Justin R. Macumber's Blog, page 13

I’m in a new anthology – DIRTY MAGICK: LOS ANGELES

Hi, everyone! I know, I know, it’s been awhile, but I hate to spam just to fill in content. I want to make sure when I post that it’s something worth reading. This most certainly applies. I hope you’re as excited as I am.

DIRTY MAGICK: LOS ANGELES is an anthology from Lucky Mojo Press. The synopsis for it reads: “Dirty Magick: Los Angeles” is an urban fantasy anthology exploring the crossroads between magic and crime. Set in the city that invented noir, these stories comb the back streets and side alleys where the shadows are so sharp they can shave you clean.”

My story for it is entitled THAT OLD HELL MAGIC, and it’s about a police detective on the hunt for a demon that has stolen souls in a night club on the Sunset Strip. Right now it’s available in ebook form for the Kindle and Nook, and soon it’ll also be available on the iBookstore and in print. When it is I’ll update this post. I’m really proud of the story, and I’m proud that it’s featured in this anthology. Please click on the links below and purchase your copy today. It’s at a great price point.

Thanks, and I’ll be back soon with even more great news!

Purchase for the Kindle

Purchase for the Nook

A New Venture – TV Talk

I am a big fan of television. Perhaps too big a fan, some might say. I always have been, ever since I was a kid marveling at the adventures of Michael Knight and KITT on Knight Rider, and over the past several year TV has been responsible for some of the greatest storytelling I’ve ever seen (e.g., LOST, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Breaking Bad). When Aaron Peterson asked me to be on the co-hosts on his The Hollywood Outsider podcast I jumped at the opportunity since it meant I would get to chat weekly with people who were just as nerdy about movies and television as I was. But, recently I was presented with another venue for my love, and I wanted to tell you about it in case you’re as geeky about TV as I am.

As their site properly states, TV Talk is the hottest new brand in second-screen TV entertainment. Using their app — which is available for iOS and Google mobile devices — you can listen to 20 minute chats between two knowledgeable hosts as they discuss what happened on your favorite show, speculate about what’s to come, and present intriguing questions of the week to get you engaged and interacting via the app. It is a completely free service, so don’t worry that you’re going to be charged anything. Get the app for free, pick which shows you like to watch, and it will download the TV Talk episodes for you. That is pretty easy! And it’s totally free!

Now, I will be co-hosting two shows for TV Talk. They will be Grimm and Sleepy Hollow. Grimm returns to television October 25th, so there will be a little while before we start talking about it, but Sleepy Hollow premiers September 16th, which is just over a week from now. Aaron, whom I mentioned earlier, is hosting that show with me, and a premier episode has already been released in which we talked about the original Washington Irving short story, what we know about the upcoming show, and how they relate and diverge from one another. I sincerely hope you’ll give it a listen and then try more TV Talk shows.

Anyway, that’s all from me for now. Please check out TV Talk and then let me know what you think. I wouldn’t have joined up with them if I didn’t feel like it was a quality service. I’m confident you will too. Click on the image below to get started.

Space City Con 2013

Last weekend I went to Space City Con in Houston, Texas, and had a blast. This was the second year for the convention, and they really did a great job. Their first year wasn’t terrible, this time they had the con in a hotel much more convention friendly (plenty of meeting rooms for panels, lots of parking, great dealer room space), and the panels were more organized. I also managed to sell a lot of books, which always makes things better. A MINOR MAGIC was a hit with the ladies, and even HAYWIRE was snapped up. I look forward to going again next year. If you haven’t been, and traveling to Houston isn’t out of the question, then I highly encourage you to join me!

Before I head out, I wanted to share one of the few pictures I took while I was there. Seeing and meeting celebrities is always fun, but when you see one that was on a show (and a film) you loved, then it’s that much more awesome. On Saturday I happened to run into Jewel Staite in a reserved dining room while waiting for a panel. She was such a sweetheart, and when I asked if I could have my picture taken with her she actually acted like she was delighted to do it, though I’m sure it was a pain since I was but one of hundreds of people who’d asked for the same thing. Here is the picture. Thank you, Jewel! It’s so shiny!

My Next Project

Life never quite goes where you think it will, and the same goes for art. I figured after finishing the edits for STILL WATER and A BROKEN MAGIC (which I’m nearly done with, by the way) I’d work on one of the new ideas I mentioned in a previous blog post. I already have plenty of stories that are waiting to be told. But, when I asked my wife Krista what she thought I should write next, she said, “You need to writer another HAYWIRE story.”

That threw me. While many people have asked me in the past to tell more stories about the Titans, it wasn’t something I’d really considered. HAYWIRE was the story I wanted to tell, and I’d told it. Honestly, I hadn’t been all that interested in going back to that universe. But her words gave me pause to reconsider. Were there more stories I could tell? Sure, absolutely. Would I be interested enough in telling them though? Come to find out, maybe. Now I just have to figure it out. I have an opening already in mind, and I definitely have an ending, so now I sort out how I get from the one to the other. That’s the writer’s toughest task.

As early as this new project is, though, I have already come up with the title for it. Are you ready? You wanna sit down? Here it is –

TITANS RISE

Yep, there ya go. In the next month or so I’ll begin outlining the story of how the Titans came to be, and of the beginning of their battle against the Hezrin invaders. As more develops, I will keep you in the loop. I also gave my brother Scott an idea for the cover, so he has plenty of time to make it just as good or even better than what he made for HAYWIRE. And when it’s done hopefully the fine folks at Gryphonwood Press will want to publish it.

That’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll have news regarding the future of STILL WATER and A BROKEN MAGIC soon. Until then, stay classy…

Stay on target!

Earlier in the year I posted a list of things I was going to work on in 2013. Have I managed to stick to that schedule? Eh, not exactly, but I’m not far off either.

I anticipated it would take a month to write the two short stories THE DRAGON AND THE SPARROW and IT CAME FROM THE BLACK. It actually took almost two months. Luckily both of them were well received by the anthology editors who’d requested them. THE DRAGON AND THE SPARROW actually needed a bit of edited done to it, which took about a week or so, but the story is stronger for it, so I’m happy. I really can’t wait for them to be released to the world.

Doing a second pass on STILL WATER wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I added a prologue to it, which was probably the biggest bit of work. All in all, though, it flowed pretty well. Now it’s out to beta readers to see what they think. I’m hoping they liked it and have some good notes on how I could make it even better. We shall see.

Right now I’m doing my second pass on A BROKEN MAGIC. I’m only a few chapters in, but I have to say that I’m really liking it. With every word we write we’re supposed to get better at it, so it only makes sense that this would be my strongest effort yet, but that doesn’t take away from my joy at seeing my craft evolve and improve. Let’s hope others think the same thing.

But, along with those things I’ve also been kept busy with other writerly items not on the list. First, and of course most importantly, the audiobook of A MINOR MAGIC is now available. Veronica Giguere did an amazing job narrating it. She lifts the words and makes them sing. I can’t thank you enough. If you’re interested in listening to it, you can find it at the following locations:

Audible.com

Amazon.com

iTunes Store

I’ve also published my short story THE DAME WORE WHITE to the Kindle store at Amazon. If you’d like to read it, it only costs $0.99, and you can do so by clicking

Anyway, that’s it from me. I’m hoping I’ll have A BROKEN MAGIC out to beta readers by the end of April. After that, on to more writing!

My Progress So Far

As you may recall, this year I had a lot of projects planned, and I had a schedule laid out for how I was going to get them done. I’m almost two months in, and while I’m not exactly on track, I’m not that far off either, and I’ll take that.

My first two projects for this year were short stories, both for anthologies I was asked to write for. The first one, THE DRAGON AND THE SPARROW, took longer than I thought it would, which is why I’m a little behind schedule. Why is it late? Because getting into the mode of writing a western (which I’ve never done before) with Samurai influences (which I’ve also never done) proved trickier than I’d expected. Instead of two weeks to write it, it took me almost a month. But, the good thing is that I wrote what I feel is a quality story, and the anthology publisher loved it too. Whew!

The second project was IT CAME FROM THE BLACK, a story inspired by the classic Universal film “The Creature From The Black Lagoon.” Because that one was more in my wheelhouse, it was much easier to write. I had so much fun, in fact, that I wish I could write more of them. The characters I came up with really spoke to me. I allotted two weeks to write it, and that’s exactly how long it took. The publisher is looking at it right now. Hopefully I won’t have to edit it too much. I think it’s great, but I’m rather biased.

So, what do I work on now? Well editing STILL WATER of course. It feels like forever since I wrote that first draft. I barely remember it, in fact, which is good, because it gives me a fresh perspective on it. I’ll start on that tomorrow. Today I’m busy catching up on email and other things (like this poor blog, for instance). I hope you’re looking forward to reading the new short stories, because I’m really excited to get them out to you.

2013’s Works In (Or Soon To Be) Progress

2012 was a pretty busy year, but when I think about everything I want to accomplish in 2013 it makes last year look lazy. For those who want to know what all I have on the docket for the new year, here is a list. Please feel free to tell me what you think, especially if any of these ideas excite you.

THE DRAGON AND THE SPARROW – This is a short story for an anthology entitled WAY OF THE GUN I was invited to be part of. The theme of the anthology is “Samurai meets the Old West via gunslingers.” I love that premise, and today I started work on my story. I should be done with the first draft by the end of next week.

IT CAME FROM THE BLACK – This is another anthology short story I was invited to write. The theme for this one is a new take on Universal’s classic monsters. I picked The Creature From The Black Lagoon. This one will probably round out January.

BURNING HEAVEN – With this one I’ll be heading back to sci-fi. I’m going to brainstorm this one on the Roundtable Podcast, then write up an outline. But, before I can begin full scale work on it, I’ll need to work on…

Second Draft of STILL WATER – I think this horror novel has sat on my hard drive long enough. Time to give it another whack, then send it off to beta readers to see what they think.

Second Draft of A BROKEN MAGIC – While beta readers are going through STILL WATER I’ll be going back through this one. Hopefully by the time I’m done with the second draft I’ll be getting notes back on STILL WATER. When my beta readers are ready, I’ll send out this book for notes.

I’m figuring that at this point I’ll be around the end of June. If so, I’ll possibly be getting started on a new secret project. I’m not saying much about it now because (A)it might not happen, and (B)I want some mystery to build up to help promote it.

While that is (or isn’t) going on I’ll be working on the third draft of STILL WATER. Depending on the notes I get this could be a quick edit, or it could be a total rewrite. We’ll see. After this draft is done I’ll send it off to publishers.

Third draft of A BROKEN MAGIC – Same as above.

BURNING HEAVEN – This is an odd one, because originally it was going to be a novel, but I might end up writing it in serial form and releasing it that way. If so, it might get peppered in with the other work mentioned here.

Oh! And I can’t forget a horror screenplay I’ll be working on with my brother Scott. This was also originally going to be a novel, but after thinking about it more and discussing it with friends, a screenplay sounds like a better idea since it’s a story about a TV film crew. Not sure how where and how it’ll fit in with all the things mentioned above. I’ll find a way though. Since my brother will be working on it with me, that’ll help.

I imagine that all of that will take up most, if not all, of my year. We’re talking two books, two short stories, a screenplay, and a serialized story, along with a secret project. Not too bad. If I somehow find that I have time left before 2014 rolls around, I have two more books I want to get working on. They are A KILLING MAGIC (the third and final book in the MINOR MAGIC trilogy) and HEARTLESS, a horror novel about a man who looses his wife and in his grief finds that there are worse fates than death. I imagine, though, that those are books I’ll be talking about next year.

So, that’s it! Whew! I think it’s enough. Don’t you? I’ll try to be better at keeping you guys up to date on my progress on each of these. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you’ll also stop by the page for A MINOR MAGIC and buy a copy. If it doesn’t sell well, then all my work on A BROKEN MAGIC will be for naught, and A KILLING MAGIC won’t happen at all. Don’t let that happen.

Later on, friends!

2013′s Works In (Or Soon To Be) Progress

2012 was a pretty busy year, but when I think about everything I want to accomplish in 2013 it makes last year look lazy. For those who want to know what all I have on the docket for the new year, here is a list. Please feel free to tell me what you think, especially if any of these ideas excite you.

THE DRAGON AND THE SPARROW – This is a short story for an anthology entitled WAY OF THE GUN I was invited to be part of. The theme of the anthology is “Samurai meets the Old West via gunslingers.” I love that premise, and today I started work on my story. I should be done with the first draft by the end of next week.

IT CAME FROM THE BLACK – This is another anthology short story I was invited to write. The theme for this one is a new take on Universal’s classic monsters. I picked The Creature From The Black Lagoon. This one will probably round out January.

BURNING HEAVEN – With this one I’ll be heading back to sci-fi. I’m going to brainstorm this one on the Roundtable Podcast, then write up an outline. But, before I can begin full scale work on it, I’ll need to work on…

Second Draft of STILL WATER – I think this horror novel has sat on my hard drive long enough. Time to give it another whack, then send it off to beta readers to see what they think.

Second Draft of A BROKEN MAGIC – While beta readers are going through STILL WATER I’ll be going back through this one. Hopefully by the time I’m done with the second draft I’ll be getting notes back on STILL WATER. When my beta readers are ready, I’ll send out this book for notes.

I’m figuring that at this point I’ll be around the end of June. If so, I’ll possibly be getting started on a new secret project. I’m not saying much about it now because (A)it might not happen, and (B)I want some mystery to build up to help promote it.

While that is (or isn’t) going on I’ll be working on the third draft of STILL WATER. Depending on the notes I get this could be a quick edit, or it could be a total rewrite. We’ll see. After this draft is done I’ll send it off to publishers.

Third draft of A BROKEN MAGIC – Same as above.

BURNING HEAVEN – This is an odd one, because originally it was going to be a novel, but I might end up writing it in serial form and releasing it that way. If so, it might get peppered in with the other work mentioned here.

Oh! And I can’t forget a horror screenplay I’ll be working on with my brother Scott. This was also originally going to be a novel, but after thinking about it more and discussing it with friends, a screenplay sounds like a better idea since it’s a story about a TV film crew. Not sure how where and how it’ll fit in with all the things mentioned above. I’ll find a way though. Since my brother will be working on it with me, that’ll help.

I imagine that all of that will take up most, if not all, of my year. We’re talking two books, two short stories, a screenplay, and a serialized story, along with a secret project. Not too bad. If I somehow find that I have time left before 2014 rolls around, I have two more books I want to get working on. They are A KILLING MAGIC (the third and final book in the MINOR MAGIC trilogy) and HEARTLESS, a horror novel about a man who looses his wife and in his grief finds that there are worse fates than death. I imagine, though, that those are books I’ll be talking about next year.

So, that’s it! Whew! I think it’s enough. Don’t you? I’ll try to be better at keeping you guys up to date on my progress on each of these. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you’ll also stop by the page for A MINOR MAGIC and buy a copy. If it doesn’t sell well, then all my work on A BROKEN MAGIC will be for naught, and A KILLING MAGIC won’t happen at all. Don’t let that happen.

Later on, friends!

A MINOR MAGIC is now available!

Yep, that’s right, my post-apocalyptic urban fantasy novel A MINOR MAGIC has been published by Crescent Moon Press and is available for purchase in print and in ebook. My website page for it is HERE. I’m so proud of this book, and I hope that all of you gets a copy and enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Here is a picture of the cover, along with link on where to purchase a copy of it. Thanks for stopping by and helping to support me.

A MINOR MAGIC – Over the course of a single night, mystical fires tore through the sky and reduced most of Earth to ash. Ten years later magical fire burns again, but this time it’s in the hands of a young girl named Skylar. Exiled from her adoptive home, Skylar must now struggle through ruined lands and religious zealots who believe she’s an agent of the Devil. An even greater threat exists in the form of shadowy sorcerers from another world who covet her blood. Along her journey, she meets a motley band of outcasts who not only know the secret of what happened to Earth, but also of Skylar’s true origin. Will Skylar be able to accept this fantastical truth? But more importantly, can her powers and raging heart be tamed in time to stop those who once burned the world and now seek total domination?

And here is the full cover. Click on it for a larger view.

Long Time, No See!

Wow, it’s been a long time since I last posted something here. I’m still not entirely convinced that anyone reads these things, but just in case, I wanted to come on and let you know what’s going on.

Long story short, I moved.

Long story a little less short, we finally have found the place we can call home probably for the rest of our lives. See, Krista and I bought our first home back in December of 2001, and we lived there for about seven years. But about three and a half years ago my wife’s father, Butch, died, and we inherited his house, which not only was a little bigger than our own and with a much larger back yard, but it was also completely paid off. Since I’d been laid off earlier that year and we were living solely off of Krista’s income, getting out from under a mortgage seemed like a good idea. So, we sold our home, paid off the mortgage, then took the remaining money and used it to do some remodeling of her father’s house as we moved into it. We were happy to have more space, the dogs were happy to have more yard to run around on, and not paying a monthly house payment was wonderfully freeing. Everything was great… for awhile…

What we didn’t realize was how difficult it was going to be to live in the house her father once lived in, a house she’d spent many good and bad years in when she was younger. It wasn’t easy for her to process his death, and living in his house only made it harder. Neither of us was prepared for the mental issues that came with living there. You can’t remodel memories away, or the heartache of losing a parent. Couple that with the longer commute she had to make to work every day, and it wasn’t long before we knew we would have to find a new place to live.

We tried for awhile to buy land and build a custom house on it, but the troubles we encountered there are too numerous to go into here. Suffice it to say, we weren’t able to do that. So instead we decided to look for a house that was for sale and met our needs. Need number one? More land! We have a lot of dogs, and we have a dislike for close neighbors, so finding a place on two or so acres was a must. We also wanted a place with more square footage, that was closer to her work, and if possible a place that already had a pool. As you can imagine, finding a house that met all those criteria wasn’t going to be easy. Surprisingly enough, after looking through the local real estate listings, we found a few contenders. And, when we went out to see them in person, the very first one we went through was PERFECT. It was on 2.6 acres, had several hundred more square feet, the garage was enormous, the landscaping was amazing, and the pool… oh, the pool… The price the sellers were asking for was a bit over our budget, but they were incredibly motivated to sell, so when we offered a number that was within our budget, they took it. Usually buying a house is a fairly lengthy and complicated affair, but not with this one. In record time we had paperwork drawn up and signed, inspections made (the inspector we hired to look at it said it was the best looking house he’d seen in years, and if we weren’t buying it he’d been sorely tempted), and money exchanged. I think, all totaled, it took only a couple of weeks to get it all done.

And so now, a month later, we’re finally all moved in an unpacked. You don’t think about how much stuff you own until you have to put every last piece of it in a box, and you never curse it so much as you do when you’re taking it back out and finding a new place for it. We were fortunate that the house was in a great condition and required very little work (I think all we’ve done is replace a couple of the appliances with ones we already owned and liked better and put up a ceiling fan in two rooms). My office was the last room to get done, but I think it’s the one I’m most happy with. It reflects my personality to a T. One of the reasons it took so long was because of my desk, which was stalled because of my new computer, which…

Yeah, the day before we moved my Dell got infected with a virus. I tried to fix it to no avail, and my brother Scott was able to get most of it rooted out, but there were just some things that weren’t correctable, so I limped along as best I could while we unpacked. Eventually, though, it gave up the ghost, so I ordered a new one. This time I went with an iMac. I know a lot of writers and podcasters who are ardent Mac users, and they all convinced me to give it a try. It’s not been easy to get used to a new operating system, but I’m getting more comfortable with it every day. Along with the new computer, though, I wanted to get a new desk. I’ve been reading a lot lately that says sitting down for hours a day is dangerous to your health, so I resolved to get a desk I could stand up and work at. Buying one looked to be an incredibly expensive proposition, so I decided to make use of my new big garage and build a desk. I’m no Bob Villa, but it actually came out pretty good. Much better than I would have thought of anyway. Once the new desk was in place, the new iMac went up on it, and then the rest of the office fell into place around them.

And so there you have it. I’ve been one busy beaver. I hate that it’s taken me so long to get to my site, but computer viruses and moving to a new house can do that. I also have news on my writing, but before I get to that let me post a few pictures of the house. I hope you like them.

Here’s the front of the house. I love the stone work in the lawn. The house has a rustic feel without feeling too country.

This is the view from the swing on the front porch. Being that far back from the road is nice.

This is the pool area. When I get in it I feel like I’m at a resort. We couldn’t have asked for a better pool.

And here is my new desk and computer. Oh, and the cat in the lower right corner? That’s Silvie, my office kitty.

So, when you imagine me slaving away at a computer pounding out the words to my story, that’s where I’m doing it. Speaking of writing…

Well, HAYWIRE is still out and doing okay. I’d love for it to be selling more, but I do what I can. Crescent Moon Press recently sent me the final line edits for A MINOR MAGIC, and I just finished going over them yesterday. Now the file is back with them. When I know more, I will post it here immediately. Since that’s off my plate, next week I get back to work on A BROKEN MAGIC. I’m hoping to have the first draft done before Thanksgiving. After that it’s back to STILL WATER. I’ve also been asked to write short stories for two anthologies. I can’t say anything about one of them, but the other has a Kickstarter up right now to help fund it. You can go HERE to learn more. I really hope you’ll support it.

And that’s about it. Sorry for the long absence. Take care of yourself…