Lead And Pomegranate Are Good For A Healthy Lifestyle

~ Created by Tom Banwell

First, credit for the title belongs to Ubisoft and the team behind Assassin’s Creed 2.

The reason for the title is because after I returned from my residency at Seton Hill University, I came down with one of the worst colds I’ve had in a while. I’m still recovering, but I’m no longer feel like Clive Barker wrote the latest Hellraiser story in my throat or coughing so hard I could type with my forehead.

But that means I’m behind on everything. There are new things I want to tell you about and update things that were already planned.

New Stuff

• I will be starting a new feature on my Facebook Fan Page: Real Scrolls V: Skyrim. I will be writing weekly entries about a Skyrim character, but it won’t be in the typical high fantasy voice. I’m going to have some fun with the character’s voice, but it will depend on what kind of character I’ll be playing. All this week on my Page, I’ll have polls so You can decide the character. So come by, Like my Page, and join in something that I’m sure will be a fun time.
• I know I will be at three events this year: In Your Write Mind (June), Necon 33 (July), and Anthology 2013 (November). I will be updating my Appearances page with all the details as I get them. I may be presenting at IYWM and I may be on panels at Anthology again. So make sure you keep an eye out on any news. Who knows, I might be part of a signing or book release too. The year is still young.

Updates

• Many things have delayed the start Doctor Who Anniversary posts on my Screen Burn™ column at Inveterate Media Junkies. I wanted to have the First Doctor post up by the end of the January, unfortunately the cold put the kibosh on that. But it is coming and starting next Monday (February 4th) I will be my tweeting of the Second Doctor’s episodes on my Screen Burn™ Twitter account (@ScreenBurnIMJ). If you are a Doctor Who fan, make sure to follow me there for a fun time and to know first any news about the first post.

That’s it for now. But before you go, enjoy this awesome song and incredibly goofy video.

Reading Challenge 2013: Read A Book A Week

While this is a post about a reading challenge, it is also the start of a challenge to write one blog post–besides Capsule Review and Screen Burn announcement–a week. I got side tracked with all my work for both InveterateMediaJunkies.com and for school. Time to get back on track.

I am not a fast reader. I tend to analyze every element of a story as I read, which makes a book most people can read in hours or days take me at least a week. That coupled with a horrible book addiction and I don’t have a “To Be Read” pile, I have a “To Be Read” mountain. And my bookshelves haven’t seen empty spaces in a while. To combat this, I’m going to try to read a book a week. Below is the preliminary list for 2013.

• Hell House – Richard Matheson*
• The Shining – Stephen King*
• Ghost Story – Peter Straub*
• The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson*
• The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold*
• A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens*
• Grave’s End – Elaine Mercado*
• The Amityville Horror – Jay Anson*
• Bad Monkeys – Matt Ruff
• Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States – Pete Jordan
• The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
• Damned – Chuck Palahniuk
• Rant – same
• Haunted – same
• Lullaby – same
• Choke – same
• Invisible Monsters – same
• Dairy – same
• Downtown Owl – Chuck Klosterman
• The Resurrectionists – Jack O’Connelly
• Feed – Mira Grant
• John Dies At The End – David Wong
• Sandman Slim – Richard Kadrey
• Grailblazers – Tom Holt
• Strange Flesh – Michael Olson
• Leviathan Wakes – James S. A. Corey
• City of Bone – Cassandra Clarke
• Vox – Nicholson Baker
• American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
• The Garden of Beasts – Eric Larson
• A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan
• Shotgun Sorceress – Lucy Snyder
• Switchblade Goddess - same
• Tempest Rising – Nicole Peeler
• Tracking the Tempest - same
• Sacré Bleu – Christopher Moore
• Lamb – same
• Practical Demon-Keeping – same
• Gil’s All Fright Diner – A. Lee Martinez
• Monster - same
• The Nymphos of Rocky Flats – Mario Acevedo
• The Atrocity Archives – Charles Stross
• Secret Talents – Olga Tegora
• The Rum Diaries – Hunter S. Thompson
• Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy – John le Carré
• Uncle Silas – Sheridan Le Fanu
• The Marriage Plot – Jeffrey Eugenides
• Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D. H. Lawrence
• The Menstruating Mall – Carlton Mellick III
• Deity – Vic Mudd
• The Psycho Ex Game – Merrill Maroke and Andy Prieboy
• Fat White Vampire Blues – Andrew Fox

Some of this will change since I will have three classes in the fall and I don’t know what I’ll be reading. The ones for my upcoming Reading in Genres class–marked (*)–are the only permanent ones. I had planned to use this year to go through Chuck Palahniuk’s books, so those will be the last to get axed. But A Memory of Light is coming out on the 8th, so I may get the urge to try to re-read the whole Wheel of Time series. I’ve also been thinking about going through all my Ramsey Campbell books too. So, we will see how this list evolves over the years.

So what about you all? Do you have any reading challenges or certain books that you getting ready for in 2013?

Update: This isn’t the only thing I’m doing this year. Check out the other plans I have for 2013 on my Facebook Page.

Anthocon 2012: Nov. 9-11

I am in the middle of getting ready for my only con of the year. The wonderful Anthocon! I’m only doing one panel this year as most of my time is filled with trying out a new Dark Fantasy RPG call Astonishing Swordsman & Sorcerers of Hyperboria. If you’ve read any tweets or blog posts over the last year, you know I’ve had the role-playing itch and I’m finally getting to scratch it. The fact that I will probably be playing with mostly writers is just going to be kick-ass.

The panel I’ll be taking a part of is “Tragedy and Personal Experience as Fuel for the Creative Fire” on Sunday. If you are someone planing to be at Anthocon, definitely stop by that panel. The dealer room will be open to the public all weekend, so you can find me there throughout the day if you can’t afford the price to get in for the panel.

I won’t update the blog while I’m there, but follow me on Twitter and Facebook for the fun and shenanigans that happens when a lot of writers congregate. But if you are in the New England area, you really should just come to the convention itself.

Winter Has Come

No this isn’t about Game of Thrones but it is about a book. If you follow the blog, or my Twitter, or my Facebook Page, or even my Pinterest feed., you know that “January” was published in the Hazard Yet Forward charity anthology last week. Now I gave you the sales pitch already, but I wanted to give more a reason why I chose this story for this anthology.

You see, charity anthologies are not common. Simply put, no one makes money on them. Which is expected, as it is a charity. But, especially in the current economy, it’s not uncommon to for writers to pass on such projects. For some, a story sale means they get to go pick something at the store other than the ingredients for tuna noodle casserole.

But it is also the time do what you can to help others, even in the smallest way, when ever you can.

A lot of people don’t realize the expenses one can accumulate in just a short time if they have a medical crisis. After it was all and said and done, before insurance was factored in, my liver transplant cost around $2,000,000 dollars, give or take a few hundred thousand. I won’t go into what the insurance did cover, because that was, and still is a debacle. But still, millions of dollars, which is a price that I think Stephen King would go, “Holy Hell!” when he saw the bill. I also had a brother-in-law that passed away from brain cancer. I saw how much can be asked of the one diagnosed and the family.

If contributing a story can help in the smallest way, How could I not knowing worse case scenarios.

But why “January?”

For those that haven’t been with the journey of this story, I wrote this for the ill-fated Dead Bells anthology before my transplant. The anthology fell through about a year and a half later and I have searched for a home for it since. I don’t want to give too much away from the story, but the inspiration came from my nephew, Jack, when he was a quite little and I saw what he learned, what he didn’t, and what he discovered on his own. I reflected on my childhood and how I learned, didn’t learn or discovered on my own some of those things. With a child protagonist all alone, I wondered how much she could survive. Definitely a stark interpretation of the theme “hazard, yet forward.”

In a way, I saw a synergy between the theme of the story and the impetus of the anthology. Charity is a hard thing to come by these days. We have to teach charity to others because it is not a natural tendency. People, especially the normal healthy people, don’t know the stress of dealing with a major health issues. Hopefully, the existence of this anthology will not only help a good friend, and good writer, Donna Munro, but also help educate more on these two subjects.

I would mean a lot to me, the 75 other writers, and Donna and her family if picked up a copy of Hazard Yet Forward on Kindle for $9.99.

If you want to check out more about the anthology and the contributors, visit the anthology website.

Guest Post Is Live At The Greater Portland Scribists

The great people–including fellow SHUWPF graduate and overall awesome Cynthia Ravinski–over at The Greater Portland Scribists just posted my guest post, “Diagnosis Anthology.” It’s part of their Anthology Celebration series. This is my take on why it is important, but why it is also hard to get people to write, edit, and publish these kinds of books.

Need more enticing? Okay, here’s a little teaser:

As a writer, I find anthologies invaluable. The reader in me finds them essential. But if you were to go to any publisher, you would find they tend to be hesitant with them. I know because I have an idea for an anthology and went around trying to get a feel for who could be interested and what I, as the editor, would need to do on my end. Let me tell you, if you thought being a writer was a tough job, look into being an anthology editor. Writing will seem like a cakewalk.

If you want the rest–and there is quite a bit more–you’ll have to read the rest there.