Update

Holy shit, have I been busy.... busy enough that I haven't really had a chance to throw something up for a while. My apologies.

I was running back and forth to Arizona for a while, spending time with family. It cut into my work to a degree, but not as much as I thought... I've found I can be pretty productive in hospital rooms and airport gates. Besides... It doesn't matter how hard you work if your goals are empty. If you're not doing it out of a solid place grounded by love, what good are your efforts? So you can buy shit and look cool? Whatever.

On the Samurai MK side, I'm still working THE COOLKIDS, BLOOD SHY, NIGHTMARE EARTH and YOU'RE DEAD MEAT, PIPLOWSKI.

MISSING is still alive, and the writers are coming into town for meetings in a couple of weeks.

I'm prepping the next round of scripts and books for the market. I got spoiled with all of the development time I was able to devote over the holidays. Developing during the sell season is a much different animal, and I found myself making turn-around estimates that would have applied in the winter, but in the spring have little to do with reality. Fine, lesson learned, and I'll just work that much smarter and harder.

Meanwhile, I wrapped the fifth rewrite of my action-thriller EXTRADITION and, after four drafts of the treatment, I finally got the green light to execute the first draft of WE ALL DIE ALONE. I'm really excited about ALONE... it's another action-thriller, this one set in the world of the Chicago political machine in 1972. The research has been a lot of fun.

Even with everything else going on, I still write an hour every night. How could I ask my writers to put in work I couldn't or wouldn't do myself?

In my slender leisure time, I finally beat MASS EFFECT 2 (awesome), read DROOD by Dan Simmons (not as good as THE TERROR, but damn does it have moments) and listening to a lot of old Slayer. I never get sick of '80s metal and punk. I know that, if there ever comes a day I don't like this music, I've become a pale reflection of my true self, a ridiculous sell-out chump staggering around a Bizarro version of life. In a very real way, my emotional reaction to REIGN IN BLOOD is the canary in the coal mine that passes for my soul.

Well, that and THE ROAD WARRIOR.