Check In

In order to make it easier for me to stay in touch, I thought I would borrow a bit from some other other authors and just try and write a bullet style check in once a week.  That way, if you are at all interested, we can stay a bit more connected even if I don't necessarily have something particularly insightful to say or perhaps, I'm busy doing other things and don't feel like I have the time to write a blog post.  This takes away many, if not any, excuses.  Feel free to contact me and gripe up a storm if I don't follow through.  Please.  There is nothing like fan driven pressure.

Without further ado, let the bullets begin:


Writing:
Currently I have three ideas in various stages of conception—I say conception because none of them have risen to draft status as yet.  One is a new young adult trilogy and the other two are not.  Of the adult books, one is contemporary, the other fantasy more along the Abercrombie/Martin line.

As to Scarlet, I am at the mercy of the publishing world at the moment.  Both book four, The Barrier's Fall and book five The Shattered Throne are written, however both are still in editing and post production.

Television:

Like most of the world I currently have Westeros taking up a great deal of headspace in my monkey brain.  While I very much wished I could have waited for the books to finish, the HBO series is just too compelling and I am weak.  Like you, I await the conclusion this coming Sunday with great anticipation and bit of sadness.  Hopefully, someday soon, the Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring will fill the void.

My wife and I are currently binge watching—for us that is the same show, one episode a night—West World.  At this stage, I'm fascinated, but impatient.  Verdict is still out.

Merry Christmas

First a bit of news.

While I have been hard at work writing Scarlet and the Barrier's Fall (only a hundred pages to go) and playing entirely too much Destiny on the old Xbox One, eating too many Christmas cookies, not exercising enough, and attempting for the world record in procrastination, a few notable things have happened which are quite exciting.
First, the audiobook for Scarlet and the Keepers of Light is finished, read by the talented Harriet Stevens.  The post production has been turned in and all that remains is for it to go live in the world of Amazon.  Book two of the series, Scarlet and the Dragon's Burden is now available for preorder and set for a February 2nd release.  Finally, Scarlet and the Keepers of the Light is currently ranked number 3 on the Amazon Top Sellers List for it's genre.  I couldn't be more thrilled.  A special thank you to all the readers out there who have made this possible and I am overjoyed at how many people have expressed their love for the book and their excitement for the next installment.  According to my sources, it is even better than the first!

Now to some fun.  My daughters and I decided to write a Christmas Story together today and after reading it to their mother, we thought it would be neat to share it with you.  I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season.  

Been a While

The funny thing about time is that it keeps moving whether you're busy or bored, happy or sad, at peace or in a crisis.  I've written before about time with a humorous spin on its passage and our perception of it and I mention it here in my fist post in over three months because I have been lost in the phenomenon and have neglected those of you who might enjoy reading new posts.  A lot has happen in three months: some good, some life changing, and certainly one event which comes sadly with getting older.  So, I'm going to catch you up, apologize for missing many a deadline and then tell the Scarlet fans out there when they can expect Scarlet and the Queen of the New World, sorta.

My Nana, the most beautiful person I've ever known.

My grandmother, my Nana, died a little bit before Christmas.  Alzheimer's Disease had taken her mind and eventually her body, leaving only her beautiful soul as a presence in our lives.  My mother and aunt had worked tirelessly to take care of her and until the very moment she passed, they both gave their mother a peaceful and graceful end with more courage than I could ever imagine.  Courage, it seems, comes in many forms, and in my mother and aunt I saw courage of will, strength, and heart.  I don't know when I will ever see such a selfless display of love and devotion again in my lifetime or something so heart-wrenching and beautiful.  Many people have shaped who I have become as a man, father and husband.  I am far from perfect and sometimes cruel.  Sometimes I'm neglectful.  I have a Peter Pan complex that I know annoys a few of the more responsible people in my life.  Sometimes I drift into my own little world.  Sometimes I am arrogant and quick to irritation.  But when I am at my best.  When I'm loving and kind, humble and self assured.  When I feel like I can accomplish anything if I just give it my all.  When I feel loved...I can't help but think of Elizabeth Charles, my Nana.  And now, when I think of courage, I will think of my mother and aunt.

In addition to being a writer, and unfortunately for those of you who only know me through my books and blog, I am a firefighter.  I spent the past year in paramedic school to upgrade from an EMT and have spent the past few months completing my internship so that I could operate as a Paramedic in my fire department.  It took up a great deal of my time and with the other obligations in my life, I let my writing fall through the cracks.  I'm am happy to say that I'm done and am now a fire fighter/paramedic and thus far it has been a highly rewarding decision.  It has added another dimension to what really is one of the best jobs in the world.

So now, the apology.  In big type large font with a countdown timer, I announced that Scarlet and the Queen of the New World would be released on Christmas.  That didn't happen and I'm sorry.  The book is in its final stages of editing and in an effort not to repeat mistakes I made the first time around, I'm not rushing it to print.  Unfortunately I can only tell you that it will be soon.  I don't want to give a deadline and find out that it can't happen.  As soon as I know, however, I will put out a new timer a week or two out and wait anxiously to hear what everyone thinks of Scarlet's continued adventure.  Look for me back on Twitter and Facebook this week.  If you've written me, I'm not ignoring you specifically, more like Twitter and Facebook as a whole.  It was nothing personal and I appreciate you all more than you know.

Finally, thanks for reading.  I hope my absence hasn't completely chased you all away and I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments.   
   

A Bit of Nostalgia

At least once a year, my wife, the kids, and I pack up the car and make our way down to Colonial Williamsburg.  Now although this may not make a lot of sense to those of you who have been, marveled at the recreation of colonial America and now that you have the t-shirt are ready to move on to some other wonder of the continental United States, for us, Williamsburg has always been one of those special places that keeps drawing us back year after year.  Why?  Well there are a number of reasons which I'm sure taken as a whole offer a satisfactory explanation, but as are most things in life, sometimes the answer is 'just because'.
I'm not going to say 'just cuz' however, that would make for a very boring post.  My friends and I all went to the College of William and Mary, which is of course, in Williamsburg, Va.  It was at W&M that I met my wife, fell in love and proposed to her on the Crim Dell Bridge.  It was in my freshman dorm that I finished my first novel and began my second.  Through the W&M Choir I was introduced to some of the most magnificent sights in Europe and even sang mass in St. Peter's at the Vatican.  I could go on, but what it comes down to is that Williamsburg has always felt like home.  The place where I grew as a person and sorta figured out who I was.  I traveled a lot when I was a young as an Army kid and then later on when I joined the Army and so for whatever reason, Williamsburg became a sort of anchor.  A place where all the pieces of my life kind of came together and it has always given me that happy, comforting feeling. 

This year we went over the 4th of July and it was quite cool (actually it was nearly 100 degrees) to be in such a historic place on Independence Day.  On July 3rd the Union Jack flew as always marking the city as a colony of the British Empire and then on the 4th was replaced with the Stars and Stripes lining both sides of Duke of Gloucester.  What's funny though, is that while I was attending W&M, I used to constantly remark on the lack of life the old fogies must have who frequented CW and could even be found wandering about the college grounds.  Fast forward 15 years and I'm wandering around the college with my family, remarking how much things have changed and how much is still exactly the same.  I'm marveling at the history of the place and trying to get my children interested in the splendor of treading on the same ground as Thomas Jefferson and others who formed our country.  Basically, I'm that old fogie with no life.  Although, strange as it may have seemed to my twenty year old self, partying, skipping class and hanging out with my girlfriend (that would be my wife now), I have a lot more of a life now than I did back then.
It's true that I don't drink or party.  I don't go out much at night anymore and when I do it's usually because a call came in at the firehouse.  I don't have plans for Friday night and I was excited when my wife suggested we go to Mount Vernon for father's day.  And the thing is, this shift in activity happened with so gradually that there was never a point when I looked at myself (except perhaps right now) and thought, "man, I am so boring.  I need to get a life."

So take all that together and it brings me to my latest observation.  During this trip to CW, I noticed a shift in my wife and I's attitude toward the place.  Although I enjoyed being there and had laugh or two over some of the familiar places, I no longer felt like I had come home.  As my wife kindly, but matter of factly pointed out when I asked her, "no, even if I lost forty pounds, got a really close shave and some trendy clothes, no one is going to mistake me for a college student."