Steven Mix's Blog, page 4

How to prank a death cult properly...

If I ever become filthy rich I'm going to research a way to take long dead cells and clone the organism with memories intact from the exact point it died.

Then I'm going to hire gravediggers to steal the remains of the Heaven's Gate cult and decorate a SciFi set with alien themes. I will resurrect them all with memories up to the moment they laid down, ingested applesauce and cyanide, expecting to wake up on an Alien Mothership trailing the Hale Bopp Comet.

Just as they are awakening I'll run up to them wearing an alien mask, making blippity blip noises while shouting, "Greetings travelers!"

They'll all become excited and start shouting cultist insanity. Right then, in the most perfect, soul crushing moment, I'll rip off the mask and shout,

"SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS, You cut your genitalia off!"

Then I will explain that I cloned that too...

and we will play some Xbox.

...

...

... in space.

New merchandise: STICKERS!

I've been quite busy, so I haven't done a blog update recently. That is all about to change!

We had a successful event with Village House of Books in Los Gatos. The place was full and the owners seemed quite pleased! I will be posting pictures as soon as we get them back from the photographer.

We have quite a bit of merchandise in the works... I can't tell you what it all is but, I can share the first thing that I just received in the mail...

STICKERS!

Zombie Civil Rights Stickers designed by comic book artist Sean Eddingfield!

So what's next?

More merchandise is coming! I'll post pics as it arrives.

I will be appearing at

September 26th through the 28th.

Here is a list of my scheduled events:

Friday 2-4 Writing fiction and breathing characters and new worlds to life (M)
Friday 4-6 Questions and Answers and Things That Go Bump In the Night
Friday 8-10 Hosting a Fan Moderated Chat on True Ghost Stories
Saturday 10-12 So you're published... now what?
Saturday 12-2 Merging Genres
Sunday 10-11 Autograph Session
Sunday 12-2 Social Worldbuilding

I hope to see you all at Convolution and hopefully we will have more merchandise and some big announcements for you then!

End: I Bleed, They Feed

It was a long month. Here is my monthly word count: 21681. It was far from Nanowrimo standards but that wasn't the point of this month.

The point was to write.

Well what did I learn this month?

Just writing is great.

Your word count won't climb to new heights by worrying about it, it just needs you to set aside a few minutes out of your day. I wasn't concerned about word counts. Whenever I had a low word count day, it was usually because I was just too busy... but I still found time to write.

I am so busy.

I had a day where I did a book event and then dashed across town for my high school reunion. I didn't have enough minutes in the day to write. I still found time... but this sort of thing happens often.

I feel like I need a day off after three weeks of writing.

I've always known this. I have never completed a Nanowrimo because I get to three weeks and then take a few days off. I think that if I do marathon sessions from now on, three weeks is where I need to throw in one or two days off. For some reason that is where I feel overwhelmed.

I need to have a minimum of three projects to work on.

I wound up bouncing back and forth between my book and a couple of short stories I'm working on. If my brain felt like I couldn't handle working on the book that day, I could still slam out a few pages on something else.

Facebook is a great way to stay connected to your friends... It is a terrible way to be social.

I avoided using Facebook for the first two weeks of this month and it was wonderful. I went back to it for the last two weeks. It eats up your free time and often makes you feel miserable. I can't stand using Facebook now. I might give it up. Twitter doesn't feel so dark. Twitter's short message system tends to make people post funny one liners or entertaining links. Facebook walls are just filled with news updates and depression. If you are working on anything involving creativity, facebook will eat your soul.

I found a secret weapon.

A shining sword for slaying dragons named: The Alphasmart Neo. I ordered it because it is a cheap word processor with no bells and whistles and six weeks of life on one set of batteries. There is no distractions when I sit down to use it. I just plop down in a couch and write with it. It doesn't have a mechanical keyboard, but it feels pretty close to one! If I take it somewhere and lose it I'm out 35 bucks. I don't know why this thing was discontinued but please, someone create something similar to this for all writers to use. It is fantastic.

The publisher and I created new merchandise!

I can't announce any of it just yet but it looks great! :)

Book two is close to being finished!

There are only a couple of chapters left to write! They are all the exciting climax chapters that I've been building toward since the story began. I have been bouncing off the walls over this!

So the month went well, but I'm tired!

I'm going to take a few days off and just read and then I'll take the final leap towards finishing book two.

Also I'll be signing books next week at:

So please come see me!

Book Signing: September 6th

Hi Friends and Family,

As some of you may know, my first book signing is coming up fast on September 6th. For those of you who don’t know, I’d like to invite you to come out that day and say hello!

I’m lucky to be working with a cool little independent bookstore in Los Gatos that supports local authors, as well as the literary community in the greater San Jose area. This business definitely deserves your support and I’d like to make my book signing with them well worth their while.

I’d love to see you all there and sign a book for you. If you can only make it for five minutes, that’s okay too. Any time you could make in your busy schedule to stop by would be highly appreciated.

Here are the details:

Date

September 6, 2014

Time

2-4pm

Location

Village House of Books

21 West Main Street Los Gatos

Thank you so much, each and every one of you, for your continued support. It really means the world to me.

Sincerely,

Steven Mix

Book signing: Village House of Books NEW LOCATION!

Saturday September 6th, 2-4pm

I will be doing a book signing at Village House of Books new store which is located at

21 W. Main Street. Los Gatos, California.

Please come out and chat with me about zombies, horror, books, writing, the publishing industry, video games, anything. Pick up a copy of my book, Goodbye from the Edge of Never and I'll sign it for you.

I will also be giving out our limited edition postcards that you can only receive at my appearances... and maybe discussing some giveaways for my Halloween promotion.

Giant thanks to Lloyd Russell and Village House of Books for hosting this event. They have an upcoming event on August 23rd that features a whopping 25 authors including Laurie R. King and Jay Elliot!!!


So, please try to make time to come out and support this bookstore. They are doing some pretty spectacular things for the reading and writing community!

Update on: I Bleed, They Feed

Before I get to the nitty gritty of the update I just wanted to add a huge thank you to the San Jose Renaissance Faire for having me out this year.

It was spectacular! Met some great people and gained some new fans! I wound up juggling. (Yes, I can do that.) I got to hang out with the master storyteller M. Todd Gallowglas and a new writer named Mark Gelineau. Mark is featured in a few anthologies and he is currently finishing a horror novel. His sense of humor is outstanding! I'm hoping he will wind up at Convolution 2014 alongside the rest of us.

Which brings us to the next point,

Convolution 2014:

GO!

Seriously, buy your tickets now! That convention is going to be amazing.

Also, I have to extend a giant thank you to Derek McCaw of Fanboy Planet and Dark Horse Comics for giving me a copy of Usagi Yojimbo SENSO 1 before the release date!

Please be sure and visit http://www.usagiyojimbo.com and buy anything and everything from Stan Sakai. I grew up on Usagi. Mr. Sakai is a hero of mine and he has fallen on hard times. His wife has had some rough medical procedures and they have some large bills because of it. So please show your support and buy stuff!

So how are things going for the, I Bleed, They Feed event where I hibernate from most social media and write every day during the month of August?

Fri, AUG 1: DONE

Word count: 784

Sat, AUG 2: DONE

Word count: 381 words

Sun, AUG 3: DONE

Word count: 470

Mon, AUG 4: DONE

Word count: 808

Tues, AUG 5: DONE

Word count: 618

Wed, AUG 6: DONE

Word count: 626

Thurs, AUG 7: DONE

Word count: 879

Grand total after the first week: 4566 words

It's not the National Novel Writing month of November standards but, it's pretty good.

Book two's manuscript is almost finished!

I Bleed, They Feed

If you're wondering where I am in August, I'm doing my own personal, "I Bleed, They Feed," event.

Book two's manuscript is nearly complete so I will be going into hibernate mode with most social media until September. I will only appear to link blog posts or post word counts.

The plan for August is: writing every day, blogging, reading regularly, working with my publisher on new merchandise to prepare for Convolution and working on our Halloween event.

I'm also trying to crank out some new serialized fiction centering around some of the other characters from Goodbye from the Edge of Never.

Hopefully, we can release it as a Halloween event alongside a giveaway for our loyal fans.

I'll be at the San Jose Renaissance Faire this weekend so if you're down near the south bay come on out and get your book signed. I will be giving out collectible postcards and bookmarks as well. :)

So if you hear the shadows clacking their teeth, hold your breath, find a weapon and pray for daybreak...

Book two is coming.

I once had a teacher tell me I was a zombie.

I had a Greek Muslim woman for an english teacher at my community college. We will call her "Mrs H."

Either Mrs H disliked soldiers or just did not like me at first, but she once announced to the class that, "All soldiers are zombies."

When it came time for a final project which was a research paper, she was asking everyone what their topics were going to be. They all had super serious topics like, "The ways the budget cuts are affecting our education." or "How political campaign funding is ruining our lives."

I told her my topic was, "Zombies."

Mrs H started to complain how that wasn't a serious topic and asked me what I meant. I informed her, "Fast movers versus slow movers, different types of infection, ways to counter the hordes."

She eventually gave me the green light to do it and my report was both well researched AND comical. She later asked me if she could use it as an example for future classes.

A few quarters later I informed Mrs. H that I had become an author. She asked me what kind of books I was writing. I told her, "zombie horror." I also told her that her writing class was one of the reasons I became an author. It was a good class.

She had tears in her eyes, told me that I was her favorite student and then she hugged me.

She hugged me every day she passed me at school. Before I graduated, Mrs H. informed me that I was the only student she ever hugged.

Despite our backgrounds, her over the top attitude at one point and my defiance, we still became good friends... and her class and skill as a teacher influenced my life in some pretty grand ways.

Convention report: Tokyo in Tulsa

I spent last week in Oklahoma for the annual Tokyo in Tulsa event.

I went to this Con once before in 2012. Tokyo in Tulsa is, in my opinion, a shiny gem in a sea of conventions. I had an absolute blast.

My good friend Gerald Whalen grabbed me at the airport. Here's a photo of us screwing around in the TARDIS at the convention.

Friday night we opened in the vendors room. Unfortunately, we had to shut our booth down early to speak at the zombie panel we were hosting, followed by my book signing at Roserock cafe in Gardner's bookstore.

Here is some footage from the second half of our panel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTBS-Y2r_14

It was filmed by Monster from Fearcast.net. He also participated quite a bit. I think we all agreed that if we do the panel again next year, he should be up there with us. We talked to him after the panel and he wound up pulling out his cellphone and showing me this mountain of photos of him with all sorts of actors and directors in the horror industry! YES, HE HAS MET ROMERO!

The book signing was wonderful.

Big thanks to the folks who run Roserock cafe for hosting us.

I had a great time and the food should be world famous. I'm still drooling over it. Cass and her staff are probably the warmest people you will ever meet. If you are ever in the Tulsa area, you need to stop in and chow down!

Gardner's books is this giant maze of bookshelves! It is so big that they have a full size, Red Hulk in the middle of the store. Look, we matched!

The next day we spoke on a publishing panel and met a lot of writers and artists that were local to Tulsa.

The Tulsa creative scene is amazing!

There are so many enthusiastic people who just seem to hunger for art. It must be wonderful to live here.

The TnT game room was gigantic! A football field sized warehouse filled with people playing everything from Mario kart to League of Legends. They even had a live shoutcasted LoL tournament running through most of the convention that had some pretty comical announcers.

Then it happened.

Walking back into the vendor room, standing across from our booth, next to our posters were Zia, Trueson and Mason. Zia Daughtery was the artist who designed our postcards and she and her husband Trueson and friend Mason had all decided to cosplay my characters. Mason was cosplaying my character who is also named Mason. How awesome is that?

Her art was amazing... and look how brilliant their cosplay was!

I was blown away. Hell, I was almost in tears.

Aside from the day I was married and the day my son was born, I've never been so overwhelmed and so happy at the same time.

I felt like I was going to pass out and needed to go for a walk to calm down.

BAM! Giant dinosaur cosplay spotted.

In the art room there were two sisters referred to as, "The Chalk Twins" who were working 30 hours on their creation for the event. Look how talented they are!

The night after the event my publisher surprised me with tickets to Alice Cooper and Motley Crue!

Thank you so much to the Morenos and Falkor Publishing for inviting me out!

We sold a mountain of books and met a lot of fans. I can't thank Tokyo in Tulsa enough for hosting us.

The event, the city and the people of Tulsa are so much fun. I can't wait for next year!

Mystery House - Part 4: Donathan's Story

I suppose it is time for the finale of our short story.

In case you missed it, this story takes place in between Goodbye from the Edge of Never and the second book in the series.

A huge thank you to Trueson and Zia Daughtery for designing the artwork for all of this!

Reminders: I'm doing a book reading and signing at Gardner's Books inside of their Roserock cafe on July 11th at 6pm. (Oh hey that's tomorrow!)

I am also doing an appearance at Tokyo in Tulsa July 11th through the 13th! Come out and get some freebies! (Oh hey that is also tomorrow!)

Also, I will be at The San Renaissance Faire on August 2nd and 3rd. Come on one, meet me, eat giant turkey legs and watch people joust!

Mystery House - Part 1 (in case you missed it)

Mystery House - Part 2: Mason's Story

Mystery House - Part 3: Ashley's Story

The conclusion: Mystery House - Part 4: Donathan's Story