I Need Your Help

Hey gang, I have a special request from all 200+ of you. Go here and read the issue and then if you could, please help out. It’s not asking for much. It’s just that a certain website, BroMyGod.com likes to steal other people’s work and use it as their own without so much as giving proper credit to those who created the work (which is obviously what stealing is). And as an artist to some degree, I find it disgusting. I also happen to know that most, if not all of you, are also artists in some way. Think about how you would feel if someone stole your work and claimed it as their own. You’d be pissed, right?

Well, we’re pissed. All of us who were affected by this. And you should be pissed too. Because it could have just as easily been your work they stole.

So please, go here and read what happened and if you could spare a minute or two of your day, please help out. It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all!

Also, if you happen to know someone who visits BroMyGod.com, please let them know just what kind of a site it is, and what kind of low life scum runs it.

Update

Hey folks, sorry for the long delay in things going on around here. Life has a way of doing that, doesn’t it? Taking what you like to do and flipping it inside out…

I’ve had the worst case of writer’s block I’ve ever had for the last few months and it’s really getting me down. I’m doing my best to get over it, I just really don’t know how. I’ve never had it this bad before.

In any case, all is well, I’m just not writing. Which sucks, because I have so much to work on. In any case, I haven’t forgotten about this place, or you, for that matter. I thank you all for being patient (and not bombing me with “where the hell are you” comments) and just really hanging out and being groovy. So thanks for that.

I hope to have updates soon, I just don’t know how soon. I’m currently still dealing with the block, but it’s fading, I can tell.

2 AM Photo

It was nearly one-thirty in the morning when Dave Aulman laid down next to his wife in bed. Suzy was on her side facing away from him, snoring her cute little snores. Dave covered himself with the blankets and faced his wife. He rubbed on her arm with his hand and in her sleep she responded by touching his hand with hers. Dave smiled and turned over.

Dave looked out into the darkness of the room, looking at all of the familiar shapes and shadows, produced by the faint light coming in through the windows. There was a street light that always produced the shadows, but tonight there was also a clear sky and a full moon. The room was lit up nicely in a pale white light.

Suzy continued snoring her cute little snores and Dave listened to them, getting lost in them. They weren’t annoying like a man’s snores. They were hypnotic, and they often helped to put him to sleep. Unfortunately for Dave, that wasn’t going to happen so easily tonight.

Dave had a few things running through his mind. He knew his company was laying off people, some who had been there longer than he had. He had been worried since the first round of layoffs happened two weeks prior and had been exploring other options since. The options he had, weren’t very good.

Their oldest child, Angel was about to graduate from high school and was going to become a Freshman at their local college in the fall. Sure they had money saved for her books and those other little things that her scholarship wouldn’t cover, but where would that leave them if he couldn’t find work? Suzy’s job was going well, but it wouldn’t be enough.

Dave lay awake, thinking of all the things that were going on, those extra little things that made those few big things stand out even more. Oil change for the car, renewing of plates and license coming up in a few months, groceries, gas prices going up. All of the necessities of life were racking his brain when he knew they shouldn’t be. But he couldn’t help it.

After laying in bed for what seemed to be forever, Dave finally succumbed to sleep. His eyes closed, blocking out the misty white room, and his thoughts took a time out. He was feeling calm and peaceful as the sleep slowly made its way through his body.

He wasn’t sure if he had been out completely yet or not, or if he had been out long if he had fallen fully asleep when his cell phone vibrated on the stand next to his side of the bed. He opened his eyes and could still feel the comfort of being almost asleep all throughout his body. He could see the room was lit up a little more by the new message on his cell phone screen.

Dave reached out and grabbed the phone, still unable to think of who it might be at that time of night. His screen showcased two messages to him, the time, which he now could see was just after two in the morning, and one telling him he had a new text message.

He flipped his phone open and clicked a button. The message opened up and it was nothing more than a photo. A photo of the front of his house.

House At Night

From:
Time: 2:01a
Date: 2/25/13

Continue reading

They Can’t Say No

This past National Novel Writing Month I churned out a new novel titled “They Can’t Say No” and I was going to post an excerpt from it here like I did last year with the “Hand One Is Dealt” excerpt, except I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do with it. You see, this is a different kind of story for me. It’s not necessarily horror. It’s more along the lines of sci/fi erotica. Yes, there are sex scenes in it. A lot of them.

What I didn’t know what to do with it was, I didn’t know if I should publish it under my name or a pen name, because it’s erotica. However, I think I would have been found out eventually and then where would I be? So I’m just going to put it out as me and have that be that.

Writing sex scenes turned out to be very easy for me and once that aspect of the story came up, I flew through them without hesitation. Not only did it help to pad the story with material, but it also helped to boost my word count up to the 50,000 word mark that I needed by the end of November, somewhere around November 17th. I was done with my 50K novel halfway through the month. I think it was Elysabeth Williams who challenged me to write another 50K before the end of the month, but by that point I was spent. No pun intended. Besides, I didn’t see where else I could go with the story.

With that said, I don’t have an excerpt ready yet for you, but I will post one soon. However, here’s a synopsis of what the story is about.

Working Cover

Working Cover

David is a genius. He’s always been the nerdy type, creating robots, video game systems, computers, all from scratch. He studies molecules and atoms for fun. He also studies the female body. Since he is such a nerd he seems to have a hard time finding true love, so he spends a lot of his time online visiting porn sites.

One day he decides to create a camera that would take pictures and extract the DNA of the subject in the picture and then clone them at will. He suddenly starts having all the sex he wants with the women he wants, except with their clones and not the real them.

David runs into his neighbor and becomes friends with him. Fred starts teaching David a new way of life. How to enjoy sports, beer, even marijuana. In turn, David gets his new pal laid. As it turns out, Fred is a gambler and he hits it big one night while gambling online. The two decide to take a road trip.

They go to gamble in a real casino, while high, and they wind up hitting it big. In the meantime, David has found the hots for a new woman, a real woman, who comes to clean his apartment for him. He falls in love, but shortly after discovers the police hauling her away.

Through traveling, smoking pot and getting into a lot of interesting incidents, David and Fred live the life while looking for true love. David has to make a choice, go after a real woman, or live happily ever after with one of his clones who is programmed to love him back.

I did in this story what Erin Morgenstern, author of “The Night Circus” did in her story. I ran out of places to go with my characters, so I started putting them in different situations, and the story came from that. What you read in this story is almost all on-the-fly stuff, not planned at all. And it worked for me.

I’m happy with how the story turned out but I’m currently wondering if I should change the ending. I have two in mind, the one I gave it and another that takes the story to a different place. We shall see. In any case, it’s being edited now and will be published shortly after. I plan on releasing a paper version of it first, with the e-book coming sometime after that.

Book Review: The Electrifying Exploits of the English Three

I’ve been lucky enough to meet a bunch of awesome writers on Facebook. We now have a sort of circle that we hang out in and we all love to talk about writing and reading. Amongst those friends I have met is the wonderfully delightful Elysabeth Williams. Her book, The Electrifying Exploits of the English Three is a wonderful read from beginning to end.

electrifying-exploits-coverThis was my first experience with steampunk, other than the Wild Wild West of course. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

From the back cover:

Can three women stop the destruction of the tower bridge?

Eliza, Miriam, and Jillian are friends by fate, employment, and society. In the London of 1894, they receive a directive from their mysterious boss to investigate and stop the Countess Wilmont’s plot to destroy the newly erect Tower Bridge. Delving into a secret world of masterful training in martial arts, curious new technologies and weaponry, the women are armed and very dangerous. Their investigation reveals a terrible truth about two of their husbands, and along the way they meet three men who will change their world and show them that gentlemen aren’t always what they seem.

Though it sounds a bit like Charlie’s Angels, this is a great story with a lot of action, great writing and wit, and even love. Plenty of love. That’s the woman coming out in Mrs. Williams. While this reads like a “chick book” full of love and hope, it also has plenty in it to keep a man interested, such as sex, language and violence.

Personally, I loved the story and was easily enthralled in it. A real page turner, I’d strongly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read.

5 of 5 stars

Book Review: The Doll

I spent some time on Amazon’s Kindle list of free ebooks to see if I could find something worth reading. I picked two out of the hundred or so I looked through. Most of them were love stories, I’m guessing since it was Valentine’s Day when I did my search. This was one of the two I picked out.

the-doll-coverThe story is about a woman and her daughter who go to the Island of the Dolls in Mexico. When they get off of their boat and walk amongst the dolls hanging from the trees, their tour guide tells them of the legend, how a girl had drowned in the water there and people began hanging dolls in the trees to make her happy. There was just one man who lived there but he was found floating in the water, drowned, near the same place where the little girl had died.

He also warned everyone to not touch any of the dolls as that brings about bad luck. One man touched a doll. The lady is freaked out at all the dolls but her daughter loves them and wishes she could have this one in particular.

Later the woman finds out the man who had touched one of the dolls had drowned in his pool while fully clothed. And then odd things start happening to the daughter. The mom then finds out the daughter had stolen the doll she wanted and brought it home with her.

The mom takes the doll back to the island and puts it back in its place only to have something creepy happen to her.

I liked the story and the ending, but it was a little predictable. And the fact that it was a short story left much to be desired, like more story and background. There was also an issue with scenes changing on a whim with nothing separating them. Sometimes it was hard to tell what was going on just because the scene change lost me.

Overall it was a decent, quick read which only took about a half hour to get through. If you’d like a quick little read before bed, check this out. Otherwise, don’t expect much else from it.

I gave it 3 of 5 stars.

Book Review: Huntress Moon

huntress-moon-coverNever mind that I’m already a huge fan of Alexandra Sokoloff’s work, Huntress Moon is a standout book. It’s absolutely staggering how much research must have gone into writing it, and it totally pays off. This is the kind of book every author should dream of writing, and it is most definitely a must-read for any fan of serial murderers and detective work. Oh man, talk about BLOODY!

While I spent a lot of time researching stuff for Hand One Is Dealt and even spoke about doing research here, I can’t imagine going into the amazing detail she does in this book, both with her investigators and with her factoids of random serial killers. Mental disorders, geography, you name it, she dominated this book. No wonder it was a pick for Best Book of 2012 by Suspense Magazine.

About the first book of the Huntress/FBI Series from her site:

FBI Special Agent Matthew Roarke is closing in on a bust of a major criminal organization in San Francisco when he witnesses an undercover member of his team killed right in front of him on a busy street, an accident Roarke can’t believe is coincidental. His suspicions put him on the trail of a mysterious young woman who appears to have been present at each scene of a years-long string of “accidents” and murders, and who may well be that most rare of killers: a female serial.

The fact that Sokoloff had a career in writing movie scenes plays a huge part in her setting the scenes in her books. Everything is brilliantly painted for you to show you exactly what’s going on at all times. I don’t think I’ve ever had such vivid pictures in mind from reading a book such as with her works. Each scene, each character is a masterpiece, all woven together to bring you a story that could be dropped easily right onto the big screen.

What a great detective novel by one of the great authors in the horror/suspense genre. If you’ve never heard of her before, please do yourself a favor and check out Huntress Moon! You’ll fall in love with her work just as I have. She’s amazing. I can’t wait to read the sequel!

I give this book 5 of 5 stars.

Eaton’s Eatin’ Tee!

For those of you who have enjoyed my stories Skinner and Hand One Is Dealt, you’ve been drawn into a little fictional place called Eaton’s Eatin’, a fancy schmancy mom-and-pop diner located in Eaton, OH. Those who follow my Facebook page or my Twitter feed got to see the design a little early and so far feedback has been good.

If I ever become rich and famous (or just the rich part) I’m going to go to Eaton and open a place called Eaton’s Eatin’ just because that’s a catchy damn name, if I do say so myself. Also, I’d want to eat a burger there, wouldn’t you?

Without further ado, here’s the design for their logo proudly displayed on an old metal box that hangs above the door, no doubt with a Coca-Cola sign just underneath. The letters buzz with the electric display of their neon tubing, illuminating the entrance and sidewalk just below. They portray a warmth that suggests you’ll feel that when you enter for a decent home-cooked meal.

eatons-eatin-logo

As of now you can only get this on a T-shirt in sized small to 4XL. I’m a hefty guy myself, so that’s why I made sure to have the larger sizes available. Prices start at just $12, so you can get a classic T-shirt for a great price and you can show your love for Eaton’s best place to grub.

If you get a shirt, post a pic of you wearing it below and I’ll display it on my site for all to see. You can also pick up a nice black T-shirt with the cover of Hand One Is Dealt on it, if you’d like to display the blood and gore on your chest. I know I would.

Lastly, I was going to add the Eaton’s Eatin’ logo to a few other things, stuff you might find in a diner, like a wall clock and a coffee mug, but CafePress has recently decided to suck and I couldn’t get the free site they give you to work properly, so I switched to SpreadShirt. The price of the shirts reflects the difference too, in your favor ($18 vs $12).

Let me know what you think of the design! You can click the pictures below to be taken to the shop.

eatons-eatin-t-shirt hand-one-t-shirt

Mind The Gap

How do you prefer to read, with an eReader like a Kindle or Nook, or with an old school paperback in hand?

This is such a touchy subject nowadays, especially since ebooks just recently outsold traditional books.

Sure, the numbers are there, but let’s think about how easy it is to go onto Amazon, buy a ton of ebooks for the price of one hardcover without leaving your chair and then sitting back to read those books all without leaving your house. Sure, that’s easy and completely doable. I’m to blame, I love buying books regardless if they’re electronic or paper. Having material to read is all that’s important.

However, since the debate is to pick one or the other, I’d have to say that I love traditional paper books more. They fill my book case. An ereader doesn’t do that. There’s nothing like walking through a bookstore, or looking at my bookshelf and looking at a bunch of great titles to pick from, picking one up, reading the back cover, flipping through the pages, reading a random excerpt and making a decision that way.

I find that trying to pick the next book to read is just as fun as reading that next book. I also like the feeling that OH NO! I’m down to nothing to read, time to go to the bookstore!

Half Price Books has been a safe haven for me in recent years. Not just to find something new to read, but to find something new to read that has been read by someone else before. That particular story has been told to someone before me. It has been passed down from person to person. It’s a hand-me-down book, and sometimes those are the best too. My dad and I trade books like they’re going out of style, and if I didn’t have a plethora of great books on hand, I wouldn’t be able to do that. Because my dad isn’t going to ever own an ereader, ever. He’s just not technically savvy like that. And if I couldn’t trade books with him, then an entire part of my love of reading would go away.

As an author there’s such an easy way to get your books out there. Alexandra Sokoloff just recently published (and is still publishing the sequels) a set of books, all ebook. She said that she can get the books out to the masses quickly and efficiently that way without having to wait to get them formatted and printed. There’s a plus side there. If you want to get your work out to the masses quickly, ebook is the way to go.

On the flip side, also as an author I love having a physical copy of my own book. I like being able to read it and show it to people. I just recently gave my sister my Author’s copy of my book Hand One Is Dealt so she could read it. She doesn’t have an ereader either and if I didn’t have a paper copy of my book she wouldn’t have been able to read it. Just like my dad.

Also as an author, I can’t sign copies of ebooks for people. I had a book giveaway when Hand One… came out and I got to sign those copies won by people. That was an awesome feeling, because personally I love to have autographed copies of books. It’s a small collection I have, but it’s an amazing collection for me. Those books were held by the author who wrote them, and were signed by those authors. Regardless of how many they’ve signed, I have a minority of that book, because not all of the books that were printed are going to be autographed, period.

The debate will continue to go on as long as both mediums are there. I fear that one day we’ll have no new published paper books. I think that is a very long way off if it even ever happens, but to think that it could scares me.

Everyone likes to say the smell of a paper book is their favorite thing as well as flipping through the pages. I’m one of them, I love those aspects of a book. To be rid of them would be a horrible thing that would only flip all long gone authors over in their graves. Their printed books are their legacy. Sure I can read Treasure Island on ereader, but if I run out of batteries or the power’s out and my ereader is dead, I can’t sit by the window and read an ebook with the light of the sun. I’d rather have Treasure Island in print.

I think the two are necessary. There will always be fans of both mediums and they should both continue to have a life. Just because ebooks outsold hardcovers recently doesn’t mean hardcovers should go away. Wild West books are at a low point in their tenure, but they still come out. Writers still write them because there will always be a market for them.

Let me put it this way, if print books were to become a thing of the past, there would still be bookstores, such as Half Price Books, selling books that have already been printed. New only bookstores might fade away slowly, but I’m sure even most of them would begin selling and trading the old books just to continue to be in business.

Just like with Wild West/Cowboy stories. One day there may not be an author of that genre anymore, but the old stuff will continue to be sold in bookstores and even on ereader to those of us who want to read them. I think the same will be true of books in general if they ever get killed off.

All I can do is hope though, that in my life I never see the end of the printed book. That would be the death of me.

So what do you think dear reader? What do you prefer? I’m sure you’ve answered this a million times already, but I have to ask again. Despite the pitfalls or triumphs of one form over the other, what do you prefer for yourself? Electronic or paper?

I’ve Been Given An Award

While my writing has yet to generate me an award, this site has given me two. This is a strange position to be in, because this particular award that I just got from a very good friend of mine is one I’ve already got on another blog of mine. And in case you don’t know, getting these awards means doing a bunch of extra work, like answering questions, creating new questions and nominating other blogs to get the award. Well, I’ve already nominated every other blogger I know personally for this award, so my strange position is to either nominate some of my new followers for this or to not nominate anybody. One path creates a ton of extra work for me, the other path is my easy path. And I don’t want to leave anybody out, so I’m not sure of what to do.

So to keep things fair and not upset anyone, I won’t be nominating anybody else for this because I don’t want to hurt anybodies feelings. This was a hard decision to make and it truly doesn’t mean I wanted to take the easy way out, although to be honest that was a nice aspect of my decision.

The award, The Liebster Award, ironically enough looks different than the one I was originally given, so how prestigious is that? As far as I know the Oscars have one award and it looks the same every year. Regardless, here’s what I have to do to get the award (aside from creating new questions and handing it out to new people).

I have to give 11 facts about myself. Since I’ve already given 11 facts about myself when I accepted this award before, I’ll give those facts again, some of which you already know.

1. I can play guitar. I’ve been playing it for 18 years now.
2. I have recorded songs with a friend of mine whom I used to play live with.
3. If you ask nicely I’ll let you hear them.
4. I also play bass guitar.
5. I also play saxophone.
6. I also play tuba.
7. I have played the piano.
8. I have also played a violin.
9. I have also played drums.
10. Those songs I recorded, I played every instrument on them. I also mixed and produced them.
11. On one of those songs I even did the singing. It’s a remake of a song that was previously unreleased by one of my favorite bands ever, Bare Jr. The song was given to me by the man himself, Bobby Bare Jr. who also agreed to let me remake the song. Unfortunately we never finished enough songs to have an album, so the song is still unreleased. Twice.

That was ultra easy! Now I’ll answer those 11 questions given to me by Shay Leigh, who gave me the award. Thanks Shay! (you all should definitely check out her blog and her books!)

1. What is your favorite line from a book?
Oh man, so many! I think my personal favorite is from my book because the line I wrote was exceptionally good and it even surprised me. Since I wrote it I’ve heard from various people that it happened to be their favorite line as well. “Mommy, they’re moving now.” Read it in Hand One Is Dealt!

2. Where do you hope to be five years from now? What are you doing to make it happen?
I hate this question because I don’t live for the future. I never have. I live for the here and now. That has been a great way to live as well as a downfall. But I would LOVE to be a more popular author. Maybe not so much a more wealthy author, just more popular. After all, I got into writing books to entertain, not to become rich.

I am currently writing! I hope to have my next book out soon!

3. What is your happiest memory?
I was very young when this happened and it’s one of my earliest memories, but it was of me and my parents standing in our hallway at home hugging each other.

4. What 3 moments from your life do you think has had the greatest impact on who you are now?
Hmmm, interesting. My parents divorce, one way or another influenced who I would become because it changed so much of my life. Also my work in radio. I loved it and it was a huge part of my life. Lastly, meeting my wife. I love her dearly and knowing her has changed me in many ways.

5. What is your favorite scent?
Dragon’s Blood. I just got some incense of it because I missed it too much. What a great scent.

6. If you could change one major thing from your past, what would it be?
There are too many, but on the whole I wouldn’t change anything because everything that has happened to me has made me who I am today. But I think there are a few things I would have done differently if given the chance. The biggest one would have been that I would have done a little better in high school.

7. Have you laughed today?
Not yet, I just woke up. And waking up from a decent sleep is not funny to me.

8. What’s your favorite joke?
Ok, you’ll have to bear with me here. It’s one of my favorites but I don’t really remember it… so here goes. I’ll try to tell you, but I really have no idea how it ends right now. Maybe it’ll come to me.

Three guys are walking through a field. They come upon a pile of bricks. One guy says to the other two, “I bet you I can throw a brick in the air higher than you!” The other two take the challenge. The first guy picks up a brick and throws it up into the air. It goes pretty high.

The second guy picks up a brick and he throws it up in the air. It goes even higher.

The third guy picks up a brick and… now this is where I don’t remember exactly what happens. I know he throws it up in the air, but now I’m at a loss as to what happens. In any case, I know another joke that is just as funny and I DO know it fully, so here it is.

A man is on a plane and he’s smoking a cigar. The lady next to him has a parrot on her shoulder and it’s talking and squawking and making a ruckus. Eventually the woman turns to the man and complains about his cigar. The man says he is NOT putting it out. And then the man turns to the woman and complains about the bird and how it’s annoying. She insists that she isn’t going to shut it up.

They continue complaining to one another for a while until finally the man says, “Okay, I hate your bird and you hate my cigar. How about we take them both into the bathroom and throw them down the toilet and be rid of both of our problems together?”

The woman agrees and they head off to the bathroom. He throws his cigar into the toilet and she throws her parrot into the toilet and they flush. Both problems gone.

They return to their seats and sit down, finally happy. A short while later they look out the window and do you know what they see?

A brick.

9. What 5 places do you want to travel to?
Five?! I’d love to see the world one day, but I don’t know if I can limit it to five places. The nerd in me would LOVE to be a traveler to another planet, so there’s that. I’d love to see California sometime, Alaska, Ireland, Australia, Colorado, Mexico… I could go on and on.

10. What is your greatest fear?
Fear itself.

11. Are you ticklish?
For the longest time I wasn’t, but my wife tickles me all the time and it drives me nuts cause I thought I wasn’t ticklish. Guess I am!

Okay, so there was that. I’m done, whew. Thanks to Shay for the award and I am sorry I didn’t hand it out to others but as I said, I’ve already done this before and I don’t know anybody else to give the award to.

Here it is, in all its splendor!

liebster-blog