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!

LIVE with the Freestyle Gargoyles

The video is live and remastered and here I am performing "Read Em' and Weep" my improv spoken word contribution to the Freestyle Gargoyles/ Space Balrog album.

I have to say I think my fellow Balrogs that did perform (4 out of 6 of us- Craig was playing bass, saw etc  and Dave Butler was unavailable) did a great job with their short story's - I was a bit off the cuff and therefore wasn't as cool, but tried to make up for it rocking.

I did give a shoutout to my friends books and realized after the fact I neglected to mention any of my own in my own crazed ramblings about books. Just goes to show what happens when you wing it - I have to think if we really worked hard at a studio album it would be amazing and I think I will talk to Craig about that someday - I have a multiple tapes from my garage band days that I would love to have good recordings of someday.

And you only see snatches of it here, but Craig's Media Rif studio is amazing.

Thanks again to everyone involved - these guys were fantastic and we all had a great time.

Freestyle Gargoyles 2

I recently did an improv spoken word album with friends from the Space Balrogs and fellow member Craig Nybo's band the Freestyle Gargoyles.

This was Craig's idea and we all appreciate his drive to make it happen, I know we all enjoyed performing etc.

Granted I think my song "Read Em and Weep" is the least worthy spoken word portion (though the most rocking). The album itself will be dropping soon - Craig is putting the finishing touches on it. Sorry if this post is a little bit of a tease... it will be here soon and until then here is a behind the scenes video that Crowd Surfing did of us as we prepped.

Retrospecticus 2012

I may or may not be offline for the next little while we'll see, so IF that be the case, I thought I'd post this while I could. A bit of a look-back.



For my favorites of things...


Favorite Fiction of the Year: RED COUNTRY, by Joe Abercrombie
Love this western-flavored take on fantasy by one of my favorite authors and the return (albeit name unspoken of Logen 'The Bloody-Nine' Fingers'.







Favorite Historical Non-Fiction of the Year:  The Bloody White Baron, by James Palmer

Fascinating historical all the way around, even if I felt like the author wanted to demonize the Baron, who I feel was a ambitious driven man of his time and place, in another realm, he could have been a Howardian hero!







 Favorite Other Non-Fiction of the Year: Turning Pro, by Steven Pressfield

I could not leave this one out. Absolutely a must for kicking yourself into gear.




 Favorite Graphic Novel of the Year: Conan,Throne of Aquilonia, by Roy Thomas and Mike Hawthorne

I enjoyed this, but will admit that 2012 did not have strong competition (that I read) this year. Here's to hoping 2013 has more comics that move me - very high hopes for Hellboy in Hell.







Favorite New Indie Fiction Series: Rock Band Fights Evil, by D.J. Butler

I love the esoteric concept merging rock music, demons, and all manner of myth come to life in the modern era. With an eclectic cast of characters this is quite the series for pulp fans to sink their teeth into!




Favorite Television Series: Game of Thrones


Favorite Movie of the Year: Hmmmmm....
Like Graphic novels I didn't think this was a terribly strong year but with a few exceptions, I didn't see  lot of great indies like I did last year so I have to go with some of the bigger blockbusters = I liked The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises and I have not seen it yet but I expect The Hobbit to be right up there with them.

Favorite Music (released this Year): SKYWORLD, by Two Steps From Hell

I'd be remiss to not include a sample, the first track All Is Hell That Ends Hell, I have loved writing to this epic instrumental stuff.



For myself, I am very pleased to have almost twice as many publications this year as last, not quite but I can't help publishers being delayed - I have the terribly ridiculous goal to attempt a double again for next year - though I don't plan on trying to double that number for 2014 - everything within reason.

Still I am well pleased. 2 Sword & Sorcery Magazine tales 99 Deaths of the Monkey God and Hel Awaits

2 Weird Western Porter Rockwell tales - Tangle Crowned Devil in Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope and Garden of Legion in Wandering Weeds

2 Horror/Sci-Fi tales The Dig in IN SITU and Gods in Darkness in SPACE ELDRITCH - which of course that's the big one for the year, we made it to Amazon's #2 spot in Space Opera, #10 in Horror for the kindle and we actually were the #1 bestselling book on Smashwords in November! And we have been discussing the idea that we will continue that Eldritch collection in the next year - perhaps Steampunk?


And 2 more tales - A Good Home for the Spoon, a bizarre Hemingway werewolf pastiche in Dark Eclipse magazine, and a third Lovecraftian/Porter Rockwell tale Rolling in the Deep is supposed to be released any day now.

More tales were accepted for publication and await 2013, and I can finally discuss a secret project from earlier this year because he has already mentioned it on his weekly radio show. I am assisting Douglas Dietrich with his book The Reality of the Red Undead: The Untold Story of the Supernatural Soviets, fascinating stuff that. It will likely have an early 2013 release.

My self-published projects for my Lost Realms Press have regrettably been delayed but are moving forward, in all likelihood there will be a barrage in the New Year, I'll space them out but it will still make me look like a writing machine.
All the more to make writing my career and grant me the ability to only do that and kiss the day-job farewell.

All the best to you my readers and friends. I'll be back online as soon as I can.

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.

~

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Strange Sights of the Week

Happy St. Patty's Day

I think at most I'm maybe 10%  Irish but I like me some Lucky Charms and The Pogues so enjoy St. Patrick's Day and have a good one all.

I am a traveler of both time and space,

It always amazes me how as-if performing self-hypnotism, a favorite song can reprogram you out of any number of doldrums. Good music inspires you to get to work, it is a catalyst and a magnifier that fires the brain to create and explore the hidden worlds lurking deep in the recess's of the brain-to bring them out and tell the tale.



It doesn't hurt either that an anticipated film is using one of my all time favorite songs as a theme for the trailer.

Strange Sights of the Week

Life caught me unawares so here is another Strange Sights while I am getting things settled.

Laying the Foundation: Music & Branding

I went to the LDStorymakers Writers conference over the weekend. Had a pretty good time hanging with a number of author friends (too many to list so I won't even try)

When it came to presentations, I stuck to the more advanced ones generally and I did get some great tips/advice/what-have-you. Branding = Perception, I ponder that in relation to being a pro-author and that dreadful place where art must meet marketing. That and it sure didn't hurt talking with a few agents and getting their feedback. Good thing I volunteered to be a time-keeper with pitch sessions. I ended up getting more 1-on-1 time with them than if I had actually had a pitch session.

So I've begun work on the next project after Blood of Our Fathers & Midnight Son's (more on that thus far unmentioned one later)

I like to make soundtracks for my writing projects~here is a quick sampling of the "score" for the next one. (With which I had a modicum of success pitching over the weekend~boo yea!)

Of course I expect this will only make sense to me, anachronistic as it may seem for a medieval/renaissance-level fantasy setting but it is what it is~sets a mood~there ya go.

Rolling in the Deep

I just heard this song by Adele: Rolling in the Deep last Thursday, and the title grabbed me-so I had to steal it for a short story. The short has nothing to do with the song in any way shape or form, I just like the title that much.

I came at the story itself pondering how much I dislike the Superman complex-the idea of a character being invulnerable, it leaves you nowhere to go. The only Superman graphic novel I own is Death of Superman because something previously unexpected happens = he dies!

So I was pondering this while working on a couple different drafts for Porter stories-the problem with Porter is he can't be harmed by bullet or blade (that's a historical fact regardless of anything else), so how do I create tension with a man who can't be cut or shot? You have to find weakness/suffering/pain somewhere.

For example the very best Wolverine stories are when Magneto pulled the adamantium out of him. His healing factor doesn't work and no cutting through anything = most challenging stories.
see Wolverine #75 thru to around #110 (best run ever *before the relaunch)

It has made me get a little creative with some of the foes Porter has battled, but worrying over some of these scenarios being accidentally repeated, I started taking some historical truths about the man and pushing into the speculative realm a little. Everything always still theoretically possible-just speculative.

Throw in a bit of weird I had been pondering anyway, being shanghaied, & my sons always suggesting colossal squids (they are the ruler of the deep after all) and I am very excited for this tale to be told.

What to Keep and Forsake

I recently watched the absolute classic Samurai movie "Yojimbo" its one of my all time favorites, afterwards I watched "Fistful of Dollars" Sergio Leone's spaghetti-western take on the same story. As much as I love Clint Eastwood and the "Man with No Name" I was almost dumbfounded at how much I preferred the original (we will not even discuss Bruce Willis's Last Man Standing version)-same thing with Seven Samurai versus Magnificent Seven both are great but the original is better.

I started pondering for the sake of storytelling why is that? What makes those better? It's not what I saw first-I saw the western adaptations first. I don't think its the cinematography, score, actors or directing. Its all the nuances, the little things the story itself tells you-or doesn't tell you. And you have to have the right balance. The right amount of wonder and resonance. Leave too much out and the audience is lost and left wanting, tell too much and the audience gets bogged down.


I recently read a story by a friend of mine Bruce Durham and I was struck that the things he didn't tell me (in the right way) were what made me think about the story after I put it down. Another friend had the same thing to say about Cormac McCarthy's The Road which I also love.

I can't put in a blog the magic key to the right things to leave out, Elmore Leonard famously said "I leave out the parts people skip".
I'll know it when I see it. I don't think its something you can fake-I write historicals and I leave things out that don't have to pertain to the story itself-But I know the background, I know why they are or aren't there. IF I didn't know I think the astute reader would recognize the hollow spots, as Hemingway called them. Its like the iceberg, most of it is hidden-but its there supporting the rest.

I remember during the edits for Heroes of the Fallen, the manuscript was 130,000 words. It needed to be cut, I cut a good 15,000 words and the book is better for it. Blood of Our Fathers is currently at 117,000 words and I have more to write to flesh out a few key scenes-and yet I know I will be going back in and cutting-hopefully with a scalpel and not a chainsaw. I'd like to think I've learned enough the last couple years that my editor won't need to do more than a few stitches and transfusions.

Musical Inspirations: Ofra Haza

I draw things together from wide eclectic sources-one of which happened to be the Israeli/Yemenite singer Ofra Haza. I almost had a character in Heroes of the Fallen named Ofra-but that name was deleted for the obvious reason of association with someone else that I had no intention of people thinking of when they read the book. So now you might know whom I envision as a certain characters wife.
I love that wail! I was introduced to Ofra Haza through her guest appearance with the rocking Sisters of Mercy. On the strength of this song alone I went and got the full catalogs of both her artists. Very inspirational music for me, but then I am a writerly weirdo who delights in esoteric rock.

Theme Music

I listen to music while I write and it generally changes from piece to piece. For example a recent very short story I wrote had only Led Zeppelin as the background music as I wrote it, while the latest Saphir story had predominately Massive Attack and Goldfrapp as the theme music. In my mind it creates an ambiance that I hope will help give a different vibe to the story.


For novels as opposed to short stories I listen to more because its a longer work and there are a variety of emotions attached-lots of characters and situations. Heroes of the Fallen for example had a lot of Nightwish, Basil Poledouris, Hans Zimmer, Rammstein, Apocalyptica, Lacuna Coil, rocking epic stuff IMAO.


Bless the Child, an exiled Spartan first person POV tale set in the ancient Holy Land right before the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar has a more subdued theme-I listened to a lot of the same artists by perhaps more poignant scores-Last of the Mohicans, Das Boot, Sisters of Mercy and Sarah Brightman.



For my weird western Dance the Ghost with Me I mostly listen to Johnny Cash but I cannot stress the Highwaymen's-"Highwayman" enough. Great song. And then another tale that is well begun had an almost entire score (in my mind) by the techno-rocking of the Crystal Method-great pumping action tunes.



And finally for one of the latest things I am brainstorming, I am blending themes from favorite films with a genre that hasn't seen enough of a certain angle-at least not to my satisfaction.



What do all of you prefer to help inspire you? Silence, I'll bet for some but I like to let the muse dance when she is beside me.

She Don't Lie, Cocaine

I love it when dogmatic science gets a punch in the mouth. Case in point - 3,000 year old Mummies just chock full of cocaine and tobacco in their desiccated systems. Now wait a minute you say, how could Old World Egyptian mummies have narcotics from the New World in their system? Exactly.

In 1992, respected toxicologist Dr. Svelta Balabanova (Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ulm) in Munich, Germany ran tests on the mummy of priestess Henut Taui. What turned up? But huge amounts of cocaine and tobacco in her hair and system. You can rule out contamination from outside sources (the usual explanation for out of place artifacts) because the samples were tested from the priestess's hair-meaning the person ingested the narcotics during their lifetime. Talk about visiting the spirit world.

In 1976 the body of Ramses II was found to have a high concentration of tobacco as well. The explanation was again contamination from pipe smoking archaeologists but it does not explain the high presence ingested and endowed within the hair and body. Another explanation is now-extinct plants akin to tobacco and coca leaves but this is reaching for weak explanations even further than the idea of Thor Heyerdahl crossing the Atlantic in a primitive reed boat which he did using the mid-Atlantic current. If Thor could do it why not anyone else.


Often the argument of cultural superiority is brought up but I ask is it not possible that Native Americans also sailed the seas (as many of their own legends attest) and they sold the goods to the Egyptians including maize (where did that come from?) My personal favorite Native American author, Vine Deloria jr. of the Algonquian Nation say they came from the east across the sea. In India, gods in sculptured soapstone friezes in Hoysala temples of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries B.C. near Mysore, hold in their hands representations of maize and in the famous Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland more carvings of Maize adorn the walls-Rosslyn Chapel was built long before Columbus too.


Why is it so heretical to say people had the knowledge, skill and adventurous spirit to have trans-oceanic travel long ago? The proofs are there if we can just accept them. I am only scratching the barest surface in this post I meant to stick to cocaine. And now for your listening enjoyment Mr. Eric Clapton.

Heroes of the Fallen Book Trailer

I wanted to do something different with this and believe I have. To me a trailer is supposed to be a tease and simply tantalize on what is in there.

So now for those wondering, the novel is available.

Oh Thank You very much again to my sister-in-law, Erin, for the art.

This You Can Trust

Just got the Atlantean sword from a local crypt and had to teach my son the Riddle of Steel. He can barely pick it up, but he'll get there.Then later at night his older brother watched the old animated Lord of the Rings and I had the delight of his first reaction to Gandalf and the Balrog. He said, "Dad! The Balrog it has a whip and it took Gandalf and he fell and he said 'Fly-You Fools!'and now he's dead!"
That was awesome to see his first take on a classic.

I just found this while I was pondering teaching my son all that befalls you on the Tree of Woe and had to share. Basil Poledouris was a GENIUS, this was performed only 4 months before his death.

This was truly a score worthy of the source material. This is some of my absolute favorite music to write too. It has a magic that haunts and grips your soul, no wonder so many other movie soundtracks borrow it for promo's. We will miss Mr. Poledouris.

Me messing round the backyard, notice Cimmeria in the background.

Rock into Mordor

Nightwish are among my favorites for mood music whilst writing, as I Rock into the Mordor of my mind. What do you all like?

Music That Has Shaped Me

Over at Thmazing's Thutopia, Th did a post on the all important 5 albums that have shaped his view on music, I liked that a lot and thought I would do the same and on top of that add the 5 novels that have shaped how I write tomorrow.

Now neither of these list's necessarily constitute what I think are the absolute best 5 in either category but the 5 that I think have shaped my musical taste and writing style the most, maybe they are close to the same thing but not quite. Th gave links to Youtube for his, but I don't have the patience.

Duran Duran: Rio
I don't know how to describe it but their sound always appealed to me, I thought Hungry Like the Wolf was the coolest song in the world when I was 10. And the appeal is still there, my daughters middle name is RIO.

Sisters of Mercy: Floodland
These guys rock with industrial drum beats, crunching guitars and backing up the deep bass of the lead singer Andrew Eldritch is the New York Choral Society on such great tracks as "This Corrosion" and "Dominion" Besides rocking, I love the lyrics which are full of savage poetry borrowing from the likes of Percy Bysshe Shelley as well as political satire. I think "This Corrosion" could be my all-time favorite song.

Sarah Brightman: FLY
She is my favorite singer and I have always loved her versatility despite being best known as Christine in Phantom of the Opera or the funeral dirge "Time To Say Goodbye" with Andrea Bocelli. I like this album much better because it is more of a
symphonic rock album with greats such as "Ghost In The Machinery" and "How Can Heaven Love Me" and as an interesting side note, Andrew Eldritch of Sisters of Mercy did backing vocals on that last track.

The Smiths: Strangeways Here We Come
It must be remembered that this title is referring to the English Prison named Strangeways and not just the idea of a strange place. In America this might have been titled Alcatraz Here We Come. This may not be the best Smiths album but it is the one I discovered them on and it does have some great songs, "Girlfriend In A Coma" and "Stop Me If You Think You Have Heard This Before" could be one of their best.

New Order: Substance
This is a best of that also included a couple of Joy Division songs(another favorite of mine) In theory I wouldn't included a best of when it comes to the "best" al
bums but this is how I really discovered them. New Order is the defining group that really put me on the path to alternative music in high school, they were just so much better than the trash I was hearing on pop radio. I even used to get "Blue Monday" and "True Faith" played at ward dances, that was quite the accomplishment for me and the Bishop's daughter when everybody else wanted Def Lepard.

Honorable mentions:

Massive Attack: Mezzanine
Great Trip-Hop with stunning sound, I never cared for their follow-up albums as much, they need to get someone like Sarah Brightman to do guest vocals for them like Liz Fraser (Cocteau Twins and Lord of the Rings soundtrack) did. "Angel" and "Teardrop" phenomenal mood music, very hard to top.

KMFDM: Nihil
I always like Industrial rock such as NIN, Front 242, and Nitzer Ebb but KMFDM is the one that really moved me and they have never been the dink sell-out that NIN is.
That and trust me, though you don't think you have heard KMFDM you have, their mu
sic has been everywhere from movie soundtracks to TV commercials and even the cool rocking techno music radio DJ's play in the background while they are talking and yet not hip enough to actually play in full. I even hear one of their songs as a sedge way music on Glenn Beck's program all the time. Classic tracks would be "Juke Joint Jezebel" "Brute" "Ultra" "Revolution" and "Beast"

Nightwish: Once
This is the definition of symphonic rock with excellent tracks like "The
Siren" "Nemo" and "Dark Chest Of Wonders" When I write within the Heroes of the Fallen pantheon this is the Nephite heroic theme music in my mind as opposed to the sinister Gadianton theme music of Rammstein.

This is a longer post than I thought, that and I realized not a one of these artists is American, (though KMFDM reside in Seattle and the female lead Lucia is American) oh well, authors and books will make up for that tomorrow.