Dance on Fire...3?

Happy mid-September, Fire Enthusiasts. It's very cool to see you here. You should know by now how much I appreciate you dropping by. There are millions of other sites you could be visiting. It humbles me that you chose this one, whether you leave a comment or not.


I'm pleased that fall is fast approaching and summer is losing its dominance as the season of the power. Of course you know I'm not concerned over winter's arrival since Central California winters are mild. Thick fog is the only worry here. If I had to shovel snow every morning I might be mourning summer a whole lot more than I am.


Thank you to all who visited last week. If you missed it, I'm all about the music, so I celebrated classic albums that just had to be played from beginning to end without skipping a song or two. Lots of people agreed with me, but many shared albums that they would have listed. I love that! I'm still trolling iTunes, hunting for many of those to add to the 7000+ songs on my iPod. See, I told you I was all about the music! It's not too late to join the discussion. You'll find the post just below this one.


As for the day job, I'm still working way too many hours. There's a possibility that they may be shortened a bit, but if it does happen it won't be for a couple months. *crosses fingers*


I have been faithful to my trusty treadmill. In the summer I found myself at 187 pounds. *laughs* "Found," he says. Okay, what happened was I spent every free moment during the spring and summer with book promotion and wasn't paying much attention to the garbage going in the tank, or the amount of hours I was spending sitting on my [CENSORED]. It took about a month to reverse that situation. I have been consistently below 180 now. Sunday I hit my low of 177 pounds. I eat and drink what I want, but know that I have to work it off. It's all about portion control and watching/reducing the amount of garbage that goes in. I was power-walking/running 3-7 miles as often as I could, much of that time in the late afternoon after work when it was 100+ degrees. The treadmill sits in the garage, so it wasn't fun. That's another reason why I can't wait for cooler temps.


I'm working on the outline for my next WIP. It's still early. So much of that is me doing nothing but spending my days allowing the ideas to percolate. This will be book 3 in my Dance on Fire, crossover vampire series. I know where the characters are, how many years later it will be, and some of what is begging to tale place. I just need the plot to clear in my mind and for that said-plot to excite me. When it excites me, that's when I will begin. It's getting there. If you are unfamiliar with this series allow me to explain...

Nathaniel is a vampire, wanting nothing more than to have a place to rest his head. He has often wished for death, wondering why God ever allowed this punishment: to walk the earth undead and unable to be redeemed. Does God remember the little boy from Romania who watched his parents die, was raised by the murdering vampire, only to become one himself? What does God think of Nathaniel and could there yet be redemption for one outside of heaven?

As you can see, my series is a crossover, marrying the best features of classic horror with the Christian themes of good conquering evil and redemption. I try not to hit my readers over the head with the church stuff. I just figured that if I was going to be adding to the vampire mythos, I needed something a little off the beaten path. It's getting good reviews. If curiosity gets the better of you, the e-book can be had on Amazon for 99 cents.

We'll talk soon.

Scare Me

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. Are you enjoying your summer? The part I like about it is its demise. *laughs* I like the part about my wife and kids being mostly home; however, it’s the heat I can do without. It seems like I just spend the time trying to avoid it, you know? As a horror writer it will not surprise you to hear that I can’t wait for Halloween. Actually, it’s the cooler temperatures that I can’t wait for. It really has little to do with things that go bump in the night.

There isn’t much going on over here. Work is still long and busy. For those of you who may recall me talking about exercise, I have finally managed to climb back upon my treadmill. I quit because I was struggling to find the time. I was spending an hour or so on the laptop in the morning, working 11 hours, getting home for dinner, spending another hour or so on the laptop and then going to bed. That was my day. Now that the July book blog tour is over, I’m quickly jumping on the treadmill as soon as I get home. I end up having to warm up my dinner, but at least I’m getting in the work.

On the writing front, I’m starting to feel the itch to write again. I’ve got some ideas in my head for the next project, but I am as of yet undecided. I’ve got a couple of novels that are jockeying for position in my head to be next. I also have a short story that seems to want to be resurrected from the dead. It was one of the first things I wrote. It seems to be begging me to be gutted and redone. I may pair it up with two other stories and offer it as a free read. If it’s going to be free forever, then I won’t want to spend much on the editing/packaging. Stay tuned.

Before I go, I’d like to share a book with you.

Scare Me by Richard Jay Parker

A year or so ago I read Parker’s Stop Me and loved it. I came away from the experience very impressed with his work. Little did I know what the man could do!

Here’s the synopsis:

“When did you last Google yourself?”

Wealthy businessman, Will Frost, gets woken in the middle of the night by an anonymous caller, asking him exactly this.

When Will goes online, he finds a website has been set up in his name, showing photographs of the inside of his home, along with photographs of six houses he’s never seen before.

In the first of these strange houses, a gruesome murder has already taken place.

Will is then told that his own family is in mortal danger.

The only way he can keep them safe is to visit each of the houses on the website in person – before the police discover what has happened there.

Seven houses.

Seven gruesome homicides.

Seven chances to save his daughter’s life…

Intrigued? You should be. I was truly blown away by this novel. It is his best work – by far! It was so gripping the way this man had to go from house to house, country to country in a mad dash to rescue his daughter. He even met the killer on occasion, and once when he knew exactly who is was that he was staring at – yet could do nothing about it. However, in a really good piece of suspenseful fiction, things are not as they seem. This story was full of twists and turns that you really will not see coming.

            Highest honors for Scare Me. I found the book to be in a class by itself. I really did.

            We'll talk soon.

Missing in Action

...drip, drip, drip...

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. For those of you who may have wondered whether I was still alive, I can assure you that...I'm not really sure myself, but will let you know. *laughs, then coughs*

As you can see from the above picture, my computer isn't plugged in. Okay, it obviously is now because I'm typing this note Sunday morning after I took that photo; however, I can promise you that it absolutely has stood idle since Tuesday evening. I'm not sure whether that is a modern record for me or not.

...drip, drip, drip...

I believe Tuesday was the last time I climbed aboard my treadmill as well. As you can see it isn't plugged in either. *sigh* Thankfully, I have managed to lose much of the weight I gained during December - for those of you keeping track at home. *grins* I suppose not feeling well will help knock off another pound or two, huh?

A week ago I did some pruning around my house. As you can see from the pile of branches that have yet to be cut up, I haven't gotten back to finish that job. At least the pruning work is done. This part of it can wait.

...drip, drip, drip...

So what's happened, you ask? Although the terrible flu season which swept through the East and Midwest parts of the United States has finally arrived here on the West coast, it appears that I am simply suffering through my allergies. I called the doctor's office last Monday after work, when it had become fairly clear that my allergies had arrived, activating my post nasal drip. Unfortunately, the aforementioned flu season was overwhelming their office and causing me a delay with the needle in the hip. Tuesday morning I will have to sneak away from the day job to finally get that shot. It won't be an immediate thing, but I should slowly begin to feel better.

So, as you can see from the staged photo I have mostly been sitting on the couch and watching television and movies. Nothing too spectacular. I did finally watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and thought it was enjoyable and worth the hype. But other than that I have simply been getting my rest and taking it easy. I haven't missed any work, although it is a miserable business when one must remain near a tissue box and a trashcan  - or a sink - at all times. Yes, as ugly as it is to describe, I wish the constant dripping I have been teasing you with in this post was a dead body hanging overhead. At least then I would feel better. I don't know about the dead guy...

Horror writers, right? *grins*

...drip, drip, drip, deep cough... *grimaces*

I've gotta' run. We'll talk soon.