Author: Jim

There Is An Ant On My Manuscript

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Right now I am sitting on my sofa watching an ant crawling over the print out of Maidens Song I have been editing.  He’s scuttling around, randomly checking out words.  I’m thinking of giving him a very small pen so he can get on with this crappy job and give me a break.It’s funny how you can be so certain of something only to have it suddenly shoot off in a different direction.

That’s a thing people don’t realize about writing.  Our stories tend to take on a life of their own, become like old friends.  And just like people they grow and change.  And just like people they can be awkward SOB’s who seem to delight in doing whatever they can to annoy you.
Oh well, once more onto the breach dear friends.

H.P. Lovecraft – (20 August 1890–15 March 1937)

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Today marks the 74th anniversary of the passing of my favorite author; H.P. Lovecraft

For those that don’t know, Lovecraft is the creator of the Chthulhu mythos. His work has influenced almost all horror in the last 50 years, including masters such as Stephen King.

If you have never read his work then now is a great time to start. His collections can be found at all good book stores (both online and old school) and for my fellow Kindel users, you can often find free versions on Amazon.

To learn more about the man and his work check out the H.P. Lovecraft Archive

New Release: 30 Pieces of Silver by Carolyn McCray

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My good friend @craftymc has just released her historical thriller “30 Pieces of Silver”.  For those that don’t know:

A Christian suicide bomber.
John the Baptist’s bones inscribed in ancient Greek.
A secret carried from the foot of the crucifixion.
Can science solve the world’s greatest mystery?
30 Pieces of Silver

The novel is available for the Kindle.

But that’s not all folks.

Buy yours today for the  great price of $0.99.  I’ve downloaded mine and plan on starting the second I’ve got this posted.

Happy reading.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=thewr08-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&asins=B004HB1W82

Lost And Found

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I thought you were lost when I let you go before,
I was wrong
I thought you were gone and out of my life,
I was wrong

I thought you were lost to me forever, an eternity apart
I was wrong

So many years between us, too much I thought
I was wrong
Now I have you back and I realize you never left
I look into my heart,
And you are found

A Humbug Moment

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Now granted I’m not the worlds biggest fan of Christmas, but I do enjoy Christmas music.  I miss the old days of working on the karaoke circuit back on the mother rock.  There’s nothing like getting all of the locals in the pub singing together (normally out of tune) in the true spirit of the season.  So many happy memories.

So anyway, we have just had our department Christmas lunch at work.  As normal I was put in charge of providing the music.  While sorting going through my collection and sorting out the playlist I found that I had lost my favorite album (The best christmas album in the world…ever, in case you are interested).

“No problem” thought I, “I’ll hop on Amazon and grab it from their mp3 store”

So all is well in the world…or is it.  In recent years I have noticed a disturbing trend with Christmas music.  Namely the non-Chritsmassyness of the #1 in the charts.  Okay that by itself isn’t a bad thing and I don’t really have a problem with it.  What I do have a problem with is the record companies removing Christmas songs from Christmas albums and replacing them with the songs that just happened to be #1 at Christmas in previous years…regardless of relevance.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like quite like Frankie Goes to Hollywood.  I just don’t think Power of Love has any place on a Christmas album.  To me this is like putting Celine Dion on a Rob Zombie album.

Am I alone in hating this practice?  What are you opinions?

Another NaNo Update

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Sometimes an idea just doesn’t work and you can spend a week trying to force it.  For me that just doesn’t work when it comes to writing.  It’s either going to flow or it’s not.  So here we are, almost a week into NaNoWriMo and I decide to scrap everything I have written so far.  Why?

Because it sucked little baby ducks!
Proving once again that inspiration can hit you when you least expect it, I have come up with  much better idea.  I’m still going with a series of short stories but they are all going to have an underlying theme connecting them.  The result is a sudden and unexpected 1500 words cranked out this evening.
I have a good feeling about this.