Primer: A new short story available now 01/14/2012
 First release of 2012 is a short story - clocking at a bit over 9k words. Did the cover design o this one as usual. This one's called Primer. Available in Amazon and Smashwords for a whopping $1.50 Synopsis: Five years ago, the monsters arrived and decimated the village. Everyone perished...except the children. The young band of survivors have had to fend for themselves ever since, keeping a close eye on the nearby forest where the monsters have receded until the time is right. But children grow up and become adults - and that's when the monsters come out of hiding. Around here, birthdays are feared, not celebrated. *** If you're into survivalist, zombie, apocalyptic type fiction - you're definitely going to want to give this one a read. More to come shortly. Site changes: Rearranged this place a bit. There's no way I can keep up with the other sections. You can still sign up for the newsletter for occasional updates. But I wanted to really eliminate the unnecessary and tidy up the place even more in accordance with my current goals. There's still some minor tweaking to do esp. in the books section but as it stands I think it'll stay this way for a bit. Yours truly, Your friendly neighborhood letter-puncher Add Comment Ready for 2012 12/31/2011
Some useless info on 2012 - It's the Year of the Dragon. Also a leap year. 2012 My goal: To outperform last year. Will be turning it up a few notches. Keep it simple and streamlined. That goes for everything I do. I have a more solid grasp on what works and what doesn't so I'm gonna take that and run with it. Have a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. *** 2011 in review Many projects started, some dwindled, some took off. One of which is my other site ApocalypseHub.com - the little hobby site I basically started out for myself has surprised me quite a bit in terms of performance this year. Nowhere near the level I envision it to be but it's definitely picked up some steam. On writing - I wrote more than I did the year before which was the goal. Not all my word goals were met due to rigors of my classes but I figured it was an even trade. This year I doubled my sales with minimal effort. On studies - It was a lot of hard work, late nights, and stress but it's worth it. I'm holding steady at honors level. Other - Spent more time with family, which is a biggie. I've intentionally eased up on any interweb stuff. Besides managing Apocalypse Hub and very minor updates on this site. If you're gonna find me anywhere, I'm still on Twitter (I do enjoy keeping up with some old friends & acquaintances there) - but I'm not there as much. It's done nothing but good actually. Not so much abandon but to take a step back and focus on the things I wanted to get done. So it's safe to say I'll be taking a step back even more in some aspects. 12:01 am. Post-Christmas. 12/25/2011
Dear friends / readers / wanderers: I hope you have everything you need. Happy Holidays Quick & dirty: post-Halloween post. 11/02/2011
 Here I come to save the day! No NaNoWriMo for me this year. I feel like the kid that skipped on prom night - lots of excitement for the annual novel writing madness, and me? Just can't do it. I was a Nano participant a couple of years back and I got up to the midpoint and just couldn't go anymore. But I've written significantly more since then. This time around I'm skipping it because: 1) I've got a lot of studying to do for my current coursework. 2) I have a book and a couple of other things I'd like to get out by the end of 2011. 3) I have a handful of sites to run. Writing schedule: I'm winging it baby. Anytime, anywhere. Currently inspired by: The Black Angels (music) Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (music) Vintage Posters (art) Survivalism (topic, reading, movement) Death Note and The Filth (comic books) Geeking out on: Matte Painting (art & technique) The Big Bang Theory (TV show) On Halloween: Not enough trick or treaters. Horror movie marathons never get old. Ghost story? I have a few paranormal experiences. You know the cold chill that paranormal investigators talk about? Yeah, that shit is real. Also shadow figures. And those otherworldly entities do drain the power out of electronic devices. That's all I have to say about that. It still gives me the creeps. Keeping tabs: Why you need to monitor it. 09/18/2011
 I have a few moments to spare and have been thinking about this since this morning so I thought I'd jot it down real quick and share. What tabs do you have open most frequently? I'm asking because it really says a lot about where your focus is at that very moment. Does it align with your daily goals or is it just a mish-mash of different pages that interest you? When you click that browser open, which tabs do you leave open longer than the others? Maybe you're one of those rare breeds that can actually just leave one tab open at a time. I'm not. I've been consciously keeping tabs on my tabs for about a month now and for the last week I've had these 3 open almost all of the time: one to make lists, one to take notes, and one to keep time. More specifically: Teuxdeux - the most simple to-do list ever. Anything you don't finish automatically rolls over to the next day. I take care of web-based tasks in the order that I can knock them out the fastest. Evernote - I can't say enough good things about this. I just wrote an entire novella on it. Eggtimer (yes it's an actual site name) - My default is 1 hour of writing. If I feel up to it I just add another hour or two. You'd be surprised how much more you write when you have a timer silently chasing your ass in the background. Honorary mentions: Spotify - it's technically not an open a tab, but a desktop application. Gotta keep that music flowing, helps me focus. Hootsuite - When I take my breaks in between, I pop in here to chat. I can broadcast simultaneously to Facebook if I want to. When it's time to get back to writing I click it close or else it takes over everything.So be aware of how you spend your time, what's keeping your attention, and how that fits in your goals of the day, or goals for the week, or whatever. P.S. I purposely did not put the hyperlink on the sites mentioned because then you would've clicked on it and not finished reading, a quick Google search is all it takes to track them down. =) P.P.S. In case you were wondering what's up with the picture of a panda with a gun....nothing behind it really. I think it's funny. And it's a panda...with a gun! Come on. It's a wee bit funny. Kodak Zi8: Unboxing vid with blog review 09/12/2011
I recorded this video awhile back and never got to upload - my classes this last semester kept me super busy. So now here it is. Snapped it up for an excellent price, I was looking for something more portable and pocket-sized and I originally thought I'd end up w/ a Flip but I couldn't pass this up. Anyway in the vid I mentioned that there didn't seem to be any ArcSoft software. I was looking for an actual disc but apparently the camera is pre-loaded with it. The first time you plug it into a USB drive the option to install the ArcSoft software pops up. My mistake. Also, there's an update on the software which it will automatically detect and ask you if you'd like to skip on it or proceed. It was painless, no hassle and only took a minute or two. I've tried the editing software that came with it and it works well, I'll try to do a more in depth review or at least a follow up once I get a little more use out of it. Let's start with the bad. 1) When you zoom in, the quality of the video file becomes noticeably grainy during playback and the image stabilization won't work that well. It gets a bit shaky.So no extreme close ups taken from all the way at the back of an auditorium or whatever. 2) The camera froze a couple of times since I've had it (maybe a couple of months or so), no biggie, just pop the battery out and pop it right back in. No loss of data. 3) Overall product design is nice except for the USB connector plug that pops off from the side - it's too short and the camera ends up bumping with all the other wires I have plugged in next to the USB input. Minor issue but it gets really annoying when you have to unplug the mouse or the laptop cooler just to make room for the camera. (I'm just being nitpicky I guess) 4) Not for low light settings, it doesn't have an external light source. 5) This is more on Office Max - where I ordered this. The camera came in a large box, just shuffling around inside with no packing peanuts or anything. Could've been packed better I think. The Good: An external mic can be plugged in for better audio. As I mentioned in the vid I'll be picking one up and trying it out, will let you know how it goes. Even without it, the audio is sufficient. It has a place for a tripod attachment. Expandable storage. HDMI cord - most companies don't include this (as I've mentioned in the vid) Tons of accessories. What I use it for: Mainly to capture images of my family and whatever we're up to at the moment. I also use it to take pix of food - yeah I'm a bit of a foodie. I like cooking when I have time and we enjoy eating out when we can. Take reference photos for drawings/illustrations as well as images used as photoshop textures (for photomanipulation). I'm not going to go over specs here but it has a lot going for it. Overall impression Great portable and affordable HD camera for casual use. Takes pretty good quality vids (in MOV format), just keep it short (easier to edit). The still camera produces great images (plus there's a macro mode). Recommended nerd gear to add on to your arsenal. Quick and dirty update and weekly goals. 09/10/2011
 Word! First things first: I'm on Kindlegraph - if you want signed and inscribed copies of my eBooks A video review of Bad Juju: Vol. 2 - many thanks again to @meandersfit for taking the time do this. Writing-related stuff I managed to get done in the last week and a half:
This upcoming week's writing-related goals: 1 post - apocalypsehub.com 1 post - zerotorockstar.com Finish one of my many WIPs. That's right, finish it. I'm starting this sucker today - have the outline in front of me. Will let you know next week how it went. Oh yeah, school started this week so the time management skills is in fuel rocket mode right now. Woo!!! How's your week been? ****** If you like this post pls. take the time to Tweet RT, link back, send a link to someone who might like it, subscribe to my blog, sign up for the newsletter, leave a comment, etc. One down, more to go. The never ending push to get that next project done. You're still buzzing from the completion of your last one. The confetti hasn't hit the floor yet and you're already itching to work on something else. It's gotta be some kind of illness, seriously. You know the moment when you type "The End" and you're feeling pretty bad-ass about yourself until you realize- I'm not done yet. There's rewrites, edits or send off to editor, formatting, proofreading, send off to beta readers, contact your reviewers, design the cover or pay someone to do it, another read-through for good measure then upload that baby up. I think I'm just now hitting my stride with my many roles as author, proofreader, format person and cover designer. I'm a control freak so I enjoy the process for the most part. Everyone's got their own way of doing things. I'm not so concerned about being everywhere. It doesn't seem to have any effect on sales and website traffic if I don't sign up for another site.Time spent futzing around sites is time not spent on writing and creating stuff. It's weird how my 3-4 mos. lag in between blog posts had little to no effect on my unique traffic. It actually went up - maybe it's because people are checking up on what I've been up to, which is always a good thing. The amount of time spent browsing my site also went up. Sales have been steady during that brief break as well - not bad for not spending a lot of time with social media sites. In saying that, here are my current online hangouts and why I use them (if I use the term "social media" one more time, I think I'm gonna vomit): Twitter: I love, love, love this one. It's like a chat room on steroids. It serves a dual purpose for me: 1) it allows me to stay current on what my fav writers/artists are up to. 2) it allows me to engage people in my world Facebook: I've actually been thinking about deleting this account with the exception of my Apocalypse Hub Page. The only reason I keep it is that not everyone on my writer page is in Twitter. Plus it's already up and running, might as well keep it. It makes it easier to post there with the Hootsuite client. Tumblr: I just signed up for this one. It serves as a repository for things that inspire me, things I find all over the web that I think is pretty interesting, as well as a place to dump some of my mobile photos. Goodreads: - Meh. I find the user experience still awkward at this site. It's a little frustrating - if someone can tell me how to combine my books that are under R. Van Saint plus the ones under Ro Van Saint, maybe it won't be so bad. Right now I just occasionally add books on it, not really very engaging at the moment. I don't even have a proper profile up yet. Anyway, I don't even remember where I was going with this post but whatevs. It's late and I've got the munchies. (Edit: I wrote the first draft of this post late night - 2 days ago) So I guess my point is to keep producing, keep writing, keep creating. Quit talking about it and just do something already then share it with the world. ********** If you like this post pls. take the time to Tweet RT, link back, send a link to someone who might like it, subscribe to my blog, sign up for the newsletter, leave a comment, etc.  I'm actually writing this post using the Evernote app. What I love about new media and technology is how it can simplify your workflow. I've used my phone to email myself a quick note about a story idea. Nothing crazy, just a sentence or two while I'm waiting in line or whatever (I hate waiting, I'm impatient). I always write what exactly the note is for so I'm not completely lost when I get to it at a later date. i.e.) This sounds like a cool name: Jadzia (Yes, I like Star Trek) or Possible title: Invading the Shell (actual title of a short story of mine) I've been an Evernote user for awhile now an it's been a great way to organize and manage individual projects. Not just for writing but also for design gigs. Another app I use is called the My Writing Nook which is synced with an email account. This is the one I use when I'm in between classes and have nothing but time to kill. I've purhased a portable weather proof keyboard that can be rolled up and stuffed in my back pack for longer entries (tapping the screen can be tiresome). So these are two of my favorite simple writing apps. If you have any that you use, feel free to share your experience with it here. Simple apps I use for writing: www.mywritingnook.com www.evernote.com  This dark collection includes these stories: Etiquette - underworld alien sex comes with its own instructions Static - Reality TV isn't always what it looks like The dead don't sleep - paranormal investigations as seen through the eyes of the investigated Strange Hold - A house that holds its owner captive Sick Day - Calling in sick on Z day Invading the shell - Second skin. Jilted Lovers. Erotic cupcakes. Commute - a glimpse into a working-class person's ordeal with traffic in a bizarre (alternate?) future 3 are previously published, and 4 were written specifically for this collection. A buck of bad juju AKA your gateway book for my work. I've reduced the price for Bad Juju: Volume 1 for the meantime. Not sure if I'm going to keep it that way. I wanted those who are unfamiliar with my writing to snap up a copy since it's a good showcase of my current writing style. For less than a dollar, I think it's a steal. Go get it here: Amazon US Amazon UK Smashwords |
| Dark fiction writer |
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