Dick and Henry: Update

So I'm a little over 10 percent done with the Dick and Henry novel, and I'm really liking what I've got so far. I've suffered from almost every fear you could have when writing a sequel to something you've written before. I've thought: I won't be able to get the characters right again, I won't be able to come up with a story that does the characters justice, the story will be too short, and the villain will probably suck. I'm happy to report that so far, I think all of my worries were pretty unfounded. I might change my mind later, but for right now this is the happiest I've been with a work pre-edit in a very long time.

Here's a brief excerpt from the in-progress novel:

And if you're hungry for more than that, you can always re-read the original stories for free by downloading the book off of Amazon, or you can read Robot's Bluff for free on my site, it's under the "Free Samples" tab, or you can just click HERE.

Republican Presidential Debate (Number 4): The Highlights

Tonight was the 4th (but not last) republican presidential debate. This time it was hosted by Fox Buisness Network. The previous debates have been hosted by Fox News, CNN, and CNBC. Tonight's debate was without a doubt easier to watch than the CNBC debate, not because CNBC did a poor job as the candidates have said or implied, but because the candidates spent less time talking over one another and attacking the moderators, and more time answering questions.

With that being said, here's a quick list of some of the important things I noticed:

• Rubio's scripted speeches have improved. He's more comfortable speaking now that he's climbed to the number three spot, making the idea that he'll end up being the nominee seem that much more plausible.
• Virtually all the candidates who commented on the Mexico Wall agreed there should be a wall, but they disagreed with Trump on sending back Mexican immigrants to Mexico, showing just how much Trump has taken control of the conversations the republicans are having.
• Again, "Obama" and "Hilary" were the buzzwords of the night, especially if you were Jeb Bush, but they were also the buzzwords that got the least applause because they're used so often they now just sound like white noise. 
• The candidates want to dismantle the government. As Rand Paul said, "I want the government so small I can barely see it." Ben Carson wants to "abolish the IRS."
• Ben Carson agrees with whatever the popular answers are to the questions being asked. When asked if he would break up the big banks, he said he would regulate them, and then went on to say he hates regulations, they're increasing the price of soap and "people notice." When asked by the moderator, "to be clear, you're against breaking up the big banks?" He responded by saying he would regulate them, after just saying the government should get rid of regulations on most things.
• Rand Paul sounded the most human out of the candidates, but he'll be ignored by the news media and therefore gain no traction. Rand Paul's answers (along with John Kasich's) sounded the least scripted out of any candidate's on the stage. I'm not saying I agreed with his statements, simply saying he sounded the most genuine, and in politics that's worth something—unless it's completely ignored by the media ( a la, Bernie Sanders), then it's pretty hard to turn that energy into political traction.
• Bush was once again skittish, he stuttered when he spoke. He seemed like a kid on the debate team who couldn't remember how to spell anything. He spent most of his time saying things like "Hilary Clinton" and "this president" (meaning Obama) rather than detailing his policies on the issues. It didn't play well to the crowd, and it's looking more and more like the Bush 2016 ship has long sailed away.
• Other miscellaneous buzzwords of the night: Dodd Frank, Israel, China, socialism, repeal and replace, loopholes, ext.

Overall the debate was better managed this time around (something Fox didn't let go unnoticed. The last line spoken to the camera's by a moderator was, "This wasn't about us. It was about them"), making for a less annoying debate, but the answers to many of the questions by the candidates were still disturbing, and the fact that the candidates who called out others' crazy assertions will later be entirely ignored is just a little depressing.

NaNoWriMo: Dick and Henry

I don't know if it's that I've been keeping myself primed (writing almost every day), that I've returned to writing some of my favorite characters, or if it's a combination of both, but this new book, Dick and Henry The Novel, it's coming out fast and it feels good. Really good. I'm loving every minute I'm spending writing it, and I haven't felt that in awhile.

My last book (currently untitled) took a lot of work to push out. It's going to need a revision or two before I'll be completely happy with it, but I think it's a good book that people who like moody sci-fi will enjoy. It's a dark dystopian story, about a world that's lost most of it's hope, and about a hero who doesn't have much left either. I don't know if it was the subject matter that made it hard, or if it was something else, but the novel didn't pour out of me the way Dick and Henry is. I guess they can't all be easy, but I'm happy that this one is.

Can't wait to finish the story and add it to the pantheon of my work, and then from there write the next one (this is the first full novel of Dick and Henry in a planned series of three or four books.) I have a broad plan for the series, one that I think is ambitious and meaningful for a sci-fi series, but I won't divulge it here, you'll have to wait for the titles to be written and published. But until then, you can always read the original short stories for free on Amazon.

Good and Bad

Does anyone else out there ever have those string of good incidents in their life, where you feel like everything is just going your way? You get that promotion you've been wanting, you finish that project at home that's been bugging you, and you realize you're surrounded by great family and friends. Life is just good. A week later you might think differently, but right now, everything is great. Funny how that works, huh? Events are really just that, aren't they? They're just things that happen. They're neither good nor bad, it's our perception of them that gives them that attribute. And different perceptions will see things differently. All you have to do is look at politics for an easy example of that. A democrat wins an election the republicans will see this as a bad event, if the republicans win the democrats will see it as a bad event. You can apply that to almost anything in life. Knowing that you could almost strip the significance out of anything if you wanted to, but why would you want to do that? I think it's possible to keep in mind that things that happen to you are just things, and still appreciate the events that you enjoy—the ones that happen the way you want them to. I think keeping that in mind—that nothing is definitively good or bad—can keep a person grounded, stop you from beating yourself up when you don't get that promotion, when you don't finish that project on time, and when you forget that you have any friends at all. And if you forget to keep that in mind, that not getting the things you want (whether those being physical things or abstract things, like a promotion or a finished project) isn't your fault, and that you shouldn't beat yourself up over it, well, in my experience you shouldn't have to wait too long before that next string of "good" incidents comes along.

The Republican Debate (Number Three): The Highlights

Tonight we saw 10 republican candidates duke it out on CNBC, fighting for attention in an effort to raise those mythical poll numbers. It was a bit curious to see the faces with the most screen time were the ones polling below 10%. Carson and Trump faded into the background for much of the debate, mostly just popping up when asked a direct question (rather than jumping in randomly like Bush or Christy). If there was a star tonight, it was definitely Rubio. The robotic android—who sounds like he has a TelePrompTer behind each eyelid—got a lot of love from the audience, cheering when he said that Hilary Clinton's number one superpac is the media and again when he said the media hate's republicans. Bush tried attacking him for not showing up to his job enough, but it seemed to backfire with Rubio's rebuttal.

Bush came off rattled. He still seems to not be able to shake off Trump's criticism's that have obviously affected him. There was the comment at the second republican debate about his secret president name being "Ever ready" because, as Bush said smiling, "It's high energy, Donald." And then there was this quote he said recently at a campaign event, sounding rather whiney (something you don't want to sound like when you're running for president):

"I got a lot of really cool things I could do other than sit around and be miserable, listening to people demonize me and feeling compelled to demonize me. That is a joke. Elect Trump if you want that." — Jeb Bush at a campaign event in South Carolina

And since then Bush has come off awkward, trying different tactics to connect with the electorate. Telling us he works out, and that he thinks the actress that plays Supergirl on CBS is "Pretty hot." During the debate he told us that his fantasy football team is 7 & 0. It played all right with the audience until Huckabee jumped on the moderators for not having the candidates stick to the issues (attacking the moderators throughout the night was a common theme, it was warranted at times, but over all it felt like a stunt to try to recreate the Bernie Sanders "damn emails" line. It was the most talked about "zinger" from the democratic debate, and it felt like many of the second tier GOP candidates were trying to mimic that strategy of being the guy who wants to "stick to the issues." Chris Christie also tried it, it seemed to work for him pretty well until he faded once again back into the background.) Bush never really recovered from that blow. He looked like a wounded animal for the rest of the debate, trying not to show just how nervous he really was.

The themes were pretty much what would you expect. Big government is bad, we need tax cuts, Barack Obama is bad, guns are good, the media hates republicans (that one, delivered by Rubio, played really well to the crowd), Hillary Clinton is bad, and the moderators don't like us. I was really surprised with how far the candidates went with discussing their distaste for the government. So many of them kept saying "government is the problem" we need "government to stay out." It really made me wonder, if these guys think government isn't the solution to the nations problems, than why are they running to oversee it? Are they implying they want a "political revolution," where they over throw the government (something that's completely implausible, but it works wonders with the right crowd), or are they simply working the crowd? I hope it's the second one (which I think it is for all of them, except maybe Ben Carson), because otherwise they have no business running for the highest level of civic service in our country. If you don't believe in the system, why should I hire you to run it? We don't hire teachers who don't believe in education. Why should we hire presidents who don't believe in government?

Trump got in a few "zingers" here and there, telling a moderator who asked Trump where they got information that Trump said was wrong, "I don't know, you people are the ones who write this." As well as throwing in his now classic line, "We don't win."

Carson jumped on the anti-government bandwagon, saying it should stay out of everything, that it has no business enforcing a minimum wage. He also stated he's against gay marriage, but believes we can treat gays fairly despite this, what his definition of fairly is he did not state.

Overall it was a series of desperate attempts by the 2nd tier candidates to make some noise by inserting as many of their rehearsed talking points in as possible, and being sure to attack the moderators when they felt they were getting in the way of that goal. On the reverse side the moderators didn't seem that interested in pulling meaningful answers out of the candidates, they pretty much let them answer however they wanted, which often led to them drifting into some unrelated talking points. Not much new information was gained from the candidates who are most likely to get the nomination (Trump, Carson, and Rubio). The only meaningful thing that might come out of the debate would be a possible slight bump in the polls for Rubio, but other than that it was pretty much a meaningless wash, much like the previous debates in this election.

Mr. Hadley

I don't have an official title for my fourth book yet. The pending title is Mr. Hadley, but that's just the name of the main character. I'm thinking I might go with The Breachers, but I haven't fully decided yet. I'm very close to finishing it. I'm 1,800 words away from my projected target, but I think it's going to end up being a little longer. That'll put it over my 70,000 word limit I was shooting for, but it will get trimmed down in the editing process, which is fine by me. I like my books (the ones I write and the ones I read) to be tight. Why say something in 5 words when you can say it in 3? It just makes sense to cut the fat, as long as you're not cutting the character of the novel when you're doing it.

I know where the story's going, how I want to end it, I've just got to get it there.

It's All About The Ending

Every part of a story's important. First we meet the hero, then he goes on an adventure, and then the adventure ends. Beginning, middle, and end. You cut out any of the three major parts of a story and you don't have a story anymore, so of course they're all important, but I think the ending is especially so. It's the last thing the reader reads. It's the lingering taste that's left once the story is over, and it can either be a sweet after taste, or it can be a dud. We've all read a story, or seen a movie that we loved in the beginning and in the middle, but just didn't care for the ending. That can kill a story, or it can take something that would have been great and turn it into something mediocre. A good ending can have the opposite effect. It can raise an other wise by the numbers story into something memorable. 

That's where I am right now with my new book I'm writing. I'm at the edges of the ending, and I'm trying to paint a picture that will be worth looking at; trying to make it something that ties everything together and makes everything that came before it seem that much more important. It's a tough order, but it's one worth trying to make, because when you get it right, people notice, and that's the funnest part about it really, having people enjoy the thing you've made. 

NaNoWriMo 2015

So we're halfway through October, Halloween's around the corner, and then after that we have November. A time for no shaving, Christmas shopping and turkey eating, but it's also become a time for something else in recent years, it's become a time for writing. It's known as NaNoWriMo to writers, and it's the time of the year when any writer worth their salt will try to pump out 50,000 words of a story in just one month. Last year I started Phidelphius during NaNoWriMo. I didn't finish it, but I wrote everyday, and I knocked out somewhere around 30,000 during that one month, which is really good for me. This year I hope to do better. I plan to start the Dick and Henry novel for NaNoWriMo, and I'd like to get it almost completely finished before the month ends, maybe hit that 50k mark.

There's more than one benefit to writing fast. Obviously you get the book done faster, but I find that it also helps to keep me in the story, and that it makes the world I'm writing about feel that much more real to me. It makes my writing feel like it's hitting harder too, which is really the whole point of writing it, isn't it? 

Moving Forward

I've wanted to create a post about my recent move to Colorado for a while, but I wanted to wait until the moment felt right, until I felt fully moved in. But the longer I'm here the more I think I'm not going to feel fully moved in, maybe not until I've already moved on to my next destination and I'm looking back on it through the rose colored lens of the past. I've realized this by my constant comparisons of my new home to my old. There's a lot that's the same here. I still go to coffee shops to write, I still work in the school systems, I still eat sushi and gelato every chance I get, I still have a balcony in my apartment. Those things are the same, along with many others, but they're also different. Sometimes in the simplest of ways, but when you call a place home for 9 years, it's the simple things that make it yours. It's the way people smile at you and greet you by name at familiar places, the way your students celebrate when they've improved at a skill you've worked with them on for weeks, the way your friends hand stings against yours as you high-five that it's finally Friday, and you get to dig into that chocolate chip scone you've been waiting for.

I keep reminding myself that the life I created  in Oklahoma wasn't waiting for me when I first moved there back in 2006. It took time, and I saw many different versions of my life pass me by over those 9 years as friends moved away and new ones were met, and bonds with those who stayed strengthened. I gained new hobbies, found new stomping grounds, and over all grew into the adult I've come to be. It's a little hard to let those things go. Well, you can't let them go, memories I mean, but it's hard to to admit that those moments are now in the past and it's time for new moments in a new place. A place where I don't yet know anyone I can call up any time for a cup of coffee or a late night movie.

Now, with those things aside, it is also exciting to have a new place to explore. New streets to travel down, some of which lead to snow covered mountains. In some ways it's a different world here, in others it's quite the same.

I think I'd like to end this post with a list of things I've found a little strange since pulling my roots from the quaking red dirt of Oklahoma.

1. The obsession with recycling and conserving energy. I say this as a liberal. A liberal who would prefer to eat with the lights on while in the break room, and not teach with the lights off in his classroom (strange ideas around here).
2. The confusion waiters seem to suffer when asked if they can split the check. Their response is usually "down the middle or by item?" When the waiter returns they bring one black rectangle holding the ticket and only one pen.
3. The little paper lists of sushi your handed at a sushi restaraunt along with the menu (in Oklahoma the sushi is simply on the menu).
4. People actually yield for pedestrians in crosswalks.
5. They're are pedestrians in crosswalks.
6. The expression "you're all set" is the preferred one here by waiters and sales clerks. 
7. There aren't gas stations on every corner, but most people still drive cars despite the City of Boulder's refusal to admit this.
8. No one seems to know how to make a vanilla chai that tastes good. And something called "bhakti chai" is the standard...don't bother trying it.
9. This one's for all you Okies: sweet tea, not a thing here. (I prefer water myself, but many an Okie would wither up and die out here in the Rockies without their favorite beverage).
10. Good barbecue takes more effort to find. 
11. Beer doesn't have a stigma here (weird that it does in Oklahoma despite everyone drinking it). The Left Hand Brewery (a local brewery here in Longmont) has a partnership with a bank in town that is advertised on their walls openly, and the brewery (along with many others) is present at festivals and events in town, and is not roped off from the rest of the festival as it would be in Oklahoma.
12. Recycling is everywhere.
13. There's a distaste for shoes by some subgroups of Coloradans.
14. Everyone seems to have a tattoo. Teachers can teach and have sleeve tattoos here without anyone gossiping about the state of their well being in the break room. 

No, ma'am, I do Not Have Erectile Dysfunction

There's nothing quite as frustrating as not being able to get the medical attention you need. My wife's been going through this for years, she has an auto-immune disease called Sjogren's that attacks the moisture in her body as well as other unpleasant things. She was diagnosed with the disease when she was 18, and has since then been given various explanations for her pain, including one doctor who said, "you just have pain." Today it was me who had the experience of a doctor who wasn't listening to me, who I ended up asking, "Well, can you prescribe it for something else?"

Let me start by explaining the strange condition I have. I have ear issues, well, really it's an "ear issue" because it only effects my left ear. Right now I have a ringing in my inner ear and pressure, as well as pressure in my outer ear. My doctor in Oklahoma believed the ringing wasn't just tinnitus, he could tell the ear was tighter than it should be. He told me it was some kind of allergy, gave me a script for a nasal decongestion and prescribed a steroid. I moved a week later to Colorado (where my insurance does not work). Needless to say the prescriptions did not work. That was about a month ago. I figured I'd just wait it out until I got insurance through my new job, get it checked out then, but then a couple days ago I started having a problem I had about 9 months ago. My outer ear started pumping full of blood. The veins become very visible, and the entire ear gets warm and red. This combined with the inner ear ringing freaked me out, and in my paranoia last night I thought it was possibly spreading to my face, and from there of course the fear would be the issue would go to my brain. Now, let me slow down and say why I was worried about this issue going from my ear to my skull. My doctor in Oklahoma saw me for this outer ear blood-pumping-into-my-ear issue, and he immediately deduced that it was some kind of weird blood flow issue. He thought it was really weird, had never heard of anything like it, but he could see my ear was red, and the veins were huge, and he knew just the thing that would fix a blood flow issue: Cialis. For those of you who don't know what Cialis is, it's a medication for erectile dysfunction. My doctor explained this to me, and then assured me it would fix my problem. He gave me some samples, I took them, a week later the problem was solved. I haven't had any issues with it until two days ago.

So last night as I was laying in bed, knowing the blood pumping like crazy in my ear was from poor blood flow, I was worried the condition must be getting worse if it's now effecting my hearing, and that I was sure it was spreading to my the left side of my face, and from there it could go to my brain, and then result in me having a stroke or something else horrible. (note: the blood pumping in my ear feels like your forehead feels when you hang upside down on a set of monkey bars). So today I broke down and went to an urgent care despite not having in-state insurance.

I waited the 30 minutes in the waiting room and then an additional 10 in the doctor office. A nurse practitioner finally saw me, I explained the situation, told her the things my doctor had prescribed in the past for the ringing and the blood pumping issue (flonase, prednisone, Cialis). She nodded her head, and then did a "huh" when I said Cialis. I told her that it was for the blood flow, and she said yeah, makes sense, but then later refused to prescribe it because "she didn't know what she was treating."  I was adamant on getting this medication, because having an ear that constantly pumps full of blood (along with ringing, which I think is related) is extremely annoying, and I know this medication works because I've used it for this purpose. The nurse leaves to talk to a doctor, she comes back 7 minutes later, tells me she can't prescribe the Cialis for my ear, she says it can actually cause the issues I'm having. I get quite. I just wasted a 100 bucks. I'm pissed. She then says, "though I could prescribe it for something else." I take this as she wants to help, but it has to be filed a certain way. I go along, "okay, so if I wanted it for something else, then you'd prescribe it?" She says yes, I say "okay then, let's do that." My wife is in the corner of the room laughing. I think me and the doctor are in on the joke of pretending to prescribe me Cialis for ED when I actually want it for my ear, my wife is laughing with her hand over her mouth because she believes the doctor thinks I actually have ED but am too embarrassed to admit it, so I created an elaborate story about having blood flow issues with my ear. She tells me this when we leave, I tell her I think she's wrong, later I think she's right and I think it's funny, I think about it some more and it makes me angry. We go to the pharmacy together to get the medication, today is the last day my previous employer's insurance works, it didn't work for the doctor but it still works for prescriptions, so we had to do this today. I go to the counter and the pharmacist tells me the medication is over 200 hundred dollars. She tells me I can do less pills and the cost will go down. I ask how much 10 will be. She says 100. I'm visibly upset. She tells me lots of guys just do three or five. I tell her it's not even for that, I need it for my ear. She says, "I've actually heard of that." She's nodding her head and I later realize she might as well be winking at me. I tell her I'm not really willing to shell the hundred bucks, she tells me, "Yeah, for an ear blood flow problem I probably wouldn't either." There's no conviction in her words, and it's then that I realize everyone I've confided my condition in today has thought I really just wanted to have sex, when all I want is to be able to hear and sleep at night without a dull ache in my ear. I'm pretty upset at this point. My wife grabs some tylennol and some over the counter allergy and sinus medicine. We go to Firehouse Subs and she buys me a sandwhich. It helps a little.

So that's my story. If anyone out there in internet land has any idea what could be wrong with my ear, has a doctor friend or a friend studying to be a doctor, feel free to slip my story by them. At the moment I have no insurance, so I'll be living with this condition for at least another month if the tylenol and sinus medicine have no effect (which I think they won't). I know things could be worse, but they could be better too, and I know from experience what will help, but the moment I mention what the medicine is it's assumed I'm lying because I'm embarrassed that my penis doesn't work. I never thought I'd miss Oklahoma, but man, right about now it would be nice to have a doctor that listens.

2015-2016 Guide To Polar Books

Its been a busy year for me. I've released a new book (Sunborn), moved to a new state, started a new job, and almost finished my fourth book. All of that is really exciting for me. It's pushing my life in a new direction, and stopping things from growing stale. Now, with all that going on, I'm still constantly plotting my next three or four writing moves down the road. Here's a rough outline of what I have planned for the coming months.

• Publish Phidelphius (late winter of 2015)- So this is the sequel to Sunborn. It follows the continuing adventures of Daniels, a man who's cursed to never age, and can harness the power of the sun. The book is already completed, but the editing process is pretty slow with my writing group, but the quality of the edit is worth the wait. 
• Publish Untitled Fourth Novel (Spring 2016)- So this novel is a science fiction story that I'm currently working on (and almost finished with) that follows a teacher who lives in a world where kids who can't pass the government mandated Intelligence Test are sentenced to death.
• Adapt Bad Dreams into a screenplay (project will start as soon as I finish my fourth novel)- So this shouldn't come to many of you as much of a surprise that my first love has always been film. As much as I love writing, there's just something about the emotions images stir inside me that I can't ignore. When I first wrote Bad Dreams, I knew I wanted it to be a movie someday. The images and themes would lend themselves so well to the big screen that I'm confident that adapting it into a screenplay will not be a waste of my time. You can check out the kind words people have said about it here.
• Write Dick and Henry Sequel (some time in 2016)- This is a series I haven't written in almost a year, but that hasn't been due to a lack of desire. I have some pretty big plans for this series as a whole (it'll likely be three or four full novels on top of the original short story collection), and I can't wait to get back to writing it, but there's several stones I need to turn before I can get there. It's going to be a blast though. This is a series I envision writing for years to come, each one having a slightly different writing style and theme than the last.
• Complete Sunborn Trilogy (sometime in 2016 to early 2017)-  I started writing Daniels' story thinking it would simply be a novella, but realized there was just too much to this world and to this story to not tell more. When I finished Sunborn, again, I knew there were more stories in that world to tell. This third novel will conclude Daniels' story arc, and the fate of the Decropolis and the rest of the United Poles. Perhaps I'll revisit this world down the road, but for now this book will serve as a conclusion for the series.

Now of course plans can change, story ideas will likely pop up, and may push back some of the projects on this list. The last time I posted a guide of my predicted published works Dick and Henry 2 was scheduled to be my next project after Sunborn. Phidelphius hadn't been written yet, and neither had my Untitled Fourth Book, but the basic ideas of this list will not change. These are titles that I will write. The fun of creating your own production schedule is that it is flexible, and that I can start on any project I'm passionate about at any time. The projects listed here are all ones I'm excited about writing and completing. I like stories that are passionate and conclude their stories, so that's what I write. You will not find a story that I write, not even one in a series, that does not have a conclusion by the last page. I don't believe in splitting up a story arc over a series of books. I prefer each book to have its own story, even if it's in a series, and that a theme be what connects the books in the series, let that be the arc and each book have it's own story. So if you read the Dick and Henry series, or Sunborn and its sequels, you'll find that each book has a different set of challenges for the character, and that you can enjoy them as a singular story as well as a piece of a larger overarching theme. 

10 Free Digital Copies of Sunborn

Hey there, readers, I'm looking to give away 10 digital copies of my newest published book, Sunborn in exchange for an honest review on Amazon.com. If you're interested please leave a message in the comments with your email and the file type you would like, or you send me a private message on my author Facebook account or on my Goodreads account. 

My goal is to eventually have garnered enough reviews to snag a Bookbub ad. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Bookbub, it's the holygrail of advertisments for indie authors. They don't publish what their standards are, but there are people out there who spend a lot of their time going through data authors have shared on their blogs about their rejections and admittance to the Bookbub program, and most agree that you need over 20 reviews and a decent star rating. 

Now, I'm not asking for anyone to give me a review that's not honest. If you offer to review Sunborn in exchange for a free copy, I expect you to give me your honest feedback in your review whether that feedback is posotive or negative.

Now, with that being said, I think most of you who follow this blog will likely enjoy Sunborn. It's a post apocolyptic sic-fi set in a frozen world. Sounds pretty cool, right? Well there's only one way to know for sure, and that's by checking it out. Sound off in the comments if you'd like a copy. Include your email and the format you'd like.

Always The Hard Way

Yesterday I burned a pan of oil causing my apartment to fill with smoke. The alarms in my apartment went off as the smoke bellowed out of the kitchen, and I looked up at the sprinklers that are in every room of my apartment and I wondered just how worried I should be. Thankfully the smoke eventually cleared, all of my possessions didn't get coated in a layer of water, and the chicken I was cooking turned out great, but when I looked at the original pan I had started cooking with, now coated with a black layer of burned oil, I realized that all of that could have been avoided had I simply followed the directions the first time.

That's something that's a bit of a problem for me. Not because I hate following directions (I actually love directions for most things...unless it's putting together furniture), but because I always tend to do things the hard way. Always. It just seems to be how I learn. I'm not sure if this is a gift or a curse. I've of course always viewed it in the past as a curse. It's caused me to do a whole lot of things twice. Once the wrong way, and then once the correct way (which often ends up taking longer than it should have because I have to fix the mistakes I made the first time). I do this with almost everything. Cooking, auto repair, publishing, laundry, pretty much everything I do, I tend to do it wrong the first time, and sometimes the first time is a prolonged amount of time. But there's also the fact that I do eventually end up doing it the right way. After I burned the oil in that pan, blackening the bottom of it and filling my house with smoke, I went and cooked the chicken the correct way. I've done this with almost all of my screw ups. Once I've mastered a task, I'll sometimes find myself looking back on the days when I did the task wrong, and I find myself feeling really grateful for having now mastered it (and also a little bitter for having wasted time doing it the wrong way).

I like to think that all my screw ups, and all my bitter feelings about those screw ups, have helped me to do a lot of things right the first time now, in an effort to waste less time. Here's an example: I find myself fixing a lot of my own car problems myself now. (Car won't start? Get on google type in the description of the issue and someone some where will have the exact same thing happened to them, and they'll have described it roughly the way you did, and someone will have told them how to fix it, and then you can search for a video on how to do it if you're looking for even more detailed directions.) When I work on my car, I follow the directions to the T. I don't skip steps, I don't hurry through anything. If the video does it in 10 minutes I'll do it in twenty. And when I'm done, the car works. That's something I've never experienced before: having things I did myself work the first time. (In case you're wondering, my car breaks a lot, so this is a huge skill for me.) It's a great feeling, and it's a skill I contribute to my loathing of having done so many other things wrong the first time. It's instilled a bit of patience in me that I never had before. Because I hate re-doing things, I now tend to try and do them right the first time so I don't have to re-do it.

It doesn't always work out that way of course. I've got the blackened pan in my kitchen to prove it. But for the most part I think my impatience has lead me to patience, by recognizing that I don't like what impatience brings: Do-overs and imperfect results.

Making Dick and Henry Free

So I've decided to set the price of Dick and Henry: The Space Saga to permanently free. I've always planned to continue this series with a succession of novels, to which The Space Saga will be the first entry, and I'd like that entry to be free, to encourage as many fans of the science fiction genre to take a shot on the series.

Now, The Space Saga is currently free on iBooks and Barnes and Noble, but not on Amazon. For it to be listed as permanently free on Amazon it must be reported that it is being sold at a lower price a certain amount of times before Amazon will price match it. What that number is no one is sure of. Amazon doesn't disclose their price matching methods. If you would like to help increase the speed of this process, I would be grateful. Submitting a lower price is very easy, and I will post directions below for anyone who may be interested: 

1.  Click HERE to open a new tab with Dick and Henry: The Space Saga on Amazon.
2. Scroll down to "Product Details." It will say "tell us about a lower price?" When you see that, click it.
3. Copy and paste the link http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dick-and-henry-kenneth-buff/1121687413?ean=2940151855747 into the box labeled "URL."
4. Type 0.00 into the "Price" and "Shipping Cost" boxes.
5. Click submit

Inside Out: Review

Remember when children movies were more than just one note? When their themes transcended childhood and spoke to adults as well? Inside Out is that kind of movie. It's Pixar's best work since Toy Story.

In Inside Out we follow an eleven year old girl, Riley, as she moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. Moving is of course very stressful on the young girl, and we as the audience get to experience this both inside her head with five personified emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, as well as on the outside as she interacts with the world based off of the commands the emotions input into the "emotion" command center.

The premise is fantastic. It's simple, yet robust. And best of all, it's relatable, perhaps even more so for adults than children. The theme of identity runs through both of the main stories of the movie. It's what we watch Riley develop as she learns to deal with the changes of life. It's what the emotions inside of her struggle to maintain as their roles inside Riley's head change; she requires some of them less and less (and others more and more).

Inside is a great film that will invoke the same kind of discussions after the credits roll that movies like The Land Before Time and Toy Story had their audiences asking 20 and 30 years ago, respectively. It's an instant classic, go see it if you get a chance, pick it up when it comes to video if you can't, you don't want to miss this one.

Sunborn Now On Amazon

My 2nd full length novel, Sunborn is now on Amazon. It's a science fiction tale that takes place in the future, after the world's gone to hell (so post apocalyptic), only instead of the world being dried up it's covered in ice. The hero, Daniels lives alone on a glacier, living day to day thinking he's all that's left of the human race. Hints of another world wash up on his shore and he sets sale for a new land. Here he finds that less has changed than he thought. Other humans exist, and they're looking to expand their icy empire. No matter the cost.

You can find Sunborn on Amazon HERE. It's available in eBook and paperback.

Hugh Howey's Book Pot Luck

I don't know how many of you guys frequent Hugh Howey's blog, but if you don't, you should, it's fantastic. About a month ago he posted an entry detailing a giveaway he was doing, which included all kinds of weird crap from his storage unit. Here's a video of me opening up my package:

p.s It's not in the video (because I just found it in the package), but Hugh also threw in a sea shell. I'm sure this is a reference to one of his other books, The Shell Collector. God he's cool.

Sunborn Cover Reveal, And a Little About the Book

So this is the finished artwork for my next novel, Sunborn. It still needs text of course, I'll start on that after I finish adding the final edits to the manuscript. This one has been a long road from first draft to final copy, and I think it's been well worth all the steps, I hope you guys enjoy it. I should have it completely done before the end of June. Right now my wife and I are in Boulder checking out the town and looking for potential day jobs for myself, but once I get back this is going to be my main focus until it's complete, so don't worry, it'll be out there soon.

Sunborn is the story of Daniels, a man who's lived alone in one of the many glaciers that now cover the planet. He's been alone for longer than he can remember, and as far as he knows the world died, and some how, he survived. He's continued to do so, despite his curious condition. That condition being his almost invulnerability in the day, and his complete helplessness at night. In the day Daniels is able to harness the power of the sun to heal his wounds and melt through ice; at night his flesh rots.

Daniels comes in contact with another civilization, that's built a city into the ice of their glacier. He discovers Decropolis is at war with a city that lies below its surface;  one that is more advanced, and perhaps more civilized. Whose side will he take? What will be the cost of his choice? You'll have to grab a copy next month to find out.

The Future Belongs To The Mad: My Predictions of The Action Film's Future

I've recently spent a lot of time watching the three slightly different trailers of Mad Max: Fury Road. If you haven't seen any of them yet, do yourself a favor and log onto youtube, click that HD quality button, and let your eyes soak in the magic of practical special effects. That's right, I said practical. 90% of the special effects in this film are practical. Meaning no computers were involved in the visuals. When you see flames shooting out of the barrel of a guitar-flamethrower, flames are actually shooting out of that guitar-flamethrower. Yeah, this is that kind of a movie.

So, let's turn the clocks back a little, and talk about the history of Mad Max. It started as a little indie post-apocalyptic science fiction movie in Australia in 1979 (this was before post-apocalyptic films were a thing). The film stared a pre-fame Mel Gibson and was written and directed by George Miller (the director of Happy Feet). The film was a huge success and Miller was offered the director's chair for big Hollywood films, such as First Blood (the first Rambo), but declined in favor of doing a Mad Max sequel, which in America we call Road Warrior (the rest of the world calls it Mad Max 2). Road Warrior was an even bigger success than the original. It upped the action, upped the desperation, and set the tone for every post-apoclyptic film that has come since. Road Warrior became a pop culture phenomenon that persists to this day in the form of video games (The Fallout series), television (The Walking Dead), and in movies (Resident Evil). The sequel to Road Warrior, Mad Max: Beyond Thunder Dome was released three years later. It featured the now emphasis thunder dome, a domed-steel cage that's walls and ceiling are covered with weapons. Two men enter one man leaves. But other than that the film just wasn't as satisfying as the previous entry. The series would be put on hold for 30 years.

Now enter Mad Max: Fury Road. Miller has wanted to make this movie for decades. There were ups and downs, Gibson was originally planned to reprise the role, but as time went on he simply aged too much to perform the stunts required for the film. Miller considered making a CGI film at one point, hoping to create an anime style movie, but eventually he opted out of CGI, and went on to create the live action fourth film. The entire film was storyboarded prior to production. Miller wanted the film to be understood as easily in Japanese as it would be in English, meaning this film is all about visual story telling. Oh, are we in for a treat. If you've seen the trailers you already know what I'm talking about. This film looks like a moving painting. The colors are vivid and complementary, the characters are easily identifiable as hero or villain without any previous knowledge of the series (no character other than Max has appeared in any of the previous films) and no narration is required, and the action is beyond anything we've seen in a big budget film in decades. The sheer volume of crashes, and stunts in the two minute trailer gives you just a taste of what the film is going to be. Miller has went on record stating that the film is basically an extended version of the tanker chase scene of Road Warrior, which is to say that this film will change cinema. 

Let's look at the current landscape of film. Most of the year we don't get anything worth watching. Every season has its film type that will be released. January and February are where movies go to die. March and April see a slight pick up in quality, a drama here a drama there, maybe a decent indie film will sneak in, but mostly we still get crap. It's not until summer that the big films  come out, and now-a-days, the big films are super hero CGI extravaganzas, or they're Transformer CGI extravaganzas. Fury Road is the opposite of that. It's a practical effects, visual loving, film that features a character who is a mortal human being. His super power is that he's resourceful and can drive a car well. Sort of like Vin Diesel without the super powers that go along with a Fast and Furious movie. This film is going to be big. Simply because it's different. No one expected 300 to be the hit that it was, but people wanted to see something that was not only different, but cared about the story that it was telling. And look what happened afterwards: films began mimicking it. The slow-mo fight scenes and mono-chrome color palette became a staple for sand and sword epics (think The Rock's Hercules, Immortals, Wrath of The Titans ext.). That's what Fury Road is set to do for the action genre. We will see more practical action extravaganza's after Max lays waste at the box office. There's a reason Warren Brothers have already signed Tom Hardy for three sequels to a series that hasn't seen the light of day in 33 years. That's because they know this film is going to blow people away. Forget The Avengers people, this is the movie of the summer.

Horizons

Well, the sun's shinning bright today here in Oklahoma. It's one of those days you feel like you can cross off all those things on your to-do list you've just been letting slide down. I'm going to try and nock some off mine today. I already got my run in, the next thing I'm going to cross off is taking my car in for a well deserved wash. The poor guy hasn't seen water that wasn't rain or snow since his purchase (way back in 2010). After that I'm going to get some pleasure reading in. I'm going to finish up Stephen King's Skeleton Crew (A great collection of horror short stories. Not as good as Night Shift, but that's the gold standard of King collections) and then start Station Eleven if I have time. I'll get some lunch somewhere in there, and then start editing my third book, Phidelphius. Then later tonight I'll watch a flick and try to get a review written. So all in all, I've got a pretty busy day lined out, so I guess I better go get on it.

But, before I go, just want to let you know that Sunborn (the first book in my new post-apocalyptic sic-fi series about a world covered in ice and water) is finally getting some cover art, so this means I have no choice but to edit faster :) Seriously though, it's getting there, just been slow moving because of my day job and my writing clans day jobs, but you'll love the book, I promise.