Quick hits via Twitter

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Interview at Seattle Geekly

author_explosion A few months back, I mentioned that Devil’s Cape had been reviewed on the wicked fun Seattle Geekly podcast. And earlier this week, Shannon and Matt interviewed me about my writing as part of Seattle Geekly’s Author Explosion week. I really enjoyed the interview and am looking forward to listening to the whole podcast, which you can find on the Seattle Geekly site or on iTunes.

seattle_geekly Other authors interviewed are A.P. Stephens, author of The Stolen Moon of Londor, Mark Henry, author of Happy Hour of the Damned and Road Trip of the Living Dead, and Cherie Priest, author of Fathom, Boneshaker, and several other books. I’m supposed to be at around 40 minutes, 25 seconds, but be sure to listen to the whole thing.

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Come see me at FenCon!

fencon6 FenCon is a DFW-based science fiction and fantasy literary and filk convention coming up this weekend. It will be held at the Crowne Plaza North Dallas in Addison. I’ll be there as a panelist and will also give a reading and sign some books, so if you’re in town, please come out.

Here’s my schedule for the con:

Friday

5 p.m.: Reading. Director’s area. I’m not sure what I’m going to read yet. I might read from my novel in progress or from a short story I’ve been working on. I had four people come to my reading at ArmadilloCon. They were wonderful people, granted, but I’d like to see a few more faces this time. Can anyone help me make it as many as five or six?

8 p,m.: Superhero fiction panel, Addison Lecture Hall. “Description: We will discuss novels with superheroes as main characters. How has this genre developed and evolved over the last few decades, and where do the pros think that it's going?” I’ll be moderating this one, and I’m definitely looking forward to it. Other panelists are Keith R. A. DeCandido, A. Lee Martinez, Beverly Hale, and Caroline Spector. Should be a great panel. I’m nervous. Come support.

Saturday

11 a.m.: Signing, Gallery. I’ll have copies of Devil’s Cape available and look forward to meeting new people.

7 p.m.: Random Novel Reading, Trinity VI Programming. “You won't believe this: Panelists read random passages from randomly selected books. Not for the fainthearted. Oxygen may be required. Be prepared to laugh uproariously.” I’ve got no idea what to expect with this one, but am looking forward to it. I enjoy reading and hamming it up, so there you go.

If you can make it to FenCon, please do!

For a complete list of activities (because obviously there's a ton more to do at FenCon than just see little old me), visit the convention site.

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Monday, August 24, 2009

I need technical assistance

UPDATE: The problem's been resolved with some help from Dina's IT group and the advice of some of my friends. Thanks for the help and input!

OK, technophiles out there, here’s an opportunity to help my wife and me out (involves XP and Vista).

We bought a new laptop for Dina a few months back. It works fine, but one of the main purposes Dina needs it for is to connect to her office with Remote Desktop. The problem is that her laptop has Vista and her work computer seems to be compatible only with Windows XP. (Her IT people have confirmed this, so it’s not just a matter of me guessing.)

Here are my questions:

  • Is there any trick to try to get around this (somehow making the Vista remote desktop connectivity act like/look like XP)?
  • Barring that, how difficult or expensive would it be to get XP on her laptop instead of Vista? Right now, other than Microsoft Office (which we have the disk for), there aren’t a lot of programs or files on the laptop.
  • With Windows 7 coming out, is there any chance that upgrading to that will fix the problem?

I’m stuck and frustrated over this. The whole idea was to get Dina something that would be a lot less hassle than the antique computer she’s been using, but it hasn’t worked out so far.

Thanks in advance.

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Armadillocon report

hg_and_me I had a great time at Armadillocon last week. I did a poor job of taking photos (brought the camera, forgot I had it), but saw some familiar faces from prior cons, chatted with friends, made new ones, etc.

Highlights included:

  • Meeting H.G. Martin, fellow superhero author, and getting an autographed copy of his first book, Doctor Diablo. His second book, The Legacy of the Silver Scorpion, is out now in e-book format. He’s a very nice guy (that’s him in the picture with me up above) and I’m looking forward to reading Doctor Diablo.
  • Seeing some legendary writers like Joe R. Lansdale, James P. Hogan (who plays a mean piano), and Michael Moorcock.
  • Chatting with people I’ve met previous years, like Josh Rountree (who gave a terrific reading), Eric Marin (who I got to be on a panel with), and the talented Chris Roberson.
  • Seeing old friends Ben and Kelly (and imposing on their hospitality).
  • Making sure (as I do every time I go to Austin) to eat BBQ at Rudy’s (especially the breakfast tacos) and ice cream at Amy’s. Miraculously, restrained myself to a single scoop and a single taco this time.
  • Making new friends like D.D. Tannenbaum (who I’d met at a previous con, but not really gotten a chance to talk with much) and Mark Long.

Anyway, it was an enjoyable con. Next step: FenCon.

Technorati Tags: ,

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

8 Most Memorable Times at the Movies

A friend posted his list on Facebook and it got me thinking a bit.

This is not about the best movies you've ever seen. Describe eight experiences watching a movie that stick in your mind as being particularly memorable - for whatever reason.

Here’s my list, in no particular order:

  1. empire_strikes_back Seeing The Empire Strikes Back for the first time. I was so incredibly excited about the movie from the first trailers I’d seen. I was a huge Star Wars fan and immensely excited to see it. My friend Traylor and I waited outside for more than an hour to get in, I think, at the old Belle Meade theater in Nashville (which was later a BookStar, and I’m not sure what it is now). Still one of my favorite movies.
  2. Dina and I were having a romantic weekend at a bed and breakfast in Granbury, and decided to go to the drive-in theater. Unfortunately, the only thing playing was White Chicks. Oh, well.
  3. The Sword and the Sorcerer. This was a shlocky fantasy flick, and the first R-rated film I saw at the theater. Somehow or another I’d heard of it or seen a trailer and I begged my Dad to let me see it. He took me and my friend Ted, and it was kind of a coming of age experience for me. I’m sure it doesn’t hold up to the test of time, but I remember being scared and absolutely loving it. An intense (literally oozing) bad guy, a three-bladed sword (where two of the blades fired out of the sword!), a hero who rips his own crucified body down and uses the spikes (still through his hands!) to kill bad guys? Awesome. Also, naked women. Woot.
  4. The Running Man. This one is mainly memorable because it’s the only time I can remember going to the movies where I was the only person in the entire theater.
  5. A.I. Dina and I went to see this right before Alex was born—kind of our last time to have a night out before becoming parents. What a horrible, horrible movie to celebrate with. I’ve described the experience of seeing the movie as similar to cutting out my own liver with a plastic spoon, but I think that that might be too complimentary.
  6. Finding Nemo was the first movie that Alex ever saw at the theater, for his second birthday. We were all mesmerized. (Zack’s first movie at the theater was Happy Feet. We were all bored, disappointed, and somewhat freaked out—I still call this one Crappy Feet.)
  7. rambo-first-blood-part-2 I vividly remember going to see Rambo with my uncle Doug when I went to Myrtle Beach with my aunt, uncle, and cousins on vacation. It was kind of a bonding thing, and cool for me because my oldest cousin Stacey wasn’t old enough to see it yet. The most memorable part, though, was when we were waiting for the movie to start. My uncle farted very loudly, then turned to me and, with a straight face, said, “Rob! You shouldn’t do that in a crowded theater! You should at least say ‘Excuse me!’” Yeah, that’s Uncle Doug for you.
  8. Watching Somewhere in Time by myself when I was on a cruise with my parents. It was cool and weird watching a movie on a moving ship. I went to see it, of course, because of Christopher Reeve. The ending left me indignant.

It seems like I could come up with more of these (like the time I snuck up behind my friends Beth and Leslie when we were watching Watchers at the dollar movies in college, and scared them, or the time the guys and I saw Star Trek: Nemesis for my birthday and I’ve had to apologize every year since for picking such a stinker), but I’ll try to restrain myself.

What are your most memorable movie experiences?

Technorati Tags: ,

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Sherlock Holmes in Devil’s Cape, part 2

iaosh In yesterday’s post, I talked about the publication of the story “The Adventure of the Pirate's of Devil’s Cape” and the anthology itself (I’m really looking forward to reading it, by the way).

At some point, I’d like to go more into the shaping of the story. But for now, I’ll take the quick way out and give a short excerpt from it.

Some background first: In the summer of 1894, the investigation of a gruesome crime (“the shocking affair of the Dutch steamship Friesland”) leads Holmes and Watson to the corrupt city of Devil’s Cape, Louisiana. This scene shows their arrival.

I had assumed that the long summer boat journey, particularly the sweltering leg that took us through the Caribbean Sea and into the Gulf of Mexico, had prepared me for the heat of Devil’s Cape, but I was wrong. It was a tangible, constant presence, like walking through water.

Holmes and I emerged from the steamship that had carried us there—not that different, really, than the Friesland—squinting into the sun, having left our trunks behind with instructions for them to be transported to a nearby inn where I had arranged rooms. The docks were a swarm of faces and voices. A crew of black men was singing a chantey while unloading our ship. Three Chinamen hawked cool beverages and roasted nuts, arguing about prices and stirring cinnamon-coated pecans over small pails of hot coals. Masses of people milled back and forth, shoving and swearing. I heard traces of French and Portuguese and Hindi. I stared openmouthed, taking it in.

“Not so fast,” Holmes said, darting out an arm and catching a street urchin by the ear. The lad, blond-haired and tan as leather, winced as Holmes took hold of his elbow and forced a wallet out of his hand. My own wallet, I recognized. “Tut, tut,” Holmes said, handing my wallet back to me, and I wasn’t certain if he was scolding the boy or me. He gave the boy a quick kick in the rump and sent him scurrying off.

I nodded my thanks. “Not unlike one of the Baker Street Irregulars,” I said. “Where to, Holmes?”

He pointed at a black hansom drawing up, pulled by an Appaloosa horse. “I believe our transport has arrived,” he said.

The driver stepped from the cab and swaggered to us. He was smartly dressed in a tailored suit, the jacket open in front, a diamond gleaming from a ring on his pinkie. He had tanned skin, a handlebar moustache, and a confident smile. A golden police badge shaped like a sail was pinned to his jacket. “Holmes and Watson, right?” he asked in what I’d later come to identify as a Cajun accent. “I hope you not been standing here too long, you.” He shook Holmes’s hand, then mine, his grip forceful enough to grind my knuckles together. “My boss, he ask me to show you around town real nice and send you back where you belong, see,” he said. “Now, my cousin, he ask me to help you any way I can.” He grinned, showing an infectious smile and a chipped tooth. “I’ll leave you to guess which one I’ll listen to best. You got some boys bringing your things to your rooms?”

I nodded.

“That’s good,” he said. “We can start right quick, then, though I fear your entire trip’s been a waste.” He patted the hansom. “Hop in, gentlemen,” he said. We climbed inside, and he climbed above us, taking the reins. Then his head popped up in front of us, upside down, as he looked through the front of the cab. “Aw, hell,” he said. “I forgot to introduce myself.” He smiled again. “I’m Deputy Chief Jackson Lestrade. Welcome to Devil’s Cape.”

Next time on this topic, a little background on the writing process.

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Sherlock Holmes in Devil’s Cape, part 1

iaosh

I’ve mentioned it on Twitter, but not on my blog, so it’s far past time to share a bit of exciting news.

My short story, “The Adventures of the Pirates of Devil’s Cape,” will be published in a new anthology coming out next month called The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The basic premise of the anthology is that it collects stories where Holmes encounters mysteries beyond the norm—fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

You can read more about the book on a special mini-site here, read a short interview with me about the story here or just straight out buy it here.

The editor of the anthology is John Joseph Adams, a very nice (and discriminating!) guy who has been responsible for several crackerjack anthologies lately including the captivating The Living Dead, which has been keeping me up nights of late.

Other authors include a few name you might have heard of, like Anne Perry, Sharyn McCrumb, Michael Moorcock, Laurie R. King, Neil Gaiman (!), and Stephen King!

Needless to say I’m very excited about the publication, and I think that readers of Devil’s Cape will want to read my story to see some of the city details I throw in there, and a familiar element or two, like the people the Holingbroke Psychological Institute was named for.

I’m a long-time Holmes fan, so it was a huge thrill writing the story and I’m looking forward to reading all the stories in the book.

My plan is to follow this post up in the next few days with another post or two giving a little more background on the writing process of the story, and maybe an excerpt.

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Come see me at Armadillocon

armadillocon I’ll be at Armadillocon (a Texas-based science fiction and fantasy convention) in Austin this weekend, so be sure to come by to see me. I’ll be around a bit Friday night and Sunday, but most of my activity (two panels, a reading, and a signing) will be on Saturday.

Follow these links for a programming schedule for the convention or for a grid of the schedule. I’ll be in the City Building panel at 11, I’ll give a reading at 3:30, I’ll be in the Let Me Look That Up panel (about research) at 4, and I’ll be autographing (and selling copies of Devil’s Cape) at 5. Other cool people like Chris Roberson, Matt Sturges, Joe R. Lansdale, A. Lee Martinez, Elizabeth Moon, and Josh Rountree will be there. It’ll be fun. Come check it out.

This year’s reading is likely going to be from a new project I’m working on that fans of Devil’s Cape should like, so there’s that.

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Rescued from storage: Chill invitation

chill_invite_webWhen I was visiting my family a couple weeks back, I delved into my grandmother’s musty garage, stuffed to the gills with storage boxes from my family’s past. There are tons of my old toys, books, etc., and it’s always something of a mystery just what I’ll find. I might report back later on some of the books and toys I uncovered, including a few things I shipped home, but for now I thought I’d share this one piece of paper I found, an invitation I crafted 23+ years ago (yikes!) for a game of Chill.

I remember the game session well, and for the rest of my high school days, those friends and I would sometimes say, “Ahhh! Fear check!” (a game mechanic when a character encountered something frightening or unusual). Lots of fun.

A few random thoughts:

  • Dig that lightning bolt motif for the word Chill!
  • I’m pretty sure I photocopied this, so I actually did it in red ink less for the scare/blood factor and more because I thought it would scan better than black or blue ink would.
  • The language in the bottom left cracks me up: “you possess,” “you can conceive.” I was a pompous guy, wasn’t I?
  • S.A.V.E. was a sort of anti-monster organization that all the PCs in Chill ended up belonging to. It was useful, I guess, as a way to get all the PCs together. I used it because back then I was nervous about deviating from game backgrounds and module info, but I think in general the game would have been better off without it. Let the PCs be people caught up in the craziness somehow without an organization, and you can ramp up the fear. Not that the concept itself was all that bad, but it wasn’t developed in enough detail to make it worthwhile, as I recall.
  • If you go here and scroll down, you can see the module I ran that session, Isle of the Dead. I’ve got very fond memories of Chill in general and that one in particular.
  • Part of what drew me to the module was the freakiness of the various carnival characters, a fascination that continues today and that showed up in Devil’s Cape.
Technorati Tags: ,,,

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Devil’s Cape review on Seattle Geekly

seattle_geekly I’ve been following the enjoyable Seattle Geekly on Twitter and sent Shannon and Matt a copy of Devil’s Cape for review.

Matt was kind enough to give it a read and a plug on the latest podcast, Episode 22. You can check it out here. The references to the book start at about four minutes, 45 seconds in, but the podcast is fun, so I’d recommend giving the whole thing a listen when you get a chance.

Technorati Tags: ,

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Buffy vs. Edward

Funny, funny video.

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Science fiction publishing contest

People sometimes ask me about how to get published. I’ve touched on this in the past. The short answer, for Devil’s Cape, is that I answered an open call for submissions from Wizards of the Coast (for a program that’s no longer running) and was ultimately accepted.

I ran across a somewhat similar program from SciFiNow, TorUK, and Play.com, called War of the Words. It’s open to people who have not yet had a book published. If you’re a writer with a novel looking for a home, you might want to check this out.

Technorati Tags:

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Han Solo, P.I.

This is incredibly awesome. My hat is off to those behind it. Watch the video solo…

 

then watch the side-by-side comparison:

 

Technorati Tags: ,,

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Semi-Conscious: Driving in the Real World

Presented for your ironic amusement, this hip safety video features four diverse teen pals singing such classics as “Intersection,” “Pick Your Spot/Get Up to Speed/Go With the Flow” and “Stay Out of the No Zone.”

If you accidentally get one of these songs stuck in your head, I apologize. At least I didn’t point you at the Monchichi song. Oops.

As to why I’m watching a driving safety video on a Sunday evening? I plead the fifth.

Technorati Tags: ,,

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Friday, March 06, 2009

Good news for fellow Top Chef fans

fabio

Good news, Top Chef fans, particularly Fabio fans. Fabio Viviani is getting his own show. Not a lot of detail yet, but there’s a bit more here. Dina and I found him charming. He could indeed, as he put it, sell “monkey ass on a clam shell.” Hoping for a fun show and some good recipes. I’d love to eat at his restaurant someday.

Technorati Tags: ,

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Saturday morning Watchmen

sat_morn_watchmen If you haven’t already seen it (it’s been all the rage on Twitter today), check out the Saturday morning Watchmen video here. Very, very clever and fun. Kudos to the creators for fine, funny work.

Technorati Tags: ,,,

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

I think I owe someone at The Suffolk Voice a cheeseburger

suffolk_voice2

I was very pleased to see a positive review of Devil’s Cape in The Suffolk Voice a while back, but I was surprised and thrilled to get a shout-out in a Watchmen review. I’ve been flattered in the past when people reviewing Devil’s Cape have mentioned Watchmen, but to actually see someone comparing Watchmen to Devil’s Cape is very, very cool (and yes, I realize it’s mostly a matter of timing and referencing a previous article, but I’ll take my thrills where I can find them).

Here’s a quote:

The heroes of Watchmen have a lot in common with the heroes in Devil's Cape. They have no superpowers, they drink, they smoke, and some are mentally unstable but they are all vulnerable to things like bullets, knives, arc welders, cancer, age and nuclear weapons.

And go here for the full article.

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Little Gordon Ramsay

Dina and I have started watching [shudder] Hell’s Kitchen. There’s not a lot of depth to it, but it seems to appeal to some kind of sadistic side of us.

I stumbled across these and thought I’d share. They’re pretty funny. I purposely skipped over part 2. It’s easy enough to find if you want it, but I didn’t find it quite as amusing.

 

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Monday, February 23, 2009

In Memoriam 81st Oscars 2008-2009

I’m not sure that enjoy is the right word, but I always appreciate this section of the Academy Awards.

EDIT: Not sure of the source of the original video I linked (still included below for posterity) but it wasn’t from the actual Oscars. Here’s the correct one:

 

And the other one:

 

Some great talents here.

Technorati Tags: ,,

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Suffolk Voice: Devil’s Cape pulls no punches

suffolk_voice I have a Google search set up that generally lets me know when someone writes about Devil’s Cape, but sometimes it misses things. Yesterday, I stumbled across (OK—I did a Yahoo search) an article that I’d missed in November, from The Suffolk Voice.

Here’s an excerpt:

Luckily, Devil's Cape by Rob Rogers exists in a universe where if a superhero gets shot, blown up, mauled, or set on fire, they better damn well have a good HMO.

Very nice review. If you’re interested, you can check out the whole article here.

Technorati Tags: ,,

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Awesome Bedlam images

I managed to win the HeroMachine caption contest for a thrilling second time (with a The Brave & The Bold joke—yay me)! The best part of winning isn’t gloating, though. It’s the image that Gentleman Jeff Hebert draws for you as a result.

Dr. Cain Ducett, also known as Bedlam, is one of my favorite characters from Devil’s Cape, so he was a natural choice for me to request as a character illustration. And Jeff, of course, did a wonderful job.

Check this out:

bedlam_hebertIncredible, yeah? Feels like he could jump off the page and kick your ass. And Jeff did a wonderful job of working with me to get an image very much like I pictured in my head.

Speaking of heads, here’s a close-up of Bedlam’s:

bedlam_headGives me chills and nightmares both.

Thanks, Jeff, for a terrific image. I’m going to have to see about getting this colored someday.

 

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Good Dollhouse Q&A with Joss Whedon

There’s a really good Q&A about Dollhouse here (between Alan Sepinwall and Joss Whedon). A couple minor spoilers if you’re a spoilerphobe, but lots of good questions and responses.

I’m looking forward to this show (set your DVRs, folks: It starts Friday night at 8 p.m. Central time).

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Customer service rant

I’ve been feeling a little out of sorts this afternoon. I ended up with a little while to myself and, on impulse, swung into a comic book store that I was passing on the way home. It’s not a store I’d ever visited before, but it was close to the house and I was curious just to get a look at it.

The place was open and nice, with a lot of gaming tables, a pleasing layout of books, etc. What’s more, it had a large selection of quarter boxes with a bunch of recent titles. If I’d splurged and spent three dollars or so, I could have come out with a nice handful of books.

I’m the only customer. There are two people working there—one of them hanging some stuff up, the other behind the counter. They greet me just fine, ask me if I’m looking for anything in particular, and leave me alone after I say I’m just browsing.

So far so good.

Then one of them starts to talk to the other one about how his cat puked in his bedroom that morning.

In what world is this an appropriate discussion in front of a customer? Particularly a new customer who has been in your store about 90 seconds?

I’d been enjoying starting to flip through the quarter boxes, so I decided to hunker down and block it out, but the two start to go back and forth about it and quickly get into a nauseating level of detail that I won’t elaborate on.

My god.

I stalked out of there. Despite the close proximity and the allure of the cheap back issues, I doubt I’ll ever go back.

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

DARDO Award

dardo

Somewhat to my surprise, given the glacial pace of my updates, Door Number Six has been granted a DARDO Award by the always awesome blog HeroPress. Here’s a bit about the award:

The PREMIO DARDO is designed to recognize unique voices and visions on the Web as well as to promote fraternization amongst bloggers of all sorts. The rules as they were passed on to me are:
1) Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog.
2) Pass the award to another 5 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award.

I am grateful for the recognition and will in turn nominate five blogs myself. This is tough, as I enjoy a great many of them, but I’ll try to narrow it down to a few, with a particular focus on those that I think people visiting my blog might enjoy. In no particular order, they are:

  • White Flow, by Dal Jeanis. I’ve mentioned this one before; it focuses on the creative moment for writers when everything just clicks. It’s cool.
  • HeroMachine, by Jeff Hebert. It should go without saying that Jeff’s HeroMachine tools for character art are a great deal of fun as well as an awesome gaming tool, but his blog is a very fun read, too.
  • Pretty, Fizzy Paradise, by Kalinara. A fun blog mostly about comic books.
  • The Absorbacon, by Scipio. Another great comic book blog. Its regular “Things That Made Me Happy… (in comic books this week)” feature always keeps me guessing and regretting the issues that I’ve missed.
  • Lair of the Evil DM, by the Evil DM. Fun blog with lots of coverage of fun stuff like action figures, pulp, sword and sorcery, and more. (Warning: There’s sometimes some cheesecake on the site, so be careful who you open it around.)

Thanks again for the award, Tim, and I’ll try to post more frequently to try to deserve it a bit more.

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Separated at birth

jeff_chase Okay. Nothing terribly deep here. But it bugged me for a while that Jeff from Top Chef really, really reminded me of someone. Then I realized it was Chase from House.

Ergo, fun with PhotoShop.

Technorati Tags: ,,

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

HeroPress names Devil’s Cape book of the year

heropress_2008

The fine and insightful (of course) blog HeroPress has named Devil’s Cape book of the year in its 2008 review.

I’m honored, grateful, and smiling.

HeroPress is a great, fun blog, and if you’re interested in science fiction, gaming, or comic books, you should have already bookmarked it by now.

I’ve been fortunate to be interviewed over there a couple of times and Devil’s Cape received a strong review there, too. You can check those out here.

Click here to read the full post with comments.

White flow

Dal Talented gentleman writer Dal Jeanis has started a new blog for and about writers called White Flow. It examines the time when a writer really gets his mojo working. Or as Dal puts it:

There is a moment when the universe aligns, and the words flow from your fingertips like a river of molten honey, spicy and golden and roaring out to possess the vacant pages.

You can't control it, you can't change it - there isn't even a desire to. You are merely the channel through which it flows, and you experience the thunder and the joy and the pain as something unique emerges from you.

This is the flow state. This is the white moment.

Dal was kind enough to ask me to contribute an entry to his blog, discussing my own too-infrequent encounters with this white flow. I encourage you to hop on over there and check it out, then check out some of the other entries there.

While you’re at it, if you’re in the mood for a good chuckle or three, you might want to check out the sci-fi/fantasy humor anthology Strange Worlds of Lunacy. Dal’s one of the contributors, with a fun fantasy/western mashup called “Billy Steadman, the Dragon, and the Virgin Bride.”

Oh, and check out Dal’s other blog, too.

Thanks, Dal.

Click here to read the full post with comments.

Slideshow