Guns, Sandy Hook, and political parasites.

I am not going to discuss the Connecticut shooting. The day of the shooting, Facebook was filled with so many left-wing anti-gun @$$h0l3s trying to politicize dead children that I had to point out that the bodies were not even room temperature yet, and the political parasites were trying to stand on their still steaming bodies.



There was even someone on Facebook within six hours who stated that,  yes, he would have rather that the children has had all been set on fire, because at least then they wouldn't have been shot.  He said that. I cannot make this crap up.



Do you want to know what's worse than killing children?  People trying to make political points off of their dead bodies. These people make me violently ill.



And the worst thing?  There are already people making excuses for this murdering psycho -- "bright," or "autistic" or "Aspergers," and other exculpatory or complimentary words are being thrown at us to excuse mass murder, as though blaming the guns for the slaughter.  Again while at the same time defaming innocent civilians, painting 94 million American gun owners with the same brush of mass murder.



People make me ill. And I've made myself sick just writing about this. Notice, I haven't said one thing about the shooting itself, just the aftermath.



The people of ancient Carthage were a money-worshiping people. To sacrifice to their god, they would toss the biggest drain on their pocketbooks into a fire. They would throw in their children.



If you were someone who spent time online on Friday talking about monsters who own guns instead of passing along prayers, then look in the mirror. You already threw the baby into the fire for your political points. Enjoy.

Music blog. O Come, Emmanuel

Christmas music!



Enjoy

Darth Donald and Padawan Mickey -- Disney eats Star Wars

It's a bit late to comment on Disney buying Star Wars from George Lucas, but there have been so many rumors and lies around the project, it's hard to know where to begin.



Item 1: Disney owns Star Wars, Lucas will be the creative consultant on Episodes 7, 8, and 9.  The Schwartz will be with Disney (Mel Brooks joke, ignore me).  Episode 7 is slated for 2015, putting it up against the next Avengers film, supposedly, a Justice League Film, so that'll be fun.



On the one hand, Disney seems to know what they're doing when it comes to franchises -- they acquired Marvel without destroying the Avengers Storyline -- no matter what the NYTimes whined about the Avengers film -- and have yet to ruin the marvel movies. So, we'll see.



Item 2: The writer for Toy Story 3 will be penning the script, and we don't seem to have a lock on the director yet.



This actually annoys me a bit.  Star Wars has enough writers with the books to write a whole television series -- were Michael J. Stackpole and Timothy Zahn too busy?  In fact, forget stackpole, I'll take Zahn.  No, I don't need to have The Heir to the Empire series Zahn wrote twenty years ago as episodes 7-9; for one thing, everyone is too bloody old. Unless, of course, you're going to recast everybody, in which case, we can have a party ...



Nathan Fillion as Han Solo anyone? Morena Baccarain as Princess Leia? Sean Maher as Luke Skywalker? Adam Baldwin as Darth Vader?



Oh, did I not mention that?



Item 3: THEY'RE BRINGING BACK DARTH VADER......



Ahem....



I'm really, deeply, seriously hoping this is a joke. A bad joke. Told by Fozzy of the Muppets.  Where's the "Wokka Wokka"?



Item 2 (Reprise) -- if you want to talk about writers, were Zahn or Stackpole asked? Were the writers of the Bioware videogames (who have made the best Star Wars stories outside of Zahn for the last 15 years) even considered? Or did they have the writer in mind when they started negotiations to buy the series?



Conclusion: I'm wary, but hopeful. Lucas is being shoved out of his own company. Creative consultants are what happened to Joe Quesada when he was replaced.



Disney may not screw up Star Wars even more than it already is. Here's hoping.

Sex, politics and comic books. Oy!

So, twas the week after the election, and all through the nation, you had 19-petitions to secede, from places as diverse as Texas to New York, a wave of people want to get the heck away from Barack Obama.



What does that have to do with this blog? Nothing. Nothing at all.  Except for the fact that the top ten blog posts of all time  for A Pius Man has to do with either sex, politics, or comic books.  So, somehow, I have to link up Obama's appearance in Spider Man with the latest sex scandal, and I will have the ultimate blog post -- especially if I have a musical interleud by Two Steps From Hell.



If one is to believe social media, there is no allowing for a middle of the road approach aht-wing friends are somewhat sane-ish (no one I know is completely sane), but some of the left-wingers were so loud for so long with some pretty heavy-duty insults, I had to defriend some of them, and blockatleast one altogether from Facebook.  There was a "worship Obama and watch only MSNBC" or "you're an evil, right-wing homophobic 1%-er with no human decency, and that goes double if you're Catholic."  And if you're Catholic, you're old-fashioned and stupid.



And after Obama won, it got worse.



And, of course, whenever someone was called out on it -- such as "I hold the belief you're pissed off about, you think I'm evil?" -- the reply of everyone is a standard, "Oh, I don't mean you!"  But after a while, when they make no distinctions between "you" the "friend" and all of those people who are evil for even holding an opinion contrary to their own .... yes, they do mean you. I mean, hell, when they say that you're a threat to humanity, you hate people (women, puppies and Christmas), and you start to get the impression that if a church filled with Catholics were blown up, they would celebrate, and maybe shed a tear or two when they found out you were in it.



After Kathey Giffords was shot by deeply psychotic Jared Loughner, we were all told that rhetoric kills, and we all have to be civil.  Where did that go?



If you're now wondering about my politics, I covered them here, so you can save your desparaging remarks.  Frankly, I'm on the side of civility, and right now, the loud, utterly psychotic ranting is coming from the left side, and I see no one on the left throwing a net over their more insane members. Read through the article on my politics and when I'm no longer being labeled as evil for even having opinions on these topics, then we can talk.



Now, if the current atmosphere keeps up, I'm sure I can get more blog viewers by tacking hard to one political end or the other. I'd rather not, because I like holding onto what sanity I have with both hands, and maybe my teeth.



I'm also sure I can get more readers by introducing sex as a topic more often... but, again, I'd rather not.



And I stopped reading comic books a while ago.



If I do not hear back from Chesterton Press by the end of the year, I will give self-publishing a try on A Pius Man.  It'll take me a while though. So, we'll see what goes on here. And, with any luck, it'll work.   But I'd much rather not. Really, I'd rather not.



I'm out. And I'll talk to you all later. Hopefully, I'll have a topic next time, as opposed to these vague meandering posts that barely have a point.

Getting back to work

So, this blog is called A Pius Man: A Holy Thriller.  But there's a graphic for a novel called It Was Only On Stun! by a Declan Finn when the blog is by a John K. For those of you keeping track, you know that I gave up on traditional publishing and went my own route, experimenting with a lesser novel that was a murder mystery at a science fiction convention.

So, what's happening with A Pius Man?

First, A Pius Man should be coming out next.  It will either come out in January, or else we'll be working on getting it out next year.

Who's we?  Well, that's a funny story.

When I published It Was Only On Stun!, I interviewed as many places as possible. I wrote as many guest blogs as I was allowed.  I spun my wheels until the tires popped.  I've sold about 60 copies, more or less.

However, it was not all for naught. You see, what's happened is that my guest blog on Catholic humor caught someone's attention.  It was around the same time I kept tagging John Ringo on Facebook and didn't realize I was posting on his wall at the same time.  However, a friend/fan of Ringo saw the words "Catholic humor" and decided to swing by. He's a freelance editor with Chesterton Press.

If you check, you'll realize that Chesterton Press is a Catholic press.  They like Catholic books.  And A Pius Man can qualify, for the most part.  ously, how many Catholic presses are going to read a book where there are RPGs flying all over the place and priests who look like they could be assassins?

One will be more than enough for me.

So, while I'm waiting on that for happen, I'm considering my options. I've recenty gotten a full time job -- well, it's not full time as I'm writing this, but may be as the blog is published.  I'm working as a writer at NYU-Polytech in Brooklyn.  It's a bit of a hike, but the hard part is getting to the trains  After that, I get an hour to read ... usually, if I can even lift my arm in a train crowded in by sardines in a city that just suffered from a major hurricane. 



So, don't worry, I haven't completely lost my mind, blog posts to the contrary.  I just had to rid myself of some toxic people in my life as a bit of a cleanser. Think of it as green tea for the soul. 



I'm just glad the elections are over. Those things were annoying as hell.

Have some Iron (Man 3) in your diet

The debate annoyed me last night, no politics today.



A friend of mine labeled me a clear and present danger to the universe just for holding some beliefs I don't even enforce on anyone. But my thoughts themselves are evil, apparently. I'll talk to him after election, and hope everyone calms down.



So, have you seen the new trailer for Iron Man three?



Enjoy

DragonCon Report #6: an hour with Peter David

Just when you thought that this thing would never get posted (and, at several points, I didn't think it would be), it goes up.



Peter David is at the end of every Star Trek track at the end of every year.  He's the last hour on the last day of the convention. The way he told the story one year, someone in charge of scheduling said "Peter David? He's the last person I'd want to see," and random minion wrote down "Peter ... David ... last .... person."



And so a tradition was born.



Anyway this is an hour video.  He starts by killing time with some DragonCon memories, discusses projects he has with Will Smith (a movie called After Earth), his problems with the publishing industry (which suddenly doesn't make me feel so bad), and more.

DragonCon report #5: Photo Layout

My attempt to upload Peter David's full panel [mentioned yesterday] has been continuously flouted by YouTube, so you folks will
have to be stuck with a few measly photos.

Granted, some of these photos are of some fairly spectacular
stuff.  For example, we have this lovely
woman on the right here, as Jessica Rabbit. 
Unlike some people, who came in with obviously plastic measurements,
this woman was your standard beautiful woman. 
She carried it off well because she had simple sexy down pat.  Yes, if you’re wondering, I do think sexy is
more than just a collection of physical attributes.

But, obviously, that might just
be me.

That's one of the nice things about DragonCon -- people are there to be looked at.  You can take a photo of a stunning person, then sit down from each other on the same rug because both of you have feet that are in serious pain.

Let me see, there were a whole boatload of costumes at DragonCon.  CosPlay is very much a factor.  And, while I would have really liked to have taken photos of whole crowds, it was too dark to capture all of them, at least with my camera.

One particular group was called CosPlay deviants. I'm sure you can find them online somewhere -- they even have their own calender.  

I'm not entirely certain where the deviant parts come in, but what do I know?

As you can see, on the left we have yet another very lovely poison Ivy. You'll remember that a few days ago, I came across the same one twice -- there were actually so many kicking around at DragonCon, I couldn't keep track of them all.  And I had shot one on Friday, and one on Sunday ... even though it was the same exact woman.

But, well, I'm not exactly complaining.

One strange little phenomenon, though, were the ones doing full on impersonations.  Batman isn't that creepy unless he's sneaking up behind you and playing with zip lines in an atrium ballroom.

However, when you have a woman dressed like Harley Quinn (from the video game Arkham Asylum) and doing a pitch-perfect impersonation?  That is bloody terrifying.

She was actually go good, when she walked off stage at one of the many costume judging, she was actually called back by the crowd, and host Peter David (dressed on the left as the Green Hornet) so she could keep doing an impression of Harley.

Welcome to DragonCon.

Anyway....

Yes, there were women out there dressed in more, um, interesting costumes.

Exhibitionism at DragonCon?

 No, really?

Why do you ask?

Ahem....

I'm not complaining.  That's all I'm going to say about it.

There were other good costumes there that had no cleavage involved.  For example, we had one fellow in a very good Spawn outfit.

Yes, I know that he's a guy, therefore there can be no cleavage, but that has never stopped a Con-Goer before, why should it start now?

And if you have no idea what I"m talking about, you have obviously not been to many Conventions.

Moving right along....

This next costume will be of interest because it's of Carol Danvers, aka Miss Marvel, part of the Marvel comic universe, and possibly a participant in one of the upcoming Avengers movies, Guardians of the Galaxy -- which means we might be looking at one of our next Avengers.

No, no cleavage exposed here, either. But, again, I'm not complaining.

Besides, there's a reason I didn't post my photos of the "Power Girl" CosPlayer.

Anyway, I think that's enough for now, don't you?

Be well all. I hope to have Peter David live tomorrow.  Here's hoping.

DragonCon report #4: For A Lord Of Time, and Torchwood

This was a DragonCon Report that went a little sketchy.



How sketchy was it?



It was so sketchy that I'm going to have to resort, once again, to other people's DragonCon vids on youtube.



To start with, a little bit of strange, strange music.



If you don't know who Peter David is, he writes stuff.  A lot of stuff.  Ever read comic books with the Hulk? He wrote that. X-Factor and Young Justice? I think he owns them both.  Any good Star Trek novel, he wrote that, too.  He's written Halo novels, any movie novel adaptations not written by Max Allen Collins, Spider-man comics, Fable novels, and King Arthur (Mayor of NYC), an a wolf gets bitten by a werewolf and turns into a man for three nights a month, and .....



Anyway, Peter David, he writes stuff.



In this case, he also did a song parody for Dr. Who.  I can't even begin to describe it, so I'm going to show it to you.  However, be warned, I will be posting the rest of this panel later in the week. I would have posted it yesterday, but my internet wanted to take over six hours to post it to YouTube, and I had to get to work in the morning.



Enjoy







And this was a panel with John Barrowman discussing Torchwood.  If you like that sort of thing.

DragonCon Report #3: Fightin' and Writing with Ringo; Buffy with Marsters and Landau

A Poison Ivy on line, with Zombie backup.

So, yesterday, believe it or not, didn't go exactly as planned. I would have sworn that I had filmed at least twenty minutes of the Furlan / Boxleitner panel. So much for that idea.



I had taken notes, but much of the notes I had taken had been posted online in various and sundry pieces and parts.



As I said, it wasn't exactly as I wanted it to go.



However, one of the things I did get to record involved John Ringo.  You might get the impression that John Ringo is my favorite author, given how much he's been mentioned lately (and considering my review of his latest novel). He might be, but considering that I read practically anything that's not nailed down, that would be hard for me to say.



I can tell you that it would be nice to be John Ringo when I grow up.  I'm already about as sane, but I would like to write as much, and as often ... then again, that would presume I'm also published, so....



Anyway, John Ringo appeared at one panel on the Saturday night of DragonCon, called Fightin' and Writin' ... yes, it was spelled exactly that way, try not to shoot me.  Things went a little strange with the audio, so I spliced the bad audio to the end --  the last part might be harder to hear, but it's a small part of the whole video. I thought the facts he went through are fun.



Writers really should be taking notes.

I shot her twice on two different days.

The Ivy's started to blur after a while.

Now, next, there was another panel that I was not at.



Again, it was a panel that I could not get in to.



Welcome to DragonCon.



Who was on this panel? The case of the Avengers? The leaders of a major TV show? Major film stars?



James Marsters and Juliet Landau.



If you're asking "Who?" the answer is Spike and Drusilla from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe.



Anyway, this will be the last video I post for this week. The last time that I did a DragonCon report, I was pounding out transcripts for a month.  I am so not doing that again.  So I'm going to take my time, and assemble a lot of my notes in an orderly fashion.



Don't be surprised if I have a whole blog dedicated to pictures at some point next week.



Now, on with the vid.

DragonCon report #2: Babylon 5 and Firefly

Wonder Woman at DragonCon

[No, I will not be doing a 9-11 article this year. Everything I could say in the matter was covered last year.]



Believe it or not, I didn't get into a lot of panels at DragonCon because they were standing room only, and not even that. The Lord of the Rings panel was crowded out, Torchwood panels were crowded out, even guests Adam West and Burt Ward (Batman and Robin from the 60s) had so many fans that the place was crowded out.



However, as John Ringo has said, what happens at DragonCon, stays on YouTube.



So, who needs to go when stuff is being filmed?



Answer: Me. Much of what I did go into didn't even get put online.



So, one panel, which I didn't get into, is a Firefly panel.  For those of you who don't know Firefly, it is a sci-fi western of Joss Whedon's from about ten years or so ago.  This panel had Sean Maher, Jewel Staite, and an appearance from Adam Baldwin -- his first appearance in years, since he was busy working on a show called Chuck.











Below the break, Babylon 5 stars Mira Furlan and Bruce Boxleitner (aka: Tron), discuss their work on the show.









For the record, the host had mentioned that this was more exciting than having the Obama's, because they were the President and First Lady of the United States, but Boxleitner and Furlan were President and First Lady of the Galaxy.









Yup, it continues.







A discussion of working with Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas.







"What was your most momentous scene?"







Sleeping together, and character reveals.

DragonCon Report 1: Marketing Wins, Epic Fails, MacGyver, and Rocket City Rednecks

A casual Con-goer at DragonCon, dressed

in a Witchblade costume

Yup, I'm back from DragonCon.  This has possibly been one of the craziest I've ever been exposed to.  One panel said that the registration was up 30% this year, and another one mentioned that "We stopped selling tickets around 50,000 this year.  That's what we told the fire marshal. Shh."



Yes, "50,000" people spread over five hotels.  Did I ever mention I have a mild phobia of large groups of people?



Let me see, a few things worked, a few didn't.  You remember I had at least two evil plans for DragonCon.



One was an epic fail. I was going to give copies of It Was Only On Stun! to John Ringo, Timothy Zahn, and Peter David, and hope they liked it enough to give me a blurb.



John Ringo said that, since he tends to write in the voice of books he read, he was rereading his own books.



Timothy Zahn stated, before a room full of people, that he hasn't read fiction in ten years.



By that point, I didn't even bother with Peter David.



However, on the other hand, I was going to hand out flyers for the five free days I was giving out my book to Kindle users.  I had 500 flyers.  The free promo period ended last Thursday. I had 1304 people read the book. So, I guess that's a bit of a win.



Anyway, moving right along, we're going to start the first DragonCon report with something a little lazy -- to start with, I'm going to post a video of Richard Dean Anderson, better known as MacGyver, or as an officer from Stargate, the tv show.







Now, I found him a little boring, and if you folks agree, well, I'm going to try to make it up to you with a video of Travis Taylor (author, physicist, runs a show called Rocket City Rednecks) and John Ringo (author, author, and font of a lot of various and sundry knowledge),  Sadly, it's only ten minutes.  I couldn't get into this panel, since it was standing room only, and I didn't feel like being fit in with a shoehorn.



I actually thought it was kinda awesome, but I'm a nerd.







Be back tomorrow with more vids, and photos, and maybe some written reports.

Book review: Masks, by RM Hendershot.

To begin with, all of the heroes were dead. Dead as a doornail. Ten years ago, they were all slaughtered as part of a supervillain’s killing spree after he learned that he was dying of cancer. After that, no superheroes call LA their home anymore.



Enter Rae Masterson , the “mask” known as Peregrine -- powerless, unless you count snark as a superpower. She has nine arrests under her belt, even though five of them have been of Captain Catastrophe, whose name is suitable in more ways than one. Our story opens with Rae witnessing the kidnapping made by one of the local supervillains, Cobalt.



In another part of the universe, Trevor Gray, a former sidekick, modeled somewhere along the lines of Tim Drake, has been recruited by one of his fellow homeless to find his friend – someone who had been kidnapped by Cobalt.  He's a genius-level detective ... but he still can't understand girls.



As Rae and Trevor investigate the abduction from two different angles, they run into each other, and hilarity ensues.



Welcome to the world of Masks, by RM Hendershot, a superhero novel that openly states that this will be "different" from all the others out there.  Is the author right?



I generally don’t like Young Adult novels. You have to get someone very specific and very good to get me to bother with one. Timothy Zahn, David Weber, Peter David, CS Lewis, are the few authors of YA books that I’ve read and that I’ve liked. Take your Hunger Games and your Twilight, and I’ll sooner given you back Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Chronicles of Nick first.



However, I like this one. It’s witty, and it’s fun, and it’s smart. It’s better than anything comic books – the usual medium for such things – has put out in years.  Unless you count J. Michael Straczynski.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and that’s not because I helped with one of the death traps. It has a lot of stuff most comics lack – character, for one. Everyone here has a surfeit of personality, even the bad guy, and the sidekicks, and the local superman equivalent (everyone has at least one). Chapter eleven has a shootout between three female characters, and not one mudwrestling joke…. someone should send it to DC Comics.

Everyone in it has a solid story arc ... or a character arc, if you prefer. And our hero and heroine have some good, natural chemistry.

It has the snobbery of high school, the stupidity of bureaucracies (in short, it's very realistic) and, the most important part: this book doesn’t treat the audience like they’re stupid.  The last time I saw someone treat the audience like this with superheroes it was Straczynski. It has offhand references to the Fischer King of Arthur, and even Universal monster movies. They also have some nice nods to actual comic books -- there is a Busiek hall, named after the creator of Astro City, a Lieber hall, named after Stanley Martin Lieber, who also goes by the name Stan Lee.

Not to mention, I also like the art. I’d post a few samples, but they’re not mine to post. No, this isn’t illustrated; they’re just pictures at the opening of each chapter, that’s all. But they’re nice and straightforward, and I can tell who’s who. Which puts the artwork above some Marvel comics I’ve read.



All in all, it was fun. There were some nicely executed Hitchcockian moments along the way, as well as some moments that J. Michael Straczynski would love.  Is it Les Miserables? No, of course not -- the book's too short.  But it's fun.  But Ms. Hendershot also has a plan, and a multiple-book arc, so we'll see how it all shakes out. 

The novel is quite enjoyable. I recommend it to anyone who believes in truth, justice, intelligence, and heart.  And ghost cowboys. Can't forget the ghost cowboys.



Buy it here -- seriously, for some reason, it's disappeared from Amazon and B&N.

I Have an Evil Plan, with Zahn, Ringo, and David.

Holidays are generally not great days for my blog traffic.  This upcoming labor day, that's a good thing, because I'm going to be at DragonCon.

Yes, DragonCon, in beautiful downtown Atlanta, Georgia.  You can check out their guest list here.

I intend to enjoy myself, and unleash my evil plan.

Okay, it's not necessarily evil, but it should be interesting.

For newcomers, It Was Only On Stun! is a murder mystery at a science fiction convention. And, since I've published this bloody book mostly through my own stubborn efforts, I'm going to try selling as much as possible, and one thing that would help would be blurbs from authors, giving me positive reviews. Really positive reviews.

In short, I hope to give a copy of my book to Peter David, Timothy Zahn, and John Ringo. Why these authors?  You mean aside from the fact that they are all kick-ass writers, and popular in the science fiction community?



Peter David and John Ringo have a similar sense of humor to mine ... or I developed my sense of humor by reading them, pick one.  I find Ringo inspiring, and David usually entertaining, when he's not putting his politics into it.



Timothy Zahn is "only" an amazing author, and most likely responsible for resurrecting Star Wars as a franchise (sadly, the book franchise might be the only reason Lucas felt comfortable trying the prequel trilogy.  Bonus: Zahn has gone everywhere that Lucas has, and has outperformed the little sot.)

Right now, my major hope for the convention is that I don't have security sicced on me for trying to hand an author a novel.  Signed, of course.

On the plus side, I know Peter David has out-and-out advocated this procedure, so I can at least tell him that I'm only following his own advice. 

On the other hand, if Zahn found it creepy, he could call the 501st Imperial Stormtrooper Legion (see my Sean Ryan Trailer.).



And John Ringo ... well, he's ex-82nd airborne, and legions of his fans are military vets. I really hope he doesn't mind. And that he likes the book.

It's going to be amusing.

Hitting the big leagues -- being interviewed at Fortnight of ... Mustard?

Today, I"m going to be a little bit lazy.  I'm going to let someone else do the work for me.....



Sort of.



I'm actually interviewed over at A Fortnight of Mustard (yes, seriously.) and at Catholic Once Again.



It's always nice to deal with someone who likes my books. :)



Anyway, enjoy the interviews.

Promotions Update: Read the Book for Free

Yes, you can read It Was Only On Stun!, the prequel to A Pius Man, for free....



But you don't think it's that easy, do you?  Of course not.



Let's talk talk promos.



As I've mentioned previously, Amazon.com allows me five promo days for people to read my book whenever and wherever they like.



But only as long as it's on a Kindle.



So, I've expanded the dates.  Anyone can read my novel, It Was Only On Stun!, from September 2-6.



Why those dates?  Because I'm going to be dropping these fliers all over the place at DragonCon (okay, it's slight hyperbole; I'll be dropping a ton of these fliers on the tables with all the other promotions).  I don't see anyone stopping their fun at DragonCon to read my book. However, I can see them downloading a free book so they can read it on the plane ride home.



And if you don't like the flier, this is only a first draft. I've been a little busy lately.



Twelve days to DragonCon.

The Singing in the Wood: Guest Blogger: John Konecsni on Catholic Humor

So, some things are happening today.



Number one, I have a little job out in Brooklyn. Since I live in the back end of Queens, I will essentially be driving over the hill and far away.



However, that doesn't mean I will be doing nothing.  I have already written a blog .... for someone else.



I suppose you're an internet celebrity when you can do guest blogs for other people.



Karl Erickson, who I met through the Catholic Writer's Guild, let me write a guest blog. When I asked for a topic, he said Catholic writing.



This is what he got. Enjoy my blogging from the hip.



The Singing in the Wood: Guest Blogger: John Konecsni on Catholic Humor

Promotions and self publishing.

Did you know that one of the advantages of publishing exclusively on Amazon.com's Kindle e-reader actually allows the publisher five promotional days?  Yes. Surprise.



Basically, for those five days, anyone with a Kindle can read my book for free.  After that, Amazon will pluck the book out of their e-book shelves, up until the point where the readers buy the book.



Advantage: people who read the book may like it and pass it along, telling everyone they know about the book.



Disadvantage: people may read it, not like it, and not buy it.



It's a risk I'll have to take, I guess.



This is a flyer ... at least a temporary flyer.  I'm not sure I'm done with design yet.  I"m also not sure if I want three days, or blow all five at once.



And why these dates?  Because those are the last days, and the day after, DragonCon, in Atlanta.  You could say they're a target demographic. :)



You could ask -- why not hold out for New York Comic Con?  Because I get 5 days every 3 months.  July, August, September are the first three.  NYCC is in October, so that would be the next round.



If you're wondering what the dates are -- here. If you've got a Kindle, mark the dates.

"It Was Only On Stun!" A brief review.

How did I get to It Was Only On Stun! you ask?  Here's how.



I'm Getting Published. ~ My announcement, and why, after years of sweating A Pius Man, I went and self-published something completely different. Answer: prequel, and "test run."



So, now what?  How this blog, and you, faithful audience, influenced the book.



What Happened to A Pius Man? A more thorough answer to what happened with the novel.  Originally written in answer to a member of the Catholic writer's Guild who asked why I was self publishing at all.



Marketing Concerns and Self Publishing -- I've published my own book, but how am I going to get it out there?



Cover Art, Graphics, and Slowly Going Blind. -- Doing your own cover design.

Forget Sparta. I! AM! PUBLISHED!!!!!  I was officially published on July 4th, 2012. Let freedom ring. I waited for blog post #300 to get sappy.



Trailers for "IT WAS ONLY ON STUN!" ~ My new trailers. I think you'll like them. They're funny.

Pricing, Royalties, and It Was Only On Stun! How I make money.  Though I should note, as of now, Amazon.com is having a price drop on my book, so it's cheaper than it is posted there.

Colorado Fires, Donations, and Coyotes

Karina Fabian, who's been kicking around the blog for a while, sent out this letter the other day.  And, I figured we could all give her a hand.

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a little story about a series
of
wildfires being set near Los Lagos, Colorado, the fictional home of Vern
and
Sister Grace of my DragonEye, PI world. The story itself was a
mystery
convolving Sister Grace and Coyote the Trickster God. It was fun to
write
about Coyote again and it explains a few mysteries mentioned in Magic,
Mensa
and Mayhem. I've sent it out to several places, but no one took
it.
However, I know that every story has its time and place. That time
and
place is now and online.
We've had an upsetting number of forest
fires in the West, and Colorado
Springs has been especially hard hit, with
over 35,000 people evacuating
their homes and hundreds of homes destroyed or
damaged by the flames.
People have come from all over the nation to assist in
fighting the fires,
and so many are going to have to rebuild their homes from
scratch. I'd like
to use my story to help them.
"Coyote Fires" is now
up in a serial format. The first episode s are posted
at http://coyotefires.karinafabian.com.
I have a donation button on the
site, and I'm asking that if you enjoy the
story, you help me help others by
donating a little to the cause. You can
donate as little as $1. For every
$10 I earn (from one to ten donors), I'll
put up another episode. I'll take
donations until the story is totally up or
September 1, whichever comes
later. At that time, I'll send all the proceeds
to the Colorado Springs
chapter of the American Red Cross. I also have a
deal, where if you donate
over $25 dollars, I'll send you an autographed copy
of Magic, Mensa and
Mayhem. (Your entire donation will go to the ARC.)


In addition, between now and Aug 31, the publisher, editors, and I
are
donating all our profits from the Coyote story "Perfect Ten" and
the
DragonEye novel, Live and Let Fly. Order them through the links on
the
story website or from MuseItUp in order for the donations to
work.
"Coyote Fires" is only six episodes long, but I'm hoping we can
raise for a
more than $60. If you'd like to help, I have a couple of easy
ways:
#1. Read the story and donate
#2 Buy "Perfect Ten" or Live
and Let Fly for yourself or a friend
#3 Tell others: You can copy this
blog, make up a tweet or use one of mine:
#Coyote #Fires, a #fundraising
serial story at
http://coyotefires.karinafabian.com.
Enjoy some fantasy and help victims of
the #coloradofires.
Like
#DragonEye? Read #Coyote #Fires online & help victims of
the
#coloradofires. http://coyotefires.karinafabian.com

#4 Donate to another charity of your choice. (Let me know, and I'll
send
you a copy of the story!)
Thanks, all!
Karina
Fabian
http://fabianspace.com Books to challenge the
mind, touch the heart, and
tickle the funny bone.
Live and Let Fly!
Dragons, demigods and super-spies in a spoof that will
make you laugh out
loud! http://tinyurl.com/amazonllf

Pricing, royalties, and "It Was Only On Stun!"

Before I begin, I should probably mention: Declan Finn has an Amazon.com author page. And two five star reviews.  Go me. :)

So, now that I've published the book, the one question I've gotten has been: "So, how much money do you make from this?" Alternately phrased as "What way of selling makes the most money for you?"



Well, that's a funny story.



First of all, you may have noticed my above links. I have different tabs for different pages -- in particular, Amazon.com and Createspace. Why is that? Here's the reason.



My book is $14.95. No matter where you see it, it's $14.95. In Great Britain, it's £9.55 ... which is $14.95, as of this writing. In Europe, €11.88. How much of that do I get? Depends on where people buy it.

If people buy an Amazon.com paperback, I get $5.22. If people buy it on Kindle (at the price of $9.99), I get between $3 and $7 (it's a long story, I either get 30% or 70%, depending on multiple factors). The same goes for the equivalent exchange rate in the UK and Europe.



If people buy at my original publishing website, Createspace, I make more money ... a whole $8.21 per book. It doesn't seem very impressive, but trust me, when you start selling a few dozen copies, that extra three dollars adds up quickly.



And here comes the reason why the publishing companies are in trouble, comparatively -- I am allowed "Expanded Distribution," which means my books are available at brick and mortar locations, such as bookstores, libraries, academic institutions, other online retailers, that sort of thing.



However, that way, I only make $2.23. Why? Think about it -- there are logistics involved, transportation fees, the inherent risks of not selling every last copy that a brick and mortar bookstore buys, making up for the money lost in the books that didn't sell, that sort of thing.



And people wonder why some authors, like Barry Eisler and Terry Goodkind, have gone to publishing on Kindle. Keep in mind, they have name recognition and they are their own franchise. I just have friends, family, and you, gentle readers.



In short, in an ideal world, to make close to six figures, I would need to sell 10,000 copies via Createspace, 20,000 copies via Amazon.com, or 50,000 copies at brick and mortar bookstores.



As of this date, I've sold 18 books, and made $120. I don't think I've been this happy in a long time. No, it's not much, but I worked for every last penny.



In my quest to be published, I have worked within the system, and relied upon the people in it in order to reach the end goal. Through no fault of their own, these people could not get me published. And, because of that, I have been reluctant to rely on anyone besides myself and God Himself.



As the old Bill Cosby routine with Noah's Ark concludes, "It's just you and me, Lord."



Well, now I'm relying on myself, and God, and you, dear reader. Enjoy.

Trailers for "IT WAS ONLY ON STUN!"

Yesterday was the big announcement -- I'm published! Muahahahahahaha



Anyway, I thought I should show you both trailers for my book.



The first one is set around fan favorite Sean Ryan -- while he was a character in A Pius Man, he started here, in It Was Only On Stun!  Yes, we're starting with the fun trailer.

Awesome, right? Thankfully, that's mostly due to the music.  Do I own all those weapons? Of course not. But that's why you have friends who are police officers.

Now, the second trailer is probably something I will come to regret.  Remember all of those neat videos I did for A Pius Man?  I got my friend James to voice one, and Matt to voice another?  Well, It Was Only On Stun! has an author who writes "the Matthew Kovach mysteries" -- he's about 5'10", slightly overweight, wears glasses, is blond with blue eyes.

I figured, what the heck, he looks like me, I might as well do the bloody trailer.

This, however, was the result.  I suggest you watch until the end.  At least that is funny.

If you want to buy the book, go above. It'll take you directly to a kindle, or a hardcopy purchase.

Forget Sparta. I! AM! PUBLISHED!!!!!

I waited three hundred posts just so I can use that headline. Really....



...



Okay. No, not really. It just turned out that way.



But it's true. I'm published.  It Was Only On Stun! is available on Amazon.com.  Buy it here, now.  And you can also buy a kindle copy, right here. And a schedule for a virtual book tour, and maybe even a real life book tour, will be forthcoming .....



But I'm going to take a moment here.

I'm not sure you know what this means to me.

It's been fourteen years.



Two million words. Dozens of rewrites. Entire novels spiked. Two agents. A dead economy, "the end of publishing," and every negative thing about the business of publishing you've ever read in The New York Times.



There have been bridges burned with people whom I have deeply loved. There are people that I owe this to who are no longer talking to me. People who cared just enough to encourage me, but not enough to stay. There have been people I, admittedly, drove away while I was being driven insane by the thorns of this world.



It's been a long road, with a lot of work. I want to thank all of you who stayed around to read what I've had to say.



And, of course, there are specific people who have stuck with me that I need to thank, like: Jason Bieber, Karina Fabian, Kelly Garcia, Ester Lamm, Matthew "Funtime" Pryce, Allan and Annie Yoskowitz, Ann Margaret Lewis, various and sundry people from the Catholic Writer's Organization (Ellen Gable Hrkach, Jacqueline Vickers, Ann Seeton, and, of course, Walter Staples (who can now compare writer's notes with The Great Author). And, of course, there is my family, including my sister Margaret, who helped me with her editing services of Just Write! Ink (on Facebook).



I owe all of you. And I only hope I remembered you all in the acknowledgments. It's all been kind of a blur, so if I missed you, my aim will improve next time around.



Hopefully, you'll like It Was Only On Stun! to a ridiculous degree. You'll want to gift copies to all your friends, and insist that they do the same. Unlikely, but I've been living on hope and Red Bull for so long, I'm shooting for Mars (because the moon is just not ambitious enough). It's also a fairly kick-ass action, mystery, and comedy.

And, if by some chance you don't like it, well, I've got a dozen more books, each with a different flavor and style. The next book will be A Pius Man.  One way or another, it will be published.  Will it be by Amazon.com? Maybe. If that's the case, I'm going to have to find a way to pay Matt for his cover art.

Winston Churchill (everything interesting said in World War II is attributed to him), after the battle of El Alamein, said, "This is not the end. This is not the beginning of the end.  This is, pray God, the end of the beginning."

This is my beginning.

Thank God.

And thank you, too.



But, enough sentiment: here's a fun video with epic music, and weapons.









By the way, while this is an aside -- I also have a new website. Enjoy, all.

Cover Art, Graphics, and Slowly Going Blind.

Sorry for not posting on Wednesday, I was busy blinding myself.



No, I'm not kidding.



So, you know that It Was Only On Stun! will be self published. And, I gotta tell you, I didn't particularly like everything that was offered to me, in terms of cover options at the self publishing places I'm looking at -- Amazon.com, and Lulu.com.



So, I decided to try it myself.



I know, I know. You're thinking, "John -- or is it Declan now? -- we've seen your artwork.  Your Vatican ninjas were a bit of a joke. Why do this to yourself again?"



Well, because I'm stubborn, and because this should have been simple.



Let's start with what I showed you already.



Now, this photo on the right is what I originally had up.  There are a few problems with it.  The quality isn't that good when you look at it up close, the blood spatter on the badge isn't that good, and the "Junior" has become unneccessary.



"Junior" by the way, is because my father had his own company called "Declan Finn Associates," a little side gig for resume building and interview preparation.  Anyway, that's where the Junior came from.



Then my father said I could drop the Junior.



Did I mention that I love him dearly?



Anyway, so there was that.

So, what's the next step, you ask?  Well, there had been an option on Amazon.com that gave you a banner-type display for your title and author name.  It looked kind of nice, actually. Also, someone suggested that they liked one of the earlier "flair button" image that said, "Good Morning, I see the Assassins have failed."



And, so, I started to build that with the Amazon cover generator.



Unfortunately, it didn't want to work for me.  The image I had was always getting cut off from the cover layout that Amazon had. It was a pain in the ass.



So, I built that myself.  While it looks nice, can you see the problem?



It now looks like I have two titles to the book.



Oh joy.  Shoot me now.



So, once again, back to the drawing board.



I knew I had to go back to the original thoughts on the matter. I knew the assassins comment had to go. The blood covered badge seemed to offend no one, and it's part of the convention, called C-Con in the book.



So, that's good, right? Perfect?  I copied a "Hello, my name is" badge from offline, then slapped it on, morphing it a little, and presto, done.



Not quite.  You see, Amazon's cover creator requires 300 pixels per inch. I had 96 PPI.



AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!



Ahem.  Anyway.  So, back to the drawing board.



So, I had to go back to the beginning on the badge.  The image I had stolen from online hadn't been that high definition to start with, and I didn't like the blood spatter.



I made my own badge, from scratch, and tinkered with some blood spatter online. I had to adjust it later, in the image itself later on, but aside from that, it seemed to work.



After that, it was easy.  Start with red background.  Add black circle, white letters, past the badge over it, and we're done.



Then what do we do with the author name?  Simple white lettering?  Black on red?  Orange on red?  Seriously, what would make it easily distinguished from everything else? What would be bright enough to leap out and grab someone's attention if this were on a screen, or a bookshelf?



Enter Clive Cussler.  He's been an author I've read since I was a kid.  His Dirk Pitt novels were very much straightforward adventure stories, and he's been a bestselling author since, well, forever.  I remember he once mentioned how he was in advertising and insisted on four-color covers, so that it would be eye-catching.

So, I cheated.



Do you see something somewhat similar between the Flood Tide cover, and mine for It Was Only On Stun!  



I literally took the color from the title graphics, and used it to ink my own title.



And then there was the back cover, which I had to jury rig multiple times because I had to put text in with margins I couldn't see, and I had to account for a bar code I didn't have yet.



Not to mention, I hated the lower cases in the author name.

So, then it ended up like this.

And then there was the author picture.  A friend of mine told me I had a great Facebook photo, but it wasn't professional.  So, I had to fix that with freeware called Photofiltre.



So, at the end of the day, what does the full cover look like?



It looks something like this.

So, what do you all think? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Leave a comment below, and tell me what your opinion is.



We're getting close, people. Almost there.... We're so close, the next blog entry is number 300. I want to hold off until next week. I hope to have an announcement then.



What announcement? Well, the title I want is "Forget Sparta: I! AM! PUBLIIIIIIISHED!"



Let's see if Amazon can keep up with my ambition.



So, until next week, all.

Cover Art, Graphics, and Slowly Going Blind.

Sorry for not posting on Wednesday, I was busy blinding myself.



No, I'm not kidding.



So, you know that It Was Only On Stun! will be self published. And, I gotta tell you, I didn't particularly like everything that was offered to me, in terms of cover options at the self publishing places I'm looking at -- Amazon.com, and Lulu.com.



So, I decided to try it myself.



I know, I know. You're thinking, "John -- or is it Declan now? -- we've seen your artwork.  Your Vatican ninjas were a bit of a joke. Why do this to yourself again?"



Well, because I'm stubborn, and because this should have been simple.



Let's start with what I showed you already.



Now, this photo on the right is what I originally had up.  There are a few problems with it.  The quality isn't that good when you look at it up close, the blood spatter on the badge isn't that good, and the "Junior" has become unneccessary.



"Junior" by the way, is because my father had his own company called "Declan Finn Associates," a little side gig for resume building and interview preparation.  Anyway, that's where the Junior came from.



Then my father said I could drop the Junior.



Did I mention that I love him dearly?



Anyway, so there was that.

So, what's the next step, you ask?  Well, there had been an option on Amazon.com that gave you a banner-type display for your title and author name.  It looked kind of nice, actually. Also, someone suggested that they liked one of the earlier "flair button" image that said, "Good Morning, I see the Assassins have failed."



And, so, I started to build that with the Amazon cover generator.



Unfortunately, it didn't want to work for me.  The image I had was always getting cut off from the cover layout that Amazon had. It was a pain in the ass.



So, I built that myself.  While it looks nice, can you see the problem?



It now looks like I have two titles to the book.



Oh joy.  Shoot me now.



So, once again, back to the drawing board.



I knew I had to go back to the original thoughts on the matter. I knew the assassins comment had to go. The blood covered badge seemed to offend no one, and it's part of the convention, called C-Con in the book.



So, that's good, right? Perfect?  I copied a "Hello, my name is" badge from offline, then slapped it on, morphing it a little, and presto, done.



Not quite.  You see, Amazon's cover creator requires 300 pixels per inch. I had 96 PPI.



AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!



Ahem.  Anyway.  So, back to the drawing board.



So, I had to go back to the beginning on the badge.  The image I had stolen from online hadn't been that high definition to start with, and I didn't like the blood spatter.



I made my own badge, from scratch, and tinkered with some blood spatter online. I had to adjust it later, in the image itself later on, but aside from that, it seemed to work.



After that, it was easy.  Start with red background.  Add black circle, white letters, past the badge over it, and we're done.



Then what do we do with the author name?  Simple white lettering?  Black on red?  Orange on red?  Seriously, what would make it easily distinguished from everything else? What would be bright enough to leap out and grab someone's attention if this were on a screen, or a bookshelf?



Enter Clive Cussler.  He's been an author I've read since I was a kid.  His Dirk Pitt novels were very much straightforward adventure stories, and he's been a bestselling author since, well, forever.  I remember he once mentioned how he was in advertising and insisted on four-color covers, so that it would be eye-catching.

So, I cheated.



Do you see something somewhat similar between the Flood Tide cover, and mine for It Was Only On Stun!  



I literally took the color from the title graphics, and used it to ink my own title.



And then there was the back cover, which I had to jury rig multiple times because I had to put text in with margins I couldn't see, and I had to account for a bar code I didn't have yet.



Not to mention, I hated the lower cases in the author name.

So, then it ended up like this.

And then there was the author picture.  A friend of mine told me I had a great Facebook photo, but it wasn't professional.  So, I had to fix that with freeware called Photofiltre.


So, at the end of the day, what does the full cover look like?

It looks something like this.

So, what do you all think? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Leave a comment below, and tell me what your opinion is.

We're getting close, people. Almost there.... We're so close, the next blog entry is number 300. I want to hold off until next week. I hope to have an announcement then.

What announcement? Well, the title I want is "Forget Sparta: I! AM! PUBLIIIIIIISHED!"

Let's see if Amazon can keep up with my ambition.

So, until next week, all.

Marketing concerns and self publishing

One of the dangers of self publishing is marketing. How do you get people to hear about a book that you alone published?  I don't have the money to take out a lot of internet ads.  In fact, I have only a Google adwords coupon for $80, so figure that might be it there.



So, with limited amount of funding, and no big names publishing house behind me, now what?



Well, I've got a plan. Sort of. Consider Facebook, twitter, and Myspace (sort of) accounted for. And stumbleupon. And the Catholic writer's organization mailing list.  (Where do you think I met Karina Fabian?). And virtual book tours on blogs.



Celebrities: Anyone I can get my hands on, really. I'm apllying to be a guest at DragonCon in Atlanta, I-Con in New York, and NYComic Con. So, I hope to both talk at large groups of people, and bump into a few people. Peter David checks in at all three Cons, John Ringo is at DragonCon-- I don't intend to harass anyone, but more like say "Hi, I have a gift for you. Autographed. It mysteriously has the author's contact info."



Churches (churches have book groups, don't they?)



Senior groups -- make a large print edition, swing by a nursing home, a senior center, and start speaking like it's a Barnes and Noble reading.



My alma maters. I have people I would like to tell about my success. What there is of it.  This includes my high school, my college, my and those of my family members.



The American Society for Clinical Laboratory Scientists. I know, it sounds strange, but my parents are members of this society, and I have gone to enough meetings to be considered a mascot.



Libraries, of course.



Instapundit.  This one is going a suggestion from my friend Jason over at Axes and Allies.  Instapundit is a massive news site, and the man who runs it is also a science fiction fan.  If Jason gets his attention on my behalf, you will know because my website will crash with the increased traffic flow.



Glenn Beck -- Wait? What? Yes, Glenn Beck, that wierd little fellow with his own radio channel. Why?  It Was Only On Stun is not a political book.  All of the politics in it is from Europe, and a lot of those are from the 1990s -- remember them? However, he does read thrillers -- he has interviewed Brad Thor and Vince Flynn, other thriller authors that I also read. He is also a fan of science fiction.  He might like a thriller set at a science fiction convention.  It's possible.



Literotica.com -- After the last one, this is also going to stand out as strange. As you can tell from the url, this is a written erotica website. However, they have a non-erotic section, and I've posted some of the stories from this website there. I figure that if I start posting little slivers, one chapter at a time (or modified chapter -- maybe a few pages at a time, a few scenes at a time), and when I get a few dozen pages into the novel, the last post says, "Thanks for reading. To get to the rest of this story, buy the book, muahahahaha."  Well, maybe without the evil laughter.



These are only some of the ideas I have right now. With luck, I'll have more soon.  If you have some thoughts, let me know.  If you're a publisher with an offer, let me know. :)



Be well, all.

What Happened To A Pius Man?

 I mentioned the book I first published was called It Was Only On Stun. As I said, it's a murder mystery / comedy with bullets thrown in.

After pushing A Pius Man here for years, you would think I would want to publish that first, no?

No.

You see, I'm going to bounce A Pius Man off of one or two more people while I'm at it. There's a small Canadian publishing company with an editor who really wants me to submit it to her. My first agent (no contract), Joshua Getzler, wanted to use my book to graduate from his apprenticeship (but was too bogged down to follow through) now has his own agency. So I want to see what Josh wants to do, if anything, then try the other publishing company, and then self publish it. I liked Josh enough back then that I want to see if he's still interested now.

Why self-publish It Was Only On Stun then? Why not wait?

Simple answer: the wait was killing me.

Let me put it this way -- I have been writing since I was 16. I have written, rewritten, spiked, and reconstructed 17 books to the level where I would unleash them on the general public. Problems include how many are sequels to other books, etc.

In 2007, I started looking for an agent for my best novel -- it was historically accurate, edifying, educational, filled with character and story and explosions and fight scenes .... A Pius Man.  I had Josh by April, 2007; he became "too busy" by that September, and 12 months later, in 2008, told me to move along.

By March of 2009, I had another agent.. I let that one go, as I mentioned earlier.

Every book and every author and everyone at every convention I've ever been to have told me that if I have an agent, I have a foot in the door. It's only a matter of time. Be patient. And I did everything that everyone told me to do.

And, following those guidelines, I waited 5 years to publish one book.

Playing by the rules, I got absolutely nothing.

I know that other authors have been rejected 27 times by other publishers. I know that "it's been tough" on publishers. I know that 

Will I try small presses in the future? Certainly. I have other books. I could (self) publish a book a month for the next year and a half before I can slow down. But I'm going to dedicate at least six months per book, possibly more (since IT WAS ONLY ON STUN! is a mystery at a science fiction convention, I'm going to try visiting DragonCon, New York Comic-Con, and I-Con, a major local convention in April).

But, short of someone telling me they want to buy my book with a full publishing contract, I am not going to put my livelihood in the hands of anyone else so I can be whipsawed for another half a decade.

Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. And through the Holy Spirit, patience is probably infinite. But I am 30 years old, unemployed (except for my Ambit Business), and due to some bad educational decisions (degrees in European history when no one is hiring in that field), I am probably unemployable.

Prudence is telling me that patience is going to kill me.

So, now what?

So, yesterday, I mentioned that I fired my agent, started the process to self-publish my own novel. I have a cover design.  I have a synopsis, a flap copy, and a novel being edited as I type this blog (I have editors, my sister's English degree has to be good for something).



Right now, as I put family members to work on editing the novel, I'm looking over self publishing companies.  At the moment, I think I have it narrowed down to either lulu.com, or Amazon's self publishing outlet, Createspace.



Now, a little bit about the novel, It Was Only On Stun.  It's one of my earlier non-science fiction works, though it took place at a science fiction convention.  And, despite that it hasn't been looked at in two years, it holds up.  However, it needed an opening.



Thankfully, you folks have already given it to me.



A while ago, I wrote a short story called One Way To Stay Out of Jail.  It showed Sean AP Ryan, security specialist, and weapon of mass destruction, being booked and thrown in jail by the LAPD.  Along the way, he explains where he gets his toys, meets a former special operations officer, and tries to recruit one of the people interrogating him, during the course of the interrogation.



If you don't remember the story, you can check out the whole story here.  In fact, that is the prologue to It Was Only On Stun. Where do I go from there?  We flash forward to Sean Ryan giving a security lecture to a science fiction convention. Assassin's are coming to murder one of the con's guests -- when she left her Eastern European country, she had pissed off all sides, Serbians, Croats, and the "Ethnic Albanians" (ie: Muslims).  Fringe groups and war criminals who want to get back in the game, terrorist organizations who want to prove they're not impotent ... and someone who thinks he's an elf assassin.



That last part is my father's fault, actually.  During A Pius Man, my father had some fun typing away at one passage in Sean Ryan's resume.  This was after I had written It Was Only On Stun, and he threw in a line about how Sean had taken on Middle Earth's Most Wanted Elven Assassin.



So, I had to go back to It Was Only On Stun, and insert a psychotic stranger with a bow and arrow kit who had to prove to Sean's client that she was really an elf. No matter whose blood he has to spill.



It's coming along well.  I'm just navigating the world of self publishing sites.  At the moment, well ...



There's a story in the Mass Effect franchise, told by an alien, Garrus about pre-combat rituals among his people's mlitary -- mostly, fighting.  He discussed how one women he fought was a tough opponent.  He had reach, she had flexibility.  Afterwords, they had a remake in her quarters. He summed it up as "I had reach, she had flexibility."



Amazon has reach. Lulu has flexibility. We'll see what happens. I might be able to use both. But, one thing at a time.