I got some great feedback!

This last weekend, I was a Creator Vendor at the MCBA's SpringCon 2012. It was held at the MN State Fairgrounds in the Grand Stand. I had a great time at my first convention appearance in almost 5 years. And much to my surprise, I actually sold stuff. Being around some big name comic dealers (The Source, Half Price Books, First Aid Comics, Granite City Comics, etc.) and other more established online webcomic authors, I felt a little out of place with my few comics (somewhat poorly made to boot) and my two books. But awesomely, some people bought some of my stuff. 


I got back from the chiropractor not too long ago and decided to fire up the laptop and see what's what on the internets. I open my Inbox and this is what I see: 


SUBJECT: You're Worse Than McDonald's! 
_____________ to me:

Picked up all 4 issues of "Bargain Section" at St. Paul SringCon and
really enjoyed all of them. Granted, some of my enjoyment came from
relief, given that most of the independent artists I buy from turn out to
be selling total crap (esp. the often self-indulgent "bio-comic" crowd);
but try not to let that sour my genuine praise for what is often
laugh-out-loud work with a lot of fun art, stick-form or not.

Went to the website advertised in the back of "Stampeding Turtles" and
found ACCOUNT PURGED. So I hope this email address is still active and is
reaching the right person. If this is an inactive account, and you can't
read this, let me know. (Wait. What?)

Aaaaany-hooo... Yes, I would be interested in the "Bargain Section
Omnibus," so let me know whom I must kill to obtain it.


Thus and such,
Richard __________

How cool is that?  


I sent him an email thanking him for his kind words and for the fact that he bought some of my work. I also promised that once the Omnibus of Bargain Section gets printed, I'll let him know. Now I guess I have to work on finding a good printer for the Omnibus in order to increase the print quality of all my comics. 


A nice little bookend to an already awesome weekend. =^_^= Yay.

I can't stand the excitement!!!1!

I follow Jonathan Maberry on Twitter. You can follow him, too, by going here. I suggest you follow him if you know what's good for you. 


Remember when I did a series cover-all review of the Joe Ledger series by Mr. Maberry back here? And at the end of the post I mentioned that I was waiting for #4 in the series, Assassin's Code, to come in the mail? Well, silly me... It came in the mail (April 11, 2012) and I was so excited about it, that I 1) forgot to post something here about it and 2) tweeted a picture of me holding my new pride and joy. I was inspired by my last post about meeting (and touching) Anthony Bourdain to show more evidence of me being an absolute book geek.

Look how excited I am to hold that amazing work of prose? But just imagine how my mind was freaking blown upon seeing on Maberry's Twitter feed that he's working on Joe Ledger series #5 already... what!? WHAT!? I haven't started #4 yet, you can't make #5 yet!!


Or how excited I was when I bought this "classic":

My bookgasmic excitement over this book would eventually diminish after reading it.

And my uber excitement isn't just saved for books. It's for all things geek:

Me standing next to THE Batmobile from the original Batman TV with Adam West. How kick ass is that? This was taken at my first con appearance, MCBA FallCon of 2007. I wanted to touch it... but I feared the consequences. 

So yeah. I'm easily excited.

Too many irons in the fire...

I have once again fallen into my old habit of reading way too many books at one time. There are just too many great books out there, I can't help but to get them and want to read them! Argh. And I have quite a few advanced reader's copies from authors that I need to read and review, as well as just get to some leisurely reading that I've been meaning to catch up on... and... eventually review. Let's just see what's on my bed-side stand reading list:

1. The Fourth Circle of Heck: Fibble (Dale E. Basye)
2. Family Affair (Caprice Crane)
3. Sacre Bleu (Christopher Moore)
4. Curses! A F***ked Up Fairy Tale (J.A. Kazimer)
5. Mental Floss History of the World (Eric Sass)
6. Assassin's Code (Jonathan Maberry)

Then the list of eBooks that are hiding out on my Nook and Kindle PC aps:

1. Free Fall (A My Immortales Series Novella) ( Carolyn Jewel)
2. Red Wolf Moon (P.Daniel Patrick)
3. Dead World (Sebastiene Elston)
4. Not Wicked Enough (Carolyn Jewel)
5. The Sleep Song (Kahlan Asche) 

That's 11 books I have to read. Ugh. So many books, so little time! I need to just settle on one and read it, then go down the list and be done with it. The worst part, at least to me, is that there are 3 author friends' books on those lists, and I know one of them reciprocally read my book and reviewed it and I'm horribly dropping my end of the reciprocity. Bah. And then on op of all that... I need to finish up the sequel to Magic & Madness to get it out later this year, if not early 2013. I've been getting reader feed back and they are wondering when Magic & Destiny (book 2) is due out, and that's been helping me get motivated to write. But it's also taking away from my reading time. 

If I didn't have to work... or sleep... I could get this all done, no problem.

The Day I Touched Anthony Bourdain

I will be the first to admit that I get a little star-struck around famous people. Whether it be honest-to-goodness celebs or the local weather guy (Paul Douglas totally had come to my register when I worked at Barnes & Noble), or even a DJ on local radio asking to find Sun Tzu's The Art of War for his son (I'm 99% sure it was Dave Ryan in the Morning!). 


A few years ago, I think back in 2007, Anthony Bourdain come to the Twin Cities for a stop on his book tour, and he had a huge signing at the Mall of America (MOA). My friend--and former coworker at Barnes & Noble--Erin, decided that we should go and get our copies of his books signed. We made our way down to the MOA to the Rotunda by the MOA Barnes & Noble; however, we got there later than we thought and Bourdain's people were beginning to wrap up who could be admitted to the line. Thankfully, we had some extra power behind the lines: our store's Community Relations Manager was helping the MOA store with the event, and she was able to get us squeaked in to the end of the line.

The book I planned on getting signed

Then my star-struckedness hit me hard. The line was organized in the typical go to the right for about 50 feet, then turn and go left for about 50 feet, then repeat a few times before you get to the front of the line; like you were getting on a roller coaster or waiting to get into Disney World. Every time we turned to the left, we'd get a better view of Anthony on the dais... and I'd get just stupid giddy. 


The guy who I had watched on the TV on his show, No Reservations, I had read his book Kitchen Confidential. He was on numerous coworkers' "Lists"; a list of 5 people that they could get with and it wouldn't be a marriage/relationship breaker. A world famous chef, author and TV host. He was right there. He was less than 100 ft away from me. Erin and I would be talking in the line, catching up about stuff that had happened to us since she left Barnes & Noble, and once we'd turn the corner to see Bourdain again I'd just get this stupid grin on my face and giggle like a fiend. Erin laughed at me and couldn't believe I was getting this worked up about it. 


Finally, it was our time to get on stage and have him sign our books and get a picture with him! I had my copy of Kitchen Confidential ready for him to sign and my camera ready for one of his handlers to take and snap our picture once we were done with the signing. Erin went before me, and of course, she was so calm and cool about it. She walked off the stage and I was ushered forward. I gave Anthony my book and he asked what name he should make it out to; I said "Amy" (since that's my name), and he signed it, and I was quickly ushered away. I look up at the handler chick and meekly asked: "I thought I could get a picture...? But... okay..." I guess they were a little hurried. The handlers looked at each other like... "Oh shit... um..." 


Anthony apparently heard this and said, "No, we can get her a picture. Yeah, let's do this."  The handlers move me back to the front of the table he was seated at, but he motioned me back behind the table. "No, let's do this right." Mr. Bourdain says. 


What?


He motions me to stand behind the table to stand by him. 

Yeah. I'm 6 inches away from Anthony Bourdain! He touched my arm to guide me behind the table. And that grin on my face? It was a perma-grin and didn't fade until I think the next day. The proof is in the scribbled signature!

So yeah. I'm a bit of a star-struck'd nerd. You think I get excited when I get books in the mail signed by authors? You can't even imagine how giddy I was when meeting Mr. Bourdain. 

Review of Liberty by Kimberly Iverson

Liberty by Kimberly Iverson

I saw this book on a table at work and was intrigued by the historical nature of the book, as well as the overall story. Think of it as Gladiator with a red-head Xenia instead of Russell Crowe.

This is a historical fiction tale set during the Roman Empire and the Roman occupation of ancient Britain. We are introduced to Rhyddes, a young woman born into a lowly station in life in Roman occupied Britain. With her mother long dead and her abusive father drinking his money away and unwilling to live with a feisty woman “who doesn’t know her place”, he sells her to the coliseum in Londinium, the Roman capital of Britain. She is suddenly thrust into the world of gladiators and becomes a gladiatrix (female gladiator). For a year or so, Rhyddes survives in her new role as slave entertainer; her fierce fighting skills that had been honed defending herself against her father prove to be the one thing that saves her. Rhyddes thinks that if she plays this new role long enough, she’ll be set free. Her plans for eventual freedom are dashed when her fame in the arena spreads through the right channels all the way to Rome herself. Soon she is shipped across the known world to a land she had barely believed existed. On her way to Rome, Rhyddes is shown a new level of savagery at the hands of her Roman guards, deepening her savage resolve to merely survive.

While Rhyddes is making her terrifying way to Rome, we are shown the lavish world of Marcus Calpurinus Aquila, the wealthy son of a Roman nobleman and politician. Although he has everything he could ever want, money, prestige, and a politically aligned marriage to another nobleman’s daughter, Marcus leads a double life: he sneaks off to the arenas and enters the gladiatorial ring as a fighter. His gladiator name is The Eagle and Marcus has earned himself quite the reputation as a winner in the ring. It is in the gladiator world do Marcus and Rhyddes meet. After two years of being in a proper gladiator training school, Rhyddes is given her Roman name: Libertas, or “Liberty”, since her Celtic name also meant “Liberty”. Marcus had seen her in a few matches and was so impressed by her fighting skills, he arranges to meet her. This one meeting sets into motion a web of lies, deceit, political intrigue that somehow involves the unlikely pair. Rhyddes and Marcus become unwilling pawns in a complex chess game of political movers and shakers, and then turn from pawns to sacrificial lambs. The two, brought together by the gladiator arena, need to now work together to thwart a plan to overthrow the governmental paradigm of Rome.

Are you not entertained?!

This book was well researched and brings to life the world of ancient Rome as well as the life of those who lived in their territories. It brings to mind Ridley Scott’s cinematic work, Gladiator, with the sweeping scope of Roman life: the class structure, the world of the gladiator, and how politics influences nearly every aspect of life. In the inside back cover, the reader is informed that Ms. Iverson has a deep background in all things historical, and based this book from a real Roman area dig in the British Isles, where remains of a gladiatrix was unearthed. Kimberly Iverson set out to put a name and back story (albeit fictional) to that brave woman who lived so long ago. Her attention to detail to the life, trying to remain as true to the time and the person she was honoring, shows us how life was for those the Romans ruled over, how those who weren't born Roman were treated as second-class citizens, if not third or fourth class. And, sadly, this book shares another feature of the movie (and other political thrillers) in that the political intrigue story lines tend to get in the way of the other facets of the grander scheme of the tale. You get so bogged down with little details and who's deceiving who, who's a double-agent, blah blah blah...  But thankfully this tale isn't as nit-picky as other movies and books I've delved into. 

I liked this book a lot. Even though it was heavy with history, it was a fast read. The character build-up and chemistry was believable, the romantic chemistry between Rhyddes and Marcus was slow and realistic---not the "oh, I just met you but let's have sexy time right now!" that some romances (those that take plot development from your B grade porn) tend to have. As a reader, you truly feel for the characters as the story progresses. 

On my scale of 1 (literary hari kari) to 10 (literary orgasmic bliss) I give this epic tale a nice 6.5. I highly recommend this book if you like history in your historical fiction, and if you like her heroines feisty and truly in charge of their lives and willing to take life by the short hairs to keep things going the way they want. 


______________________________________________________________________________________

So here's the updated list of my books to review, so far:

• Dead of Night
• Crooked Little Vein (4-11-12)
• Homer's Odyssey (3-26-12)
• Crimson City Series
• Circle of Heck series (thus far) (4-8-12)
• Joe Ledger series (thus far)  (3-27-12)
• Mutant Island series 
• Double Booked for Death (3-15-12)
• Family Affair
• Sacre Bleu
• How I Paid for College  (5-2-12)
• Attack of the Theater People!
• Liberty (5-7-12)
• Tattoo (Jennifer Barnes) (4-30-12)

Review of How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater

Review of How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater, by Marc Acito

This is an amazing book! I was drawn to this book by the colorful nature of the cover, as well as the little Buddha on it, and the words “musical theater”. As a former drama geek in high school, those words were like a siren’s song. I ended up picking this book up on one of my many trips down to St. Louis, MO to visit some friends, and we happened to meander into a local Barnes & Noble. I had seen this book on display at my home store in Eden Prairie, MN, and having been drawn to it again over 500 miles away in another B&N, I figured that it was a sign I should purchase it.

And am I ever glad I did.

It’s the early years of the 1980s, and we are introduced to Edward Zanni, a high school senior in New Jersey who is striving to just survive high school, his father’s new marriage to a horrible woman, and just trying to make sense of these new things called “hormones”. He is a theater guy, who lives for the lime light and everything musical and drama, and has his whole life set on going to the prestigious art school Julliard. Sadly, because of his dad’s new wife controlling every part of his life, Edward’s dad refuses to pay to send him there. Now Edward has to figure out how to get to Julliard on his own.

Enter his small band of tried-and-true friends: his on again/off again girlfriend Kelly, Doug the jock who he turned on to the world of drama whom Edward has strange feelings towards, his uber nerd friend, and a Persian beauty all help Edward with crazy schemes to raise money for school. Along the way, the group finds themselves on a mad ride of coming-of-age moments and bonding experiences, such as stealing a ceramic Buddha from a front yard and the lawn ornament becoming a strange symbol of their friendship. Also along the way, the friends learn more about themselves and what growing up really means. Edward enters a blurred world of sexuality beginning with an awkward three-way with Kelly and Doug, and realizing that Kelly is more turned on by Doug than him and he is more turned on by Doug. Then Kelly suddenly hooks up with their Persian friend, and Edward is struggling with his emerging homosexuality and strange attraction to Doug. Even with these personal struggles and revelations are going on, the group of friends stays true to their pledge to help Edward get into the school of his dreams.

This story is a great coming-of-age tale that delves into all aspects of trying to survive high school, learn about life and love, and figuring out your place in the world. How I Paid for College is a strange mixture of the painfully honest personal stories of David Sedaris and the highschooler’s last hoorah vibe of Ferris Bueller. In one moment it is a mad-cap adventure tale of kids doing crazy stunts, pulling pranks and grand schemes to set up a false scholarship for Edward to “win”; and then the next heartbeat it throws you a curve ball and you’re torn at the touching, emotional turmoil Edward as he is floundering in a sea of emotions that besiege teenagers at any given moment.

I fully loved this book. So much so, I immediately purchased the sequel, Attack of the Theater People! when it came out a year or so later. I’ll be writing a review of that book a little later. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the theater, had been a drama or band geek in high school, or loves a well-written teen coming-of-age story that brings back glorious memories of John Hughes’ cinematic masterpieces of the 80s. However, I will give a warning: this tale does have homosexual themes in it, of the gay and lesbian tendencies; so if those topics offend you, you might not like this book. This book was not meant to be “gay fiction”, but those themes are part of the story. Also, there are strong themes of sex and sensuality in the book. But if you are not easily offended, then this tale is for you.

On my scale of 1 (literary hari kari) to 10 (literary orgasmic bliss), I give How I Paid for College a strong 9. This book has everything: crazy antics, heart-wrenching emotions, a high school theater production of Grease, and a ceramic Buddha.

You need to go read this book. Now. 

___________________________________________________________________________________

So here's the updated list of my books to review, so far:

• Dead of Night
• Crooked Little Vein (4-11-12)
• Homer's Odyssey (3-26-12)
• Crimson City Series
• Circle of Heck series (thus far) (4-8-12)
• Joe Ledger series (thus far)  (3-27-12)
• Mutant Island series 
• Double Booked for Death (3-15-12)
• Family Affair
• Sacre Bleu
• How I Paid for College  (5-2-12)
• Attack of the Theater People!
• Liberty
• Tattoo (Jennifer Barnes) (4-30-12)