Welcome to the Fall Into Fantasy Tour, where we are keeping your mind off any end-of-summer blues and welcoming the cooler weather by introducing you to some incredible fantasy reads to curl up with and giving you plenty of chances to win awesome prizes!

The Enchanted Bookstore Legends
Book One: Seeking a Scribe
Book Two: Heritage Avenged
Book Three: Lost Volumes
Book Four: Staurolite
Book Five: Quintessence
By Marsha A. Moore

Seeking a Scribe: Enchanted Bookstore Legend One by Marsha A. Moore

Lyra McCauley is a writer and loves fantasy novels, but until she opens a selection from bookstore owner Cullen Drake, she has no idea he’s a wizard character who lives a double life inside that volume…or the story’s magic will compel her from the edge of depression to adventure, danger, and love.

His gift to Lyra, the Book of Dragonspeir, was actually her copy, misplaced years ago. Lost in her pain following divorce and death, she fails to recognize him as her childhood playmate from the fantasyland. Friendship builds anew. Attraction sparks. But Lyra doubts whether a wizard is capable of love. She’s torn—should she protect her fragile heart or risk new love?

Opening the book’s cover, she confronts a quest: save Dragonspeir from destruction by the Black Dragon before he utilizes power of August’s red moon to expand his strength and overthrow the opposing Imperial Dragon. Lyra accepts the challenge, fearing Cullen will perish if evil wins. Along with magical animal guides, Cullen helps her through many perils, but ultimately Lyra must use her own power…and time is running out.

The Enchanted Bookstore Legends are about Lyra McCauley, a woman destined to become one of five strong women in her family who possess unique magical abilities and serve as Scribes in Dragonspeir. The Scribes span a long history, dating from 1200 to present day. Each Scribe is expected to journey through Dragonspeir, both the good and evil factions, then draft a written account. Each book contains magic with vast implications.

Lyra was first introduced to Dragonspeir as a young girl, when she met the high sorcerer, Cullen Drake, through a gift of one of those enchanted books. Using its magic, he escorted her into the parallel world of Dragonspeir. Years later, she lost that volume and forgot the world and Cullen. These legends begin where he finds her again—she is thirty-five, standing in his enchanted bookstore, and Dragonspeir needs her. 

When Lyra reopens that enchanted book, she confronts a series of quests where she is expected to save the good Alliance from destruction by the evil Black Dragon. While learning about her role, Lyra and Cullen fall in love. He is 220 years old and kept alive by Dragonspeir magic. Cullen will die if Dragonspeir is taken over by the evil faction…Lyra becomes the Scribe.

The magic of art and nature often spark life into her writing, as well as watercolor painting and drawing. She’s been a yoga enthusiast for over a decade and is a registered yoga teacher. After a move from Toledo to Tampa in 2008, she’s happily transformed into a Floridian, in love with the outdoors. Marsha is crazy about cycling. She lives with her husband on a large saltwater lagoon, where taking her kayak out for an hour or more is a real treat. She never has enough days spent at the beach, usually scribbling away at stories with toes wiggling in the sand. Every day at the beach is magical!

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Welcome to the Fall Into Fantasy Tour, where we are keeping your mind off any end-of-summer blues and welcoming the cooler weather by introducing you to some incredible fantasy reads to curl up with and giving you plenty of chances to win awesome prizes!

Week 3: The Undead: Playing for Keeps
By Elsie Elmore

When an undead woman with serious de-comp issues stalks sixteen-year-old Lyla Grimm, her hope of rescuing her rock-bottom reputation takes a back seat. Survival definitely trumps the in-crowd.

Elsie Elmore lives in North Carolina with her husband and two kids.

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Welcome to the Fall Into Fantasy Tour, where we are keeping your mind off any end-of-summer blues and welcoming the cooler weather by introducing you to some incredible fantasy reads to curl up with and giving you plenty of chances to win awesome prizes!

Week 2: How to Date Dead Guys 
Under the Blood Moon series
By Ann M. Noser

College sophomore Emma Roberts remembers her mother’s sage advice: “don’t sleep around, don’t burp in public, and don’t tell anyone you see ghosts”. But when charming Mike Carlson drowns in the campus river under her watch, Emma’s sheltered life shatters.

Buy it from: Amazon US  Amazon UK  Barnes & Noble

Or add it to Goodreads

ABOUT ANN M. NOSER:

My to-do list dictates that I try to cram 48 hours of living into a day instead of the usual 24. I’ve chosen a life filled with animals. I train for marathons with my dog, then go to work as a small animal veterinarian, and finish the day by tripping over my pets as I attempt to convince my two unruly children that YES, it really IS time for bed. But I can’t wait until the house is quiet to write; I have to steal moments throughout the day. Ten minutes here, a half hour there, I live within my imagination.

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Welcome to the Fall Into Fantasy Tour, where we are keeping your mind off any end-of-summer blues and welcoming the cooler weather by introducing you to some incredible fantasy reads to curl up with and giving you plenty of chances to win awesome prizes!


Week 1: The Darkness & Light Series
Book One: First of Her Kind
Book Two: Emergence
Book Three: Edge of Darkness (Release date 2015)

It seems everyone wants to dictate what Ciara does with her life: Serve the Goddess, destroy the Goddess, do as you promised your aunt — all Ciara really wants is to keep the two magics she possesses from ripping her apart.

And that’s not going to be easy.

Not only is her earth magic in complete opposition to her other power, blood ties pull her in divergent directions as well. And then there’s Bolin, the man sworn to protect her. There’s no denying the growing attraction between them, but is it Ciara he wants, or her power?

None of which will matter if Ciara can’t overcome her fear and learn how to use her gifts. No one knows the depths of the ancient power she possesses, or what will happen if it manages to escape her control. Will she lose herself entirely? Or be forever caught between Darkness and Light?

Buy the e-book: Kindle Nook

Or the paperback: Amazon  Barnes & Noble

The battle for Ciara’s power has drawn the full attention of the Emperor and the Imperial Mages, forcing Bolin to put duty above safety and take her to Nisair. It won’t be an easy trip, even with an Imperial escort and a Galysian elder accompanying them. Especially since Donovan has found himself some new allies, one of who wields a dark magic that has literally gotten under Bolin’s skin.

For Ciara, coming to terms with the increasingly tangible manifestation of her power could destroy her. Even if they make it to Nisair–something that grows more unlikely by the day–there is no surety of safety for Ciara, or any of them. Not with Donovan willing to gamble everything to achieve his goals, or Bolin’s uncharacteristically reckless behavior, the result of which is the attention of something that has everyone worried.

Loyalties will be tested, lives will be lost, and no one will emerge unchanged as they find things are not always so clear on the line dividing Darkness and Light.

Buy the e-book: Kindle  Nook
Or the paperback: Amazon  Barnes & Noble

ABOUT K.L. SCHWENGEL

K. L. Schwengel lives in southeast Wisconsin on a small farm with her husband, a handful of Australian Shepherds, Her Royal Highness Princess Fiona the Cat, and assorted livestock. Growing up as the youngest of nine children, and the daughter of a librarian, Kathi spent many hours between stacks of books, and secluded away in dusty archives, drawn to tales of medieval heroes and conquering knights. With so many characters and ideas spinning in her head, she had to get them onto paper or risk what little sanity she possessed. She has been penning wild tales of magic and mayhem as long as she can remember, but opted to follow her artistic muse first. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts and spending many years working as a freelance artist, grocery clerk, art teacher, graphic designer, stable hand, advertising account coordinator, dog trainer, and process technician (among other things) she answered the call of her writing muse. When not writing, Kathi trains and trials working Australian Shepherds, still paints, dabbles in photography, graphic design, and anything else creative her assorted muses send her way.

Connect online at…

Blog  Facebook  Pinterest  Twitter  Amazon Page  Goodreads

Want to get involved with the Fall Into Fantasy promotional tour?

• Don’t forget to join us at the Facebook party here! 
• If you are interested in joining up as a blogger, you can always sign up here. We are happy to welcome more bloggers into the fold as the promotion continues. 
• If you are an author or blogger and want to sign up to help with the party, please fill out this form.

It’s August, and that means Fall is upon us! To celebrate the cooler weather and keep your mind off any back to school blues, we’ve put together the Fall Into Fantasy Tour. This tour celebrates the wonderful fantasy books that you can dive into–right now!

But what’s a tour unless we are giving away free stuff? That’s right! Each week, we will be giving away some awesome prizes from the author being featured. And to wrap things up at the end of the promotion in December, we’re going to have a huge Facebook party all weekend long featuring these authors and more!

Want to get an idea of what is ahead? Check out the calendar below!

  

  

  

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t forget to join us at the Facebook party here! And be sure to check out these awesome blogs that will be hosting the tour for us:

Bilbo’s Book Ends

Katie’s Stories

Book Crazy Gals

CoffeyAndBooks

Read Me

Kelly P’s Blog

SW Fairbrother

Want to get involved with the Fall Into Fantasy promotional tour? 

• If you are interested in joining up as a blogger, you can always sign up here. We are happy to welcome more bloggers into the fold. 
• If you are an author or blogger and want to sign up to help with the party, please fill out this form.
• If you are an author that wanted to take part, be sure to add me on Twitter or Facebook to hear about the next promotion I plan! This won’t be the last. 🙂

Today’s the day, my friends! Today I reveal the brand new cover art for the upcoming release of THE CURSE MERCHANT.

I’m not going to spend endless paragraphs burying the lead, so without increasing ado… I give you Dorian Lake:

When I tell you that Dorian Lake is the best damned hex-peddler in Baltimore… I mean that in every literal sense.

What we have in this cover is a focus on both the mood of the novel, and the city itself. Curse Merchant is “urban” fantasy more than a simple genre nomenclature. For me, the city of Baltimore is as much a character of the book as anyone else, and I hope the readers agree. I’ve tried my best to situate the book as indelibly in its setting as has Richard Kadrey for the city of Los Angeles in his Sandman Slim novels.

The Curse Merchant will be available for purchase on September 15th. Spread the word, if you would, and feel free to join me for an online release party on Facebook from 5pm – 6pm on the 15th. Details forthcoming!

Go and tell others, my friends, and keep your karma shiny!

Holy cats… I got tagged by the illustrious 2014 Kindle Book Awards nominee Sharon Bayliss to participate in the MyWritingProcess Blog Hop. It’s like some kind of social media contagion… I’m a carrier. I’ve been infected. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, Put me down before I turn!

Seriously, though, thanks to Sharon for tapping me to participate. I have plenty of opinions, and it’s rare that I’m actually invited to voice them. So… when I devour your brains, you all can thank her on Twitter @SharonBayliss.

Here’s a quick blurb of what this blog hop is all about:  “We writers share these things, but informally during workshops and at conferences (and, for a handful of established writers, in printed interviews), but not so much through our open-forum blogs. With the hashtag #MyWritingProcess, you can learn how writers all over the world answer the same four questions. How long it takes one to write a novel, why romance is a fitting genre for another, how one’s playlist grows as the draft grows, why one’s poems are often sparked by distress over news headlines or oddball facts learned on Facebook…”

Here are my responses to the four questions:

1) What am I working on?

Right now, I’m roughly 38,000 words into a horror/western stand-alone novel with the working title of YEA THOUGH I WALK. It’s a creature feature set in the Wyoming Territory during the frontier expansion. In a nutshell, it’s vampires vs. wendigo vs. cowboys, with some serious mind-fuckery sprinkled throughout.

Meanwhile in the back of my head, I’ve been tossing around a rough skeleton for the third Dark Choir novel, THE CURSE MANDATE. I have larger points which will land, but it’s like trying to stitch together a dinosaur skeleton without knowing if the bones you’re sifting through all belong to the same dinosaur.

2) How does my work differ from others in its genre?

The genre of the Dark Choir series is categorized as Urban Fantasy. From my experience reading in the genre, The Dark Choir books play their magic way closer to the vest than some of the more visible properties out there… The Dresden Files, for example. The magic is far more subtle… you’ll never see Dorian Lake launch a plume of fire from the end of a staff, nor will you find vampires lurching around in feeding dens. The feedback I received from THE CURSE MERCHANT upon its initial self-published release seemed to echo the sentiment that it makes suspension of disbelief easy and immediate. This is precisely what I wanted… a world-building experience that was more similar to the recognizable real-world Baltimore than some parallel universe with witches and giant panda-bats.

3) Why do I write what I do?

I write the kinds of stories I’d want to read. Well… not ALL of the stories I’d want to read. I leave some of the next-level extreme science fiction to others better equipped. At least for the time being. I enjoy the atmosphere of the Dark Choir series. It’s a world into which I enjoy escaping, filled with fine liquors, engaging femmes fatale, and a protagonist I’d spend real time with in the real world.

And as for YtIW, it’s an ambitious novel… perhaps my most ambitious to date. It’s a period piece, and there are some storytelling conventions which require LOTS of attention and fore-planning. It’s rather like going to the gym for a nice, solid workout.

I write what I write because it’s an utterly immersive experience for me, and it’s a blast!

4) How does my writing process work?

Ho HO… glad you asked. Actually, loyal readers of the Fistful are pretty well-versed in my anal, left-brained system of spreadsheets and outlines. In case you’re new, here’s a flurry of links for you to check it out:

– I begin with an idea. I have enough story ideas to fill up an entire Word document, so I can’t expressly say how it works. They just come. I tend to bat the idea around in my head for several weeks before I can tell whether it has legs.

– Then I make a plot outline.

– Then I take the plot, flesh out bullet points into a list of scenes, and then make individual scene worksheets for each.

– Then I take each major character in the story, and cook up an extremely long and thorough character worksheet for each.

After that, I simply start drafting. By the end of the exhaustive pre-writing phase, sitting down to bang out word counts isn’t that difficult. The keys are to keep writing without stopping to edit, leave the polishing for a day after the first draft is complete, and spend “down time” (usually in the car during my commute) hashing out dialogue out loud. If anyone were in the car with me, they’d assume I was having a psychotic break.

When the first draft is complete, I let it age like a smelly piece of horrifying cheddar. When all emotional bonds between me and the manuscript have withered on the vine, I pick it up for a ground-up reread and revision pass. The first pass is spent hunting down plot holes, testing believability, pruning abandoned leads, and shoring up weak characterization.

On my second pass, I test for readability… pacing, dialogue, prosody. Yep… prosody. I end up reading quite a bit of the manuscript out loud. I’m surprised at how many people don’t do this. At the same time, I hammer it with a course editing mallet, catching the really glaring typos and misspellings.

With that entire process complete, I farm the manuscript out to my alpha reader (spoiler: it’s my wife). When she gives me all of her notes on plot and characterization, I tidy up the manny with a third pass, then send it out to my beta readers. I give them a month or two to really hash through it, wherein I tend to launch into my next project. Yep! These overlap.

When my betas come back with their notes, it’s time for the final plot revision pass and edit. Following this, it goes out to acquisitions… or at least it will when I get around to wrapping up YtIW.

There you have it. I try to write every evening after my boy hits the hay, and usually get between 1500 and 2000 words in per day. I tend to finish first drafts in the space of three months, not counting pre-writing.

ALRIGHTY, BUCKAROOS! I can feel the virus necrotizing my flesh, and the hunger for brains has become all-encompassing. Time to tap some people to spread the contagion, and share with the world their writing process. First on the meat-train:

HEATHER MARIE, YA Fantasy author. She’s always posting up “for reals” Tweets, and I bet she’ll be highly forthcoming with regards to her writing process. She has a pretty sweet novel coming out soon…

DEBRA DUNBAR, urban fantasy and paranormal fiction author, horse owner, and critique group partner. Debra is prolific with a capital FFFFFFFfffffff…. Her ragingly successful Imp series has garnered a legion of fans, and she just keeps pumping out the awesome. I bet her writing process includes way more Gatorade than mine.

SAM CURTIN, self-published author of paranormal horror, student of anthropology, and advocate for pagan interests. She’s got quite the full plate between work, study and her recent nuptials. I’m curious how she continues to make the word counts rain.

And of course… COURTNEY SLOAN, author of horror, sci-fi, urban fantasy, and my wife. I know her writing process… but YOU DON’T!!! So there.

Off to chew brain stems, kiddos… om nom nom…

This blog post is primarily for all of you practicing and aspiring authors out there who struggle to make the word counts rain while holding down a day job, a family, one or more hobbies, pets, world domination, an illegal panda trafficking ring, co-ed slip-and-slide tournaments, or whatever the hell else you horrible people are into.

Welcome to The Fistful for the Author Support Blog Hop. I’d like to walk you briefly through my life as a writer.

To start off with… I’ve been at this for ten years, plus or minus. To be more specific, that’s when I started writing for the purpose of getting published. It wasn’t until I’d wrapped revisions on my seventh novel, The Curse Merchant, that I decided I was ready to put it forward for consideration by industry professionals. I spent a year querying before deciding to self-publish. I then went on to write the sequel, The Curse Servant. Just prior to releasing Servant, I was put in touch with the literary marauders at Curiosity Quills. One thing led to another, and they ended up signing the entire Dark Choir series. In the space between then and the re-release of Curse Servant, I’ve been busy hammering out short stories and a new stand-alone novel which has me pretty damn excited.

But…

How do I do it? How do I find time to write?

I’m not a full-time writer (yet). I do, in fact, have a day job. For those of you who are interested, I work in the city of Baltimore for an office furniture manufacturer. My boss is aware of my aspirations to transition into full-time writing, and he supports that… which is pretty amazing in itself.

Nonetheless, the day job is an hour away from home. That’s two hours each day sacrificed to the gods of commuting. On top of that, I have a wife and a son who take priority over everything else in the entire Universe. I’ve resolved long ago never to crimp my family’s well-being in the pursuit of a writer’s lifestyle.

We work out at the gym three to four times a week. That’s another two hours (including the drive to the gym, workout, shower, etc.) committed to that.

I’m also a homebrewer… regular followers of this blog know that already. I commit to semi-regular beer-related events, meetings, gatherings, festivals, etc. at least three times a month. On top of homebrewing, I’m a National-ranked BJCP beer judge, which means I find myself dedicating Saturdays to beer competitions every so often.

Then there’s the dog. She has to eat, drink, pee, poop, and play an amount of Frisbee-fetch that borders on obsessive.

Cram a lot of that into one day, and when Homeslice Jr’s bedtime rolls around, you’ll find me sitting at my laptop, a single bead of drool tracing a line from the corner of my mouth to the space bar.

“Oh look, it’s Pass-the-Fuck-Out-Thirty.”

Energy drain… it’s the biggest obstacle this writer faces. How do I manage to find the will to write after reaching the point of bone-wearying exhaustion?

Answer: sometimes I don’t.

Oops… this was supposed to be miracle blog post to show you the secret to writing success, wasn’t it? Well, hate to break it to you, but there is no miracle cure for having a life. As a wise man once told me back when I first started writing: “You’ll never find the time to write… you have to MAKE the time to write.”

So I do. From eight-thirty to ten at night I tend to hammer out between 1500 and 2000 words. I don’t make it every night, though I feel like King Failure of the Failure Tribes of West Failure when I do. Sometimes I scrape for motivation. Sometimes it comes easy. Sometimes it sits on my computer like a spectral catball and glares at me until I go away.

When I do manage to muster the will, I do find it helpful to bear the following in mind:

1. It’s possible I might never earn enough from my writing to quit my day job. However, if I don’t commit to as much writing as I can now… it’ll be an absolute certainty. I keep my eyes on the prize. I know what I want. And instead of wallowing in uncertainty, I kindle the hope. Hope that I’ll succeed.

And the only way out is through.

2. I have to stay connected to others who are going through the same thing. I have a critique group I attend once a month, and beyond the advice and manuscript deconstruction we offer one another, we tend to lend an ear for our peculiar bellyaches. Writers have a specific set of anxieties which only other artists can really understand. If I didn’t have other writers to vent to, either in person or online (NETWORK, PEOPLE!!!), I’d easily buy into the assumption that this was a pointless endeavor.

3. There’s always going to be someone who’s better at this than I am. It’s like going to the gym. I know I’m only bench pressing 115 pounds, and if I looked to my right and saw Stafford Manchisel pounding out 300 pounds without breaking a sweat, I’d assume I was a noodle-armed slackard and give up. But just because someone else is successful, that doesn’t mean I won’t be… or even that I’m not already. Once I stop comparing myself to other writers and start focusing on the quality of what I have written, it’s easier to improve.

4. I must write what I enjoy reading. Writing outside of my comfort zone is fine… writing outside of what I find appealing? Not such a great decision. Anything born from a miserable writing experience tends to become a miserable reading experience. Which means…

5. I must keep reading. I must read widely. I must read successful, quality works within my chosen genres. If I don’t, then I’ll never know a cliche or a tired trope when I see it. I won’t know quality prose when I write it. My advice to my critique group won’t be as valuable. Those inner demons will be more effective in their needling. Just gotta keep reading.

Well, these aren’t cure-alls. They’re just thoughts. These thoughts have kept me going, and going strong. But I do happen to have a secret weapon that not everyone has access to.

My wife.

See… she’s a writer, too. And generally speaking, when the boy’s in bed and I’m cracking out the manuscript, she’s pulling hers out, too. When one of us is feeling tired, but the other is ready to write, we get positive peer pressure. Hell, it’s positive spousal pressure. She’s available as an alpha reader, as I am for her. She never begrudged my pursuit of publication, and was the first to celebrate with me when I signed my contracts… as I was when her short story was published in the Burial Day anthology.

Writing is a family value in our household. It’s a focus. Neither of us allows it to define our family, but it certainly helps that it’s a welcome and familiar presence in our lives.

So… aspiring author. Do you have any questions or comments? Feel free to float them my direction in the comments section below. I’m available on Tumblr and Facebook as well. I try to be flippant and distracting, but honest as well.

Just don’t ask me about pandas. Big Tony hates it when I “go public.”

~~~

Other sites on the Author Support Blog Hop:

Image courtesy of stockimages | freedigitalphotos.net

Happy June to all my loyal readers!

I have a special guest today on the Fistful of Fiction… Ryan Hill, author of the newly released THE BOOK OF BART from Curiosity Quills Press. If you’re a fan of cheeky, irreverent humor, read on!

~~~

“Trust me.”

JP: First off, give us your elevator pitch for THE BOOK OF BART.

RH: THE BOOK OF BART is Fletch meets John Hughes, with a demon running the show instead of Chevy Chase.

JP: That’s quite the passel of 80’s zeitgeist! Is this a dark comedy akin to American Psycho, or something a little less pointed?

RH: Good question. I don’t really see it as a dark comedy, just a comedy with a lot of snark. It’s asking a lot to ask a reader to spend 280+ pages inside the head of a demon, so I tried to keep things fun more than anything else, since I’d imagine most readers would get bored spending time with a demon doing typical demon things.

JP: For those not familiar with your work, is comedy your regular gig? Or was this something new for you?

RH: I’d say silly is my regular gig. My favorite writer is Christopher Moore, who sort of owns the silly genre right now. If you’re not familiar with him, he’s written Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, Fool (which is King Lear from the POV of the jester), and You Suck (the funniest vampire novel I’ve ever read). The combination of silly and fantastical really appeals to me, and I feel that’s more my wheelhouse. I do try to “stretch my muscles” and go in different directions, like with my upcoming zombie novel DEAD NEW WORLD, which is Black Hawk Down with zombies.

JP: Outside of Christopher Moore, which other authors would you say inspired you, or whom you say the style of Book of Bart resembles?

RH: Book of Bart resembles Moore’s work, as well as Gregory Maguire, who wrote the Fletch series. Also Douglas Adams. I’ve just always been fascinated with stories involving otherworldly beings, and I love books that don’t take themselves seriously. I feel it provides more of an escape, I guess. I don’t know. Stop trying to confuse me!

JP: I’m getting a real Stone-Parker “Book of Mormon” vibe from the book cover, by the way. One thing about those guys, as well as Adams and Moore if you dig deep enough… their light-hearted fantastical whimsy has roots in social commentary. With a demon as your main character, one expects The Book of Bart to have a sprinkling of that as well. Is there any social satire at play for your readers?

RH: There was a bit of social satire in earlier drafts of the book, but a lot of it was cut out in the editing process. There’s still some in there, but I’m a big believer in something Alfred Hitchcock said, which is (paraphrasing) focus on the plot, and let the audience decide the themes for themselves.

JP: So what’s next for you as a writer? You mentioned you have a more on-the-nose zombie action novel coming out soon… what’s on the horizon after that?

RH: Quite a bit, actually. DEAD NEW WORLD is coming in October, and I’m putting the finishing touches on another bonkers book called The Conch Shell of Doom. I’ve started writing a sequel to THE BOOK OF BART, which is going to be absolutely insane. I’ll probably write stories about Bart for the rest of my life. DEAD NEW WORLD is planned to be a trilogy, so we’ll see if that happens. I also have a 1984-esque story that’s still in the incubation phase.

This is all on top of pimping out my books as much as possible, of course.

It sounds like a lot, but you have to take it one at a time. I will say it’s kind of reassuring to know I don’t have to really worry about what book to write next for a few years!

JP: Sounds like you’re insanely busy… so I’ll just float one more question before I let you get back to work. It’s a question I tend to ask everyone because it’s hard to answer and I’m kind of a dick. Here’s the question: How would you define “evil?”

RH: Hmm. In terms of writing, I try to avoid writing straight up “evil” characters. I like to think of my villains as more misguided than anything else. But in real life, evil comes in all shapes and sizes. Killing someone is obviously evil, but I’d say if you do something that intentionally hurts someone solely for your own personal benefit is pretty evil. Actually, it’s kind of like porn. You know it when you see it.

~~~

You can find THE BOOK OF BART on Amazon. Here’s a blurb to wet your whistle:

Only one thing is so powerful, so dangerous that Heaven and Hell must work together to find it: the Shard of Gabriel.

With a mysterious Black Cloud of Death hot on the shard’s trail, a desperate Heaven enlists the help of Bart, a demon who knows more about the shard than almost anyone. Six years ago, he had it in his hands. If only he’d used it before his coup to overthrow the devil failed. Now, he’s been sprung from his eternal punishment to help Samantha, an angel in training, recover the shard before the Black Cloud of Death finds it.

If Bartholomew wants to succeed, he’ll have to fight the temptation to betray Samantha and the allure of the shard. After an existence full of evil, the only way Bart can get right with Hell is to be good.

This past weekend has been like watching a nightmare unfold in real time. A man guns down women in Santa Barbara after posting a bone-chilling manifesto actually titled “Retribution.” This man targeted sorority girls, planned his attack, and his rhetoric shared the same DNA as many Men’s Rights “Activist” groups. It’s an unspeakable act, and it’s more than just a spree killing.

It’s the bloody wound that lies beneath a scab which most men are choosing to ignore. That scab has been peeled back this week, and we’ve been given an opportunity to have a renewed conversation on male privilege in our society.

I’m a cis-gender white-middle class male. I’m swimming in privilege. I was born into privilege (on more than one front), and I know this. The cards have been stacked inordinately in my favor. I haven’t had to share the same concerns, disadvantages, or outright fears of women, people of color, or LGBT Americans. I choose not to deny, overlook, marginalize, or lean upon these privileges. I benefit from them, indeed… but I refuse to allow society to haze the lens for me. I refuse to allow myself to re-scribe our modern existence as one that is actually equal. Though I often feel frustrations and fears in life, I refuse to believe that my specific frustrations are universal.

I do care that women have to run scenarios through their minds when encountering men. These scenarios are not the same scenarios men have to process when dealing with women. I can’t honestly say I’ve ever worried that a woman was likely to lash out against me in violence. The precious few times this has actually happened in my life, I’ve been able to ride out those moments without feeling as if my life were in jeopardy. When I’m alone in public, or even at home, I don’t put much thought into my sense of personal safety.

The notion of a madman driving past me on the street and gunning me down is so remote in its feasibility, I invest zero emotional energy into such a possibility. My friends who are women, however… they can’t afford such blithe nonchalance.

Because this has happened. And though these were the acts of a madman… they weren’t “simply” the acts of a madman. They were the lashings of a vicious, toxic beast that has festered in the sewers of our societal myopia. We as a whole have fostered a world in which men feel as if they are entitled to access of a woman’s body. They are encouraged to disregard the person of a woman, instead seeing them as objects. What’s worse… men are trained in a specific kind of doublethink which not only denies the existence of misogyny, but turns their generalized frustrations into a fantasy of victimization at the hands of women. It’s sick, and it has created a nightmare in Santa Barbara.

The most bone-sickening aspect of this latest event has been the outpouring of support for Elliot Rodger. Beyond that, men have stepped onto as many public and online platforms as is humanly possible in order to exempt themselves from what they feel is a personal indictment from women at large. These women who have had to play against a stacked deck their whole lives, who have labored under an entire spectrum of oppression, victimization, and brutalization to the point of outright murder, are fully entitled to their anger. And though it’s understandable that an individual would want to feel as if they are not being accused of the deeds of others… they lack that pause of consideration wherein they realize that adding another voice whispering “not all men” becomes a low and menacing growl that drowns out the burgeoning conversation, robs these angry women of their platform, and hooks them with the all-too-familiar message bullhorned through the media: “You Don’t Get To Feel This Way!”

They do get to feel this way. They’ve felt this way for a long, long time. And now that the Internet is giving a larger signal boost to the outrage, the same Internet is giving voice to those who actually believe in what Rodger has done. It’s an alarming mirror to hold up to oneself. This isn’t comfortable. It’s not supposed to be. Let’s not rush toward comfort. Rather, let’s take that pause of consideration and process what is being said.

Now, I’m not really adding anything to this conversation that hasn’t been said more eloquently, succinctly, passionately, or widely by greater voices. But I can add my single voice to the whisper of allies who are saying “too many men.”

So, lacking a more direct means of salving the pain, I can tell you what I plan to do about misogyny.

I have a son.

His mother and I have spent his entire life fostering a sense of universal respect for all people. We have encouraged a view of the person instead of the body. As he ages and comes into manhood, the conversation will become more direct. It will deal with emotions, sex, consent, and how to deal with his peers who have had been fed the doublethink. And as brilliant and amazing a mother as my wife is, I do, in fact, have a means to reach my son that she does not. I can be a model of male behavior for my son. He sees how I treat his mother. He sees how I interact with his teachers and principal. He hears how I describe women in leadership. He watches as I share joys and pain with my friends who are women.

This is what I plan to do about misogyny. It’s the best I can do. I intend on rearing a young man who will not buy into the rhetoric shared by those who support Elliot Rodger. I will add one more ally to the next generation. And I’ll urge all other fathers to do the same.