Generation Dead's Colette, By Yaz

In my top ten list of favorite things about being a writer, number four is "Having my work inspire other creative people to do creative work."(number five is "Getting to go first in the buffet line." It's an awesome life!). Every so often a creative person sends me a gift of their creativity; I have been very fortunate to have Yaz Basusta sending me artwork since the very first days of publication. She created, among other things, the Zombie Danny that I often use as my author photo was created by her.

This drawing of Colette was a recent gift from her--and really the gift of art is twice a gift--there's the gift of the time and energy of its creation, and then the work itself. Thank you,Yaz!

You can visit Yaz and see more of her work at her DeviantArt site HERE.

Interactivity and Live Chat

I'll be doing a online live chat-y type thing over at the Haunted House this Thursday at 8:00 EST. The wonderful and talented Raschel will be moderating, so be sure and log on and ask me all sorts of potentially embarrassing questions. Not too many people know where the Haunted House is, but you can get directions HERE.

Also, my super-talented friend from Wales, who goes by many aliases but I know her as Yazzie, is looking for volunteers that she can zombify for a Generation Dead photo project she is doing. You can contact Yazzie directly to be zombified at neko-kyuuketsuki at hotmail.com. Yazzie did my author zombification!

Other cool things abounding on the Internet:

An interview with me as conducted by writer and editor Alethea Kontis, HERE. Alethea also has a beautiful new website and you can check it out at aletheakontis.com

I read a lot. Such activity is encouraged at one of my favorite book blogs, The Book Smugglers. They invited me to partake in the feast of Smugglivus to discuss some of my favorite books of the past year and I did. You can check it out HERE. Next up, the Airing of Grievances!

Generation Dead Message Board

Many, many thanks to Raschel and Yaz (Happy Birthday, Yaz! I'm glad you were born!) who have created a Generation Dead message board called "The Haunted House", which I'm sure will be fun for all. Raschel is the moderator, and Yaz is doing the artwork, along with lots of other cool artwork like this:



If you'd like to visit the new site, discuss the book and meet new zombie-loving friends, go to hauntedhouse at omgforum dot net. Rumor has it that Raschel will be running some cool contests and rumor also has it that she might have some books to give away.

In other news, I've learned once again that I am not a very intelligent man. Many of you who follow this blog know that I have been running as a means to stay healthy. Well, I've run the same route now for about a year now, and during this entire time I never really new how far I was running. This face has been a constant irritation to me, so I decided to do something about it. I spent about a half hour researching pedometers, thinking I could pace out the route. Then I thought that maybe I could use Google Earth somehow to trace the route and then get a distance count.

And then finally, I wondered if maybe the park I go to was listed anywhere online, and I found that it was--on a jogging site, no less. With a map of the exact route that I take. With the distance printed there for all to see. What a dummy I am.

Anyhow, the good news is each lap is actually a mile and a half and I've been thinking it was a mile, so I'm actually covering 50% more distance, and travelling 50% faster, than I thought I was, so I'm actually very close to breaking the sound barrier just like the Flash. Well, no. But I'm not as pathetic as I thought, either, because I'm running 4.5 or 6 miles daily instead of the 2 or 3 I thought I was doing. Not only that, but the times that I've been posting would put me somewhere in the middle of the pack with regards to my age bracket in some of the local charity runs that they have in and around town. My new goal is to run a few of these and refrain from expiring while participating.

In other other news, I went out in search of a new home away from home to write now that my once-favorite fast food place has removed my beverage of choice, and I ended up at a library. Not the library in the town where I live, but one a few towns over. I wrote much of Generation Dead there on my lunch breaks from work, and I'm happy to report that particular library still retains its magic. Out of the blue a brandy-new story idea came to me (no zombies) and when I looked up at the clock again two hours had elapsed and I had about ten pages done. Such a sweet feeling. Plus, I took out a bunch of books and CDs. I looooooove libraries.

Remember when I was talking about how I loved the particular fast food restaurant because of the height of their booths? Well, at this library the tables and chairs are at the exact proper height, both in relation to me and each other. I'm in absolute comfort there.

So I think I'll be going back daily for a little while. "Change of venue" has always worked for me as productivity strategy; in any type of work I've done (but especially writing) I've found that I could work much longer and produce better work if I moved around a little---as soon as my environment feels stale, my desire to work likewise wanes.

Anyone out there have any strategies on keeping their work lives fresh and new?