Hello... Is this thing on? Oh, right, I forgot to flip the switch over here...

Well hello out there in the internet... World?  Tubes?  Networks?  Something, in any case.  Greetings from this tiny corner of the internet-thing.

To be honest, I'm sick of being formal -- it doesn't seem to net me any extra readers, garner me any ad revenue (because I'm not making any ads pop up on your computer if I can help it), or do anything for me except make me sound stiff.  My knee?  That's stiff, but that's a whole other story.  My writing, as any of you who have read it will probably agree, isn't.  My characters, fights, worlds, etc, are rough, yes.  But it's not stiff.

Anyway, I appreciate the support and kind words I've received via Twitter (which I will respond to as soon as I can) and elsewhere.   Life has been hell; crazy health issues, crazy relationship issues, crazy friendship issues, crazy weather, writer's block...  But I've gone over most of these before.  No point in rehashing the issues.

So I figured I'd give you guys, gals, and everything in between a quick update on what was going on.

Regarding my health:  I've had some severe medication issues.  When I say severe, I mean severe.  It's next to impossible to get anything done with the medication you're trying to take puts you in the bathroom for upwards of four hours a day.  I'm not going to go into details, you haven't done anything to deserve them that I'm aware of.  But I'm better now that I'm no longer taking said medication, though I'm sure my doctor will try to put me on the third member of the family when I see him in a couple weeks.

Regarding my relationship issues:  Crazy, crazy, stressful, crazy, stressful, stressful, stressful, crazy.  Now that I'm done with last week, I can talk about this week...  Only a mild exaggeration, purely for comedic effect.  Seriously, only a mild exaggeration.  Last winter I lost thirty pounds before February and gained them back by year's end.  This year instead of losing weight I lost hair.  To be honest, I preferred the weight loss, even if it meant everything from getting an ultrasound of my liver to genetic testing that came back with interesting results.

The weather may finally be settling down, so let's see how that goes.

And now for the one most of you are probably at all concerned about, the writer's block.  I've been writing a lot lately.  I gave in and went back to my old method of creating -- long-hand writing with a fountain pen (or two or four or...  Okay, I need to go through and count my pens again) for the rough draft, then typing it up and smoothing/editing while doing so, then going back and polishing it, etc.  I did roughly five thousand words in less than twenty-four hours a few days ago.  It's mostly been scrawling things out since, but I figure I did a couple thousand words yesterday.  That's a lot of writing, at least long-hand.  Going to be a lot of typing later, and I'm excited at the prospect.

So what am I writing?  I can only write what my muse lets me.  In this case, it's not Rogue.  Sorry, folks, but I'll get back to that soon.  I'm working on the sequel to Triggerbreak.  Some of you might question why I'm writing the sequel to a book that's sold somewhere around forty to sixty copies, especially when there's still demand for the Subject 12 sequel, and you'd be right to do so.  My answer has already been given, though.  I can only write what my muse lets me.

Speaking of Rogue, I do have some good news on that front.  I've decided to go ahead and write what I'd originally planned.  That means serious tie-ins to both books that came before, but mostly it'll just be more Hammer-y goodness for those of you who like that kind of thing.  The bad news to go with the good is I'm going to finish this project, which I'll reveal more about when I get closer to the end of it, before I get back into Hammer's head.

Speaking of heads, any of you remember the short-lived Fox sitcom Herman's Head?  I liked that show, but in retrospect it was pretty-well doomed from the get-go.  Still, it was better than CBS's utter waste of time, Partners.  Holy crap, if there was ever a poster child for bad chemistry, bad writing, and banal directing, this show was in the running.  There was zero chemistry between anyone on the show except the gay partner and the girlfriend, and that was for about two minutes in one scene of one show.  None of the characters had any depth, it was just badly-written joke after unfunny joke after insultingly-bad or outright insulting joke, and nobody was believable as anybody in the show.  Hell, half the time it seemed like they never even rehearsed together, it was just a couple minutes in front of a mirror before they went to the soundstage to film.

Ah, should have been a TV/movie/restaurant critic.  Anyone know of any openings in the northern part of New York for any of the above?  Drop me a line in the comments.  Heck, drop me a line in the comments over anything.  I swear I'll do better about responding in the future.

Thanks for reading!  Back to work for me!

P. S.  In case anyone thought I was being something other than attempting to engage a little with my last two blog posts...  Shame on you!  (Just kidding.)