This website has gone over 1000 views a month every month since last August, with two months over 2000 and one over 3000. Thank you all for the support. I promise to continue with the geeky goodness, silly memes, and occasional serious topics.
Oh, and more of this guy:
Fly, Flappy, fly!
BTW: The Watchmage of Old New York is 99 cents on Amazon until May 31st (2016). *hypnotizing voice* buyyyyyy myyyy boooookkkkk…buyyyyy myyyy booookkkk. Or not, it’s cool.
Well, it’s the first blog post of the new year. I better make it a good one. Let’s start with some kitten hijinx.
I can never get enough of that.
First of all, I’d like to thank all of my followers, especially the new ones that joined in the past few months. Every time I get a email that says i have a new follower, my heart swells a little bit. Actually, it’s my head swelling, but I try to keep that in. I already have trouble finding hats.
I hope that I continue to entertain you this year, either through my website, or through my stories. Normally I’d throw in a link to a novel or two, but I’m showing restraint. Look at me, restraining all over the fucking place.
*Pseudo-Philosophy moment* The years turn around, and hopefully we change with them. Evolution is important, but sometimes we need a push. They’re not Resolutions, they’re Revolutions.
So here are my revolutions regarding the site. But first, a poofy dog action hero.
Still better than a Michael Bay movie.
There are other things that I’d like to do, but I don’t know what they are yet. You’ll be the second to know.
Ok, I’m done restraining myself. I can’t take it anymore. Buy The Watchmage of Old New York! It’s like The Dresden Files meets Gangs of New York meets American Gods meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit? meets Starsky and Hutch meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Doctor Strange meets…I dunno, but it’s damn good! You can buy it anywhere, but it’s easiest to post the Amazon link. Oh, and if you want to review it, I’ll give you a free copy. I can always use reviewers. Let me know, and we’ll talk.
Note that I didn’t plug Song of Simon. I figure that one shameless plug is enough…oh wait, how did that link get there?
I’ll end this with something funny to make up for the sales pitch.
Because I really don’t. Have a great day, and keep reading. I love you all, but not as much as the It’s Raining Tacos song. Sorry.
I just spent the day organizing my posts into categories. I also changed the color scheme, and posted a new writing lesson.
I would like to add an option for people to contact me, but I’m not exactly sure how. Will this do it?
If it works, I can put that on my home page too. Now I’m gonna try to add a poll.
What do you think of the new layout?
What else do you think I need? Within reason. I’m not adding a dinosaur riding the batmobile. That would just be impractical.
What a treat! Today we have a guest blog from a fantastic author, Ross S. Simon. Simon is the author of The Snow, from Eternal Press, and Red Dhalia, from Damnation Books. He’s a helluva talent. Check out this essay on how his influences helped to hone his craft. All of his pertinent links are at the end of the essay.
HORROR ON THE WING
Ross S. Simon
Grappling with the culture of horror is about as much a part of my life and career as is absorbing it. There are elements I agree and disagree with; oftentimes a horror author, or “fright-write,” has to put the aspects out of mind that they really hate, or else, at least, mentally transmute these aspects into effective ventilations of their own angst and anxiety—often at real-life negativity—in the form of the writers’ very own expressions of horror in literature.
One of my favorite TV shows to watch in reruns, years ago, was HBO’s “Tales From The Crypt.” Okay, it was the heavily chopped-up-for-basic-cable version, but even so, it still entertained mightily. I saw, in this adapted form, the stories and their surprise resolutions of the slick and powerful caliber that kids in the early 1950s undoubtedly experienced when they were first run in the EC comic books. In “Crypt,” on television, I saw the basic paradigm for the great American short horror story.
The maniacally cackling Crypt-Keeper, with his literally grave-level puns, was also a hoot. And yet, here I look deep enough to see the bad side of horror, somehow: the Keeper puppet was created by Kevin Yeagher, the creature-effects designer who was also behind doll-of-doom Chucky, who happened to be an unbearable icon of dire terror to me while growing up. Chucky seemed to press the exact wrong button of horror in me all these years; this was one horror icon whose invocation in culture always left me not only scared but sad at the same time.
The Crypt Keeper
Here we have exposed the horror aficionado’s weak spot. Being scared stops feeling good; the line is crossed between, if you will, “scary (fun) place to go” and “safe (restful-from-motion) place to go.” When this happens, for just an instant it’s two of the “scary (fun) places to go,” at the same time, and then, forever, it’s one, big, “sad (not-fun-at-all) place to be.” This may sound a bit remedial, but one has to factor in the risk of horror violating the mentality of childhood, in particular during adolescence, which can potentially taint adulthood. With the possible exception of tainted adulthood, this is what happened to me with Chucky: his movies were popular during my adolescence. The timing could not have been worse. The suffering was excruciating.
Still, I’ve parlayed whatever traumas I’ve been handed by horror culture into my own horror work, thus not suffering a total defeat, as I can take expressive chance on displaying to all, in my written endeavors of fright, the worst fear I’ve held in very many years, that I’ve held it for very many years, and which is very real: people.
I’ve believed for the longest time that people are foul, dishonest, lying creatures, never making it clear what they want or what their problem is. Worse yet, everything there is—good, bad, having to do with me, or having to do with them—they blame me for, and only me. I can at least use horrific gods, entities, monsters and supernatural forces as an allegory for the basic essence of people as we know them, if I can’t socialize, and if I’m not allowed by people to express my point of view on certain things. Atrociously enough, despite what our Constitution says, they bar me even from that.
I know that to have the horror culture we do—which is there to entertain in such a way that the horror of real life, in most forms, is more readily approachable—is a blessing to horror authors like me. We all give a lot of original ideas a lot of the time, yet that’s as a result of having horror on the wing. In the culture of fright, there are about equal parts good and bad. In the lives of those like me, there’s a major subject—but only one—of negativity. And then, once one gets around all the horror, there’s only the good stuff. When you get back to being scared for kicks, there’s also a good time.
http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615726400
http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615728916
http://www.amazon.com/The-Snow-Ross-S-Simon-ebook/dp/B007HO6DEO/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t
http://www.amazon.com/Red-Dahlia-Ross-Simon-ebook/dp/B00BNZAML8/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t
http://www.facebook.com/samuel.ridings
http://rossssimon.com.istemp.com
Here is an interview between myself and MP Ness, where we interview each other, as per the BadassAuthors interview style.
In it, we discuss our novels, our influences, and what makes us awesome. We left out the part where we talk football, because I am a Jets fan and he is a Seahawks fan…it’s not fair.
Hey, this is an article I wrote for The Online Novel, a great resource if you are into web fiction, especially serials. This article is about JukePop Serials (which of course, hosts The Watchmage of Old New York) and there continued commitment to making sure that writers are compensated for their work. You can find the article here
Below is an excerpt:
On October 15th, JukePop Serials issued a press release announcing the addition of a donation option for their hosted serials. This means that now authors can solicit donations from their readers. Each serial will have a donation button, along with a personalized message from the author. The minimum donation in one dollar, and goes into an Amazon account for the author, minus a small hosting fee for JukePop.
JukePop Serials, which recently celebrated its one year anniversary, has taken a progressive stance regarding author compensation from the beginning. Unlike many sites, Jukepop pays its writers upon story acceptance, and offers additional monetary incentives for story popularity.
casandersdotnet 