Gods in Darkness

I met my goal of releasing 12 projects in 12 months - one exactly every month in 2015.

The final one was my new anthology of new and previously released sci-fi horror materia titled Gods in Darkness - get it HERE

Some of these stories might be familiar - the titular novella was released just over three years ago in Space Eldritch, and several new tales follow that same strange semi-lovecraftian vein. I also wrote some dark poetry that I put in as some spacers between the short stories. Some of it is pretty weird and I sometimes wondered what was running through my head when I wrote those lines and yet, I also felt like letting the Muse take me where she would. So in some respects it makes me feel vulnerable putting that kinda weird out there - so I haven't promoted it all that much by comparison to earlier books like Whispers Out of the Dust, and LO what to my surprise do I find as I'm putting this blog post together but Gods in Darkness is already in the top 100 Anthologies on Amazon!

Makes a writer who does struggle with - nobody cares about what I write feel pretty good.

Thanks to whomever you are out there getting a copy. I do suspect its some of you guys (My handful of blog readers)

As for just a little more of my motivations for this antho: granted at least half of it is previously released and I wanted to meet my goal for the year, but also I love those old pulp collections with a variety of stuff like Wolfshead  and the Cthulhu Mythos. I have several stories kicking around but decided to keep them all on a science fiction kick and am saving my weird western and fantasy type tales for some other project - (one weird western/aliens tale did go into Gods in Darkness- but I decided I no Porter Rockwell tales would make it into this one - so it was rewritten).

So I had this one keep to a theme as it were. Thanks again and Happy New Year!

What a Year its Been

Where to begin?

My daughter Athena was born this last august and she is doing amazing!

I accomplished a lot this year writing wise, I've had a personal goal for some time to have something creative of mine come out every single month in a year and I've finally done it.

Granted six months out of the year it was my ongoing serial, Walking Through Walls in the pages of Utah Geek Magazine but that is still more than 15,000 words in a novella getting in front of thousands of people locally - I'm hoping it pays off in the long run with some local fanbase - between you - my regular blog friends (because you are) I  haven't seen much in the way of that working out yet, but I'll at least finish the novella and self-pub it and I'm pretty damn happy with it.

Those other six months saw several collections of my stories and a new weird anthology project that I never planned on doing until right before I did it - Whispers Out of the Dust. That was the fastest I ever wrote in my life yet. about 56K in four weeks, eventually cut down to 53K but still.
I also released, The Mad Song in January and The Hand of Fate in June. I was a part of an improv  rock/spoken word album with the Freestyle Gargoyles II - my song was 'Read Em and Weep', and I've heard good things by those that heard it. I also contributed a few stories to an anthology put together by some writer friends - 5 Blades. 

And just in time to still meet my goal, I just put up on Kindle and Create Space - Gods in Darkness, a collection of sci-fi horror and prose. It has a 4 previously released stories and a few new ones and some dark poetry with a Lovecraftian flavor. I'll put up another post when I can actually see it on Amazon.

I also attended some great cons and will do so this coming year to an even greater degree - so good things are coming.

All the best to the rest of you and have a great New Year!

Tree City Comic Con Recap

So the Space Balrog's and I were at Tree City Comic Con in Boise Idaho - Boise being the adjusted french name for LeBois = River of Tree's. We had a good time! I sold the most books out of all of us on Friday and the least on Saturday - go figure. Apparently Idahoan's wanted more horror on Friday = Weird Tales of Horror and Space Eldritch, and more fantasy on Saturday.



Here is a shot that Jason King took of me when for about 5 seconds I thought our panel had been cancelled and I was shouting "CON!" as in "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" until James Wymore said we were still on - I had no idea that Jason was capturing the moment = priceless.



There were a fair amount of celebs at the con considering it was pretty small - just a few thousand. Here is me with Angie Everhart. I put my foot in my mouth telling her I loved her as Red Sonja (Thinking she portrayed Red in the Conan the Adventurer TV show) WRONG! The pic was taken just before I said that and she visibly cooled as I said it with a sharp, "I was never Red Sonja!"

I did get to mingle with a few other cool celebs - sorry no pictures - I went to the VIP Green Room quite a bit for food and drink - oddly enough security never ever stopped me - I always just walked in like I owned the place while my fellow Balrogs were always turned away along with anyone else who wasn't a star. I got to speak to Nichelle Nicols - Uhura for a quick brunch on Saturday, and John Rhys Davies just as he arrived on Friday very cool cuz he talked to me first! He came in and exclaimed loud like Sallah, "I see one!" and we toasted each other. I never asked what he meant by that - was too thrilled that he was talking.

Breakfast at the hotel Saturday morning was surreal as most of the patroons were stars and support staff so I was a having breakfast with a third of the cast for The Addams Family- Lurch and Cousin It and Wednesday, Uhura, Mark Sheperd, Monster Quest's Dr. Meldrum (I did get a Bigfoot cast), Joanie Brooks - who you may remember was on the cover of the first issue of Utah Geek Magazine that I have a serial action fantasy story in, among others.

At one point I joked that a guy was cosplaying as fellow Balrog Dave Butler - he was wearing the same jeans, white shirt and black blazer, we asked the guy to come and talk to us and it turned out he was the director of the whole Con! So we're making friends with shakers!

Here are a few of the more interesting cosplayers I saw.

Two of America's greatest heroes together again, Batman and Ben Franklin

Tim

Sara Butler, hiding and James Wymore and Jason King

Two cool cats that I don't know what they're from.

A Daft Punk Jedi

And the most bizarre thing was set up right kiddie corner from our booth - the pole dancing Wonder Woman!

Guess what I did when she left her pole unattended.

Just a good time overall!

Making Appearances

I'm going to be hitting two cons this weekend. I'll be at the Do It Now Expo in Orem Utah at UVU, Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday. I'm going to have books at the Ancient American table. I'm not 100% on my schedule just yet but all my times available should be earlier in the morning /afternoon.

And then a little later on - on Saturday I'll make it to the Salty Horror Con at the Utah State Fair Park in Salt Lake City.

Each of these cons are gonna bring in different crowds and I expect to sell different books at each - my historicals at the Do It Now Expo and my Weird Horror/Space Eldritch at the Salty Con, its gonna make for a schizo weekend, but I'm sure it will be fun either way.

Cover Lover

Just taking of stock of where I've been and where I'm going. Makes  me feel good and accomplished to look back and forward at these covers of finished projects as well as a couple coming up and even a few might have been's. Heroes of the Fallen is of course my first.

The sequel has had a number of setbacks, but I am working on Blood of  Our Fathers, it is still coming.

Coming very soon is my sword and sandals tale Bless the Child.

And shortly thereafter I will finally release the novella Whispers of the Goddess originally intended for Roar of the Crowd from Rogue Blades.

 

Then I have had quite a number of shorts in a variety of anthologies.

 

And a few ezines.

 

Some never had covers and I like to think about some art I wish could have been covers for same.

 

I was even a ghost writer for a book that still isn't out.

 

And I like to imagine a few more covers for things coming down the pike.

 

 
 

 The Bastard Prince

 Gods & Robbers

And a lot more weird westerns featuring Porter Rockwell
(wish I knew the artists for all these but I've lost track-apologies)

Still dreaming, still working.

Now in PULP = (print) SPACE ELDRITCH: The Haunted Stars

Now available in print! Space Eldritch: The Haunted Stars

Please, think of the hungry shoggoth (my kids) and buy a copy.

SPACE ELDRITCH II: The Haunted Stars

Just in time for Halloween reading!
The cold of interstellar space is again closer than you think as eleven authors -- including New York Times bestseller Larry Correia, Nebula winner Eric James Stone, Amazon #1 bestseller Michaelbrent Collings, and multiple Hugo nominee Howard Tayler -- explore what happens when space opera meets Lovecraftian cosmic horror.

Contents:
A Darklight Call’d on the Long Last Night of the Soul – Michaelbrent Collings
Dead Waits Dreaming – Larry Correia
The Implant – Robert J Defendi
Plague Ship – Steven L. Peck
From Within the Walls – Steven Diamond
Space Opera: Episode Two—The Great Old One Strikes Back – Michael R. Collings
The Queen in Shadow – David J. West
The Humans in the Walls – Eric James Stone
Seed -- D.J. Butler 
Full Dark – Nathan Shumate 
Fall of the Runewrought – Howard Tayler

I've been pretty pleased with all the feedback I received for my first Space Eldritch tale, Gods in Darkness, online reviews generally said it was the best or the worst in the collection, which I just take to mean I am doing something right. I was tempted to do a sequel of sorts but ultimately opted not to, instead I decided to twist up a few expectations = instead of the protagonist going insane upon discovery of the Eldritch horror, I thought what if the Elder Thing was insane???
Hope you all enjoy and purchase SPACE ELDRITCH II here on Amazon or here on Smashwords.