This Episode Brought to You By the Windy City

I'm in Chicago right now, working my ass off at a cardiology convention, but I always have time for The Dark InSpectre, so Episode 45 is now online, in which our hero finds the hostility directed toward him becoming even more, well, hostile.

Here's an excerpt:

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, having spent the night on the couch in my office after opting for solace in a bottle. Fortunately, I always kept a spare set of clothes at work. Cuz let’s face it, this wasn’t the first time.

As a result, I looked fairly presentable when I got the vid call from Franken. If you didn’t count my pallid, unshaven face and the circles under my eyes.

Franken, meanwhile, looked dead sober. “Jack…” he began.

I cut him off. “Sir, I’ve already read it.”

Enjoy: http://www.darkinspectre.com/

Monthly Column

Hey all, my monthly column has been posted over at Abandoned Towers Magazine. For those of you who don't know, I write a monthly column for them giving examples of how to turn science news items into cool story ideas. These are items I run across every day in my job as a news editor, and each month I round a few up to serve as inspiration to all those writers out there looking for that next big idea, or even that next small idea. Whatever gets you going.

You can check it out here.

Episode 44 is up!

We're back online and rollin' along with Episode 44 of The Dark InSpectre. In this one, Jack finds a disturbing, recurring theme as he checks out his latest crime scene.

Here's an excerpt:

I could barely contain my anger. The same tell-tale psychic blob hovered there, just like Manny’s, Laszlo’s, and the ones at the other crime scenes. How was this happening? I paced around the room, fuming, wanting to bang my head against the wall, unable to come up with any scenario that fit. Was Multiple Man personally paying visits to my crime scenes? Were there two feeders?

Enjoy the episode!

Jack's Back

After months of toiling and strain, and doing web things that I don't really understand, I have at last posted two, count 'em, two new episodes of The Dark InSpectre. The site is now totally different, it's on a wordpress platform instead of blogger, and it's pretty bare, so excuse its modesty. I'm still planning on adding a few do-dads here and there, but it's finished enough to start posting again, so yay!

I will henceforth resume my previous posting schedule of every other Monday. I hope you'll tune back in, I promise I've got some wicked things in store for Jack!

So without further ado:

Here's Episode 42, in which our hero returns to his old stomping grounds, only to find things are very different, and not in a good way.

And here's Episode 43, in which our hero continues his various covert investigations.

Hope you enjoy!

The Dark InSpectre Returns...Monday

Monday, February 27 there will be two new episodes of The Dark InSpectre. These will be the first new episodes in like 4 months, since the previous site's untimely demise. I'm posting two new episodes instead of the usual one to reward all those readers who've been jonesing for their bi-weekly fix of New Arden's foremost paranormal cop Jack Garrett (I know you're out there!).

Anyway, it's a big deal for me to get the story back online and rolling again. Hopefully the audience can slowly but surely get back to where it was before. It's a new site and a new CMS. Right now it's rather bare and not quite where I want it to get (primarily because I have no idea what I'm doing), but it's far enough along to start posting again. And lord knows we've got a lot of story left, cuz Jack's getting in some deep shit before he's done. So keep yer' eyes peeled for Monday!

Guest Column

Hey, y'all.  My monthly column is up over at Abandoned Towers Magazine. As usual, I'm writing about writing. It looks a little different cuz all the blog stuff for AT is moving over to the main site, but it's still the same old me. Check it here.

Subbing, Subbing, Subbing

I sent off my crime novel to a literary agency. It's one of the smaller, boutique agencies, not one of the big boys. Does that give me a better shot? Who knows. Seems like a good place, though, we'll see. They wanted a query letter, synopsis and first three chapters. If they like it, they'll ask for the whole thing. Could be a week, could be three months.

I've also been posting the short story I finished over at the Baen's Universe slush board. I've been getting good feedback, and some not so good feedback. That's the thing with the BU board, you've got to A) have a thick skin and B) be able to separate the constructive feedback from the "non-constructive" feedback. In other words, the stuff that you look at and say, "yeah, I'm going to pass on that," or "sorry, I just disagree." This doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen. By and large my story has gotten better. I'm going to wait another week and see what other comments I get, then decide whether to post a revised version one last time, or start subbing it around. Either way I'm happy with how it's going.

Then there's the Dark InSpectre. Frustration does not begin to describe my current emotional state. My in absentia editor informed me that once again, she cannot find the new episodes I re-sent her for editing. Also, she had some kind of computer meltdown and has to re-do or completely re-create the banner graphic to post on the site. And she's sick again. I re-re-sent her the episodes to edit. Making a new graphic would be cool, provided she actually does it, but ultimately I don't care. It's the episodes that are important, if she can just edit some of these, I'll start posting again. We'll see if this actually happens. I'm deliberately not thinking about how long it's been since the series went away. Oops! There I go thinking about it again...