Tales From The Trunk: Another Exit, Another Waffle House

In the spring of 2005, I took a trip to the deep south for a wedding. We flew into Pensacola where the bride-to-be met us and drove us to Fairhope, Alabama where the wedding was to take place. It was my first trip to the SOUTH south. I mean, I’d been to the Miami and […]

Complicity in Copaganda

When I was a kid, a lot of my favorite mystery procedurals featured privite detectives–Magnum, Simon & Simon, Jessica Fletcher, Jim Rockford. There were some good police cops/investigators on TV who worked within the system like Kojak, Columbo, Starsky & Hutch, and Quincy M.D., but for the most part, it was outsiders who solved crimes […]

Fear and Loathing in R’lyeh

I figure a few notes of background might be relevant here. We updated our house chore board today, and I declared Sunday dedicated to “Making Weird Shit.” Because in our heart of hearts, that’s what my cohort and I love to do. Curiously enough, I ran across an old story of mine that I wrote […]

A Guide for Characters and Arcs in RESISTANCE

Unlike other recent Cobalt City novels which focus on only a handful of characters, Cobalt City: RESISTANCE has a huge cast. Some are well established heroes. Some are newer. Some get big arcs that have big implications in the ongoing narrative. Some are cameos to give another perspective. I realized that while the book is […]

Travel: Writing Research

That’s the dream, right? Pack the bags and fuck off to some far-away place for an indulgent period of time to write, research, absorb your surroundings, and write some more. If you’re like me, and I expect many of you are, you rarely get further than the closest convenient coffeehouse or bar. But still the […]

Behind the Story: The Complicated Journey of Madjack

On May 16th, Meerkat Press will release their eagerly awaited superhero anthology Behind the Mask. (It’s available for pre-order now and the advance reviews have been great and the table of contents boasts some exciting names.) This is particularly relevant to me because my Cobalt City story “Madjack” happens to be between those pages–a fact […]

Evolution of a Character: Gato Loco

I don’t know how other authors do it, but at least in my case, it’s uncommon for a character to leap fully-formed from brain to paper. I find that often times the character comes together in bits and pieces until they’re ready to be seen. And even then, they can continue to evolve over time. […]

Hell is a Parade

We have a parade that runs through the heart of my neighborhood every summer. For some, it’s a source of joy. For others, not so much. I got caught in it a few years ago and made the comment “Hell is a parade,” and a friend who is much smarter than me said I should […]

The Dark of the Year

It seems like it’s been a year since we’ve done this. It was, in point of fact, almost a year, since I sat here and looked back at the year that was and the year to come. The dark of the year provides a good opportunity for perspective, like standing on a high peak, the […]

Drawlloween Challenge 6-10

A continuation of the Drawlloween experiment. A short piece from what was originally an art prompt, each individual piece no more than 500 words. Fun-size, if you will. This was where things began to take a strange turn for me, where the daily exercises became something different. Parts 6-10 follow. Enjoy. 6 – Pumpkin The […]