I can't remember how much I've said about my current WIP. It's a space opera, with the theme of Vampires in Space.

I just passed 18,000 words on Book 2 in the Mészárosa Trilogy, Salvāre. The first book, Vim Dicaré is all but done, including the cover, just a few tweaks left and another round of final line edits with Lauren. But I plan to finish all three of these books before I publish. The writing is going a little slower than I would like. Not because I am struggling with it, it is pretty well outlined, but I am laboring to put my butt in the seat and actually write. That is the real challenge I'm facing. I want this for a career and adding words has been a slough. Makes me wonder if I have what it takes.

I'm not interested in filling my time with video games any more. The writing is always there, and I never regret the time I spend doing it, but there always seems to be fifty other things that need attending, or --

squirrel!

I'm easily distracted. I have all of the covers done for the, a plan in place, a wonderful editor that gets me, all I have to do it write the damned books. I am hoping to really focus on writing over the next two months. I would love to have it finished before the end of the year. It is doable, but will require diligence and perseverance.

I want to publish all three next year.

I hope your writing is going better!

Here is a little taste. This is raw and unedited and might not even make it into the final copy:

The behemoth cargo starship Rougarou moved into the open maw of the quantum gate and in a flash, it disappeared from realspace, swallowed up by the receding wave of energy. In front of the ship, a tunnel led them forward through netherspace, bucking slightly as the ship settled in front of the energy wave like a surfer on the North Shore of Oahu. René Trahan had never seen such a wave, but it was how the story had been passed down through the ages, as the Trahans had been merchant traders on Earth when ships sailed the oceans, and they were one of the first to take up the space lanes after the quantum tunnels had been opened. But this wave was invisible to the eye and only a practiced helmsman could maneuver with such a soft touch that the ripples from the wave smoothed out so quickly that not even a cup of water was spilled in the ship.

The gals over at the Book Review Crew are doing a blog tour for my book Effacement that will run through the coming week. Please go check it out and their other reviews.

I'm very excited to announce that the audio version is available today at Google Play, Chirp, and Authors Direct!

More will be coming as they process the files. It should be available soon wherever you download your audiobooks.

Henry and Jenna did a wonderful job! This is more like an audio play, since they do all the voices, male and female, and narrate the appropriate sections as well. I hope you enjoy it!

I submitted for maybe half a dozen book awards. I've heard back from three so far and I made the cut in one that is still going. I made finalist in another but didn't win.

And today I found out I won  National Association of Book Entrepreneurs Summer 2021 Best Science Fiction Book!

This is their 39th year doing book awards by category. It's always rewarding to get recognized for the effort.

I have to say I am quite pleased with how Effacement turned out. The reviews have been generally great, and best of all nobody has said I suck at writing and should stop. That was my biggest fear.

Imposter syndrome is real.

If you haven't checked out the novel you can see it here: Effacement

I am discovering just how much I love music. I have for a long time, but the depth of my love for music, especially 70s soft rock, alternative rock and pop punk, is making me regret that I didn't invest in learning an instrument or learned to sing or how to engineer or really anything related to the music scene. We've been rewatching (new for me) Dave Grohl's Sonic Highways, and it hits me in the gut just how much I love everything about the music scene, from song writing to performing, and how artists do it for the love of it, how it drives them and just how much talent they have for creating something. And their drive to do this makes me a little jealous. To know what you wanted to do since you were 12 or 13 years old. God, how I would have loved that.

I find that I am a very balanced person. A big picture guy. I went to college a little too soon, I was 17, and didn't take it seriously. I missed out on a lot of cool things because I simply didn't have the bandwidth. But now I am slowly catching up. I am happy and in love and loving life. I have several guitars that I hope to learn to play someday, but maybe that's not my thing. I do love to sing now and I am a writer, maybe that will be a thing. Who knows. But despite everything, all of the loss and pain and misery of the last year and a half, I still think life is good and only getting better.

I hope it finds you well.

Warmest Regards.

I am picking Bread, The Police, and Bee Gees.

None of these are touring anymore, so that makes it kind of special.

If I had pick 3 that still touring I would pick:

Alter Bridge, Foo Fighters, and Wolf Alice.

We are going to RIOT Fest in Chicago in a few weeks and will get to see a huge number of bands. It will be my first one and I'm very excited.

Chime in with your top three!

Over the weekend we went to see several movies, including Free Guy starring Ryan Reynolds. I loved this movie so much! Was it original? Not really. I think Disney's Tron was probably the first to do the plot of somebody stole my game code and made a lot of money on it. But there was enough new takes on the genre to keep my interest, and of course Ryan Reynolds was playing himself again, which I never tire of. Seems like fans love it and critics are not enamored. That's why I rarely look for an actual critic's opinion on any movie I want to see.

Millie is trying to find evidence that an ex-partner stole their code to make his game and never paid them. Inside the game, an NPC named Guy, a teller in a bank that gets robs multiple times a day, gets his agency triggered by seeing Millie's ingame character. He starts leveling up like an actual player and go viral outside of the game for doing good deeds instead of bad ones, which the game invites. When Millie runs into a brick wall, she ends up enlisting Guy's help. It is sweet and funny and filled with crazy action sequences.

The thing that really set this one apart was Jodie Comer. Also the surprising romantic nuance. Joe Keery's best role to date as well. But Comer really brings it and stole the show. I walked out of the theater smiling ear-to-ear. Best movie I've seen so far this year. Highly recommended!