Hitting 50 ...and more

Because I just hit 50, I have Long Island Iced Teas over here for all of the Fire Enthusiasts! Okay, many of you might already know that my birthday was in March and I barely turned 41. What I'm talking about here is the 50 followers mark.

Believe me, when I turn 50 years old, I'll be drinking Crown! Unless my doctor tells me not to, that is!

No, I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has followed me along this four month journey. A year ago at this time I only had a finished novel. I had yet to discover Vamplit Publishing. I obviously had yet to realize the dream of seeing my name in print. I had only heard of blogging and had not spent any time at all thinking that I might ever have one of my own!

And then there's Facebook. Just yesterday I was sitting on 97 fans on The Official James Garcia Jr Author's Page on FB. I put out the word, asking if anyone might like to help me get over the 100 mark, and help me they/you did. If you take a glimpse over at the badge on your right you will notice that we are now sitting at 121. Wow!

So I thank all of you. I thank you for taking the time to read what is up on Blood Read. If you haven't gone, it's free. I thank those of you who have bought a copy of the Dance on Fire ebook, especially those who have blessed me with a comment or review. And for those of you who have promised to immediately snatch up a copy of the novel when it makes its paperback debut...it's coming.

I'll be sure and let you know!

Not only is the paperback coming, but Dance on Fire: Flashpoint will be delivered to Vamplit Publishing sometime this fall for a potential winter 2010/spring 2011 release in both formats!

These first months have been exciting and I thank you all again for taking this ride with me. I hope you'll continue to do so.

In the meantime, enjoy the Long Islands.

I know I will.

We'll talk soon.

(Updated)6-30-10. Okay, so I posted and had the number for 24 hours, and then suddenly I dropped one. I had a moment when I was shocked, followed by another with irritation, followed by a desire to quickly get the post down before it became too embarrassing. However, it's happened to others, it's happened now to me, for whatever reason. I am simply going to decide to roll with it. I don't need to know who it was. I'm just going to keep blogging, keep moving forward, and look forward to number 100.

We'll talk soon...I promise.

Book Blogger Hop

Hi, guys! I'm doing The Book Blogger Hop once again! It is hosted by Jennifer over at Crazy For Books. Have a great weekend, whatever you do. We've got All-Star baseball again with my 12 year old, so I'll be in and out all weekend. Thankfully I now have an iPhone attached to me at all times, so I'm never really that far away anymore.

We'll talk soon.

Father's Day

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts! I usually start thinking late week about what I might want to post about for my most regular of posting day: the Sunday Morning Musings. I had several possibilities floating about my head. The one idea which seemed to be gaining the momentum was a status report on where I am now in terms of Dance on Fire's success, gains made in networking, the strengthening of the PR machine, etc. However, I then happened by today's post by DL Hammons, who reminded me that there was really only ever one choice for the topic today. I thank him for that bit of clarity.

Therefore, I would like to salute the Dad's out there. Not the greatest amongst us necessarily, but the one's who simply do the best that they can, endeavoring to be there, wherever there is.

In the photo above you'll see my grandfather. He's gone now, but the thing that I remember most about him was his laugh. He appears serious and all, but that was just how he looked. That man could laugh and giggle. I look forward to hearing it again, not that I'm in any particular hurry to visit just yet. I think he'll be there waiting for me when I do arrive.

In the meantime, I still have my dad. He's the other gentleman in that photo. He will probably never read this post; the technology is not really his thing. In fact, you would rarely catch him reading much of anything unless it was police reports, back when he was still working. Having said that, I was terribly impressed and honored when he did pick up my novel while it was yet unpublished and read it. He has been very proud, and asks me often how everything is going. It has been very encouraging to me.

So, once again, thanks DL, and thank you dad, for everything.

And thank you to all of the dads out there, written by one of your sons. That's me, a little younger, but pleased after the birth of my first son. He's the tiniest in the photo, although he stands well above all of us now. May we be worthy to take the torch and carry it, providing light, warmth and guidance for our sons and daughters.

Happy Father's Day.

We'll talk soon.

The Versatile Blogger Award

I want to thank Kelly Dexter over at Nerdville Rhapsody for giving me this fine award. I will display it proudly...as soon as I figure out how. Ha!

In the meantime, there is a great responsibility that goes along with the award. After jumping over to Kelly's blog and thanking her I must now list seven things about myself.
1) I am employed as a Packaging Supervisor for Sun-Maid Growers of California. Yes, the raisins with the lady on the red box.
2) One last thing about Sun-Maid: my alarm wakes me up at 3:00 am. so that I am in the office by 4:00 am.
3) I spent my entire 40 years chewing my fingernails, only to quit cold turkey when my first novel was published. Hmm?
4) I write horror/thrillers, but find myself emotionally satisfied only by romantic comedies.
5) I would shrivel up and die were it not for music. I would last longer without water and food. I'm serious.
6) I love the Chicago Cubs baseball team, but do everything I can to discourage anyone else from following suite due to the perpetual heartbreak, year after year.
7) Spiders I can do; snakes - forget it!

And now comes the best part of this award, and that is passing it along to others far more deserving than I. It is an eclectic bunch of blogs. Some of those listed are at times serious, at others hilarious. Some tend toward darkness, while others tend toward the light and very often supply their own. Some I have known for a while and others I am just beginning to become acquainted with. I have a school-boy's crush on one or two of them (Relax, Jevron! It isn't you!). All are talented as hell and I am a better writer and person for having met them. Behold, I give you:
Demon Vampire Horror, From The Shadows, Holy Terrors, Jessica's Vision, Jevron Mc Crory, Julie Musil, Listen to the Voices, Maria Zannini, Missed Periods and Other Grammatical Scares, Simplify, Talli Roland, Gretchen-Wooden Nickel, Roxy-A Woman's Write, Marissa Farrar, Crimogenic.

I hope that you will take a moment or two to drop by those cool blogs and say hello, including Kelly's. You might decide to follow a few. I hope so. I know I already do.

We'll talk soon.

Guest Blogger

Good morning, Fire Enthusiasts! I just wanted to let you know that I was a guest blogger for C.J. Ellisson today over on Wicked Writers. Please stop on by there and see what we've got for you. Let me know how I did.

We'll talk soon.

Weekend Update

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. How was the weekend? I was unable to post a "Sunday Morning Musings" this morning because of two reasons. The first reason was because there were two many things going on. We had the conclusion of this weekend's All-Star baseball tournament, followed by a membership service in church for my youngest son. Originally, we had called, e-mailed, texted, etc., between winning Saturday night and finding out that the next game was Sunday morning. However, when the game ended and we realized that we might just make it, suddenly my favorite sport was Nascar! He had to do it in a slightly soiled baseball uniform, and us in very casual attire, but we made it! The second reason was because there were some hot irons in the fire and I needed to see how they might play out before I posted about them.

As you can see, I had another positive review come out for "Dance on Fire". Traffic Magazine, a local magazine that distributes 17,000 copies with what they believe to be a reach of 34,000, carried a great review and I am very excited about it.



Perhaps someday I will post the review in it's entirety, but for now I will offer simply a taste: "Dance on Fire...is captivating from opening lines through to the last word... What I found most intriguing was the way James cleverly knit Christian ideals and scripture into a traditionally non-Christian piece of fiction. James has a knack for weaving words together much like an accomplished quilter pieces together their fabrics."

Tomorrow I will be guest blogging for C.J. Ellison over at Wicked Writers. The prompt was Favorite Book Series. I am hoping to get more people to read one of my all-time favorite authors: Michael Slade.

Lastly, but certainly not least: The good folks over at Kings River Life Magazine, a local online magazine in my area have asked me to come on staff as a contributing writer. They just heard about me because of the Traffic review. The plan is for them to do a review as well for their August Issue. Working for them sounds like a lot of fun and will be great for getting my name out there further. I am looking forward to that first assignment already.

By the way, you don't think that the folks over at Saturday Night Live will be too upset about me borrowing their Weekend Update title, do you? I hope not.

Perhaps I'd better get out of here before they do!

We'll talk soon.

Book Blogger Hop

Hi, guys! I had so much fun doing it last week that I am back doing it yet again: The Book Blogger Hop! Once again the Hop is hosted by Jennifer over at Crazy For Books. Have a great weekend, whatever you do.

We'll talk soon.

Sunday Morning Musings

Good Morning, Fire Enthusiasts. How is the weekend going?

As the photo may indicate, we have spent the entire weekend at the local Cal Ripken Little League field, where my son and the 12 year old All-Star Team is attempting to win it's own tournament. We are in the middle of California, in what's called the Central Valley. We're surrounded by mountains with Sacramento to our north and Los Angeles to our south. If you've heard of Fresno, then that's about where we're at; right in the middle of this thing. It's great because we're only a few hours from the mountains; Yosemite National Park; the pacific coast; San Francisco; and everything good to be found in the L.A. area, such as Disneyland. During the summer, however, it can be several months of upper 90's to the upper 100's. Thankfully, this weekend hasn't been that bad. We've had a breeze most of the time that has eased the effects of that hot sun.

In spite of the amount of games played (three so far for us, with another two today), as well as the amount of time spent helping out (barbequed once and field prepped countless times), I have managed to participate in the Book Blogger Hop where I have met some interesting new people on some cool blogs that I may not have ordinarily ran across. It is a great idea and sponsored by Jennifer over at Crazy-For-Books. If you haven't tried it for yourself, there's still time. I enjoyed the experience and look forward to doing it again.

I've started reading Michael Slade's "Headhunter" again. I can't tell you how many times I've read this book. I can, however, tell you that I have had to buy this book three times already because I have lent it out over the years only to never get it back. This time I managed to locate a hard cover. This one will be remaining on my book shelf, I believe. I don't want to say more because I will be guest blogging about this subject in the coming weeks. I'll be sure to let you know when and where.

Anyway, it's almost time for me to get back to the ballpark, so I'd better go.

Have a great day and a good week.

We'll talk soon.

Book Blogger Hop

Happy Friday, Fire Enthusiasts! I just wanted to let you know that I would be spending the weekend learning how to do the hop. Corny? Okay, I told you I was learning...
The hop is hosted by Jennifer over at Crazy-For-Books.com

We'll talk soon.