New Site Design and New Ideas

Today has not been an overly productive day. Perhaps it has been a bit more productive than yesterday, but not by much. I banged out a few articles on an article revenue sharing site that I use frequently. I took the older daughter to the doctor (more about that in a minute). I spent a LONG time in Hobby Lobby looking at steampunk inspired house decorations. Finally, I sat down with my youngest child to work on her homework.

Yesterday I spent a bit of time looking at Blogger themes. Today I finally decided on one. It's playful and fun, but not too out there. I will probably change it if something else comes along to strike my fancy, but for now it is about right. It describes what I have been doing lately. Chaotically trying to write as much as possible in as many places as possible. The theme was titled chaotic writer's desk or something like that. I think the theme itself has helped me be a bit more creative in my writing over the past day or two.

That brings me to my next point. Look for more fiction from me in the near future. I have a few short story ideas set up and ready to go. One or more should be ready in coming weeks. I hope you like them.

On a more personal note, my daughter's doctor's appointment went about how I thought it would. She has to go back tomorrow for a CT scan. I don't like that she has been having headaches, and I want to get to the bottom of it. My son had a brain tumor, and that shattered my entire life. I don't know what I would do if she had anything similar. But I do know, we will get through.

Our Hobby Lobby trip was mostly fun. My wife has multiple sclerosis (MS), at least that's what the neurologist thinks. He needs another MRI to know for sure. If you don't know what MS is, then look it up. It's a really messed up disease that affects all sorts of functions of the brain. Today, for example, my wife and kids and I were shopping and having a jolly time through Hobby Lobby. After a while, I noticed the inside of my wife's elbow (is that an elbow pit? I don't know.) was cold and clammy. I know that's weird to share, but it's the first sign of something a bit more worrisome. I pointed it out, and she declared she was fine. Less than 30 minutes later she was barely able to walk. I barely managed to get her to the car while the kids paid for the items we found. Five minutes after that, she couldn't really form words very well. That condition persisted for about an hour to an hour and a half. She is still struggling a bit to walk six hours later, but is generally better.

I hope I haven't over-shared my life here with you, but I guess that's part of what blogs are for.

By Way of Introduction

Welcome. I hope you found me without too much difficulty. You know like space aliens holding laser rays to your head and forcing you to read my stuff. If they are doing that, well... good then that was money well spent.

I say welcome and I mean it. I mean you are welcome to comment and criticize and trash and sweet talk and whatever you would like. I hope this blog acts as a springboard for discussion. I am ultimately a fantasy/horror author. I am self published. We can go through each of those at length later. Through this blog you will hear my ramblings on everything from self publishing to comic books to earning money through other writing methods to being a father, husband, science nerd, ninja pirate.

Hopefully by now you can see that I am not an overly serious person. I hope you can take some of the more abrasive things I say with a grain of salt. Trust me, sometimes I even offend myself. I hope to hear from each and every one of you. Let me know what you want to know about me and if you have a strongly differing opinion than what I present, please let me know. But be prepared. I hate people who have opinions just to have an opinion. I love it when people know why they believe what they believe.

Now for just a few FAQ style questions:

Question: How old are you?
Answer: 32 as of January 2014.

Question: How many kids do you have?
Answer: 4. My stepson is 17, stepdaughter 15, daughter 6, and son who would be 8.

Question: What do you mean would be?
Answer: My son passed away December 2012 from an aggressive brain cancer/tumor called DIPG, Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma. It is a highly aggressive brain tumor that thus far has been nearly 100% lethal. He was treated at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital by a wonderful staff. He was full of love and faith and was wise beyond his years.

Question: How many books have you published?
Answer: 1 children's book written with my son and 3 short stories are all available on Amazon.com. See the links at the side of the page for a full list.

Question: Why did you take so long off from writing?
Answer: My son's cancer diagnosis really shook my world up.

Question: Why Amazon and none of the others?
Answer: I started to publish on all of the self publishing platforms, but stopped for one reason or another. Now, I get better rates and feel that I have better options to not put the time and effort into other platforms. This is primarily due to Amazon gaining steam while the other platforms stagnate a bit.

Question: Who are your favorite authors? Who inspires you?
Answer: I love a number of authors from a number of genres:  Brandon Sanderson, J.A. Konrath, Robert Heinlein, Terry Pratchett, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Homer, R.A. Salvatore, J.K. Rowling, Gail Z. Martin and many others.

Question: Chocolate or Vanilla?
Answer: Vanilla. Because.

Question: XBox or Playstation?
Answer: Current generations- XBox. Playstation 2, if before.

That should about do it for today. More questions and answers and opinions should follow.

Amazonian Gnomes

Ok. Loaded my next short up on Amazon tonight. It took me a while to settle on a cover. I kinda like this cover; it's nice and creeptastic. But Fairy Rings should be available in about 24-48 hours on Amazon.com for under a buck.

I am working on my next story as well. In fact, that's what I should be doing right now instead of blogging, but eh. I will get it banged out. Really liking where I am going with this one though. More on that later.

Anyway. Overtime is ending, they cut it shorter than they had expected, so I will have more time to write. That is always bonus.

Making this update short and sweet. But first the cover of Fairy Rings!!!!!!1!

Buy the short, The Sweater! And look for Fairy Rings soon!

Next UP!

Ok. So, it will be July 1 in just a few hours. The first day of a new month brings with it new beginnings. New chances to have a "successful month." I have determined that my month will be successful. We are on OT at the day job. That means that our cash flow is going to be a bit easier at the house.

More importantly I am going to begin hammering out my next novel starting the first. I know that many of you are thinking, "Oh he's going to try that NaNoWriMo stuff (National Novel Writer's Month). Actually, my answer to that is this: while I admire the people who endeavor to smash out a 50,000 word novel in one month, I do not intend to force myself to follow these guidelines for this endeavor. I am going to write as solidly as I can as constantly as I can. If I finish in a month, then GREAT! If it takes two, then that's cool too. If it takes three, I will probably start to seriously question my commitment. Truth of the matter is I will probably finish it must faster than much slower. I have let this idea really stew in my brain for a while now. I think I have it simmered down to its essence and can understand the broad strokes of the whole.

This also means that if I don't answer as much as I normally would then I am probably lost in a crazy Nazi run dystopia filled with sorcerers, cowboys, robots, and steampunk inventors.

Synthesis

For about a month now, I have been working on fleshing out an alternate history world for my next writing forays. I think I have finally settled on a solid formation of history. My world has a solid mix of magic, mayhem, clockwork robots, zombies, and Nazis. Imagine, if you could for a minute, a world where Nazis control the western world, Hitler is an immortal sorcerer, and if starvation doesn't kill you, the zombies just might. Now compound this with tons of real world historical references to the occult and there you have it. A zombie apocalypse full of Nazis, steam punk, and magic.

In other news, the overtime at my day job just kicked in. Hopefully, this will not cut into my writing time too much, especially since this novel idea just congealed. Both of my daughters have swimming lessons this week. I love my life.

Some blogs to check out this week if you have time:

• jakonrath.blogspot.com
• www.smreine.com
• jamiemchenry.blogspot.com
• and for my hockey friends slapcheck421.blogspot.com

That's just a few shout-outs. And as always, Be good, but have fun.

A change of pace - Update

If you know me. You know that I love fantasy. I love everything fantastic. From the shimmering scales of dragons to the pitter patter of gnomish dinosaur riders in New York of the 22nd Century. My mind has never really been well rooted in reality.I finished up my first fantasy novel. In reading back through it, something just doesn't feel right. Now, I may be too critical of the piece due to my relationship with the genre.

My wife/editor and I have talked about things a bit and she and I have agreed that something needs to be done with the novel (possibly file it away under "nevergettingpublished"). I have several short thriller/horror bits that I am putting together right now. One is already up on Amazon.com, and others are soon to follow. Very soon.

Sales of my lone short story are low, but I expect that. I haven't done a ton of advertising about the story. I think I am waiting until I have a few up.

Also, I have started the planning stages on a dystopian steampunk novel. I have mixed feelings about several aspects, so I am still outlining and revising those outlines. There is something about the world or the story that irks me pretty heavily.

On a different note, my fellow writer friend Jamie McHenry recently offered a contest on his blog for an Amazon gift card. I inadvertently won. (btw, I usually don't enter to win contests on the basis that I don't deserve to win) So, I have a few extra bucks to spend on one of my fave sites to shop - Amazon.

I know I will be picking up a few books written by other indie authors. While are out there, you should check out my short story, The Sweater.

The Sweater, a new Short Story

So, my first publishing on Amazon.com. "The Sweater" is a short story in the horror genre. Here is the back cover copy: A young couple, Tom and Anne Settler, live normal, just-making-it lives. Tom's job pays the bills, mostly. When a mysterious entity threatens their way of life, as well as their sanity, will they be able to hold things together? Or will the shadows claim them?


I am truly proud of this story. I have it priced at $0.99. What's not to love? You can pick it up for less than the cost of a soda. Some people have already asked me, "But I don't own a Kindle. How am I supposed to read it?" I present to you Kindle for PC!


What I want all of you to do is this: please tell two people about this short story. It's a buck. It's quick. And it's creepy!


Thank you very much.
Michael