Hands Across the Sands

A great turnout for the event in Pawleys this morning. Was happy to be a part & hope it made a difference. The message needs to be heard & understood--it's frustrating to see all those tourists here at our beach who cannot be bothered to join hands in effort to save the very beaches they are vacationing on!

"Drill here, drill now, pay less." This is the motto of the misinformed. Ignorance must be bliss.

A wonderful day at the beach. Saw a school of dolphins, surfed and kicked the soccer ball around with my boy. No oil...yet. I love days like this.

An excellent day...

A full day--the P90x Kenpo workout (this is recovery week), washed Bud (my dog), Lionel (my car, not the dude on "As Time Goes By"), then the beach and surfing for several hours. Later, writing and then chilling with "Daybreakers--a movie with Sam Neill and Ethan Hawke. Yes, expectations (for the flick) are low.

My take on a really shitty day at the office is live. Check it out.

http://ping.fm/KRPRQ

My flash fic "The Package" is now live at 69 Flavors. Check it out.

http://ping.fm/pM6XV

Awesome news! I just learned the poetry 'zine Paper Crow has accepted 3 of my poems. Check them out (the zine, not the poems) here--
http://ping.fm/IsDCM

A full day!

A three mile run this a.m., surfing this p.m., a back cover blurb (which I righteously suck at) for a new e-book, and tonight more edits on the novel. Plus, hot wings and beers and a maybe a horror flick, if I'm awake!

ALA most challenged books

I just read this over at Yahoo News.

"...a library association official also thinks that the "Twilight" series reflects general unease about supernatural stories."

I haven't read any of the Twilight books, but the point is most of the complaints were made by so-called Christian groups.

Is The Bible not full of supernatural occurrences? Whether you are a believer or a non-believer, one cannot deny that rising from the dead after three day is a supernatural event. What changing water into wine or becoming a pillar of salt? Or having a bloody snake talk you into eating something you'd normally avoid?

Bible-thumpers want us all to read Dick and Jane (but of course, they'd censor the name DICK).

Poe Little Thing Guidelines are now up

Poe Little Thing, formerly the digest of dark poetry will be reanimated in autumn 2010. The reading period will begin on April 19, 2010. We will remain opened until September 20, 2010 or until filled. This will a twice yearly themed anthology and a little meatier than the previous version of POE.
Issues will be available in print and e-book formats.
The theme for the autumn 2010 issue will be:
IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM
Use that catchphrase and take it where you will.
We are currently looking for poetry to 50 lines and flash fiction to 1000 words.
• Payment for poetry is $.25 per line.
• Payment for flash is $.05 per word.
• Contributors must have a valid Paypal account for monetary payment. Otherwise, payment will be in contributor’s copies only to equal payment amount. (No, cover price has not been determined yet.)
• All contributors receive one print and one electronic copy of the publication.
Please submit your work as RTF attachments. Include a brief cover letter/bio/ website address.
In subject line, remember to include “POE SUB.”

ARTISTS:
We are also in need for a good cover illustration, within the above theme. Digital art is preferred.
• Payment for cover art is $25, plus 1 contributor’s copy.
Please submit work as JPEG attachments. Include a brief cover letter/bio/ website address.
In subject line, remember to include “POE SUB.”
I am open to seeing samples and assigning cover work. Artists may submit a web address instead of attached samples. I am open to seeing art as of today (4/12/2010).

NSPBOOKS.com

Surfrider Foundation: Expansion of offshore drilling is not the answer

Surfrider Foundation: Expansion of offshore drilling is not the answer

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Sweet sunshine!

I've been waiting for this day since Thanksgiving! It's nice enough to work outside on the patio--sun beating down, tank top, shorts and Hawaiian Tropic. That makes for the best kind of writing. Tomorrow? Who knows--maybe the beach!

Cool! My tiny, scary story "The Siren's Song" is now live at FLASHES IN THE DARK.

http://ping.fm/Dv0Cx

Neighbors

A neighbor was out walking her dog this morning as I was leaving. I had my tunes up loud and she gave me this "look." All I could think was--but you are carrying a bag of shit.

Who is the real master in that relationship?

My daughter just confused Bin Laden with Ben Stein...I mentioned Bin Laden and she asked, "The boring guy on the eye drop commercial?"

In honor of Dr. Seuss' B-day, Cameron came home from school with a very grand top hat made of construction paper and a paper plate.

"I will not, will not with a goat. . ."
--Dr. Seuss

My story "Breaths in Winter" is now up at DF_Underground.

http://ping.fm/vgBoz

Book Trailers

Just did a prelim trailer for my upcoming Echelon Press release. I must have suffered from trailer creator block or something, because at first, I was just at a loss. What would be the best images? The most enticing micro-passages from the story. Anyway, I made it through. Book trailers--boy, they're tough to make, but I love watching them! I'll post mine later this week...

A respectable writing day, also, with around 1000 words on "the novel." The end is within reach--two or three days at the most. Then comes the tough part.

Weekend horror--THE Final Destination. Sucked. Hopefully, we'll do better tonight.

Can't believe I'm awake.

Yes--a very productive writing week. Nearing the end of both a novel and a short story. One poem written. Acceptances from The DF_Underground, SNM Horror Magazine and Echelon Shorts.

Dear Writers of LOST

Nobody gives a shit about Jack and Kate. Seriously. It's become like that book that starts out great, then peters out. Still, you have to get to the end because of all the time you've already invested in the thing.

Give me some BEN!

Word meters

I'm trying to play with these word meter things--some added motivation. Short story in progress:

2567 / 3500
(73.34%)

Novel that is almost finished and probably in need of a good trim, with a pretty good guess at the final word count:

101101 / 106000
(95.38%)

DUH!

Rented Final Destination 3 over the weekend and wondered why it seemed so familiar.  The answer--because it was NOT Final Destination 4--duh!  Watched the whole stupid thing through before deciding to check the Netflix envelope.  (Odds were I was a bit tipsy when I watched it the first time.) 

Streamed the episode of Masters of Horror: Imprint, which started slow, but really became strange and pretty horrible--but in a good way.  Great imagery--I even got a nightmare out of it, which seldom happens from watching movies.  It did lose me when the "sister" came into the story--just too cheesy for me. 

The only other episode of MOH was from a Bentley Little story called The Washingtonians, which was pretty cool, but not as cool as the story.

Maybe I'll get Final Destination 4 this weekend, but who knows?  I might otherwise just rent another silly movie I've already seen, but forgot.  Part 1 ruined me for airplanes, 2 for driving behind logging trucks, 3 for roller coasters--does 4 have house work in it?  I'd like to stop doing that . . .

Zombie Story

Most horror fans love a zombie story.  Here is the link to one I had forgotten about.  And BTW(referring to a couple of comments on the story), the misspells are intentional.  This is the blog of a teenage girl, from the U.S. public educational system.  She is not a rocket scientist.  (Some people just can't catch on.)

Thanks for the other comments, however. 

http://www.talesofworldwarz.com/stories/2007/09/19/teenage-zombie-homecoming-queen-by-donna-taylor-burgess/#comments

Updating the Site

Re-vamping the lame website. 

Latest news includes appearances at Chizine.com and Daikaijuzine.