The eagle has landed

Just a little bit of patience. Yeahhhh.

Minus the whistle solo, Guns 'n Roses had it right. I just needed to wait a bit before seeing Blood Blade on the shelves. Well, I had to wait and some of you out there didn't. I got a few reports from far and wide that my book was located and even purchased. Thanks to everyone for not only giving Skinners a read, but also letting me know it was out there on the shelves while I pestered hapless clerks.

Now, I'll need to know if anyone sees it on a New Release tower at Barnes & Noble. That's uncharted territory for me, even counting the two western series written under another name. I've been on the New Release table at Borders, which is very cool, but have never shown up on those four-sided beauties you find at Barnes & Noble. Well. . .I did see Blood Blade on one of those towers, but it doesn't really count because I swung by and put it there myself. A hollow victory, but still kind of cool.

In other news, Hell's Kitchen starts tonight. The Resident Evil 5 demo has been downloaded to my XBox 360. Fringe still kicks ass and the McRib is back again. A very good week, indeed!

TV is shaping up nicely

American Idol is back and this is the part where I don't mind watching it. My wife enjoys the actual singing more than anything else, but I'm all about the freak show. Sure, some of those people can sing, but it's so much better to watch the ones that prance onto their mark, full of over-confidence and brimming with attitude, just to screw up their big chance from the very first note. And it's no secret that Paula keeps getting weirder. They previewed that part where she jumped on Kara and pretended to kiss her, but I figured there would be some sort of set up to the whole thing. Instead, she just decided to jump and fake make-out with her. That was stranger than the nut jobs who come in to sing Over The Rainbow dressed up as the Statue of Liberty.


What I'm really excited about is the premier of Hell's Kitchen. I freaking love that show! Gordon Ramsey is just the right kind of obnoxious and unleashes on the ones that really deserve it. You say you can cook, but can barely make spaghetti? Look out! You brag about graduating from chef's school, but serve raw chicken? Better hide the knives! You're a customer who has to march up to the window and speak your mind in the middle of a dinner rush? Sit down, you DONKEY!!! Heh. Anyone who's worked with the public must have wanted to unleash on a customer at least once. If not, you're a saint and have accrued a lot more karma points than I.


Has anyone seen that show on The History Channel called Cities of the Underworld? It's all about the underground tunnels, chambers, sewers, and whatever else may be under cities all over the world. It sounds like it may be boring, but it's very cool. It also has potential for a damn good drinking game. Obviously, you drink every time the host says, "underground". The kicker is to drink every time you hear this one particular music track. They play it whenever they're cutting from a shot of a street, down through some dirt and then wind up with a shot of the underground (drink) location. If you've seen the show more than once, you'll know the music I mean. Some episodes use that same music three or four times. Even without the game, that's a very cool show. With the game, it's very cool and very blurry.


Heroes is dead to me. There's no going back. They messed up too many times. Bye-bye.

Meandering Entertainer

I did an online interview with a website called Meandering Entertainer a while ago and it just came out. If you'd like to check it out, just click here.

I've really got to stop blabbing so much during these interviews. I'm guessing they'll edit most of the garbage that I type, but a lot of it winds up in there. At least my ramblings dispel the whole "writers must be smart" myth.

Also, there's a review posted for Blood Blade on that same site. You can read that by clicking here. I found this one particularly amusing because the reviewer describes Cole as a "horny bastard". That's pretty good. Remember a few posts ago when I said how cool it was to see what each person takes from my book? Here you go. Now, don't get me wrong. Cole most definitely is a horny bastard. This is just the first reviewer to really nail that so succinctly. I believe my reference to a wet dream was more of a joke than a real nocturnal problem, but that's just me being crude. The sad part is, that WAS the toned down version. See what my editor has to deal with?

Seriously, though, thanks to beelzy at Meandering Entertainer. It's been a rough couple days and this really made me smile.

Wow....that was anitclimactic

Note to myself: Just because a book is supposed to be "in stores now", that doesn't mean it's in the store, unpacked from its box, put onto a cart, wheeled out to the sales floor, perused by employees and curious shoppers, rolled to the proper aisle and put onto the actual shelf.

Megan and I went to all our local bookstores to see Blood Blade on the shelves. We struck out. Yep. 0 for 5. Zippo. We asked for it at one Barnes & Noble and they had some in the back, but that's not the same. I'm not new to this, so I should have known better than to expect to see anything on day one. At least the trip wasn't a complete waste. Megan had a bunch of books that she wanted to get, which also came out today and we found them just fine.
Yeah. . .I'll try not to think too hard about that one.

The ticker has ticked its last tick

And yes, I did sit here at midnight to watch it count down to zero. It was actually pretty cool. For those of you new to the blog, the thing at the side of the screen that says "In Stores Now" used to be a countdown to the book's release date. I've been watching that thing tick all the way down from around 196 days or so. Now it's finally done ticking and Blood Blade is out in stores.

Tomorrow, I'll make the rounds to the local bookstores to see if I can find it. Hopefully, I'll spot it somewhere on day 1. I know sometimes stores don't put stuff on their shelves right away, so I won't get all anxious if it's not at every Borders or Barnes & Noble in town. When Megan and I head out to the stores, I know she'll want to take pictures of the displays or shelves where it does appear. She's excited to buy a copy with her credit card to see if the clerk notices. Heh. No matter how cool I'll try to act, I'm sure I'll succumb to the ol' "standing around until I can point the book out to someone and say 'I wrote that' " trick.

I read a blog review of Blood Blade earlier today and it wasn't bad. It said the book was "good in a guilty pleasure sort of way", which was pretty much where I was aiming. I enjoy guilty pleasures. After all, "pleasure" is right in the phrase. Webmaster Steve and I also put some last-minute tweaks to the main website, so that's good to go. Now, I've just got to sit back and wait to see what the readers think.

More waiting....great.

Mondays....am I right?

How cliche is it to have a rough Monday? Then again, some things become cliches for a reason and this Monday has been pretty rough. First of all, I'm sick. And yes, I did have that radio interview this morning. I was also writing out the answers to another blogger's interview and accidentally deleted all 5 pages! My medicine has kicked in and I'm groggy, which makes work that much harder.

On the positive side, my medicine has kicked in and I'm groggy. Pretty colors....slight dizziness. Fun. Seriously, though, that interview turned out really well. You can see it for yourself right here. There's even a sound byte at the bottom where you can hear me trying to make sense as I talk through my coughing, medicated haze. Considering what little he had to work with, I think the interviewer did a hell of a good job. Also, I'm one day away from seeing Blood Blade on the shelves. It came together nicely and I know it'll find its place among all the other monster books out there. I know I'll hear from fans and non-fans alike. That's all a part of the game and I'm glad to play. Let's do this!

Why couldn't it have been a mimed interview?

Remember how I said I was getting sicker? Well, that's true and I still managed to do the radio interview this morning. While I got a good score in the "being a trooper" category, I didn't rank too far up on the "speak coherently without coughing" scale. My apologies to the interviewer and anyone who had to try and clean it up into something useful. They were great questions and I won't harbor any ill will if you can't make me sound better than a. . .a really scratchy. . .I mean. . . . . .eh forget it. I can't even think of anything so I'll leave it there.