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

Roar of the Crowd ~ R.I.P.

After waiting a couple of years for something to come of a tale that I was particularly fond of, I recieved the email that Rogue Blades Entertainment had to concede that Roar of the Crowd is dead. The Editor Jason Waltz has been overwhelmed with a number of issues and could not keep the project on hold continually.

(Ironic I posted this was still forthcoming last week on my birthday.)

So I now have Whispers of the Goddess back.

Looking it over and giving it a reread after sitting for so long, I definetly want to polish it up, not a lot but some. I am proud of what I put together in a white heat weekend to make the deadline for the antho and I was excited to be sharing the TOC with quite a few of people I call friends now among them...

Mbogo Returns ~ Milton Davis

Carcass and Mallet ~ Ty Johnston

Race to Dragonhead Rock ~ Bill Ward

For the Light ~ Gustavo Bondoni

Spirit of the Maya ~ Robert Waters
Winter’s Game ~ Kate Martin
The Last Refuge of Piyamaradu ~ Ryan Harvey
Up the Gladiators! ~ David Bischoff
Panathenaic ~ Bruce Durham
Naumachia Magic ~ Alva Roberts
Hard Crossing at Luhinmov Ford ~ Adrian Simmons
Love and Revolution ~ Jeff Draper
The Turul Spreads its Wings ~ Boglárka Takács
Whispers of the Goddess ~ David J. West
Ulemet’s Wager ~ Lyn Perry
The Dream Horn ~ Howard Andrew Jones
Shini-tai ~ C.L. Werner
Foreword ~ Michael Ehart

I'm thinking now that I'll likely throw my hat into the eRing and release the novella as an ebook. That means polish, polish, edit, edit, edit and a fantastic cover to boot. I'm gonna make a goal of september, just to have plenty of time to get some good help on all facets of this project.

39 & Turning Pro

I just finished Steven Pressfield's  The Art of War and Turning Pro and was quite moved-I highly recommend them for my writer friends and I'm also urging my wife to read them.

In a nutshell, Pressfield shares his experience to help the artist overcome resistance (anything that stops you from doing what you should be doing) and grow. To have the ambition to succeed and truly excel at one's ultimate goal requires a paradigm shift which he refers to as Turning Pro.

From Turning Pro ~ "Turning Pro is free, but it demands sacrifice. The passage from amateur to professional is often achieved via an interior odyssey whose trials are survived only at great cost, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. we pass through a membrane when we turn pro. it's messy and It's scary. We tread in blood when we turn pro."

I'm 39 today and taking stock of my writing career. Turning Pro is what I want and am doing, too long I have let my own distractions and self-doubts (a universal writers malady I believe) slow me down. Time to banish the shade I've let loom over myself and do the work I believe in.
As such, I need to look at what I have accomplished and be proud of that instead of beating myself up over what I haven't done yet. Time to live in the present and have joy.

My published works and awards so far.

April 2009:

LDStorymakers Writers Con - 1st place General Fiction First Chapter Contest

Dance the Ghost with Me

February 2010:

LDS Publisher Blog Short Story Contest

1st place Song of Saphir ~ 2nd place Covenant of the Scalp

April 2010:

WiDo Publishing ~ Heroes of the Fallen

October 2010:

IRON BOUND magazine issue #1 ~ Sailing to Valhalla

February 2011:

Shadows & Light II ~ The Hand of Fate

April 2011:

Monk Punk ~ Fistful of Tengu

May 2011:

Lovecraft eZine issue #4 ~ Curse the Child

October 2011:

Utah Geek Magazine issue #1 ~ Midnight Son’s part 1: Cold Comfort

November 2011:

Monsters & Mormons ~ Fangs of the Dragon

March 2012:

Sword & Sorcery Magazine #2 ~ Hel Awaits

June 2012:

Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope ~ Tangle Crowned Devil

July 2012:

Wandering Weeds ~ Garden of Legion

In Situ ~ The Dig

***
And in some indeterminate near future (these have already been accepted for publication)

Blood of Our Fathers

Roar of the Crowd ~ Whispers of the Goddess

Challenge Discovery ~ The Serpents Root

The Evil Twin ~ The Cry of Carrion Birds

Dark Eclipse Magazine ~ A Good Home for the Spoon