Quiet Time

When I left/lost my day job three months ago, I really thought I'd be spending a lot more time on the blog.  I thought I'd be posting tidbits about comic books and retro stuff again and lining up cool guest authors.  Well, time has really flown the last few months and I really haven't done any of those things.  But honestly, I'm not complaining, because what I have managed to do is completely immerse myself in writing, something I haven't been able to do for years.  Three months ago I had about 35, 000 words written on The Bloody Chorus.   Tonight, I'm closing in on 100,000 words, and although there's still a fair amount of work left to do, the end is actually in sight.

Music, Writing, and The Wall

Sometimes when I write about music on the blog I wind up with a lot of hits.  The post I did a while back about the album Buckingham Nicks still gets lots of hits, which feels weird to me because that was a post that just came to be out of the blue one afternoon.  Maybe those are the best kinds of blog posts.

I was driving home in the rain today when I heard Pink Floyd's The Wall come on the radio.  I'm not one of those people who leave on a radio station and just listen to whatever the hell comes on--I hunt for something I like, often going through the dial multiple times before finally hitting on something decent.  But The Wall?  Awesome.  That's one of those songs/albums that has the ability to instantly warp you back to the past--if you're old enough to remember when it came out.  Luckily, I am.

When Dreams Come True Cover

Some of you might remember when I was struggling with a short story a few months ago.  That story was for the upcoming anthology When Dreams Come True, edited by a friend of mine, Brittiany Koren, who just sent out the cover image for us authors to check out.  I was so excited to see it I figured I'd post it on the blog for the rest of you.

My story is called The Island of Small Desires.  I really worked at it, because the theme of dreams coming true was so tough for me to work with for various reasons.  Anyway, I'm happy with how it came out, and so was Brittiany because it made the cut, thankfully.  The anthology should be out pretty soon, and I'll let everyone know once it becomes available.  I get a particular sense of accomplishment after writing short stories that's not quite the same as when I finish writing a book.  It's tough to describe.  Book writing is much more consuming, obviously, but short story writing feels just as powerful.  Weird.  And hard to describe.

Iron Man 3

So I just got back from seeing Iron Man 3.  I'm assuming that a lot of you who come to this blog will be seeing it for yourself, but I figured I'd post some quick thoughts about the movie and the overall experience.

First of all, I went to the 9am show.  Rather than post another image from the movie, I'm posting a pic I shot of the concession stand at the theater.  That's what it looks like when the place first opens--empty!  I've seen this thing swamped with people, so this was kind of a relief.  I didn't expect the place to be crowded, of course.  What I expected was to share the theater with some diehard fans like myself, people who really wanted to see this particular movie, and that's pretty much what I got--a handful of nerdy loners like myself.  Nice. 

Researching Evil

I haven't felt much like blogging this week.  I've spent the last few days working on a special chapter for The Bloody Chorus, one that really took my mind and my mood in a dark direction.  I get to research a lot of different subjects when writing, and usually it's fun.  This time, however, the subject of my research was torture.  Real torture, the kind practiced by states like Nazi Germany.  I don't want to spill too much about the scene I'm writing, because that would ruin the story for those of you who'll be reading it someday.  All I knew was that I wanted it to feel "real" while at the same time being entertaining enough to keep people engaged and not grossing them out.  I'm not a horror writer, after all.