There are times when I wonder if updating this blog serves any purpose. I rarely get comments or emails, and by rarely I mean once in a blue moon, so does anyone even read it? Perhaps if I put up notices on Twitter and Facebook letting people know I made an update, that might draw more people in. I’ll have to give that a try.

Anyway…

First, an update on my writing and the upcoming books. It looks like A MINOR MAGIC will be the first to hit the market. We’re hoping for a November/December release. And then, somewhere around March of 2012, you should see HAYWIRE come out. I’d like a bit more space between then, but I won’t know if that’s possible until dates firm up a touch more. I’ll keep you in the loop. And as for STILL WATER, I took a break the past two weeks to work on my podcast’s anthology plus to rest for a few days, but next week I’ll get back into it hardcore. If I’m not done with it by the end of October I’ll be upset with myself.

Speaking of podcasts, I’m still doing two of them right now. The Dead Robots’ Society is nearing it’s 200th episode, which doesn’t include all the convention panels, special episodes, and audio dramas we’ve produced, so in reality we have over two-hundred files available for download right now. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished with it. But I’m also still co-hosting with the guys over at The Hollywood Outsider. If you haven’t listened to it yet, I really encourage you to, especially if you like movies and TV shows. I have a lot of fun doing it, and the guys I host with are a lot of fun. I wish they lived closer so that I could hang out with them in person. Please, do yourself and us a favor, and give it a spin. We just put out our ninth episode.

If you’re interested at all in video games, I just finished replaying Gears Of War 1 and 2 in preparation for playing the third game, and I also just finished playing a new RPG (that’s Role Playing Game for you non-gamers) called X-MEN: DESTINY. As you can tell from the title, it is a comic book game, but with an RPG feel. It’s not the best RPG I’ve ever played (Hey, Bioware, what’s up? Get Mass Effect 3 out NOW!), but it was still a lot of fun. I’d give it a solid 8 out of 10.

I think that’s it for now. This brings you up to date on where I am with some of my projects, and as they develop I’ll post ‘em here and keep you in the loop. Thanks for coming, and please let me know what you think regarding anything I’ve talked about.

Oh, before I go, please notice the new icons I’ve put at the bottom of this post. I got the idea for this from Robin Sullivan, and I’m hoping they’ll help in keeping people connected with me and what I’ve working on. If you see any problems with them, or have other ideas, please let me know.

Take care.

Yep, you read that blog post title correctly. Following hot on the heels of my announcement that A MINOR MAGIC was picked up by Crescent Moon Press comes the news that my science fiction novel HAYWIRE has also found a publisher with Gryphonwood Press. I met the founder of Gryphonwood Press, David Wood, a few months ago. I had him on my podcast, learned about his publishing history and how he came to found Gryphonwood Press, and greatly enjoyed talking with him. I knew right away that I wanted to work more with him, so I submitted HAYWIRE. Over the weekend he told me that he liked the manuscript and wanted to publish it. I am incredibly excited.

As more news develops and time tables start to shape up, I’ll let you know the details. Thanks for continuing to read this blog.

I just wanted to officially announce that A MINOR MAGIC is going to be published by Crescent Moon Press. I’m grateful to them for wanting to publish the novel, and I’m strengthened by their belief in me and my manuscript. I’ll let you know more about the book and its release as I get the information. Thanks to you for reading my blog, and thanks to all those who helped me in this process.

In an effort to make the site look a bit more professional, I’ve gone through the pages that contain my short stories and I updated them so that they are more uniform in their presentation, so that all the audio links work properly, and so that free PDF versions are available on each page. I also updated a couple of them to notate new publishing credits and the like. The only two short stories that I’ve not yet put on the site are IN THE DEEP DARK and The DAME WORE WHITE, and the reason is that they will both soon be published, and until their exclusivity period is over, I can’t make them available here. BUT, when they ARE published, you can bet your bippy (what is a bippy, anyway?) that I’ll let you know so that you can seek them out and let the publishers know how much you liked what you read.

Anyway, not really much else to say at the moment. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you give my short stories a read if you haven’t already. And hey, if you purchased a copy of either THE TIES THAT BIND or PIRATES OF THE CRIMSON SAND, that’d be okay too.

Talk to you later…

It’s been a little while since I last talked about my writing, so before I leave tomorrow for a short road trip with my brother Scott (we’re heading to San Antonio to get a little bro time) I figured it would be a good idea to check in. Seems like all I update folks on anymore is podcasting, and not all of you are interested in that.

Well, as you know, my latest novel is STILL WATER. It’s a horror story about a fictional West Virginia coal mining town and the ancient evil that sleeps below it. The two heroes that the book follows are Kyle and Maya. Kyle is from Still Water, but left it the day he graduated high school and never looked back. After joining the Army he hoped he’d never have to set foot in it again, but his younger sister has sent him messages saying that their father is getting abusive, and that she needs him to come back and do something. Maya, on the other hand, had never heard of Still Water, West Virginia until just a couple of weeks before she arrives in it. Maya is a blogger of the paranormal, and she’s been on the hunt for the place that could be the next big supernatural tourist spot, a place with a spooky past but that no one else talks about. After searching the internet and comparing a multitude of statistics, the town of Still Water comes to her attention, so she drives out there to take a look at it for herself. What Kyle and Maya don’t know, however, is that an evil nearly as old as time itself had been laying dormant in a hidden mountain cavern until a team of coal miners breaches it and begins a release of the water that had been holding it at bay. With every ounce that pours out of the mountain, the evil comes that much closer to waking. And, to make matters worse, the cavern water has been seeping into the town’s water supply, slowly poisoning the townspeople and awakening their own inner evils. If there is to be any hope of survival and of stopping the terror that is to come, Kyle and Maya will have to work together, giving everything they have, perhaps even their own lives.

I’m planning on the novel being about 90,000 words long, though of course it’ll be as long as it needs to be, goal be damned. So far I’ve written just under 16,000 words, so I’m getting closer and closer to finishing the first draft. I’m hoping to have that done by the end of September. It’s certainly an attainable goal.

I also have two other novels, HAYWIRE (formerly known as DIGITAL DECAY) and A MINOR MAGIC, that I’m trying to sell. HAYWIRE is now being looked at by one small press, and A MINOR MAGIC is being looked at by another. If HAYWIRE doesn’t get picked up, I’m considering publishing it myself. A MINOR MAGIC, though, is one I’m willing to shop around more. If the small press that’s looking at it passes, I’ll probably start a massive agent hunt for it. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, however.

And that’s it for now. I’ve got a horror short story that’s going to be published in an online magazine in a few months, as well as made into a podcast at another website. I even have a graphic novel site interested in it. I’m crossing my fingers it does well.

Take care, everyone, and have a great weekend.

Man, it’s been a long while since I last posted. I keep saying that, and I keep promising to do better, but those promises don’t seem to be kept all that well, do they? I sincerely apologize for that. Life has been pretty busy, though we can all say that, I suppose. Anyway, here is the latest update. I wish it was more pleasant.

The biggest — and most recent — bit of news is that I no longer have an agent. Back in the later half of last year I met Cari Foulks of the Tribe Literary Agency, and after having her on my podcast I submitted the manuscript for DIGITAL DECAY to her to see if she’d be interested in representing it. A few days later she said she loved it and would be thrilled to rep it. I was excited, my wife Krista was excited, and I felt like I’d cleared one of the hurdles to getting published. In the months since then Cari would inform me of small developments and bits of news, but nothing substantive until a little over a month ago when she told me that a large publishing house wanted to read the full manuscript for the novel. (For those who don’t know, usually when a book is submitted to a publisher, they aren’t sent the full work. Instead they’re only given the first fifty pages or few chapters. This cuts down on the amount of paper they have to deal with. If they like what they read, then they will request the full manuscript. That isn’t a promise of anything, but it’s a good sign). I was over the moon.

Shortly after that I went on vacation with my wife and mother. We flew to Virginia to see some of Krista’s family (whom I adore), and then we rented a car and drove to Washington D.C. before heading on to Baltimore a few days later so that I could attend BaltiCon. It was an okay vacation, all in all, but it ended on a sore note for two reasons. One, my digital recorder accidentally got swapped with another just like it, so I lost all the panels I’d recorded. Two, I came down with strep throat on the last day of the con and got to enjoy being sick for about two weeks after. My wife then got sick after that, and then I got an ear infection, and now I’m dealing with a sore back. Suffice it to say, getting older sucks.

Anyway, as I was recovering I tried getting in touch with Cari to see how things were, but found her to unresponsive. I tried emailing her, texting her, and I sent messages via Facebook, all to little avail. Things came to a head yesterday when she informed me that she was quitting the agent business. What does that mean for me and the book? I have no idea. Her partner, Jonathan, informed all of Cari’s clients that he would investigate the situation, but I’m not holding out any hope of anything. I don’t even know is the house Cari mentioned really was interested in the book. I’ve got nothing to verify or check. To say that I’m bummed would be to seriously understate the situation. If Jonathan gets back to me with good news, fine, but I’m not holding my breath. So far as I’m concerned, I’m back on my own. So be it.

On to more pleasant topics, I finished my edits on A MINOR MAGIC. I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I’m sure that possible publishers would have more than enough suggestions on how to change it, but as it sits now, I really like it. I have ideas for where I could take the story in the future, making A MINOR MAGIC the first in a potential series. I’m not going to go down that road, though, until I get interest in it. Until then, I’m going to work on the next thing.

Speaking of which, I’ve started work on my latest book. This one is going to be a straight up horror novel. The title for it is STILL WATER, and it’s about a fictional West Virginia coal mining town that becomes victim to an ancient evil. I’m thinking of it as a combination of Silent Hill and the Spike TV realty show Coal, with lots of water. This week I began the outlining process, but I’m still having to do some research for one of the characters, and that’s hampering things. Hopefully I’ll be able to knock the outline out by the end of next week, and then I can get writing. My goal is to have the first draft done by the end of August. I’m betting I’ll come in under that.

Well, I think that brings the blog up to speed. I talked about finishing A MINOR MAGIC, going to BaltiCon, getting sick, getting sick again, starting STILL WATER, and losing my agent. Anything else? Hhmm… Oh, well, I did sell a short story. A friend of mine, Morgan Electra, asked me to writer her a horror short story for her upcoming horror podcast, so I wrote one called INTO THE DEEP DARK. I used it as an opportunity to do a dry run on some of the elements that’ll be in STILL WATER, so I set the short story in a coal mine. When I submitted the story to her, she flipped over it. Everyone else I’ve let read it has loved it too. The consensus seems to be that I should be writing horror. But, since all Morgan wanted were the audio rights for the story, I figured I could still shop around the print rights, and I found a home for it with Abattoir, the horror side of Flying Island Press. I don’t know when it’ll be published, but I’ll let you know when it does.

NOW I think I’m finished. See you next time, and hopefully it won’t be so long a wait.

Holy crap! I’m done! The first draft of A MINOR MAGIC is complete. Whew! I started off today with the goal of finishing the book, and 4,687 words later, I did it. Damn does that feel good. Now I’m going to go take a breath and remember what life is like outside my office. And then tomorrow… ROAD TRIP! w00t!

Of course, what this really means is that my work has only started. The first draft of a novel is like the clay you throw on to a board to sculpt with. Your materials are there, and you’ve got a vague shape, but in order to get it where it needs to be you have to peel away the stuff you don’t need, add the stuff you do, and refine it over and over until you have a finished product. That will take several revisions and months, but for now… I’m happy. The birthing process is finished. Now I just need to raise it right.

I’ll let you know how that process goes as I go through it.

It seems like I’m constantly apologizing for not updating my blog enough, and that has to be as annoying as me not posting at all. To be honest, I think my frequent (read that: nearly hourly) posting to Facebook sucks out nearly all need and desire to make blog entries here. It’s not like I care for this place less, or the people who do me the honor of reading this blog, just… Facebook is easy, and I feel like I don’t have to stretch things out in order to make them worthy of posting. The blog would be a great place to post longer and perhaps more intimate thoughts, though, so perhaps I shouldn’t be so quick to ignore it. Sorry, all the same.

Anyway, for those who care and who don’t follow me on Facebook, what have I been up to? Mainly I’ve been trying to get control of my life. No one has tried to take that from me, you understand, but over the past year or so I’ve been all too willing to coast through my life and let whatever happens happen. I would later complain that I wasn’t getting enough done, or I wasn’t doing what I knew I should be, but really the fault has all been mine. I was reacting to things instead of taking command. With the coming of the new year I decided to regain control, to become master of myself, once again. So far… kinda good. I’m more proactive than I’ve ever been, and the schedule I made to give shape to my daily life has worked out fairly well, but I still tend to let things slide while I sit back and watch too much TV. At least I’m better able to recognize it now, and I take all the blame for it.

As far as my writing goes, I’m actually pretty jazzed. No word from my agent on how trying to sell DIGITAL DECAY is going, but my work on A MINOR MAGIC is proceeding nicely. One of my other New Year’s Resolutions was to try write 2000 words a day. Up until last week I had yet to find a way to do that consistantly, but this week I’ve hit it every day, and I think the momentum I’ve created will carry me through so that the first draft will be done by the beginning of March. One big reason for this spurt in energy is an idea I recently started working on for my next book. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but it is a DAMN good idea — pure horror novel — and I want to write it badly. I can’t do that, though, until the current project is done. So, let’s get it done! I’m excited.

Anyway, that’s it. Not much, I know, but it is what it is. If you want to hear more from me on a day-to-day or even hour-to-hour basis, I encourage you to friend me on Facebook. So, until next time, adios…

Growing up, speaking clearly and properly was drilled into me, especially by my maternal grandmother. Anytime someone in the family used improper grammar, she would stop and correct us. It was never done in a mean-spirited or elitist way, you understand, but out of love. She believed that the way we spoke, the way we communicated, told the world who we were as people, and I took that opinion as my own. That has carried with me to this day, and it drives me up the wall when I see and hear people communicate as though they never received a single second of English education. If you want me to take you seriously, then you need to communicate with me that way. We all make mistakes, but by and large, communicate clearly and properly with me, and I’ll do the same.

Now, yes, I said we all make mistakes. That includes me. As a writer I’m constantly aware of my ignorance regarding some grammar rules, and I’ve spent many an hour searching for the answers. Well, I recently found a book that does just that, but it does it in an entertaining way that never talks down to me or needlessly confuses the issue. It’s titled “Woe Is I,” and it’s written by Patricia O’Conner. I’m only a little way into it, but already I’ve found it to be invaluable. If you’d like to improve the way you speak and write, I encourage you to get it too. I’m all about helping us become better people, and communicating clearly is one way of doing that. The book is cheap, and I’m enjoying every page of it. Hopefully you will too.

I wanted to let you know that last weekend I was honored to appear on the Pendragon Variety Podcast, which is hosted by a bunch of kickass women, and we talked about my new work in progress – A Minor Magic. This is my first (urban post-apocalyptic) fantasy novel, and it’s my first time to write a young female character in a semi-modern world setting. The ladies of the PVP were amazing to talk to, and I know that their suggestions and advice will be a big help as hammer away at the story. If you’d like to listen in on the discussion, please do so by using the player below.

Thank you, ladies. You were a blast to talk to, and oh so helpful.