I've devoted a lot of my time and effort during the past few years to developing my advertising copywriting business to the point of where I can support my family and don't have to depend on writing fiction for my income.

In the first year, 1988, I wrote and sold 3 novels.

I've been reading horror since I was five years old.

During that first year, I felt guilty that my wife was out working bringing in all our income, while I was at home playing on the computer, so I made myself treat writing like a job.

I got up with my wife, I sat down at the computer when she went to work, and I didn't stop until she got home.

I've devoted a lot of my time and effort during the past few years to developing my advertising copywriting business to the point of where I can support my family and don't have to depend on writing fiction for my income.

Even the contemporary horror authors who have seriously influenced me are a disparate bunch.

I'm a fan of short horror fiction... in fact, the most memorable horror I've read is of the short variety... but I have a hard time pulling it off myself.

When I decided to take writing seriously, I did a lot of reading and analyzing of the books I liked, and came up with what I thought were pretty sound plotting and structure basics.

Actually, the 14 novels were written over a period of just over 6 years.

For each book, the time is also broken up.

For the novels I wrote before selling anything, I didn't outline much. I had a vague idea of the story.

I spent two months on the first draft, working 8 hours a day, five days a week.

Trying to break into the horror market seemed natural.

The way I outline has changed quite a bit from when I first started writing.

On the other hand, now that I'm not dependent on fiction for my income, I've been writing more short stories despite the fact that there's no real paying market for short horror other than Cemetery Dance.

The benefit of this kind of outlining is that you discover a story's flaws before you invest a lot of time writing the first draft, and it's almost impossible to get stuck at a difficult chapter, because you've already done the work to push through those kinds of blocks.

A couple of weeks after that, Zebra Books phoned with an offer, and I accepted.

When I was a teenager, I got into SF, quite heavily, and that too has had a major impact on my writing.

So, in effect, my first sale was actually two books.

Many of my short stories (all unpublished) were horror, and the novel I'd just finished was horror, too.

So, I outlined a horror novel and started writing.

There is no such thing as a Mass Mind. The Mass Audience is made up of individuals, and good advertising is written always from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions it rarely moves anyone.

Religious advertising is undergoing a dramatic conversion.

In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope.

The simplest definition of advertising, and one that will probably meet the test of critical examination, is that advertising is selling in print.

In advertising, not to be different is virtual suicide.

It is not the purpose of the ad or commercial to make the reader or listener say, 'My what a clever ad.' It is the purpose of advertising to make the reader say, 'I believe I'll buy one when I'm shopping tomorrow'.

Young people are threatened... by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire.

I saw a subliminal advertising executive, but only for a second.

I have learned that trying to guess what the boss or the client wants is the most debilitating of all influences in the creation of good advertising.

Advertising is totally unnecessary. Unless you hope to make money.

Advertising is the art of making whole lies out of half truths.

It is not unprofessional to give free legal advice, but advertising that the first visit will be free is a bit like a fox telling chickens he will not bite them until they cross the threshold of the hen house.

More traffic means more advertising dollars.

An advertising agency is 85 percent confusion and 15 percent commission.

Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.

In advertising, I was frustrated by having to deal with the client. It was the only time I really worked in a proper office, and I didn't like it-simple as that.

Magazines and advertising are flogging the idea that you have to keep changing things and get something new. I think that's balls - evil. But obviously that's your livelihood.

I can't say the advertising model is obsolete yet but it doesn't make a lot of sense in the long range.

Advertising says to people, 'Here's what we've got. Here's what it will do for you. Here's how to get it.'

The headline is the 'ticket on the meat.' Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising.

They say that Madison Avenue will only pay high dollars in advertising if they get the 18-35 age range.

I'm not in the advertising business, but I think it would be very nice if people went to see the film Hamlet, because it was made with love and integrity.

Why, I ask, isn't it possible that advertising as a whole is a fantastic fraud, presenting an image of America taken seriously by no one, least of all by the advertising men who create it?

Society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising.

A good basic selling idea, involvement and relevancy, of course, are as important as ever, but in the advertising din of today, unless you make yourself noticed and believed, you ain't got nothin'.

We have always said that advertising is just the icing on the cake. It is not the cake.

Great designers seldom make great advertising men, because they get overcome by the beauty of the picture - and forget that merchandise must be sold.