Radiation Angels: The Chimerium Gambit Journal

Update #2
Whether you are returning or coming to this site for the first time, hello and welcome!
This site exists to promote my novel, due out in February. If you’d like to read a bit, feel free to take a peek to the left and click on ‘preview’.
Those of you returning, we have added an interesting little bit of background; a Radiation Angels Lexicon. You can also see the front cover, from concept sketch to finalized overview.
A short story, Radiation Angels: First Drop has been submitted for publishing and hopefully you can read it just before the novel is released in February (more updates on this will be forthcoming).
Also in the news: I did get married! We had a wonderful colonial style ceremony on September 4th. Everything went swimmingly and then we spent a week in at the Massanutten resort in the Shenandoah valley for our honeymoon.
If you have any comments or questions, I’d be happy to hear from you at RadiationAngels@aol.com.

Update #3
Well folks, it’s almost time.
Oh, yes, yes, yes… I’ve been welcoming people to this site for a few months now. I’ve been offering the first chapter of The Radiation Angels (link), and pointing to the beautiful cover (link), but now it’s almost time. February is just around the corner and the book will be roaring off toward shelves all across the country. The stress, the worry, and the giddy expectation are blending together into a cocktail very much like madness, I’d imagine.
I’ll be printing up postcards to give a last minute push to individual bookstores. If you have a suggestion for a store that could benefit from information about The Radiation Angels, feel free to send their address to me here (radiationangels@aol.com) and I’ll get it to them.

In any case, that’s enough business. I figured it was time that I let you in on a little bit of me.
Well, first off, my credentials. I’m not talking about my Bio (link), nor my publishing credits. I, of course, am speaking of the most important part of being a science fiction writer… my Nerd Rating:

<a href="http://merctea.com/nerdtest.html" target="_blank">50% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?</a>

Yes, I’m at least half nerd, and I’m slowly working toward 75%. I don’t think I’ll ever get higher since my math skills are largely underdeveloped. I do use the internet on a daily basis, however, and I come across things just too good to be true. I mean, I am constantly doing research for work, like finding out how MIT researchers close in on bionic speed, or figuring out which publishers are… less reputable (http://www.sfwa.org/beware/), or just finding one’s place in the great scheme of things (geekchartbig.gif (GIF Image, 1000x581 pixels)).
And sometimes, I just want to look into a word and wander around, rearranging furniture. (http://www.wordorigins.org/)

I’ll tell you more as time goes on, at least I will if I stay sane long enough to get published.
-JDR

Update #4
01.11.2006
Perpetuating the cycle…
You know, there is one thing the internet is good for: it’s making me look out of date. I mean, I was so hyped to find a website that does flash animations. Specifically 30 second animations that retell an entire movie… using bunnies. (http://www.angryalien.com/)
So there I am, emailing my brand, shiny new link to a friend or three, when every one of them kind of shrugs and goes ‘Oh, yeah, that’s cool. It’s been a round a while, now.’ In fact, everyone BUT me knows about this site, since Stars channel paid them to do a whole lot more of them.
Then I found this: (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117935453?cs=1&s=h&p=0)
And I crowed about it to all of my friends, hoping beyond hope that Futurama would be back from the grave… again to find out that everybody already knew this as well.
In fact, it was only after running into a few old friends from high school and enduring a few cryptic references to an old classmate that I found out one of us had made it big… (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005114/)!
Apparently I have been living under a very dark, very heavy rock… in very deep space. And that realization got me to thinking: There really isn’t enough minutiae in my life. I mean, I will browse news sites from time to time, especially the sillier ones I can find (www.fark.com) but I still seem to be behind the curve. Then I realize this is precisely the way it’s always been since I was, indeed, in high school and nothing has changed. So, if it hasn’t bothered me for the first 32 years, why should it now? In short: I had some ice cream and watched Conan the Barbarian. I felt much better about the whole thing until I realized that all of the links I am littering across my page are probably just as out of date to you….
Wow.
Well in any case, here’s some really neat stuff you’ve probably already seen:
A to-scale webpage picture of the solar system: (http://www.troybrophy.com/projects/solarsystem/index.html)
This is the true nature of warfare: A $150 booby trap made to defeat $1500 body armor and kill a priceless marine can be defeated with a $3 can of silly string (original www.cockeyed.com link has been overtaken by events): (http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051113/COLUMNISTS0301/511130351/1111)
Or if your CD collection is getting musty and you need something new and spicy, but you want someone you will like you can find some kind of map that links artists by genre. Like this one… (http://www.music-map.com)

Well, folks, it February, and if you’ve been looking you’ve probably noticed that RA:TCG is not on the shelves. Well, thereby hangs a tale… Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, the publisher has delayed the release of the novel for two more months. I have asked around, and found out that this is not unusual in the least, and I’m just hanging onto my sanity in any way possible while the time simply creeps by. I’m trying to open up new avenues for people to feel a part of The Angels and so The Radiation Angels PX is now open! You can find it at http://www.cafepress.com/Radiationangels.
I’ve been keeping myself busy at my day job, getting into flame wars online, and just trying to keep abreast of the changing world of technology.
One of the hardest things about being a sci-fi author in modern times is trying to outpace actual technology with realistic-but-fictional technology. There are books written less than twenty years ago that are already hopelessly out of date, and we giggle about the people who oohed and aahed about computers with mythical ‘gigabytes’. Picture phones, laptops, even full spectrum lamps are now becoming common. Even fantastical computer and communication technologies have been bypassed at an alarming rate. Since I’m writing a military science fiction novel I am especially interested in keeping in front of weapon technology but it really covers all aspects of technology.
I mean we can assume that sniper weapons like the DSR-1 Bullpup Sniper System could become even lighter, more accurate and reliable. But who amongst us would have foreseen something like the DREAD weapon system coming down the pipe? I mean everyone already puts lasers, blasters, or whatever, into novels, but what will the disadvantages be? How will they be better, and how will they be worse than lower tech solutions? Even more basic to science fiction is faster than light propulsion, because patience is all well and good, but you don’t want it a trip to Pluto to take 9 years. More importantly: Where are we going to put all the spaceports?
Even creepier is when you take some esoteric theoretical possibility of a quantum based computer and put it into a novel, only to find out that someone’s actually working on it. It’s not just about the toys we play with: Nanotech, DNA manipulation, and disturbing new pharmaceuticals, are not only pushing the human experience into areas we never even imagined they are going to change what we think of as life. When pushing that envelope, we are left with some interesting problems. So many ideas, so many staples have been run so deep the ruts have reached cliche status. The forbidding planet full of deadly creatures will always be Earth, the bad guy will always get sucked out a hole into space, in fact there are hundreds of interesting ideas that will be boiled down into a sentence that sounds incredibly, amazingly stupid. It’s almost sad. Is there any hope of convincing children that, if they just look hard enough, they can discover something new about the Moon?

3.31.06
Well, ladies and gentlemen, it’s getting close. As you can imagine I can barely contain myself. More good news: I have received my first review!
This was written by Glenda Woodrum. You may see this review and others like it at her site: http://www.glendawoodrum.com

Mundania Press LLC
6470A Glenway Avenue, #109
Cincinnati, OH 45211-5222
http://www.mundania.com
Trade Paperback: no pricing available as of this writing
eBook: no pricing available as of this writing

Okay, those of you that have been reading my reviews know that I don't usually rave about any of the books I've read. Well here's an exception. Radiation Angels: Chimerium Gambit grabbed my attention and held it with both power gauntleted hands. From the opening sentence right to the powerful end, I was wowed by this book.

It opens with a group of soldiers for hire and their impending assault on the fortress of the planetary president. From there it turns into a wild running battle complete with enough gunfights to keep even the most jaded military SF reader turning the pages.

Rich with vivid description of the battles, the book is an intense read that caught and held me hostage until I reached the end.

The inclusion of an extensive glossary of terms used in the book makes Radiation Angels: Chimerium Gambit accessible to someone new to the military SF genre without unduly slowing down the action for those familiar with such terms.

The one flaw I found in the early stages of this book-- and keep in mind I'm reading from an ARC-- was the fact that the cast of characters initially lacked enough detail to fix most of them in the reader's mind. There are a lot of names and some ranks used, but no real feel for the majority of the characters at the book's onset. It gives everyone introduced a sort of cannon fodder feel, and it leaves you saying, "Okay, so how does this one die now that he or she has a name?" The book could benefit from more detailed characterization, and a little more introduction on some of them before they face the inevitable end of their existence. All in all Radiation Angels: Chimerium Gambit was a damned fine read and left me hoping for a sequel. From the way this book ended I'm quite hopeful!

If you are a fan of the military SF genre, this is a not to be missed book. (Unlike another military SF book reviewed here on this site, this one is well worth the cover price.)

Oh, and the real kicker? Radiation Angels: Chimerium Gambit is told in first person point of view, which I normally don't care for, so Mr. Ross has scored with a real winner and made a fan despite my well known dislike of first person stories.

I thank Miss Woodrum for all the kind words, and I hope everyone can read TRA:TCG themselves soon.

I guess I write a lot about heroes with guns blazing and cannons firing. It hit me in the face that sometimes people have to be reminded of the quieter heroes that live amongst us every single day. I did. I also think everyone should be reminded that not every story has a happy ending. That’s why we have to cherish those that do.
My father is a crazy man. I mean a true, unadulterated kind of crazy. He doesn’t wear tinfoil hats, or parade in front of his house with a loaded shotgun looking for communists or anything. For over twenty years, my father ran into burning buildings on purpose. He was a firefighter. I don’t know if I can convey my middle-school confusion at learning that my dad was a fireman. I mean I understood the word as a red helmeted icon, but not the reality of it. That wouldn’t hit me for years. My father eventually became Fire Chief of Cincinnati after having worked his way up the ranks from Firefighter/1. It was only then that little bits of detail would escape this towering figure in my life, small brushstrokes that would fill in the white unknown of his professional life. He’d tell me about how many men it would take to control one of those cool fire hoses, and why the men looked like they were gang-tackling the thing (because for all intents and purposes they are). He’d mention grimly that the new fire suits might work a little too well, since when a firefighter went too far into a burning building in the old suits, he could smell (not feel, mind you – too much pain already for that) his ears start to burn and he’d know to turn around and escape. I found out that (screw John Wayne) the real heroes crawl into the swirling blackness without any points of reference save the burning fires and the camera friendly ‘gray mist’ smoke of TV fame is a cruel hoax. I learned from him that from ignition to uncontrolled blaze is a scant hop of four minutes. My father is a shutterbug, and has documented births, weddings and graduations with all the precision, care, and zeal of a white house photographer.
I know, you’re probably wondering where this is going. Well, follow me a little further.
I tell you all of this, as he pours over thousands of photos, some black and white photos dating back to the fifties that were old when he got them. He’s looking for pictures of my Uncle Billy.
My earliest memories of Billy, my mother’s youngest brother, was when I was staying at my grandparent’s house. We’d go for a visit in Harlan, Kentucky four or five times a year. My sister, my brother, and I would bounce around in the camper for hours, waiting to be unleashed upon all our cousins, aunts, and uncles. We’d go nuts all day, tromping through the bushes of the black mountains, running from copperheads real and imagined, catching frogs and crawfish in the creeks… almost everybody was there. Rowdy kin celebrating being together from spring to fall for years on end. But my memory of Billy was special. Almost secret. It feels secret.
I never got to see him except after he had woken up in the late morning. Soon, too soon he was off to work. You have to realize to we kids, he was the coolest thing that walked. Dude had a 58 chevy… He knew Karate… then he got a T top, go fast red, T bird. Billy had a motorcycle. Later, Billy had ATVs. I remember being 16 and stupid (who wasn’t?) and mentioning to him that I wanted a motorcycle. Well he got me on his bike, slapped a helmet on my head, and rode me around for a few minutes. For five minutes, I was the coolest kid in the world. Then Billy turned off onto the dirt path. He gunned the engine and we roared off into the hills, leaving my stomach long forgotten by the road. By degrees the gravel got scarcer and scarcer, the woods began to creep in on every side. Then he turns back to me and says: “Hold on! We’re going to leave the road!” ROAD? I thought. And then he turned right, slamming up a steep grade and brushing past the swatting hands of trees. He gunned it further and the world became a blur of up and down, leaning left and right, wet brush and sticky leaves slapping in from every direction. Then he turned off the motor, climbed off the bike, and I finally, finally, opened up my eyes. We were back home. I never mentioned the word motorcycle again, much to the relief of my mother. Until recently, I was certain they had planned it.
But that isn’t my secret and if you think that was a stalling tactic, you may well be right. Read gently.
I’m the youngest of three children. Quite often, I got left behind when the older kids did the cool stuff. When we poured into grandma’s house, filling it to bursting with an uncle and two aunts still living at home, I didn’t even get a room: I was left on the couch of the living room while the older kids got to stay up and talk all night. But sometimes, about once a visit, Billy would come home from work. He’d walk through the door in the dead of night. I’d come awake at the sound of his heavy, tired feet, carpet unable to absorb all the sound of his fatigue. He was wearing clothes that were uniform and nondescript, rendered anonymous by layers of black and gray dust. His boots were thick, heavy and workmanlike, he held a helmet under one arm… a helmet with a light attached. He had goggles, and their ghost hung about his eyes, silhouetted in soot. He’d meander up to the front of the house, where my grandparent’s general store was, and pick out a pizza from the frozen foods. By the time he walked back, I’d be out of bed. Mousy brown hair all a twirl, eyes bleary, pajamas askew, I’d wave hello. He’d hold up the pizza and ask “Hungry?”
When is a child not hungry for pizza?
So we’d sit, and eat. It was such a thrill, up later than the older kids, stealing time away from my makeshift bed as we talked about grown up things. What’s it like to kiss a girl? Have you ever hunted a bear? How many guns do you own? How fast can your car go? Is there a God? Have you ever seen a ghost? We set the ground rules early: I could ask anything I wanted. If he would answer, he’d answer truthfully. Year after year, we’d sit, eat pizza and talk. For just a little while, just a fleeting moment, I was the only kid in the world, not just one out of a dozen cousins, two dozen nephews and numerous and sundry extra kin (and if you think I’m exaggerating, you’ve never been to a Petra reunion.) I learned a lot from him. He was gentle. He was kind. He was generous. He was pious. I asked everything I could think of and now, two decades later, I know that whenever he answered, he told me the truth.
I know; I know you think I’m rambling; you’re not sure where I’m going. Bear with me. Just bear with me…
When I was young, Billy was a coal miner. That was why he came home so late from a 10 hour shift at the mine, 6 or 7 days a week. During his life, Billy was many things, studied many things, but eventually he returned to being a miner in order to feed his family. It is a dangerous job, with work that bows your shoulders as greatly as the billions of rock perched overhead. They drill through the cold, dark earth using multi-ton machines, oppressed on every side by the finality of stone. They know that every time they descend into the ground they were spinning the chamber on a revolver with a hundred chambers and pulling the trigger, each and every time. The black hunks of rock they relieve from the earth are magical, they are each a modern day Prometheus, bringing light and heat to the surface that would otherwise have none. People may curse the smoke it makes, but without it millions would starve, freeze, or wither and die. What they do is important, but that doesn’t stop it from being dangerous, or deadly.
You see, my father was a firefighter. He ran into burning buildings filled with deadly gasses, hungry fires, as well as treacherous deadfalls and pulled living people out. On 9/12/01 everyone in the country suddenly decided these guys are heroes. I guess all I can do is open up the doors for these people and welcome them to the party. Better late than never, I guess.
Well the reason my dad is up late, looking through old photos, is that we need them for Uncle Billy’s memorial.
It reminded me that there is so much important in life. The importance of traditions, even a few hours stolen from sleep to eat a frozen pizza; the importance of truth, the only currency of trust and respect in the eyes of a child; The importance of family, all family, working together as a whole to balance the world of a bright and shiny new mind. It also reminded me that sometimes the heroes we yearn for already walk humbly amongst us. Until they don’t.
On May 20, 2006 at or about 1:00am, there was an explosion at Darby mine #1.
There was one survivor.
It was not George William Petra.

CNN.com - Five killed in Kentucky coal mine blast - May 20, 2006
In Memoriam, Dammit.

The Radiation Angels: The Chimerium Gambit, a science fiction novel by newcomer James Daniel Ross, has been released for sale in eBook form on the Mundania Press website (http://www.Mundania.com).

The rest of the press releases contains information otherwise available on this website, so I won’t repeat it here. Suffice it to say that it’s official: The countdown has begun.

The process goes like this: The book is done. By that I mean it has been edited, reedited, proofread, spun, dried, folded, and lightly scented. Because it is finished (let me say that a few more times to relish the sound), it can be published electronically, that is, over at the website at Mundania you can download a copy for a fee. Now: This same file has been sent to the printers, and they are chugging through it as we speak. In 2-3 weeks the first printing will be done, and the book will magically appear (due to the diligence of the publishing fairy, I am sure) in the book catalogs (Ingram and Fictionwise) where it can be ordered by you through any major bookseller. I think in ‘hipper’ (that being: more hip than myself) industries this announcement is called ‘building buzz’ or perhaps a ‘prerelease’. Here in Cincinnati, we just call it: I have to tell someone the wait is almost over before my brain begins to emulate fission.

What does this mean to you? Well, it means that if you show up at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Waldenbooks, or any of the thousand fantastic mom and pop shops across the USA, and give them this information:

ISBN 1-59426-210-1 (<Also an important bit.)
Author: James Daniel Ross (<Not as important of a bit but it will feed my ego.)
Science Fiction(<Not so important bit, but may direct lost clerks.)
Paperback(<Not so much an important bit.)
Mundania Press(<Just in case they are completely clueless.)

Available through Ingram or Fictionwise(<The ‘if-you-want-to-sound-in-the-know’ bit.)

- You, too, can order the best novel I have personally ever written… in about two and a half weeks. If you ask for it before then expect lots of blank looks from the staff, who will be sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that you copied a number of the ISBN wrong.

In other news, a friend of mine contacted me and said she was producing a book of science fiction short stories. She read a copy of TRA:TCG and liked it, and so she asked me for a piece. I may have artsy-fartsied myself into a corner with my submission, but we’ll see. Also, sometime in the future, there should be a short story up on the Mundania website detailing Todd Rook on his very first mission.

Well, I’m rambling… and this was supposed to be the end of the update (I swear it was), but I got an email last night/this morning.

Now, I’d like to point out that Doug is in this update, being the update where I told everyone the book was coming out. This means that he found out that TRA:TCG was being released by checking the Mundania Press website, which means he cared enough to look, then to order, then to drop me a line of encouragement and support before I even got a chance to announce it to you fine people. That’s impressive enough, but he’s also been a fan for many years, and has even weathered the last 4-5 where I have released nothing for public consumption.

There’s a lot of time where this job is harder than anyone would imagine. You pound on yourself to be better, to wait longer, to write thousands of words a day no matter what, to not get too excited or too hopeful because there are so many good writers – writers who cast a shadow of talent in which I could not shine if I glowed like the sun itself – that never get the respect or attention they deserve. You work a day job to get money to pour into the book, so that you have bookmarks, postcards, advanced copies, ads, and rooms at conventions: All in the hopes that someone will notice and read. Little voices, like imps crawl into my ears and whisper needle-skinned doubts. They ask if these giants fall by the wayside like ships in a pirate graveyard, what chance do I have? I have to take it slow, I have to take it steady. I have to force myself to keep walking on one hand, and to not run on the other.

And then, someone like Doug comes out of the woodwork and tells me that I can. Doug will get the personal reply he deserves as a fan, more loyal than perhaps I deserve, but I hope he will forgive me if I hold him up as an icon for just a moment.

Statistics say we’re not going to get rich doing this. Personally I hope to be able to afford a house, and to send my kids to college in a decade or so. That’s really it. But to know that I can touch someone, to comfort someone, to inspire someone… to make them feel a little better, or help them through a bad time, to introduce them to new ideas or familiar characters…. That makes it all worthwhile.

Update 9
6.26.06
One step at a time…

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is out.
I can hardly believe it, but once I had gone to Amazon.com It finally became real. I even surfed to Borders, Waldenbooks, Barnes and Noble… all their internet stores have them, and…
And that’s where I have to end the happy monologue and speak frankly.
So far I have been contacted over and over by fans who are having trouble finding TRA:TCG on store shelves. They go into their favorite bookstore and ask the clerk for a copy and are only given weird looks, helpless shrugs, and apathetic stares. Perhaps there’s a bit of an explanation in order. Bear with me, most of this is second hand information passed to me from others but as I understand it this is how it went:
The Radiation Angels is a Print On Demand book. What this means is there is a high speed printing company out there with the book, fully typeset and ready to go, loaded on a CD. When you order one copy, the CD is loaded into the printing machine, they push a button, and out pops one book. If Boarders were to order five thousand, the skilled operator adjusts a few things, pushes a button and out pops five thousand. Because of this, there is no need for warehouses full of books, no need for massive amounts of back-stock. This lowers overhead and is a very exciting revolution in publishing. Unfortunately, it has also become a victim of unintended consequences.
Once everyone figured out that they could write their dream book and get it printed themselves… and to blazes with those know-nothing publishers who refused to see their genius! In short a lot of books went to print without sufficient proofreading, editing, or even thought. The books stores lost quite a bit of money on these substandard books. Thus, Print On Demand books have been painted with a wide brush, and every major book chain views them the same way, much like fairy tale stepchildren.
Unlike these unfortunate experiments, TRA:TCG was accepted by a publisher (not to drop names, but the same publisher that handles Piers Anthony… OK, so I’m dropping a name). It was vetted, accepted, edited, and proofread by no less than three editors and four proofreaders. This is a professional book, written by an actual author, and is starting to garner positive attention in the form of reviews on www.Amazon.com.
But still, some stores refuse to order them, others claim we (and thus they) are perpetually out of stock, still others use ordering software that deletes us from their listings just so they won’t be tempted to order something that might, possibly, could loose them money.
Now: businesses are in business to make money. I understand, respect, and admire that. On the other hand, they have also taken up a position contrary, or at best tangential, to reality in this case.
1) Any store who uses Ingram or FictionWise is capable of ordering this novel.
2) Those that don’t, can order directly through www.Mundania.com at standard discounts.
3) All Mundania books are Fully Returnable. (To stores, this is a get-out-of-jail-free card because if they don’t sell them they can be returned for a refund).
4) And as stated before, even if we have no stock on hand… as soon as you order it, the book will be manufactured and sent out.

So if it’s available, and they can order it, and they can even return it for a refund if they don’t sell it… why don’t they order it when you ask for it?

That is a good question.
One I would be sure to ask your local bookstore if I were you.

My publisher is headed to NYC here in the next few weeks to hold meetings with bookstore bigwigs in order to get their minds and policies changed. They’re good men, but they like to start at the bottom. I go right to the top: YOU.
Businesses must serve the public or they will never make money. You are the public. When you go into a bookstore and they stare off vacantly as you try to check on TRA:TCG, they are not serving you. And so, There are three things that we can do together to help ensure you get TRA:TCG and that it becomes a success:

Plan A Rally The Troops
As I continue to contact bookstores and work with the publisher to contact corporate offices, I have to admit that I could use some help from all of you. You are the most important part of any strategy for success. It’s more than just buying the book, it’s about letting people know what it is, where it is, where to get it, and how to get it. To that end, I have a few new downloads for you.
There’s a black and white poster that can be passed out or hung up at local science fiction conventions, gaming stores, and bookstores (it goes without saying that you should check with the owners to make sure it’s OK). There is a second poster patterned off of the ‘kittens to good home’ fliers, with tear off tabs containing the important ordering information on the novel (just cut the tabs for ease of tearing). If you could, please print up one or two and place them where ever science fiction fans congregate.
Why go to the trouble? Well, while internet sales are great for business, there’s nothing for expanding sales than having the books on the shelves of actual bookstores. That way, bookstore buyers and managers can see the book and maybe order a few more. Also, people who did not know the book exists can happen upon it and create whole new fans. So, if you can order from a brick and mortar store, please do. Also, if you get a spare second feel free to print a few bits of guerilla marketing and post away.

Plan B Get Converts to Gloat
Internet sales are fantastic, and I am glad that people can easily grab the novel wherever they happen to be. So, if you bought your copy from Barnes & Noble.com or Amazon, or even the Mundania website, I thank you. In fact you can even do comparison shopping using the Add-All Book Searching and Price Comparison website. (http://www.addall.com/New/Partner.cgi?query=1594262101&type=ISBN)
Once you have your copy in print, write to the corporate HQs of your favorite bookstore. Let them know you bought TRA:TCG (include author and ISBN) from an internet store, and that is money they forever lost due to laziness, stubbornness, and ignorance. With this tactic, hopefully the brick and mortar stores won’t be far behind to stock this novel.

Plan C Work Harder
As you can imagine, my excitement is building, and always I have to remember that this, like so many tasks, will be accomplished one step at a time… with a little help from my friends. This update is for you. All of you. I’d like to thank everyone for their kind words and support.
For my part, I’m working on signings in the Cincinnati area, writing feverishly on short stories, and the sequel. I already have created and purchased an advertisement for World Science Fiction Society / WorldCon which should be seen by the 30,000 attendees in LA.

And, if you can ONLY find it on the internet, and the cost of shipping is really putting you off, I’ll help how I can. Below, I installed a button that goes directly to the Mundania.com store. The Accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express. Where it asks for a coupon code, enter: Ross10
…and you’ll get 10% on any and everything you order during that visit.

And thanks to everyone again. This is the start, and I’m here for the long haul.

I haven’t updated this site in almost a month, but I have an excuse. Actually, I have dozens, but only a few will interest you folks at all.

Firstly, I have been trying to get TRA accepted into bookstores. This requires going through a long process of contacting stores, creating marketing packets, printing out packets, and getting them into the hands of store managers. To that end, I am placing the marketing packet in the downloads section so that if you work or own one of the thousands of bookstores I have not reached (yet) you can simply download, print and read my pitch.

Next, I have been working on the sequel, and within the next thirty days I hope to have it submitted. At that time I’ll put up the first chapter for everyone’s enjoyment.

In other news, I have become a Mundania best seller for June! July numbers aren’t available yet, but hopefully we can keep the momentum going. So if you haven’t bought a book, now is the time. If your friends haven’t bought a book, perhaps you can convince them. And of course if they are still resisting the idea of the best entertainment printed on dead trees, perhaps you can buy one for them?

And I gave an interview that is new available! Lynne runs a scifi podcast and asked me to do a short 2 minute spot for her listeners. Go there, sign up for the contest to win a signed copy of TRA:TCG! http://lynne.libsyn.com/

This got me to thinking that I haven’t been spreading around my (hopelessly out of date) links! For those of you who are new, they usually have an inane question, with a link to an answer of some sort. Observe:

And, thanks to the generosity of a close friend, I am now running around Paragon City and defeating evildoers as the lovable rascal Jim Benendanti! You can tell I’m near by my heroic battle cry: ‘Hey Ugly! Eat Boot!’ So, if you see me (Triumph server) say ‘hi’. Also, I’m looking for a super group full of super-groovy heroes who will keep my hair manageable and won’t leave me left wanting like so many others.

And, again, if you just stopped by and want to buy a copy with the fewest number of clicks, you can buy the book right now by clicking on the button below.

Once again a month has gone by, and my weekly updates have been MIA. Would it help to say that I’ve been keeping a promise?

A few months ago, a friend of mine sent me some old files from an aborted project from Misguided Games (www.misguidedgames.com). I volunteered to go over them and re-edit the work… a project that has fallen by the wayside. Well, a month ago a fan of mine asked me to finish my edits so that this old work could see the light of day. Today I kept my promise. The files for Northlands have been edited and sent back to the rules-guy for additions and expansions.

A week ago a friend of mine dug up some stuff I had written almost a decade ago for a web-zine called Ouro’s Forge. The game the original posts were written for has entered a new version. He has taken it upon himself to update the statistics and clean up the (admittedly atrocious) grammar and spelling. I got a warm feeling when it was announced on the gaming website and there were a few that remembered me, and remembered the posts fondly. It gives me a great hope for my current and future work.

It also made me curious where in the heck the ‘radiation furnace’ (suspiciously missing from the choices available) symbol (actually called a trefoil) comes from. As everyone knows, if you click enough… you can find anything on ‘teh internets’. (http://www.hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q1550.html)

I was also more than a little freaked out when something I had envisioned for a Shadowrun game session - light emitting textiles – has become a reality. (http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/3457) So there you have it: Buy scifi books or technology will stagnate!

Join the Fight

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, I continue to charge forward, heedless of torpedoes, bullets, or random fruit carts in my way. I’ve been storming ahead on the sequel and arranging my first book signing!

Yes, if you live on planet earth you can show up at B Dalton and get your copy signed! I’m very excited, though I have been warned far in advance not to let my expectations swell up to epic proportions it hasn’t worked. I’ve always loved hanging out with roleplayers, science fiction fans, and recreationists, and some of my best friends I’ve met at the few conventions I’ve been able to attend. I’m really looking forward to meeting people and hearing what they think of TRA:TCG.

Maybe, maybe not. In any case, if nothing else, I found the perfect color of blue for a Radiation Angels unit patch tattoo. I’m mulling it over. Really.

And, if you can ONLY find it on the internet, and the cost of shipping is really putting you off, I’ll help how I can. Below, I installed a button that goes directly to the Mundania.com store. The Accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express. Where it asks for a coupon code, enter: Ross10
…and you’ll get 10% on any and everything you order during that visit.

pdate 18 3.28.07

Wow, everybody. I’m about ten seconds away from throwing myself a pity party the size of a New York New Years Eve party where all the signs say something-999. No numbers yet (no idea how many books have been sold), horrible week in the offing, a store canceled a signing, out of money because of promotional efforts (plane tickets, fliers, adverts, etc.), I had a guy stick a camera down my throat and so forth.

I’m just having the royal crap kicked off of me.

It’s easy to take a spill in this business. My instrument is fickle. The smallest jostle will cause it to go out of tune pretty easily, and this last few weeks has been like stripping off the casing and throwing it into a wrestling ring all pink and naked.

I haven’t written in two weeks and it feels like the final dregs of my talent are swirling around a white, watery porcelain heaven…if you catch my drift. But it’s not true.

I have talent.

I have drive.

I have a level of determination that would give pause to barbarian hordes.

At least that’s what they tell me.

Now the funny thing is: Seeing oneself clearly is nearly impossible even in the best light. The soul has no mirror. All you can do is gather people you trust to your side and ask them their honest opinion. Sometimes what they will have to say is kind. Sometimes it will be hard, but as long as it is honest, you are ahead of the curve in the friends department. The last few weeks have been one car wreck to the genitals after another. I think I owe a thank you to the people who carried me the last few days on their backs.

I’d like to tell you all about them, but I respect them too much. I don’t have the right to delve into their lives on the internet to fill some spaces on a site where basically I’m shilling my book. It would be a violation of my love for them as much as it would be a thank you for all their help.

Well, maybe there is a way to let you catch a glimpse of them:

I’d like to thank them all: Wickett and James Scott, Eric Duckworth, Michael Royce, Jennie Hunter and Tony Lomen. Tim, Kevin, Bart, and the rest at the Friday game as well as Zach Miller, CJ and James Smith. Russian Joe and Mike Chiseck…thank you all, mentioned and not.

Thanks for kicking my ass until I get on my feet.

Update 19 04.15.07 999 and counting

OK, a few things:

I had a fantastic time at Millennicon, and after a celebratory spate of self pity (don’t ask, really), I am back in the saddle. I have finished another chapter, reviewed the first third of the second book, and have continued to contact every convention and bookstore in order to get my name in the public eye. It isn’t easy, but hell if I wanted easy I would have made sure I was born rich. Then again that doesn’t always work out either.

And of course in my spare time, I try to stay sane. I play airsoft, paintball, video games of all kinds, but not many people know I am a (very) amateur…um…something. I am not an artist. I do not claim to be an artist, but at the same time it becomes necessary for me to try my hand at one sketch or another in order to express to a hired artist what I mean when getting work done. Lately I found it gives me a sense of zen. I’m not good at it, but I try to do the fore-shadowing or back-shading or whatever they call it, but it’s this suckage that gives me a certain level of freedom. More than anything, it helps me visualize items outside of my head, to give them a permanence of sorts that I can refer to. In any case, here’s some examples of my ‘work’.

In other news, my wife has done a fantastic job of keeping my myspace account (my myspace account? Ah, ze English, she is a harsh mistress.) updated with cool videos and interesting bits. In fact, she’s managed to get over a thousand friends check it out if you get a moment.

I know, a small update this week. But I can announce that I will be attending Balticon 41! Come up and see me some time.

I am really hoping to get in the same deal with PHILCON since I (fanfare!) have a new collaborative effort premiering there! I wrote a short story, called Not One Word, that follows Captain Todd Rook during his early career and submitted it for acceptance.

Good: The editors liked it and put it in an anthology called Breach the Hull.

Better: It has been accepted for publication!

Even better yet: It is available for preorder!

If you liked The Radiation Angels, you can have a little more, plus work from many other fine writers. Copies can be had in Hard Cover, Soft Cover, or E Book.

Update 20 04.21.07

The pause button on shameless self promotion

Alright, I spend a lot of time talking about myself. It helps having an ego the size of your average star cruiser, a wit so sharp it can score armored plates, and good looks that get me dozens of phone numbers at any gay bar I enter (which is no end of amusement for my wife - hey I like the techno alright?). But every once in a while, one must find a moment of perspective or else degenerate into unabashed and unabated ass-hattery, douche-baggery, or even full scale jerk-offery.

I’m a nerd. I like being a nerd. Every movie or TV show shows ‘successful’ nerds as mega computer geeks, boob crazed maniacs, science fiction lore spouting dorks, psychotic computer gamers in dire need of anger management, or…Well…whatever. But it is worth noting that the divide between normal and geek is drawing closer every day. Things we love are becoming mainstream, even if we occasionally take them a little too far. And we do make the transition into mainstream more and more…even if it isn’t always flattering, and even if there are things ‘normal’ people do that makes us wince just as hard.

Overall, though, I think there is something that all people with an above room temperature IQ can agree: There are brave men and women in harm’s way overseas. Surprisingly enough, some of them are nerds. I suppose that it’s inevitable, statistically probable, that some of those fine souls would be indoctrinated into geekdom. Still, it nearly broke my heart to find out that these OD-green dice-slingers, so far from home, are collecting everything they need to hold their very own sci-fi & gaming convention. It is called Ziggurat Con. Billed as possibly ‘The World's First War Zone Game Convention’, if you ever wondered what ‘whistling past the graveyard’ meant, gaming in a warzone fits the bill. It takes guts, style, and panache the likes of which I can nearly imagine. It does have its problems.

I quote:

‘The largest problem with running a Con in Iraq, of course, is that there are no local stores or game publishers, and few game books on the post. Even dice are in short supply, with many soldiers breaking the unwritten taboo held by many gamers and (gasp!) sharing dice.’ (emphasis mine)

Software: Microsoft Office I’ve got a guilty little secret. I buy new dice for every new character I play. I buy new dice for every new game I play. I buy new dice for every new game I run. I buy dice for every set where one gets lost. I buy dice to cheer myself up after a crappy day at work. Let’s just say I have DICE.

NOW THEY HAVE DICE!

After setting aside a few sets, I got the rest of my collection together and boxed up: They’re going to the sandbox. I’ve included a copy of Children of the Sun, CotS: Southlands, and my last two copies of The Radiation Angels I have on hand.

We’re supposed to give terrorists a ‘New York turn signal’ any chance we get. I can’t think of any way better to show them we are unyielding than to have a bunch of dice monkeys laughing like madmen and slinging character sheets like ninja stars, but that’s not why I’m talking about them here.

The truth is: They are there on our behalf.

Whatever your feelings on the war effort, we—through our representatives—sent these men and women into harm’s way. It’s hot, it’s miserable, they get shot at, and bombs go off all the time. Ladies and Gentlemen, I think the least we can do is make sure that these men and women in uniform have a few moments of relief.

Join with me in sending all your spare books and dice to these brave soldiers. Donations can be made here:

SPC David Amberson
A Co 86th Sig Bn
APO, AE 09331

For those in the Cincinnati Area, we are contacting local gaming stores to get special rates for books purchased, and trying to contact the military to find a better way than UPS to send the gifts.

Direct, unembedded link so you can post it on your own site:

http://www.gamegrene.com/node/790

Update 21 05.01.07 Motivation

I picked a hell of a week to try to quit smoking…again.

By the time you read this, the brave soldiers planning to attend ZigguratCon will have about ten pounds of dice and several books winging their way from my gaming group – whose generosity makes me proud to call them friends – to make sure they can have just a little bit of home to make the sandbox more bearable.

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If you have not given all ready, please send a gift or two their way. These are the games they are planning to run:

Send to donations to:

SPC David Amberson

A Co 86th Sig Bn

APO, AE 09331

GURPS
Shadowrun
XCrawl
Magic Tournament
Rifts
Babylon 5 RPG
White Wolf System-Vampire
White Wolf System-Werewolf
Starship Troopers
MechWarrior Miniatures Demo
Cyberpunk 2020
Historic Miniatures Battles

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So here we are, another month along. I have finally received my sales numbers from six months ago. I am way ahead of where I should have any right to expect to be. I am ready to make sell through in my first three quarters, and while it’s not a best seller yet, it is still a fantastic achievement. I thank all of you who have ordered a copy, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed the story. My first royalty check is in my hand, and my life is becoming clearer and clearer all the time. I’m a writer. It isn’t really what I do. It is who I am. Now if I can just convince a few million readers of that, I’ll be good to go.

Yes, I know chances are slim. It is times like this that ignorance is a virtue. Actually there are a few other times when ignorance is actually preferable: When taking about how many germs are on any given everyday surface, when discussing the chances of failure of your dreams, and what goes on in your parking lot while you sleep.

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But it’s not just about numbers, or sales, it is about clarity. I have found something I am reasonably good at, and people may be willing to give me money. Now I just have to bridge the gap between working a day job and struggling to put words down on paper, and putting out my goal of two novels a year and living off of royalties. I have to knuckle under. I have to make time. I have to continue to struggle and I must absolutely, positively, succeed. I fear that there is yet another decision to be made: give up a job I like to follow a calling that is as necessary to me as breathing.

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But I’m doing very well! I am on track to match the performance of more experienced writers. While this does not mean my name in lights or a slot on the best seller’s list, I am still slowly building up a following that will sustain me through other releases. It will build like a thunderstorm, and carry me through my career.

My American-Indian name will be Dancing Clouds.

I CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), quality = 90? am on the first steps and it is important to realize that without the first step the last step can never be…and then I realize that I sound too much like a fortune cookie and change metaphors. Eventually I come to understand that even if I one day become Darth Vader, I have to start out as a whiny kid named Annie, if you catch my drift.

And, of course I have friends to help me buoy my spirits to the surface. I know I talk a lot about them, but they are really amazing people. I mean you’ve never laughed as hard as I have when you get a devout Christian and a Viking Pagan in the same room, drunk and discussing theology.

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I’ve treasure this group of people, who I could gather together, point in any direction, and yell CHARGE…and never have to look back to know they were following.

Don’t get me wrong. They have their quirks. Some quirks quirkier than others, and some may even border on mental illness. They’re gamers – you have to expect that. But let’s face it. They’re friends with me, and that’s got to eat away the sanity points off of anyone’s character sheet.

But I have to admit, every one of them will come through in a pinch.

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I have come to rely upon them more and more, but I have also noticed we have hit another milestone of life. The youngest of us are getting married, some are buying houses, others are having babies. We are beginning to drift apart, like after high-school when everyone went off to college, jobs and the four corners of the world. The same thing happened in my twenties, when the first spate of wedding/pregnant/housing/career demons came along and devoured my greatest friends. I wonder if this happens once a decade, and I wonder more how people in their eighties retain their sanity. And then I realize that people probably have a lot fewer weddings, jobs, and babies by the time they are eighty.

Tomorrow, next year, next decade, eventually everyone leaves. You can either get all Nine Inch Nails about it, or you can realize the control you seem to exert over the world is just smoke and mirrors. I mean I know that all I really have is my talent, and all other forms of control are an illusionary elixir of strength, perception, and reach, but I feel my life entering a state of uncontrollable flux, and it eats at me.

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And while hanging out with them is like a crazy cross between living at a militia compound in Bohemia, an episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and that movie where guys are always yelling “CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!”…

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CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), quality = 90? …sometimes, after thousands of hours of hanging out, talking, crying, and laughing, you distill it down into a few words of wisdom. Then you find a way to put it in a motivational poster.

Sadly, it will still sound like a cheesy fortune cookie.

Three things to enhance your zen:

Think about a series you enjoyed… and the network didn’t.

Consider Robot Attack coolness.

Meditate upon, and then motivate people about your own life!

Yes, ladies and gents, in a day or two, I am flying from Cincinnati Ohio to Baltimore Maryland for Balticon 41. I have never been before, but many of my Author contacts rave as one of the best times to be had without a warp drive.

Being the type of guy that could talk the ears off a statue, the kind staffers at Balticon have allowed me a stage to talk to (everyone else’s) fans (and try to make a few converts).

FRIDAY
Garden Room, 5 PM -- IS IT REALLY WORTH THE EFFORT TO WRITE A BOOK?
Derby 11 PM -- APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY TO YOUR CHARACTERS

SATURDAY
Belmont, 4 PM -- AUTHOR AND ARTIST EXPERIENCES IN COLLBORATION Derby, 6 PM -- HUMOROUS SF IS NOT AN OXYMORON!
Derby, 9 PM -- NO MORE ORCS!
Belmont, 11 PM -- WRITING HORROR:

Derby, Midnight -- ROMANCE, LOVE, SEX AND EROTICA IN SF

SUNDAY
4 PM – James David Ross autograph session (huh?)

Derby, 5 PM -- SKY FINANCES:
Garden Room, 10 PM -- SEXY VAMPIRES??

Belmont, 11 PM -- ALTERNATE LIFESTYLES IN SF & FANTASY

MONDAY
Chase, 11 AM -- DOES SPACE OPERA STILL HAVE A PLACE IN PRESENT DAY SF LIT?
Derby, Noon -- CREATING THE PERFECT VILLAIN
Derby, 1 PM -- WHICH HAS MORE IMPACT ON AUTHORS' MORALE AND BOOK SALES

Come by, say hello, buy a book. If you buy it early enough and don’t like it, you can even spit in my face before I leave the con! Who can beat that?

While I am exited beyond words to go to Balticon, I am terrified of flying. This means for the last week I have been completely out of sorts. I have dropped enough plates of food to feed a third world nation, have walked into numerous door jams, and my feet couldn’t find the floor if they were nailed there. Yeah, I’m not a great flier until the fourth bottle of Baileys arrives at my seat. I am brain dead, simply unable to concentrate as I go through my day. Often I start on a thought and just drift…

What was I saying?

Well, anyway, in that spirit I went to go see 28 Weeks Later. While I was not horribly impressed with the way the writer or director treats the military, it was at least half enjoyable. At least the company was nothing short of excellent.

In honor of this zombie-thriller, and my current mental dysfunction, I have gone to the ends of the web to find some games to keep you busy while I’m off having the time of my life (until the left hemisphere tells the right hemisphere that if I fly out I have to also fly back next week).

Zombie Survival - 2 Flash Games

Flash Games - Zombie Horde

Zombie Grinder 60000 Flash Game

Zombie Survival Flash Game

Boxhead More Rooms - ebaumsworld.com

De-Animator

Flash Zombie Killer Game Free Online

The Last Stand

Zombie Horde 3

Endless Zombie Rampage

Wish me luck everyone.

Update 23 5.29.07 Hope

I am back from Balticon, and I have to say: I am tired, sore, and much poorer than when I left. I did not sell as many books as I wanted. The trip was plagued by delays, missed opportunities, and the last known hotel in the universe that does not provide free WiFi. They tried to throw us out a day early, then tried to charge full price for the last night of the convention…but then there were the fans, and that made all the difference.

Every time I turned around there were hordes of incredibly cool people. They were bright, passionate, communicative, and friendly. We spoke at length—on panels and off—about faster than light travel, the business of publishing, theoretical biology… after everything was said and done I felt smarter for having contact with the beautiful fans of Baltimore and beyond.

Also realize that being an author, as I have often stated, is not the easiest profession. You don’t make much money, you are constantly under pressure to continue to produce quantity and quality, and your most vocal detractor always lives between your ears. But every once in a while, there come moments of perfect beauty, events that add steel to your spine and fire to the soul.

I met dozens of great people who seemed truly interested in meeting me, either because of my ideas, or my wit, or just because I have experience speaking in public. The attention flattered me, the interest in my personality was nice, feeling important was great. I can only hope I gave them the same feeling in return.

One man came to the sales table and said: ‘I do not care for scifi, but after hearing you speak, I had to read your book’. I had several people come up to the table, flip through the book and leave it behind. I offered them copies of the first chapter, which they took graciously. Many took the time in the middle of a busy convention to read that simple, double sided sheet. They came back and bought the book. People hunted me down in the halls as I ran from panel to panel, and every time they asked for my signature I felt humbled that they saw me as worth the effort.

More importantly, perhaps THE MOST importantly, I had a loving mother come to me after a panel. She told me that her son has dyslexia and it’s tough to get him to read. When he saw my book, he became very excited and she purchased it for him. He was avidly pouring over the novel, reading it because it interested him, and it was hard for her to get him to put it down.

Well folks, scifi writers have this thing about being canaries in the coalmine. We are supposed to say something in our work, pointing out rocks in the water ahead and reminding humanity of problems that have not yet been solved. I have to admit, the legacy of my forebears makes me proud, but really none of it is as important: not the money, not the social commentary, not even the love of the crowd. What is most important is that young guy is reading. Now I have a responsibility to do it again, and soon. It will keep me moving even when the rest of my life is complete chaos.

I hope that Balticon dumps the Hunt Valley Marriott as soon as possible, but if they will have me I’ll be back with bells on.

Just… um… if I could skip the erotica panels, that would be great…

No links this time around, but don’t blame me, blame the hotel…

More conventions where you can get your ‘Ross’ on:

Update 24 06.19.07 Herman Munster has it easy…

Keeping my head screwed on straight has been harder and harder. It seems like I am constantly walking uphill (both ways) through brambles (posionous) to school (and not a good school, one of those Victorian work house thingies). Distractions I have aplenty. Good news and bad news has followed each other like a ying-yang mounted as a propeller on a B17.

I wrote an article on myself on Wikipedia months ago. Advertising is always difficult to find, and I figured people might actually Wiki my name, searching for it in the ‘sum total of human knowledge’. Well, I found out that my entry, as well as the entry on the novel itself has been deleted. More research shows:

James Daniel Ross

This seems to be vanity, and the guy doesn't appear to be sufficiently notable. Ladybirdintheuk 12:42, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Delete This page has lived far too long (8 months), google gathers 110 hits for his name, and this page is a personal essay. --Porqin 12:49, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
Delete per the above comments. Em-jay-es 06:10, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

OK, I can see that. I’m not notable. Fair enough. Then again, I’m not sure how notability comes into play when ‘assembling all of human knowledge’. In fact I think having a book that tells you the velocity of Mars as it orbits the sun would be more useful than a ‘pedia that tells you ‘water is wet’. So looking for the obscure on Wiki may be becoming a thing of the past (is a rename to Pedanti-pedia too far off?).

Or perhaps this is just a case of some hoity-toidy net-masters looking down their noses at me. This bothers me less than they might imagine, since I have major chain bookstores doing the same thing, in effect refusing to make money by selling my book. I comfort myself with the fact that the free market (brutally) sorts these things out just fine.

But (to return to my first diatribe) acting as if notability or legitimacy is required or lent by a free encyclopedia website run by self appointed experts is just silly. It is further blown all to hell by their inclusion by such momentous cultural monuments as What What (In the Butt), such timeless icons as Goatse or Tubgirl (NSFW, for the love of god NFSFW!) , or such a noteworthy word as ScroG… but perhaps they’re just cranky after fighting the multiple mutilations of their precious sum of (notable) human pedantry inflicted by the minions of Stephen Colbert.

Poor babies.

So I guess I’ll just have to be satisfied by my entries on the (much more relevant) SCIFIPEDIA as well as the 7th & 8th positive reviews on Amazon.com! And then I can dance like snoopy that ‘(a search of) google gathers 110 hits for his name’.

But fear not, the internet is still a bastion of cool that is both infinite and awe inspiring. Do you remember the coolest pistol ever to appear in any movie, ever? No, not that one. The other one. Well, now you can make your own or buy one. And if that’s not Hoo Yah enough for you, and you have two grand worth of weapons to cannibalize, you can have the coolest rifle to see the silver screen.

And of course, the coolest things are always real. I mean it’s not enough that attack choppers can rain fire from the heavens on their enemies, now we get the satisfaction of hearing them yell: “Holy crap! It’s the Master Chief!” (Addendum: And if you don’t know why they’d say that, just click here) (Clarification to the addendum: The Master Chief is a MAN, baby!)

And I was physically threatened unless I continue providing tasty videos for your entertainment. So, on to YouTube I go! Sadly, my mood even taints this, and provides me videos that seem to me to be a window upon the deepest recesses of my soul.

(link here in case my html teh scrog)

Or maybe it’s just the Goth-y echoes of my youth looking for a pretentious voice. But there is hope, since it looks like soon loneliness will be a thing of the past. Yes, someday soon you, too, can buy ‘someone’ to chat with and stave off having to deal with people who suck.

But still, hopes and dreams seem just out of reach, and I begin to wonder if I am an ass, constantly walking toward a carrot that seems out of reach. It is at times like that I generally begin gravitating toward people, places, and things that echo my inner turmoil.

(YouTube - garbage- bleed like me)

And, eventually, I reach a place where the darkness has seeped into every pore of me, and it is then, at that exact moment, that something happens.

Today, it was a man coming back into my store. He is an older gentleman, a man who grew up in an age when TVs were a luxury. A man who listened to Buck Rogers on the radio, and who read voraciously. This was a devotee of the Greats (a word that, by law, must be capitalized). He had read the first published works of Heinlein and Anthony, Pournelle and Niven. He read them in magazines, anthologies, and novels. He read them, and he read them again. When I say that he was steeped in scifi, I mean the length and breadth of his knowledge was astounding. He learned that I was a science fiction writer yesterday, and bought a copy of my book. He finished it last night and came back today tell me what he thought.

He had his concerns about pacing, and he told me very sternly that I rode the very edge of the bubble in the last chapters, extending the excitement ALMOST too far, skirting failure like a surfer in a thunderstorm.

Overall, however, he was pleased beyond words at the fresh turns of a phrase, with the characters, with the story. With a gravity I found terrifying, he said that the raw talent was there. He said he had all confidence that, if I kept at it, I would one day join the ranks of the Masters of my Field.

And, just like that, everything was going to be all right.

(YouTube - safety dance)

Keep heads on straight out there. It’s the only one you got.

More ‘notable’ conventions, where I will be participating in multiple panels where I will either entertain you with my sparkling wit or conversely drop trow and leave a steaming Wikipedia on the stage:

Update 25 07.01.07 Holy days.

I try to stay out of the realm of religion. It’s not personal cowardice, and it’s not for a wont of plotlines. I suppose that, overall, I am not confident enough in my own views on God that I can stand in front of a crowd of people and know that what I’m saying is the Truth. In fact I have found that people who speak of Truth (usually with such fire-eyed conviction you can hear the capital T) usually have less of it than anyone guesses. Still, though there is a subject near and dear to me, a holy day of reverence that I want to speak of. July the 4^th

There’s a lot of jingoistic talk nowadays, people who wrap themselves in the flag all the way to the hairline, unable to discuss the simplest of complexities because of their belief in an infallible America. There’s the other crowd, too: The people who feel the need to kick dirt on the face of the United States (mostly because it is fashionable) despite all the evidence that it is country of great achievement and greater peoples.

I guess I’m somewhere in the middle.

I believe that over two hundred years ago our forefathers came upon a brilliantly simple idea: ‘Let’s create a country where we are equal’. Now, I do not believe that they were saints, many spoke at length about freedom while at the same time owning slaves…and the Sedition Act of 1918 (one of the great stains on American politics) was enacted not too far behind the first amendment. And one of the most frustrating things is when people point to America’s past inequities as a means to devalue its worth, without truly looking back to that time and seeing what the state of human rights was at the time. The truth is we (humanity as a whole) are always on a long, hard slog on the way from barbarism. But still the idea of America was hardy enough to survive, and as time went on we have come to realize that freedom for one is freedom for all. We are all free, or none of us are. In a society of slavery, today’s citizen is tomorrows slave with the stroke of a pen.

We have problems, but we manage to find our way clear of them without wholesale slaughter of those that disagree with us. I don’t think people appreciate how recent an invention that is. This grand experiment has held up better than anyone could have expected, and has been a model for many other people across the world who want to live in freedom. That is why I am proud of this country. We may stutter and falter. We may try to silence those who frighten us. We may even fall into the linguistic patterns of those who stand for the antithesis of this land (like some sort of strange Stockholm Syndrome for political thought) but the truth, the truth rises up like a sapling fighting through all the dirt thrown on top of it. I have faith in the truth. I have faith in America.

Still, we can’t seem to stop meddling, and making more and more laws to make it easier for those in power to silence criticism. Who ever said that their jobs should be easy? Who said that the smallest bit of my freedom was theirs to take? I am a writer, I live and die by the first amendment, and every time someone takes a bite out of it, small town thug or tyrants in neckties, I am diminished. I hope we can stop it. This 4^th of July, go out and truly enjoy yourselves, but always be vigilant. Remember how long it took us to get here.

"I disagree with what you have to say but will fight to the death to protect your right to say it." -- attribution in doubt

On with the fun…

And the ADD game of the century!

In other news, I am going to be appearing for a signing on July 14^th at Newport on the Levee Barnes and Noble. Come in, buy a book, feed a starving artist!

Update 26 07.15.07 Free advice, worth the asking price.

Well, I went. I spoke. I sold. I cleared out over half of the stock of Barnes and Noble, and by the end of the night I was smiling like an idiot. I met a massive number of extremely cool people, was able to lay a medieval verbal smack-eth down-eth upon two hecklers, made some great contacts in the gaming industry, and met four aspiring authors who appreciated the advice I was able to give.

In fact, I have been inspired to do an entire update about advice… because I have lots of advice. I spent a lot of time bored as a kid. I regret this…a lot.

Time being bored is time being wasted.

Even a simple game of tag can fill out a day. But be aware: if you need to play tag at range, please use paintballs. Do NOT be this guy. Secondly, do NOT build an explosive device, it makes the ATF cranky, and you still won’t touch the experts. Thirdly, if you are going to drink (are a moron, unlucky, or some combination thereof), for the love of god do not touch anything that launches, shoots, or discharges. Also, while people have always told you not to play for your food, sometimes it’s cool to break the rules.

But don’t just sit around staring into space, life is too short.

There are cool things you can do with your time.

There are freaky things you can do with your time.

There are constructive things you can do with your time.

There are even not-as-cool things you can do that won’t wind up with you explaining a mushroom cloud over your house.

WARNING: It may be cool now, but one day… well ‘cool is a fickle mistress.

ADDENDUM: It may NEVER be cool, but as long as it’s fun, who cares?

Lastly, if someone hires you to go hunting ghosts with a gun, just pretend to look and go home. Trust me.

I feel rejuvenated, and I am redoubling my efforts to finish The Key To Damocles as soon as humanly possible, which roughly translates to the end of the month. I’m ready for it to be done. Really.

Stay safe out there.

Correction: Last update I referenced the wrong horrible, freedom sucking law. What I meant was this horrible, freedom sucking law to make my point. I apologize for looking like an idiot.

Update 27 08.19.07 Since I am almost done, it is time to begin again.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Radiation Angels: The Key to Damocles is less than five thousand words from completion. After that, of course, it will be passed by dozens of eyes (even before it gets to the publisher) and revision will follow revision will follow revision. But still, there is something sad and magical about a completed novel. The last ten thousand words build inside the author’s head like a slow-motion explosion. It is a pressure that pushes against the letters on the keyboard, slowing progress but building excitement. And once it is done…the exercise takes on the feeling of watching a child go off to college. The pride, fear, sadness, and joy meld into a mind-bending grog. It is something unexplainable. But enough of that!

I mentioned an anthology a few months ago called Breach the Hull, published by Marietta Publishing. Well, the September Issue of Space and Time Magazine has a review of the anthology and they have FANTASTIC TASTE! So, follow links, spend money, and be happy.

In other news: I went to ConGlomeration and had a wonderful time. Science fiction fans, as I have often said, are some of the friendliest people on the face of the earth. Amongst new fans and new friends, I also had a few panels with a fascinating author named Geoffrey Girard. Not only did we work well together, I honestly picked up some new writing techniques from listening to him speak. I can’t wait for ConText and Philcon!

In yet OTHER news, I am beginning a high intensity surge of signings. I’m hitting every place I can: comic, RPG, and book stores (Hell, I’ll give a signing at a VFW hall if someone asks). I even signed up with Book Tour just in case there’s someone looking for an author like me.

As you can imagine, I’m a little swamped. But, because I love and respect every one of you, and look up to all of you as kings, I have squeezed in just a little time to find some cool stuff that you have probably already heard of.

With the political season growing like a fat Colorado kid with a trapper keeper, it this might be of interest: Giuliani has some vocal detractors. While the subject matter may seem silly, one of my greatest fears is politicians that pass stupid laws without knowing what they are talking about.

And if you just can’t wait for Halo 3, you could always raid radio shack to make your own laser.

Finally, a theory on dinosaurs really died I can get behind!

For those of you who know me know I have an obsession for zombie media that borders on a fetish. Well, now you can use the power of the internet to find Zombie Games to fill the blanks between console, TV, and movie releases.

And I know that Fallout 3 is still a year away, but this has simply forced me to go and explore all the memories of previous Fallout games. I found a really neat site at AshWorld that has some neat files. It’s nothing compared to No Mutants Allowed however.

In that same vein, I am eagerly awaiting the reappearance of Futurama! This was one of the best shows ever produced, hands down. Smart, funny, and sometimes even oddly touching…What other show can say it gets funnier if you graduate with a mathematics degree from MIT? Still, the best thing in the world is Futurama’s ability to make fun of someone without them appearing to know. Or maybe simultaneously owning carbon offsets, two mansions, and a private jet just does things to people.

But then again maybe he has PTSD left over from his days leading the Vice-Presidential Action Rangers

And, I see the word about a new Harry Potter book is true:

But still, they were always at their best when they were making fun of everybody at once…

Well, since I gave the vaguest reference to a new Harry Potter book, my page hits will go up by the millions by tomorrow morning. Obviously, my work here is done.

When:	16-18 November 2007 Approximately Friday 5:00 p.m. to Sunday 4:00 p.m.
Where:	Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel 17th & Race Streets Philadelphia, Pennylvania 19103

Update 28 09.04.07 Rolling like an avalanche coming down a mountain…

Well, everyone, I have to say that this update is going to be very short on me and long on everyone else in the internet. The reason is simple:

Radiation Angels: The Key to Damocles has been completed. It is right now being passed under the eyes of the smartest people I know, one at a time, to close up the script, catch errors, and generally polish the product before the publisher ever sees it.

New interview by the Breach the Hull authors (including me!) on MilSciFi.com

A song that is way too poppy for the content

The #1 best rave remix ever recorded

A friend sent me this, saying: Never trust a robot

An entertaining way to play with Balls… well, a way that s mostly safe for work.

To all the bachelors: Learn to Cook!

A game you can play at Wiki’s expense

And now… Queen VERSUS Kirk!

And for all those info seekers out there something…

Roll on the floor funny

Horrifying

And something to keep you from turning into a Zombie while working on your own novel.

Alright, I’m off to finish a short story for release in an unknown market, finish a short story for Bad Assed Fairies #2, gear up for ConText and get signings at any place that will have me.

And that’s just the short list.

Update 29 09.16.07 Deep thoughts… or at least thoughts.

Hello everyone, well The Key to Damocles is being sent off to various people smarter than me in preparation for submission to Mundania Press. I am also mulling over my next novel, which I believe will be a fantasy endeavor based on a novella I wrote half a decade ago. It will take significant work, but I think it will be worth it.

As far as my leisure time, I find it shrinking due to the convergence of technology and good stuff. To put it simply: my non-TiVo DVR has kept me up late. And it’s not just reruns of Robot Chicken, The Venture Brothers or Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law… a rampant virus must have killed off TV execs all across the planet. I mean, Television has a lot of good stuff on. Trying to keep up with House, Burn Notice, Doctor Who, and Torchwood has taken a rather meaty bite out of my days. Pretty soon, I’m going to have to pair down my shows to something a lot like this just so I have time to write.

But there’s always someone out there with too much time on their hands. Take the politicos in Atlanta. Believe it or not, they apparently think they will cure cancer if they get those damn kids to pull up their pants! Stuff like this simply makes me sigh and shake my head. I mean, if the gangsta culture offends you, you probably have a modicum of taste. Aside from that, however, there is a more damaging thing that you can do to make sure gangster culture goes away: let it run its course. Though similar claims were made about bra-less teens, long haired bong kissers, and bell bottoms, hippie clothes did not spell the end of western civilization. One day these kids will look back at their high school pictures and cringe. Then, ladies and gents, we will have won. Until then, just mock them like everyone else. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT pass a stupid law. If there is one consistent thing in the universe, it is this: Someone who says there ought to be a law ought to be punched in the mouth until he stops.

People do stupid things, astoundingly stupid things, all the time. Take the news reports about the Israeli neo-Nazi gangs. Yes, yes, yes, go back… read the pretty blue words again and let them roll around in the back of your head. Throw up in your mouth a little (I did) and then do the mental math. I mean being a Nazi pretty much means you have a lukewarm IQ anyway, but being an Israeli Nazi? It’s too bad they live in a desert because they would be easy to spot in a crowd. They’d be the grown men with mittens safety pinned to their sleeves.

At times like this its just good I’ve taken up Tai Chi. Yes, I look like a jackass. But at this point I am so used to looking like a jackass, I can look cool doing it. More importantly, I find it relaxing and surprisingly difficult. Besides, at least nobody has me on YouTube doing it. But still, it is amazing how fast you can go from badass to cabin boy, so I figure relaxed and calm beats hypertensive and cool.

Well, on the nerd front, a friend of mine found a cross-genre list of size comparison charts for aliens, ships and space stations of all kinds. Mega Cool.

Also cool, but horribly creepy is the site PostSecret, a place where people anonymously send in postcards with their deepest secrets on them. I am not blown away by the fact that half of them are most assuredly fake, but by elimination that the other half are real…

You may have been introduced to the site by the All American Rejects:

And, of course this brings up my standard fears about being behind the times. It kind of scares me to see something like Internet People. I mean, it’s sunny and all, but these are supposed to be internet memes, cultural viral episodes if you will, and I only know about half of them.

But I comfort myself with the idea that while I am not up on every little virtual culture fad coming down the pike, I am still getting things done. A Space and Time (September) reviewer had great things to say about my story in Breach the Hull. We are having unit patches made up for the release party at Philcon (see below) a drawing… the works. If I read the last update correctly, pre-orders are coming in and the eBook is already on sale.

I have also been calling every bookstore in a fifty mile radius, trying to get as many signings as possible. Most are pretty standard, but I’m also working my way into RPG stores and Comic stores. Things look good for a signing at Yottaquest, and I have three more firm but unscheduled yeses, and three more with firm dates. If you have a bookstore and would like a friendly personable author to show up and entertain your guests (and make you some money to boot) contact me at radiationangels@aol.com

Signings:

October 13^th Waldenbooks Florence, Ky

October 20^th B.Dalton Tricounty Mall, Oh

October 26^th Barnes and Noble Newport on the Levee

Update 30 09.26.07 Fark it

Alright, this one is going to be a short one as well. It isn’t for lack of effort, but for a serious lack of time.

On the signing front, Things have been iffy. I have not been able to secure any more singings, and I got a ‘so sorry’ letter from one place saying that the district manager was nixing the event. I’m not sure why, but suffice it to say I’m a little bummed about it. Perhaps if enough people call the store in question asking about my appearance and book, we can turn it around, but I don’t have a lot of hope.

I have plenty of time between now and December I have to fill with appearances, and I’ll travel up to 100 miles in order to make your event a great one. Radiationangels@aol.com gets me within 24 hours.

In any case the new, updated signing schedule is:

~~October 13^th Waldenbooks Florence, Ky~~

October 20^th B.Dalton Tricounty Mall, Oh

October 26^th Barnes and Noble Newport on the Levee

But all new is not bad! Another review is out for Breach the Hull, the anthology in which appears Not One Word (a Radiation Angels story). The review can be found here: http://willmcdermott.blogspot.com/2007/09/breach-hull-review.html

Also, there was a moment of breathless excitement at the Ohio Renaissance Festival. I went with a group of friends, and we enjoyed the pirate show (performed on a 65’ long ship), Theatre in the Ground, The Knight’s Joust, and the supremely funny Bunnies In Peril. And while all of these were great shows, my moment exhilaration came when a guy stopped me in the middle of the crowd and said:

“Hey, you’re James Daniel Ross!”

Now, normally if someone picks me out of a crowd by my full name, I’m looking for an exit, but he was genuinely friendly…which goes to show that if you are going to ambush someone in a public place, a friendly smile will buy you an extra ten seconds to position your team…(furiously scribbles note for next novel)…but I digress. It turns out he read my fliers at Conglomeration. He had wanted to buy a copy, but had missed me since he was running games in the RPG room the whole weekend. He had seen my hat, recognized the symbol, and asked if I had a copy of the book around for sale.

You better believe I had a copy. I had to hike a mile to the car and another mile back, then scrounge for a pen to sign it, but I did so with a big old smile on my face. So there I was, in an event I was only attending, and I made a sale. I tell you what: it seems that about the time the self esteem gets really creaky someone comes up to add a little oil.

Thanks, man.

(Clears throat, blinks furiously, grumbles about dust in his eye)

On the home front: I have been ‘entertaining’ myself by reading It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap As News by Drew Curtis. I have been delighted with his wit and candor, but somewhat less impressed with the follow through. Astute readers of this site will remember that I used to frequent www.Fark.com quite often. Since that time he hired a lot of moderators… moderators whom believe it is their job to censor inappropriate messages. Of course, ‘inappropriate messages’ became ‘anyone I, the moderator, do not agree with’ so fast even Fark did not have time to post a headline for it. Certain opinions were outlawed. People were banned. Fark quickly degenerated into the Daily Kos… Which is not what I was looking for. It was Drew Curtis’ decision, it is his site, he has every right to censor anyone he likes on his property. Of course, I don’t have to go there, and I do not, anymore. It’s sad, really.

I hate to peel back the curtain of what I do. I feel it breaks an unspoken bond between entertainer and audience, but in this case, perhaps it is appropriate.

In the ‘games’ portion of this update…A frequent shopper for free web based games sent this addictive little number earlier in the week. Hope you enjoy!

Lastly, I am gearing up like a madman for Context Convention. Here is my schedule, I hope to see you there!

Friday:
8:30pm                        Writing for interactive media

Saturday:
1pm                        Electronic Publishing, Print-on-Demand, and the Death of the Book
7pm                        The Game as Literature
8:30pm            Poetry Reading (Oh, God, someone help me!)

Sunday
10:30am            I Really Did It, But How?

When:	16-18 November 2007 Approximately Friday 5:00 p.m. to Sunday 4:00 p.m.
Where:	Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel 17th & Race Streets Philadelphia, Pennylvania 19103

When:	16-18 November 2007 Approximately Friday 5:00 p.m. to Sunday 4:00 p.m.
Where:	Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel 17th & Race Streets Philadelphia, Pennylvania 19103

Update 31 10.01.07 A-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

Things are moving apace, which of course means that I’m going a little nuts and loving it. I am working like a madman to finish a short story for the sequel to Bad-Ass Faeries.

The biggest announcement is, of course, science fiction related… kinda…

Context was a blast, but as always it’s the fans that are the best part. I even got a blog mention! http://www.kosmosflot.blogspot.com/

And I had a tear form in my eye when someone pointed out that you can buy The Radiation Angels on sites that service customers from Mexico, Australia, Italy, Africa, Germany, Russia, or Korea. Sometimes the obstacles I have to overcome in the publishing industry seem overwhelming, and I begin to feel a bit down. Then reality comes in with a Clue-by-Four and lets me know that life could definitely be worse. Take the news story where Women defend themselves from Saudi Religious Police this reminds me of a bumper sticker it said: Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. Then again, nobody well behaved makes history. It also makes me grateful to live in a country where people rarely have to defend themselves from the police (language NSFW).

On that note, I have also become aware of a great organization that uses literacy to lower crime rates. So if you get a chance, stop buy and read their webpage. It is called Book Em. A worthy cause if ever I saw one.

Slightly less worthy, but infinitely more fun, is the experiment someone did to build and launch a 20 foot long X-wing…. It… It a…. It didn’t do so well, but still cool. I mean, let’s be honest, there are worse uses for Star Wars fandom.

And uses that kinda go back and forth from OH! to ARGH!

(language NSFW…no seriously…Not safe for anywhere really.)

~~October~~ ~~13^th~~ ~~Waldenbooks~~ ~~Florence, Ky~~

(Still working to salvage this)

October 20^th B.Dalton Tricounty Mall, OH

October 26^th Barnes and Noble Newport on the Levee

October 27^th Waldenbooks Eastgate

November 24^th Barnes and Noble Fields Ertel

When:	16-18 November 2007 Approximately Friday 5:00 p.m. to Sunday 4:00 p.m.
Where:	Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel 17th & Race Streets Philadelphia, Pennylvania 19103

Update 32 10.15.07 Yep, I used synergy in a sentence. Deal with it.

Wow, Lots going on, so let me dispense with the preliminary pleasantries and get right to the thing.

I have completed my short story for Bad Assed Fairies 2 and gotten a positive first impression from the editor. (Yay!) For a new author, it is heartening to be able to get my name out into a more diverse market, and to have the work accepted. I just hope the fans of non-standard Fairy stories will find “The Natural Born Spy” to their liking.

Now I have to decide if I want to work on “I Know Not” (fantasy/novel) or “Poisoned Bullets” (a Radiation Angels story) or perhaps something completely different. Ah, the possibilities.

During the writing of “The Natural Born Spy”, I came to appreciate the synergy of information that is the World Wide Web. Without giving too much away, I easily found information on Shakespeare, French and German, and all kinds of period firearms. Research that once would have taken days in a library now took minutes. It’s a good time to be a writer.

But one must be vigilant as to the sources one uses. Example? Glad to: According to an expert in such (ahem) matters, there will be Sex and Marriage With Robots by 2050! I, for one welcome our future robot overlords, especially if they’re going to look like Milla Jovovich and punish me when I’m naughty! But seriously, I am suspect of ‘experts’ who are engaged in rabid speculation guaranteed to only be disproved thirty years after the expert expires of old age. The bit about Massachusetts was funny, though.

Also, always be aware that some idiocies pop up where you least expect them. Take this for example:

OBVIOUSLY DUMB: Glamorizing the life of a felon musician/lyricist.

VERY OBVIOUSLY DUMB: Cheering if said felon gets off the hook after being involved in a machismo inspired running gun battle on a highway.

PAINFULLY, OBVIOUSLY DUMB: As a felon, sending your bodyguard into a LEGAL FIREARM DEALER to ask about getting UNREGISTERED Machine guns and silencers.

Firstly, a quick hint to the criminal element: Firearm owners hate you. Secondly…I mean, the mind boggles. The rampant stupidity just everywhere. My Shadowrun crew could have planned a better weapon gathering plan.

But seriously, there is stupidity that goes unnoticed, and it works itself into the minds of the reader like an insidious virus, taking root and laying the groundwork for more obviously dumb ideas. Take this article on an Earth without people. I originally saved it because I thought it would be a great research article for something down the line, but reading the script became… disturbing.

‘If they could, the other species we share Earth with would surely vote us off the planet….Imagine that all the people on Earth - all 6.5 billion of us and counting - could be spirited away tomorrow, transported to a re-education camp in a far-off galaxy.’

Um, am I alone to find these turn of phrases scary stuff? Then Holmes talks to some genius names Orrock. “The sad truth is, once the humans get out of the picture, the outlook starts to get a lot better," says John Orrock, a conservation biologist at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California.’

Remember, this guy… who draws his paycheck from the public coffers (that’s you, boys and girls) think things will ‘begin to look up’ as soon as humanity is gone. I love how certain people believe that humanity is a parasite on the face of this planet, but they NEVER volunteer to jump into a wood chipper to lessen the burden on the Earth Mother. Instead, they seem to like private jets, go figure.

But on to happier discoveries.

As always I try to stay at the bleeding edge of scientific study.

I once gave Kudos to the Official Seal Generator but I have to do so again! They have added new seal shapes, badge sizes, and so forth, making it fun all over again.

Also, I have found a bar in miliwalkee that I HAVE to visit if I ever get a convention in the area. It is called the Safe House and it is a spy-themed bar with multiple elves, secret corridors, hidden doors and more.

As the astute amongst you may have noticed, October 13^th came and went, and neither my publisher or myself were able to save the event from extinction. It is sad, but it is not an uncommon hurdle for small press authors.

But other signings are in the works, and I would like to point out that THIS weekend I will be at the TriCounty BDalton Booksellers. Stop by and say ‘hi’.

I’ll be the guy in black with the unit patch everywhere. I figure anyone stopping by will be dressed like this:

Hope to see you there.

October 20^th B.Dalton Tricounty Mall, Oh

October 26^th Barnes and Noble Newport on the Levee

October 27^th Waldenbooks Eastgate

November 24^th Barnes and Noble Fields Ertel

When:	16-18 November 2007 Approximately Friday 5:00 p.m. to Sunday 4:00 p.m.
Where:	Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel 17th & Race Streets Philadelphia, Pennylvania 19103

11 AM: Fun With Conspiracy Theories - Bring your favorite and tell us about it! Hugh Casey, James Daniel Ross, Den Wilson and Ray Ridenour(M)

Update 45

Be able to kill your student.

6.13.08

I am laughing uncontrollably right now, because a friend of mine just got finished describing a ninja super weapon: tying a poisonous snake to a kite. Imagine being the guy who invented kite+snake=dead target. And no matter what, when you got back to base you would have to report it a glowing success. I mean otherwise you are just knee deep in fail.

Well, 4th Edition D&D should be out any second now, but of course the Data file has been available for a while. Still, it doesn’t appear to have hurt sales. It got me thinking if maybe the same kind of thing could work for the RA license. I asked several different sources, and got lots of very negative feedback (the publisher told me no in painfully certain terms) but at the same time I talk to a lot of nerds, and those with the files are those most looking forward to buying the books. Time will tell.

Fandom is not identical, after all, though there are similarities no matter the subject.

People are looking forward to the end of Hurricane of suck at the pump. Now we can scratch the nose of the face of Mars. Hollywood can finally make amends for Highlander… well…. Highlander anything but 1, really. And Jack Thompson has learned, AGAIN, that Judge Dredd, he is not.

We are no longer only wrecking our own planet, we are now wrecking Jupiter by way of global warming mind powers, I guess. Or maybe a new hysteria is on the horizon. Apparently there is a fashion trend in Japan that makes people dress up like Warhammer 40K Eldar figurines I was too poor to afford as a kid.

We, as a race, continue to learn and grow, even if sometimes what we learn isn’t really friendly in the strictest sense of the word. Utopia and world peace may not be right around the corner, at least we know that most of the time jerks will get what’s coming to them, most torturous experiences last only a few minutes (even if it seems to last forever), and that things aren’t as bad as we think (at least historically). Neat stuff from every corner of the Internet piped right to your laptop. Cool authors, talented artists, even recaptured memories of youth at our fingertips alter our perceptions faster and faster, but at least the basics don’t change much.

Yeah, I’m dong O.K.

Skin Disease or Dungeons and Dragons Character?

Score: 88% (14 out of 16)

Update 46 Clouds are dancing inside of my mind. 7.27.08

Well, an old friend has told me I’m making every one of the Top 10 Weblog Design Mistakes. Though overall I disagree, I’m happy to hear his input, because Lord knows I could use the help. If you have any advice, or requests, feel free to contact me at RadiationAngels@aol.com.

Those of you who are keeping up with this page (yes, both of you) I realize that it has been a while. The constant flow of good news and bad, of success and failure, has created something of a tornado inside of my skull, and I am desperately in need of a few days off. I’ve been looking for a new apartment, my computer had a fatal and unrecoverable error, and things have been rough at the day job.

But I can’t complain too much, I had a long overdue vacation with my children to visit the grandparents and great-grandparents… I think I’ve found on of the coolest apartments known to mankind…

Most importantly, I have received confirmation from my publisher that they have accepted The Radiation Angels: The Key to Damocles! Not just that, but they are preparing to release the RA short story: First Drop. If that wasn’t enough, Breach the Hull has been nominated (and is a finalist) for a Dream Realm Award! Bad-Ass Faeries has also been nominated, and while it doesn’t affect me directly, it is good news for a load of cool people, and it bodes well for Bad-Ass Faeries 2!

The reviews have started rolling in for Bad-Ass Faeries 2, and so far I/We am/are getting thumbs up all around.

As we pass the midpoint of the year I have to do some quick math: I have three more shorts accepted for printing, and a fantasy novel half completed. I think I’m doing pretty well. Now I’m hoping I can double my writing schedule without acting like a victim of the merciless pepper of Quetzlzacatenango.

Yes, ok. I manufactured a reason to spell out Quetzlzacatenango and Xt’apalatakettle. Ok, it’s been a slow, painful week and I deserve to entertain myself.

More when the story is released, and I’ll keep you all up to date on anything else that comes my way.

Update 47 I’m not behind in updates, I’m just stealthy.

I really need to get one of these that says ‘winner’ and post it here because…

Breach the Hull has, indeed, won the Dream Realm Award for Best Anthology! I couldn’t be happier, and I hope that all of the great writers that carried the dead weight of my hackery can do it long enough to convince the world of my talent.

Seriously, folks, lots of stuff going on lately, and I’ve been kept at a sprint that could kill an Olympic athlete.

I was invited to fill a hole in an upcoming anthology, and managed to crank out a 6.5K word story (which I’m very happy with) in about three days while working a convention.

Things are finalizing for So it Begins, which appears to be as great an anthology as Breach the Hull.

I have completed work with a dear friend on a historical fiction novel. I’m less than twenty thousand words from finishing my first fantasy novel. I have just received word that Radiation Angels: The Key to Damocles will be out at the end of February, which means edits are right around the corner! Sometime a week ago I realized that I (if all goes well with the fantasy novel) managed to complete 3 novels in a single year, not to mention the story for Bad Ass Faeries 2, the one for Bad Ass Faeries 3, the aforementioned So it Begins, a spare for Cry Havoc (which may or may not happen now)… and this does not include all of the story seeds, underdeveloped ideas, and fragments I have to work with later. I think I have done a fair job as a writer this year.

The future is even better. Believe it or not, I have been promised a 3-D model of Deadly Heaven. There could be a Radiation Angels roleplaying game on its way! Now all I need is a game company that knows cool when it shoves a pulse cannon through the doorjamb and I’ll be ecstatic.

I was invited to Philcon. I loved the new hotel, the people were so friendly they knocked me over. I didn’t even need my bullet proof vest for the Tolkien vs. Rowling panel!

Also, my eldest daughter has started her first short story (not assigned as work from school) and has sent me the first few paragraphs for feedback. It feels like an awesome compliment, that she has decided to take up writing, and a frightening possibility, since this is not an easy field. But, I believe in her, and I know she can do anything she sets her mind to.

Still life is not all peaches and cream. I’ve had significant overtime on every paycheck for the last eight weeks. It has taken a toll on me to keep up the workload while at the same time performing at work. I still do not have cable around the home, and communication with my friends and family has been spotty. In the face of everything else, however, complaining in excess about these minor hiccups would seem petty.

More updates soon.
Seriously.
Really.
I promise.

Update 48 I’m back, baby!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m thinking about a change around this place. I have been blogging for a few years now. I have enjoyed sharing my everyday minutiae with you folks, but I think you deserve more. I mean random links are fine and all, but I want to do more, add more, be thought of as… more.

Well from here on in I will be concentrating on articles that allow me to entertain, draw attention, as well as announce important developments in the year of 2662.

My first writing job was in the RPG industry, and that’s left an indelible mark. I have a large vault with background information, equipment specs, and other bits that you might actually find interesting. I think it might be time to clean up this site, shake off my personal ramblings, and begin providing, well, more.

Now, while I can provide ample alphabet based entertainment, my art will be slightly thin until I can find an artistic fan so fanatical that they’ll work for thanks and maybe some intermittent swag. I mean, I can get by for a while with barely shaded and badly foreshortened line art painstakingly pounded out over sixteen hours in MS Paint.

I’ll do what I can.

In the meantime, I’m finishing up I Know Not; The Story of Fox Crow. I’m prepping to enter a marathon-sprint (you heard me) editing session for Radiation Angels: The Key to Damocles. It’s a long book, 3 times longer than the first R/A, and the release party is at Balticon. That’s not a lot of time.

Thankfully, however, I have an internet connection again. I have to admit, I miss the huge, turn of the century schoolhouse I lived in for 6, drafty, cold, frozen pipe months. I’m just stupid that way.

www.theredsoldier.com is doing well. Joe and I are close to installing the buy-it-now buttons on the websites. A steady stream of good feedback from professional soldiers will soon be attached to the red soldier site. Humbling, to be sure.

So, things are busy, so I’m not as entertaining as usual, but hopefully I can make up for that soon.

You can't do the job but you can complain someone else gets respect for it 1st rule - humiliation is always the ignorant's first and onlt weapon so watch out some asshole is always judging you don't be different EVER! Yep and most of it is empty el toro lives! No really text me again!

Update 49 Awards and Ashes

Everything has turned so many dark and ferocious corners this week that I think I’m actually developing a twitch.

Bad-Ass Faeries 2 has won the The EPPIE Award for Best Fiction Anthology. I’m packing up for the last Lunacon ever, hoping to make some new fans.

In the meantime, I am prepping my life for the atomic bomb that is editing. The Radiation Angels: The Key to Damocles has entered preproduction! It is right now being edited by a fine employee of Mundania Press. Next, it returns to me for further edits and polishing, then back to the editor. It is the intention to have the book on bookshelves by May. First Drop is entering typesetting for release through Mundania, and So It Begins is prepping for launch.

Of course while that’s going on, I STILL have to finish my first fantasy novel. It was in the midst of this triumph that something happened.

I got a call from a friend. His daughter’s friend was last seen jogging in the afternoon, and then… well, perhaps the headline: Wanted Sex Offender Arrested In Death Of 13-Year-Old Girl says it all.

And suddenly I’m back there.

Years ago, I lost a friend to a criminal, and I don’t think I’ve ever really gotten over it. I’m not sure I ever should. But here I am, almost a decade later. Do I go to my friend’s daughter? Do I tell her the horrible, awful truth? Do I tell her that the pain never goes away, but it does become bearable with time? I never meant to take this into a dark place, but where else can I be? I feel like I have a responsibility to be there as another survivor, to empathize and understand. Still, is that appropriate to offer, even to a good friend’s daughter? And there are things I can’t say. I can’t talk about the fracture that pain like this can open up inside, letting loose a spring of white hot rage that never really goes away.

I just don’t have an answer, and I can only hope that this particular story ends with a sex-offender getting a lethal injection of super-slow acting liquid pain in the scrotal sack or something. I wish I could pull this together somehow, but life doesn’t always work that way.

I have begun a project for myself to change the format of this site. It will ensure that I keep writing on a pretty much constant basis.

Update 50 My guest star today is JAKonrath

Hello everyone! It has been a tumultuous week, full of incredible highs and well, ok, so highs and highs some more. Sunday saw the editing of The Key to Damocles. Thursday saw the final edits sent to the publisher. I prepped an ad with the help of a friend, continued work on the flash-animation clickable Radiation Angels Equipment List.

A few friends of mine and I are kicking around the idea of writing a online cooking show. And I got the chance to pick the brains of a fine author, J A Konrath! He’s on a whirlwind tour of… everywhere that I can tell. He needed crash space in Cincinnati, OH. and as it turns out we sent an initiation that he accepted. We had a lot in common, and got on like a house afire. He even got to mention me in his Newbie’s Guide to Publishing! Head on out there to learn about anything to do with getting published, being published, and staying published.

The Snow and Steel website is LIVE! And includes the ISBN, making the book official and mostly orderable! We’ve gotten a great outpouring of support from former military personnel. You can see quotes on the website, or even send in your own to STAVKA@theredsoldier.com.

Pictures of me kissing and wooing the Eppie award from my editor have gotten lost in electronic hell, but hopefully more will be coming soon. Now I just need to fund a trip to Balticon, the release party, and figure out what the hell I’m giving away as a prize this time around. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

More coming soon.

Why don't we admit that we want a fuedal system and screw democracy?

Update 51 05.07.09 The Times they are a changing

Hello everyone.

The Key to Damocles is nearly live. A few days ago I saw this and started partying so loud people in Cleveland were calling to complain. It was one of the nice policemen with the Thorazine dart guns that noted that the BUY IT NOW button leads nowhere. In any case this is just one more hint that the book is painfully close to release. The release party is this month at Balticon, but trust me when I say that no milestone is reached in the publishing industry until you see it in the rear view mirror. The fine people at Mundania are working very hard on making it happen. I have also worked on securing some very special prizes for the raffle at the release party. More on that later.

In addition, Snow and Steel has been put up for prerelease! Just go to theredsoldier.com and you can preorder this thrilling tale of WWII heroism set in the beleaguered city of Stalingrad. In addition:

Preorder sales will be shipped first before any other sale
All books will be signed in ink by the authors
All books will be hand numbered in limited edition series, numbered as part of the presale, distinguishing it as part of the original batch shipped
Comes with an official “Snow and Steel” bookmark, uniquely laminated and decorated
Comes with a “Weapons Reference Guide”

Also this month First Drop has been released! Now you can see how Todd Rook got his start in the mercenary group. Just go to mundania.com and you can follow this exciting mystery for only $1.

Even more exciting, I have a signing at the Borders Books at Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky Airport. It presents an interesting challenge, since many people will be in a massive hurry, and there will be those looking to kill some time. In either case, May 28^th, from 2-4pm, I hope I can present them something that will make the journey a little more pleasant. So if you are flying into, out of, or through Cincinnati (CVG, for those of you hip to FAA codes) you can stop by and pick up a novel that will make those hours traveling… er… fly by?

Yes, I know and I am sorry.

Next week I’m going to start working on the extra content that I have mentioned before, and I believe I’m going to start writing up more in depth information on RA gear.

More soon…

Update 52 05.15.09 Cutting Edge.

It is strange where seemingly unrelated events will take a mind that really should be at home, minding its own business, having a nice bottle of hard cider while completing, say, a fantasy novel. Out of such distractions, one can make all kinds of things.

Preorders have begun for The Key to Damocles. What that means, fans, is that the books are coming. Soon it will be on Amazon, in bookstores, and across the world. Mundania.com is offering 10% off for all preorders, so you can get it early and save some cash. In that same direction, I have new interviews going out on www.Milscifi.com, so check them out for more information.

And if you are still unconvinced that The Radiation Angels is something you would like, you can go buy First Drop on mundania.com. For $1, you can get a taste for what kind of adventure is in store.

Orders are still available for Snow and Steel:

I’m still excited about the signing at Borders Books at Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky Airport, though I’m not sure if they will have copies of Damocles or not. In any case, May 28^th, from 2-4pm.

I am also proud to say it looks like the Launch Party is going to happen at Balticon! In the great tradition of a McPhail enterprise, if you manage to make it to the party, you will get free food, free soft drinks, and a ticket for every book you purchase in order to win prizes!

What kind of prizes? I am so glad you asked.

While I’m sure that the other authors will have their own give-aways, RA fans will be delighted to know that I am giving away 3 knives – two of the smaller and one of the longer. Each one emblazoned with the unit patch of The Radiation Angels.

A special thanks must go out to the employees of Frost Cutlery, who provided these special items on an extremely truncated timeline and did their level best to put them in my hands so I could put them in yours.

And now, I am racing a deadline and trying desperately to prepare for my panels.

Ruth Lampi	Matt Hawk	Bryan Prindiville
	Christina Yoder

Ruth Lampi	Matt Hawk	Bryan Prindiville
	Christina Yoder

Honor, integrity, & Courage

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Newport, KY Barnes and Noble Feb 17th 7pm-10pm