Moe Lane's Blog, page 507

09/17/2022 Snippet, BUZZ ON THE STREETS.

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I opened the window and lit up while Sofie snagged a second wake-me-up. “What the hell’s going on?” I asked her, once I could see the java finally hit her system.

“What’s that line, Shamus? ‘I could tell you, but then you would know?’ Things are going on. Things that aren’t any of your business, so keep that in mind.”

Okay, so it was ‘cryptic warning.’ I shook my head. “Lots of things ain’t my business, Sofie. At least, that’s what I keep getting told. Usually by people who think fists are punctuation marks.”

“Ouch,” Sofie said. “I guess I deserved that. Look, what’s going on is… complicated. You shouldn’t have even heard about it. If you had heard about it, you wouldn’t have cared. Do you get what I’m saying?”

I actually did. The nobles of New California like to play little games with each other. Sometimes the games get a little rough around the edges, although they try to keep actual murders off the table. The rest of the realm puts up with it because the commoners don’t get involved at all, except for reading the inevitable newspaper articles with what the Old Americans called ‘prurient interest.’ “Fine, this is upper crust shenanigans. Been a while since the last one.” I stubbed out my smoke. “I’m missing what you want out of me, though.”

Fright Reads in two weeks!

October 1st. Five bucks to get in! Kids get in free! If you’re in Maryland and going to be in Millersville on that day, consider making it over to Fright Reads: there’s gonna be a bunch of authors there besides me, and the folks running it are trying to be as small-author friendly as possible. I am not getting the screws put to me with regard to the table fees, for example.

They want to make Fright Reads a thing, and I have my own vested interests in them making Fright Reads a thing, so check it out.

Book of the Week: The Blood Is The Life.

THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE by David Carrico is the story of a nice Orthodox Jewish boy who becomes a vampire… and who would like to continue being a nice Orthodox Jewish boy, thank you very much. It’s an establishing novel, mostly focused on establishing the world, and setting up the character for future adventures; I look forward to seeing what happens to the hero after this. A quick, fun read.

‘Who Are You?’

Who Are You?, The Who

Kind of a weird day today.

Tried to get to a movie, but there was a scheduling bobble and it didn’t happen. On the other hand, it was a beautiful day and I was able to restart the story, so that’s good. I’m also hoping to get considerably more writing in this weekend.

Oh, and the new chapbook’s out, but I’m not gonna nag people about it. [EDIT: …Much.]

09/16/22 Snippet, BUZZ ON THE STREETS.

Genre savvy!

Patreon!

Sofie did not wake me up with her knocking, knocking on my office door, but only because I was up already. I figured she would walk back into my life just after sunrise, and I had her arrival time pegged to within twenty minutes. I like it when shenanigans — I wasn’t going to call this a Case yet — are that predictable.

I even had a pot of coffee going, because I’m classy like that. “Morning, Sofie,” I said as I opened the door. “Apology, explanation, or cryptic warning?”

She looked at me, blinking. “You can’t tell me you have a patter for this!”

“All right,” I replied, and gave enough of a pause for her to notice. “But I do have coffee. You want a cup, first? It’s early out.”

Movie of the Week: THE A-TEAM.

I have an irrational love of THE A-TEAM. I know, I know: it has its flaws. All I know is, this scene is off the hook when it’s up on the big screen…

…and I am an easy man to please when it comes to movies. I was talking about that to my wife the other day, in fact: mildly bemoaning the fact that I was That Guy. Her response? So, why don’t you just be That Guy?

I have a smart wife.

So, they’re doing a sequel to CONSTANTINE.

Guess I’m gonna have to watch the first CONSTANTINE now: “Warner Bros will develop another installment of the 2005 supernatural thriller Constantine, and the studio is re-teaming star Keanu Reeves and director Francis Lawrence, who made his helming debut on the original.” I yeah, I dunno why I’ve never actually sat down to watch it. I kind of blame the way CD drives went away on computers. It’s just a hassle these days to catch non-streaming flicks on my PC…

Via GeekTyrant.

#commissionearned

PSA of the Day, I Know That None Of MY Readers Need Be Told This edition.

But we still need to get the word out. Tweet after the fold because @ZODIAC_MF is nearly the Platonic Ideal of Not Safe For Work. And it is a glorious thing to see*.

PSA pic.twitter.com/9Yt55FvaLR

— ZODIAC MOTHERFUCKER (@ZODIAC_MF) September 16, 2022

*You know how, when most people say they don’t care, they’re really just trying not to get two-for-flinching? …Zodiac legitimately does not care. Watching his would-be trolls eventually succumb to cognitive dissonance poisoning is one of the few unadulterated joys of Twitter.

DUTIES is now available in Kindle, KU, and print!

DUTIES is my latest illustrated chapbook:

Four tales of obligations! Four stories, each with its own illustration! And each with its own hero! There’s the killer robot of MEATBAGS, who cannot wait to tell you what he thinks about humanity. Then there’s the clever cleric of THE FIGHT IN THE GROVE, fighting to save the forest from corruption and blight! Joining them is the weary wisecracker of PROCESSING DUTY, buried deep in the darkest shadow of the Cold War. Lastly is MOTHER’S LITTLE HELPER, and his machinations in a funhouse mirror of two centuries. Read this cross-genre romp today! (Four stories, each with its own illustration, thirty-two thousand words total.)

And with any luck, I’ll have copies in time for Fright Reads. Slowly but surely, I develop a catalog…

#commissionearned