Oh, so THAT'S why I can't shake this headache!

No big news, but I thought I'd check in. Here are a few things going on in the glamorous life of a professional writer! Get ready to quit your jobs, kids. After this, you'll want nothing more than to join me on the front lines of literary greatness.

-  Speaking of jobs, my search for a normal one goes on. And, by normal, I mean "paying" or "steady" or even "one that doesn't kick me in the balls on a daily basis". Maybe that last one is overly dramatic. The kicks come maybe once or twice a week actually. Also, that's most jobs. Anyway, there were a few prospects that seemed like sure bets and I haven't heard anything from them. Times are hard...the economy...blah, blah. Anyone know where I can sign on for one of those underground prize
fight clubs or evil mercenary gigs I read so much about? Hey! Comic books count as reading!!

-  Been watching Daredevil on Netflix. Ahhhh. Finally, something good has happened. Gritty and true to the source material. I've been doing my best to ration myself. Binge watching only means waiting longer for the next season.

-  Those brat burgers I mentioned last post are AMAZING!! Worth every calorie.

-  Sat down to start writing again for the first time in a long while. It feels good to get back to my REAL work. On the agenda for the immediate future is some western series work for ebooks and getting off my ass to FINALLY get the second Gillis Ledgers book out there. That one's been written for a while and the cover is even done. Looks great. I just got sidetracked before edits could be made. Won't be long before another of my spawn is out and about.

-  Filed my taxes. Was informed they were rejected. Filed them again. Waiting. Sigh. What's the matter, IRS? Can't wait to get my IOU for a couple hundred bucks??

You might have spotted a common theme through this and several other posts around here. Waiting. Ugh. Don't remind me. Oh yeah, you didn't remind me. I reminded me. I hate me sometimes!!!!

I'm Weak. So Very, Very Weak.

Whenever I go grocery shopping, I've gotten into the habit of picking out one item upon which to bestow the glorious title of Grocery of the Day. As I've said numerous times throughout my books, the secret to a happy life is cheap thrills.

So this time, I was after some turkey burgers. I usually get the frozen ones with jalapeno or jack cheese. They're not great calorie-wise, but better than the alternative. Sitting directly beside them were the Johnsonville Brat burgers. SO much higher in calories, but oh so delicious! The last time I had one was before I was watching my weight and I still dream about them. I was going to be good and get my turkey burgers...until I saw the brat burgers with Swiss cheese and mushrooms!! After about two or three seconds of deliberation, I snagged me a box of those.

Sure they might be higher in calories than even the regular brat burgers, but how could I pass up the Grocery of the Day??!!! Thank you, Johnsonville. Thank you so bloody much.

Insanity. Gotta Have It!

When I was speaking at that high school gathering a little while ago, one of the students asked me if I was crazy. She was a great listener and was eager to learn about our craft, which means I don't think she was yanking my chain. Most likely, I wasn't the first writer she's encountered which means she already knew that we're all a little crazy. Either that, or I had a particularly wild look in my eyes that sometimes makes people feel "uncomfortable" around me. Heh.

What I believe is that she already knew what it takes to be even a mild success in any creative field. You gotta have a lot of heart, iron will and a complete disregard for practicality. In fact, a well known doctor and brilliant thinker once called practicality the last refuge of the mediocre. Of course, that man was Dr. Miguelito Loveless from The Wild Wild West, but his words still ring true. If we are to succeed as artists, we must fight to maintain our spirit while most everything around us tries to grind it down.

Money, power, a corner office, those sorts of things don't really make a dent to the artistic parts of the brain. Unfortunately, the artistic part of some people's brain (prime example: ME) overshadows damn near everything else. Folks like us don't see the point of sacrificing time and effort to hoard all those small pieces of paper. We yearn for experiences, emotion and the fantastic. Would I love to be rich? Sure! There's always the chance that one of my books could hit it big in one way or another, but that's a gamble I take with every word I type. Would I do what needs to be done to take the more certain way of getting material success? Would I devote myself to learning the game of finance and big business to amass wealth? Nah. I'm just not made that way. I'm not condemning people who do throw themselves into the business world. I just don't get it and wouldn't be any good at it. I know my limitations.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I'm looking for a day job to supplement my income. That's definitely been reminding me of just how unqualified I am for just about everything else that's out there. It's lead to a good deal of frustration, mainly with myself, for not having any marketable skills. I think back to all those years when I could have been bettering myself in a more practical way. That sure would have made things easier for me now.

But even here, at the point where I feel the pinch more than ever, I simply don't regret being impractical. This is just how I am. This is just how WE, as artists and creative folks, are. Is that crazy? Strictly speaking...yeah.  A little. But at least it ain't mediocre.

Mr. Marcus goes to the Library

I don't get out much. It's best that I lead with that because I don't know any better. My human interaction is fairly limited because...well...see Line #1.

Heh. Seriously, though, I ventured out into the world today so I could join some of the bright-eyed Creative Writing students at Hurricane High School for a Q & A session / writing workshop / pizza party. At least, they were as bright-eyed as one might expect for students within a day and a half of spring break. They were actually great and it always does me a lot of good to see so much enthusiasm for the written word.

I hear a lot of griping (and do plenty of it myself) about this industry and the current state of literary affairs. What's really important, though, is that there are still fresh talents out there striving to take up this noble calling. Yes, I do believe this is a noble calling. Storytelling is one of humanity's greatest accomplishments next to music, philosophy and mixing chocolate with peanut butter. It does me a whole lot of good to go out and meet the creators of the next wave of books, poems, and general creative goodness. I even got to hear a few samples of their work and I hated them! Only because I wasn't so good when I was in high school!!

All jealousy aside, it was a great day and I was very impressed. Of course, they did butter me up with pizza and brownies, so...there's that.

Time for Plan C. I've Got a Plan C, Right?

I won't bore you with another "it's tough out there" rant, although I can't promise I won't bore you with it some other time. Lately, however, I've been on the hunt for a day job and it's been brutal. What's particularly depressing is that many jobs that fall under the category of "I can always get one of those when I'm desperate" are turning me down. Call center stuff, production work, customer care, all things that I've done plenty of times before in plenty of other places now don't find me qualified.

Bad economy. I'm old. I'm over / under qualified. Doesn't really matter anymore. The reasons are all just topics for discussion while the bills keep piling up. I can be somewhat charming in person, but the whole begging for more time routine is wearing thin with my landlord. Oh well. The only reason I bring it up is because today marks the start of training for a great job I thought I had LOCKED UP. Testing went well. The interview was awesome. I'm ideally located. My history is pretty good. But...nope. Very disheartening.

This topic, while not very cheerful or inspiring, seems appropriate today since it's Vincent van Gogh's birthday. Unappreciated in his time, poor and depressed. Hmmm. Seems vaguely familiar. Not that I think for a moment that my books will ever rise to the level of his paintings, but at least I can relate to the poor and depressed artist thing.

Wah-wahhhhhhh.

I promise to get back to the funnier stuff tomorrow.

It's weird out there. Perhaps a little...too weird.

So I was flipping through the recommendations Netflix made for me today when I came across Danger 5. It's a show from Australia (I think) about a group of super spy people in a bizarro universe filled with bad props, puppet Nazi dogs, and...of course...Hitler. For the first few minutes I watched slack-jawed, wondering if I might've accidentally hit my head on my way to the TV or if I was in some sort of fever dream. The next few minutes after that, I wondered if this might be a little too far out there even for me. From then on though, I was hooked.

I can't really describe it and for all I know everyone already knows all about this show. Either way, I love it. Now let's just hope the US doesn't try to remake it so they can tone it down and sprinkle in a bunch of idiot reality show stars. I mean, take a look at this....

Nazi Stegosaurus! This show is perfect as is.

Top 5 Ways to Cool the 'Ol Nerves

There's a lot going through my brain at any given time. I'd use the royal our brains here, but I've had too much experience recently to include EVERYone in the category of having active brain processes. So here we go (in no particular order):

- Video Games -- Nothing relieves stress better than parking your butt in front of a TV and ending the virtual lives of every digitized life form known to man. Personally, I prefer third person shooters for maximum satisfaction and Gears of War tops them all. It's bloody, chaotic and allows you to chainsaw people into chunks. I'd recommend headphones, however. That way, your neighbors can only hear your maniacal laughter and not the grinding of a chainsaw motor along with your victim's screams. Other good games (although not 3rd person shooters) include Call of Duty and Mortal Kombat. 

- Walking --  Step outside and get some fresh air. Lots of frustration comes from feeling stuck, so get out there and keep moving. It becomes tougher to focus on your problems as you get tired. Try not to grumble about your troubles however, unless you've got someone with you. Depending on how big of a city you live in, people walking alone and talking to themselves may or may not be much of an issue.

- Booze --  Hey, I'm a writer after all. We have a long history of intoxication to deal with being rejected, stressed, depressed, frustrated, overlooked, underpaid, dicked over...wait...why am I a writer again? Oh yeah. The craft. whatever. I recommend Jim Beam or Stolichnaya Vodka when you're feeling fancy. 

-  Screaming  --  Sure, it's simple, but it works. Put on some headphones, crank some metal and rage away. Ball your fists up real tight and howl along with other (albeit richer) angry artists like yourself. I recommend: Creeping Death by Metallica, Double Talkin' Jive by Guns n' Roses, Don't Let 'Em Grind Ya Down by Motorhead, The Rage by Judas Priest, or ANYTHING by Black Label Society.

-  Meditate and be a better person  --  Ha! Just kidding. These things are nice, but don't really make you feel better when you're still pissed off. Best to volunteer after you've calmed down a bit. Stick to the booze and screaming.

The Unreadable Dream

We've all heard writers talk about being inspired by dreams. Keep a journal. Write it down. Don't let those ideas go to waste! While I'm all for that advice, I would also tell you to give it some time before you start to write the book or story itself. Sometimes those nuggets aren't exactly gold.

This came to mind while I was cleaning off my desk and sorting through piles of handwritten notes and scribbled outlines the other day. Lots of them were from dreams and I remember being VERY excited about them while I wrote them down, all those wonderful images still swirling in my brain. Looking back on them now, I wonder what the hell I was on when I went to bed that night. Sure, there are some keepers. I've written more than one book based loosely on my sleepy babblings, but most of the good stuff was buried among all the weird crap that goes on when your subconscious gets to have some playtime.

That's the real bit of advice I would give here. Write dreams down, but don't expect to use them as a whole. And I know what you're thinking. Yes, I've heard the stories of some very popular books that were based on dreams. First, those are few and far between. Second, I've tried reading those books and still can't believe they were ever printed. Ugh. Just like in high school, popularity doesn't necessarily
equal quality. It doesn't matter what your or my opinion my be in regard to whatever popular schlock is out there or how it was made. Be your own person and write your own schlock!

As for the dreams, they are a valuable resource. Just be sure to sift through them for the really good stuff before you try to use anything. I want to make a reference to plucking the golden kernels of corn from a turd here, but that would be gross so I won't. Ooops. Forget that last part.

I did that???

I just got finished adding the synopses for all the Skinners books onto the new page on this blog. Had to type them in without the use of cut and paste because of some weird color/background issues. Anyway, after reading all of those, I was fairly impressed. Those actually are pretty good!

Heh.

Yes, I know this sounds egotistical but I talk enough trash to myself on every other day. Hearing some praise from the voices in my head is a nice change every now and then.

Cap'n Quaker!

No, it's not the woolen clad avenger for those who shun modern ways. And it's not the unsteadiest gun arm to ride the west. It's my new, favorite way to spice up boring food.

Now that I'm no longer a young, strapping buck with a bod covered in rippling muscles and...wait...I must be thinking of someone else. Ok, so I'm in my forties and need to watch what I eat. No matter how appealing the notion of dying with a gut full of burgers, face down in a greasy pizza with bacony cheese in the crust may be, I really have to rein it in nowadays.

My favorite meal is breakfast and oatmeal is one of the best alternatives to the ever glorious McGriddle. One time, many years ago, I described the then-newly-arrived McGriddle to a guy over XBox Live who lived in London. They didn't have them there yet and he said they sounded "Fucking brilliant". Granted, he was probably high, but that doesn't mean he was wrong. So now that Mc-justaboutanything is off my menu, I find myself wanting to spice up the foods I can have.

Oatmeal is ok, but it needs to be mixed with something. How about something with texture? Raisins. Sure, I guess. Nuts? Come on, now. I'm not an animal. Something crunchy, though. Cereal! I started with peanut butter cheerios, which was good, but the Os got mushy pretty quick. Next I tried Cocoa Krispies, which were delightful. Then I dumped in some Cap'n Krunch. Let me tell you, Captain Yohann Krunch never disappoints! Yeah...Yohann. He looks like a Yohann, doesn't he? It's the 'stache. Next time, I go for Yohann's peanut butter variety. Droolin' over oatmeal? Now I know I've hit paydirt.

It may not be as healthy as straight oats or the raisins thing, but you gotta live a little. If wanting to start my day with some Krunch is wrong, I don't wanna be right!

New me for 2015!!

Alrighty! It’s 2015 and time for some changes. First of all, I’m sure anyone who’s been to this blog before notices the different layout. I love black and all, but got sick of looking at the same backgrounds, etc on this page. Also, I want to dedicate this page to everything I write so a new look seemed to be in order.

Another change for me is the shift in focus as far as my writing goes. This entire industry has been knocked on its ass for some time now. Ebooks are awesome, but to paraphrase the Joker from Dark Knight, they’ve changed things…forever. And there’s no turning back. Man I love that movie. I want to watch it now. Be right back…

…Ok. Awesome flick. What was I saying? Right. Changes. With the rise of the ebook and the fall of so many brick and mortar bookstores, the industry is still in upheaval. That might not be as obvious to the readers. After all, there are still some bookstores out there. Books are still being printed. There’s stuff to read. The Kindle is coming out with new models all the time. (I desperately want one of the new Paperwhite Kindles by the way) Trust me, though, it’s crazy from the inside of this industry and only gets crazier as the months drag into years.

Someone like me who isn’t on the receiving end of a publishers’ marketing budget needs to hustle for work whenever possible to keep up with the ol’ rent. That means trying to line up contracts wherever possible that pay some sort of advance so I can make ends meet. I love ebooks and the sense of creative freedom that comes along with them, but they’re a gamble financially. If writing is my only source of income, waiting for royalties to trickle in is not a stress-free way to live. So, after years of fighting the good fight and busting my butt to survive within the publishing machine, I need to suck it up and find other sources of income. Does that mean no more books from me? Uhh…why would I redo this blog if I was gonna shut it off?

Actually, it means the opposite. Once I secure myself in a more traditional manner (see also: day job) I can stop jumping through so many goddamn hoops, begging for the attention of publishers who only want me to write stuff that resembles whatever other author is the flavor of the month, and scrambling to fit myself into someone else’s category. I never was good at that kind of thing and haven’t gotten any better as I ferment.

Pleasing so many higher-ups who barely even know what they want anyway is a good way to drive yourself insane. The good thing about being truly apart from the machine (and being insane, for that matter) is that you don’t have a lot to lose. I will no longer worry about taking a good idea and rearranging it to fit the current trend. I will now focus on writing what I WANT and not just what I need to pay the bills.

I’ve been told my vampires need to be more mysterious and sultry. I’ve been told that I need to adhere to the concrete rules as set forth in legends in regards to mythological creatures. Legends as FACT? Isn’t tweaking legend and playing within a genre the FUN part of fiction? I’ve been told horror is no longer a genre. I’ve been told Steampunk is dead. I’ve been told a lot of things and I don’t mind hearing people speak their minds. I also don’t need to change what I do just to satisfy a bunch of rules that will change in a day or two anyway.

Overall, it’s a scary time for me. It’s also an exciting one. There’s a big weight lifted off my back when I stop worrying about trying to please someone in an office reading my horror manuscripts who doesn’t even like horror in the first place. I’m doing my own thing again and it feels good. Check back soon and I’ll tell you all about it.

Guardians, Vampires and Flicks

Where the hell does the time go?? I mean seriously! I know I’m not a spring chicken, but I’m not so old that I can use that as an excuse for spacing off months at a time. Come to think of it, most older folks I know keep up with things better than I do. Oh well. In the words of the immortal sailor: I yam what I yam.

So what’s been up with me? Let’s see…I finally made it through all the summer popcorn movies I wanted to see. Best of the bunch had to be Guardians of the Galaxy. I was familiar with the comics to a certain extent, but enough to be fairly confident it was gonna kick ass as soon as I saw the first preview. Good to know I was right. I also recently Netflixed (yeah it’s a verb now) the new remake of Robocop. This was one that I thought should be pretty good even if it wasn’t great. Turns out, the makers of that film actually found a way to make Robocop BORING! What the…huh??? ED209s were there, robot cops were there, even Gary Oldman and Jackie Earle Haley were there! Oh well. There’s always the Dark Knight trilogy and Human Target to see those last two guys shine!

On the work front, things have been amping up nicely. Most recently I’ve been putting together a short story for the third anthology in Jonathan Maberry’s V-Wars series. Very cool stuff. Here’s a link!  I’ve also got another pretty big project happening. It’s not a huge secret or anything (not Skinners related) but I’d rather make a big announcement a little later. I just don’t want to jinx anything, you know? It’ll be cool. Trust me.

Guess that’s it for now. 

UPDATE - That cool thing I mentioned at the end fell through. Them's the breaks.

Love you, Ma

It’s been a rough couple of months. On a personal note, I recently lost my grandma Sophie who was one of the sweetest, most charming and loving people I’ve ever known. She was one of the foundations for who I am and everything I’ve done. I’ll never stop missing her. My world will be a little dimmer now that she’s no longer in it. Of course she’s with me in spirit and she made a point to tell me she’d watch over me, but it’s still tough.

On a professional note, the publishing industry continues to be an unconscionable ball-breaker. Series are getting axed left and right, which is a good and bad thing for us writers. Obviously, having fewer series to write hits us in the wallet. However, it frees us up to pursue our own passions and get our projects out there in ebook format. To that end, I’ve been hard at work on several different fronts. Book two of The Gillis Ledgers is coming along nicely and should be released in a month or two. After that, I’ll be hard at work on Book 8 of Skinners. Around the same time as the new Gillis comes out, I’ll be releasing the first book in a brand new steampunk series. More on that later, but I’m very excited about it!

Hope you all are doing well and don’t worry, I’ll have more for you guys to read real soon! 

Hello from the COOOOLD

Hey! The holidays are over. Whew. Is it just me or is every holiday a prolonged, agonizing trial anymore? I love Halloween, but now it starts in Sept and goes all the way through Oct with a non-stop shit storm of cutesy costumes, candy commercials and “spooky” put in front of everything on menus and billboards. And Christmas? I think it’s still going, right? Sigh. Anyway, I laid low for a spell and now I’m back.

I’ve been working on a few projects. I’ll have some new Ralph Compton westerns coming out under the Marcus Galloway pseudonym. Also my Doc Holliday series, The Accomplice, is being re-released in e-book format. On the horizon, I’m about to start in on the next Gillis Ledger book as well as another Skinners project. Of course I’ll be doing Book 8, but what would you guys feel about some stand-alone prequels? Maybe stories from Paige’s early career? That could be cool. I’m also circulating some steampunk and crime novels to various publishers and if they don’t get snatched up, I’ll be releasing them my own damn self!

In other news, my Dad called me today for tech support on his Kindle Fire. Why does this warrant a mention? About a year and a half ago, I took some work answering the phones at Amazon for Kindle support. I did fairly well in the knowledge and fixing stuff departments, but my customer service / warm fuzziness was lacking. Can you believe that? Fuck them, right? Heh. So when my Dad calls for help with a WiFi connection problem, I had all kinds of advice and steps for him to take. A real chance to impress the guy. Did I fix his Kindle? Of course I didn’t. Maybe someday I’ll find something I’m good at. Until then, take care!

Drum roll please.....

I’m not a big one for a lot of talk and promises, but…after a lot of talk and promises, the seventh SKINNERS book has finally been released! It took a bit longer for it to appear on Barnes & Noble, but I’m guessing that was just some weird computer holdup or something. The important thing is that Forged from Ash is out and ready to be read. So…go and download a copy! It’s also on Kindle and Smashwords.

For those of you who have read it, I’d appreciate you leaving a review at the site where you purchased it. That really does help an ebook along. Some of you have commented that this one ended with some loose ends and to that, I plead GUILTY. Now that I’m able to get my books out there again, I can continue running my series how I like. I’ve always seen this as a series that rolls along and evolves without everything wrapping up nicely at the end of each book. To accommodate this, I need to approach publication of the series in a new way. Fortunately, I can now do that. For Skinners, the plan is to write shorter books and release more of them per year. It took a while to get settled with a new cover artist, new publisher (Crossroad Press has been amazing!) and a new way of doing things. I’ve also been busy with other stuff, but now I’m rollin’ and things are looking good.

Ideally, I’d like to put out three Skinners books a year. I’ve also got other series to work on and I’d like to get them all chugging away as well. I’ll keep you updated on those. When it comes to the next Skinners book, I’m shooting for a release date somewhere around February or March of 2014. Until then, stay in touch and thanks for sticking with me. I’m doing my best to make you all glad you did!

Not just # 7 Anymore

Wow. Busy, busy! I just got finished with the third draft of Skinners #7 and thought I’d post a little progress update. My progress is…I’ve finished the third draft of Skinners #7. Guess I shouldn't have led with that, huh? Well, it’s coming along nicely. I've even got a title....Skinners Book 7: Forged from Ash. But wait, there's more! Here's a very cool thing for Show & Tell. A sneak peek of the cover!!

 

Woo hoo!! Very cool.

In other news, I’ve entered into a working partnership with Crossroad Press. When I launched into the whole ebook thing, I was very excited. It allows me to write what I want, but I also had to do other stuff like formatting for different services, trying to network with different outlets for marketing / distribution and all that kind of non-writing thing. I thought, “If only someone else could do that stuff so I could just keep writing.” Well, Crossroad Press does that stuff and they seem very capable of doing a great job of it! They’ll be able to put my books into formats that I couldn’t figure out and a few that were simply beyond my reach. There’s a much better chance for trade paperback copies and audiobook versions. Awesome! They also work very quickly. Since there are just a few more hoops to jump through, however, the release of Skinners 7 might have to be pushed back by a month or so. I know you guys are waiting for the book, but this way it gets released in a much better and much more complete fashion than me doing it completely on my own. Thought I’d let you guys know right up front. Trust me, it’ll be worth it. 

Skinners #7

Things have been crazy lately! I’ve been doing a ton of work, although a lot of it isn’t exactly easy to find. A big part of most writers’ income includes work for hire which is along the lines of ghostwriting. Hey, work is work and bills gotta get paid. The main reason I’m mentioning this is because I’ve been talking about working on the next Skinners for quite a while and this is why it’s taken so long for me to get it completed. I’ve been working on a couple different projects at once for the last few years and Skinners has always been top of my list.

Of course, I’ve got other stuff in the works, but more on that some other time. This is a Skinners post! As lots of you already know, I’m publishing the next one on my own digitally. If there’s enough demand, I can look into print copies, but for now this’ll be the way to go. As of today, I’m closing in on finishing the manuscript for Book 7!!!! Woo Hooo!!!! It took me a while to gear up for this one and then a little while more to figure out where, exactly, I wanted to go after Extinction Agenda. I’ve always had a general idea, but the “exactly” part of that last sentence is the tricky part. Trust me, that extra gestation time pays off in the end. I’m REALLY happy with how this is turning out.

Another thing I’ve always said is that I always saw Skinners as an ongoing storyline with arcs that change Cole’s world in major ways. Basically, every 3 books is an arc and #6 (despite the rather final statement at the end of that one) wasn’t meant to wrap everything up. It was the end of an arc and Book 7 is the start of a new one. And hoo boy, are there some changes! Don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, but this new arc shakes everything up while fitting in very nicely with the series.

So…Book 7. Right now, it’s called Forged from Ash and I’m shooting for a release date of this summer. My personal goal is to get it out there in June, but I’ll say summer to allow for some extra editing if needed. There’s a lot to do, but it’ll get done. As for the future of the series, I’m guessing lots of you are thinking, “Cool. New Skinners! Will it take this long between EVERY freaking book in this series?”  The answer to that is NO! My goal is to put out more books per year. They’ll be a bit shorter than the last few (I’m thinking between 300 – 400 pages each) and will cost you guys a bit less. That’s another cool thing with me putting them out digitally. I can charge what I like, which will be in the neighborhood of $2.99 - $3.99 each. That may change after a while, but not for the first arc at least.

To my Facebook friends out there, I apologize for neglecting my posts lately. Truth is, I’ve been typing so much all day that the thought of typing socially hasn’t been too appealing. I check in a lot on my phone and stuff, but just get lazy and don’t post as much as I should. Honestly, I also figured I might lose a ton of you after 219 posts of, “Hey everyone! Still writing all day. Stayed up until 6am again. I miss Twinkies!”  That’s totally true, you know. I miss the HELL out of Twinkies.

2013 is gonna be the year where I really get things out there and follow through on so many of the plans I’ve been making in previous years. Hopefully this answers a lot of questions. I’ll have a lot more to say as things progress and can’t wait to see what you guys think of the next phase of Skinners! See what I did there? “phase” like phases of the moon? Werewolves? Now you see why not hearing from me all the time is a good thing. 

Anybody out there??

Weird day. We really take for granted how much contact we have with the outside world these days. I woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head....wait...that's a Beatles song. I woke up, had breakfast and drank some coffee without a single text, email or phone call coming my way. Normally, that would seem like a peaceful morning, but it was a little disconcerting.

Did something happen?
Was there an apocalypse of some kind and I missed the fireworks?
Is my internet down?

None of the above (as far as I know). Just no communication for Marcus today. I suppose it's better than getting inundated with BAD news. Still.....HELLOOOO??????

The (hot) Dog Days of Summer

I'm finally getting pumped for The Dark Knight Rises. Of coarse I'm a Batman fan, but there hasn't been much in the trailers to really get me going. Anne Hathaway as Catwoman? Well...that gets me going, but not in a family-friendly way. Heh. I'm sure it will be great and I will be seeing it soon.

Just returned from a road trip to the Poconos to spend some time with family. That was fun. Had to buy two new tires for my Hyundai Blowabout. Not so fun. That little seating area in the Walmart auto care section is not a happy place. Everyone internally snarling at having to watch their car through a little window as it gets cranked by dudes in coveralls. One old man who was there with me had to wait for an extra hour because the mechanics dropped their screwdriver into his air filter and it landed out of their reach. Oy.

And so the summer rolls on. I recently tried a stout beer that's brewed with coffee. Little bit of whiplash with the sudden subject change? Sorry about that. It just popped into my head and I thought I'd share. That coffee brew was AMAZING! Speaking of great tastes that could have very easily gone the other way, I've got an idea for a new pizza! Sliced hot dogs under a mix of cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. And, instead of pizza sauce, Spaghetti-Os!!! I think it's either gonna knock my socks off or make me puke. I'm off to buy some crust and find out for myself.

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Is summer over yet??? Seriously, I wish I could just sleep through this crap. I live in West Virginia, which means I was one of MANY in the path of those land hurricanes...Doritos or whatever they're calling them...that knocked out power for several days. Several days of 100+ degree weather. Fun times. Now that my freezer is back, I'm in the process of testing how much of my thawed / refrozen breakfast pastries and burgers are still edible. So far, so good!

Went to see Amazing Spider-Man yesterday. I wasn't on board with ANOTHER Spidey origin rehash, but this one was actually fairly awesome. Familiar, but tweaked just enough to feel fresh. Surprisingly enough, I still felt bad when Uncle Ben died. Spoiler?? Only for someone living under a rock. Heh. Also saw Prometheus. That was cool, but not as cool as I was expecting. If I hadn't been looking for some air conditioned place to sit during the blackout, I probably would have waited for the DVD release.

Still hard at work on writing, of course. Got some big plans for the next Skinners. Actually, I will start the actual writing on that one this month! I've got two Skinners projects coming along. One is the next book in the series and the next is a side project I've had in mind for a long time. More later!