wednesday afternoon barbecue pork spectacular

hello all!

so i finished the first draft of the second story today, which i'm sure you're aware of if you're following me on twitter. if you're not following me on twitter, you should do so. go here.

now, i know that the two stories i have finished so far are only rough drafts. it still counts!

this second one, without giving too much away, turned out a lot more visceral than i originally intended, what with exploding testicles and all, but you can't be afraid to put what's in your head down on paper. you're only going to let yourself down if you hold back.

so far the stories have a common theme, if only in title, The Red Left Hand and Dead Man's Hand. Ok, so maybe there are hands in both of them, too. I guess they have a couple of things in common. Oh, and they're both about revenge, to a certain degree. Not "Revenge" starring Kevin Costner, either. There are no Kevin Costners present in my book so far.

i'd like to get three more stories done before i move forward with my self-publishing plans. looking for someone to do me a kick-ass cover, as well as some sketches to go along with the stories. money? maybe/probably not. credit for work? yes.

in other news, my plans to inundate myself with all things fantasy and sci-fi are moving along nicely. slowly, but nicely. my son and i have begun learning to play Warhammer Fantasy Battles, which is taking some time. he seems interested so far, and i even have another buddy interested, who went halvsies with me for the Battle for Skull Pass starter set. Painting the little figures is definitely going to take some practice. when i get my card-reader back i can post some pics of my painting attempts thus far.

let me take a moment to introduce you to a few of the blogs i've recently added to the "blogs i follow" section over there to the right.

garagehammer.net is a bimonthly podcast dedicated to all things Warhammer. they talk about all sorts of other stuff, too.

passageways appears to be a blog by a friend of mine relating to what his company, passageways does, along with media-related social commentary.

kitchen hooligan is a blog by another friend of mine relating his culinary adventures. also, recipes!

sexygamer is lisa foiles' blog. if you're a gamer you want to check it out! game reviews and industry commentary with a comical/sarcastic spin. also, she's super hot.

Giada's blog: Giada de Laurentiis is the hot little italian lady on Food Network. as my wife says, every guy knows who she is, but nobody knows "Barefoot Contessa" who is on right after her. actually the link is to her website, where there are pics of her.

on walkabout: another friend's site, seems to be a spot for him to drop his words and images for us to see. good stuff. he's a smart guy.

face of the cookie is Kiala Kazebee's blog. She writes for the Portland Mercury. She funny lady.

William Gibson is one of my favorite writers. in my opinion, he is one of the biggest impacters on "science fiction" and "cyberpunk" of the twentieth/twenty-first century.

my fingers hurt from all that hyperlinking. are you still with me? if so, here's a quick video of giada in a bikini:

i know. i know.

thanks to all of my friends and followers. let me know what you're thinking.

goodbye old friend, hello new hobby, back to business

hello dear friends and followers!

well, i think it is happening. can't deny it any longer. my xbox 360 is dying. she's already been repaired for red-ring syndrome once, her warranty is up, she freezes up whenever i touch her. i downloaded the crackdown 2 demo and it ran for fifteen seconds. i can't even play red dead redemption , it just freezes. it works fine for netflix, and that's about it. hopefully i can replace it someday soon with the new-and-improved version.

so i've taken my hiatus from writing. examined my options, briefly decided it was all a farce, a ruse, i was fooling myself. well, that was a rough few days. there was some cheap vodka involved. now, i'm going to jump back into it with both arms flailing, hoping to grow wings of words and soar through the literary sky.

i've got something big planned for next week. stay tuned to find out what that is.

in other game-related news, i've decided to take up warhammer fantasy. i know, let me just tattoo "geek" on my forehead, so that the three people that didn't already know could be informed of my status. i've got a lot of friends who play it, and i've got a few around here willing to learn. i think my son would enjoy it also, if i could just get him to sit still for a little while. more on that, and my new levels of dorkness, to follow when the stuff arrives.

don't forget, you can follow me on twitter @redlefthand

don't forget to check out some of the blogs i follow, over there in that column to the right.

don't forget, comments and criticisms are welcome, feel free to leave it below.

don't forget, i love you all.

i leave you with this, which i found to be genius and would like to share with you all:

always moving forward

good morning friends.

so i'm stuck on where to go with this short story. i have a mind to keep it going, try to make it full length, by combining it with two other stories i have going. All of these were supposed to be included in a collection of shorts, but now i'm tempted to put them together into one solid piece. i actually lost sleep last night, trying to decide what to do.

i'm going to sit on it for a day or two, and in the meantime, revisit an old manuscript that has been sitting on a shelf for almost ten years. i "finished" the first draft soon after moving to colorado, and then lost all faith in the project after a failed attempt to turn it into what i thought would have been a bad-ass graphic novel. this one is more of a humorous spy tale, centering around a comic book store. yes, you read that right. my plan is to read over it, see if anything jumps out at me. i don't even have files for it anymore, just this pile of papers that was stuffed into an envelope.

in other news, i did ten sit-ups yesterday while playing Magic on the xbox. i think i can do twenty this time...