I've been tagged!

Rules of the tagging game:

Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

Share seven random or weird things about yourself.

Tag seven random people at the end of your blog.

Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Akasha Savage has tagged me from Aspirations from the Darkside, here are seven things about me:

1. When frightened, I spray a fine mist of ink and then scuttle in the opposite direction.

2. I once stepped in front of a large truck. Only, it was parked at the time.

3. I'm not saying I'm a cannibal, but I wouldn't rule it out.

4. Nothing scares me more than a miniature poodle wearing a sweater.

5. I was born with twelve fingers and eight toes. Every thing's normal now.

6. If I had a million dollars, I'd buy one million scratch off tickets.

7. I lie. A lot.

Now then, I tag these unsuspecting folks:

Clyde
Steve (of blog from the darkside)
nietzschean-ghost
Hope Sheppard (of Cheeky Sassenach)

Yip yip.

"Retired," available to read

Hey Everybody. some good news on the home front. My story, "Retired," has finally been uploaded to the MagusZine site. It is listed as the October issue, though as far as I can tell it just came out.

This is one of my longer pieces, not like those 100 word shorties I had published last month. So go on down to MagusZine and have yourself a look:

"Retired"

MagusZine is a part of Magus Press, which also sells anthologies such as The Sound Of Horror.

Happy Thanksgiving!


EDIT: I was just reading through my story, "Retired" on the MagusZine, and noticed some typos. I spotted things like missing letters all the way to missing sentences. I checked this against my source copy, and as I suspected, the problem did not originate on my end. I'm going to contact the editor and see if I can't get a fix on these few typos.

1,500 more words.

But I'm tired now.

Thanksgiving Music

It's nothing like Christmas music. The radios aren't barraged by a limitless frenzy of Thanksgiving tunes weeks before the big day. In fact, if anything, we start hearing Christmas music leading up to Thanksgiving.

This year, I thought I'd try to find a few Thanksgiving songs to create a nice CD to play on Thanksgiving day. While searching, I figured something out: Thanksgiving music is LAME!

Oh my. It's just so bad. This is the first list of Thanksgiving songs I came across. Barring two or three songs, the rest are just awful:

Thanksgiving Playlist

Otis Redding: Effin' great, of course.
Sly and the Family Stone: Diddo
Vince Guaraldi Trio: They will always have a place in my heart.

But the rest? Ugh.

Now, there is at least one song that I listen to every year, and it has become a Thanksgiving tradition, not only for my family, but for many. This song is Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant."

They used to play it every year on the radio, and maybe some stations still do. But more often than not, I just pop in the CD at a convenient time during the hours of cooking.

If you're interested, here's a video of Arlo, in his older days, performing the famous song:

Alice's Restaurant

There's also the movie. I actually just added it to my netflix queue. That'll be a nice Thanksgiving day viewing.

Do you have any traditional music you like to listen to on Thanksgiving? Let me know.

If I get enough songs, maybe I can still make that CD.

Thanksgiving can be scary too...

Last Easter I posted some creepy bunny pictures, so I thought I'd do the same for Thanksgiving this year. Unfortunately, this was the best I could do. Actually, I think it sums up the current administration quite nicely.

SO, I've had a couple rejections come in, but no worries, it's bound to happen.

I finally got back to work on my novel, and added around 3,000 words to it, leaving only 4,000 more till my 1st draft is complete. I know this probably sounds familiar, since I was saying I only had 7,000 words left two months ago. What can I say, the writer's laze struck again.

But I'm back in the saddle, and nothings gonna keep me from putting those final words onto the first draft. Unless someone wants to give me a couple million dollars. That might postpone the writing--but not for long. Just until, you know, I bought a better computer. And maybe a new sound system. Oh, and those glowy green lights, you know, that look like Christmas lights but are spooky.

Huh. I feel like I got off topic.

Oh, I have added my Word count meter back to the page, only now it's at the bottom instead of the top. Honestly, i just don't know how to get stuff on the top anymore.

I've reached 47,000 words. I'm so close I can taste it!

I'll try to do some kind of Thanksgiving countdown, like I did for Halloween, but no promises.

Stephen King and Joe Hill: What's in a Name?

It's clear that everyone in the horror field, and many outside it, know that Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. I'm not here to break that particular scoop, though I might just have another, albeit less interesting, one.

At work the other day, I began daydreaming, which is not uncommon. I can't remember my exact line of thoughts, but it brought me back to Joe Hill's popular debut novel, Heart Shaped Box. I was reliving the book in my head when I changed gears and considered Hill's interest in names.

In the book, he names the dogs after different rock stars, which makes sense because the main character is a rock star.

That's when I thought, "Gee, if he put so much thought into character names, there must be some significance to the name he chose for himself: Hill."

Now, I'm pretty darn lazy. I wasn't about to go research the poor guy's life to try and figure out where "Hill" comes into play. But, I did make an obvious connection, that most people probably realize on some level. Hill and King both have four letters.

Okay, big whoop.

Ah, but I haven't finished yet. I took it one step further.

Now, there's a little game I sometimes play when I write stories. I like to put little numerical clues and allusions into the text. I figure, as I do this, that no one will ever notice it. But then, who knows.

So, with this in mind, I present the following:

K = 11 I = 9 N = 14 G = 7

(11 + 9 + 14 + 7) = 41

H = 8 I = 9 L = 12 L = 12

(8 + 9 + 12 + 12) = 41

That's right! If you take the numerical designation for each letter in both names, they each add up to 41.

Did Joe Hill do this on purpose, as a way to honor his father and family name? Maybe...but only one person knows for sure.

I can't imagine it's a coincidence, but I guess there's a chance it is. Either way, it's a nice bit a trivia, and as far as I can tell, I was the first to figure it out. But again (as if I really need to say it) I'm pretty lazy and did absolutely no research...so I could be wrong.

Rising to the Occasion

Within the first few pages of Michael Louis Calvillo's new book, I Will Rise, I knew I had something unique in my hands.

I won't waste your time trying to summarize the novel (besides, you can head over to Mr. Calvillo's website and even get the first chapter free), but I will say it is a nice twist on the familiar apocalyptic plot. Along these lines, the style and POV of the writing is not what you'd normally see in this type of book.

We're introduced to the main character in first person present tense, and he tells us first hand, we're not going to like him. And right there, I was hooked.

The hell with these Hollywood wannabe writers who give us feel good stories with characters we love from the first line.

And with those thoughts reverberating in my head, I started to read, and immediately I recognized the unique style as a playful adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk and Mike's personal flavor. I'm comfortable saying the style is reminiscent of Chucky P for a few reasons. First, I've read all his novels. Second, I adapt some of his style into my own. And third, well, the "about the author" page of I Will Rise basically tells us.

I'm glad to see some new style first person minimalism breaking onto the scene. It's tiring and a little sad to see the same style and voice in every novel, especially when they are written by different authors.

And this isn't to say that Mr. Cavillo doesn't have a certain literary sensibility as well. I was especially impressed with the underlying religious themes that played throughout, even getting into such structural playfulness as repeating words three times (as in the trinity?)

As much as I'd like to let my brain go into lit analysis mode, I think I'll spare you all the pain and instead recommend you pick up a copy of I Will Rise.

Buy Tie Dye Shirts Online

The Tie Dye Connection has just uploaded another large batch of brand new tie dye shirts. These were only just finished in the past few days. They also posted their list of incense scents (17 different kinds so far) which sell for $1.50 per dozen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some of you have probably noticed the new design here at Tales at Twilight. I started fiddling with the old look and settled on this new, brighter, template. But don't worry. Though the look is different, my charming wit and humor hasn't changed.

Look for a special review of Michael Calvillo's new novel I Will Rise to appear here within the next day or two. It was a great read that you'll want to know more about.

Cheers.

Tie Dye Connection: The Online Tie Dye Store

My father and brother just launched a brand new tie dye internet store. I'd say it's THE online tie dye store. It's called Tie Dye Connection, and if I don't mind saying (which I don't), it has some great looking tie-dye shirts at really low prices ($15 a pop).

They are also planning on adding incense and tapestries to the site as soon as their stock comes in.

The shirts are handmade by my dad, so no two shirts are exactly the same. He uses heavy weight (6.1 oz) 100% cotton tees and the professional Procian MX fiber reactive dyes.

With Christmas coming, these shirts are a great way to stock up on unique and affordable presents. You can't buy quality tie dye shirts like these in a store for less. Keep checking back at the site for updates, and I'll post here when they add new products.

Tie Dye Connection