Received my two contributor copies today of Trail of Indiscretion #9, which contains my short story "Brickhouse".  TOI is a good looking small press magazine, with some interesting stories (and comics!).  Ran across these guys last year at the Baltimore Comic Con, and submitted something their way.  Readers of Requiem will recognize "Brickhouse", of course, which is one of my favorite pieces that I've written.   
Always fun to hold a copy of a magazine with something that you've written inside.  It's a feeling that never gets old.


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Has it really been over a month since I posted last?  Yeesh.  I guess not having internet access at home (virus problems) really crimps productivity.  

The third issue of The Order of Valor is now complete, over at Drunkduck -- check it out from the beginning HERE, and know that we're just getting started with our time-traveling Viking Horde.   


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My story "Hollow", originally published in Aphelion back in February of 2007, was chosen by readers and editors of that magazine as one of their fifteen Best Short Stories of 2007. 

Unfortunately, I hadn't checked their site lately, and this just came to my attention this week, despite having been announced earlier this month.  C'est la vie.

"Hollow" is the fifth story I have published in the pages of Aphelion -- great magazine, always worth a look. 

You can read (or re-read -- your mileage may vary) "Hollow" HERE.  Superheroes, TS Eliot, Cancer. . . you won't be disappointed.


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Well, you can't say a little promotion doesn't help:  after a day and a half as the top featured book on Drunk Duck's main site, The Order of Valor is now the #31 book overall, and the #3 superhero book in total readership, despite having only a fraction of those other books total page counts. 

The #1 book is, of course, the gold standard of superhero webcomics, DJ Coffman's awesome Hero By Night.  


JANUARY 6th UPDATE:  Now five days into our front page exposure, we are the #2 superhero book, and #18 book overall, and still getting more hits in a day than we got in a month previously.  Ah, the power of exposure.  Just goes to show that it doesn't matter how good something is, if no one knows it's there, no one will read it. 


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The Order is the featured comic today over at Drunk Duck -- check out the blurb HERE.  

I don't know the usual surfing time for most webcomic readers, but it's not even lunch and we've already had over 10 times our usual visitors.  

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FINALLY updated my ComicSpace profile.  If anybody else is a member, friend me!  

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Anybody else find their writing influenced by what they're reading / watching on TV?  The obvious answer is yes, of course so, but I guess I'm more curious as to how your reading / viewing affects your writing.  

For example:  I've been watching The Shield a lot lately.  I know, I know, I'm only about six years behind, but I never watched it when it was airing on FX, and only recently started picking up the DVDs at the library.  I have one more disc to finish off Season Three, and so far, I'm really enjoying it.  

So, of course, last night on the train ride home from work, I cooked up a story with some strong street gang elements to it.  It would have several of my "street level" hero characters working together (A Team-Up!!  Haven't done one of those yet.) when gang factions in their respective neighborhoods go to war with one another.  We'd see Silversword, El Torero, Adonis, Jack Sampson, I think, with plenty of other cameos.  It would also provide a look into the criminal structure of Jefferson Falls.  A lot of racial politics, that sort of thing. 

I'm also reading Tulia at the moment, a (nonfiction) book dealing with dirty cops and the broken system with which we fight the war on drugs, with heavy emphasis on some of the racial elements therein.  Similar to The Shield in some regards (racial issues, crooked cops, drugs, gangs), and a good read as I get ready for the final season of The Wire.

So is there any wonder I had that story idea last night? 

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The conclusion of "Harvey", behind the cut.


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Second of three parts of my new story "Harvey", behind the cut.


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Going to try something a bit different here, and publish my new story right here on the blog.  Been working on this one for a while, but it's finally finished.  It's a bit of a departure from my normal type of story, I think -- first person narrator, even.  So we'll see how it goes. 

I'll publish it in three parts this week. 

Part One, behind the cut.




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Spurred by a conversation I had with her at the Baltimore Comic Con back in September, Johanna Draper Carlson has posted a review of Issue #2 of A Thousand Faces over at her excellent blog on all things comics, Comics Worth Reading. 

You can check it out HERE. 


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Check out the first two pages of The Order HERE.  Hopefully, it will be a fun-filled throwback to the Silver Age kinda superhero romp. 

Let me know what you think. 


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Have you checked out The Order previews yet?

Why not?

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New experience for me:  

I cannot tell you how exhilirating it is, and how much it juices your creativity, to get some artwork from an artist who is working on characters/stories that you have written.  Especially when their vision of things is right in line with yours.  

This comics thing is pretty cool.

More info to come soon.

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My latest Sunvolt story, "The Shape of Things to Come", was rejected at Electric Velocipede, as they apparently had a story that was very thematically similar in their upcoming issue.  Just blind bad luck, I guess?

Given the heavy Egyptian mythology bent of this one, I have just sent it out again to Paradox.  Seems like it will be a good fit there, but I guess we'll find out in one to four months.  :) 



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Got word that I've placed another story -- "Brickhouse" will be appearing in an upcoming issue of Trail of Indiscretion, a neat little genre mag I discovered at the Baltimore Comic Con.  It should appear some time in early 2008.

"Brickhouse" is, of course, available in my collection Requiem, but was never published anywhere else.

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My story at the Amazon Shorts program is up -- you can check it out HERE, for the measly price of 49 cents. 



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Well, I suppose it had to happen some time. 

I am working on a couple of comics.  One is a project of my own, a series set inside of Dobbs Farm, the prison for metahuman criminals that has been the setting for several of my short stories.  There are a couple of artists that have said they might be interested in it a couple of months from now once their schedule clears up, so that gives me some time to finish a few more scripts.  The other is a sasquatch story, of all things, that I'm writing working off a plot outline and story from another writer.   I'm thinking a "Jaws in the woods" approach, a less is more kind of thing. 

It's a different set of writing muscles, for sure. 

We'll see how they go -- I'll keep you posted.


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Finished a new story tonight -- "Friday".  Been working on this one a while, off and on.  It's my attempt at a Robert Altman-style interconnected narrative thingy, with several characters who move in and out of each others' storylines.  I guess you could call it Dickensian, but it's only a little over 12,000 words.  Which is very long for me, but a wee bit short for Dickens.

Not sure what the market would be for this piece -- it's definitely too long for most of my usual haunts.  It'll definitely be in the next collection of stories -- probably as the "anchor" piece.  It has appearances from many of my favorite characters from other stories:  Adonis Morgan, El Torero, Detective Nick Seaver, even cameos from Ike Sampson, and Bank Squad Katie from "252".

Another thought I had was to post it here on the ol' blog, in a serial format.  The way the story is written lends itself to that, I think.  There are twelve "sections" to the piece -- one each day for two weeks, taking Sundays off? 

We'll see.  It's off to the editing room now for this one.  And I'm off to bed.


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