Orren's news

Goodnight Reilly: 2014-2023

Sat, 08 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

If you’ve been reading my blogs for any length of time (does anyone read blogs anymore?) You know that I’ve got an Irish wolfhound named Reilly. Not only is he featured in my author bio pic but I’ve blogged about him several times.

This is the hardest blog to write about Reilly…because it’s the final one.

Irish wolfhounds generally are considered to have a lifespan of 6-8 years. I’d always hoped I’d get 10 years or more with Reilly. But at 9 years and 4 months, we had to make the hardest call.

You never want to see your friend and family member suffer, but at the same time, if they still have life in them, you want them to enjoy it. At the end, the lower back paralysis that we were able to partially correct with surgery when he was 5 came back, and he was losing the ability to control his hind legs again; knuckling and folding his feet, shaky and unable to control himself. Sometimes we had to help him stand multiple times a day. We’d also spent many rounds trying to knock out an antibiotic resistant bacterial infection in his bladder. It had become a sort of morbid race of which would kill him first, the infection or paralysis.

At Reilly’s 9-year check-up, our vet had already recommended that we should look into at-home euthanasia in the near future. But as much as he was struggling, he still ate, drank, loved his family, and tried to play with our other dog, Drax, as much as he was capable. But there comes a point that you have to ask yourself, are you keeping him around for him…or for yourself? So at the end of last week we called out a vet for a quality of life assessment, and the prognosis was what we already knew, but needed to hear. So today, after a breakfast of chicken strips and spending time on the floor with him, he went to sleep in my arms for the last time.

Goodbye Reilly. You saw me through a lot in your nearly ten years with me. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend. I’m going to miss you for the rest of my days.

So how was your week?

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

When this week began, we had no inkling it would end the way it did.

Let me back up a little. Obviously we knew that we had a child on the way. The c-section to welcome him into the world was scheduled for October 27th. Of course, if you read my blog about my daughter’s birth, you know that my wife is considered high risk, because we’re over 40, and she deals with gestational diabetes and hypertension.

The early part of this week was pretty standard, but Wednesday was dinner with my co-workers up in Los Angeles, around 40 miles away. My mother would be watching our daughter, as my wife had a routine obstetrical appointment after work.

Yeah…you already see where this is going, don’t you?

Dinner was fantastic. I work with an extremely engaging and talented group of people. As you might imagine, with an over-eight-months pregnant wife, I tend to monitor messages from her pretty closely. And toward the end of dinner, I started reading a text thread between my wife and my mother, which began with my mother asking when to expect my daughter to be picked up. First it was after my wife’s appointment…next it was after they ran some tests…then it was she wasn’t leaving at all, and finally I took a call with my wife and her doctor explaining the situation:

Hypertension had evolved into preeclampsia.

My co-workers were incredibly supportive, and didn’t hesitate to cut after-meal conversation short to drive me back to my car (we all drove together). My mother put our daughter to sleep in the crib she keeps for her, so I was able to visit my wife in the hospital.

The next couple of days were rather chaotic, since the doctor’s recommended course of action was dependent on monitoring and lab test results, and those kept changing. So at one point we thought there might be an emergency c-section Thursday morning, then Friday morning. For a moment, there was even talk that maybe they could release her to bed rest at home, and she’d be fine. But after 48 hours in the hospital with some preeclampsia symptoms persisting, it was official: I would need to get to the hospital by 5:30am Saturday for a 6am c-section.

Getting away wasn’t straightforward, considering I was being sole caregiver for our 20-month-old daughter. Thankfully, my wife’s closest friend (who is also our daughter’s godmother) offered to be at our house at 4:45am, so that I could leave before the crack of dawn to ensure that I was at the hospital by the crack of dawn.

The 5am drive was actually very relaxing, even though I was a buzzing cocktail of nerves and exhaustion. But when I arrived, the drill was much the same as with our first child—put on the sterile paper outer garments, sit in an empty hallway while they prep my wife for surgery, and then they let me in when they start the actual c-section. For me, the most anxiety inducing moment is sitting alone in the hallway, when there’s nothing for me to do but obsessively create horror shows in my mind. As soon as they let me in, I snapped into support mode, the operation was done quickly, my wife was a true champ as ever, and at 6:49am, our son entered the world, tiny but mighty.

Tiny, because he was born after 33 weeks and 2 days. So he was about 4.8 pounds and just over 16-inches. Not too unusual for a premie born just after eight months, but he still needed some time to cook. So they put him right in an incubator, and he and I went to the neonatal ICU (NICU) where I got to hold his hand while they poked and prodded him and hooked him up to all their hardware. They were very happy at his level of alertness—he was already opening his eyes and looking around and crying and trying to rip the wires out. He also was able to grip my finger, which was nice.

That Saturday, Darcee’s friend put in about 8 hours watching our daughter so I could be at the c-section and with my wife and son. In fact, she would offer to watch our daughter a couple of times after that as well, allowing me to visit my wife and son in the hospital and on Monday evening, to bring my wife home. All told, she spent around 14-hours caring for our daughter. Saying that we are grateful doesn’t begin to cover it.

While my wife is home, the reality is that preeclampsia can return up to six weeks after birth, so she is not only recovering from surgery but also diligently monitoring her blood pressure and looking out for other signs that her preeclampsia has rebounded, necessitating a return to the hospital.

Our son is still in NICU, but doing extremely well. He’s off of supplemental oxygen, eating, active and looking around. We have visited him every day. He has slept on my wife’s chest and she’s changed one of his diapers. The nurses say that he’s doing better than they’d expect of a “33-weeker” and that while we’d assumed he’d stay in NICU for 2-4 weeks after birth (which would have been his full term) we’ve been told that if he keeps doing as well as he is and there are no regressions, he could be home as early as this weekend.

If you would have asked me at the beginning of last week if I thought I’d end the week with a son, I would have smiled and shaken my head. But here we are, and I’m not shaking my head anymore—but I’m still smiling.

It would have been easier if the patio didn't collapse

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This blog is about three weeks late. I’ve been busy.

Three weeks ago, I was overseeing reconstruction of our collapsed patio cover. You see, there was a major hailstorm that blew through Southern California in early January, and the aged, rusted, not-well-secured patio cover attached to our 1931 home collapsed in the storm. So about a week after that, reconstruction of our patio cover commenced.

But that’s not what this blog is about. You already knew that from the picture.

My last entry here was not quite a year ago. 2020 was by any measure a tough year for most people. Our personal isolation came with a special kind of anticipation and anxiety: we were expecting our first child in January. Take it from us, gestating a baby during a pandemic is not a recipe for calm.

We didn’t even know at first if I’d be allowed at the birth. Then we were told I would, but I’d be locked in, I couldn’t even leave to bring back some take-out or anything else. As a way to minimize exposure, it was unfortunate, but it made sense under the circumstances.

Now, leaving our house for a few days isn’t an easy thing to do. As you would have gathered by reading previous posts, we have two very large dogs; a nearly 90-pound giant schnauzer who is very territorial and wouldn’t allow any but a known friend onto the property, and a nearly 160-pound Irish wolfhound, who is a sweetheart but extremely intimidating to people not used to large dogs—and he’s not a good eater, so generally needs to be hand fed.

Since our baby was breech (basically, folded over with her feet by her head), the doctors had all recommended a c-section, which meant that we had scheduled a date in advance: Friday, January 15th, 2021. This meant that I would be able to leisurely drive my wife to the hospital, we had time to set up weekend dog care, and I could arrange patio repair around the date.

Any woman over forty who is pregnant is considered high risk. Then you add hypertension and gestational diabetes, and it meant she was being monitored closely, sometimes keeping her for hours to make sure that there are no risks to mother or baby. She had been to many such monitoring sessions, and even when they kept her a while for observation, they always sent her home. On the morning of Wednesday, January 13th, when she took the one car that we’ve been driving to her appointment with her OB/GYN, she said to me “I’m sure they won’t keep me today, I’ll be home soon.”

You know where this is going, don’t you?

Wednesday afternoon, I got a text that I was going to need a ride to the hospital, and we were going to have to hope our friend could at least spend Wednesday night at our house to feed and care for the dogs. Turns out, the doctors decided that since her blood pressure was high—but nothing had gone wrong yet—the smart move was to have the c-section that day, when conditions were good, rather than wait for something to go wrong.

Thankfully, a neighbor who teaches in the same district as my wife was able to drive me to the hospital, and our friend was able to stay that night with the dogs. He would of course have to go to work Thursday morning, and we still had workers coming to our house (which, again, the dogs wouldn’t tolerate if one of us wasn’t there) but we’d figure that out later.

We were both extremely anxious going into the procedure, but in hindsight we had nothing to worry about. It went swimmingly well, no complications. Moreover it was fast. It seemed like I’d only been in the operating theater a few minutes when I heard the doctor say “and there’s the butt!”

And so it was, at 7:02pm on January 13th, 2021, our daughter was born—butt first.

The look of sheer relief and love on my wife’s face as they placed our daughter next to her shone through her anesthetic haze. I got choked up, too. I was asked later if I was overwhelmed with emotion. I was amazed, overjoyed, relieved it went well, but not overwhelmed. I think the birth of your child is, in my completely biased opinion, an appropriate occasion to feel whelmed by emotion.

When a woman has a c-section without complications, the hospital typically keeps her for two days, or until Friday evening (as the surgeon, who had an absolutely charming and engaging personality put it, “we’ll keep you here until you can do two things on your own: pee and fart”). Once we were settled into the postpartum wing, we explained our situation to the attendant nurse—we had no daytime dog care set up, there were still workers scheduled, so I wanted to leave in the morning, but return. The nurses in the operating theater thought I might be able to leave and return one time. Well, they were mistaken, Covid rules were that once I left, I couldn’t come back. However, I asked really, really nicely. So the attendant nurse asked the managing nurse, and she gave me dispensation to leave Thursday morning and return Thursday night.

Not all the nurses were on board, and I understood their position—I was screened before I entered the hospital, but if I left and returned, I could be exposed to Covid and then bring it into the postpartum wing, which could be devastating. Because of this I was (and am) even more grateful that flexibility won the day and they allowed me to return. Our friend was able to watch the dogs again on Thursday night, so I could be at our house during the day and stay with my wife and daughter both nights they were in the hospital.

The evening of Friday, January 15th—the day that we’d initially scheduled the c-section—I was instead driving my wife and daughter home from the hospital. It didn’t quite happen the way we’d planned, but we wouldn’t change a thing.

And hey, the patio cover looks really nice, too.

Thoughts on a half century

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The other day, I had officially reached a “milestone” age: half a century–an age at which young people officially consider you old, but older people still consider you young. This is in contrast to being, say, 70, which is an age at which someone older than that will certainly consider you younger, but not young.

You hear older people say “age is just a number” and in a very real sense, that is true. Decades ago, I was a longhaired rocker, driving around in my 4-door compact hatchback, writing pro audio and fantasy works, nerding out on sci-fi/fantasy and role-playing games…and here I am, today, a shorthaired rocker, driving around in my 4-door compact hatchback, writing pro audio and fantasy works, nerding out on sci-fi/fantasy and role-playing games.

But that’s only the surface. I have a lot more stuff in my life. I have creative output–music, writing, podcasts–that I didn’t have. There have been physical changes: less hair, crows feet around the eyes, squishier middle. But the most profound are the mental and emotional changes, some for better, others for worse. I have always been absent minded with my head in the clouds (I’ve heard it called “the artist’s curse” before), but it seems harder to hold onto thoughts than it used to be decades ago. The longer you live, the more important people in your life you lose, and that mental scar tissue becomes less painful but never goes away. And of course the more moments you have, the more of them will be filled with the little frustrations and disappointments that make days stressful and annoying.

But I’ve also learned to value the people in my life more, and to sweat the little things less. I’ve a better sense of what, and who, is important, and what I can let slide. I still beat myself up on a regular basis–nobody is capable of hurting us as much as we can hurt ourselves–but I’ve also learned to forgive myself and the people around me. I’ve learned more about what my strengths are, my weaknesses, and what I need to work on. I’ve learned more about my likes and dislikes. And of course, the more moments you have, the more will be filled with the little joys and warmth that make days wonderful and enjoyable.

It’s also an interesting lesson to look back and see where the world was when I was a child, and where it is now. Our technological evolution has increased so fast, and it’s been a straight line of advancement. When I was in school, a “portable phone” looked like a brick, and all it did was make calls–slowly, and expensively. Schools and businesses had computers, but not all people. Flash forward to now, and phones fit in pockets and are basically fully functional communications/computing/entertainment devices. And that’s not to mention medical technology, transportation technology, you name it.

But our moral evolution hasn’t been able to keep up. Those phones in our pockets are used to spy on us. The same technology to make wisdom readily available to anyone who wants it also makes child pornography readily available to anyone who wants it. The technology that brings us together, also also tears us apart. We connect, but we also bully and threaten. We use our tech to express love, and also to organize mass genocide. We haven’t slowed down polluting our air, poisoning our water, and hating each other.

My dad, who was 50 years old when I was born, always had an optimistic outlook on technology and human prospects. He figured that we’d tech our way out of all our messes–we’d solve climate change, water scarcity, we’d get off planet, you name it, all because within his lifetime the development of new technologies seemed effectively limitless. I inherited my dad’s love of technology, but not all of that optimism. I don’t think we can tech our way out of the grave that the human race has dug itself into. I think that the tech will help, absolutely, but we, as a species, need to come together to use that technology for good.

I’d like to think there’s more kind people in the world than cruel people, but apathy and inaction is a hell of a drug. More than anything, I think age has made me more cognizant of how important it is to act. I may not have a lot of wisdom to impart, but that’s one thing I’ve learned: problems don’t solve themselves, and this won’t become a kinder world unless we ourselves are more kind. So I’m trying to step up, day by day, in ways small, and less small. I try to pay attention, to participate with time and money when I can, and to think before I act.

Maybe one day, when I grow up, I’ll get it right. But I’m trying. And if you’ve read this far, I hope you’ll try too. And remember, trying to do the right thing doesn’t mean there’s no time for fun and games. If anything, a more peaceful world means more time to enjoy ourselves with our loved ones, in our favorite places.

And speaking of favorite places, my wife is taking me to Disneyland later, so I need to sign off. But I’ll leave you with the same signoff that I end every episode of The Omega Beam. It may sound routine, but I mean it with an almost desperate sincerity:

Be good to yourselves–and each other.

Happy 4th Birthday Drax!

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

So here’s the truth:

At first, I didn’t want Drax. There were already two large dogs (Luna the giant schnauzer and Reilly the Irish wolfhound) and a cat (Shadow) in a two bedroom condo, and adding a crazy, rambunctious giant schnauzer puppy–especially one from true German working dog lines–didn’t seem like the smartest idea.

Drax was a livewire of energy, a full-tilt diva, bouncing off the walls, ceiling, and everything in between. The wooden window lattices in our living room still bear the toothmarks of his halcyon puppy days. He was always fun and funny and the most affectionate giant schnauzer I’d ever been around, but he came with a whirlwind, that’s for sure.

Here we are, at Drax’s 4th birthday. In some ways, he’s definitely matured. He can behave now—if he wants to (dog owners will know what I mean). He still has obnoxious moments. He still is a full-tilt diva. But if anything, his affectionate nature has only deepened. He loves being with his pack, and his devotion to us all is total.

In other words, he’s still Drax. And I couldn’t imagine life without him.

The War Under - First Draft Finished!

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

For those of you who have been regularly reading my Grimoire, you know that I’ve been writing a novel involving the same characters and world I introduced in my short story A House Off The Road.

The novel will be named The War Under. And this weekend, I finally finished the first draft. This initial draft comes in at about 92,000 words. To put that number in perspective, the minimum number of words for a novel is generally considered to be 40,000 words; the average novel in The Seduman Chronicles is around 80,000 words, but the average literary novel is about 100,000 words. So this draft is a bit longer than my usual novel, but still not a long novel.

I always feel a palpable sense of accomplishment when I finish the first draft. Finally, the story exists as a thing in the world. Where there was nothing, now there is something. And that is a big deal. Its not ready for publication yet, but now I can look at my work and I can see the thing.

Getting the thing to be the polished novel that is ready for you all to read takes a number of additional steps. My process from here goes like this:

• I let the novel sit for a month or so, clearing my head so I can come back fresh. Then I revise the novel into what becomes the second draft.

• I hand the second draft out to my small team of beta readers, who return with comments, questions, and suggestions. I then edit that draft based on their responses into what becomes the third draft.

• The third draft is the one I send to my editor. She then reads it over with a fine toothed comb and returns with corrections, suggestions, problems, and so on. Her edits then inform the fourth draft.

• The fourth draft is the one that gets proofread and published. So you could call the fourth draft the final draft.

As you can see, finishing the first draft is still quite a way from being ready for you to read, so it’s still too early to know a publication date. But the first draft is far and away the most difficult and the most time-consuming part of the process, and it’s now behind me.

Since there is still quite a while until The War Under is published, I might find time to write a new short story in there. Maybe one involving my beloved Sedumen. Hmm…

Happy 5th Birthday Reilly!

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Ignore the human staring into the middle distance sitting at the messy desk; Reilly is smiling right into the camera because he knows that he’s turning five years old! He’s still the happy, curious, loving and lovable oaf that he’s always been soulful and sappy. He loves sticking close to his humans and his little brother, Drax, and he has a heart (and tongue) full of affection for everyone.

Five isn’t old in absolute terms, but large dogs have much shorter lifespans than smaller dogs, and some breed descriptions list 5-8 or 6-8 years as all you can expect from Irish Wolfhounds. Reilly still seems healthy and happy and we’re looking forward to more good years with him. And I think he’s looking forward to those good years, too. Happy Birthday, Reilly. You make our lives richer.

Scourge of the Nephilim Out Now!

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Just in time to stuff your Kindle, iPad, phone, or tablet for the holidays, Scourge of the Nephilim, the “boxed set” compiling books 4-6 of the Sedumen Chronicles is available, with a brand new amazing cover from Dusan Markovic! This collection includes:

Stinger and Bow: Thirteen-year-old Rachel, known as the Seduman Stinger, needs a new crossbow. After the shock and trauma she’s suffered, she also needs a vacation from being a heroine, so she can just be a teenager. Can she manage both?

Watcher and Firebird: Alex had never heard of the Nephilim until they started stalking her soul sister, Rachel. Now they’re trying to murder everyone she loves. Firebird Alex has to find out who they are and stop them before they destroy everyone and everything she cares about.

Firebird Champion: The opposite of life isn’t death; it’s lifelessness. Given a second chance to live, Firebird Alex is tasked with being life’s champion and eliminating the Nephilim before they eliminate the very life force of the world.

Also featured in this collection is a glossary of terms and characters.

You can pick up Scourge of the Nephilim today in all your favorite online digital bookstores:

And it will be available soon as a paperback as well.

If you’re looking for an affordable way to get the entire second story arc of The Sedumen Chronicles, this is it. You don’t need to have read the first arc (books 1-3) to enjoy Scourge of the Nephilim, but of course if you have, you’ll get a richer experience. I hope you enjoy it!

Excelsior, Stan (Stan Lee: 1922-2018)

Mon, 12 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

You may have already read: Stanley Martin Leiber, known by his professional name Stan Lee, died today at 95. I wrote about how Stan Lee’s writing influenced me as a writer. You can find that article here.

Shadow (2001-2018)

Mon, 22 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I am a dog person. I would never have chosen a cat.

But back in 2001, my roommate and I lived in an apartment that didn’t allow dogs, and when my then-girlfriend, Michelle, moved in, she wanted a pet. She sold me on the Maine Coon (so named for their lion-like maine when adults) as a breed because of their dog-like nature. So reluctantly I agreed, and we ended up with a few-month old kitten who came from show cats but was the runt of the litter we named Shadow (then later “Viking Shadow,” because we thought the Maine Coon resembled the Norwegian Forest Cat).

I suppose the fairy tale version of this story goes that I instantly fell in love with his slightly naughty but basically wonderful antics. But life isn’t like that. Shadow’s kitten antics were sometimes extremely frustrating. His yowl was like fingernails on a chalkboard, and would continue all night. And after surprising me by leaping on my back and kneading the hell out of it, Michelle was more than vaguely worried that I might just kill him.

I didn’t kill him.

Shadow and I reached a truce; he didn’t surprise me like that, and I didn’t get so angry at him. And then something strange happened. Even though it was Michelle who doted on him, Shadow started wanting to spend more time near me. Then on my lap. Then he’d follow me around and greet me when I came home. And somehow, I have no idea how or why, Shadow decided he was my cat.

He loved to sit on my chest and purr, which I found calming. He’d sit on my keyboard, my musical equipment, and never seemed to mind the loud aggro noise coming out of the speakers. And when my day would be over and it was time to watch TV or a movie, he’d always kick the dogs out of his way and take his place as my lapcat.

He could be bitter and cantankerous and ruled our giant schnauzer, Luna, with an iron paw. Eventually, he ruled Reilly and Drax as well. But he did like people, and loved to meet and greet people as they came over, and was very friendly as far as cats go. Even non-cat people agreed that he cut a striking figure, being larger than the usual cat (even as a runty Maine Coon, he still clocked in at nearly 14 pounds at his heaviest). In fact, to my amusement he actually freaked out a couple people, one who was afraid that he was a Lynx.

He did have one achilles heel—he was never a good eater, and was extremely thin. Despite tests, vets never found anything wrong with him, he just had no extra weight. And we knew that meant that when he did start to shut down, he’d go fast.

The average lifespan of a Maine Coon according to maincoonexpert.com is 11 to 13 years. Also according to that site, Maine Coons are prone to Polycystic Kidney Disease, for which there are no symptoms in their youth, and no treatment available other than a low protein diet. In his 17th year, it became clear that his health was fading. He could barely see. He had severe arthritis in his back legs and couldn’t straighten them or jump high anymore. Shadow definitely began to exhibit symptoms of PKD, with a very poor appetite, vomiting, and peeing all the time. But he still had energy, loved spending time with me, and was still cantankerous when displeased.

But after he turned 17, things changed. His energy waned. He stopped being cantankerous. All the fight was gone. He stopped meticulously grooming himself and we had to bathe him more and try to get out the mats that he no longer cleaned out of himself. But he didn’t whimper or seem like he was in pain, even as he didn’t move around much, except to explore the back yard, which as an indoor cat he rarely did–as if he was looking for the right place to rest. But he still responded to my voice, and to my company.

This weekend, as fast as we feared it might happen, his health collapsed. On Saturday, he seemed a bit sluggish, and worryingly was whimpering. By Sunday, he was barely able to move. Monday I spent as much time as I could just stroking his back and talking to him, until after work Darcee drove to the vet and I held Shadow, barely breathing, in a towel in my lap one last time. There really wasn’t any decision to make—Shadow was finished here, and just needed to rest. So at about five o’clock on Monday afternoon, we said our final goodbye.

I am a dog person. I would never have chosen a cat.

But I’m glad Shadow chose me.

But other than that, how was the churro?

Tue, 09 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

So as not to bury the lede: Golden and I are engaged. And yes, in the selfie quickly snapped after I proposed she’s showing off her novelty engagement ring, and I’m showing off…a churro.

Like all good things, there’s a story there:

For those of you who’ve been listening to my podcast, The Omega Beam you know that Golden and I have been together for some time now–long enough that we knew we wanted to make it official.

Golden has a lifelong love of all things Disney, and as an annual Disneyland pass holder, likes to go there not just as a full-day tourist attraction, but for short jaunts, to enjoy the ambiance, the food, the shopping, the rides, etc.

Recently, she took me to one of the Disney parks I’d never been to, Disney California Adventure one evening. Once there, I noticed that they had a number of churro stands. Now, I love churros, but I very rarely eat them. So I excitedly said to Golden that I was going to get myself a churro. We ended up being busy until the park closed, so I never did get my churro. From then on, a running gag was that we’d have to go back to DCA just so I could get my churro.

We’d actually planned to go on a very nice date on Tuesday night..but sometimes, you just have to go with your gut. I asked Golden if she’d be willing to reschedule our nice date to Friday night, and go to DCA instead, so I could get that churro. She said yes. (Being an intelligent woman, she’d already an inkling as to why I wanted to go just then to get it).

At DCA, more or less as soon as we got there, I stood in line and bought my churro. I asked Golden to find us a nice spot overlooking water, and we found a wooden rail next to a picturesque, raging waterfall. I reached out to Golden’s right hand, and asked her to please hold my churro…then fished out a pink, heart shaped rubber ring that we got at Comic-Con from my back pocket, placed it on her left ring finger, and asked her to please marry me.

She said yes.

One of the nice things about engagements the second time around is that having done it all before makes it easier to be relaxed and enjoy the moment. I aimed for a proposal that would be quirky, romantic, fun, and a story that we’d enjoy retelling. I knew that going to Disneyland would be meaningful, finding a spot by running water would be beautiful, Golden has a great sense of humor and would love my use of the ring, and what could be more quirky than throwing a quest for a churro into the mix?

It was a success by all measures, and we’re thrilled to be engaged.

Oh–the churro was delicious, thanks for asking.

A New Site Design and a New Cover

Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve got a new cover and a new site design to share with you!

First, this beautiful cover, illustrated by Dusan Markovic (whom I’ve been lucky enough to have create my last three covers), announces the future arrival of Scourge of the Nephilim, a boxed set combining the novels in The Sedumen Chronicles that comprise the complete Nephilim storyline: Stinger and Bow (Book 4), Watcher and Firebird (Book 5), and Firebird Champion (Book 6). The book is scheduled to be published this Fall, with some extra goodies to be announced closer to the publication date. But I wanted to share the gorgeous cover art with the world before then.

Now let’s talk about the new look and feel of orrenmerton.com. This has been a complete redesign of the site, not just graphically but under the hood as well. I couldn’t be happier with the ease of navigation, how good it looks on both desktop OS and mobile devices, and how lightning fast it now loads.

This is due not only to a complete rethink of how I wanted the site to look and flow, but because the site is now a static website generated using Hugo, running a custom theme designed by a friend and great author in his own right, Simon Cann. If that all sounds like a foreign language to you, not to worry–the upshot is that the site is now faster and extremely secure. If you haven’t checked out my site in a while, please enjoy the new design, and I’ll have another update in the not-too-distant future regarding my forthcoming Scourge of the Nephilim boxed set!

Comic-Con bound!

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 17:41:30 +0000

Last year, I only got to attend San Diego Comic-Con (or Comic-Con International, or SDCC, take your pick) briefly, because Luna was sick and getting worse. This year, pets are healthy, we’ve got pet sitters staying for the entire length of the show, so we get to leave today and stay as long as we want!

I’ll be posting to my various social media accounts over the con, so if you want to keep up with my adventures in geek mecca (and hopefully see some awesome cosplayers), Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are the places to follow me.

Afterwards, if you’re interested in a recap, I’ll podcast about my experience.

Okay, time to pack a few things, and away we go!

And Shadow turns 17

Wed, 30 May 2018 02:34:31 +0000

If you would have told me 18 years ago that I’d have a 17 year old cat at this point in my life, I would have given it a good chuckle. I’ve always been a dog person, and while I find cats to be perfectly fine and sometimes adorable, they never fill my soul the way dogs do. And yet, here I am, with a 17-year old Maine Coon.

I read that their lifespan can be “over 15 years” on the breed page, so I’m not sure how much longer I’ve got with him. He’s got cataracts in both eyes, he doesn’t move like he used to, and he can’t jump like he used to. But he still is affectionate–just last night, he met a perfect stranger, and couldn’t have been sweeter to him. And even though he’s always been a grumpy gus, he seems to be pain free and still enjoying his food and company and naps.

So Shadow got his birthday raw egg this morning, to celebrate his 17th trip around the sun. I still am not sure I’d call myself a cat person, but I’m definitely a Shadow person.

Margo Kidder will always be my Lois Lane

Mon, 14 May 2018 20:27:53 +0000

Margo Kidder died today, but her portrayal of Lois Lane will always live on, not just to me, but as arguably the most iconic performance of that iconic character. I wrote about how much her Lois Lane meant to me here.

And then Drax turned three...

Thu, 19 Apr 2018 00:47:10 +0000

Happy third birthday Drax the Destroyer!

I will admit, when Drax first came into the picture, I was dubious. We already had two dogs, one a giant schnauzer as well. And Drax definitely lived up to his “destroyer” moniker, being a crazy hellion. But as manic as he was, he was also extremely affectionate, moreso than our elderly giant schnauzer, Luna.

Well, three years in, he’s still a crazy hellion, but he’s also mellowed, and is more accepting of new people and dogs without losing any of his natural protectiveness or affectionate nature.

Drax is not an easy dog to photograph, for two reasons. One, he’s jet black, and absorbs all the light in the world. The other is that when he’s awake he rarely stays still long enough to get a picture. But I was able to catch him after he stole one of my slippers. Yeah, that’s Drax–not trying to hide it, not trying to run, just staring me down with an impish look in his eye.

Either that, or maybe he’s trying to tell me that since I named him after a Marvel character, I shouldn’t wear the slippers promoting a DC character…

Enjoy your meat and fresh bone tonight, Drax. Happy birthday, and may you have many more, and never lose that impish look in your eye.

Happy Birthday 4th Birthday Reilly!

Thu, 22 Feb 2018 23:41:10 +0000

One look at that face and the first thing you notice (well, after the size) is how happy he looks. He’s an incredibly easy keeper, which isn’t to say that he couldn’t be a rambunctious puppy; all dogs can. He’s got kindness and warmth for everyone. He’ll bark, sure, and any dog of his size has a bark that can rumble the earth, but to know him is to love his sweet nature. He wants nothing more than to be included and loved. Well, that and the occasional mad run around the yard with Drax and other dogs that come over–he’s big, but when he gets going, he can really move, and he loves to play!

Four years isn’t old, but giant breeds (Irish wolfhounds, Great Danes, Saint Bernards, and so on) have much shorter lifespans, in the range of 5-8 years. One of the things that appealed to me about Sunstag is that her wolfhounds routinely lived 10 years or more. My hope for Reilly is that he’ll be running around and enjoying the yard and being a great ambassador for wolfhound kind for many years to come. He’ll have no idea why tonight he’ll get extra treats and snuggles (as will his jealous little brother, Drax) but hopefully a little bit of how grateful I am to have him in my life will come through.

And that’s a wrap on NAMM 2018

Tue, 30 Jan 2018 18:46:32 +0000

By the time I left the Anaheim Convention Center Saturday night, my voice sounded like I’d drunk a case of whiskey while gargling nails, my feet were sore from miles of walking from end to end of the convention center for meetings, my ears were nearly bleeding from so much loud cacophony, and I wondered why the hell I put myself through all this. In other words, it was another successful NAMM show.

I put myself through it of course because I meet friends and acquaintances that I only see at the show. I get to break bread with wonderful people and the camaraderie, on the one hand, and industry opportunities if you’re in the MI Industry make it not just worthwhile, but enjoyable and valuable. Seeing remote co-workers and supervisors, friends and professionals is the important thing; seeing the new shiny toys is fun, but that’s become the most minor part of it to me.

This year I decided that instead of the stress of trying to find parking, I would use Lyft to call up rides on my phone to and from the show. It worked like a charm, and even ended up being cheaper than parking in the lots, so that seems to be the way to go for the future. A less pleasant sign of the world we live in is that for the first time in the decades I’ve been going, they brought in metal detectors we had to walk through and made everyone put their bags and metal objects in trays, etc. Sort of like airport security before they decided that the way to make us more safe is by irradiating our genitals in the nude scanners.

Yes, this was completely inconvenient–everyone had tons of metal in them and on them, and I don’t just mean bags, I mean musicians who have piercings and so on. It seemed like every other person stopped the line so they could give them a personal wand check or pat down. I heard as many as 100,000 people were there this year, so that’s a lot of pat downs. Thankfully, I had an exhibitor badge (I edit documentation for an exhibitor at NAMM) so I got to stand in smaller lines than the ones that looked hundreds of people long. But it was still annoying. By Saturday, when they’d been seeing the same people for three days and pretty much knew everyone, security was finally moving faster. It was at the point where I’d hand over my backpack, say “I’ve only got snacks” and they’d nod, confirm that the main pocket was empty, and just send me on my way.

I have to say, I know that “security theater” is a thing that some people need to make them feel safe, even though we all know that someone who really wanted to kill someone or blow up a building would find a way around a metal detector or pat down. But I think that this closed-to-the-public convention of creatives, hippies, musicians, and the occasional corporate businessman–is not one that needs all that stuff to feel safe. And moreover, in the decades I’ve been going, I’ve never heard of any threat made to anyone at NAMM, not even a drunken “Imma gonna kill you when the floor stops spinning!” or something. So I guess it’s not surprising that security was tighter, and if this is simply “the new normal” for the Anaheim Convention Center these days, it’s a bummer. But if the NAMM organization itself thought it was necessary, I don’t agree, and the security theater was probably the main complaint I heard.

Other than security grumblings, this was a show filled with warm friends and feelings, and I’m glad I attended. I’ll probably be sharing some info on some of the shiny objects that appealed to me on social media for those who are interested, but otherwise, this is my NAMM sign off, and my next convention reports will be pop culture conventions!

The NAMM show cometh (again)

Wed, 24 Jan 2018 23:07:09 +0000

Like clockwork, January of a new year brings a new NAMM show, where those who build and develop musical instruments and music software and related materials show their upcoming wares to retailers, buyers, and the music instrument (MI) industry press. I’ve been either in or on the periphery of the MI industry for going on 20 years now, and I’ve attended the NAMM show every year but one. And through it all, I’ve still managed to retain my enthusiasm for it.

For example, look at the picture I took. The Anaheim Convention Center, which has been the home of the NAMM show since I was about 10 years old, just added a new wing, with huge glass windows that look down at the floor of the exhibit hall below. So this is a bird’s eye view of some of the music software and microphone and pro audio exhibitors getting their huge booths together. It’s chaotic, but the air is also charged with anticipation of meeting people, making demos, and of course, they hope getting people excited enough to order new products for their chain, store, school, studio, etc.

I go to meet the people in the MI industry that I work with, and friends in far flung places I rarely get to see. And who am I kidding–as a musician, I go to drool over the new gear being introduced in the new year. This year is no exception, and I’m looking forward to all of the above. I’ll probably have pictures on social media, and something to say about some of what caught my eye after the show. And to those who can’t make it, you should be able to see highlights all over social media–even my profiles should have some!

Lionheart's Moonage Daydream (2002-2017)

Tue, 26 Dec 2017 19:35:12 +0000

Giant schnauzers live 10-12 years. I’m on enough GS groups to know how rare it is for a GS to make 13, let alone 14, let alone over 14. And sometimes you see the “happy birthday” picture of those 13+ year old giant schnauzers, and they look ratty and miserable, and you wonder, they’re not dead, but are they truly alive? We agreed we’d never let that happen to Luna.

Luna when we brought her home for the first time.

She’d been getting more and more fragile and shutting down for a while, but she still enjoyed her table scraps and running around (well, hobbling around) with Drax in the yard. But last night she had a bit of a bloody nose. Then this morning, she had it again. Then she got it a third time, and it wouldn’t stop bleeding. Her lifelong vet made time to see her immediately, and when he examined her, the diagnosis was as easy for him to make as it was to see the trail of blood she left on the floor–a bleeding tumor, assumed to be cancerous, definitely would require lots of tests and invasive procedures, with no guarantee of success. And for a dog that is already outlived her life expectancy, what does “success” even mean? It was a heavy morning, but Michelle and I made the call.

Luna: bigger than a guitar.

She’d been full of life and fire since the day she came bounding (and barking) into our life, and that’s how I’ll always remember her. Life was a full-contact sport for her, and she had no off switch. She was a goofball and a handful and a fierce protector: 75 pounds of love and teeth. She never stopped feeling her duty was to protect the house, even at the end.

There’s an absence in the house now, and she will be missed.

New Novel: Firebird Champion Released Today!

Tue, 31 Oct 2017 22:29:56 +0000

I’m proud to announce the availability of the latest novel in The Sedumen Chronicles:

The opposite of life isn’t death; it is lifelessness.

Firebird Alex died. When she was brought back to life, Alex discovered that she could communicate with all living things–the very life force itself. But with resurrection, comes responsibility–Life compels Alex to fight it’s enemies. And Life’s biggest enemy is the Cult of the Watchers. They destroy everything, leaving only lifelessness.

The Cult of the Watchers has beaten Alex at every turn, leaving her bloody and broken, but everyone depends on Firebird Alex to be their champion. There’s no amount of torment she won’t endure to succeed. She won’t fail her friends and those she’s sworn to protect. She won’t waste her second chance.

Firebird Champion is available today as an eBook at the following online retailers:

You can buy a paperback copy at the following online retailers:

You can download the first chapter free, or read it online.

This novel picks up where Watcher and Firebird, The Sedumen Chronicles, Book 5, leaves off. However, it is a complete tale with a beginning, middle, end, and all the backstory you need to know what’s happening. So to get the complete arc, you can read Watcher and Firebird and Firebird Champion (bonus, but not necessary: Stinger and Bow a “day in the life” story featuring thirteen-year-old Rachel aka Stinger, introduces the baddies). If you want the richest experience of the world of Sediin and our heroines, read all six. But this isn’t necessary to enjoy Firebird Champion.

Please download the free chapter, check out the novel, and if you like it, let everyone know! As an indie author, I don’t have a giant PR machine, my best method of getting the word out is people who love the story. I hope you enjoy it!

Don’t Be A Sucker

Sun, 13 Aug 2017 17:40:36 +0000

It’s hard for me to concentrate on anything today besides the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and how happy the neo-Nazis are that President Trump refuses to condemn them. Other essays and articles already address how deeply this affects those of us who aren’t Nazis (I particularly recommend John Scalzi’s essay) and I don’t want to just virtue signal or contribute to the noise with a long post restating what others are saying.

So let me simply leave this video, made by the US War Department in 1947, called “Don’t Be A Sucker.” The basic brief of the short film is that it “Admonishes Americans that they will lose their country if they let fanaticism and hatred turn them into “suckers.” “Let’s forget about ‘we’ and ’they’ — let’s think about us!”

70 years later, that message seems more relevant than ever. Let’s not listen to those who want to divide us into the “master race” and everyone else, lets say no to violence, and let’s be good to each other, okay?

Southbound to Comic-Con (for a while)

Wed, 19 Jul 2017 17:51:29 +0000

And here I go again (on my own): it’s time for Comic-Con International, aka SDCC. Regular readers know that I have tried to make it every year since about 2010, and usually I do. This year has been particularly touch-and-go. As I mentioned in a recent podcast, Luna, our 14-year old giant schnauzer, is in quite fragile health, and leaving her alone isn’t an option, and handing her off to someone else to take care of isn’t a very palatable option. Michelle offered to watch Luna so that I could spend a couple of days (July 20/21) at Comic-Con, then I’m reciprocating by coming back early so she can go camping with friends on the July 22/23. So I won’t get the full Comic-Con experience, but I know that Luna will be in the capable hands of her co-owner, and I’ll still get a couple days of geek mecca.

I fully intend to podcast on my return about the experience, as well as fire off my next newsletter (you are signed up aren’t you?) subsequent to that. If you follow me on social media, however, look for cool pictures posted to Instagram and Facebook and maybe tweets too. So if you’re going to be at Comic-Con yourself, please feel welcome to let me know on the social medias (and the emails), and if you’re not, hopefully I’ll have some entertaining stuff for you.

New short story: Yes/No

Thu, 29 Jun 2017 22:25:43 +0000

I’ve written a new short story! I’ve already presented it to my mailing list (and you did sign up for my newsletter, didn’t you? If you haven’t, you can here) but I wanted to give it away to everyone else too. As the cover image above should suggest, it’s called “Yes / No,” it’s science fiction, and it takes place in Earth’s orbit in the near future. Here’s the short description of the story:

Captain Lang’s repair mission was routine: fix the malfunctioning robotic arm on the International Space Station. What wasn’t routine was the wormhole that opened between Earth and the moon, and the alien vessel that contacted him. Captain Lang figures out how to understand two responses from the aliens: yes and no. This makes it difficult for the aliens to communicate the imminent danger and urgency of Captain Lang’s situation…

Short stories are my way to experiment with ideas and plots that don’t necessarily require a full novel’s worth of twists and turns. They’re short and fun, and hopefully a dozen pages worth of entertainment. As ever, my short stories are free to either download or read online. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please tell your friends!

Click here to download Yes / No as an ePub, PDF, or mobi (Kindle) file

Click here to read Yes / No online

Batman Has Left The Building Goodbye Adam West

Sat, 10 Jun 2017 18:36:42 +0000

Adam West, TV’s Batman, has died at 88 after a short fight with leukemia. I wrote about how influential he had been on my creativity and imagination over here.

And Shadow Turns 16!

Mon, 29 May 2017 19:51:46 +0000

Shadow is a hard cat to photograph. He’s usually sleeping, getting into trouble, or grooming himself. When he’s not, he’s on my lap–which is sweet, but not conducive to me taking his picture.

And that, in a nutshell, is Shadow. At sixteen he probably spends most of the day asleep. Which I guess he always did, but now even more so. When he’s up, he still likes to put himself exactly where he’s not supposed to be, and generally be a nuisance, but then snuggle and be affectionate with me.

It’s a sad coincidence that both of my oldest pets have May birthdays. Luna is defying all the odds every day she wakes up and smiles and gets on with it, but it’s definitely getting tougher for her. Shadow will probably live forever out of spite. So tonight I’ll give Shadow his favorite treat (a raw egg) in honor of being part of this crazy menagerie for one more year. I have always been, and will always be, a “dog person” but I have to acknowledge that Shadow has somehow managed to burrow his way into my heart.

Happy 14th Birthday Luna!

Wed, 24 May 2017 19:05:54 +0000

Happy Birthday to Lionheart’s Moonage Daydream, whom we call Luna. At 14 years old, she’s two years past the average lifespan of her breed (giant schnauzers live for 10-12 years), so I’m extremely happy she’s still here.

Age is definitely taking it’s toll. Her hearing is going. Her vision isn’t what it used to be. Her hips are fragile, and sometimes she can’t rise if she’s laying down. She moves slower. Eats slower. She barks when the other dogs bark, sometimes not knowing why, and even facing the wrong direction from the object the others are barking at. And saddest of all, occasionally it seems like she’s in pain.

But then she smiles, gets enthusiastic when I come home, tries to run after the other dogs when they play (a sort of hobble-run at this point), and otherwise shows signs that she’s not quite done with life yet. And her last vet checkup earlier in the year there was nothing abnormal wrong with her, just the expected decay of a venerable, elderly dog.

So here’s to Luna, squeezing every last drop out of the time she has left. She’s been getting table scraps all day and will probably get some special treats later, too. Because at this point, she’s earned the right to be spoiled!

Fell on Black Days--Goodbye Chris Cornell

Thu, 18 May 2017 17:20:06 +0000

Like many of us, I was stunned to read that Chris Cornell was found dead in his Detroit hotel room, after a show. It is being investigated as a suicide. Everyone is shocked, everyone says what a sweet guy he was. And he was undeniably talented.

I started playing live in the Orange County clubs in the early 90s, when grunge ruled. I remember reading an LA Times interview from that era, where Chris Cornell said he saw Soundgarden as a bridge between classic bands like Zeppelin, Floyd, and Sabbath, and post-punk/goth bands like bauhaus, Joy Division, and The Cure. I think I formed a crush on him from that interview, because even though I didn’t sound a thing like him vocally, or write songs like him, that’s what I wanted to do, too. He clearly had his demons, but expressed them so beautifully, as in one of my favorite Soundgarden songs, “Fell On Black Days:”

I never met Chris Cornell. I never met Kurt Cobain, Andrew Wood, or Lane Staney, either. Four voices that helped define the grunge sound in the late 80s into the 90s, who articulated their demons in a way a whole generation could latch on to, who inspired me in those days. All of them gone now.

I wonder if he was thinking about the fact that May 18th would be the 37th anniversary of Ian Curtis of Joy Division’s suicide. Another influential young musician swallowed by his darkness.

Maybe Chris Cornell’s final influence can be to remind people that even if you’re successful, even if you’re loved by family and friends and masses, that won’t protect you from the darkness within. Hopefully rather than copy cat suicides (assuming that this is a suicide), he will inspire people feeling the same pull to get help. God knows his music helped me to feel on days when I felt numb. Maybe he has one final gift to give us, for when we fall on black days.

Rest in Peace, Chris Cornell. And thank you for the music.

Happy 2nd Birthday Drax!

Tue, 18 Apr 2017 20:08:01 +0000

Almost in spite of himself, our youngest dog, Drax the Destroyer, has reached his second birthday. It’s particularly tough to get pictures of Drax, because he acts as if pointing a phone at him is an invitation to leap on you. So enjoy the one above with Reilly, who turned three not long ago. I like the size comparison, because so many people think a dog that’s 26-inches tall at the shoulder and about 75 pounds is a “big” dog. Relative to a teacup poodle, certainly. But not compared to Reilly!

I’ve spoken about his personality in other posts, so suffice to say now that he’s an “adult” dog, he’s just become more of himself. More diva, more of a bully, more full of energy, more in-your-face. But also more intelligent, devoted, more cuddly. They say that giant schnauzers are “not for the first time owner” and Drax embodies that warning. He’s a whole lot to handle, and an out of control Drax is a disaster waiting to happen. But then he turns around and acts completely sweet. In those moments the frustration with him melts away and I’m grateful to have him in my life.

So happy birthday little dude, and may you have many more to come!

Happy St. Paddy’s Day and other stories

Fri, 17 Mar 2017 16:52:40 +0000

I’m not Irish. Not even distantly. I don’t drink much. I also can’t say I feel the need to celebrate St. Patrick converting the pagans (“driving the snakes”) out of Ireland.

I do, however, think Ireland is absolutely gorgeous. We have an Irish wolfhound. I have Irish friends, and love Irish contributions to art and music:

You thought I’d pick a U2 video, didn’t you? Not this gothboy. But the Virgin Prunes came out of a “gang” of friends founded by Bono and Gavin Friday (Gavin is one of the Virgin Prunes singers), and the guitarist is The Edge’s older brother, so it’s not that far removed from U2, socially and geographically at least.

So I’m not really the party for St. Patrick’s day type, but I’m celebrating what I love about Ireland, my Irish friends and tastes, and wishing all those who do celebrate it the best. I think I’ll even put on a Green Lantern shirt today, to have some green on me. And those of you who follow me on social media already know, I recently bought a “green oceanburst” Gibson Les Paul. So they’re you go. You who party for St. Patrick’s Day have fun partying, and I’ll have fun serenading my Irish wolfhound with a green guitar while wearing a green shirt.

Happy Third Birthday Reilly!

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 00:46:23 +0000

Our Irish wolfhound Reilly turns three today! And we’ve literally been there for almost all of it: we randomly happened to be visiting his breeder the day he was conceived, we picked him up from said breeder as soon as he was weaned, and he’s been with us ever since.

Three is a interesting year for a wolfhound. They’re fully grown and no longer a puppy, but while three is still young, for a giant dog, it’s possibly half way through their short life. Yes, it’s the tragedy of giant dogs that that the larger they are, the shorter they live. While six may only be middle aged for a medium sized dog, for a wolfhound it may be approaching the end. Thankfully, Reilly comes from a line bred for health and longevity, and they routinely lived ten years and even longer.

And we’d like a long time with Reilly. He’s nervous–which can be challenging when dealing with a dog that is person-sized. But despite his skittishness he’s friendly to a fault and loves everyone, just as an Irish wolfhound should do. People are often taken aback by a dog that’s head, when he holds it high, is almost four feet high, but he’s got a sweet personality, he’s truly a lover not a fighter. Although when startled, he does have a low, deep bark that can shake the floorboards.

For his birthday, he’s gotten (and given!) lots of love and kisses, and of course there’s gonna be a meat treat this evening as well. He’s generally extremely well behaved, but bring meat near him, and his manners go out the window–and he’s tall enough to counter surf with the best of them…

Happy Birthday, Reilly, you have brightened our lives, our other dogs lives, and hell, even our grumpy cat likes you!

My birthday and my song

Mon, 20 Feb 2017 18:49:06 +0000

Today is my birthday–so I thought I’d give you all a present. As it happens, this year my birthday falls on President’s Day in the United States, and what could be more appropriate for President’s day than a protest song against the president?

The song is called RESIST, taken from the hashtag #resist that has gained favor. I’ve posted a lyric video for the song on YouTube:

And the song is also available on the Ember After Bandcamp page, Soundcloud (observant readers may have seen a crazy number of bot posts to my blog from Soundcloud–sorry about that. The machine uprising is real, folks) and the following services:

Apple Music

iTunes

It will eventually be everywhere (Spotify, Google, Amazon) but they take more time.

I haven’t been all that political here on my blog, because I don’t want to just add to the noise. But music, well, that’s a different story. I hope you like the song, and please share the song far and wide.

Download a free copy of Firebird Alex

Wed, 15 Feb 2017 01:20:54 +0000

Have you started reading my urban fantasy series The Sedumen Chronicles yet? If you haven’t, and you’re not on my mailing list yet, I’ve got good news! Over at Instafreebie I’m giving away a free copy of the first novel in The Sedumen Chronicles, Firebird Alex, to anyone who signs up to my mailing list.

You’ve probably noticed I’ve stopped blogging with much frequency; in fact, I think it’s safe to say that these days I “post” more than I “blog.” I do plan on using my mailing list as a more vital means of communication, so please enjoy a complimentary copy of Firebird Alex to get you started with The Sedumen Chronicles, and I promise not to fill your inbox with more than one email a month or so.

Another year, another NAMM show

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 23:18:51 +0000

This week I’ll be attending a major event that will cause ripples in almost every corner of the globe; that’s right–the NAMM show! Yeah, I go every year. And yeah, those ripples mostly apply to one particular industry. But still, this is a show that at least musicians around the world have their eyes on. And with all the anxiety in our world right now, its nice to just be able to hang out with other musicians and developers to look at new shiny musical instruments on display for our admiration, enjoyment, and ultimately, for us to purchase.

This year will be a little different for me. For over a decade now, I’ve been going at the behest of an employer who sends me to specific meetings and while I enjoy the show overall, my time is fairly predetermined. This time, there are no strings on me. Which means more friends, more time to drool over the new shiny, and probably more Instagramming for those who follow me. If you’re not interested in music gear and stuff like that, I apologize for the lack of dog and cat pictures I’ll be posting for a few days.

O Princess My Princess

Tue, 27 Dec 2016 18:50:02 +0000

Just when we hoped 2016 was done taking so much, it proves that it’s not done yet. Carrie Fisher, who suffered a heart attack on a plane home from London on Friday, died today. She was an author, screenwriter, script doctor, and actress–and of course her most famous role was, and will always be, Princess Leia.

These days, with more female superheroes and action stars, it might get lost just how groundbreaking Princess Leia was as a character in the mid-70s, the days in which princess was synonymous with Disney princess. We all know the Disney princess formula–princess leaves home; princess faces challenges; princess fails challenges; prince saves princess. And then we meet Princess Leia; yeah, she’s a princess, but she’s on a ship of freedom fighters, she’s captured, tortured, and still ends up saving the day when her own rescue is botched. And Fisher played her with humor, toughness, and beauty. She was the right actress in the right role, and while the “slave Leia” costume might have turned heads, it was her intelligence and presence that kept them turned (and she was one hell of a badass in that costume, too, strangling her captor in it).

To most sci-fi fans, Carrie Fisher was our princess, far more than any real princess. Her leaving us would have been sad at any time, but at only 60 years old, and as part of such a sad parade of iconic figures leaving us this year, makes it even tougher.

Goodbye, my princess; thank you for being part of sparking my imagination, and showing me as a young boy that girls can kick ass too.

Merry Happy Chanukah Christmas and other Holidays!

Sat, 24 Dec 2016 19:38:06 +0000

It’s very rare that Chanukah and Christmas begin together. Sometimes they overlap, but this is one of those rare occasions that the first candle of the Chanukiah is lit on Christmas Eve. The reason for this is that it happens to be a confluence of different calendars, but I’d like to read it as a cosmic message to us that no matter what our beliefs, we’re all one, deep down.

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Kwanza, Holidays, Winter Solstice, or season of secular gift giving. I hope you can enjoy some relaxation with friends and loved ones. May we all experience some joy and peace.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thu, 24 Nov 2016 01:09:12 +0000

The holidays can be tough on people. Some don’t have families they get on well with. Others don’t have families. Some people feel thankful and blessed; others less so. But I hope that you can look back and find things that you are thankful for. 2016 has been one hell of a tumultuous year. I hope that you have some glorious things in your life to be thankful for. If nothing else, you’re alive to read this, which beats the alternative.

So Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it. May you have a happy, relaxing day with people you love and food you enjoy. And for those who don’t celebrate it, enjoy the day and be well.

Leonard Cohen--Post-punk’s Dylan--dead at 82

Fri, 11 Nov 2016 05:54:00 +0000

Canadian singer-songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen has died. He was 82. Beginning as another acoustic/folk tinged singer in the 60s, Leonard Cohen was never a household name like Bob Dylan, but to the post-punk generation, he was our Dylan. Deep mediations on life, death, sex, drugs, despair, darkness, healing, and redemption.

I first heard of him when I learned in an interview that goth band The Sisters of Mercy was named after a Leonard Cohen song:

Of course, I also heard the excellent Concrete Blond cover of Everybody Knows from the movie Pump Up The Volume:

He also wrote an excellent song called Hallelujah:

Leonard Cohen wasn’t someone I listened to on a daily basis, but he was a genius whom I appreciated and followed to see what his new developments were. I’m grateful for all his great work, and sad to know that there won’t be more.

A hell of a week.

Watcher and Firebird blog tour: new post with excerpt!

Thu, 03 Nov 2016 00:06:45 +0000

Today’s stop on the Watcher and Firebird blog tour is hosted by A Page To Turn Reviews, and features an excerpt from the novel–chapter 6 to be precise. It’s a very short chapter (around 500 words) and pretty exciting. My thanks to A Page To Turn Reviews, and be sure to check it out!

Watcher and Firebird blog tour: Deborah Jay’s Review

Tue, 01 Nov 2016 23:00:24 +0000

The Watcher and Firebird blog tour rolls along, this time with a review written by author Deborah Jay. It’s very comprehensive, which makes it even more satisfying that it’s positive. My thanks to Deborah for taking the time to read the book and hosting a blog on the tour, and please check it out!

Happy Halloween--and a Watcher and Firebird blog tour!

Mon, 31 Oct 2016 23:42:58 +0000

It’s Halloween, and what could be spookier than a new blog tour for Watcher and Firebird! It’s being organized by EFC Promotions who have the basic information and their review rating for the novel as well. EFC will host a list of tour stops as they happen, and of course there’s a giveaway as well if you’re interested.

I’ve always enjoyed blog tours, not just for the reviews and attention but because various book bloggers ask me fun questions, ask me to write on interesting topics, or have unique takes on my novels that I appreciate reading. So please follow along as I spend the next couple of weeks guesting on book blogs around the Internet.

And have a fun and spooky night tonight!

My Watcher and Firebird Playlist

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 22:49:17 +0000

Whenever I write a novel, I always assemble a playlist of songs to listen to while I’m writing. The songs follow the mood, and sometimes, the narrative of the book. The playlist for Watcher and Firebird is pretty dark, because it’s a dark story. I note in a few (three, I believe) of the novels that Alex went through a goth phase, and this playlist tends towards the goth/industrial/electronic side of things.

The songs are:

The Doomsday Cult Blues–Graveyard Train
Headhunter [Version 2.0]–Front 242
Outrage–Ember After
Movement Of Fear–Tones On Tail
Non-Stop Violence–Apoptygma Berzerk
Survive–Lacuna Coil
Oh Cruel Darkness Embrace Me–IAMX
On the Wire–The Sisters of Mercy
Moment–Ever so Android
Walk with the Noise–IAMX
Flood I–The Sisters of Mercy
Obstacle 1–Interpol
New Dark Ages–Bad Religion

Here’s a link to the Playlist on YouTube:

Spotify:

And Apple Music:

Enjoy the songs, and I hope they help you get in the mood of the novel, too. For more on Watcher and Firebird, click here.

Voting, the direction of the country, and those left behind

Fri, 14 Oct 2016 18:12:58 +0000

This is my one political post about the 2016 election in the United States. I used to write a lot more about politics on my blog. Part of the reason I don’t is they way that our online lives have changed–I now share and talk more politics on social media. Part of it is that my blog is a more “permanent” home to thoughts and ideas, and elections are more ephemeral, they come and go. But starting today, there’s a run of states with deadlines to register to vote, so I wanted to weigh in.

First of all, if you’re not registered, you need to. Who leads our nation is very important. But don’t forget, there’s all kinds of other positions besides president on the ballot. This is your opportunity to determine who represents you at every level of state and federal government, to weigh in on judges and propositions and other issues. If you don’t vote, you can’t really complain when you’re not happy with the results. You didn’t do your part.

But you can’t just register to vote. Democracy only works if we have an educated electorate. So register to vote, and then read up on the candidates and the issues. Learn how government works, what the various roles are that the candidates are applying for. What the repercussions of the various ballot proposals are. Don’t listen to TV ads, read news and analysis and think for yourself. You know what happens when uneducated people vote with their emotions rather than their brains? Trump.

If you follow me on social media, you already know I support Hillary Clinton. If not, let me direct you to John Scalzi’s endorsement of Secretary Clinton, which basically says everything I would say, and I cosign every word he wrote. I am someone who votes for Republicans and Democrats. I think for myself and don’t vote party lines. But Trump is not a candidate. He is a bigoted, self-obsessed, boorish, sexist disaster in designer shoes. That’s why none of the pundits gave him a chance–they are educated voters, and assumed that others would see him as a fraud. But an uneducated electorate believed his dog and pony show, and now that his campaign is imploding even those who didn’t want to face that fact are beginning to run out of excuses.

In some ways, his candidacy might have some positive effects on society. By becoming the darling of the openly racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic, he has brought those issues front and center. As much as we would like to think that we as a society are progressing past those ugly hatreds, they still burn hot. Now that a major candidate for president has been outed as a sexual predator who uses racist and sexist language, maybe that has brought the issues mainstream enough that we can take an honest look at what it’s going to take to get to where we want and need to be as a society, and to actually start taking steps to get there.

But not everyone who supports Trump is racist or stupid. Trump appeals to a rural, mostly white, mostly male, undereducated segment of the population that has been increasingly left behind by globalization and urbanization. They see their towns decaying and their jobs and opportunities drying up and all the attention going to the cities, all the economic growth and vitality happening elsewhere, and that’s real and scary. The issues that most candidates talk about don’t resonate with them. But Trump addressed their issues.

However, so did Bernie Sanders. He also wanted to make sure that the least had opportunities and hope. The difference between Sanders and Trump–well, besides absolutely everything about them–is that where Trump is all hot air trying to gin people up and tell them what they want to hear so that he can be coronated king for his own ego, Sanders has spent a lifetime actually trying to help people. So that’s my suggestion for the rural community: vote for Hillary, and join Sander’s Our Revolution group. Even if you feel Hillary isn’t your candidate, and doesn’t care about you, Sanders will hold her to her campaign pledges. And she owes him, she’ll listen.

I worry about violence after the election, that the racists and those left behind will be so ginned up that they’ll start shooting each other. But the answer is education, is learning how the system works, is paying attention, and making sure your nominees represent the kind of people you really want them to be. Sure, Trump truly represents a certain type of person, but there’s not enough of them to be the nominee without a lot of help from party-line zombie voters. Register to vote, but don’t be a zombie. Vote with your brain, and make this a more compassionate, functioning society for everyone in it.

Thanks for reading this far, and now back to more fun stuff.

Happy New Year 5777!

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 18:47:42 +0000

It’s that time again: the Jewish High Holy Days, beginning with Rosh Hashanah or Jewish New Year, begins tonight. As I wrote on this blog years ago:

Unlike January 1st, which is a party, Rosh Hashanah is supposed to be sweet…but contemplative. It begins the “days of awe” which are supposed to be for looking back at how you behaved and what you did over the last year, and taking stock of it. To me, this is the crux of it, and what means the most to me.

I don’t think you need to be Jewish or religious to be self-reflective. I consider myself a profoundly spiritual person, but not “religious” in any traditional sense. But noise and distraction is everywhere, and finding a place for silence, surrounded by community committed to the same, is a very powerful thing.

It’s always a good time for self-reflection, but I think now especially, with bruising social and political issues dividing the western world–Brexit and the American election being the most obvious, but every nation has their version. I’d like to believe that with a little more peace and love in the world, we would be able to come together and solve our differences respectfully. So lets use this time, Jew and non-Jew alike to foster inner peace, and then bring that peace to our little corner of the world. And just maybe, we’ll make this world better, each of us, one person at a time.

L’Shana Tovah.

Author’s copies have arrived!

Mon, 26 Sep 2016 18:22:00 +0000

I sell more eBooks than print books, but I always love getting author’s copies. Somehow that’s when having a new novel out feels most “real” to me–when I can hold it in my hands. If you were curious how Dusan Markovic’s cover illustration looks in print, now you know. Isn’t it pretty?

So anyway, yeah. Watcher and Firebird is available both as an eBook and in print. Sales links at the dedicated book page above. And if you’ve already bought and read the book, if you enjoyed it please leave a review and let people know. Thanks!

New Novel Watcher and Firebird Released Today!

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 17:58:39 +0000

Exciting news! The fifth novel in The Sedumen Chronicles, Watcher and Firebird, is now available! This is perhaps the most action packed and “mature” of all the novels, with the stakes extremely personal for Alex. Here’s the description:

Firebird Alex didn’t know much about the Nephilim until they assassinated her friend in the United States government, kidnapped the man she considers her uncle, and tried to murder her–twice. Now she’s learned that they, and their leader “the Watcher,” will stop at nothing to kill her, everyone she loves, and every Seduman on Earth.

Alex must stop their murderous plans even if it means compromising the heroine she’s become.

Even though this is the fifth novel in the series, I made sure that I describe enough of the mythology and the background of Team Firebird that you can jump right in and it will make sense. I’m extremely proud of this one, because Alex really deals with some heavy burdens, which ratchets up the emotional cost and tension, but also gives her a real chance to take charge.

Click this link for a free download of the first chapter from the book as either an ePub or PDF.

Watcher and Firebird is available as an eBook from your favorite online retailer, and a print book from Amazon (and eventually others).

This was a fun novel to write, and I hope it’s as much fun to read. It’s a roller coaster, but hopefully one you’ll love riding. And the cover is once again by the amazingly talented Dusan Markovic–I’m thrilled to have his illustration of Firebird Alex and Stinger gracing my cover!

Enjoy!

Firebird Alex eBook free through September 5th!

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 17:03:51 +0000

As I’ve stated, the next book in The Sedumen Chronicles is due imminently. I’ll be talking more about that on my mailing list, which you can sign up for using the mailing list field either on the sidebar (desktop) or below (mobile). Now, I’ve written that book, Watcher and Firebird, with enough backstory for people to hopefully be able to start there and make sense of it all. However, for those who want the full, rich world building, I wanted to offer them an opportunity to jump into the series cheaply.

So I’ve partnered with Amazon to make the eBook of Firebird Alex free through September 5th. If you don’t already have it, please grab it now. If you read it and enjoy it, please review it, tell your friends, shout from the rooftops, whisper in the ears of homing pigeons, send smoke signals, or anything else you feel is appropriate.

You can click either of the links above, or click this link here, to get the eBook.

‘Cause trust me, you don’t want to miss the next one…

I wrote a free short story for you: A House off the Road

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 18:05:26 +0000

Watcher and Firebird, book 5 of The Sedumen Chronicles, is currently being proofread. While you wait for that to come out later this year (and you are waiting, aren’t you?) I’ve written a short story that you might enjoy. It’s called A House off the Road.

Unlike The Sedumen Chronicles which is a YA series, A House off the Road is aimed at grown ups. That mostly means the language is saltier. It’s a 6200-word urban fantasy/historical occult fantasy story, set in the days immediately after World War II. Here’s the description of the story:

When Staff Sergeant Ben Reuben’s best friend, along with four other American solders, are kidnapped a few days after the D-Day invasion, Ben volunteers to rescue them. But this was no ordinary capture; the Nazis are waging an occult war, summoning an evil creature far more powerful than human soldiers or weaponry. Thankfully, Ben isn’t alone on this mission; he is partnered with the mysterious, undead Ambrose, himself a powerful demon hunter. Ben and Ambrose must save the soldiers before the summoning is complete, and Hell breaks loose–literally.

You can click here to download the story for free in either PDF, ePub, or mobi (Kindle) formats. You can also read it for free in your browser from the portfolio page here. You can also find it various eBook retailers, although depending on the retailer, they might charge you 99¢ for the privilege of downloading it from them.

I had a real kick writing this story. And if you do read it, please don’t hesitate to let me know what you think either in social media or using the contact page here. Enjoy!

Comic Con 2016 Wrap-up

Mon, 25 Jul 2016 23:29:27 +0000

For those of you who follow me on social media you’ve already seen some snaps, gotten some updates, and generally got an idea of our experience at San Diego Comic Con. So this is going to be more a wrap up of impressions than a day-by-day itinerary of what we did.

As ever, SDCC always has more fun and interesting stuff than we can take in. Sometimes, we can’t take it in because there are multiple things we’d want to see at the exact same time–I would have loved to see the Supergirl panel, but it was the same time as the Wonder Woman 75th Anniversary panel. Other times, the lines would be crazy. In fact, I already blogged about how we missed the events in Hall H on Saturday because people lined up days in advance. Yeah…no.

Speaking of the Wonder Woman 75th panel, it was a bit lackluster compared to the Superman and Batman 75th panels we’d attended in years past, but it did have Gal Gadot, the current actress playing Wonder Woman herself, along with Patty Jenkins, the acclaimed director of Monster who is helming the movie. And the trailer they showed us of the film looks absolutely amazing. Already, the images of Diana coming out of a WWI trench and standing against a hail of bullets is being called iconic:

I think the longest we stood in any line was about 90 minutes, and that was for Kevin Smith’s one-man Q&A/storytelling event, which went over two hours. I don’t think we spent more than 45 minutes in line for anything else.

One way we avoided lines was by going to the rooms in which popular panels were being held early, and simply taking in the panel before (in some cases, more than one). That ended up being part of our Comic Con fun: we took in half the Image Comics panel, and loved the creator descriptions of two graphic novels so much we bought them. Before the Wonder Woman 75th Anniversary panel, we took in the panel for Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, a French animated series that airs in the USA on Nickelodeon. It’s not a show either of us had ever heard of, or would really watch, but the moderator was practically manic with his energy, the crowd couldn’t have been more enthusiastic, and we found ourselves smiling and clapping just because the positive feeling in the room was so contagious.

That feeling was everywhere. On more than one panel, there was an attitude of “we won”–we in this case referring to all of us who grew up liking sci-fi/fantasy/superheroes/anime/manga or other things that were fringe and considered weird; now what we love is mainstream, and rather than going to Comic Con being something to denigrate or hide, people envy us. As one panelist put it, “even my mom knows what Comic Con is!”

Of course, that means that there is an amazing “street festival” vibe all through the San Diego Gaslamp Quarter, but it also means that if you’re slightly uncomfortable being packed like sardines with 200,000 other people, well, prepare to feel either stabby or overwhelmed at certain moments.

But overall, the stabbiness and overwhelmed-ness doest last, the vibe is incredibly positive. As ever, I got to talk to some of my favorite writers and artists, and attended a panel of fantasy writers discussing their craft and taking questions which I found both inspiring and very useful. We attended panels world premiering some really fun looking genre comedy TV shows. We were strategic enough to attend one of the most popular television panels, for the forthcoming American Gods adaption on Starz. American Gods is one of my very, very favorite novels, and I was thrilled when unannounced and unlisted, author Neil Gaiman himself showed up to a rock star’s welcome and sat on the panel with the creative team and cast. And the trailer for that looks appropriately magical and menacing:

I even went to the “American Gods Experience” put on by Starz and Michelle took my picture next to a phantom buffalo:

(I took one of her too but managed to botch it).

So it was a fun few days, we got some great graphic novels and great indie art, ate some good food in the Gaslamp Quarter, and now we’re tired, but recharged.

Now on to the final draft of Watcher and Firebird, book 5 of The Sedumen Chronicles!

When lines are beyond crazy long

Sat, 23 Jul 2016 15:36:18 +0000

The above may look like a bunch of people, but that’s Wednesday afternoon–the lightest and least trafficked time. I’ll have a report in detail after we return, but as I wait for Saturday’s Con Fun to begin, I thought I’d share the tale of what we’re not going to be doing and why.

Hall H holds over 7,000 people and is where the most popular panels and events are held. To get into any of them you have to wait in long lines. In 2010 to get in to Hall H, we had to wait in line maybe 3-4 hours. It was crazy–or so I thought…

Flash forward to now. Saturday’s Hall H line up is pretty amazing for Sci-Fi/Fantay/Superhero fans: Warner Brothers (Fantastic Creatures, Suicide Squad, Justice League, Wonder Woman, etc), 30th Anniversary of Alien, 50th Anniversary of Star Trek, Marvel Studios (Dr. Strange, Avengers, etc). A pretty amazing collection of panels promising stars, exclusive footage, engaging conversations, etc. We would have loved to go, but we assumed the line would be long, considering everyone there would want to go. But we went Friday at 4pm to see how long the line was:

Tents were set up. Chairs and grills and tarps. People had been there since Thursday in line. It was several thousand long, maybe even the full 7,000 already. I wasn’t sure; I spoke to four separate groups in four separate parts of the line and nobody was sure how far back it went or where the end was. It wrapped around San Diego marina multiple times.

Needless to say, we are going to enjoy the other comic and television panels today, not the Hall H programs. I would not want to spend the entire convention waiting in line–but I’m sure those willing to have a fun slate of stuff today!

We’re off to see the wizard…at Comic Con!

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 00:18:25 +0000

That’s right, it’s time again for Comic Con, aka Comic Con International, aka San Diego Comic Con, aka nerd mecca. Regular readers know that for the last six years or so, we’ve tried to make it every year. We didn’t get there last year because we were in the process of moving to our current house, but this year we’re back on track! This is a good year to be going: it’s the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, along with the premiere of the third rebooted Star Trek movie; the 75th anniversary of Wonder Woman; the 75th anniversary of Captain America; and in general, a fantastic year for genre television.

I’ve spoken about Comic Con in blogs past, so I don’t want to rehash all that. The short version is that it is a gathering and a celebration of pop culture: the books, the art, the movies, the videos, the comics, the whole shebang. It used to just be about buying, selling, and trading comics–and yes, I’m one of the old timers who actually rented a table at the Los Angeles Comic Convention with a friend, and we’d bring out our long boxes filled with monthly books and buy, sell, and trade with other collectors.

But I’m not one of those curmudgeons upset that Hollywood has discovered comic conventions. I think it’s great–the extra money and attention has allowed them to flourish, and I’m a big fan of pop culture flourishing. As a fantasy writer, I go as a professional, and take in panels on writing, world building, and so on, with other professionals that I admire. As a fan, I take in Q&A sessions, panels, and movie premiers of comic, sci-fi, and fantasy entertainment that looks exciting. And there are some exciting premieres I’m going to try to attend. We also always buy graphic novels and art directly from the indie creators in the Exhibit Hall. If any of you out there are going, I highly recommend you buy something from the indie creators too–it’s what keeps our niche alive.

I won’t be back at home until Sunday, but I plan on doing some short blogging when I can. I’ll definitely be Instagramming and Tweeting, if you want to follow me on the socials. And of course, I’ll have a wrap up once I return. Next stop, San Diego!

Free fiction giveaway on my mailing list soon!

Thu, 14 Jul 2016 00:32:02 +0000

The next novel in The Sedumen Chronicles, Watcher and Bow, is currently in the hands of the editor. During my down time, I got an idea for a story outside the series, and decided to write it. I’m going to be giving it away in a couple of days on my mailing list.

If you’re not a member of my mailing list already, you can join by following this link here. Or by using the mailing list signup fields in the sidebar (desktop) or after the post (mobile). Either way, it’s all good, you’ll get on the list.

And don’t worry, it’s a low volume list. I only write when I have something to say. I think so far, there have been two this year, and the year is over half over. So I’m not going to spam your inbox, honest.

Reilly at the Fair

Fri, 17 Jun 2016 19:47:45 +0000

I’ve mentioned on this blog, Michelle is a professional dog trainer. Yesterday, my wife and her training director represented their facility, Wags & Wiggles, at a local health/business fair. Our Irish wolfhound, Reilly, served as half of the welcoming committee (Erica also brought one of her dogs).

Reilly gets nervous around people he doesn’t know, but he was in top form, his contagious good nature and strikingly large size drawing people in. He was a good sport, welcoming people to the table and even putting up with strangers reaching in and touching his face (which if you don’t know, is not the best way to introduce yourself to a strange dog). He definitely exemplified the breed’s reputation as a “gentle giant.”

When the world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket, it’s nice to have the likes of Reilly around, to remind you that there’s always goodness if you know where to look.

Happy 15th Birthday to Shadow!

Sun, 29 May 2016 17:32:36 +0000

Shadow has a special place with us, not simply as our only cat in a house full of dogs, but because we got the little kitten shortly after we got together. He’s been with us through four moves now, and he’s still going strong.

Like most cats, Shadow is an often infuriating mix of wanting to be part of everything and not giving a toss. He’s more or less on his own schedule, although he still wants to be fed on time. He’s affectionate to me, although he’s equally obvious about when he wants to be left alone. And he’ll probably never forgive us for bringing three huge, stinky dogs into his life. (Although he might forgive us for Reilly. Reilly is a Being Of Pure Love™ and Shadow seems to have a soft spot in his aloof heart for him. Sometimes.)

As of 2014, the average lifespan of domestic cats had risen to between 12-15 years, according to Wikipedia. I’ve had friends with cats that lived closer to 25 years, and the oldest reported domestic cat lived to 38. So Shadow is technically “old” but we don’t know if we have a lot of time left with him, or a little. He’s got a good life–we make sure he has everything he needs, he gets as much attention as he’ll allow, and he’s even expanding his horizons a bit: he’s started venturing out into the yard, enjoying the outdoor sun (until the dogs chase him back inside). Hopefully he can enjoy life for a while to come. And maybe, one day, forgive us for the dogs.

Happy Thirteenth Birthday Luna!

Tue, 24 May 2016 21:50:43 +0000

When you look up the expected lifespan of giant schnauzers, most list 10 years. Some list 10-12 years. That makes it particularly special to us that our Lionheart’s Moonage Daydream, whom we call Luna, has reached her thirteenth birthday.

She’s definitely slowed down over the years. She eats slower and responds slower. Her hips don’t let her leap on our bed the way she used to, her hind legs are stiffer and slide out from under her every now and again. She sleeps longer and deeper. Her eyes are developing cataracts, and are getting cloudy. She’s getting lumpier and grumpier than ever.

But she’s still got enough spunk to bark like hell, or when the other animals are doing something that she, as the official “fun police,” deems out of line. She still likes her walks, and has the energy to play with the puppy now and again, and great us with joy when we return home.

She’ll get her traditional birthday hamburger, we’ll take her for a walk on the nature trail, and let her know how much we’ve loved having her in our lives for these last thirteen years. Luna’s healthy overall; hopefully there’s a more birthdays ahead for the old girl. But at this point, every day we get with her is a bonus, and we just want her to know that we’re grateful for every one.

In praise of the late Darwyn Cooke

Sat, 14 May 2016 16:59:48 +0000

One of my very favorite comic creators and artists, Darwyn Cooke, died today from cancer. He was only 53 years old. He was probably most famous for the DC New Frontier series, but he did so many amazing graphic novels and comics, Batman: Ego, Catwoman, The Spirt, and recently he brought Richard Stark’s Hunter series to life as graphic novels. Unlike the rock stars who have died recently, while Cooke was a “rock star” of a comic artist, if you’re not already a fan, you’ve never heard of him. So permit me a few paragraphs to explain just why he was such a unique talent.

Darwyn Cooke already had a career in design and animation before he became successful in comics. He didn’t have the “photorealistic” drawing style that was popular at the time. Cooke was more informed by the classic style of comic strips of the early form, but with a modern brush and color sensibility.

So whereas the “house style” of the big comic companies was hyper muscled, grim heroes:

He drew them more cartoon-like, and with a sense of joy:

I feel that joy in being a superhero is sorely missing today. It was one of the things that originally sold me on these characters to begin with. That’s not to say that everything was always sweetness and light in his books. He was as capable of capturing brooding darkness and anger as anyone, while still maintaining his retro-modern style:

He wasn’t limited to superhero comics, The Spirit and his recent Hunter series showed his range. He won lots of awards for Richard Stark’s Hunter, justifiably so.

There have been a few artists who have tried to work in his style, but they never quite get it right. And he was a great writer, coming up with some of the most pithy and remembered lines in graphic novel history, such as this one, in which Wonder Woman tells Superman she’s sick of his attitude:

He was one of the few creators I followed. I looked forward to every graphic novel and comic with his name on it. He was still working, still creating, still making appearances when he was stricken. I’m saddened that there won’t be any more Darwyn Cooke material, but grateful for what is out there. Thank you, Mr. Cooke.

BTW, if you’re curious about what kind of work he did, here are my recommendations: if you’re a superhero fan, DC New Frontier is his take on the 1940s – 1960s DC Comics characters, and is as close to perfection as any comic has ever come, in my (completely un-humble) opinion. You can buy the graphic novel as a series of two digital or paperback editions ($7-$10 each), a more expensive and complete Deluxe Edition (around $30), or if you’re like me, get the huge, gorgeous, hardcover Absolute Edition (you’ll have to look around, but you can get it for around $60 new, cheaper used). If you want a taste of his fun comic writing without the superheroes, The Spirit (two volumes) are excellent (and out of print, but if you look, you can find it). And if you like crime/mystery, you can’t do better than Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter.

Happy Passover 2016

Sat, 23 Apr 2016 00:23:43 +0000

This year has been a whirl–between last Passover and this one we added a third dog, sold our condo, bought a house, I released my new novel Stinger and Bow, and I just released a new album World Spins this week. But holidays make a good time to stop and smell the roses, so I’m taking a moment for my traditional Passover blog.

Next year, hopefully our puppy and our house will be ready for company, so we’ll have our Passover Seder at our house. This year, however, we’re going down to my mom’s place for a Seder there. We are, however, bringing both the “Merton Haggadah”–the Haggadah that Michelle and I created–and a hazelnut torte like the amazing nut torte our grandmother used to make when I was a kid. So as ever, I’m looking forward to it!

And as for some deeper thoughts about the Seder, I always refer back to my blog post from 2011. For those who don’t know what a Seder is, here’s one paragraph from that blog:

Seders are all different. Some have very religious, traditional Seders that take hours. Others have very modern Seders, putting freedom into a completely different context than the original Exodus tale. Some use an ancient Haggadah (Seder texts). Others a very modern one. We, for example, have made our own Haggadah, to reflect who we are as people, and as Jews. It’s far more universal, English, and shorter than traditional Haggadot, and yet all the essentials are still there, tying us to a tradition thousands of years old, binding Jews (and their non-Jewish friends) in a ceremony that dates back to before the time of Christ (and indeed, I believe that his last supper was said to be the Seder meal).

Happy Passover to my fellow Jews, happy Friday to everyone else, and never forget to appreciate everything that we have, even when sometimes its hard to focus on anything past what we’re missing.

And now Prince is gone

Thu, 21 Apr 2016 17:50:05 +0000

Prince has died at 57.

He was one of the very best. I loved his guitar playing, and his songwriting. When I was a teenager and only had AM pop radio in my ancient Plymouth, I used to rejoice every time a Prince song came on to save me from the mediocrity of everything else.

We’ve lost Lemmy, Bowie, now Prince–and it’s only April.

I’m too numb to write a long remembrance, so here are some Prince videos I’d been watching recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsRUAoUvP10

I have a new Ember After album out: World Spins

Tue, 19 Apr 2016 18:29:31 +0000

It’s taken a long time to get a new release completed, but we’ve finally put the finishing touches on the latest Ember After release, World Spins:

I blog about the album on my Ember After website. You can buy it from the bandcamp widget above, or on iTunes or Google Play. You can stream it on Apple Music or Google Play Music. It will permeate all over in the days and weeks to come, I’ll obviously promote it as it happens.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday! Drax the Destroyer turns 1

Mon, 18 Apr 2016 23:22:59 +0000

In spite of his best efforts to eat everything toxic that will fit into his muzzle, antagonize bigger and meaner dogs, and wear on our very last nerve, our giant schnauzer Drax the Destroyer has survived his first full year of life. He’s grown from this little bottlenose fuzzball:

Into this gangly “teenager:”

Some dogs are delightful, easy keepers. Other dogs…are Drax. He’s an exceedingly intelligent dog. This is great for training, but it also means that being a highly energetic working dog, if he’s awake, he needs to be given something somewhat challenging to do, or he’ll get bored and move on to making his own fun, which usually involves trying to get his paws on things we’d rather he didn’t, antagonizing his housemates, and generally finding new and creative ways to be obnoxious. He’s also a prima donna and stubborn.

On the other hand, he loves to be part of everything. He’s extremely affectionate, which isn’t always the case for a strong working dog (Luna loves us, but she was never as affectionate as he is). As obnoxious as he can be, he’s nearly always smiling and clearly means well, even when he’s being a butthead. And even though he’s on the smallish side for a male giant schnauzer (he’s about 26 inches tall at the shoulder and 68 pounds) he’s already got an intimidating growl and he’s quite protective.

In other words, when we’re not at the end of our wits, we’re quite fond of the little fuzzball. Michelle made him (and our other dogs) birthday cupcakes, made with all delicious doggy delicacies: the cupcake is beef, oats, and sweet potato, and the frosting is food coloring and mashed potatoes. So happy birthday, Drax the Destroyer. Even though you live up to your name in exasperating ways, we’re happy you’re with us, and look forward to many more years with you.

Achievement unlocked: first draft of my next novel finished

Tue, 12 Apr 2016 00:19:07 +0000

As you know, I released Stinger and Bow, book 4 of The Sedumen Chronicles, not quite two months ago. And I’ve just completed the first draft of book 5, titled Watcher and Firebird. It is the second part of the story arc that began with Stinger and Bow.

Completing the first draft is in many ways the most important milestone, because now the novel exists in the world. Until now, it was just an idea, an outline, a “scriptment,” but not a novel.

It’s not the most important draft, necessarily; that may be the second draft. The first draft is where I spew out everything that I know about the characters and the story, just to get it all down. The second draft is where I start molding the clay into the story that I really want to tell.

In other words, Watcher and Firebird is a significant amount of time from being finished. But before I can put it out there, it has to be. And now it is. And that’s a good feeling.

Supergirl + The Flash: no “v” required

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 19:14:01 +0000

I haven’t seen Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice yet. I’m sure I will. It’s the basis of the DC Cinematic Universe, after all, and I intend to see the future Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League, etc. But I can’t say that I’m enthused about it. I think Henry Cavil made a wonderful Superman. I’ve read that Gal Gadot is an excellent Wonder Woman, and I’ve no doubt that Ben Affleck makes a fine Batman. But the movie looks so unrelentingly, exhaustingly grim. Can’t superheroes simply respect each other?

On TV, they can.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts about superhero TV shows that I’m enjoying both Supergirl and The Flash. Well, this week was the crossover that both fans and the creators were hoping they could make happen: CBS’s Supergirl and CW’s Flash team up in this week’s Supergirl episode, “Worlds Finest.”

You can read full reviews of the episode online (they’re all filled with spoilers, so here’s the gist: they loved it). The basic idea is that Kara Danvers aka Supergirl, a 24-year-old alien from the planet Krypton and cousin of Superman, meets up with Barry Allen aka The Flash, who ran so fast that he created a portal from his (and Green Arrow’s) Earth to the parallel Earth in which Supergirl exists.

It was an extremely fun and joyous pairing, and I enjoyed every minute of it. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what superhero team ups should be. When we first meet The Flash, he is saving a life, he’s not introduced in some dark or brutal way. And when The Flash and Supergirl confront each other, there is initial confusion, but a desire to understand each other and get to heart of the matter, not beat each other up and talk it over later.

The repartee between the main characters is excellent. It is crisp, funny, relaxed, and never seems forced. Cat Grant (Callista Flockhart) is in excellent form, sparing nobody from her zingers while still making her heartfelt moments resonate. Both Mellisa Bensoist and Grant Gustin are in top form as Kara and Barry, being great as ever and having fantastic chemistry with each other. It’s not a perfect episode–the fight choreography could be better, some of the “love triangle” stuff that has been a through-line of the season is a bit silly, and while the special effects are great, some of the make-up effects are not. But none of those issues keep this episode from being an interesting and entertaining example of a superhero team up done very well.

In the USA, you can stream the episode for free from CBS.com. I doubt this works outside the USA, but I’m sure there’s other ways to see it outside of North America. This is an episode very late in the season (#18 out of #20 episodes) but it stands alone very well. The series has a whole has been worth watching, a great premise and cast with some gripping episodes and some throwaway ones. But it’s never been bad, and it’s been on a constantly improving trajectory. I’d recommend it in general (as I would The Flash) but even if you’re not interested, this one episode will be a fun 43 minutes.

Happy National Puppy Day!

Thu, 24 Mar 2016 02:17:13 +0000

Happy National Puppy Day! And here’s a nice collage Michelle made of our three. Of course, Luna is now nearly 13, Reilly over 2, so only Drax is still a puppy at just over 11 months old. But they’ll always be our pups to us.

Sure, a day to highlight puppies and promote puppy adoption is a pretty lightweight thing to focus on, considering the horrors and tragedies taking place in the world today. Not to mention some of the crazy candidates running for president of this country and the media circus surrounding them.

But then again, maybe that’s when we need puppies the most.

As I was writing this post, Reilly walked into the room and licked my nose. And just like that, everything in the world seemed better to me.

If you have a puppy, give it an extra hug today.

I’m not Irish…

Thu, 17 Mar 2016 21:41:48 +0000

…but Reilly is an Irish wolfhound, and that has to count for something, right? We’ve even brought our dog to be one of the “exhibits” at the Irish faire in Long Beach, California. And tonight, Michelle and I are going to see Flogging Molly, a Celtic-rock band with an Irish (as in, born there, not here) singer, play a St. Patrick’s Day show here in Orange County. And one of my favorite urban fantasy series is the Iron Druid series, about an ancient Irish druid and his trusty Irish wolfhound. So we’re definitely “Irish friendly.”

Happy St. Paddy’s day to anyone for whom that is a reason to celebrate. And whether it is or isn’t, let’s just take today as another reason to be good to one another. We need as many of those as we can get.

(And yes, the black dog in the picture is Drax, still a puppy at not-quite eleven months old)

Vision thing

Thu, 17 Mar 2016 04:37:15 +0000

When I was a teenager, I was tested as having better than 20/20 vision–I had 20/15 vision, meaning I could see from 20 feet away what person with normal vision could only see from 15 feet away. And when I became an adult, I simply took my great vision for granted.

Recently, decades later, for the first time I found my eyes getting fatigued after staring all day at LED screens. It would get harder for me to focus, and sometimes I’d even get headaches. Friends suggested that I go to the store and buy some generic reading glasses with a +1.0 magnification. I figured that if I was thinking about glasses, it was time to admit that I’m not a teenager anymore and go to an optometrist for the first time in my adult life.

Well, the good news is that my vision is still 20/15. Just for grins and giggles, the doctor put up the 20/10 letters for me. I just laughed. I couldn’t even make out the shapes of them, they were just tiny, blurry dots to me. But the 20/15 letters I could still read every one. That felt good.

But I was “diagnosed” with having a very common condition: eyes over forty. I have a slight astigmatism. I have developed a slight far-sightedness. The oil ducts in my eyelids are more prone to clogging.

I’m glad I didn’t go with generic glasses, because the ones that were prescribed have a lower correction than the store-bought glasses. Also, they have specific features for my needs: they filter some of the fatiguing blue light of LEDs, they are anti-glare, and they focus each eye differently for my astigmatism.

I don’t mind the glasses. I need to get used to wearing them–I still forget if I’m not careful. But overall, its worth it to reduce the eyestrain, and hopefully keep my vision as good as possible for as long as possible. Time marches on, and we don’t get any younger, do we?

Full blog post list and contest for Stinger and Bow

Wed, 02 Mar 2016 23:45:51 +0000

I wanted to direct you to one more guest post. This isn’t a new one; this guest blog was actually posted to the Cover2Cover blog on Feb 19th, but I had other posts up and directing your attention to this blog escaped me. So here it is: if you go to the site, you’ll find a Message to Young Writers: Do’s and Don’ts guest blog.

Also, we’ve been running a contest through the blog tour; did you know that? If not, check out any of the guest posts for signup information.

And if there’s any that you missed, CBB Book Promotions has the entire tour schedule on the Stinger and Bow Tour Page.

Now that the tour is done, I’m not going to be posting about Stinger and Bow nearly as much. However, I do have a very low volume mailing list, in which I talk about what I’m up to, and share advanced looks at things, etc. If you’re interested and haven’t signed up yet, please do.

And at some point in the future, there’s probably going to be another podcast…

Stinger and Bow blog tour ends with a new review and excerpt

Fri, 26 Feb 2016 23:31:29 +0000

All good things must come to an end, and so the Stinger and Bow book blog tour is coming to a close. On this last day, let me direct you to a review of Stinger and Bow on the Book Lover’s Life blog.

Also, there is an excerpt of a fun little battle between Stinger and other worldly monster over at the CBY Book Club blog.

I’d like to thank both sites for hosting tour stops, as well as everyone else who has! I’ll probably talk a bit more about the tour before I move on, but as before, I’ve enjoyed writing guest posts, being interviewed, and seeing excerpts of the book posted around the Internet. I’ve been especially heartened to see that those who took the time to review the book enjoyed it; no author is really sure how their work will be received, and it’s gratifying to know that people were able to get out of it what I tried to put into it. Please check them out!

Stinger and Bow Blog Tour Stop: 5 Girls Book Reviews

Thu, 25 Feb 2016 23:21:57 +0000

Another day, another Stinger and Bow blog tour stop! This time a review and an excerpt from Chapter 7 over at 5 Girls Book Reviews. My thanks to Arianna, 13, for reading and reviewing the book, and the whole team at the blog for posting both her thoughts and the review Be sure and give it a look!

Stinger and Bow Blog Tour Stops: Two new reviews!

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:18:52 +0000

I’ve missed posting about a couple of tour stops. My bad! But for those of you following along, even if I’ve been too busy for a daily blog, the stops have all been Tweeted/Retweeted. That is one of the strengths of Twitter; it’s so effortless.

However, that ends today! I’d like to direct you to two reviews of Stinger and Bow, freshly posted today:

First is a review and an interview over at A Page To Turn Reviews. Thanks to Megan for the review, and the enjoyable interview!

The next review is over on the blog of fantasy author Deborah Jay, Mystery, Magic, and Mayhem. Thanks to Deborah for the review as well!

Enjoy!

Blog Tour Stop: Candace’s Book Blog reviews Stinger and Bow

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 19:55:41 +0000

Another week, another stop on the Stinger and Bow blog tour! This morning I’d like to direct you to Candace’s Book Blog and her review of Stinger and Bow. She gives the most comprehensive review of the novel to date and still avoids spoilers, so if you’re curious please check it out. My thanks to Candace’s Book Blog for the tour stop and thoughtful review!

Another trip around the sun

Sun, 21 Feb 2016 23:33:16 +0000

Thanks to everyone who took a moment of their time to acknowledge the conclusion of my most recent journey around the sun, and to wish me well on my current one. Being completely sincere, the acknowledgments from people on social media are nice and welcome.

I had a nice relaxing day. I got to tinker with some new toys and wrote the skeleton of a new song, which always makes me happy. I spent time lounging with Michelle and our dogs in the glorious Southern Californian weather. We walked to the picturesque center of town and ate good food, and chased it down with artisan cupcakes. And I even managed to get a little writing for Book 5 of The Sedumen Chronicles in there, too.

My last year was one of the better years I’ve had. Everything seemed to move in a positive direction as far as family, housing, pets, and employment. I released a couple of books I’m very proud of, and I’ve even got some new music that is almost ready for release. Not everything has been golden of course but the trajectory has been, and I enter this next year with hope that it will continue to get better.

Thanks again, and let’s all make 2016 great.

Blog Tour Stop: A Review of Stinger and Bow

Fri, 19 Feb 2016 19:54:36 +0000

Another tour stop I’d like to direct you to: this one is over on Cover2Cover, and it’s a short review of Stinger and Bow. Lina (reviewer) had not read the previous three books first, so I appreciated that she jumped in! My thanks to Cover2Cover for hosting a tour stop, and I appreciate Lina’s thoughtful review!

Happy 2nd Birthday Reilly!

Fri, 19 Feb 2016 01:50:59 +0000

Our little Irish wolfhound puppy isn’t so little anymore! Today Reilly turns two years old. Irish wolfhounds, like many larger breeds, develop slowly, so he’s really only just becoming an adult now. He’s reached his adult height–he’s three feet tall at the shoulder (which means depending if he’s hanging his head or holding it up high, he can seem even taller). He’ll probably still fill out over time, he’s a slender 135 pounds. He’ll never be as beefy as American show Irish wolfhounds, but he’ll probably get at least a little heavier as the years go on (don’t we all…).

Reilly has developed into perhaps one of the very sweetest souls on the planet. He has a bark that is loud and deep enough to rumble the walls but behind that bark is a dog who, once he’s comfortable with you, is pure affection. There’s not a mean bone in his body. Oh, sure, he can be obnoxious; at his height, he’s tall enough to “counter surf” and grab food right off any surface if he thinks he can get away with it. But he just wants to get along with everyone. Even our cantankerous old cat who wants nothing to do with the schnauzers will tolerate Reilly.

Happy Birthday, Reilly. Keep on being the sweet little puppy that you are. And enjoy your birthday burgers and peanut butter!

Stinger and Bow Blog Tour Stop: Bookhounds

Thu, 18 Feb 2016 18:17:17 +0000

Here’s the next stop along the Stinger and Bow blog tour I’d like to direct you to: over at Bookhounds, you can read an interview with me. Not a ton of questions but it was fun to do. Thanks to Bookhounds for hosting a tour stop, and be sure and give the interview a read!

Words and Music: My Stinger and Bow Playlist

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 20:45:53 +0000

As I’ve blogged previously, when I write, I use music to set the mood, to speak from the characters and to the characters, and to keep me focused. So before I start writing I begin a playlist for every novel.

My playlist for Stinger and Bow posed a bit of a challenge. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to read that I don’t share too many musical preferences popular with thirteen-year-olds. So I tried to pick songs that worked in context of the story, but also had a lively, female-centric voice/vibe to them. Even if Rachel might not listen to these artists, she’d appreciate what they’re saying.

Rachel also isn’t nearly as moody as Firebird Alex is, so while I chose songs that capture her moments of introspection, tension, and doubt, overall her music tends towards the upbeat, just like she does.

I put together a YouTube Playlist of all the songs:

And here’s the list of the individual songs and artists:

Where the Devil Don’t Go–Elle King
Miss Murder–AFI
The Killing Type–Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra
Little Sister–Queens of the Stone Age
Tribal–Imelda May
The Wolf–Mumford & Sons
Lovesick–Dead Sara
Forget Me–BT
Heads Will Roll–Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Ooh La La–Goldfrap

Please feel free to grab the above songs from your music service of choice. If you’re an iTunes user, you can grab them from this list: Stinger and Bow

I think they’re good songs, and I think they help set a mood that works with the novel. Enjoy!

Stinger and Bow Blog Tour Stop: SolaFide Publishing

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 03:10:32 +0000

Here’s the next stop along the Stinger and Bow blog tour I’d like to direct you to: over at SolaFide Publishing, you can read a Q & A with me that covers both myself and some thoughts about this novel and The Sedumen Chronicles in general. Thanks to SolaFide Publishing for hosting a tour stop, and be sure and give the interview a read!

Stinger and Bow Blog Tour Stop: Books for Thought

Tue, 16 Feb 2016 21:00:10 +0000

Here’s the next stop along the Stinger and Bow blog tour I’d like to direct you to: over at Books for Thought, you can read an excerpt from Chapter 9 of the book. Thanks to Books for Thought for hosting a tour stop, and be sure and give the excerpt a read!

Stinger and Bow Tour Stop: Driftless

Tue, 16 Feb 2016 16:58:30 +0000

Here’s the next stops along the Stinger and Bow blog tour I’d like to direct you to: over at Driftless, you can read an excerpt from Chapter 7 of the book. Thanks to Driftless for hosting a tour stop, and be sure and give the excerpt a read!

Stinger and Bow Tour Stop: Coffee, Books, and Art

Mon, 15 Feb 2016 23:15:58 +0000

I said I’d be posting links to stops along the Stinger and Bow blog tour; here’s my first. Over on Sarit Yahalomi’s site, Coffee, Books, and Art, she is hosting an excerpt from Chapter 6 of the book. Thanks to Sarit for hosting a tour stop, and be sure and give the excerpt a read!

My new novel Stinger and Bow is out!

Mon, 15 Feb 2016 17:00:31 +0000

Book 4 in The Sedumen Chronicles, titled Stinger and Bow, is now available!

While this is the fourth book in the series, it is the first book of a new story arc, and a good starting point if you’re new to the series. You’ll get a richer experience if you’ve read the previous novels, but it’s not necessary. Here’s my description of this novel:

Stinger needs a new crossbow.

Thirteen year-old Rachel Silver–or as she’s known to the world, Stinger–needs a new crossbow. Her last bow failed her when she needed it most. Besides, Firebird Alex, her aunt and fellow Seduman–half-human, half-spirit being–wields a Sedu blade, made with spirit magic.

So Stinger designs herself a magic crossbow, then convinces her best friends to accompany her around the world and into the universe of Sediin to find the right craftsmen to have it made. Trouble is, warriors attract people who want to challenge them, whether they’re ready or not. Stinger is still tormented by her last battle–she’s suffering night-terrors, shakes, and cold sweats. When the situation turns deadly, will she be able to come to grips with her trauma and become the warrior she needs to be to save her friends?

The book is available from all the major ebook retailers; you can also buy the print book from Amazon.com. My dedicated page for Stinger and Bow has all the links, as well as a link to the first chapter which you can read for free.

This book is a departure from the rest of The Sedumen Chronicles; it’s in the voice of Rachel (Stinger), not Firebird Alex. It’s shorter (the print novel is about 135 pages, or about 53,000 words, compared to the other books which are over 80,000 words). It deals with some serious issues, yet I wrote it to be a quick, fun adventure for “kids of all ages.” I also went with a different style of cover, illustrated by the excellent Dusan Markovic. I’m proud of all The Sedumen Chronicles, but this one has a special place in my heart, because I went out on a limb.

I’ll be doing a “tour” of young adult book blogs for Stinger and Bow, as I did for The Dawning of Firebird Alex. As such, I’ll be blogging here whenever new content is posted on one of those blogs. This tour is slated to go for nearly a couple of weeks (over my birthday, even!) so there will be quite a few posts here about content on various sites. Please check them out, both to support the bloggers who were gracious enough to give their time, energy, and space to help me get the word out, and because I try to keep it interesting with interesting guest blogs, excerpts, and so on.

And as with all my books, thank you again for your interest and hopefully enjoyment. If you find it to be the fast, enjoyable read that I hope you do, please share it far and wide with all your friends on the Interwebs and beyond.

Valentine’s Day Take Away

Mon, 15 Feb 2016 04:10:29 +0000

The whole Valentine’s Day/Anti-Valentine’s Day beef I have is that it puts undo pressure on being romantic/in a relationship–or on making a show of not caring about it, which is in fact just another way of showing you care about it.

If you’re not with someone, that’s okay. Even people with someone today were alone prior, or may be alone again one day. That’s the ebb and flow of life.

If you are with someone, if it’s solid, any day is a good day for affection. I’m no relationship expert, but if you need a special occasion for romance, there might be deeper problems than one fancy dinner and flowers can fix.

So we ordered in from a local healthy Chinese take out joint. Which we then obliterated with the chocolate cake Michelle baked. And we topped it all of with some champagne. And yes, I bought her chocolates. Because after ten years, that sort of sums up our marriage: casual, comfortable, but always worth making a little effort. Not just today, but every day.

So I hope you had a nice day, whatever you did, with yourself or whomever you were with. Because ultimately the specifics of what you do don’t matter much, it’s the emotions behind it.

A new look for orrenmerton.com!

Thu, 11 Feb 2016 21:31:11 +0000

My previous site design is from when I started writing The Sedumen Chronicles. With the first story arc trilogy complete, and the second one about to begin, I thought a redesign was in order.

I was aiming for an uncluttered look and feel, and a site that was fast on mobile and desktop devices. I also wanted to simplify navigation and search. I think this design achieves all those things.

I also wanted to bring my mailing list more front and center. I haven’t used it much in the past, but I intend to re-activate it as a way of occasionally getting news out.

The header illustrations, by the way, are characters from The Sedumen Chronicles as drawn by Nico Baum. I think she did a great job–check out her site for more examples of her work.

Giving a new polish to orrenmerton.com is also a prelude to blogging more. In the near term, I’ll have a lot of content to throw up about my next novel. But even after that, I want to keep it going. I used to blog a lot, but social media sharing sort of curbed that a bit. But I think there’s still space for longer-form posting, and this will be that place. More podcasting, and perhaps even videocasting, is in the cards, too.

But first is the redesign. Hope you like it!

NAMM 2016--Trade shows aren’t dead

Wed, 27 Jan 2016 04:07:40 +0000

This is not about the new shiny I liked at the 2016 NAMM show. For that, see my post on my Ember After page. This is more my impressions of the show.

I had long heard, read, and believed that trade shows, at least for tech companies, were on the way out. They were a fossil of the era when the only ways that companies could demonstrate products were to gather in one place, and the Internet had rendered them all obsolete. So imagine my surprise that NAMM 2016 was the single largest NAMM ever. From the organizers, this was the first one to ever sell out of every single booth space. There were some 100,000 expected visitors. Parking was a mess beyond believe, with shuttles running to overflow parking in baseball and hockey stadiums in the city.

There weren’t just lots of new products, but a real sense of optimism. From huge companies to tiny one-person operations, there was a sense that people were not just interested, but putting their money where their mouths were. It made for a crowded NAMM, but it made for a great vibe.

And if you were a smaller company, the fact that there were more bloggers and media videographers than ever running around, asking for demos, taking pictures, writing stories, meant that it really was “the place to be” as far as getting attention went. The “NAMM bump” is not only still in effect, but it seemed bigger than ever. I heard from many smaller exhibitors that they got more orders for the year than they planned, sold out everything at their booth to dealers, and other tales of not simply enjoying the show or having people like what they saw, but having NAMM 2016 be a very positive economic trade show for them. I was extremely glad to hear this from so many of the boutique and smaller software companies and instrument manufacturers I’m privileged to know.

And speaking of whom I know (no, I’m not going to name drop) I always love meeting with musicians, friends, developers, and company reps that I only see at these shows. That’s always been the case, and that’s still in effect. I love the people that I work with and that makes these things enjoyable, even as my throat wore out from meetings and talking and my legs got sore and stiff from being on my feet for three days.

One new experience I had this NAMM was Groove3’s main partner, Hal Leonard, graciously invited us to the 31st annual TEC Awards, which are pro audio industry awards given by gear hounds, to gear hounds. Basically, the technical wizards and engineers wanted an excuse to have a fancy award show in the big ballroom of the Hilton, and so they make one every NAMM. I can’t say that I walked in with any real interest in who one what. But you know what? The food was great. The host comedian, Sinbad, is a home studio musician himself so he could talk about the gear from a position of understanding, and was edgy and pointed in his barbs. The band was really top notch. And Groove3 and Hal Leonard had a lot of fun laughing it up. So thanks to Hal Leonard for the invite, and a novel way for me to end my NAMM 2016 experience!

Back to the NAMM -- 2016 edition

Thu, 21 Jan 2016 01:37:02 +0000

It’s that time again–the NAMM show, the big shindig in which the music instrument (MI) manufacturers, marketers, and developers show off their wares to both retailers and everyone else who can score an industry-only badge.

I go every year, which is no surprise, considering I work in this industry. I’ve rambled about going nearly every year, so let me just say that this year it almost snuck up on me. I think it’s because what with the new house, new puppy, and all that, it’s been quite a busy period here at Casa De Merton. Still, I’m looking forward to it. It’s an opportunity to reconnect with people that I don’t see very often, to connect with new people for the first time, and of course to see all the new shiny before it hits the shelves.

I don’t generally blog on my website during the show, because I don’t have the time between meetings, etc. But I’ll probably have a few cool instruments and pithy words to share on social media. If you don’t already follow me, please do. I should have some fun pictures now and again, and maybe fun things to say, assuming you find music, musicians, and music gear fun. If you have no interest in anything music-related, I apologize in advance. I promise, soon after NAMM, I’ll have lots of cool personal projects to talk about, a new look for the site, and other stuff.

But for now–my backpack is locked and loaded, and I’m ready for NAMM!

David Bowie has left the building

Mon, 11 Jan 2016 08:10:38 +0000

It is 11:47pm as I write this. I’m in a state of shock. I knew Bowie had stopped touring, but to the outside world, he’d seemed stronger than he’d seemed in years. He released a new album just a couple of days ago on his 69th birthday. But its confirmed: David Bowie died in his sleep today after an 18-month battle with cancer, surrounded by family. It doesn’t seem real, and it seems all too real, at the same time.

Few musicians have had the impact on me that David Bowie had. His example taught me that even if I wasn’t the best guitarist or synth player or singer in the world, if I was myself, then I could still have something to say. Like so many new wave/alt/goth/industrial/modern rockers, David Bowie’s songs were more than inspirations, they became the vocabulary by which I formed my own sounds and stories. It was no accident that with my previous band, we covered Ziggy Stardust–and even integrated some of Space Oddity, just because.

And when my then-girlfriend Michelle and I needed a name to give the American Kennel Club for our giant schnauzer, Luna, we named her “Moonage Daydream,” one of our favorite David Bowie songs.

I saw Bowie live three times, and I remember each one extremely well. I saw him play a huge stadium in a double bill with one of my other most influential groups, Nine Inch Nails. And it was a true double bill–after Nine Inch Nails played a set, NIN and Bowie segued into a few songs together, and then Bowie did his set.

I was amazingly lucky to see David Bowie in a very small club show in Hollywood, at the now defunct Sequoia Athletic Club. This was the band for his Earthling album and tour, and they were playing larger arenas and smaller shows, and my friend managed to get tickets to the smaller show. He was engaged and charming and played a lot of less popular songs, it was fantastic. And then the next night, we saw the larger arena tour as well. I’m extremely grateful I got to see both sides of Bowie live–the personable, small club Bowie, and the larger-than-life, arena rocker Bowie.

In the coming days, there will be a plethora of articles about his impact on pop music, culture, on science fiction, and film. I’ll probably read many of them. But mostly, I’ll be listening to a lot of David Bowie, connecting with the spirit of a man I never met in person but has as much to do with who I am as any artist I’ve ever encountered.

Lemmy and Me

Tue, 29 Dec 2015 04:05:46 +0000

Lemmy Kilmister saved my life.

Okay, maybe that’s a little melodramatic. But high school is a pretty melodramatic time of life, and that’s how it felt to me. The situation was this:

I was a 15 year-old, sheltered little nerd boy, starting huge new high school. Lockers were assigned alphabetically, and none of my friends had lockers anywhere near mine. As fate would have it, one of the punk rockers had a last name that began with “Mey” so his locker was pretty close to mine. And a group of like minded young punks would always hang out at his locker, sometimes blocking mine. I’d never spent any time with people who had spiked hair and leather and piercings, and I was honestly pretty freaked out. And did I mention that our lockers was tucked under a stairwell, away from doors or monitors or anyone who might save me?

But something wonderful happened. Once I got over my initial nerves and said hello, it turned out that even though they were into punk and I was into new wave and hard rock, we had one band in common: Motorhead. And we all liked The Young Ones, where we both saw Motorhead for the first time. You know what? They were actually pretty cool people. I ended up finding some punk bands that I really liked, and they quietly admitted that Led Zeppelin was amazing. I don’t know what happened to them–one by one, they all got expelled for low grades or drug offenses–but I went from being scared of them to being thankful I got to know them, and Lemmy helped make it happen.

I never knew him, but I knew musicians in LA who had met or played with him, and all had stories that he really was as crazy as his image, and he also really was kind and funny and open hearted. When I read that he died, it made me quite sad; in many ways Lemmy represented the best of rock and roll–loud, obnoxious, dangerous, naughty, but ultimately with a good heart. I hope that right now he’s jamming with Bonzo and Hendrix and Jim Morrison and looking back on his crazy life with joy, because he brought joy to a lot of people. Even shy and sheltered 15-year old nerdboys who had yet to discover the music that was inside of them.

This is how I will always remember him. Ace of Spades isn’t the best rock and roll song ever written, and Motorhead was not the best rock and roll band, but this song in so many ways exemplifies rock and roll at it’s best.

Real Places in Firebird Vengeance: Western Medical Center

Wed, 18 Mar 2015 23:53:56 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted about Firebird Vengeance, book 3 in The Sedumen Chronicles, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to highlight a major real location I use in the book. Alex and her companions find themselves on two occasions at a hospital. I could of course have invented a hospital but I like to think that by using real places, I help ground the fantasy in a more real environment. So I chose one of the largest hospitals in Orange County, Western Medical Center. It’s a huge, state of the art hospital, one of the best in the region, and it happens to not be that far from the city of Tustin, where Alex lives. She and Jake mention it in passing in Lady Firebird, but in this third book, one important scene at the beginning of the book, and two major scenes later on take place here. I use a number of real places in the book, but I use Western Medical Center most.

Leonard Nimoy has left for the Undiscovered Country

Fri, 27 Feb 2015 18:49:47 +0000

I was five years old when my dad sat me down in front of the tiny TV set on a bookshelf of his home office, and told me that I’d probably like this show called “Star Trek.” I immediately fell in love–I fell hard, and I fell for life. My first real work of art as a six-year-old child was a construction paper, glue, and crayon diorama of the bridge of the USS Enterprise, with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.

Leonard Nimoy gave the half-human, half-Vulcan Mr. Spock a rich inner life. He was the voice of reason, of curiosity, but also loyalty and strength. He was the perfect foil for the emotionally explosive Captain Kirk. He was the favorite character for many of us, we wanted to be as strong and smart as he was, but also identified with the internal struggle of reason vs. emotion he went through.

That inner life drew us into the world of Star Trek and science fiction, but in many of us it also drew out our own creativity and desire to tell stories. It is not hyperbole or exaggeration to say that it was the storytelling of Trek and Nimoy (who has directing, producing, and/or co-writing credit on half of the original cast films) that inspired many of us to create our own science-fiction/fantasy universes and stories.

As an artist and a human, Leonard Nimoy was also a favorite. He was always kind and articulate, a great director and photographer as well as repeat Emmy nominated actor. Michelle and I went to see a spoken word performance of his a number of years ago at California State University, Long Beach. He spoke about his life and career, his Jewishness and Americanness, he showed photographs both of his life and from his collections, he read his poetry and answered questions. He was funny and thoughtful, filled with gratitude and joy, and we all left with a piece of that reflected joy.

To science fiction and fantasy fans around the world, Nimoy was more than just a fine actor and artist who gave us wonderful stories and images. Leonard Nimoy was an honorary uncle or grandfather. As take joy in his life, as he’d want us to, the loss hits us the way a beloved friend would, even if our only interaction with him was with his art. So if you’re not a Trek or sci-fi or fantasy fan, but you know some, if they seem unusually crestfallen by the loss of a someone they didn’t know personally, this is why.

Shalom, Mr. Nimoy. And thank you.

My title is both a Shakespeare reference, and a reference to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the final original cast Star Trek movie, Executive Produced and co-written by Leonard Nimoy.

Firebird Vengeance: Police Commander Briefing

Mon, 09 Feb 2015 23:20:22 +0000

As part of the promotional materials for Firebird Vengeance that I created to promote the book to the YA book blog community, I wrote the text of a briefing given by a police commander to his officers. The idea of this piece is to give people a taste of what sort of events take place in this story, but from outside the perspective of our heroes. I thought you might enjoy it, so I’m reprinting it here.

BRIEFING GIVEN BY COMMANDER LLAMAR WALTERS, 4^TH PRECINCT COMMANDING OFFICER, SOUTHWESTERN DISTRICT, DETROIT, MICHIGAN

Walters: Thank you for assembling on such short notice. I realize how extraordinary it is to be called from your beats, but this is pretty extraordinary. I’d like to start by taking a moment to lower our heads for Officers Herrera and Nguyen, killed in the line of duty.

Officer Julie Conklin: Sir, what are those things?

Walters: If you’ve seen Lady Firebird’s video, you know as much as I do. She’s calling them “Possessed.” That’s important, people–remember, it’s not grandma any more, or your buddy from down the street. I know how much it hurts to think of them as walking lasers in a meat wrapper, but that’s basically what they are at this point.

Officer Frank Lee: Why here? I mean, why Detroit, not that I want them to be blowing up the 7^th District or anything.

Walters: We’re not sure. She said something about those things trying to destroy the purest among us. Maybe there’s some really pure nuns or rabbis or imams in our district. I don’t know. But I do know that they’re here, and we have to do what we can to protect our citizens.

Officer Jennifer Maiz: But they can shoot through anything–cars, body armor, buildings, you name it. What are we supposed to do?

Walters: I’m getting to that Maiz. I just got off the phone with Sergeant Hector Godinez in California. He’s the detective who’s got Lady Firebird on speed dial. He says that any minute now, we can expect a couple of her…I dunno what the hell they are. I think he called them “Marzipan”–

Officer John Dunn: I think it’s “Mazzikim,” sir.

Walters: Thanks, Dunn. We’re getting a couple of those in a minute or two. They’re bringing specially treated shields, swords, and bows and arrows they say can protect against the blasts and hurt the possessing spirits inside. I don’t suppose we have any sword and bow experts in our precinct, do we?

Officer Brent Jeffers: I go bow hunting with my cousins up north sometimes, does that count?

Walters: Right now it does, thanks Jeffers. You and any others who have training, you’ll try to take out those Possessed things. The rest of us will try and clear out as many citizens as we can, and if you’ve got a clear shot, go for their eyes–that won’t kill them, but it will keep ‘em from firing at us. Then we can take ‘em out with swords.

Officer Gill Fernandez: How, sir?

Walters: Well, I’m not an expert, but I think we need to stick them with the pointy end.

Fernandez: Yes, sir.

Intercom: Sir…I…we…there’s two large beings at the counter right now. One looks like a gorilla with an alligator head, and the other some kind of bear with a tiger head. They’ve got huge bags over their shoulders, that firebird lady’s symbol on their shirts, and they’re…they’re talking, sir. They’re asking to see you…What do we do?

Walters: Okay officers, we’re up. Everyone grab a shield, and lets get these Possessed. Keep safe, and let’s hope that Lady Firebird knows what she’s talking about.

From the Archives: Do Jews Choose Not To Write Fantasy?

Fri, 16 Jan 2015 19:42:35 +0000

One of the great joys of being a writer is when readers engage you about your work. In a discussion about the Jewish elements of Firebird Alex, an article written in 2010 positing that Jews don’t write fantasy was raised. In fact, on my other blog I had written a counter-essay. I am proud of that essay, and it’s not readily accessible anymore, so I thought I’d repost my nearly five-year-old essay on my current blog. It’s a little longer and more academic than my posts these days, so be warned, but if the subject matter interests you, enjoy!

There is an article that has made quite some waves in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy community. Why There Is No Jewish Narnia, by Michael Winegrad and published online in the Jewish Review of Books, as you might imagine, has as it’s thesis that there is no equivalent to C.S. Lewis’s Narnia or J.R.R. Tolkien’s middle earth, and extrapolates from there that Jews don’t write fantasy. The article goes on to give many reasons why Jews don’t write fantasy, instead writing science fiction.

As I mentioned, this has created some waves. Not just Jews feeling defensive because they write/enjoy fantasy, but non-Jews who don’t want to feel that the fantasy genre (or more specifically, “high fantasy” or fantasy that takes place entirely or nearly entirely in another world) is somehow excluding Jews from the party. There have been many very well done articles disputing the thesis of the article, such as The Idea That Jews Don’t Write Fantasy Is A Fantasy posted on io9.

As a Jewish author shopping my first urban fantasy novel, I can attest that Jews do, in fact, write fantasy. But I’m willing to accept the initial observation he makes–that there aren’t as many successful Jewish fantasy authors as there are non-Jewish fantasy authors. But I don’t think that has to do with Judaism. Rather than argue with his thesis like others have done, I want to mention a few of his arguments disagree with.

One argument I just find overly broad is his supposition that because Jews had it bad in medieval Europe, Jews did not and do not want to write fantasy (specifically, medieval fantasy in this case). Winegrad states:

…Jews are ambivalent about a return to an imaginary feudal past.

As any reader of fantasy–of which the author himself is–understands, the Northern European mythological creatures populating fantasy writing are not meant to invoke a realistic European feudal past, but the moral certainty and non-ambiguity of the myth/fantasy. The European knight may have been a cruel landowner and double-dealing politician, but the fantasy knight is the heroic rescuer of maidens and slayer of dragons. I can’t imagine too many Jews would choose not to write about a heroic wizard vanquishing demons because of a tragic family history in medieval German ghettos. Moreover, most Jews today live in America or Israel, and the trappings of the sufferings of medieval European Jewry are not part of their experience. So I don’t think it’s fair to say that ambiguity over historical persecution is keeping Jews out of fantasy writing.

And along the lines of the above, I think it’s probably safe to say that more Europeans in general write medieval fantasy fiction than Americans. Why? Because the history is outside their door, far more than anything due to ethnicity. I would use this same counter-argument to another of Winegarb’s points, that:

To put it crudely, if Christianity is a fantasy religion, then Judaism is a science fiction religion.

Again, I don’t accept that Jews gravitate to science fiction out of some kind of cultural aversion to knights and dragons, but simply because science-fiction has more American authors, and more Jewish authors are American. When we look at the great pioneers of modern science fiction–let’s say Bradbury, Asimov, Heinlein, Ellison–yes, half of those people are of Jewish heritage. But I would stress, all of them are American. Europeans write great science fiction, just as Americans write great medieval fantasy, but just not in the same numbers. In fact, lets take as an example one of the most successful fantasy writers of Jewish heritage, who has sold millions of books: Neil Gaiman. Is Gaiman bucking a tradition of Jews who shun fantasy? I would say no; he is English, and Gaiman is a member of a European tradition of being inspired by that which is all around them, regardless of ethnic heritage.

And finally, I’d like to discuss one of his arguments that really gets under my skin:

…a further historical reason why 20th-century Jews have not written much fantasy literature…is, inevitably, the Holocaust. Its still agonizing historical weight must press prohibitively upon Jewish engagement with the magical and fantastical. It is not that fantasy writers must be innocent naifs. Tolkien and Lewis were deeply influenced in their portrayals of evil by what they knew of 20th-century political barbarity. As Shippey notes, Tolkien especially grapples in his novels more seriously than many supposedly more sophisticated modern literary works with the evils of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, for Jewish writers working after the Holocaust, classical fantasy must have made redemption seem too easy.

This argument distresses me on many levels. First of all, I direct all Jews who want to continue to use the Holocaust as an excuse for modern behavior to former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg’s book, The Holocaust Is Over; We Must Rise From Its Ashes. Put simply, the Holocaust was a horrific tragedy that must always be remembered, and clearly informed history. But it is not a cloak we can wrap around ourselves to explain away everything that Jews do, have done, or will do.

Specifically to Winegarb’s argument, I think it is demeaning to the Jewish spirit to suggest that because of the Holocaust, Jews cannot enjoy the escape of redemptive fantasy literature. My grandfather survived Sacshenhausen. And it wasn’t simply his body that survived, but his soul–he had a warm sense of humor, a mischievous glint in his eye, and yes, took me to see all the fantasy movies and buy all the fantasy games and books my little heart desired. Yes, his body and mind suffered scars unimaginable, and the diabetes and nightmares tore at him for the rest of his life. But that life was a joyous, productive one. I can’t imagine him ever rejecting The Lord of The Rings as tripe because he had been in a death camp. And certainly, he never imparted that to me, but rather his love of myth and stories of all stripes. If anything, escape and fantasy became even more valuable to him, not less.

They say that in the camps, people either found God and clung to Him to survive, or abandoned God as they felt abandoned. Certainly, some would have felt the way Winegarb suggests, but certainly not everyone, and without hesitation, I’d say not the children of those who would go on to write fantasy. Also, the geographic issue comes up here too–a significant number of potential Jewish novelists had families already living in America during the 1940s, so this rejection of fantasy due to the Holocaust would not have been as likely anyway.

Winegarb may have noticed a phenomenon–that today, the majority of the most successful fantasy authors are not Jews–but I reject that there are reasons in our collective ethnic or religious experience for this. Yes, our religious tradition is different from the medieval Christian tradition. Certainly, that will influence some Jews. But I think the difference more geographical than anything else, and not based on either the distant or recent Jewish experience of persecution.

Happy Passover!

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:03:27 +0000

Tonight begins the first evening of the Passover holiday, upon which we have our traditional Passover meal, called a Seder. Passover is a celebration of freedom, and it is a mitzvah (righteous act) to invite both Jews and non-Jews to partake in the meal–in other words, to enjoy freedom together.

Seders are all different. Some have very religious, traditional Seders that take hours. Others have very modern Seders, putting freedom into a completely different context than the original Exodus tale. Some use an ancient Haggadah (Seder texts). Others a very modern one. We, for example, have made our own Haggadah, to reflect who we are as people, and as Jews. It’s far more universal, English, and shorter than traditional Haggadot, and yet all the essentials are still there, tying us to a tradition thousands of years old, binding Jews (and their non-Jewish friends) in a ceremony that dates back to before the time of Christ (and indeed, I believe that his last supper was said to be the Seder meal).

I’ve always enjoyed the Seder (although I’ll admit, the longer and more traditional Seders can lose me as the hours proceed…). I have very fond memories of my grandparents putting on epic Seders, of going to Seders at the homes of other Rabbis and friends, and for the last few years Michelle and I hosting our own. Whether Jewish or not, I recommend everyone try and get to one, at least once in your life, if you can.

Happy Passover and a great Seder to my friends, family, and readers of my ramblings. And if you’re not going to a Seder, please take a moment this evening and think about being free–because ultimately, that is what the rituals of Passover do; remind us of slavery and redemption, to cherish our freedom, and to work towards a more just and free world for everyone. May next year, all of us live in a world at peace.