Awkward pause in the conversation? Here’s the perfect filler: “What TV shows are you watching now?” BAM! You’re almost guaranteed a minimum of fifteen minutes of boisterous banter. And in those rare instances where the answer is: “I don’t watch TV.” You can always ask for the check. Even if you’re not in a restaurant.
What’s on tonight? Won’t be better than this.
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 MoreThere’s still time to subscribe to the newsletter and get your Turkey Day mailing of the first 30 pages of my forthcoming YA fantasy, The Dream Palace. The first one page chapter titled “The Door” that I posted yesterday sets the mood, takes you to the threshold of The Dream Palace and introduces our first protagonist and the story’s narrator, Chris Sullivan. The second chapter, “Daisy” brings you into the Sullivan household and kicks off the action.
A bit of backstory here: I began The Book of Paul two years before I met my wife, Ariane. At the time, I had no children nor any interest in becoming a parent. But all that changed when we connected and…presto!…we had a son, Nicholas, followed eighteen months later by a baby girl, Emma. I LOVE being a dad, and love my family more than anything, as anyone who knows me well will attest. Nonetheless, I came from a very dark place and I continued to write about all the creepy, traumatic, highly sexual and violent material that fans of The Book of Paul have come to love and loathe. But as my children grew, it became increasingly clear to me at bedtime that I wouldn’t be reading any story of mine while they were still children. So, I decided to write a book for my kids that they could read before they were old enough to vote.
The theme of the story and the impetus to write it came when our daughter turned 4 years old, two years after she had been diagnosed with autism. Like many parents who receive such news, the “experts” inform parents about the “tragedy” of autism — and basically scare the shit out of you. I knew nothing about autism at the time, so I dug into the internet while Ariane read every book ever written on the subject. The news was not good. No one knew what autism was, what caused it, or how to alleviate the more difficult manifestations (I never use the “cure” word anymore for reasons I’ll go into at a later date). At this point, Emma had lost most of the language she had, was making very little eye contact and had obsessive/compulsive behaviors that could be dangerous to her.
Read More autism therapy, dreaming, lucid dreamsWith turkey day looming like triple-decker punkin’ pie, I thought a little gratitude was in order for all the amazing support and enthusiasm that’s been served up to me and the Kelly boys in such a cornucopia of abundance. So for all our blog subscribers I have a Thank-you-for-giving Day present to munch on in between heaping helpings of you favorite holiday binge foods: the first THIRTY pages of The Dream Palace, my new YA fantasy/mystery/sci-fi/thriller (because, as all you Paul fans know, one genre is never enough for me).
This special Dream Palace subscriber newsletter will go out late Wednesday night or early Thanksgiving Day, so if you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still a little time left. Just click here now to sign up for more fun freebies, ebook gift codes and other fun surprises. And now to tantalize your turkey-primed tastebuds, here is the first short chapter of The Dream Palace:
Read More free gift codes, newsletter, Norman Rockwell, Paul, subscribe, subscriber, Supper, ThanksgivingShould a 16 year old be allowed to drive around in 2 ½ tons of snarling steel?
You can thank Driver’s Ed classes for that ill-advised decision. Dicey situation at best, right? Now add a bottle of cheap wine, some blotter acid and a carload of drunk, pot-puffing pals. What does that sound like to you? An accident waiting to happen? A recipe for disaster?
I called it Halloween.
My Uncle Jimmy had recently managed to get himself killed by busting his head in a fall. In his apartment. Dead drunk. He left me his car in the will. It was awesomeness itself: A white, convertible 1963 Buick Electra 225 with black leather upholstery, six-way power seats and a turbine drive rocket under the hood, powered by 325 snorting ponies. 0-60 in 8.4 seconds. For a car that weighed over 5,000 pounds with a full boat of teenage asshats. As Eric Cartman would say, “Helli-cool.”
Helli-cool!
After checking out yesterday’s winners in The Book of Paul photo contest, you’re probably thinking…well, how should I know what you’re thinking? I’m not some kind of tarot reading mystic! Um, well yeah, Im supposed to be I guess, wait a sec, I must have a crystal ball around here somewhere…CRASH…BANG…THUD…SPLAT…okay, here it is. Hmmmm, yes…it’s becoming clearer every second…you’re thinking…you wanna see more crazy pictures, right?
You want it, you got it! Herewith is a grand guignol assortment of the profound, the profane, the mysterious, the mythical, the horrifying and the hilarious:
First of all I want to thank all the incredibly awesome bloggers, writers and readers who made The Book of Paul Tour such a huge success. So many of the bloggers put so much effort into their posts and designs — and the reviews were amazing — truly an author’s dream. Thanks also to all the visitors here who subscribed to The Book of Paul newsletter and are following future posts! I promise to deliver on the entertainment factor, though any wisdom and valuable insights into the human condition will remain iffy at best. So without further ado and adon’t, here are the fantabulous winners of the photo contests (drum roll please):
Read More amazon, bassgiraffe, Cabin Goddess, Cal Killeen, castle, County Kerry, Erica Kloetstra, Ireland, Irish, Kindle fire, Kriss Morton, Novel Publicity, sickle, tarot, Whirlwind tourThe Devil made me do it! Here I am with The Book of Paul, all decked out for Halloween. Now, I’ve shown you mine, it’s time to show me yours!
Time to get creative and compete for huge prizes! Grab your copy of The Book of Paul (either paperback or digital) and take a picture to enter in our themed photo contest. A Kindle Fire goes to the overall most creative entry, while the most Irish and best impression of a tarot card categories win a look into their future by a custom tarot reading performed by yours truly. One more tarot reading goes to one of my random mailing list subscribers, so click here to subscribe if you haven’t already. This contest runs from right now (yes, this very minute) to Sunday, September 30th, at 12 noon EST. Send your entries to contact@novelpublicity.com, and don’t forget to be creative!
In an earlier post, I related the acronymic amusements of our prepper friends, known to the uninitiated as survivalists. But as much as I might personally relish and benefit financially from the Zombie Apocalypse in the form of a pulse-pounding exploitive screenplay – that’s just not how it’s going down.
The Singularity. That will be TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It for those who still refuse to click the link above and believe me you’re really missing out if you don’t, cause it’s funny as fuc…but I digress). Even if the Singularity doesn’t spell doom for the human race, it will still be TEOTWAWKI. Why? Let’s go to the tape:
Read More apocalypse, borg, Borg Queen, Doom, Glados, HAL9000, Kurzweil, Portal2, prepper, Singularity, Star trek, Survivalist, terminator, Wolfenstein 3d, zombie