It occurred to me last night (late...very late...far too late to act on the revelation) while I was shining up and putting the final touches on my interview with Alicia Kobishop (author of The Fine Line) that I have been quite absent from my blog lately. I mean, I've been here. I manage the site myself, so I'm the one doing all the posting and whatnot. However, everything I've been posting has been about other people and their work. It's been quite a while since I've posted an update about what I'm up to. That doesn't mean I've been sitting idle. I've actually been quite busy.

There's my day job. It isn't very exciting...not much to report there. I manage the digital operation for a web to print shop with some pretty popular websites filling my presses with work. Need a business card? Anyway, like I said...not terribly exciting. But hey, I've gotta' sleep sometime.

Meanwhile...back at the desk... I've been editing Lake of Dragons: Kallum's Fury. It is the second book in the Lake of Dragons series, and I can't wait to share it with you. The story takes place five summers after the events of Lake of Dragons. Maelich has just finished writing the book and Ouloos has entered a golden age of peace and prosperity. Or...at least it should have. Unfortunately, things haven't really changed that much. And when three dead-eyed men pay a visit to the forest just outside the castle at Havenstahl, all hell breaks loose. Well...if there were a hell on Ouloos it would definitely break loose. I suppose the concept of hell doesn't really exist there. It can't really break loose then, can it? Fine, things get really, really, really bad...but hell doesn't break loose. 

While all of those shenanigans are going on, I've also joined a screenplay writers critique group. Yes...I'm also working on a screenplay. I'm in the rough, rough draft phase, but it is coming along pretty nicely. I am learning a ton from the feedback I'm getting from the group. I love writing groups, and this one boasts some very talented writers. It was a huge honor for me to be invited to join.

Then there are the interviews. I love doing them. I've hosted four fantastic writers so far, and it has been a great experience. Getting a peek inside such creative minds is truly enlightening. On top of that, I feel like I'm helping them spread the word about their work in my own small way. I'm really glad I decided to launch the interview segment. I hope everyone enjoys learning about the authors I'm interviewing as much as I do.

Finally...giveaways! Dude! Sorry...is that too informal? Anyway...dude, I have been running tons of giveaways. Okay...not literally tons, but there have been quite a few. I love giveaways! And I have recently discovered Amazon's "Give as Gift" feature. Somebody better stop me! I gave away five Kindle copies of Lake of Dragons (the book that started it all for me) in August, and for September, I'm giving away five Kindle copies of Hell and the Hunger. That giveaway is live right now. You can enter it here. Meanwhile, ReadAways.com is running a giveaway for a signed, paperback copy of Hell and the Hunger. You can enter that one here. Wow! I'm not sure what next month looks like just yet, but I'll come up with something.

I think that's it for now. Thanks for checking out my blog. Happy Reading!

After forty years of living in Wisconsin I had grown completely comfortable with the horrible drivers there. Okay, perhaps comfortable is too strong a word; I had grown used to them. However, the worst thing the drivers in Wisconsin do is sit in the left lane doing five miles per hour under the posted speed regulation and honk their horn at you when you pass them on the right because you actually have someplace to be. Oh yes, they drive drunk quite a bit there too. Now that I live in Los Angeles, Wisconsin drivers don't seem so bad. Did I really just say that? Truly, the thing that bothered me most about Wisconsin drivers is that they just really didn't seem like they were trying to get anywhere, like every day was Sunday and they were just out relaxing in the motorcar. In Los Angeles there are actually quite a few people that are really bad at driving and they all seem to be looking at their phones.

Texting and driving; I know it is a problem everywhere but it never seemed as prevalent when I was driving in Wisconsin. I suppose it could be because there are just so many more drivers here in L.A., but I constantly see people playing with their phones. I mentioned it on Facebook yesterday, but that wasn't enough to get it out of my system. I have to share the story. Hopefully then I will be able to move on and think about something else. If not, I'll have to start pulling people over and taking their phones away from them.

I was driving to work yesterday when I came upon a white, Toyota Camry that was driving erratically. As I approached this vehicle, I had to slow significantly. The posted speed regulation was forty miles per hour, but this vehicle was traveling at fifteen. Due to dark, tinted windows, I was unable to see what the hold up was. Of course there had to be something in front of this car as the brake lights were lighting up sporadically and the car kept swerving slightly. I would have just gone around, but there was heavy traffic in the left lane. Finally, after a few moments and a little cursing, my opening came. I slipped into the left lane and saw that there was absolutely nothing in front of this car but empty lane. There was no reason for the car to be traveling twenty five miles per hour under the speed limit, no reason for the sporadic braking, and no reason for the random slight swerving into the left lane. There was no reason for any of it aside from the fact that the idiot driving was sharing his attention between the road and his phone. I am not a huge fan of name calling (that might be a lie, I'll have to pay more attention) but this asshat earned the steady stream of vulgarities that poured out of my mouth as I watched him make an unnecessary traffic spectacle of himself. Sadly, the story of this jackass is only one of many. As I drive through the streets of L.A., I am astounded at the number of people I see looking at their laps. They sit through stop lights until you honk at them, they swerve into your lane, and they randomly hit their brakes for no reason at all. It is ridiculous.

There is never a good reason to text someone, look at Facebook, or Tweet to your Tweeps while you're driving. There are absolutely no nuggets in that little noggin of yours that are so earth-shattering that they cannot wait until you get there to drop them. Put your damn phone down and drive. I am perfectly okay with the idea of you leaving this world behind because you decided that texting, "He's hot...lol" to your bestie was too important to wait until you made it to Starbucks, but there is a good chance that you're going to take some innocent people with you. That is not okay. You are more dangerous than a drunk driver when you text and drive. Now, I am in no way shape or form advocating operating while intoxicated, but at least those drunks in Wisconsin are looking at the damn road. When you're looking at your lap, you aren't even trying.

That's it. That's my rant. Thanks for listening.

I just finished Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I love everything about the story; the narrative style, the elegant and beautiful language, and the themes both obvious and subtle. I was quite surprised by the book though. It was not at all what I expected. Completely certain that I knew the story of Frankenstein and his monster all these years, I was shocked to discover that I had no idea what the story was truly about until I read it. That is why I haven't read it before. Everyone knows that story and it has been depicted several times in the movies with a slight twist here and a bigger twist there, but always it is a scientist searching for the meaning of life, challenging science, and playing god. The monster is always uncontrollable and usually quite dumb. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the monster wasn't really even a monster at all. Victor Frankenstein is the real monster in Frankenstein. His creation is nothing more than a victim of a scientist's desires and then abandonment by his creator.

There are several themes in this story that spoke to me on several different levels, some obvious, some more subtle. This isn't intended to be a book review - although it kind of sounds like one so far - so I'm not going to dive deeply into all of them. There is one idea that was shouting at me the entire time I read though. It is a question actually. What did you expect would happen? I ask that quite a bit lately when I listen to the lamentations of people dissatisfied with their current situations. As Victor's story unfolded, I was constantly reminded of that idea. During the entire story, his situation is precisely what it should be based on the decisions he has made. I'm not sure if Shelley intended this or if it is a byproduct of her exceptional telling of the story, but the theme was obvious to me throughout. In each step of Victor Frankenstein's lamentable life, his situation was exactly what he should have expected based on the decisions that he had made. Shelley made this character so real that I found myself asking him that question repeatedly. Come on Vic, what did you expect would happen?

In the real world, you'll hear things like, "I never have any money," followed - sometimes immediately - by, "Oh, look at this thing I just bought." Of course, this isn't about money, that is just an obvious example to illustrate a point. It amazes me how hard a time people have sometimes correlating the situation they find themselves in with decisions they have made up to that point. Luck is a fantasy. Things you perceive as good or bad both happen because you allow them to, even seek them out. Whether conscious or unconscious, your situation is exactly what you want it to be based on the decisions that you have made.

Victor Frankenstein wanted to create, to test the laws of science and nature, and expand human knowledge. He succeeded in that, mostly. What he could have viewed as a triumph he regretted and shrank away from. Ultimately he came to hate the result of his success. At that point, he made a series of equally bad decisions that led to the demise of everything he held dear, even himself. I think we can all relate to that idea. We believe in something, toil to achieve it, and either don't recognize it once we have succeeded or decide it really isn't what we wanted in the first place. Then, sometimes, we blame that thing - that at one point we wanted so much - for our unhappiness rather than accepting the blame for our own desires. Our happiness or misery is completely up to us.

This is sounding a little preachy and it isn't meant to be. I'm no teacher or philosopher, just making an observation. I am as guilty as the next for blaming anything but me sometimes when things don't go the way I expect them to. However, when I really put some thought into those situations I realize that they could not have turned out any other way. We are all the authors of our own stories and those stories will be exactly what they should be based on the words we lay down on the page. We create our own realities and we are in control of how we perceive them. If our situation becomes something we no longer desire, all we have to do is look at the series of decisions that led us to this point, and make different ones. Whether those decisions are better or worse is completely based on our own perception. We are in control.

So...Victor is a monster who got what he deserved. His creation is also a monster - though a tragic one - who probably got what he deserved if he remained as true to his word as he had been throughout the entire story. Both found themselves in situations that they did not desire and both decided to battle against and focus on the negatives rather than allowing anything positive to come to them. The whole thing is so terribly tragic that the beauty of it is almost astonishing.

I tweeted a comment about vampires being more frightening than zombies. I can't remember exactly how it went. It was something like, "Sure, zombies are kind of scary but they've got nothing on my vampire." It was intended to be whimsical, perhaps just a reason to hashtag zombies and vampires in the same tweet. Like many of the silly things that pop into my head, it got me thinking. I'm not just talking about casually tossing the idea around either. I'm talking about incessantly mulling the concept over in my head. I do that sometimes, put a whole bunch of thought into something that doesn't have a ton of value. Anyway, at the end of the day vampires are way more frightening than zombies.

I realize that zombies are wildly popular right now as people prepare for the zombie apocalypse when the dead rise from their graves and stumble about like a bunch of drunk, homeless people looking for brains to eat so the idea that anything is more frightening than a walking corpse may draw some disagreement. Holy sentence batman! That was a long one. Anyway, I have good reasons to carry this opinion. First of all, zombies are dumb. They are far to easy to trick. Sure, if they get their hands on you a whole throng of them will eat your brains, rip your limbs off, and probably pull your intestines out. However, with some well applied make-up, a bit of a fake limp, and some awkward moaning you can totally blend in and completely avoid the carnage. You won't pull that crap with a vampire. They can smell the blood pumping through your veins, teasing them like a flash of thigh through the slit of a skirt. Second, they are slow. And don't give me that nonsense about those fake zombies in the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" that were sprinting everywhere like they were a whole pack of Usain Bolts. Everybody knows that real zombies don't get anywhere quickly. Even though they travel in packs of thousands upon thousands, the make-up, limping, and awkward moaning will get you to the clearing. After that a quick sprint will have you out of harm's way. Again, try to pull that crap with a vampire. You can't move fast enough. Not even if you are Usain Bolt.

Okay, up to this point we've covered dumb and slow. Those two things alone bury zombies right back in their waiting graves when comparing them with vampires, and I'm not even done. This one is completely obvious. You can totally see a zombie, or several zombies coming. They don't surprise you. They lumber up like a big, slow, lumbering, decaying dead thing and try to gnaw on you. You can literally see them coming from blocks and blocks away. Unless you're staring at your phone, then you're screwed. However, if you are even moderately aware of your surroundings, you can totally avoid any contact with the undead at all. You don't see vampires coming. You don't see a vampire until they want you to see them and at that point, you're already as good as dead - or undead if they turn you instead of completely consuming you. Like big cats vampires are hunters. They stalk their prey, even toy with it, for hours, days, sometimes weeks even before they make the kill. The helpless victims don't stand a chance. And don't even get me started on the seduction part of it. Zombies are ugly and grotesque. You know by looking at them that you don't want them near you. Vampires on the other hand are sexy and seductive. By the time they are ready to sink their fangs into your delicious pulse, you want them to suck on your neck. Now that is unbelievably scary!

Finally, I'll end my rant with this last point. Blunt force trauma to the head can kill a zombie. They are far too easy to kill. Even if you're half a chickenshit, you probably have enough balls to kill yourself some zombies. You'll need balls at least the size of that big ball of twine in Cawker City, Kansas if you're thinking about trying to take out a vampire. On top of those giant balls that are really going to slow you down, you're going to need a whole slew of equipment, knowledge of where the bloodsucker hangs his cape, a really, really good plan, and a whole lot of luck. Even with all of that, you're probably going to be sucked dry.

So here it is, my first post to my first blog. The last several weeks have been super exciting. The official release of Hell and the Hunger is fast approaching and it is really generating buzz. I think I have slept about three hours total this week trying to keep up with everything. I'm exhausted. It's a good exhausted though, like running a marathon...not that I've ever done that or anything. Typically, if you see me running you should probably run too. I'm not scared of much and I only run when chased. Odds are there is something really big and scary following close behind.

Being that this is my first post in my first blog, I'm obviously new to this. I do intend to add useful content, but I think that will end up in a different category. I need to keep a place open where I can just ramble about whatever happens to be in my head at the moment my fingertips hit the keys. I kind of like the idea of offering up unscripted, unedited thoughts. Let me know what you think of that. If nobody is interested in the dark circus living in my cranium, I'll skip the random musings and stick with finding useful things to blog about.

Today, I have nothing useful. It's midnight, the house is quiet, and my new Hell and the Hunger poster is staring at me from across the room. I love the cover of that book. It's a hell of a story too. I can't wait until you read it!

Good night
Mike