THIS WEEK IN AWESOME

Happy Halloween everyone, and welcome back to another edition of THIS WEEK IN AWESOME! I took a two week hiatus on account of the site hacking issues I explained in an earlier blog, but now I’m back and trust me when I tell you I HAVE BROUGHT THE AWESOME! I have some incredibly cool stuff to share with you on this spooky, Halloween edition, and speaking of spooky, get a load of my squeenager. This kid is Halloween all year long because she just absolutely loves the mood and the environment. Last week when I came back from Toronto, James sent home this Vampire in a Box kit for her, as she’s a big fan of the Vampires, and she couldn’t stop herself from diving in and turning herself into a zombie with it. I know, right? Vampire in a Box turned zombie. Anyway, her awesome never fails to inspire and amaze me. Here she is last week playing zombie.

Isn’t she cute in a very Wednesday Addams kind of way?

I’ve got some awesome content this week. A few videos, some hilarious photo content, an update on what James has been up to, some audio poetry and much more, so kick back and relax with your Halloween brew and let’s get this awesome under way.

First off, I’ve been blogging about J.C. Hutchins for about three weeks now, and if you’ve been paying attention, you know why. Hutch’s latest novel, 7th Son: Descent, descended on the market this Tuesday past, and he has been doing a ton of interviews and promotion to help drive book sales. Building up to the release, he did a short audio fiction project called 7 Days, offering 7 days of prequel the week before the novel. On his site, he’s been updating the stats and progress of the novel. I asked him about the stats this morning, and he informed me that day one sales stopped at 188, and they are expecting a slight decline this weekend. You can make sure that doesn’t happen by buying your copy today, and picking up a copy or five to give away this holiday season. The more copies you buy, the higher in rank you move up in the Beta Clone Army. Buying between 100-200 copies of the book will earn you dinner and the day with Hutch himself. Come on, this guy is cool. Who doesn’t want to have dinner with him? In fact, I wish I had $100,000. Dinner with Hutch would make one hell of a holiday gift for James. Way cooler than a Kindle. Last week, I also had the pleasure of eavesdropping on James’ recent UNLEASHED interview with Hutch before it aired, and I have to say… I knew J.C. Hutchins was an intelligent and well-versed man, but his genius never fails to inspire me. If you haven’t checked out 7th Son yet, get on with your bad self and do so. While you’re at it, listen to him on UNLEASHED. J.C. Hutchins will blow your mind, I promise.

There’s something about Halloween that brings out the storyteller in us all, and despite his busy schedule as of late, Lost Gods author, fellow podcaster and friend, Drew Beatty, managed to sit down last night and whip up an awesome short story set in his Lost Gods universe. Not only is the story itself made of awesome, the fact that he put this 3500ish word short together in less than four hours is completely amazing. It’s true testament to the power of conviction. He set his mind to something, then he did it, and voila! Check out the story here, and don’t forget to leave Drew a comment. He worked hard, and I think sometimes people forget that writers and artist crave feedback and praise the way addicts and junkies crave smack.

Everybody loves Scooby Doo. Come on, how can you not? I seriously think that on top of all the horror films and novels my generation grew up with, Scooby Doo is probably one of the greatest inspirations for half the horror writers I know. The gang faced ghosts, ghouls, Tiki monsters, zombies, pirates, radioactive monsters, vampires, werewolves… the list goes on and on. The other day, James sent me this link and said if I didn’t include it in THIS WEEK IN AWESOME, he was going to hijack it and blog it himself. With everything he’s got going on this week (which I will get to in just a minute…) I knew he wouldn’t have time to stage a complete hijack, so I figured I’d make things easier and just post the darn link. What if the Mystery Team got overrun by the monsters they hunted, and only Scooby and Velma were left to battle the forces of darkness? These are the types of questions artist Travis Pitts has rattling around in his brilliant mind, and in a recent io9 blog, they posted two pieces of Pitts artwork featuring Velma the Slayer and her faithful companion, Scooby.

And speaking of zombies, there’s a tradition up Maine that actually encourages the walking dead to take a break from devouring their fellow man to get some exercise. Zombie kickball. Yes, you heard me. I said Zombie Kickball. Now I’ve never been one for sports, though I did love a good game of kickball as a kid. I will say that if someone markets this game, and it becomes international, I’d tune in to ever game. I wonder how long it’ll be before someone loses their head and it replaces the ball…

And now it’s time to take a moment to check out the SUPERFICIAL GALLERY post of the week. Every edition of THIS WEEK IN AWESOME, I share with you my favorite post over at the Superficial Gallery site. Actually, this week it’s a host of posts. 31 Scary Things video style that the master of superficial hilarity put together himself. You can also win $100 from SG this weekend just for entering their Halloween costume contest. You don’t have to have the coolest contest in the universe, though it might help in the end. You just need to print off their sign and take a pic of yourself holding it to enter. In hard economic times, $100 bonuses don’t come along every day, so make sure you take advantage of this one, cos if you don’t, I’m gonna win it, and really, that’s practically cheating.

Of course, my life wouldn’t be awesome without James Melzer, and it wouldn’t be TWIA unless I took a moment out to let you know what he’s been up to. He’s been busy, let me tell you. Aside from his UNLEASHED interview with J.C. Hutchins, he also recorded and put out the very first episode of TZC: INVASION, which dropped early for INVASION members, then went live Halloween Morning for the rest of the world. Forty-five minutes of excellence! I’ve already listened to it about three times, and I can tell you right now INVASION is going to blow ESCAPE out of the water, which is a pretty big feat, considering ESCAPE is infinitely awesome already. The plot continues to twist and thicken in such a way that I’m already itching for December, when the next episode is scheduled to drop. I also posted a blog on Thursday in honor of the release of INVASION, with a short audio story I wrote and recorded for James this summer past about Jenny Mitchell, one of the main characters in his series. So, if you’re not a current fan of TZC, you will be once you check it out. And don’t forget to trick or treat on over to his website to check out the Halloween release of INVASION, episode one.

This last week I’ve been reliving the excitement of Battlestar Galactica with my friend Mike. It’s been awesome chatting with him as he unraveled the plot and pieced it back together again, and while I never forget how much I loved the series while it aired, it was a lot of fun seeing it through the eyes of a first time viewer. Listening to his theories and stifling my desire to blurt it all out… ah, fun times. In honor of Battlestar Galactica, my friend Ron Phillips shared this cute little strip with me yesterday, so I had to add it. Coffee and BSG… two of my favorite things. When you’re done there, be sure to visit Ron Earl’s blog. He’s an extraordinary poet, though incredibly modest.

I don’t usually watch the Today show, as I don’t have a Dish box in my apartment, but I caught this on Twitter this morning and had to share. Yesterday, the Today Show team had some fun tips and ideas for Halloween, which just wouldn’t be any good at all if they didn’t contain drunken Ewoks. Yes, you heard me. Drunken Ewoks. This is fantastic. In fact, I’m still laughing just thinking about how funny it was, and I think I’m gonna have to watch it again.

This week has definitely scaled epic proportions of awesome. Before I stitch this badboy up and throw it’s undead ass to the masses, I have one last little tidbit. Last month, I put out the YOU INSPIRE ME contest and requested that you guys send me six words that I could write into a Sestina. I got a lot of submissions, and finally got to announce the winners of the contest this past week. The first Sestina winner was Pat Pillars, who many of you may recognize from Twitter as Paddyfestus. Pat is a regular reader of my blog, and has been incredibly supportive in so many ways, so I was really thrilled when he won the contest. The words Pat gave me to work into his Sestina were “surprise, love, carnation, autumn, parchment and rain.” Here is both a written and audio version of his prize. I hope you enjoy it. Don’t forget, Pat, you are allowed to reprint the poem, and share the audio on your own site if you wish. It’s yours to do with what you will! Congratulations, and thank you so much for the excellent challenge. Music for Surprise Love provided by Incompetech.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Surprise Love

She yawns, stretches, doesn’t expect surprise,
but then that’s how it works, the ways of love.
Left on her pillow, a red carnation–
its fragrance nearly disguising autumn,
and a love note written there on parchment–
promises, goodbyes… outside, it rains.

There were days when she didn’t like the rain,
when she could only hope for the surprise
of a lover’s promise etched in parchment.
Forever, he writes, I’ll wait for your love
as summer fires burn into autumn
and the petals of this one carnation

tremble and break. I wait. This carnation
will not bleed into the puddles of rain
that tear the leaves from the trees in autumn.
It’s eternal. This love. Does that surprise
you? And so infernal, it is, this love,
its flames touch the edges of this parchment.

She traces fingers across the parchment
and reaches out to grasp the carnation.
Breathing in its scent, it smells of his love
and walking outside under the spring rain.
And she isn’t sure why she’s so surprised
he still loves her–even in the autumn.

Cold winter dampens the flames of autumn,
but embers of the heart trace parchment
with charcoal letters. Why is she surprised?
The unexpected gift of that carnation
has dried out the clouds and staved off the rain.
Sunlight glistens on the tears of her love.

And that’s just it. No one expects to love,
not near the fiery edge of autumn.
When winter’s ice overpowers the rain
and encases those words in the parchment
like a glass display. And the carnation
fades so slowly. What a happy surprise.

Awaken sweet sweet surprise, and embrace love!
Blooming carnations even in autumn,
and always keep this parchment for when it rains.

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