Hyena Behind the Bars

I went with the family to the Tbilisi zoo a few weeks ago, and there was a pair of spotted hyenas (and a sleeping striped one - if only there had been a brown one and an aardwolf- the hyenedae would have been full represented). In honor of my recently released book, (Gift of the Bouda) I posted it here.

My first experience with a Hyena, close up, was at the hyena colony at UC Berkeley, after a conference at which I presented a paper.

Up close they were much more impressive than the skulky scavengers of animal planet or the cartoon buffoons on the Lion King.

The image of the heavy, not quite dog-like carnivore crunching through a horse femur on the other side of a chain-link barrier, stayed with me until I put it down in my short story, gift of the Bouda (and book).

The Beast Within TOC

I posted that I was accepted to an 'invitation only' anthology,
The Beast Within 2; Predator and Prey,
edited by Jennifer Brozek.

The anthology is being put out by the folks at Graveside Tales.And the participants are:
Solitary Instincts by Wendy Wagner ...
The Strange Affair of the Viennese Mathmatician by Joshua Reynolds ...
The Adventure of the Missing Trophy by Mark Coulter* ...
Blood Will Tell by JG Flaherty ...
Vanessa McAvoy's Statement by Kelly Swails...

Ties of Silver by James Sutter
The Long Road to Sanctum by Richard Farnsworth*
Masako's Tale by Michael West ...

Help Wanted by Lydia Ondrusek ...
Act Natural by Tyler Hayes ...

Desperate Housewolves by Eric Scott de Bie ...
Life Decisions by Dylan Birtolo ...

Papa Pirana, by Angel Mccoy ...
Deserter by Gabrielle Harbowy and Marie Bilodeau ...

Corvidae by Kerrie Hughes ...
In One Stride Comes the Dark by Keneth Hoover.

*authors who had stories in the first Beast Within also,

GST is looking at a Late June release.

Bouda, the Playlist

Most novels have a characteristic vibe, or tone. Especially Noir and Hardboiled (Like..oh, say Gift of the Bouda -I think). One challenge I found in writing my book (over the course of a year+) was that it was hard to just turn that vibe on. You work all day, play with the kids, do your chores, have dinner, put the kids to bed, and then....then.. you sit down and crank out a few hindered words on your breakout novel. (Okay, maybe it won't breakout- I'm stretching, but it's my blog, so I can reimagine any way I'd like)..

Anyway, so over the course of the year, how can I just 'get in the zone'? Well, my way was to have a play list. I selected a few songs that I liked, that captured the vibe I was going for (a little melancholy, fast paced). I sat down, hit my iTunes tab and started by rereading, and lightly editing (sometimes chainsaw editing) the thousand or so words previous to where I started back in, and viola! Vibe inducing...

So what was the playlist? Here it is. After you read Bouda, let me know how it worked for you?

Sandman, Metallica

All These Things I’ve Done, The Killers

Under Pressure, Queen and David Bowie

Immigrant Song, Led Zeppelin

I Love Rock and Roll, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Fight for Your Right, Beastie Boyz

Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen

Gift of the Bouda- released

My second Novel, Gift of the Bouda has been released by Salvo Press. Though the release date says June 2011? Is this a prerelease? Not sure.
Cover looks fine- another red book.

It was a bit of a surprise, the editor hadn't told me it was going out yet, but I'm not sure it has exactly, so sorry to surprise you all (but imagine my surprise).

Salvo (pre) released it on Amazon as a paperback, kinlde, nook, you name it.

It's a little grittier than STG (I know, grittier than a heroin addict-fallen angel). Werewolves, strippers, mafioso, all in the biggest little city in the
world. You'll love it.

Twelth of twenty-seven

So, I haven't seen it posted, but I don't think I made the Stoker cut with STG.

Of the 27 first novels recommended by Horror Writers, I was number twelve. Not too bad. They usually take the top five, members vote, and the most popular wins. So...12th...top five...I'm thinking no? But a good showing none the less. They don't have a category for best second novel, so I have to compete with the big boys next time. Yikes! Vote early vote often for The Gift of the Bouda, coming this spring.

New review

Another review for STG at fantasy book critic. Yay.

Not my strongest review, and a bit rambling and hard to follow, but over all Mahir thinks I wrote a good book that could be better. A true statement of just about everything, isn't it? (And at 'goodreads' he rated it four out of five stars.) But to be candid, I had a lot to say and STG was the best book I could have said them in at the time I wrote it.

I was also happy to see that the critic hit on several of the things I wanted to say in the book (themes....ooohh no, literaryness). STG is a story about flawed people making choices. It's about living with those choices and realizing that the choices you make don't have to define you for the rest of time. It's about relationships, it's about faith, and it's about doing what you think needs to be done, even if you know the outcome won't be in your best interest. (think 'cowboying-up')

Several of the critics also picked out the stylistic components that I was shooting for; noirish, epic themes on a personl level.

This has also been a criticism; 'angels and demons? Where's Armageddon, why such a 'small' book?'

My answer to the smallishness was that most of us make personal decisions that in the grand scheme of things are pretty small scale, they don't change the whole world, most people don't even know we have made them. But that doesn't make them unimportant. In fact the small decisions we make everyday, to show humanity, to do the right things, to be a positive and uplifting influence- rather than making the selfish or thoughtless choices, are the decisions that I think are the most important of all.

If this doesn't make sense, I suggest you read the 'Screwtape Letters' from CS Lewis, then get back to me.

iBook and Nook

STG will be coming out soon as an iBook and in Nook format. Yay.
The publisher also went through and reedited the manuscript. So all future copies (as of today) should be cleaner copies, Also Yay.

I had two reveiwers that commented on the quality of the eiditing- great book too bad it wasn't edited better. Now, before I point fingers at the publisher, these errors were in the original manuscript I sent in. One would expect them corrected, but it's hard to point to someone else for not fixing what I broke in the first place. But no more. All future editions are clean....

The Gift of the Bouda, the Novel

The novelization of my short story, 'The Gift of the Bouda', named imaginatively enough by the same name, has been sold to Salvo Press!

Yes, very cool.

I received the first .pdf proof of the edits and did another line edit. It was fun, after not having looked at the manuscript for six or eight months to go through it again. Like visiting an old friend. (I did spend a year writing it, after all, and got to know the characters rather well.) This book tells the story of John Rogers, a GWOT SF Officer bitten by a were-hyena (Bouda) and now back in the states dealing with his affliction. He drifts up to reno where he works as a part-time bouncer at a strip joint and runs afoul of a werewolf pack. Great fun. I wrote it as a noirish horror story (not crime-noir, but noir in the tight prose, but events for the MC keep deteriorating out of control) and hope you will all enjoy and buy many copies.

The novel is my second, following STG. Salvo is also a small press (like the press STG went to). Been around longer, better distribution, some books have made it big, so cross your fingers.

Beast Within 2- The Beast Unleashed

I just heard from the anthology editor today that my short story, 'The Long Road to Sanctum' has been accepted for inclusion in the Beast Within 2- the Beast Unleashed. Yay.

This is a slightly unconventional werewolf story, written as a postapocolyptic western. I had originally written this for the first Beast Within, but they accepted the Gift of the Bouda first and don't ussually accept two stories by the same author. So I shopped it around a bit, improved it with each rejection and when Beast within 2 posted, submitted again.

It will be worth the wait, as this will be a good anthology. Jenn Brozak is the editor (and top drawer), and the anthology was all invites (me too).

New Review

Well, I have certainly been neglecting this blog, haven't I?

Work has been a Lot-O-Busy, the holidays, the War College (I'm doing a Masters in Strategic Studies through the US Army War college as an Army Reservist), family obligations, and of course farm chores. Oh, and I have a host of other lame excuses, if you'd care to hear them.

In the past two months I've continued to flesh out the WIP (work in progress) a little, okay barely, but I have scratched away at it. I finish the masters in July and plan to begin writing again in earnest, after that, promise.

But what I really wanted to tell you about was my new review from the Deepening. (Click on Deepening) Overall it's pretty positive, but there is a negative about the editing. And of course the editor takes time to underscore that negative, but he's right. No excuse for writing a good story and then editing it poorly.