State of the “Union”

Especially since I haven't posted in a while, I wanted to give everyone a heads-up on what I have been up to, and what I have coming up toward the end of the year and in the coming year. As I began to put the blog together, I realized that if I did it all in one blog, I'd have one huge wall-o-text with a lot of comments of tl;dr (too long; didn't read). So, for the sake of personal and general sanity, I will post a new entry over the next three days: "Projects" on Monday, "Purpose" on Tuesday, and "Personnel" on Wednesday. For today, a few news tidbits.

1) The Legends of the Mountain State series has been doing well. I had a great time at the reading at Border's in Huntington with Mark Justice and Michael Knost, as well as the book signing at the West Virginia Book Expo. I have more appearances down the road, including a reading at the Book Exchange on October 24^th. Both books are soon to be available at Amazon.com, and are currently available at the Horror Mall.

2) Speaking of Michael Knost, he has some exciting projects on tap, and one of particular interest to WV writers. Get all the details at http://www.michaelknost.com, and sign up for his newsletter.

3) Weird Tales #351, and my poem "The Monster With the Shape of Me", will be hitting newsstands soon. Look for it.

4) Shroud Magazine is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the horror genre. Definitely worth a look. My flash fiction piece "Snowbound" appears in Issue #2 as part of their MySpace contest. You can read it on the Amazon.com website.

5) Congratulation to Brandy Schwan on her first poetry reading. One of the great joys of being a writer for me is to stand in front of an audience and read my work; I'm glad Brandy has finally experienced this for herself. If you want a copy of her new chapbook Catacombs & Photographs (along with the $5 Grim Trixter special), don't wait. This limited edition is going fast. Head over to the order page at the Apex website.

Enough for today? I believe so. Check back tomorrow for "Projects".