Yeah, Yeah.

I am old today.
That's it.

I Get Bored

I do get bored, but whenever that happens, I make myself make a thing. This is what happened when I got bored today:

Shh.

And Now I Return To Regular Service.

If you missed it, I blacked out my site today to protest SOPA and PIPA. I'm back now. I think if you know anything about those bills, you know how wrong they are, how harmful they would be to free speech and having a free, open internet. I am a writer and musician, and try to make money to support my family by selling my intellectual property, but even I can see how these bills would ruin the internet, and that they're both counterproductive to solving the real issues at hand--the issue being that the RIAA and the MPAA are working with outdated business models, and don't account for the changing world we live in. We need to target pirates at their source, and NOT give the government more police state powers over the web.

I could go on, but there's been too many who've said it much better than I could ever hope to do.

Locally, the Danger Brigade boys blacked out their site, which is what gave me the much-needed kick in the pants to get with the program.

Here's an open letter signed by Neil Gaiman and others.

Wil Wheaton has been very vocal and eloquent in his writing about it. Check out his site for more info.

And finally, Warren Ellis also got into the action, and since it's so short, I've decided to repost it here:

The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, two laws currently working their way through the American legislative system, will do untold damage to the structure of the internet if passed.  Neither law is fit for its spoken purpose.  I am not American, nor do I live in America.  But the internet is an interdependent creature, and unilateral SOPA or PIPA actions will affect the entire animal.  One country, even a country I love and admire, should not wield that power, especially in service of a cause both confused and mendacious. 

I've signed the petition over at Google. It only takes a minute, and it's totally worth it. Please take the time to do it. Help protect the internet.

Thanks for your time and stuff.

Another Reader Review

As I've mentioned before, I'm a member of Goodreads.com, which is a social network for readers. I love it. I was messing about recently, and found a reader's review of my novel EARLY MOURNING.

The reviewer's name is, Nicolas Avenell. He's a British web developer. You should check out his site, at aquarionics.com. (I particularly like his "geek code".)

Here is his review.

A low fantasy tale which reminded me of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, while it lacks some of the velvet and polished craft, it's a promising debut from an interesting brain whose carrier's career is worth watching.

Friends have written some kind words about my book, (here and here, for example) and I truly, deeply appreciate it, but when a stranger does it--a stranger who in this case lives all the way in England--it means so much more to me. It means that I reached a person I've never met with a work of love that took up over 2 years of my life to complete, and another 10 before that to ferment in my mind.

I've never had a professional reviewer write about EARLY MOURNING, and I'm kind of glad for that. I come from a music background, which fostered in me a deep love for doing things myself. My band, DIADS, has released 2 full-length albums, and we didn't do it with the help of a major record label. When it came time for me to release my novel into the world, I only wanted to do it independently. So I did. And that's why I think it makes sense for non-professional reviewers to review my work.

Thank you, Nicolas. Thank you everyone who's read my work and written a few words about what they thought.

It's The End Of Something.

Thinking back on 2011, I don't really remember much of real consequence happening. I made a few new friends, got a few different creative projects started, argued with some hippies and racists, tried to sell a book or two, and spent a lot of time with my family. It was a quiet year, really.

For what it's worth, here's a few of my favorite things from the last year (though some of them didn't come out in 2011):

Music:
Without a doubt,  the album I listened to the most was, "Sigh No More", by Mumford & Sons. This is one of the only cds I've purchased in the last 10 years. I think I got it in February, and liked it right away, but it didn't become one of my favorites until about 6 months ago. I love this band and cannot wait until their next album comes out. Key tracks for me are, "Roll Away Your Stone" and "White Blank Page", but I like all of the songs.

Books:
Like every year for the last 18, I read many books this year. Right now I'm working my way through George R.R. Martin's SONG OF FIRE AND ICE series. I'm on the second book. It's good stuff, and fulfills that need for epic political fiction which the Dune books taught me to love.

I also enjoyed the "Sandman Slim" books by Richard Kadrey, they are, "Sandman Slim", "Kill The Dead", and "Aloha From Hell". Good fun pulpy fun, all three.

I also read everything by William Gibson that I could find. Somehow I never read any Gibson until this year, but as soon as I did, I went crazy with it. This man is a genius.

There were other books, I'm sure, but I can't remember them.

Comics:
I'm not the biggest comics fan in the world, not even close, but I still read quite a few of them this year.
I really like "Animal Man", "Swamp Thing", and "Action Comics" in DC's New 52.

But my favorite thing I've read in comics this year is Joe Hill's "Locke & Key", drawn by Gabriel Rodriguez. I read the first 4 trades, and it's one of my favorite series of all time now. If you haven't read this yet, you should do everything in your power to do so.

Movies:
MEH! It says something that I can't think of a single movie from this year that really kicked my ass. Oh, I guess I liked "Super 8" a lot. I guess.

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I hope you had a decent year, didn't lose anything you didn't want to, maybe found a couple of other things. I also hope 2012 is even better for you.

Another Coffee Shop Comic

This holiday season has taken a lot of the urge to be creative out of me, and it's been pretty hard to do the writing I need to do to get done for Secret Comic Project Number 2 (as the number indicates, I have 2 different Secret Comic Projects going at the same time, with 2 different artists), but over the last few days I've finally managed to get a lot done with it. As a bit of a reward, I decided to give myself a little break from writing SCP #2, and draw this little comic. I hope you dig it.

Now, back to the writing.