January 2021 - Welcome to Inadvertent Consequences

January 27, 2021January 27, 2021

Book cover fun

I sent the first draft of the book cover for Dire Consequences back to Mallory for revision yesterday. There were many things I really liked about it, but I also had several tweaks that needed to be done.

Overall, she nailed the setting, amazed me with the tattoo that the main character sported (as he does in the books), and did a good job based on the questionnaire I filled out for her.

That being said, I wasn’t a huge fan of the purple tones along the perimeter of the cover and I requested they be changed to a darker blue. Additionally, the main character was far too ‘pretty’. I realize that in the book he is a 150 year old werewolf who looks 27, but he needed to be edgier. The man has not only seen some dark shit, he’s done it too. Know what I mean? I wasn’t necessarily looking for a 1000-yard stare, but his face should show some wear and tear, even some dark circles under the eyes implying difficulty sleeping and a scowl would help (weird, my MC would scowl a lot….wonder where he gets that?). Continue reading “Book cover fun”

January 14, 2021

Finished…finally

I don’t remember if I posted here about a short story that I have really struggled with for months, but regardless, I finally finished the damn thing. Or at least the first draft, anyway.

On the surface this should have been a no-brainer. something simple I could spew out like a drunk sailor purging his stomach on a Friday night. But, noooo…. I have abandoned it at least six times, only to take it up again at some later date. Frustrating doesn’t even begin to describe this process.

The premise is a military sci-fi classic trope: an orbital drop of heavy armored soldiers into a hot LZ (Landing Zone) where nothing goes quite as planned. The protagonist has survived a large number of these drops on various planets and has survived against all odds…and then I kill him in the most horrendous possible way. Just kidding…:) Continue reading “Finished…finally”

January 7, 2021

Ain’t that a bitch…

When I left work yesterday I thought I might post about how I got the first of my two Moderna vaccine shots. Or maybe about how I had just sent a couple of my short stories off to Mike Waitz for editing. Unfortunately, that is not to be the case.

I had no sooner walked in the door at home when my wife was interrogating me as to whether I was aware of what had happened, and in fact was still happening in the nations capital. I was not. I turned on the TV and started flipping through channels trying to come to grips with the fiasco that was being reported. Four dead, one from a gunshot. A mob of idiots who were allowed to occupy one of the great edifices of our government…seemingly without consequence. And a President who not only did nothing to prevent this atrocity, but actively encouraged it.

I’ve never actually stated this on the blog, but I have always intended to avoid discussing politics. That subject is impossible to win…more of a Kobayashi Maru scenario like in Star Trek. I don’t like getting bogged down in stupid shit…and that’s what I consider politics to be.

I watched in dismay as my worst fears were being played out before my very eyes…our country coming apart at the seams. Some of you will probably roll your eyes and say “now you’re just being over-dramatic”. Am I? The events looked more like some CIA directed coup attempt in a banana republic somewhere in South America, than what we should expect within the borders of the USA. Continue reading “Ain’t that a bitch…”