Good For Your Goal

One of the goals I've set for myself in 2024 is to publish my novel "Balms & Sears," a project I started in (I think) 2016 and didn't actually finish until 2022.  But if you're reading this, you know me, and that means you know there's no chance I'll actually achieve it.  To paraphrase Mace Windu, it's just not in my character.

But Big Anklevich, perhaps sensing a tremor in the Force, sent me the completed cover today, which has traditionally been the final step necessary before publishing.

And I think it looks good.  It doesn't EXACTLY convey what I intended--that of a boy who can heal dead or sick animals--but I'd say it's about 87% of what I wanted.  Plus, it's in black and white, and that really works for me, for some reason.

Will this be the last push I need to finally put the book out there?  It, uh, might.  Here's hoping.

Star Wars Cantina Patrons 6: Momaw Nadon

This is probably the best one of these little videos so far, where I look at Hammerhead, aka Momaw Nadon. 

Note: Since this recording, Hasbro HAS revealed we will be getting a new version of this character in 2025.

Learn "What Every Young Ghoul Should Know" on Pseudopod

I've only read a bit of Robert Bloch over the years*, but one of the very FIRST stories I ever recorded, back in 1990 or so, was 1938's "The Beetles" by Bloch, who I only knew as the author of Psycho at the time.**

So, I was thrilled when Shawn Garrett contacted me to record a very short Bloch story, "What Every Young Ghoul Should Know."  It's not really Horror so much as a humorous dig at publishing, originally published in Amateur Correspondent magazine in 1937.

I do wish it had been more substantial (my reading is less than nine minutes long and is followed by a full-length Bloch story called "Black Bargain"), but hey, I'm always pleased/flattered/grateful whenever the 'pod asks me to do another story.

Check it out HERE.

*Heads up, I just finished editing a presentation of a Bloch 1951 story for the next (probably) Podcast That Dares.

**Sadly, that's pretty much all anybody knows today, though it would be great if that were to change.

Star Wars Cantina Patrons 5: Kabe

I look through figures to go in the Mos Eisley Cantina. This time, it's the alien Kabe.

Now I Am The Master

One of the stories I've never put out to sell was "You've Got A Friend," which I wrote twenty or so years back, in major part to prompt Big Anklevich into writing me back.  

He was busy with work and family and covering up those unfortunate test subjects who mixed spider venom and Red Bull outside of Oakland at the time (suffice it to say that we wouldn't have those freeway signs that tell you what air quality is [not to mention Hepatitis-C] without his contributions), and he kept not answering my emails (this was before texting effectively eliminated both letter-writing and human interaction).  I sent him hopefully-disturbing messages such as "wHy dONt yOu aNSwEr mE, fRieND dARreLL?" and "wHy dONt yOu wANt tO pLaY wiTH mE?"* and eventually, I wrote him an entire scene of a robot forcing a well-endowed man to play boardgames with it, clearly inspired by my friend.

Eventually, he started writing me again, but one day, I took the scene fragments and crafted a story around it, and that story became "You've Got A Friend," which we ran on the 'steef once as an incentive episode.  It's the last story in my upcoming audio collection (the one that's now three years overdue), and it's probably the one I had to work hardest on, trying to make the robot voice convincingly robotic, yet still clear and understandable.

And at the very end, there's a dedication to Big, with the note "who should have written more."

But oh, how the tables have turned.  

As you know, Obi-Wan, Big Anklevich has had his most productive year ever, and has, incredibly, managed to make his word count even on days when he feels tired, unmotivated, ill, and uninspired.  He reached his yearly goal a full four months before his deadline, and even then, he kept on writing.

Me, I can see that somebody somewhere has a head cold (or just hear the mere mention of the name George R.R. Martin), and use that as an excuse not to write.

Once upon a time, Big was my junior . . . but now he has left me far behind, writing more in the past six months than I have in two years.  It's like a movie I once saw, where this dude in black armor says, "I was but a learner; now I am the master."

I think it might have been The Black Hole?

"A wolf remains a wolf, even if it has not eaten your sheep."

*Which had the Sacramento P.D. in quite an uproar before they too discovered texting, and shut down half the department.

Star Wars Cantina Patrons 4: Elis Helrot

Another video in my potentially-endless series looking at Cantina aliens that could populate the Haslab Cantina playset.  This time, it's the awesomely-named Elis Helrot.

Star Wars Cantina Patrons 3: Ponda Baba

Here's the next video I made about aliens to put in the Mos Eisley Cantina.  This is considerably longer than all the other videos, partly because Ponda Baba, the character I chose this time, has three different characters in my collection.

Podcast That Dares 49: The Bagheeta

After running "Eyes of the Panther" a few months back, Rish presents Val Lewton's 1930 short story "The Bagheeta," that may or may not be about a panther that turns into a woman.

Warning: Singing.

If you'd like to download the episode, Right-Click HERE.

If you would like to support me on Patreon, click HERE.

Logo by Gino "The Hag-Beatah" Moretto.

Star Wars Cantina Patrons 2: Muftak

So, here's the first video I did for the Cantina Patrons series.  I did each in a single take, but a part of me really wants to get in there and edit.  But ah well.  This one's about the fuzzy Talz character Muftak.

Star Wars Cantina Patrons 1: Ellorrs Madak

I mentioned to Big that I wanted to sit down and look at the aliens I had in my collection that could go in the new Haslab Cantina playset that Hasbro recently announced, and he suggested that, instead of two or three long videos featuring a handful of characters, I release a dozen or more short videos each featuring a single character . . . since that way, I wouldn't have to edit them (and he wouldn't either).

So, here's my first one, featuring Ellorrs Madak.

DID I Finish Another Story Eight Years Ago?

So, I posted about "Beware Hitchhiking Ghosts" the other day, and how proud I was of my younger self for finishing a story I thought I'd abandoned halfway through.

Well, let's not start sucking each other's d***s quite yet.

I started to format the story, put in chapter numbers and such, check for ___s (which I'll often put if I forget the word for something or a name I mentioned previously) and BETTERWORDs (which I often type after a word that I don't love, but gets the point across).  And yes, it includes a "the end" at the bottom of the document, but about smack-dab in the middle, it included the two dread words "WRITE SCENES."

Nope, I hadn't finished the story.  I had skipped the part where they have a good, sexy time, and jumped to where they haven't seen each other in a while, because the happy part of a relationship is always the hardest for me to write.  So, that means I wasn't done with the story after all.

I did, however, spend about an hour writing a couple of new scenes that would take place during that section, and probably need one or two (or possibly three) more before I would have the gap bridged.  THEN, only then, a Jedi will I be.

Sorry.