Where To Find Us

Until further notice, we are blogging over at 

W. J. Howard's blog at http://wjhoward.com

Bloodleggers #3 on Blood Reads

I owe everyone an apology for causing the delay of the next part of Bloodleggers.  A couple hours after I woke up on my birthday back on the 17th of the month I realized I've been dealing with writer's block for quite some time.  I wrote about it in my blog in Okay, I'm Blocked...Now What? back on the 19th if you'd like to know more.

Anyways, R.J. had a part ready for editing while I was throwing my 10th draft into the trash can a few days before the part three release date on the 25th.  Hooray for responsible writers!  So we got to work last week on editing his part.  It was supposed to post yesterday, but I set the date to 2011 instead of the current year.  OOPS!

My family decided to spend another day in the mountains yesterday, so I didn't realize until this morning I'd made a boo-boo.  Luckily, I took another look at the post because I'd also left in a three paragraph discussion between R.J. and I that copied in from the comments on the manuscript.

Okay...all is well now.  To read it, just click here.  Or use the link in the left column.  ENJOY!!

A New Chapter – A New Laptop

For those of you who have been following along, you know that back when I was working on first chapter (on the very first version of it), I had my laptop of 11 years… die.

It was a sad day. Let’s be serious though, it was an old IBM Thinkpad T21, an underpowered, old machine. It was good enough for Word, though, and that was, at the time, all I needed.

But then, last Friday, my wife spoke the magic words, “Go get yourself a new laptop.”

So now, I have a brand new (not really, it’s a refurb) Samsung R530 notebook. It’s weird to have a screen this big, and this sharp, and be able to run Windows 7 on it, without it dragging like a snail.

The nice part is, over the weekend, I was able to get in time writing while we were on a little vacation in the woods. Now, I’m typing this using Windows Live “Writer” which lets me write Blog posts from my laptop with full editing, and importing of images, and other editing features I’d normally have to do by hand.

Ah, the miracles of modern technology.

On the Bloodleggers front, you may be wondering what I wrote over the weekend… Well, I’ve had an idea for a while for a chapter late in the book, so, over the weekend, I thought, what the heck, and started that chapter. So, without giving too much away, it’s a scene between Knox and someone very important among the bloodlegging hierarchy.

So, new laptop, new chapter, and vice versa. It’s been a fun weekend. Now if I could just get work down to less than 60 hours a week…

R.J.

While I Attempt To Pick Myself Back Up

Okay, who said this?  I'm feeling too lazy to look it up.

"Success is measured not in how many times you fall down, but by how many times you get back up."

It's in Literary Agent, Rachelle Gardner's blog post Good to Great today.  I really needed to read about her recent trip to the U.S. Olympic Training Center.  Used to live not to far from there.  Anyways, loved that Rachelle says,

"What impresses me the most is this: These athletes are talented and gifted beyond the ordinary. They’re already elite before they get to the training center. They’ve won hundreds of competitions in their sport. They know they’re “good.” So what do they do? Do they sit back and expect coaches to come knocking and invite them to join the Olympic team?

"No, they do the opposite. They give up everything and work harder than ever to take themselves from good to great. They spend at least 40 hours a week focused on improving their game. And they were already one of the best."

I'm having a bit of a "I want to quit" crisis this week.  I don't really want to quit writing.  This is the first time I've really been faced with this overwhelming feeling that quitting is the best option.  Maybe go work at Target or Wal Mart instead.  Bow out and do something easy and brainless.  Really crappy feeling by the way.  I'm guessing this is just another one of those hurdles we writers have to get over. 

I have to argue with Rachelle though.  Star athletes spend their entire life with the support of their families and coaches.  Fiction writer is one of those occupations like starving artist that's considered a hobby.  Mom and Dad tell you you're nuts from the get go if you tell 'em you want to write novels.  "Make sure you have something to fall back on."  And who can afford a coach?!?  Personally, I'd love it if the drill sergeant therapist from on the Geico commercial would beat down my door right now.

It's a good thing we now have the Internet, where we can support each other.  Lots of great writers' groups out there, like Vamplit Writers.  We're all very supportive of other writers for the most part.  Great blogs like Rachelle Gardner's to supply the motivational posts.  Still...no one to hold me back from filling out an online application to Target.  Sign!

A Book That Makes Us Laugh

This week R. J. and I are sharing a book that makes us laugh.  Over the past year I've found that writing comedy is not an easy task, so I respect any author who can do it well.

Again, for me (W. J.), there are a few, but this week I'm highlighting only one.   A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore is the most recent book I've read that made me laugh my ass off.  In fact, I read this book and then got the audio CDs and listened to it a month later.  There are certain authors that I prefer to listen to their books, and Christopher Moore's one of 'em. 

Poor Charlie Asher is a Beta Male who loses his wife after she gives birth to their daughter.  He witnesses a man collecting his wife's soul vessel and soon finds he's become a soul vessel collector himself, whether he likes it or not.  The most hilarious parts of this book are not related to Charlie collecting soul vessels though.  His interaction with the supporting characters like his relationship with his young daughter are some of the most hilarious parts of the book. 

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In my life, I've (R. J.) found very few books that make me laugh out loud, and it seems that the ones that do all have come from British authors. Maybe it was the fault of my parents making me listen to too much NPR as a child, but I find the dry, sarcastic humor (or should I say "humour") of the Brits as the height of written comedy.  So, for my book that makes me laugh, I'd have to choose Douglas Adams' masterpiece, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as my favorite. The way that he weaves absolutely insane situations into the life of poor straight-man Arthur Dent always brings a smile to my face. Not to mention, the analogies he uses to set up scenes are also outstanding. I will never forget the phrase, "The great yellow ships hung in the air in exactly the way bricks don't."

Bloodleggers #2 on Blood Reads

“The humans are ignorant and undisciplined. Transformation to our kind without the proper trials and necessary years of indentured servitude is an error in judgment.”

–Elder Ysabell of Clan de Bohun, Scotland, 
The Congress of Glenluce, 1183 A.D.

November 5th, 2008, Mile High Mortuary, 6th Avenue, Denver Colorado

Regina Todd paced the shiny concrete floor of the crematorium holding a cell phone against her ear with one hand and nervously flicking the black polish off her thumbnail with the other. “C’mon, Piers,” she grumbled, “answer.” READ MORE...

Hell Week

It's hell week again, or should I say hell half week.  Wednesday is the next release of Bloodleggers and I'm pulling my hair out, still.  So I've opened up a bottle of wine and toasted to the hair I have left.  A new wine I haven't tasted, Raia 2007 Shiraz.  Not bad.

My greatest challenge has been changing from a terse 1st person present tense, as The Courier is written, to 3rd person.  If you don't read my personal blog, you won't know that I've got a goal to finish releasing The Courier on Twitter by July 31st, which I will do.  Only problem is it takes my brain about an hour to switch completely between the tenses.  So when I go back to edit I'm constantly catching a bizarre mix of tenses.

So what was my other challenge?  Giggle giggle.  A few sips of wine down and I'm already feeling loopy.  I'm a serious lightweight. 

Oh yeah!  It really sucks to try to match another author's voice.  Grrrrr...  My thought is it will be easy to tell what I've written vs. what R.J.'s written for awhile.  Then the parts we write together once Regina and Knox meet will also stand out.  I just have to get over it. 

More sips of wine.  From this point on I take no responsibility for improper grammar or incoherence.  Oh, also watching the last hour of Lord of the Rings in TNT (Sam's saving Frodo from the orcs), so I've got that distraction going too.

Anyways, I might sound like I'm complaining, but taking on the writing of a novel with another writer has been one of the smartest decisions I've ever made.  I really felt like I'd gotten into a rut with The Courier.  This has forced me to intricately analyze both our writing styles, and I feel I'm becoming a better writer as a result of it.

So come Wednesday, I'm hoping you love and hate Miss Regina Todd.  She's a little difficult.  And I'm really hoping you'll like Magnus MacKay, her uncle, who you'll also meet.  He's becoming a main character as we continue our planning of Bloodleggers.

A Book We Have To Read More Than Once

This week R.J. and I are sharing a book we have to read more than once.

I can't decide on one though.  Most of the books I've read more than once are about writing. When it comes to fiction, the Dune series qualifies. I've read Dune twice and am making my way through the series. The more I read, the more I love it and could read it over and over again. Besides that, I'd really like to read the Harry Potter series through for the second time. Or maybe listen to it on CD. Why these series?  I get so wrapped up in the intricate plot of the Dune series, and with Harry Potter, I fell in love with the characters. This is kinda funny, considering I'm a horror writer and my selections are not in the horror genre.  For that genre I'd have to answer with The Books of Blood by Clive Barker.

For R.J., "reading books twice is nothing new.   I always feel it's like spending time with an old friend I haven't seen in a while. Anyone who knows me knows I never give away a book, and I have about 60 feet of bookcases in my basement to prove it.

"For sheer re-readability, nothing compares to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I've re-read "Eye of the World" at least ten times over the last 21 years, and amazingly I keep finding more things that he put in to foreshadow future events that didn't have a payoff until books that didn't come out until 15 or more years later. In fact the first book still has a scene that has all of WoT fans out there chomping at the bit for answers.

"A book like that is a gift that keeps on giving. I know that Harry Potter contains a few references that can be carried forward from the first book, but Jordan intertwined his foreshadowing with an amazingly complex world (over 3500 named characters) that means every read through lets you find new and surprising details you had missed the first, second, and even tenth time you've read it."

Now it's your turn.  What book(s) do you have to read more than once?

A Book That Changed Our Lives

On Fridays, for the next few weeks, R.J and I will answer a short question about books.  This week's question is about a book that changed our lives.

R.J. chose Lord of the Rings, primarily because it influenced his decision to write fantasy.  It's a hard decision because neither of us can say that any one book changed our lives.  Reading horror taught me I wanted to write in that genre, especially after reading Pet Cemetery.   Lonesome Dove taught me that I could actually cry hysterically while reading.  Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jane Austin taught me to love classic literature.  But one book that changed our lives?  How could one book change our lives when each book provides a little something that affects us in both positive and negative ways.  And so this quote somehow seems appropriate for today's question.

"It’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that once were in books. The same things could be in the “parlour families” today. The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through the radios and televisors, but are not. No, no, it’s not books at all you’re looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old phonograph records, old motion pictures, and in old friends; look for it in nature and look for it in yourself. Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us."

-Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural

R.J. found this film and it looked interesting, so I put it in the Netflix queue. Actually watched it a couple weeks ago and am now getting to finish up a quick review.

First of all, her's what it's about per Amazon:

A notorious bank robber kills his wife and flees the police, only to be captured by a mysterious group of figures in an abandoned town. His beautiful daughter, Lila Lee (played by the late Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith), receives a letter stating that Lila’s father is near death and that he needs to see her. Sneaking away at night from her minister guardian (EATING RAOUL co-writer Richard Blackburn, who also writes and directs), Lila embarks on a terrifying journey to find her father that leads her to a mansion run by Lemora, a seemingly loving woman who cares for a group of gypsy children and a witch-like servant. Once the terrifying secret of Lemora is revealed, Lila must uncover what happened to her father and fight for dear life as she tries to escape the clutches of the undead! 

I think we were initially interested in this film because of Lila's gangster father, not to mention it was banned by the Catholic Film Board for over twenty years.  Afterall, as soon as any media is banned it only makes the public more interested.

Anyways, on to my thoughts about the film...I enjoyed it, quite a bit.  Probably helps that the movie was made in the 1970s and that's my all time favorite era for vampire movies.  What I enjoyed most about the movie was it's 'weird' ambiguity.   Lemora representing Dracula with lesbian undertones also made for an interesting coming of age story, possibly influenced by Alice in Wonderland or Little Red Riding.  Visually there was a steady pace of the strange and creepy that I found captivating.  And I liked that it left you wondering what happens in the end.   Only thing I'd complain about is that the minor characters got a little too bizarre at times.  All-in-all, his movie is unique and definitely worth viewing.

Since I really should be writing Bloodleggers and editing The Courier, I suggest you read more over at Film Threat about this movie.  They've got a pretty good summary and review of it.

My Fangtastic Rating:  4 out of 5