Digital Dreamers, Inc.

The Site / Blog Combo

2012-02-02T12:25:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone. In case you haven't noticed, I've taken down my old website and routed all traffic from http://www.marcuspelegrimas.com/ here to my blog. Part of this change was to cut down on expenses, but most of it was just streamlining. Webmaster Steve did a GREAT job of making the site what it was and I enjoyed having it there. I just didn't have the time to devote to making it really great and felt that, instead of having it stagnate, I'd just consolidate the two sites into one that I could periodically tweak and update. That being said, I'll be looking into adding more stuff to this blog over the coming months.

I appreciate you all stopping by and PLEASE continue to check in with me over here. And let's all give it up for WEBMASTER STEVE!!! Great job, man! By the way WS, think you could advise me on tweaking this blog?

Never cared for fishing anyway

2012-01-23T12:21:00.001-06:00

Well, today sucks.

Had a bunch of proposals floating around at various publishers and some of the most promising got blown out of the water today. When optimism is bountiful within me, I like to refer to proposals as lines being cast into the water. Gotta get a nibble eventually, right? Well let me tell ya, there's a good reason why fishermen bring along a whole bunch of beer when they head out for the day. Cushions the blow. Gives you a reason you can count on as to why you're out there.

My first notion was to keep this news to myself. Who wants to hear me whine, right? Then again, this is what blogs are for. Also, this is a big part of just being a writer. Rejection. Big part of any artistic profession or something that involves putting a real piece of yourself out there. Happens to the best of us and for those of you seeking professional advice and want to be a writer, here's some. Grow a thick skin. I like to think I've got a fairly tough hide, but there are days when it feels thin as tissue paper. See...I couldn't even come up with a better analogy than thin tissue paper. I suck! Today is a rough one, but I soldier on.

I keep writing because, as a very good friend just reminded me, that's what I am. Days like this find me drifting between feeling terribly depressed and hissing at the world through gritted teeth that they'll be sorry. Oh yes. They'll come crawling back later and I'LL reject THEM. It'll be GLORIOUS!!! Bwa-ha-hah!!!! Yet another piece of true writer fact from A Christmas Story. Remember when Ralphie hands in his theme and he imagines his teacher fluttering her eyelashes and writing more A+++++++'s than the chalkboard could handle? That's pretty much how I feel when I send stuff out. And on days like this, I'm the little blind kid reveling in the notion that someday everyone else will feel bad for putting me into this lowly state. See why I seriously thought I should keep this crap to myself? Oy.

But this is what blogs are for. I'm venting and it feels good. This is pretty pathetic stuff but kind of funny and that's kind of entertaining to read. Also, I have a lot of folks write to me for advice on writing. This is a part of it, guys. Not a pretty part and definitely not a secret part. Anyone will tell you this stuff. I knew it going in and I've never forgotten it, but it still manages to sucker punch me every time it happens. I always truly think what I'm working on will be huge! That THIS ONE will lift me up so I can carry on with all my other projects. And when the suck kicks in, it's a surprise. This is why Charlie Brown keeps running after that football when everyone in the audience KNOWS Lucy will pull it away.

Today is a rough time, but it happens to all of us. Hopefully hearing that helps some of you other writers feel better when your sucky days come. You're not the only ones. For those of you who haven't had many sucky days and get nothing but good news from your agents / editors...well...I can't really relate to you and you probably have better things to do than relate to me. Heh. Misery loves company. It also loves Jim Beam. Take some solace in that on your rough days and then take a shot. Not too many shots, though. There's still writing to be done.

Silent Recuperations

2011-12-28T21:47:00.001-06:00

Things have been quiet around here lately. I suppose that's appropriate. A moment of silence after the bombs dropped in Book 6. Actually, I needed a few silent moments myself. It's been a long, strange year for a great many reasons. Most of those reasons aren't even interesting to me and I'm the one they've been happening to. Many of the reasons have been very interesting indeed, but not exactly the sorts of things I should talk about here. So where does that leave us? Mostly...with a blog that doesn't see a lot of action lately.

Heh.

To be honest, I try not to write here unless I've got SOMEthing to say. It's never earth shattering, but it's something rattling around inside my skull. The holiday season is upon us and I've been busy with that. Merry, merry all around. Whatever you celebrate, have a good one. Bills need to get paid and I've been fretting with that just like everyone else. Doesn't make for very interesting blogging apart from all the usual bullshit about decorations showing up too early and which classic stop-motion animation special is the best.

I haven't forgotten about those ebooks I promised. The first one is going through the editing wringer right now. I'm working with an artist to design a cover and once it's out there, I intend on following up with plenty more. Actually, the plan is for me to hit the ground running in 2012 where all the ebooks are concerned. After taking some quiet time to gather my strength, it's time to get off my ass, charge forward, and get the stories out there I've been dying to tell. Again, nothing earth cracking, but plenty of action and adventure and a hell of a lot of fun. That's what the storytelling business is all about, right? At least, that's the important part. Maybe now you can see why I was never much of a businessman. Honestly, I don't know how this first ebook will go over. There's really no way of telling. The concept is something I came up with and really enjoyed writing. I love the character and the world wound up feeling like a place I could play around in for a good, long time. Does that equal book sales and readers enjoying themselves?? I sure hope so. We'll see.

And of course there will be Skinners. After any big project, the last thing most writers / directors / creators want to do is dive right back into it again. I DID want to dive straight back into Skinners and I will. Taking this breather, however, was good and it was necessary. Gives me some distance and time to let things settle. The intention was always for the next book to take place a little ways after Book 6 so this helps me get into a solid Skinner mentality. More to come.

In other news, I just saw the trailer for the new Hobbit movie. Looks awesome, but I was hoping for a glimpse of Smaug. Are they still planning on stretching that out into 2 movies? I don't know. Also saw the new trailer for Dark Knight Rises. Looks pretty cool, but Joker and Two-Face are a tough act to follow. I'm sure it'll be great. So will The Avengers. In other geeky news, I'm still loving what I'm reading of DC Comics' New 52. Justice League has yet to disappoint and seeing Jonah Hex ride alongside Amadeus Arkham in All Star Western makes the Marcus Galloway part of my heart feel good.

So that's what I've been up to lately. Quiet, but winter is always kind of quiet. You know, like when you step outside after a good snow and the air is frozen and still. There's no quiet quite like that. It's nice. Something tells me once I get rolling again in the next month, I won't have many quiet days. That's nice too.

Fallout

2011-11-30T16:19:00.000-06:00

When I was writing Extinction Agenda, I knew I wanted it to be apocalyptic. Things in the Skinners world were never exactly cheery, but I wanted them to get pushed into a whole new realm when I made the transition from one story arc to another. As I discussed earlier, I decided to go along my intended route even after HarperCollins decided this would be the last Skinners book they would publish. What I had in mind for the next arc was cool, exciting and fell in line with all the groundwork I've been setting. To bring it all to a halt now would just feel wrong. Even so, some very important things do come to an end in this book. Just reading the title would tell you that much. For those of you who haven't read Extinction Agenda yet, I'll warn you there may be some spoilers coming up in the rest of this entry.

So...writing the end of Book 6 was difficult for me. VERY difficult. What happened in it, I feel, had to happen. It's the way the story played out when I conceived it and still feels right to me now. From the very start, I didn't want any of my characters to feel safe. Nothing bugs me more than main characters in any sort of fiction who walk away from every explosion, dust themselves off after every fight and survive every catastrophe simply because they're the main characters. Skinners, above all else, are warriors. In Book 1, one of their greatest was killed so he could pass the torch on to Cole. They've been dropping off like flies for centuries, partly because they're the nut-jobs who stand toe-to-toe with monsters and partly because they are in a VERY dangerous line of work. The sacrifice that was made at the end of Book 6 paves the way for the rest of the series. Those who were lost will NOT be forgotten. On the contrary, their memory will be carried throughout the rest of the books by everyone who was strong (and lucky) enough to have survived the events of Extinction Agenda.

That being said, and no matter how confident I felt in my choice or how well I think I portrayed those events on paper, I knew I would hear about it from readers. That's a good thing. It means you guys are out there reading my books and paying attention to what happens in them. I understand why some of you are upset. Honestly, I got broken up every time I had to read through that last scene. After all, I've been with these characters longer than anyone. Most of the responses I've heard have been good. Thanks for that. Some of you are mad and some are saying this is a crappy way to end the series. If I was ending the series here, I agree. This WOULD have been a crappy way to do it. It's not the end, though. Trust me. I'll write more Skinners books because, if for no other reason, I won't have it end this way. There's more story to tell and if you can believe anyone who says that, you can believe me.

Finally, what happened at the end of Book 6 was necessary. If everyone had come away free and clear after having retreated to fight another day, things would have been a WHOLE lot worse for the world in general. Since Skinners don't retreat (at least, not the Skinners who are the focus of the series), they had to charge into a fight against a purely destructive force. Having everyone walk away from that with just a few more scars and a wary chuckle didn't set well with me. Not only will the survivors return with the proverbial vengeance, but they will do their damndest to make sure every bad guy out there regrets the loss of those who didn't make it. Until now, the Skinners have been fractured and fighting with their backs in a corner. Now, they can become something more. Maybe something even scarier than the werewolves they fight. Nobody will forget about those who fell at the end of Book 6. I'll make sure of it.

Release Day #6

2011-10-25T19:19:00.000-05:00

And so Book 6 hits the shelves.
Hope all of you guys enjoy it.
Today was pretty quiet around here. As I mentioned before...no Borders to go to and sneak a peek at the shelves. Not even any big name bookstores within thirty miles (give or take). Strange. I kept my eye on Amazon sales for a little while, but I'll go nutso if I get too wrapped up in that. So far, so good though! Already, my brain is churning with where to take the series next. I've already mentioned on this blog about my plans to go the ebook route. With that new Kindle Fire coming out, this could be the perfect time for it. Even without a new device, it seems ebooks have more than made their presence known.

So get out there and buy the book. Read it. Let me know what you think. Can't wait to hear from ya!

Odds & Ends

2011-10-23T15:37:00.000-05:00

These last few weeks have been strange. I've been working on some older projects, some ghostwriting (a guy's gotta pay the bills) as well as some new projects. The new projects include a few steampunk offerings, two of which are with editors in NY and others are going straight to ebook format. The first draft of one series is completed and I'm liking it a lot. It's pure adventure with plenty of retro sci-fi goodness thrown in that was a ton of fun to write. Thank God for ebooks because this series would never make it past the editors wondering "How does THIS tap the marketplace that reads [insert some other currently popular series here]?" Sink or swim, I'll finally be able to write the stuff I've wanted to write. Hopefully you guys will think it's just as fun to read as it was to create. More details as they come along.

Also, I've been into some new video games. Arkham City is a big one, but I'm also well entrenched in Gears of War 3. Both are awesome games that make me wish I could chuck everything else and just play. Some of that time is taken up by reading comic books. I'm still loving most of DC's New 52. At the top of my list are Justice League, Animal Man, Aquaman and Deathstroke. Aquaman???? Yes, I'm loving Aquaman. It does a great job of making him cool while also acknowledging how un-cool he's been for so very long. "So," one reporter asks Aquaman in issue #1, "how does it feel to be NOBODY'S favorite super hero?" Niiiiice.

Tuesday, Extinction Agenda is released. Since Borders has closed up, I really don't have anywhere to go to check shelves around here on release day. You guys will have to let me know if you spot them out and about. I know I've said I gave up on checking the shelves on previous release days, but who am I kidding? I go out to have a look and everyone knows it. After some of the editing blunders that made it through the process of putting Book 5 together, I'm a little nervous about that aspect as well. I tried my damndest (as I always do) on Book 6 and even enlisted some extra help, but I'm sure there will be flubs here and there. In my own defense, my books aren't the only ones with crap like that in them. All I can say is oh well. I write to provide a fun experience for the readers and hopefully that's what they are.

This last year or two have been one hell of a roller coaster ride for a great many reasons. Many are personal, including my move out to West Virginia. That's been fun getting used to a whole new part of the country. I've always been a Midwestern boy, but am liking it out here just fine. Also, the entire publishing industry has been tossed on its ear lately. I've already mentioned ebooks, but there's also been the loss of some big name retailers along with the looming arrival of game changers like the new Kindle Fire. A Kindle with some snazzy tablet computer functionality combined?? Sign me up! This thing looks to be huge and even if it flops, ebooks aren't going anywhere anytime soon. These kinds of things have scared the shit out of most everyone in the writing / publishing industry because they represent such humongous changes. My hope is to keep getting my stories out there so they can be enjoyed. Who knows? Maybe I'll even be able to get MORE stuff out there!

Anyway, look for Extinction Agenda on shelves or online starting October 25th!! Let me know what you think and I'll let you know what's next as soon as I have some definite news to share. Trust me, I'll be sending some cool stuff your way.

Old Habits Die Hard

2011-09-15T13:22:00.002-05:00

As anyone who even dabbles in comic collecting can tell you, DC has relaunched all of their titles and reset everything to #1. I, like many people, thought it was a marketing gimmick. On the other hand, I've been wanting to dive in to DC for a long time, but have always gotten lost in the mire of storylines, history and references that come along with characters that have been around for 50+ years. I know my Batman and Lobo well enough, but as much as I want to really dig in to titles like The Flash or Green Lantern, I get left behind when I realize I have no clue who these bad guys are or what's so monumental about what they're saying / doing. DC relaunch? Hmmm. Sounded interesting, but I was skeptical. I figured, just give it a few issues and they'll start referring back to shit that happened 16 years ago.

I've always been more of a Marvel guy. Spidey got me into comics when I was a kid and Punisher drew me back in when I was in high school. Marvel answered back to DC's move by relaunching all their Ultimate titles, but I'm just not interested in anything but The Ultimates and maybe Hawkeye. That leaves new Spider-Man and X-Men in the dust. Wha-HUH????

So I read Justice League #1. I loved it from the first panel. Awesome art. Great interaction between Batman and GL. Amazing run-in with Superman that leads to the inevitable Bat / Supe fight next issue. I've heard plenty of bitching form the DC fans already. The cool part is, I seriously AM jumping on right now after being put off by the dozens of layers of back story which contradicts itself anyway. See also: X-Men. My mind is a clean slate (as always) and so far these reboots are making me excited for DC stuff! Superpowered beings are looked at with suspicion and hunted by the Army / authorities. Last night, I read Men of War which looks like it'll be showing that fight from a soldier's perspective and that soldier is SGT. ROCK!! For some unknown reason, I was pumped to read a title called Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE. Ok. Not really a strange reason. A bizarre comic with monsters shooting and ripping folks apart led by f'ing FRANKENSTEIN. Actually, it's Frankenstein's MONSTER, but I won't pick.

This is the biggest point. I read comics for over-the-top, escapist fiction complimented by great art. I'm not into the black-and-white graphic novels focusing on someone's spiral into depression or their lovelife (which usually leads to a spiralling depression) and I'm not interested in tearing everything down as an analogy for life. You like that kind of thing? Fine. Enjoy. Give me monster armies and people with super powers any day. For anyone who's read SKINNERS, this should be no revelation about my psyche. Say what you want about how the new DC titles fit into existing history. To me, it feels fresh and most importantly FUN! Marvel's, on the other hand, seem like more of the same.

Seriously, if I have to read one more time about how sad and picked on the mutants feel before Prof. X or whoever bands them together, I'll gag. They killed off the original Ultimate Spider-Man and now there's some new kid who will just happen to get the SAME powers that Peter Parker got BY ACCIDENT? I was there for the first reboot when Marvel launched their Ultimate titles in the first place. I loved them then and love them now. ANOTHER reboot?? ANOTHER kid gets to swing about joyously until he learns about responsibility? Next thing you know, there'll be yet ANOTHER X-Men storyline where someone develops a "cure" for mutations.
Some random mutant who's brooding: "Don't you want to be NORMAL? This (fill in the blank treatment) will give us our normal life back. It will cure us all!!"
Some other mutant: "Being a mutant isn't a DISEASE!!! (tear rolls down their cheek) It's who we are."

Maybe this is the same sort of bitching that longtime DC people are saying about this reboot. I guess the Marvel ones seem stale because I've been with Marvel for as long as I've read comics. Have I given up on Marvel? Hell no! Have I jumped onto this DC bandwagon? For now...hell YES! So far, I like what I see. It's cool, well written / drawn, and fun. That's all I want in my comics. It's a win-win situation for me as well as the dude who runs my local comic shop.

One little caveat to my Marvel rant: I went to the comic store after having talked myself into taking the higher road and letting that new Ultimate Spider-Man swing right by me. Then I saw there was only one more issue of #1 on the shelf and it was in a cool plastic cover. Just ONE LEFT!! Maybe I should at least read the first issue before I complain. Give Spidey a chance. I bought the damn thing, but haven't read it yet. I think that comic shop dude saw me coming and hid all but one of those Ultimate Spideys. Evil freaking genius. Ultimate X-Men #1 will NOT suck me in!!!!

Stuff, stuff and MORE STUFF!!!!

2011-08-29T16:57:00.000-05:00

I'm noticing a trend in TV shows lately. NOT the idiot reality stars who are famous just for being stupid and obnoxious. I mean the junk shows. You know...American Pickers, Pawn Stars, Auction Hunters, Hoarders and all of the many variants of each show. Maybe it's a sign of the troubled economy. Remember back in the days when we would watch shows about rich people? Were we living vicariously through them? Waiting for them to fail? Idolizing their houses? That was back in the 80s or so. Then came the shows about average people. The Real Worlds, Survivor, Big Brother, American Idol and all the countless derivations of those. We were (supposedly) watching real people trying to score big somehow. Or watching them fight for a moment in the spotlight, trying to be stars. Whatever.

Then along came the junk shows. To be honest, I watch American Pickers, the pawn shop shows and all those ones where they bid on abandoned storage units without really knowing WHY I'm watching them! I seriously get a thrill when someone turns over an old cooler in one of those units to find a gun case. Hey! Guns are valuable!! Yay!! Pawn Stars is cool because there's the historical stuff or just the weird crap that comes through those doors. Hardcore Pawn is about some huge shop in Detroit run by a guy who looks every bit like the stereotypical guy you would imagine who runs a big pawn shop in Detroit; slicked back hair, gold chains and all. That place gets mostly jewelry and fur coats like you would expect, but the people are always fighting and it's fun to watch.

And then there's Hoarders. That's just about houses that are filled with garbage! I sit and watch the people explain why they need their garbage piled around them, watch as the therapists try to talk them out of their garbage piles and watch as the cleaning crew scoops out their garbage with shovels (always in the span of two days). Hoarding is a mental disorder. I get that. I'm not making fun of them. I'm wondering why I'm watching them. Alcoholism and mental retardation are disorders and yet we don't watch those people. Are the Kardashians still on the air? Jersey Shore? Ok. Well I don't watch those.

I've actually sat and wondered why I'm so fascinated with Hoarders. It's a popular show, so I'm not the only one watching. Maybe it's because the shows are about some degree of order coming from chaos. But, I like chaos. That can't be it. Maybe it's about people facing their inner demons. No. I like demons too. Seriously, though, if I was into personal tragedy, I'd also be into shows like Intervention and My Weirdest Addiction or whatever that show is where the lady eats rocks. Look it up.

I think it's a sign of the times. Things are tough right now and lots of us just don't have it in us to watch a game show and believe something like that could happen to us. Personally, I sure as hell don't want to spend my nights watching rich people in their big houses being all...rich. So, I watch shows about junk. I watch people buying it, gathering it, pawning it and eventually traveling across the country to pick through yards of it so they can sell it to someone else. I can relate to junk. I can afford some junk of my own. It's nice to see people digging out from their junk and moving on...or selling it. Maybe I could sell some stuff! See, THERE'S a dream that can actually happen!!

Maybe that's it. Or maybe TV shows just suck nowadays. Times are rough.

GR2

2011-08-24T19:25:00.000-05:00

I know the first one got mixed reviews, but I thought it was fun. This looks pretty cool!

Such predicaments...we must forge ahead!

2011-08-08T13:18:00.000-05:00

The moment I got my copy of The Breaking, I was happy. No matter how many books I've written, it's still a thrill to see the finished product. It's even cool to see the ones I've ghost written without my name (or even my own pseudonym) anywhere on the covers. Skinners has always been something special for me. They're the books that I've ALWAYS wanted to write. Sure, they were released in a time when the greater reading public wanted their vampires cute, cuddly and brooding. And sure, the majority of folks looking for Urban Fantasy wanted werewolves to be ripped, sexy and...well...brooding. That's the way it goes. I was just glad to be in the mix and I've always been beyond grateful to the readers who've enjoyed what I've had to offer. All of that rushed through my head as I flipped through The Breaking and lasted right until the preview page. "The final book in the Skinners saga"??? Oy.

Here's the deal. EOS Books (now Harper Voyager) has been great. The covers have been great. The books have been out there on all the major shelves. Some ads showed up in major magazines. My editor gave me free reign to take the series wherever I wanted it to go. Most importantly, EOS gave Skinners a chance when so many others had rejected it for whatever reasons. When it came time to renew the option for more books in the series, they passed. It was a business decision, I'm sure. If Skinners was a New York Times Bestseller, it would say so on the cover. It doesn't. Them's the breaks. I poured a lot of blood, sweat and tears into them and think they're pretty damn cool. I don't know all the money figures (the bean counters don't share everything with me just because I'm the writer) so I guess EOS decided to move on to something else. I found out about this a while ago and have been trying to convince EOS to change their mind or shop Skinners around to another publisher. I kept it quiet because I didn't want it to stir anything up with you guys.

Now, by that I don't mean there's been this big backlash or panic. I just wanted the transition from one place to another to be relatively seamless. It's about the story, not the publisher. Like I said, I'm no business guy. And that transition brings me to my next big point. There will be more Skinners. Perhaps you've noticed my current fascination with ebooks? Well, I see that as a great way for writers to take control back, write what they want and put it out there to sink or swim. I'm about to turn in my Dead Man book (Which I mentioned in earlier posts. Definitely check that series out if you haven't already.) and have been starting a new project of my own that will be an ebook exclusive series. It's an idea that's been kicking around in the back of my head for some time and I literally just started writing the initial groundwork last night. When I have some more of it pieced together, I'll post about it here. I'm even working on a website with a few other authors so we can all do our own ebook exclusives and give readers one spot to come and see what we have to offer.

Sounds exciting, right? A little scary for me, to be honest. Working with a contract and advance money is a nice way to go for someone who doesn't have a day job. This doesn't mean the picture is bleak. I've got plenty of other projects with several different publishers and things are looking really good on a few different fronts. I've always had a scattered mind, which means there's a TON of stories rolling around in my noggin. The process of working with big publishers (even when things are looking good) is a slow one. As I wait for those to bear fruit, however, I've decided to take my destiny into my own hands and strike out for myself. Because of this, I can tell you for certain (as I've been saying this whole time) that there WILL be more Skinners.

I knew EOS had passed on the series when I was working on Book 6. I've always dealt with Skinners as an ongoing world with story arcs covering each contract. That way, I would know I had so many books to wrap up an arc without bringing the entire thing to an end. One of my favorite things about Skinners is watching its world and characters evolve. Some is for better for the characters and some is for worse, but the world moves on. Rather than change my plans for the overarching story so Book 6 truly was the final one, I wrote it as if there was still another contract. That way, the story is what I truly wanted and not what I clipped and twisted around to fit the circumstances. The way I ended Book 6 is definitely the end of that story arc and paves the way for the next one. There are MAJOR changes with the Skinners world and I'm excited to continue the story in a new format. If I get an offer in the meantime from a big publisher...great! If not, the show will go on. I will still write the stories with all of the care and effort I put into the first 6. It's still my world, they're still my characters and I won't do anything to make any of them less than what they were. They will still go through hell (after all...they ARE Skinners) but the story is mine and I'll tell it the best way I know.

So there you go. Book 6 comes out in October and I love it. Hope you guys do as well. In the meantime, I'll be informing you about my new series (plural, mind you) and tell you when you can expect the next Skinners and how you can get it. My other projects include science fiction, adventure, and steampunk. Hope you guys come along for those as well because they're gonna kick ass. The website I talked about will be up and running early in 2012, but I'll put my first ebook offering into the various online marketplaces as soon as it's ready (which should be sometime in the fall or early winter of this year).

Change is good. There are great things on the horizon. I'm excited (and still a little scared...but in a good way) about branching off on my own and in new directions. But that's what life is all about. The path that's easy to walk usually doesn't take you anywhere worth visiting.

Boot to the Head

2011-08-01T15:31:00.000-05:00

Day 1,479 of being without the main TV in my life.
Ok...maybe it hasn't been that long, but it sure as hell feels like it! The lamp in my cool hi-def TV burnt out, so it's been waiting for repairs. Had to go back and forth with Panasonic, get them to honor the warranty without a receipt (since I threw it away without knowing they'd EXTENDED the warranty for my model), find a repair guy, get him to take the TV away, wait for the part to be ordered and now wait for it to be brought back. Hooking up my games and crap to an older TV has been a pain in the ass for no good reason, which means I haven't even been on XBox Live for weeks. ARGH!!!! Sure, this stuff isn't essential for survival but it sucks to be without it.

No hi-def graphics on my games. No Blu Ray movies. No surround sound system. Damn near had to go back to a freaking VHS player just because I didn't want to move my living room into the guest room. It'll be ok. I just don't get out much so this stings.

Been going to Borders to try and take advantage of those Going Out Of Business sales. The cafe was all shut down and the chairs were up on the tables. That was even more of a depressing sight than the shelves which all now look like they've been randomly jumbled. I saw a trade paperback I wanted, checked to see if I already had it on Kindle. I didn't, but I also found the ebook version was $8 less than the SALE price of the book store copy. I bought the Kindle version, feeling like I was putting my foot on top of Borders's head and shoving it even further beneath the water. Strange days for the publishing industry.

Saw Captain America. Although I don' t agree with the folks who call it the "best comic book movie ever", it was pretty great. Red Skull looked perfect and the treat at the end of the credits nearly made me mess my pants with geek delight.

Don't think they need to reboot just yet, but this still looks pretty damn cool!

2011-07-21T00:04:00.000-05:00

Check out this great MSN video: 'The Amazing Spider-Man' Trailer

Breaking Borders

2011-07-19T23:01:00.000-05:00

I know everyone even vaguely connected to the publishing industry has been commenting on losing Borders, but I feel like I have to say something as well. My initial reaction is, like many of you, that this is undeniably shitty news. I've always loved going into Borders, smelling the coffee, having a warm drink in the winter and perusing the shelves. I've had plenty of great (and not so great) signings at my local stores and they've always been very accommodating. I love seeing the books on the shelves, the whole sensory experience. Having some of these places taken away before was tough. Having ALL of them disappear now is brutal!

There have been rumblings about this happening for a while now. I'm no economist and have no clue how this crap works. I seldom have enough money to get through my own meager existence, so why would I make it my business to know how millions or billions of dollars flow back and forth? As a consumer, though, there's been this lazy sort of "we'll always be here" attitude with big book stores and publishers alike. Both just seem to do the minimum amount of work and know the people will come back because where the hell else would they go? It was the same attitude with video stores like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. I know not all of these places stank and I know good people work(ed) there. I was one of them! I'm talking big picture here and those video rental places had bad prices, shitty customer care, policies that screwed customers and any number of little things that companies put into action when they know they've got ya. Then along comes Netflix. They nailed it and stuck it to the video stores. If the stores can't compete, they need to step up or step aside. That's the cruelty of Capitalism. Now, we've recently seen how Netflix decided to tighten the screws to their customers because they got us. Their time will come unless they treat the customers right.

Borders never treated me badly. Like I said, I love the places. As an industry, though, it's easy to see how they're getting it handed to them by ebooks and smaller presses. More and more, I'm seeing quality books on my Kindle that are written with love and would NEVER have made it past a bored NY editor's desk simply because it's not like something else that's selling like hotcakes. As a reader, I crave uniqueness and that's been tough to find lately. As a writer, I want to write unique things and believe me, it's an uphill climb. I'm definitely not the only one in this camp and when I see ebooks about giant crab monsters, superheroes, or something other than the four or five flavors of the month on shelves, I smile. So many of these books are written with love by authors who just want to have fun at work again. That benefits the readers too! Big stores are still looking for something that's LIKE something else. This lazy attitude was shown nicely a year or two ago when I went to a store (yes, it was Borders) and there was a shelf with the newest Sookie Stackhouse book on it. It said, "If you like Charlaine Harris...TRY THESE". Know what was on it? MORE Charlaine Harris!!! I've got nothing against Miss Harris or her books. This just shows the limited scope of an industry that should be about imagination and creativity.

I go to conventions and hear debates on which vampires aren't realistic enough or about conservation of mass in shapeshifters. This just makes me sad. It makes me wonder what future there is for writers when we can't even play with mythological beings. Then I see a fresh crop of ebooks put out there by authors who just want to write what they love or see turns in genre like steampunk and I smile again. There is freshness to be had, but it's been awfully hard to find in bigger stores.

Of course I also know that plenty of ebooks are crap. At least they're trying, though. There's money to be made and I'm sure the big publishers will step up to find a way to exploit it more than they are now. Plenty of others have said it and I agree: this isn't a bad thing. The publishing / professional editing process weeds out a lot of garbage. It's made me a better writer. Now if only they'd allow writers to flex their creative muscle a bit more. There's nothing wrong with writing pulp-style books, even if they're not big sellers. Good ideas don't happen because the ad execs in New York get a bug up their ass to drive zombies or whatever else into the ground for a while. If someone who loves their sub-genre wants to write about zombies or whatever else the big topic may be and they have a cool idea, LET THEM DO IT!!!! With the old system, they would have to wait for lightning to strike to get the book published and then MORE lightning to strike for a big store to actually put some work into selling them. Now, with ebooks, we're all on more equal ground.

I'm giving it a go as we speak. There are ideas that have been kicking around in the back of my head that I haven't been able to sell because of the market or an editor having a bad day or projected sales figures or whatever else. Now, I get to write the damn thing, put it out there and see if it'll fly. The ebook market is MILES ahead of where self published books used to be even a few years ago and authors in my same boat feel like we've got a real shot. Maybe my ideas never went anywhere because they suck. Maybe nobody wants to read them after all. There's one way to find out. At least they'll be out there giving it a go.
I'm a writer. I want to write.

Times are changing. If it was up to me, Borders would still be in business. It's not. I've taken my share of hits over the last couple of years as well and we all need to roll with the punches. I think ebooks are a roll in the right direction. Don't forget, this is America. If a business tries hard enough and adapts, it will be back.

Bloody Summer

2011-07-07T13:19:00.000-05:00

This has been a very patriotic few days. That's par for the course considering the holiday and all, but my last July 4th was a lot less...well...just a lot less. Back then, I spent my holiday weekend working on a manuscript, listening for the occasional pops outside my apartment, poking my nose out to see some distant flashes and then going back to work. This year, I did the whole cookout / fireworks combo and it was a lot of fun! I also indulged in my usual Independence Day movie treat which was...you guessed it...Independence Day!! That film may be flawed in some pretty serious ways, but it's still a lot of fun. Definitely one of the ultimate mindless summer blockbusters. Love it.

I also recently watched Sucker Punch. This one had me intrigued the moment I saw previews with dragons fighting biplanes and demon Samurais weilding chain guns. At the very least, it was a prime piece of eye candy (and I mean beyond the young girls dressed in every fantasy piece of clothing from schoolgirl to warrior woman). VERY cool on Blu Ray. As far as more recent flicks, I'm anxiously awaiting Captian America and Cowboys & Aliens. After that, it's hibernation time again.

Been playing Portal 2 and even dug up a game from a few years ago called Dark Void. The latter has an Indiana Jones meets Rocketeer vibe. I'm liking it, despite the noticable lack of Jennifer Connelly in that amazing white dress. Hubba hubba!! I can still remember the day young Marcus was in a movie theater and "sat up to take notice" of that scene. Too much info? Oh well. Dark Void is cool so far and definitely enjoyable. Portal 2 is simply brilliant, however. Just about every other line of dialogue has me laughing and the game simply rocks. But...no Jennifer Connelly. What the hell is wrong with games these days??

I'm working on my installment of the Dead Man series of ebooks. After that, I'll be dipping my toe further into the ebook pond by writing an original to be released independantly. That should be a fun experiment! I get to just have an idea, write it up and put it out there to see if it flies. Lots of writers are jumping on this train and for good reason. It's very appealing to be able to get something out there without jumping through all the usual hoops. Could be an amazing venture. However it turns out, it should be exciting! I'm working with a few other writers to put together a central website hub for all of our works to be displayed. Something should be coming to fruition within the next few months, so I'll keep you posted. Hopefully, you guys will like what you read!

I'm off to donate blood now. Haven't done this for some time, mainly due to all the tattoos I've been getting. I should probably eat something and have something to drink first. Either that, or I can go in empty and enjoy that delightful swirly feeling of near-unconsciousness followed by total unconsciousness. Ok...maybe I'll have a sandwich.

Busy busy!

2011-06-30T13:49:00.000-05:00

Putting the final tweaks on SKINNERS 6. That doesn't mean I've caught every last mistake. After all, with so much awesomeness distracting my attention, some things are bound to slip through. If you'd like to know where I got my swelled head, click here to take a look at this AMAZING article that just appeared on the Barnes & Noble Book Club page about Skinners! Many thanks to Paul for bringing a much-needed smile during a hectic time.

Book 5 seems to be doing pretty well. I've abandoned the practice of checking in on sales figures and such. If they're good, I'll hear about it eventually and if they're bad, I don't wanna know. I'll keep doing my thing, always trying to do my best no matter what. Is that healthy? I don't know. I'm the guy who eats Ramen noodles most of the time for lunch and blew my load at the very sight of Brownie Crunch Cocoa Puffs. Those are pretty good, but not as good as the normal Cocoa Puffs, in case you were wondering. Anyway, I know my "don't ask, don't check reviews" policy works well enough. When I was keeping on top of it, I nearly drove myself into a heart attack.

The next project I'm working on is an installment in the Dead Man series of ebooks. These things are great! Very reminiscent of the slam-bang, hit hard and hit fast sort of books that I read growing up. The Executioner, Remo Williams, all that great stuff. Ebooks make them a lot easier to find, buy and read. Still madly in love with my Kindle, just to be clear. Heh. Not sure when my Dead Man book will be out, but the newest one is Blood Mesa by James Reasoner. The Kindle version can be found here and the Nook version here. Check 'em out!

So there's my update. Talk to you in a bit...

2011-06-27T11:25:00.000-05:00

After the snafu mentioned earlier, I've decided to hire a new editor. Hopefully she catches some of this stuff that I might have missed.

She takes excessive breaks to "check her messages", but I can tell she's playing with a squeaky toy. At least she's cute.

It ain't easy being gr...wait...green with envy? Eh, to hell with it.

2011-06-20T13:01:00.001-05:00

Yes, I read comics although it's become an expensive habit and I've fallen way behind. (see previous blog posts). Yes, I know some stuff about Green Lantern. No, I don't know everything. For GL trivia or lore, I always go to Webmaster Steve and even then it's a tangled mess of characters, deaths, rebirths, villains, changing alliances, etc. That's pretty much the case with any long-running comic series. With all of that said, I do like GL but have always found him to be kinda hokey. Don't get me wrong, hokey isn't a bad thing. In this case, it's more of a hokeyness harkening back to what makes kids like comic books in the first place. A lot of that stuff is hokey. Superman can do anything and wears a blue and red suit. Spider-Man sticks to stuff and wears a blue and red suit. What's the deal with blue and red?? The Flash goes really fast. Red and yellow. Green Lantern creates things with his ring. No blue and red to be found. At least he's not a slave to fashion.

When GL wants to punch someone, he makes a giant boxing glove. Somebody's falling? He catches them with a big hand or makes a giant mattress or something to break their fall. Again, this is just based on the limited amount of GL I've read throughout the years. Webmaster Steve has pointed out all the coolness to the character such as the awesome science fiction elements and the many other ways the ring is creatively used. I was convinced! I wanted to get into the books, but have yet to find a good diving-in point that doesn't get me lost in all the characters / bad guys I know nothing about. Still, from offerings like Blackest Night or Green Lantern: Rebirth, the character is a lot cooler than I'd previously thought.

So I went to see the new Green Lantern movie. I've heard bad stuff and good stuff about it. Most of the bad stuff sounds like it either comes from people who knew nothing about GL and found it too hokey or those who know everything about him and were disappointed by the condensed movie version. Personally, I thought the movie was AWESOME! It had a good amount of hokeyness (GL making giant springs to lift something or hit someone with the good ol' enormous fist) to be fun and perfectly retained the shiny, sparkling, "gee whizz" feel where all the science fiction elements were concerned. It felt like a comic book and I loved it. Seeing it in 3D was amazing!! I've become a fan of GL since Steve's big push to get me on board during the Blackest Night crossovers a few summers ago. Black Lanterns creating zombies of dead DC characters? Cool! That was the same summer as Marvel's Dark Reign crossover, which made for a dark summer. Awesome, but dark. I like dark.

I also saw X-Men: First Class. Like a lot of other people, I wasn't going in with very high hopes. After X3 and the Wolverine movie, (which I didn't hate as much as most, simply because I thought it was just a fun spectacle) the X movies seemed to have been tossed aside by quality film makers for some reason. As for total accuracy to the comics, let's face it, there is no possible way for ANY movie to get X-Men stuff accurate any longer. The comic story lines are so twisted up and feeding back on themselves that it takes several crossover events to make any of them fall in like with each other. The most a movie can hope to do is show the characters being true to themselves and adventuring in their own way. Did the Wolverine movie do that? I think so, more or less. Was it a great movie? Eh, it's fun to watch.

I love seeing Magneto doing his thang in any of the movies. He's just a great character with a power that looks freaking great on screen. And going back to the whole hokey thing, there simply isn't a way to see Beast in his full blue & furry form without him looking funny at first. That's the way Beast looks, though, and I got used to it. I'm WAY behind on X-Men comics, having given them up after not buying them for a while. Jumping back in is like flipping on a soap opera after it's been rolling for decades and expecting to know exactly why each character is mad at another. Because of that, I may have missed out on why Angel wasn't only a woman in First Class but that she had insect wings instead of feathery ones. Is that a new Angel from the books or just something for the movie? Hang on...I'll Google it and see.......

OH!! She's not THE Angel. She's Angel Salvadore aka Tempest. Told you I was behind on all my X-Men stuff. I've read plenty of the books, but was always more of a lone hero sort of fan. Spidey, Punisher, Moon Knight, Batman, that sort of thing. Where teams were concerned, it's pretty much Avengers for me. Anyway, I still thought the insect Angel was cool too. It was also great to see Banshee in something other than the cartoons.

So now that I've seen these two plus Thor (did I talk about Thor yet? Also loved it. Damn, I seem easy to please. Oh well. Better that than my normal grumpy self) that still leaves Captain America and Cowboys & Aliens to scratch my comic book movie itch. Haven't been to theaters this many times for quite a while! Looks like I'll have popcorn stuck in my teeth all summer long.

DOH!!!!!!!

2011-06-19T12:37:00.001-05:00

Let me preface this by saying I DO pay attention when I'm editing my books. Skinners, especially, are a labor of love. Make no mistake, however, they ARE a labor. I created the series as a way to fashion a world full of cool monsters that I've always wanted to see. I wanted events to go from one book to another like a camera panning out farther and farther to show more and more of this world. By the time I got to #s 5 and 6, I realized how smart other series' authors are for keeping their urban fantasy squarely within the context of secret societies that only occasionally fracture the real world or having society being more or less ok with monsters among them. I didn't. I wanted Skinners to evolve into something bigger. Tough job and sometimes people pay the price.

Or...they pay the price, rise from the dead and pay it again.

A reader on the B & N discussion board (found here if you haven't already checked it out) found a glitch in The Breaking where someone was killed and was still feeling good enough to fire a shot on the following page. I must explain. In my epic, evolving world of Skinners, my characters are beyond such restraints as "going limp" or "losing command of their bodily functions" or "staying down" when they're killed. They're tougher than that. Cooler. Or...I screwed up in editing.

Someone else has emailed me about it and all I can say is... ooopsy. Editing those action scenes is rough and a lot of times, chunks get moved around. When that happens, it's like fixing a car. Pieces are taken out and when some are put into another spot, they must be welded so as to work seamlessly within the whole. Sometimes there's a rattle. Unfortunately, this car is off the production lines and on store shelves, never to be repaired again.

Too funny. I just gotta shrug. So does my main editor at EOS, my copyeditor and the other editor who went through the manuscript before it was sent to the presses. Where were you guys?? I thought you had my back!! Oh well. Happens to the best of us. In a fashion similar to how Lucas references his stormtrooper that clunks his head on that doorway in Episode IV, I can also reference my temporarily undead dude in future volumes. And speaking of Star Wars glitches....how come Jango Fett's head doesn't fall out of his helmet when Boba picks it up for that disturbing / touching moment in Episode II? Not trying to put my books in the Star Wars category. I was just wondering about that.

The wrong O word

2011-06-12T12:33:00.001-05:00

Well, once again, South Park has knocked it out of the park. Ha. PARK. Didn't even mean to do that one. Their recent episode was about how everything starts sounding like / resembling shit after you hit a certain age. This is something that happened a while ago for me, but I've tried to ignore it. Sometimes I get cranky (ok..cranky-ER) but most of the times I go into newer stuff wanting to like it. Movies, TV shows, whatever. If I'm not trying to like something, I should just curl up into a ball and gripe. More often than I care to admit, this burns me.

It starts with music (as it did in South Park). Then comes everything else. My first encounter with this was MTV. I was a kid when it first hit cable and can clearly recall all the music videos as well as quality programming like Remote Control, The Young Ones, and the first few seasons of The Real World. I was going to college during the Beavis & Butthead years. In fact, I still suspect there was a camera hidden in the apartment I shared with my college roommate for Mike Judge to get inspiration for that show. FYI, my roommate and I switched off on who was Beavis and who was Butt-Head. Then came the decline (as illustrated by the rest of The Real World. That show is STILL on?? How much of the same angst can we watch??)

So, fine. MTV is for young audiences and I'm not young. I get it. I'm still kind of cool right? I did win a radio contest for a trip to attend the 1998 MTV VMAs. That's pretty cool! I was in the same building as Madonna and Marilyn Manson, for crap's sake! Personally, the Movie Awards were always my favorite. The last few years, they've devolved into the MTV Twilight Awards. So that's what the kids are watching. Great. Let 'em have it. I heard there was going to be a remake of Teen Wolf and my mind drifted back to the awesome movies. "GIVE ME...a keg...of BEER." Juvenile justice at the hands of gypsy curses. SWEET! I watched about five minutes of the new version and it was more angsty teens trying to be sexy and witty. And really, what the hell was I expecting?? The second half of this clip from The Soup pretty much sums it up. The first half is funny as well. I love this show (The Soup...not Teen Wolf)

Ugh.

So I'm old. This is yet another reminder. Whatever. Sometimes curling up in that ball is fun. Griping is fun too. I think I'll even start that as a new label for blog posts. Now, in order to pay my rent, I need to try and come up with a poignant, "edgy" yet sexy, socially conscious young character as well as a bunch of cute supernatural circumstances that amount to other characters looking even sexier and becoming even more sharp-witted. Let the zaniness ensue. Oh, and I can't forget the sweetie-pie nicknames for those supposedly horrific creatures. I'll jam those in with the 587,649th way to reference "that time of the month" when talking about a werewolf's transformation during the full moon. And you guys wonder why I take such pleasure in setting the Full Bloods loose in Book 5? Heh. Sweet catharsis.

Discuss-shawn

2011-06-02T17:30:00.000-05:00

Did that title sound like the old Cajun Guy from SNL? Anyway, I meant Discussion. Get it? Ok, too far for a little joke. Anyway...The Breaking is one of June's Featured books over at the Barnes & Noble Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Book Club board. Click here to head on over and join the discussion. I try to check in frequently so don't leave me hangin'!

Get Broken!!

2011-06-01T11:09:00.003-05:00

For some reason, I was convinced that Skinners 5 was going to be released at the end of LAST month. I was even telling people, "Check it out at the end of April!" like some kind of moron. Once I realized that was wrong, I forgot about it almost completely. Every now and then I'd mention something on Facebook, but then I'd go back to having to check the back of a promo cover for the actual release date. Well, no more of that because THE BREAKING is finally on store shelves!!

WOO HOO!!!!

This is one of the longest books I've ever written. Not such a landmark in itself, but there you go. There's a lot going on in this one and I think it's all pretty damn cool. I introduce some new creatures, some new Full Bloods, some new chaos into the world we all thought we knew, and you get to witness me unleashing my whole "what-if" wish fulfillment where monsters are concerned. It gets ugly, folks, but in a great way.

The UPS guy just showed up at my door with a box of new Skinners. This is the first time I've seen the actual finished book. Funny because some of you guys got to see it before me! I'll be digging in to my promotional attempts, but I wish I was better at that part. If I could just write new stuff and get it out there without worrying about PR, I'd be happy. I love this sort of thing as well as talking / emailing with readers, but the more official stuff isn't my thang. It's all part of the job, so I soldier on. Honestly, I feel bad sometimes for just talking about my books and harping on the titles, availability and all of that stuff. Stupid, but it's true. Most of that might come from an intrinsic belief that people don't care about what I say. The stories are one thing, but the rest.... Whether that's true or not, it makes it seem odd for me to get out there and promote as if anyone's listening. Welcome to my brain. Population: 87 (1 "eccentric" introvert and 86 other radically different voices that won't stop chattering about nonsense and evil plans).

In other release news, I hope you all have been checking out the Dead Man series of ebooks. The new one (The Dead Woman) is released today and you can get it on Kindle here or Nook here. The basics...
THE DEAD WOMAN is BOOK #4 in THE DEAD MAN saga, the action/horror series that readers and book critics alike are hailing as "an epic tale" that compares to the best of Stephen King and Dean Koontz...Matt Cahill thought he was alone with his torment, that he was the only one who could see the evil in people’s souls as rotting flesh. But in a small town in Tennessee, terrorized by a vicious serial killer, Matt meets a woman who may see what he does…and together they must confront a horrific and immortal terror that thrives on death. Amazing action in bite sized chunks and you all know I'm an expert in bite sized chunks. Heh. I'll let you know when my Dead Man book will be coming out.

The End of Everything on a Saturday? Naturally.

2011-05-20T10:43:00.004-05:00

I'm always fascinated by predictions for the end of the world. Not that I buy into all of them, but I think it's funny how so many people are not only trying so hard to figure out the exact day we erupt into fire or ash or whatever, but that they really seem to be looking forward to it. I mean, they make signs, they march, they throw parties, they knock on doors. Wouldn't it be better to just schlep along and be pleasantly surprised by all the awesome demons popping out everywhere? Or if it's not so cool (like maybe another flood or something) wouldn't you still rather be surprised? Either way, it's not like we can prepare. What are those canned peanuts and bottles of water doing over there? End of the world survival kit? Smart!

I just heard about May 21st being the possible Rapture. Whenever I hear the word Rapture, it's usually in a pretty good context associated with heaving bosoms and such. Apparently, the real one isn't so great. Or is it? No more Kardashians. No more American Idol. No more Glee. I know, some of you like that stuff, but it all evens out. No more Fringe or Twinkies either. We all suffer. Happy now?

So what's your poison? Zombies? That apocalypse is poised to happen at any moment. First person shooters have made me into a head-shootin' killing machine. Bring it!! Nostradamus's Big Kablooey? That already came and went and some people STILL say he knew his crap. Skynet's Judgment Day? That passed back in 1997. I was working as a telemarketer back then, so that's pretty close to languishing in hell being watched by robot overlords. The Mayan's 2012 Bash? Yet to be seen. But, they couldn't even see the Spaniards coming, so I'll take that with a grain of salt. KABLOW!!! Any Mayans in the audience? All in good fun. You know I love ya!

You gotta hand it to anyone who seriously commits to an end of the world date within their lifetime. They're putting all of their credibility eggs into one basket. The sad part is when that day comes and goes and they come up with some lame excuses to save face. Oh, Nostradamus was looking at a comet instead of a star. He was CLOSE on some stuff. Close don't count in Doomsday!! I'll give these people a break. At least they get behind something. We'll see what happens tomorrow. If it does turn out to be the Rapture, that should be interesting and I don't have to mow my lawn. If not, at least it's the weekend. Bulls vs Heat.

If the end does come tomorrow, here's one more pro and con. Well, three cons if you count the demons and judgment. Bad news first) People like me will have to deal with a whole lot of smug doomsayers. Pro) With the dead rising from the grave, we could kill Osama AGAIN. USA!!!!!

[Editorial note - The spell checker isn't working. Must be a sign.]

World Horror '11

2011-05-16T11:50:00.004-05:00

It's been a little while since World Horror came and went, but that's no reason to forget about it right? Ok, so I've been slacking as far as updates, but here goes. This was my first WHC and it was great! It was held in Austin, TX which was also great! I was on the Vampire Mega Panel (which was SO much better than the Vampire Mini Panel) with none other than Steve Niles of 30 Days of Night fame. Freaking awesome! There was a moment when the moderator asked the panelists what their favorite vampire movie / book was and I contemplated lying. Whenever I'm asked that question, I say 30 Days of Night and Necroscope. Is it bad etiquette to mention another panelist's work like that? Does it make me look like a suck-up? Eh, who gives a crap. I told the truth with the preface, "Not that I'm kissing ass or anything, but..." Seemed to go just fine. Afterward, I got a chance to talk to Steve. Funny, but we seemed to see eye to eye on a lot of vampire type stuff. Here's a pic of me and him. Hopefully I'm maintaining some semblance of cool here.

The signing was fun. Met some great people. Thanks to all of you who stopped by to say hello! I even got to sign someone's Necronomicon-esque autograph book. THAT was cool! On my off time, I had a burger at Casino el Camino. If you're ever in Austin, GO THERE!! Amazing burgers and awesome chili fries. Not so amazing parking on 6th Street, but worth it.

All in all, it was a great time. Hopefully I'll be able to hit WHC next year. Now, back to the grind.

You can't have just one

2011-05-08T11:34:00.005-05:00

So yesterday was Free Comic Book Day. And...I didn't even look in my local comic book store's direction. I know, I know. I'm terrible. I'm also not a rich man and am very weak when it comes to buying comics. Here's how the pattern goes:

Phase 1) I love comics. Always have. Always will. I want to keep up with the story lines and just plain enjoy having the books in my hands. I would like to purchase comics every week.

Phase 2) I'll make the trip to the store every Wednesday. You know...just to get away from my desk and indulge in the geeky wonder that is the comic book store. I'll set a budget in stone, something I can afford, and STICK TO IT. Don't worry about back issues. I just need to accept the gaping holes in my collection.

Phase 3) Wow! This is going really well! I'm so happy. I look forward to New Comics Day almost as much as New Video Game / DVD Day. My budget idea rocks. After all, it's one of my few entertainment expenses since I don't get out to bars or fine dining very often. YAY!!

Phase 4) This is a slow New Comics Day. Only 1 issue came out that I want. Why let my budget go to waste? Maybe I'll take a gander at some series I've never read. Ooooo! What's this one? Pretty colors!!!

Phase 5) So now I'm into my original series as well as 57 new ones. I'm invested in the story lines and want to know what happens in every one. Plus, I LOVE the weight of that stack of new comics in my hands every week. The pile is just so mind-numbingly heavy and smells so good! New comics smell differently than new books. Like different perfumes for two different, yet equally enticing, ladies. God, I love Wednesdays! Plus...it's still cheaper than going to bars and paying $8 for a Bud draft.

Phase 6) Ok, so this isn't cheaper than going to a bar. Still...I gotta have my comics. I work hard! I DESERVE THEM!!! It's not a problem! I can stop any time I want!! Stop looking at me like that!!! They smell so good. I love them. YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!!!

Phase 7) Intervention. Somehow I stop buying comics altogether and take time to read through the stacks and stacks of issues I never had time to read during phases 3-6. I can pay my water bill again now. I guess that's nice.

I went to Free Comic Book Day last year, stuck to my guns and only picked up the freebies. It was fun, but I felt like a meth addict being led on a short tour through Lindsay Lohan's house that ended with me only being able to lick the bottom of her purse. Just too much of a tease! So I passed on Free Comic Book Day this year. Not because I wanted to but because, in the words of the great Wilford Brimley, it's the right thing to do.

WHC News

2011-04-14T11:03:00.008-05:00

I couldn't be more excited about going to the World Horror Convention at the end of the month! I've been writing horror for years and loving horror my entire life, but have never been to a WHC. I intended on going to the one in the UK last year, but that fell through. This year it's ON! Everyone connected to the con has been great. Earlier, I got an email asking for panel ideas because they wanted to do something other than the normal vampire and zombie stuff. I drew a blank at the time and apparently I wasn't the only one because I'm going to be on the Vampire MEGA-Panel!! There's also going to be a Zombie Mega-Panel. I thought that was funny, but hey. It's a horror con. Vampires and zombies are all over the place. Might as well talk about 'em. There's going to be a ton of other stuff and the programming looks fantastic. My only problem is that my panel is at 1o:00 Saturday MORNING. UGH!!!! Rest assured, I will be there, chock full 'o caffeine and ready to panel it up.

Just getting to Austin will be fun because I'm road tripping there. Normally, that would be cheaper than flying but with gas prices what they are I'm not so sure. Then again, you can't put a price on crowded airports, intrusive searches, cramped quarters, aching eardrums, parking problems....ok. The price is too much and I'm happy to drive instead.

My new dog Mallory will not be driving with me. That kind of stinks, but she'll be in good hands. Speaking of my Schnoolde Sidekick, today she's going to the vet to get her stitches out from her spaying which also means the Cone of Shame will be removed! Yay. Look at her up there. So droopy. So demoralized. But things weren't always so bad. Her cone also acted as a crude parabolic dish to enhance the sound while watching amazing 80's movies! Check out the third picture for a look at how she made a valiant escape attempt while also wreaking glorious revenge on my blinds. Oy.

The Dead Man Cometh

2011-04-06T00:13:00.004-05:00

Remember all those times I've been talking about doing ebooks? Well it turns out I'm not the first one to come up with this idea! Heh. Obviously there are plenty of ebooks out there, just like there are plenty of real books on the shelves. The trick is to find the ones that are any good. A friend of mine (Matthew Mayo who was also in that D&D related interview I was in) told me about a new series called The Dead Man. Right away, the title caught my interest. I like dead things. Also...skull on the cover. Ok, I'm easy.

Seriously, though, I appreciated the story behind the story. Turns out that the creators, Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin, had a great idea for a kick-ass supernatural TV series but couldn't get any of the network suits to give it a go. I can definitely relate. After so many years, they decided to just do the stories themselves as short, kick-ass ebooks. I checked out the first one soon after I got my Kindle and fell in love with the concept of a hero brought back from the dead and pursued by a demonic nemesis as well as the format of shorter action-packed stories along the lines of a monthly adventure series. Here's a link so you can see it for yourselves.

The reason I bring this up is twofold. First of all, I believe ebooks can help writers get stuff out there that wouldn't normally get a chance. The only drawback is that a lot of crap will surface as well so you need to know where to spend your dough. For what it's worth to any of you, I recommend The Dead Man. It's cool, full of violent goodness and (most importantly) FUN. Also, the first book in the series, Face of Evil, is currently only 99 cents on Amazon.com. The second reason I'm bringing it up is because I got in touch with Lee and will be writing one of the upcoming Dead Man books! My friend Matt Mayo will as well, so keep your eyes on the series in the months to come. The second book, Ring of Knives by James Daniels, just came out. I'll be working on mine this summer and it will be released soon after. Ok....commercial over.

In the last several months, ebooks have reminded me why it's fun to be a reader. They hearken back to the pulp days where stories were out there because they were entertaining, new and fresh. There's a place for the big publishers, but there should also be a place for the fun stuff. Pulp has its place. Without it, there'd be no Conan, Tarzan, hard boiled PIs, or treasure hunting adventurers. You know....the candy aisle of the bookstores. It doesn't all have to be drama or romance. Readers have always known this. Unfortunately, publishers are always looking for a sure thing before they commit to any project. There is no sure thing. This is something writers have always known. By its nature, our job is a gamble and putting out our own projects in a forum as widespread and accessible as ebooks allows us to place a few bets.

As I scroll through the ebook store on my Kindle, I'm finding stuff that I can't find on the shelves. It's the kind of material I wanted to write when I'd scribbled my first story. Even though Skinners is definitely something I've always wanted to write, there are SO many other projects that haven't seen the light of day because they weren't close enough to some other trend or just didn't hit the right editor on the right day. The idea of being able to get those other projects out there to be read really gets my blood racing. Are ebooks the way it's all headed? Are they just a prolonged novelty? I don't know. Right now they've hit a powerful stride and if good writers keep putting out good stuff, I'm all for it.

Quick on the trigger

2011-03-24T12:01:00.003-05:00

I was going through my emails the other day and accidentally hit the "Clear All" button. Don't ask how. I screwed up. Leave it at that. The only reason I bring this up is that I saw there were some requests for signed covers in there and now they're deleted. So if you sent me a request for a signed cover within the last week or so, please send it again. I promise I won't wipe it out this time.

Damn My Eyes!!!

2011-03-23T13:18:00.003-05:00

Last time I went to Best Buy, I got a chance to try out the new Nintendo 3DS. Very cool, but it was bolted down to a stand, locked up with chains and guarded by three drooling hellbeasts so I couldn't hold it the way I normally would. That resulted in me hunkering down to play some dopey little flying game on a bright pink toy. Not very manly. The 3D effects were cool, but my eyes started to hurt pretty quickly. Was that because of the angle, the 3D technology or the fact that my eyes are worse than someone who's gotten theirs yanked out and scrubbed with a brillo pad after staring at the sun? Who knows? I'm still excited about the 3DS, but that's after a downgrade from "really pumped".

Also, I'm set to watch Skyline. This is one of those movies that looked awesome on the previews, but I never got around to seeing it. So far, the reviews and word of mouth pretty much hover in the vicinity of "awesome effects / horrible plot". Since I like to riff on movies MST3K style anyway, this sounds like a fun time.

I put together a proposal and a few chapters for one of those steampunk projects I mentioned earlier. I'm VERY happy with the whole thing so now it's up to the publishers. Another one of my babies out making the rounds in the big bad world. This part sucks. Of course, as I've also mentioned earlier, I'm excited about the whole ebook thing. That means if New York doesn't want to play my reindeer games, I'll write it anyway and take my chances. Exciting times!

A New (old) Addiction

2011-03-10T12:42:00.003-06:00

Still loving my Kindle. In fact, I'm buying stuff left and right and reading more. The reading part is mainly due to the fact that I have a little free time lately and haven't been busting my hump quite as much as normal. I've also been reading from my ever-present pile of regular books so all is good. Two generations of literacy living in harmony. Contented sigh......

As for buying ebooks, it sure beats the hell out of going to this one Borders by my house that always plays depressing love songs through the loudspeakers. This way, I can shop around for new stuff, not pay sales tax and do so without pants and while listening to whatever music I want. Borders tends to frown on me wandering in there in that particular state of relaxation. Heh.

Speaking of taxes, I took that hit earlier this week. Didn't turn out as bad as I was fearing. There's one advantage to not being rich! It wasn't a pleasant experience, but it was followed by the same sort of relief you get when you finally get that punch to the stomach after tensing your muscles in expectation for way too long. Thank you, Uncle Sam, may I please have another!!!!

Next...Books in 3D!!!!

2011-03-03T13:37:00.004-06:00

So I finally broke down and bought a Kindle. As I mentioned on one of my recent posts, I've been very resistant to this whole ebook thing. Well, now that it's obvious it's more than a passing fancy (and that there are some VERY intriguing opportunities for writers to put their own stuff out there without all the Big Publisher bullshit) I'm interested.

It started off on a good foot. I ordered it through Amazon (the black one with 3G) and it arrived ahead of schedule. I turned it on and had glorious fun throughout the initial "WOW! New gadget" phase. Once that wore off, I realized I loved reading on the thing. First thing I did was look for a book that I haven't been able to find on shelves. BANG! There it was...and cheaper! I bought a few more things plus downloaded a bunch of free classics, but the true test was when I tried to import a text file from my computer. Another writer contacted me about reading a copy of his upcoming book so I could provide a blurb. He sent a computer file, but I really don't like reading comp files. Still, I didn't want to force him to print me a copy, so there you go. The Kindle didn't recognize the file's format and I had to email it to a Kindle address so they could convert it. A few minutes later, there it was! SWEET!!!

Now, I realize I'm behind the times with this but I'm blown away. Keep in mind, I'm still blown away by DVRs, Netflix and sensors on microwaves that know EXACTLY how long to nuke popcorn. Will I give up regular books? Hell no! Still love them, but this is a great companion. Will I write ebook exclusives in the future! Hell yes, but Big Publishers are still a necessary part of the biz. As with most everything, it's all about moderation. Some of one and a dash of the other. Also, it's about recognizing the writing on the wall. I know plenty of authors who still resist ebooks vehemently. This is turning our noses up at a potentially great creative outlet. I love my Kindle as well as anything that gets folks reading and makes things a little easier for writers. I knew I was in good hands when I logged on to the Kindle store and found Vampire Uprising first in line on my "Recommended for You" bar. Awww, Kindle. You rock.

One funny note...there has always been a little problem with the original font used for the title on the Skinners books. It makes the "k" look like an "h". I always point it out and they always change it. Sometimes it slips through on the title page inside the books so it looks like "SHINNERS". Funny. Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks so because the title page for the ebook version proves me right. Heh. Oh well. The Robot Overlords don't know EVERYthing!

+3 on Research Checks

2011-02-25T16:10:00.004-06:00

It's been a long time since I've been able to play much as far as pen and paper RPGs are concerned. Still, I love D&D as well as the World of Darkness games! How much do I love them? Read this interview on the D&D website to find out!

I completed this a while ago and forgot about it with all the other stuff going on. Also, I wasn't sure exactly when it would show up. But here it is and I am STOKED to be in any way connected to the granddaddy of all RPGs. Also, I have worked with Russell Davis and am friends with Matt Mayo. One additional layer of goodness....out three names together sounds like a cool sandwich. Maybe something with bacon and feta cheese.

But the files don't smell all musty

2011-02-17T13:24:00.003-06:00

I've been reorganizing my books, trying to find some more to sell off and it makes me wonder if I should jump on board with this whole ebook thing. I've been resistant for a while simply because I like books. I like feeling them in my hands, turning actual pages, seeing the covers, and yes...smelling them. There's just nothing better than smelling actual books. Maybe that's a weird writer thing. I do the same with comics. Take one from the bag, study the covers, flip through quickly and take a long, lingering sniff before diving in to read in earnest. Not as creepy as it sounds. It's actually very comforting. Plus, I'm a slow reader, so carrying around one book at a time will more than do me when I'm out and about.

It seems that the ebooks have long since moved away from the "fad" phase. If they're good enough to put Borders out of business, there's something there, right? Sticking to the old ways now means I'm just stubborn and like them. Plus I have a lot of books that I need to read. Now that I've been looking into publishing some stuff straight to ebook format, I guess I should know how they work. Also, they have the cool tech factor. I've tried a Kindle and even an IPad. Believe me, if I had that much spare cash laying around, I would have an IPad. A friend of mine showed me how cool downloadable comics looked on there, but I would NEVER make that leap. Well...at least not for a long time. Ok...maybe I'd get comics that I don't want to keep. Even so, I'd still want the books. But ebooks....I think I'm ready.

As a writer, it's all the same. In fact, I'm really happy that ebooks are so popular because that means people are still reading! As long as that's the case, writers will be needed. One thing I love about ebooks is the possibility of cutting out all the BS and middlemen that are in the publishing biz who say they want something new as long as it's a lot like something else. UGH!!!

So I'll be looking around for a new device. On the other hand, the Nintendo 3DS is on its way. Mmmmmm....shiny!

Round 2...FIGHT!!

2011-02-16T13:36:00.003-06:00

Ok, so the Valentine's griping is out of the way for another year. Sorry about that everyone. Today I was greeted with the news of Borders declaring bankruptcy and closing about 200 stores nationwide. At first, that seems like a really bad thing. If you're Borders, it is. Then again, a lot of people (including plenty of folks in the publishing / writing biz as well as Borders themselves) saw this one coming from a long ways out. Being in tough financial situations is nothing new to writers. Unlike the publishing houses and big booksellers, we're not used to seeing huge, juicy profits for everything out there. You need to be one of those few big-name authors, a cable semi-celebrity or a Kardashian to get the big literary bucks. Bazinga!!!

Anyway, in true Rocky fashion, these hard times have charged me up. I'm already working on proposals, so I've got renewed steam for that. More importantly, I'm taking steps in some new directions to get other projects going. More details later, but I'm really excited about it and that's a much-needed boost. Whew.

In other news, I picked up Marvel vs. Capcom 3. (Traded in some games and bought at a colossal discount. Hard times, remember?) I love fighting games, but am not very good at them. I used to kick some major league ass at Mortal Kombat 1 and 2. Even won a local tournament back in the day. Now I can't believe I memorized all those moves and multiple fatalities. The new MK is coming out soon which will be awesome, but MvC3 is pretty sweet as well. Amazing graphics. Very cool fighting. Pretty flashing lights (which they warn you about in the opening) and all around nerd-vana. I mean...being able to pit Doctor Doom against Dante from Devil May Cry?? YEAH!!! I tried going online, but was having trouble with the hosts. Probably got it all squared away by now. Most importantly, there are easy difficulty settings on Arcade mode to provide me hours of fun. Hopefully Webmaster Steve picks up a copy and we can throw down. We're at about the same skill level. Ok, he's better than me, but doesn't rub it in too badly when he wins.

So, energized and full of flashing light-induced brain trauma, I soldier on. What's my prediction for this fight? PAIN!!

Happy....whatever

2011-02-14T15:25:00.004-06:00

When did holidays stop being fun? Obviously the first answer is when we grow into adults. That's when the cool parties at school stop and the true, tedious nature of things is revealed. It seems most second-tier holidays are either excuses to drink or get a day off of work. I've got no problem with drinking, but if you want to drink...just do it. Why wait for Hallmark to slap a color scheme on it and print a greeting card for you? If you're such a wild and crazy party animal, go do your thing. As for days off, well that's just what it is. Spare me the talk about the origins of a holiday or what it means to you. Just take your day off, sleep in and get on with life.

Of course, there are the top shelf holidays like Christmas and....birthdays? Do birthdays count here? Sure. Stuff like those, Hanukkah, Easter and even New Year...the big ones that actually mean something. I get what those are and why they're celebrated. Fine.

Today is Valentine's Day. I hate this one. I don't hate love. I don't mind telling someone special how I feel about her. I don't need pressure from every corporation out there to do so. Also, I don't like being required to express myself on ONE particular day. I know I'm contrary by nature. Maybe that's all there is to it. I don't mind buying flowers to make someone feel special. When it's required by law to be romantic NOW...or to open my heart and be sweet THIS INSTANT....I tend to get resentful. I'm pretty good the rest of the year, but the shit starts to fly if I don't perform up to snuff on one particular day? That's real love.

And then there's the professional side of my brain. I've been trying to get work done lately and it's been impossible for a few months. They can't return my call. It's Thanksgiving. Try back in ten days. TEN DAYS!! Then it's Christmas. That one shuts everything down for about a month. After that, there's the week-long New Year's thing. Now I can't get anything on Valentine's Day?? Guess who's had to work this whole damn time? ME!!

Thanks Hallmark. No wait...I mean GET BENT!!! Ha. Because greeting cards are bent. Funny.

New covers 'n stuff

2011-02-11T12:25:00.004-06:00

As always, I got a bunch of promo covers for the next Skinners. My offer still stands to send out autographed covers to anyone who would like one. This year looks to be especially lean on the convention front, although I will be attending at least one big one. World Horror is coming up in April, so I hope to see some of you there. Still don't know what I'll be scheduled for, but I'm sure it'll be cool. Anyway, I won't be out there doing many signings for a while so here you go.

Other than that, it's been a whole lot of trying to stay warm. The other day, I felt cold air blowing in through an electrical outlet. Yowza! Good thing my grandma still knits me these awesome slippers that magically fit my wide flipper feet just perfectly. Although some of you (including my grandma) might call these slippers "booties", I like to call them Yarn Shoes. Sounds more manly, plus I think of a whole different thing when I hear the word "booty".

Been working on some ghostwriting projects to keep me busy until the next round of edits comes in for Skinners 6. One of them is a Ralph Compton western written under my cowboy name, Marcus Galloway. If you're into westerns (I'm more of a Clint Eastwood as opposed to John Wayne guy, just so you know), look 'em up. I did two of my own series that I think turned out rather well.

Other than that, I've been leveling up in Call of Duty: Black Ops as well as Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. Also found a good price for the entire series of Wild Wild West on DVD. Talk about cheesy awesomeness!! Watching these shows brings me back around to why I want to write Steampunk so badly. If there's anyone who can write the hell out of cheesy awesomeness, it's ME!!

Jibber Jabbah!

2011-01-31T12:47:00.003-06:00

Not a lot going on here lately. For all intents and purposes, Skinner #5 is done. I'm waiting for the first round of official edits for Skinners 6 to come back to me. In the meantime, I'm ghost writing a few westerns and working on some new proposals for other series. Of course that doesn't mean I'm moving away from Skinners. It's just that, unless you're one of the 0.8% of writers who get to do one thing and sit back to rake it in, you gotta hustle. I'm pretty sure only about 5% of professional writers JUST write for a living, and most of them ain't rich.

I was talking earlier about how much I love Steampunk, so I'm putting together some stuff for that. Shaping up to be VERY cool. Also have lines in the water in the science fiction and mystery genres. Yes, mystery! I know! I wouldn't imagine me doing this either, but I came up with an idea that I would LOVE to do so I'm giving it a shot. Maybe I have some sort of attention....something where my attention doesn't focus. Focus? It's something where I....I don't know. What was I talking about? Anyway, my mind comes up with a lot of stuff and I want to write it all. Hopefully some of it sells.

Been catching up on my DVR backlog of Fringe and Stargate Universe episodes. Yes, SG-U isn't the best, but it's grown on me. Someone out there said the ship has a stargate on it because it can't LAND. Huh. Just sounds silly when you put it that way. Oh well. Also catching up on some gaming and movies. Finally got around to seeing The Other Guys with Will Ferrell. "Gator needs his gat!!" Awesome.

Back to work for me.

Taking a quick peek at the rest of the world

2011-01-24T12:47:00.005-06:00

Funny thing about DVRs. Although it's great to have shows to watch whenever you want with the ability to skip commercials, I find myself both in sync and behind everyone else. I hear about a new show like Bob's Burgers and can find it, tape it and watch it right away. Wow! Then there are shows that slip through the cracks for a while and I watch months later to be thrown off by stale ads. Wait a second! New Hell's Kitchen ALREADY?? SWEET!!! Oh, that's an ad from last season. Doh.

I swore I wouldn't watch American Idol after...I don't know...sometime a few years ago. To be honest, I can't even tell you who won the last few seasons I did watch. That useless knowledge gets instantly purged after it passes my eyes. You know...like the emergency number to the police or what my allergies are. Idol has a new season and new judges. Mainly I wanted to see how Steven Tyler would do. Personally, I was a big fan of Simon and loved watching him rip apart people who couldn't sing and have "always been dreaming about this moment". Seriously? ALWAYS? When you were a child, you stayed awake at night daring to dream about standing in line at a hotel and screeching in front of celebrities? Diff'rent strokes. My fear with the new judge lineup was that (since they are performers) they would be extra lenient in letting people get through. From what little I saw (meaning the first episode) I may be right. They really do fall for the sob stories. I'll tell ya, those don't usually work. I've been rejected plenty of times by editors who didn't give a rat's ass about my history. I'm just waiting for the intro to Hollywood Week when Ryan Seacrest says, "Of the 13,000 people who tried out, only 11,437 remain. WHO will be the NEXT American Idol?"

Eh, whatever. I recommend Bob's Burgers and Archer for you animation fans. I still love Fringe with all of my heart. Hawaii Five-O is cool. And then there's The Cape....sigh. Don't get me started on The Cape.

Give Scrooge a break

2011-01-16T12:32:00.004-06:00

I know Christmas is over and it'll be at least three or four weeks before we start seeing decorations on store shelves again, but I was recently having a conversation with a friend of mine about ghosts. Specifically, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and (my personal favorite) Future from A Christmas Carol. Basically, I asked the question as to whether these supernatural entities are ghosts or something closer to demons.

Now I guess you could define "demon" as intrinsically evil, but I think a ghost is the essence of a human who is either stuck in our world / plane of existence or lingering there for their own reasons. If those reasons happen to be mean-spirited or "evil", does that make them a demon? No. When I think of a demon, I think more along the lines of an entity that has unearthly power (something cooler than floating or glowing) and is not of our world. There's more to it than that, but that's the Cliff Notes version. You see a shadow figure or hear disembodied voices? Could be a ghost. Is your dog possessed or are you being thrown onto the ceiling when you're trying to sleep? Sounds like a demon. Is that stuff evil? Depends on if you or the dog had it comin'.

Which brings me around to Scrooge. Sure, this old man was a crotchety jerk. Maybe he worked too hard and expected his employees to also give 110% when they're behind their desk. Hey, back then coal really WAS kind of expensive! But these things that visit him aren't just ghosts! They're time travellers. They create hallucinogenic food. (Ok you tell me how GoCPresent pulled that off!). But they weren't evil. Or...were they? Take GoCFuture. Ok, you teleport Scrooge into the days to come and show him (spoiler alert!!) he dies sad and alone. Point made. You reduced an old man to tears. Happy? He gets it. How about shoving his nose against his own tombstone. He'll buy the damn goose, all right!! Jeez!! Well, he was being difficult and needed some tough love. How about shoving the old guy into his OWN OPEN GRAVE!!! Yowza!! Even I think that's kind of harsh and I'm a horror writer!!

So, you decide. Possessed dog and getting knocked around into some walls or taken into the future to see your own horrific demise and then booted into hell via the ground where your own worm-infested corpse is laying. Makes that thing in Paranormal Activity seem kind of tame, doesn't it?

And there was much rejoicing

2011-01-14T21:29:00.004-06:00

First of all, I'll lead with the cool news. I got some copies of the new cover in the mail today. Woo HOOOO!! Check it out...

In the original version I was given, the gargoyle's eyes were glowing red. That was cool, but I'm definitely not complaining. I love it. Also, I do kind of miss the hot, butt-shot of Paige from the last one. That's just me. Heh. Let me know what you think. This one hits shelves on May 31.

Recently, I've finished with my largest round of editing for Book 6. Now is the time where I can sit back and relax because the book feels like a book and it feels truly finished. Of course, there are some more edits to do, but no more stress by feeling like my newest baby is laying on the floor in pieces. Whew. Time to sit back and play some video games for a day or two. Then it's back to work.

Blog neglect

2011-01-02T11:47:00.005-06:00

Wow. It's been a while since my last post. Sorry about that or, depending on what you think of my rambling, you're welcome.

Part of my excuse was visiting my dad for Christmas. Sure, I could have updated in that time, but I just didn't. Oh well. We went to see Tron Legacy in a theater in 3D!! First of all, let me point out that I don't get to theaters very often at all anymore. I bring this up because I noticed some innovations other than the 3D. For example...flavored popcorn dust. For a buck fifty, you can buy cheese flavored stuff to dash onto your popcorn. It was awesome!! There was even vanilla stuff to put into your coke. Apart from the fact that they somehow came up with a way to make snacks MORE expensive than purchasing the DVD of the movie you're watching, it was very cool.

Speaking of the movie, I liked the new Tron. I liked the first Tron too, so this isn't a big surprise. I haven't heard a lot of nice things about this movie from just about anyone, but I think this is a case of Nostalgic Build-Up Syndrome. 27 years ago (THAT long???) I was a kid who loved video games, explosions and shiny stuff. Therefore, no matter how much the critics and adult movie goers panned Tron (which they did...EXTENSIVELY), I loved it. The first Tron isn't really a great movie if we take out the wide-eyed, geeky joy that we feel when we mention it. When I went to Tron Legacy, all I wanted was more lightcycles and video game stuff. Well, this time it was in 3D! Was it the best movie ever? No. Was it horrible because I was expecting a finely tuned plot? No. It had lightcycles, explosions, and shiny stuff. Me= happy. Add in the 3D, nacho cheese flavored popcorn and vanilla coke and it was freaking awesome!!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Walmart to buy a toy lightcycle for my desk.

Come on, now!

2010-12-19T12:17:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was nearly pain-free as far as my constant headaches go. What was the stress-relieving combo (other than Ibuprophren), you might ask? I played a game called Da Blob on Wii and watched the Friday the 13th reboot from last year. Da Blob is a game where the world is colorless and you play a blob of paint that turns everything red, blue, or whatever by rolling around on everything. Sounds stupid? Well, it's actually very relaxing. The music is nice and it does my right brain some good to slap different hues on an otherwise drab world. Heh. Then there was Friday the 13th. I hadn't seen this when it came out and finally got around to watching the DVD. It was an awesome combo of hot girls being naked in a summer camp and a huge psycho chopping up said girls. We all know the story. Jason hacks up the guys too. Oddly enough, this was therapeutic as well. Laughter truly is the best medicine.

And then I went to bed. Apparently, my brain wants to escape from my skull because it's doing its best to crack it open. Ever have one of those dreams where you're back in school and you miss a class or test or something? I've had them where I go through an entire school year and remember I've spaced off going to a class all semester. Pretty common stuff dream-wise. Well, the relief comes when I wake up and realize I'm not in school anymore. Whew. Well, my brain got one ahead of me last night and gave me a dream where I had a bill for a little line of credit I don't normally think about too much, but haven't paid for the better part of a year. I've still got bills! I've got lines of credit!! Shit!!!! Is this real? Did I really forget about a bill for that long? It's possible. Things have been crazy around here lately. And because it's my brain doing the meddling, there are little doubts inserted into my thoughts regarding this fictional(??) line of credit. Come to think of it, I don't exactly remember paying ANY bills this month! Now, along with my splitting headache, I've got a nervous stomach going.

Thanks, brain. Love you too.

Oy

2010-12-17T14:31:00.003-06:00

Finally done with the first draft of Skinners #6! Whew!!!! Now I can take a few days off and collect myself before editing. There's a lot going on in this one, which I can't really talk about since Book 5 isn't even out yet. Oh well. Take my word for it. It's cool.

Looking forward to watching some movies over the weekend. Probably just some mindless special effects festivals like Prince of Persia or The A-Team. A-Team looks perfect for me right now. Lots of stuff blowin' up and things gettin' shot. Sign me up for that.

Christmas is almost here. To be honest, I'm looking forward to when it's all over. Just fast forward me to January 10th or so, let me know if anything cool happened in those previous weeks and get on with 2011. Remember those other prospects I mentioned earlier? Still nothing about them, which isn't a huge surprise. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but no news is better than bad news, so I'll take it. Not that I wouldn't mind some good news right about now. Don't want to jinx anything.

Speaking of good news, Skinners made the Barnes & Noble list of Best Paranormal Fantasy releases for 2010!! Here's the link: http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Explorations-The-BN-SciFi-and/The-Best-Paranormal-Fantasy-Releases-of-2010/ba-p/760466. YAY!!!!! Thanks B&N!!!

I'm off to plop in front of the TV for...ohh...about two or three days. Later.

Fa la la la....aw forget it

2010-12-16T13:58:00.003-06:00

Should be wrapping up draft 1 of Skinners 6 today. This one's been a long haul, mostly because of rescheduling conflicts, the holidays, and various other wrenches tossed into the works. As far as first drafts go, I'm pretty happy with this one. There is a TON of editing to do, lots of which is hacking and slashing. The good part of that is that I'm just holding off on those plot lines so I can insert those pages directly into another book. The bad part is that I'll be working my butt off throughout Christmas and the New Year.

New Year has never been a big deal to me. I've always got goals/resolutions in mind and have submissions or proposals in the works to see them through. I'm not a huge drinker and am firmly of the belief that if you want to party and get trashed so badly, you shouldn't need a sanctioned excuse from Hallmark or the calendar to do so. My tradition has always been to stay home, cook up a bunch of snacks/appetizers, watch movies and have a toast at midnight. To all of you party people out there, have fun!

Still pumped about Tron Legacy. I'll be seeing this one in a theater and will actually be my second mainstream 3D movie in modern days. By that I mean it wasn't at an amusement park and the glasses won't be the red & blue numbers. Remember when they showed classic 3D movies on TV and you had to go to a 7-11 to get glasses? I saw Creature from the Black Lagoon on our Creature Feature that way. Also saw a bunch of the old goodies at a theater on retro night, but Tron in 2D should blow those away.

Head Asplodin'

2010-12-12T12:54:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was pretty much filled with blizzard-force winds from 4AM - 3AM today. Right now, there's an eerie calm. It's quiet....TOO QUIET! Heh. Three degrees and snowy, but hey. It's December so what should I expect? Wrapping up the first draft of Skinners #6. It's shaping up, but there's a LOT to do in editing. Already talked about that and it comes up yet again. Welcome to MY WORLD!!

Still trying to get some business stuff done before the holidays. Technically, the holidays are already upon us, but there are still a few folks in their offices pretending to work, so I need to try and enjoy that while it lasts. Got a few more irons in the fire as far as some promising possibilities and I will let you know if anything pans out. Could be some new series or projects other than Skinners. I love Cole & Paige and don't plan on abandoning them, but a change would be nice for a while. Also, taking a small breather would allow some of the new Skinners stuff I've been coming up with to gestate into plot lines for other books. The more I write/edit #6, the more I want to do for #7 and beyond.

As far as those other projects go, I've always had interests in multiple genres. I got my start in westerns and have ideas for fantasy, science fiction and mystery. Of course, I've got other ideas for horror and urban fantasy, but that goes without saying. It's exciting to think of planting my flag in another section of the bookstores. Even for someone who's already published, the publishing industry works how it works without bothering to inform anyone like the writers (unless you're a massively popular writer who can write their own ticket, aka "not me"). So we just have to sit around for months (or years) and wait to see if we'll have a source of income next year. Ugh.

In possibly related news, I've been having these headaches for oh....about two or three weeks now. They're in my neck as well as specific spots in my skull that feel like a little knife is lodged there and occasionally twisted. Could be stress. Could be a tumor. Does thinking about a tumor give me stress? Can too much stress give me a tumor? Uh oh...I think something just popped.

The Log Jam at the End of the Ride

2010-12-06T12:13:00.002-06:00

It's been a while since my last post. Sorry about that. Mainly this is because I've been tying up the first draft of Skinners #6. It should be finished this week, just in time for me to be editing through the holidays. Yippee. The good news is that I know where I'm headed and am getting there fairly nicely. The bad news is that this is only because I've been slaving over the keyboard trying to get everything just right for several weeks.

I had to come to a painful realization that I just can't address EVERYthing I want to in every book. My whole purpose has been to make Skinners something that broadens in scope with every book. Naturally, one side effect of this is that the scope is pretty freaking broad by half a dozen books. That's fine. I can just set some stuff aside and get to it later. After all, not every character will be doing something in every book. That just leaves me with a bunch of stuff I thought I would address when I started writing this one that now needs to be taken out and smoothed over during editing. Yes, loyal blog readers. It's almost time for the "bitching about editing" section of the process. Heh.

In distraction news, I picked up Disney's Epic Mickey for the Wii and it is very cool! I'm also 97% sure I'll be heading out to theaters to see Tron Legacy in 3D (maybe even 3D IMAX!). Nerd-gasm alert.

(Insert frustrated grunting sound here)

2010-11-18T12:00:00.005-06:00

After lugging around that colossal pile of paper that was my copy edits for Skinners #5, it's time to send it back to New York. After this step of the process, there's just looking over the final run before publishing and Book 5 is in the books! Or...it IS a book. Whatever. It's almost done. It also gave me a chance to look over the stuff I wrote leading into Book 6 which helps me in that writing process. Very "Circle of Life"-esque.

I've decided to go with UPS this time as my little protest against the whole Post Office experience. You know the one. I go there, find a line of 45 people waiting because there's only 1 window open and that person is just milking time before they go on break. Or where I go to the automatic teller, punch in the ZIP code 4 times, swipe my card, tap 57 screens and then get to the last screen that tells me the machine just broke, jammed, or ran out of paper so I need to hop into the line I was trying to avoid. Or the one where I send my package 2-day delivery, pay extra and have it get there in 6 days. Fun.

In other transit news, I'm seeing all this stuff about the outrage regarding airport security searches and privacy issues. Since I rarely fly anywhere, that usually doesn't get a lot of attention here but I'm planning on visiting family over the holidays (wow...real unique there, huh?) and will actually be flying. As cool as the big X-ray machine was in The Running Man (or was it Total Recall?) I'm not sure about it here. I mean, the airport is still afraid of excessive amounts of shampoo and now they've got head-to-toe radiation generators and strip search VIP rooms? Ugh.

First HUMBUG of the season!!!!!!

Busy Brain Syndrome

2010-11-16T12:45:00.003-06:00

Today I woke up thinking someone was knocking on my door. The maintenance guy is supposed to come over and change the filter on the heater, but it wasn't him. It was probably just the other people in my complex leaving for their normal work hours. More than likely, the same people who wonder what the hell I'm doing pacing my floors when I'm still editing at 3 AM. Even after I realized I wouldn't have to hide until an unwanted visitor found his way out, I couldn't just get back to sleep because my brain would not leave me the hell alone about Skinners #6.

This is a part of my normal process. After I pass the halfway point of a manuscript and think the end may be in sight, I start worrying that I'm ruining the book I'm working on, ruining the series, forgot how to write, or any number of self-defeating happy thoughts that give me a migraine as soon as I wake up. This happens with every book and knowing it's coming doesn't help in the slightest. It's kind of like tugging at the proverbial thread that makes the whole sweater unravel. Only, I'm not done knitting the freaking sweater so why am I pulling on ANY threads?? Drives me crazy. I did come up with one solution to a plot concern which I wrote down before trying to get back to sleep but the migraine hangs on.

Since the other Skinners books turned out pretty good, I should just let the process happen, right? Unfortunately, that ISN'T a part of the process. I still think I'm screwing up the book, the series, my career, all of it. Thank you brain! Could you please shut up for a while?

On a slightly related note, there are a few more interviews that have come online today. That way, you can see what else is going on inside my brain. Heh. Ok, so it was a lame transition but here are the links anyway. One is a guest blog that I think turned out to be pretty darn amusing.

Guest Blog: http://www.literaryescapism.com/14982

Interview: http://www.overtheedgebkreviews.com/2010/11/giveaway-interview-with-urban-fantasy.html

Hello world, it's me again

2010-11-10T13:34:00.002-06:00

I've been showing up in some interviews lately to promote Vampire Uprising. Here are a few links if you feel the need to sweeten your day with a little Pelegrimas goodness. Ugh. At least the interviews aren't as bad as that. Check 'em out....

Booklife: http://booklifenow.com/2010/10/overwhelmed-outrun-and-torn-to-pieces-marcus-pelegrimas-on-writing-horror/

Night Owl Reviews: http://www.nightowlparanormal.com/nor/Interviews/Tamazon-interviews-Marcus-Pelegrimas-on-Nov-10-2010.aspx

There are a few more on the way, plus I'm still featured on the Barnes & Noble book club through the rest of the month at: http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Paranormal-Urban-Fantasy/bd-p/vpttn

Wow...after all of this even I'M sick of reading about me. Sorry folks. Back to the inane movie and video game talk next time.

A magical, fun-filled adventure....and evil.

2010-11-08T20:22:00.003-06:00

South Park has always been wrong. Just plain wrong. But that's what makes it oh so funny. Here's a clip from last week's show that I can't get out of my brain. It proves that even a racist, obnoxious little creep gets a chance to have a buddy. There's hope for us all.

Mysterion Rises
Tags: SOUTH
PARK Eric Cartman,Mysterion,more...

Good thing I've got plenty of free time. Oh, wait...

2010-11-07T11:21:00.003-06:00

Just when I get into the groove with work after coming home from World Fantasy, my video game systems begin beckoning to me. Tuesday, the new Call of Duty comes out. Black Ops looks just as awesome as the other CoDs, but with zombies. Everything's better with zombies, right? Actually, all the zombie stuff can get tiresome, but this is an updated version of the Nazi Zombies levels from World at War. If you've played that game, you know all about Nazi Zombies. It was an extra mode with an arcade feel that I STILL play long after I was through with the WWII campaign. A new CoD campaign as well as more zombie action makes me giddy.

Then there are the new motion controllers that came out for XBox and PS3. I was more excited for the Playstation Move because it looked better suited for "real" games like shooters and anything else in the "killing stuff" genre as opposed to "swinging stuff". Then I saw demos for XBox's Kinect where there's no controller at all. This looks fun for families, but not for some dude sitting in his La-z-boy. Now that they're both out, I realize I'm not excited for either one. There aren't any games out there for me (although there are some promising ones in the future like the Star Wars game for Kinect) and I simply don't want to get up when I play my games. Sure, I stand up when rocking the plastic guitar for Rock Band or Guitar Hero, but I'm well past the "jumping is fun" stage of my life. Also, I barely keep from knocking stuff over when I walk to my chair carrying a drink and a bag of chips. Flailing my arms and jumping in front of my flat screen is a recipe for disaster. So it looks like I'm sticking to the Wii.

Speaking of Rock Band, all of my data from Rock Band 3 was wiped out yesterday and I had to start that career over. Actually, that wasn't so bad. I play those songs plenty of times enough to fill four careers anyway.

So, it looks like this week will be chock full of shooting stuff. On top of that, I'm still working on Medal of Honor and Halo Reach. Once Call of Duty: Black Ops gets into my hot little hands, I'll be dreaming of shooting bad guys for a long time. Kind of like the last scene in A Christmas Story, except with head shots and teabagging. Heh.

Legends, Liquor, and...something else that starts with L

2010-11-02T18:08:00.003-05:00

I'm back from the World Fantasy Convention! Whew. Drove home last night and boy are my arms tired. Wait, that only works for flying. Well, all of me is tired so it still applies. It was a great convention. My first World ANYTHING con, so it was very exciting. Got a bag full of books, spotted some SKINNERS books in the dealer's room, met a lot of nice folks and just soaked up the literary atmosphere for a while.

My panel, Humor & Horror, went very well. Great turnout and an interesting discussion. We all stayed on course and everyone had some very cool things to say. That's the most anyone can hope for at any panel, really. Even if I was in the audience, I would have had a good time. Being up there on the stage was a real kick.

The signing was a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. We got to sit anywhere we wanted, so I picked a spot next to E.E. Knight. Thanked him AGAIN for the awesome blurb for Blood Blade and chatted for a little bit. At one point, I even got to meet Brian Lumley!! I didn't even know he was going to be at that convention, but I got a chance to step right up to shake his hand. I'm not one to get star-struck, but anyone who's ever heard me talk about my inspirations has heard me mention Mr. Lumley. His Necroscope series in particular is a major influence on my writing as well as my love for horror in general. I got to thank him in person and even pose for a cheesy picture. WEEEEE!!!!!!

Another thing I always mention about cons is to always hang out at the bar. This is especially true for aspiring writers who want to meet their idols, agents, or even editors. This was in full force at WFC. The bar area was this wide open, expansive place with comfy stools, bowls of delightful snack mix and big names everywhere. Agents and editors want to get away from meetings for a moment and the writers need to drink to make it easier to deal with their agent and editors. Heh. Seriously, we're all at the bar at these cons. Take that bit of advice, all of you writers looking to get some face time.

So it was a lot of fun, but now I'm home. Gotta get back into the groove with work and try to put a dent in my DVR backlog. Anyone catch The Walking Dead? LOVED IT!!! More on that later, I'm sure.

Vampire Uprising released!!!

2010-10-25T17:17:00.004-05:00

Here we go again. Another SKINNERS hits the shelves. I'm not falling for it this time. Every time there's a new release, I go out and try to find my book on store shelves and every time I have to ask someone to dig into their back room to find me a copy. That's just around here, though. I've had plenty of reports from other areas that they find it displayed prominently at their local store. Plus, this being the 21st century, plenty of people get their copies online anyway. It's a joyous occasion, but I'm NOT going out looking tomorrow.

I will be out, though. It's Tuesday which means new DVDs and games are released so I always hit Best Buy to take a peek. I've also got to run some errands before driving to Columbus, OH for the World Fantasy Convention over the weekend. Who am I kidding? I'll probably hit a bookstore just like I do every other release day. It's fun...right until my hometown Barnes & Noble doesn't include me on the Local Authors table. DOH!!!

It's all right. I'm still on the shelves eventually and plenty of you good folks will be reading my words. That's undeniably awesome. Book 6 is coming along fine and I've got lots of ideas brewing beyond that. Day 1 or not, Vampire Uprising is an awesome book and I'm very proud of it. Hope everyone likes it, so be sure to let me know what you think.

These boots are made for...writing? I guess that's what they'll do.

2010-10-17T12:40:00.002-05:00

I go through footwear phases throughout the years. Sometimes I prefer sneakers. Sometimes I prefer boots. Sometimes I don't give a crap just so long as my flat, flipper-like feet are comfortable. The other day marked a shift into boot phase and I realized I didn't have any that weren't scuffed to hell or too small. Have my feet expanded? Ugh. So I decided to go to an Army surplus store for some combat boots. You know, just the plain, smooth black combat boots. Not the ones that have canvas and designs and all that other stuff. I don't know what sort of boots are standard issue now, but I couldn't find any plain combat boots in this place. The other ones (as authentic as they may or may not be) just looked too sporty. Flummoxed as to where else to find classic combat boots, I thought of where else to go for some cool footwear.

Off to the Harley store. I lucked out here because not only were their boots around the same price as what was in the surplus store, but they had kick-ass versions with skulls on them. Hey, I've got skulls on everything else I own, not to mention tattooed into my flesh, so why not? If I can't have plain combats, I'll have skull-tastic bikers. For a moment, I thought I didn't want to look like some kind of Harley poser because I don't ride a bike. Then I realized I'm not a Marine either, but would have been fine in my combat boots. Boots is boots and mine have cool skulls on 'em. Yeah!!!

Yo, World Fantasy....I made it!!!

2010-10-14T13:39:00.006-05:00

Heard back from the World Fantasy Convention and I'm gonna be on a panel!!! Woo hoo!! The theme of the con is "whimsical fantasy" so Skinners should fit in just fine!! Heh. Seriously, I'm happy to be included at all in such a big con. My panel will be at 1PM on Friday the 29th and is about "Humor and Horror". I think I'm a pretty good fit for this one, so I just hope I don't freeze up and sit there like a smiling lump with what are surely going to be much more notable speakers on either side of me. There's also a signing on that same night at 8 or 8:30 so if you're in Columbus, OH the last weekend of this month and feel like getting a world class fantasy fix, come on down and see me. There's bound to be some other pretty good authors and stuff there too.

This will be the first time I've ever been to Columbus, OH so if anyone has any good dining suggestions I'd like to hear them. Thank God I've got my GPS because otherwise I'd have to drive out there with a notebook full of Google maps. This will be an exciting con. Also, it should be the one that puts me over the top for a while in the "outside with other people" department. Most folks don't get just how rough it can be going from sitting in front of my computer all day every day to being surrounded by LOTS of people. At least at cons, lots of those people are in costumes so it makes it easier for me to handle.

I'm plugging away at Skinners #6. I like to think of the series as being told in arcs and Book 6 will be the end of this particular arc. Not the end of the road, but ties up some loose ends. I will tell you that not everything will be wrapped up all perfect and happy by the last page. I mean, what fun is that? I've also been getting tons of ideas for other stuff. A few that I'm really excited about are in the Steampunk genre. More than anything, that genre seems to embody raw creativity at its fun-loving best. All too often, I hear people griping about the more practical aspects of stuff that's just supposed to be entertaining. My favorite will always be the conservation of mass in shapeshifters. Ok, I realize a physical object can't create more bulk than it already has but people really can't change into were-leopards either. Lighten up!! As long as the story is good, the characters are likable and the world is consistent, I'm always willing to go along for the ride. Since Steampunk subscribes to stuff like alien tech, clockwork robots and supernatural science fiction wrapped in a historical setting, that's a ride I want to take! I'm sure they get their gripers too. "But...but....that technology didn't EXIST in the 1800's!!" SHUT IT, ass clown!!!

Anticipation

2010-10-10T13:12:00.004-05:00

There are lots of reasons for me to chew my nails lately. Skinners 4 will be hitting store shelves in a few weeks, Skinners 5 is with my editor getting its first once-over, and I'm hard at work on Skinners 6. That's a whole lot of Skinners! Also, I'm putting together a few other projects that I've been excited about for a while now. All this AND the Jonah Hex movie hits DVD this week! Ok, so maybe that last one isn't really a nail-biter, but it looks like a fun flick and I do want to see it.

It's a slow, trudging weekend here. Remember my great mood during the last post when I got a little taste of autumn? Well that lasted for about a day before the temps hit the upper 80's again. According to the weather gadget on my phone, it should be in the 70's this week and those weather predictions are never wrong, right? Yeah. Sure. Oh well. Keeping my fingers crossed anyway.

The new Medal of Honor comes out this week. They're taking the Modern Warfare route and doing...well...modern warfare. Looks really good. There's been a bit of a commotion since multiplayer battles are to be between US and Taliban forces. That means players get to play as the Taliban and shoot US guys. First of all, it's just a game. Secondly, hasn't this already been done in other games? Pretty much any modern military shooter with multiplayer has SOME side shooting at the US. This just seems like one of those little bouts of ruffled feathers that comes along with plenty of games regarding violence, language or any other sort of non-issue that's clearly marked on the package of said game beneath the big "M for Mature" rating on the cover. My view on this topic? See the first point. Just a game. No actual soldiers were harmed in the single or multi-player arenas. Plus it was already mostly solved by calling the Taliban "opposing forces" in multiplayer. Does having those guys shooting US troops make it all better? Who cares. Next.

Gearing up for World Fantasy at the end of the month. My first big con, so I'm excited. The deal is that any guest (apart from the Guests of Honor) get to do one panel or reading and one only. Makes sense, since it's such a big convention. A few months ago, I got an email asking which of the panels I'd like to be on. I responded and waited to get the schedule. Last week, I get another email asking which panel I'd like to be on and did I get the first email? I respond again, saying I'm sure my first email was accidentally spammed or overlooked. No biggie. I'm fully expecting to show up at the convention without being on any panels because they never got my responses. All too often, I get to experience the crappy parts of being invisible without any of the perks. In other words, nobody knows I'm there unless I try to walk into the women's locker room at the gym. Should be a fun convention whether I get to be on a panel or not. Hope to see some of you there!

Ahhhhctober

2010-10-05T14:27:00.003-05:00

I love autumn. I know it's not exactly an original sentiment, but being able to open the windows and have a cool breeze come in just brings a smile to my face. My build / complexion makes me a natural for wearing flannel shirts over standard issue t-shirts. Plus, how could you NOT love flannel sheets? I guess those are more of a winter thing. Anyway, October brings to mind such scents as burning leaves, pumpkin pie, apples and fun-sized candy. Those are a welcome replacement for summer scents like hot tar, body odor, bug spray and misery. Ok, that's a little harsh but you get my drift.

October is also a busy convention month. Just got back from Archon in St. Louis, which was great. Even had some folks show up to my signing which was amazing! Thanks for stopping by! Gave away a bunch of stuff, talked to some readers, plus I had some Jack in the Box tacos afterward. JOY! At the end of the month is World Fantasy. I won't lie to you, I'm a bit nervous for that one. It'll be the first time I've ever been to a con THAT huge. On top of that, I'll be a guest at a signing and a panel. Whew. Vampire Uprising will be hot off the presses by then. By the way, I just got my first advance copy of the book and it looks GREAT! Everything in this paragraph represents what we professional writers call "the fun part" of our job. We must savor these moments while we can because it's a tough business.

Just got back from picking up the new Nightmare on Elm Street DVD. Didn't see it in theaters, so I'm buying it on faith. The first one's a classic and this looks like a good, scary installment of the series instead of the many goofy Freddy movies that came out over the years. Gotta get back to work. There's stuff to write, new TV shows to watch, new games to play. I LOVE this time of year!!!!

Fish 'n Fan Pages

2010-09-24T13:03:00.003-05:00

When I first signed on to Facebook, I started a Fan Page for Blood Blade. Didn't really know what to do with it, slacked, didn't follow up with subsequent books, it petered out. Well, now that I'm more familiar with the whole process and there's more going on with Skinners in general, I've started a page for the Skinners series. Just go to Facebook, search for Skinners and look for the official page. It's that simple! There's some gadget that's supposed to allow me to put a cool link directly to Facebook onto this site, but that part wasn't so easy for me to figure out.

So lately I've been trying to eat healthier. Part of that includes eating more fish (you know...because it's fish). I'm not a huge fish expert, apart from my definitive knowledge that fish sticks are DEFINITELY different that fish patties. Although both go well with mac & cheese, patties have a lighter, flakier crust while the sticks are crunchier and better for dippin'. Now that I've been trying to cook with "real" fish, I find myself buying those bags of frozen Tilapia, Flounder and Salmon without really knowing what the difference is between them. Last night, I found out that Salmon comes with some skin still on it. That kind of freaked me out. I flip over this cut of fish to still find scales on the freaking thing! Am I supposed to eat the skin? You can eat chicken skin. Is it the same for fish? I didn't want to push it, so I cut it off. "A-ha!" I thought. "Now I know what that thin, curvy knife that came with my steak knives is for!" Grilled it up with some Mrs. Dash, made some rice and had some green beans. Healthy meal. Long story short, I still prefer patties and sticks.

Has everyone forgotten about the whole Shimmy's pass thing? There seemed to be some interest when I was working on them and now that they're done, I've only sent a couple out! All it takes is a quick review of any or all Skinners books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com or some other site. Send me the link to your Skinners review, your address and any inscription and I'll send you a Shimmy's pass, or some bookmarks...even some covers (all signed by me). Sounds like a cool deal. Ok. Enough begging. You get it.

I tell ya, it's rough

2010-09-21T19:05:00.004-05:00

Next weekend is Archon, a nice-sized convention held in St. Louis. I attended last year and it was fun so I was cleared my schedule for this year as well. Today I get the programming guide for panels and such to find that I'm scheduled for a signing and....that's it. I guess if they're willing to let me attend the con as a guest and just put me down for a signing, that's their prerogative. I thought it was kinda funny that there's a panel immediately following my signing called "Writing Horror Stories" that doesn't include a guest who writes horror for a living. Now, I'm not saying I'm a big guy on the block here, but I am at least a horror writer! Hello??!!? I dropped an email to the programmers humbly offering my services if they'd like me to be on the panel. If that pans out, cool. If not, that's cool too.

I don't go to cons for an ego boost. So far, every time I've appeared at one, the people running them are always nice folks who forget to put me on any programming. There are panels about vampires, werewolves, writing horror, writing urban fantasy, writing about monsters and still nobody thinks to put me on any of them. Fine. Cool. Your con. You can put whoever you want up there. I am a horror writer, though. Think I could be on a horror writing panel? No? Ok. Whatever. I'll be in the dealer's room where three different book sellers have every copy of every vampire romance series published in someone's basement and not one copy of Skinners. Didn't you know I'd be at this con? Didn't you put me on the guest list? Do any book sellers check what authors will be there to maybe sell their books? No? Ok. I'll be in the art room. And why the hell hasn't anyone drawn me a cool painting??? Ha.

So, I'm still going to Archon and I'm sure it'll be a great con. If you're in the St. Louis area on Friday, stop by and say hello. Believe me, I REALLY want people to say hello. I'm bringing bookmarks and some of those cool Shimmy's passes. Remember when I used to be too proud to beg and bribe? Ahhhh. Such youthful confidence. Such hope. Those were the days. If you're at Archon at all, keep your eyes open. I'll be wandering around taking in the sights. See you there!

I can breathe clearly now, the snot is gone

2010-09-16T14:13:00.004-05:00

Well, for the most part anyway. There's still a residual haze in my brain from all the medication, but I'm able to function better than I have for almost a week. I don't get sick that often but when I do, it can kick my ass. Oh well. Now I can really sink my teeth into Skinners #6. You heard me. Book 5 was just sent in and Book 6 is on the way! Great things are brewing in the Skinners-verse. With the way 5 ended, going right into 6 was pretty easy. In fact, I had to cut a lot out of 5 so it could be plugged into 6 anyway. Can't really say much about specifics since 4 isn't even on the shelves yet. Ugh. The dizziness is coming back.

In other news, Sons of Anarchy is back on the air and I'm loving it! I like the Irish storyline, but am having some trouble understanding some of those guys when they grumble in their accent. I'm just losing a word or two here and there, which could very well be my fault since my ears (as well as my entire head) have been plugged up recently. Not a gripe. The show still rules.

Archon is coming up. Wow, that kind of snuck up on me. Three weeks from now, I'll be in St. Louis for the convention. That one's always fun, so come see me if you're in the area. I'll bring along a few Shimmy's passes and bookmarks to give away to lucky readers. Don't know how I'll determine which are the lucky ones. Probably the first ones who ask for 'em. Complex system, huh?

Halo Flu...seriously

2010-09-15T13:32:00.004-05:00

Picked up Halo Reach yesterday. I'm not a Halo fanatic, but they are undeniably awesome games. Also, I've been sick for a while and thought it would be a nice pick-me-up. Anyway, it's an awesome game and I love the multiplayer, but there are some frustrations that accompany pretty much every multiplayer game for me anymore. Saw this comic at Penny Arcade that sums it up nicely....
I may love playing games and I may play them a lot, but I sure don't play them as much as I USED to and I sure as hell aren't as good at them as I used to be. Ugh. Whenever I log on to a Modern Warfare or Halo game, I don't expect to win. I just expect to run around and shoot some crap and blow some stuff up. I don't talk strategy. I don't care about kill / death ratios and I'm not in it for glory. Still, it gets awfully frustrating when you're pitted against Terminators who can take me apart before I get a chance to have any fun. If Halo had bots for the multiplayer aspect, it would be perfect. Oh well. I'll still be online.

Pass to Paradise!

2010-09-13T17:02:00.002-05:00

Ok! I'm done with the Shimmy's passes and I think they look pretty cool. These, the bookmarks and the promo covers for VAMPIRE UPRISING are ready for me to sign and send out. All I need are names to put on these things and addresses to send them to! Although I ended my sentence with a preposition, you get the point. Details are at the top of the blog page, but it's the same deal as before. Write up a review, send me a link and tell me what you'd like. Many thanks in advance!

Website updates!!

2010-09-12T16:34:00.003-05:00

I FINALLY got off my ass to write up some stuff for the appendices on www.marcuspelegrimas.com. It's something I've been meaning to do for the MEG Files and Skinner Field Guide and I think it turned out pretty well. This is just the first entry, by the way. I intend on periodically adding to them to provide some background to the series. For those of you who are new to Skinners, these appendices will fill you in on some important characters and creatures. For current readers, there will be little tidbits of info that aren't mentioned specifically in the books. Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think.

Fly off, little birdie

2010-09-07T11:50:00.003-05:00

Is it sappy that I get sentimental about sending a manuscript off? Yes. How about nervous? Eh, maybe a little. Anxious. That's more like it. Today I head out to the post office and mail the manuscript for Skinners #5. Going back to another blog post where I talked about music accompanying each book, I'd have to pick another Disturbed song for this one. Check out Indestructible. Especially this part: "Indestructible. Determination that is incorruptible. From the other side, a terror to behold. Annihilation will be unavoidable. Every broken enemy will know that their opponent had to be invincible. Take a last look around while you're alive. I'm an indestructible master of war!" How can you not think of monsters kicking ass when you hear that? Great stuff. Speaking of Disturbed, the new album is out and I'm lovin' it.

This has been a rough week. Mostly, that's from putting the finishing touches on this book. Now this one isn't exactly finished, but the hardest part is over. There's a few more editing rounds to come. At least now this story is a finished product in my mind. So many times throughout the process, I think I'm ruining my own product, screwing up my career, or am just lost in the world I've made up. At this stage of the game, there's a definite relief. Of COURSE that's how Book 5 ends! So now it feels good to take a few days off and then jump into Book 6. Actually, I'm already primed for that one.

I think I'll play some games and catch up on some DVDs I need to watch. Downloading the demo for the new Guitar Hero as I type this. I'll finally FINALLY be able to dive back into some more Red Dead Redemption. I actually just started in on Borderlands. See how behind I am?? Plenty of new XBox Arcade titles to dig in to as well. Have you played Shank yet?? Pure Awesome! I want to see The Losers and Book of Eli.

Ok, so that's it for now. Just so you know, I've started sending out bookmarks and stuff as rewards for my plea for online reviews of Skinners. Haven't forgotten, so write those reviews, send me the links and I'll send you some free stuff. The Shimmy's passes are almost done and those will be going out soon. Get 'em while you can!

Amazon beat me to the punch

2010-09-02T15:10:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone! The cover for Book 4 is here!!! Actually, I've had these for a while, but wanted to focus more on Book 3 since it was just coming out at the time. Then, well I've gotta be honest, I spaced it until I saw it on Amazon. Anyway...here's the cover for Skinners #4.

So...what do you think?

It's set to be released on October 26th...just a few days before I'll be at the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus. As usual, I'll be offering to send out free signed promo covers to anyone who would like one. Since I'm on an online review kick at the moment, if you put together a good review and send me a link to it, I'll send you a cover PLUS one of the super cool bookmarks I just got finished making. And yes, the Shimmy's VIP passes are still on their way. All I need are some readers to take this stuff off my hands. Hint-hint....

Business time

2010-08-31T15:23:00.005-05:00

Ok, time for me to get serious about marketing. Honestly, I hate this part. I'm a writer, not a salesman. That's why I've decided to make this fun for me which hopefully produces some cool results. Remember my plea for online reviews for Skinners books? Well I'm putting together a cool giveaway as an incentive. It's a badge / VIP Pass for Shimmy's Gentleman's Club (home to everyone's favorite dancer / muse Tristan) that I will sign and personalize with your name and a short inscription which I will send out for free if you help me out by putting some good reviews on sites like Amazon.com, Borders, Barnes & Noble, or other major places like that. Just send me a link to your review along with your address and I'll get you your pass to nymph paradise. (Replica, of course, so don't sue me. If I had real passes to nymph paradise, I'd be there instead of sweating in another Midwestern summer.)

I should have the badges ready to ship out in a few weeks and will only have a limited amount. Who knows? Maybe they'll be collectible. Couldn't really guarantee that, but they should be pretty cool anyway. If this doesn't sound to your liking, maybe you'd prefer a bookmark or autographed sticker / book plate you can put in your copy of Skinners? Let me know. I just know I want to get more proactive with spreading the word! Let's do this!!

Hate to beg, but....

2010-08-25T12:54:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since I've checked my own books on Amazon, B&N or any of those other sites. Mainly, that's because I used to get extremely obsessive about watching the sales ranks rise or fall. Since I'm already doing whatever I think I can, there's no reason to keep fussing with it. Just keep writing and trying to promote and the rest will be there whether I look at it or not. Sounds like a level-headed approach, doesn't it?

Well, I checked the Amazon site yesterday. I was only there to see if they had the cover of Book 4 up already. Good news -- They did! Bad news -- Book 3 only had 1 review! Granted, it was a great review, but I see other books in genre series that are at the same point as I am as far as number of releases, etc and they've got like 50-60 reviews. Does this make any real difference? Do books with more reviews show up on more pages? Does 1 or no reviews place a book lower on the food chain as opposed to straight-up sales? I honestly don't know. I just figure that more reviews couldn't be a bad thing. More GOOD reviews would be awesome!

So here's the deal. I hear from a lot of readers how they like Skinners and I do my best to respond to you all any way I can. If you've got the time, do you think you could write up a review and place it on a site like Amazon, B&N.com, or any other place that might review the book? Word of mouth truly helps sales of any kind and this would be great. I never wanted to come out and ask like this before because it seemed cheesy. Still does, actually. Sorry about that, but I can only create so many fake accounts on Amazon before they realize it's me who LOVES Skinners. Heh.

Now, since I'm a firm believer in being grateful and showing it. I was thinking about offering free signed promo covers for any / all of the Skinners books, but I've been sending those out for free anyway and don't want to suddenly slap a price tag on it. Do you guys want something like that as a thank you for helping me out by writing a review? Maybe I could come up with something cool to give away. I've been working on a promo project recently, but it really won't make sense until Book 5 is published. Let me think it over. Maybe bookmarks? How about a signed VIP pass to Shimmy's? I can think of something. In the meantime, just let me know what you think of this whole campaign. I'm new to the whole "aggressive marketing" thing.

We're Skinners. We're werewolves. We're all a little loony!

2010-08-18T13:01:00.007-05:00

The end is nigh. Well, at least the end of this draft of Skinners #5. I should finish up with it in a few days and then I can take a much-needed (albeit short) rest before starting in on the NEXT draft. Whew. What really bit me in the ass with this one was the whole "Keep writing until it's finished" mentality for the first draft. That's a good thing because I want it to be a great story and not just one that fits within a certain page count. I originally typed that last bit as "paige count". Heh. See what all of this editing has done to me? Anyway, the first draft wound up being 691 pages. YOWZA! I've cut a significant amount already, saved some for Book 6 and just sent some into story heaven.

I've been on a cartoon binge lately. I think that's got a lot to do with my brain being fried after so many long days of work and me not having any gray matter left when I do get to step away from the computer. Also, I just like cartoons. It's been a lot of 90's stuff like Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, and X-Men. Plus some 80's goodness like Thundercats, He-Man, etc. Throw in some Spongebob and I also found some Tom & Jerry collections for super cheap at WalMart! Funny thing about that. It's hard to find a lot of classic cartoon shorts like Loony Tunes and Tom & Jerry on TV anymore. Plus, they seem to be cut up and edited to shit, so why bother when I do find them? The thing with Tom & Jerry was that Tom's owner in a lot of those classic toons was this big lady who was voiced as some horrible, outdated, and just all-around crude racial stereotype that seems like something from the pre-Civil War days. I know these cartoons are old, but yeeesh! So I pop in my new Tom & Jerry dvd and the first thing on the screen is a disclaimer that basically says, "We know about the racial stuff. Sorry about that. These shorts are from another era. They were wrong then, wrong now, but nothing worth rioting about. Just relax, and enjoy seeing a mouse smack a cat in the face with a frying pan." If you can't laugh at that, you're just beyond hope.

So it's back to work for me. There was something else I wanted to discuss with you guys, but we'll get to that next time. Gotta leave 'em wanting more! Eh, don't get too excited. It's nothing that great.

Editing....that's about it

2010-08-08T11:57:00.005-05:00

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. Sorry about that. I wish I could say I've been kicking back and relaxing after OSFest and finishing a preliminary draft of Skinners 5, but that's about as far from the truth as....well...something that's really far away. I wrapped up this draft of Skinners on August 1, took a whole day off and have been editing like a madman ever since. My days are simple. I wake up, watch Price is Right, have breakfast, shower, maybe step outside for a little while, and launch into editing. I'll edit through some pages, take a break for a minute or two of watching something on my DVR that I can start and stop at will, edit, watch, edit, you get the idea. That goes for about 12 hours a day.

I'm not complaining, mind you. The book is coming along GREAT and I'm gearing up for #6. Yes, there will be a Skinners 6. Sweet! Somewhere during my rare downtime, I've been playing a few games. Went through Limbo, which is downloadable on XBox Live Arcade. What an amazing, brilliant, creepy, artistic, sometimes very WRONG game! Love it! You play as a little kid who can't swim (that's important with all the water in this game) who dodges giant spiders and spikes. You die in so many gruesome ways, it makes me giggle. There's even a part where you jump across a lake using the bodies of other little kids who died before you as platforms. Like I said, wrong but fun. It does me good to see horror representing! Plus, I unlocked a creepy little pet for my Avatar. Nice. Still chopping away at Red Dead Redemption and Fallout 3. Yes, I'm still playing Fallout 3.

In movie news, I finally got to see the new Clash of the Titans and Kick Ass. Clash was pretty cool, although not as cool as the original. The first one KNEW it was shooting for cheesy. This one is cheesy in parts, serious in others, whatever. The scorpions, Medusa and Kraken were awesome and that's what I was after. Kick Ass was just f'ing great! Since I wait for the DVD release of just about every movie anymore, it seems dumb to go into detail. It's been out for a while, most everyone else has seen it so who needs my ultra-late reviews, right?

Speaking of behind the times, I just found out that the new Black Label Society CD is coming out on Tuesday. AWESOME! For those of you piecing together a Skinners soundtrack (are there any of you out there??) play BLS's Fire it Up when reading Book 4 in October and Electric Hellfire when reading the big finale battle in Howling Legion.

That's about it for now. Gotta get to work. And I haven't forgotten about my promise to update the main website. I hope to get to it when I have more than a moment to let my brain cool off.

OSFest in the books!

2010-07-26T11:38:00.003-05:00

Another OSFest went really well. Convention weekends are always strange for me. I love getting out and seeing all the cool stuff in the dealer's room, meeting other writers, talking to readers, seeing the costumes and everything else that goes along with the con experience. On the other hand, it's a huge shift compared to my normal life of sitting at my computer and writing. Sometimes I hardly see much of anyone throughout the course of a week, so being surrounded by people for days on end takes some getting used to.

This year was a great con and I think better than last year's OSFest. There was more writing programming and the panels went pretty well for the most part. There are always those moments when they derail, but that's the way it goes. All in all, it was a lot of fun. I was geared up for a heated discussion on the Vampires Don't Sparkle panel, but that didn't quite turn out the way I was expecting. I was just along for the ride, however, so no problemmo. The highlight for me was sitting on the World Building panel with Robert J. Sawyer, Chloe Neill and Daniel Nielsen. There was a lot of great discussion, great questions from the crowd and I got to hear some really interesting stories from seasoned pros.

Next up is Archon in October, followed by World Fantasy later that same month. That'll be interesting. Until then, it's back to work!

My OSFest schedule

2010-07-20T12:24:00.004-05:00

This weekend is one of the few science fiction conventions held in Omaha. There are plenty of fans in the area, so I don't see why there aren't more cons being held for them around here. Even before the economy took its bite out of everything, pickings were sparse. Anyway, here's what I'll be up to while I'm there:

FRIDAY: 10PM - Panel -- "Bump, There Goes the Neighborhood". I'm guessing this is about the Urban Fantasy / monsters / modern settings trend in books and / or media. We should be able to run with it.
11PM - Reading -- "These Bedbugs Definitely Bite: A Reading with Marcus Pelegrimas". Yes, another reading. As I said in a previous post, I was scheduled for an earlier time, but requested a change so I could be on an anti-Twilight panel. The title for this reading was my idea. Cool? Eh.

SATURDAY: 5PM - Panel -- "Top 10 Tips for Getting Published". Pretty self-explanatory. I'll try to be optimistic and downplay the role of stupid trends and blind luck. Honestly, on bad days, I feel like my first bit of advice for would-be writers is, "Run. It's too late for me, but save yourselves. Just run!"

SUNDAY: 11AM - Panel -- "World Building". I really like the focus on literary craft with convention programming. It gives starting writers a chance to hear some (hopefully) good advice and ask some questions. So if you're a starting writer and attend something like this, please ask us questions! And don't be shy about talking to us afterward. If we've got something else to do right away, we'll let you know and probably will catch you later.
NOON - Panel -- "Vampires Don't Sparkle". How cool is this? I'm sure there are plenty of panels like this at plenty of cons all over the place, but it's still great to talk about. Hey, the sparkly vamps get plenty MORE panels to themselves! Plus, this gives me a chance to gripe in an official capacity.

So there's my official schedule. I'll be hanging out at the con unofficially, so keep an eye out for me if you're so inclined. I can be found in the dealer's room looking at swords, skulls and wolf stuff. Black t-shirts...even though I DON'T need any more...are always a draw. Also, Nevermore Paranormal will be there doing a few panels, so check them out too! See ya there.

Not an actor, but I did ok.

2010-07-19T11:59:00.004-05:00

So readings aren't my best thang, but this one turned out pretty nicely. There weren't a lot of people there, but enough to make it a good event. Thank you to the folks who did show up. Nobody threw stuff at me while I was up there, so that's cool. It was a coffee house, so there was the occasional blender to deal with. On the good side, that gave me the chance to scream lines from my book such as Bob Rothbard's "Go around me ASSHOLE!" from Howling Legion. Big stress reliever. The last word in that quote was delivered to the dude sitting along the wall who refused to stop talking on his cell phone while Matt Rotundo was reading. Heh.

I had a peanut butter / chocolate chiller which was excellent. Cut down on the sweat factor after walking through the sweltering Old Market. This weekend is another reading at OSFest, which I don't expect to get a huge turnout for. It's at 11 PM on Friday. A bad spot, but my choosing since I insisted on rescheduling so I could take part in the "Vampires Don't Sparkle" panel. Worst case scenario: I show up, nobody else does, I leave. No biggie. More on OSFest later...

I am not an actor

2010-07-18T16:38:00.002-05:00

Today I'm headed off to do a reading at the 13th Street Coffee House in the beautiful Old Market district in downtown Omaha. I think I've been to the place before, but I've definitely been to the Old Market several times. It's a shopping district with cool stores, funky restaurants and cobblestone streets. There's a great pub called The Dubliner which I've featured in one of my earlier books that was never published. Since MEG has a branch in Omaha, maybe I can fit the place into Skinners before too long.

No matter how nice the venue is, however, I hate doing readings. They really make me appreciate little things like annunciation and voice inflection. The worst part is reading dialogue where there's banter between two characters. Do I just pause between lines to tell the difference between characters when two people are talking? Do I try to do different voices? For Paige do I try a woman's voice? Can I come up with more ways to make my own books sound horrible?

Hopefully it goes all right. Next weekend is the OSFest convention with...you guessed it...another reading! I feel Like I HAVE to do these as part of the whole process. On the good side, I love getting out to meet readers so that should be fun. The only thing I need is for readers to actually show up to thee things. That's always the tricky part.

Arguing with the Demons

2010-07-12T11:40:00.005-05:00

My brain has been on overdrive lately. That's the thing with writing as a profession. Lots of the hardest work is done when I'm just sitting there, seemingly watching TV or something while I'm thinking about elements or characters or any number of things that need to be worked out in a manuscript. My brain never stops during these times. NEVER. When I can't come up with what I need, half of my brain is chugging away at the problem and the other half is yelling at me for not being able to figure it out. Yes, I have voices in my head and they're fighting!

Today I'll be submitting another project I've just completed. It's a western ghost writing thing and now that it's done, I can focus on Skinners 5. All the while, my brain's been working out all the parts of Skinners that need to be edited, how they'll be edited, what to keep, what to throw out, which characters go, which stay, what makes sense and what doesn't. The list goes on and on and ON and it's always cycling through my puzzler no matter what I'm doing. When I sleep, I don't get the cool "I just dreamt the BEST story and I should jump out of bed and write it down" sort of dreams. I get the crazy "my brain is busy and frustrated so it's sending me disjointed chaos during my sleepy-time hours" sort of dreams. Is it any wonder why so many writers are alcoholics? Not that I'm spending all this time drunk, but it is almost obscene how good it feels to take a shot of Jim Beam every now and then. Can't drink too much, though, because I've got more work to do.

And don't worry. Despite all of this, Skinners is coming along nicely. Actually, this is more or less my "process" so the book is coming along nicely BECAUSE of this. Really? Why do some writers get a muse and I get psychotic mental ramblings about werewolves and monster hunters? Sure, sometimes those ramblings are pretty cool. That being said, a nice, gentle muse or a million dollar dream would be a pleasant change of pace.

It IS better than the demo!

2010-07-07T01:09:00.004-05:00

I'm a pretty big believer in signs. I know. Signs, signs, everywhere is signs. But seriously, I do tend to pay attention when I'm pointed in one direction over another. Sometimes it's in regards to big things like career choice, relationships or where I should live. Other times, it's smaller things like whether or not I should buy Crackdown 2 when I hated the demo. I decided to wait until it was marked down or on sale for between $20 and $30. So today, as I'm reading the not-so-bad reviews of this same game, I remember having some gift certificates I earned through the Best Buy Reward Zone Club or whatever. A quick check on their website to see if any more coupons are on the way tells me I can print off another certificate that will essentially bring the price of Crackdown 2 to $26 after taxes. Sign!!

I picked up the game, played it and decided it's more of the goodness I was after. Nothing blazingly new, but more of the same stuff and since that stuff is Crackdown, it's just fine. I think my problem before was that I'd just finished going all the way through Infamous on the PS3, which is an AMAZING game that has a lot of Crackdown elements like climbing around on buildings and stuff. I've only cracked this one open (HA! Cracked!! Ok sorry about that) but if you liked the first Crackdown, the new one should scratch that itch nicely.

Was all of this a big way to delay my work today? Not really because I got a lot done. Was the whole signs thing a flimsy excuse to buy a game I already said I wanted no matter how crappy the demo was? Yeah. You got me on that one.

I've been slacking

2010-07-05T11:46:00.003-05:00

Well, the long weekend is over, so it's back to work for me. Actually, since I'm a free-wheeling writer type person, my work schedule has little or nothing to do with official holidays or weekends. I've been working steadily throughout the 4th, although I did take some time to step out onto my balcony and admire several different fireworks displays on the horizon. With the smoke in the air, the crackle of popping explosions and the flickering of bright colors in the sky, I was reminded of some CNN footage from the Desert Storm days. Apart from that, it was really pretty cool.

Also, I was reminded via scathing email from a reader that I've all but forgotten about updating my main website. Jeez, Joshua! Give me a break! Just kidding about the scathing part. I was reminded about neglecting my duties as far as that goes and he's absolutely right. I've just been figuring that nobody's even noticed the links for MEG Files and Skinner Journals where I promised to put up appendices regarding the Skinners and creatures in the series. I'd like to blame Webmaster Steve for this, but can't do it. The truth is I meant to do an update after the series has been out for a while, but just haven't gotten around to it. Well, the series HAS been around for a little while and seems to be doing pretty well. I'll get off my butt and put something on there by the end of the month.

In gaming news, I played the demo for Crackdown 2. I loved Crackdown. Seriously, I played the living hell out of that game. The demo for this one just seems bland. The graphics seem really dull and the game mechanics are clunky at best. I want SO DESPERATELY to like this game, but the demo hasn't sold me. Should I say "It's just a demo and not the final build, so give the game a chance" or "Most demos are pretty close to the actual games, so steer clear until the price drops"? With so many games coming out, I'm leaning toward the second one. We'll see if my willpower holds out when I see it on the shelves.

That's it for now. Got to wrap up one western project, continue plucking away at Skinners 5 and oh look...there's the final edits for Skinners 4! I can do this, right?

Back from the road

2010-07-01T12:42:00.003-05:00

I just got back from the Western Writers Convention in Knoxville, TN. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet some very nice people. Now, many of you who know me for Skinners may not be able to picture me at a western writers convention. Lots of hats, big buckles and boots, right? Well, yes but I don't wear any of those. I have some black cowboy hats, many of which are pretty cool in a Rob Zombie / ZZ Top sort of way. If I could grow a cool beard like any of those guys, I'd be all about the cowboy hats. Come to think of it, the ZZ Top guys aren't really known for their hats. They're still cool, though.

Thought I'd get some work done while on the road. Brought my laptop and everything. Didn't happen. Oddly enough, I did wind up talking about video games. Specifically, Red Dead Redemption. That's just one more thing to let us know that the western genre isn't forgotten. People just want GOOD stuff in that category. [Insert derogatory comment about my own western series here] So many industry experts and editors talk about how the Old West is dead and buried. I say that's bullshit. Plenty of writers (me included) are coming up with stuff, but have a hard time selling them because the execs who do the buying are convinced there's no audience. I'd say the legions of people playing Red Dead at this very moment would disagree.

So now I'm back and trying to get some work done. Too bad I've talked about Red Dead so much now that I want to play. NO!!! Must...resist! Must....type!!!!

The Big Three

2010-06-18T11:43:00.003-05:00

E3 is pretty much wrapped up now. I think it goes through today, but all the big announcements were made by the end of Tuesday. I was able to see the Microsoft briefing on Monday and the Nintendo one late Tuesday, but had a lot of trouble catching the Sony one. I had to watch them online, so there was a lot of crashed sites, buffering, broken links and that sort of thing. I finally caught up when Sony posted the briefing on PSN. So anyway, here goes.

Microsoft - They were all about their "controller-free" motion control system which is now called Kinect. Looks very cool at first until I think about how I'm going to play games where I do something other than swatting or jumping over stuff. The big focus is to get gamers off their butts and interacting with their TV. My problem is that when I have time to game, I WANT to sit on my butt. If I had kids, I'd be much more excited about this but being a guy who's pushing 40, I got winded from watching the Kinect demos put on by all those athletes and "active people". There are some games that look awesome such as a Metal Gear sword-type game where you can run around and slice anything into pieces, including trucks and (of course) people. YES! I'm severely pumped for Gears of War 3 and the new Halo game looks amazing.

Nintendo - There was a lot to like about this one. The new Zelda and Metroid games jump out right away, but their big focus was on the 3DS. It's a DS with 3D that's supposed to work without glasses. They couldn't show it to anyone who wasn't there to see it first-hand, but I have enough faith in Nintendo to figure it's probably pretty cool. The new Zelda looked impressive, even if it wasn't working at 100% for the presentation. Nintendo has a lot of hardcore fans and it's funny to hear them hoot and holler for the slightest things. New Kirby game? YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! He looks like a ball of yarn now??? HELL YES!!!!!!!!!!!! Not that I didn't blow my wad when I saw the new Gears, but it's still funny to hear such unbridled wonderment over so many things in a row. Kind of like dropping a pirated advance copy of Rob-sessed 2 into a middle school cafeteria. Or, my reaction to the Star Wars lightsaber game for XBox's Kinect.

Sony - They have a new motion controller too and this is the one I've been most excited about. It's an actual controller that looks much better suited for "real" games. A great deal of their presentation was in pointing this out (heh...get it? Pointing. It's a pointer controller! Moving on) and making fun of Microsoft's lack of buttons. Oddly enough, the coolest presentation they had for their motion control thing (The PS Move) was a game called Sorcery. This was odd, because I thought it was a game that could actually be played pretty well on the Kinect. Oh well. There were tons of games to love including Killzone 3 and a new God of War for the PSP. Sony also spent a lot of time harping their 3D tech. Do I need to buy one of those new TVs for that or does it come through fine with the PS3 alone? I'm not sure. It's one of those things that looks cool, but seems out of my reach. HA! Reach!! Like it's 3D and I'm reaching for....never mind. I'm burned out from looking at too many game trailers.

Radio spot

2010-06-14T11:18:00.002-05:00

For those of you not in the Illinois area or if you just somehow missed my interview on WSPL a little while back, here's a link to hear the streamed version. Hope you like it and before you comment on how bad my voice is or how dorky I sound...I already know!

Writer's Jam Report

2010-06-13T11:52:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was my first jam session. Ha. Hilarious. Hey, I've never been in a band, so at least let me say that once. The event at Krypton Comics turned out to be a lot better than suggested by first appearances. When I arrived, there were three cars in the parking lot: mine, another writer's and someone else's. Going by past experiences with signings and such, that car was our only audience member or possibly just someone looking to buy comics. The rest of us showed up and by the time the panel got rolling, all of the seats that had been set up for the event were filled!

A great group turned up both behind the table and in the audience. It's always nice to be around other writers since we don't really get a chance to commiserate in regards to shop talk. At least, anti-social, sun-dreading cave-dwellers like me don't get many opportunities like that. It's always so refreshing to swap editing stories and compare industry nightmares. There were plenty of great tips for the audience as well. That's good, since it was a panel for them.

One funny / embarrassing thing. There was a woman in the audience who I recognized as someone I'd gone to high school with. She's been to one of my signings and I was happy to see her at this event. I saw her in the audience, smiled and acknowledged her a few times with a nod amd afterward, I figured she'd come up to say hello. She came up, talked to the person next to me and left without a word to her old classmate. Odd. Well, not really. I checked that high school friend's Facebook page and found out she's been in Cincinnati since Thursday. To that very nice complete stranger in the audience yesterday...sorry about all of that smiling and nodding. To that high school friend...be on the alert because you have a doppelganger!! Honest mistake on my part. Remember, I don't get out much.

Almost E3 time!!

2010-06-10T12:36:00.004-05:00

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) happens next week and I'm looking forward to it. That's when all the big video game announcements for the next year or so are made and it's pretty exciting for gaming geeks like me. Seems like the festivities have kicked off a little early, because this new trailer hit the internet and it looks AWESOME. Seems like the new Mortal Kombat is taking a cue from the newest Street Fighter games by keeping the gameplay 2D while boosting the graphics and everything else to current gen standards. See for yourself...

So far...FLAWLESS VICTORY.

OSFest is shaping up!

2010-06-08T11:48:00.004-05:00

Next month is the OSFest convention here in Omaha. I'm always glad to do local events like this. There's a great community out here and the previous OSFests have been wonderful. This year looks to be even better! Click on the link in the "Out and About" section above to see their website.

I recently got a list of the panels that are scheduled and it looks like I've got some fun ones to look forward to. On Friday night, there's one called, "Bump, there goes the neighborhood". I don't have details on every panel, but I'm thinking this has something to do with monsters in modern day or urban settings or something along those lines. Should be cool. On Sunday, there's a panel on World Building and I was also supposed to do a reading. Then I saw my reading was scheduled opposite a panel called, "Vampires Don't Sparkle". Now, I'm not one to rock the boat with programming, but I HAD to be on an anti-sparkle panel! I contacted the OSFest guys and told them I'd sacrifice my reading to sit on that panel. They were gracious enough to not only put me on the panel, but reschedule my reading for late Saturday night. I hope to have a few people show up for the reading, which should be a lot of fun. One convention had me there to promote Skinners, but listed me with all of my western credits and billed my reading as something of a good ol' time to round up the cowpokes. Needless to say, some of the people in attendance were horrified when I read the opening mutilations from Howling Legion instead. Oh well. Being a horror author, that kind of reaction is fine with me.

So it looks like OSFest is going to be great. Anyone in the Omaha area the weekend of July 23-25 should check it out! The folks from Nevermore Paranormal will be there as well, so come on down and say hello to some real MEG guys! See you there.

Making your weekend plans so you don't have to!

2010-06-07T11:24:00.003-05:00

This weekend wasn't bad, but wasn't as cool as this weekend will be! This Saturday is the Writer's Jam at Krypton Comics here in Omaha. For those of you in the area, come on over to enjoy a panel of writers including me, Chloe Neill, Matthew Rotundo, Travis Heermann and others. My apologies to the others. This is the list of participants as far as my latest info tells me. The event is set up to be a series with panels held every so often on the subject of the craft / business of writing. Should be a lot of fun for anyone interested in writing or writers. There will be plenty of chances for Q & A and of course you'll be able to buy our books and get them signed. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Krypton Comics is a great store anyway, filled with all the stuff that makes every geek's heart sing. At least, it makes THIS geek's heart sing. Anyway, I hope to see a bunch of you there. If you're a writer, the best advice comes from other writers. If nothing else, talking to more of us makes you realize you're not the only one who goes crrrrazy trying to piece a story together.

...but I'm not making a habit of it.

2010-06-03T11:10:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I woke up earlier than usual and for some reason was thinking about Iron Man. That sounds weird, I know, but there it is. I figured I could get to an early show and be back in time to start work. Well I did and it was actually good. I was expecting Iron Man 2 to be pretty good and it WAS! Took a little while to get to some real Iron Man action, but the movie was great!! What I'm surprised about was the actual theater experience. I've been spoiled with the home theater and annoyed with the "high price / loud jackasses with their phones" combo pack, which has gotten me into the habit of waiting for DVD releases.

This time was great! At first, it looked like I was going to be the only one in the theater. Eventually 5 more people wandered in but kept to themselves. No screaming during every quiet part. No yapping on their phone or texting while using the most blindingly bright screen setting possible. And no tossing beach balls around before the previews started. What the HELL is up with that??? Is that a local thing or some new and improved form of douche baggery?

Even more surprising was the fact that I was the ONLY ONE who stayed through the credits to see the last scene and most recent teaser for the next Marvel movie. Now, this is where it's very cool seeing a genre movie in a big crowd on opening day. We're all there as one big geek collective. We all know about the secret scene and applaud after watching it with baited breath. Although the home theater is great in every other way, there's no beating the experience of sitting in a theater packed full of like-minded nerds who just want to see comic books come to life.

This was a very cool movie and a fun day out. You know what brought me back to my original line of thinking? The price of my ticket and snacks was about the same as buying the DVD.

Seriously...I did do SOME work over the long weekend

2010-06-01T11:47:00.006-05:00

Although I don't generally get to partake in long weekends (or any weekends) like everybody else since writers typically always need to work, I did get some down time over this last one. Mostly, I caught up on a bunch of housework type of stuff like cleaning the bathroom and buzzing my hair. I know it's time to shave it off when there's enough hair to get bed-head. Since I could actually feel some movement up there when the wind blew, I was getting dangerously close to "hippie phase".

Also, and much more interestingly, I caught up on some movies I've been wanting to see. First up was Land of the Lost. This one is the embodiment of why NetFlix is so great. I mainly use the Instant Queue on the XBox, so the DVDs they send me through the mail are freebies in my mind. Land of the Lost is one I wanted to see because Will Ferrel is always pretty funny but the movie had the chance to be too stupid for words. Well, it was pretty stupid, but in a great way. I laughed my ass off at some stuff. Then again, I still find the Three Stooges to be hilarious so that's that.

Next was Legion. When I think of a movie where angels come down from the heavens to kick human ass, the first one that comes to mind is The Prophecy. That movie is AWESOME. Legion, while not as good as that, was pretty cool. I liked the premise of God getting "fed up with all the bullshit" (as stated by the main character) and deciding to clean house again. Instead of a flood, He sends in a bunch of flippin' cool demon type things. Michael stands up for us, Gabriel comes in to get his hands dirty, angelic throwdown commences. Very nice! I would have liked a little more of the creepy stuff and action, but that's no surprise, right? Recommended.

Day Two started off with Dragon Wars. This is a movie that's all about expectations. Anyone who's read this blog knows about my fondness for those crappy Sci-Fi Channel (since I still cringe to call it SyFy Channel) movies. You know, like Mega-Shark vs Giant Octopus? Those movies are perfect relaxation tools where you watch some over-the-top stuff and plot-wise it doesn't matter if you fall asleep anywhere along the line. Dragon Wars seemed like one of those with a much bigger budget. Well, that's actually a fair description. Are you expecting a riveting plot that makes sense all the way through with characters that behave rationally and get wounded when they're shot? This one's not for you. If you're ready to kick back and see some huge and honestly very cool giant monsters stomp and fly through modern cities? Then you'll have a fun time with this. I was fully signed on for the latter of those and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Were there laugh-out-loud dumb moments scattered throughout? Oh yeah, but that's part of the fun.

Finally, there was Daybreakers. Seems like I saved the best for last because this one was great! Very cool premise. Awesome effects. Scary vampires. Willem Dafoe!!! It starts off with the vampires having already taken over and settled in to make the world their own, complete with vamp advertising campaigns and cars that are protected against sunlight. I thought the Subwalk underground walkway was a cool touch. Humans are slapped into giant milking machines and drained of blood. I especially loved the horrific bat-vamps that came about when regular bloodsuckers were starved for too long. They mutated into these big Nosferatu dudes with wings and feet that could grab onto the ceiling Spider-Man style. Awesome?? I think so.

And today I run out to the store to buy The Wolf Man on DVD. Or should I go Blu Ray? Can't wait for this one. Please don't let the ads make this look better than it is. I want to love this movie SO MUCH!! I'll let you know.

BOOGER!!!!!

2010-05-28T12:06:00.004-05:00

Here's something that makes me look super old. Remember the show WKRP in Cincinnati? No? Well now I feel old. Thanks a lot. Heh.

I had the opportunity to be on WSPL's Morning Show with Jaimie London and it was a lot of fun. She even remembered me from the talk we had when Howling Legion was released. What can I say? I'm a guy, so it's nice to have women remember me. I've done a few interviews for all the Skinners books and I always get nervous. Thanks to some great hosting, I think I sounded all right. I'll see for sure if I embarrassed myself when I listen to the playback sometime. For those of you who know WKRP, do you remember how Dr. Johnny Fever got fired from one of his old jobs? He said "booger" on the air. Hey, it was funny in the 70's! I can still see Howard Hesseman sitting at his mike during a moment of rock 'n roll rebellion and growling, "BOOGerrrrr!!". Well guess what I have to concentrate very hard NOT to say when I'm doing a radio spot. Somehow, I controlled myself.

Thanks, Jaime. See ya for Book 4!

Online Multiplayer -OR- Meeting New Jerks From Across The World

2010-05-27T12:03:00.003-05:00

So I've been playing a lot of ModNation Racers on the PS3. Very cool game and ranks high on the Cute-o-Meter, which is a fun change from my normal splatteriffic, headshot-heavy fare. The online component is huge with this game and it really shows the variety you get when you dive in to multiplayer.

First, there's the good side. At times, this game makes me realize why I've got my console hooked into the internet in the first place. Racing with cool people who take a lot of time to put together some awesome tracks and then being able to download those tracks after the game. We comment on how fun it was, go on to the next one and I feel good about dropping the cash for the game.

Then, there's the bad. I join another multiplayer lobby and immediately get to hear everyone swearing at everyone else or singing. Yes...SINGING. Now I realize I was just talking about how bad my language gets when playing Mario Kart, but that's not when I'm playing with other people. Somehow, it just seems like I'm getting hosed so much worse when the computer is the one doing it. Oh sure!! Of COURSE you get the perfect power ups for every situation. You're the freaking COMPUTER!!! Let the human win every now and then. Remember Tron?? The users were GODS there and the programs worshipped them. That's how it SHOULD be!!!

Sorry about that. Back to the singing lobby. I don't have a headset hooked up and don't know how to mute other players (or if I can) so I ignore them and go about my race. Even knowing they're real people that I can't see makes the whole thing less stressful for me. I lose a race, I stick around for the next one. I get hit by a power up and I keep going, even though that power up is accompanied by a scratchy, vaguely anonymous "Take that, bitch!" from some dude's headset. The loading times are a bear on this game, so I stick around because I don't want to take the time to find another lobby. The icing on the cake is when I finally win one race. ONE race goes my way and as soon as I get back to the lobby, I get the boot. I'm out, by myself, wondering why I bother interacting with anyone and expect it to be fun. High school all over again. Doh!

Woo-HOO!!

2010-05-25T11:55:00.006-05:00

Picked up Super Mario Galaxy 2 and was not disappointed. So far, it's every bit as well made, easy on the eyes and just plain fun as most of the other Mario games. Maybe it's bad for my "horror dude" image, but I don't mind sitting there, grinning like an idiot while living vicariously through a mustachioed plumber riding a little chubby dinosaur. Let's face it, life sucks sometimes. Sometimes, it sucks a LOT and Mario is like a dose of happy mainlined into your arteries. Who wouldn't want to spend some time in the Mushroom Kingdom when times get hard. Then again, I suppose a lot of people spend time there, but rehab usually follows.

I've heard about nursing homes using the Wii for physical therapy, but they should put Super Mario games into mental hospitals to help relieve depression. Keep it away from the folks with hallucinations, though. Seeing talking mushrooms and floors that fall away into nothingness won't do them any favors.

I'm seriously considering getting ModNation Racers for the PS3. Another dose of cute, but in go-kart form. Creating my own tracks and karts looks just easy enough for me to give it a go. Speaking of karts, I haven't stopped playing Mario Kart on the Wii. I've got to say, despite its Mario-cute factor, I spew more obscenities per second during that game than any other. And that includes games where I get shot, stabbed, or otherwise worked over by an unrelenting and unforgiving AI with superior processing power behind it. Getting tea bagged by some dickhead 11 year-old on XBox Live? It happens. Getting dicked over by a stuck-up blond princess throwing a blue mushroom at me when the finish line is in sight? That's tough. Hearing her honk, yell and wave at me as she drives by to steal my victory for the 5th race in a row?? That mother f*%$ing little bi&$h has gotta PAY!!!!!!

2010-05-21T14:01:00.003-05:00

Chick Has Very Low Pain Threshold - Watch more Funny Videos
Not long ago, I finally got the piece on my leg completed. It's a Skinners tattoo with Paige and a Full Blood that took upwards of 30 hours total to complete. Jesse at Nuclear Ink did the work and it's freaking awesome. Although there were rough patches sometimes, it was NEVER as bad as this. Yowza!!

Bram Stoker 2...this time, it's PERSONAL

2010-05-20T11:45:00.003-05:00

Remember how I'm appearing all month long at the Barnes & Noble Paranormal book club? Well if you haven't stopped by, get over there! Wait...after you read this blog.

So far, there have been some fun discussions on the board but I sure didn't see this one coming. Paul Goat Allen's blog was all about me and the Skinners saga (it's pretty cool for me to think of it as a "saga") and frankly, I was blown away by the title alone. It's called Vampires, Van Halen and Video Gaming: Why Marcus Pelegrimas is the Bram Stoker of the 21st Century. Click here to read it for yourself. My first thought was that this was a tongue in cheek sort of thing that would end up with a big ol' "Bazinga!" Not that Paul is a mean sort of guy, of course. Like I said before, I was just blown away.

So go read the blog and keep reading while you're at that site. There's plenty of great stuff to catch your eye.

I have to go play some more Split Second. With the push of a button, I can collapse a building or drop a dry-docked boat onto my fellow racers. How could I not love this game??

I'm one happy geek

2010-05-19T11:31:00.008-05:00

Yesterday was a big day for game releases. Actually, Tuesday is always a mini-event because new games as well as new DVDs are released so it tickles me on a few of my sweet spots. That sounds more than a little nasty, but you get what I'm saying. Nothing hit as far as DVDs that I wanted, but there were games coming out the wazoo!! And by that, I don't mean this guy. He's The Great Gazoo. I don't want anything that comes out of him.

Anyway, I was trying to decide if I should break down and buy a new game and, if so, which one. In the middle of that process, I checked my Facebook page and found a little somethin' that a reader whipped up. It's a Magic: The Gathering card featuring the Blood Blade! How freaking cool is this? Just the sight of it made my geeky heart skip a beat. Even stranger is the fact that I actually have this knife. Bought it at a con because I thought it looked like a Blood Blade. Coincidence? I think not. Actually, probably is a coincidence, but still a cool one. Thanks, Michael!

On the video game front, Alan Wake, Split Second, new Prince of Persia, and Red Dead Redemption were some of the releases that had caught my eye. I intended on getting Red Dead simply because someone FINALLY made a high quality open-world western game. The only thing that stayed my hand was the fact that I'm in the middle of some open-world goodness now (Infamous, Fallout 3, GTA 4 -- I know these have been out for a while, but I'm slow!!) and would like to wrap up at least one of them before diving into another. Alan Wake is about a horror writer who fights monsters, so that was a no-brainer. Plus, I think I can find a way to use that as a tax write-off. Research? While I was in Best Buy, the girl in the blue shirt wandering the aisles told me they had the Split Second demo set up on one of their plasma screens. I checked it out, fell in love with the idea of blowing up buildings while racing and dodging debris, and picked that one up too. Damn you, Best Buy Temptress!!!

Boob tube is sagging

2010-05-17T11:26:00.004-05:00

I have REALLY lost touch with reality television shows. Have no clue who won Survivor. Don't know who's singing what on American Idol. Haven't the foggiest who stumbled or soared on Dancing with the Stars. It's all just sliding by. The upside to this is that less of my limited brain capacity is being devoted to them. Funny enough, I usually just watched them because they were on. I did get into the whole thing sometimes, but I really don't miss them now that they've been removed from me like an appendix that was broadcast into my living room. Now don't get me wrong. When Hell's Kitchen comes back, I'll be all over it.

Tonight is a new Big Bang Theory that answers one of my Big Bang questions. Just how did Sheldon meet Leonard?? Ok, so it hasn't really been weighing me down or anything, but it should be a good episode.

The other day, I watched Let's Make A Deal. I have NEVER seen that show. Not the classic version and not the new one. It was pretty good, I guess. Wayne Brady was hosting and he did not look happy. Sure, he did his job and all. He's a cool guy, but he seemed to have genuine fun on Whose Line is it Anyway and Don't Forget the Lyrics. Was that the name of that karaoke show? Anyway, he had a look in his eyes on Deal that screamed, "I'm doing this for work. Please kill me." Maybe it was just a bad day. We've all been there, Wayne. Keep your chin up!

Always more to do

2010-05-14T12:16:00.004-05:00

I really need to get crackin' on updating my main website. So far, the only real stuff I've done to it is to put new covers on when the books come out. Actually, I should say Webmaster Steve does that sort of thing. I have high hopes for the appendixes, but I have to do more than hope on those. I actually need to sit down and write some things. When I do (which won't be long), it'll be pretty cool. The MEG Files will be a reference to the main characters and the Skinner Field Guide will be a reference to the creatures. Doesn't sound like a lot for me to do, right? Well, it's really not. That's my fault.

Just got finished with the edits for Skinners 4 and they're looking great. You'd think I'd learn something by paying attention to all those copy editor's notes. I do! I pay attention, but my strong suit has never been comma usage. That's what the copy editors are for and I'd hate to put them out of a job. By the way, thanks to my copy editors. You're the busy hands dusting me off, straightening my tie and slicking back my hair before I present my books to the world.

The first draft of Skinners 5 is moving right along. Just got finished with a major action scene and some pretty cool interactions between Cole and a newly introduced Full Blood. Could I be more generic than that? Let's see...Paige is also kicking someone's butt and flipping someone else some attitude. More generic?? Seriously? Ok. Somebody else is doing some stuff and interjecting dialogue along the way. Heh. That was fun.

More computer woes

2010-05-11T11:07:00.002-05:00

So just when I think I'm in the clear after getting my computer all snaked and swiffered or whatever else they do to clean it out, the damn thing pulls another fast one on me. I pull up my Word file for Skinners 5 (just a Word file. Nothin' fancy.) and it says it's not available. I panic. I say obscene things to my monitor. I try to fix it. Apparently, it's trying to pull up my Word '03 files as Word '07 documents. So now I'm being forced to upgrade??? Not cool.

Long story short: I did get it back on track. I fixed it myself, which was cheap, but I won't try to make it sound like I diagnosed the problem and repaired it. More importantly, I did NOT upgrade against my will. I kept fiddling until it worked. I think my laptop has the same problem, but I'll tackle that one later.

In other news, Big Bang Theory was a good one last night. The gist of it was a simple message. Nerds can be kinky too. Heh.

Will I emerge from the bubble?

2010-05-07T11:12:00.005-05:00

With everything being so crazy (working on Skinners 4 & 5 while editing and doing other projects), I've put myself on a new schedule. One side effect is that I rarely leave home or see more than 1 or 2 people per day. I just realized one day that I didn't even use my normal speaking voice until well past 9pm. While that sounds nice and relaxing on paper, it does have its drawbacks.

First of all, there's the whole "crazy hermit" thing. Lord only knows what my neighbors thought of me before. Seeing me poke my head out to collect mail and scurry back in before the sunlight touches me doesn't help my image. Secondly, it becomes increasingly difficult to visit the outside world. Case in point: Iron Man 2. While I've pretty much given up the movie theater experience in favor of the less crowded, cheaper and all around more enjoyable one in my living room, Iron Man 2 is one of the few movies I don't want to wait for on DVD. And yet, there's a part of me that hesitates to leave my little bubble.

I should just suck it up and go out while I'm still coherent enough to know there's a potential problem, right? It'll be fun! Hey, it's IRON MAN!! That's what I'll do. Or maybe I'll just take a walk. Or, if that doesn't work out, I can turn on the Wii and take a virtual walk with my virtual dog. Maybe Iron Man will be playing somewhere in there. Or I could just wait for the DVD.

NO! Out I go!!!!

Run Silent, Run Co-op

2010-05-04T11:19:00.003-05:00

Finally got a chance to play some Splinter Cell: Conviction. And FINALLY real co-op is back in that series!! Webmaster Steve and I played so much of the co-op missions in SC Chaos Theory back on the old XBox (Ebony) that I barely got a chance to dabble in the excellent single player campaign. We had our hopes up for SC Double Agent on the 360 (Ivory), but the co-op was nowhere near the predecessor. Now we're back in business. Not only is the co-op phenomenal, but there's even the Deniable Ops mode which is like Terrorist Hunt on the Rainbow 6 series. Tasty!!

My only gripe now is that I don't have enough time to play as much as I'd like. And when I refer to "as much as I'd like", I mean all day / every day. Oh well. I'd better get crackin', though because I'm seeing previews for the new Ghost Recon, Medal of Honor and Call of Duty games that look brain-melt-tastic. If there was only a way to convert my XBox gamer score into currency, I could pay bills AND keep playing.

Through the lovely month of May

2010-05-02T12:51:00.004-05:00

Once again, I've been invited to be featured on the Barnes & Noble Paranormal / Urban Fantasy Book Club message board. It's always a pleasure and I'll be there this entire month. After chatting about Teeth of Beasts, you can look around at all the other stuff there. It's a great site, so do yourself a favor and bookmark it.

In other news, I finally got around to seeing Avatar. I was resistant simply because I've been hearing the hype for this movie since I was about...what...eight years old? Much like Titanic, the more I was ordered to see this spectacle and COMMANDED to love it, the less I wanted to go. Contrary by nature, I suppose. Still haven't seen Titanic, but that doesn't have aliens flying on little dragons and Marines in battle armor. First of all, seeing Avatar on Blu Ray was amazing. Secondly, this one truly did live up to the hype. For the 4 or 5 of you out there who may not have seen it yet either, it's definitely worth it.

My editor is asking for title suggestions for Skinners Book 5. I always have a title in mind when writing a book, but it just gets filed under the "Nice try, but no dice" category. More often than not, the final title winds up better than my first choice anyway. My first title for Book 2 was Beneath the Flesh. I thought it pertained to shapeshifters and sounded creepy. It got rejected because it was too creepy. Heh. Anyway, Howling Legion is a lot better than that one.

Ok. I need to clean up the place and maybe dig in to some games. Maybe I'll pick up the new downloadable content for Left 4 Dead 2. Yeeeeeah....

Teeth of Beasts RELEASED!!

2010-04-28T11:12:00.002-05:00

Every time one of my books is released, going all the way back to the very first of my westerns under the Marcus Galloway pseudonym, I tell myself I won't go out to bookstores looking for it on the shelves. I realize I'm not a huge name and the booksellers don't get around to stocking my wares right away. Even with these expectations, I still feel the little twinge in my gut when my big day comes and goes without the very important retail portion of the equation seeming to notice. No big drama. Just an uncomfortable twinge.

Or maybe it's just the stores in my home town. When I went to the major chains for BLOOD BLADE and HOWLING LEGION, I had to ask for them since they weren't anywhere to be found. The clerk had to go in back, put on a miner's cap with one of those little lights on it, venture into the bottom of the stacks, disappear for 10 minutes, take a coffee break, venture back, place their miner's hat somewhere to recharge the light's battery and then finally hand a new book over to someone who wanted to see it on the shelves FRONT AND CENTER!! Well, this time was a little different.

When I went to a local Borders, TEETH OF BEASTS wasn't on the New Release shelf. It was on the top of a stack on a cart, ready to be stocked. At Barnes & Noble, it was on the New Release shelf at the front of the science fiction / fantasy section. Not quite the super-cool New Release tower at the front of the store, but still pretty good! Progress!! And, they had copies of the first two! The whole idea is for the series to expand and take up more space on the shelf so more readers are drawn to my awesomeness. I'd even accept them being drawn to the awesomeness of the covers.

For now, things seem to be plugging away nicely. I still won't obsess about reviews or the sales numbers on Amazon simply because I can't do a lot about that stuff right now. I'll be making some rounds to spread the word either way and will always do my best to promote no matter what the numbers are. The rest is a lot of "wait and see".

So let me know what you think of the new book. Comment here whenever you like. Hopefully I can see some of you at one of these upcoming conventions. I'm also trying to arrange some more con appearances, but a lot of the good ones are in October and there are only so many weekends to work with. Fortunately, going to a bunch of horror / fantasy cons in a row doesn't sound like a terrible thing. I'll work something out. In the meantime, it's back to work for me!!

Almost Forgot

2010-04-23T16:53:00.002-05:00

With all the work I've been doing on Book 5, the release date for Book 3 almost slipped right by me. That's right! Skinners 3: Teeth of Beasts will be released on the 27th!! This is where a lot of stuff in the Skinners-verse is shaken up. New battles. New beasts. New....lots of new stuff. It is a new book, after all. Hey, I'm a writer not an advertising exec. Just go buy it, OK? Thanks.

I'm still trying to line up convention appearances and signings so check in here for details. Also, I'll keep the offer open a little while longer for sending out those free signed covers. I've been getting requests and will send them out the next time I get to the post office.

As I'm writing this, there's some gross internet stuff showing on TV. Isn't it bad enough I have to see this stuff online? Yowza. Need to turn this stuff off and get back to work. I've got enough sick garbage in my head without more being shown to me.

Times is hard

2010-04-20T13:25:00.004-05:00

I always feel a little bad when I trade in a bunch of my old games and get used games with the credit. I know the designers don't see any profits from that, so I try to buy new whenever I can. After all, they did the work and made a great product, so they should see a return. Then again, there are times when I just can't buy new because the purse strings are tight enough to choke the life out of me. Case in point: I wanted Splinter Cell Conviction and had NO money to purchase it. I traded in a bunch of stuff and could only get it for free by getting the used copy. I swallowed my own conviction and took the deal.

Sorry about that, Ubisoft. I know you're a huge company that won't fold without my sale, but I know what it's like to not get your percentage from every purchase. After all, used book stores have been around a lot longer than used video game stores. I don't see profit from those, but it spreads the word about the series, newer books may be bought when they come out and life goes on. I'm not anti-used games, either. It's everyone's choice, but I just feel like I should buy new when I can. When I can't, that's tough. Come to think of it, between all the other Tom Clancy games out there, Ubisoft's already gotten plenty of my cash and will get plenty more.

So I'll stop whining and enjoy the new Splinter Cell. YAY for co-op!!!!

Road Bumps N' Revelations

2010-04-13T12:37:00.003-05:00

I hate to use the phrase Writer's Block, but sometimes it's mildly appropriate. To me, Writer's Block seems more like an excuse. Kind of like saying my addiction to buying DVDs instead of renting them is "an illness". Every now and then, no matter how much I like writing, it's less a labor a love and more like pulling my toenails off with a pair of needle nose pliers. The last few days have been rough, simply because I don't have every last thing worked out as far as the details for Skinners. I know my general direction, but sometimes the characters wind up in sticky situations. That's good for the story, but bad when I don't know how they're gonna get out of those situations. Maybe they DON'T get out. Great. More choices.

Anyway, I was driving to the bank when it occurred to me. Maybe hitting all these freaking potholes shook something loose. I thought of what's going to happen next, how it can work into the larger plot, where to go from there and I earn my Basic Writing badge for the day. All right, so it's not exactly a revelation, but that was a good term to use that started with R. Seemed like a cool title for the blog. Hmm. Maybe that's why I never get to use my own ideas for titles on the books.

In other news, Wil Wheaton made his return to The Big Bang Theory last night. I love that show and sometimes I'm convinced that I AM Sheldon. WHEATON!!!!!!!!!