Writing to Remember

Writing about our memories of lost loved ones is one of the best ways to remember them

For most of the days this week, my writing was for my WIPs.

Except for on Friday. On that Friday morning, I received some devastating news. After sending messages to those I needed to contact, I started writing a blog post.

A blog post about my happy memories with my older brother, Troy, who had passed away the night before. He was 57. (If you want to read that post, go here.)

There’s a lot of debate about publicly sharing stories with other people in them. I have written about this in a previous Substack. The main thing that causes concern is the person’s privacy, regardless of whether they are alive or not. Certain bad stories can affect how people remember a public figure. I saw this firsthand when Hulk Hogan died this week and my BlueSky feed was flooded with negative posts about him.

Well, that same week, Ozzy Osbourne also passed away, and even though his life stirred up A LOT of drama and controversy, I saw nothing but love for him and his legacy. I think a lot of that stemmed from how he chose to live life at the end, doing a lot of good work.

But for those of us who are not celebrities, we deserve the same amount of acknowledgment from our loved ones. I loved my brother, so most of my blog post contained happy memories of him. I am grateful that we got to share a lot of them, even some I can’t remember.

But for those that I did remember, I wrote those down.

And I think that is one important reason why we should write about our memories we have with the people in our lives. We should tell our stories that involve other people, yes, but for the people we are close to, those we know and those we love, I think that one of the best ways that we can honor their lives is to write what we remember about them.

This is what I have done when I write the poems for my poetry book about people who I knew, who I loved, and who I experienced life with who are no longer in this world. These poems are meant to honor their memories.

On that same note, I did write about people I never knew – John F. Kennedy, Jr., the Queen of England, Michael Jackson, Michael Landon and Ozzy Osbourne, among others – but only because they were public figures and I knew OF them and their lives lived which I was exposed to in some form while they were here.

I’m not just writing about them, but my memories of them.

One day, those memories will be gone. As it is now, my memory is not as sharp as it used to be. But I do remember SOME things, and I especially record important life events in a journal to help me remember things better. I also have saved chat transcripts, saved telephone conversations and saved screenshots. These all help me to remember things better when I need to write about them. All of the things that I remember about people who pass away are all the things that I need to write down.

The need to preserve our memories in print is true for all writers, really. Writers need to write about the things they remember. We won’t remember them forever. If we have memories which are worthy of being written about, then we should write them. I remember, as a child, that I often listened to my grandmother’s stories about her life back then. How I wished she had written down everything! How I wished I had written down everything. But now those memories and those stories are mostly gone into the abyss. I can only remember a few of them.

We can’t let other stories fade away into the darkness of forgetfulness. We can’t let lives lived disappear into that darkness, either. One of the best ways to keep our memories of someone alive is to write about them. Make those stories and memorial items exist for future generations.

I remember that, shortly after the death of Matthew Perry, I read his memoir. This showed me a side of a beloved actor I had never known about. But now I did know these things about the life he lived, because they had been written down. For this reason, he will be remembered, and his story will live on.

Let’s have other people’s stories, and our memories of them, live on in the written word too. Don’t just dwell on memories; write them down.

What’s New This Week

My article "The Appeal of Science Fiction" was published in the July 2025 issue of First Chapter Plus Magazine. My article is on page 18.

My short story "The Dream Set" in Alien Buddha Zine #77, published by Alien Buddha Press.

I have another article, “6 Paying Fitness Markets,” up at WritersWeekly. You can read it here. https://writersweekly.com/marketing-secrets/6-paying-fitness-markets-by-dawn-colclasure

Book Reviews

I recently reviewed the paranormal horror anthology Why Didn't You Just Leave edited by Julia Rios and Nadia Bulkin on Goodreads.

I recently reviewed the science fiction novel The Howling Between Worlds by E.M. Otero on Goodreads.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

Week of Terrors Anthology series

Twisted Dreams Press is now accepting submissions for a new anthology series! It is seven books with ten stories in each book.

The first anthology will be published in June. The others will follow in the subsequent months. Submissions of stories for all anthologies opens the beginning of April.

Open until each anthology has ten stories. We will announce when an anthology is no longer accepting submissions.

Series Name: A Week of Terrors!

Here are the themes:

Monster Monday: Creature Horror Stories

Terrifying Tuesday: Evil Clowns

Werewolf Wednesday

Thriller Thursday: Zombies

Frightening Friday: Mix of horror subgenres: psychological horror, eco-horror, cyberpunk horror, erotic horror, etc.

Slasher Saturday: Slasher horror

Spooky Sunday: Ghost stories

Payment: One print and digital copy.

Submit your stories today!

Length: 3K-10K words

Reprints welcome! Simultaneous submissions welcome but please let us know if your story is accepted elsewhere.

Email your stories as a Word .doc or .docx file. Google Docs are okay as long as you grant Dawn permission for access.

No PDF submissions, please.

Stories written with AI will NOT be accepted!

When you submit your story, please put the following in the subject line:

Submission: WOT Anthology, (Title), (Day of the week your story is for)

Please include in your email if the story is a reprint as well as your bio.

Please send your stories to Dawn at submissions@twisteddreamspress.com

We look forward to reading your story!

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

Friday the 13th Summer Camp Horror Anthology

It's that time of year again! Time for writers everywhere to start writing some summer camp horror!

At Twisted Dreams Press, however, we horror fanatics just can't get enough of Friday the 13th!

We are announcing a call for summer camp horror stories that take place on a Friday the 13th for our anthology: Friday the 13th Summer Camp Horror! This anthology is scheduled for publication on Friday, March 13, 2026!

Start submitting your summer camp horror stories now!

The deadline is December 5, 2025. Which gives you plenty of time to cook up a story that will knock our socks off!

Check out the graphic above to get the deets! Send us your Friday the 13th summer camp horror stories to get in on this!

NOTE: A tie-in to the movie is not required. No fan fiction, please.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

FUBAR: An Anthology of Tech Horror

Baynam Books Press is pleased to announce they are open to submissions for a new horror anthology:

FUBAR: An Anthology of Tech Horror

Send your stories of malfunctioning smartphones, attacking computers and killer Roombas!

We want them all!

This anthology is looking for horror stories of when good technology goes bad. Whether it’s a brain implant that turns its carrier into a monster, pacemakers that transform people into homicidal maniacs or a self-driving car on a highway to Hell, please send it our way!

Stories must be 2K-10K words

Reprints welcome!

No AI for writing your stories please — but you CAN use AI in your story!

No fan fiction.

Stories containing homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, CSA, as well as discrimination against the disabled and other marginalized communities will be rejected.

Deadline: August 22, 2025

Payment: One digital copy

Publication in December 2025. (Note: I mistakenly put 2026 in the last Substack. Sorry for the mistake!)

Send stories to Dawn at DMCWriter@gmail.com

What’s New at SPARREW?

Check out my interview with the writer, Francis H Powell, which was published in the June 2025 issue of the SPARREW Newsletter!

Read it here.

This Week’s Book Promo

Have you ever had second thoughts about throwing a perfectly good item away because you thought it could be repurposed into something else? If so, you had upcycling on the brain!

Hunter’s Upcycling Adventures is a children’s book about a 5-year-old boy who learns all about upcycling and has fun creating something new out of something old! Illustrated by Jennifer Wilson, this gentle introduction to upcycling for children is brimming with ideas on how to reduce waste and take recycling to a whole new level!

This book is available as both a print and ebook.

Here is an excerpt from this book.

Excerpt from

Hunter’s Upcycling Adventures

Copyright © 2013 by Dawn Colclasure

Hunter watched his mother carry a bunch of stuff to the recycle bins. She had something in her arms that looked like it could be recycled, but also used for something else, too, just the way it was. It was a toilet paper tube.

“Wait!” he said. He took the toilet paper tube and looked at it. It was clean and didn’t have any holes on it. “If I had two of these, I bet I could make binoculars!”

“That’s a great idea, Hunter,” his mother said. “And your idea has a name. It’s called ‘upcycling.’ It’s like recycling. You take things the way they are and turn them into something else.”

Hunter smiled at his mother. “Mom, I had fun recycling, but now I want to do some upcycling. I’ll start with these tubes and turn them into binoculars.”

Thanks for reading! See you next weekend!