Wow, what an intense couple of months. We had a successful Kickstarter and an even more successful two-day shoot. The footage is AMAZING! So when I will be unveiling this amazing cinema ready work of art? Well, our Kickstarter, Newsletter and our Dead End Street team get the first viewing and after that the rest […]
Read More Alphabet City Manhattan, Best Seller, Book Trailer, horror, Kickstarter, richard long, Steven King, The Book of PaulLast month I was invited by Kriss Morton aka Cabin Goddess to write for a special feature on her blog called Fourth Wall Friday. The idea, she explained, was to write a short story where the characters from your books invade your real life. As anyone who has read The Book of Paul knows, the one character from a book that no one wants to see in real life is Paul Kelly, the gleefully wicked villain that makes Voldemort cower in terror. So naturally, he’s the one I chose to come callin’.
Most contributions to Fourth Wall Friday are in the 400-600 word range. This is a full blown 4000 word short story. So enjoy, and at the conclusion I’ll share some creepy background info (hint: most of it really happened).
When the Devil Comes Callin’…Don’t Answer the Door
It started with a Facebook chat. It was late. She was drunk. Well, she may have been drunk, or just a little tipsy, or who knows, maybe stone cold sober. I assumed she was drunk, because what she told me was too strange to have been typed by the fingers of someone who wasn’t under the influence of some type of mind-altering substance.
It was just too creepy.
Drunk or sober, I knew this much: her name was Christine O’Keefe, she was living in Dublin, and a big fan of my novel, The Book of Paul. For those who’ve read it, this story should make you think twice before you open the door without looking through the peephole first. For those who haven’t, you might care to indulge yourself before continuing this story. And for those who haven’t read it and are thinking…Enough with your “suggestions,” just tell the feckin’ story! I’ll tell the feckin’ story.
Read More abandoned buildings, Alphabet City, Alphabet City Manhattan, East Village, Facebook, Junkie, short story, squatterOkay, I admit it. I’ve been a negligent blogger. Between finishing The Dream Palace (yay!), looking for an agent for The Dream Palace (meh!), pre-production work on The Book of Paul trailer (dyed Paul’s wig yesterday!), trying to get funding for the set design (help!), sending off rewards to donors (yay to you!) and being a husband and DAD, well, blogging has had to take a backseat. However, I’m going to make an effort to be more consistent in the future, and what better way to begin than by honoring the best thing that has ever happened to me…fatherhood.
When my wife Ariane was first pregnant, we didn’t get an amnio, or check the sex. We said we’d “take what we got.” We got a beautiful boy, Nic. Eighteen months later, we got a beautiful girl, Emma. One of each, as they say. We got “one of each” in another way, too. One autistic, one not. Yes, having children is the best thing that ever happened to me. So is having an autistic child. Our journey with autism has made me a better man than I ever thought I could be. It has changed everything in our lives, for the better. If you want to know why, the best place to see is on Ariane’s blog Emma’s Hope Book. My chronicle of our family’s journey is The Dream Palace, a YA fantasy I just completed.
Read More autistic, Facebook, Family, Father, Father's day, Home, Mary Poppins, parenting, PaypalBig news for all fans of THE BOOK OF PAUL:
Our epic book trailer Kickstarter Campaign is now live!
I’ve put together the Kickstarter video (the hardest part, since I had to look at myself the whole time I was editing), devised some awesome rewards for donors, and finally launched the campaign. Yay! So now, of course I need to spread the word and try to raise $3000 in 30 days, because if you don’t make your goal, you get nada on Kickstarter.
Read MoreWhat actually constitutes a “Thriller”? Adventure? Action? Mystery? Page-turning ratio?
Browse around your local B&N and you might notice that the Horror section has dwindled to one or two bookshelves, while Thrillers and Fantasy novels can fill two or three aisles. It’s clear that the Horror label is considered a minus to marketing mavens in the publishing industry, and yet–the Thriller and fantasy sections are chock full of — horror books!
Hmmm. So what’s the real deal? Join us this Thursday (new day!) at 8pm eastern (same time!) for the Dead End Blog Talk Radio Show Presents: Thrillers! It’s a riveting, spine-tingling, bone-chilling, ________ (insert your own thriller cliche here), look at what makes a Thriller…a Thriller. Below are some of the questions, topics and blood-soaked ground we’ll be covering. Your responses and comments are welcome and encouraged!
I’ve always believed that any good vs. evil tale is only as good as the evil. The best villains are the ones you end up rooting for—the ultimate guilty pleasure. You want them to survive, so you can get another unhealthy dose of evil down the road. Check out the following links for various lists of the top literary villains of all time and the top film villains of all time. I’ve included three lists in each category to point out the overlap of critical consensus. In literary fiction, many of the same names keep popping up. Ditto with the film villains. Which are your favorite villains from each list (or your own write-ins)?
Read MoreI’ve been known to say that I don’t suffer fools gladly, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes I don’t suffer at all. Take these ladies and gentlemen for example. Please. Here’s a Best of Collection” from my Nation of Idiots posts plus some new favorites:
Good kitty!
Read More funny photos, funny pictures, idiots, morons, stupid peopleCome again? Sure, but you have to wait until Easter! Badoomboom! But seriously folks, Thank God It’s Good Friday! Why? What’s so Good about Good Friday? Wellllll…as all those who’ve have read The Book of Paul know, most of the action in the story takes place between Holy Thursday (what’s for dinner? Roast rump!) and Good Friday. And for everyone who hasn’t read The Book of Paul, now it’s on sale for 50% off until roll-away-the-stone day! That’s only $1.99 — the price of a tall Starbucks coffee as opposed to the regular $3.99 grande latte price. Wow! What a deal! Yes, indeed it is. And it’s available only on Amazon http://amzn.to/LJf2nX so tell your friends, family, creditors and rival clan members that they better take advantage of this once-in-a-weekend opportunity, before Paul decides he doesn’t feel quite so generous anymore.
Okay. Now that we’ve made your weekend a whole lot darker by spreading the gospel according to Paul, let’s zero in on that gloomiest of all religious HolyDays–Friday the Good. Being a former altar boy educated by friendly nuns and way-friendlier priests, I’ve been well indoctrinated in the Party Line position of the Church regarding the significance of Good Friday, which can be summed up as: Christ HAD to die to cleanse us all from Original Sin®.
HOWEVER, since we all continue to be born with Original Sin®, and therefore have to be baptized to RE-cleanse ourselves (otherwise we will surely burn in hell for all eternity), I’m still a little cloudy on the “HAD to die” reasoning. Another thing that doesn’t quite add up for me is the whole “on the third day He shall rise again” bit. Admitedly, I’m no math whiz, but if Jesus died at 3:15 in the afternoon of Friday and was out of the tomb at sunrise on Easter, that comes to…wait a sec, let me get my calculator…um…okay, got it: about 39 hours. Hmmmm. Weird, huh?
Read More Blog radio, Easter, Gnostic Gospels, Good Friday, Good Wednesday, Gospel of Mary, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Truth, Hermes, Hermeticism, Nag Hammadi, Sophia, The Dead End, Women who love PaulI enjoy sex. If there were a like button I’d press it. I like having sex, writing about sex, reading about sex and talking about sex. I like laughing about sex, too. It’s perfect for parody. Case in point — Hollywood movies. Every R-rated (non-splatter/torture porn/horror/war) movie has the obligatory sex scene — or two or three — which typically fall into two categories: the rip-each-other’s-clothes off–bang-against-the-fridge-because you’re so overcome with carnal lust you can’t even make it to the bedroom or a fairly comfortable piece of furniture; or the slow, grinding, warmly-lit, pelvis-thrusting bedroom copulation featuring numerous side-view close-ups of the star’s (or their body double’s) perfectly sculpted asses, pecs, breasts and panting, perspiring faces. Pleasssssse, just give me the cutaway to the equally cliché afterglow scene.
Read More Beeline, Erotica, Fatal Attraction, Glenn Close, Hollywood, John Holmes, Marilyn Chambers, Michael Douglas, Ron Jeremy, sex scenesI was invited to participate in what can best be described as a chain-letter blog hop. Here’s how it works: someone gave me 10 interview questions which I’m going to answer below. Then I passed on the questions on to 5 other authorswho will post their answers on their own blogs next week, and they pass on the questions to 5 more authors and so on and so on until there is some kind of nuclear blog dirty bomb disaster with a half life of 500,000 years.
The very talented author and superior human being, Kate O’Reilley invited me to this bunny blog hop. Here’s a link to her fab blog and quite interesting answers: http://katevsworld.com/2013/02/20/the-next-big-thing-blog-hop/
So without further adon’t, herewith are my pithy (yes, I do write with a lithp) replies:
1: What is the working title of your book?
The Book of Paul. Does that work for you?
2: Where did the idea come from for the book?
The first line of the book is: He practiced smiling. I wanted to explore a character that had been so damaged that he’d completely shut down emotionally. Could someone like that be redeemed by love? Why yes, of course he can! Right? Well, I hope so.
3: What genre does your book come under?
The Book of Paul covers a lot of ground: occult horror, mystery, thriller, crime, dark fantasy and sci-fi⎯with a healthy dose of humor and a sassy sprinkling of erotica.
4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Read More Alphabet City Manhattan, Blog Hop, blog tour, Book of Paul, Chuck Palahniuk, Clive Barker, Kate O''Reilley, New York, Paul, Steven King, The Next Big Thing, Umberto Eco