Last month a friend of mine mentioned that a horror author he knew was holding a contest to find the scariest short story. I’d only written one horror short story, but the reception to it had been positive enough that I figured it had a chance, so why not submit and see what happened. The prize, other than the recognition of course, was a $50 Amazon gift card, and for someone like me that’s a real boon. So, I sent it in and waited.

Yesterday the results were announced, and IN THE DEEP DARK won! Edward Lorn, the author and contest creator, said about my story, “Justin’s piece terrified me to no end, both while reading, and long after the final page turned. This is what scares E. Blood and guts and acts of violence during intimate moments, are all well and good, and I enjoy them on a regular basis, but when you can create atmosphere, then you have a winner.” Wow, that’s incredibly nice to hear. And he’s right, in that horror shouldn’t just get to you while you’re reading it. It should stay with you long after you’ve put it down, the words always in the back of your mind and ready to frighten you all over again when you least expect it. Stephen King did it to me with SALEM’S LOT, and William Peter Blatty did it with THE EXORCIST. The fact that I could do that to someone else makes me smile big time.

If you’d like to read this story, head over to Edward’s site and check it out. If it will add extra incentive, keep in mind that I’m planning on using this short story as the prologue to my upcoming horror novel. It’ll take a few tweaks to make it fit, but it works too well not to do that. So, yeah, there you go.

Thanks to Edward for liking my story as much as he did, and to Jeff Brackett for letting me know about the contest in the first place. You’re both gentlemen and scholars.

Well, it’s been about two and a half weeks since HAYWIRE was released, and that first week was straight-up crazy! I spent about two days living on Facebook, with periodic side trips to Twitter, Goodreads, and Amazon. So much more exhausting than I thought it would be, but I have to admit to it was also fun. You might be wondering, though, what was the net result of all that work and effort? Did I sell a bajillion copies? The sad answer is no. Not even close. In situations like this there are always two worlds at war with each other, one the real world where I’m a first time novelist with a debut book in a niche genre, and the other is the dream world in my mind where everyone is dying to buy my work and bury it in praise. And, as usual, reality won. I sold what my publisher assures me is the usual amount for someone in my position, but then quietly follows that up with urgings to not quit the day job just yet. Little does he know I already did that years ago.

But, before I get too sad about all the people who haven’t learned of my book or who haven’t bought a copy, I want to make sure I thank all those who did. I was astonished by all the people who helped me get word out through Facebook posts and retweets, who put the book on their “Reading” or “To Read” lists on Goodreads, who let me come on their podcasts and blogs to promote it, and who went to Amazon and posted a review. I received kind words from people I never expected, such as classmates I haven’t seen in years, and co-workers of my wife who don’t even know me. The kindness and support that came in, and still comes in, has humbled me nearly beyond words. I am so grateful to you all, and the thanks I feel goes beyond what a blog post can convey. I am deeply in your debt.

If you’d like to see some of the people I’m talking about, I have a Pinterst board devoted to all the people who bought a copy of my book and then went even further by taking a picture of themselves with it. John Mierau was the first person to do it, and all it took was that one to have me begging people carry it on. They did, and now I have this — a constant reminder of the wonderful people who’ve helped me get one step closer to my dream. You all get a very special thanks.

Okay, now that the HAYWIRE talk is out of the way, let’s move on to my other projects…

I talked with my editor over at Crescent Moon Press yesterday, and she informed me that I should be getting her edits for A MINOR MAGIC next week. I look forward to seeing their notes and diving back into that world. I haven’t touched or read the story since they bought it, so plunging back into it will be a lot of fun. Once I start on that process I’ll put a progress widget on the right side of my home page like I did with HAYWIRE. That way you can keep track of it without me constantly posting.

On Wednesday I finished the first draft of my horror novel STILL WATER. To be honest, I don’t know how much I’ve talked about it here on my blog, but a quick and dirty synopsis would be — In the small West Virginia town of Stillwater, coal mining has long been a way of life, but when an ancient evil that has slept in the mountains for millenia is awoken, the entire world could be plunged into an unending nightmare of pain and darkness and death. Now that the first draft is complete I’m going to put it away and let it rest while I work on other things (such as the aforementioned edits of A MINOR MAGIC). I really like STILL WATER and think it’s a solid horror story, but the proof will be in what eventual readers think, so here’s hoping they like it as much as I do.

I’m also trying to get more of my short stories up and available for sale on Amazon, so if you’re interested in those you can head over there and take a look. We’re also close to finishing the EXPLORERS anthology that my Dead Robots’ Society podcast has been working on for about a year. I’ll be glad to have that launched and into the world.

And that’s it! I think that’s brings us up to speed. If you’ve bought a copy of HAYWIRE, I thank you. If you haven’t, then why not? It’s good! Trust me!

Peace…

Well, it’s March 13th, and you know what that means! No, I’m not talking about when St Felix III began his reign as Catholic Pope, or that today is when Mongolia declared their independence from China in 1921. No, I mean that today is the day HAYWIRE becomes available for purchase. I hope that all of you are ready and eager to buy your copy, because I’m more than ready for you to get it. Now, the first question is of course, “How do I get it?” Great question! First, and probably most importantly for a good number of people, it’s available on Amazon via the following links:

Kindle $4.99_____. Print $9.99______.

It is also available from Barnes & Noble for the Nook. I don’t have a cute picture to serve as a link, but you can click HERE and head straight to it.

If those aren’t to your liking, it’s also available from Smashwords in a wide variety of formats, among them PDF, EPUB, Palm Doc, RTF, and HTML. You can go HERE to see those if you’re interested.

Soon it will also be available in print from Barnes & Noble, as well as in ebook format for iBooks, Sony, and the Kobo. When those come available, I will let you know immediately.

Now, some people have asked me, “What about signed copies of the print book?” That’s another great question! As of right now I don’t have any copies on hand to sign and send out. When I do, I’ll let you know. Until then, though, you are free to mail me your copy with a self-addressed stamped envelope, and I’d be happy to sign it and mail it back to you, or you can order it and send it directly to me, along with an email to let me know to expect it. Either way, reach out to me and I’ll pass an address along to send it to. Or you could make a trip to Balticon, run me down in the hallway or on a panel, and I’d be happy to sign it and have a chat. Your choice.

Let me end this by saying thank you. If you’re reading this, then it means you’re at least somewhat interested in buying my book and reading it. For that, I thank you. Writing is something I’ve wanted to make a career of my entire life, and with your support I get closer to living my dream. I hope that you order the book, love it, order copies for your friends and family, and then you review it on Amazon or where ever you bought it to help bring more people on board. I also hope you pass this post along to everyone you know, and so on, and so on. Thanks for everything, and check back soon for more news.

w00t!

I want you to buy my book Tuesday, March 13th (from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and other fine retailers). I do. I can’t lie. I’d love for you buy it. But, more than that, I want you to buy it and ENJOY it. If you buy it and end up hating it, I might have gotten some of your money, but I’ve lost a reader, and at the end of the day it’s you guys who will help me establish a career that thrives. So, to make sure that you know what you’re getting in for before you actually plunk down your hard earned cash, I want to offer you a sample of the book. Right-Click HERE or on the small book cover above to download a PDF of the first three chapters of the novel, complete and unchanged from the full book. If you read it and you like it, then I encourage you to purchase the novel on March 13th in print or the ebook format of your choice. If, sadly, you don’t like it, at least you’ll have saved some money and time, and maybe the next novel that will be coming out later this year, A MINOR MAGIC, will be more to your liking.

Thanks for reading this post, for your time, and for your consideration. It means a lot.

How’s that cover, huh? Because HAYWIRE is being published by a small press, I had more control over what my cover would look like than a lot of other authors would, and I knew my brother — who’d worked on previous covers me, all to my delight — was up to the challenge. What do you think? Do you like it? Please let me know.

Also, the book will be releasing on March 13th in both print and ebook versions. You won’t be able to just walk into a store and see it on a shelf since Gryphonwood is a smaller press, but you should be able to order it at your local store, as well as online. I hope that you do, and that you contact me to tell me what you thought. I’m really excited. Are you?

Hey, everyone, sorry it’s been so long since I last did an update on where I’m at with my writing. I could roll out my usual excuses, but I won’t. Suffice it to say, I’ve been busy as hell. But, today is a calm morning, so let me take advantage of it by bring you up to speed…

First up, HAYWIRE! The editor of Gryphonwood Press sent me an edited version of my manuscript a little over a month ago with notes on further edits he’d like to see me make. When I got them I thought, “Oh, I’ll be able to knock this out in a week, if it takes that long.” Man was I wrong. What I’d failed to realize was that HAYWIRE is a novel I’d finished a couple of years ago, and since then I’ve evolved as a writer, and if I wanted to make the book as good as it could be, I’d have to make a ton of little changes all through it to bring it up to the level I’m at now. Then, to make things even more difficult, the changes I was asked to make were more far-reaching than I’d initially thought, causing extensive rewrites and wholesale slaughter of previous chapters. It was an alphabetical massacre. Now, a little over a month later, I’m done. I’ve corrected and changed it as much as I’m able. Yesterday I sent it back to the publisher, and now I wait to hear back. Once I know more, I’ll let you know.

A MINOR MAGIC, which is being published by Crescent Moon Press, has emailed me about edits to that manuscript. They want to wait a little while between the publishing of that novel and HAYWIRE, which I totally agree with. When I know the date HAYWIRE comes out, I’ll let CMP know so we can schedule the editing of A MINOR MAGIC.

I was nearly finished with the first draft of STILL WATER when the edits for HAYWIRE came in. Now that HAYWIRE is off my plate, I’ll be getting back to STILL WATER. I’d like it if I could finish the first draft, and then let it cool while I edited A MINOR MAGIC. That way, when I got back to it, STILL WATER would be out of my head and I could come to it fresh. After I do an editing pass on it, I’ll send it to some beta readers to get their take on it.

And as for my short stories, I’ve actually just had two of them published. My sci-fi noir story THE DAME WORE WHITE has been published by Flagship Magazine, and my horror story IN THE DEEP DARK has come out from Abbatoir. I’m extremely proud of both stories, and I like that they represent me as a full-spectrum writer. I love science fiction, I love fantasy, and I love horror, so it’s only natural that I write the same way. Hopefully I’ve got something for you no matter your tastes. Please click on one of those links to support not only me, but also the wonderful people who think enough of my work to publish it.

And… that’s it for now. As always, I’ll try to post more quickly next time. Have a good one!

Before you go see THE DEVIL INSIDE, the latest horror movie to hit the big screen, give my review a listen. This is an excerpt from a weekly podcast I’m proud to be part of called The Hollywood Outsider. Fair warning, it’s a bit saucy. Let me know what you think of the review, and the movie if you go see it too.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you celebrated well and responsibly. Krista and I watched a ton of movies and started playing “Skyrim” on the ol’ Xbox 360 (we just finished playing “Saint’s Row: The Third,” and I honestly think it was the most fun game I played all of last year). All in all, being the old man that I am, I consider that a good way to end 2011 and start the new year off right. But, it wouldn’t be a new year if there weren’t some resolutions to go with it, so if you’re interested I’ve decided to post mine here. Maybe if I have the whole world keeping me accountable I’ll make a greater effort to actually stick with them. Please comment periodically to see how I’m doing.

Anyway, here we go:

1. Live healthier. This means eating better and being more active. I have a gym membership, and access to a personal trainer, yet I treat both with regular indifference. That needs to change. Plus, I just need to eat healthier. No more midnight snacks!

2. Treat my writing more like the career it is and less like the thing I do when I’m not busy doing everything else. I’ve let my writing take a backseat far too often in the past, and I have to stop that. My daily goal is 2,000 words written. That’s an achievable number.

3. Read one book a week. Lately I’ve fallen into the habit of watching pointless TV shows, and I know I’d be so much better off reading instead, especially since my stack of books to read is taller than I am. So, one book a week. Another achievable number.

And that’s it! I think those are all realistic resolutions. Will I succeed? Can I dare to dream? Check back this time next year and we’ll find out.

SHADOW OPS: CONTROL POINT will be available in print and on the Kindle January 31st, 2012.

Okay, I thought that some of the people who come here might want to know a bit more about what makes me tick, and one of the best ways to know someone is to know their passions, their likes, what it is that they appreciate and admire. I’ve talked about some of that before, but perhaps a weekly list of my favorite things would help. My first list, then, will be something that I’m especially passionate about — sci-fi TV. Science fiction runs through my veins, and of course being a member of Generation X I was raised on television, so it’s no great surprise that sci-fi TV shows would be something I would be heavily steeped in. I hope you enjoy this little experiment, and if so, let me know in the comments section. Now, here we go…

… But first, a little disclaimer. I’m one of those people who’s a stickler about genre labels. I’m all for style mash-ups and blending genres, but for the purposes of this list I wanted to keep to solid, without-question sci-fi television. Some of my favorite shows have sci-fi elements to them (hell, even Buffy had a robot or two during its run), but here I’m going purely and unequivocally science fiction, meaning that the story is based on science, no matter how fantastical. If mysticism or fantasy takes equal or greater prominence to the story, then it’s out. Okay? Okay. Then let’s go.

Justin’s #5 Sci-Fi Show Of All Time
If you’d told me a couple of years ago that Doctor Who would be my fifth favorite sci-fi show of all time, I’d have slapped you across the mouth and called you a filthy liar. Luckily you didn’t do that, so I don’t have to make an awkward apology to you now. Yes, Doctor Who is amazing. Once the province of British citizens and effete TV elitists, Doctor Who is now a truly world-wide phenomenon, and much of the credit for that goes to Russell T. Davies, who helped bring the show back to life in 2005 and served as its head writer. Well done, sir!

I probably wouldn’t have given Doctor Who a chance were to not for two people. The first is Amanda Cales, a woman I came to know through my Dead Robots’ Society podcast. She constantly sang the show’s praises, and since I respected her opinion, I knew it was something I should look into. The second person was Christopher Eccleston, the actor who played the role of the Doctor in its 2005 return to television. I was familiar with Eccleston through two movies he’d been in (“Gone In 60 Seconds” and “28 Days Later”), but it was his role in the TV show Heroes that made me want to see more of his work. So, when those two things collided, I picked up Series 1 of the new Doctor Who on DVD.

And, I loved it. Definitely British, but in all the right ways. The Doctor was a more frenetic character than I’d expected from the fleeting clips I’d seen of previous Doctors from the 60′s and 70′s, but that was okay. And then, when David Tennant came on to play the Doctor (you have to watch the show to see why different people play him over time), that frenetic vibe went through the roof. The latest Doctor is played by Matt Smith, who is much younger than any previous actor who’s played the role. I’ll be honest, I expected the quality of the show to dip with his entrance to the show. Not only was he really young (which I figured was a transparent attempt by the BBC to get a younger audience), but his companion was also young (watch the show to understand why he has companions). Even worse, though, was the fact that Russell T. Davies had left the show, and in his place was Steven Moffat, someone who’d written some previous episodes but who I wasn’t overly familiar with. Now Moffat was suddenly the head writer, show runner, and executive producer. It’s easy to see why I was apprehensive, but thankfully the show has not only continued to be good, it’s been amazing. I actually think that Matt Smith’s Doctor is the best yet, and the scope of the show has expanded in fantastic ways. Hell, last season they even did some filming right here in the USA, and that was a first for the show.

Now, after explaining all that, what it is about Doctor Who that I love? I think it’s the breadth of the story they’re telling. The show constantly takes risks, it never goes where you think it’s going to, and the occasional infusion of new cast members means it never gets stale. Yes, sometimes the makeup and special effects can get sketchy, but so what. It’s the story that counts, and any show that’s willing to do the work it takes to create plots and subplots that take entire seasons or more to tell is a show I’m going to support. If you’ve not watched Doctor Who, and you’re a fan of sci-fi, then do yourself a favor and pick up the Eccleston season. You don’t have to know a single thing about the show prior to that, as they bring you up to speed gracefully. Go, watch it. I’ll wait…

Justin’s #4 Sci-Fi Show Of All Time
When I heard that they were rebooting Battlestar Galactica, I couldn’t have been more bored. Why do it? I hadn’t cared one bit about the original version, so what could they possibly do that would make a new version worth a crap? Oh, man, how little I knew. Suffice it to say they did a lot. What started off as a sci-fi tale of flesh versus steel quickly became a spiritual story about what it means to be human, what it means to have a soul.

Battlestar Galactica was everything I’d wanted Star Trek: Voyager to be – dark, dangerous, gritty, uncompromising. Nothing was ever easy for the crew of the Galactica, and the struggles they went through went far past the flesh into realms most sci-fi shows are too scared to even look at. I was constantly amazed at how unflinching the show’s writers would be, and how they could keep upping themselves. I implore you to go and watch the miniseries that started the reboot, and then watch the season one opener “33.” If you’re not hooked after that, I don’t know if we can be friends.

Justin’s #3 Sci-Fi Show Of All Time
The X-Files was the show that made me believe (for fans of the show, please pardon that pun) that television could produce something truly profound. I was so used to shows that only went skin deep, that wrapped everything up and moved on by episode’s end, so when The X-Files came along and created something that had depth and that told its story over weeks and months, I was hooked. It didn’t hurt that the two leads — David Duchovny as Agent Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Agent Dana Scully — were incredibly charismatic and had wonderful chemistry with each other. This show had the perfect ingredients to make the sort of TV stew I could eat for years and years.

Sadly, The X-Files came in like a lion yet went out like a lamb. As much as I respect show creator Chris Carter for what he did, I’ll always wonder why he didn’t take a firmer hand with the show and guide it toward a definitive ending. The X-Files became a victim of its own success, not to mention the lack of story care it really needed. Had Carter or someone else stepped up and put it on a definitive track that had a known ending, I think The X-Files would have been the stuff of legends. Now, for most people, it’s just an interesting footnote. Personally, in spite of its failings and flaws, I still love the show. When it was hitting on all cylinders, I really was a marvel to behold. And, it also spawned a short-lived spin-off called The Lone Gunmen that was as funny as it was brief.

As a closing thought on the show, I know there’s been talk about doing another movie. If that’s true, and if Christ Carter is reading this, please make a movie that deals with the 2012 alien invasion that the show always talked about. It was laid out in the show that the aliens would come in force, and that 2012 was their due date. Well, that’s next year, and I can’t think of a better way to send the show off into history than to tell that final story. If there’s a god out there, this will happen.

Justin’s #2 Sci-Fi Show Of All Time
Some of you might be wondering why it’s taken me so long to mention a Star Trek show, and others might be wondering why this isn’t #1. To both of you I say, hear me out. I love Star Trek, and have ever since The Next Generation started in 1987, which was also my Freshman year of high school. Perhaps it was kismet that the year I started to really mature as a person is also the year I became a Star Trek fan. I’d of course seen episodes of the original series when I was younger, and I’d seen the movies, but they’d never really done anything for me. I think it was because they were artifacts of their time, and as a kid I was interested in the new, the hot, the now. Well, in ’87, that was exactly what Star Trek: TNG was. Picard was my first captain, Q my first Trek villain, and I’ve not been the same since. The season five episode entitled “The Inner Light” is one of the most powerful, most profound hours of television that’s ever been produced, and I dare anyone to say otherwise.

Now, even though TNG is the series I’m highlighting here, let me say that I respect all the series that Star Trek has produced, even the lesser ones (cough*Enterprise*cough*Voyager*cough), but TNG was my first Trek love, and I suspect it’ll always be my greatest. It was so unlike the sci-fi loves that had come before it, and I think it helped round me out as a genre fan. I’m just as eager to discuss Star Trek as I am Star Wars or anything else. I don’t believe you have to be either a Trek fan or a Star Wars fan. I love them all, each for their own gifts and quirks. I’ll boldly go to a galaxy far, far away, and be happy to do it.

But, if this is a sci-fi TV show list, and I’ve put Star Trek at #2, then what could possible be better? Funny you should ask…

Justin’s #1 Sci-Fi Show Of All Time
Babylon 5, baby! Yep, this might be heresy to some, but I don’t care. For my money, sci-fi television gets no greater than B5. This show is DEEP, its story is COMPLEX, and if you really want to understand its full glory, you HAVE to watch it from the very beginning. It’s part Star Trek, part Star Wars, part Excalibur, and part Lord of the Rings. Does that sound odd? Hell yeah it does, but it works. It works like gangbusters! I have yet to convince someone to give it a shot who hasn’t come back thanking me. More than any other show I’d ever seen, Babylon 5 didn’t give a crap about episodic television. If you want your story wrapped up at the end of the episode, or at the end of the season, think again. B5 was a five-season long adventure right from the very beginning, and even though things got rocky near the end, it stayed true and told that five-year story from beginning to end. I was blown away by how it all came together to reach its crescendo, and you will be too if you give it a chance.

A quick word though, before you run out and buy the series (you were going to do that, right?) — even though the show was planned from the beginning to last five seasons, with every season mapped out well in advance, things didn’t go as planned. PTEN, the network B5 aired on, told show creator J. Michael Straczynski that he wasn’t going to get his full five seasons, and would in fact have to wrap it up in the fourth. So, as you can imagine, he had to scramble to truncate the story, cutting out plots all over the place to hone in on the central story. Well sure enough, after all that was done, the TNT network came along and gave Straczynski his fifth season after all, which he filled out by taking some of those cut plots and making them into a new season story, as well as finding new ways to bring the finished story along for the ride. In spite of that sort of Frankenstein treatment, the end result was still amazing. I defy anyone to watch the final episode, “Sleeping In Light,” and not tear up. I do, every single time.

Babylon 5 is a magnificent achievement not just in sci-fi television, but also in plain old storytelling. I owned the show when it was on VHS, I own it now on DVD, and I’ll own it when it comes out in a new format. It is television at its finest, and I recommend it to everyone I meet – genre fan or not. Thank you, Mr. Straczynski. Thank you so much. You’ve given me a gift I don’t think I can ever repay.

Now, before we go, let me list a few shows that nearly made the cut but didn’t make it for whatever reason. Maybe here you’ll see a show you thought I should have mentioned.

LOST - This show is without doubt my favorite show of all time. Yep, I think that highly of it. BUT, while it has some sci-fi trappings, it’s not really sci-fi. It’s a spiritual story more than anything else, a fantasy. I wanted to list it here, if only so that I could once again sing its praises, but I couldn’t.

Firefly - I have no doubt that had the Fox Network not been complete morons and given Joss Whedon more episodes and more seasons to tell the story of Firefly, it would have eventually ended up as my #1 show. How can I say that with such certainty? Because even though Firefly only lasted for eleven episodes (fourteen episodes were actually produced, and you can see them all on DVD and Blu-Ray), it still nearly landed at my #1 spot. It’s THAT good! But, for this list I wanted shows that had lasted at least a couple of seasons, that had had a chance to develop and grow. Still, Firefly is a spectacular show, and the hatred I feel toward Fox for cancelling it still burns bright and hot. If you’ve not watched it, please do so, and then watch the movie “Serenity,” which Paramount was kind enough to help Whedon make so that he could try and finish his story. It isn’t really finished, not by a damn sight, but it’s better than nothing…

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr - This is one of those shows that not too many people seem to remember, which I guess is why it only lasted one season, though at least the idiots at Fox let this one go for a more than full 27 episode count. From the outside, this show looked like a Western, but once you got into it you realized that this was really a sci-fi show, and I don’t know if people were really ready for that kind of thing. Bruce Campbell was so damn good as the titular character, he had a great cast to work off of, and as silly as the show could be it was always grounded by its heart. Another Fox blunder.

Farscape - I avoided this show for a long time, figuring it was just muppets in space, but I couldn’t have been more wrong, and I’m glad I eventually wised up. This show is unlike anything else you’ll ever see, and everyone involved gave it their all. And, it probably has one of the ballsiest stories TV has ever produced, in that Earth and we humans play next to no role in it at all outside of the main character. Everyone else is an alien, and all the action takes place on the far side of the universe. And, for a show that had a lot of prosthetic characters, it had more heart and emotion than most fully human shows could ever hope to produce.

And… yeah, I think that’s it. I could go on about more shows, like Andromeda and Chuck and Space: Above & Beyond, but really at this point I’m just flogging a tired horse. I hope you enjoyed this excursion into my mind, as crazy as it can be, but I especially hope that it has encouraged you to take a look at a show you might have avoided before, or maybe didn’t even know existed. I have no idea what list I’ll put together next time, so if you have a suggestion, please let me know.

Good night, and be well.