"Some days I feel quite confident, but other days..." -Susannah Goodson

I'm borrowing Susannah's quote from our Facebook wall because it rings so true to the writing life. One of the universal truths of writing is that it is a solitary activity. No matter how involved you are with writing groups or online communities, it always comes down to you versus yourself. Stories are created in our brains and can only be shared with others when we find the right words to express them. Writing is a neverending search for the correct words to take abstract concepts--emotion, sensory input, philosophical musings--and make them understandable to a reader. The longer you're left alone with your words, the easier it becomes to lose confidence in your writing. The doubts creep in, the inner editor laughs at your attempts to string words together, and you start to wonder why you even bother to write. Add to that the anxiety of sending your words out into the world to an editor or agent and that second career as a burger flipper starts to look a lot more appealing.

We've all been there.

Welcome back to the iPad Advice for Writers series. I have a whole list of iPad apps for writers and editors I'd like to review, so stick around, fellow iPadders and those jealous of our considerable awesomeness. Upcoming reviews include Pages, Noterize, Office2 HD, My Writing Nook, Split Pea, iAnnotate PDF and more.

Today I'm going to start with Bashō, a writing app exclusive to the iPad.

It took me way too long to find the ō to use in the above app's name, henceforth it shall be known as Basho.

Basho advertises itself as a distraction-free writing environment for the iPad. If you are a Mac user, think WriteRoom, or the nirvana-inducing Ommwriter.

Let me first say that I'm not typically an early adopter. I got my N64 after Gamecube was already out. I still use my scroll-wheel iPod and I have never had an iPhone. I usually wait for something to be cheaper or refurbished or 2nd generation before I jump on board. I'm not afraid of the early experience, I just don't mind waiting and enjoying what I have at the moment.

Ah, not so with iPad. And I'm not sure why. When it was first announced I thought it was a giant iPhone that couldn't make calls. But then I played around with one. And my kid played around with one. And I was hooked. I told myself I didn't need anything, just the dirt cheap 16GB Wi-fi only one. And maybe I could figure out how to make it work for me.

As the week winds to a close, I'd like to leave you with some horror writing resources. Also, don't forget that we're giving away a free Introductory Critique. Find the details in the first post of this series (linked below). Big thanks to RJ Cavender and Jane Ryder for their guest posts, and also to the many communities like shocklinesforum.yuku.com, horrorworld.org, merchantskeep.com who have carried on the conversation beyond this blog.

If you're looking for information on the nuts and bolts of horror writing, horror.org and fictionfactor.com house two of the internet's best compilations of horror-themed writing craft articles. I've selected a few to highlight here, but please browse their listings and find the ones that work best for your writing style and interest.

I was going to try to write a fairly scholarly, objective blog post about some of the interesting and highly entertaining fiction and film that comes out of pairing horror with other genres. I could think of plenty of movies - for instance, several horror and comedy titles sprang promptly to mind ("Shaun of the Dead" being a prime example of comedy with horror, and the '99 version of "The House on Haunted Hill" being a prime example of horror with comedy), but I couldn't think of any comedic horror novels off the top of my head.

So then I tried to think of other pairings and again could only think of movies. I own a fair bit of horror on DVD, but browsing my shelves just wasn't helping me. "Event Horizon," no aha! moment . . . "28 Days Later," nope, nothing's coming to me . . . "Pitch Black," nada . . . (though you're probably seeing the theme already). So I turned to my nerdy bookshelves and leafed through some of my home reference books for background and inspiration. I began with the entry for HORROR in "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" by John Clute and Peter Nichols. For some reason it still took several pages of reading for the ball to drop: Hey, wait a minute . . .

STILL MISSING debuted on The New York Times extended bestseller list, where it has now stayed for three weeks as of August 1st!

Read more about Chevy Stevens and STILL MISSING, or follow her on twitter (@chevystevens) to keep up with all the latest news. Looking for a great read once you've finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo? Try STILL MISSING. You won't be disappointed!

Our first Horror Week contribution comes from RJ Cavender, a staff editor with a long-time passion for the horror genre. Hdis work on the Horror Library series has earned him two Bram Stoker Award nominations, and he's always on the lookout for up and coming talent in the genre.

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"The World is degenerating today; bribery and corruption abound, children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is obvious the end of the world is fast approaching"

- Assyrian Tablet circa 2800BCE

I spend a lot of time talking with people about horror fiction. I've been a working editor for years now and I love my job and the horror community as a whole. So it's frustrating for me that not a year goes by without someone, somewhere declaring with great authority and conviction that once-and-for-all -- "Horror is Dead".

Each year some new film or book flops onto the scene that supposedly nails the coffin shut on what is said to be a failing and unappreciated subgenre. Without proof or provocation anyone can utter these three inflammatory words to instantly spice up any review or quasi-literary conversation.

What began as a casual conversation at the Tucson Festival of Books has turned into a wonderful working relationship, and we're happy to announce that R.J. Cavender is now a member of our editorial staff. R.J. has many years of editing experience, and has recently worked with Cutting Block Press to bring several horror anthologies to print. He is passionate about the horror genre, from things that go bump in the night to explorations of the darker side of humanity and nature.

To welcome him to the fold and introduce him to genre writers, we're giving away one free Introductory Critique. This is your chance to receive feedback from a professional editor, and to make your novel or short story's first pages shine. If you're a twitter user, simply retweet this article and your name will go in the hat. You can even use the handy "retweet" button at the top right of this page.

For the past couple of months I have been a frequent participant in the twitter-based Scribe Chat. During one of our discussions of writing craft, we hit upon the idea of creating a book club  which would focus on memoirs of the writing life and books on craft and technique. Lia Keyes, author and creator of Scribe Chat, and I selected Betsy Lerner's The Forest for the Trees as our first title and we'll be discussing it during this week's Scribe Chat on twitter.You're welcome to participate whether you've read the book or not. Topics will include the author-editor relationship, and the many types of writers.

If you've never participated in a twitter chat before, I recommend reading Twitter Chats for Writers: A Quick Guide to brush up on the basics. It's simple to participate, but chats tend of move quickly and it can be difficult for a first-timer to keep up. Luckily, the chat is recorded, so you can read the transcript later at your leisure. You do not need a twitter account to follow the chat, but you do need one if you wish to contribute to the conversation.

Susan Helen Gottfried is a woman with a healthy appreciation for loud music and larger than life characters. She's also a talented writer who has channeled her passion for heavy metal music into Trevor and Mitchell, front men of the band ShapeShifter. Set in the fictional town of Riverview (a kind of Anytown, USA) the rock 'n' roll lives of ShapeShifter and their fans are chronicled in the books THE DEMO TAPES (Years One and Two) and TREVOR'S SONG. After many positive comments, but no book deals, Susan decided to quit waiting on publishing trends and took the ShapeShifter gang to Smashwords (ebook) and Lulu (print) where their stories could finally reach an audience. Self-published authors are often perceived as not good enough for traditional publishing, but Susan defies that notion. Pulling double duty as both author/editor and publicist, Susan has seen the writing life from all sides, and her experience can help any author break out of obscurity.