Goodbye sweet prince

New Year's Eve has long been my least favorite holiday.  I don't get teary eyed over the year that was or filled with zeal over the dawning of a new 365.  It's just time to flip the calendar, keep up the hard work, and keep trying to be a good person and enjoy life as much as possible along the way.

But, despite what you may've heard, I'm not a robot, and so I wanted to take a few minutes to dust off the old blog and share some thoughts about 2012.  Granted, I have nothing in particular to say, so this is just going to be a bunch of random thoughts that probably won't add up to much.

Living Alone:  This is the biggest life change from 2012 that pops into my mind.  My best friend/roommate moved out in early August, if I remember it correctly.  I'm pretty security conscious, and I thought I might feel really unsafe living alone.  I'm glad to say, that never became an issue for me.  Money is probably the most immediate way in which this life change hit me.  Having all of my bills double overnight was definitely something of a system shock, one that I'm still trying to adjust to, to be honest.  I tend to still spend money like I have a roommate, only to look at the bank account and go into panic mode when the bills come.  I (barely) make enough to cover everything on my own, but I need to get much better at managing my funds and coming to grips with the fact that my once abundant amount of spending money is now reduced to a mere pittance.

I wouldn't say that living alone is lonely, but it is very quiet.  I didn't just have a roommate, he's been my best friend since I was 14 or 15, so losing that dynamic has been hard.  He's still my best friend, but it's been an odd challenge getting used to only hanging out a few times here and there as opposed to all day every day.  Beyond missing my friend, I have to say that living alone is more boring than anything else.  The nice thing is that my family lives right around the corner, so I end up spending a lot of time hanging out with them.

Teaching:  I don't talk about it much, but my three nephews are home schooled.  This year, two days a week, I go over and help teach them.  It's been a blast and something I've really come to love.  Getting a chance to have a hand in their education, to help them learn and to get a front row seat as they gain knowledge and advance as little people, it's something I count as a true blessing.  The worst part is getting up so early, as I'm pretty much the opposite of a morning person.  That said, I'm going to start teaching a third day once they get back to school in the new year.  That means that 4 out of 5 days per week, I'll wake up to an alarm (I also have to get up early on Wednesdays to go get the newspaper from the printing press).  That statistic horrifies me.  I'm a single guy with a job that primarily happens at night, and yet I'll spend 4/7 days a week waking up to an alarm?!  Ugh.  UGH!  I hate the thought of it so bad.  And yes, I know that many of you get up to an alarm 5 days a week, yeah, I get it.  But for me, I've worked hard to structure my life in such a way where the alarm is almost never a factor.  But, it's for my nephews, and it'll probably help me to have a more defined sleep schedule anyways, so I guess I should stop being a baby about it and just embrace the change.

Creative Writing:  I feel good about my writing career.  We didn't make a big stink of it, but we closed down Hall Brothers Entertainment a few months back.  I could give you the long version of why, but I'll just sum it up and say that the company got away from us.  We tried to do too much, and it quickly expanded beyond the fun little project it was intended to be into a second full time job that neither of us were having much fun with.  Plus, for me, one of the main points of HBE was to give my own writing a platform where it could reach more readers.  It did that for me, no doubt, but then the management and running of the company starting really dragging down my ability to write.  With so many responsibilities piling up, it was impossible for me to concentrate on writing my own books.  Instead I was just a publisher of other people's books.  I greatly value those other people, and I count myself lucky to have met everyone we did through HBE, but it was also soul crushing to have my own writing relegated to the back burner.

Anyways, I don't want to get long winded about it.  I hated letting people down who we were working with, but from a personal standpoint, shuttering HBE has really helped me out a lot.  I'm back to work on my terraforming novel, my passion for creative writing is back in full force, and Phillip and I have some exciting things planned.  I'll be continuing my series Black Badge and Scrolls, and heck, we'll probably still publish under the HBE banner, just because it's something people recognize and know.  So yes, it was the end of our time as a small publisher, but it's also the beginning of just me getting back to doing what I love, and the beginning of Phillip and I having fun again with fiction, the way we did when HBE launched.  I'm excited about where it left us at the end of 2012, and really excited about where it's going to take us in 2013.

Newspaper writing:  I've always loved my job as a journalist, but I don't know if I've ever fallen in love with it the way that I did in 2012.  It was a year of hard work, a year of big stories, a year of big challenges.  It was the year I received my first big job offer in the industry, and while I ultimately didn't take it, that offer really was a big moment for me.  Having another newspaper come after me and try to pull me away from The Grizzly, it felt like a validation in a lot of ways.  You never know what the future holds, but at the time I informed that company that I felt like I wasn't done with what we were building at the Grizzly Detail.  I still feel that way.  This is the year that I really feel like I became an equal with my two bosses.  It's not just them and their employee anymore, it's three of us, defying the odds, doing the workload of a team of 15, and doing it for all the right reasons.

I learned a lot about my bosses this year.  I always believed in and admired them, but this was a year that we were tested.  People can seem great, but when they go through the fire, that's when their true character comes out.  And I have to say, the way in which they handled the tough moments, it made me so proud to be a part of the Grizzly.  The integrity, the rabid devotion to truth and to bringing that truth to the people that need to hear it, and the incredible and amazing ethics they displayed, it all just made me beam with pride to be their associate.  Then there's the election coverage we did.  I proposed something stupidly massive, as I do from time to time, but this time it was going to require some financial sacrifices.  It would cost us more money in overhead, while limiting how much room we had for ads, costing us money in revenue.  And they didn't even blink.  They gave me the green light and because of that we gave the city the most expansive, exhaustive election information they've ever had.

It all comes down to a phrase that we started throwing around at the paper.  Pure of purpose.  I think good things happen to those who are pure of purpose.  I write the news to help and to inform, pure of purpose.  I write movie reviews to entertain people, pure of purpose.  There are always challenges, always roadblocks, but I believe that we're a newspaper that is pure of purpose, and that we'll continue to thrive.

As you can see, I get pretty sentimental about my job.  I know people sometimes have a low opinion of media and journalists, and I myself am not much of a fan of the mainstream media, but I do believe whole heartedly in what we do at The Grizzly Detail, and I'm dang proud to be a part of it.

Living:  I love life.  I love to laugh, I love positive things, I love that no matter what's going on, at the end of most days I go to sleep thinking it's mostly a beautiful world and that mostly people are good.  I'm ending this year with the knowledge that I need to re-engage in my relationship with God, that while I always work on being a good person I also need to re-commit to being good son of the almighty father.  I believe that hope is stronger than fear, love is stronger than hate, creativity and imagination make the world a better place, family is forever, and that if we try, we can make the world around us better.  I believe that 2012 was as good of a year as you want to remember it as being, and that 2013 is ours for the taking.

In closing, here's me, walking in the snow on Christmas Day, filled with belief that there's still magic in the world.

  

Too early to sleep, too late to be productive

I find myself sitting here wasting time, and figured, why not update the long neglected blog?  I miss the old days when myself and most of my best online friends blogged regularly, as it made it much easier to keep up with friends you don't normally see or talk to.  But these days, you're usually left with snippets of their lives via things like Facebook and Twitter, and for the diehards among you, Google +.

I wonder if this is what letter writers felt like when email took hold.  Did they lament the loss of letters being sent to them by their friends?  Did they complain (probably in a letter) that email had come along and destroyed the purity of letter writing?  Probably, and they were probably right.

But hey, I'm not here to lament the inevitable evolution of technology and communication.  I've been living well lately, despite a few weeks worth of a really nasty head and chest cold.  It's been a while since I got knocked down like that, as a matter of fact I think it was last December.  But I'm finally coming out the other side, which is nice, because I'd hate to feel miserable around Christmas time.

I finished my Christmas shopping today, which I was excited about.  Buying presents is something I love to do, it's such a great feeling when you find that perfect gift for someone.  I'm looking forward to getting to spend extra time with my family over the coming weeks and just enjoying the peace and good vibes I get from the holiday season.

Hmmm, am I really this boring?  I miss blogs, I was sick, I bought presents, and I love Christmas.  In my own mind I'm a much more exciting person than that, but it's probably not true, hahaha.  I have gotten back to work on my latest novel.  That's actual exciting news.  It's been several months since I did any work on it, and it feels great to get back to it.  I'm always happier when I'm writing, and anytime I have a layoff in my creative writing the world just isn't quite as vibrant.

Speaking of creative writing, I had a short story accepted to an anthology.  The book is about time travel, and I'm honored that the editor felt my story was worthy of inclusion.  The book is going to come out sometime in the first half of 2012, I'll be sure to let you all know when it releases so we can all go buy a copy!

Tonight I had dinner with my bosses and another colleague from the newspaper.  It was an informal little holiday dinner, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Social situations such as those aren't always my strong suit, but I dearly love my bosses.  Our relationship is very symbiotic, the better I do the better they do, the better they do the better I do.  It really doesn't feel like a boss-employee relationship anymore, it feels more familial.  Having such a tiny group of us working on the paper full time, the difference between our success or failure is razor thin.  It lends a very "us against the world" feel to the work, and yet being a community newspaper, it's also "us for the world" as we work to keep the citizens informed and entertained.  Not sure how much sense that makes, but the end result is a very bonding environment where it feels like our purpose is pure and our bond is unshakable.  Maybe I'm naive, and I should look at it more as a business, more as "just a job".  But for me it's more than that, it's my home away from home.  It's my dream come true, my shelter from having to work a 9 to 5 job where I'd be totally miserable.  I really do feel honored to be a part of it, and I have a lot of pride in the work we do.  I love the fact that you can pour so much of yourself into something, that you can bleed and sweat for it, and look back over the year and know that it was worthwhile, that you helped people, you informed them, you entertained them.  When I was a kid, I said my dream was to get paid to write.  And I do that every day.  I buy my gas with my writing, my food with my writing, I pay my rent with my writing.  9 year old me would high five me if he was around to see this.

Hmmm... what else can I get all sappy and poetic about?  Christmas puts me in this kind of mood.  Well, I'm actually almost always in this kind of mood, but Christmas just intensifies it.  But, I think I successfully spent enough time blogging that I'm now actually sleepy, so I'm going to go lay down now.  I hope this holiday season has been full of love and joy for all of you so far, and that it continues to go that way.  

Blogging the insomnia away

So, I've been having trouble sleeping the past few weeks.  Tonight, especially, is strange, as it's the last night before my roommate moves out.  And such, I've decided to write a blog post, and hopefully it'll make me sleepy.

I'm not sure how living alone is going to suit me.  I've never lived alone before, and while I really don't consider myself a social person, I also don't consider myself a loner either.  I think I'm selectively social, and having your best friend as your roommate makes that a pretty easy disposition to maintain.  Wanna be alone?  Chill in your room.  Want to socialize?  Walk down the hall to his room.  I think the change is really going to set in late tomorrow night when I get home from work to what will then by MY house.  3 bedrooms, one dude.  Living large, I guess.

I don't want to whine too much about the whole deal.  It is what it is, to use a saying that people use, and I'll just have to adapt.  So let's just talk about something else.

How about press boxes?  High School football season is back on, which means my Fridays will be spent in the press boxes of North Texas for the next few months.  Here's the thing, I love press boxes, but they inspire a strange phenomenon for the people who are inside them.  People are drink obsessed in press boxes.  Think about it, when you go out somewhere, how many drinks do you require?  Go to the movies, you usually require 1 drink, right?  If you go to a sporting event you get maybe what, 2 drinks?  Okay, the men and women in press boxes, from scouts to coaches to reporters to announcers, they drink like 8 drinks each.  It's like this mania that overtakes you.  I remember last season I was just grabbing drinks without realizing I was doing it.  I had this moment where I looked at my work station (in addition to covering the games for the paper, I do stats for a radio show that broadcasts the game on the internet) and I had 5 drinks in front of me.  I had a half empty Dr. Pepper, an unopened Dr. Pepper, a freshly opened Sprite, a freshly opened bottled water, and a red Gatorade.  And you look around, and this is the norm!  Dudes are stocking up on drinks like the apocalypse is nigh.  Maybe it's just the strange appeal of facing down a big cooler full of drinks and knowing that you're free to grab them.  It's like having a license to shoplift.  I'd like to say that I'm going to be a better press box citizen this year and only take what drinks I need, but I'm not sure that's a pledge I can live up to.  I'll try, but I won't be surprised to look up week 3 and have a plethora of drinks set before me once more.

"Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?"
"A what?"
"A plethora."
"Oh yes, you have a plethora."
"Jefe, what is a plethora?"  
"Why, Guapo?"
"Well you told me I have a plethora, and I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is.  I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and find out that that person has no idea what it means to have a plethora."  

Boom, you just got Three Amigoed.  I watched that movie like 100 times when I was a kid.  I don't even remember liking it all that much...

I'm listening to a random "rock" radio station on Sptofiy right now and it's pretty bad.  Paramore, Rise Against, Goo Goo Dolls, and Credence Clearwater Revival, so far.  Not your typical mix, and not one that's doing much for me tonight.  There, I switched to some moody rock.  That's better.

Hmmm... what else can I blab about?  I've had some really strange novel ideas lately.  I'm kind of toying with the idea of tackling a bad idea for an upcoming project.  Let me explain that.  I know when I have good ideas.  I can think it up, and go "yeah, that's a good idea".  I know how to write a novel based on a good idea, and I'd go as far as to say that while still challenging, it's something that I've gotten good at doing.  Know what would be a challenge though?  To take a bad idea, and write a good book based around it.  I have one pretty crappy idea that I'm sort of in love with.  It's an outrageously dumb thing to base a novel around, and the possibility of crafting it into something that's actually good and enjoyable to read about sounds like a delightful challenge.  I had another bad idea when driving last week, but the more I've thought about it I'm starting to think maybe it's not so bad after all.  I ran it by a friend, who was oddly transfixed by it, despite its weirdness.

There's always another idea for the next book, which is something I'm super thankful for.  I know that it's not like that for all writers, and I stockpile my novel ideas like they're gold, because deep down I have this fear that one day the ideas won't come so easily for me.  If that day ever comes, I'll have an emergency supply I can dip into.  The problem I've found is, every couple of years when I go back and read old novel ideas, they're actually kind of stupid.  I think my sensibility of what makes a good book idea changes every few years.  Just a few weeks ago I was reading old book ideas and kept thinking "this is terrible" or "I would never actually write this".  I think I had designs of being a "normal" writer when I first got started.  I had ideas about things like mine collapses in rural mountain towns, and the effect that has on a local family, and then the son of that family who moved away to Los Angeles and became a mildly successful music producer comes back home to help out and has to reconnect with old friends, family, and "the one that got away".  If I was going to write that book now, my idea for that would be about some ancient evil creature that caused the mine collapse, and the local family with a legacy of monster hunters that has to rediscover their monster hunting heritage and go after the creature before it collapses other mines and more innocent hard working miners from the town are killed.  See, that strikes me as a way better idea than the first one.

Speaking of writing books, I'm like 85% done with my next novel.  It's been on hold for the past month while I played catch up with Hall Brothers Entertainment administrative stuff, and then had my mini-mental breakdown over my roommate leaving.  I'm looking forward to getting back to it and finishing it up in the coming weeks though.  It's about terraforming, which is a subject that fascinates me.  Mostly it's just a big adventure, which you can probably say all of my books are really.  And of course it's about love, because most books I write include a love story.  I tend to enjoy my entertainment more when there's at least a little romance in it, and so I tend to write that way myself.      

I wonder where I'm at in my writing career?  I've been thinking about stuff like that lately, as it provides a great excuse to think about writing without actually doing any writing.  I'm a "learn on the job" kind of guy.  But I'm a six year full time newspaper veteran now, and my journalism work goes back over a decade total.  I've got 7 years being a serious fiction writer, 6 finished novels, 3 short story collections, 1 novella, countless short stories, 2 nearly finished novels.  I'm 31 years old.  I feel good about the output level.  I feel good about the quality of what I've done.  I think that until you reach Stephen King status, you'll always wish for a wider audience, but that's not something I'd ever really complain about.  You kind of just hope it'll happen one day, while reminding yourself to stay humbled by each individual reader.  The fact that even a single human being has thought my work worthy of being bought, and more so deemed it worthy of giving up some of their time to read, that's a huge deal.  I like to keep that attitude, because it's true.  Time is the most valuable currency in the world, and the fact that hundreds of people have spent that currency reading my books, man, that's just crazy to think about.  That's inspiration right there.  I'm not going to lie and say that I don't wish it was thousands of people, or even tens of thousands, but even if it never really blows up past the level where I'm at, I'll forever be truly grateful that people read my stuff.

I really should go to sleep, as I have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow, but I still don't feel tired.  I'm sure anyone who managed to slog this far into this blog post is tired of reading though, so I'll shut it down here.  I'm probably going to start blogging a lot more, and while I'd like to say they all won't be this long, well, we both know they probably will be.  I hope everyone is having an awesome week, and that your weekend is full of some kind of adventure, some kind of rest, and some kind of laughter.

  

My Death Note Overdose

So, Death Note is one of those animes that I had no doubt I would enjoy.  I've owned the entire series for years, but never watched past the first disc.  I'm a finicky anime fan, and as much as I proclaim to love it, sometimes I wonder if I really do.  It's like I love the theory of it, but something about actually watching it never leaves me quite as satisfied as I feel watching shows with real actors.

However, lately I've been migrating back into anime and enjoying myself so far.  I think I'm finally in a place where I can enjoy it for what it is without worrying too much about what it isn't.  So, when my roommate suggested we watch Death Note, it seemed like a great thing to do.  For the past few years, he's mentioned that we should watch it off and on, but we never did it.  Now that he's leaving in a few weeks, it seemed like a great thing to do, so over three LONG nights, we devoured this 37 episode series.  And what a series it was.  Below I'm going to share my spoiler free thoughts on it.  

For any of you who aren't into anime, or don't know what Death Note is, it's a series about this guy named Light who finds a notebook that was dropped into the human world by a bored Shinigami, which is basically like a death god.  Light learns that if he writes the name of someone in the notebook while picturing their face, they'll die.  Seeing a chance to clean up the world, he decides to use the notebook in an attempt to wipe out all the terrible criminals, thus becoming something of a huge mass murderer (or a savior, depending on how you wanna view him).  The world quickly becomes aware of his existence (though not his identity) and a huge investigation is started to bring him to justice.

So that's the basic idea.  If it sounds dark, that's because it definitely is.  For 37 episodes you kind of have to constantly fight the moral battle that the show presents.  How bad is someone who kills murderers and rapists?  Every character, even the ones who are trying to find the killer, has to confront this.  They also have to contend with the fact that just by trying to find this guy, they are putting their lives at risk, because if he ever learns their name and face he can kill them easily.

The show is insanely good, with an emphasis on insane.  This is some of the bravest storytelling you'll ever see.  I don't know if it's always the best, but it's definitely among the bravest.  This show produces jaw dropping twist after jaw dropping twist and stands proud and tall beside each one.  Obviously this is a great quality, but it does mean the tone and direction of the show can veer wildly at times.  In the heat of watching it, there were sections that I was a little unhappy with, as it broke away from my favorite elements of the series, but looking back on it I mostly just admire the show for having a no fear attitude towards completely demolishing itself and building it into something different a few times over the course of 37 episodes.

One thing that amazed me is how easily followed Death Note is.  The story is complex to a nutty degree, but at the same time it never feels like its getting away from you.  I think this was greatly helped by the fact that we watched 12 episodes a night, 3 nights straight, so there wasn't much chance of us forgetting any plot points.  But still, it's definitely a strength of the series that it was able to remain easy to follow despite delving into some of the craziest, twisting, complex ideas and plots you'll ever see.

The only thing I have to compare Death Note to is The Shield (or maybe Dexter).  In both shows, you're mainly watching someone who is probably defined as a villain.  Also in both shows, you live every moment with your stomach in knots, eyes wide as you watch the intricate ways in which the characters weave their web and stay one step ahead of those who are after them.

The ending of Death Note was definitely satisfying.  I felt a lot of conflicting emotions over it, and you really can't predict which way it's going to go, which is nice.  For a show this crazy, the sky was the limit for how they wanted to close it, and that works to their advantage, because you really can't even begin to have a clue as to where things will end up when the final credits roll.

So there you have it, my thoughts on Death Note.  It was fantastic watching it in one huge chunk, and I think I'll probably watch more anime this way in the future.  I'd definitely recommend this series to people, as long as they're into this kind of super dark, complex, kind of thing.  It's definitely not for everyone, as you spend the majority of the time with some really morally bankrupt characters, but it's just such a smart, engaging, deep, and insane show, I'm really glad I finally sat down and watched the thing.

Upping the Gross factor

I'm too bored to sleep.  It's likely the dumbest thing I've ever said, but it's how I feel right now.  I have this weird sense that I should accomplish one more thing before going to bed, but for the life of me I can't muster up the desire to actually do anything.  So I've spent the last 90 minutes wasting time on the internet, because this is what smart people do with their time.

Although, in my own defense, I did have a very productive day, so unspooling here at the tail end of it isn't too big of a deal.  I completed edits on a novel we'll be releasing at Hall Brothers Entertainment soon, and it felt good to get that project finally done.  We're still behind schedule on pretty much everything, but at least progress is being made.  One project down, lots more that are waiting to be addressed.

I'm almost ready to start work on writing my next novel.  It's going to be a standalone book, just a one-off sci-fi action/adventure thing, which I'm excited about.  Most of our catalog over at HBE is books that belong to a series, so it'll be really nice to have something that's completely unattached and just stands on its own.  But it's actually the NEXT novel that I'm going to write that's on my mind tonight.

This one will probably not be written until later in the year, as after I finish Terraformer (which is a working title) I'll write Black Badge Season Three (which is probably going to be the final book in that series) and then I'll probably go ahead and write the third Scrolls book (which is far from the final book in that series, I want to write like 10 Scrolls books).  But, after all of that, I'll write this other novel that I'm just calling MPW for now.

Why am I excited about this idea?  Well, first of all, it'll be another standalone novel, which is something that I dig.  I love series, don't get me wrong, but having a few one-off books in between is always very nice.  I love being able to read a book, then close that book and know that it's over.  So MPW has that going for it.

More than that though, I think it's going to be a very gross book, and that sort of makes me happy.  Black Badge is violent and cynical and dark, but it's not gross.  I have this desire to do something, I hate to use the word graphic, but I think it fits what I'm trying to say here.  MPW isn't going to be an awful book, but it will have awful things in it.  Gross things, and creatures, and stuff like that.  I really can't share anything else, because I'm a big believer in not saying too much before something is actually being written, and this is a long way from being written.  But I'm doing research, and taking notes, and getting excited about the idea of grossing myself out.

So, what else is going on?  Not much really.  I've been on a huge editing roll lately, and it was much needed and quite nice.  It's nothing but helpful to dive so deep into another person's book.  You learn so much just about storytelling in general.  I read the book first to enjoy it, then I read it a second time to edit/study it.  It's kind of a cool process, and one that I feel always makes me a stronger storyteller when I'm done.  And hopefully, also makes the book I'm editing a little better than it was before.  Of course, this particular writer is a super pro, so the amount of actual editing I do on his work is next to none, but I did move around a few commas and find one spelling mistake, so at least I helped a little, hahaha.

Anyways, I guess that's it.  Summer's here, and I hate that.  Summer is awful on every level imaginable.  But enough about that.

Here are some random thoughts to close out this random blog post.

The new Linkin Park album is pretty good.

I have no plans for 4th of July, but I'm certain my family will pull something together at the last minute.  We have a weird habit of coming up with something to do on that holiday like the morning of.

I'm reading a book called The Black Opera, which is about music being so powerful that it can cause volcanic eruptions and stuff.  So far it's horribly wordy and hard to read, which is a huge bummer because I'm in love with the idea of the book.  I'm hoping it gets better, but reading it right now is a pretty big chore, which never equals out to a high entertainment factor.

On TV I've been enjoying Suits, Falling Skies, Teen Wolf and Franklin and Bash.  I'm a little embarrassed over loving the last two of those shows, but whatever.

I might enter another short story contest.  I finished in second place in the last one I entered, which was awesome.  I've actually been considering putting out a cheap or maybe even free e-book of the short stories I wrote for that contest.  I might do that one day soon!  What a great idea!

Okay, that's all for me.  I think I'm going to go lay down and see if I can experience some of this "sleep" stuff that I hear people talking about all the time.  I hope each and every one of you are doing super fantastic these days!

Birthday Book Bomb!

Okay, so I'm blatantly stealing this idea from my friend Martin Ingham, who is an awesome writer.  But it's my birthday, so hopefully that means he'll be okay with me following in his footsteps with the idea of a birthday book bomb.

So here's how it works.  As a writer, the greatest thing that can happen for me is when people are buying and reading my books.  So, since it's my birthday and it's socially acceptable to be a little selfish on your birthday, what I'd like to ask is that you help get more people buying and reading my books today.  How can we do that?  Well, if you're able, buy one of my books today.  Print editions are 10 bucks, e-versions on Kindle and Nook are just 3 bucks, and if you're able to pick one up today, that would be a huge gift to me.

Of course, times are tough, so if you don't have the money available, maybe just take a moment to spread the word about my books to someone you know.  Toss a link up on facebook, or tweet your homies, or email your bookish cousin, just let someone know that you know a guy who writes some books and that they're available.  I really believe my available works span a lot of different taste profiles.  Black Badge is gritty, dark, cynical, violent, action and mayhem.  Scrolls is action packed, magical, a little romantic, coming of age, funny, and mysterious.  The Bond: Conqueror is a galaxy spanning action sci-fi tale of revenge.  And if short stories are more your speed, then I've got great work in both Undiscovered and Villainy, the two short story compilations available at Hall Brothers Entertainment.

Here's the link to the Hall Bros Entertainment store:  STORE

If you'd rather buy the books on amazon.com you can do that too.  Just head over there and search for the books by their exact title, because it tends to kickback a ton of results unless you search for exactly which of my books you're after.

Anyways, anything you can do to help make my first ever birthday book bomb a success would be hugely appreciated.  You write in a vacuum, and even after you release a book it just kind of floats out there and it's always such a great feeling when you know people are buying them and telling people they know that this is stuff that's worth reading.  Thanks to each and every one of you for all the support you've shown me over the years, and I hope you'll continue to stick with me as I continue to write more books!

Scrolls: Nekros buying guide

Finally, after some long barren months, I have a new book being published today.  This is the second entry in the Scrolls series, which is by far my favorite thing I've ever written.  I always like to put together these quick buying guides so my friends and family can have easy access to pick up the book.  If you're unaware of Scrolls, later in this post I'll give you information on the first book and where you can purchase it.  But for now, here's the information for Scrolls: Nekros.  

Magic comes with a heavy price.

Marty Schultz and his friends have seen the destructive ways in which magic can be used. They've also seen how it can be harnessed to save people in need. But they're still just college students, and they've made use of a power they don't fully understand.

Marty seeks normalcy, a chance to be a student and start a relationship with his beautiful co-worker. But life has a way of becoming complicated in a hurry. A necromancer walks the streets of their college town, and Marty finds himself being the reluctant hero once more, even though doing so could mean the end of his new romance before it ever begins.

Those closest to Marty have issues of their own. His sister is convinced he's up to no good, and she's decided to take a job in town so she can investigate further. His ex-fiancee is tortured by hellish visions, a side effect from her use of magic. His best friend is struggling to keep the unexpected consequences of a spell from coming back to haunt them. All the while, the key to bringing Marty the normalcy he desires most is lost, and finding it again will lead them into dark alliances and the depths of a magical criminal underground they never knew existed.

I'm very proud of this book, and hope you'll consider picking up a copy.  You can buy Scrolls: Nekros from the following places:

Hall Brothers Entertainment.com (where's it's available individually, or at a reduced rate in a bundle with the first Scrolls book)

amazon.com

Nook

Kindle

Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with the original book.  Here's what it's all about, followed by info on where you can read it/buy it.  

Marty Schultz is a young man who just wants to be left alone. While his fellow students at Barker State University are living it up, Marty keeps his distance, spending most of his time alone. The used bookstore where he works specializes in the trade of ancient scrolls and Marty copies down their details for use in his web-comic. Little does he know that in the right hands these scrolls can be used to perform powerful magic and his use of them has drawn the attention of some very dangerous people. As Marty struggles to come to grips with the reality of the scrolls and his growing ability to harness their power he also has to face the past that he moved over 3,000 miles away to escape. 

Marty just wanted to be left alone, but that’s no longer an option. His life is suddenly very full and whether he likes it or not he has to find a way to deal with it. But if he’s going to reconcile with his angry ex-fiancée whom he left two years ago with no explanation, pacify his big sister who is trying to uncover a secret he’s worked hard to hide and get out from under the thumb of a scheming classmate, first he’s going to have to find a way to survive against a magic wielding madman who has decided that Marty Schultz must die.

You can buy Scrolls Season One at:

Hall Brothers Entertainment.com (where it's available in a bundle with the second book for a reduced rate)

Amazon.com

Nook

Kindle

Or, if you'd rather, you can read the entire first book for free ONLINE.  

Blog about nothing

You'd think I'd have some good reason for blogging, but it's mostly just a mood thing for me, and tonight is one of those odd, nothing going on, too late to start anything new but too early to get ready for bed so maybe I should blog kind of nights.

I'm finally ready to release my latest book, Scrolls: Nekros, which is the sequel to my 2011 release Scrolls Season One.  It's easily the best thing I've ever written, and it's my personal favorite as well, so I can't wait for it to be available.  The proof copy is in the mail right now, but I have every reason to believe it'll be perfect and fantastic, which means the book should be available in paperback and e-book form in about a week.  So yeah, that's exciting.

I have my daily workout routine up to 30 minutes now.  I know that's not superhuman or anything, but it's a huge deal for me.  Whatever it is that humans do to look after their health and be in shape, I've pretty much done the opposite of that for about fifteen years straight.  When we first set up our exercise room a few months ago, if I could string together 5 minutes straight of exercise it was a miracle.  But I've stuck with it, done what I could, increased when it felt like my body was ready, eaten MUCH SMARTER AND BETTER (which pretty much is accomplished by swearing off fast food, which has been the best decision I ever made), and now my workouts are 30 minutes long.  I do 18 minutes on the treadmill, and then 12 minutes on the exercise bike.  I've still got a long way to go.  It took me fifteen years to get myself into poor shape, so I know it's not going to be an easy task to undo all of that and get into shape.  But I already feel a thousand times better than I did, and I can already tell an amazing difference in how I feel when I'm out and just my general physical fitness and health and such, so that's all really good.  I tend not to oversell it, because I know there's a REALLY REALLY REALLY long way to go, but getting the workout up to 30 minutes was my biggest starting goal, and so I'm pretty excited to be at that point now.  Just gotta stick with it, and good stuff will keep happening.

My hair is at its absolute worst.  I look like a member of the Beatles or something, back in their matching suit era.  Of course, I haven't combed my hair in like eleven days, so it's probably fine if I comb it.  But uncombed, it's terrible.  I wore a hat in the house today just so I didn't have to see my hair in the mirror.  Pretty dumb, huh?

I read an article about murderers today.  It was truly disturbing.  Like just getting this small glimpse into the thought process of true psycopaths, it's awful.  It's so scary to think about people like that being out there in the world.  I like to think the best of people, to believe that deep down everyone has good in them, but more and more my inclination is to just lock the door, avoid eye contact, and stick to the small pocket of people I'm familiar with.  Not the healthiest attitude in the world, I know, but heck, it might be the safest.

I guess that's about all I have to ramble about tonight.  I gotta get up early tomorrow (early for me is 9:40 am, which sounds AWFUL) to go get the paper.  Which doesn't mean I'm going to go to bed at a decent time, as you'd need at least twenty percent more common sense than I have to do something like that.  I'll just stay up late as usual, and then grumble and cuss when my alarm goes off at 9:40.  And then push snooze like 8 times, and eventually leave my house around 10:30.  Yes, I'm "that guy" when it comes to setting an alarm and getting up.

I cancelled my Blockbuster Online account today.  It was a mercy killing, something I should've done long ago.  I hate Netflix with a passion, and I think they're pretty worthless, but over the past year Blockbuster Online has become just as bad, if not worse.  Of the 24 titles in my online queue, 18 were either unavailable or on "long wait". The thing I always liked was the ability to swap movies from the mail with movies in the store, but our local Blockbuster has been nosediving in quality for the past year.  Now they only order a handful of new releases, and if you're not there within the first thirty minutes they open on Tuesday, you just don't get a chance to get a new release.  I guess I see most movies in theaters anyways since I have to review them all for the paper, so I can live without a rental service.  If the urge strikes me I'll either go Redbox it or just use On Demand on my satellite service.

I have no clue why anyone on Earth would care about me cancelling Blockbuster Online, or my plans for renting movies in the future.

I jumped down an entire staircase in high school on a dare.  I was sort of an idiot in high school.  It hurt super bad, but I did it.  I landed on my feet at the bottom and just collapsed, then slid into a brick wall.  The whole thing knocked the wind out of me and I just laid there like the idiot I was for quite a while.

Anything else we should talk about before I go?  My bank has made me mad.  I jumped through a bunch of hoops to keep my checking accounts free (I have two, one personal, and one we use for Hall Bros business).  They forced me to set up two savings accounts, and link them to the checking accounts, and schedule regular monthly transfers into the savings accounts, and thus my checking accounts were free.  And then one day last month, both checking accounts get hit with a $15 fee, causing one of them to go negative (yeah, yeah, I've been broke lately), so they then charged me a $39 overdraft fee.  After talking to them, apparently now no checking accounts are free, so I'm a dope with 4 bank accounts for no reason at all.  I think I'm going to go close 3 of them.  I'd close all 4, but I have direct deposit from my second job set up to my main account, and I'd have to make a long trip into Dallas to switch that at the corporate office.  It's pretty much the worst drive ever in the history of traffic, and I'll probably not do it ever again if I can get away with it.  So yeah, Wells Fargo, you are a crappy, greedy bank.  The only thing you have going for you is employing the girl that I so dearly like.  She's delightful, and I'm sure if it was up to her all the checking accounts would be free.

You know what the thing about working out is?  It's not that it's that hard (at least now that I'm in better shape), it's SUPER BORING.  As a music freak, you'd think I'd just listen to music, but that gets really boring to me.  I try talk radio, but it's rare that I find the right program when I'm exercising, so I either get forced to listen to Hockey Talk on sports radio or like a discussion about the physiology of turtles on NPR.  My roommate and I are talking about going in together on a small flat screen TV to hang on the wall.  Not sure when I'll have the freed up funds for it, but I can't wait to make that happen.  It'll really remedy what is my most hated thing about working out, which is just the crushing boredom.

Seriously, what's the deal with this new boy band "The Wanted"?  I thought we abolished boy bands.

I bought a book called The Black Opera and I can't wait to start reading it.  It's set in the 1700's or 1800's, something like that, and there's this group who are putting together an opera so evil that it has the power to summon the devil.  And so this down on his luck writer gets hired by the king to write a counter opera, something so pure and good that it would counteract the black opera.  Such a cool idea, and I'll probably start reading it once I'm done editing the book I'm editing.

Okay, I'm gonna shut up now.  If you read this far, then I'm fairly certain some amazing good fortune is going to befall you soon.  I hope everyone is doing great, and life is treating you well, and that you are in good spirits, and that there's more good than bad in each day for you.  That's how it tends to go for me, but then again, I'm kind of simple :)  

An evening at the mall

It's been a busy few days, which is pretty cool with me. If I'm not working I tend to get depressed. Not sure why that is, but any time I try to "take it easy" for a few days I tend to start getting into a really negative headspace. So, because you absolutely didn't ask for it, here's a rundown of what I've been up to.

Wednesday is the day we print the paper, and seeing as I wear an assortment of hats at my job, it's my duty to drive down to Granbury every Wednesday morning to get the paper. One thing I can appreciate about the country living you find along the way is that stores pack a lot into just one place. There's a shop that will fix your car AND buy arrow heads from you. Or how about this doozy,

which offers an assortment of services. That's right. They'll remove your hair with a laser, implant a hearing device in your ear, and well, ahem, enhance other assets if you're a lady seeking such services. That eye catching building is in Granbury proper, but another of my favorite spots along the drive every Wednesday is this gem.

This gas station parking lot features the finest products that can be found in the back of vans. You can buy wonky flags, or giant rugs, and that's just in the parking lot! Don't forget the liquor and BBQ offered inside. There used to be a guy who sold knives and pants out of his trunk across the street from this gas station, but I haven't seen him in a few months. I wonder if this rug guy ran him out of business?

Moving on to Thursday, that was a family day, which was wonderful. My three nephews are home schooled, and I've recently started coming over every Thursday and teaching them. It's actually a lot of fun, and it's really rewarding to get to play a small role in helping them learn and gain knowledge. After school I just palled around with my nephews, mom and sister in law, and eventually we cooked tacos and had a fantastic meal. I don't think I have any pictures from that day, but here's one from Tuesday when Amazon.com called me a loser.

Pay close attention to the second email, and the subject line. So yeah, that was real sweet of them. If you look real close at my reflection in the screen, you might be able to see the tears that were streaming down my face. In all seriousness, I'm pretty sure they were emailing me a recommendation for the Jason Biggs movie "Loser", which is pretty much just as insulting as calling me a loser, as they're suggesting that my past purchase behavior pegs me as someone who would want to own the Jason Biggs film Loser. Or it might be because that movie is actually in my amazon cart as we speak, but if that's the case I'll never admit it.

Friday was a super fun day. I was planning on getting up at a decent hour (which for me, means around 10:30 am) but I didn't pull it off. I was going to go see movies, but instead I decided to catch up on emails. I got my unread emails down from 97 to 7, so that was a big accomplishment. Then that night I went and covered softball and baseball, then came home and watched the last half of the Rangers game, then made some salsa (which I pretty much ruined by over seasoning it, which is a tragedy because I LOVE salsa), and even got to hang with my brother for a bit as he shared some of the most hilarious and insane stories ever. Many laughs were had, and I got to bed SUPER late, but it was completely worth it.

And then we come to today, which turned out to be a beautiful Saturday. Got up, watched the Rangers day game, then did a little work, then went and spent the

evening at the mall. Mostly I was just there to see two movies, but it actually felt kind of nice to chill amongst humanity for an evening. As you can see in the picture, there weren't many people at the mall, but it was still fun. I have a lot of great memories of that mall. I was never a hangout at the mall kind of guy, although I did have a date there once, where I met this girl I knew from church and we walked around for like four hours holding hands, and occasionally we'd get thirsty and go buy a coke, and then we'd resume walking around and holding hands. It was awkward but sweet, and I actually used it as inspiration for a short story I wrote many years later called Holding Hands. The mall date was the beginning of a short lived young romance, which many years later was rekindled as a pretty serious relationship in our adult years, if you can call early 20's adult years. Ah love, you never forget it.

But, even though I rarely hung out there, I did have several jobs at that mall. The first was at.... geez, what was first? Dillards I think, where I was a dock associate, which is short hand for being the store whipping boy. Someone have diarrhea all over the women's restroom? The dock associate must clean it! Aggressive rats in the perfume storeroom? The dock associate must battle them! A 60 inch television was purchased by a 120 pound dude who wants to take it home in his two door mazda? The dock associate must load it! The work was brutal and thankless, and you had like 14 bosses because every department manager had authority over you. But, I did meet a lot of cool folks there. There was this super cute girl who worked nights in the shoe department, and then the perfume area lady manager was really nice to me and always gave me cologne samples and asked me for rides home (maybe she was into me, now that I think about it that would explain a lot), and then there was the cool divorcee' in the electronics department that would help me hide in her section on Sundays and we'd tune the TVs to the Indianapolis Colts game.

After Dillards, I got a job at Coach House Gifts, where my best friend Chris already worked. On my second day, the manager (who had put in a two week notice) showed up drunk, went on a cussing rant about how he didn't give a crap about the job anymore, tossed me his keys and then left. Not only did I successfully close the store, but I did it like a champ, and from then on they never took those keys away from me. I may've been a champion of closing, but I was the world's most insane employee by day. I've done some nutty things in my life, but some of my alltime craziest behaviors went down inside Coach House. Dolphin Clock Baseball, Punt the Pig, Empty the Fire Extinguisher in the back room, Headless Precious Moments, the activities were legendary. I remember on Mother's Day they left just me and Chris there. There were thousands of people in and out all day, and we worked for like 12 hours straight through the rush. There was this battery operated bird hanging from the ceiling by a string, and it flapped its wings and flew in a circle. It was loud and annoying, and when the last customer left at like 10:30, Chris and I were just leaning on the counter recovering before we started what would be a three hour closing process, and this dang bird is just going in circles above us. So I grab this long stick, leap over the counter, nail the bird from the sky, and then bash it to pieces. What followed was probably the longest fit of laughter Chris and I have ever had. I'm talking, collapsed to the ground, tears flowing, muscles cramping, can't breathe laughing. It went on for like five minutes. Eventually we recovered from our state of lunacy and started the endless cleanup and closing procedures for the day. I also recall that my fiancee' at the time actually came up there and surprised us with some food, which was awesome, because it was like midnight and neither of us had eaten since around noon. She was cool like that.

Eventually my time at Coach House came to an end, and I moved on to the promised land for a geek like me, which was Electronics Boutique (which would later morph into the evil empire, GameStop). Working there was like having an extended family, as the manager Brad was the dad of the group, and then my co-workers Justin and Pedro were my brothers. The days were fantastic, full of laughs and fun and greatness. We even had a trade agreement in place with the manager of Chili's, in which he gave us much free Chili's food and we in turn gave him the hook-up.

Sadly, I left that job to go work at my first ever office job, which turned out to be this weird company that I'm pretty sure was run by criminals. It was glorious at first, as I just did data entry for like 11 bucks an hour. I listened to my cd player all day long and typed and made some serious money, but then I had to go and get myself promoted, and life fell apart. I ended up on salary, doing three times as much work for some pretty dubious folks under some pretty dubious circumstances. I can't even remember why I finally decided to quit. Probably because they were making me work like 12 to 14 hour days 5 days a week, plus coming in for 8 hours most Saturdays.

Well, that was a weird tangent. Back to my Saturday. So I saw two movies, Cabin in the Woods (crazy weird hybrid comedy over the top horror thing) and Lockout (old school action... IN SPACE), and then I headed out to do my overnight job. I tried to trailblaze my way across Fort Worth in what I figured would be a short cut, but ended up getting completely turned around in some truly frightening neighborhoods. I finally had to throw in the towel and call my brother, who used Google maps to guide me to safety. My mind was blown when I finally figured out where I was, as I had pulled this odd hooking pattern across North Fort Worth and ended up going south when I actually needed to go North into the Fossil Creek area. But my bro got me straightened, and it turned out that all of my stores I do work in overnights were in pristine condition, and so my night was blissfully short.

And now I'm home, spending an hour writing a blog so long that it is dangerously close to reaching novella levels. Not really, but you know, it's long. So that's it, loving life, staying busy, having fun, and writing ridiculously long blog posts. Because that's how the kid rolls.

I hope you're all doing fantastic!

The Frosty Weather

I haven't blogged in quite a while, and seeing as I always get a little sad when my friends don't blog, it seems only fair that I try to do it too. Life's been pretty hectic for me, thanks mostly to a really big story we broke and then covered for three weeks in the paper. The last thing I want to do is talk about the story, as I've probably poured around 100 hours of my life into it over the past three weeks. I would like to talk about some of the ramifications of the story though.

This is the kind of local politics story that inevitably leaves some people thinking you're a hero and some people thinking you're a villain. While I fully and completely stand by the story, and our fact based approach to covering it, I will say that the fallout from it is most unpleasant. I've spent my life being a fairly likable guy. I'm not abrasive at all, and I've never made any enemies as far as I know. So getting to a point where you walk into a room where there are people who actively hate you, and people that wish ill on you, it's a really crappy feeling. It's not like I'm crying at night over it, because really, if that's how people want to be then there's not much I can do about it, but there's no denying that it's a bad feeling. I'm a positive, optimistic guy, and this just just a negative, pessimistic situation.

But, it'll all come back around, as things tend to do. Something else will happen, and this story will be forgotten as stories always are, and the people that muttered things like "you're not welcome here" today will be the people patting me on the back a few months from now.

Investigative reporting, it's a bastard, folks. Sorry to be crude, but that's just my honest take on it. People get hurt, friendships get busted, and the truth gets revealed. Even if you feel like you're on the side of "right" and "truth", it doesn't mean you're immune to the fallout and the frosty weather that follows.

So, what else is going on? Here's a picture I took today, let's look at this handsome dude for a moment. I think I'm going cross eyed or

something in that picture, not sure what's up with that. The thing that I really like about this picture is the intersection of my lime green pillow, my orange pillow, and my purple blanket, which is all visible over my left shoulder (not your left, MY left). That blanket is by far the greatest thing

I've ever purchased, and is hands down the softest thing ever manufactured on planet earth. What else can we talk about? I need something so we can change the subject from my pillows and blankets, because let's face it, this is boring.

How about Del Taco? This fascinating eatery just opened locally, although I did eat at one when driving to Las Vegas. I tried it out tonight, which turned into a huge mistake. I've been trying to get healthy (finally), after 30 years of abusing my body via sitting around all day every day and eating garbage all day every day. So we got a treadmill and an exercise bike, and I've been eating all of my meals at home, and even just in a week of regular exercise and a better diet, I feel so much better. I don't think I've really lost any weight yet, but I don't care, I know that will come. For now, I feel more like I'm going to live to see 40, and that's a good first step.

Why do I share all of that? Well, firstly because I'm excited about FINALLY making these much needed life changes and starting to get myself healthy. But, I also share that so I can illustrate for you that Del Taco was the first fast food I've had in over a week, which is a big deal for a guy who used to eat fast food at least once per day. You'd think that it would be this amazing treat, like the greatest thing to ever be tasted, but the opposite happened. It tasted like the garbage, nastiness that all fast food really is. I guess that's a good thing, that I've adjusted to eating fresher, healthier foods, but I sure was looking forward to that burrito. Oh well.

Is there any other mundane and boring aspect of my life that I feel the need to share? I don't guess so. I think I'm going to change banks, as mine has been sort of screwing me for a few months and then today really screwed me. The problem is, I'm pretty madly infatuated with this one teller at my bank, she's so awesome. So if I change banks I'll never see her again. Logic says that I could just ask her out to coffee or lunch or something, but I'm pretty much just living like a coward and never doing that. We always end up talking for quite a while when I'm at the bank, it feels like there might be something there, but then I can get sort of negative and convince myself that she just has great customer service skills and isn't actually enjoying talking to me. Who knows, maybe I'll just do it, let her know I'm switching banks but that I'd love to exchange info so we could still talk. Probably not much harm in that, but considering I've got like three years invested in my whole coward plan it's going to be hard to reverse course.

I think I'm blogging longer because I don't want to go to sleep. Because once I go to sleep then I have to get up early tomorrow (early by my standards, which is 9:40 am) so I can go pick up the paper at the printing press. Yes, the logic is flawed here, because the later I stay up the worse it's going to be getting up early, but I am who I am and this is just how my mind works. Plus I'm not tired at all. Just not even close.

So let's talk about something else then, shall we? How about my super amazing new double monitor setup? Okay, here's the rundown. My brother built me this awesome super bookshelf thingy that's integrated into my computer desk. So on desk level I've got my laptop, which is my main computer. Above that, I've got my TV where I watch DVD's and stuff while I work. Well, I hooked up a few cables, wiggled my fingers, exclaimed the magic words, and boom, I turned that TV into a second monitor. Behold the amazing picture, which illustrates in one simple image what I took an entire paragraph to explain with my words.

Open on top is Spotify, where I was listening to some nice heavy metal via the Adrenaline Mob, and on bottom on my main screen was... facebook it looks like. My laptop looks puny in this picture. But, the whole setup is really rad. I just sweep my mouse up, and it flows off the top of my laptop screen up onto the TV screen. I've been tossing youtube videos and like, documents full of notes up there while I type below. It's cool.

Alright well, I guess that's officially enough rambling for one blog post. If you read this far, you're a good person. If you didn't read this far, you'll never know I was talking about you one way or the other, so I guess any witty comment directed towards you would be wasted here.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Lucky 7 Sneak Peek

My friend and storyteller extraordinaire Martin T. Ingham tagged me with this, and it sounded pretty awesome so here we go.

How this works is pretty simple:

1. Go to page 77 of your current Manuscript/Work In Progress

2. Go to line 7

3. Copy down the next 7 sentences or paragraphs, and post them as they are written.

4. Tag 7 other authors

My latest manuscript is Scrolls: Nekros, the second book in the Scrolls series. It'll be releasing in a few short weeks, and it's something I'm really proud of, so the chance to show off a little bit of it is great. I'm not going to tag 7 other authors, mostly because most of my author friends have already done this, so I'll instead just give an open invitation to any writers who haven't done this yet to give it a try.

So here we go, from chapter four. In a book full of intense magic action, it makes me happy that the preview happened to be a sweeter moment, as these are my favorite moments in the book:

“What was that for?” he asked.

“For letting me in. You don’t know how badly I’ve been wishing you would do that.”

Marty smiled as he stared at her. He felt guilty being cryptic and giving her only some of the facts, but he knew going further would just complicate things, and it could put her in danger, or even scare her away. He wasn’t willing to risk any of those things, especially not now.

“Do you want to talk about it some more?” Annabel asked.

He shook his head.

“I feel better now.”

She grabbed his hand, entwining her fingers with his. They continued on towards the campus, each content to just be with the other. Annabel guided them on a different route back than the one they had taken to the store, and Marty paused as they rounded a corner.

Experience the magic

I just finished preliminary edits on Scrolls: Nekros, the second book in the Scrolls series. Now it'll get passed on to my actual editor, then I'll take her edits and do a revision, then I'll do one more full edit myself. That should all be accomplished in the next month while the cover is getting done, and a month or so from now this book should be ready to get released.

I probably say this every time I finish a book, but this is definitely the best thing I've ever written. It's just so filled with all of the things I love in entertainment. Great action, great character relationships, romance, huge battles. It's a blast when you write for yourself, because the whole time you're entertained. If I was writing a period political drama I'd be bored out of my mind, so it's great to be able to so deeply love what you're creating.

So while this book goes through the final steps of getting ready for publication, now seems like a great time to try and convince any of you who haven't bought it yet to buy a copy of Scrolls Season One. It's a book I'm really proud of. It tells a great story, it's rated PG-13 for intense magic action, it's got battles, romances, twists, angst, bad guys, good guys, secrets, and awesomeness. Here's a convenient collection of links as to where you can purchase it. And if you're not familiar with the full plot, you can read the basics at any of these links.

HALL BROS ENTERTAINMENT = This will get you a copy direct from my company for the low cost of $10. We've got 2 copies on hand, and if you order one of them I'll sign and personalize the book to you.

AMAZON.COM = My personal favorite place to buy books, you can get it for $12 here.

BARNES & NOBLE.COM = My second favorite booksite has print copies of the book for just $10.80.

AMAZON KINDLE = For you e-reader fans out there, snag this bad boy on Kindle for just $2.99.

B&N NOOK = Don't worry Nook fans, $2.99 gets you the book as well!

The Ripley Effect

Time to put my nerd cred at risk. Up until last week, I'd never watched Alien, nor had I ever seen more than 15 minutes of Aliens. I decided to remedy this by watching all 4 films in the proper Alien franchise (AVP and AVP: Requiem are not included in this franchise, as far as I'm concerned). So, here are my thoughts, which may be controversial to super movie nerds.

Alien: This movie is fantastic. I've always enjoyed sci-fi horror films, and watching Alien shows me who I have to thank for creating the genre. It's tense, original, well paced, menacing, and when you do get the glimpses of the Alien, it's horrifying and amazing. Considering this movie was made like 30 years ago, the special effects were fantastic. The Alien was completely freaky, and seemed lifelike and real. The characters in the film were pretty good for the most part. A few of them were instantly forgettable, but overall I would say this movie was amazing.

Aliens: I was blown away by this movie. It smartly picks up off of the first one, and makes a guns blazing spectacle out of it. As much as I like sci-fi horror, I like sci-fi action/horror even better. The characters are much better in this one. Ripley, Bishop, Burke, Hicks, Hudson, Vasquez, they all have good presence and are memorable. This Aliens were again awesome looking, and the movie had a great pace and plot, leading to an amazing final battle.

Alien 3: And then this happened. I didn't just dislike this movie, I pretty much hated it. It seemed to lose everything that made the first two great. The characters in this film are immediately forgettable. Ripley is at her least enjoyable here, and aside from her the best character in the film gets ganked by the alien very early on. That leaves just one more memorable character, the psycho-religious criminal Dillon. The characters were such a strength of the second movie, and yet they just populate the third with interchangeable scum bags. Reducing the movie back down to a single Alien was a good idea, but instead of growing the franchise in a new genre direction the way the second film did, they tried to recapture the tense horror of the original, and just completely fail. When the characters run up and down corridors for fifteen minutes at the end, locking doors and unlocking doors behind them, I had no idea what the hell they were even trying to accomplish. It was as mindless as the film itself, which was also paced horribly. Oh and you can't forget to mention the horrible special effects. The weird cgi/puppetry mechanic they used was beyond awful. The alien looked like a floppy meerkat skittering around. This was especially noticeable on the few close up shots, which employed the same great effects from the earlier films. Ultimately, this movie was mind numbingly slow, and culminated with a predictable ending.

Alien: Resurrection: Okay, I loved this movie. Just like Aliens, it took the franchise and did a new genre with it. This was an over the top, comedic, larger than life, almost parody of the franchise, and yet somehow it works. Again, characters shined in this one. Ripley is interesting again as this monstrous, hate filled psycho, and you've got this whole pirate crew of awesome characters like the sharp shooting Christie, the dead too soon captain, Winona Ryder, and then Ron Perlman doing a great job at being a brutish scumbag. The storyline is interesting, the writing is genuinely funny in a lot of places, and there's a lot of creative moments. Alien bursting out of your chest? Grab a bad guy and pull him next to you so the alien bursts from your chest, through his head! After being so boring in the third one, the Aliens were interesting again, and apparently super smart now. Setting up ambushes and using different tactics made them even more menacing than before. And the special effects were good again, unlike Alien 3. Ultimately, I think this one was very successful, and fit well within the evolution of the franchise. I can see why big Alien/Aliens fans might be a bit put off by it, because in a lot of ways it did sort of wag its tongue at the franchise and just sort of have fun with what was taken so seriously in the previous films. But to me, that's why this movie worked. It kept alive the spirit of jumping genres and taking the alien idea in new directions. There was no horror at all in this one, just big guns blazing, wise cracking larger than life characters, and some pretty ludicrous assumptions about how society had involved in Ripley's long absence.

So there you have it. My take on the Alien franchise. My favorites are Aliens, Alien: Resurrection, and then Alien.

Valencrime's Day

So, I haven't blogged in a long time, but I've been thinking about it, and finally I'm doing it. How's that for a lead?

I'm feeling pretty random tonight, so let's just rock some random paragraphs!

My oldest nephew is 9, and as an exercise in school once a week he has to do free writing. He has this journal where he writes like a paragraph long story. Well, he lets me read it the other day, and it turns out that everything he writes is food based. Here's my best attempt at recreating one:

Planter's Dry Roasted Peanuts are amazing. They have salt and crunch in your mouth. Snack time is fun when you enjoy some of these peanuts.

The thing is, the kid starts getting really nutty in them, it's seriously some of the funniest stuff I've ever read. One was about his love of chicken strips, and at one point it says something like "Cluck cluck tasty!" HAHAHAHAHA. There was one about tea, pizza, root beer, pasta, pop tarts. One was about milk, and at the end he wrote "Keep mooing cows, keep mooing." hahahaha. There were like 20 entries, all of them about food. Reading that journal was the top moment of 2012, hands down.

Speaking of my nephews, we recently made a trip to the magic store, and all three of them have started getting into magic. It's been pretty awesome, they're really good! One of the twins, Matt, has really surprised me in how he's taken to it. His first trick was a chain escape where you actually lock a chain around his wrists, and he can escape it in like half a second. He's great at it, and he's super intense in his magic. They all say that we're in the magician's code together, so we share the secrets of the tricks with each other and work on techniques and stuff. They make me want to get back into card magic. At one point several years ago I was actually pretty good at it!

I released a new book recently, the sequel to Black Badge. I'm really proud of it, especially since it's my first ever sequel. It's a pretty violent affair, but if you read the first one that's probably no surprise. It's fun for me to write a book to just go all out in. With a lifetime love of action cinema, I've got a lot of inspiration to just pour into this guns blazing, bone crunching type of a book. It's also super cynical, just about society and politics and such, which is funny since I consider myself a pretty big optimist. Maybe my way of staying optimistic is to pour all of my cynicism and anger into a project like Black Badge, which is pretty cool to have such an outlet. I've re-read the book recently I think it's not too jaded. It's just over the top enough to not be too much of a downer. Anyways, if you're interested in picking up a copy here's a link to a blog post that tells you all the purchase options. If you do check it out let me know, I'd love to hear what you think. If you never read the first one, you can buy the new one bundled with the first for a discounted rate, which is pretty stellar.

Speaking of writing books, I'm over halfway done writing Scrolls Season 2, which is awesome. Scrolls is easily my favorite thing I've ever created, I think it's such an honest vision of my passions, the kind of things that I like, and the kinds of stories I love to tell. Season 2 is even better so far, and there's more relationship stuff as well, which I enjoy. A ton of people checked out Scrolls Season One on kindle, so I'm hoping that the sequel enjoys the same success. I know fans of the original will love the sequel, and I can't wait to get it finished and released.

Speaking of writing in general, I watched the movie Anonymous the other night. Now, as a deep lover of storytelling and as a professional writer, I'm taking a risk when I admit to you that I've always been a little lukewarm when it comes to Shakespeare. Yeah, yeah, his stuff is brilliant, no doubt, but I've never really been one of those "Shakespeare is the greatest storyteller of all time" kind of guys. But I have to admit, this film really moved me. It speculates on the true author of Shakespeare's work, but honestly it's just a testament to the power of storytelling. I'll admit to being very teary eyed in the end, and inspired to go and write something beautiful and meaningful.

Not sure what else I can give ya. I haven't cut or even trimmed my hair in well over a year. I look like the kid from Jungle Book now, and I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Work at the newspaper is good, as busy as ever. I'm due for a big story soon and I've got one in mind, so I'll probably go out and cause some trouble next week researching that.

Alright, I guess that's it. I hope all of you are having a great week, I hope your Valentine's Day was full of love and happiness, and I hope the rest of your week treats you right!

Get yo' badge on!

Okay, so, my new book is out now, and I wanted to give everyone an easy resource for buying it. So here you go. It's available at:

Amazon.com

Amazon Kindle e-reader

Barns & Noble

Barns & Noble Nook e-reader

As always, you can also purchase your copy directly from Hall Brothers Entertainment, and there are still a few signed & numbered copies left, if you're into that sort of thing. Also at our shop, you'll find the awesome High Octane Bundle, which is Black Badge Season One & Black Badge Season Two together for a reduced price. That's available at:

Hall Brothers Entertainment

It occurs to me that some of you might not be familiar with the project, so let me tell you what Black Badge is and why you should buy it. I affectionately refer to Black Badge as the "bloodsoaked offspring of 24 and The Shield". It's an action/detective/thriller that follows a dangerous man named Lance Parker. Possessing a black badge, Lance tells everyone that he's authorized to deal with dirty cops with extreme prejudice. The only problem is, no one is sure if the Black Badges are real or not. In the first book, Detective Devin Lamonte finds herself pulled into Lance's dark investigation. She reluctantly works with him to track down a serial killer, all while investigating Lance. In book two, the characters are left to deal with the aftermath of the dark investigation in book one. Everyone is in a darker place, but with a new menace taking lives across the United States, Lance, Devin and their few allies are in a unique position to track and bring down this new threat. Along the way, the mystery of the Black Badge organization deepens as Lance struggles to prove that it's real and that he's not just a maniac who kills cops.

The books are very action packed. This series was definitely inspired by my love of dark cop stories like The Shield and my lifelong love of action movies. It is a pretty dark series, I'd definitely say it's rated R with some rough language and a lot of violence.

So there you have it, just a bit of info in case you were interested in learning more. Nothing would make me happier than if you chose to pick up one or both of the books. They make great gifts, the covers are gorgeous thanks to designer Paul Milligan, and I just really want more people to experience this exciting story. Writing is a bit of a lousy pursuit when not shared with others, and I really hope that some of you reading this decide to take a chance and pick up Black Badge.