A Review of My Book!

  Hey, all my devoted fans!  Living Dead Media has done a review of my book, 'The Greater Number at http://www.livingdeadmedia.com/horror-books-and-fiction/262-greaternumber.html and you can read it now!  My thanks to Lori Bowland for her insightful comments.

We Wrapped Today!

  We completed the second and final day of filming of our short zombie movie today.  FilmDemic is going to start taking submissions on the 28th.  Now that we've finished filming, our editor will take over the project.  I want to thank my actors, extras, make-up artists, special effects crew, camera person, equipment assistant, screenwriter, story boarder, catering, lighting technician, editor and my assistant director for your hard work!  The dailies have been amazing and I can't wait to see the finished product.
  I was the writer/director/actor for this movie, which I'll be calling 'The Smell of Fear'.  The first day of filming yielded some professionally disgusting looking zombie action, thanks to our special effects crew.  Today, we shot most of the interior shots and the dialog scenes.  Now, our editor will put it all together.  I must say, I've seen some of the past work that our editor has done and I am confident in her skills.  My movie is in good hands.  When it is done being edited, I'll submit it to FilmDemic and wait for the announcement of the winners.  After that, I'll release it on YouTube and all that.

Making A Zombie Movie!

  Here's a question for you: why do they have braille on drive-up ATMs?  Believe me, this is no slight against blind people, but it is a question Kayla and I wonder about.  Perhaps these ATMs were sent to us from Britain where they drive on the other side of the street?

  Anyway, there's a company named FilmDemic who has a page on Facebook.  They are putting on a zombie short film contest with cash prizes.  I've got some friends of mine on board in helping me to make a film to submit.  I'm using 'Alive Again' as a basis for the story.  The setting will be my house.  I'll post the movie on YouTube, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook.  Wish us luck!

Six Degrees of Common Asian

  Have you ever played that game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?  Well, earlier today on Facebook, someone posted asking what people's favorite Harrison Ford movie was.  Later on, in the shower, I came up with a link between him and me.
  Harrison Ford was in 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' with Shia LaBeouf, who was in 'Constantine' with Keanu Reeves, who was in 'The Matrix' with Joe Pantoliano, who was in 'The Goonies' with Corey Feldman, who was in 'Friday the 13th part 4: The Final Chapter' with Crispin Glover, who was in 'Back to the Future' with Courtney Gains, who is in 'To Kill A Memory' with yours truly!

What Has Blogging Taught You?

  I read this topic on a blog called 'Better In Bulk' at http://betterinbulk.net/2010/04/what-has-blogging-taught-you.html.  I've thought about five things blogging has taught me.

-I really am growing like my blog title implies 'Zombie Evolution'.  I recently went back and read every single blog of mine starting from the first and I have developed a voice, found more of myself and I'm more confident now than when I first started.
-I'm a more social person than I realized.  I first started my blog with no intention of interacting with people, but now I have quite a social network that includes family, old friends, old high school classmates, movie companies, publishing companies, actors, writers and special effects make-up artists.
-I have a purpose more than I ever knew.  My blog started out as 'Zombie Killer's Crazy Ideas'.  It was just a way to share some of the ideas I've come up with for stories and characters.  I ran out of those in about ten blogs, but I found I had more to write about.  When I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, my blog took on a whole new life of its own.  It became as much about me as it did about my writing, but somehow it was more interesting that way.  That leads to my fourth point.
-Writing is more interesting if you don't forget the human element.  I've always known that, but I've been making more of an effort to deal with feelings in my writing more than just concepts and fanciful ideas.  My wife has helped me to figure out ways to show what a character is feeling, through descriptions of their body language, facial expressions, etc.
-And finally, I've learned the importance of friendship.  I had lost a lot of friends when I went into the Navy and I'm just now reconnecting with some of them and finding new ones.  A favorite movie quote of mine is from 'Fried Green Tomatoes' when Jessica Tandy says that the most important thing in life is friends.  I think that's a big part of why I developed the bipolar disorder while I was in the Navy.  Now it feels good to be back home in a familiar place with people who know me.  I've even found a new hero, as I blogged about yesterday: Craig Chenery.  He is involved in books and movies and is bipolar.

What's Your Favorite Quote From A Novel Of All Time?

  My favorite quote comes from my favorite book and it's not because of the specific words of the quote, but because of the enormity of their meaning.  This was the best twist ending of all time in my mind.  I am speaking of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
  "Real.  Not a game.  Ender's mind was too tired to cope with it all.  They weren't just points of light in the air, they were real ships that he had fought with and real ships he had destroyed.  And a real world that he had blasted into oblivion."
  This one scene determines the entire rest of Ender Wiggin's life.  He spends the rest of his days trying to make good for all the destruction and death he caused in that one moment without even knowing it.  The entire Ender series is a huge inspiration for my own writing.  Orson mixes science with spirituality, morality, concepts of family and community, racism and bigotry.  All of this, he does through characters that you care about and run the gamut of emotions with.
  The question from the title of this blog comes from http://www.practiceofmadness.com/.  You can read more favorite quotes at: http://wordsinsync.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-is-your-favourite-quote-from-novel_04.html, http://www.stuffcatslikes.blogspot.com/2010/09/theodore-puertoriquezs-favorite-novel.html, http://criticalape.wordpress.com, http://www.carolaskan.com/2010/08/favorite-quote-from-a-novel/, http://dwilsonprice.wordpress.com/, http://drdlpenwell.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/god-tree-climbing-and-infinite-surprise/ andhttp://life4mebyme.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-are-your-favorite-all-time-quotes.html.

'The Greater Number' on lulu.com

  I have found a new hero and inspiration.  His name is Craig Chenery and he works in movies and is an author.  He is bipolar like me and loves zombies.  He lives in Phoenix!  I admire his tenacity and perseverance.  He is now in a place professionally that I want to be one of these days.
  Now I have both books available for Kindle and on paperback.  I put a link so that you can get to the shopping area of lulu.com and purchase my second zombie novel, if you would be so inclined.

I Couldn't Wait!

  I decided to publish 'The Greater Number' at amazon.com for Kindle even though the jury is still out on whether or not Sinister Press will be publishing it.  I couldn't wait anymore!  Besides, I could be making money off it now instead of waiting for however long it would take to turn it into a paperback.  I figure, people who want it on Kindle can buy it now and people who want it on paper can buy it later.  That's the cool thing about publishing for Kindle, you retain the rights to the work so I can publish with Sinister Press without any legal problems.  Now the time has come to promote this new book!

New Ways To Promote

  In the last few days, I've been finding all kinds of new ways to promote my work.  There's Networked Blogs, twimagination.com and seededBuzz.  I'm hoping this can help to get the word out about my writing.  Tomorrow I'm also going to go to Blackjack Pizza to see if they'll let me deliver pizzas for them again.  If not, perhaps I can deliver for Dominoes again.  Here's a link to the twimagination: http://twimagination.com/d9dm

My Interview

  I've put a link to the website that interviewed me about my short story, 'Alive Again'.  Just click on 'My Interview' under 'Other Sites' to the right and it will take you there!  David Wisehart conducted the interview and asked me several questions about my story, my writing, my influences, etc.  I'm so excited that it's up!  In about a month or so I'm going to ask him to grant me an interview for 'The Nocent' as well.  I hope this will get the word out about my writing and generate some sales!

The Nocent on Kindle!

  I figured since 'The Greater Number' is under consideration for publication by Sinister Press, I should put my first book out some other way.  What better way than Kindle Self Publishing?  It's not live yet, but soon you will be able to buy it for only $2.99 for your Kindle on amazon.com!  I also lowered the price for it on lulu.com.  The paperback version is around 9 dollars and the electronic version is around 2 dollars.

Flooding

  Monsoon season started yesterday.  We found out the hard way that our house is the lowest part of the property we're on.  The surrounding street is about eight inches higher than our foundation and the landscape in the back yard is also higher.  Someone's bright idea was to build our house in the middle of a funnel.  I tried to dig a trench to drain the water away from our back door.  The water was about a half inch from coming into the house!  My hands are all torn up from the shoveling.
  On a brighter note, my in-laws invited us to celebrate our Independence Day at the DAV.  There were a lot of really nice people there.  My mother-in-law helped me sign up to become a member of the DAV and they paid for my membership!  I was blown away.
  Recently a friend of mine I've known since I was three years old accepted my friend request on Facebook.  Other than family, he's known me longer than anyone in the world!

Keep My Fingers Crossed!

  There's been a lot of spiritual activity in our place lately.  On more than one occasion, I've been woken up by what sounds like a woman weeping somewhere in the house.  The other day, I was woken up by the sound of an ashtray clattering to the floor from a night stand.  We're always hearing footsteps on the tiles.  The most amazing physical phenomenon happened two days ago when Kayla opened the freezer and found an unopened Mountain Dew can in there.  She had been out running errands and I was blogging.  No one else was here.  The can hadn't been in long enough to expand and burst.  Kayla had been out for hours and I am not picky about the temperature of my soda.  It's like we live in the Twilight Zone.
  I just got an email from a movie company that's going to be filming a movie called 'Zombie Apocalypse'.  They said they'd keep me updated on details of the making of the film.  This is a film being made by zombie fans.  It's going to be filmed in Los Angeles.  That's a heck of a lot closer than Virginia so it's feasible for me to be a part of making this film happen!

Take A Chill Pill

  There was a 'House' rerun yesterday about a lady with psychopathy as a symptom.  Her behavior caused me to look up psychopathy on wikipedia.  There was a checklist of various signs of having that affliction and I fit almost everyone of those signs.  I'll have to ask my psychiatrist to actually administer a test for that so it's not just my wife and my opinion, but a documented fact.  Maybe then I can get the proper help I need.
  On a related note, we've noticed that my manic episodes in the past and again the other day, coincided with me taking a 'Ginseng Energy Now' dietary supplement.  The ingredients are: Eleuthero, Guarana Seed, Yerba Mate, Taurine, Ashwagandha, Ginkgo Biloba, Korean Ginseng, Suma, Ho Shou Wu, Echinacea, Goldenseal, Gotu Kola and Green Tea.  Any one of those might be reacting badly with my Depakote or with my natural chemical make-up.  Kayla thought it would be a good idea for me to put out a warning on my blog so that anyone out there who is taking Depakote should be aware of a possible negative side-effect of also taking the ginseng pills.
  The doctors have given me three types of medication, all of which they just call Depakote.  One is Valproic Acid, one is Divalproex Sodium and the last is just called Depakote.  The pattern that we've noticed is that it makes me more easily irritable.  The more ignorance we obliterate together, the closer to the truth we all get.

Ahora Yo Soy Un Zombie

  Gosh, my Spanish is as bad as my Korean.  Explore Talent just sent me an email saying that said that there's a movie starring Bradley Cooper that needs extras, but since I only have a free trial membership with ET, I can't audition.  I'd have to pay these people just so that I can audition for a part that I may not even get paid for!  Over the phone, they wouldn't even tell me where the movie was being filmed!  Why even offer a free trial membership if it doesn't do anything, dern fool idjits?  Reminds me of this one modeling talent agency that would represent me as long as I let them shoot a portfolio for me for several hundred dollars! No thank you.
  There's a film company I'm friends with on Facebook called Film Demic.  They just posted that they're doing a zombie short film contest.  I figure, that's something I can do.  I just had to turn down a part as a zombie for Night of the Living dead so I'm itching to play a zombie and here's my opportunity!  There's a cash prize and the winning film will get limited theatrical release!