My Blog

Location: Fredericksburgh, VA

Creepiness: 1 and a half stars

Coolness: 3 stars

Interesting cemetery, especially if you’re into history:   

There was a rather bloody battle around the church’s front steps during the Civil War, and about 400 soldiers were buried, willy-nilly, about the place.  

Including, maybe this guy:

Amputated arms and legs were piled up in the church corners, which should raise the creepiness factor somewhat. But…

Unfortunately, the churchyard is right smack next to a super-busy main highway, and has quite the view of commercial activities.

Even at night, the only creepiness comes from the bad drivers. So, no.

Coolness, though, up there. Battlefield. Old church with bloody stumps thrown around it. And a McDonald’s around the corner. Definitely cool.

Some interesting graves:

Sergeant Snellings chose Stonewall Jackson’s last words as his epitaph.

And what’s going on here?  

Were they afraid Mary was coming back?

Others ended up here from rather far flung places:

Mr. Butzner there would have been 39, 40 years old when the battle occurred. Wonder if he was a German recruit in the Union XI Corp and came back after the war?

Somewhat of a bust. First, I didn’t do my usual elaborate pumpkin, but this, instead:

Meh. Although, I grew the pumpkins mesself.  Yeppur. Right in the back yard.

I didn’t dress up, either, like I did last year:

That’s me as Nick Fury, the real Nick Fury. Tony Stark is standing next to me.

But, nothing this year, although a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent showed up: 

Last year, we had forty kids clean us out of candy. This year? Three:

A Cowardly Lion, Princess Merida, and a vampire. That’s it. And here I’ve got the perfect neighborhood for trick-or-treating:

You can almost hear Jamie Lee Curtis screaming in the distance, can’t ya? But nobody came.

Even Gracie the Wander Cat was unimpressed:

Oh well. Maybe next year.

My cousin, Jason Smith, is hanging out with the people you want as friends when the Zombie Apocalypse hits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maRCstZPh-8&feature=youtu.be

Even the horse is overwhelmed.

Go here: http://www.freefantasybook.com/

The “Last Book Sale” post, that is. I think. I deleted then reposted all the pictures, and they seem to be okay now. So, the one or two of you who were interested can go back and look. G’head, g’head. Let me know if glitches remain.

My pal Cat Connor just tagged me and, well, when you’re it, you’re it. Sooooo:

Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:

What is the working title of your book?

Which one? Okay, fine, the three Most Close to Being Readable:

a. The Ship to Look for God

b. Partholon

c. Frank Vaughn, Killed by his Mom

Where did the idea come from for the book?

a. Ship- from an offhand remark, along the lines of “My luck, I’ll get to Heaven and God won’t be there.”

b. Partholon- from those weird anthrax letters in Florida, DC and NYC.

c. Frank- from a bizarre trip I took across the south in 1965.

What genre does your book fall under?

a. Ship- epic fantasy, but not high fantasy. Says a lot about my geekdom that I know what that is.

b. Partholon- post-apocalyptic.

d. Frank- magical realism

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

a. Ship- Tommy Lee Jones for Otto, Javier Bardem for Ferdinand (No Country for Old Men reunion) and Hayden Panatierre for Claudia.

b. Partholon- Kiefer Sutherland for John Rashkil, Shia LeBouf for Collier.

c. Frank- Freddie Highmore for Butch, Gerard Butler for Dad.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

a. Ship- Otto dies and wakes up in Heaven, discovers God is not there, so joins a group of misfits building a rocket to go look for Him.

b. Partholon- Campus policeman John Rashkil survives a biological attack on the northeast US, only to face a bigger evil rising from the ruins.

c. Frank- in the summer of 1965, a ten-year-old accompanies his manic depressive and wildly violent Dad on a Homeric journey across a changing South.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Partholon is under contract with Rebel EPublishers. As for the others, who knows?

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

a. Ship took about a year because I was having so much fun writing it.

b. Partholon took about three months.

c. Frank took about six months.

Now, ask me how long it took to do the revisions. And how many revisions. Go on. Ask.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

a. Ship is like a very upbeat Lord of the Rings.

b. Partholon is in the I am Legend arena.

c. Frank is The Great Santini written by Homer.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

a. Ship- the fun of replacing the old “harps and fluffy clouds” trope with a crazy Heaven filled with people who just shouldn’t be there (Doc Holliday??).

b. Partholon- hard to say. An inner conviction that, even in the worst possible situation, some people will do the right thing. Or at least attempt it.

c. Frank- it’s a story that just had to be told.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

a. Ship- a lot of interesting characters keep showing up, from a Zulu chieftain who drives a Delorean to Rousseau, who tries to keep Otto from finding God. Did I mention the epic battle at the end between a hodgepodge of desert tribes led by an Indian lancer against a semi-futuristic army of angels or demons or something, we’re not quite sure what they are?  No?

b.  Partholon- action. Lots of it. Brutal, harsh, and no prisoners.

c. Frank- the title refers to a murder that happened in Lawton, OK in 1965. The murdered kid shows up.

Okay! That’s mine. Now for the next victims:

Sara J. Henry

A. S. King

Jose Bogran

EJ Knapp

Deanne Roy

These are the rules:

* Give credit to the person / blog that tagged you

* Post the rules for the blog hop

*Answer these ten questions about your current WIP (Work In Progress) on your blog

*Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.

Not sure what’s happening with the picture uploads.Dang internet. Bear with me…