Author: Kat

I wrote a Meet Cute?

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At In Your Write Mind 2025, I led a writing exercise focused on microfiction, challenging attendees to write a story in 100 words to 1000 words tops.

I decided I was going to do 100 words because writing small is a fun challenge. I asked my friend Trisha to give me a genre. She laughed and said “romance,” knowing full well that’s a hard genre for me. I once tried to write a romance short story and it accidentally became a horror story and also inadvertently offended a chunk of my critique workshop. My bad.

So I did the thing. Wrote a tiny story, ruthlessly pared it down to 100 words. Then, because I was leading this exercise and feeling wild surrounded by my fellow writers, I searched for a place to send my drabble. I hit send on the thing before I could doubt myself.

Today, that 100 word microfiction is live on Micromance Magazine, a fabulous corner of the internet filled with daily romance of the micro variety. Please read my little tale, and I hope you enjoy it. You can get Micromance in your email inbox daily, so please check them out for other wonderful romance genre fiction.

What’s new?

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Screenshot of Infernal Delights anthology

Infernal Delights is available for purchase on the ‘Zon. This book is a fundraiser for people and pets impacted by Hurricane Helene in 2024, and living in an affected area, I can tell you the cleanup continues.

I made it through round one of the NYC Midnight Micro Fiction Challenge! Participants are challenged to tell a story in 100 words, and they are assigned a genre, an action, and a word that must be included. I was assigned comedy, which had me searching for things like “what do people think is funny.” I was outside my normal writing genres, but I pulled something together, submitted it, and made it through round one!

For round two, we were assigned a new genre, action, and word with only 24 hours to turn the submission in. I scrutinized every word, trying to make the most of what I could accomplish in 100 words. Results aren’t in for round two, so I’ll shout it out if I make it through round two.

I’ll be presenting at In Your Write Mind in Pennsylvania at the end of June 2025.

I’m currently writing a horror novella as part of a course I’m taking. I’m behind on my word count, but I’m not giving up. The two job hustle makes it challenging!

If you enjoy my work, you can Buy Me a Coffee (or a Car, whatever you want) through my link: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katcraig

Voice from the Dark: A Night of Horror Readings

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Spooky tree

Photo by Kevin Rheese https://flickr.com/photos/129440207@N08/

You’re invited! Members of the North Carolina chapter of the Horror Writers Association will be reading scary fiction at Story Parlor in Asheville, NC. Join us May 31, 2025 at 7 PM…if you dare!

I haven’t decided what I’ll be reading just yet. Hope to see you there. Big thanks to Story Parlor for letting the creepy folks tell stories.

After Hurricane Helene

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Cover of Infernal Delights novel

The mountains of western North Carolina, my home sweet home, were shredded by Hurricane Helene. We were without running water for a month in my household, and even with that, we got off pretty easy compared to many. Lives, homes, and businesses were lost.

It was an honor to contribute a short story to Infernal Delights, an anthology of horror stories. The proceeds from this charity collection are going to people and pets impacted by Helene. It’s available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

A Super Belated Celebration

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Congrats to the Winner

Congrats to me, that is. While running down my dream of completing a writing MFA, I won the #Completethestory Challenge in an issue of Eye Contact, Seton Hill’s literary magazine.

My submission was Lucky, a piece of flash fiction. Flash fiction is shorter than a short story. The exact length allowed is often defined in the guidelines of the contest or publication.

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWBc5eHrJqR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

I Did a Thing

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Kat wearing graduation cap and gown

What have I been up to lately? Two and a half years of focused work and a lifetime of dreaming about being a writer, y’all. I earned my MFA in Writing Popular Fiction in June 2023!

A Five Day Writing Challenge Rocked My World

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555 Story Challenge Logo

This is not a paid endorsement. This is me publicly thanking Nicole Breit and Spark Your Story for hosting a fabulous 5-day online writing challenge.

I am wrapping up an MFA writing program this summer. My thesis project is a paranormal mystery. I love my thesis, but after a couple of years of thinking about the project 24/7, my brain has been feeling tired and uninspired.

I am not even sure where I found out about the 555 story challenge? I’d love to give a nod to the source if only I could recall who that was.

Five days. Five writing prompts. Five submissions into a contest for gift cards and a snazzy writer’s subscription box from GoScribbler. I like prizes. I’m not ashamed of being open to bribery for my writing.

What reeled me was the daily output: 100 words of creative non-fiction. Writing about my own experiences and only 100 words? I’m in! Heck, I could do that on my phone on my notes app…and spoiler: that’s precisely what I did!

Know that writing 100 words is easy. Know that writing 100 good words is the challenge. Capturing a moment or a feeling in so few words is tough.

I could do the writing on my phone, so I didn’t have to pull out my laptop. Keeping my laptop and its unfinished grad school project out of sight kept my stress level low.

The prize drawings were random. Knowing I could win just by completing the daily writing was a great motivator for me. There was no pressure to be perfect.

I didn’t win any of the prizes, boo hiss, but congrats to those who did. Nicole shared with all participants that they could continue their writing journey with her Spark Your Story course, and it sounds fantabulous! It’s outside my budget right now, but based on how helpful just five days of prompts and guidance from Nicole were, I wouldn’t hesitate to sign up for more learning with her in the future.

The challenge let me revisit my creativity in a non-threatening way. Anyone, even someone with a full-time job and looming grad school deadlines, can get one hundred words done in a day. Hitting “submit” each day gave a little dopamine burst, a little feel-good way-to-go mojo that put some spring in my step.

Having a short but sweet date with my creativity for five days has given me my spark back. I’ve given over three hours today to working on my thesis novel, feeling good about it again.

My creativity wasn’t a shriveled up old raisin, long forgotten in an old lunch box. My creativity is a vineyard full of grapes, each having their season to grow, recover, and do it all over again.

Thank you, Nicole!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ghostbusters 1984, 2016, and 2021

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I fully admit my bias here: I love the 1984 Ghostbusters. Anytime it’s on the big screen, I go and see it again. You can’t sway me. I don’t care how the special effects hold up. It was fantastic seeing it on the big screen as a middle schooler, comedy and spookiness coming together as a total treat.

Bill Murray is 100% a womanizing smarty pants in the 1984 film, and it doesn’t bother me. That’s the character he played in several movies of the time. Would it fly now? No. What’s considered comedy has changed since that time, but it works for the time this movie hit the box offices.

I wasn’t particularly jazzed about the 2016 Ghostbusters with an all-female cast when I first heard about it. I love the original Ghostbusters crew. I didn’t want to see Ghostbusters with different actors, male or female. I think that’s important enough to reiterate: I don’t care who they were putting in the cast; if it wasn’t the original gang, then it wasn’t going to float my boat.

The 2016 movie is ok. I don’t think it’s bad, but I wasn’t terribly excited to watch it again for class. One thing they tried to do with 2016 is keep the story as a comedy. It’s supposed to be funny, and there are some laughs to be had as they bust the ghosts running rampant in New York. The comedy just isn’t quite as tight as the 1984 film, and the feeling of a team just wasn’t there for me.

I’m going to go a step further and bring the 2021 Ghostbusters into this. There are way too many emotions lurking around the 2021 film. Instead of holding to the comedic code, we’re supposed to rally around Spengler’s bitter daughter who is certain her dad abandoned her for no reason. Gross.

My Ghostbusters don’t have teary-eyed feelings! My Ghostbusters have laughs and a cool theme song!

The Exorcist (Book) vs The Exorcism of Emily Rose (Film)

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The Exorcist as a movie was one of those films my parents didn’t want me to watch. There were never restrictions on what I could read, so that was always my loophole. Besides, my imagination is usually much scarier than what’s on the screen.

The book scared me as a kid. The idea that imaginary friends, like Captain Howdy in the book, could really be demons ready to vacation in my skin was frightening.

As an adult and a parent, I read it differently. It reads more like ignored child of busy starlet entertains herself by opening herself to demons. I can’t imagine knowing my child was playing with an Ouija board alone and was talking to someone through it; I would freak out with sage and salt and holy water and Florida water.

Early in the book, Regan tries to show her mother how she talks to Captain Howdy through the board, and then they both just walk away. Superstitious me was screaming, “NO!!!! You have to close the connection! You have to end the session! Great googly moogly, this is how you get demons!” Of course, Regan becomes possessed and the story focuses on ridding her of evil.

The biggest differences for me when looking at The Exorcist as compared to the movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose are the family dynamic and the priests. In Emily Rose, the family is close knit and religious. In The Exorcist, the family is a little more loosey-goosey with mom chasing her career; they are worldly, not sheltered, and not overly religious.

In Emily Rose, it is Emily herself that chooses to depart this world, to give herself over to God as a lesson to the world and a final gesture of her faith. In The Exorcist, it’s those involved in the exorcism that take death to rid Regan of evil.

Which story works better for me as a scary tale? I’m surprised to admit that right now, it’s Emily Rose, the movie with a studious good girl from a solid family. Reading The Exorcist in the context of a parent, it’s more like single parenting career-focused moms are half-assed parents that might as well have the devil for a babysitter. Yes, The Exorcist has the good against evil theme present in Emily Rose, but to me it feels a little like a lecture: stop hosting dinner parties, Chris, and focus on your daughter and maybe then she won’t pee on the rug.