Interview is up on Youtube

We talk about a little bit of everything ~ Lovecraft Mythos, Robert E. Howard, writing, the Elder Sign, Inspiration, Mormonism, Romney,bath salts, and I plug a number of anthos I'm in (or will be in) especially the upcoming Space Eldritch but also IN SITU, Monsters & Mormons, Monk Punk, Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope, etc etc

I enter at about 24 minutes in.

Spirit of Radio

My first radio interview will be up shortly, if you miss it I'm sure a podcast will be available very very soon. Feel free to call in and harass me.

~

WITHIN A MATTER OF HOURS...


DOUGLAS DIETRICH
(LIVE ON-AIR TODAY UPON THIS EVENTIDE;
TUESDAY, JULY 24th [07/24/2012])
...
– With SPECULATIVE FICTION AUTHOR: DAVID J. WEST

(& YOU, YOURSELF, PARTICIPATING INTERACTIVELY THROUGH THE FINAL HALF-HOUR)

– Through: "'CRITICAL OMISSIONS'
– WITH HOST DOUGLAS DUANE DIETRICH,
INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED RENEGADE MILITARY HISTORIAN,"

– ACCESSIBLE via: http://www.freedomslips.com/

– TIME-SLOTTED TO BROADCAST WORLDWIDE FOR A TWO HOUR (2 Hr.) DURATION

at: 03:00 PM—05:00 PM, Hawai'in Daylight Time;
04:00 PM—06:00 PM, Alaskan Daylight Time;
05:00 PM—07:00 PM, Western/Pacific Daylight Time;
06:00 PM—08:00 PM, Mountain Daylight Time;
07:00 PM—09:00 PM, Central Daylight Time;
08:00 PM—10:00 PM, Eastern Daylight Time;
09:00 PM—11:00 PM, Atlantic Time;
09:30 PM—11:30 PM, Newf'nland Time;
and 01:00 AM—03:00 AM, British Summer Time.

Join HOST DOUGLAS DIETRICH & GUEST(S) LIVE EVERY TUESDAY EVENING (Once/Week) at the Hours Listed Above by Entering the REV-RAD Chat-Room (which is Open twenty-four hours a day [24 Hrs./Dy.])

One is always welcome to Enter the Rev-Rad Chatroom to Ask Questions of either Douglas Dietrich or his Guest(s)
when the FINAL HALF-HOUR CALL-IN Phase of the Program commences
via: The Orange-Print Chat-Room Link Located on the Upper Left of the REV-RAD freedomslips.com Home-Page)
to Speak Directly with Douglas Dietrich – & His Guest(s)!

We Take Both Regular Phone-Calls and Skype!
CALL-IN #: 1-347/6882902
(YOU WILL BE LIVE
– PLEASE Turn Your Radio/Player OFF when On-Air!)
ADD us to YOUR SKYPE CONTACT(s) USING:
freedomscreen
Out of Respect to Other Callers, We Try to Limit the Majority of Calls to Between Five Minutes—Ten Minutes (5 Mns.—10 Mns.) of Air-Time...See More

Interview at Dagan Books

An interview with me has been updated and posted at Dagan Books for myself and the other contributors of the IN SITU anthology.

Those contributors being ~
7/17 - Ken Liu
7/18 - KV Taylor
7/19 - David West
7/20 - Kelly Stiles
7/21 - Rebecca Lloyd
7/22 - Robert Hunter
7/23 - Sarah Hendrix
7/24 - Alex Shvartsman
7/25 - Paul Dixon
7/26 - Jason Andrew
7/27 - Bear Weiter
7/28 - Dawn Vogel
7/29 - Greg Burch
7/30 - Mae Empson
7/31 - Graham Storrs

I have IN SITU on the Kindle and as backed up as I have been lately (dealing with my computer crashing and some files coming through hideously deranged and murderous), I have only yet read editor Carrie Quinn's afterword. I'll never be able to read and write as fast as I would like.

If I didn't offend someone with my writing I'm probably not doing it right

I was savaged by a recent amazon review, well not so much savaged as amused. My initial thoughts on reading the rather brief bit of negativity were 'really?'

"1.0 out of 5 stars Hated it, boring, disgusting, July 12, 2012



By mrs.cowboy - See all my reviews
Thought this book would at least be similar to historical fiction. In my opinion, it's far from historical and more into fiction using some of the Book of Mormon names as characters in the book. Blood thirsty kings and references to a homosexual warrior were too much for me. Will be deleting it from my Kindle."
 
At least she bought the book once. A quick once over on her other reviews was enough to confirm my guess and begs the question on why she even picked up Heroes of the Fallen. I suppose we all branch out sometimes but even a cursory glance should have told her this was nothing like the other cozy mysteries she reads.
 
Part of my amusement comes from knowing that the reviewer didn't 'get' the book but needed to share her indignation. That she hated a boring and disgusting book makes me think I at least accomplished some amount of memorability.
But did she really think there weren't bloodthirsty kings back then? And that there couldn't possibly be a homosexual in those wicked and wild ancient times? Let's not even get into the discrepancy that Rezon is a caravan master and not even close to being a warrior!

In any case if I didn't offend someone with my writing I'm probably not doing it right because I'm not moving people enough-this review tells me I'm at the least moving a little something something (granted its nicer when you move people in a positive light as well ~ see the other reviews).
 
But as James Enge recently wrote about negative reviews, they can be quite a service. I had wondered if all the 4 and 5 star reviews looked too biased in my favor-yes, several were from friends and family but several were from complete strangers (that always makes you feel good) So I'm asking dear readers, go ahead and give me a few stellar 3 stars and gushing 2 stars just to round things out and clear the palette.

***Addendum (July 18th, 2012)
It's also good to know (since I just checked Amazon) I am still selling copies after this review~take that mrs. cowboy

My First Desk

I can't be sure how old I was when I got my first desk. It was the early 80's and I was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of ten years old. I remember being with my father in a stuffy attic in some big warehouse; sunbeams became pillars of swirling dust. He picked through a large pile of metal and wood desks, choosing different models and sizes for my siblings and I.

Being the oldest I received the biggest desk. It had a tan painted steel body with a swinging hard wood top and seat. Take my word for it they don't make em' like they used to.
I used it for painting models, surgery on G.I.Joe fatalities and my first work at actual fiction written for my own satisfaction.

I generally wrote terrible fan-fiction (as all fan-fiction generally is) either G.I. Joe and or Transformers, or even my own brand of Indiana Jones rip-offs,
BUT...

I did work at things that were embers of my own original voice too. I had thoughts on my own Tolkien inspired epic fantasy that would have a nation of werewolves within it~that were the good guys! Haughty kings and naive if not noble princes, world striding conquerors who wrestled with fate and defied the gods, tragic death and glorious triumph.

These things came to me when I was a child and I wrote them at my first desk.

My eldest son (7) is now writing his own books. I went and took the desk out of storage at my parents house and brought it home. My brother used it for a time too, so it has more paint than when I left it behind. It was the last of all those desks my parents bought for us from some nameless warehouse in Billings, Montana.
I dusted it off and put it in my sons room. I told him how I used it and what it helped me start doing. I think his fan fiction is better than mine.

And I may as well share the desk where I have written all of my pro sales.

The Dig: IN SITU

Like the things in the "tomb" of my tale The Dig, the anthology IN SITU has been a long time coming and its finally here.

There are also a couple of copies for giveaways on Goodreads,  here.

The backcover blurb ~ From independent publisher Dagan Books, IN SITU is a new anthology of science fiction stories featuring alien archeology, hidden mysteries, and things that are better off left buried.


A quiet man finds more than he bargained for when he sets out with his metal detector on a lonely hill ... A soldier meets a new kind of enemy fighting an altogether different kind of war ... On a distant swamp planet, a woman questions what kind of human she's becoming ... a pregnant archaeologist finds a connection with a long-dead alien child ... while deep space scavengers wonder what it ever meant to be human at all.

These fifteen evocative science fiction stories will take you from dusty archaeologists digging up our alien past into a distant future where we've become the relics. Thought-provoking and entertaining, IN SITU explores science, theology, preservation, and the art of alien finance, in a whole new way.

Edited by Carrie Cuinn. Contains stories by Ken Liu, KV Taylor, Paul A. Dixon, Bear Weiter, Mae Empson, Jason Andrew, Greg Burch, Sarah Hendrix, R.S. Hunter, Rebecca Lloyd, Alex Shvartsman, Kelly C. Stiles, Graham Storrs, David J. West, and Dawn Vogel.

The Dig is a story that had a wide variety of influences for me and is a bit out of the ordinary in comparison to what I usually write, gone are the heroics and instead I have a female lead countered by a philosophical and psychotic Italian capitano during the early days of World War Two. I'm happy to say that it is a tale I was quite pleased with during a rereading after having been away for so long. I look forward to reading the rest of collection.

Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope

 Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope with my weird western Tangle Crowned Devil is now available.

This was a call that I took as a challenge to see how I might pull off a horror story featuring jackalopes. It took some pondering and the  reworking a different Porter Rockwell tale--that and being very loose with a Zuni legend, but I'm rather pleased with it.

That and its always nice to be in a new table of contents with a new group of fellow writers.

The paperback ought to be available shortly as well ( a day or two) and the editor John Palisano has posted that it will be a measly 7.95!!! I need to find out how he is able to do such a great deal.

Happy Fourth of July!

In the spirit of Independence and American ingenuity I present you some great scenes of unknown American history. Check out more of Jason Heuser's art here.

Strange Sights of the Week