Stuff, stuff and MORE STUFF!!!!

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

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

Such predicaments...we must forge ahead!

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

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!

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

Breaking Borders

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

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.