

The darkest time of the year, which is when I am writing this, comes with a rise in seasonal affective disorder, increased depression and anxiety, and an increased suicide rate. And I want everyone out there who suffers from any or all of these difficulties to know—I understand. You are not alone.

In my teens and early twenties, I suffered from depression, severe anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. And at the age of twenty-three, I attempted suicide with a razor blade to my arm. Back then, everything I tried to achieve kept derailing. My big dream of graduating from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Music Production and Engineering was crushed by financial troubles and a father who refused to pay my parent-student loan payments on time. (I borrowed as much as financial aid would grant me. And my mother had already taken out a loan to get me through the first year, and the second year was my father’s turn to help me. FYI: My parents divorced when I was three. I had a single mom, who raised four kids by herself, and one of those children needed 24/7 care for his disability and mental illness.) Berklee’s Registrar’s office kept calling me about late payments, refusing to release my grades if the bill wasn’t paid on time. I had an 8-class school schedule that involved hours upon hours of guitar and vocal practice on top of all the regular homework, and I was waitressing all weekend, every weekend and working one evening during the week. The phone calls and threats of grade-withholding and demands for payments took its toll on me, and it was difficult to concentrate due to my increased anxiety, depression, and stress level. Not to mention, I was a guitar major at one of the best music schools in the country (a school I felt blessed to have gotten accepted into and privileged that my mother was able to borrow enough money to get me through my first year), while also suffering with debilitating performance anxiety. Shit kept piling up, burying me, suffocating me. Until one day when my stress hit the fucking ceiling and smashed through. Realizing I would never have the money to finish my last two years at Berklee, I had to leave Berklee—my dream school—for a more affordable music production and engineering course at a college in Florida. Then everything got worse.

What happened in Florida set me on a path that led straight to the razor blade. Just as I started my first class at Full Sail University: Center for the Recording Arts, the rug was pulled out from under me by a malicious, manipulative, and self-serving individual, and I had no place to live and couldn’t stay there for the school program I had moved there to attend. I didn’t know anyone in Florida, and the few I had met and was acquaintances with were not the type of people I could safely live with: drug addicts and partiers were everywhere. With all my hopes and dreams crushed, and feeling like all the hard work it took to get there to achieve what I had set out to achieve was all for nothing, I couldn’t bear the shame and humiliation and the letdown. It felt like I would never be able to climb out of the hole I had been swallowed up in. I didn’t know what to do, where to go. I was a top spinning faster and faster and faster, working its way toward the edge, ready to fly right off the deep end into oblivion. With razor blade to flesh, I sunk that sharp edge in and started dragging it across my arm. That’s when it hit me. An outer body experience, accompanied by thoughts that changed my entire perspective.

As I saw myself there, crying, hyperventilating, a total fucking mess with razor blade to flesh, I thought: If you think you’re a failure now, what will killing yourself prove? After all, quitting is the only true failure. And suicide is the ultimate quit.

Yes, I may have felt like everything I tried to accomplish had failed. I may have no longer had a place to live. I may have no longer been able to attend the college I had moved to Florida to attend. I may have had no idea what I was going to do for a career now that the Florida college was not happening for me. And, yes, I may have felt immense shame and hurt and like digging my way out was going to be a long, hard road that seemed impossible to traverse—but, motherfucker, I was stronger than that shame. I was stronger than all those letdowns. I was not going to let all those setbacks end me. I refused to let what someone else did to me take me down for good. I set out to prove to myself that no matter what happens, I can and will find a way to deal with it and make it work for me rather than allow it to work against me. After those thoughts hit me, I set down that razorblade, didn’t finish the dreaded deed, and vowed never to let myself get that low again. And I haven’t. I packed up my truck and moved across the country with my four cats. I arrived in Arizona with only 20 bucks in my pocket, crashed with a friend, and I rebuilt my life from scratch. It was not easy, but I did it.

Now, I am not going to try to convince anyone that not dropping back down to that suicidal low has been easy because it hasn’t. It has been a long, rough road to get where I am today. There have been many more setbacks and disappointments along the way, many more heartaches and pain, but I can now handle it all. Having knocked on suicide’s one-way door, having faced that darkness and contemplated life’s early ending, I now choose life. And life is good. I can now look back and find the positive in all that seemed negative back in my darkest hour and through the years that followed.

Writing Try Not to Die: By Your Own Hand not only helped me come to terms with Joey’s suicide and the loss of my dear friend (I also wrote a song for Joey to help with this process), but it also made me realize some of my own scar tissue from past wounds still feel tender to the touch. Before mining through all those memories and writing that story, I thought I had recovered from all my trauma. I thought I had truly moved past all the hurt and anguish. But just by creating, writing, and editing that story, I have been able to process the pieces of pain I had stuffed down deep and hidden away. After dusting off the dirty memories of it all, staring at them long and hard on the story’s pages, I can now say I have risen above what had kicked me down, held me back, and bound my head and heart. Writing that story worked like an experienced and nurturing therapist. And I didn’t need money or health insurance to get it done.

During this darkest time of the year, with all its messages of family and friends, togetherness and the joy of giving, the suicide rate rises dramatically. Though I understand how depressing this time of year can be for many, even those without a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, I want to stress the simple fact—no one truly knows what tomorrow will bring. Today you may feel like nothing good ever happens for you, or that nothing you do ever seems good enough, or that everything you try fails, or that no matter how hard you try to improve your life it always goes wrong or you always mess up or someone else always sabotages it all. Maybe you lost your job, lost a loved one. Maybe you’re struggling with drug or alcohol addiction. Maybe you’re homeless or can no longer afford your home with the rising costs of living. Maybe no one in your life accepts you for who you are. Maybe you live with an abuser or bullies keep hating on you. Maybe you live in an unsafe area and fear debilitates you. Maybe health problems weigh heavy on your mind and body. Whatever troubles land on your doorstep or outside your tent flap, tomorrow could bring the change you need or the change you’ve been hoping for. Tomorrow could bring a special new friend or partner into your life, a new job, a new health treatment, a new place to live, or even the simple kindness of a stranger that makes all the difference.

To everyone out there who feels like they want to end it all and take a leap out of this life, I beg you to please hold on, keep trying your best, keep doing everything you can think of to pull yourself back up so you can see what tomorrow brings. You may need help doing that, and that is okay. That is common for all of us. I’ve been in therapy various times throughout my life. And it helped. A lot. There is nothing wrong with needing help. We all need help now and then. Try talking to a friend or family member, talk with a counselor or social worker or a coworker or your boss. Anyone willing to listen—really listen. I am willing to listen. The simple act of talking about what’s troubling you can make a world of difference in and of itself. And believe me when I say, it may not be easy, it may be the toughest thing you ever do. You may need to claw and scratch your way back up and out of your suicidal funk. But guess what—you are worth it. You are worth fighting for. You matter. This world needs you and is better with you in it.

Always remember—The clouds will eventually clear, and the sun will rise again, but you must keep your eyes open to see it.

Peace~Love~Happiness

On Halloween, I watched the bodies burn.

On By Renee S. DeCamillisIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Crematory Research for Book 3 of The Bone Cutters Series

On Halloween, I spent 2 1/2 hours interviewing a crematory technician and getting a tour of the Laurel Hill Crematory and Cemetery in Saco, Maine. Why, might you ask? This is part of the research I need for writing Book 3 in The Bone Cutters Series. Slug Man is returning for the third book, and I feature him at his job working at a crematorium. After all, there’s no better place to get a bone dust fix.

When I sat down to write the first scene showing Slug Man working at the crematory, I realized—I have no freaking idea what a crematory looks like inside or how their operations work. I needed to find out the details of the day-to-day operations of a crematory in order to write realistic scenes. What does the Crematory Technician use for equipment? How hot do the ovens burn? How many ovens are there? What do the ovens look like? How do they get the bodies in the oven? How long does it take to burn a body to ash? What is the process for removing the remains? Does the cremator have to remove all unnatural items from the bodies: pacemakers, artificial hips, artificial kneecaps, metal rods, etc.? How many bodies can they burn in a day? Is there a risk of mixing the remains of one person with the remains of another? (When my mother was cremated in 2014, I had an unsettling fear that her remains would get mixed with someone else’s and I wouldn’t get all of my mom back. Or maybe even worse—I’d get the remains of someone else back—maybe someone not so kind who would haunt my home and property. Yes, I believe in the supernatural. Just roll with me on this.) I had so many questions.

Since I used to work as a gravedigger and groundskeeper at a local cemetery, I have a connection to a local owner of a funeral home—Chad Poitras of Chad E. Poitras Cremation & Funeral Service, Buxton, ME and Poitras, Neal & York Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Cornish, ME. Family-owned and operated. Full burial and cremation services. Chad is a wicked nice guy and the best funeral director I have ever encountered, so I contacted him. I asked if he was willing to do an interview with me and give me a tour of the crematory because I mistakenly thought that he conducted the cremations himself right at the funeral home. I always imagined that the crematory was in the basement of the funeral home. Well, I was completely wrong, which goes to show how necessary this research is for the writing of Book 3.

Chad informed me he uses Laurel Hill Cemetery Crematory Services to conduct all of his cremations, and he gave me the phone number for the Crematory Technician, James “Jimmy” Free. When I contacted Jimmy, he was more than happy to do an interview with me and give me a tour of his facility. When I scheduled my visit with him, he said it would be hard to schedule the visit because he didn’t know if he would have a body to burn on the day I would be there. I immediately cringed when he said he wanted to show me how the body burns. I told him, “No, that’s okay. I don’t need to actually see the body burn. You can just bring me through a mock burning, and that will suffice.” I was so relieved when he told me he didn’t have any bodies to burn on the day of my visit—Halloween.

On the day of the interview, as I drove through the cemetery, I could see the crematory in the distance, way at the back of the cemetery where Jimmy told me it was. And the first thing I noticed as I slowly approached the windowless building—smoke billowing out of the chimney.

Jimmy was wrong. He did have bodies. And they were burning just in time for my arrival.

Within the first ten minutes of entering the crematory and starting the interview, Jimmy reached for the handle of the metal door of the oven and asked if I wanted to see the body while it was burning. My stomach dropped. I didn’t know what to say. So, I dodged the question, following it up with more interview questions. Honestly, I didn’t think I could handle seeing a dead body, let alone watch it burn. Yes, I’ve been to funerals and viewings at wakes, but seeing a burning body at a crematory is nothing like that at all.

Jimmy told me that when Chad comes to drop off a body and he has one of his young apprentices accompanying him, she always says to Jimmy, “I don’t know how you do this work, Jimmy. I could never do what you do.”

Jimmy’s response to her comment helped me see his line of work in a whole new light. Because, honestly, I had been thinking the same thing she thinks before meeting him and conducting this interview.

Jimmy said to me, “My work is easy compared to hers, easy compared to a funeral director’s job. They have to go pick up the bodies: the suicides, the drug overdoses, the car accidents…They have to deal with the grieving family of the deceased. That, to me, seems like the toughest part of this line of work. I would never want to do their job. Doing what I do here, I never have to see the bodies. I never have to see the grieving family.”

Yes, that’s right: a Crematory Technician—or Cremator, as Jimmy calls himself—never has to see the bodies. The dead arrive either in a box or a casket, and the entire packaging, for lack of a better word, goes into the oven; it’s not just the body that goes under the flame. So, it’s like Jimmy is just burning a box, that is…until that box burns to ash.

Later into the interview, after Jimmy had revealed all of this, and more, to me about the process of cremations, I finally felt prepared to look inside the ovens. I was finally able to see all of this through Jimmy’s perspective. Plus, I’m sure it helped that I did not have an emotional connection to who I was looking at under the flames. The other thing that tremendously helped make this not the traumatic experience I had imagined—

When Jimmy pulled that handle and opened the oven door, all I saw was a massive flame shooting down from the ceiling onto the skeleton and the remaining ash of the box. And believe it or not, rather than feeling horrified or disgusted, I felt fascinated. The whole process of cremations is nothing like I had imagined, and I wanted to learn everything I need to know in order to bring the scenes of my novel alive with realistic details. So, I stared and analyzed and discussed how the burning process progresses from beginning to end, from rolling the box containing the dead body into the oven, to what burns the quickest, to how the body and the bones break down during the burning, to how to separate the ashes of the box from the ashes of the body, to how not all the bones burn to ash in the oven and what needs to be done with those pieces after cleaning the remains from the oven—the entire process, from large box containing a fully intact dead body to the small box in the end that contains nothing but the ashes of the deceased. 

This all may sound morbid to many people, but it was absolutely necessary for me to learn all that I learned about cremations in order to write the best scenes I can for Book 3 in The Bone Cutters Series. Death is a fact of life. Many people don’t like to think about death, many people don’t like to imagine any of this happening, but it does, and we need to face it. As a horror writer, that’s exactly what I do every day—I face my fears.

Now, you might be curious to find out all the other details I learned about the cremation process, but that will have to wait until you read Book 3 in The Bone Cutters Series. I haven’t quite nailed to title yet, but stay tuned for more to come.

I must end this newsletter by saying thank you to both Chad and Jimmy for helping me conduct this valuable and necessary research. You are both so kind and accommodating, a couple of really great guys. And a couple extra thank yous go to Jimmy for telling me that I can go back to see him any time if I have any more questions and for giving me a tour of his beautiful cemetery! I can’t wait to visit again and to take pictures of the tulip gardens in the spring. Thank you very much!

Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival Sat. 10-19-2024

On By Renee S. DeCamillisIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Saturday, Oct. 19th at Haverhill Public Library in Haverhill, MA from 10:00-4:00, I’ll be at the MVHBF with over 60 horror authors and artists selling and signing our creations. I will be at table 6 (near the stairs leading to the panels), seat A, between Ogmios Lieberman and Eric LaRocca. Ogmios is my tablemate.

Come on out and celebrate horror & Halloween with us! I look forward to seeing everyone there!

THIS IS A FREE EVENT! (*See the bottom of this post for the list of talented horror creators who will be at this amazing annual event.*)

Plus–

“A MERRIMACK VALLEY HALLOWEEN BOOK FESTIVAL POST:

The Merrimack Valley Haverhill Book Festival, held on October 19th in Haverhill, Massachusetts, is proud to announce the presentation of the following three panels:

Panel One 11:00 am: A Discussion of The Rack Anthology—Stories inspired by vintage horror paperbacks.

Panelists include Ron Malfi, Clay McLeod Chapman, Rebecca Rowland, Larry Hinkle. Moderator: Tom Deady.

Panel Two 1:00 pm: A Discussion With The Artists Who Bring Horror To Life.

Panelists include: Francois Vaillancourt, JF Dubeau, Errick Nunnally. Moderator: Catherine Scully

Panel Three 3:00 pm: A Discussion Between Joe Hill and Bracken MacLeod.

Bracken MacLeod will moderate an informal question and answer format with Joe Hill.

Please note, Joe Hill will not be available prior to or after the panel to sign autographs. He has graciously agreed to appear at this event for this panel only. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

The Merrimack Valley Haverhill Book Festival is organized by a dedicated team led by Mellisa Sherlin. It is a one-day event held on October 19th, at the Haverhill Massachusetts Public Library, and runs from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. The event is free to the public.”

For more information:

https://www.mvhbf.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MVHBF

Those appearing at this year’s MVHBF in alphabetical order by first name:

Alyssa Alessi

Amanda Headlee

Bracken MacLeod

Cat Scully

Chris DiLeo

Christopher Golden

Clay McLeod Chapman

Copper Dog Books

Daniel Kraus

David Surface

Derek Mola

Douglas Wynne

Emma J. Gibbon

Emmett Nahil

Eric LaRocca

François Vaillancourt

Glenn Rolfe

J. Edwin Buja

James A. Moore (in spirit)

Jason Parent

Jennifer McMahon

Jessica Ann York

Jessie Rose

JF Dubeau

John C. Foster

John Durgin

John Deathginger Goodrich

John Langan

John Lynch

John M. McIlveen – Haverhill House Publishing

Jp Behrens

Julia Rust

Katherine Silva

Kristin Dearborn

Kristopher Triana

L.L. Soares

Larry Hinkle

Leigh Perry / Toni L. P. Kelner

Linda Robertson Reinhardt

Mary Hart

Matt Bechtel

Matthew M. Bartlett

Michael (MJ) Evans — Grinning Skull Press

Michael Burke

Michael Clark

Morgan Sylvia

Nicholas Kaufmann

Paul Tremblay

Peter Dudar

Rebecca Rowland

Renee S. DeCamillis

Robert P. Ottone

Rob Smales

Ronald Malfi

Rowan Hill

Scott Goudsward

Sheldon Higdon

Steve Van Sampson/Rough House

Tanya Pell

Todd Keisling

Tom Deady

Leigh Perry/Toni L.P. Kelner Author Page

Tony Tremblay

Trisha Wooldridge

Wesley Southard

Book Launch Event for Chisel the Bone

On By Renee S. DeCamillisIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

On Thursday, August 15, 2024, at 7:00 PM, I will be doing a reading from my debut novel, Chisel the Bone, at Novel Book Bar & Cafe (link: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083222474212, located at 643 Congress Street, Portland, Maine). The reading will be followed by a discussion Q&A with fellow local Maine horror author, Meg North, (link: https://www.facebook.com/meg.north.12), author of The Transformation of Charlotte Poole, and then a book signing will follow.

Come on down, have one of Novel’s signature cocktails, enjoy a delicious snack, and listen to my scary little tale. You might find out the method behind my madness and the inspiration it springs from as Meg and I dive deep into the discussion.

All interested in attending this event, please RSVP at the link to Novel’s website event page: https://www.novelmaine.com/event-details/an-evening-with-renee-s-decamillis.

Chisel the Bone is the sequel to my debut novella, The Bone Cutters, which will also be available for purchase & signing at the event.

More about Chisel the Bone:

Someone is carving people open, chiseling their bones, and stitching them back up. Grave robberies are happening in record numbers across the state. Reports of strange sightings in the night sky are rolling in in record numbers. Members of the Silver Springs Psychiatric Hospital’s NA group start unraveling.

Can Dory, former psych hospital patient out on safety release, help detectives get to the bottom of these uncanny occurrences, or will she end up bled-out for the next Bone Cutter’s high?

Chisel the Bone by Renee S. DeCamillis is now available through Encyclopocalypse Publications and everywhere books are sold.

Praise for Chisel the Bone:

* “This one digs deep – bone deep, you could say. If you weren’t already gritting your teeth from the blade.” ~ Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians and The Indian Lake Trilogy

* “Chisel the Bone is by turns hallucinogenic, tough, rough, and unexpectedly tender. Lovecraft meets Nope on Renee DeCamillis’ long, strange, trip into a bone-dark nightmare. If you love books written in blood, you’ll turn the pages so fast your fingers will splatter. Sequel!” ~ Nancy Holder, New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award 

* “CHISEL THE BONE is a gruesome, gritty tale in which DeCamillis creates a stark, tense atmosphere of unease, dread, and pervasive and increasing madness. She shows evil in its big, bad, brutal glory, but also at its most insidious, often understandable, and inevitably tragic. Echoes of Laird Barron and Poppy Z Brite within a voice uniquely her own, DeCamillis flays the skin of polite society and exposes for all to see the sharp edges of desperation, need, and survival. This book will get under your skin in all the best ways.” ~ Mary SanGiovanni, author of THE EVERYWHERE HOUSE

* “Chisel the Bone by Renee S. DeCamillis cuts deep down. DeCamillis is an exceptional voice in horror, and Chisel the Bone is a fast-paced, dark and delightfully maniacal ride. You do not want to miss this or anything by DeCamillis. She’s a writer to watch!” ~ Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award Winning Author of Crime Scene

* “Brilliant and disgusting, Clive Barker meets Supernatural, the TV series…Sick, twisted, and demented…I like it! Give me more, please.” ~ Michelle Schmer, A.K.A. DJ Unikorn, A.K.A. Michelle Coffee, Author and Award-Winning Podcaster @ Coffee Fueled Stories

* “For all the readers, including myself, who did not want to see DeCamillis’ novella, The Bone Cutters, come to an end, we are in luck. The anticipated sequel comes to us in the novel, Chisel the Bone. And Renee DeCamillis does not disappoint. Dory finds herself in another nightmarish battle for survival. Chisel the Bone takes horrific things that can happen in real life and blends them with the supernatural. Follow the blood trail to the very end. You’ll be glad you did.” ~ Cindy O’Quinn, Bram Stoker Award-winning author

* “A fresh new voice in horror, Renee S. DeCamillis knows how to write tales that get under your skin. Chisel the Bone offers a macabre and unique brand of dark storytelling that will keep you turning the pages. This one is a fast-paced carnival ride that brings you on a wild journey full of twists and turns.” ~ Morgan Sylvia, Author of Abode

* “Chisel the Bone by Renee S. DeCamillis is exactly the kind of book I’m putting in the hands of the next generation of readers who are just cutting their teeth on the horror genre. This vampiric tale of mutilations, graverobbing, and addiction places Dory (aka Dabbler) and her best friend Irie on a race to bring a cabal of “Dusters” to justice before they can drag her into their sinister cult of unnatural chemical dependency. For the people who were supposed to be caring for her at the mental institution are actually perpetrators in an unholy communion of bone dust, blood, and formaldehyde. CTB is breakneck paced, and left me absolutely impressed with this clever twist on vampire fiction. It arrives on Amazon in July 2024.” ~ Peter Dudar, author of The Goat Parade & Blood Cult of the Booby Farmers

* “DeCamillis’s writing is really fun, super descriptive, and highly entertaining in such a dramatic way. It recalls similar writers like Christopher Moore, Joe Lansdale, and Carl Hiaasen. This story would make a great play or movie. Definitely R-rated, but teenagers would love it!” ~ Meg North, author of The Transformation of Charlotte Poole

Publication Day for Chisel the Bone, my debut novel

On By Renee S. DeCamillisIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Today, July 23, 2024, is the day my debut novel, Chisel the Bone, has been released into the world through Encyclopocalypse Publications.

Purchase Links: 1.) https://www.encyclopocalypse.com/product/chisel-the-bone/379?cs=true&cst=custom 2.) https://www.amazon.com/Chisel-Bone-Renee-S-Decamillis/dp/1960721550

This is the sequel to my debut novella, The Bone Cutters.

I hope you’ll all check it out! Thank you for visiting my site!

Praise for Chisel the Bone

* “This one digs deep – bone deep, you could say. If you weren’t already gritting your teeth from the blade.”~ Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians and The Indian Lake Trilogy

* “Chisel the Bone is by turns hallucinogenic, tough, rough, and unexpectedly tender. Lovecraft meets Nope on Renee DeCamillis’ long, strange, trip into a bone-dark nightmare. If you love books written in blood, you’ll turn the pages so fast your fingers will splatter. Sequel!”  ~ Nancy Holder, New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award 

* “CHISEL THE BONE is a gruesome, gritty tale in which DeCamillis creates a stark, tense atmosphere of unease, dread, and pervasive and increasing madness. She shows evil in its big, bad, brutal glory, but also at its most insidious, often understandable, and inevitably tragic. Echoes of Laird Barron and Poppy Z Brite within a voice uniquely her own, DeCamillis flays the skin of polite society and exposes for all to see the sharp edges of desperation, need, and survival. This book will get under your skin in all the best ways.” ~ Mary SanGiovanni, author of THE EVERYWHERE HOUSE

* “Chisel the Bone by Renee S. DeCamillis cuts deep down. DeCamillis is an exceptional voice in horror, and Chisel the Bone is a fast-paced, dark and delightfully maniacal ride. You do not want to miss this or anything by DeCamillis. She’s a writer to watch!” ~ Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award Winning Author of Crime Scene

* “Brilliant and disgusting, Clive Barker meets Supernatural, the TV series…Sick, twisted, and demented…I like it! Give me more, please.” ~ Michelle Schmer, A.K.A. DJ Unikorn, A.K.A. Michelle Coffee, Author and Award-Winning Podcaster @ Coffee Fueled Stories

* “For all the readers, including myself, who did not want to see DeCamillis’ novella, The Bone Cutters, come to an end, we are in luck. The anticipated sequel comes to us in the novel, Chisel the Bone. And Renee DeCamillis does not disappoint. Dory finds herself in another nightmarish battle for survival. Chisel the Bone takes horrific things that can happen in real life and blends them with the supernatural. Follow the blood trail to the very end. You’ll be glad you did.” ~ Cindy O’Quinn, Bram Stoker Award-winning author

* “A fresh new voice in horror, Renee S. DeCamillis knows how to write tales that get under your skin. Chisel the Bone offers a macabre and unique brand of dark storytelling that will keep you turning the pages. This one is a fast-paced carnival ride that brings you on a wild journey full of twists and turns.” ~ Morgan Sylvia, Author of Abode

* “Chisel the Bone by Renee S. DeCamillis is exactly the kind of book I’m putting in the hands of the next generation of readers who are just cutting their teeth on the horror genre. This vampiric tale of mutilations, graverobbing, and addiction places Dory (aka Dabbler) and her best friend Irie on a race to bring a cabal of “Dusters” to justice before they can drag her into their sinister cult of unnatural chemical dependency. For the people who were supposed to be caring for her at the mental institution are actually perpetrators in an unholy communion of bone dust, blood, and formaldehyde. CTB is breakneck paced, and left me absolutely impressed with this clever twist on vampire fiction. It arrives on Amazon in July 2024.” ~ Peter Dudar, author of The Goat Parade & Blood Cult of the Booby Farmers

* “DeCamillis’s writing is really fun, super descriptive, and highly entertaining in such a dramatic way. It recalls similar writers like Christopher Moore, Joe Lansdale, and Carl Hiaasen. This story would make a great play or movie. Definitely R-rated, but teenagers would love it!” ~ Meg North, author of The Transformation of Charlotte Poole

Women In Horror Month Cinema Crazed Interview March 2024

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I’m a bit of a scatterbrain and forgot to share this sooner. On March 15, 2024, Cinema Crazed published an interview with me. I talk about the release of my upcoming debut novel, Chisel the Bone, due out on July 23rd, the re-release of my debut novella, The Bone Cutters, a recent anthology I appear in called Dethfest Confessions: The Devil’s Playlist, and much more.

Here is the link:

Horror Author Renee S. DeCamillis Interview [Women in Horror Month 2024] – Cinema Crazed (cinema-crazed.com)

Chisel the Bone: My next book is coming soon!

On By Renee S. DeCamillisIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Here is the cover reveal and publication announcement for my next book. This will be my first full-length published novel.

Chisel the Bone is coming out on July 23, 2024, through Encyclopocalypse Publications (Link: https://www.encyclopocalypse.com/). It is the sequel to my novella, The Bone Cutters, but it is written as a standalone novel.

The cover art is by Christy Aldridge of Grim Poppy Design (Links: https://www.facebook.com/Christyheartsnerds & https://www.facebook.com/people/Grim-Poppy-Design/100092319914457/). She was an absolute dream to work with, as is Encyclopocalypse and my editor, Sean Duregger (Link: https://www.facebook.com/sean.duregger).

Here is the back and front book images, including back cover synopsis:

There is also going to be a special hard cover edition for both The Bone Cutters and Chisel the Bone.

Stay tuned for the book launch event announcement, as well as live readings, reviews, interviews, and podcast appearances. Until then, stay weird.

The Bone Cutters Rerelease Now Available: Free eBook with Paperback Purchase

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**Now Available: the re-release of The Bone Cutters, my debut novella now with Encyclopocalypse Publications. (Link: https://www.encyclopocalypse.com/product/the-bone-cutters/375?fbclid=IwAR17-um4UaL_4V2jrBPzTf5GLmvGVXZXjOS2swgMEplkO1vqf5xTRGd1TFs )

***All orders will immediately receive a FREE copy of the eBook when ordered through the publisher.**

They wear their scars with pride, while Dory tries desperately to hide her own. No matter what she does to cover her wounds, they can still smell her bleed, and they want in—down to the bones.

Dory wakes up in the padded room of a psychiatric hospital with no recollection of how she wound up there. She soon finds out she’s been Blue-Papered—involuntarily committed. She gets sent to the wrong counseling group and discovers a whole new world of psychiatric patients she’d never known existed. At first, she just thinks they’re cutters, all marked by similar scars, but then she finds out those scars are from carving into their own bodies to satisfy their bone-crazy addiction. When they find out Dory’s never tapped into her bones, she becomes their target.

Frightened for her life, she desperately tries to prove to the psych. hospital staff she’s not delusional about these patients wanting to cut her open and get to her bones. The staff doesn’t believe her. They all think she’s crazy. Dory ends up on the run and fighting for her life, trying to avoid getting “dusted” by The Bone Cutters.

“Razor sharp…grabs hold from the get go, and drags the reader through a surreal experience that evokes One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, if written by Clive Barker. A recommended novella.”—Monster Librarian

“It’s actually refreshing to be able to enjoy a book so much that you were miffed when it was over. As the debut novella from Renee S. DeCamillis it’s a fantastic beginning to what could prove to be a career to watch.” –Ginger Nuts of Horror

“I immediately fell in love with Dory, the writing style, the story. This is a terribly heart-wrenching story with a bit of a haunted house/ghost vibe where you’re also being chased by a bunch of crazy people who want to devour your bones. I didn’t want to put this book down.”—Kendall Reviews

“This story grabbed me by the throat and squeezed harder and harder with each chapter… Relentless, aggressive…I love this story; everything about it is perfect. Everything. Pure insanity. 5/5 Duster Skulls.” –5-Star Amazon and Goodreads Review by Brad Tierney

“A raw and gripping portrayal of panic and anxiety from the very start. It was chaotic, messy, stressful, suspenseful, and didn’t allow a pause to catch your breath.” –4-Star Amazon Review

“What a fresh idea for the world of horror. I’m beyond impressed with how engrossed this little novella made me. Brilliant read.” – 4-Star Goodreads Review

“This psychological thriller/bizarro mashup really worked for me. It keeps you on your toes guessing how unreliable the narrator really might or might not be up until the very end. I had a great time with it and Renee S. DeCamillis is definitely on my radar now. 4 stars” – Stephanie Manning (Goodreads Review)

“Renee S. DeCamillis’ strength as an author sits squarely on her ability to create and maintain well-rounded characters. Even incidental characters appear real and fitting to the environment she has created. The hospital feels equally descriptively stable, and even though the story unfolds in a slightly surreal manner it never ‘jumps the shark’ in its portrayal of such a place.” – Al Preece, Neverwhere Book Reviews

My next appearance: Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival Sat., Oct. 14, 2023

On By Renee S. DeCamillisIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

10-13-2023

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be selling and signing books at the annual Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival from 10:00-4:30 on Saturday, October 14, 2023 at the Haverhill Public Library, 99 Main St. Haverhill, MA.

There will be about 60 horror authors and publishers at this annual event, as well as panel discussions on various topics in horror. Plus–IT’S FREE!

*Come on out and buy some books and meet the authors!