An old guy who you would find boring.
Special skills include:
Ability to eat a whole pizza in a single sitting, regardless of size;
Amazing taste in comic book related apparel;
My cleverest moments invariably occur when there's no audience.
It's likely to amount to between $25 and $100. You are owed that money if you meet the requirements.
Who doesn't want $25 for having shopped for bread in the last 2 decades? More? That's nice too!
I know I registered. It will likely be paid sometime between June and December next year. By then, I'll have forgotten all about it, so it'll be a nice surprise.
I want to let everyone know, there's a HUGE offer at Public Domain Super Heroes right now and it runs through the end of 2025!
For December, buy ANYTHING on the website and I'll send you TWO of my current novellas absolutely FREE.
That's right, ANYTHING. Even a $2.99 3-Day novel pdf is worth TWO more novellas in your inbox!
At that rate, you could have SIX of my books for the cost of just two. Yep, I'll even honour small, individual sales, so buy a book, get two free, buy another book, get two more free!
I'm even offering my January release, as yet untitled, as part of the deal, so in theory, you could buy each of my 3 Day novels and wind up with all 7 of my current releases AND my as yet unreleased January book.
And in case you're wondering, merch counts too. So if you buy a t-shirt, a mug, a keychain, whatever. You'll get two books for that too.
As I've been saying for a couple of months, I'm knee deep in my new project over at Public Domain Super Heroes.
I'm having a blast. I'm writing (surprise, surprise!), researching, web-building, creating merchandise and all of it in that strange and wonderful domain, the public one.
But what's public domain anyhow? Simply put, it's what happens when copyright runs out.
Every book, every movie, tv show or piece of music is given an automatic copyright that belongs to whoever created the work. It lasts for different lengths of time in different countries, but for simplicity's sake, it's 95 years from publication. That's the standard in the United States and the one I'm using for my project. That rule came into existence in the 1970s and replaced a more complex and complicated set of rules that resulted in some copyrights lapsing and bringing certain characters into the public domain long before those 95 years had passed.
For instance, Robert E. Howard wrote a story called "The Shadow of the Vulture" which was published in 1934 in a little magazine called "The Magic Carpet Magazine." In that story, he created a character called "Red Sonya." At the time, the copyright rule required artists or copyright holders to renew their claims 28 years after publication. Since Howard died in 1936 and "The Magic Carpet Magazine" folded sometime in the 30s, no one renewed the copyright in 1962, so "Red Sonya" and the story itself are now in the public domain. She has no relation to the character "Red Sonja" who was created by Marvel Comics in the 1970s and is, in fact, quite different despite the similar names.
In Canada, there are different rules that mean that certain properties are in the public domain here before they enter it in the U.S., but it's simpler just to use the U.S. rules since my books are being printed there. If I want to stay in business, I need to stay on the right side of U.S. law, so publication plus 95 years it is, unless a lapsed copyright is in play.
And this means?
Over at my site, I've created a list of properties I'm interested in writing about. It's larger than I'm likely going to ever get to use, but I like options. I've divided it into sections, starting with a large one that covers all the currently public domain characters I am interested in folding into my universe, including characters published over 95 years ago and those characters whose copyrights are known to have lapsed due to failure to renew before the rule changes in the 1970s.
Now that I've collected my list, I realize it's very large and needs a little managing. Currently, I have 212 characters and stories listed. It spans characters and publications from as early as 1818 to as recently as 1955.
1818? Why?
Well, that's when Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was published and to my mind, that's when the real 'science fiction' genre began. To me, a science fiction story MUST have a plot that is driven or supported by a piece or pieces of scientific apparatus or theory that is BEYOND our current abilities or the abilities of the age in which the story is set. In my opinion, Shelley was the first to do this.
My writing is broken into 4 "Houses" for marketing purposes. Entropy (science fiction), Dread (horror), Crom (swords & sorcery) and Justice (super heroes). With the advent of true science fiction in the form of Frankenstein, there's a reasonable 'start' for my stable of 'public domain' characters. It's arguable that horror, super-heroes and swords & sorcery (fantasy) writing have been with us since the advent of writing, but science fiction is a genre with a pretty definite starting point.
So why 1955 as the last year of my list?
Two reasons. One theoretical, one practical.
For the comic book industry, 1955 was a decidedly low point. Sales had cratered, super heroes were being usurped by western and war themed books, comic book companies were folding right and left. The following year, DC Comics reintroduced a familiar character in a brand new form in an attempt to revive the flagging sales and kicked off a whole new age for the medium.
When The Flash was re-costumed and given a new identity, comics entered "The Silver Age". What had come before was eventually known as The Golden Age and to me, that's as good a place to cap my new universe as there could be. I plan to use characters from the beginning of science fiction story telling and use characters who follow in that tradition up to the end of that comic book Golden Age.
Showcase #4 starts the Silver Age. And doesn't make my list.
The other consideration is a practical one. Characters created in 1955 will enter the public domain in 2051. By then, I'll be 82. If I'm still around, I'll still be writing (assuming my faculties don't leak out of my ears between now and then) but I will not be opening up a new age for Public Domain Super Heroes at that point. If Public Domain Super Heroes still exists by then, the fact is, someone else will be running the show.
And why am I telling you all this?
Well, over the next few months, I'll be blogging about the various characters I'm working with or intending to work with. I'll be starting with an article about the pre-1900 characters I'm interested in using. Then another about the characters created between 1900 and 1929, then an article...well, you get the idea.
Articles may cover decades, a couple of years or even just a single year, depending on the numbers of characters created in each year. I find this stuff endlessly fascinating and I hope you will too.
The articles will give you a sense of how some of my stories connect, why they connect and how I intend to grow this universe over the next decade or more. I plan a novella a month (or more!) to add to the project, so who knows, maybe I will actually get all 212 characters into the universe eventually!
For the moment, I have 10 of those 212 in one or more of my current novellas. In January, more characters will join them and I hope you'll check back regularly to find out just who those characters are!
4 of those houses use public domain characters in integrated, interconnected stories that span thousands of years of history and light years of distance.
House of Crom is where my swords and sorcery projects live.
House of Dread is where the creepy and horror elements are brought to life.
House of Entropy is where the science fiction side of the universe is unleashed.
The fifth house, House of Greybishop is where my writing that doesn't connect with that interconnected universe lives. My 3 day novels, mostly, but other projects like my soon to release fantasy novel, The Ease of Taking are available there.
Up until today, I still had some empty houses. I just added two novellas to my library and that filled the last two empty slots. I now have at least one book live and selling in all 5 houses.
These are my latest releases. You can click on either pic to go and buy one at Amazon. Hey, buy both!
Those two books are the last piece of the launch puzzle. I opened my site with one novella in the Public Domain Super Heroes universe, along with what I had of my other writing, namely 3 of my 4 completed 3-Day novels.
6 weeks later? 3 more published novellas and milestone #2.
There's a major update at Public Domain Super Heroes and I'd love you to go and check it out. I've updated the books on offer, obviously, but there's a LOT more.
The video page now offers over a dozen serials to watch, several complete and binge-able, the rest worth bookmarking to watch as the new episodes get released week over week.
The comic page has some spectacular new links to some amazing old comics hosted by my friends at comicbookplus.com, that relate to my project directly or indirectly.
And please. BUY SOMETHING. This is how I make my living now, so your support isn't just desirable, it's life and death for me.
If you dropped by the blog today, you are hopefully here because you like my writing and like seeing what I'm up to. Without your support, I won't be up to much.
I don't ask for your wallet. $5 for a Kindle book. Hell, $4 for the same book as a PDF is more help than you think.
If folks buy and REVIEW my books at Amazon, I might just be able to keep this crazy little project going. That means more blog entries, more books, more site updates, more comics, more videos. Just MORE!
I love what I'm doing. I really hope you're enjoying it too. And I could REALLY use a little help.
As the rumour mill about Warner Bros selling to (pick your poison - Netflix and Paramount are the names I hear most, but who knows?) whoever, there was a bit of weirdness leading up to it. For some reason, Warner Bros unloaded a basically complete series, Bat-Fam, to Amazon.
Why a full blown studio with its own streaming service would give a hot property like a kid friendly Bat cartoon to a competitor was a mystery at the time, but in light of the hot sale rumour? Less mysterious.
Anyhow, after one episode, I was pretty sure I hated this one.
Not my first choice. Nor my second.
It's somewhere between the tones of the old Adam West Batman and the Hotel Transylvania movies and animated series. At first, it was a little off putting to see Batman played for laughs, but it's not as bad as I thought.
I've watched 7 of the 10 episodes and honestly? It's got heart.
I've said it often and it applies here more than most. There's room for everyone's version of Batman. Don't like this one? There are plenty of others.
I happen to prefer a more serious Batman, but that's ME.
If Bat-Fam isn't your thing, that's fine. Enjoy whatever Batman is the one you like. I do suggest you at least sample this one though. It's an odd animation style, a very unusual take on the character and a lighter tone than most. Doesn't mean it's good, bad or indifferent, just different, without the 'in'.
Oh and all that advice? It applies to my new project.
Public Domain Super Heroes is a whole SET of new takes on a whole bunch of characters. I hope everyone will enjoy all of them, but the reality is, that won't happen. With luck, more people will enjoy than not, but I can't control that. All I can do is write the best stories I can, put them out in the universe and wait for the responses.
The new Robin Hood show from MGM is lush, beautiful and genuinely intriguing.
Sean Bean as the Sheriff of Nottingham? Inspired. As I’ve said for years, the villain maketh the show, and Bean brings exactly the kind of weight you want in a period piece like this.
A seriously great actor in a seriously serious role.
Robin Hood is arguably the original superhero. He's the template for every masked vigilante who followed and, more importantly for studios, the ultimate public domain property. Nobody owns him. Anyone can reinterpret the myth and slap “Robin Hood” on the box.
Sound familiar? Hold that thought.
Now, what’s missing so far in this shiny new version isn’t the acting (solid), the direction (slick), the set design (chef’s kiss), or even the music (though I’d trade the sappy strings for a little Celtic harp).
The real absence is simple:
Fun.
I get what they’re going for. “Game of Thrones” grit without CGI dragons, sold to an audience that’s always hungry for the next serious, prestige-washed, brooding epic.
Hollywood sees one hit and immediately thinks, “A lick of paint, move a few chairs, fool ‘em twice.” And yes, sometimes they’re right. But as we saw this summer with the abrupt cancellation of Wheel of Time, three seasons into what was supposed to be a decade-long run, it’s not always that simple.
You know why the 1938 Errol Flynn film is still the gold standard after almost ninety years?
It’s not the acting (good but not Oscar material).
It’s not the writing (pulpy).
It’s not the direction or sets (good for their day).
It’s because that movie is fun.
A silly outfit, a bow and arrow, a grin that could cut glass. Flynn makes that film sing.
This new version? Serious. Brooding. Beautifully shot misery.
All good things.
But not a lot of joy.
I’m only two episodes in, so maybe Robin will eventually stop crying long enough to shoot something, smile at someone, or crack even a tiny joke. The setup isn’t bad — but drama only pays off if we eventually get some brightness to contrast it.
Coming January 1, 2034. Watch this space!
For my part, the Flynn film is still under copyright for another decade. The minute it hits the public domain, I’ll be putting it on my YouTube channel.
Until then, you’ll have to settle for the 1922 Douglas Fairbanks silent version, which I’ve just uploaded.
Best watched with some Clannad for musical accompaniment.
Or maybe the Indiana Jones soundtrack.
This is the first film in a new section I’m adding to my channel alongside the serials. At the moment, anything made before 1929 is public domain. Every year, a new batch opens up, and every now and then something slips into the PD through a paperwork miracle (hello, 1960s copyright renewals).
Robin Hood himself isn’t someone I’m dying to use in my Public Domain Super Heroes universe but he could show up someday. He certainly checks all my boxes thematically.
One of my core pillars with Public Domain Super Heroes is taking beloved, square-jawed white-guy heroes and giving them a makeover. Sometimes that means race-bending, gender-bending, or dropping a character into a brand-new era.
But with Robin Hood, if I want to keep the historical setting, I’m a little boxed in. An Asian Robin Hood would make no historical sense, and Robin Hood as a woman has already been done more than once. Not saying “never,” just “not my first choice.”
Still, I may find a place for him.
Plenty of characters, like Kull of Atlantis, I am including in almost-original form… with major worldbuilding changes. My Atlantis is not Robert E. Howard’s. My Kull does not follow Howard’s timeline. I plucked him up and dropped him straight into my universe.
That’s the joy of the public domain.
Nobody gets to tell me “you can’t do that”. Well, almost nobody.
My very first Amazon review (thank you, sincerely) came from someone who read Swords in the House of Horus and was upset enough by my version of Kull to leave a one-star review.
They felt my Kull wasn’t an “honest attempt at telling a Kull tale.”
My Kull, my way.
And they’re right. It isn’t Howard’s Kull.
It’s mine, in my world, rewritten to serve my universe’s mythology.
I’ve since clarified that in the book description, because that kind of misunderstanding is on me.
But here’s the thing:
I’m going to do it again. And again.
With every character I can legally use who sparks something in me.
And through all of it, every tweak, every shift, every reinvention, I’m holding myself to one promise:
But the stories themselves?
They’re fun. They should be fun.
These characters deserve that.
If you’ve stuck with me this far, you’re already part of what I’m building. And if you enjoyed one of my books, the single most powerful thing you can do is leave a review on Amazon.
It doesn’t have to be long. Two sentences is enough.
But those two sentences make a world of difference. Not just for sales, but for visibility, momentum, and future projects.
A book sale keeps the lights on for a day.
A review keeps this whole operation moving for years.
If you like what I’m doing, tell the world.
I’ll keep writing the fun stuff.
You spread the word.
Deal?
As part of my new project at PublicDomainSuperHeroes.com, I went ahead and created a YouTube channel to bring some of the super heroes and adventurers I will be writing stories about to you in the form many people were first exposed to them.
Back before streaming, there was cable. Before cable there was free to air television. Before ANY of that, there were movies. In the early days of movies, theatres used to draw their patrons in by offering more than just whatever feature film was being show. From the late 1930s to the early 1950s, it was fairly normal to expect that along with the price of admission to the movie you wanted to see, you'd get newsreel footage (no tv news, remember?), a cartoon and maybe an episode of a serialized movie.
Coming from a serialized medium like comic books or pulp magazines, super heroes and adventurers were prime fodder for these serialized adventures. Republic and Columbia made dozens of serials and thank to the rules of copyright, even though the characters may or may not still be protected by copyright, these serialized versions are usually not.
I have plans to upload every single super hero or adventurer based serial I can get my hands on and I'm already well into that part of the project.
Thanks to how YouTube's algorithms work, I can't just upload everything at once. They limit uploads to a certain number a day. More than that, to keep the channel active, I can't just upload and leave it static. To satisfy their arcane rules, I'm splitting the difference. I upload a serial a week. In most cases, I set it up so the first episode goes live right away and then every week or two, the next episode gets added.
If you are a serial fan like me, there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with that. These things were released exactly that way and were meant to be consumed once a week or so. They are the direct ancestors of today's network television.
But I realize that we live in a binge conditioned society, so I've made concessions to that as well. Every few serials, rather than trickling the feed, I will give you the whole thing in one shot. 12 or 15 episodes, ready to binge.
As part of my efforts to turn PublicDomainSuperHeroes.com into something that will pay a few bills around here, I'll be updating this blog every once in a while to let you know what I've added recently.
Below are links to what's already live. Each thumbnail will link you to the playlist:
First up, the serials that are being set to live every couple of weeks. Feel free to click and then bookmark the playlist to check back for the next episodes:
And here are the serials I have uploaded in their entirety. Watch them from start to finish or bookmark the playlist and spread the experience out over a few days or weeks, your choice.
I hope you enjoy these little time capsules. My project is taking these heroes and adventurers and placing them in my newly created, integrated universe, but here you'll see them as many fans first saw them back when the only colour you'd see was in comics or your own imagination. Some of these are terrific, some less so, but the heroes they feature are ALL wonderful characters that I'm truly enjoying bringing to life in my new books.
I hope you'll like and subscribe to the videos and my channel. I know that EVERY YouTuber asks you to do that, but it turns out, they're not just saying it to inflate their numbers and their payout. YouTube takes all that 'like/subsrcribe/watch/rewatch' data, puts it in their algorithm and THAT is how you get all those videos down the right side that relate to or complement whatever you're watching.
Like and subscribe actually helps get these videos out there to more people. So if you enjoy them, that little click actually helps someone else enjoy them too!
Please support the project by visiting PublicDomainSuperHeroes.com as well. I have a page set up there for watching all these serials, totally off YouTube, should you prefer a little privacy from their 'suggestions.'
If you enjoy my blog, I'd be grateful if you would buy a book, either a PDF direct from the site or from my Amazon pages. I've done everything I can to keep the prices low for you. The PDFs are only $3.99 at the site and you get a full novella for that low price.
There is also a free to read story on the site, updated every month. That will never change, so if you're not sure if you'd enjoy a longer book, feel free to taste test my writing there that way!
MOST importantly, your comments and reviews are the BEST way you can help keep my venture alive. Both YouTube and Amazon are DIRECTLY influenced by reviews and comments. Their algorithms place my books and videos in a sliding scale with everything else in their database. Every time you comment, every time you add an honest review, that influences the algorithm and moves my stuff up or down in the pecking order.
I absolutely NEED you, my readers and blog visitors to engage with those sites if I am to make a success out of this project. I don't need you to write an essay, just a sentence or two to say you enjoyed something I wrote or posted is worth more to me than the tiny profit I make on a book or piece of merchandise.
You, dear reader, can keep the site, and my dream, alive.
New books every month and every month a free to read story to whet your whistle! Check back often!
And don't forget, an Amazon review helps me more than the tiny amount of money I make on a single book sale! I'm grateful for even a couple of sentences!
I cannot tell you how excited I was to get these! They'd been stuck in Toronto during the postal strike and I was thrilled when they arrived!
They're fantastic!
And I could still REALLY use your help. My offer to send you a FREE 3 day novel has been extended to the end of the month!
Public Domain Super Heroes needs for YOU to buy a book (Kindle or Paperback) and REVIEW IT. That's the most important part. Amazon runs on reviews, so if you buy that helps me today, if you buy and review, that helps me FOREVER!
Here's a link to my brand new author page at Amazon. PLEASE, check out my site and click my author page. I promise, if you help keep Public Domain Super Heroes rolling, there will be fun surprises, free stories and something new to check out regularly!
Not everything around here is about my new launch.
Most of it is. I need you to buy something. Seriously. Go now.
But.
Other things do still happen.
Sadly, one of those is the death of the original lead guitarist of the first band I was ever a fan of:
To no one's surprise, I loved KISS when I was a kid.
Ace Frehley, the Space Ace, died today. He was 74.
Clock that. 74.
Man, I am OLD.
I saw Ace live in Regina, Saskatchewan a thousand years ago when he and Peter Criss were touring their bands together as a dual act, billing it as "The Bad Boys of KISS".
Peter's show was, meh. He did do an acoustic version of Beth, so the memory is still a great one.
Ace was awesome. Not so much musically, but damn could that man put on a show. He must've flicked two dozen guitar picks across the bar over the course of 10 or so songs. Nobody posed like Ace Frehley.
He told us he'd give us a guitar lesson and then held up his guitar, chugging on a D chord for about a minute. The place went nuts.
New York Groove blew us all away.
The band and even Ace Frehley were only mediocre, musically. What was spectacular was the SHOW. It was a mid-sized bar in Saskatchewan and he wasn't wearing any makeup or blowing thousands of dollars of pyro, but his set was full on stadium rock. He played the room like there were 100,000 of us, not 100.
If you know anything about the KISS legacy, you are aware that there were probably about 10 minutes in the early 70s when everything was going smoothly between the original members and maybe 10 more minutes total in the last 25 years. As a fan, I never cared much about what went on behind the scenes, I just loved the SHOW. Not even the music, really, but the living comic book that KISS slapped on every picture, poster and album they touched. For a kid who wasn't allowed to listen to rock and roll around the house much, those guys in THOSE outfits and THAT make-up were musical gods.
What I know of music and showmanship has KISS roots and no mistake.
And I'm still trying to swallow that he was 74. It's astonishing that the hard living, hard partying bad boy lived to 74. Almost as astonishing as realizing how old it makes me that the guys behind the outlandish hair, leather and makeup are all now into their 70s. That just doesn't track in my little brain.
Forever young. Forever Space Ace, Forever the guy in the silver when everyone was done up in black.
I haven't listened to KISS in decades, but I may have to hunt up a little Detroit Rock City tonight.
It's arrived! The first in my line of 2026 Calendars!
This first one sports 12 months of public domain comics and comic book covers and as you'll see in the video below, it is GORGEOUS. The quality blew me away and I'm going to be making at least a few more calendars for the season!
And don't forget, every purchase qualifies you to receive a free PDF of the 3 Day Novel of your choice!
Once you've done that, email info@publicdomainsuperheroes.com with your order number and which 3 Day Novel you would like and within 24 hours I'll email you the pdf!
Today I finished the first draft of my next novella for Public Domain Super Heroes, a little story I call Swords in the House of Horus. It's on pace to drop at the beginning of November.
I'd love to see the site roll a little before then. I'm not asking that you go and buy out my store (although I'll happily dance a little jig and post the proof on youtube if you do!) but it'd be nice to sell a few books before the next drop, just to prove that there's some interest in what I'm putting together out there.
To that end, if you purchase a single PDF copy of Captain Midnight and The Sizzling Spider In: Dr. Satan and the Element of Evil, I'll send you a copy of one of my 3 Day Novels of your choice, ABSOLUTELY FREE.
That's right, your choice of Bred in the Bone, Bones of Contention or Quarks & Re-Creation in your inbox within 24 hours, absolutely FREE!
This offer is only available for a limited time.
Your choice! Absolutely FREE!
If you buy The Element of Evil, simply email info@publicdomainsuperheroes.com with the date of your purchase and which book you'd like to get as your free choice and I'll send the PDF of your choice right back once I've verified your purchase.
And that's NOT ALL!
For EVERY purchase at my online store, the offer of a free book applies as well. Buy a t-shirt, a stein, a mug, a hoodie or a plush and I will send you your choice of PDF to you within 24 hours. Simply email info@publicdomainsuperheroes.com with your order # and choice of novel to receive your free gift! I'll even send one if all you buy is a keychain!
That's right. Even one of these is going to score you a bonus PDF of a 3 Day Novel!
Please help me out and pick up something from my new venture! I need a little encouragement and you're just the reader to provide it!
And I don't ask without giving you something fun in return, EVER. Your support is truly appreciated!
Cheers!
PS!!!! I've updated the offer to include 3 Day novels and all the books at AMAZON. That's right. Spend as little as $2.99 on any 3 Day novel pdf and I'll send you a second one, FREE!
Over at Public Domain Super Heroes, if you look up in the top right corner, you'll see a little red button that says "VOTE! WIN!"
That sounds intriguing.
And it is.
If you click that little red button, a poll will slide out and ask you to vote on which House we should build for January 2026.
What's that all about, I hear you ask.
My new site is divided into 5 "Houses" that each contain different flavour novels and novellas. The first four (Justice, Crom, Entropy and Dread) all interconnect to one degree or another. House of Justice is the home of straight up Super Heroics, House of Crom is where I keep my Swords & Sorcery tales, House of Entropy is the launch pad for Sci-Fi and finally the House of Dread is the basement where I keep all my horror tales.
Over the next months, I'll be adding the first novellas to each with the first House of Justice novella already in place, House of Crom in production and the Houses of Entropy and Dread stories at the outline stage. One a month in October, November and December takes me to 2026.
From there, it'll be up to you, dear reader, to decide which house I'll add to next.
But I'm not just asking for your opinion. Oh no.
I'm also gonna give you a chance to win something for your trouble.
Below you'll see four very spiffy beer steins. They retail for $19.98 at my store but if you want the chance to score one free, sign up for my monthly newsletter. I'll be drawing a prize a month, at least, from that pool of subscribers. If you prefer to simply enter the contest without the trouble of being a subscriber or even voting, simply send an email to contest@publicdomainsuperheroes.com and I'll enter you in this month's draw and only bother you if you win.
And what is a House Stein, you ask?
Drink from the Public Domain Fountain!
If you go to the poll, at the end you'll be given the opportunity to sign up for the newsletter. I promise it will never be spam, just early access to new stories, polls and merch every month along with special offers and members only polls and pricing every once in a while.
There's a ton of new material including a new free to read short story featuring Spy Smasher™ & Hop Harrigan™, two heroes you may not have heard of, but that I intend to bring back to prominence.
Free To Read
There's a new novella for sale, Captain Midnight & The Sizzling Spider In: Dr. Satan and the Element of Evil.
Available in paperback, kindle and .pdf
My 3 currently available 3-Day Novels are also for sale with new cover art.
Available in paperback, kindle and .pdf
Available in paperback, kindle and .pdf
Available in paperback, kindle and .pdf
But wait. There's more!
I'm offering T-Shirts, Mugs, Plush Toys, Calendars and more. There will be new stuff every week and new books every month. The universe I'm creating is just getting started and you're all invited to its opening day.
This past Labour Day Weekend, I entered the 3 Day Novel Contest and wrote book 3 of my trilogy. The first book, Bred In The Bone got the self publish treatment back when I ran the store.
The second book turned out to be a two day novel because I still had that store and was open on the Saturday, so not really writing.
Decades later, I finally found the 'in' for the third book and pretty last minute decided to enter and hammer it out.
I never win and I don't much care. The $50 entry fee is enough of a hit to my wallet to push me to actually finish a book in 3 days and that alone is worth it. It will be until summer or later before I get official word that the final volume of "Morgan's Lament" didn't win and at that point, I'll be doing a print on demand version of the complete trilogy.
Book 1 ran about 28,000 words, book 2 19,000 and this last clocks in at 24,500 or so. 71,000-ish words is a book about 300 pages or so. I look forward to plopping that sucker on my bookshelf. If I'm the only customer, I'll still be okay with the effort.
I actually re-read the two earlier books (seriously, 20-28,000 words is a novella, not a novel - but "The 3 Day Novella Contest" is just not as punchy) and honestly enjoyed the experience. They hold up surprisingly well 20 years later. The capstone volume actually picked up some threads and I found what I think is a satisfying way to tie up the whole thing.
If anyone is interested, I'm happy to call you a 'test reader' and shoot you a pdf of one or all the stories. I can't publish until I know for sure I didn't win, but there's no problem getting individual reader feedback.
It was a hoot. I may do it again, I may not, but that silly little contest has pushed me to finish 4 books over the last 20 years and that is something to celebrate!
Oh and the titles of those 3 books in the MORGAN'S LAMENT trilogy?
Bred In The Bone
An Oath As Strong As Bone (I may change this to Bone Bound)
This is a post to memorialize the end of the third longest relationship of my entire life. No person, place or thing except my house (23 years and counting) and my Mother (35 years) has been a direct part of my life longer than my 2003 Sunfire.
I rolled her off the lot with all of 8 kilometres on her odometer and this past Monday, she gasped her last.
Her last bit of self propelled momentum was able to glide me safely off the highway and into a truck inspection station, her engine blown and beyond reasonable repair. She blew a seal and lost all her oil and never turned on her oil light to warn me until it was far too late.
She kept me safe through blizzards and torrential rain, carted my ass to work, to interviews and drive-thrus, drove the Cabot Trail, got me too and from baseball games and 10,000 other little errands over her 23 years of faithful service.
She was my first car. I am not ashamed to say, there have been tears this last week. Even now as I write her epitaph. A car is just a car, until it's part of your life and you have to say goodbye.
The car wrecker offered my a paltry sum for her. I was heartbroken and have decided that I will donate her body to science, quite literally. There's a service called Car Heaven that will take her and any money made from her recycling will be donated to "Let's Talk About Science", a foundation that promotes science and science based activities across Canada. In the end she goes to the same place, but with more dignity than if I took pizza and beer money from a scrap dealer.
To say I'll miss her is such an understatement I cannot express. Sadly, life in a small town requires a car and I must move on. The next vehicle is waiting in the wings.
As close to a friend as I have.
I am not a car guy and didn't maintain or baby her the way I now realize she deserved. I don't have the skill nor the passion for it that might have extended her already long life even longer, to my great shame. Still, she put up with my neglect and gave back more than I could have expected.
I will miss her like a severed limb, at least for a while and any time I see one of these still rolling, I'll smile and I will remember.
Thank you, with all my heart. Your functions will be taken over by another, but you will never be replaced.
Addendum.
I realized that while I will always need A car, she will forever be THE car.
Of all the new and returning shows I've come across in the last decade or so, THIS is the event I'm most excited to see on my television.
With all my heart and soul, I love this show.
Season 1 was WITHOUT A DOUBT, the best season of television in ANY genre in the last decade. I say that with zero reservation and will defend my claim against all comers. This show was absolutely the pinnacle of episodic story telling. If it wasn't a cartoon, people would be talking about it in the same breath as the first season of Game of Thrones or whatever action/drama you care to name.
There will always be some who avoid it simply because it's animated and that's their loss. It is dramatic, action packed, heartbreaking adventure and as good as any live action show ever tried to be.
Bring on Season 2. I have NO doubts. It will be glorious.
Early last week, I finally got the last comics glued down and covered in epoxy in my kitchen,
Yeah, that's my kitchen.
To make moving the fridge in and out of the kitchen easier, I placed it on a rolling cart and wheeled it into the living room for the 5 days I was working on this.
It turns out, having the fridge 10 inches above the floor is PERFECT for a guy my height. The freezer is at eye level and there's much less bending and stooping to get at stuff down low in the fridge.
So...
And that's a riser for my fridge.
So today, it all got put back together.
And now my fridge floats.
It's been literally years in the making and a LOT more money than I originally budgeted for the project, but I think the results have turned out worth all the work and money.
One of those random "You know you're old when" lists from the internet.
Most entries? Yeah, I feel that.
Best entry?
"I used to sneak out of the house to go to parties. Now I sneak out of parties to go home."
That made me LAUGH.
Then I realized, I'm actually much, much older than that.
I never make it to the "leave the house to go to the party I eventually sneak out of" stage. Nowhere on earth is as comfortable or inviting as my couch. Drinking has no appeal, not drinking while being around those who are, even less. I can't even remember why I enjoyed parties, bars and dancing back when I actually did. All I can recall is hangovers, sweaty presses of people trying to get their drinks and the realization that I was either Dad Dancing or just plain goofy - in public.
This is NOT a post about resolving that. That hasn't happened.
Fortunately, this post is about not needing bloody Linkedin, at ALL.
I am gainfully employed, once again. It's night work, so that's awesome. It's driving a truck, so that's awesome. It's doing something good, every night, so that's AWESOME.
I water trees.
No, that's not a metaphor. I really water trees for a living. Big truck, water tank, hydraulic arm to get the water to the tree. And they pay me for this!
The view from my new office.
It's awesome, all around. I love that every night, my job is to make the city greener, help our trees capture carbon and generally pretty up the place.
In short, Linkedin can suck it.
Now, if I can just get that magic agent out there to love the novel submission, life will be steak and apple pie.
I've been between jobs long enough to have decided I'm just a poor, full time writer. I am actively pursuing agents and submitting work with publishers and hoping that something pops.
That said, I wouldn't mind finding some work to put money into my account rather than watching it drain away.
So, I signed up for that Linkedin thing. All good. Uploaded a headshot, entered some experience and skills, invited a few of my former coworkers into my network and called it a good day's work.
Next day, I get an email saying my account is restricted. No explanation as to why and my only option to get it "unrestricted" is to submit to a third party site that takes my picture AND pictures of my government issued ID.
Wow.
And if you've not had the pleasure, let me inform you that Linkedin is now ENTIRELY people free in the customer service area. It's all "here's the answer to a totally unhelpful, barely related question" and not one functional email link or even a form to submit. If your answer isn't in the help section, you are out of luck.
It's been 48 hours. Not a peep. Their A.I. is obviously too busy to help.
At this point, I'm annoyed enough that should I ever get access, I'm strongly considering deleting the whole profile. I need work and by everything I read, Linkedin is a great tool. I'm just not sure that the trade off of my humanity is worth it.
It's literally "Old man yells at cloud." I just think that in this case, since we've given up so much of our agency to the cloud, it's no longer ironic when I do it.
No flying cars yet, folks. But we're well on our way to being batteries that service the Matrix.
When Star Trek came back to television with Star Trek: The Next Generation, no one quite knew how long it would last. As fans of the original show and its 3 seasons, we were hopeful to see at least that many, but then the writer's strike hit season 2 production and all bets were off.
Somehow, they managed to survive bad scripts and a clip show that rounded out season 2 and went on to an amazing seven full seasons, 20+ episodes in each. Deep Space Nine and Voyager ran almost identical races, the only significant difference being Voyager's short first season.
Then came LONG drought of Trek on television. When Discovery was announced decades later, we Trek fans were thrilled. I think it's fair to say that most Trek fans weren't crushed when it only went five seasons of between 10 and 15 episodes.
Personally, I was crushed when Lower Decks only went 5 seasons of ten episodes each. That show is EASILY my favourite Trek since Deep Space Nine. An animated treasure and I truly hope they find a way to bring some of those characters into future projects.
Then came Strange New Worlds, spun out of Discovery and EXPLODING onto our televisions.
Back in the 90's, I kept screaming that instead of going forward in time (TNG, DS9, VOY) they should go BACK and make the Adventures of Captain Pike with THIS GUY:
The Late, Great Ray Liotta woulda KILLED it.
While Ray Liotta can no longer pick up the mantle, Anson Mount's Christopher Pike is a very nice surprise and has entirely won me over. I don't even hate the recast Spock. Don't love him, but I don't hate him. Rebecca Romijn as Number One was inspired casting and won me over from the jump.
Happily and sadly, they've been renewed for a fifth and final season of only 6 episodes.
Another Trek entry I will miss when it's gone.
As much as it sucks that 5 seasons seems to be the new finish line for Trek shows, it's not entirely bad news. I've said for years that I'd rather have 8 strong episodes per season of pretty much any show, rather than 20 episodes that are all only mediocre. Why Hollywood can no longer sustain 20+ seasons of most shows is, in my opinion, not a question of not enough writers. I think they finally figured out that if they hire the best writers, get good stuff out of them and don't bother slotting in meh episodes written by committee, the output might be fewer hours but better quality and thus more profitable in the long term.
Or not. What do I know.
With a definite finish line in place the season after the one they're currently filming, they really should be able to stick the landing:
We all know how this has to end.
All I know is that I'll be glued to SNW for whatever they're gonna give us until they warp off our screens for the final time.
Now if they would just give Seven of Nine her spin off, I could write a companion article entitled "Will 7 Go 5?"
P.S. Obviously, if they do give Seven her spin off and it does go to five seasons, there would be a follow up to that, entitled: 7 of 9 To 5
After revisiting Peter David's Q-in-Law and really enjoying it, I felt sort of nostalgic for the great Trek of yesteryear.
I guess I'm not the only one.
Lookie what I ran across just this morning:
Five spectacular retro look posters promoting the soon to drop Season 3 of Star Trek Strange New Worlds.
A hundred years ago, when posters were something you bought in a roll at a department store (I know, I'm old) I'm seeing a couple of these on my bedroom wall, easy. One of these days I'll share my still in progress Trek themed studio space. If I can, I think I'll find a way to fold some SNW images in there somewhere....
In this Trekkie's humble opinion, now that Lower Decks has run its course of 5 seasons, Strange New Worlds has done a great job of picking up the torch and running with it. The musical episode last season was truly a stand out and the story-book come to life on the Enterprise felt like an episode of old school TOS Trek, something that was entirely missing from the less than stellar entry that was the 5 season run of Star Trek Discovery.
I am an outlier in most Trek circles in that I put Deep Space Nine at the top of my rankings, but I think most Trek fans would rank Strange New Worlds somewhere near the top of their lists and most of us are looking forward to its return on July 17.
For now, we have some pretty spiffy posters to look at.
I just finished rereading it and can happily report that it evoked several laugh out loud moments. David's writing expertly captures the cadence and tone of the stars of Star Trek and you can hear the cast delivering his dialog as if it was an episode rather than a novel.
Q-in-Law is still a joy to read, nearly 35 years later.
