by john | Dec 29, 2010 | The Chosen, Writing
I want to sell books. I want to sell a LOT of books. One of the ways I can sell a lot of books is by getting noticed by a lot of people. Right now, Goodreads.com is having a Best of 2010 contest, and I’d like all of you to write in The Chosen for Best Debut Author. Most of you have told me you liked the book, and it would increase my recognition quite a bit to make the top ten or so on the list. Also feel free to vote me in on any other categories that make sense. I promise it won’t hurt my feelings.
So please take a moment and click the widget below or on the right side of the page. Then click on Debut Author, scroll down to the bottom, and write in my name. When The Chosen pops up, click on it and vote! And hurry – you only have until January 5th to make it happen! But you guys rock, so I have faith in your ability to click a button!
And thanks.
by john | Dec 28, 2010 | Real Life, Writing
I suppose as I look around and see a bunch of my friends putting up year in review blogs that it’s time to either look back and evaluate the year that was, or look forward into the future and see what kind of year I want to have. Since the immediate past sucks, let’s look forward, shall we? Here are my goals for the year 2011, and since I didn’t make any type of resolutions in 2010, I have nothing to compare it to.
Writing – I want to keep it up. I’ve published two novels and a collection of poetry in 2010, and my current plan for 2011 is to write two more books in The Black Knight Chronicles series, and maybe go back and hack some more on Return to Eden, an epic fantasy trilogy that I’ve started and abandoned a couple of times. I’m getting the itch to revisit those characters, though, so I might touch on them some this year as well. But definitely two novels in 2011, and some more convention appearances and things of that nature.
Weight loss – I gotta start it. A few years ago I managed to lose over 50 lbs, which was great. Except that in the years since I’ve managed to find 60 brand new pounds! So Suzy got us an exercise room for Christmas, complete with treadmill and recumbent bike. Monday I’m starting on the Couch to 5K program with several co-workers, and I hope that the social aspect in addition to the outlay of cash will motivate me to exercise. My goals in this area are 50 pounds lost this year, and to complete a 5K, 10K and half-marathon run. I was initially planning to do a marathon this year, but realized that I need to spread my goals out over a longer period of time, or I’ll plow through them and then have no impetus to continue exercising.
Podcasting – you forgot I co-hosted a podcast, didn’t you? Well, for a little while so did I. But Special K and I are back in the saddle and ready to go, so with the help of the greatest online poker site in the world, The Gambling Tales Podcast has all sorts of cool things coming your way in 2011.
Existing books – I plan to sell books at the Heroes Con in June, which is one of my favorite cons to attend as a fan. It’ll be a whole new world sitting on the other side of the table, but I had a blast at the NC ComiCon with folks like Rob from Panda Dog Press and Chris from Capes n’ Babes, so I’m really looking forward to Heroes.
Travel – I want to go to at least one place I’ve never been before. Work may be taking me to Wisconsin in early 2011, so that gives me a chance to fly into Chicago and then spend the weekend there once my training is done, so that could take this one off my list early.
Friends – I had a great time in Vegas spending time with all my internet friends, and the outpouring of support and love that has come from all of you folks in my brother’s time of troubles has been so amazing, I gotta make it a point to see you guys more. I did a better job of hanging out this year at the WPBT gathering instead of playing poker all the time, so that’s a trend that’s likely to continue.
Family – I gotta help get my bro back on his feet. That’s the most important thing right now, and not likely to change. My sister is in pretty good shape after two hip replacement surgeries this year, and my dad is doing well. Mom is batty as hell, but that’s just a situation that won’t ever really get any better, so I need to just treasure what time I have left with my folks while they’re still around.
That’s what I’m trying to do in 2011, I know it seems pretty ambitious, but I’m nothing if not self-confident, right? What do you have planned?
by john | Dec 28, 2010 | Uncategorized
If you got here through the linky, give us a read then keep on hopping!
by john | Dec 27, 2010 | Real Life
First I’d like to say thanks to everyone who has linked to the story on Facebook and a huge thanks to folks who have donated already! My invisible internet friends came up with several hundred bucks in just a couple of hours, and I appreciate everything. I can’t tell you how touched we all were with the community efforts this weekend, and I continue to be amazed at what everyone is doing. I’ll never be able to thank everyone enough, but I’ll try to start here.
You people are all amazing!
Shannon Jones Anderson, one of my dearest friends from college
StB, who despite his love for the Cowboys is one of the best guys I know
Boy Genius, who chipped in some of his last American dollars before moving Down Under
BadBlood, who is always welcome at my table and in my home
WolfsHead, a great guy who tries to put on a gruff exterior (and fails, you big softy!)
Doc Chako, my very favorite war hero
Stuart, the best Horton in the world
Angie and Charlie Flynn McIver, who produce some of the greatest theatre in the Carolinas and have hearts as big as their talent
And John Lee from New York, who I don’t even know if I know, but since enough people have re-linked to the original post, I appreciate the kindness of a friend of a friend
All these folks have answered my call for help for my brother and his wife, and I can’t thank you guys enough. I’ll be back in a day or so with an update, and with some plans for the new year, which include there being a whole lot less Falstaff to love in 2011! And more Falstaff to read!
But again, I can’t say it enough and it doesn’t really come close, but thank you all.
by john | Dec 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
Because it was all supposed to be pretty smooth. My sister Bonnie had been dropped off at her daughter’s place, Suzy and I had exchanged gifts (she got me a treadmill and a recumbent bike, so hopefully there will be less of me to love in 2010), and Suzy was off to get a pedicure Friday morning while I was chilling in the recliner watching Netflix with a cat in my lap.
Then, as so often happens, the phone rang and it went all pear-shaped.
My sister’s ringtone is Dierks Bentley’ cover of the Bob Dylan tune “Senor,” so when she called I answered with lyrics – “Where we headed? Lincoln County Road or Armageddon?” When she answered, I knew it was bad. Her voice was shaking, and she said, “it is Armageddon. Tommy’s house is on fire.”
My brother’s house went from a home to a pile of rubble in the time it took for him to go finish his Christmas shopping. We believe the problem started in the wiring, but no one is really sure. What we are sure of is that on Christmas Eve everything he and his wife owned, including their two incredibly loving Jack Russel Terriers, went up in smoke.
So I packed two suitcases, one full of clothes that are two small for me so that Tom would have something to wear, and another full of my clothes and toiletries in case I needed to stay down there for the weekend. I got in touch with Suzy, and we decided that she would follow me later, and I hit the road.
I grew up a volunteer firefighter, and the smell of a house fire is something you never forget. It’s a mix of wood, plastic and dreams, all mixed in with cold air and tears. I was only seven when my older brother Bob’s house burned 30 years ago, so I don’t remember much about that time, but this was fresh. I spent a ton of time in that house as a kid, playing Nintendo with my nephew or even a little babysitting for Tom’s kids. So it was a devastating loss for the whole family, especially given the crappy timing.
The rest of the day was a lesson in small-town caring. The community came out in droves before the coals were even cold, bringing food, clothing and money to my parents’ house. The love and compassion shown by that community of working-class people blew me away and brought tears to my eyes and those of my entire family.
Tom and his wife Sherry are now settled into my parents’ guest room for the time being while they fight over insurance and work hard to rebuild their lives. There are things lost that are irreplaceable like Sherry’s parents’ wedding bands and all her photos of her deceased mother, their poor dogs, and all of their keepsakes and memories. Clothes have pretty much been replaced with everything that has come in, but the sheer volume of stuff that it’s going to take to get their place rebuilt and refurnished is astounding. Even with insurance, it won’t cover everything. It might cover the note on the house, and maybe some of the contents, but it’s doubtful that they can get everything rebuilt and refurnished with what insurance will pay out.
That’s why I’m writing this. Time and again, my community of invisible internet friends has chipped in to help someone in need, and this time it’s my family. I’m putting a paypal button here on the page so that people can donate to help out. This goes to my account for now, but I will be setting up a special account for them as soon as I get all the details like internet access for Sherry set up, since my parents don’t have internet and her computer is now a pile of melted plastic. So if Santa left a little something in your stocking this year, please chip in and help out my brother, who got left a lump of coal where his home used to be.
And thanks.
by john | Dec 15, 2010 | Poker, Travel, Vegas
This will be a multi-part trip report, spread out over several posts, over several days. Don’t get all impatient when I get sidetracked by – Oh look, squirrel! – and it might take me a while to get back to it, but all the stories I remember will be told eventually. Let’s start at the beginning.
My flight sucked.
Let’s be really clear, here. My flight suuuuccccckkkkkeeeedddddd. I t was crowded, hot, bouncy, and I was uncomfortable for most of the four and a half hours. It’s times like that when I’m supremely jealous of friends like Special K, who get upgraded all the time. Then I think about how much time they have to spend in airplanes to get said upgrades, and I get less jealous. So I got there, and headed to the MGM to crash for a couple of hours before I kicked it into high gear in the evening.
And kick it into high gear I did. The IP is where they’ll stick the hose if they ever give Las Vegas an enema, but for some reason we all congregate there at the Geisha Bar every year to drink like college kids. Since our visits typically coincide with the National Finals Rodeo, there are pretty good drink specials going on around town. So I end up taking extreme advantage of said drink specials, and doing myself grievous bodily harm. Last year I started a tradition, a particularly unhealthy tradition, of drinking cheap beer out of buckets until I pass the blood alcohol content of an Irishman at a Dropkick Murphys concert. So I did.
Then I made my mistake – I decided to play poker. Now I’ve played a lot of cards at the IP over the years, a lot of it with bloggers. But little if any was played when I was as obliterated as I was Thursday night. I bought in for the table minimum ($60) for the first orbit, and blew that away pretty quickly. Then I reloaded for $300, the table max, and tried to play reasonably while also trying to remain upright in my chair. Neither of these things proved easy. But I managed for a little while, and after I’d bled through around a hundred bucks, I decided to get up and join the 8PM tournament as a late entrant.
This is my new strategy for tournaments in Vegas – never play the first level of blinds. Every tourney allows registration for at least two levels after the event begins, and some allow it for up to four levels. And the only saying about not being able to win a tournament in the first level, but being able to lose it then is certainly true. As long as I can come in with a reasonable stack relative to the blinds in level two or three, I’m going to skip the first couple of levels every time. This strategy has proved solid for me a couple of times at the Venetian, and also paid off last Friday at Aria. It didn’t really help at the IP, because although I doubled up on the first hand (of which I recall zero details as I was on pitcher #4 of 7 at that point), I ran into aces with ATo at the final table and resumed my drinking.
Somehow a couple of hours later I found myself back at the IP poker room, seated at a table that included CaityCaity and some other folks that I recognized and am sure were more than happy to relieve me of my money but whom I don’t remember. Apparently at some point there were a lot of people warned and/or tossed from the poker room, but I missed all of that. I may have taken a nap or two between hands. Really, that was napping. I swear it. I left that table because I fear CaityCaity’s poker drunk or sober, and went to sit next to PokerGnome. This was not my best move, because even though I had position on him, the Gnome can also outplay me when I’m sober, much less biblically inebriated. But somehow I managed to triple up at that table, I think at the expense of the civilians to my left, because I’m a drunken out-of-position ninja. Or because I was too drunk to fold. One of those.
I did find myself playing second pair a lot stronger when drunk than I have been sober, which was something I specifically wanted to work on this trip. The playing second pair thing, not the drunk thing. The drunk thing was a given. I’ve been playing second pair like a nutless wonder, folding to obvious c-bets, but after pitcher #6, that didn’t happen. Of course, after pitcher #7, I have no idea what happened. But I did manage to cash out a small profit (if my recollection of only buying in for a hundy is correct), and staggered off to bed around 4:30 in the morning. I made it back to the MGM and did something I haven’t done since college – not puke, but I fell asleep with my contacts in, which led to all sorts of festivities on Friday morning and a huge pile of grateful to the fact that I always travel with a spare set of contacts.
End of Day 1 – down around $200 in poker, probably another $200 in food, booze and cabs.
Still to come – my annual donation in mixed games, tournament silliness, bounties galore, and Full Tilt Food!
by john | Dec 7, 2010 | Real Life
There are a lot of preparations going on around the Casa de Hartness this week. Not only am I getting ready to head off to Vegas to play poker and drink like a college kid with some of my best friends (most of whom I see once a year if I’m lucky), but we’re also getting ready for a houseguest.
An invalid houseguest.
While I’m gone.
And it’s my sister.
If there was any question about the sainthood of my wife, it goes away when I tell you that for the second time in three months, my sister is staying with us after she has hip replacement surgery. She had the first hip done a little over two months ago, and now that the first leg is healed enough, it’s time to get the second one done.
Tomorrow.
So I’m picking her up tonight and she’ll spend tonight at our house, and Suzy will take her to the hospital tomorrow morning in the predawn frost. I’ll go off to work like normal, stop by and visit her tomorrow night, and then Thursday I’ll head west for my annual weekend of ridiculousness. I expect Bonnie will get home Friday, and if it’s anything like the last time, my wife will play nursemaid for the week while I cavort in Vegas and then come home and work just like nothing’s out of the ordinary. Because she does that. Suzy’s got the caregiver gene that I am apparently totally missing, and she takes such great care of anyone who’s sick, be it her relative or mine.
So I might need advice from a couple of my girly friends this weekend on a suitable gift to bring home, don’t ya think?
by john | Dec 6, 2010 | Travel
From the Great White North, although it wasn’t really white, in the sense that there was no snow, but it was cold in New York City this weekend. Suzy and I went up for our anniversary, just a quick Friday-Sunday jaunt, and had a great time. We spent time wandering around Rockefeller Center looking at all the decorations there, then checked out some of the 5th Ave. store window decorations, like the killer windows at Saks, then I took her shopping at Mood Fabrics on Saturday (she’s a Project Runway junkie, so this stop was a must), and I got to pop into Midtown Comics on the way back to the hotel.
Saturday night we saw American Idiot at the St. James, and it was a great show. Except for the seats. Let’s face it, I’m a big guy. I know I’m overweight, but I should still be able to fit into a seat in most places. But the older Broadway theatres are built for midgets! I literally had to sit almost completely sideways in my chair with my legs out in the aisle, because there was no way I was going to fit comfortably facing completely forward. This of course led to a sore neck by the time the show was over. But the show was very good, I highly recommend it to both fans of Green Day and of high-tech shows, because this was certainly a technical bonanza. If you’re looking for deep plot, go elsewhere. We both felt that there were several cliched moments in the show, but that the strength of the popular songs and the incredible lighting covered for it. On a purely lighting geek side, now I see what the new VLX fixtures can really do, and I was blown away by the intensity.
Then we went right next door to Angus McIndoe for a nice post-meal dinner, and I’m pretty sure it was the most reasonably priced, well-prepared, well-served meal we had all weekend. The service was excellent, the food was great, the atmosphere was wonderful. I highly recommend it for a quick bite after the show. We got out for under a hundred bucks, in a restaurant in the heart of the theatre district, so you know you can’t beat that. And we each had a drink with our dinner! Very reasonable prices and great food.
Here are a few photos from the trip –
Rockefeller Center
View from our hotel window – gotta love travelling on Marriott Rewards points! Two nights in the heart of Times Square for free!
The Mood Fabrics shop dog – Swatch
Suzy in front of the big tree
Me in Times Square with the World’s Greatest Hat
by john | Nov 24, 2010 | Real Life
Just as I decided to rip apart the back cover blurb for Hard Day’s Knight, I find this post on the Publetariat today. Pretty nice, so I re-wrote the back blurb to more closely follow that format, and posted it on KindleBoards to crowdsource some feedback. I think within a day or two of working with the folks over there I should have a decent blurb ready to go. Then of course I’ll have to re-do the back cover, adding on the blurb, order a proof and approve it, and then the new copies will be ready sometime next year. Not a big deal, frankly, since I’ve got about 30 copies on order and ten in my truck, so I have plenty to sell until then. Once I’m done with HDK, I’ll probably re-do the back cover to The Chosen to incorporate some of the great reviews the book has gotten. Then maybe they’ll both be pretty much ready for public consumption.
HDK should be good to go in digital format next month. Rob tells me that we’re still on track to get the conversion done this month, and he’s the man, so I trust it will happen this week or next. Then it’s on me, and with Thanksgiving, a trip to Atlanta for work and a trip to NYC for vacation coming up I can’t make any promises. I would like to go ahead and release it for Kindle so that I can get some recommendations going before all those e-readers are given as Christmas gifts. I think the e-book market is going to see a huge swell this January as people load up the kindles and iPads they got for Christmas, so it’s fairly important to have as much product on the market as possible to catch the wave. I also really do believe that we’ll see this happen every year for the next several years, so it doesn’t kill me to only have two books out. That’s about all I can manage with a day job, anyway. And I’m a long, long way from not needing a day job. Speaking of which, I should go do that for a while instead of screwing around on here.
Happy Thanksgiving, folks! I’ll catch up with you after the holidays!
by john | Nov 23, 2010 | Real Life
So the crud that I am now getting over has passed into the wife, and apparently the crud is in reality bronchitis. And my wife, being much more sensible than me, decided to go to the doctor for it. She got a course of anitbiotics and some codeine-laced cough syrup. Unfortunately for her, this was the end of her good decision-making for the day.
Upon arriving home and reading the instructions, she saw that she was to take 5 ml of cough syrup every six hours. Now my first answer would have been to find out how many teaspoons are in a ml, or vice versa. Or alternately to just turn up the bottle and take big swallow. But Suzy did neither of those things, instead deciding that two tablespoons seemed about the right dosage.
Which is correct. If you’re a wildebeest.
So after ingesting 30 ml of codeine-laced cough syrup, my wife is at home high as the proverbial kite, and not enjoying it. You see, while 3-4 times the normal prescribed dosage is about right to catch a nice buzz, six times the normal prescribed dosage makes you itchy and twitchy, at least if you’re my wife. So I’m at work, still coughing up the last dregs of my illness, while she’s at home, looking at the pretty colors on the wall and finger-painting the dog. (I might be exaggerating, but not much).
Good times, kids, good times. In other worlds, I’m now about 5,000 words into Volume 2 of The Black Knight Chronicles. In this episode, our boys fight trolls. Real ones. Real BIG ones.
