Fan art

A member of The Wolf’s Lair, my mostly unused message board, sent me some fan art he’s done of Joey and Thomas. This is amazingly cool, as it’s the first “fan art” I’ve ever seen based on my characters. I have absolutely no artistic talent at all, so I’m always in awe of people who can actually pull an image out of their heads and put it on paper. When they choose to pull an image of people I’ve created for my books … Well, it’s a very nice feeling.

Conestoga 13 wrap-up

I got home from Conestoga 13 this afternoon. Within an hour, I was asleep. I must be getting old. It’s not like I was up that late either night I was in Tulsa. But, that’s neither here nor there. As always, Conestoga was a lot of fun and a great chance to catch up with old friends, learn more about newer friends and, of course, meet new people. So, where to begin?

I once again shared a room with Adrian Simmons. He’s a fun guy. Instead of the travel bar, this year he brought a vintage 1940s martini shaker and what he swore was a bottle of vodka. It looked like urine. He turned it green and people drank it. A good time was had. And he didn’t put a pillow over my head while I was asleep.

I saw John Wooley for the first time in at least two years. I didn’t get to talk to him as much as I would have liked, but it was good to see him. I highly recommend his novel Awash in the Blood.

David Lee Anderson was wearing a suit. A suit. I swear it. But no, I don’t have pictures to prove it. Somehow, I never seem to get to sit down and really talk to David. But he is really a cool guy and a great artist, as you’ll see if you click his link.

I didn’t really talk to Frank Wu, or even get to be on a panel with him, but the dude is really, really funny. I must learn more about him.

I did get to spend several hours talking with J. Kathleen Cheney and Craig Wolf (and family). Both are fascinating people and dedicated writers. During the course of the weekend Craig got word he once again sold the story that has killed four previous markets. Be warned.

THE james k. burk is always fun to talk with, and we got to chat quite a bit. He’s actually hard to recognize if he’s not wearing his trademark black clothes and hat.

Rosemary Clement-Moore was one I hadn’t gotten to talk to enough before. Not sure I did this time, either, as she’s a terribly entertaining person. I have to start reading her books now. I don’t think the woman ever stopped smiling.

I spent more time talking to Sherri Dean this time than before. If you know Sherri, you know how much fun she is. If you don’t, well … you should find out. Where she finds time to watch all those crappy movies is a mystery.

Then there was that Carrie Jones person. We finally let the cat out of the bag about the “super secret project” but, if you weren’t there, you missed it and will have to find out later.

Guest of Honor Robin Hobb said I could hide in her luggage and go home to the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her, but I suspect she wasn’t serious. Still, props to her for not telling me to … Well, for being nice.

Then there were the many gracious fans who talked to me (and partner Carrie) during the Speed Date the Author event. No way I remember all your names, but it was nice meeting each of you or, in some cases, meeting you again.

The Twisted Blades put on another great show enacting scenes from writers’ stories. I read from the unpublished Bold Bounty which, I think, was not as good a scene as last year’s, but they did a great job with it.

I bought nothing at Conestoga this year. There was a mace I wanted, and it was reasonably priced, but I just couldn’t justify spending the money on something that would go in the closet with my two swords.

Finally, I have to thank Elspeth Bloodgood. She puts on a great con, works hard, and takes great care of her guests. And, no matter how stressed she is, she is always friendly and ready to help. And she bought drinks for all the speed-dating authors.

I only snapped a few pictures at the con this year. You can see most of them here.

I got a little bit of work done on The Girls Nobody Wanted to Date. Not as much as I would have liked, of course, but any progress is better than none. I finished one of those “mushy middle” chapters and am now ready to head into the final conflict between the girls. I swear I will have a draft of this book finished before school is out for summer.

I am still so freakin’ tired, and we’re under a tornado watch and getting a lot of lightning, so I’ll pinch this off here.

Upcoming Appearances

I’ll be at Conestoga this weekend. It’ll be a good time, with lots of good people, including Craig Wolf, David Lee Anderson, Carrie Jones, Brad and Sue Sinor and some of my fellow Oklahoma Speculative Fiction Syndicate members. I’d link to all of them individually, but that’s too many links. Just go here to see who’s attending. Sadly, Chris Fulbright and wife Angeline Hawkes won’t be there this year, which pretty well sucks, but …

… I get to see them and several others the following weekend at Texas Frightmare Weekend. I’ll only be there Saturday, after attending the Oklahoma Writers Federation conference on Friday.

I was just invited to join the folks of Darkfaery Subculture Magazine at this year’s Carnality Ball in downtown Oklahoma City. It’s at the Farmer’s Market building. This will be a first for me, and I’m not at all sure what to expect. It could get very weird. That’s why I recruited Craig Wolf to go with me. We’ll be selling and signing books along with Jackson Compton. Looks like a lot of … dance? I don’t know. You gotta be 18 to get in, though. Here’s a bit from the Web site: ”Deviants and debutants, sinners and saints, exhibitionists of all shapes and sizes will be flocking to Oklahoma City to witness the wonder and spectacle and to indulge in their most carnal desires. This extravaganza of flash and flesh is not for the faint of heart.”

I hope to see you at one or more of these events!

Vampires

I hadn’t posted anything to The Werewolf Saga site in a while, so today (technically, it’s yesterday now) I sat down and waxed eloquent on the subject of vampires. Somehow the post has found it’s way to LoveParaRomance’s Twitter page, where it’s a top post for March. Check it out here.

I really don’t get Twitter. What’s it all about? Do we really need to know what everybody’s thinking or doing every minute? It seems to me almost like signing up to be under the eye of Big Brother. If you do it, please tell me what the attraction is.

Our prom was tonight, so the wife and I went. The music was awful, but the kids were dressed up and having a good time. My KISS tie was popular, even if the band isn’t popular with that age group. Maybe I’ll post a picture later.

Silent Auction

You may recall that several months ago I asked for donations for the Book Club I sponsor at school. Several people responded with books. The club has been an apathetic group this year and the planned raffle was going nowhere. No one would volunteer to man the tables during lunches for a week. So, I made it a silent auction, got the librarian to display the books in the library for a week, and now the deed is done. The auction closed today, after going for a week. We didn’t make as much money as I’d hoped to, and some students got amazing deals on really good books, but considering the economic situation of our population, I’m happy every lot (of at least two items) received multiple bids.

Thanks again to everyone who sent things. Our secretary is still working on personalized thank-you letters that you’ll get … someday.

Milestones

Today my youngest spawn turned seven years old. He’s a good kid. Mighty ornery, though. He was not happy about the fact Mom had to work, so he didn’t get to open his presents yet. I made it up to him by taking him (and the girls) to McDonald’s, then to Wal-Mart to spend the gift card Grandma sent him. Cliched as it is … it seems just yesterday we still lived in Ponca City and he was being born. Where does the time go?

Our trip to McDonald’s was interrupted by a call from the older son, who is 17. He had his first automotive wreck today. Nothing serious. No one hurt, and only some scraped paint, but it’s something he’ll have to pay for. Guess where it happened and why. Yup, the post office, as he was mailing his state income tax forms.

I’ve made a couple of novel submission queries over the past couple of days. I haven’t done much of that for a while. I was just letting the files rot on the hard drive. I suppose I was feeling kind of dejected by the whole time-consuming process of submission and waiting and waiting and waiting and … Well, you get the idea.

As I mentioned the other day, almost 50 percent of our school is failing at least one class. Prom is this Saturday. Typically, if you’re on the ineligible list (for failing at least one class), you’re not allowed to attend prom. Because half the school is failing, the restriction has been removed this year. Is that good or bad? Hmm. This is where I’m still all Republican, baby. You can’t make the grades, you can’t grind your classmates at the prom. Of course, no one asked my opinion. At least I don’t have to deal with any girls coming to me crying because they spent hundreds of dollars on dresses and hair and crap but forgot to turn in their English homework. I have not yet become jaded enough to get past the crying girls. In most cases. There are a few I’d laugh at, but mostly I’d try to help them.

Yes, I will go to prom. I think the wife is going with me. No, I will not dance. I do not dance. And they do not play real music at proms these days, anyway. It’s like one long, monotonous synthesized beat with some grunting and spitting thrown over it. And I thought Flock of Seagulls was as bad as it could get 25 years ago …

Arrogance is bliss

Not as much progress as I’d  hoped for on The Girls Nobody Wanted to Date, but it’s better than nothing. I really wanted to hit 50,000 words this weekend, but only added a little over 2k. Funny thing about this book, considering the title, but several of my female students want to be included in it.

The past several days have been interesting in one regard. My oldest daughter had oral surgery as part of her orthodontic treatment with the braces. They gave her some pretty powerful pain medication, so for a while there she was constantly stoned out of her mind, which was pretty funny. But, of course, nothing I want to see continued. She’s doing much better now.

My AP classes are working through a complete AP exam. It’s the multiple choice section from 2004 and essay prompts 2 and 3 from 2007. We’d already done Question 1, so I had to find something else. Anyway, I graded Question 2 today. There is this one girl who just consistently excels at the essays. Her essay for this question is one of the best I’ve read. I think it’s better than the high-score sample from the teacher’s workbook I have. She’s an amazing writer.

Last week I got my first real taste of the unpleasant part of being department chairman. I won’t go into detail about it, but will just say I made a recommendation to the principal based on my observation and opinion and was told my recommendation would be ignored because one of my teachers threw a tantrum. I also caught a guy going through backpacks an stealing an iPod (despite being a repeat offender, he only got three days suspension), and I was cussed out by a student with an undeserved sense of entitlement. Yes, it was quite a week.

I got an e-mail today from the school’s athletic director, who does the weekly list of student ineligible for activities. Over 49 percent of our student body is failing at least one class. The joys of an inner-city school.

Concerning today’s subject line, it’s meant for a certain reader and I think he’ll know who he is.

Feelin’ Slimy

You need to click here.

Fangoria magazine online has this article about Greg Lamberson that you need to read. Really. You see, POPcinema is going to release a two-DVD Slime City Grindhouse Collection. Slime City, of course, is Greg’s cult classic gorefest from the 1980s, and if you haven’t seen that, well … you need to get that problem rectified. The new Grindhouse set features some stuff I’m really looking forward to, like the first ever DVD release of Greg’s Undying Love, aka New York Vampire. It may have been released in 1991, and I’ve known Greg for several years now, but I haven’t seen this one yet. Also included is 1999’s Naked Fear.

Why am I telling you this? Click the link. Let Fangoria tell you. Make sure you check out the video teaser on the site.

And if you haven’t, you should read Greg’s two novels, Personal Demons (soon to be re-released) and, of course, Johnny Gruesome.

Sweet honey piglet

I finished The Exorcist again yesterday. It was my third time through the book and I’m still blown away by it. If I could meet one living author I haven’t met yet, it would definitely be William Peter Blatty. There is so much going on in that book, and continuing through The Ninth Configuration (which I’m rereading now) and on into Legion. It’s just unbelievable to me that so many people refer to The Exorcist as “that movie” where the girl pukes on the priest. It’s not even about Regan, really.

I hope my AP kids get that when we read the book next month.

Oh, this wasn’t actually a reread of The Exorcist, since I listened to it on CD, read by Blatty himself. He really got into the demon parts, too. He did much better reading his own work than Toni Morrison did with Beloved.

While on the subject of books, I have to comment on Carrie Jones and the success she’s having with her latest, Need. Of course, I thought the book was awesome when I got to read an ARC. It’s really taken off, though. Lots of people seem to agree with me on it. Too bad they won’t agree with me on how bad rap is … Anyhoo, I took my oldest daughter and her new friend to the Moore branch of the Pioneer Library System today and while they played on a computer with “a really cool keyboard” I looked up Need. The Moore branch has two copies. One was out, the other was on hold, and there was a waiting list for them. If you’re at all interested in paranormal young adult books, you really need to get yourself a copy of this one.

I did not get much writing done this weekend. (A little, but not much.) Yesterday was a failed trip to the medieval fair on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman. My youngest daughter wasn’t feeling well and it was really windy, so the dirt and grass was blowing around and she wasn’t able to deal with it very long.

Today was a computer battle. I tried to fix the old desktop, which has been crippled with viruses for a long time. I no longer have the Windows XP installation discs, so I had to revert to the Windows ME system that came with it, which is a totally crap operating system. It’s running better, overall, but is already hanging up like it did back when I ran ME when I got the computer. And there are still some lingering issues that won’t allow me to install Norton. And, of course, Microsoft is no longer offering any support for ME. Grrrrrrrrr! When it rains cash maybe I can get a new computer for the wife and kids to use.

Tomorrow my AP kids will wrap up discussion of Beowulf and Grendel. On Tuesday I’m going to show them The Legend of Boggy Creek, then they get to write an essay on unreliable narrators. The Legend of Boggy Creek. That scared the hell out of me as a kid. It’s still a decent movie, except for the damn singing in the middle. Anyway, Grendel, maybe, was a Bigfoot-type creature, so it all ties in. Right?