Louisiane!

21JAN2019

Short post today. First off, Happy MLK Day to everyone out there. Amazing man, changed the world. I have some favorite quotes and moments from him, here's one: 

The other item for today is the draft blurb for another story. This one will be long in writing, as it will cover many hundreds of years. Soooo, without further ado, here it is: 

Blurb for Louisiane: Tomás has a problem. Well, two problems really. A dragon who raids from the northwest and vampires in the southern swamps. His father was missing, gone on a desperate trip across the ocean to get aid for the colony. Clouds were forming to the west, a sign the storm dragon would soon be coming to hunt. What was he to do? 

Would this be the end of the colony in Louisiane?

Yep, it's about an alternate Louisiana! I'm really excited about it. Just need to keep plugging away at it. I plan on having fun with an alternate history of French Louisiane. Will the Spanish take over as they did in the real world?

Oh, and one more thing. Pixie Forest Publishing is now accepting submissions from kids (8-18) for an anthology centered around the theme of Growing Up, called Across a Decade. I'm hoping for some young people I know to send in submissions! Good luck to all!  

Here's the link: Across a Decade Anthology

Love to all. 

Shadows of the Sea

22 MAY 2018

Anthologies are great practice for beginning writers. Sort of like training wheels. You don't have to do all the work on your own. You're given a point of reference, some guidance to the end of your journey and off you go. Case in point, the new anthology by a Facebook group I belong to called Fantasy Writers, led by the indomitable Jade Feldman. I have no horse in this particular race, but I love the title and the premise. The back blurb reads thus: 

Pirates, mermaids, monsters, oh my!

The depths of the ocean hold many untold secrets. Some are beautiful tales of mermaids who ride seahorses, and others are massive monsters bent on destroying every ship crossing its path.

Delve into these seven stories by the following authors:
A.M. Cummins, Marcus Bines, Joann M. Shevock, Hui Lang, Irina Ivanova, Layne Calry, Angel Blackwood

Who doesn't love a fantasy-based sea story? I loved the idea so much I wrote a story based on the premise and released it on my own. So today I want to share two links. One for the new anthology, and I hope they have the biggest of 'sails':
Shadows of the Sea

It's available through Kindle right now. Seven stories for $3.99.


The second link today is to my story based on the premise: 
Pirates & Demons: Eye of Dog

Mine is still free with Kindle Unlimited. I might change that in the future, but it won't be more than a dollar. Go get it and enjoy a taste of what I like to write about. It's got pirates, and demons, lol. And a great cast of characters I'll write more about in other stories. Sea Dog is my favorite character among the ship's crew, but don't tell the others!

Picture for today: A cover for The Dreaming City, by Michael Moorcock. Elric, the main character in the series, is one of those complex characters who lured me deeper into the myriad worlds of fantasy. He is so different from the good vs. evil of your 'standard' fantasy characters, such as Gandalf from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings characters. Nothing against Tolkien, his world-building is second to none. But if you've only read Tolkien-like stories, give Elric a try, see what you think.  

As always, I hope you have a great day. Be well and of good cheer.

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.

Writing

16 DEC 17

Happy Holidays everyone! Super Saturday! Woke up early this morning, no running, but I did feel inspired enough to do some solid editing. The short story I worked on was a bonus piece for a seasonal anthology, and dealt with relationships between primates and people. 

It started out as a very short story, under 1,800 words and now it's grown, merged with another short piece originally written as a response to a picture and the two combined are now over 3,000 words. I rewrote some dialogue and interactions between a boss and his secretary, used a real place in downtown Shreveport (Regions Bank), and then made up one or two fictitious places. Makes the story a little more realistic to have solid names and places as the setting. I also did some research for this story on how gorillas use sign language, where gorillas are kept in the United States and things like that.

Still working on expressing emotions between people, developing characters and so on. This story was good practice for that. 

Also happy to report that another short story of mine, originally released as "Monsters" on Wattpad, has been published as part of an anthology/linked story book. The book it appears in is sort of like an anthology, except that the included stories are shorter pieces set inside a larger, wrapping, story. 

Here is the link: 

Protectors of the Veil

And the blurb for the release: 

This book is a very unusual cohesive novel with short stories woven into the main story. It centers around the Internal Veil Affairs office. They work for the Great Old Ones to maintain and protect the veil that covers the Earth. If too many people see reality, the veil will be destroyed before the Great Old Ones are ready to return. If the veil falls before the stars are right, this realm and everyone in it would be obliterated. The book follows the IVA on their cases and their quest to preserve the veil at all costs. The short stories are from many contributors that are listed in the Contributors section at the back of the book. Each short story is the backstory of each case. There are all sorts of monsters and interdimensional creatures. This will be the first book in a series all set in the same universe.

I really like the story I submitted for this release. It sort of came to me in a dream and includes a lot of my favorite themes: military service, fantasy, set in a realistic setting.

I made a cover for the Wattpad version of the story, using a photo I took that came out rather nice. It is currently being used as the banner for my new facebook author page. I do want to edit it, trim out a few more branches so that the title is more prominent. Here is the current version as the picture for this post:

Now it's time to sit back and wait for a courtesy copy of the one anthology and the release date for the seasonal anthology! Two more times in print this year. Good times. Have a great day everyone! 

Incarceration is Now Available!

20MAY17 

"Predictive policing my ass."

Happy Saturday! I have wonderful news to share. The Last Horn, my latest story is now available in the Incarceration anthology from Wolfsinger Publications, for sale through Smashwords and CreateSpace! Go get it now at a discount using the following codes:

Smashwords: Incarceration on sale at Smashwords 

- use code: XJ86G to receive a 25% discount on Incarceration – 25% discount is only good through 5/31/17

CreateSpace here: Incarceration on sale at CreateSpace - use code: 9HW5GHYR to receive a 25% discount – 25% discount is only good through 5/31/17.

The anthology features seventeen futuristic stories about capturing and punishing people for the crimes they commit. My story includes the following future tech:
Auto License Plate Detection? ✔

Facial recognition? ✔
Punitive comas? ✔?
Other new tech to make bad guys pay for their crimes? ✔✔✔

Here is a preview:

The rookie read out loud from his phone, “E-COP, the latest software in predictive policing, also known as computer-based crime analytics. E-COP is intended to enhance, not replace, the feet on the beat.” 
“Get it in your head now, Parkinson. No box is ever going replace a badge. Predictive policing my ass. Just means they can reduce the force and spend the money on computers and geeks instead.” He took another sip of coffee.


Picture for today is the great cover for the anthology. 

New Short Story - The Legacy

I have a new short story released out into the wild! Woot Woot!

You can get it now for 25% off over at www.createspace.com/7040219

Enter in the discount code: 9HW5GHYR to receive a 25% discount on purchases. This code is valid for this month ONLY!

My wife Cheryl Toner has a story in the anthology also. Hers is a murder mystery, a murder most foul, in the Pentagon of all places! All the tales in the anthology revolve around or take place during the winter.

My story is called The Legacy, and deals with what happens when an ancient witch, the eldest of five magical sisters, dies. Here's a taste:

“Well, that’s it then.” Destra said as they helped each other get back on their feet. She was always the practical one. She hugged her stomach and hung her head, still shivering. “Anna’s gone.”

Twilight was soon replaced by the stars and coruscating colors of the northern lights. The three old witches shuffled back indoors. Anna and her would-be rescuer never surfaced.

The arctic air grew colder by the second. A keening noise ran away, out into the darkening and was joined by wolves howling deep and long in the night. That sad susurration traveled far and wide through all the lands. Those who were able to hear the Death Knell knew what it signified. The eldest had passed. The entire family would mourn tonight.

Well, what are you waiting for? Go buy it!

And feel free to share this post shamelessly across all social media platforms my homies! lol

Picture today is of a woman dying, and much like in my story, she is releasing something as her last act, something precious flying its way to her eldest son. His legacy.

Thanksgiving Break

Well. It's Thanksgiving! And with my regular day job giving me an entire week off, this is a great time for writing! Yay! It would be great for visiting with family too of course, but they are not close by.

I have been working on a winter anthology submission that is past deadline already. But work comes first. And my submission is having some issues as well. It's not flowing as easily as other stories have. I have all sorts of things going on, maybe too many things. But each time I work on it I come across and fix another plot/world issue. So there is progress, and it is good progress, but it is slow going. This winter story features magic of a highly unusual nature, even more unusual than usual!

One problem I ran into is that I changed some of the underlying world basics involved in the story, something that I don't like to do, but I had some good ideas that needed a bit of tweaking to be even better.

I feel too another issue I have is I still need to work on showing not saying. One key thing for this story is that one of the characters feels both happy and sad that his mother died.  How do I show that and not say it?  Here is one piece of the tale that I came up with on that angle:

Far to the southwest, August’s whole body jerked taut at a sudden, overwhelming ringing noise. He fell to the floor, twitching, the ancient document in his hands crumbling and tearing into pieces as his hands clenched with uncontrollable seizures. Tears welled in his eyes and his heart shattered into a million shards as the ringing sound grew louder and louder before passing through him and away. As the sound faded, August’s body went limp, his every muscle exhausted from the strain.

“No,” he whimpered softly, “No no no,” and then a final, almost unheard, “Yes.”

Another thing I am working on tonight is family dynamics. Between the sisters, between August and his aunts, etc...

Picture for today is of a woman. It has some of the feel for one of the sisters in my story. Now if it only had her changing into a fish that would be perfect!