Two Ends - Harry Potter & Borders

Friday night, the wife and I were on our way to the movies to see Cowboys and Aliens (not as bad as they say, but not great), when we passed our local Borders Books and Music. Unless you've been hiding in a cavern with the aforementioned aliens, you are no doubt aware that Borders is shuttering its stores.

We were listening to the soundtrack of Wicked as we drove by, and the song For Good was playing. Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenowith sang:

Because I knew you...
I have been changed for good.

We pulled around the corner into the theater parking lot, where the signs for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II were still plastered all over the joint. It was at that moment that I actually felt a deep sense of sadness and loss. If you haven't guessed by now, I am a huge Harry Potter fan as are my two kids. In fact, I would say that J.K. Rowling has been a huge inspiration for my writing. Deathly Hallows was published four years ago, but we always had the remaining movies to look forward to!  This last film (which I enjoyed quite a lot, thanks for asking) truly meant the end.

It was at this Borders five minutes from my house that I took my family for the midnight release celebrations of the Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows novels. It was at this Borders that I spent countless hours browsing, reading, drinking coffee, researching, and above all dreaming. 

And like the seven-book series brought to eight-film life on the big screen, it is coming to an end. While the tale of a bespectacled boy wizard drew to a close with brilliance, sadness, and joy, I only wish I could say the same for this forty-year old bookseller. 

Flash back one week earlier to when we dropped into Borders. The coffee shop was closed. Wandering the busy aisles of people looking for bargains that were not truly to be had, all I felt was a sense of numbness. I walked my daughter past the graphic novel section - she was looking for the graphic novel version of City of Bones - and a teenage kid meandered over to me. 

"It's a total bummer, man. Now where am I going to get my Manga?"

It is. It is without doubt a total bummer. 

Borders is over. Harry Potter is over. Both entwined in my memory. One went out with a glorious bang, while the other went out with a whimper and a shrug.

At risk of copyright infringement or just seeming incredibly sappy, I hereby quote Elphaba (Idina Menzel) in For Good.

It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me Is made of what I learned from you.

Urban Mythos now available for the Nook

I must say, it took me a lot longer to create the Kindle version of the book than the Nook version. Working with an ePub file is a lot easier. It's basically a ZIP file containing a bunch of HTML files, all of which I can deal with since, well, I am geekwriter1. Plus Calibre is really straightforward, and it actually converted the work I'd already done for the Kindle into the format I needed.

In any event, here it is. My YA Urban Fantasy Urban Mythos, available on Barnes & Noble. If you have any form of Nook, or any eReader than can read the ePub format, I hope you enjoy!

Urban Mythos is Available on Amazon

Sixteen-year-old Zydeco Hill uncovers a plot to capture former mythological creatures and expel them to a barren world filled with hungry beasts. Two years since his own transformation from griffin to human, he’s been attending clandestine meetings of the city’s ex-mythological creatures. When the police raid one such meeting, he discovers the conspiracy goes all the way up to the mayor’s office.

As other mythos vanish from the city’s streets, the deputy mayor demands Zydeco turn in Octavio, the missing leader of their kind. His initial resistance causes the disappearance of both his stepmother and best friend, and it won’t be long before they’re served up as chimera-chow. While trying to keep the mythological truth from the girl he adores, Zydeco must rescue his friends and step-mom. Along the way, he unearths critical information about an even larger conspiracy to rid the world of his brethren, but he needs Octavio’s help to put it to use. The only problem is he has no idea where the guy is hiding.

Urban Mythos is available on Amazon for the Kindle. Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible!

Urban Mythos - Coming Soon...

Now that I've got the week off from class, it's time for the big announcement.

I've decided to self publish Urban Mythos. My YA Urban Fantasy about a collection of ex-mythological creatures learning to live among us is coming soon. Former Griffin Zydeco Hill, his human love interest, Tameina, and best pal and ex-Gnome Blaine, will debut first on the Kindle. The cover art is ready to go, and I'm in the midst of a very deep editing process.

I am pretty excited about the prospect of doing this. I'll be self promoting right here, on twitter, on facebook and wherever else I can insinuate myself. Keep your eye on the sharpened pen for a contest or two as well!

More to come...

Queries, Space Missions and Angry Birds

During a short breather in my MBA program, I got to thinking about Urban Mythos again. I have about five queries and one submission outstanding on it. The sub is several months old at this point, and I sent a courtesy eMail checking in a month ago. The queries occurred about two plus months ago. The question is, do I wait, or do I start querying again? I fear I won't make a decision before the lull ends ... tomorrow. Maybe in between courses.

Time is precious as I close in on the last two weeks of this leadership course. I just finished my primary contribution to a paper detailing the leadership strengths of the primary characters in the film Apollo 13. I wound up writing about Jim Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13, portrayed by Tom Hanks. I really would have liked to do Gene Kranz, the director of ground control portrayed by Ed Harris, because that guy seriously knew how to lead. "We've never lost an American in space. We sure as hell aren't going to lose one on my watch." And then the absolutely pervasive line, "Failure is not an option." Sure, Lovell said, "Houston, we have a problem," but still.

I have another paper to do in the next week or two. Two? Man, I hope it's two. It's a big paper. Who signed me up for this again? Thank goodness for my Nook Color. I've loaded a ton of required reading in PDF format onto the e-reader so I can take the material anywhere. Did I mention that I bought Angry Birds for the Nook? Yep. The most recent software update for the Nook brought a newer version of the Android O/S, and access to a ton of apps. The downside is I can't seem to pry the Nook out of my wife's hands. She's a bit hooked on Angry Birds.

Even more work than I thought

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted anything on the pen and I get the feeling it's going to be like that for a while. The first week of my MBA program is nearing completion. I'm doing an online program with Centenary College here in New Jersey. Numerous people have told me that the online variation of any MBA program winds up being far more work - incredible amounts of writing - to make up for the fact that you aren't in a classroom for three hours. It sure seems true so far.

I'm on the blackboard system most every night, preparing assignments, doing research, and participating in threaded discussions. When I'm not doing that, I'm reading textbooks and research. By the way, I totally dig that the Nook reads PDFs since much of the research I dig up is in PDF format. Occasionally, the Nook's Quick Office app can't handle certain PDFs so they look all weird and illegible. Then I found Calibre, which lets you convert various file formats to the e-pub format. One such PDF converted nicely.. It's sooooo much nicer reading this stuff on an e-reader than on a PC.

Still, I'm finding time to read fiction. I recently finished the audio book for Scott Westerfeld's, So Yesterday, and I'm still wading through Richard Kadrey's, Kill the Dead, the much anticipated (by me) sequel to Sandman Slim. I think I like the first book a bit more, but it's still a blast. I've just begun to get my sci-fi on with audio book version of Richard K. Morgan's, Thirteen.

So despite my academic and professional pursuits, I'm still a double threat reading-wise.

And so it begins

My MBA program starts this coming week. Life as I knew it, is over.... at least for a couple of years. 

In other news, an entire week has gone by without a rejection letter. That's progress!

And in other, other news. We're the proud owners of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I DVD. Tonight, the family shall chow down on spaghetti with tasty meatballs purchased from Anthony & Sons in Denville. We also have some pasta fagioli, broccoli rabe, various breads, and fresh cookies from their excellent market. All this will be done in front of the television.

Rachel took one look at the quart of pasta fagioli soup and said, "So that's how they spell that?" Yeah, it's one of those words that you wonder how they decided to spell something that sounds like "Fazool" (at least in this part of the country). It's got that dangling "i" at the end. Ah, well.