So this is what happens when you miss the opportunity of a lifetime...? No job, for over a year; ample opportunity to workout at the gym;  had the time to write, write, and write some more, but what do I do? Sulk. Lay in deep depression most of the time. It's unbelievable what depression is capable of on the human psyche. I finally got what I always wanted: the chance to stay at home and write, and get paid mildly for it, and I blow it! But alas I'm only human. And I can't do anything about the past. But the past year wasn't all that bad, really! My Baltimore Orioles broke the curse of 14 successive losing seasons and went to the playoffs; they were one game away from a Championship game. I got to visit Fenway Park and watch the Orioles beat the Sox--how great is that?!--I waited a lifetime, it seems, for this to happen. The 2nd annual Grand Prix of Baltimore came and went, with some rain, and I'm looking forward to the 3rd race. Star-Spangled Sailabration broug...

Children's vampire book synopsis: Count Dracula leaves behind the foggy woodland hills of Transylvania for the humid, narrow streets of New Orleans. Dracula's wife Caramella has been seemingly abducted by his arch nemesis, the French nobleman Le'snot, who has whisked her away to the Garden District to be married on Halloween. Le'snot's friend, Edvard, is brooding and glittering (he's bitter that his fangs will not develop) and agrees to help Le'snot when he falls in love with a beignet waitress named Cookie at Cafe Du Monde. And finally there is the small brown wolf-like puppy Wolfie who is burdened with a particular affliction for turning into a human boy during the full moon. It's his curse to bear, and while in human-boy form for those three days he searches old books on ways to destroy the human curse, not immediately seeing the hypocrisy of his quest. Dracula and his son Devon arrive in New Orleans at a pier in front of Jackson Square, with St...

Happy Halloween, dear blog and friends. Hurricane Sandy is on her way and the flooding has begun around here. Wind gusts are extreme, too. I began a strong edit of Unique . From over 140,000 words I'm working near to 100,000 words for a much more single direction. I hope to postpone the apocalyptic ending for another story so to keep the plot and setting in present day for the time being. I like it in Baltimore. I'll blow it up later. The book 2 story is still in the works as I really like the story of Evan waking from a coffin in the earth a decade or so into this new world inhabited by tall, dark castles and vampire technology and mutants and a much quieter planet. Saw Hotel Transylvania with my girlfriend and nephew over the weekend. Really cute flick, but eerily reminded me of my failures to get my vampire children's book ( A New Life in New Orleans ) done. I'll share a synopsis soon.

During this past year I've learned a lot about myself, and forgot a lot, as well. During this past year I reckon I could've had polished my book and had it published, twice. Instead, I burrowed deep into my depression, snuggled into it, cried that I wanted to find a way out of it, but like the barb of a cactus, the more you pull the deeper it sets. During this past year I've missed a lot of opportunities. During this past year I watched my beloved Baltimore Orioles win 93 games and burst onto the Postseason stage and falter dramatically. That was the flipside to my deep despair. The boys in orange and black gave me a summer to remember while survived a summer to forget. Today I started writing again, added a nice new piece to the first book and I have two pages in what is now the definite book 2. As the original book 2 became a piece for much later in the series. Who knows, maybe I'll be back soon... It's Halloweentober, which means all I think about night and...

Unemployment. Day 180. Withdrawal. Pain. Agony. The Displaced Vampire all but forgotten. How can i fix any of this?

I know this is a bit late, but it's Halloween once again, the time for ghosts, ghouls and other nasties, but more specifically it's a time of vampires. And this year, let's celebrate the vampire hunters, the slayers of the undead Children of the Night in film and television and literature. And considering I've recently attened the Theater of the Vampires Ball in New Orleans with special guest Laurell K Hamilton, let's celebrate her very own slayer: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter. I've just finished reading the fifth book in her very long running series, Bloody Bones, and honestly I was hooked again. Serephina, the town's master vampire, is described so beautifully and wonderfully spooky that the book's weaknesses disappeared for me completely. Reading a captivating chapter like that is the kind of stuff that inspires me most to continue to write, even when I'm in hopeless despair. But Anita Blake is a richly deep and complex character, and after hearing...

The Theatre of the Vampires Ball . We had originally planned to attend the ball as the hooded-cloaked vampires of the theatre as seen in Interview with the Vampire , but the trip was nearly in jeapordy, so costumes were out of the question until last night. I need help finding a costume, quickly. Laurell K. Hamilton is one of the guests this year, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a suitable Anita Blake-inspired costume. I'm not exactly Jean-Claude material. I just don't have the hair for it...