Song of the Week – Rancid

While I love Rancid, this isn’t one of my all-time favorite songs of theirs. It’s still a good one though. There’s a lot going on right now that I can’t really talk about and that I have no control over. So I’ve played my hand, and I just have to wait and see what happens. Fingers crossed!

It also brings to mind a quote I heard about 10 years ago and made my unofficial motto.

“Don’t hurry, don’t worry. Do your best, and let it rest.”

Easier said than done a lot of times, but still a good outlook to have.

Interview: Comic Book Writer Mark Andrew Smith

I first heard about Mark Andrew Smith’s work when his graphic novel The New Brighton Archeological Society came out and garnered tons of good reviews. I read it and found it to be a fun, refreshing story. I recently picked up his latest effort Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors, and it too was an excellent read. Mark is great at creating worlds and giving characters a unique and realistic feel. He was kind enough to do this interview, and I learned a lot about him and his process.

First, tell us a little about yourself. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I like reading and I enjoy watching movies, but so does everyone else, so I think that’s a boring answer to your question. Haha. At the same time I don’t want to make anything up to make me look impressive. I like eating good food, and then hanging out with my girlfriend.

Favorite comic book character and/or superhero?

I like Wolverine because he’s the best at what he does. It’s not a unique answer or one that I’m proud of haha. Venom is also very original and cool just because he has one of the best costumes.

The YAmazing Race (updated with winners!)

The YAmazing Race is over! Thank you so much to all who came by and added and liked the book. I wish I could give a book to all of you. Unfortunately I can’t, but I do have two randomly chosen lucky winners. And they are…

Donna
Kristen

Thank you again for checking out the race and for your interest in OLDSOUL! I hope you like it if you get a chance to read it!

Hello! Welcome to the next stop in the YAmazing Race with MGnificent prizes! It’s a crazy blog hop featuring over 50 debut authors and prize packs consisting of ARCs, gift certificates, swag, and many other cool items. I’m super excited to be a part of this awesome contest, and I hope you’re enjoying it! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the Apocalypsies blog for more info, as well as the starting point (and the rules) to the race.

Here’s the cover and a little bit of info about my book OLDSOUL, which will be out on April 24th:

Jason Gouvas doesn’t want to believe he has special abilities or that he’s an Oldsoul– a vessel for the souls of people who have passed away, but the dead girl in his mind can be very persuasive.

Her name is Erin, and through her Jason is able to access the knowledge and skills of the souls within him. And with a group of power-hungry immortals bent on destroying the Oldsouls and overthrowing humanity, he’s going to need them all.

That’s about it. Before you move on…bonus contest! Two of them actually. I have two extra (signed if you want) ARCs of OLDSOUL, and two chances to win them. Either head to OLDSOUL’s facebook page and “like” it, or add it on Goodreads. Easy enough, right? And feel free to do both and double your odds! (PS if you’ve already added it in those places before this contest, leave me a comment down below and I’ll add you into the drawing. And thank you!)

Ready to move on? Your next stop is the website of Robin Mellom, whose book DITCHED just came out last week. Here’s the link: http://www.robinmellom.com/blog. Thanks for stopping by and best of luck!

Interview: Author Trisha Wolfe

Trisha Wolfe is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Plus she likes the Misfits. Those two qualities put her pretty high up on my list. She’s a fellow member of the Apocalypsies, and her debut novel DESTINY’S FIRE is out today. She graciously agreed to doing an interview, and provided some great answers. I hope you enjoy the interview, and definitely check out DESTINY’S FIRE, available today!

First, tell us a little about yourself. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Thanks for having me on your blog, Dan! Hmm, let’s see. I feel like I’m always writing lol. I always have more than one project going, so it pretty much takes up most of my day. I have two blogs, so when I’m not writing, I’m reading. Or critiquing for CP’s. But when I’m not doing my writing life stuff, there’s the fam to take care of, and sometimes I find time to watch TV and movies. I listen to music while doing everything else that’s not writer-ish.

2012 Goals

It’s that time again. The whole year is right in front of us in a huge, clean, blank slate. Time to start making some marks on it. I’m not so much into resolutions. Resolving to do something is great, but I think it’s better to make goals and then resolve to meet those goals. Semantics? Maybe, but it works better in my head. Here are my goals for 2012.

1. Find a job that gives me more time with my family. This is a carryover from last year, but it’s still my main goal. I love working in animation, but the long hours and short contracts can be really frustrating. So I either need to get on long-term somewhere, or find a job in a new industry. I’m crossing my fingers for something that might happen within the next month, so I’ll post on that if it happens.

2. Enjoy the release of OLDSOUL. Because really, there’s not much more I can do at this point. Hopefully people like it. Hopefully it’s not universally hated. But either way, it should be a fun ride.

3. Finish my current book and sell it. All I can do is write the best book possible, and then leave it in the extremely capable hands of my agent to sell it. I’m halfway through and will hopefully be finishing it in the next month or so.

4. Make more comics. For reals this year.

5. Read a bunch. Last year’s goal was 100 books. This year I’m not so worried about the number. There are a bunch of books on my shelf that for one reason or another, I haven’t read yet.

Some of the books that have been on my To Be Read list for years.

Well, this year is their year. I still set a goal of 52, since I could probably average one book a week. So here’s the counter for that.

2012 Reading Challenge

Dan has read 0 books toward his goal of 52 books.

hide

0 of 52 (0%)

view books

6. Keep up the blogging. I’ve had a lot of fun doing the interviews lately, and people have seemed to enjoy those. so I’m going to try to keep those up. I’m also going to be blogging bi-weekly starting next week on the site Adr3nalin3.blogspot.com.

7. Revise my screenplay and submit it to contests or agents. This one depends a lot on how much free time I have, what with having to write a few more books. So we’ll see. Still, I’d really like to do it.

8. Draw draw draw. I’m going to be writing a lot, but I also need to draw a lot this year. I know “a lot” is pretty vague, so I’ll say at least once a week. I’m pretty sure I can keep that up.

That’s it for this year. I might add some more as time goes on, but I feel like it’s a pretty good start for now. I hope you all have a fun and safe new years, and are able to achieve all the goals you set. Happy New Year!!