The Best $23 I Ever Spent

 

The complete Bill Withers collection for just $23 or so on Amazon.  I've had his greatest hits and live album for years but never had the extra cash to track down his entire studio collection.  That is, until it was recently published in the UK in a nice box set, and for whatever reason some sellers on amazon have it marked for less than $25 (how much less seems to vary by the day and the algorithm used by the seller).  $25 for nine albums!  The live album alone is probably worth that.  Don't believe me? Just click below. 

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It's About Time

I'm a little late on this, but it's nice to see that the United States can still invent stuff.  Frozen pizza and Wyngz (?) in one box, pizza and cookies in another. And people say that nothing good comes out of the space program...

Sample Chapter - Caroline and The Tweeners

Here's another sample chapter from my book. I wanted to share one more representative of the entire story as the other one I posted does not involve major characters.  To set the scene a bit, Caroline is a girl of about fifteen who is in pursuit of her father - who has been kidnapped. (As an aside, the word kidnap strikes me as a weird way to describe an adult being, well, "napped" but it is the correct usage of the term.) Anyway, she has found herself in a cave and afraid of an unusual species of "cave creatures" that dwell therein. Hope you like it! And the drawing is of course by Shawn Leader!  Let me know what you think.

Chapter Seven- Blinded By The Light

The candle light from Caroline's hand played on the low-hanging ceilings and walls of the cave, and the shadows therein created a thousand terrors in her mind. With every step she imagined In-Betweeners lurking in each shadow, made worse by the knowledge that she really had no idea what a Tweener looked like, which filled her head with awful ideas. For all she knew they were already standing all around her, as the narrow light cast by the candle hardly illuminated enough space to feel secure.

Again and again she desperately fought the urge to turn back and run, and only the thought of her father out there with those Barbarians drove her forward. But she made the mistake of looking behind her, causing her heart to cry out as she was still able to faintly make out the soft glow of sunlight from the cave entrance. Caroline could not help but shudder at the thought of this being the last time she would ever see the light of the sun, and before she was done shuddering she went around a bend of the tunnel. Just like that the sunlight was lost to view.

The Cover - Part One

So Shawn took a chunk out of his weekend and started working on the cover. I know they say you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, so in this case simply judge the cover. What do you think? Like the colors, dislike, have a better idea? How about the font? The logo is epic for sure. And yes, there is a typo on my name, but at least he got the 'G' on there, which is very important to my last name.

As far as the book goes I am working my way now through yet another edit, which will hopefully be the last one. Then I will have to mess with the format in order to place it in book form, which may require me to split it in half as my first attempt resulted in a 600-page book! Trying to edit it down on this pass and cut it down to size because that was not my intention by any means....

Working Idea for Cover/ Logo

All credit to Shawn for this one. Inspired in part by other famous logos he came up with the above. The one on the right is the first attempt and the one on the left is the newer version. Oddly, dragons aren't that big of a part of the book, though they certainly have a role. When you call it On The Backs Of Dragons, they better!  Shawn is working on the cover as we speak and I'm obviously looking forward to it as it gets me that much closer to a physical book.

The Grave Robbers

With great trepidation, here's a sample chapter from my first novel titled On The Backs of Dragons.  Not really sure where the title came from, but it sounded good at the time and has kind of stuck. Dragons are not a particularly big part of the book, but big enough to justify the name I think.

Anyway, this is a section that I've placed around the middle of the book- much like JRR Tolkien split the three Lord of the Rings books in half I've chosen to do the same in order to kind of reset the stage at this point and properly introduce our antagonist, Maldazor, who only looms in the shadows for most of the story. Oh, and that will be the last time I compare myself in any way to Tolkien in basically any fashion..... Hopefully this section makes sense to any who read it- it's a tough decision deciding a proper entry point. For now I am calling it an interlude until a better way to phrase it comes along. If it ever comes along... (Note: I don't really care for the format this blog displays in for something like this, but it is what it is! Feel free to let me know your thoughts, all criticisms/critiques welcome.)

Interlude: Maldazor

Fritz tapped lightly on the door though he hoped that his knocking would go unheard. They had traveled a long way to meet the person behind said door- never uncertain that their plan would work- yet now that they were here his confidence had wavered. There would be a rich reward if the plan came off, but a voice inside Fritz kept reminding him that there were more important things than money- and he was starting to believe it. There were much more important things. 

Like breathing, for example.

However, the voice next to him, which belonged to his partner Frederick, had been telling Fritz throughout their entire journey that money was the only thing that mattered, and thus they had to see this through. Fritz had been convinced, yet noticed that he was the one carrying the bundle of bones and small treasures removed from the grave atop Cemetery Hill, not Frederick, and more, he was carrying them at Frederick’s insistence.

Fritz looked towards his co-conspirator as the door remained closed and unanswered, hoping that they could turn around and leave. Instead Frederick gestured at him with his hand in a fist, air motioning for Fritz to knock again. “Harder this time,” he whispered, his face wrapped in a nervous mask. It didn't help Fritz's unease to see that Frederick was as nervous as he was- and pretending not to be. 

Working Idea For Cover

Here's a working idea for the cover of my book.  Very well done start in my opinion!