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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!!

The neverending process

Here's a funny cycle. As tedious as editing can be, it's hard for me to stop doing it. Most tedious things are a joy to put down, walk away from, etc. With this one, I'm always finding little things that I want to fix or rearrange. Some of the things I rearrange are actually putting sentences back the way they were before I rearranged them the first time. Sigh. I'm putting the most recent coat of polish on Skinners 4 and enjoying it very much. It's turning out fine, but there's the part of me that wonders what I missed THIS time around. Once more, I go back to the tired analogy of slicking a kid's hair back before he goes to school. Could I have come up with a better analogy? Probably. I'll fix that later. Heh.


In other news, it's Tattoo Day! Hopefully this is the final session since that leg of mine is feeling a lot like over-tenderized bacon. Ok, it's not that bad, but it'll be nice to get this one wrapped up. I'll post some pics when it's done. Or, perhaps I shouldn't. If you want to see this sweet bit of fleshy artwork, come see me at a signing or something. Yeah!! Ok fine, I'll post some pics. Maybe I'll be stricter when I get more appearances scheduled. Not a bad idea for a promo, huh? The "Permanently Scarred Skinners Tour". I like it.



It's also Comics Day. Wow. If God of War 3 came out as well, it would be the perfect spending storm. When I played God of War 2 on the PS2, I knew part 3 would be the one to make me buy a PS3. Fortunately, I got my hands on a system earlier than that, but I am still pumped to play it. Played the GoW3 demo and I can already imagine a lot of reviewers saying stuff like "more of the same" or "nothing new here", but that's not a bad thing when you're talking about something as fundamentally awesome as the God of War games. The game feels a lot like the other two and I LOVE the other two. The PS3 has really been impressing me with stuff like Infamous, Resistance 1 & 2 and Heavy Rain. Still an XBox 360 guy, though. I'm addicted to Achievements and the whole Trophy thing on PS3 just doesn't compare.


Ok. Back to work. Gotta get some pages done before heading out for comics and getting tatted up.

Excuses...

Ok, I've been slacking on the ol' blog lately. Sorry about that. The good news is that it's mainly because I've been hard at work polishing the manuscript for Skinners 4: Vampire Uprising. Did I mention that was the title yet? If not, it's a little bonus treat. If so, my memory sometimes fails me. We've covered that before. Or have we?

Only a few more months until Skinners 3 hits the shelves (April 27th). Then 4 will be out in October. I like this release schedule because the books are really starting to flow continuity-wise. I'm able to leave a few tantalizing cliff-hanger-type things from book to book without there being too much space in between them. Things are looking good in Skinnerville. Maybe that should be a new Facebook game? You could feed your little werewolves and build up enough Full Bloods to lead a charge into the Webkinz universe. THAT would be cool. Although, I am a little sad that I know what Webkinz are.

In other news, the Paige tattoo on my leg is coming along as well. She's all but done and looking fine! Shimmy's is in the background and all that's left is for the bright neon in the tacky strip club sign to be lit. I'll post some pics when it's completed next month.

I've figured out my new Droid phone to the point that it's become permanently grafted to my hand. Of course, that means I need to charge the battery every hour or two but that's the price I pay for being able to wave it around as it makes cool lightsaber sounds and plays Duel of the Fates. AWESOME!!!

That's about it from here. How are you?

Off the road again...for a little while at least

We're back from the long drive to Florida for Thanksgiving. Even though the trip took 2 days each way instead of one (let's face it, all the airport hassles and flight time pretty much take up a whole day) Megan and I kept thinking how much better it was than flying. We stopped where we wanted, I got to indulge in Jack in the Box tacos not once but TWICE, we brought the dog along, and we had a car when we got to Orlando. The trip was good. We even met up with an aunt and cousin that I haven't seen for WAY too long. Plenty of turkey to go around and all was well.

That is, until we hit Kansas City. Maybe the spirit of that place is getting its revenge on me for what I put it through in Howling Legion. As soon as we got within sight of KC, one of our tires blew. Fortunately, I had just gotten AAA for the trip so that was ok. It set us back a few hours, but no biggie.

Went through phase 3 of the new tattoo last night. That was fun. Next time I need to eat some real food before sitting for a four hour tattoo session because I was a little light on my feet and green around the gills afterward. Nothing erases the whole, "I'm a badass for getting a tat" mentality quicker than almost keeling over when it's done. Oh well. I just got some pics of Phase 2 so here's a look at how it's coming along. I think Paige is turning out quite nicely.

So now it's back to work. I did get some editing done during the trip but didn't have any time to sit and write. We're off to St. Louis later for next week's signing (Dec. 8 - Borders near Lindbergh and Watson - Be there or be a four-sided shape of some kind) and I'll have to get work done along the way. Brainstorming while on the road is fine, but fresh words need to be typed as well.

I'll get to it. I'll also run to the comic shop because there's 2 shipments for me. The comics I didn't get last week are still there and then there's this week's. Mmmmm. Comics.

Electric needle therapy

After one delay of game due to slow healing, Stage 2 of the new tattoo was completed yesterday. And it couldn't have come at a better time. Despite my many vows to not obsess about how the new book is doing, I've been...well...obsessing about how the new book is doing. It hasn't been at the front of my mind constantly, but enough for me to get a nice airy feeling in my chest when it does hit. Not good, right? This wasn't even sparked by bad news. There's just NO news yet. Sure, it's only been just over a week, but my little brain gets to come up with all of its scenarios and then fill in the blanks to the point where I'm ready to pop.

Thankfully, I made my appointment for the tattoo. Let me tell you, there's no better therapy than that. And I'm not talking about the boring, soul-baring, "how I really feel about my family", tear-spilling stuff you see on tattoo shows where some dude confesses his darkest emotions to Kat Von D. When I'm in the chair, Jesse and I talk about comic books, movies (sound familiar? Nobody escapes this crap) and I even got to bounce some Skinner stuff off of him. The main thing was that I WASN'T thinking about whatever was tying my guts into a knot before. It's kind of tough to focus long enough to induce a heart attack when someone's carving up your leg. Ok, so it wasn't as bad as that, but getting tattooed for four hours tends to draw your focus in REAL tight to the here and now. And, unlike a therapy session, I gimp away with a freaking cool memento. Pics forthcoming.

Brutal Ink

It's been a full couple of days. Sunday was trip #1 for the new tattoo and all went as well as could be expected considering it was a few hours of getting inked by an electric needle followed by pulled pork sandwiches. FYI - Jesse at Nuclear Ink did the needling and Megan had the sandwiches ready for me when I came home. They were tasty. The tattoo is lookin' good! So far it's just an outline, but it turned out even better than I'd hoped. Here's a picture of Paige in her current depiction. I love the way Jesse drew her weapons and Shimmy's turned out pretty damn sweet. I know these aren't the clearest pictures, but they were the best our cheap camera could do on short notice. There's still plenty of work to be done. Looks like the werewolf on the other side of that leg will have some real good company.

In other news, it's Rocktober 13th!! That means Brutal Legend came out. It's a game I've been anxious to play for quite a while. Basically, it's about a dude who gets transported to a world from heavy metal album covers who fights chrome demons with an axe and a hot rod. If it's cool and awesome, it's in the game. I'm someone who can get on board with the notion of badass demons in a world where rock is given free reign. I've only played through the first level and done some driving around the beast & blade strewn landscape, but am already in love with this game.

Prepping for ink

I've been revisiting Jesse at Nuclear Ink Tattoo lately and it wasn't to deliver a signed copy of the book. Well, I did do that, but we also talked about finishing up my Skinners tatt. Maybe I should put up some more pics of the Full Blood piece I've already got on my leg. The plan is to get another one on the other half of my leg so it all wraps around into a big Skinners scene on...skin. Huh. So many layers.

So the original plan was to have a picture of Cole with his weapon drawn like he was stalking the Full Blood tattooed on the other half of my leg. Jesse (the artist who drilled this masterpiece into my flesh) and I talked about that during the 18 or so hours it took to get the Full Blood tatt done. Does that sound like I'm bragging? Well, it was 18 hours of being tattooed, so I get to brag, damn it! Now that it's time to get the next one done, I had second thoughts. According to the cover pictures (which I love but didn't have a lot to do with) and some of the description in the book, a picture of Cole might wind up looking something like me. At least, it would in the "bald guy with taco sauce on his face" kind of way. Even having a dude tattooed onto me that looks remotely like me seems pretty lame, so I decided to go with Paige as my next tattoo. That way, I get to have one of my favorite characters and a good ol' "hot chick" tattoo all rolled into one. Jesse liked the idea and worked up a design.

I've seen it and it is freaking awesome! Paige looks great. She's wielding both sickles and Jesse even got a cool picture of Shimmy's in the background. That was my idea. It's gonna be another several sessions 'o pain, but very worth it.

I could post some more pics of the werewolf tatt here if anyone's interested. Better yet, you can come to Archon in St. Louis this weekend and see it in person. I've got an autograph signing arranged and everything. I'll even wear baggy pants so I can roll up the legs and show ink on request. How could you refuse an offer like that? Heh.

---UPDATE
Just heard from someone at Archon. Seems that of the con's two biggest booksellers, one of them doesn't even carry Blood Blade. Hopefully the other one will, but I'll bring a few copies of my own to sell. Also, I'll have my trusty advance covers for Book 2 to sign so no worries there. Maybe I should hit a Borders or Barnes & Noble while I'm in town?

You're damn right it hurt!

A little while ago, a friend of mine asked about the tattoo I got to commemorate the fact that Skinners is actually seeing the light of day. As soon as I told him I'd email some pics, I remembered that I'd been wanting to put those pics on this blog for some time.

I didn't start out buying into the whole "tattoos for turning points in your life" theory, but it kind of worked out that way. I got my first one (a dinky little skull that looks more like a drawing made by felt tip pen) and was hooked. Since then, I've gotten them when the mood strikes me which happens to be at turning points in my life. More recently, I've been getting them as ways to mark new book series. Needless to say, I've been holding out for the REALLY special one for when I finally sold Skinners. Well, that day came and went and I got a freaking great tattoo done by an amazing artist named Jesse who works at Nuclear Ink here in Omaha. I gave him the manuscript pages for the Blood Blade chapter where Cole was attacked in Canada and he drew up a sketch of the Full Blood in that scene. It's kind of hard to get the whole gist of it because it wraps around a good portion of my leg, but here it is. This is an early picture before all the color was added, but I don't have any complete pics in my computer yet. Let's just say, I love it enough to wear shorts a lot more than I used to during the summer.

Later on, I intend on completing it by wrapping it all the way around with a scene of Cole and possibly Paige coming in for the kill. What can I say? Jesse has a wicked upsell.