A Far Out Fantastic Site

I was about to mail off printed copies of The Fool's Illusion bookmarks to my friend Emerian Rich, of HorrorAddicts .net for her to distribute at BayCon in Santa Clara. However, the con is next weekend and so I didn't think they would reach her in time. Emerian was nice enough to offer to put them out on the free literature table at the con. So if you're reading this, Emerian, I apologise for not being able to mail them to you but I really appreciate the offer and will definitely let you know when Fool's Illusion is out. And it's getting closer to its release, everybody! I apologise for not being able to give specifics at this time, but once it's ready for release I'll let you know. I'm in the fact checking stage of my introduction to the book. I was working on that for nearly half the day today, sitting in a Starbuck's burning my brains out researching information for the accuracy of the details of my subject which is harder than a lot of peopl...

 Credit: https://www.facebook.com/May4StarWarsWestSac/photos_stream  Well I didn't announce the winner of the April Fool's Illusion contest because, as you can all see, there wasn't one. Nobody participated. Regardless of a chance to win a free copy of the book, nobody wanted to play. Yes, in order for the winner to receive a free print copy (along with accessories such as the bookmarks and poster) I would have needed his/her mailing address. However, I do understand that in this age of identity theft and computer hacking that many of us have a concern about sending out personal information even for things such as a contest prize. So we'll just let it go. But because you're all a good lot, I'll make it up to you in another the way. I'll probably make free digital copies of the book available for a limited time; that seems to work well with everybody when it comes to new book releases. And that's safe because it's done through Amazon w...

Because of the lack of entries in The April Fool's Illusion Sweepstakes, yours truly is extending the entry deadline to 11:59 p.m., Sunday 14th April 2013 Pacific Standard Time . So now you have almost a whole week more to get your best April Fool's story in the comments box below for a chance to win a Fool's Illusion collector's set! That's a free print copy of my upcoming book, two fully coloured book marks, and a fully coloured poster. Who doesn't like free stuff? Take advantage of this chance to win these items. One of you may even end up being the first to own a copy of my new book! So you may be able to say to your friends, family and the later generations that you were the first in history (besides the author, of course) to own a copy of The Fool's Illusion ! Wouldn't that be just so out'a sight? For contest rules and other details, please see last week's post . The date for announcing the winner will be any time between Tuesday the 16th...

Joker's Wild Photo Credit: SSGT Roach Photographer/Wikimedia Commons  It's April Fool's Day, and there's no better time to hold a giveaway for my upcoming book, The Fool's Illusion ! Read on to find out how you can win a free Fool's Illusion collector's set which will consist of two full colour Fool's Illusion book marks, one full colour poster of The Fool's Illusion book cover, and, best of all, one print copy of The Fool's Illusion short story collection itself signed by the author himself! Qualifications, Rules, Conditions and Deadline To participate post a one to two paragraph story of your best, funniest or weirdest April Fool's prank either played on you or that you played on somebody else. You are asked to post text only; no images please. One story per participant only. Please post your stories in the comments box below. You do not need to provide your full or real name, but please do not post as "Anonymous" s...

About a year ago I held a poll for you readers to vote on the lettering for the title on the cover of   The Fool's Illusion . The candidates were Twisted Roman and '70s psychedelic. Twisted Roman won . I tried Twisted Roman in my final sketch for the book cover. Unfortunately, it's not going to work. As I said for the past two posts, I am not a graphic art expert. I am not very mechanical with my art and so, as you may have noticed in the previous post , the lettering on the cover is not very balanced. I could probably make a good font by my own hand if given the time. But I have several projects going. Plus I work a day job. I'm going to have to use a pre-designed font which so far I've been leaning toward leander (see below). Leander comes closest to the theme of my book of short fiction. It's a kind of faded style that goes with the idea of illusions in that many illusions are optical or are visual projections and so can easily fade away. Bu...

Warning: This post may contain content or links to content considered to be obscene/objectionable by some viewers. A completed drawing of the cover to The Fool's Illusion . The final version will be digitally enhanced. Photo Credit: Steven Rose, Jr.  Another Sac-Con comic book and collectors' show is coming tomorrow (Sunday) here in Sacramento. I will be there and have book marks of The Fool's Illusion at the information table, so if you're in the area, please swing by and pick up a free book mark! It's at the Scottish Rite Center . Admission is only $6 a person (children 8 and under are free) and if you decide to go with the early bird special you can get in at 9 a.m. (regular start time is 10 a.m.) for $10 and receive a free Sac-Con bag !  Here's the link for more details: http://www.sac-con.com/ . I was going to make an addition to the book marks. The original copies I made for December's Movies On A Big Screen have the Far Out Fantast...

A performer at the first Sacramento Steampunk Emporium Photo Credit: Steven Rose, Jr.  It's been a very busy month and so I apologise for the two or three week hold on my posts. Part of this has been due to a change of plans for The Fool's Illusion . I've been kind of working on the publishing part through a self-publishing organisation that I'm a member of. Part of the project in this group was to make a sample/excerpt of books that each of us are planning to publish. So I'm in the process of puting together my sample booklet of Fool's Illusion. I would like to give you  free e-copies of it once I put it together and show it to my self-publishing group. The problem is that I am not a digital graphic designer. That is not my primary line of work. I've taken some graphic design courses, including some that emphasises graphic design software such as Adobe and QuarkXpress. But I am not tech saavy when it comes to graphic design as I am saavy with fre...