RC 2017 AAR Conclusion, RavenCon Revelations

I don't like people. In fact, I'm downright anti-social at points. Being around people actually gives me anxiety-- my chest tightens, it becomes difficult to breathe, and going someplace quiet is usually still too loud because it's too noisy in my head. Talking to people? What is this? Be social? I'm a writer, I don't have to be social. If I were social, don't you think I'd be in other professions?

You see, I don't fit in much of anywhere. I'm conservative and Catholic ... but I don't condemn anyone for much of anything, and that confuses people. I don't tell people to stay away from me because of what they do in the bedroom, but when they insist on telling me, that's when I want to kick them down a flight of stairs, because there are some things I can't unsee in my head. Yes, I believe that everything the church says is a sin ... IS A SIN ... but if you go to confession, or are truly sorry about it, 1) Why would I know? and 2) Why would I care? It's your soul; as long as you don't make it my problem, what's it to me?

However, people don't seem to understand that. There are those who say, "You're a Catholic, you believe X, therefore screw you." Which is a problem for several reasons, the first of which being that X is usually wrong. If you don't believe me, just look up Strawpope Frank.

Also, I'm conservative in New York City. So X = really wrong.

Then there are conventions. All of the above melts away. No one there gives a crap about any or all of the above. My conversations at RavenCon didn't have anything to do with the news, with politics, only books. Sometimes the conversations involved politics .... of 1600s Europe, when I was talking to Charles Gannon about his 1632 books. It was all about being nerds together. I think I heard about one or two PC buzzwords twice in my entire time there. And since the booze was flowing just enough to make people convivial (except for me, I don't drink) we had one person who wanted to discuss how Thatcher was evil, but that was 1:30 in the morning, and I bailed to get some sleep.

But I had casual conversations with Charles Gannon and Mike Massa, and Christopher Smith (who was very generous with my review of his Black Tide Rising short), and I kept missing Tedd Roberts by THIS much. And Lou Antonelli was, as always, his charming, outgoing self. I had conversations about times in the newspaper business, how setup for other cons go, etc.

Yes, Mercedes Lackey, protege of Marion Zimmer Bradley, was the Guest of Honor, so I'm certain there were some squishy, super-PC types there .... but I didn't see them.

Welcome to the con, if you don't want to have LGBTQ discussions over Chuck Wendigo, you don't have to.

At least, that is, and has always been, my usual experience.

I'm certain that I have been blessed in my cons. I've never had to deal with political conversations. I've never had politics shoved down my throat.

Obviously, I've never been to BayCon, or WorldCon. I've been to I-Con (New York), RavenCon, DragonCon, Creation, and NY Comic Con. The closest I ever came to politics was going to I-Con this year, when David Gerrold was GOH -- I was so tempted to go over and give him a copy of Set to Kill or SPBB.  But I resisted temptation. Heh.

But yeah. Cons have where I have always felt that I have fit in. The social etiquette is clear. The rules are easy. If politics come up, they're (usually) easily sidestepped. It's where I can be as bright and colorful as I possibly can be, and nobody cares. I don't mind being noticed, because the only people who notice me know me, and want to just say hi.

Cons are where I can find "my people."

And my people are awesome.

The Dragon Awards are open and ready for nominations, and I have a list of suggestions you might want to take a look at. If you already  have a good idea of what you want, just click here to go and vote for them immediately. The instructions are right there.

Or: sign up for my mailing list in order to get free stuff.

The Love at First Bite series. 

    

Superman! Suicide Squad! Who cares?

A while ago, Kevin Feige, currently running the phases of Marvels' movies, has mentioned that Marvel will never go "GrimDark," like the first Batman vs. Superman trailer.

As he said it, I discovered I had the perfect word for what's happening with my tv shows. Seriously, multiple shows in my TV watching season, some of the better ones, have started going into ... bleak, dark, utterly hopeless crap. I'm really kinda tired of it.

But then came the new trailers over at Comic Con.

I guess the first question to ask is: Why is Kyra Segwick is in this film? Why, God? Why? Superman testifying before a Senate hearing? Batfleck shoehorned into the previous Superman film?

You know, the film Man of Steel felt like someone rewrote the awesome Superman: Earth One comic book by the amazing J. Michael Straczynski.

This feels like someone read the other two volumes and said "Hey, wouldn't it be just great if we crammed Batman into this?"

Sigh.

The American Journal, GamerGate, and other Insanity

A few weeks ago, I posted links to reviews of brand new shows that I wrote for The American Journal, which is a news site that lets me write for them. Usually, the more ranting and raving I am, the more the readers like it.  So, if you want to see me go bat-guano insane on a semi-regular basis, you can get it out. I think I've officially written over half the articles, so hit something at random, it might be written by Declan Finn.

Anyway, I've done a few articles in recent weeks that some of my readers may like.  In a lot of cases, I just keep a relatively neutral stance -- that stance being "Why can't you freaking morons shut up and leave me alone?"

However, you might want to check out some of these.

Walking Dead Actress Breaks up Sex Ring. Yes, this happened. And what did YOU do with your weekend?

Journalists Conspire to Shape News Over GamerGate This was just .... ARGH

Catholic Church to Support Gay Marriage Yeah, if you had questions about what the HELL is going on about this most recent synod, this is part of it. The other part: Here.

Comic Con Announces Guardians of the Galaxy Cartoon Good luck with that

Sequels for Iron Man and Independence Day in the Works

WB Releases DC Comics Movie Schedule

Video: Liam Neeson Returns in 'Taken 3' 

VIDEO: Viking Rejects Job Applicant Based on Faith -- It's not really politics, it's more of a comedy.  And completely insane. You have to see it to believe it.  Most of it isn't commentary, it's just the news story. Oy.

Zero Tolerance, Zero Intelligence. If you're read my official Amazon bio, you can guess why this is near and dear to my heart.

I think you folks might enjoy some of this.

And if you're wondering what I've been doing with my time.... now you know.

Trailers for "IT WAS ONLY ON STUN!"

Yesterday was the big announcement -- I'm published! Muahahahahahaha

Anyway, I thought I should show you both trailers for my book.

The first one is set around fan favorite Sean Ryan -- while he was a character in A Pius Man, he started here, in It Was Only On Stun!  Yes, we're starting with the fun trailer.

Awesome, right? Thankfully, that's mostly due to the music.  Do I own all those weapons? Of course not. But that's why you have friends who are police officers.

Now, the second trailer is probably something I will come to regret.  Remember all of those neat videos I did for A Pius Man?  I got my friend James to voice one, and Matt to voice another?  Well, It Was Only On Stun! has an author who writes "the Matthew Kovach mysteries" -- he's about 5'10", slightly overweight, wears glasses, is blond with blue eyes.

I figured, what the heck, he looks like me, I might as well do the bloody trailer.

This, however, was the result.  I suggest you watch until the end.  At least that is funny.

If you want to buy the book, go above. It'll take you directly to a kindle, or a hardcopy purchase.

What Happened To A Pius Man?

So, I mentioned the book I'm about to publish, called It Was Only On Stun.  As I said, it's a murder mystery / comedy with bullets thrown in.

After pushing A Pius Man here for years, you would think I would want to publish that first, no?

No.

You see, I'm going to bounce A Pius Man off of one or two more people while I'm at it. There's a small Canadian publishing company with an editor who really wants me to submit it to her.  My first agent (no contract), Joshua Getzler, wanted to use my book to graduate from his apprenticeship (but was too bogged down to follow through) now has his own agency. So I want to see what Josh wants to do, if anything, then try the other publishing company, and then self publish it.  I liked Josh enough back then that I want to see if he's still interested now.

Why self-publish It Was Only On Stun then? Why not wait?  Simple answer: the wait was killing me.

Let me put it this way -- I have been writing since I was 16. I have written, rewritten, spiked, and reconstructed 17 books to the level where I would unleash them on the general public.  Problems include how many are sequels to other books, etc.

In 2007, I started looking for an agent for my best novel -- it was historically accurate, edifying, educational, filled with character and story and explosions and fight scenes .... A Pius Man/ I had Josh by April, 2007; he became "too busy" by that September, and 12 months later, in 2008, told me to move along. 

By March of 2009, I had another agent.. I let him go this month, as I mentioned earlier.

Every book and every author and everyone at every convention I've ever been to have told me that if I have an agent, I have a foot in the door. It's only a matter of time. Be patient. And I did everything that everyone told me to do.

And, following those guidelines, I waited 5 years to publish one book. Playing by the rules, I got absolutely nothing.

I know that other authors have been rejected 27 times by other publishers.  I know that "it's been tough" on publishers. I know that  

Will I try small presses in the future? Certainly. I have other books. I could (self) publish a book a month for the next year and a half before I can slow down. But I'm going to dedicate at least six months per book, possibly more (since IT WAS ONLY ON STUN! is a mystery at a science fiction convention, I'm going to try visiting DragonCon, New York Comic-Con, and I-Con, a major local convention in April).

But, short of someone telling me they want to buy my book with a full publishing contract, I am not going to put my livelihood in the hands of anyone else so I can be whipsawed for another half a decade.

Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. And through the Holy Spirit, patience is probably infinite. But I am 30 years old, unemployed (except for my Ambit Business), and due to some bad educational decisions (degrees in European history when no one is hiring in that field), I am probably unemployable.

Prudence is telling me that patience is going to kill me.

God Hates ..... Superman? A Story of Sean A.P. Ryan

Sorry, Mario, but this story has been moved into it's own Anthology.

Either here

Or the complete anthology

But what is he when he's at Home? Other Novel Ideas.

I've had people in my Real Life tell me that they're confused about what I'm selling at the moment.

I post on my personal pages about what I'm working on, while at the same time inviting them to look over A Pius Man. 

So, it might be a good idea to clear things up.

To do that, I think it's time to allow you a glimpse into my dark, dark mind.

Mr Phelps, You Are Disavowed…

[This blog is rated PG, for mild intemperate language..... if you want to read an article done in a more professional format, just click here.... I get paid if you click there, so, that would be my preference.]

I do not feel the need to disavow every single stupid thing a Christian group has ever done. For one thing, I'm Catholic, so most Christian sects, denominations, etc, have already disavowed me. So when other folks in other Christian groups do something stupid, I generally don't care.

Like, for example, when a creationist museum that has what appears to be a Garden of Eden setting … with a Velociraptor off to the side.

Thankfully, I can usually say, “Yeah, that's stupid,” and move on. Because it is stupid: even ignoring that human beings and dinosaurs were separated by about a few BILLION years of development, you'd think that the museum designer would have picked a dinosaur that was more friendly in appearance, and what wasn't the primary adversary of one of the top grossing films of all time.
 
So, with idiocies like that, I don't care. It's not my church, not my problem.

And then there's Fred Phelps.... who may or may not have appeared in one of our stories.

J. Michael Straczynski at NY Comic Con.

Despite numerous problems, electrical storms, YouTube connection problems, and miscellaneous other problems, here we go ....


At New York Comic Con, the amazing J. Michael Straczynski gave a one hour lecture and Q&A section.  He is the creator of Babylon 5, and a screenwriter for: Murder, She Wrote, The Changeling (with Eastwood, Jolie, and Malkovich,) Kenneth Brannaugh's Thor, World War Z; author of Thor, Amazing Spider Man, The Brave and the Bold, Superman: Grounded, and Wonder Woman.  He discusses WWZ, making a cameo in Thor, writing, Rod Serling, and pretty much all of the above.





Part 2
 

Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Someone asks: "The end of your Amazing Spider Man run ended ... basically undoing EVERYTHING you had already established.  Why was that?"
"You want the Four Seasons, room 423, Joe Quesada."

Epilogue