About five years ago, I was at a birthday party for one of my wife’s colleagues, and was busy circulating around the room, chatting with people, drink in hand. I struck up a conversation with a woman who raised horses for a living. “So, what do you do for work?” she asked me. “I’m a writer.” “Oh. So, you don’t then.” Rather than purposefully spill my beer on her, I quickly found other people to chat with. For a society that so voraciously consumes art, we don’t seem to place much value on those that create it. Musicians, painters, screenwriters,Continue readingJunk Magic and Guitar Dreams – The Audiobook!

Let’s have birthday cake. 🙂 It’s not my birthday (although you’re welcome to send me presents in October). It’s a book birthday! Specifically Blackbelt Chloe and the Birthday Cake Catastrophe. This book was so much fun to write. Just ask the people who kept yelling at me from the living room, “What are you giggling about in there?” I was just sitting in my office chortling away as I typed. You may be sensing a theme in my stories: I love mysteries, martial arts, and monsters. If you do, too, you’ll love this one. The birthday party will be ruined! Chloe had noContinue readingIt’s a Book Birthday!

This week, I want to talk about Watchmen, the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, and carried on in the stunningly good HBO series of the same name, helmed by Game of Thrones showrunner Damon Lindelof. When the TV series debuted last fall, many of my friends talked about how good it was, but as usual, I’m a little slow to get around to things. I started watching the HBO series a couple of nights ago…and binged the first three episodes. They knocked my socks off. The wild thing is how incredibly relevant it is now, in the midst ofContinue readingWho’s Watching the Watchmen?

**Waves a sniffly good-bye at the month of June…** How about an update of everything I’ve been working on? On the fiction side, I’ve started outlining the second book of my Shinjuku Shadows Trilogy. Book 1, Tokyo Blood Magic is at the publisher, Shadow Alley Press, churning through the editing process. Another smaller, but no less important, project is the next book in the Adventure Kids series, Blackbelt Chloe and the Birthday Cake Catastrophe. I typically write short stories in the cracks between major projects as a kind of brain cleanser. It gives the creative brain cells a fresh flavor, andContinue readingWhat I’m up to…