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I know I have seriously neglected this blog and that my four fans are emotionally scarred, but here's a bit of blatant self-promotion to tide you over till I get my act together.



The good people at Pulp Empire are doing a promotional give away and not only am I happy that they picked an anthology I'm in, but they picked one of my favorite PU projects.

I also have a story in Horror Heroes vol. 2 with a different character and am scribbling notes as I hope to be in vol. 3.

So go check it out. We can always use the attention and if the series does well enough I'll have created enough Horror Heroes to do a movie Avengers type story by volume 5.

Yes, I admit it, I couldn't get my act together to write an entry on writing or some other serious topic, so I'm just going to post some odds and ends from my notes.

So, here we go:

Stop using graphic novels as a blanket term for comic books.
Even when a bunch of comic single issues are collected in trade paperback, they are not a graphic novel. They are a collection or a trade paperback.
A graphic novel is a specific, self-contained story told in comic book form.

'Watchmen' is a graphic novel, a bunch of issues of X-men collected are a comic book or a trade paperback. Even if it's a collection of a story-arc.
If that one story arc is the only story the writer did for a series, or a collected mini-series then maybe.

But, otherwise, they are comic books. Graphic novels is a term thought up by people too embarassed to admit that they read comic books and snotty literary critics.


The big literary innovation that has women reading like crazy this year is '50 Shades of Grey'.

So, the answer to the question of 'how do you get people to read?' is 'porn'.
Cause let's be honest, it's not romance, it's porn, and the womenfolk of america can't get enough of it.

Excuse me while I pause a minute to chuckle to myself.

and with any big idea, everyone and their brother scrambles to find a way to cash in.
(see paranormal romance if you need an example)
Can't wait to see how this literary trend takes off.
Gonna be interesting.


Okay, am I the only one that is getting a bit perturbed to come across book reviews on this site where the reviewers use a bunch of pictures to explain how they feel about a book?
On a site dedicated to the written word, you want to tell the world how you feel about the written word using a picture...?
quit that. Even as as irony it's annoying.


Can we stop using the word 'realism' when defending something in a genre not known for it's realism?

If your book, comic or movie includes a magic sword, vampires, guys in capes or time travel, you really don't want to open up the can of worms that is throwing around 'realism' as a defense of that thing.

"The Dark Knight is so good, due to it's realism!"

"Yes, in the genre of guys dealing with childhood trauma by dressing like a Bat fighting evil clowns, it is the most realistic.'"

"Shut up"

Especially because with the 'realism' thing, people only want to apply it to certain genres and only to specific examples.
If you follow up their claim of realism by going one step further and questioning the rest of the (fill in the book etc of your choice) they get really peevish.

"Twilight is great as it mixes the vampire genre with the realism of young girls struggling to find themselves while dealing with the transition from girl to woman."
'They aren't vampires. Realistically, if you've done any research into vampire lore, vampires don't sparkle or go out in sunlight'.

"Shut up."

Weird how many of my conversations end that way.

So, you want realism, watch a documentary or read a history book.
Or you can just admit that vampires, dragons, robots and Superman are cool and fun and I won't have to give you grief.

Let's end on a happy note, as I have been a bit grumpy this time:

I'm enjoying this trend of taking historical figures and/or literary figures and bringing them back in mystery and fantasy books.

Yes, not all of them are great, but enough are and there's a chance it will get more people reading the originals and there's so much potential there.

You gotta love a book where the Three Musketeers play detective.

I have nothing terribly insightful to say, but I need a break from the writing stuff I'm juggling and will feel like a weasel if I completely blow off all writing and just go do my laundry or watch 'Farscape'.

So, I'll use this post to tell you about the various stuff I'm working on and what stage it's in.
You get a 'day in the life' kind of thing and I, explaining some of this stuff, may get my brain working again.

I sent off a short story for Blackcoat. They are working on some collections of French comic book characters and wanted some new prose short stories.
My story involved two musketeer characters having a romp through the streets of Paris, as they play amatuer detective, with an appearance by a sci-fi character.

Hope the book sells well. I love to get a hold of another universe full of characters to play with.

I'm nearly finished with another story for Blackcoat, involving Doctor Omega and company. My previous Omega story was set in the future, so for this one I went into the past.
I'm also hoping to set up some story threads within this story that I can come back to.
My plan is to do three short stories that will connect to tell a bigger story, while still kind of standing on their own.
See what my editor thinks.

After that, I need to work on a pitch for a character themed anthology.
Blackcoat has done a couple of these. I've had stories in both the 'Doctor Omega one and the 'Nyctalope' book.
(copies still available at finer online bookshops)
The next one involves the cloaked French mystery man, Judex.
I sent my editor a couple ideas and he liked parts of them, but thought they needed some reworking, as they were too similar to other stories.
Should send my new versions to him in a day or so.

That'll catch me up on my Blackcoat stuff and I can put some work into a couple stories I'm working on for Pulp Empire.
For PE, I have three stories due by the end of september and two story pitches.

I need to finish my Blackcoat projects before I jump into my Pulp Empire stuff.
With Blackcoat, I'm using all established literary characters and with PE it's all stuff I made up. Different sets of mental muscles and it's tough to jump back and forth.
Though, PE is doing one anthology using public domain pulp heroes, which I'm excited about.
While I love creating my own characters and worlds, it's always fun getting to play with other peoples toys.

I think I may stop here and save babbling about my Pulp Empire work for another post.
I've gone on long enough and would like to get a page or two done on a story before going to sleep.

So, next time it'll be a look at my PE scribblings, or who knows, I'm actually come up with a 'topic'. Stranger things have happened.

And hey, feel free to drop me a note if there's something about my stuff or writing in general you'd like to hear me talk about.
Given the slightest crumb of prompting, I'll talk about anything.

Yes, I know, it's been an obscenely long time since I've done one of these and all three of my fans have probably cried themselves to sleep, taken up heavy drinking and given me up for dead.

Fear not!
I am alive and well and the excuses for my long absence are convoluted and most likely boring to my readers.
I have not gone to jail, been kidnapped by aliens, worked as a roadie for Jimmy Buffett or been Anne Hathaway's love slave.

Work got busy, my son graduated high school and my writing schedule got crazy.

Both the good folks at and have added several anthologies to their schedules and being an idea junkie I couldn't stop myself from pitching stories, which kept getting accepted and next thing I knew, I had a huge 'to do' list and deadlines rushing at me like the Warner Brothers Road Runner.

It's been a fun challenge as all the anthologies have been themed, so I was given an idea and had to come up with an idea.
I have been writing about ( in no particular order): Dead American Presidents, a goddess going through a particularly violent mid-life crisis, a pair of French musketeers involved in a murder mystery, a classic French Pulp hero at the beginning of his career and then later in his life and teenage super heroes.

and that's just 2012.
Wait till you see the 'to do' list I've built up for 2013.

Hopefully there are a couple of you out there that have not given up on me and I am hoping to write these entries on a semi-regular basis.

As always, feel free to send me a comment. Say 'Hi' or make a suggestion for a future topic I can babble about.

Feeling a bit guilty over my lack of recent blog posts.
So, to tide you over till I have the time and energy to be witty and informative:



My latest story is about to hit the (virtual) shelves!
It's my very first pirate story.
( so imagine I said that last sentence in a suitably piratey voice or am at least wearing a tri-corner hat while I type this.)

You can also purchase my two previous ( non-pirate, but still entertaining) stories.

Also,



My next story from Blackcoat won't be out till January (Tales of the Shadowmen vol. 8)
That means you can purchase my four other already published stories and have plenty of time to read them while you wait.

Yeah, I'm not proud of that last sentence, but until I make enough royalties to hire a PR firm, I gotta do all this promotional stuff myself.

Next time it's back to stuff like 'Where do your ideas come from?', creating original characters vs getting to use other other people's characters and 'Do you really own a tri-corner pirate hat?'

I was scribbling down some ideas for new blog entries and come up with a bunch of ideas that while interesting, I didn’t think were ‘big� enough to fill a whole entry.
So, from time to time I will do a blog just filled with these small thoughts and odd, rambling bits.
So, here goes:

I can’t help wondering, once the vampire and zombie trends in literature fade, what would be the next big monster trend.
Trolls? Probably be hard to do a romance with trolls.
Ghosts would be good. Though, if it was up to me, it’d be giant Japanese monsters.
Gnomes or leprechauns probably don’t stand a chance.

I really like Robin Hood, but almost never bother checking out any new Robin Hood movie or book as they always seem to tell the same couple stories over and over again. They tell us how he became Robin Hood and then waste a bunch of time trying to fit him into real history.
Where’s the fun in that? Where’s the big, swashbuckling adventure? Where are the wildly overdone, Matrix-style CGI archery effects and sword fights? How about some books, where the merry men fight monsters or evil outlaws?
How about at least adaptations of some different Robin Hood stories, then where he becomes an outlaw and meets the others?

Having just written my first western and my first pirate story, I’ve been pondering what other genres I’ve never tried that might be fun to write.
While I have written some sci-fi, I’ve never done a proper space opera. Big Star Wars/ Flash Gordon kind of stuff. That would be fun.
In my most ambitious and/or deranged moments I think it would be a fun challenge to try some kind of historical bodice ripping romance, just to see if I can, while avoiding those annoying bits from the few I’ve actually read. Maybe I should try a gothic romance and work my way up to bodice ripping.

I love comic books, but tend to get annoyed when they get turned into movies. They make massive changes for the movie and then defend them in the name of ‘realism�.
It’s a guy that deals with a childhood trauma by dressing as a bat, fighting an evil clown! If you went into that movie hoping for realism, you might want to go see ‘The King’s speech� instead.
I wouldn’t complain, but I never hear this kind of stuff about, say, Harry Potter, Twilight or Narnia.
If you fly on a broom, that’s realistic, but not if you have a cape?
The minute anyone uses the phrase ‘realistic� when discussing an obvious piece of fantasy film/literature, I tend to start tuning them out.
Okay, that wasn’t really writing related, but I needed to get it off of my chest and…hey, it’s my blog.

The nice thing about cell phones, is that now when I’m driving in my car and am trying out bits of dialogue or story ideas by saying them out loud, the people in the other cars don’t look at me like I’m crazy, they just assume I’ve got one of those earpiece phones.

For the other writers out there:
Why is it so hard to come up with a good title? I either have a perfect title right off the bat or go through mental agony finding a suitable one, and even then feel vaguely unsatisfied with it.
Is that just me? Is it because, at this point, all the really good ones are taken?
Anyone else have this problem?
Or maybe I should ask: When you write, what comes first, the title or the story?

So, there we have it. This is the kind of stuff that goes through my head when the real world gets boring. Nothing too inciteful, but hopefully somebody out there will find this stuff interesting, or at least mildly entertaining.

I doubt I'll be doing this kind of thing on a regular basis, unless my followers ( all 12 of you) can't get enough of it and demand more.

Not sure why I keep going with these overdramatic titles. I’m sure it says something about my emotional make up.
Or maybe it’s the topic for a future blog�?

Anyway, this time I thought I’d talk about writers groups and why I think if you are an aspiring writer, you should find yourself one and partake of its wisdom and camaraderie.
At its core, a writers group is just a bunch of struggling amateur writers gathered to share their work, get and give some constructive criticism and just hang out and chat with like-minded folks.
Back in the dark ages, I was young and finally deciding to make the jump and send my writing out into the world. Two rejections later, I was feeling fairly dejected and unsure what my next step would be. I stumbled upon some notices at a local bookshop, where a couple writers groups were looking for new members.
With a gentle, loving nudge from my wife, I gathered up my notebooks, joined a writer’s group and never looked back.
They have introduced me to the wonder of not overusing commas, gotten me better at balancing dialog and action and shown me that I’m not the only one that spends his life with stories constantly running through his head.
As my friend Lucie asked one time ‘what kind of voices do people who don’t write hear?�
The general set up of a writer’s group (and this is taken from my vast experience of the two I’ve been in) is about a half dozen of us gather, share our work, either reading it out loud or bringing copies for the others to read, and then go around the table beating the poor victim bloody until we’ve broken their spirit.
Just kidding. Even at its most brutal criticism, I think my group has only made no more then two people cry.
Relax, that was a joke too. There have been a few instances when new members wandered off after a couple critiques and/or anything less than glowing praise of their work. Mostly poets, but that’s a whole other blog post.
We go around the table, each person talking about what they liked in the writing, asking questions about it and pointing out where it had weak spots or the story could be told better.
In my writer’s group, the unwritten rule is if you say a story sucks, you better be able to articulate why it sucks and make some helpful suggestions on how it can not suck.
I’m sure members of my group could put that more diplomatically, but that’s the general idea, in my mind, of how a writer’s group should work.
We want to help and encourage other writers, but are doing them no good by codling or sparing feelings, but there is also no point in being mean about it.
We’re all in this together and who knows, someone we help may become the next J.K. Rowling and want to shower us with cash to say thanks.
The group format works well (again, this is not carved in stone, it, like everything in this blog, is my humble opinion), as different people will see different things in a story.
In my group, we all write and enjoy reading different genres, so each story gets a different perspective and things will be noticed that a regular fan of the genre might miss or not think about. Not being familiar with a genre, they would ask questions that would get you to think about your story. Having to explain things to an outsider or another writer gets you focused on the story and helps you see things you might have missed. Plus, some people are better at grammar and structure. The combination of different strengths is a big help.
I’m the first to admit, (and anyone from my writer’s group that reads this will no doubt back me up) I have a tendency to get so caught up in telling the story, that I can become a tiny bit blind to the mechanics of writing.
Along with all that practical help and support, there is also a social aspect to being part of a writers group. Let’s face it, writing can be a lonely calling, so having the shared experience and being able to talk about the idea part of writing with people who don’t give you a tolerant look and nod as they slowly back away is refreshing.
These are people who will understand you being upset over the death of somebody fictional, or your frustration over getting a story to work, or just to be happy with you when everything clicks and you are particularly proud of a bit of dialogue, scene or character. Having that support net to fall back on is a big help when you have been staring at a blank page for hours and have come to understand why so many famous writers were alcoholics and suicides.
Now, for my younger readers out there who are saying ‘what are these bookstores that you speak of?� finding a writer’s group is easier these days because there are many online writers groups/communities and it’s easier to track them down. They range from general gathering places for writers to groups the focus on specific genres. Plus, there are a huge amount of fanfiction sites, which also contain forums for reviews and writers� discussions.
But, fanfiction is a whole other blog topic.
If you are an old fashioned guy, like myself, and not a huge fan of electronic interaction, you can seek out writers groups by checking out the public bulletin boards at local bookstores, coffee shops or the library.
Though, if you are an old fashioned kind of guy with a dislike of electronic interaction, how are you reading this?
Okay, after all that rambling, let me conclude by just say, I think getting hooked up with a writers group is a big help to anyone out there, toiling in obscurity and can offer a lot of help, both practical and social.
Course, anyone from my group that reads all this glowing praise will be insufferable smug at our next meeting.

At this point in time, my writing output has two main sources, Pulp Empire and Blackcoat Press.
While, they are basically two branches of the same literary tree, they require different approaches and use of different creative muscles to write for.
I had been thinking about that lately and thought I’d share with you.

Both publishers are rooted in pulp literature and I am telling many of the same types of stories, but with Blackcoat, I am using someone else’s characters and crafting stories around those characters while with Pulp Empire, I am creating my own characters.
Now, as those of you know me are aware, I first dipped my toes into the showing my writing to the public waters in fanfiction.

Brief asides: 1) first, I have no idea where that weird toe dipping metaphor came from and 2) fan fiction, for those of you that don’t know, is when writers create new stories for already established characters and post them out there for fun, rather than profit. Though, some people have used fanfiction as a stepping-stone into actual paying writing jobs.
There are numerous sites dedicated to fanfiction that focus on everything from Star trek to Jane Austin to Harry Potter to the X-men.
My own fanfiction resume involves a lot of comic book based stories with a little bit of Star Trek.

The reason I’m telling you this is that Blackcoat Press is basically fanfiction. It’s fanfiction that you can order from Borders.com, but fanfiction nevertheless. I’m using other people’s characters, for the most part either public domain characters or ones Blackcoat has purchased the rights to, to create new stories.
Now, a lot of people look down their noses at fanfiction, but I’ve always enjoyed it. Yes, there’s some really badly written, adolescent stuff out there, but that’s true of fanfiction as well.

Okay, before my theories about fanfiction take over, let me attempt to stagger back on topic.

With Blackcoat, I’m given all the parts of a story, characters, places, macguffins etc and I just need to focus on taking these various pieces and fitting them into the framework of a story idea that I have bouncing around my brain and filling in the gaps.

It’s a fun way to write, as you are basically given a huge toy box and told to go nuts and tell your story.
Not that it’s total literary anarchy at Blackcoat, there are rules that you have to follow.
They prefer you not kill, marry off or radically alter the characters and you have to use them within the context of the story/book/movie etc that they came from.
It’s taking the conversation ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if�?� and not stopping at the casual chat stage, but running with it.
I enjoy the odd mix of hoops to jump through, yet there is a sense of freedom. The ‘heavy lifting� has been done and it’s all a matter of finding the toys you want to play with that will also work in the story.

Then there’s Pulp Empire, where all the characters and stories are my creation.
Yes, they do specialize in a certain type of literature, but pulp fiction encompasses a huge amount of genres, as it’s more a style of writing then a genre itself, but that’s a whole other blog post.

With Pulp Empire I get to create whatever I want. There are no rules or limitations, unless I put them there. Which is, to quote Monk, a blessing and a curse. Yes, I have total freedom to create what I want, but I have to come up with everything!
What’s your character’s name? What color is his hair? Is he married? What kind of car does he drive? Is he allergic to shellfish?
It makes my brain hurt to just think of all the things you have to think of when you play literary god.

Now, that might sound like I’m grumbling, and there can be a level of frustration and/or scribbling ideas until you get a combination that works, but I love both methods of storytelling.
I like the different types of challenges and fun that they both present.
With Blackcoat, I tend to start with a story idea and then see what characters would work within it and the simple idea expands from there. It can be a bit of a scavenger hunt.
With Pulp Empire, I generally start with an idea for a character and then see what kind of story that character would work in.
It’s free play vs structured play really.

So, there’s a little insight into my creative genius and methods.

My first blog entry as an official Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ author.
Feeling a great deal of pressure to say something insightful or witty.
Wish I could think of something.

Instead, I'm just going to tell you a bit about my writing, along with some subtle plugs for where you can track down my stuff and buy multiple copies for all your friends and loved ones.

I've had my stories published by two small press publishers.
First is Blackcoat Press ()

They specialize in translating and publishing various French science fiction and mystery books from the early part of the twentieth century.
They then began the anthology series 'Tales of the Shadowmen'.
These are new stories featuring characters from the Blackcoat universe crossing paths with other characters from literature.
The authors list is a nice mix of talented amateurs and some actual published authors.

(On one table of contents page, my name was right next to Michael Moorcock's!)

Fun stuff, if you are, like me, a fan of these old characters or ever wondered how come Doc Savage wasn't around when King Kong climbed the Empire State building, or where was Sherlock Homes during the 'War of the Worlds'.

I have so far had four stories appearing in 'Tales of the Shadowmen', ranging from a light hearted science fiction tale, to a duel between two of the iconic villains of French literature and a rousing adventure story set in the jungles of India.

It's been a lot of fun, getting to play with all these toys, mixing and matching characters from all over the worlds of literature and pop culture.

my other esteemed publisher is the fine people at Pulp Empire. ()

Pulp Empire is an anthology specializing in new stories/characters in the style of the old pulp novels and magazines.
For this anthology, I've played with the cliches/traditions of pulp literature, while flexing my creative muscles to create my own characters.

I have so far done a humorous noir story and one where several new characters, that are obvious takes on classic pulp heroes, team up to solve a mystery.
In future volumes, will be my very first attempt at a western, pirates and some masked heroes.

Basically, both publishers are perfect fits for my odd tastes, warped as they are by decades of comic books, pulp novels, cartoons and old and obscure movies and I've had a lot of fun getting to write for them.
So much fun, that I don't mind the fact that the money has yet to come pouring in.

Well, nothing left to say, except thanks to those of you out in goodreads land that have read and reviewed any of the books I've had a story in, I'd love to hear from more of you.
You can sing my praises or just chat.

While I hope to do this blog on a semi-regular basis, to keep from just babbling ( not that won't do that occasionally) I'll try to wait till I actually have something to say that's vaguely related to my writing.

Feel free to check out the links and browse the quality wares of both publishers.

Talk to you soon.