[Writing Post] The Passion of Tex
This past Saturday Jimmy and I managed to get to the Hurst, TX Barnes and Noble for an author event. (I say managed because I wasn’t sure I’d make it – stupid Spring virus thing.) This one was for Tex Thompson – an amazing Weird Western/Hard Fantasy writer who just launched the second book in her trilogy, Medicine for the Dead. By the way… she puts on a great book party. But that’s not all…
I told her on Friday that the bug might keep me from coming to support her. Not only did she understand, she turned it around and started asking about my book. Asking when it was coming out and if there were Big Plans for it. Which is sweet. Then when I was actually well enough to show up to HER party, she just enthused about how my book really needed a party for its Book Birthday. She felt there needed to be some kind of hoopla. I’m a bit overwhelmed by the enthusiasm.
Now, here’s the thing…I’m super excited about my book. I am. It’s going to be awesome. To finally see my name on a book all by itself (but yikes, it’s all on me). But Small Press isn’t quite like New York. The book will be out when it’s done (probably at a convention), but I can’t give anyone a hard date like some other authors. But, you know, there might need to be some kind of hoopla after all – if only for Tex. 
So if you have any ideas for what kind of hoopla we can come with (on a budget – this is also on me), I’m in. And if you ever want to get energized about your work, get Tex involved. She’s one of the best cheerleaders anyone could have. So let’s hear ideas for a hoopla…
[Pen/Pencil Review] The Cross ATX Pure Chrome Rolling Ball
This week’s pen was part of my Birthday Pilgrimage to Paradise Pen Company during ConDFW. I bring you the Cross ATX Pure Chrome rollerball pen. This is a gorgeous pen, and though it was technically a birthday present, I did pick it out, and it was on sale. This is definitely a more expensive, gift pen.
The Cross ATX is 5.47″ long capped and a bit longer with the cap posted. It’s a solid pen, weighing it at just over an ounce. It’s wider than a normal Cross ballpoint – it’s just under a half-inch in diameter, making it comfortable. The grip is also metal, so there’s no squishy ergonomic bits, but it is well balanced and comfortable in the hand.
The barrel and grip are highly polished chrome plated – which is gorgeous, but does show fingerprints. So if that matters to you, you’re going to need something to wipe it down with, like a microfiber cloth. The design is modern and sleek with a contemporary rounded clip that looks like it caps the top of the pen. The cap clicks on the barrel and posts securely. I never feel like I’m going to lose the cap.
The ink is a medium, gel ink refill in a 0.7mm rolling ball. It’s a solid, dark line. This is completely refillable with a variety of Cross refills – including the Selectip Rolling Ball refills, the Jumbo Ballpoint refill, and even the porous fiber tip refill. This pen can totally be customized for the type of ink you like (except fountain), which makes this an “investment” pen.
I say that, because it’s Cross, it’s not cheap, nor are refills. But it’s a statement type pen, if you need to make an impression, you can do that with this pen. But it is comfortable, so if you need to be an “impressive” writer, this pen lets you do that comfortably.
To the numbers:
1. How does it work? – 1 It’s good. Cross makes a decent ink and solid pen. The gel rolling ball makes a good, solid writing experience.
2. Grip and feel – 0.5 – It’s gorgeous, but because the grip is the same chrome as the barrel, it’s slick and hard. There are no ergonomics, but the diameter is good.
3. Material – 1 It’s gorgeous, high-quality chrome plated silver metal. It’s a solid pen.
4. Overall Design – 1 – I like this design. It’s sleek and modern with classic lines. It’s a style and feel I would expect from Cross. It’s beautiful and feels good in the hand.
5. Price Point – 0.5 – It’s expensive. These retail for $65 on the Cross website. You can get them cheaper if you find a sale, but that’s still going to be a lot for some people – and the refills run between $6 and $7 a piece. So again… pricey. But this isn’t a pen one picks up for grins, you know what you’re doing when you buy this.
4 out of 5 Bronze Pencils
[Writer Post] Topsy Turvey Day
It’s Wednesday and I’m feeling a bit under the weather. I was going to just let this lapse (again) today because of the bleck….but, stuff’s come up today and needs to be addressed. It seems like rather too much lately, we’re focusing on the crap stuff in SF.
Writer Beware brought massive rights grab from Omni Reboot to light late last week, early this week. They tried to brush it off as a “work for hire” contract not a regular one, but haven’t been forthcoming on their “regular” contract. I would still avoid submitting here.
Today, news is hitting about an app developed by parents that can scrub profanity and certain other words out of ebooks – any ebook. The hue and cry is justified. Writer CHOOSE how they write – I choose to write “clean”. That was a decision I CONSCIOUSLY MADE years ago. I chose it. Just as other writers choose to write in other ways. ALL WAYS ARE CORRECT. NO ONE WAY is BETTER OR WORSE. If you don’t want to read profanity or violence or anatomical nookie…find other books. It’s not for anyone – or ESPECIALLY an app – to tell the reader what those words are supposed to be. So don’t try to defend this app to me. Deep down, I think I get what the designers were thinking when they developed this app – however, they went about it in all the wrong ways. This will end badly. Because now people are arguing about whether or not it’s a big deal – it’s a big deal. It’s not just leaving blue cheese off a salad or onions off a hamburger. It’s deciding an author’s voice isn’t “good enough” and taking it upon themselves to change an author’s voice, and that’s not okay.
But in the diatribes and the issues… there is GOOD and PRETTY. Apparently the gentlemen of The Flash are doing a Kickstarter for a musical movie. Joss Whedon donated. This is how they say thank you… It’s not about Marvel vs. DC or SF vs. Fantasy. It’s just generosity being met with gorgeous harmonies. It makes me happy.
[Pen/Pencil Review] Pilot Acroball Pure White 0.7mm Black Ink
We return to Pilot this week with another fun staple pen – which I could’ve sworn I’d gotten around to writing about, but extensive searching through archives say no… so here we go. Pilot has a line of pens called Acroball. They have a few lines – this is the Pure White (which technically isn’t).
The Acroball Pure White pens are retractable fine point ball point pens with black ink. These are “fashion pens” so there’s blue, green, and purple – and other colors. I got a three pack at Office Depot on clearance so I could try them out. I was drawn to them for the “fine point” (0.7mm) aspect. The barrel is 5.5″ long with a metal tip. The fashion color is the textured, rubber grip with a brief nod to ergonomics.
The Acroball line is a “hybrid ink” which is a combination of gel and ball point in what is now identified as “low viscosity”. It dries quickly but is also dark and rich even with a finer line. It’s a smooth ball point with little skipping and smearing. It’s a pen I’ve gone back to quite a bit while I was testing a handful out.
These are decent pens that run pretty inexpensive – they come in multipacks or even by the dozen. They’re available in most box stores and other retailers. More colors and styles are available through online retailers like Amazon.
To the numbers:
1. How does it work? – 1 It’s good. I’m really starting to like these low-viscosity ink pens.
2. Grip and feel – 0.5 – It’s a relatively inexpensive, plastic pen. It has some ergonomics, but it could get tiring.
3. Material – 1 It’s a basic plastic, retractable pen. It is what it is, but it works like it should.
4. Overall Design – 1 – I like this design. The white is different. The ink is great. The pen writes smoothly and evenly. It’s really pretty looking too.
5. Price Point – 0.5 – It’s mid-line price point for retractable pens – but you can find them on sale. They run $1.50 – $2.50 depending on how many you buy at any one point – and if you find them on sale. That’s not bad and theoretically refillable. It’s not bad, and okay for the low-viscosity.
4 out of 5 Bronze Pencils
[Writing Post] Galley HO!
It’s Wednesday and I should get back on track with blog posts.
There’s been a lot of “should” in my brain this past week. Things I “Should” be doing, and with reason. I’ve had to take a few days to deal with “book brain” – that time where you flush the book you just finished out of your mind before starting the next project.
Unfortunately, when I looked at the next project on deck, I let myself get a bit overwhelmed – it’s a rewrite and there are a lot of notes. So looking at it, trying to figure out where to start on it just made my brain run and hide and find any reason to procrastinate on starting the project -including other writing-related work. Such as going over the galleys for an anthology I’m going to be in soon called Dirty Magick: New Orleans.
This is a small press anthology put out by Charlie Brown of Lucky Mojo Press. It’s an alternate universe series of anthologies where the world is the same except there’s now magic – and the problems that going along with mystical power being let loose upon the world. The anthologies each focus on a specific city – this one was New Orleans. I’ll admit I’ve never been there (and now I really want to go). Brown put some points in his guidelines to steer those of us who’ve only seen New Orleans on TV away from some misconceptions. I kinda took that as a challenge. This is what I do… you tell me what the clichés are, or what most people will do with a theme, and I’ll find a way to incorporate those “creatively”.
And thanks to Julia Mandala’s help (she used to live in NOLA) and is a good friend and beta reader/editor. Not only did I sell the story, I’m honored and astonished to have the first story in the anthology. I can’t wait for it to come out, because when I was reading through the story to check for any last minutes typos, I almost forgot to be that specific I was just reading the story. That’s huge for me – and it’s something I also noticed with the novel when I was inputting the last of the edits – there were chunks where there were no notes during the read aloud – which meant I was just reading the story and not being super critical of my own work. HUGE step.
So, I’ll let you know when things start coming out. I’m hoping the anthology will be out before my next show. The novel still has some other factors beyond my control. I hope you find these next stories entertaining, too.
[Pen/Pencil Review] Light Up Shamrock Ballpoint Pen
Happy St. Patrick’s Day… and now for a day-late novelty pen review, the light up shamrock blue ballpoint pen.
So I like the fact that this pen is also a “fine†point ball point – not more than 1.0mm. It’s about 7.5†long, which makes it long enough to be comfortable, and almost too long. It’s fairly comfortable, but top heavy with the large, squishy shamrock topper with LED lights inside.
The light mechanism is a big finicky – sometimes it’s hard to get it to go off, and yet other times, you simply set it down and it starts flashing. The green plastic barrel has a curved grip to give a wider diameter at the grip, making it somewhat ergonomic. The matching cap is SNUG when on (of course it doesn’t post). The ink is decent and doesn’t skip. It writes well.
I picked this up as an impulse buy at a Hallmark store when I was picking up a birthday card for my Grandmother. It was $2.99 – which isn’t horrible for a novelty like this, and I think I’ll be able to keep track of it until next year. It’s a fun addition to the novelty collection.
To the numbers:
1. How does it work? – 1 It’s decent. It doesn’t smear. It doesn’t have much drying time. For the actual pen part…yes. It’s good
2. Grip and feel – 0.5 – It’s an inexpensive, plastic pen. It tries to have some ergonomics. The barrel is smooth. But it’s top heavy with the shamrock.
3. Material – 0.5 It’s a novelty pen. It’s plastic with flashy lights that will wow some and annoy others. It is what it is.
4. Overall Design – 1 -I’m giving it a high mark because it’s a fun little, not overly expensive novelty pen. It’s designed to be silly and St. Patrick’s Day oriented. It does that. It’s also functional. So bonus.
5. Price Point – 1 – It’s mid-line for what I’ll pay for novelty pens. It’s cheaper than some but more expensive than others. I do want to say it was $2.99. So for grins and giggles… okay. And it didn’t hurt to give away knowing I wasn’t going to use it. And now it has a good home.
4 out of 5 Bronze Pencils
Pen blog tomorrow
Sorry y’all “grown up” stuff got in the way today. Taxes and Galley proofs for an anthology I’ll be in. Whee!
I’ll have a pen review for you tomorrow.
One appropriate to the day.
[Bonus Post] Jasper Coal – Album Review
This was originally posted on Celtic Music Magazine.
I have to admit, when I went to high school in Homewood, Alabama, I had NO idea there was a Celtic presence in the Birmingham, AL area. Maybe there wasn’t in 19…mumblety mumble, or maybe I was a clueless and sheltered teenager (nah, couldn’t be that). But apparently Birmingham does, indeed, have a thriving Celtic music community including Jasper Coal. Jasper Coal has been around since 2004 (long after I left the area) and has settled into a six-piece band.
Jasper Coal’s Just the One has ten tracks of traditional Irish music with a bit of rock to it. They claim Dropkick Murphys as an influence, so that’s to be expected. Six of the tracks are two- and three-song medleys. The first track, “Tell Me Ma” is a medley with polkas book-ending the title song. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an Irish Polka, but it works musically (it would kill me to try to dance to, though). The last medley track is something I’ve come to take as a “standard” for more rockin’ Irish music, it’s called “Copperhead” and it’s a combo of “Copperhead Road” and “Thunderhead”, which gives the Steve Earl classic a bit more zip.
But it’s not all dance worthy music. “Sniper’s Promise” is a haunting ballad. “Oro Se” is a classic tune in Irish, which is not something I expect to come out of Birmingham. This is a lovely and very skilled album. If you’re a dancer, you’ll find the toes tapping. If you just like listening, you still have your toes tapping. The harmonies are tight and the musicianship is top notch. This is just good, quality music with lively tempos and traditional instruments. I’ve enjoyed just letting it flow over me before settling down and listening to it for this review.
There is or will be a physical CD for sale. It has a limited edition art sleeve with art by John Pleasant. Check the website for more information, or down load the album from CD Baby.
Artist: http://www.jaspercoal.com/
Twitter
Facebook
You Tube Channel
Buy Album: On CD Baby
[Spotlight Post] Sir Terry Pratchett – Leaving Early to Avoid the Rush
I’m tired of memorial posts. I really am. The losses are piling up even in the midst of seasons turning to Spring and new life. Two weeks ago we bid farewell to Leonard Nimoy with Harve Bennett following close on his heels. Very early this week, the DFW area lost Terry Dorsey, a long-time radio personality with whom my father worked when we first moved here. Now…now we’ve lost Terry Pratchett. We knew it was coming, just not when.
Me with Terry Pratchett – AggieCon 2000.
We hear a lot about Cancer and the “F… Cancer” campaigns, but what’s also needed are “F… Alzheimer’s”. This is an insidious disease that robs its victims of their minds, their memories, and their personalities. That Sir Pratchett suffered from early-onset made it that much more vile. He is gone much too soon. There will be no more Discworld, no more Omens, just no more stories. Sir Pratchett was a master of humor and storytelling. He was an inspiration to all of us.
I met him once in 2000 at AggieCon working with my friend, Nicole and our friend, Lori, came along for the ride. I did my ONE AND ONLY foray into costuming by inexpertly sewing together an interpretation of a Rincewind costume that I was afraid to do more than walk around one evening. I chickened out of the costume contest (there were MUCH, MUCH better costumes).
I did get Sir Pratchett to sign a couple of books at the time. And fortunately, that was a time when I was actually doing some scrapbooking – so the pictures were findable. I remember him being charming and personable. I wish I’d had the opportunity to have gotten to know him better than that one meeting, but at least there was that.
Also met Myhr (aka Jamie Murray).
That AggieCon was the stepping off point for a lot of my career – it’s where I met (I think) Jamie Murray as Myhr, got sucked into convention running, eventually got my butt kicked to write ORIGINAL fiction and not fan fiction (though I had quite a bit of fan fiction out at that point through Nicole’s Fanzines). The rest is history – a history that Terry Pratchett will always be a part of. And though he may have forgotten much of what made him special through this awful, awful disease – we won’t forget. He will live in our memories and through his stories.
I’m still friends with Nicole and Lori…can’t remember the other lady.
In a way, Sir Pratchett will never die – because his ripples will never fade – and for that, I will be eternally grateful.
