Posted By David Accampo on August 12, 2010

As I’ve mentioned previously, Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery is a huge project for me, and it’s coming to a big conclusion—like, LOST-series-finale huge. We began our story with a basic occult mystery that had a much larger mystery buried within it. Over the course of the second and third seasons, I’ve—along with my writing staff—expanded the mythos and dug deeply into the larger framework behind the series. Now it’s time to bring it all to a close with Wormwood: Revelation, the final eight episodes of the series. (more…)

Category: Audio, Podcasting | No Comments »
Tags: audio drama, david accampo, Jeremy Rogers, Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery, Wormwood: Revelation

Posted By David Accampo on August 12, 2010

Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery is a full-cast audio drama podcast that I launched with Jeremy Rogers in 2007. We launched the series to go against the grain of the short films we had been producing at the time. The audio-only format allowed us to move through a lot of material at a fast pace and a low cost. The podcast format allowed us to reach hundreds of thousands more than we would with films in festivals. The format also allowed us to tell longform, serialized stories, something that appealed to both of us. And we still got to work with talented Los Angeles-based actors, which is something we really do enjoy as filmmakers. (more…)

Category: Audio, Life, Reviews | No Comments »
Tags: Earcandy, Floyd Salazar, Furious Fanboys, wormwood

Posted By David Accampo on August 12, 2010

A couple of years ago, my friend Paul Montgomery invited me to guest on his podcast, The Fuzzy Typewriter podcast. We had a good time, and Paul invited me back. He actually left the invitation open to return as often as I liked, which I thought was incredibly generous. Unfortunately, due to time constraints and (I believe) some technological issues, The Fuzzy Typewriter temporarily faded into the background.

But it was not forgotten. Not by me, not by Paul, and not by our friends on Twitter who would occasionally suggest, “hey, when are you guys going to do another podcast?”

And now, I’m very pleased to say, the Fuzzy Typewriter is back—with some snazzy new artwork by Blair Campbell and a new mission statement to “love what you love.” (more…)

Category: Podcasting | No Comments »
Tags: arts, creative process, Fuzzy Typewriter, Inception, paul montgomery, Scarlet, Work of Art

Posted By David Accampo on July 29, 2010

So, this is a fun little thing that I thought I’d dust off and finally show people.

Some time last year, my friend Paul Montgomery, as part of his writing duties on the website, iFanboy.com, made a creative challenge — to adapt a fable in comics form. Write, draw, whatever. I didn’t think I had the time to do it, but Paul’s challenge planted a seed. I started thinking of a crudely drawn strip that’s something very different from what I usually do. I decided that my personal challenge would be not only write the script, but to draw it too. I set about trying to teach myself how to draw a simple cartoon. (more…)

Category: Comics, Craft and Process, Fiction | No Comments »
Tags: Comics, david accampo, paul montgomery, three little pigs, writing process

Posted By David Accampo on July 28, 2010

This post was originally published on Murmur.com.

Last week I talked about my road from creative writing to an audio drama podcast. A bit of a twisty road, but it’s an interesting one. Obviously, the common link is story. If you know me at all, you know I’m all about the story. If you don’t, please allow me to introduce myself…

My name is David. I’m a writer.

(more…)

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Posted By David Accampo on July 28, 2010

The following story originally appeared at part of the audio anthology, “Wormwood & The Five Fingers of Glory,” which was part of Season Three of the audio drama podcast, Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery. The following text introduced each story:

The Hand of Glory remains one of the strange artifacts at the dark heart of the many mysteries of Wormwood. An occult object of great curiousity, The Hand has crept into the very center of the chaotic maelstrom of murder and magic in Wormwood, California. The Hand’s true origin has never been revealed. Until now.
“The Five Fingers of Glory” is a new anthology kicking off third season of the critically acclaimed and award-winning audio drama podcast, Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery.

The anthology series charts the path of the fabled Hand of Glory through history, from its creation in 700 BC to its arrival in present-day Wormwood. Inspired by the works of writers such as Robert E. Howard, Bram Stoker, Dashiell Hammett and Richard Matheson, three Wormwood writers have taken up the task of revealing the storied history of the Hand of Glory from the dusty streets of ancient Assyria to a haunted  Sicilian Monastery to the shadowy backstreets of Chinatown and beyond.

Category: Fiction | No Comments »
Tags: Dashiell Hammett, detective, Hand of Glory, hard-boiled, mystery, wormwood

Posted By David Accampo on July 28, 2010

Man, there sure are a lot of cobwebs in here…

So, I’m looking to revamp the blog and hopefully dust it off and get some more current content on here. The truth is I’ve been very busy with Wormwood: Revelation and various other creative projects, and this blog is really sort of a portfolio for fiction at this point.

However, I can announce that my newest short story, “Monkeyshines79,” has been published in the latest issue of the online PDF ‘zine, Grok. This is a geek culture magazine that focuses on essays and fiction for the nerdier among us. The theme of issue #6 was “avatar.” I conceived and pitched a short story to the editors, which they accepted. I then went about writing the short story. I do like the short story, but it’s  unusual for me because it’s one of the first ever prose pieces that I pitched first, THEN wrote. It’s a Twilight Zone type of a story, so it’s all about the twist, and it was an interesting writing experiment to come up with the twist and then have to write everything correctly in order to play the twist and make it work.

Grok #6 is online now and it’s free. Please be sure to check it out!

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Posted By David Accampo on February 12, 2010

This review first appeared on murmur.com.

I first read Stephen Elliot’s 2004 novel, Happy Baby, on the strength of McSweeney’s publishing output. The book itself was a plain leatherbound hardcover. On its front was a gold illustration of a man’s hand covering another man’s face. The story itself surprised me. It wasn’t written fancifully or with any particular flair for whimsy or comedy. It was a stark, straightforward story of a boy suffering from abuse, growing up in group homes in Chicago as a ward of the state, and winding through various relationships with varying levels of sadomasochism. What came through to me in the novel was Elliot’s raw honesty as he examines subjects like sexual abuse not for exploitation or forced sympathy, but because it’s a story he must communicate. (more…)

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Tags: Happy Baby, memoirs, sadomasochism, Stephen Elliot, The Adderall Diaries

Posted By David Accampo on January 12, 2010

This review first appeared on Murmur.com.

My first exposure to author Joe Meno was with his novel The Boy Detective Fails. It was one of those bookstore shelf discoveries: a cover catches your eye, the text on the back intrigues you, the fact that the book contains a “decoder wheel” excites you… you know, the typical stuff.

The Boy Detective Fails weaves a tale that mixes whimsy with the complexities of modern life in equal doses. Imagine Encyclopedia Brown all grown up and taking Prozac.

(more…)

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Tags: Demons in the Spring, Encyclopedia Brown, giant squid, Joe Meno, The Boy Detective Fails, The Great Perhaps

Posted By David Accampo on December 1, 2009

Just because I feed the need to share it: I wrote a novel entitled “Red Right Hand” during the month of November, as part of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.

I actually wrote very regularly and was more disciplined and productive in a sustained manner than I usually am.

(more…)

Category: Craft and Process, Fiction | No Comments »
Tags: discipline, NaNoWriMo, writing