+3 on Research Checks

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.

Busy Brain Syndrome

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

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.

Radio spot

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!

BOOGER!!!!!

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!

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

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??

Through the lovely month of May

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....

Same blabbing, different blog

When I was at Osfest, I met another local author named Travis. He was with me on the panel about mistakes made by first-time writers. The panel went well, Travis and I spoke afterward and he asked to interview me for his blog. Well, here it is! Click to read it for yourself. That is, if you still want to read more of my yammering on a different site. Seriously, though, it's a great site and the interview was a lot of fun. While you're there, send Travis my best.

NightWatch

I just got finished doing an interview for the NightWatch Radio show. This one was a LOT of fun. I'll post a link for you to hear it when I can, but I hope the host did some editing. As with any other time when I get my gums flapping, I eventually made a few moronic statements. We talked at length about werewolf movies, cool vampires vs. "Harlequin vamps", creativity in media and folklore just to name a few subjects. When it finally came time for me to describe Blood Blade, I went on about Cole and the weapons before describing Paige. I love Paige. She's one of my favorite characters and actually reflects a lot of me. On Nightwatch, I said something to the effect of, "Then there's Paige. She's a woman." I don't remember how I tried to cover after that bit of dumb-assitude, but it was probably just as slick. Oh well. The rest of the interview was great and I really hope to be on NightWatch again.

UPDATE -- Here's the link to download the show. Go to "Archives" and then click to the radio station site.

Library Guys

I just wrapped up an interview with The Library Guys on KCXL radio. It was a lot of fun and I don't think I rambled too much. Well...maybe a little, but it's talk radio, so that's what you're supposed to do. My wife listened to it online and caught one little slip. They must have seen my Achievement on an earlier entry and asked if I got to the top 100 on Amazon.com's book sales. I said yes, which is mostly true. Blood Blade made it into the top 100 in the Horror category, but I didn't point that out. Maybe I was too caught up in the daydream that would be climbing to the double digits on Amazon's ranking of overall book sales. Anyway, sorry about that, Library Guys. Didn't mean to mislead.

Happy Friday the 13th!!!!!!

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.

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.

I read USA Today, oh boy

Remember that interview I mentioned with USA Today? Thought I was kidding, didn't you? Thought this is so much so soon, that it's gotta be a joke, right? Ok, maybe that was me thinking those things. Seeing my name in USA Today is very weird (in a good, nervous way). Well, the mention appeared in today's Book Buzz section and here it is:

Box-office hits: 'Blood' lust:It's a happy new year for Stephenie Meyer: Her Twilight teen vampire series has the top four positions on the list, continuing the dominant best-selling run she had through the end of '08. Fans hungering for more vampire/werewolf drama can look forward to another author's take with the publication Jan. 27 of the romance/fantasy Blood Blade by Marcus Pelegrimas (Eos, $7.99), the first in a series. "This is a female-dominated genre," says Pelegrimas, referring to authors such as Meyer, Kim Harrison and Laurell K. Hamilton, "but in my books the romance is more from the guy's point of view." The romance, between two "Skinners" who hunt vampires and werewolves, "is more the guy being a guy and the woman keeping him in check."

The link for it on the USA Today site is: http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2009-01-07-book-buzz_N.htm

Pretty cool, huh? I know Twilight is huge right now, but it's strange to be mentioned in the same breath with such a phenomena. Here I am, seeing all the Stephenie Meyer coverage while eating cereal and now my name and book shows up in a national article with it. I just hope someone looking for a romantic fantasy doesn't take offense once the Nymar and Full Bloods start tearing people in half. There's definitely a spark between Cole and Paige, which is a big part of the story, but I never thought I was writing a romance. It's just funny to see what each person takes out of a single book. Publisher's Weekly focused on the Skinners acting as an enforcement arm of MEG and USA Today focused on the romance. It's great to hear all the different angles. That's the biggest difference between books and any other medium. Everything from name pronunciations to character descriptions and locales can be tweaked by every set of eyes looking at those words.

Nothing really new or groundbreaking in these observations. I just get a kick out of the whole interpretation process. That's probably why I do this for a living, right? Ok. I'll shut up now.

Interview-a-palooza

Skinners isn't even out yet and the publicity machine is already rollin'. Yesterday, I did an online interview for Pop Syndicate. That's a great site with articles and reviews on everything from games and DVDs to movies and books. Pretty soon, it'll also have a sit-down with yours truly. I'll post a link to the interview once it's up. Hopefully, they cleaned it up so I don't sound like the rambling idiot I am. Heh.

Today, I got a call from USA Today. Yes, THE USA Today. It's a little piece for their Book Buzz section about Skinners and how I'm making my way in a genre dominated by women. That should be out this Thursday, so I'll post a link to that as well after it hits.

Apparently, the whole "man in a woman's genre" is going to be a big deal. I never really even thought about that until I was well into writing Skinners #2. I looked around at my own bookshelf and saw how most urban fantasy is written by women. Sure, there's Jim Butcher and a few others, but I suppose we are a minority in the vampire/werewolf category. I just never really thought about any gender issue. In the end, it all boils down to the stories, so I hope mine hold up. I'm also seeing Skinners pop up on lists of upcoming books or "stuff to look out for". I'm so pumped. It's getting really close!

If you gotta read an interview right now, don't forget the one at Popin's Lair. There's a link to that site under my link list at the side of this page. Don't mean to get all wrapped up in plugging my own crap, but I figured I'd hit it all in one big post.

In the normal life category, I picked up my BSG season 4 DVDs (dog tags and all). Also convinced Megan to buy a Fender bass replica for Rock Band. It's pretty cool, so I hope she'll let me try it out once or twice.