The Prologue to The Adventures of Braxton Revere

Aw, it's that time all of us writers love, when you get to share an excerpt from your novel, hoping to entice readers to give your work a shot. But where to begin? I spent a lot of time thinking about it, desperately searching for that one place where I had written something so clever that masses of people would go running to their computers to load up Amazon and find my book in order to devour the rest. After some time searching, it became clear that it was best to just start at the beginning.

Genius.

Without further ado, here is the prologue to The Adventures of Braxton Revere. The story is told from Braxton's perspective; the prologue is to bring you in to his world.

Prologue

When Marianne finally found him, frightened and alone, his face painted in tears and grime, he came running and buried his head into her small frame. All she could do was hold him as he sobbed out the awful news: his father was dead, killed at the hands of Ralugard. She could hardly believe it. The famous vampire-killing Revere family was reduced to this boy, Braxton Revere. Special, and certainly Revere blood, but a boy all the same. The burden now fell on her to not only slay this demon, but to train little Braxton. It was a grave task; how could she succeed where the great Fenton Revere had failed?
  

Before the thought could overtake her further, young Braxton choked back tears and his story continued. Special? A Revere? Indeed he was, for he went on to describe how he rose up from his grief, driven by a surge of anger, and seized the mantle of his heirs before him by thrusting a stake through the black heart of his father’s killer. Once again the plots of Ralugard were laid to ruin, another chapter ended in his long saga with the Reveres.

It was an astonishing tale, and Marianne resisted the urge to scold him when it was finished, for following this display of great courage, Braxton had erred grievously. It was not his fault. He was a boy, after all. How was he to remember, amongst such unspeakable tragedy, that the body of the vampire was to be secured, and kept safe from enemies? That ultimately, to fulfill the family destiny, they must forever remove the head of the snake by destroying the vampire’s body in the proper way: through fire. To do so would prevent Ralugard from re-emerging the way he always had before, returning when least expected in the fashion of droughts, earthquakes, and other such pestilences that tormented mankind.

Though she knew they would be too late, with all haste Marianne and Braxton returned to the sight of the tragedy. When they arrived, the missing corpse confirmed what she already knew. The boy took no notice, buried in grief as he was, unable to gaze upon anything but the fallen frame of his father. 

Marianne moved to console him, though in truth she could use comfort herself. She knew all too well what the missing corpse meant.

Someday, somehow, Ralugard would rise again.

It would fall upon her, and this boy, to stop him when he did.

Find out what happens next in The Adventures of Braxton Revere, releasing May 29th on EAB Publishing!

Thoughts on To Kill a Mock--Yeah!--Ing--Yeah!--Bird--Yeah!

It’s really happening, ya’ll. After 55-some years, an impossible wait in a day and age where movie sequels are planned out six years in advance, in mid-July we will have our hands on a new book from Harper Lee. Even more, not only is it a new book, as exciting as that would be, but it's a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird titled Go Set a Watchman. Unbelievable.

 

To prepare for this momentous occasion, I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird—my third reading. Re-reading it now, some two months from the release of the sequel, was by design—I wanted Mockingbird fresh in my mind, but not too fresh.

 

Now I understand that there is a very good chance that Watchman will fail to wow me from a narrative and creative standpoint. Following up a true classic is never easy--trust me, I've read Mark Twain's attempts at a Huck Finn sequel. Nevertheless, Go Set a Watchman will still be fascinating. Leaving creative considerations aside, from a scholarly perspective, this is mind-blowing stuff, an opportunity to see the formation process of a true American classic.

 

I won't sit here and talk (too much) about how great Mockingbird is. It is, in my opinion, but the book doesn't need me to promote it. But after my re-reading, a few things jumped out at me. For no particular reason, I feel like expounding on them.

 

MAWWIAGE

Is anybody married in Maycomb, Alabama? Scout, Jem, and Dill are of course kids, Atticus is famously a widower and single father, Calpurnia’s marital status goes unmentioned although she does have children, Boo Radley is a recluse, all of the woman mentioned on their block are unmarried, and Bob Ewell is also a widower. The only married characters of note are Tom Robinson, the wrongly accused rapist, and Aunt Alexandra, who seems to despise her husband. I suppose it’s no wonder Harper Lee has spent her life single! It'll be interesting to see how the sequel handles this.

Can My Kid Still Eat That?

Parenting is hard. There’s no way around it. For those of who are cursed fortunate enough to be parents, we are all too aware that over the course of our parenting life, major decisions will have to be made, ones that will shape our beloved children’s future in countless ways. It never seems to end. Where do you send them for school? When do you cave and get them a phone? (After all, everyone else in pre-school has one.) Do you really sign them up for a soccer team that holds more practices than the teams in the World Cup? These are major, life-altering decisions that keep us parents up at night.

But parenting is not made up of only major decisions. Far from it. Each day brings countless tiny decisions, insignificant on the surface but if handled incorrectly, ones with the potential to do lasting damage. As a parent, the pressure is always on—don’t screw it up!

But one of those seemingly tiny decisions with potentially life-altering consequences is seldom discussed by the Dr. Phil’s of the world, and you don’t see on self-help parenting websites. We're out there, all alone, which is a shame because it is a big one. Very big. Lives and futures are at stake, and we have to get it right. What is it, you may ask? Simple. 

What do you do when your child drops a piece of food on the ground? 

 

See? This is big. This is iceberg-that-sunk-the-Titanic BIG.

Titanic-level danger looms...

If you think I am overstating the importance, think again. I have seen vacations, family gatherings, and pleasant days destroyed in mere seconds by a parent making the wrong decision to this problem. I can see it now. Birds are singing, the sun is shining, and kids are laughing. But wait, what's that? Junior dropped his sucker.

Uh-oh.

 

My Letter to Pete Ricketts

Mr. Ricketts, your stance on the use of cannabis oil in the treatment of epilepsy repulses me. You have been consistent about your belief in reducing the role of the federal government in the daily lives of citizens, yet when you have an opportunity to effect real change in the lives of those who suffer from a disease completely beyond their control, you have the audacity to refer people to an antiquated FDA procedure. This does not make any sense and is inconsistent with someone who believes change can come on a local level. On the state level, with the support and leadership of your administration a treatment with vast potential could be enacted in short order.

Your stigmatization of this treatment due to its tangential association with marijuana is lacking in common sense. There is no possible recreational use of this treatment. It is not an intoxicant. Yet because of a slight association to recreational marijuana, you won't support it. Frankly, you should be ashamed.

Perhaps you are ignorant on what a seizure entails. My wife is a Registered Nurse. She currently takes care of a seizure sufferer. This individual is three-years old and has little quality of life. Seizures have greatly diminished her life capacity and have caused her failure to thrive. I can only wonder what a possible 50% reduction in seizures, as shown in 70% of those who use this treatment, would allow her to do. But I can only wonder as her mom wisely obeys doctor's orders. Since a doctor can't legally prescribe it in this state, the three-year old will continue to suffer. Why would you not do something so simple that could effect change in a three-year old?

I did not vote for you because the impression you gave me was that you were beholden to tired ways of thinking and policies that have been proven failures. It is clear that with your position on this important issue, where leadership and open-minded thinking is required, I was correct in that assessment.

A Sequel?

Since the big, epic, life-changing announcement of a long-awaited second novel releasing this summer--no, not from Harper Lee, my second novel, The Adventures of Braxton Revere--I've heard one question over and over: why isn't this a sequel to your first book, On the Backs of Dragons? OK, I've only heard it 5 or 6 times, but still, I have to admit that the question has somewhat surprised me. Yes, some people claimed they enjoyed OTBOD, as I call it. But I often have a tough time receiving and believing praise. I've always been that way. I try to be harder on myself than the rest of the world will be--it's good practice. I do love to hear compliments about the book, yet still I struggle, in part because I know others that couldn't even finish it. I try not to take it personal--we all have different tastes. Some people like Star Wars, others Star Trek, and then there are freaks like me who can enjoy both. 

That said, it seems clear that the people who liked OTBOD have impeccable judgment. Those that didn't like it are most likely the type of people that like Nickelback and getting parking tickets. Not much you can do about them.

As to the question: why isn't this a sequel? Well, it just isn't. There are many reasons people sit down to write a novel, but for most I believe the overriding one is quite simple: they have a story to tell. That doesn't mean I don't have a sequel story to tell. I do. I even have a rough draft, and while it is very rough (going from a rough draft to a novel you are happy to release is a long road), I am very pleased with it. I want to tell that story. Maybe some day.

But not now. No, right now I wanted to tell this story, about a guy who was willing to risk his neck to save those who had spent their lives harassing him. A story about a guy who would want to tell that story himself, which is why it was written in first person. I'm really excited to tell that story.

Someday, maybe I'll get to tell more of the story of Caroline, Jonas, Mouse, Chupwah, Jomey, Akari, Eston, and the rest. But not yet.

A Year of Midnight Circus

With the announcement that EAB Publishing will soon be cutting off the further publication of the first four issues of Midnight Circus in order to release a collected anthology of all of the contents contained in those issues, it seems to me that it's a good time to take a look back at both the issues themselves as well as my experiences in working on those issues. Naturally, we'll start with the beginning!

New England Fear started things off right and I believe it let people in the literary community know that this was a magazine to look out for. I had heard the plans from people involved, and it sounded exciting, but the truth was plans like that always sound exciting. I could sit down right now and tell you some grandiose ideas, and you could do the same to me, and it would sound great. But when I had the journal in my hands with a collection of great stories, well, I had to acknowledge there was something here. I was intrigued.

I can find something of value in every issue, but I think my favorite in this issue was The Dullahan's Curse by A.E. Stueve and Britt Sullivan and it's tie-in with the Titanic. I also thought Christopher McLucas did a nice job with his brief story The Man. Good stuff all around, and with that I decided to look into the theme for the second issue to see if perhaps I would submit something.

Aw, the second issue. Classic Lit on the Side. Different perspectives of classic stories from the public domain--a necessary evil to avoid evil lawyers, but a limiting one to a degree and so this was a risk, because it was drawing close to fan fiction. fan fiction has its place, but probably not in a serious journal.

Yet I believe that was avoided, and spectacularly. You be the judge, but I think the pieces were of merit and avoided that label nicely.

Furthermore, while the first issue was great and set the template, I thought this represented a giant leap in some ways. In this issue you could really see that the mag was branching out with a host of new faces writing material. They even published a piece by some guy named Jeremy Morong. . .

So about that. It's no secret to anyone that knows me that Adventures of Huckeberry Finn is my favorite book. I've probably read it twenty times, and that is a conservative estimate as I first cracked it open at the age of six. If you want to debate its merits or discuss the racial aspects of it, I'm your, well, Huckleberry. So this was my chance to play in that sandbox and while it was daunting, I thought I was able to have just enough of a different approach to keep it fresh. I wrote in the second person in order to put the reader in the shoes of Jim, who had to leave behind his family to attempt to secure his own freedom. I'm my own worst critic, and my story could have used a little more punch I think, but overall I'm pleased with it and I'm honored that it was chosen.

Again, I enjoyed all the stories, but my favorite (including my own "Jim") was David Atkinson's brief "The Side Grind." I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might read it, but I've always thought of fictional characters of having a degree of sentience (News flash: I'm weird) and this story took that approach. A Christmas Carol is another of my favorites and I enjoyed this take on the old classic.

Issue number three was a milestone of sorts for me, because I was asked to do some copy editing. I had never done copy editing before and truth be told, I was not looking forward to it, because obviously I have to edit my own stuff--and it's painful. Yet I agreed because I believed in what EAB was doing and wanted to help in anyway I could.

And so I learned something interesting: editing other people's stuff is not painful. In fact, it's downright fun--you sort of get the satisfaction of creation without all the pain, torture, self-doubt, and agony that often accompany that creation process! I had a blast and I believe it was of use to the group, who I know had spent a lot of time editing this issue.

Hard to pick a favorite in this issue, as always, but "Degenerating" by Megan Mealor was quite powerful. "The Hearthrob and the Ladybug" by Jeremy Johnson was also a lot of fun.


Now to the fourth issue. I did not get an opportunity to do any editing on this one as there were some deadline issues, and truth be told, I was a little bitter about it as I had so much fun with the prior issue. But I eventually got over it, sucked it up, and cracked the issue open, where I could view it as any other reader would.

And the issue was great. Invasion and Occupation. To me, the theme implies war, and yet the submissions were so much more than that, which says a lot about the creativity that goes into Midnight Circus. I read this issue in one sitting and enjoyed it all, as usual (sense a theme), but the standout for me was again from Mr. David Atkinson, who scored with "Home Invasion: Single Guy Problems." I enjoyed it so much that I actually emailed him and suggested expanding the story to a full novel, for I think it has that much potential. Of course, a writer has to write what they want to write, as a novel is a huge undertaking (trust me), and so it was only a suggestion. But I really did enjoy it and would love to see those devilish children antagonize Irwin the single guy for another 200 or so pages. I have this feeling that he might even start to like the little bastards by the time it was all over. . .

And so that's where Midnight Circus took me through it's first year. I've done quite a bit more work on the first two issues this year, which have all been outstanding, and will be doing even more work on future issues, which I am looking forward to. Yet I know that thanks to the work that has been done, there is an awfully high standard to fill.

Finally, there is one elephant in the room I should acknowledge: Midnight Circus is not only made up of short stories, but also poetry. I enjoy many of the poems, but the truth is, I often could not tell you what makes a good poem and what doesn't. I even get confused when sentences don't rhyme, if that tells you anything. While it is an important part of Circus, I don't feel qualified enough to even comment on the pieces to pick out faves. So let's just say I like them all, equally. ;)

Public Service Announcement

My public service announcement for today, coming from someone who works in a bank. There are a lot of scams out there, and some of the scammers are good, but most of the schemes are not.

First off, when you win the lottery, you DO NOT need to wire or Western Union money to anyone. The lottery doesn't work that way. This goes double if you didn't even buy a ticket.

If anyone calls and asks for your social security number or bank account information, see if you can have theirs first. It's only fair that you trade even up, and there's a chance they might have better credit and a larger balance than you.

If someone calls to tell you they need to fix your computer, they will only need to do so because they're going to break it first, along with your bank account and credit cards. Hang up after cussing them out for a bit.

Finally, your Nigerian uncle may own an oil well, but he didn't leave you anything in his will--you didn't even send him a Christmas card last year. None of us are lucky enough to have dead, rich uncles we didn't even know.

My Review of the Capello CD Alarm Clock

When I received a CD alarm clock for Christmas, I was really quite pleased. I had been dealing with a CD alarm clock that had been deteriorating for some time and it was time for an upgrade. As a rule, I enjoy practical gifts. I like to get socks. I like to get boxers. And so I was quite excited to put my new alarm to use. This was a well-thought gift from my wife, and I was grateful for it.

The CD Alarm Clock from Capello has everything you could want from one. It has a clock--with brightness settings. It has a snooze button. It has a sleep button, though I've never quite figured out what those do. It has two alarm settings. It has three wake up sounds: clock radio, annoying buzzer, and CD. Very good. This is what I wanted.

I myself like the CD setting. If I did not, I would have only wanted a clock radio or perhaps just a basic alarm. Some people might like to listen to the radio or that buzzer when they waken, but I prefer to choose the song I want to hear. Easy enough. This alarm allows me to do that.

Unfortunately, this is where the product utterly fails. The alarm does awaken you to the sounds of your CD, and on the song you selected, but it does so at maximum volume! Yes, when the alarm rings, you will be blasted out of bed to the sounds of 2Pac's "California Love" or the theme to Rocky.

Before I go further, I am quite aware that this is a first-world problem. Fair enough. But what is the point of even having an America if in this America you cannot select the volume setting you would like to wake up to? The second we start allowing the machines to pick the volume of our music...well, friends, I don't have to tell you what's next.

If I was single, this wouldn't be so bad. When "Welcome to the Jungle" rips me from bed, clutching my chest in a desperate attempt to quell a potential heart attack, I would most certainly be awake. Do not let it be said that this alarm clock does not wake you up. However, I am not single.  Nor do I wish to be. See, when this alarm sounds, it not only wakens me in a panic. It wakens my wife. And my five-year old daughter, who often sneaks into bed. And the dog. And probably the next door neighbors. Now the instructions claim that the alarm will "gradually" increase in volume, but I must have a wildly different definition of the word "gradually" than the Capello company. There is nothing gradual about this.

This brings me to my next issue with the clock. I've given up on the CD part of the alarm. My marriage and sanity demand it. As such, since I cannot wake up to a song of my choosing, I wake up to the annoying buzzer. The buzzer may get many people out of bed on the first ring, but it does not do so for me. Which means I am using the snooze button.

My experience tells me that most snooze buttons go for 10 minutes. I don't know if it is an industry standard, but it sure seems like it. But Capello knows better. They have set their snooze to last 5 minutes. Does this mean I get up with the first snooze? Of course not. I hit it again. Once I've committed to using the snooze, I want my ten minutes. I believe most would feel the same.

Lastly, the snooze button on this CD alarm clock is placed strategically among the CD buttons. Which means that when I am fumbling in the dark for snooze, my fingers often drift to the play button on my CD player. In theory, this should not be a big deal. When I do use the CD playback function, I do so at a reasonable, marriage-saving volume level. Every music playback device I have owned will resume playing at the volume level previously selected during the last listening period. Now this can sometimes lead to awkward moments if you were rocking out in your car to something cool and hip when you left and return to a Kesha song, but overall it works well. But Capello knows better. When you resume playback with their device, it once again returns the volume to its highest setting. Which means that if I am not careful in the morning, and my clumsy fingers hit play, then I am once again waking up the room.

With that, I cannot recommend this CD alarm clock. As a buzzer alarm clock, if you don't mind the 5 minute snooze, it works OK. As a CD player, it works well. But as a CD alarm clock--an important distinction--it works very poorly. Therefore I see no suitable rating but a one star.