Josh Vogt - Fantasy Author & Freelancer Posts

Writing is very much about making an emotional connection with the reader. If there is no passion to a story, or perhaps humor…maybe fear, then that leaves little to hook the reader and draw them along to the clashing, smashing end. They say a picture can express a thousand words.…

I got my copy of Dragons, Knights, & Angels magazine, Issue 45 a bit back and promised an overview of the other stories in it, aside from my flash fiction, Manikin. If you haven’t checked out the DKA website, you can read over these stories for free and comment on…

Any writer has experienced two different modes. Grinding and Flowing. Grinding is where you sit at the computer and just force each word out, one by one until you hit your quota, or finish the scene. It’s rarely fun. Sometimes it’s painful. Sure, it gets the work done, but you,…

I finished the first, very rough draft of my latest story yesterday. Aside from feeling that I now have a “complete” story in my hands to whittle and mold into something worth reading, I also get two other big emotions that go along with crossing that mental finish line: Relief…

This is the first time I had a blog post all set up the night before, and then got up to post it and discovered it had vanished. Didn’t even leave me a goodbye note. It was a nice, long one too, all about getting into “the zone” of writing,…

I’m starting a fundraiser to buy Dracula’s Castle. Anyone want to donate? We can divvy up the bedroom shares, though I want a majority in the torture chamber and dungeons. ‘Dracula’s Castle’ up for sale in Transylvania I was researching ‘Dracula’s Castle’ a while back and, as this article states,…

Any holiday that celebrates with fire and explosions is always a favorite. Merry Thanks to the Fourth of Julyoween! I’m in the park, having a picnic, playing some ultimate Frisbee and soccer. What are you up to? And in other news: Fireworks! I see that smile.  Subscribe in a reader

At times, I’ve talked about various things that help me focus on writing, like having the proper mood music in the background and that kind of thing. But here is something I hadn’t considered. What if you could help set your mental scene by a sense of smell? Admittedly, there…

It all makes sense now. Vampires are real. They’ve been hiding among us all this time, cleverly disguised. But now the truth is revealed. The Peacock Vampire (I swear, someone is going to make a movie about this someday) But think about it! Those beautiful feathers could be considered mesmeric,…

Mostly while tromping along a trail, you see some nice views, rocks, trees, maybe a lake (in our case, the Hudson) and other hikers. This one was more active than expected. To note: 1. We ran across two large, black snakes that slithered across our path and into the underbrush.…