The Guy Who Wrote That Thing

Artist David Burton Passes Away

2012-02-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

I just found out today that artist David Burton passed away in December. I did not know David very well. David painted a cover for Realms magazine that was an illustration of my short story Lords of the North. I liked it so much I decided I needed to work with the artist and contacted him via his website.

As art director at Pill Hill Press I worked with David on a couple of covers, Shadows & Light: Volume II and The Ways of Khrem. He was a talented and kind man and his passing is very sad news for those who loved his artwork, and for those who can no longer discover it. You can read more about his life and his passing HERE and HERE

February Movie Review

2012-02-06T17:52:00.000-08:00

Vanishing On 7th Street

I came across this movie while flipping through our Netflix instant streaming via our Roku. The movie was fairly new (2010), I had never seen it and shockingly enough I had actually heard of the actors, a very rare event when it comes to the horror genre. With Hayden Christensen and John Leguizamo leading the cast I was really surprised that I had never heard of it. After watching it I now know how it slipped under the radar.

PLOT

The idea behind this story is an excellent one. Mysterious shadows overtake the world, the world’s population slowly disappears leaving only a few shell shocked survivors. But the darkness isn’t an unthinking entity and it doesn’t seem too happy with the survivors that are drawn together at one of the few places that has electricity remaining.

Like I said, great concept. But the as the movie plays out you can tell the writer only had a concept, I would bet $5 that he had no idea how the thing was going to end when he sat down to write it. The ending is odd and unsatisfying. The movie mentions the Roanoke Colony mystery and “Croatoan” as some kind of strange half thought out explanation for what is happening but the viewer never finds out was is going on. Also there is a lot of religious imagery that didn’t really fit the rest of the movie and kind of came out of nowhere. The end of this one ranks right up there on my list of worst endings to decent movies. Grade: F

DIRECTING

This movie is about shadows flooding the world, so it is dark. But no movie should be so dark you can’t tell what is going on. There is a huge disconnect in a number of places when the screen just gets so dark you can’t tell what is going on. The parts where you can see are great, but not being able to see a large portion of the movie really hurt its grade in this category. Grade: D+

ACTING

The best part of the movie was the acting. Every actor in this film puts in a solid believable performance. I just wish they had more to work with. Anyway kudos to Hayden Christensen and John Leguizamo and the relatively unknown supporting actors and actresses. Grade: A

Overall Grade: D

Summary: This movie had a lot of promise, great acting, and a wonderful concept. The first two thirds of it are pretty good, but scenes that were too dark and an unsatisfying and confusing third act put this movie firmly on my do not watch list.

A Story Published

2012-02-03T15:42:00.000-08:00

I have a story in the February issue of Static Movement called A Time For Heroes I wrote this one for one of the shoot-outs at Pill Hill Press. The theme was aliens and I wrote a story about super heroes during an alien invasion. I liked the characters so much I started a YA novel (Haven) based on this short story. You can read the short story here HERE.

Movie Review: Quarantine 2: Terminal

2012-01-30T18:15:00.000-08:00

Dark Things Quarterly, the magazine I was going to do movie reviews for has been closed down. So I thought I would just post the reviews I had done on here over the next few weeks. Here we go...

Quarantine 2: Terminal

The 2008 film Quarantine was remarkable in its…well, unremarkableness. I can tell you that I watched the movie, that I didn’t hate it, and that I didn’t like it. I think the movie was about a plague. That is about all I remember. The movie was neither good enough nor bad enough to for me to remember a single thing about it.
When I heard there was a sequel Quarantine 2: Terminal, I almost didn’t pick it up, mediocre horror just isn't my thing, but part of the product description pulled me in. This is what got me:

“…Now, aboard Flight 318, the first symptoms begin to show. As the infection begins to take root, innocent passengers suddenly transform into terrifying, bloodthirsty killers…”

It is pretty hard to resist terrifying, bloodthirsty killers. So I gave it a shot. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much but I was pleasantly surprised. Here is the how the movie graded out.

PLOT

The plot was entertaining but was nothing extraordinary and can be completely summarized in those two lines of product description. A disease gets loose on a plane, the infected become crazy zombie-like killers. There were a couple of good scares and just enough action and gore to keep me entertained and watching. Grade: C+

DIRECTING

Another thing that kept me watching was the filming of the movie. Director, John Pogue, did a nice job filming this one. So many directors these days are trying to be "unique" or "edgy" that it is nearly impossible to watch their movies. Quarantine 2 did not suffer from this problem. Grade: B

ACTING

Finally no movie review is complete with mentioning the acting, the biggest pitfall of horror movies. I didn't recognize a single name but I did recognize a few faces, and my Google-fu tells me that many of the actors have also been in an episode or two of TV shows that I watch. No on in this movie is going to win the Oscar for best actor, but they all did a good job. I thought most of the characters were believable and Mercedes Masohn has an awesome performance playing the freaked out, but determined, flight attendant, Jenny. Grade: B-

Overall Grade: B-

Summary: Quarantine 2: Terminal is no masterpiece but it is a fun and entertaining movie. See this one if you have nothing else to watch.

Not a Pro

2012-01-21T00:29:00.001-08:00

Well it has officially been one year since I signed my contract with Faepublishing to have them publish my short story, The Last Dragon. It was my first pro paying sale, but I am assuming the story will never get published now. Their website is gone and has been for months and I have found numerous blogs from authors who were accepted and never published.

Here is the weird part, at least in my opinion, I signed a contract, they did edits and sent me them to look at, and I got paid. I understand running out of money and going under, but they had at least one story paid for and ready to go. Weird.

The contract says that the rights to my story are mine once again, since the story had not been published in the one year since I signed the contract.

Oh, well I guess I have the rights to an unpublished story and $125. I just can't say that I have had a professional sale anymore. It is still the most money I have made off of any one piece of writing, but I really wanted to have a pro sale in my cover letter to other publishers.

As far as writing goes I am playing around with different ways of outlining and starting all kinds of novels just to see if I like them. I am still writing one main novel, which I really need to find a title for. My new years resolution is going well 400 words a day is a lot easier than any other quota I have given myself in the past, I have actually met this one so far and it is almost a month into the new year!

A New Year

2012-01-12T08:09:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Hello, everybody. Sorry I haven’t posted sooner but it has been a busy new year. As some of you have probably read over at the PHP website, over Christmas my wife and I discovered that we are going to have twins in August. We are both really excited, but I have a bunch of stuff to do around the house before August, and with the Summer Reading program in June and July I really need to try to get everything done by May.

I have to make the spare bedroom into a nursery, move the spare bedroom to my office, move office down the stairs and across the house into a room we were using for storage, move my wife’s office into another room we were using for storage, make her old office into a new living room(we picked the smallest room in the entire house to be our living room and we are going to need more room where we hang out), move the stuff from the storage rooms out to the shed or out to the dumpster, paint the old living room…anyway there’s more stuff but I’m sure you get the idea.

Basically “We” decided to rearrange the entire house, I put the quotes around we because while technically I was there, I just said things like “yes honey” and “that’s good idea”. In short I have had a pretty busy few weeks, but I am not minding it at all because I am so excited about the twins.

On the writing front I started yet another new project. It kind of seems like that is all I did in 2011. Every month or so I would start something new. But I made a new year’s resolution to finish writing something before I start anything else and to write at least 400 words a day. I figure 400 words a day is easy, takes me about thirty minutes or so, and I can finish a novel in a little over six months. Plus it is a little slower than the nanowrimo pass so my writing should be a little more intelligible.

I better get to writing.

Oh, and I won the super bowl in one of my fantasy football leagues.

Yet another post on not writing...

2011-12-19T11:14:00.000-08:00

As you may know from following this blog, I have a habit of finding odd hobbies to distract me from writing. I have decided that this is okay. Writing is not my job, at least not yet and having a lot of hobbies makes me a well rounded person…See how I did that? I can totally justify my procrastination with that argument no matter how unimportant or pointless said procrastination is.

My most current form of procrastination is fantasy football. I always thought it was weird, and I didn’t really get it, but my brother-in-law wanted to join an espn league to see what it was like and I figured hey why not try it, its free and I already watch the Vikings every week.

The draft was a learning experience. I ended up drafting seven teams before I was happy with what I got. I did keep up with all of my teams. I rarely watched games but I played very close attention to the bottom little banner thing during the Vikings games.

It was actually a lot of fun. I dealt with injuries and picked up new players, some booms and some busts. I spent a few hours a week trying to figure out who I could add to make the perfect team. I picked up and dropped more players than anyone else in any of my leagues.

In the end only one of my teams sucked. Three of them were one game from making the playoffs and the other three of them actually made it.

Now that the first match up of the playoffs is almost over and I find myself in a weird spot as I wait for Monday Night Football. All three of my teams are in precarious spots.

The Roberts Raiders need Mike Wallace of the Pittsburg Steelers to score less than 10 fantasy points so that they can beat Team Scoregasm.

The Prairie Pirates need Mike’s team mate Antonio Brown to score a whopping 55 points, which I don’t think is very likely. (Scoring break down 10 yards receiving = 1 point & touchdown = 6 points) So he only needs a 310 yard four touchdown game….

Finally team NE Roberts needs the same Antonio Brown to score 19 points, which is doable he had 21 last week, but it also needs Frank Gore the 49ers running back, to score nothing and the Steelers defense to score nothing.

So my best bet is hoping Mike Wallace has an off night while at the same time his team mate Antonio Brown has the best game of his life.

I don't even like the Steelers.

Sometimes I think writing would be easier than procrastinating.

Nano Musings

2011-12-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

“How did Nanowrimo go?” You ask with a smile, smile which could be seen as friendly but seems somehow mocking.

“Not good,” I reply, “not good at all.”

Yes, this year’s nanowrimo can be considered a fail, and a big one. I made it to just over half way to my word goal of 50,000 words. I do not consider it an epic fail, I did learn a few things and I have the beginning of what I think will be my best novel to date.

Things I learned

1. I cannot write with the stomach flu

2. I can write with the regular flu, but I am very slow

3. I have lost a bit of my motivation that I had when I started writing

The first two point are pretty self explanatory. I did spend most of November(2 weeks) sick. I also had some fairly busy weekends and a lot to do at work.

But that brings me to my third point. I am just not as motivated as I was when I started writing. The other stuff wouldn’t have mattered last year or the year before. I would have just gotten Nano done. Don’t get me wrong there were some flashes of it. I had three different writing sessions where I wrote 5000+ words in a couple of hours. Of course that means that the other 27 days I got about 10,000 words written, about 400 words a day or so.

So as I sit and reflect on what has changed a few things come to mind. For one instead of organically letting the story come, I am planning out a plot and this novel is much better for it. There are no instances of characters appearing for a chapter and then disappearing. The plot is fairly consistent and I didn’t decided to add a couple of dragons on page 70 to spice it up. In short I am writing a better quality story.

The other problem is a little harder to express. I really want to write a great novel, one that will have wide spread appeal. While writing my first few novels I was positive they were good enough to be published the whole time I was writing them, and only saw the flaws when I went back through to edit. This time I see all the flaws in my novel right after I am done writing. But I know if I go back and fix them now that I will never finish.

This novel is better than any of my other novels, I am sure of that, but right now I don’t think that is good enough to be published and that is making it hard to motivate myself to write it.

Of course I did get 25,000 words done in a month which really is a step up from the pace I was going at, so maybe I can keep it up and put out a couple of novels a year.

NaNoWriMo and Dark Things

2011-11-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

Thought I would give an update since I won't be posting much in November. I have decided to once more give NaNoWriMo a shot. I finished two years ago and last year I lost my flash drive at 30,000 words and wrote 20,000 words in short stories.

I wasn't going to participate this year. To be honest the novels I write when I am taking my time are much, much cleaner and easier to edit. Plus my lupus is advancing and while it is still a mild case (the disease is not attacking my organs), I am beginning to feel the joy of arthritis at the ripe old age of 32. A cold front moving in, not uncommon in Nebraska in November, or a lupus flare up could start my knuckles throbbing and take away days of writing time and the last two NaNoWriMos I came right down to the wire.

But I am hosting a few Write Ins at the library, which got me real interested this year and so far I have made it a point to not let my lupus stop me from doing anything. I just do it a little slower or with gobs and gobs of sunscreen.

So NaNo here I come. Don't expect any more blog posts in November except one saying I am done. In Pill Hill Press news my wife is starting a new horror magazine Dark Things Quarterly. I have taken it upon myself to become the Dark Things Quarterly movie reviewer. I am thinking about taking on a persona, maybe calling myself The Dark Professor and then grading the movies or something like that. Dark Things Quarterly is still in the planning stages but it should be a lot of fun. I am thinking about starting a separate website for my movie review persona. I should know more by the next time I post, towards the end of the month.

Sorry for any typos in this blog, don't have time to reread, must nano.

I'm a Winner!

2011-10-24T00:27:00.000-07:00

To quote thier website: Our Annual Readers' Choice Awards highlights the best stories in each issue of The Bards and Sages Quarterly as chosen by our readers. Upon the release of the October issue, we start polling our readers for their votes.

My story won the Best Story of the April issue. I am very honored to win, there were some really great stories in this issue. HERE is the offical announcement. A big thank you to everyone who voted!

Triblogosuperior aka Three Things I Want To Tell You About

2011-10-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

So finally life is back to normal, at least for the most part. I have three things I wanted to blog about, so I decided to smoosh(sorry to use such technical verbiage) them all into one blog. Which I will now refer to as the Triblogosuperior or Iblogosup for short.

Item # 1

Brandon Sanderson is super cool. As many of you may know I am a big Sanderson fan and I highly recommend his weekly podcast Writing Excuses. But this item doesn’t really have anything to do with my would be writing career. This post has to do with my real job, as a children’s librarian at the public library.

This semester we started a junior high book club. The kids picked Mr. Sanderson’s YA book, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, from a list of nearly forty books. I contacted the author’s of all five books the kids picked to read this year, to see if I could purchase signed book marks, or a signed copy of the book to give away as a prize. I have not heard back from the other four authors, but Mr. Sanderson assistant emailed me back right away and sent a signed poster for each of the kids for free!

That is so awesome and so something I did not expect an NY Times best seller to have the time to do. I have always liked his books but now Brandon Sanderson’s name has joined Joe Montana, JRR Tolkien, Tom Osborne(I am from Nebraska after all), and Stan Lee on my list of Most Super Cool People Ever, which is much smaller than my list of Super Cool People, which he was on previously.
Item # 2

The Bards & Sages Reader’s Choice Awards

As an act of shameless self promotion I am asking that you go HERE and vote for my short story Mortis Lupus. For those of you who did not get the April issue of Bards & Sages, the POV character of Mortis Lupus is Brutus, and Julius Caesar is not an epileptic he is a werewolf who was infected during Lupercalia the festival of the wolf. The senators must kill him because they cannot allow Rome to be ruled by such a creature, all in under 2000 words. Come on, that deserves a vote doesn’t it? It even keeps the fact that the characters are Caesar and Brutus a surprise until the last paragraph (though I did drop some clues/hints).

Item # 3

A slight change to my current writing project. As I mentioned above I am an avid listener to Writing Excuses. One of the latest episodes was about the Hollywood Formula. I found this idea very intriguing and plotted a story out using the formula, then of course I had to start writing it rather than waiting until I was done with the novel I was working on. Then I went back and rewrote my outline for Veil of Embers. The chapters I already have done will work just fine with the new outline. So I am now working on two novels using the Hollywood Formula, just to see how it works. After you listen to the podcast if your interested in trying it, script frenzy has a free online worksheet for the Hollywood formula, that made it easier to use. These techniques are for writing scripts but I thought they were pretty easy to adapt, and I love trying new things.

That’s it if you made it this far then dub yourself : Triblogosuperior Aficionado or for short: Iblogosup Afic and thanks for reading my ramblings.

Quick Update

2011-10-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

My wife had to have surgery in Denver and we were gone for nearly a week. Everything went okay but I am exhausted. For obvious reasons I have not been doing much writing, but I did have two short stories published online. One published at the Horrorzine and the other published at Static Movement. Later this week I will update my short fiction and free stuff pages with links. The wife is on bed rest and my mother in law is flying into town to stay with her while I am at work, so I will get back to writing or the blog in about a week or so.

Losing a Bookstore

2011-09-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I had to take the day off of work and head up to Rapid City for a doctor’s appointment, in our area if you want to see a specialist you have to make the 100 mile drive up there. In some areas this might be quite a task but in our relatively traffic free part of the country it takes less than an hour and a half(speed limit is 70mph for most of the way). All in all, It is a pretty scenic and relaxing drive.

After the morning appointment my wife and I made the extra 45 minute drive up to Deadwood for lunch. We ate at my wife’s favorite restaurant in the whole world(her words not mine) and gambled at a casino for a couple of hours.

On the way home we stopped by Border’s in Rapid City. Like most Border’s bookstores it is going out of business. They had a 90% off sale on everything, and we got a few heaping bags full of books. Brand new paperbacks were right around $1.00. The idea of brand new cheap books was very exciting.

I thought the whole thing would have been fun, everyone leaving the store was in a great mood, laughing and joking around, but I actually found it kind of…sad.

Now, I should mention that Chadron (my home) does have a used bookstore, but it is run out of someone’s house and kinda creeps me out. Borders is the closest chain bookstore and I stop in there everytime I go through Rapid City(four or five times a year). Despite my infrequent visits and how far away the store is this is/was my bookstore. I didn’t even think about when I heard it was closing but walking around the empty building I started to think about how the next closest real bookstore that I might have a chance to visit would be in Denver.

Denver is 6 hours away. I make it here every couple of years or so. That’s not much bookstore action. After I thought of the that walking between the empty shelves became even sadder. It started to remind me of the feeling I get in a cemetery. I couldn’t believe they were doing this to my bookstore.

I don’t think I was the only one feeling sad or depressed. There were a ton of people in line to check out and no one spoke. Husbands and wives stood quietly next to each other, even the children(there were quite a few) didn’t speak a word. I couldn’t understand why all the readers outside were so happy, a lot of the ones in line looked like they were going to cry.

As I was walking out, feeling pretty depressed about my new bookstore-less state of existence, the manager of the store leaned in and whispered to me, as he had to every other patron “In a couple of months Barnes and Noble will be opening downtown.”

I couldn’t help but smile.

An Interview

2011-08-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I am going to be in Big Pulp’s new Pirates and Swashbucklers anthology, coming out in September. One of the contributors Kameron M. Frankiln, did some author interview with all the contributors. You can stop by his website Pens & Swords to read my answers to such questions as :

When did you first realize you were a writer?
What authors influence or inspire you?
What book(s) have you read more than once? What drew you back?
In 25 words or less, how would you define “pulp” as a genre?
What made you decide to submit a story for the Pirates & Swashbucklers anthology?
How did you come up with the idea for your story? What is your writing process like?
Do you consider yourself a “pulp” writer? Why? Is there another genre you like to write?
Care to weigh in with your opinion of the e-book?
Where can someone find more of your work?

Shoot-Out Story Published

2011-08-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

I’ve been talking about the latest PHP writer’s shoot-out over the past couple of weeks. These are just short story competitions that we have at Pill Hill Press, the rules change with whoever is hosting the event and some are competitions while others are more like writing workshops. No matter what the format they are always fun.

Anyway the time before this one I wrote a story called The Terrifying Legend of Jim, it was a horror story but one written with my own odd sense of humor. The result was what could only be called a horror parody. It got very good reviews during the shoot out. I shopped it around a few places and got some very complimentary rejection letters. Which is kind of a weird thing to say, but when a pro-paying magazine that you really, really want to get in, that usually only sends out form rejections, sends you a personal rejection that says they like your writing but the humor of the story didn’t quite fit the magazine and then they go into a few specifics about what they think would make the story stronger for another market, well that is pretty exciting.

But all I was getting was rejections and then my wife, editor in chief of Pill Hill Press, told me that Shane McKenzie(one of the other participants in the shoot-out) would like the story for an anthology he was editing for Pill Hill Press. When we first started PHP we published a few of our stories to fill in when someone didn’t provide a contract in time, but we try not to publish our stuff.

I made an exception for this when I heard that my short little story was part of what gave Shane the idea to do the anthology. The fact that I had (partially) inspired someone to…well do anything really, with my writing was a huge ego boost and I sent it off right away. Well the book is out!

If you are interested in fun horror parodies pick up a copy of It Was A Dark and Stormy Night

A new project started.

2011-08-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not have noticed from my little progress box, I finally decided on which novel to work on. Veil of Embers won out. The idea behind Veil is very simple, I am attempting to combine epic fantasy with a disaster story. In this case a volcanic eruption.

I am at 5000 words and already hit a snag. I had planned a to use a member of the city watch as one of my characters and to have a murder mystery as a subplot. I am starting to get a little worried that all this genre melding isn’t going to work ie epic fantasy with a disaster thriller with a mystery, but at least it should make for an interesting read even if it is not something that will be publishable.

A New Horror Monster????

2011-08-18T13:23:00.001-07:00

So I came across a factoid today that I didn’t know that has seriously got my brain churning with story ideas. I thought I would share the facts in case any of you were looking for a different monster for a horror story. It is probably common knowledge to some of you, but chimpanzees are omnivorous.

They eat meat. Their preferred meat is monkey. If you don’t believe me do a youtube search of “chimpanzee hunting monkey”, but be prepared. Chimps like to tear their prey up and eat it while it is still alive. Some of the videos are a little graphic.

Creepy Chimp Facts

1. Chimps go out in hunting parties to look for food.

2. A full grown chimp though only weighing in at around 120lbs is twice as strong as a 250lb man.
3. A group of chimps will invade another group’s territory and kill them for the land.
4. They are one of the few species that has been known to commit murder.
5. They eat everything they kill, including other chimps.
6. I found a few reports of chimps attacking humans. During one incident in 2009 a man was beaten by two chimps. Then they ate his foot, his face, and his genitals, but he survived.
7. Creepiest of all, chimps are almost human, with all the hate, anger, and vile things that entails. (Also with all the love, curiosity, and compassion that entails, for those of you looking for an unlikely hero)

Anyway, just thought I would share.

These facts have been gathered through liberal use of google-fu and I would recommend double checking everything before actually using it in a story.

A Free Story: Across the River Styx

2011-08-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Hello all, as I mentioned in the last few posts I have been doing a writing "shoot-out" where we have a week to write a short story and then a week to score everyone else's story. I wrote this one for the last prompt which was courage. I really didn't have an idea, the prompt also said that we needed to write a meaningful story.

Any of you who have read my writing know that I don't write with a moral, or a meaning in mind. I write entertaining stories and if more can be read into then that is great.

Anyway, I don't really think this one is ever going to get published anywhere, it is missing a huge part of any story--conflict. There is practically no conflict, and what little there is, is barely dealt with but I did my best to mask that with a little humor. Anyway, that being said I actually got some pretty good feedback, so I'll let you decide if it is good or not. For your reading pleasure:

Across the River Styx
by Alva J Roberts

Charron sighed and scratched his dirty unkempt, beard. A family of fleas swarmed away from the invading digits, narrowly avoiding certain doom as their home of many years was destroyed. The father flea screamed curses and made a few obscene gestures at the demigod, but Charron barely noticed.

His thoughts were on other things, most notably his complete and total hatred of his job.

Though seldom seen at job fairs, escorting the souls of the recently departed across the River Styx into the afterlife was not a hard occupation, and it did have its plus side. The river was dead in every sense of the word. The oatmeal like texture of the water made it a breeze to oar across it. And he was outdoors, kind of, which was nice. And he met a LOT of interesting people, which would have been a plus had he been a people person.

But sadly, he was not a people person. In fact, he hated everything about people from the way they walked and smelled to the stupid way they talked.

“Oh, I am so scared. Where am I?” Charron mimicked out loud in a high pitch squeal. As he poled his boat back across the river.

“In terra conclusit os futuo tuum,” Charron said to the empty boat. It was his new favorite phrase, but it was still dangerous to utter to actual people. With the fall of the Roman Empire a few hundred years ago, it was a little safer to say, but telling someone that they were “In the land of shut your fucking mouth” could get him fired, no matter how elegant and sophisticated it sounded in Latin. And he didn’t want to lose his job; with the Celestial recession and all, it was a real rough time.

Three quarters of Olympus was out of work. People just weren’t worshiping locally anymore. Then you had your big super center divinities that would come into an area and put all the other divinities out of business and then jack up the piety. It made finding and keeping a job tough. For all its faults he had steady…well actually, very steady work. And that was something. But he dreamed of more.

Half way across the river he stopped and pulled out some leaves and slowly rolled them into a cylinder, which he placed into his mouth. A small flame appeared in his hand, his divine powers creating the flame from nothing. He raised the fire to the cylinder and he drew a deep lung full of smoke.

The nice Mayan fellow in feathers who showed him the trick of the tobac-co had told him it was only for ceremonial purposes, but he snuck off fairly frequently to the middle of the river, to have a smoke. He worked hard, and he was due a little break every now and again.

Besides, his shift was suppose to be over nearly a hundred years ago but there had been a mix up that fouled everything up. Apparently the guys over at Asgard Inc. had tried to start the Ragnarok the same day the Apocalypse was scheduled to begin. And to make a long story short, their little argument over who got to go first ended up turning into a full scale fist fight.

The whole thing ended with a lot of hurt feelings and Ares running away crying with a broken nose. So the matter was now tied up in litigation that was becoming even more complicated by all the layoffs. The trial was scheduled to end in 2012, but that was over a thousand years away.

Besides that, it was July, and he was sure that anyone who had ever come within a hundred miles of the River of the Dead in the middle of a heat wave would certainly understand his desire to destroy his olfactory nerves.

By the time his break was over and he made it to the shore, there was a huge crowd waiting. Apparently death waited for no man…or demi-god. His ferry slid into muck along the shore with a loud squelching noise. Before he said a word, the people started to swarm onto his ferry.

“Slow down. There is plenty of room for everyone. No, ma’am, I don’t know where your purse is. Trust me, you won’t be needing it,” Charron said. “You there, in the back, the one with all the chainmail, no pushing. This is not Valhalla; if you were trying to go to Valhalla you took a wrong turn at the last crossroads. The Valkyrie should have led you down the right path. You need to turn around and go back a few miles and take the left hand turn. Oh, yes, I will most certainly be giving the folks at Asgard Inc. a piece of my mind the next time I see them…”and so it went on, until everyone was seated in a more or less orderly fashion.

Charron took his own seat at the back of the ferry, careful to avoid eye contact with his passengers. The briefest glance and there was no doubt he would be subjected to twenty minutes of hearing about Aunt Marge’s surgery, or how the cousin in Carthage was doing, and small talk was the last thing he wanted.

But as he, rowed there was a slight shifting of passengers; suddenly, one of them was sitting fairly close. The man was covered in wounds: small wounds, large wounds, dozens of them all over. Blood covered his entire body. Only a few scraps of cloth hung on his ruined frame. One of his hands was completely gone.

He was sitting close enough that Charron began to feel uncomfortable about the silence, but he was so busy trying not to stare that it was hard to think of anything to say. He couldn’t deny his curiosity. After a little while longer, he decided to find out how the man got his wounds. But he had to be sly about asking; you couldn’t just come straight out and ask someone about something so personal.

“So...ah…how about them Vikings?”

“Yes, they were quite mistaken in thinking this boat would take them to Valhalla.”

“Yeah… so…um…how’d ya get all futuoier up? I have seen a lot of futuoier up people -- once I saw man that got attacked by a saber tooth tiger and ran away only to get trampled by a mammoth. He was pretty futuoier up, but mauris, you are really futuoier up,” Charron said.

“I am a hero. We were outnumbered and low on supplies. Rather than surrender, we charged bravely into the fray to fight our enemies,” the man replied, pride coloring his words.

“Really, and how’d that work out?” Charron asked. He had heard this story a time or two before.

“I died, but the bards shall sing of my bravery for all time.”

“Oh. Not to be a downer but um…did any of you survive?”

“Well, no…”

“Did the other side have a lot of respect for you? Very honorable, and all that?”

“The last thing I remember was someone pissing on my face,” the hero replied, his voice suddenly thoughtful.

“Oh. Well, I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think anyone is going to be writing any songs about you. I know it isn’t much help, but you probably should have just surrendered, then paid someone to write songs about your bravery. That’s how all the real heroes do it.”

“What do you know of heroes?” The wounded man turned away from Charron to stare at the chunky surface of the river.

“Actually, sooner or later I meet them all. Most sooner. Heroing is a very high risk occupation. And heck, some of them don’t even wait until they’re dead. I can’t tell you all the paperwork I had to fill out when Hercules came down here…”

“What is paper-wark?” the man asked as he turned back to Charron. He looked like he couldn’t decided if he was going to be sick or start crying.

“It’s well…very civilized…I am sure it’ll catch on upstairs real soon. It’s--“

“It doesn’t matter,” the man interrupted. “You may or may not be right about heroes, but we did win a great victory. The Rock Eye Clan will hold the mountains for all time,” the man said. The sick feeling disappeared from his face. He looked tranquil.

“Rock Eye Clan? You fighting the Snake Clan again?” Charron hated to ruin the man’s tranquility, but he did have a right to know everything.

“Yes.” The man’s brow furrowed.

“Hate to tell you, but you guys been fighting over that mountain for a very long time. I try not to talk to the passengers too much, but it seems like every generation or two I get someone from one of your tribes telling me they will hold the mountains for all time. I hate to break it to you, but the Snake Clan will probably be fighting your grandchildren for the land.”

“I am only twenty years old. I have spent my whole life training for war. I have no heirs.” The man really did look like he was going to cry now.

Charron swallowed a lump in his own throat. He really needed to remember not to talk to his passengers. He hated people.

“Sorry to hear that. So…um…them Vikings sure are something, huh?” Charron asked. His job really didn’t seem so bad, it could be worse. At least what he did mattered in the big scheme of things.

I'm done!!!

2011-07-31T17:36:00.000-07:00

The first draft of my latest novel is finally done. This one took me awhile but after some revision I think I will have a very good story. As you can see from my progress bar to the right I have three projects I am working on now.

City of Roses is a fantasy piece that all the ideas are coming together for. I am going to start world building and outlining. I know it's shocking, but I think I want to try writing something with an outline and see if I like it.
History of Blood is my vampire novel that I sat to the side to finish up Blood Plague(still need to find a better title). The novel follows a vampire through 10,000 years of history. I need to go back read what I have and figure out where I am going. The same is true for the last thing on the list.

Haven was a YA novel about superheroes that I was trying to write for Nanowrimo, but I lost my flash drive. Amazingly enough I found it again and recovered 30,000 words of Haven and about 25,000 of God's War another fantasy novel that I had started. So I need to go back and see what was going on in them. I don't even remember what they were about.
So I won't be writing for a little while just preparing to write, and then I need to pick which of the projects I feel like doing. I love starting a new project so I have a feeling it will be City of Roses but then again Haven is almost half way done. Hmmm...sometimes I wish there were three of me.

Create Space

2011-07-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

So while back I sent in a submission for the Amazon break through novel award. I lost in the first round, but I did get a coupon for a free proof copy of a manuscript from create space. I have never used create space and I thought it would be fun to compare it to the printer we are using at PHP. Plus I could get a typed proof copy of my novel Kingdom of the Dead, so that I could do one more edit before I sent it off to TOR.

My verdict on Create Space is that it is very easy to use. It is much simpler than the process we use at PHP. All you really need is Microsoft word (though I suppose another word processor would probably work) and some Google-fu. For our PHP books we use Indesign and adobe Illustrator, which are much more expensive and complex programs.

That having been said it does not give you nearly as much control of the final product. And there were certain things I just couldn’t do on Create space, so the quality we strive for at PHP just wouldn’t be there. So don't look for PHP to change printers anytime soon.

But I can certainly see why so many authors are choosing to self publish through create space and on kindle. (Once you get the hang of it formatting a kindle isn't that hard either). They are both simple ways to get your story out to readers.

Here is the cover of my proof copy, it is on a create space template. The artwork is something that we purchased when we first started up PHP, before we started commissioning custom art. It actually fits a scene in the story pretty well. Total process from start to finish took maybe an hour, and that includes formating the word doc.

PS: I am not going to opt into any sales channels this is merely going to be a proof/editing copy for myself, it will not be for sale.

Captain America: The FIrst Avenger

2011-07-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid every Christmas my dad would buy me a box of comics from the Sears catalog. These reprints were bargain priced and you got something like 100 comic books in a box. They were worth nothing to a collect but to an 8 year old who loved to read and loved superheroes they were about the greatest thing he could get me.

Those comics were always a grab bag, they were all Marvel so there was Spiderman, X-Men, Daredevil, and so many more. Amongst all the flashy capes and bright spandex there was one hero in red, white, and blue that always caught my attention. I’ll just surmise everything and say that while he was never my favorite superhero, I do have some fond memories of Captain America.

So this weekend when the wife wanted to go to the Sunday Matinee I was totally psyched to see Captain America on the big screen. Though I do have to admit that after the crapfest of X-men: First Class I was a little worried.

I was worried for nothing. I am glad to report that this movie is good, really good. The wife liked Thor better but this one had a campy retro vibe that I absolutely loved. Think of Indiana Jones with super powers you’ll have a good idea of the awesomeness that this movie is.

The plot was a perfect fit for Captain America. It takes place back in WWII and the whole movie has a retro feel to it. There were plenty of nods to the comics from Cap punching (a fake) Hitler ala the original Captain America cover to Caps super James Bondesque motorcycle. I actually found myself chuckling out loud a few times as if I was in on some kind of inside joke between me and the film maker.

The acting in this was top notch. Chris Evans would not have been my choice for Captain America, but I would have been wrong. He does a great job, I can’t think of anyone who would do a better job. Hugo Weaving was a good Red Skull, though the make up to make him Red Skull could have used a little work. But then again making an actor into a talking skull isn’t easy, just look at Ghost Rider. The creepy way they CGI’ed Chris Evans into Steve Rogers at the beginning more than makes up for the Red Skull's make up. My wife actually thought it was a different actor.

The best part about this movie was how human Captain America seemed. He was a normal guy with exceptional powers trying to do the right thing. He didn’t fight like a super ninja, and he wasn’t all dark and gritty. He was just a nerdy guy fighting for his country who got real buff. I don’t want to ruin anything but Cap ends the movie by showing what a real hero he is. (I am talking about the first ending not the 10 minutes slapped on the end to lead up to the Avengers movie coming out next summer.)

For me this is the best movie of the year, hands down.

PS: Though this is a super hero movie I don’t know that it is a kid’s movie. The children in front of me, maybe 5 years old, didn’t know enough about WWII to know what was going on. Plus there are some fairly violent scenes. There was one scene where a man gets thrown into a planes propeller and is liquefied. Again think of Indiana Jones for violence, ie most of it is understated then a nazi’s face melts off.

Summer Shoot Out

2011-07-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

I got my feedback for the first round of the shoot out. The shoot out I am refering to is the PHP summer shoot out. It is a writing competition where all the participants anonymously rate other stories and give helpful comments. The goal is to be the one with the highest score, but no one really cares too much about who wins. All the winner gets is bragging rights. It is more about getting a few good stories to publish than anything else.

I did okay. On a scale of 1 to 10 my scores ranged between a 3 and a 9 with an average of 7. It’s not really a competition but that puts me right in the middle of the pack.

I wrote a fantasy story set in a land I have mulling over for my next fantasy novel. I thought the story needed a few hundred words cut from the beginning but I ran out of time. I don’t know what possessed me to write a 5,000 word fantasy story in a week.

The feedback was a little mixed but everyone who commented on it enjoyed the setting. This shoot out is a little different than some of the other ones. As we rate each other stories we are suppose to write comments about the beginning, the end, and the overall story. Then we are suppose to write one thing the author did well and then one thing they didn’t do well.

Any way here are some of the needs improvement comments from three different reviewers: The story takes a while to get going… revise the beginning of the story to be more succinct..too long an introduction where nothing really happens, a lot of titles for people and things that could have been toned down.

I knew the intro was a little long so this was no surprise and I was a little worried that so many unfamiliar terms might throw a reader off. My excuse for both of these is that this is the first short story I have written in almost a year and I was use to the pacing of a novel. It has nothing to do with the fact that I am wordy with a tendency to ramble.

I really didn’t expect the other half of the reviewers comments on what needed improved: I would actually like it if there was a bit more to this piece, more about the world or maybe even just more in depth about the past Order of Protectors…no suggestions needed…little jumped out in this story that could be changed to make it better.

So there were two people who said that there was nothing that needed changed and one that said that they wanted to read more. I think pleasing half of a group of random writers is pretty good. The one that said that he/she wanted more to this piece also said they would like to read more about his world.

So what I am taking away from round one is two things, first: I should revise the intro of my story to make it shorter without changing too much of the story, and second: the world I created for my novel is a good one.

A Quick Summer Update

2011-07-13T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Just wanted to check in and say that I am still here. It has been a really busy summer but a fun one. On the writing front not a whole lot to report. I have a story up in the July Issue of Static Movement. It is a fantasy story called Learning the Blade, here is a link if you are interested. And I have joined the PHP summer shoot out so I should end up with at least three short stories this summer.

80,000

2011-06-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

I didn't even realize I made it past 80,000 words in Blood Plague during my last writing session. 80,000 Words is offically the mark where I do a happy dance because the book is a "novel" by anyone's standards. I am going to estimate I need another 20-30 thousand words to tie everything up but I can't believe I didn't even notice when I hit 80.

Trees and things

2011-06-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

It has been a pretty busy summer so far, and I have not had much time for writing so there hasn’t been a whole lot to report so far as my writing goes. Here is a little tidbit from my regular life. There was a thunderstorm on Friday, this is a pretty common event in late June. There was a little hail and a lot of wind. I got off of work to find this.

Yep that is a two hundred pound “branch” that fell on my brand new fence. Thankfully the branch did miss my wife's car just a few feet out of frame and came no where near the house. It was a little shocking. The storm wasn't that bad.

Anyway, I am a man and part of my manly duties is to fix things like this. So Saturday morning I went to the hardware store got some more pickets and a new two by four( the one the tree is sitting on is shattered but somehow still holding up the tree in the picture).

A few hours and one pretty jagged cut on my hand later I was done. There was much rejoicing as I proved that I still deserved my man card. We played computer games and drank massive quantities of crystal light.

As for writing, it has been the same old thing. There has been one new development. A publication I have a story in has sent out an email to writers it has worked with in the past. They are looking for independent film/book reviewers. I sent an email back saying I would give it a try. So sometime in the next few months to a year I might be a published reviewer.

A Story Published

2011-06-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

Hey all. Just wanted to mention that my story “The Last Hero” is now available in Library of Horror Press’ Alienology: Tales from the Void anthology. This story was my first foray into superhero fiction. It tells the story of one of earth’s last superheroes after an alien invasion. I couldn't really tell you a lot more than that, it was accepted waaaay back in September of 2009 and I haven't read it since then, and to be honest, I don't remember the story very well. Which is kind of weird. Maybe in a few years I will be able to go back and read my early stuff and not remember it at all...then I could be my own fan or, more likely, my own critic. Hmmm... Anyway, you can buy the anthology HERE

That leaves five stories that are waiting on publication and six stories that I am still trying to find a home for. I haven’t been writing too many shorts of late so this might be it for awhile. When I have time to write I keep trying to finish up Blood Plague.

Speaking of Blood Plague, I think I figured out that last little piece of the story that is setting up the conclusion. I am hoping to get those two chapters written this weekend and then after that, if I have time to write, progress should fly on Blood Plague. Until about mid July or so I am only going to be able to write on weekends so it’s a little up in the air how long it will take, my wife and I already have plans for this weekend and next, summer gets so busy. I am estimating that I still have around 20,000 words left, which I could easily get done in a month or so in the spring or fall, but it is going to take a little longer than that.

What to do at 32?

2011-06-07T15:33:00.000-07:00

I need to “figure out what I want to do this weekend” for my birthday, or so my wife tells me. My birthdays isn’t until Tuesday but I am working on Tuesday. I am turning 32 and I told my wife that I wanted to do something. Deciding what is harder than I thought it would be.

Thirty years ago it was easy. Someone else did all the planning. I got lots of presents and from the photographs I seriously enjoyed my birthday. Like really, really enjoyed it. In one picture I seem to be trying to become one with the birthday cake and have my head buried in it. But no one is going to plan my birthday for me, and I really shouldn’t eat that many sweets. I am on a low carb diet.

Twenty years ago it would have been simple too. Pizza and a movie. Simple. Easy. Either renting them or actually going. Google tells me that summer had some good ones. Terminator 2, Robin Hood the Prince of Thieves. But the low carb diet nixes the pizza, and as you can see from my last post I just went and saw the only movie at the theatre that I wanted to see. And Netflix has made going to the movie rental place pointless.

Don’t even get me started on ten years ago. A case of beer and a pack of cigarettes would have been all I needed. But I have quit smoking since then and the drunken debauchery of my early twenties sounds exhausting. I have no desire to wake up in a lilac bush wondering where my pants went. I would need at least three days of vacation time just to recover.

So that leaves me with very few options. I could head up to the local Indian casino. As a member of the players club I get $20 in free gaming. But I am a little casinoed out. We went to Deadwood at the beginning of May and there is only so much time I want to spend watching my money disappear with nothing to show for it.

A few years ago I bought a video game and had a few friends over to play it with me and my wife. That was kind of fun. Maybe I could do that. Only minus the friends (they left town) and the rum and coke (rum gives me a stomach ache).

Geez…see the problem? Anyone out there have any ideas?

X-Men: First Class Review

2011-06-06T11:17:00.001-07:00

I went to see X-Men: First Class last night. I really enjoyed the first trilogy. Checking other reviews online this morning I seem to be in the minority, but this one is not nearly as good as the rest of the franchise, even X-men Origins: Wolverine was kind of fun. If any character or plot arc in the movie even started to become fun or interesting they would quickly switch scenes to something less fun or interesting. When the best part of the movie is a thirty second cameo of Hugh Jackman telling the main characters to F*ck Off(something I wanted to do for nearly an hour) there is something wrong with the movie.

Untangling the mess and telling you why it was bad is a little beyond me. So it is hard to pin down exactly what was wrong. But here are a few things I didn’t like.

The plot mixing the Cuban Missile Crisis with mutant rights was over the top and convoluted.

James McAvoy is a good actor but a horrible Professor X

The special effects with Emma Frost are ridiculous and cheap.

The movie was about 45 minutes too long for what happened in it

The “first class” had no personality or depth. The only character that I cared about at all was Magneto and I knew he was going to turn evil. Fewer characters and more characterization would have helped a lot.

The Beast/Mystique attempts at finding a cure, this lame attempt at characterization felt forced and hollow and took up way to much time.

I thought Kevin Bacon did a great job and so did Michael Fassbender. Overall it kind of felt like the first draft of a novel that hasn’t been revised yet. Parts of it didn’t really make sense, parts were slow paced, characters needed to be developed more, but there were some really great scenes and ideas behind everything.

Since our last episode...

2011-05-23T00:59:00.000-07:00

I finally got a new chapter written in Blood Plague War, it was kind of lonely writing without Snags. I think I am going to try to work him into one of my novels. Writing has always been a good way for me to get out some emotions and stuff without actually having to take about them. It is one of the reasons writing helps me get to sleep, I've had a heck of a time getting to sleep the past few weeks.

I meant to get back to writing sooner but things have been a little rough lately. Here is a list of everything I would have blogged about since my last post. First I will say that the movie Thor is really good, you should see it. Now on to the bad stuff.

I had a lupus flare up, which makes sense (my flare ups seem to be cause by stress and I was, and still am, pretty upset about Snags) I stayed home sick but my other dog looked so sad that I decided to go outside and play with him, but running while I am having a lupus flare up is kind of a bad idea. Long story short, the ankle is just sprained not broken. The next day my wife's car broke down. Then I got a rejection for my novel The Lion of Solkara, this was the last publisher on my list and the novel is officially retired, maybe it will get published someday.

But the novel rejection really was not that big of a deal since there was an illness in my family. The person who was ill asked that I not even tell anyone in our town about it so I will not announce exactly what happened online. But I did make the six hour trip to Denver with them so that they could get tests and then drove back the next day. Later this week they will be going to Rapid City for surgery, I think I will be driving them again.

Then I got a call last night that my boss' husband passed away. I didn't ever get the chance to meet him, but she is one of the nicest people I know and it really sucks she has to go through this. The assistant director is pregnant and due soon so that means that I might suddenly become really busy at work real soon(I am in charge when the director and the assistant director are not there). Oh, and sometime during all this my wife decided to try and give me a haircut, the result? Now I am sporting a shaved head. Which is actually okay, I kind of look good with no hair.

The plan for this week? Try to get all the stuff done for the summer reading program. Go to a funeral. Take someone to the hospital in Rapid City (about 1 and ½ hours away) wait for 6+hours in the waiting room, bring them home. Go on the radio to talk about the summer reading program. Get my wife's car fixed. Get for sale signs on said car. Get my other novel, Kingdom of the Dead sent off to TOR. Make another doctor's appointment for my ankle if it is not feeling better by Wednesday. Prepare myself for the inevitable lupus flare up all this week will bring on. Spend three day weekend in my pajamas locked away from the world, napping and eating junk food.

At least I am getting all my bad luck for 2011 used up near the beginning of the year, sorry for the grammar,spelling, etc. in this post. I am going to go to bed instead of rereading it.

Taking a Break

2011-05-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

I won’t be blogging for awhile or writing much. My silent unacknowledged writing partner, my dog Snags passed away this weekend. He always sat next to me on the couch while I typed away on my laptop. I just can’t seem to get any words written without his grunts, barks, and demands for belly rubbing. I’ll give a week, then maybe I can get something out, he was such a happy dog, he would feel awful if he knew how upset I am.

The Procrastination Helper- Flash Games and a Zombie Game

2011-05-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, its time for another post of The Procrastination Helper this week’s post is about flash games. Free online flash games are great way to put off until tomorrow what you can do today. I like to play games at Kongregate, and Heavy Games. These games are online, which means no downloading, which means no slowing your computer down, which means when you finally get around to writing it is easier. I like to browse the strategy games, in general they take more than one sitting so you get more procrastination for your buck, but they have all kinds of games, even a few old nintendo games.

I am currently playing Rebuild, a zombie game. Here is the creator’s description:

Gather survivors of the zombie apocalypse and manage food supplies, housing and morale while defending against undead attacks. Reclaim the city one square at a time and put your survivors to work scavenging for food, building houses, rediscovering technology and of course killing zombies. Beware of rival gangs, wild dogs, food thieves and even riots as you manage a city in this post apocalyptic turn based strategy game.

Below is a screen shot, the game can be played HERE

New Fantasy Story

2011-05-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

I have a short story available in the May issue of Sorceress Signals. The story is a prequel to my unpublished novel The Laws of Summer. It started out as just a few notes of back story for one of the characters Xander, and ended up being story in and of itself.

Here is the description Carol Hightshoe gives for the story on the Sorceress Signals website: Humans and Half-Elfs fight the wars the Summer Elves refuse to fight. What happens when the Summer Elves finally take the field against their enemies - the Winter Elves and what will be impact on the world?

You can read it HERE

The Procrastination Helper Part 1

2011-04-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

I’m back. And I did not win the jackpot. I am however very tired so instead of a long winded post about writing or some odd little post where I think I am funny, I have decided to tell you all about two web series that I have been watching. I have to give credit where credit is do and say that I found out about both of these from reading Patrick Rothfuss’ blog. He is a New York Times bestseller so I figure I am in good company when I watch these instead of write. So here are a couple of tools to help all you procrastinators out there.

The first is called The Guild, here is the Wikipedia description: The show revolves around the lives of an online guild, The Knights of Good, who play countless hours of an unnamed MMORPG video game. The story focuses on Codex, the guild's Priestess, who attempts to lead a normal life after one of her guild-mates, Warlock Zaboo (Sandeep Parikh), shows up on her doorstep.

While I have never really gotten into MMORPG games my old paper and dice roll playing was enough to let me see the humor in the show. You can watch it HERE or it is also out in DVD. I even think you can get it via Netflix.

The second is called The Legend of Neil, here is the Wikipedia description: The series follows Neil, who is sucked into the world of The Legend of Zelda while playing the game. As he travels Hyrule he is mistaken for the hero of the game, Link. The series is "full of self degrading, foul humor", such as when Neil is being sucked into the game he is masturbating and strangled himself with his NES controller.

For this one I have to warn everyone that there are some pretty crude jokes and adult language/themes. But I am guessing you get that from the fact that the Wikipedia description tells you that the main character enters the Legend of Zelda through autoerotic asphyxia. There are parts that are laugh out loud funny, and other parts that make you give a nervous uncomfortable giggle, but as a former Legend of Zelda player, I really enjoyed it. (Yes I have beaten the game, unlike Neil) You can watch episodes HERE

The State of the Union

2011-04-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

It has been real busy the last couple of weeks. I had the stomach flu and then I had to do a bunch of stuff for the summer reading program (The Kick-Off Party is June 4th and we are having an international hot dog bar, for anyone in the area who is interested) I have my trip to the elementary schools planned, I will be walking classroom to classroom giving a presentation about the Summer Reading Program. I am also done with planning events for all of the six weeks. This summer's theme is One World, Many Stories and I have been planning programs about other countries. Being a children’s librarian is exhausting.

I have also been attempting digital painting, I say attempt because they are pretty awful, but just like anything else practice makes perfect. I have been trying to get everything done because we have a little vacation planned this week. During June and July I can’t take any time off of work, it would even be hard to take sick leave, so we are headed up to Deadwood. We are leaving tonight and coming back on Friday. Should be a nice little break from work. I am bringing my laptop, I always get some writing done on vacation. Jessy falls asleep a good two hours before I do, and just like at home that is my writing time.

With everything going my writing time has been cut back but progress on Blood Plague War is going forward. I just finished a really hard scene the last one before I start building to the climax. The rest of the novel is like a little movie in my head, which judging from past experience, means I should be able to coast right to the end. I also found a few anthologies that I would really like to write something for. I haven’t had the urge to write a short story since last August. Maybe I only write short fiction in the summer?

Anyway, sorry for the meandering nature of this post. I didn’t really have a plan when I started writing it. Happy Tuesday, and I’ll let you know if I when the $10 million progressive jackpot.

Some Art

2011-04-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

I made another attempt at doing a digital painting today. I think this one came out pretty good. Instead of recreating a drawing, I tried to paint a real life scene. I got kind of bored and switched the background around a little. Instead of woman jogging, I made weird glowy woman jogging in space. But important thing is I think I could make a painting from most any photograph of a person now. Sometime I'll have to get a camera and a halloween costume and see if I could do a book cover for Pill Hill. This took me all day so I don't think I'll be doing a lot of art. I probably should have written a chapter of Blood Plague War but this was a nice change of pace.

Unquiet Earth available

2011-04-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Just thought I would mention that Static Movement’s Unquiet Earth anthology is a available for purchase. My short story, The Ugly Little Zombling is in this one. So if you got a hankerin' for some undead flash fiction, you can buy it HERE

Scaretastic

2011-04-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

My short story, Scaretastic, was just published online over at The Fringe. Read it HERE This one was first written as a play on the urban legend of the haunted house where you get your money back if you can finish it.

Exhausted

2011-04-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

I am exhausted. Yesterday I visited nearly one hundred local businesses trying to get donations for the libraries summer reading program. After 8 hours and some blistered feet I can say that I collected more this summer than last which is always good, and next year I can go to way fewer places in person. There were a ton of them, over half that just wanted a brochure about the program and a mailing address. Next year I can just mail those places a brochure and I won’t actually go there in person.

But being physically exhausted has me feeling mentally inspired. I am going to write a few chapters of Blood Plague War today. Next time I am feeling uninspired maybe I should move some furniture or something.

A Story Published & A Glimpse Of My Nerdhood

2011-04-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

Hi all, sorry I haven’t posted in awhile. I’ve been super busy doing stuff for my real job, as a children’s librarian, and I haven’t had time to do much writing. I do have a new short story out in the April issue of Bards & Sages Quarterly.

Here is the description from amazon:

Where else will you find angels, aliens, dragons, werewolves, talking crayons, and evil garden gnomes all in the same place? Each issue of the Bards and Sages Quarterly brings readers engaging, original speculative fiction from both new and established authors. Also in this issue: our writers talk about why they write speculative fiction.

The part about werewolves is me. Yep, that’s right I did one of the classics. I tried to put my own spin on it, by setting it in ancient Rome It also has a bit of a twist ending, but I think that is okay sometimes.

This one popped into my head when I was surfing the net and came across Lupercalia, the ancient Roman holiday also known as the Festival of the Wolf…

I almost deleted that last sentence. I went back and forth. But I decided that I am okay with you knowing that I googled holidays in ancient cultures one day when I was bored. Yes, it is a glimpse of just how nerdy I am but hey, this blog is about sharing. Right?

Anyway a preview of Bards & Sages can be seen HERE, and a print copy can be purchased off of Amazon HERE

An Acceptance

2011-03-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

My short flash piece The Ugly Little Zombling, was accepted for Unquiet Earth - An Anthology of Living Dead Flash Fiction from Static Movement. It is the story of the Ugly Little Duckling but instead of being a goose the little ugly creature is a zombie. Here is a very short teaser:

…Milly was very worried, as any mother of a child with an eating disorder would be. Not only was it not healthy for him it was not healthy for her other children. The ugly duckling was always chasing them, trying to eat their faces.

"Poor little ugly duckling!" she would say. "Why are you so different from the others?"

“Unnngghh” the duckling would answer as it snapped its blood soaked beak at her trying to rip her tender flesh to shreds…

I am very happy to have this odd little story see print. I keep you updated when the anthology is available.

Published Stories

2011-03-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

Hey all I have been a little negligent in telling you about my stuff getting published, here are two short stories that have recently been reprinted online:

The Lunatics Bloodletting originally published in The End of Days anthology from Living Dead Press and reprinted in the February Issue of Static Movement. It is the post apocalyptic story of a frozen world and a cult of moon worshipers. READ IT HERE

The Crystal Blight originally published in the October 2010 issue of Outer Reaches magazine and reprinted online in the March 2011 issue of Orion’s Child. It is the story of a flame haired female space pirate and a disease that crystallizes the infected. READ IT HERE

In a side note I had originally planned on writing The Crystal Blight as a series of short stories about the disease traveling through different time periods and worlds. My original idea was to write six fantasy stories, six sci-fi stories, and six horror stories and then try to get them published as a collection. I finished one and then shelved the idea having decided that someone who wants to read fantasy probably won’t want to read sci-fi or horror and vice versa. But I still have the project in my idea file so it might happen someday.

Waiting and Teen Movies

2011-03-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

Last week I queried about the status of Kingdom of the Dead. The publisher requires full manuscripts and my novel has been out over 170 days. I probably should have waited until the 180 day mark, but I had convinced myself that they never got my submission for the reasons in this post from a few weeks ago. They got my submission and have “set it to the side for further consideration” which kind of had me excited. I have crossed my fingers every time I’ve checked my email since then. I hope my query didn’t annoy them.

After that I went to another publisher’s website. I had sent my novel, The Lion of Solkara to them. It was forty days over their estimated response time. I started to think that maybe this publisher had also “set it to the side for further consideration”. So I went to their website to find an email address. And I discovered something.

They had added an extra six months to their estimated response times.

That’s right 6 months. 180 days. 4320 Hours. 259,200 minutes.

I get it that publishers are inundated with manuscripts. But I couldn’t help but be a little annoyed. I HATE waiting. For me it is worse than the rejections. When I get a rejection, I can go back and revise a story, or I can get all upset and eat some yummy delicious fruit snacks and forget my problems. But with waiting, the only thing you can do is…well wait.
I was so upset that I skipped my writing time last night and started reading The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. It is the sequel to Name of the Wind, and I have to say there is a good reason it hit #1 on the New York Times Bestsellers list. It is really good, which actually didn’t help with my annoyance because I started to compare my writing to Mr. Rothfuss.

I went to bed feeling frustrated and inadequate, it was like I was a character in a bad teen movie. You know the ones where the nerdy guys make a pact to lose their virginity by the end of the summer? It was just like that…sort of.

Except, instead of girls I am talking about publishing and hopefully there won’t be any comical misunderstandings between me and the most popular publishing company in school, which totally embarrasses me but makes a less popular but just as pretty publisher(who was staring me right in the face the whole time) see me in a new light.

And I probably won’t learn any life lessons about how I should view publishers with more respect and I shouldn’t just use them for a quick contract. Oh, and I am not planning on having a big keg party at the end of the summer so that me and all my friends can get big publishing deals…

Okay so it really isn’t the same at all, but you get the point.

Wanna Buy Some X-Ray Specs?

2011-03-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

X-ray vision is now a reality, and has been for some time. I don’t know how I missed it but apparently ever since the late 1990s there have been IR filters for cameras that let you see through some clothes. These filters block out everything except infrared light. Since color is created by light bouncing off an object and most dyes do not bounce infrared light that means that these filters essentially give you xray vision.

Apparently someone was trying to create a “night vision” camera and there were some unexpected side effects.

These filters will only “see through” thin cloth. But now they are selling them for cell phone cameras and camcorders. I find the whole thing creepy. I am never going to look at a tourist with a camcorder or a college kid snapping pics on his cell phone in the same way again. And don’t even get me started on how creepy security cameras are.

HERE is a website where you can see some pics, don’t worry it’s a mannequin.

Hotmail Sucks

2011-03-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

I hate hotmail.

Today I queried from my PHP gmail account to find that yet another publisher, that I sent a novel submission to, never received my email. That makes four in the last year, once for each for The Laws of Summer, and The Lion of Solkara and twice now for Kingdom of the Dead. Considering that over 120 days passed each time before I queried, I ended waiting 457 days in a single year for nothing. And that is not even counting the three instances of short story publishers never getting my email. Guess I should of figured it out sooner but lesson learned.

HOTMAIL SUCKS!

Rejection and Work

2011-03-09T07:55:00.000-08:00

Rejection.

It is something that all writers have to deal with. Over the past couple of years I think I have gotten a pretty thick skin about it. I think writing short fiction had helped me with it. Personal taste is a big part of what gets rejected and what gets accepted. I have had stories rejected by smaller markets that ended up published in larger markets.

But yesterday I set a new personal record for rejection. I had five in one day. Three of them were very nice personal rejections, that pointed out specifics, one apologized for taking so long but said there were three stories they were deciding between and they only had room for one. But it was still a little discouraging. All in all I think I took it pretty well, I sat down and pounded out 3000+ words in Blood Plague War.

I think that is the key to handling rejection, at least for me. Last night I decided that I was going to write a NY Times bestseller (yeah right) and make them wish they published me back when I was a nobody. But I am going to use this as an awkward segway into an article on work...

I also wanted to share THIS ARTICLE by By Rachel Farrell, posted on MSN CareerBuilder.

It is called four jobs everyone should have to teach them about work “ethic and life” I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had done all of them before I graduated college. And I really had to agree with the article’s assessment.

The jobs are:

Server to learn empathy
Retail Clerk to learn patience and respect
Customer Service(specifically a call center) to teach you kindness and make you think about the way you treat people.
Manual Labor to teach you work a good work ethic.

I worked as both a bartender and a waiter so I can scratch number one off. I worked at a convenience store so there is number two, though I should mention that working the graveyard shift for three months before moving to days gave me a much different outlook than my coworkers. I worked as a telemarketer for a very brief time(about a month) and I am currently a librarian so I can cross number three off. And finally my summer job my junior year of high school was roofing houses.

The jobs did teach me a couple of things not mentioned in the article. First, working graveyard shift and as a bartender I was around a lot of very drunk people. After convincing a shit faced linebacker from the college football team that he could not buy bear at five in the morning, I can say that I have never been flustered by any upset customers at any other job. No matter how upset someone is about their fines at the library they just don’t hold a candle to the six foot five inch, two hundred and fifty pound plus drunken monster. And I can happily say that my summer of manual labor is what made me want to go to college, I wanted a job where I could sit on my butt at least ½ the time, which is one of the many reasons a career as a writer is so enticing. I mean I would get to sit on my butt 100% of the time, who can beat that?

An acceptance and a rejection

2011-02-25T08:33:00.000-08:00

I got one acceptance and a rewrite request for short stories today. Cold Shadows, a short story written as a prequel to one of my unpublished novels, The Laws of Summer, will be published in the May edition of Sorceress Signals.

Of course all the joy of acceptance was ruined by get a rejection for The Laws of Summer in my inbox at the same time. It seems like whenever I get an acceptance I always get a rejection the same day, maybe it’s a law of physics or something.

Anyway Guess its time to send it somewhere else. Angry Robot Books is opening to unsolicited subs for the month of March. So I am planning on editing the novel for a few weeks and then sending it off to them.

Work has been a little crazy, so I’ve been pretty tired at night, not getting a whole lot of writing done. The server went down at work so we have had to go old school. When anybody checks out a book we have to write it down. We can’t make new library cards and we have a huge stack of books to check-in when we get our server going again.

Back to our scheduled program

2011-02-23T07:28:00.000-08:00

I am back at work and back to writing. I got a little over a thousand words done on Blood Plague last night. Which still puts me way behind where I wanted to be. My wife goes to bed about two hours before I do, this is my writing time. When I had the flu, I would just turn on my computer, stare at the screen for about ten minutes and then go to bed. It was a little slow going last night, I had to remember where I was and what I wanted to happen. Taking a week off of writing (completely off, I didn’t even think about my stories, which I don’t think has ever happened to me) made it a little rough.

Hopefully I can find a little extra time this week to catch up. I had a couple of blog posts I wanted to do last week, about writing and stuff, but I am going to postpone those until I get a couple of chapters written. So I won't be blogging again until next week.

Diseased

2011-02-16T10:02:00.001-08:00

I am home sick. Usually I get a little writing done when I am home sick, but this flu virus has knocked me out. I started catching it Monday night, and I can barely stay awake. I guess I won't get much done this week. This blog post took me ten minutes to write, it is about 70 words long. 7 words a minute not good. Back to bed.

Weekend Plans and Stuff

2011-02-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

I haven’t got a lot of writing done this week. I have been working on various promotional things for Pill Hill and neglecting my writing, but I have offered all of the books on our overstock shelf to reviewers or as giveaways on blogs. Still waiting to hear back from a bunch of them but it is done. To give you an idea I had 60 books when I started and now there are 25.

Work on a History of Blood ran into a little snag and I need a few hours so that I can really dig my teeth in. I need to rewrite the last chapter, because well, it doesn’t make any sense. I started the chapter wanted the main vampire character to run into werewolves and then a werewolf/vampire blood feud would ensue. But then I got bored, and if I am bored writing it then people will be bored reading it. The werewolf/vampire thing is just too overdone. I ended up having the vampire have a blood feud with a tribe that has really big wolves as pets, and it is just kind of weird.

I hate to go back and rewrite before a manuscript is done, but I have to do it this time. Blood Plague is coming along nicely, but I need to come up with a better title. The plague is what sets the story in motion but it isn’t what the story is about. The story is about a group of survivors who get pulled into the war of succession that the death of the king has caused. Maybe it should be The Blood Plague War, or something like that.

So I have my weekend planned, well at least the writing part. The not writing part will consist of helping to paint my father in laws house and a trip to the casino(we got some coupons for free play in the mail!)

I also wanted to mention that the first giveaway I have scheduled with a blogger is up and going over at The Happy Booker. She is giving away to prize packs, one has a hard cover of Love Kills: My Bloody Valentine and the other has a soft cover. If you are interested all you have to do is head over to her blog and follow it to be entered.

Shadows & Light Volume II Reviewed

2011-02-09T12:52:00.000-08:00

The first review of Shadows & Light Volume II is in:

This was originally posted at the Wandering Quill:

Taking a break from the "Sargas Chronicles" to applaud some hard work by Pill Hill Press.

I have always had a love/hate relationship with anthologies. Typically, in my experience, an anthology combines a plethora of bad to terrible stories, intermixed with a scant few good stories. I'm happy to say this anthology was the reverse.

When a writer friend of mine, Lydia Sharp, suggested I try it and mentioned her story was included in the collection, (Spread Your Wings And Die) I gulped and took the plunge with my Kindle. And was happily surprised. (Since I already have a pile of Noble-prize nomination anthologies in my "to-be-hurled-against-wall" stack)

Out of thirteen stories, I only found one that I disliked, and even that one was put together flawlessly, I just didn't like how it ended, as a reader. The anthology had a nice, slick look to it in the digital edition. Even though I missed out on the fancier font I've been told is in the print edition, the collection is so good that I'll likely purchase that one as well.

I am proud to say this anthology is the first book I've read this year to receive a 5-star rating from me. I actually had to make myself put it away before I didn't get any writing done for the day.

Definitely going to be looking for digital versions of the other anthologies by Pill Hill Press.

Thank you to Lydia Sharp for recommending it to her friend.

The Taming of Chapter 23

2011-02-03T18:41:00.000-08:00

Finally done with Chapter 23 in Blood Plague. It was a relatively short chapter, just a tiny bit over two thousand words but wow they were rough. I have been worried about this chapter since I realized it was coming.

A major subplot ended in the last chapter, so I had a few loose ends to tie up from that. But this is the chapter were my characters come to the realization that surviving the plague wasn’t enough, that the war of succession caused by the plague is going to tear what’s left of the world apart and they can do something to stop it. It is a major turning point in the book and I was dreading it.

I also tried to untangle the web of subplots a little. I have three viewpoint characters and three other characters in the main storyline, and I gave them all their own side goals/agendas. It was getting to be a bit of a mess, so I had to tweak everything a bit. I am willing to bet about half the subplots are going to end up being cut as I flesh out some of the others but I like to give myself a lot of options when I trudge through the second draft.

So a major turning point is done. It is incredibly rough, the dialogue is unrealistic, some of the character motivations need some work, but that can all come later, the plot is on paper!

I know some writers are different but I don’t even think about editing anything until the first draft is completely done. So for now I can say whoo-hooo and move on!

A free story reprinted for your reading pleasure

2011-02-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

I thought I would post some free flash fiction. This one is a fantasy parody. This story first appeared in the April 2010 issue of Bards & Sages Quarterly. It is one of the few stories that I can actually remember the day I wrote it. It was written on July 4th 2009. I like to think that I have improved as a writer since writing this piece. There is a large chunk of telling instead of showing but since it is (I hope) a humorous narrative, I think it still kind of works, though I wouldn’t do it now. So without further ado, here it is:

Click On Image Above to Purchase the Magazine from Amazon

Thornpicker & Nab

By Alva Roberts

Daemon Thornpicker walked along the worn path, his fingers pinching his nose shut. It smelled bad, really bad, like a thousand gym lockers concentrated into one horrendous locker of death. It came with the territory when you were a Necromancer.

It was not as if Daemon woke up one morning and decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life around rotting corpses. He was a proud graduate of the University of Magical Studies. After a few semesters of drinking and general carousal, it came to his attention the ale was not a major. It was a surprising discovery, as most of the students of UMS spent their free time and most of their class time consuming large quantities of Wizbang, a famous ale made from left over cafeteria food, brewed in Hogshine Dormitory.

Therefore, under the gun and in need of a major, Daemon decided to study Necromancy. He had not chosen his course of study from any desire to learn the dark mystic arts. He chose his major because most practioners of black magic rarely got out of bed before noon, and having his earliest class at three in the afternoon was often a great blessing, especially when a new batch of Wizbang was ready to be sampled.

A few years later Daemon graduated with a Magchelors in of Arts in Necromancy, with very little memory of having actually earned it. He did have some fuzzy memories of a monkey in a dress, which he never investigated.

It was a struggle after graduating, there were very few career paths open to Necromancers. That was until Daemon discovered Balon Grimpin’s book: The Scourge in You: Starting Your Home Based Apocalypse for Fun and Profit. The book changed Daemon’s life.

He quit his job working as a bartender, and went to the local graveyard with a shovel. The graveyard was, of course, the best place to start a new life.

Now he marched on the City of Burnsolott with his horde of undead minions. There had been a few surprises and pitfalls, which was common when starting any home based small businesses.

First of all, there was the smell. No matter how many times he washed his robes, the smell simply would not come out. Daemon had not had a date since raising his army. Then of course there were the start up costs, the ingredients necessary to raise the undead were rare and costly.

The hardest part had been finding suitable corpses. His minions were not the most frightening of hordes, as they mostly consisted of elderly women in floral print sundresses. Nevertheless, they were undead and for the most part, they seemed to obey his commands.

“There’s the City!” Daemon shouted to his minions, breaking into a coughing fit as he attempted a maniacal laugh.

“Hey there what do you think you’re doing?” A voice called out.

Daemon looked over to see a small green figure marching toward him. A goblin. Daemon watched the creature in wonder, he never seen one before.

“I’m on my way to conqueror Burnsolott and then the world.” Daemon said his voice cold and ominous.

“You got your permit?”

“Permit? Who are you?” Daemon asked.

“My names Nar. I’m the Union enforcer. You need a permit from the Union of Villains and Evildoers. Can’t invade the city without it. And then of course there is the equal rights violation.”

“Equal rights?”

“Yeah. I only see zombies in your horde. There isn’t one troll, goblin, dragon, giant, elf, or ogre in the whole lot, there’s going to be some penalties for that.”

“Just out of curiosity, why do I need a permit to invade the city? I mean I have a horde I could just you know…go around you and stuff.”

“Because that would make the Union mad. Do you really want every warlord, evil stepmother, witch, vampire, and Shadow Lord in the kingdom upset with you?”

“I’m sure we can work something out.” Daemon said fidgeting.

“Bribery is against the law! And in this case rather expensive.” The goblin said with a greedy smile.

***

After hours of negotiations, Daemon had all the necessary permits, a new member added to his horde, and a lot of weight subtracted from his coin purse. His new minion was a goblin and a cousin to the little one named Nar. This one was named Nab.

“Okay, where was I? Oh yeah. There’s the City!” Daemon’s voice cracked as he attempted mad laughter. “They will soon learn to fear the name Thornpicker! Come my fiendish allies, we will crush-. Oh, damn it. You in the pink and yellow turn around. No picking at your wounds. Wait minute.” Daemon stopped, rearranging his horde by hand, as they were currently ignoring his commands.

“Let’s try this again. There’s the City!” Daemon giggled, a feat much easier than insane laughter. “What is now?” Daemon asked, looking down his new goblin employee who was tugging on the hem of his robe. “I’m in the middle of my villainous dialog, I have to finish before we can pillage and plunder the city.”

“That’s just it boss, I think we’re a little late.” Nab gestured to the city.

It was completely engulfed in flames. Huge scaly shapes flew over it on massive bat like wings.

“Dragons? But I had all the permits!” Daemon whined.

“You didn’t read the small print, the documents do not grant exclusive rights to said property, merely the right to invasion of the property. It’s first come first serve. Looks like you‘re going to have to raid a different city.”

“Damn. Damn. Damn it. I don’t have enough money to buy the permits. And I’m sure as hell not walking to the next closest city. Have you smelled the zombies? Looks like its back to bartending and making Wizbang for me.”

“Hey wait a minute. You know how to make Wizbang?”

***

In just a few short months, Thornpicker & Nab was one of the largest breweries in all the kingdom, with the legendary Wizbang ale as their top seller. When asked how he became so successful Daemon always replied, “Never underestimate the value of a good education.”

A (mostly) thawed out brain...and televison and writing

2011-02-01T15:28:00.000-08:00

I am happy to announce that my brain cells were not killed off by the chilly weather, they were merely in suspended animation. I remembered what I was going to blog about.

Television and writing.

First let me start off by saying that my wife and I have a Roku. This is not a small furry animal from Japan though I can see why some would be confused by this. We have had Netflix for years, and they have movies and TV shows, thousands of them, that you can watch for free online. We never did this, watching a movie on a computer just seemed wrong, like beef gravy on chocolate(saw that on one of the wife’s cooking shows, ick).

But this summer we got a Roku, it is a tiny black box you connect to the TV and then you can watch all of the free Netflix content on your TV. It connects to the internet and downloads them right into the magical little box. It can also connect to amazon.com and you can rent nearly every movie they have on amazon. They even get some before the theatres do…It slices, it dices, it…wait..that’s something else.

I’ll stop there. Despite all evidence to the contrary, this post was not meant to be an infomercial for Roku (some of the brain cells must still be thawing out).

The point of my multi-paragh description is that my wife and I have been watching the TV show 24. We missed it when it was on TV, and we have been watching one or two episodes every night while we fall asleep in bed.

As I passed the 50,000(woot) word mark in my novel Blood Plague, I suddenly came to the realization that one of my characters had become Jack Bauer. He didn’t start off that way, he was a former member of the Royal Guard promoted to the rank of Lord General by a grateful king. In the beginning he was capable but a little unsure of his role as Lord General.

Now he can kill six men without trying, and has no problems torturing others to get what he wants. He is loyal to his king and his friends to his own determent. He hides his emotions behind a stoic face, letting few others in. He is a barely contained reservoir of violence, ready to let loose at any moment...which is really fun to write, but I may have to tone it down a bit when I do my first edit of the manuscript.

The whole thing has me wondering if I go back read some of my other stuff if I’ll be able to tell what I was watching on TV. I knew I got a few ideas from TV, Kingdom of the Dead, my zombie/fantasy hybrid novel came from watching Dawn of the Dead back to back with Lord of the Rings, but Jack Bauer crept into my writing without me having any conscious knowledge of it. I’ll have to keep an eye on this in the future.

It's cold outside...

2011-02-01T08:50:00.001-08:00

It is cold today…I had a more interesting blog I was going to write but when I stepped out into the -14 degree weather my brain froze. These brain cells were not vital to my survival but I did enjoy having them—I lost the blog, an idea for a short story, some of my 8th grade algebra, a few dates I learned in 9th grade history and some of my fine motor skills. And now that song “Baby its cold outside” keeps playing in my head, over and over again, so I may have lost some the brain cells that control logical thinking, I’ll get back to you on that one.

Weird to think it was 60 degrees out only two days ago but that’s Nebraska for you. In a side note the record high for today is 65 degrees the record low -27, that’s a 92 degree difference. I just wish we were on the other end of the scale. Keep warm.

Sunday Update

2011-01-31T01:17:00.000-08:00

Not a whole lot to report this Sunday. I have been working on Blood Plague and A History of Blood. Something kind of interesting happened when I was writing the last chapter of A History of Blood, I wrote 3000 words in 45 minutes. I have no idea how that happened that is over 3 times as fast as it usually takes me to write something(about 1000 words/hour if I am into the story). It seemed like I couldn't get my fingers to move fast enough across the keyboard, it was really cool. I hope it starts a trend but I am not going to hold my breath. I have gotten 8000 words done in 12 days not bad considering I also did 5000 on Blood Plague.

I am going to try to try and focus more attention on Blood Plague, I really want to have it done before the Summer Reading Program starts at work. As soon as the program starts I will running programs everyday for six weeks, and last year I came home exhausted almost every day. Storytime for 50+ children is tiring, I only got 1000 words written during the entire six weeks. If I can get Blood Plague done then it will be perfect. I can set aside for six weeks and then start editing.

I got a couple of rejections this week for short stories, one of them was really nice. I have had a few form rejections from the market and then in this one they say that they really liked the story and hoped to see more from me, it just didn't fit the theme of their magazine.

I have been contacting artist for PHP, we have a whole new line up of novels and we need cover art, I found a couple of new people on the web and have tried to contact a couple of artists we have worked with before. We usually ask the authors what they had in mind for a cover, it is interesting what some of them come up with and they are all so passionate about what they want. I think it is always fun to get art for them.

Shadows & Light II Final Cover/Blurb

2011-01-25T20:43:00.000-08:00

I realized that I never posted the final blurb/ cover for Shadows & Light Volume II. I decided to go the simple route with the blurb, the one I wrote for Shadows & Light: Tales of Lost Kingdoms sounded a little pretentious, so here is the one for Volume II:

The struggle between man and evil has always been a mainstay of fantasy. Pill Hill Press pays homage to this tradition in the sequel to their critically acclaimed anthology, Shadows & Light: Tales of Lost Kingdoms.

Volume II features thirteen brand new magical tales of the epic battle between good and evil, including:

Choices in the Dark by Ray Tabler, Master Race by Gerald Costlow, The Hand of Fate by David J. West, Azieran: The Secret in the Mist by Christopher Heath, Mania's Children by Gustavo Bondoni, Champion by Marc Sorondo, Night Ambush by Scott Harper & Diane Smith, The Tithe of Hell by Edward McKeown, The King of Sorango by John M. Whalen, Zhea by Gregory L. Norris, Spread Your Wings and Die by Lydia Sharp, Sons of Odin by John Richard Albers & Aquila's Ring by Cat Rambo.

And here is the final cover:

Sunday Update

2011-01-23T22:09:00.001-08:00

So I have been happily writing away on my two novel projects, and when I am not in the mood to write I have been doing research for History of Blood. The story begins in Neolithic times, and at first I was going to just have him be a caveman who subjugated his people into worshiping him once he became a vampire, but now I have decided that there will be whole tribes of vampires.

The tribes are going to be the source of British/Scottish/Irish folklore. The Twyleth Tyg, the Sidhe, the Tuatha de Danann, and the Seelie and Unseelie courts are peopled by vampires. My novel will only loosely be based on any folklore. I am writing it under the assumption that the events of the novel are taking place thousands of years before recorded history, so the legends that we have today are oral retellings that have been altered by the passage of time so that they bear almost no resemblance to what actually happened. Plus, since it is first person, the narrator of the story is somewhat unreliable.

As the novel progresses it will become more and more historically accurate. I am thinking about having my main character immersed in a vampire war between the Twyleth Tyg and the Tuath de Danann, but I am not even close to the that part of the story and I have some time to think it over still.

My attempts at getting some more stuff reprinted online have born fruit, The Crystal Blight, one of my few forays into sci-fi will be reprinted over at Orion's Child. And in other news, my fantasy story, Stephen the Swift has been accepted for Big Pulp's Pirates and Swashbucklers themed issue. I'll post more about those when they come out.

New Project: A History of Blood

2011-01-19T13:14:00.000-08:00

I have just added another project to my current projects bar on the left, A History of Blood(working title). I have always enjoyed history. My major in college was applied history which is now called museum studies so that people understand what it is. I majored in Applied History because it seemed to have more real world applications than a normal history degree, I got to take history classes for all of my elective courses, and I also got to take field excavations, where I helped acquire a portion of a prehistoric rhinoceros skull for the college museum(which isn’t as fun as it sounds, it was 103 degrees out and the hard rocky landscape reflected the sun making it feel even hotter…oh, and I got a little car sick on the ride there).

So I have always contemplated writing a historical novel, ancient history intrigues me the most, but I could never decide which time period to write in, did I want to write about pharaoh Khufu, ancient Sparta, or one of the thousand stories that can be garnered from ancient Rome.

I have written a number of short stories set in ancient time periods, or that required historical research. There was Roman Blood, about vampires during the Revolt of Batavi, Blackbeard's Ragnarok, about Vikings(though I will be the first to admit this one isn’t very historically accurate), Epimetheus' Palace, set in ancient Greece, a few warriors accompany Pandora to close the Box, Let Justice Be Done, about a group of roman soldiers who were mummified and come back from the dead, Mortis Lupus, a flash fiction piece centered around the idea that Julius Caesar was a werewolf, and finally Naumachia Magic, a story of the ancient game Naumachia, where Roman gladiators reenacted naval warfare for the amusement of the mob.

But like I said, when it came to a novel I couldn’t decide what time period...so I am going to do them all. A History of Blood is the first person memoir of a vampire, who was turned around 3000BC, and it will follow his adventurous life until modern times, or at least that is the idea.

It seems a little overwhelming, but it is my new secondary project(I like to have something I work on when I get bored of my main project, what can I say I am easily bored). It will give me something to research when I don’t feel like writing and it will be my first attempt at first person.

It will probably be my secondary project for a long, long time, I can’t even guess at how many thousands of words it is going to take to cover 5000 years, so the percentage done on this one really doesn’t mean anything.

As a little teaser here are some of the names that I am planning on the vampire using throughout the novel, these might change as I write, or research new interesting historical figures: Gwakhmai, Gwyn Ap Nudd, Imhotep, Hemiunu, Djedefptah, Nabu, Sakir-Har, Achilles, Shalim, Cambyses II, Adrastus, Hippocrates, Seleucus I, Hanno, Wodan, Esos, Arminius, Publius Acilius Attianus, Marcus Petronius, Lucius Petronius, Ambrosius Aurelianus, Arthur Pendragon, Roland, Herrick, Eric the forester, John Harrington, Alexandre Botezatu, Alexandre the Strong, Alejandro Segovia, Onondakai, Apotamkin, and Alexander Harrington.

Some of them are real historical figures or gods, others are my own creations, which I will attempt to replace with real historical figures as I research more, but I am planning on the vampire living all walks of life, from commoner to king, and finding the name of a common soldier in 490BC is not that easy, and even if I could, who would really know the name?

Busy New Year

2011-01-12T21:59:00.000-08:00

Well its time to start a new year. What does this mean for me? Well I spent the last few days going through my published stories and checking which ones I have the rights to. Once a story has appeared in print I like to get it out online so that more people can read it.

I have been sending out story after story. And in an interesting twist and an attempt at something new, I even tried to get a couple of stories published in audio markets. I have already received one response and I can say that my story The Lunatic's Bloodletting, which first appeared in Living Dead Press' End of Days Anthology will be in the next issue of Static Movement ezine.

A new year also means a busy time for me at Pill Hill Press. We are trying to clear out our overstock inventory and we have sent out dozens of review copies. Contacting reviewers is one of my duties at Pill Hill and I have been pretty busy with it. We are also looking into some new promotional ideas.

Also I am happy to say that edits on Shadows & Light II are almost done. The authors should be getting proofs of their stories by early next week at the latest. Once all the authors have had a chance to see the proof and I make a few minor changes to the cover, and come up with a blurb for the back(a task which I always find incredibly hard) we will go to print.

I haven't really gotten much writing done, but I did find out that a publisher who had accepted a few of my stories had problems with a couple of anthologies. I won't go into details but the rights to the stories reverted back to me, so I gave those a good edit and sent them out. If the publisher opens up calls for the anthologies again I have a guaranteed acceptance, but I might as well shop them around first. There is no telling if they'll have more "problems in the future".

Below is the revamped cover pic for Shadows & Light II, I think the black background really makes it pop in ways the white background didn't.

A Pro Paying Acceptance to Start the New Year!

2011-01-02T17:01:00.000-08:00

FaePublishing, a new professional paying online market, has just offered to publish my story The Last Dragon! Due to the length of my story and their $125 cap, I will actually be making around .04/ per word but that is still by far my best paying short story sale. I am super excited. What a way to start the new year, now I'm off to convince the wife that a greasy cheeseburger is the perfect way to celebrate.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T07:24:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over. I had a lot of fun with my family and really enjoyed most of my break. Except for the fact that I decided to catch the stomach flu on Christmas night. I won’t go into details but I was violently ill, sick enough that my wife almost took me to the ER.

But everyone at work had the stomach flu the week before, so I was pretty sure it wasn’t food poisoning, so I toughed it out. I am hoping when I look back at this Christmas I remember all the fun stuff and forget about the projectile vomiting.

My wife really liked her presents. I got her a kindle, a king size electric blanket(she has wanted one for years), and some pens with her name on them. I think I did a good job picking out presents, she really seemed to enjoy them. She got me a laptop, which was awesome because the mouse buttons on mine had stopped working just a week before Christmas. My other family members (cousins, aunts, uncles, and my father in law) got me an array of t-shirts, a nice metal book mark with my initials engraved, and a signed Orson Scott Card novel.

Like I said the family was a lot of fun this year, no drama, no arguments. After everybody left I got a little down. It happens every year, I start to miss my parents, both of whom have passed away. But it didn’t last very long this year. I guess time really does heal all wounds.

I did get a little writing done, as you can see progress on Blood Plague has gone up another couple of percentile. And I sent some queries to agents for the Laws of Summer, we’ll see how that works out.

Happy New Year!

Update on Blood Plague

2010-12-22T09:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I hit 27,000 words on Blood Plague. Writing on the novel has been slow and steady. The first wave of the plague has just ended, so it has been a little rough to write. I have three view point characters and they have all had to deal with a lot of loss, writing about digging mass graves is a little depressing.

But the novel is coming along nicely. I think it might go over my estimated 100,000 words but I'll adjust the current projects box accordingly when it comes to that. With the holidays coming I think I will have to take a break from writing for a few days.

Unless I get some great news (hint, hint to book publishers that aren't ever going to read my blog) this will be my last post until the new year.

So Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful, magical, holiday season.

(Yeah, I said Merry Christmas in a blog post that mentioned mass graves. Never thought that would happen when I started writing this blog)

The Best Book Ever Part III

2010-12-20T14:33:00.000-08:00

Here it is the long awaited final installment of the best book ever. This the list of my favorite books in the year that I read them(Note: The year I read a book had nothing to do with its release, Note #2: This list was compiled from memory so if I say I read a book before it was published I apologize. ) Previous entries can be read here and here.

My favorite book of 2000 was… um… well you see this was the year I turned twenty-one and well…um…I had other stuff to do. The stuff I did read I only have a vague memory of.

My favorite book of 2001 was… The Dome of Fire by David Eddings. This was my first Eddings book and it inspired me to go find his other stuff. A great book.

My favorite book of 2002 was… Dissolution by Richard Lee Byers. At this point I was drifting away from The Forgotten Realms and Dungeons and Dragons but The War of the Spider Queen brought me back for a little while.

My favorite book of 2003 was… A History of Western Civilization author unknown. This was a hard year for me to remember anything I read that I enjoyed. I had just started back in college and was taking 18 credit hours a semester for the time I took off, but this was my favorite class so…

My favorite book of 2004 was…Myth Adventures by Robert Asprin. This book provided me with a whole series of humorous light hearted stories. The perfect read between classes.

My favorite book of 2005 was…Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan. The continuation of my favorite series of all time, and my copy was signed by the author!

My favorite book of 2006 was… Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. I read this one shortly before Robert Jordan’s death and loved it. I was really pleased when they announced he would finish The Wheel of Time

My favorite book of 2007 was… Sacrifice of the Widow by Lisa Smedman. By this point I was done with D&D. Everyone I gamed with had left town, and the only Forgotten Realms books I read in years was the The War of the Spider Queen but I was sold on Lisa Smedman’s writing from her entry, Extinction, in The War of the Spider Queen.

My favorite book of 2008 was… Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. This was a great book, I hate first person but I loved this one.

My favorite book of 2009 was… Storm Front by Jim Butcher. Again another start of a series that I really enjoyed.

My favorite book of 2010 was… Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson. The latest entry in the Wheel of Time, who knew you could pack so much awesome in one book?

An attempt at art

2010-12-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

So I just got photoshop on my laptop and I decided to see if I still remembered anything about it from my graphic design classes. While I have been using adobe illustrator for Pill Hill Press book covers, I haven't used photoshop in years. Below is what I came up with, now to be honest I was looking at a picture of Superman while I did it, so it isn't totally free hand (I can never get the shading right when I do free hand), but I did draw the entire thing on a computer. I think it came out pretty well, except for the smoke at the bottom, which kind of looks like a strange, gray/black, blob.

Of course I used two hours I could have been writing Blood Plague or formatting Shadows & Light to do it, but oh well, nice to have a little break. Don’t expect too much more art from me. It takes up too much time.

A short story published

2010-12-15T10:46:00.000-08:00

My short story, Let Justice Be Done, has just been published in The Scroll of Anubis, a mummy anthology. My story features a group of roman soldiers who were mummified in a bog. But they were Vigiles Urbani, the watchmen of the city who died hunting a criminal and they do not rest easy. The thieves that stole their bodies soon find that the phrase, Fiat justia, ruat caelu, “Let Justice be done, even though the heavens fall” is more than just a motto. Amazon link

My story Mortis Lupus was also accepted for publication in Bards & Sages Quarterly today.

Story Published

2010-12-14T11:11:00.000-08:00

My short story, Blood of Warriors, Blood of Kings, has been published in Iron Bound ezine. It is a short story that begins with a knight who is tied down as a sacrifice, and is clearly a sword and sorcery tale. It is just a fun little action story. You ca read the pdf here

Diseased

2010-12-13T16:16:00.000-08:00

So I had the flu last week. I work at a library, someplace that people LOVE to go when they are sick. The library employees tend to take turns getting sick all through the flu season. But it wasn’t the normal flu, comparing this hideous pestilence to the normal flu is like saying a gunshot wound is a little scratch. I left work early on Tuesday, I was running a fever of 101 I went home and went to sleep. Somehow my voice rose two octaves higher while at the same time becoming whispery raspy thing that even I didn’t recognize.

The next few days are kind of a blurry haze of coughing and sleep. I remember working one day because five other members of our nine person staff called in sick. I remember sleeping, and reading a little, though I couldn’t tell you what I read. I remember my wife making me soup, and being extremely nice while at the same time teasing me about sounding like an eight year old girl who had been smoking her whole life (see the high pitch, raspy sentence above)

To make a long story short... too late(bet ya can't guess what I watched while I was sick), it was an awful week. I got nothing productive done, and now I am playing catch up.

Shadows & Light II and writing

2010-12-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

I try not to get too much into Pill Hill Press on this blog but I thought I would give everyone an update on Shadows & Light II. We just got the last of the contracts in. We are starting to prepare the book for print, and hopefully it will be out late December/early January, but with the holidays it might get pushed back a little. Kind of depends on how much I can get done on it this weekend. Just wanted to let everyone know that it was coming along. I am a little slower than Jessy but it shouldn’t be too much longer.

On the writing front I have finished another 5,000 words in Blood Plague(working title). I think these are my best characters ever. Period.

If I can keep the plot going this might be the one that gets published, crossing my fingers. I didn’t know writing could be so easy until I started on this one, every time I sit down to write I get 2,000-5,000 words done.

I just need to get myself to the computer and keep at it, again with the holidays and now Shadows & Light II it is kind of hard to find time to write.

A shameless plug

2010-12-04T09:27:00.000-08:00

With the holidays coming up I thought I would shamelessly plug the sci-fi anthology I edited this summer. Hey it is my blog, what better place to try and get some sales. Anyone interested in buying the book can get it from amazon or from barnes and noble It also available in the Pill Hill Press Book Shoppe. Right now there is a limited edition hard cover that can only purchased from the Book Shoppe, the hardcover is available until the end of December and it is only $3 more than the soft cover!

Blurb:

This short story collection features thirteen fantastic adventures set in the cold vacuum of space. Read about rogues, scoundrels, aliens, robots, heroes, junkers and priests as you explore the rich and creative diversity of the following stories: Junker's Fancy By Rosemary Jones, Leech Run By Scott W. Baker, A Space Romance By Paul A. Freeman, Hawking's Caution By Mark Rivett, Parhelion By David Schembri, To Stand Among Kings By Kenneth Mark Hoover, The Unicorn Tree By Alethea Kontis, The Beacon of Hope By Gregory L Norris, Tangwen's Last Heist By C.B. Calsing, The Stand-Ins By Gef Fox, Glacier Castle By Will Morton, Rescue By Margaret Karmazin, At One Stride Comes the Dark By Murray Leeder.

Reviews:

Amazon/ Diane Jones- Avid Reader: Exactly what the cover says, this is a collection of fascinating stories set in deep space, most having a good balance of science and fantasy and all offering enough suspense to make them very hard to put down.

Fred Warren/Residential Aliens: If you love stories about lone-wolf pilots, sentient spaceships, interplanetary power politics, rogue computers, lost colonies, and Terrors From Beyond, Zero Gravity, a new anthology of science fiction adventures from Pill Hill Press, will light your boosters and shove you deep into your acceleration couch… Read the rest here

JM Kirk Writer of Fantasy and Science Fiction: …Zero Gravity was an entertaining anthology that had more character driven stories than technology driven plots which is something I much prefer in my science fiction. This good range of stories is bound to appeal to many readers whether they are fans of the genre or not. Read the rest here

Tales of the Talisman/ Shawn Oetzel: …Pill Hill Press’ anthology, Zero Gravity Adventures in Deep Space is an eye-catching and fun read. It is filled with thirteen science fiction stories all nicely edited by Alva J. Roberts. I think fans of genre fiction will enjoy Zero Gravity Adventures in Deep Space immensely. I know I did. Buy a copy of the issue

Science Fiction Review: I haven't read a volume of short stories since, well, since about forever. I like getting engrossed in the plot and feel of a full-length novel. However, I picked up a copy of Zero Gravity while on an extended trip, and I read it immediately following a great but lengthy novel by Carol Berg. My flight was going to land in about an hour, so the short story format seemed appropriate to read one or two before landing, going through customs and immigration, getting a ride to the hotel, etc. I am glad I made that choice… Read the rest here

The Future Fire Reviews: As a whole, Zero Gravity is full of stories that seem to understand that humanity is no longer physically evolving in the original sense. We no longer worry about those genetic markers that in the past made a mate unacceptable. Today we evolve through social interaction and technology and this will most likely still be the case as we hurl ourselves outward beyond the stars. On the perimeter of the universe it will be our technology and our ability to co-habitat with our fellows that will serve us and I feel this collection gets that right. It is just plain good reading that should easily please any fan of deep space fiction. It is light, good for afternoons on the porch or, if you’re like me, a quick story to relax a bit before bed… Read the rest here

If any book reviewers are interested please drop me a line via the contact form and we will get see about getting a review copy to you. The book is available through many other online book stores inlcuding the many versions of amazon ie amazon.ca, amazon.uk., etc. And the Pill Hill Book Shoppe has very reasonable international shipping rates.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

2010-12-01T08:52:00.001-08:00

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone. We had a great time on Thanksgiving, rather than spend all the money on food, we all went up to the local Indian casino, ate the buffet and gambled it was a lot of fun, and though at first it seems nontraditional, we did feast with the Native Americans.

The next day in the mail I got a coupon from them for $50 in free play, apparently last month I went up a tier in their players club star level, whatever that means. So we went up again on Saturday. It is only a forty minute drive so it really isn’t that much of a commitment.

It was kind of weird to go up there twice in one week. We usually go once a month, if that. The result of our gambling expedition? We are $120 ahead for the week, that is even counting gas and meals we bought up there. Its not the million dollar Powerball jackpot but it was still nice to get some extra money right before the holidays.

When we got home Saturday I took out the trash, laying on top of everything else in the dumpster was a box. For some reason I looked inside, this is strange in and of itself. I don’t usually decide to peek through the garbage. But inside of this box was nearly 900 comic books. Whoever threw them out was obviously a collector they were in amazing shape, none of them were very old. The oldest one was from 1989 but I grabbed the box and took it inside.

I haven’t read a comic book since I was in high school but I started reading through the stack of these and am having a great time. My dad always bought me a box of comics from the Sears catalog every Christmas, so this is like a flash back to my youth.

I didn’t get much writing done over the holidays. I am plugging along on Blood Plague, made it to about ten thousand words. This novel is coming easier than any other one I have ever written. I have a list of chapter, and what I want to happen in them. Even more amazing, I already know how the book ends!

Side Note: I have been getting a few emails about the Current Projects box on the left, mostly from writers who really want to have one on their website. I think this is great, I stole the idea from Brandon Sanderson’s website. But that’s not the point. The way I figure out the percentage is that I guess the book will be 100,000 words. This is a pretty good number for me, The Lion of Solkara was 112,000 words and The Laws of Summer was 98,000 words. My other novel, Kingdom of the Dead, was around 80k but that was a nanowrimo novel. Plus using 100k as my goal makes the math super easy. When I am 10,000words I am 10% done, at 13,000 I am 13% done, etc. If I ever get around to writing the epic fantasy novel rolling around in my head I might have to adjust the math, but for now this is what I am doing.

An Acceptance and Other Writing News

2010-11-23T23:28:00.000-08:00

My short story, Blood of Warriors, Blood of Kings, just got accept to Iron Bound Ezine. I'll post a link when it is live. The story is a short fantasy piece that I wrote for one of our shootout competitions. So I got quite a bit of feedback on it, every author in the shoot out made comments. About half of them really liked and about half of them really didn’t. I got comments like- this was great, reminds me of Robert Howard, and I love sword and sorcery this was awesome. I also got- this reminds me of a bad fantasy movie. So if you like sword and sorcery you’ll probably like if you don’t, you probably won’t.
I made it to 5000 words in my new novel, The Blood Plague, and I am hoping to get another couple thousand words done before I go to bed. The novel is set in a fantasy world that is torn apart by a devastating plague. So it’s kind of an apocalyptic fantasy novel, and so far it has been really fun to write.
Finally, I received two more rejections for my novel, The Laws of Summer. One was a personal rejection. All the editors who read it say the same thing "We enjoyed your novel", "We like your writing style", etc. And then the big but comes, "But in the current economy, sword and sorcery fantasy is very hard to market” Sometimes they call it heroic fantasy, sometimes they just say fantasy, or sometimes they say novels in this genre, but they all mean the same thing.
I thought this might be some kind of industry standard rejection but many of the letters go on to talk about specific ways to improve the novel. Which I don't understand at all if it isn't marketable, but my rant about that is a little off topic so I will refrain from going on about it.
My conclusion?
The fantasy stories I like to write apparently aren't what publishers want. This leaves me with a couple of problems.
First, the novels I write are the kind that I like to read. Therefore, the novels I like to read are not "marketable" this must be why I am having so much trouble finding anything that looks interesting, from a new author, at the book store. My “books to read” shelf is growing smaller and smaller.
Second, main stream publishers have absolutely no interest in my novel. I have a few mid list publishers that I want to try, after that I am not sure what to do with the novel. I am not sure I want to send it to a small press. Not because I dislike small presses in any way or have anything bad to say about them. I have read a lot of good stuff from small presses in the last couple of years.

It is because Jessy and I own a small press, and it seems silly to send it to another small press to make 15% royalties when we could do it ourselves and make 100%. On the other hand we did not start Pill Hill to publish our own work. Not that there would be anything wrong with an owner of a small press publishing their own stuff. I already have a few short stories in some Pill Hill anthos (mostly because people didn't return contracts and we wanted to have a specific number of stories).

But if we publish my novel I am always going to wonder if it was good enough to publish. Yeah, I am one of those writers, the kind that thinks everything I write is crap until someone tells me different, then I assume that they also think it is crap but are trying to be nice.
Anyway, maybe I can find a small press that is well respected or one that pays advances. I’ll have to do a little research. If I send it to a small press I want to be sure they can bring something to the table that Pill Hill cannot. Hmmm…Or maybe I can spend half the night blogging in circles because I don’t really have a point and I am not sure what I want to do.
I am going to stop now and write a chapter in Blood Plague. Writing is so much easier than getting published.

I quit...

2010-11-22T00:38:00.000-08:00

It isn't by choice but I think I might have to quit nanowrimo. I was keeping my nano novel on a flash drive which has disappeared. I looked everywhere, by my wallet, by my computer, in the washer, in my wife's office, I even looked under the couch battling the couch bunnies to no avail.

The novel really wasn't going that well anyway. I was going to hit 50,000 words but it was going to need a lot of editing.

Tonight, during my writing time, I felt a little lost and started on one of my ideas that I got while doing nano. I made it to 2,000 words on that, but there is no way I will get to 50,000 in a week.

Another lesson learned as a writer, always save everything to the computer and the flash drive.

Below is an illustration of one possible, and most likely, solution to the case of the missing flash drive. In panel one I am carrying my flash drive, feeling the intense sense of accomplishment that nano brings.

In panel two I leave the flash drive on the table. I do this so that I can make a snack (a bowl of popcorn, and a slice of cheese) and pet my dog(not pictured). I like my dog, I share my cheese.

In panel three an Anti-Nano ninja (notice the throwing star)sneaks in a steals my flash drive. The Anti-Nano ninja's are a clandestine organization with the goal of foiling all attempts at nanowrimo, an event which they hate for both political and bovine related reasons.

In panel four (not pictured) I search furiously for my flash drive. I weep. Then I make a snack (beef jerky and nachos) and pet my dog. I like my dog. I share my beef jerky.

Sexual Assault on the Football Field

2010-11-20T23:04:00.000-08:00

So I just watched the Nebraska Cornhuskers game against Texas A&M. We lost. Some of the calls against us were a little questionable, but we really weren't playing that well anyway. But this is just kinda weird.

Here's the set up, our quarterback fumbles the ball. Our tight end, Ben Cotton, dives on the ball, and gets it back. A Texas player sees he had the ball and grabs him by the...um...well...one of the articles I read called it the sensitive upper thigh area. He proceeds to squeeze and twist our poor tight ends "sensitive upper thigh area", the tight end kicks him away.

The result?

Two penalties against a guy who is going to have to put ice on his crotch. It was a stange game. I'm going to bed.

Patrick Rothfuss Charity Drive

2010-11-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

I thought I would mention this to all you published novelist. New York Times best selling author, Patrick Rothfuss, has started his annual “World Builders” charity drive for Heifer foundation, which provides long term solutions to end world hunger, by giving livestock which provide eggs and milk and teaching them new agricultural techniques.

He is asking for donations of signed novels which will be raffled off, all proceeds will go to charity. If you feel like donating here is the address to send your books:

Patrick Rothfuss
PO BOX 186
Stevens Point, WI 54481

He is doing blog posts about the books he is getting: Here
You can surf around his blog and find out more.

For people not interested in donating things, they are raffling off some pretty cool things and will be having some auctions later in the year. Not all prizes are book related for example they will auctioning off a signed Brett Farve jersey.

But, in my opinion the coolest prize is a golden ticket (he will be auctioning one off, and giving one away in the raffle) which gets you one favor from Patrick Rothfuss. Here is what he said about the golden ticket last year:

You want your name in book two? We can do that. You want me to read your book and give you some criticism? No problem. You want me to attend your local convention, perform your wedding ceremony, or just give you a nice backrub? Consider it done.

A few stipulations:

• The favor has to be legal. (More or less.)

• It has to be something I can actually do. (Duh)

• I can’t make anyone fall in love.

The Best Book Ever Part 2: Cypher's Fall

2010-11-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

The Best Books Ever: Part Two Cipher’s Fall.

Okay so the sub title doesn’t make sense, but what did you really expect in a sequel? It caught your attention and that is all a subtitle is really for, anyway here’s the list.

Note: These are my favorite books of all time, the year that I read them has nothing to do with the year they were released.

11. My favorite book of 1989 was…The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis. I was in fourth grade, and I loved this book. The way the children entered Narnia was super awesome to me, it was years until I realized that social services probably should have taken the children from their guardian. Can anyone say child neglect?

12. My favorite book of 1990 was… The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. I blame this book and the Lord of the Rings series for all the $$ that I have spent on epic fantasy since then. Reading it was…well…epic.

13. My favorite book of 1991 was…Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. This book started a frenzy of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms reading and got me interested in D&D. So it is one of the contributing factors to my severe case of dateless-iotis in high school. But don’t let that dissuade you it really was a good book.

14. My favorite book of 1992 was...All The Weyrs of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. Science fiction dragons??? Wow!

15. My favorite book of 1993 was…The First Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen. The god’s created a great game and hand out magic swords to humans, just to see what happens. How fucking cool is that?

16. My favorite book of 1994 was... The Eye of the World by Roberts Jordan. Okay can you say coolest book ever? I was just starting high school and while I never really minded school and I did fake the flu for a couple of days so I could stay home and finish this one. Yeah I played hookie to read a book, I never claimed to be cool so stop laughing.

17. My favorite book of 1995 was… Guards, Guards by Terry Pratchett. While I knew that books could be entertaining and moving I never guessed that could be this funny. And while my sense of humor had matured slightly I still think this is funny today.

18. My favorite book of 1996 was.. Fire Sea by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I read the first two books in the Death Gate Cycle and thought they were good, but this one blew me away. An underground kingdom by a lake of fire whose inhabitants were Necromancers. That is all I needed to know. The cover pic for this is still the background on my cell phone.

19. My favorite book of 1997 was.. Homeland by RA Salvatore. This was a busy year for me, graduating high school and all. But I still found time for Drizzt, though I never did figure out how to say his name.

20. My favorite book of 1998 was… A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin. The good guys can die. What a concept.

21. My favorite book of 1999 was… The Bartender’s Black Book. I struggled with this one for awhile the year I turned twenty is a little hazy but I remember reading this one pretty often.

What's Happening

2010-11-17T10:49:00.000-08:00

I have continued my nano quest, and I am at 23,000 words, which puts me a little behind. But I did have company over the last week (mother-in-law was in town) and I should have plenty of time to finish up at the end of the month.

In other news:

One of my stories, Shaman Born, published in Aurora Wolf ezine will be in their print anthology. I am considering revisiting the world and doing a serialization of it.

I should be hearing back from a couple of publishers about my novels soon, I am over their estimated response times so it could be any day.

I have couple of new ideas brewing in the back of my head for other novels. Why is it that I always get so many ideas while I am immersed in writing something else?

Nano Update

2010-11-07T23:33:00.000-08:00

I don't have much else to blog about, my writing time has been completely taken up by nano. So here is a quick update. On day 4 I was over 4000 words behind. I have used the weekend to catch up and I am almost there. I have 11,117 words down, to be on pace I should be at 11,669. Which means I am about 500 words behind. That is a lot better than 4000.
I wanted to get a lot more done this weekend but I couldn't. My mother in law is coming to town on Wednesday and leaving on Monday. I really like her so it is cool, but I am not sure I will have any writing time.

The best book ever...

2010-11-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what books inspire a writer to write? Ever wonder how a super fantasy nerd is created?

Well I started to today at work (the library for those of you who don't know) when a seven year old was telling me about their favorite book, and had a very different favorite book than the one he told me about back in March.

Well, here it is folks, my list of my favorite books of my lifetime(haha I new I could use the word my three time in 8 words, I can cross that off my bucket list). Anyway this a year by year guide to all that is awesome in fiction, at least to me. As a precursor I have to say that this list took a bit of research, after all how am I suppose to remember what my favorite book was back in 1980?

I was only a year old for Christ’s sake, and trying to memorize your favorite book for a blog you are going to write thirty years later is just too much pressure for a one year old. Luckily my aunts and uncles had no problem remembering what my favorite books were, apparently I liked to have them read to me over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Much the way I reread The Lord of the Rings every other year.

In a side note I have broken this posting into three parts, because…well thirty books is a heck of a lot of reading, even when you are just reading about them.

So without further ado, here it is:

1. My favorite book of 1979 was… the letter A. In the months leading up to my milestone one year birthday I found the letter A to be a master work of literature. The two sweeping slopy sides connected by a hard horizontal slash, who could possibly disagree?

2. My favorite book of 1980 was…Duck. A simple book made on thick cardstock that had no author, the book Duck thrilled me with its wonderful graphics, until I tried to flush it down the toilet.

3. My favorite book of 1981 was…Go Dog, Go by PD Eastman this wonderful book included the timeless passage remembered by all “Now it is night. Three dogs at a party on a boat at night.” It still gets to me.

4. My favorite book of 1982 was… Sesame Street: The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone. Can you say surprise ending? This one was a shocker! The only thing that has even come close since was the sixth sense.

5. My favorite book of 1983 was… Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. I would eat them in a box with a fox!

6. My favorite book of 1984 was…The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie DePaola. In this epic 32 page tale a knight and a dragon prepare to do battle but at the end decided to open up a BBQ restaurant instead. Dragons and BBQ? Come on, you know you want to read it now.

7. My favorite book of 1985 was... a He-man mini-comic that came with my He-Man action figure. Skeletor vs He-man, do I need to say anything else?

8. My favorite book of 1986 was… a tough one to pick, I was entering first grade and my tastes were maturing. But I finally went with a Spider-man comic book. It doesn’t matter which comic, they were all super awesome.

9. My favorite book of 1987 was… Time Life Books Legends of Valor. If you have never tried any of the Time Life Enchanted Worlds books I still highly recommend them. They are an invaluable resource for any fantasy writer or eight year old boy.

10. My favorite book of 1988 was…Time Life Books The Fall of Camelot. This was my first introduction to King Arthur and his knights. For the rest of the year I read anything and everything I could find about the round table.

Ten down, only twenty-one to go. I promise the books will get a little more main stream as it goes. I knew I could find a way to procrastinate and put off nanowrimo, I just had to put my mind to it.

Nanowrimo

2010-11-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

I couldn’t help myself, I had to start my superhero/alien invasion novel. It just sounded like too much fun to pass up. Fun has been something lacking from my writing lately, which might be why Godswar is such a pain to write. So Godswar is officially shelved until at least the end of November more than likely longer, but I’ll get to that later.

I am just over 2000 words into my Nanowrimo novel, I am using one of my short story titles as the working title, A Time For Heroes, maybe when its done I’ll send it to some YA markets or something. Which brings me to another subject.

Last year I wrote three novels by just telling a story and having fun with my writing. This year I have about ¾ of one novel. The difference? Well for most of last year I was only working part time, so two of the novels were written when I had an extra 20 hours a week of writing time, but one of them was written after I got my promotion.

The other difference? Last year I was just telling stories, and having fun as I wrote. Then came a slew of rejections, all saying pretty much the same thing “We enjoyed your writing style but we do not feel that your novel is marketable…blah, blah, blah, etc.” Then I started Godswar, and spent the better part of a year worrying about how to make it marketable as I wrote it.

It didn’t work. Not at all.

The numbers can tell the story, last year 260,000 words written, this year 43,000. Valuable lesson learned and it only took me nine months. I need to stop worrying about marketability and start writing for me again. So it is time to write A Time For Heroes, after that one of the half dozen ideas that came to me while I was trying to plow through Godswar.

November

2010-11-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

So Halloween is over, we had more trick or treaters this year than ever before. I think it was due to the weather. The 50 degree temperatures made for a balmy night for Nebraska in October. We didn’t do much, besides hand out candy. We watched the Vikings lose to the Patriots, and saw our play-off hopes dwindling, and we ate a bunch of Halloween candy.

The end of October also marks the beginning of Nanowrimo, National Novel Writing Month for those who do not know the acronym. I didn’t want to shelve Godswar for a month, but last night I had an idea that I can’t seem to shake.

I have two short stories both set in a world of super heroes after an alien invasion. Most of the super powered folk were killed in the first days, but there are still a few heroes (and villains) fighting off the invaders. Last night I started toying with the idea of making it a full length novel.

If I can find any time to get write this week then I might try to write this novel for nanowrimo.

A new look

2010-10-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

I am finally done. With my 100th post I decided to amp up the blog, I changed the color scheme, and the side bars. I also added the nifty links on the top of the page. The menu was an…um…interesting…yeah that’s what I’ll call it…venture into the unfamiliar realm of html. But all in all I think it came out pretty well. I am finally done. With my 100th post I decided to amp up the blog, I changed the color scheme. I think I got everyone from my old blog list in the new link section, if not please drop me a line via my new handy dandy contact form.

I guess now I actually have to spend my free time writing.

Halloween

2010-10-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

So last week we went on vacation, and now I am just trying to catch up. I had fifty submissions to read for Shadows & Light, the library book sale was this week, and I have a library “basic skills” class to complete online. Due to a slight mix up on my part, the class started during my vacation which means I have two assignments and a quiz to do by the end of the day, which of course, being the great procrastinator that I am, means that it is time for me to write a rambling blog about Halloween that doesn’t really have much of a point. Other than being my 100th post, cue the music and confetti!

Even though I am sitting in a room with every single wall decorated for Halloween what really made me think of it was that it snowed for a little bit yesterday. It wasn’t much of a snow, it was 40 degrees or about 4 degrees Celsius, and the snow only lasted for two minutes.

Why do I associate snow with Halloween? Because it snowed on every Halloween except one when I was a kid. I would spend a month agonizing over my costume and arguing with the other children over who had the “coolest costume” only to cover the whole fucking thing up with a heavy winter coat and snow boots.

Now I realize that the whole thing was just another chapter in the epic struggle of man versus nature, but as a kid it kind of pissed me off, as it did for the other children. When kids went out and played “tricks” egging houses, smashing jack-o-lanterns, and covering trees in toilet paper they had a damn good reason.

The one Halloween it didn’t snow I was probably too old to go trick or treating. I had decided not to go, but I got out of school and it was 70 degrees, so I dug through my closet till I found a cowboy hat and a toy gun. It was a pretty bad costume considering the closest thing I had to a western shirt was a button up Hawaiian print shirt, but the candy that Halloween was oh so sweet and plentiful. It was a truly magical Halloween. Every Jack-o-lantern was safe. No trees were covered in diaphanous strands of Charmin, and not a single house was covered in the yellow ichor of shattered baby chickens.

Flash forward 18 years to today. It is four days until All Hallow’s Eve. It is only 35 degrees, the sky is cloudy. I am preparing myself to have my home assaulted by children who have been frustrated and pushed to their limit by mother nature. Mother nature doesn’t care how badly they want to be a pretty fairy, or how strong they feel in their Superman costume, she just wants to ruin their good time. I feel bad for them, I have a feeling that a whole bunch of children are going to learn firsthand what a bitch mother nature can be, and by logical extrapolation what a real bitch life can be.

A Free Story

2010-10-17T01:51:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Just found out my story Against the Grain, first printed in Shadows & Light: Tales of Lost Kingdoms and reprinted online by Golden Visions is no longer available. I thought I would post it here rather than try to get it published again. Enjoy!

Against The Grain
By Alva J. Roberts

Gareth ran his hands over the unfinished wood, feeling for any rough spots or irregularities. The chair he was working on would be his master’s piece. It had to be perfect—every seam joined flawlessly, the ornate work on the back and legs carved with a master’s touch. He was in the final stages of creation.

Grains of saw dust drifted down from his dark brown hair. So intent was he on his work, the world around him fell away. He loved working with wood, watching as the things he crafted took shape beneath his fingertips, as if they were his children, and he was breathing life into them.

Almost three hours later, he sat the chair on top of his work bench, almost done. He needed to stain it in the morning, but for tonight, he was finished.
His master, Norman, left hours ago.

Gareth snuffed out the candles gleaming around the room, making sure they were out. Few things could ruin a furniture shop faster than fire. A single mage lamp illuminated the shop as he left. The magical lights were expensive, but Norman liked a steady light when he carved a piece. He closed the door behind him, welcoming the air thick with the chill of coming winter.

“Gareth! You’ve been in there half the night,” Jora’s called out accusingly.

“Jora, don’t be like that. I have to finish my master’s piece. How else will I support us when we are married?”

“Hmph,” she grumbled. “I have no problem with you finishing your master’s piece, but you said we would have dinner together. If you were going to be in there all night, you should have said so. I’m starving.”

Gareth looked down, avoiding her eyes. He had said they would eat, but he got so wrapped up in his piece that he had forgotten.

“I’m sorry, Jora. It will never happen again.”

“You don’t mean it. This is the fourth time in the last three weeks. If you want to be my husband, I have to be more important to you than wood.”
Jora turned away, marching down the dark cobblestone street. Even in the half-light of the new moon, he could see how angry she was.

“Jora, wait!” Gareth called.

A scream echoed through the village, and Gareth could hear men yelling. He watched as Jora turned toward the sound.

There was a blinding flash of light, and Jora’s body flew through the air, smashing into the smithy. Gareth stared at here prone form, shock filling his entire being.

“Jora!”

He sprinted foward, his hands shaking as he turned over her body. Let her be alive, by the four Gods, let her be alive. Gareth felt a lump form in his throat as tears ran down his face.

She was breathing. His hands came away sticky with blood, but it was too dark to see from where it came. He picked up her body, running for the workshop.

“Hey, where do think you’re going? She’s ours!” an angry voice called after him.
Gareth ignored the voice.

When he reached the workshop, he sat Jora down as gently as he could near the door.

He fished his keys out of his pocket, and hurled the door open.

He tossed the chair, his master‘s piece, to the side like it was scrap lumber. It clattered against the floor, and Gareth did not care if it broke.

In the pale green glow of the mage light, he could see a large gaping wound the size of his fist in her side. Blood flowed from the wound in a thick, crimson river.

“Jora! Jora! Wake up!” Gareth screamed, ripping off his shirt, pressing it against the wound to staunch the flow of blood.

“Gareth? It hurts. It hurts real bad,” Jora cried in a weak, pain filled whisper.

“I told you she was ours!” an angry voice shouted. “This whole village is ours!”
Gareth looked over his shoulder, keeping pressure on Jora’s wound. Three armor clad men stood in the door. They shimmered, reflecting the fitful light of the mage lamp.

“Let me get him,” one of the men snarled.

“No, look what you did to her. Dachis has a deft touch, and it’ll last longer,” the first speaker said.

Dachis lifted his hand and pointed at Gareth. There was a flash of bright light, and then something struck his chest, flinging him through the air to smash into his master’s workbench. Tools of every sort clattered to the floor.

He could not breathe and sucked hard at the air. His chest throbbed as if he had been kicked by a horse. Blood ran down his torso from a small, blistering burn over his heart.

“You see what I mean, Halthin?” the first speaker asked.

“Whatever, I tagged her. So I get her while she’s still breathing. You two have your fun torturing the carpenter—I’ll have my fun with his woman.

Jora! Gareth struggled to his knees. His hands snaked out, picking up a hammer and a chisel, and then he sucked in a deep breath, readying himself.

He surged to his feet, the hammer flying from his hand with all the strength he could muster. The ungainly missile flew through air, spinning end over end, cracking into Haltin’s head.

Gareth rushed forward, swinging his arm out wide in a roundhouse swing. The chisel sank up to the handle in Dachis’ stomach. Dachis brought up his hand, engulfed in a pulsing blue fire. Gareth grabbed the wizard’s wrist and forced his arm to the side.
Gareth’s big work-calloused hand connected with Dachis face, knocking him to the ground, and then he turned to face the last intruder. The man stood in front of him, his arms crossed.

“You are very resourceful. You killed both of my Sparks with… carpenter’s tools. But I am not as foolish as they, and I am not a Spark!”

The air around Gareth turned solid. He yanked and jerked, but could not move. Everything below his neck was trapped.

“What do you want?” Gareth screamed, almost crying in frustration. Jora lay a few feet away, dying.

“I am not a Spark, I am a Breeze. As easily as they controlled fire, I control air. We came here to conquer. Your people will be enslaved, your valuables will be taken.” Something invisible, but hard as stone, smashed into Gareth’s face. “Amazing what can be done with air. We chose your village because you backward simpletons had never heard of elemental magic. That made your home perfect for our needs. Don’t worry, not many will die—they will be worth more as slaves.”

“Bastard!” Gareth screamed, thrashing back in forth in his invisible bonds.

The invisible club crashed into Gareth’s face again, and again. The world was spinning, and blood ran from his nose and split lip, his eyes swelling shut. The beating did not stop for a long while.

The man laughed, turning his back to Gareth. The wizard’s gleaming eyes locked onto to Jora, watching her die.

Gareth concentrated on moving, at stopping the man. Something inside of him shifted. His mind stretched as bright lights flashed across his vision.

Something creaked from the floor near the workbench. The wizard did not see it, but Gareth could feel it inside his head, as if he had grown another arm or leg across the room.

The chair he crafted so meticulously slid across the floor, tipping onto its legs, and waddled a few steps.

The man’s attention was focused on Jora, his smile joyful as he watched Jora’s blood drip to the ground.

The chair wobbled and rushed forward. Its back cracked apart into sharp points, then jumped through the air. The jagged tips stabbed through the wizard’s stomach, blood flowing down the clean wood, staining it red.

His invible bonds broken, Gareth fell to the floor, crawled through the growing pool of warm blood to the work bench. He grasped the top, forcing his tired, injured body to stand.

His hand reached out for Jora’s cheek, caressing it. He stared at her chest, willing it to rise and fall. Her flesh was cold, she was not breathing—he was too late.

“Jora! You can’t leave me. No. No. No.”

Tears mixed with the blood running down Gareth’s face. His chest thundered with pain as he collapsed to the ground, curling into a ball, sobs wracking his body.
It was too much for his strained will to take.

Blessed darkness stole consciousness from him.

***
Hours later, Gareth awoke. His face stuck to the dried blood on the floor when he tried to lift his head, and awareness flooded through him as he remembered the events of the night before.

He stood, up his legs shaking. Jora’s body lay on the workbench, looking as if she was sleeping, except her face had lost its color. Gareth stared at her corpse, feeling numb.

He stretched out his mind as he had the night before. The workbench clattered a few feet to the right. He watched the huge table moving. It was so easy—he would have loved to show Jora.

Tears ran down his face again as rage and sorrow burned in the pit of his stomach, a harsh bitter feeling he had never felt before.

The invaders would die for their actions. The building shook with magic as his anger swelled, growing stronger and stronger, drowning out every hurt and pain.

He kicked open the door to the workshop. Bodies dotted the street, like rotting leaves at the end of autumn. His anger built, higher and higher, as he stalked the streets.

The invaders had to still be there.

He saw them as he turned the corner onto the village green. There were at least twenty of the men in the strange armor. The remaining villagers knelt on the ground, their hands bound, their mouths gagged.

Gareth lifted his hand, stretching out his mind. The inn rumbled and shook, and with a crack, huge planks flew off the roof, speeding toward the wizards. The impact cut one wizard in half, with four of his conspirators buried under the thick wood.

Gareth’s hand slid over to the well. It groaned as the posts pulled themselves free from the ground and stomped at the men, swinging its bucket on a long rope. The wooden fence around the weaver’s shop yanked free from the earth, the boards transforming into the shapes of men and strode toward the slavers.

The Sparks shouted and fire leapt out, engulfing the well, burning it to cinders within seconds. A thick wall of air smashed the wooden men to pieces, the Breezes adding their magic to the defense. The splinters flew in a brown cloud across the green.

Gareth needed more. His hand moved back to the inn. Boards tore off the building, forming man-like shapes, faster and faster, running at the huddle of wizards. Some of the wooden structures picked up rocks, hurling them at their foes. The rocks bounced off a shield of air, and the wooden men burned to nothing.

Gareth felt something inside his head rip. Blood ran from his nose, from his ears. He glanced over at the slender delicate wood of the gazebo. The long poles snapped away, collapsing the roof. They spun in the air, shavings falling away, as the ends formed into to sharp points.

They zoomed through the air and slammed into the earth, twirling and spinning as they dug their way underground.

The wizards looked around for another attack, but none came. One of them saw Gareth and pointed. They turned, as one, balls of fire flying through the air, thick blocks of solidified air coming toward him.

Gareth closed his eyes, waiting…but felt nothing. He opened his weary eyes, watching with awe as wooden spears grew from the ground, piercing the chests of each of the wizards.

Jora was avenged.

Gareth smiled, falling to the ground. The pulsing throb of his thundering heart echoed in his ears. Pain wracked his body, and he thought his heart would explode.
People swarmed around him, but he could not open his eyes.

He would see Jora soon.

“Is he okay?” a voice asked.

“He’ll be fine with a little rest,” the village healer said.

Gareth’s awareness faded with the painful thought, knowing it would be a long time before he saw Jora again.

Deadwood...

2010-10-15T13:13:00.000-07:00

So we are going on Vacation in Deadwood.

When I tell people this they give me a blank look, their only knowledge of Deadwood coming from the TV show. I even got asked if we would have running water. So here is some clarification.

Deadwood South Dakota is a little over two hours from us. There are right around 2,000 permanent residents of Deadwood. So it is just a small town and there are a lot of old west themed things to do.

But the reason Deadwood is such a fun vacation spot are the 18 full size casinos, and the dozens of slot machines in gas stations, and bars. They are all on a single street, with little weird shops in between. It is like going to a mini Las Vegas, where every casino is within walking distance.

We are going because our windows in our house are being replaced and we didn't want to deal with the workers tromping around. So, we found a hunting lodge for the same price as a hotel, we can take out dogs. There are four bedrooms, and two bathrooms, a kitchen and a hot tub, all within 10 minutes of downtown Deadwood. (By the way if you ever need to take your dogs with you on vacation check out Vacation Rentals By Owners they have homes all over the world that you can rent like a hotel room, and many of them allow pets) Even better, no internet, no cell phones. I am taking my laptop to write when I get bored of gambling and hot tubing and about five different books I've been meaning to read.

We are leaving Monday, and coming back on Friday. That means I have nine days off of work, the most time I have had off in the last ten years, and I am getting paid for five days of it! That's right my benefits from my promotion have kicked in and I have paid vacation time to use!

So this weekend we are going to clean a little bit, and pack. Then it is off to Deadwood. I won't be posting for awhile, but don't worry even if I hit the multi-million jackpot I still plan on writing, now the day job...that's another story.

Book Recommendation

2010-10-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

I am in a reflective mood today, and I began thinking about my rather uneventful high school days. I spent most of high school in my room reading a book, very different from my college days most of which I spent drinking large quantities of alcohol and making and ass of myself.

Anyway, I decided to post two book recommendations for books I read back in high school. So here are a few recommendations that have been colored by the years between me reading them and recommending them to today. Some might not be as good as I remember having been visited by the “suck fairy”. To read more about the suck fairy visit HERE, they may have also been visited by the super awesome fairy and are much better than I remember.

The books themselves are both about a distant future, which seemed oddly fitting. Reflecting about my past experience of reading about the future. Of course there is a slight chance that this blog post might tear the fabric of space and time. But I am willing to risk it.

Okay up first, The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

These books are about a distant future of earth where magic has returned. There are two magical races one evil and one good that lesser peoples worship as gods.

The good magical race sunders the earth into worlds based on elements and imprisons the evil magic users. The main character of the series is a scout for the evil magic users, they are returning and need to find out the state of the world.

These books are great, I love the characters and the depth of the world. I have been afraid to reread them because Book 3 Fire Seas is on my favorite books of all time list and I would hate to take it off.

Next up the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey

I started the series with All the Weyrs of Pern, the 11th book in the series. All the Weyrs of Pern starts with Dragon Riders unearthing a super computer.
This was the first novel I had ever read that really blended fantasy and sci-fi together. I remember being amazed that something so cool could exist. Basically the plot of the series is that humans colonize Pern in the distant future. As they are enjoying their new earth-like planet Thread begins falling from the skies. Thread is an unintelligent organism from outer space that eats all organic material.

This is a real problem since they were trying to build a low-tech society and did not bring most of their technology from Earth. The solution? Genetically engineer dragons, which they ride, to fight Thread. How awesome is that?

There you go to book series from my distant past that helped shape what I read today. If you haven’t tried them go out and do so now. Anyway see you next time.

Getting Book Reviews

2010-10-08T07:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, I thought I would do a post about getting book reviews. Before I start I have to say that I am not an expert, but I have tried to get reviews for every novel Pill Hill Press has published and I marketed the heck out of the anthologies I have edited. So this is just what I do, after much trial and error.

Getting book reviews can be a frustrating thing, and often times does not lead to any apparent sales. But getting the word out there is improtant, and there is no telling if some of the later sales come from these reviews or not, plut once you can quote one or two good reviews it is easier to get reviews in larger places that will get sales.

First of all I use Google to find book reviewers. Terms such as "sci-fi book review", "fantasy book review blog" or "horror news" will give you a bunch of sites to email. I make a list as I go and then send out emails once I am done. News sites might not do book reviews but they will post that the book is available, usually including the blurb.

There are tons of book reviewers online. The bigger review sites might not ever get to your book. We have sent out dozens of books to larger reviewers, and have only gotten a few reviews from them. Of course a large reviewer will mean sales, while a small reviewer probably won't. So far for us the best results have come from medium size review sites, with followers in the hundreds. A review on one of them will sell enough copies to pay for postage, and the cost of a book, the first day the review is posted.

This does not mean that we don't send out a couple of review copies to larger places. We just pick two or three to send books to. Maybe someday the copies we send to Locus, or Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine will garner a review. If they ever do I will post if it is worth it sales wise, I don't see how it couldn't be.

How many requests for book reviews do I send out? That depends on the book, I have sent at least fifteen requests for everyone of our novels. For Zero Gravity I have now sent out sixty emails, which is the most I have sent out for any book. I sent out about thirty the first weekend the book came out, and then I send a few more very week.

From those sixty emails, I sent out 12 PDF copies and five hard copies. I always offer the book in both formats. Emailing a PDF is free, and some book reviewers prefer them, of course some don't so be sure to check what the reviewer prefers.

In my email I always start by telling them who I am and who Pill Hill Press is. Then I tell them right off what the subject of my email is. Something like Dear (insert name) My name is Alva Roberts, I am an editor at Pill Hill Press, a small publisher of speculative fiction. We have recently published a sci-fi anthology, Zero Gravity: Adventures in Deep Space, and I was wondering if you would be interested in a review copy, in either PDF or paper formats.

Then I try to hook the reviewer in. This is a lot like hooking a reader with the beginning of a story. For Zero Gravity it was pretty simple, many of the authors published in the anthology had novels already in print. So I looked for book reviewers that liked their novels and mentioned that the author had a story in Zero Gravity. Or I looked for reviewers that liked "Adventurous Sci-fi". The point is you need to find some way to get a reviewers interest.

Book reviewers are much more likely to review a larger press publication. And through trial and error I have found reviewers prefer novels to anthologies or single author collections. The hardest thing I have found to get review for are novella collections. I am not sure why this is, but its true. So if you are trying to promote an anthology, novella collections, or single author collection the hook is much more important. On the other hand if you are not confident that you can hook them in a couple of sentences then skip it. Just a simple request and book information will get some reviews.

After the hook, I paste in the book blurb, the ISBN, and a link to where they can purchase the book, usually Amazon, I also mention where else the book is available. Pill Hill Press books are distributed through Ingram, so they are available through most online retailers. Book reviewers like to know the details of a book, and the like to know it is readily available. The Amazon link also lets them see the cover which is why two of the book reviewers said they would review Zero Gravity.

Next I will put in a snippet of other reviews if I have them. Here is one I used for Zero Gravity:

If you love stories about lone-wolf pilots, sentient spaceships, interplanetary power politics, rogue computers, lost colonies, and Terrors From Beyond, Zero Gravity, a new anthology of science fiction adventures from Pill Hill Press, will light your boosters and shove you deep into your acceleration couch- Fred Warren- Residential Aliens.

This is a great quote, I absolutely love it. Many thanks to Fred Warren and Residential Aliens for it. Read The Whole Review Here

I always end the email formally, and thank the reviewers for their time. Time is one of the most precious commodities that people have, and them taking the time just to read my email is, at the very least, worth a heartfelt thank you.

I also reply with a thank you to everyone who emails me back. Of those sixty emails about ten of them never got answered. So a polite I am too busy right now, gets another thank you.

I send out review copies immediately, if it is a hard copy I send a press release and a letter with the book. The letter reminds them who I am and thanks them once again. Reviewers are very busy people, who get tons of books. Being polite never hurts anything, and reminding them who I am might remind them why they wanted to read the book.

Finally don't get discouraged if you don't get any reviews at first. The first volume of Shadows & Light came out in September and we immediately sent a copy to Midwest book review. The review didn't come out until April. A copy of Twisted Legends that we sent to Bitten By Books got reviewed almost a year after we sent it, and resulted in new interest in the book.

Like I said before book reviewers are busy people, authors really need to understand that, and not hassle them.

A final note, some book reviews have resulted in noticeable sales, others have not. But each one gets the word out there and that is a good thing even if you can't see the results.

As far as book promotions go it is a pretty inexpensive thing that seems to work. The only other thing that has worked better so far, at least for Pill Hill, is when an author arranges a book signing or gets a local book store to carry their novel, author interviews have also worked but that totally depends on the venue, but those are topics for other blogs.

New Story Online

2010-10-06T22:31:00.000-07:00

Well it is sort of a new story. It was originally published in Horror Through the Ages, an anthology by the now defunct Lame Goat Press.

The story is called Roman Blood, and it is a mixture of horror and historical fiction. A roman legion meets a group of angry vampires in this short, just over a thousand word, story.It has been reprinted in Blood Moon Risings Halloween issue.

Read It Here!

I Just Asked To Be A Writer

2010-10-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

So I had planned to hammer out a chapter of Godswar, maybe two. The characters have just entered the swamp of Yvan god of rot, and have discovered a ruined city that had been swallowed by the swamp, while being chased by Yvan's vile servants, Joshua has just been bitten by a bog wolf, and might bleed out.

These parts of my novels almost write themselves, I have set myself up with a ton of possibilities, great characters, and a wonderful setting where almost anything can happen. I am sure my imagination will run wild once I get to actually writing them. I didn’t write any fiction this weekend, not a word. That is the first time this has happened since I started trying to write professionally.

What happened was that I was looking over a few websites of YA publishers. This is a pretty common thing for me to do. I am a children’s librarian, and it gives me something to do online at work, that doesn’t feel like work.

Anyway while looking over these websites I found that one of them, that publishes a shared world, doesn’t want you to write a book in their world. If you are interested in writing for them you send them a writing sample and they hire you to write a book.
This seemed like a great use for the nearly 200,000 words in novels I have sitting around waiting to be published. So I gave the first three chapters of The Laws of Summer a solid edit and prepared all the other stuff I needed to, cover letter, biography, etc.(One company asks for a fromal book proposal and a sample, so I had to come up with the idea for a novel and an outline, without ever writing any of it)

Then I looked at other YA publishers and I found two more that do the same thing. It was awesome. The best part was that I read books from all of these publishers as a child or a teen. I am very familiar with their worlds, and their books.

So I spent the weekend, writing book proposals, and preparing samples of my writing. It was a different experience. For some of the up and coming authors who read my blog, this might be a good avenue to get your first book published. Check out some YA sites and see what the guidelines are, sending book proposals takes time but it doesn't take nearly as much as writing the novel.

Today I sent one book proposal and two requests to be a writer.

I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.

Barton's Players Published

2010-10-02T07:11:00.001-07:00

My short story Barton's Players is up on Moon Drenched Fables.

Read it Here!

This is an exciting publication for me. This is I think the third or fourth short story that I wrote after deciding to become a writer, and it is the only one that didn't get published right away. But I recently did a major edit and bam-o, it got published by the next place I sent it to.

It is the fantasy story of a troup of "players" who comes up with a complex plan to rob the richest man in the kingdom...the king.

Clash of the Geeks

2010-09-23T11:09:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know about the Clash of the Geeks anthology. Here is the blurb from the website:

Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi and Subterranean Press are proud to announce the publication of Clash of the Geeks, a special and fantastical electronic chapbook featuring stories by Wheaton, Scalzi, New York Times bestseller Patrick Rothfuss, Norton Award winner and Hugo Best Novel nominee Catherynne M. Valente, Hugo and Nebula Award nominee Rachel Swirsky and others, for the benefit of the Michigan/Indiana affiliate of the Lupus Alliance of America. The chapbook is free to download, but voluntary payment is strongly encouraged, via Paypal or by tax-deductible donation forms, both linked to later in this entry. All proceeds from this chapbook will go to the Michigan/Indiana affiliate of the Lupus Alliance of America. Please enjoy the stories, link your friends to this page — and give!

Here is a link where you can download the book for free, or make a donation to the Lupus Foundation.

Linky-poo

As someone with a mild form of Lupus this is a charity that is very personal to me, and I encourage everyone to donate or at least read some of the stories. I mean how often do you get to read about a unicorn-pegasus-kitten aka Unigaten, Kigarn, Pegicten...hmmm I'll work on the names a bit. Anyway it's pretty cool.

Creative Bloggers Award

2010-09-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

So Emma Kathryn nominated me for the Creative Blogger Award over at her always entertaining blog Beware the Vampire Bunnies. It was very nice of her and I have to say a big thank you to her.

The way the award works is that I must give 6 funky lies and 1 weird truth, or 6 weird truths and 1 funky lie and it's up to you guys to figure it out. The second part is that I have to nominate five more people so in no particular order the nominees are:

D. Nathan Hilliard- A Dark and Stormy Blog
William Wood- Write Brane
Martin T. Ingham- Three Cents Worth
Harper Hull- This Is Hanging Rock
CB Calsing- Writer CB Calsing’s Blog

If you get the chance check out thier blogs, they are a great way to kill time when you should be writing or working.

Now for my part it is up to you guys to figure out the truth and the lies:

1. I have a steel plate in my jaw
2. On my 20th birthday I rolled my car while only going 15mph
3. I have broken my little toe (on my right foot) twenty-five times
4. My wife and I managed a bar in upstate New York for about a year
5. I collect ancient roman coins
6. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Applied History (Museum Studies)

Done stalking

2010-09-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

In my last post I said I was stalking Duotrope's, watching one market like and eagle. Well, I heard back from them, it was a rejection but it kind of made me more excited than some of my acceptances.

It was a professional paying market that usually sends form rejections but I got a personal rejection. The rejection said the editor liked my story and gave few very specific helpful hints, and said that story had some problems with pacing. It also went on to state that I came very close to being accepted and the editor asked that I please consider sending them a story in the future.

It was actually kind of cool.

Half way there...

2010-09-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

The weather is starting to change here, fall in Nebraska is always such an interesting time. The leaves are changing, and there is a chill in the air. It gets down into the 30s and 40s at night and during the day it warms up into the 70s and 80s. You can feel the change coming, I bet sometime within the next month we will have the first snow.

I have always loved fall, I hate being hot and once winter arrives it will get too cold to leave the house but for a few months the weather will be perfect. Of course I don't spend much time out in the weather, because fall is my favorite time to write.

I have never been able to figure out why the ideas seem to flow so smoothly around this time of year, but I love it and take advantage of it. Last year I wrote the end of of one novel and an entirely new novel between the months of September and December.

Fall is also a time for looking back, and as I stalked Doutrope's today (I have a story in at a pro paying market that has been waiting for 53 days, and when I click the new link on Doutrope's I see that they are sending out a bunch of 15-25 day rejections, I am hoping this is a good sign) I looked back at my writing career via the online database.

In three months I will have been writing for two years. In that time I have written 45 short stories and 3 novels. I have subbed these stories and novels 239 times and, including reprints, I have had 39 acceptances. I still have 12 stories and all three novels subbed out right now. I have put about 500,000 words to paper. I wonder how many words a day I have been writing on average?

Hmmm... That sounds like a project for next time I am super bored and have a hankerin' to do some math. (More than likely never)

But my point is that I had no idea I had written so many stories or that I had sent them to so many places. I just focus on the current project and forget about the rest. I have heard that you aren't ready to write a really good novel until you have written 1 million words, well it looks like I am half way there.

A Few Updates

2010-09-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

The Pill Hill Press shoot-out is over, I ended up with a score of 29.57 which put me in second place to William Wood who had a score of 29.94. I was very excited to come in second place with such a great group of writers.

It was a confidence boost I needed, I have gotten seven short story rejections in the past week. ~sigh~

But I started using the pyramid form of sending stories out. It is where you send your stories to the highest paying markets first and then send them in to smaller markets afterward. It sounds like common sense, but before I was just sending my stories to what ever publication caught my eye rather than worry about payment.

I decided that I really want to be a member of SFWA, it is my new goal with short fiction. I really didn't expect a pro paying market to nab up one of my stories, but it would have been nice.

As I wait for the next inevitable round of rejections I started working on Godswar again. I figured out where I went wrong, and had to cut nearly 20,000 words to get back to the point where I took the wrong path, but I am writing steadily again and have gotten almost 8,000 words written in the last two weeks, a far cry from the 2,000 words I got done in the entire month of June and July.

I know where the novel is going and I have clear path set in my mind. The words are just flowing, I love that feeling.

I think the problem that I could only write once a week, and I wasn't going back to review what I had already done. So I would just read the chapter before and say "hmmm, looks like its a chase scene, and then start writing. Well, that one chase scene lasted for the entire 20,000 words I cut. It was very...um...exciting...yeah thats what I'll call it.

I started writing brief synopsis of my novel as I go. After I finish each chapter I write the synopsis of the chapter. Should make it easier when its time to edit anyway, and then if I take a break from the novel I can know what is going on.

Another Reprint

2010-09-01T20:34:00.001-07:00

My story from Pill Hill Press' Fourhorsemen anthology has been reprinted online at Static Movement. It is a story of a family torn apart by civil war in a fantasy world. I know that sounds very dramatic but don't worry the entire thing takes place on a battle field, so there is a lot of action.

Read It Here!

Story Online

2010-09-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I just had my story from Pandora's Nightmare reprinted online at Mirror Dance. So if you didn't get a chance to read it, why not check it out?

The story is called,Epimetheus' Palace. This story is about Pandora and a couple of soldiers who must return to Epimetheus' Palace years later to close Pandora's Box.
Read It Here

What's goin' on

2010-08-18T07:09:00.000-07:00

I have been a little negligent in posting here. So what has been happening lately?
I have written three short stories for the Pink Elephant shoot-out and scored three rounds. My first story (for the bloody carnival theme) was about a possessed carnival ride, my second (for the aliens on earth theme) was a story of a group of super-heroes after the aliens have taken over the earth.

I am still waiting for the scores on round 3 before I can post about my story but eight now my average score is 14.67 which puts me in second place, first place has a score of 15.53 and there are two others who have more than 14 points. The last prompt is spell-casters which is right up my alley, but I need to come up with a story that has wide spread appeal.

My story from Pandora’s Nightmare was accept as a reprint online at Mirror Dance. This continues my goal of getting my print stories online, so that more people can read them.

Other things going on?
Well are house, for the most part, is back together. The windows are all bordered up, the glass is cleaned up and new windows are scheduled to go in. Jessy and I are planning a week long vacation so that we don’t have to be there when they are working on the house. We found a pet friendly cabin near Deadwood South Dakota, about an hour and half from home. This will be the first time we have ever taken our dogs with us on vacation, and it should eliminate a lot of the worries.

Plus, Deadwood is just a fun place. A couple dozen casinos, museums, little shops, all in a town of about 10,000 people. Our cabin also has a hot tub, playstation, tv, etc. So even if we stay in, we should have a good time.

Last week we went to see a Bob Dylan concert. My wife and my father in law LOVE Dylan so this is the the third concert I have been to. Bob Dylan's music is good so I don't mind and concerts are fun anyway. The difference with this one is that it was during the Sturgis Biker Rally.

It was standing room only and there were just too many people for me to feel comfortable. There were people touching me on all sides. People who were drinking and needed a shower.

And there were too many have dressed women for me to feel comfortable having my wife there. No matter which direction I looked there were topless women, so I spent the whole time trying not to look in any one direction too long. I knew that if I did I would hear about it later.

Jessy and I wandered off from the crowd and found a little hill we could sit on by ourselves and still see the stage. So we both ended up having fun. In the end, the music was good, but I don't want to go back to Sturgis during the biker rally.

Zero Gravity Available!

2010-08-16T00:30:00.000-07:00

The sci-fi anthology I edited is now available: Here

This thrilling collection features thirteen fantastic adventures set in the cold vacuum of space. Read about rogues, scoundrels, aliens, robots, heroes, junkers and priests as you explore the rich and creative diversity of the following stories:

Junker’s Fancy By Rosemary Jones, Leech Run By Scott W. Baker, A Space Romance By Paul A. Freeman, Hawking’s Caution By Mark Rivett, Parhelion By David Schembri, To Stand Among Kings By Kenneth Mark Hoover, The Unicorn Tree By Alethea Kontis, The Beacon of Hope By Gregory L Norris, Tangwen’s Last Heist By C.B. Calsing, The Stand-Ins By Gef Fox, Glacier Castle By Will Morton, Rescue By Margaret Karmazin, At One Stride Comes the Dark By Murray Leeder

Some of the more well known writers include:

Rosemary Jones author of City of the Dead (Forgotten Realms), Murray Leeder author of Sons of Thunder (Forgotten Realms), Alethea Kontis New York Times bestselling children’s book author, Gregory L Norris author of The Q Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and episodes of Star Trek Voyager, Paul A. Freeman author of Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers(Coscom Entertainment), Kenneth Mark Hoover author of Fereblau(Five Star), Margaret Karmazin author of the novel Replacing Fiona(etreasures) and David Schembri a respected member of the Australian Horror Writers Association.

The Aftermath

2010-07-27T22:41:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot of writig getting done. I did edit my story for the pink elephant shoot out. But mostly I've been working on the house, but that is over for awhile. The windows are boarded up, we got as much glass as we could out of the carpets, and the insurance appraisers been here. We have to wait for the insurance company to get back to us. Which means soon we will start getting bids from contractors, and then the work will start. I bet it is October before it is all said and done. Here are a couple of storm pictures. These were posted on chadrad.com the local radio station's website. I might post some pics of the damage to our house but it is mostly windows and one broken window looks a lot like another.

It was a dark and stormy night...

2010-07-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

Last night a major storm hit our little town. Thunderstorms are common through out the summer but this one was huge. Power poles were knocked down, trees were uprooted, and the police are advising no one enter the trail park. Apparently multiple trailers were knocked off thier foundation and one was actually picked up by the wind and dropped on top of another one.

The damage at our house seems minor in comparison to that. Our roof is leaking, some of the stucco was knocked off the outer walls, and nine windows were shattered by the baseball sized hail. We had a rough time sleeping last night, our bed was covered in broken glass and hail during the storm. We ended up pulling our old mattress out of the basement and sleeping in the living room (I knew there was a reason I didn't throw it away, I was not just being lazy, as Jessy keeps telling me)

We lost power, cable, and internet for most of the night. But all our services are back up and know I am starting to think about our reaction to the storm itself. I think remembering might help me when/if I ever write a disaster story. So I am going to write down what happened so that I can remember.

About 6:00pm I looked out the window to see the strangest rain storm I have ever seen in Nebraska. We get hard rain a lot, the kind that hurts you if it hits you, but this was different. There was the hard rain and a fine mist, like you see in the tropical storms on tv.

I called Jessy over to see it. She got to the door just as the first baseball sized hail stone smashed into our sidewalk. We both rushed to the living room, our house is old and to go into the basement you have to go outside and that wasn't an option. Jessy grabbed her cell phone off the table. Our living room only has one window and that one is fairly well protected by trees.

Her nurturing instinct took over and she started trying to calm our dogs down. I suddenly felt very protective. I yanked the couch away from the wall. And told Jessy and the dogs to get into the closet. It is a big closet and the only thing in it is our Christmas decorations.

I ushered them into the closet just as the first hail stone shattered the living room window. I closed the door behind us and began trying to calm our dogs. Tucker whimpered the whole time incredbly frightened. Snags our other dog, was fine. He has an incredible faith in me and is never scared of anything as long as I am around.

Jessy called her dad, who lives 30 miles away and told him a storm was coming. Then we sat in the dark(the power went out) until the storm passed.

We locked the dogs in the dinning room, so that they wouldn't step in glass, as we surveyd the damage. After we saw all the broken windows my guy genes kicked in and I had to fix it. I began cleaning up. Jessy called her dad (he lost power, but the had no damage, the hail was only pea sized by the time it made it his house) and then her mom in California, and the insurane company and her brother in Portland, then she called her parents back.

These very different male/female reactions are very interesting to me. When I have more time I am going to analyze the motivations a little more. But for now I have to go work.