Bishopric

I just like that word.

Not much to report today. My road rash heals slowly. Lymph oozes. Scabs form. Bandages wilt.

This movie looks awesome:

Road Rash and Meat Men

I fell on my bike. Ow.

I should not have been wearing shorts. Right leg from ankle to calf: flayed. I don't particularly like the sight of blood, especially my own. Doc says I don't need a skin graft—good, because I cannot afford new skin at the moment.

Speaking of bare, glistening flesh, I found this early draft of a cover for Meat Men lurking around on my hard drive. Rejected for goriness but I still kind of like it.

Banged out the first 2000 words of the new werewolf novel yesterday. Going well.

Werewolves of San Francisco

After reading John Farris' brilliant High Bloods, I feel inspired to write something werewolf-oriented. I've done zombies, weird magicians, murderers, talking decapitated heads, Satanists, Satan himself, farting ghosts, and demons named Ips Fret. Time to let the dogs out. (Dear God, did I actually just write that sentence?)

I have never set anything in San Francisco—time to change that. Plenty of people I'd like to see eaten.

In utterly fascinating personal news, I have bought another shitty fixed-gear bike. It is pink and white. I think it was used in the Special Olympics.

Abandoned!

"Art is never finished, only abandoned." —Da Vinci

Some would hesitate to call my books 'art.' Just finished the 1st draft of the new one. It's gonna be short—probably a novella, under 40k words when editing is done. Still no title.

And about editing...I realize that Knife Lake and The Dead Boys were not professionally edited and contain more mistakes than I'd like. I've learned a lot in the year since their publication and, in the spirit of knowledge/growth/maturation, have decided to hire a pro editor. This will cost more money than the book will ever earn. Ain't life grand?

In the meantime I have some mild celebrating to do. Maybe I'll buy a pizza. Maybe I'll buy another cheap fixed-gear bike and ride brakeless down some hills. Maybe I'll go to a wine bar (Vin Debut looks good) and pretend to be sophisticated. Maybe I'll watch anime for the rest of the day. Maybe I'll fly to Israel again and join the IDF, if they'll take a Gentile horror writer.

40K

40,000 words into the new novel. Remember how I said it was less weird, less crazy, more conventional? Well, I lied.

I still don't have a title. I was thinking of In the Blood, but really, how boring is that? My friend Mary suggested The Copious Exsanguinator, but that was too Victorian. I thought about Bleeders but that sounds both a) dumb, and b) like a frat boy making a girlfriend-on-her-period joke. So the ms. remains temporarily nameless.

Yesterday I re-read the whole thing, and realized that it's very similar to Knife Lake. Same themes, same kind of characters, same kind of story arc. Hope it doesn't come across like I'm repeating myself. If nothing else, people who liked KL will probably like this one too.

On another note, I just got back from Israel. Holy shit, what an awesome country.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Did you miss me? No?

I am writing again. Another novel's coming soon. I fully intend to bang out 3k words per day until the first draft is done. Somewhat different than my other stuff--less graphic, less crazy, a little more conventional. Working title is The Place, but this will change.

I might be going to Israel in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll finish the last chapter in the Holy Land.

By the way, Knife Lake and The Dead Boys are both free. Download!

So, how are you?

Enough With the Pig and Alien Already

An anonymous reviewer had this to say about Knife Lake on bn.com:

"Who in their right mind would buy this terrible crock of @#$% obviously i was one of the unlucky ones that did a horrible attemp at horror in the vein of edward lee and jack ketchum who are two splatter authors who are actually GOOD at what they do if ur gonna copy someone copy the best i guess at least they coulda made the pig and alien work"

He's entitled to his opinion and atrocious grammar. However, my "attemp at horror" did NOT CONTAIN A PIG OR AN ALIEN! No pigs! No aliens! Why have two reviewers complained about the fucking nonexistent pig and alien?

Conversely, here's a good review:

"I found it hard to put down and wanted to finish this book. It is a little hard to read but once you get past the choppy language (if you can) it really does move along. There are a couple of places where the author confuses characters but again, if you don't get caught up in that you will enjoy the book. Yes, there is quite a bit of language and some instances of rather vivid descriptions of both the male and female anatomy but a good book if the horror/thriller genre is what you like."

Very fair. The language is choppy -- KL was my first book and not professionally edited. Lesson learned. I'm glad this reviewer had some constructive things to say.