Weird Tales of Horror reviewed at Amazing Stories

My short story collection of a little of everything gets a very favorable review over at Amazing Stories
So check it out!
Thanks to Keith West

Local Authors and You Event

I'll be at the West Jordan Library this Saturday the 27th from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm and am scheduled for a writing workshop, Story Ideas and Character Goals from 1:30 to 2:00.

It should be a lot of fun since I know several other participating authors.

Orc Wars/Dragonfyre

I'd been meaning to watch Orc Wars for quite some time, especially since I love fantasy and the director is a new friend of mine - Kohl Glass and lo! After some amount of time it was just recently released on Netflix and Redbox etc...

Never mind I actually got a signed copy from Kohl at Salt Lake Comic Con ( we traded - I gave him a copy of Weird Tales of Horror) I just watched it last night with the kids, and since they're my kids they loved it! Could be a bit gory (black Orc blood) and scary for others though. 

Now, I'm not going to say that this is the greatest movie ever - its not - its not Lord of the Rings, but its also not a Sy-Fy abomination either. Great acting and costumes and the premise was pretty solid. I liked that even the Orc's themselves had some interesting characters - Gorejaw and Fangmark!

Before I go any farther here is the back cover synopsis:

A battle-weary ex-Special Forces Operative buys a ranch in remote American West to flee from the world, and encounters a strange series of trespassers, including a beautiful elf princess and a Native American mystic and Orcs. When the Orcs invade his property, John must give up his isolation to become a hero, before the Orcs unleash their dragon god on our world.

The characters got me from the blind Indian mystic, Whitefeather played by the fantastic Wesley John to the princess Masiela Lusha, a powerhouse fighter in her own right. My wife would appreciate that - a proactive female protagonist. And Rusty Joiner plays the lead ex-soldier - John Norton, thrust into the middle of this crossroads of realms. 

I liked the action and suspense and even funny little asides and nods to weird fiction in general, I got kick out of the realty company that John Norton buys his out of the way home from ~ 

I had to tell Kohl I liked that. My kids were drawn in to the suspense of what the Orcs were doing coming into our world and we all dug the action and laughs. 

I also gotta mention a good friend of my wife's is in the movie as a redneck and as Gorejaw - Adam Johnson who I didn't realize was in it til I watched it - I met him at this last Comicon  (And had to relate the story of how he was somewhat involved in bringing my wife and I together) She directed some short parody vids Adam starred in.

But I digress....

I enjoyed the movie and look forward to watching more of Kohl's work and the others.

Salt Lake Comic Con 2014

What a long strange trip its been. I have been all over over the place this year and now that the last big con I am going to is over its time to get back to work!

My most recent comment was an anonymous fan asking for me to finish my sequel to Heroes of the Fallen - it is coming, sorry for the delay. I'm going to try harder to post here at least once a week rather than just posting on facebook, twitter and tumblr. This needs to be a better catchall than just those other snowstorms.

In any case here are some highlights from SLCC - which was huge! My understanding is the numbers of people attending is right up there with SDCC or anywhere else for that matter so very cool! 120K+!

I got to meet Frank Frazetta Jr and the good guys at the Frazetta Museum Booth and get a few cool souvenirs!

Trolls were a problem as the WETA people brought quite a bit of LOTR goodness.

Lots of amazing cosplayers! Particular favorites of mine were Valerie Perez and Ivy Doomkitty

Being a presenter has its privileges, in the green room a number of celebrities were on hand and I hung out with Effren Ramirez (Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite) super fun and friendly guy!

I met Ron Perlman (one of my all time favorite actors!)

I nearly won the Space Balrogs, Supervillian Smackdown, but Dan Wells garnered just three more votes! And Jason King was hilarious!

Groot and Gamora! (Valerie Perez - so cool and nice!)

Daft Punk!

This guy was a stud! Great outfits!

Smaug's head was huge and ever watchful!

And selling books at a table with a host of awesome authors and friends including, Dave Butler, James Wymore, Craig Nybo, Sarah Seeley, Scott Tarbet, Jaleta Clegg, Sara Butler and Sean Ricks  - aside from their collective awesomeness was that the guys at UGEEK Magazine relaunched the magazine with a new action adventure fantasy serial of mine: Walking Through Walls. This went out to thousands of attendee's and I'm hoping even a decent fraction enjoy it and look at some of my other works. 

Lots of thanks to all the people that came by, said hey, asked for autographs and bought books, oh yeah and all the people who voted for me at the Supervillian Smackdown - We almost conquered the world!

I got to meet and hang out with far too many people to name them all, talked to so many great writers again - always love spending time with Peter Beagle. Til next time!