New Year

31DEC17

2017 has been a great year!

Professionally, I've had several more stories published, and one republished. I couldn't be happier at my regular day job too. I also secured all my professional credentials for the next decade or so. I love where I'm at!

Personally, I've been trying to take better care of myself. After several tests and visits to the doctor, I've been diagnosed with extremely low levels of some very important letters of the alphabet (like A, B, C, D, etc...). So, I'm working to get those levels where they need to be. I've also been losing weight in an effort to keep the demons of hereditary diabetes at bay. Which, thank goodness, seems to be working. Of course, it doesn't help when your doctor tells you flat out, "You're fat." Not an easy thing to hear. 

What does the new year hold? Well, hopefully a short story anthology of all my own work! I'm looking at putting together a collection of 13 stories, some new, some old. I spent a portion of the last few days looking at some old pieces I wrote here and there and boy are they awful! lol. But it feels good to know I have grown as a writer. One of my New Year's resolutions is to reread some of my favorite stories and see what I can glean from them, what I can use in my own stories. Return to my roots so to speak. Go back to what I like. This doesn't apply just to books. Movies, comics, and music will also be revisited. I'm still working on my novels, but they will take a bit more work. I might start with the Amber novels, by Zelazny and some of his earlier works. 

Hope your New Year is the best, and may all your wishes come true. Picture for today? See below...an inspirational quote (from a recent trip to Belgium) to start the New Year off right.

Another Short Story!

15 APR 17 I have another short story in the pipeline! A total departure from my normal genre, this short story is a crime story. Set a few years in the future, it focuses on a dastardly man who goes to extreme lengths to get the ultimate Viagra. It was written specifically for an anthology about incarceration in the future. The anthology is due out later this year. This will be the second short story published this year, a third story, horror genre, is at another publisher as well, still awaiting final approval.

My wife also has a story in the same incarceration anthology, which is very nice and another change from the usual. The anthologies that we have been a part of so far have leaned more toward my neck of the woods genre-wise: Fantasy. She has felt like the odd man out and now in this anthology, I am the odd man out. Even though I wrote a story that fits with the theme of the anthology it definitely is not my comfort zone at all. Feels good though to stretch my writing wings.

What I really want to do now is write a fantasy story about police and incarceration. Makes my mind juices water. How would the police develop in a world of magic? Might makes right? Truth spells? Crimson Bands of Cytorrak or some similar means of restraint? Would there be sheriffs? Cops? Makes you think. Reminds me of Corwin being blinded in the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. Now that was a punishment. It also makes me think of the Xanth series by Piers Anthony and the banishment of those who have no magic.

In my main fantasy setting, as times change, incarceration and policing change dramatically. It is something that I am still working on. I like the idea of justice. I may have found my next story idea!

Picture for today: A Snowy Sentinel, to go along with the theme of policing.