I’m going to be guest blogging (hopefully) at another blog soon, links and details to come, and it’s time for another small revamp of the site here. I’ve been lethargic, slacking off, and in serious need of a self-administered ass kicking to get into focus and start chasing my goals. That all begins…NOW!

Colored Chalk Issue 10 – The Ten Commandements

:30 montage of life happening…

Hey! The new issue of Colored Chalk Magazine is up online, and guess who’s in it again? Yaaaay! Cursing, stuttering, ventriloquism, and a shipwreck!

Check it out!

It’s aliiiiive! I finally managed to carve out some time to do what I’ve been meaning to for months now: give SurfMonkey Designs its own unique presence on the web. I guess it’s a good thing that it’s taken so long, because it means I’ve been busy doing websites for people! Spread the good word! Visit SurfMonkeyDesigns.com for all of your web needs!

I’ve also gotten pretty good at building computers…so…if you’re in the market for a great new PC and want a screaming system whose prices scream far less than Dell’s…drop me a line! We’re about to move to a new apartment, so I will be dead tired over the coming weeks. But things are coming along well, my writing is progressing, my business is growing, and soon we’ll live at the beach. Life is good!

Well, at least this time, I’ve actually been overwhelmed and busy as usual, only to RETURN WITH GOOD NEWS! My short story “Ashes to Ashes” was selected for the first issue of the Colored Chalk webzine. It’s a project branching out of a writer’s group I was fortunate enough to join last year. We’re constantly motivating and eviscerating each other, it’s a grand time!

It’s now available online and wherever we can sneak in printed copies. In fact, YOU can print copies out and pass them out to your friends! What are you waiting for? It’s a great collection of stories with the theme “2 Guys Enter a Bar…” and the stories go in some unexpected directions. Try it, you’ll like it! And God willing, this will be the first of many posts like this alerting you to where I’ve been published!

Click the Banner to let the fun begin! And if you’re feeling writerly, submissions are OPEN for issue 2: Cockroaches Ate the Ending…

When the political season started, I was hoping for a serious showing from John Edwards…alas, it was not meant to be. My second choice (and it was a close second) is Barack Obama, for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is his ability to unite and inspire people, both nationally and around the world, to work for the common cause of uplifting American values, keeping our nation secure, and restoring our international image.

Here’s a great new song from will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, setting Obama’s inspiring “Yes We Can” speech to music. We don’t need four more years of failed Republican policy. We don’t need four more years of divisive Clinton politics (although Hilary is a strong candidate in her own right). We need change. We need positivity. We need Obama!

We all get bombarded with these stupid spam emails, “v!agra cheapmeds!”, “Extend her pleasure”,etc. Today, this one caught my eye as I was about to throw it away. A poem!
I was intrigued. Usually spam is so cold and impersonal…how did they know I like to write bad poetry? Were they trying to appeal to me as a kindred spirit? I took the advice of the poem to heart, and from now on, when it comes to my wife, I will “know her from the s pza ex ivp u pvz.”

I give you the amazing potery of Earlene Hurd:

M- men always would like, that at them all was more, than at others

E- enlarge your manhood today and reap all the benefits

G- guys get jealous now when they see me in the bathroom

A- and now make a real step to this – buy our means for increase of the m pvz em jo be rt r

D- do not let ladies prefer dildo to you!

I- if the man speaks you, that to him all the same with what at him the si apj ze of the me kib m fqm b glz er – he dissembles

K- know her from the s pza ex ivp u pvz al side how is she i oh nsi xl de exactly.

Breathtaking, isn’t it?

I’ve looked on a lot of blogs I like, and I’ve noticed a disturbingly familiar pattern…the user posts about how they vow to post more often and then follow up with posts about how they’ve failed to post more often. I’ll try to get out of that habit. Here’s what I’m working on now. My latest novel is churning along nicely, I’m putting out about 500-1,000 words a day. I figure to have it done by late January/early February and start getting reviews and critiques and stuff.

Ive got an article I need to shop around to magazines, and I’m about to start trying to put together an internet play over at the Cult with some people on the boards there. It will be a fun experiment in audio, and another project I shouldn’t commit myself to because I have so little time. I picked up a ton of new clients seemingly out of nowhere. Got some new sites ready to launch over the next couple of weeks, more designs to tweak as well.

I’ve also committed to an ultra-double secret Writer’s Group (a write a novel in a year thing), which I’m going to use to rewrite Hit and Run. We’ll have to wait and see what happens…

I hope you all had a great Christmas or other-denominational-end-of-the-year-family and/or loved-one gathering.

I will post again. Soon.