The Dragons Hour, Remembering Robert E. Howard

It's no secret that Robert E. Howard is my favorite author. This is his birthday so I'm dusting the blog off for the new year and giving him a toast as it were.

I'm writing this just after midnight, so I'm not sure yet what tale of his I will read later, but I surely will, of course not too much times goes by since the last time I read one. Recently, I revisited one of my favorite Conan yarns - People of the Black Circle and shortly before that Iron Shadows in the Moon.

Around Halloween as a family we listened to some of the audiobook of The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard and I was very pleasantly surprised that my son brought up In the Forest of Villefere just a few days ago. The boys have always loved Pigeons From Hell, my kids like creepy.

That's probably why I share it with them, because I am so amazed and taken with the stories. The tales light the fire of wonder in me and I want to share that with the kids.

I went to Howard Days in 2018 and meant to blog about it then and never did, that's when I kinda fell of the wagon blogging here, then I wasn't able to make it in 2019, but it is my plan to go this year again. Its an interesting feeling walking through his house and thinking about being where he was when he wrote - not just his desk but all over the house from what I have heard. It was like visiting a sacred shrine and I can't wait to go back. I have also been able to visit Hemingway's graveside but spending so much time in the Howard house had a lot more personal feel than just seeing Papa's stone and museum.
Meeting a bunch of online friends in person finally was a big plus too!

Not sure where I am going with this other than just expressing heartfelt appreciation to the man for countless hours of reading enjoyment, contemplative thought and the sheer love of the written word.

Wish you had been around a bit longer to write more, but I surely love what you did accomplish.

SKOAL!

This is a print I got at Howard Days, that is in my study.

My son, Mathias (14) made this Conan bust for me for Christmas.

IN MY TIME OF DYING

Its been a long time coming, I started work on this one about three years ago, got a good ways in and set it aside because life gets in the way sometimes, but it was always back there asking to be let loose.

So I pushed myself this early summer and finished up and LO, it was a bigger tale than I thought at first, so in addition to writing a novella that was set after the events of the book, I went back and rethought the storyline to #SAVANT and tweaked it a little. I like thinking of it as TRUE GRIT meets THE PRESTIGE.

So IN MY TIME OF DYING was released just a day ago and is already a bestselling New Release, so I'm grateful to everyone who has grabbed a copy and helps spread the word, I had a lot of folks just jump in and share it, so thank you all!

From the back cover, -

A young woman seeking arcane knowledge. A saint of killers riding shotgun. And an immortal who wants to die… all aboard a runaway train.…

Elizabeth Dee never expected a knock at the door would have her taking sides in a power struggle between two feuding wizards, but she discovers that she is the magical key to a cursed mystery centuries old. As she evades the murderous knights and demonic minions of the sinister Count of St. Germain, she learns more of her own true power and legacy…Her father never prepared her for anything like this…

But it’s dangerous to go it alone and she is going to need some protection, enter the infamous and touched, Porter Rockwell. If the legendary long-haired gunfighter can’t keep her safe, no one can…

Oh, and my son Mathias is becoming quite the artist and I am having him do a few illustrations for the print edition (I may add them to the kindle soon too)

I'd appreciate any of you all grabbing a copy and leaving an honest review, more than ever that is a boon to the writer, Thanks all.

MEMENTO MORI and A MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN CARCOSA should be coming along very soon.

The Brutal Saga and more moving on...

I've been remiss in keeping up with things, ah life.

Last time I was here, I meant to tell you all about how I went to Howard Days for the first time, then I released another book, FIERCE, then Savage, then I took it down cuz it sucked, then I went canoeing down the Green River with my sons - that was awesome and I think I will revisit some of those times and post more here later to fill in the gaps and have a sort of a live journal, but for now I'm playing catch up so here is the deal.

I released FIERCE in July of last year, rewrote SAVAGE and released that in April of this year, and then adjusted an older story - Whispers of the Goddess and added a little bit to make a new novella in the BRUTAL saga - VICIOUS.

The next one WRATH is coming along - I hope to have it out in a month or two.

FanX 2017 Recap

I'm a week late, that's life. But hey, in that last week, the dictation software = Dragon, I have talked about for years now - is actually working for me. So I'll do a post about that very soon.

Back to the Con. It went pretty well, I signed a lot of books and even sold out of my copies of Redneck Eldritch, The Mad Song and Weird Tales of Horror.

The Saturday panel I did with the Space Balrogs was a lot of fun. I was the Undead and while I had some super dedicated fans and really enjoyed my last minute art round of demonstrating how death works to people = its eerily similar to duck, duck, goose. - James Wymore was dragons and had a singalong with some friends that was awesomely bad yet Dave Butler won with a phenomenal round doing an audience induction to becoming an elemental sorcerer via the Hokey Pokey - maybe you just had to be there.

Oh and that's me, a confused dinosaur and my the friend up and coming movie star, Wren Barnes.

Looking forward to the next one this September. And of course, here are some pics of the con.

This was the Space Balrogs on the panel.

Twilight Zone classics.

Me and the fantastic fitness model Dana Tracy. I first met her as Red Sonja at FanX two years ago.

Awesome Willow cosplay.

I don't know who she was but she looked fantastic.

the Lone Ranger turned up!

Jedi

I told them I was Dave but they were confused.

Me and rising cosplay superstar Joanie Brosas.

My son Mathias and one of his favorite Dr. Who episode folks.

Swedish Chef!

Ragnar and Lagertha.

Amazing Spawn and Angela.

Agent Carter

Odin and Son.

Chewie Dude and Walter Solo.

Poison Ivy just as I first reached my signing table.

View from the Green Room

Got my Flash Gordon poster signed by the man himself! Sam J. Jones!

Sam J. Jones - such a cool dude. I got to talk with him for a bit. Awesome guy!

FanX 2016 Recap

I had a lot of fun this last weekend at the jr. spring version of Salt Lake Comic Con = FanX

They cap it at 50k people instead of the 150K for Septembers SLCC. Ina lot of ways this can be nicer, the crowds arent wall to wall and you can have more interactions etc.

I was on several panels that a couple writing tracks and some fan oriented ones about Tolkien and Lovecraft.

This top pic is from the I've written a book - Now What? With me, my friend Dave Butler, Richard Paul Evans and a romance writer,  an agent, and an acquisitions editor. It was fun, there was almost an argument between pro-self-publishing Richard Paul Evans and the agent, but sadly it didn't quite get that far. ;)
Before that I was on another panel about Pantsing and Plotting and it was funny how all of the writers you see pictured below started pantsing and have been gradually moving to plotting.

I got to meet quite a few people just running around, these are the guys from the ongoing fantasy movie series Mythica. Adam Johnson (the one on my right) has been a friend of my wife for years and if we go back far enough is partially responsible for Melissa and I getting together.

I really liked this version of Goser the Goserian.

AZPowergirl, I enjoyed talking to her all three days. She is funny and I love that she is running for the AZ House of Representatives.

I chatted with Stewart Petersen a few moments (this was his first Comic Con) I take it you all have seen Where the Red Fern Grows among others.

This is an up and coming actress/producer friend of mine Wren Barnes. I didn't realize I was making a gif at the time.

I thought this was one of the best cosplay's I saw at the whole con an Alien family.

Rising cosplay star Joanie Brosas in an incognito moment

 My sons in the Green Room, I'm not sure they understand the exclusivity yet that they are privileged with.

This Black Cat requested my son pose with her - he made his own Anti-Venom costume - he was the only Anti-Venom I saw at the con.

And finally I'll share one of my darkest moments. The Space Balrogs do a Choose Your Own Apocalypse audience participation comedy game at most cons we got to (Emerald City next month!) and this one was based on the TV show Supernatural - I was at a loss considering I've never watched it so I did my best to fake it as Death one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. I did pretty good but ultimately Craig Nybo won as Crowley. And as usual I think Jason is the funniest - here is a six-minute highlight.

All in all it was good, made some new friends and had a good time with old ones. Sold a few books and met  some great fans. Looking forward to the next one!

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!

FanX Recap

 Had a real good time hanging with my writer pals and making some new friends. I didn't sell as many books as I might have liked - specifically the new THE MAD SONG - but it did very well online getting as high as #1 on kindles Norse/Viking category and I completely sold out of my other collection Weird Tales of Horror - if I had had a few more copies Saturday night I would have sold them too.

I was on one panel Thursday night the Super villain Presidential debate - we ran out of time and the audience didn't get a chance to vote - due to some mishaps we did it again the next day and Michael-Brent Collings Ghost party won. But I know a lot of people were rooting for Ming the Merciless. I was on three panels Friday and none Saturday, but I had some sales because of my speaking on writing magic and talking GIJOE too.

This con I didn't bump into any celebrities unlike the last one but no big whoop there. Took a few pics to share though.

Met Ireland Reid, a very nice star cosplayer.

Friends forever

the Stig

Me and my oldest, he made the Venom costume himself.

Torgo, he even gave me a coupon for his pizza, I did not take him up on it.

Pretty good Goblin King

Even Teeghra's get thirsty

Five Nights at Freddys some video game thing my kids like.

Harley Quinn SLC a twitter friend

A fantastic Black Cat

The only Red Sonja I saw.