Glitter Zombie Apocalypse & Other Stuff

13 OCT 17
Happy Friday the 13th! 

If you're seeking some salty adventures on the high seas, buy my new short story, Pirates & Demons. It's less than a dollar and will leave you craving more dog! Dog? Yes! Here's the link:

Pirates & Demons: Eye of Dog

It's perfect for Halloween! Get your spooky on with pirates, sailors, demons, enchanted swords, and other things to get you in the mood for trick-or-treating!

Okay, now that I've mentioned my new short story (and feel free to order any other ones from my Amazon author page) let's talk about other things, like the Glitter Zombie Apocalypse Ball at Artscape in Downtown Shreveport. It was a great night out! Here are some pictures from the event. I took more, but I am selective about which ones I release for public viewing. On the plus side, I have other pictures from the same evening to share as well.

 Love this picture! It screams Halloween to me. There were evocative decorations and installations throughout the venue.

Now these crack me up. I call them the Three Stooge Hecklers. "Hey, you live guy down there! Yeah you! Toss my leg back up here will ya, before the dog buries it?"

"What is she wearing? Did she dress for Halloween or is this just a usual Tuesday for her?"

"Who let him in?"

 

This is a beautiful cityscape picture from downtown Shreveport. I like this one a lot, reminds me of the future city scenes from Blade Runner, a little less smoky but would fit in nicely. I'm going to play with this one and get some more color in it. 

Here are a few more random pictures from the Artscape party. I love the level of creativity! 

These last two purple pictures are from the Confederate Memorial in Downtown Shreveport. The color is intentional. I think it was meant to be pink for Breast Cancer Awareness, but it was a pretty solid purple color, no color alterations on my part. 

Just to make sure no one gets the wrong idea, I am not endorsing the Confederate States of America or anything. I just wanted to get some cool color-filled photos of the monument before anything happens to them. I see both sides of the argument and think that while the statues should not be destroyed, they should be moved to a place of much lesser prominence. The grounds of a museum perhaps.

I love how the lighter shade on the busts and statue makes it look like they are ghosts or some other spectral creature. Perfect for Halloween. Reminds me of The Haunted House at Disneyland in California.

DON'T forget to purchase my short story! It's also free to read on Kindles right now I think.

Pirates & Demons!

12 OCT 17
I just hit submit and uploaded the cover and document files to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for the Ice Pirates story, now titled

Pirates & Demons: Eye of Dog

Amazon says it may take up to 72 hours before it hits the market and boy am I already going stir crazy waiting for it to drop!!!!!

The short story features a cover drawn by Felicity Swan: 

The cover depicts a key moment in the story when the captain and crew face off against one of their own, who has been possessed by a demon from legend! Felicity read a portion of the story and captured it well. Easy to work with, she produced the artwork by the deadline and created great areas for the title and my name at the bottom! Thanks Felicity! If you look closely, you can see her signature at the bottom right corner. 

The whole process of KDP was pretty easy. From start to finish it took only a few hours to complete the whole process, and that includes going back in and creating chapters and chapter titles.

Pirates & Demons fits into my fantasy world at a time when the New Lands are being settled and explored. Sort of like the wild frontier days in the United States before, during and after the thirteen colonies as various countries explored the New World. Desperate people are making the hazardous ocean voyage hoping to start fresh in the New Lands. But there are dangers everywhere, even on the trip to get there! The story will appeal to lovers of fantasy, sea stories and exploration. Here is the description: 

Pulp Fiction for the Fantasy crowd!

A quiet day during a long ocean voyage turns into a deadly chase as pirate ships appear on the horizon. Passengers and crew band together in a desperate attempt to save their ship from the dreaded Ice Pirates. But all is not as it seems as pirates aren’t the only danger on the high seas, and one of the passengers hides a dangerous secret. 

I am so excited to finally have a short story released directly to the public. Who doesn't like pirates and demons? I have sold several short stories to various anthologies and ready to move on to bigger and better things. I have been working on and off on a long trilogy, but I love short stories and I have many more short stories in me before those book length tales gets published. In fact, I am currently waiting on a fall story to be republished, a collection to be released that will contain five stories of mine as well as other authors' stories, including several by my wife, AND another story is still out there sitting with a publisher waiting to be released. 

Picture for today: My sketch of what I pictured for the cover. It's not complete, but it is supposed to show a lightning strike on the deck of the ship, with crew and passengers nearby. One day I may get someone to finish this. 

Well, that's all for today. Feeling pretty accomplished!