The Last Blog Of The Year

Adios, 2011, you ball-breaking beeotch. And good riddance.

Ah. Feels good to get that out of my system.

This year has not been the best I've ever had. Most everybody who cares to know why already does, so there’s little need to belabor the point.

I’m planning on a better 2012. Healthier, happier and more productive. I have several writing projects lined up that I’m excited about.

I’m starting a new weekly column in a local paper. I’ll link to when the first one appears.

Two new books should be out in the new year, and a few short stories, if I get them finished.

I realize January 1 is just an arbitrary date, but I’m in need of a fresh start and new beginning. I plan to embrace it. I hope you do the same.

Enjoy the new year. Hold your loved ones close and tell them how much you care about them. Don’t put off your dreams for another minute.

Goodnight, world! Sweet dreams.

Pod of Horror #66

Pod of Horror is back to wrap up 2011 and prepare for Mayan destruction in 2012.

On PoH #66, Cullen Bunn discusses his award-winning series The Sixth Gun and his new young adult horror novel Crooked Hills.

In Scary Words, we review the second series of Maelstrom books from Thunderstorm Books and Brian Keene.

We have a winner in The Tomb of Trivia. Nanci delivers all the news that fits, and we announce the return of a member of the PoH family.

Get it at iTunes or download it here. Pod of Horror is hosted and produced by Mark Justice. And visit our Facebook page.

Free E-Book. But Hurry!

Just got this from Graveside Tales:

First 100 people, who send their name and preferred digital format to orders@gravesidebooks.com will receive. Looking At The World With Broken Glass In My Eye by Mark Justice.

Merry Christmas!

This is just a quick note to wish you happiness during the holiday season, whatever your beliefs or non-beliefs.

As I've said here and elsewhere, I had a massive realignment of priorities this year. Life's everyday aggravations, once the source of quite a bit of agony, now seem very insignificant.

I hope you get to spend time with those who are most important to you. I know I will.

That's all, folks!

Do You Know How Many Plates of Pancakes We Went Through To Get This Shot?

Free!

Here’s a cool bit of news.

As a holiday gift to you, Permuted Press is offering the e-book of Dead Earth: The Green Dawn for free. You can download it for Kindle, Nook, iPad and iPhone and ePub. Here’s the link. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find our little book.

I had a great time writing this with Dave Wilbanks, and I’m happy it’s now available again to anyone who would like to read it.

By the way, look for the third book in the series, Dead Earth: Sanctuary, sometime in 2012 from Permuted Press. The manuscript has gone through the stringent Mark & Dave revision process and is in the hands of the editor.



Thanks to everyone who has picked up a copy of my collection Looking at the World With Broken Glass in My Eye. I appreciate the feedback.

Speaking of feedback, if you would leave a brief review at Amazon, I'd be grateful.


I still don’t have a firm release date for The Dead Sheriff, but Evileye Books assures me it will be sometime in Spring of 2012. Work proceeds on the sequel.

The Girl With The Tramp Stamp Tattoo

The Girl With The Tramp Stamp Tattoo from Emma Roberts

New Column At Horror World

My new Horror World column--titled "The Three Scariest Words"--is up now. You can read it here.

First Trailer for The Three Stooges

Pre-Who

Here's a mini-episode leading into this year's Doctor Who Christmas special.

The Wussification Of MEN Continues: Dancing With An iPod In Public

Slow Writing Week, Pulp Fiction, Balls

It's been a crazy week, with very little writing and little to report.

But wait! Donovan Pike and the City of the Gods has been updated at Pulp Nocturne. Go there now and read it.

This week has been heavy with wacky videos here at the ol' DOJ. That's partly because I have been updating the blog so infrequently and wanted to offer new content.

Also, I believe the world could use more wackiness. Or, hot chicks talking about how much they hate balls:

Katherine Heigl Hates Balls from Katherine Heigl

25 Signs You Spend Too Much Time on the Internet

1. Whenever you find a penny or dollar bill, you hear that “Congratulations! You’ve won!” voice inside your head.

2. The prospect of any phone conversation provokes an unreasonable level of anxiety.

3. You just steal sh*t when you’re bored.

4. You know where your high school best friend’s former roommate’s gorgeous ex-girlfriend goes for the summers (Nantucket. Her cousin Becky is kind of terrible though, you can tell).

5. You find the concept of paying for pornography endearing.

6. You’ve had multiple conversations with friends speculating about the sexuality of someone you haven’t seen since you were six.

7. You’ve forgotten that watching TV on the TV used to be, like, a thing.

8. You have a legit panic attack when you can’t reconnect to your WiFi network.

9. You’ve seen all of “Felicity” despite never enjoying a single episode.

10. You hate Jeff Dunham way more than he even deserves.

11. Going to the movies counts as having a “break from technology”.

12. The phrase “follow me” does not even remotely invoke thoughts of physical movement.

13. You send emotionally complex, romantically tinged messages by “Like”-ing sh-- on Facebook.

14. You know far less about the Mayor of your city than you do about the Mayor of your local Panera Bread on FourSquare.

15. You think a beautiful sunset lighting up the New York skyline on a November evening just looks like a crappy desktop background.

16. You treat people who say they don’t have Facebook as if they have a horrible illness that you have to do your best to appear optimistic about.

17. You haven’t been on a date in months, but you do have a really messy, emotional “friends with benefits” situation going on in SecondLife.

18. The words “LiveJournal” or “Xanga” bring up far more nostalgia than any old home movie could.

19. Your reading responses for classes often just say: “TLDNR”.

20. You’ve gotten past the tenth page of comments on the YouTube video of that little British girl rapping with Nicki Minaj on Ellen.

21. You can name more celebrities with leaked nude photos than American presidents.

22. The last family argument you had was over Gchat.

23. You haven’t read a whole book in a year, but you have read the entire Wikipedia pages for “Sleep”, “Jon Voight”, and “Yo momma (maternal insult)” today.

24. Your day is completely made when you get a “what up my brother!!” tweet back from @mark_mcgrath from Sugar Ray.

25. You know what (insert 90s rapper/or one-hit wonder/Da Brat) is up to these days.

Santa needs A Light Saber

Charlie Brown/G.O.P. Debate Mashup

William Shatner's Steps to Unfriending Recovery

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope this day goes exactly as you want it to, whether that means spending it with family and friends, as I will, or flying solo.

As I've said elsewhere, I have so much to be thankful for this year--more than any other Thanksgiving--and I will be taking time to reflect on the blessings in my life.

I expect those blessings to include dressing, mashed potatoes and pie.

Have a good one.

Cramming for Stuffing

One more brief day of work, then I’m on vacation. It’s the first real vacation in what has been a very long year.

Here’s my vacation plan:

1) Don’t get up at Oh God o’clock every morning.

2) Help Norma with whatever needs to be done to prepare for Thanksgiving (including–but not limited to–being the official taster. Oh, what a burden I bear). This year I have more to be thankful for than at any time in my life and I want to take the time to properly appreciate that.

3) Write. I have to finish two non-fiction pieces, one overdue short story, a final edit on Dead Earth: Sanctuary and continue with the second Dead Sheriff book.

I thought about adding “eat leftovers” but I think that is assumed.

I hope you have a good week.

500 Miles, Changes and Farts

Here's a nifty little video that was created for the end of producer Russell T Davies' and star David Tennant's run on Doctor Who. And who doesn't like singing, dancing aliens ?



Nice, eh? I think the world needs more of Billie Piper dancing. But that's just me.

***

I have a theory. I think we’re changing all the time, you and I. Even when you think you aren't. Even that hard-headed redneck miscreant who doesn't seemed to have evolved past the Neanderthal stage. He’s changing, too.

Some of the changes are big, and you can feel them happening, like when that guy who comes over and drinks all your beer while you watch football wraps his truck around a tree when he’s loaded, leaving you reeling like the elevator door opened and you almost stepped through into that empty, black abyss. That’s the moment you quit drinking.

Some of the changes are smaller and almost glacier-slow, like the way your political views morph as you spend time with friends and/or a spouse, or the way you start out hating musicals, but you put up with them because they’re important to the woman you’re in love with and, quite unexpectedly, one day you find yourself humming “Seasons of Love” or “Tonight”.

So what’s this all about?

As most of my friends know, 2011 has been a hell of a year. It was so hard on my wife. And, it turns out, it really kicked my ass, too. The experience–the ongoing experience–has changed me both profoundly and in subtle ways.

It’s like I can feel my brain being rewired. Things that once seemed so important to me are now little more than dusty curiosities, while others things, things that were always vital, are now so significant to me that I have trouble find the words to express their importance.

I’m Mark 2.0, with 2.1, etc, not far behind.

But just so you don’t think I’ve changed too much, here’s a video of Peter Griffin farting.

Ends and Odds

Here’s what’s been going (or hasn’t been going) on:

Writing

Dead Earth: Sanctuary is being revised. Dave Wilbanks and I want this manuscript to sing before we turn it in to the publisher. When I sent it to him, it probably sounded closer to William Shatner than Tony Bennett. I’m sure when it returns to me the pitch will be closer to perfect.

I have begun the second Dead Sheriff book for Evileye Books. It’s a bit difficult to talk about it, since the first book isn’t out yet (and I don’t know the release date), but I can share the opening of #2:

The Indian youth screamed when Arlo Belcher bit into his shoulder and ripped away a mouthful of flesh and muscle and blood.

“Damn it, Arlo, I ain’t even got the fire built yet,” his brother said.

“Cain’t help it, Billy,” Arlo said, around a mouthful of meat. “I was hungry and this here Injun tastes good.”

I have a couple of short stories in various stages of completion, and another novel I will be writing as soon as The Dead Sheriff #2 is finished. As always, my writing schedule and productivity waxes and wanes with the demands of my full-time job and personal life.

Reading

For my birthday, Norma got me a number of books by Jack Kirby and others featuring the work of Kirby and his partner of many years Joe Simon. I’m working my way through these slowly, a story or two at a time, so I may savor the experience for as long as possible.

I’m also reading Killing the Blues by Michael Brandman. Or, more precisely, Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues: A Jesse Stone novel by Michael Brandman. This is a continuation of the popular series from the late Parker. Brandman is a writer/producer on the CBS Jesse Stone movies. His style is not very close to Parker’s, and the novel reads in places like a first draft, but I’ll stick with it and see where it goes. Parker’s Spenser series is also being continued by mystery writer Ace Atkins.

Next up in the queue: The Affair by Lee Child and Feast Day of Fools by James Lee Burke.

Pod of Horror

I hope to have another episode up this month. Other than that, I don’t have much to report.