Happy to be included in La Dance Diabolique: A Red Hot Boogie Woogie. I’m all dressed up in hot pink! You can’t miss me. Hahaha! I also got in a plug for Wicked Tales.
“Joining us today are six hot rising stars to discuss the relationship between writers and their audience.”
April was a challenging month to say the least. Had to use much time and energy to deal with some issues. May was a much better month, but very busy on the positive side.
Challenges
Writing
Short Fiction
Novels
Non-Fiction
Reading
Family
Martial Arts
Health
Financial
Charity & Community Service
Cars
House
Fun
May
Movies
Ender’s Game ** 1/2 I found this movie fun but it lacked an indefinable something.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ** After all the hype surrounding this film, I was left disappointed. I found it vapid and cliche.
Personal Development
I’m pleased to pass on this announcement from the newsletter of the New England Horror Writers:
NEHW ANNOUNCEMENT!
The New England Horror Writers (NEHW) are pleased to announce their third anthology! Submissions are now Closed!
Wicked Tales will debut at Anthocon (www.anthocon.com) during the annual convention in Portsmouth, NH on 6/6/15.
The book will be an open themed anthology, edited by Scott Goudsward, Daniel Keohane and David Price.
Cover Art by Ogmios
Here’s the Table of Contents:
Introduction by Chet Williamson
Kristin Dearborn Somebody’s Darling
Rob Smales Keepsakes
Christopher Golden The Hiss of Escaping Air
Howard Odentz Handsome
E. A. Black Fog Over Mons
Paul McMahon Bitemarks
Trisha J. Wooldridge Crocodile Below
Bracken MacLeod The Blood and the Body
K. H. Vaughn The Opacity of Saints
Holly Newstein Live With It
Rick Hautala Love on the Rocks
Peter Dudar & L.L. Soares Baby’s Breath
Sam Gafford My Brother’s Keeper
T.T. Zuma The Pawnshop
Matthew Barlett Master of Worms
David North-Martino Sat Down Inside her
John Goodrich Odd Grimson
Timothy P. Flynn A Rythmatic Creation of the Damned (poem)
Michael J. Arruda Created Woman
John Mclveen Eve
***
The momentum continues… I guess this is turning into a newsletter of my life. I hope it’s inspiring you to keep a list of your challenges and accomplishments throughout the year. I promise you that goal setting will change your life.
Writing
Short fiction
Novels
Reading
Networking
Marketing
I researched using MailChimp for a mailing list. I read that mailing lists are the most underutilized marketing tool in a writer’s tool chest. I learned that to meet federal law I need to list my address in the signature of any emails I send out. This would mean getting a P.O box or mail drop if I want to ensure my privacy. I’m going to wait at this point, but I’ll keep it on the radar.
Family
Martial Arts
Fitness & Health
Cars
The terrible roads and potholes caused a sidewall bubble in one of Patty’s tires. Fortunately and unfortunately she only had the tires for six month. On the fortunately side, the tires were new enough that we only had to buy one new tire.
Finances
We had purchased MONEY Master the Game by Anthony Robbins in ebook and I also had a chance to sample the audio from the first chapter. I belive that’s the only chapter that AR reads. I also found a great summary of the key points that was left in an Amazon review. Here’s the key points that I put in my notes.
Naturally, I keep my finances close to my vest and don’t share much online. That doesn’t mean I’m not working on this category, though.
House
Whisky Tasting and Mixology
Personal Development
I revisited the Anthony Robbins Time of Your Life/RPM audio program.
Began reading The Winning Mind Set by Jim Brault and Kevin Seaman. Kevin Seaman was gracious enough to sign and inscribe a copy for me. My first impression is that it’s a very nice personal development workbook. Much of its contents are grounded in NLP and cognitive behavioral psychology. Great stuff! I think it will make a great refresher. And since both of the writers are also martial artists, I think I’ll enjoy many of their illustrative examples. I plan to work through each section and see where it takes me.
Movies
Non-Stop *** Better than I expected. Implausible ending.
Magic Moments
We came home to a small (what we believe to be a) screech owl perched on the light by our garage. The owl’s eyes were but slits in the daylight, but he still watched us as we made our way inside. Once we closed the door, he puffed his body out for warmth and went to sleep. As soon as the sun set he took flight to destinations unknown. I take the owl’s visit as a good omen of positive change to come. Here’s a photo of our unlikely visitor.
That’s about it for March. See you in April…hopefully sooner.
In an attempt to keep up the momentum with this blog, I’ve decided to give you another update. This one will list out what I worked on during the month of February. It hasn’t been bad for a short month.
Writing
Short Fiction
Novels
Reading
Networking
Family
Martial arts
Another month where I unfortunately didn’t make any seminars.
Fitness & Health
Sales
House
Whisky Tasting
I tried Glenfiddich 12 this month. I find it has a smoother taste, less complex, more candied, more like a bourbon, and less mouth burn/heat. I like it best of all the whisky I’ve tried.
Movies Watched
Not a big month for movies. Busy, busy, busy!
That’s it for February. March is already coming on full force and swinging for the rafters. More soon…
In an attempt to keep some sort of momentum going with this blog, I’ve decided to give you an update on what I’ve been working on during the month of January. It’s been a pretty good month. I’m hoping to make a couple videos soon that will show how I go about goal setting and planning my year. Until then, I give you this…
Writing
Short Fiction
Novels
Reading
Family & Friends
Martial Arts
Fitness & Health
Cars
Thing Goals
House
Whisky Tasting
General
Movies Watched:
I’ll create an addendum if I think of anything else.
Until next time…
My novel is FREE on Amazon today and tomorrow. I’d love for you to grab a copy. Trick or treat? You tell me. If you read it, I’d love to know what you think. Honest reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are also welcome. Thanks for your support.
THEY ARE COMING…
In high school Jack was a bully, an alcoholic, and a drug abuser. As an adult, he’s turned his life around. But his past is catching up with him. His old friends are dying of a curse cast all those years ago. Now Jack must return to his hometown to stop an ancient evil that is hunting him.
THEY WILL SHOW NO MERCY…
Captain Amanda Rann has a failed marriage, two little girls that she loves, and the toughest black ops mission of her life. But Rann doesn’t run. There are creatures headed for Wellington Massachusetts, and when they come she’ll be locked and loaded.
AND BEFORE THE NIGHT IS OVER THEY WILL DRAG TWO OF THEM TO HELL…
Katty LaRocque played the tough rocker chick in high school. Now Fifteen years later she’s looking back on her dreams unfulfilled. Then Jack comes back to town and brings an excitement with him that she thought was gone forever. But it’s what else he brings that just might get her killed.
WHO WILL DIE?
Detective Adrian Callahan misses his wife and can’t find a new meaningful relationship. A young woman has disappeared and he’s determined to find her before the investigation goes cold. But then Jack returns, along with a string of wild animal attacks, threatening to take him off the case permanently.
WOLVES OF VENGEANCE
Extinct Doesn’t Mean Forever is FREE on Amazon today! Includes my story, “The Language of Ice.”
The Extinct Anthology will also be free on March 12th and April 10th 2012. Don’t miss out!
From Amazon:
Echoes of yesterday touch the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary ways in 18 provocative stories by some of the best up-and-coming authors of mainstream and speculative fiction around the world.
1. Jase was her ghost in the machine, a shaded memory captured in synthesized pixels. Near enough to see, too distant to touch. Could they still connect? – LAST SEEN by Amanda le Bas de Plumetot
2. She didn’t realize how deep her loss ran, until a saber-tooth cat helped heal the past and point her toward a future she didn’t know she needed – PAST SURVIVORS by Sarah Adams
3. Vesna discovers from an unexpected source just how old the dance of love truly is – FOOTPRINTS ON THE BEACH by Aleksandar Ziljak
4. John doted on the French touring car he’d lovingly restored. Can his dead wife teach him other things are worthy of his love too? – THE RESTORATION MAN by Simon John Cox
5. When a single mum returns home to Tasmania with her young son, her efforts to settle back in take a strange twist – A DARK FOREST by Jen White
6. Keeping a baby dinosaur secret from prying TV people and scientists is no easy task, except when your family have been keeping sacred traditions secret for generations – MY OWN SECRET DINOSAUR by Jo Antareau
7. When a Neanderthal skeleton arrives at her museum, Cassie learns a woman dead for thousands of years still has something to teach the living – THE LANGUAGE OF ICE by David North-Martino
8. With human hunters closing in, Kerg concocts a desperate plan for survival. Just one problem: he isn’t the only one looking out for family – TWILIGHT OF THE CLAW by Adam Dunsby
9. Lucia doesn’t believe in angels — but she might believe in a little boy cloned from a forgotten race – THE ANGEL GENOME by Chrystalla Thoma
10. Geri’s father finds the remains of an alien culture, proof we’re not alone. But he leaves Geri feeling more alone than ever – IN RING by Scott Thomas Smith
11. Had it been left to protocols rather than human ingenuity, Commander West’s expedition might have overlooked one of Mars’ greatest treasures – BONES OF MARS by D Jason Cooper
12. Endless Power, Inc prepared Angel for the physical dangers of harnessing a new energy source. But no one prepared him for how to cope afterward – HUNTING THE MANTIS by Adam Knight
13. Bridges of meaning built through symbols alienate as much as connect. But the Virtual Bridge Sri plans could reconnect the lost hopes of a dying civilization – CONNECT by Kenneth Burstall
14. Fleeing with the last remnants of the Oshen race, Indigo has only one chance to ensure his people are never forgotten – INDIGO’S GAMBIT by Adam Israel
15. When his pampered world loses the technology it depends on, extinction looms faster than lonely survivor Levo could ever expect – BLOOD FRUIT by Shona Snowden
16. When a new bio-weapon in the wars on drugs and terror gets out of control, can the supplier really be held responsible? – A THORNY DILEMMA by Rory Steves
17. Capturing mammoths was all in a day’s work for Deke. The saber-tooth cat, though, was going to require something bigger than an elephant gun – INVOICE H10901: 3 WOOLY MAMMOTHS by Robert J. Sullivan
18. After George makes a momentous discovery, the distractions start piling up. His wife cooks up a surprise to remind him love is always worth sacrificing for – DISTRACTIONS by Peter Dudley
Chrystalla Thoma, author of Rex Rising: Book One of Elei’s Chronicles, a YA Science Fiction e-book, is my guest today. She discusses her new book, and gives us some insight into how she comes up with her story ideas.
Dave: Hi Chrystalla, welcome to my blog. Can you first tell us a few things about yourself?
Chrystalla: Hi dear Dave, thanks for having me over. This is one of those questions that is vital and yet hard to answer – what is important about me? So let’s see… I’m a Sagittarius, and I read somewhere that people born under this sign always travel but give their heart to only one person, and both have been true of me. I am Greek Cypriot but have lived outside Cyprus since I was eighteen, only returning to settle in my old neighborhoods quite recently. I have lived on stories ever since I can remember and writing since I was ten. I love cold beer and hate raw meat. I have a fascination with magic and science, the boundaries of which blur a little in my mind, and am married to a marine biologist. I love the sea but I get seasick on boats, am Greek but write in English, write poetry but also fast-paced action prose, love cats but don’t own one. Strange, you say? Authors can be like that. 🙂
Dave: We have both published short stories in the anthology “Extinct Doesn’t Mean Forever”, edited by Phoenix Sullivan and published by Dare To Dream press. Can you tell us what your story is about?
Chrystalla: The Angel Genome is one of my favorite self-written stories. What if the legends of angels arose from an extinct human branch? Lucia doesn’t believe in angels – but she might believe in the cloned child of a forgotten race.
I wrote the story more than two years ago and it was one of those tales that demand to be written. I’d never imagined a call for stories would come along where this story would fit so snuggly – although I’ve had people hesitate, then tell me, “but angels never existed. So, how is this science fiction?” Aha! 🙂 Although we don’t know whether a human race ever existed which had special traits and which was later remembered as a race of “angels” as we think of them today, many branches of the human tree have been recently discovered, which survived until relatively recently (for example the Homo Floresiensis). What science fiction explores is not only which races could have been brought back to life, but what else science could bring back – what else we don’t know about – and here is where imagination comes in. We had ancient ancestors that were tiny, or huge, or ate only fruit on the trees. What if we also had ancestors who had wings?
Dave: What is your most recent writing project?
Chrystalla: I write sci-fi and fantasy in equal measures, therefore it is only due to the law of probability (or fate?) that my most recent project is a sci-fi as well. Rex Rising is a Young Adult Science Fiction novel about Elei, a young aircar driver in a world where parasites create new human races. He leads a peaceful life — until a mysterious attack on his boss sends him fleeing with a bullet in his side. Pursued for a secret he does not possess and with the fleet at his heels, he has but one thought: to stay alive. His pursuers aren’t inclined to sit down and talk, although that’s not the end of Elei’s troubles. The two powerful parasites inhabiting his body, at a balance until now, choose this moment to bring him down, leaving Elei with no choice but to trust in people he hardly knows in a mad race against time. It won’t be long before he realizes he must find out this deadly secret – a secret that might change the fate of his world and everything he has ever known – or die trying.
Dave: What inspired this story?
Chrystalla: When I say “parasites”, many people shudder. Yet, when you read sci-fi and paranormal fiction, many “conditions”, even vampirism, being a zombie, or having supernatural abilities, can be (and sometimes are) attributed to parasites, be they viruses or other kinds. Truth is, we humans have many symbionts – we happily (and often unhappily) live together with many other organisms inside our bodies. Our bodies are so used to having parasites, that lack of them has caused certain diseases of our era – auto-immune system diseases (like Crohn’s disease) and allergies, which are due to the fact that the body, finding no parasites to fight as it has used to do for thousands of years, turns upon itself and starts to destroy its own tissues. Recent research has found out that for patients with Crohn’s disease the best therapy is often the introduction of hookworms and other relatively harmless parasites.
I highly recommend a book by Carl Zimmer, called “Parasite Rex” to anyone who would like to read more about this fascinating topic.
Dave: Interesting! Thanks for coming over, Chrystalla. Where can one find you on the internet and read your stories?
Chrystalla: You can follow my ramblings and news about my writing and stories here: http://chrystallathoma.wordpress.com
You can find Rex Rising at the following distributors:
Watch the book trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-6Gxf8oQas
Chrystalla’s short story “The Angel Genome” can be found in the Extinct Doesn’t Mean Forever anthology (click on image!):
You can also find her short story separately (click on the Image!):
Writer’s Announced for NEHW’s First Anthology.
I’m extremely excited to announce that my story “Malfeasance” will appear in the New England Horror Writer’s inaugural anthology: Epitaphs. The anthology is slated for release on 11/11/11.
Jeffrey C. Pettengill “To Sleep, Perchance to Die”
Paul McMahon “The Christopher Chair”
Kurt Newton “A Case of the Quiets”
Scott T. Goudsward “Build-a-Zombie”
John Goodrich “Not an Ulcer”
B. Adrian White “The Possesor Worm”
John M. McIlveen “Make a Choice”
Michael Allen Todd “The Death Room”
Rick Hautala “Perfect Witness”
Holly Newstein and Glenn Chadbourne “Stoney’s Boneyard”
Trisha J. Wooldridge “Kali’s Promise”
David Bernard “The Sequel”
David North-Martino “Malfeasance”
Stacey Longo “Private Beach”
Christopher Golden “All Aboard”
L.L. Soares “Holiday House”
Steven Withrow “Lines at a Wake”
K. Allen Wood “A Deeper kind of Cold”
P. Gardner Goldsmith “Alone”
Roxanne Dent “Pandora’s Box”
Michael Arruda “Chuck the Magic Man Says I Can”
T.T. Zuma “Burial Board”
John Grover “Windblown Shutter”
Stephen Dorato “Cheryl Takes a Trip”
Philip Roberts “The Legend of Wormley Farm”
Peter N. Dudar “Church of Thunder and Lightning”
The Official Blog of David North-Martino 