ŷ������

I’m pretty happy with the setup. This was my first time with the banner, and I like the look of the two rows of books. The dinosaur “New Profanity�� series sits on the short end (our left), and the Zombie Dog series straddles the length of the table.

I sold plenty of books, and I met a horde of great people: readers, horror enthusiasts, writers, and vendors. The only downside is that I didn’t register for Authorcon V in Williamsburg. This was my first major convention focused on horror authors and publishers, and I loved it. I can’t wait to sign up for the next Authorcon!

I started this blog as a way to fortune and fame, errr…”hone my writing skills�� and “attract new readers.�� But as time passes, technology and trends change. Blogging has moved to YouTube has moved to TikTok, and as a writer, my platform has shifted, too. Over the past two years, most of my content has been published/publicized through either my or my . So, if you’ve come here looking for me and want to know where the hell I went or what the hell I’ve been up to (btw, “hell�� is not the answer to either of those questions), those are the places to find me.

The newsletter’s free to sign up, and the Patreon has a freebee option as well. Interesting to probably nobody except me, this website’s sole purpose now is as a landing page for that newsletter. Without a need for the landing page, I don’t have a reason to maintain the blog. (Hence, the *ahem* two posts in the past two years.)

In an effort to help with all internet roads leading to me, those two links are

My email: [email protected]

Thanks for looking me up!

The past week, Austin got less than an inch of ice over the span of two days. It may seem small, but it was enough to do major damage to the town’s power lines. We lost power Wednesday morning a little after 6am. Almost three days later, we were thankful that our power was restored. However, over 62,000 Austinites remain without power, and thousands more on the outskirts of teh Texas capital.

The reasons for the power loss is being blamed mostly on vegetation that was never cut back, so the trees were hanging over power lines, and as the ice weighed them down, they took out the power lines. Then, on Thursday when the temperatures shot back up and everything was dripping with melting ice, the trees pulled out the power lines, apparently. I haven’t seen them yet, so I can’t say one way or the other. But I can tell you, it was an interesting experience laying in bed at night and hearing the tree limbs cracking and falling. When I walked around our apartment complex the next morning, every building had at least one cedar tree with a dropped tree limb. Some had more. And while some were small, some of them were as big as trees themselves. I didn’t witness any cars destroyed by the cedar, but I do think it’s a little interesting only because usually it’s the cedar pollen that causes most of the trouble this time of the year. In my part of the woods, it’s the cedar branches!

Unfortunately, the sky was gray and cloudy. If not, we may have been able to partake in a night sky that Austin hasn’t had in thirty or forty years with all the power out.

The PR people at the energy company have had their hands full. Everybody’s mad at them. Understandably, too. People just want a warm house and to be able to turn the lights on, and since the power first went out, they’ve received mostly broken promises. First, people in Austin were told that the problems would be fixed in 12-24 hours. This was Wednesday morning. We were so young and innocent then! Later, they pushed out their timeline and said everyone would have power restored by 6pm Friday. Eventually, they backed off that and finally admitted that they didn’t know when they would be able to get the power back on. They kept asking for people’s patience, but I think after everything that’d happened, nobody trusted them, and everybody’d lost their patience.

Since then, the city has sought disaster assistance. They finally got Houston crews late Thursday. Can you believe that? And by Friday, they were saying they’d gotten even more assistance, with over 400 crews in Austin. God bless the people working the lines. We really needed them. They’re all heroes in my mind. The energy company, not so much. I don’t think they’re horrible people. I just think they could’ve done things better. Hopefully soon everyone will have power restored.

Myself, I’m reviewing the data, and it seems power’s gone out two of the last three years. Two of the last three years, central Texas has incurred an extreme winter weather event. I think it’s time we stop calling it extreme. It’s regular weather now. Power outages are normalized now, and we should all just come to terms with it and prepare for power outages every winter from now on. That means making sure we all have the right supplies. At home, I joined on a video telecon at work so that I could test my hotspot. I wanted to see how it worked. It worked okay so long as I didn’t open any of the links or pull up any documents. When I did that, the audio went all Max Headroom on me. (You’re welcome for the 80s reference.) I need to look into a signal booster by next winter. Maybe a battery charger, too. We were lucky that it didn’t get too cold, so we weren’t freezing in our rooms, but that doesn’t mean extra candles wouldn’t help.

I’m not a doomsayer, and I don’t think the sky is falling, but as someone who went through the ordeal that was Hurricane Harvey, and now the winter storm of ��21 and ��23, these events aren’t flukes. Who is it who said that once is a coincidence but twice is a pattern? I’ve got at least three dots on my chart. We should all be doing our part to prepare. Not in a prepper way, necessarily, but you know, go the extra mile and be ready for things. In the meantime, share some jokes, laugh, try to change the world for the better, and love the people you love.

2021 is the year that the 21st century was finally old enough to legally drink, and damn, did it show it! And as weird and crazy and strange as 2021 was, here’s a few things I digged in 2021, media-entertainment-wise:

The Ballad of Dood and Juanita, by Sturgill Simpson.

That new Rob Zombie album. (See, Andrea, I’m still THAT GUY.)

Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom is probably the most �� author me�� book I read this year. I liked it so much I put it in a novella.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah reminded me that comedians are still some of the best writers. That Greenlights book is on my TBR list. (Confession: Greenlights was my gift to Andrea this year. She poured through it, so now it’s my turn.)

This is the year I discovered Sy Montgomery and Grady Hendrix. I want to read more of them in 2022. I recommend you do, too.

The second season of “Succession�� is one of the best things I’ve seen on television. “Sweet Tooth�� was a fantastic series start. The second season of “The Mandalorian�� was epic.

I watched a lot of movies, but there were more okays than very memorable films this year. I didn’t care for Cry Macho or Power of the Dog or most of what I saw. Shang-Chi and Malignant were okay. Suicide Squad and Ghostbusters were fun. The less said about the latest Matrix atrocity, the better. Maybe I’m getting old. Were the best movies this year really Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League, Dune, and Spider Man? In a sign of my changing, Tick, Tick…Boom! is my favorite “it deserves an Oscar�� movie. It’s a musical, and I’m not a very Broadway type person, but now I want to watch Rent, and my son says that Into the Heights is really good, too, so I should check that out. I’m really looking forward to the entertainment that 2022 brings��

I’m so excited to finally see this book published. What an adventure it has been to write it. ! (The paperback will be available by the end of the week.) 
I have written numerous times about the emotional toll this book took on me. I’m quite fearful to hear everyone’s reaction to the book. (That being said, I’m eager to hear from you. Let me know what you think.)

Murder Dog is very different from the other Zombie Dog books, and I wrote it in such a way that you don’t have to read this book to enjoy the series. This is Murder’s story, not Angie’s.
It’s also two stories in one book. Murder has been abducted by some real low-lifes, and he’s been taken away from Angie. He’s back in Colorado now. But you bet your butt Murder is going to do everything he can to escape his captors and walk the thousand miles back to his Mama! Too bad he has such a rough road. Plenty of zombies, monsters, and horrible people stand between Murder and Houston!
But this book is also Murder’s origin story. It’s the answer to most of all the little quirky things about him. His reaction to crosses, to zombies, his ability to escape any pen, and of course, what’s up with the stuffed chicken? I really dig this book because of this aspect. I love Murder as a character, and this is his moment.
I’ve wanted to tell his story for a long time. As I wrote it, the thing I kept thinking about was how rescue dogs/shelter dogs have this whole backstory that most adopting families never really learn. They may get some of the larger story (dog neglected by owners, dog given up because family moved, dog was too big for their apartment), but the adopting family never gets the details, like why the dog behaves in certain situations. You, dear reader, are about to get some insight not even Angie Graves herself has access to, and I think that makes for an interesting story now, but even more interesting stories later. 
is out now on Amazon, and it is available via Kindle Unlimited as well. Thank you for reading!

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-615c53647da1a', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', } } }); });

Just to pull back a bit of the curtain on the glamorous life of a writer, I’ve spent all of tonight and last night formatting the paperback of Murder Dog. It is tedious, tedious work, but it is completely doable for if you are willing to put in the hours. You can pay someone to do it for you, but I’d rather put that money into advertising. So let’s make sure the parts that should be italicized are in italics, the page breaks don’t misali

gn, and the headers and footers are clean. Go team publishing!

Murder Dog inches closer and closer to the full release��

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-614aa336d3ca6', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', } } }); });

The rollouts continue, and the dogs keep coming. is the latest release. ( is still in pre-sale for $2.99 before going up to $3.99). Perro Chupacabra is a novella, so I’ve docked it down to $1.99. It is also a part of the Zombie Dog series, calling between and the upcoming Murder Dog.

As participants in my newsletter know, this is a unique “dog�� book because unlike everything else I’ve written, the title changes format. My wife suggested the change, which follows the Spanish language format of noun before modifier. I conferred with everyone on the newsletter (thanks for the votes, y’all!), and the title was changed.

Perro Chupacabra is not a standalone adventure. It provides the ligaments between the two books. But I think it is more than just ligature. This story really changed how I thought it should end. Without giving anything away, there is the “hero rides into the sunset�� ending I thought it would have, and then there was the ending that popped up in the last five pages or so. It isn’t a twist ending, and I don’t know if anyone would notice the change. Maybe I will post more about it later in the year, though. Of all the endings in the Zombie Dog series, it might be my favorite. If you read it, I’d love to hear your opinion.

I usually try to give some trivia for each of the books. So here goes:

Perro Chupacabra was based in Puerto Rico because I had the opportunity to visit the island. The trek through El Yunque National Forest happens because I fell in love with El Yunque when I was there.

The chupacabra cryptid originates in Puerto Rico, though in this world chupacabras aren’t goat suckers but rather undead dogs parasitized by a version of tarantula wasp. This is accurate to their appearance in earlier books where the dogs are called chupacabras.

This is the closest I’ve come to writing a full-on zombie story in the George Romero tradition.

The character for Moncho was inspired by trackers I met while in Search and Rescue.

The novella was influenced by the graphic novel �� Puerto Rico Strong.��

Believe it or not, Perro Chupacabra was also influenced by the 2008 Rambo movie. Like John Rambo, I thought Angie would leave the country after the events of Ghost Dog.

Perro Chupacabra was originally planned to be a full novel. My original idea was to have Ghost Dog, Voodoo Dog (which became a short story), Perro Chupacabra, and then Murder Dog. I felt that was too much time between Ghost Dog and Murder Dog, which is why I made those books a short story and a novella.

Perro Chupacabra is available now on . Happy reading!

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-6143595194c88', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', } } }); });

I am steadily pushing toward Murder Dog’s release. The first bit of news is that the book is scheduled for release on October 5. The second is that I have ARC e-copies available for reviewers. If you’d like a copy, email me at [email protected].

Murder Dog is the fifth book in the Zombie Dog series. For those who haven’t read the Zombie Dog series, it is about a dog handler, Angie Graves, who trains a rescue dog named Murder to hunt zombies. Unlike the other books, Murder Dog is almost entirely Murder’s story and POV. The book is written as a standalone horror adventure, a kind of “The Incredible Journey with zombies.�� But it’s also Murder’s origin story, the story Angie will never know: Murder’s past, his fight for survival, and the road that led to their fateful meeting on a lonely stretch of highway in the Colorado mountains.

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-613a4f9e29821', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', onClick: function() { window.__tcfapi && window.__tcfapi( 'showUi' ); }, } } }); });

I’m only sharing this because I find it funny and interesting how writing research takes me into areas I never would have gone if I wasn’t writing. Today I had to research pronghorn antelope for a Zombie Dog short story because the main character, Angie Graves, pushes aside some grass and discovers a decapitated antelope head. It is lolling to one side. Its tongue is sticking out. EEH! I wanted to type “pink tongue,�� but I wondered, what color is an antelope’s tongue?

First, I tried to think of pronghorns I’d seen. Our family summer plans took us up and down Wyoming, which is covered in pronghorns. Unfortunately, none of the dozens and dozens of pronghorns were sticking their tongues out at me, so my memory wasn’t very helpful. To the Google!

First, if you search on “what color is an antelope’s tongue?�� you’ll be reminded that there are many different kinds of antelope, and pronghorns aren’t true antelopes. I forgot that. What animal is it more closely related to? The giraffe! Where’s my fifth grade education when I need it?

Second, I found a lot of photos under antelope tongue. They were all useless because they were photoshopped toothy smiles, and when there was a tongue, it was on an antelope, not a pronghorn. One or two gave me something, but it was a flip of the coin on the true color, pinkish or darkish.

Away from the image search, most websites talked about bluetongue disease, which is something cattle and sheep can get, and since pronghorn like to vibe with cattle and sheep, they can get it, too. Blue Tongue Virus (BTV) is caused by midges. Among the virus’s symptoms is cyanosis of the tongue, which means the tongue isn’t receiving enough oxygen and turns blue or purple on the end. So, now I know why it’s called that. In cattle, it causes foot lesions. The constant shifting of feet gives bluetongue the nickname “The Dancing Disease.�� It usually doesn’t lead to death and is countered via vaccines and midge control.

None of which tells me what the tongue looks like…unless Angie found a pronghorn head with bluetongue disease? I was at a loss. Perhaps nowhere would I learn about the color of a pronghorn’s tongue. But then the strangeness of the Internet swooped in and possibly saved me.

I found this video by YouTuber peelventures:

(Sorry for not embedding the video, but to do that, I have to upgrade my plan, and apparently I’m too cheap for that. Also, I feel like I should apologize for the gross photo of an antelope tongue, but then again, this whole post is about antelope tongues, so was this truly shocking?)

Despite the misspelling, I think I “might�� have the real deal here. I wasn’t expecting to watch a video of a person boiling a tongue, wrapping it in bacon, and declaring the medallions delicious, but then again, I write stories about dogs that hunt zombies. So, is this the true color? I’m still not 100% sure, but I’m going with it. If you know for certain the color of a pronghorn’s tongue, let me know!

Now, back to writing��

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-6129e2e92898b', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', onClick: function() { window.__tcfapi && window.__tcfapi( 'showUi' ); }, } } }); });

Koda, aka , aka , needs to change his diet. When we had two German Shepherds, I was hesitant to change from a “kibble�� diet to a natural food diet mainly because of cost. I’m a family man with bills to pay, and I was already paying over $40 every couple of weeks on a bag of Purina One Large Breed. To do natural food right, I knew the cost would increase, and I wasn’t ready to pull that trigger.

Why I Chose to Change His Diet

Koda has had food allergies for as long as we’ve owned him, about 4 years now. So , I tried Gentle Giants, a dog food from the Boy Wonder himself, Burt Ward. Koda enjoyed the changeup in food, but he was still reacting. Immediately after he ate, his skin would become itchy. He’d rub his snout on the couch or use his paws to scratch his muzzle. On the days when he reacted more, his eyes and ears drained. He’d get big, black rings around his eyes, and he might’ve spent five or ten minutes rubbing his sinuses. While those reactions definitely decreased while eating Gentle Giants, they did not go away. It was time to try au natural.

How I Started

I think of this as an experiment. Every day, I’m tweaking what he eats, but I’m also using as few ingredients as possible. My goal is to learn more about what he is reacting to by reducing the types of things going into his body (but not the amount). So far, I’m learning a lot. Almost every day is a new note in the song of Koda’s diet.

I started with research. AKC has a lot of information about foods and diet overviews (that is, natural vs. raw vs. kibble). I also discovered several blogs that covered breed-specific allergies, which is important. After reading up on natural food diets for dogs, I’m using the 40/50/10 allotments of protein/vegetables/grains. The question, then, was where to begin. What ingredients to use?

Food Diary

What I’ve learned so far is that yes, GSDs suffer many food allergies. Proteins (chicken being the big one), wheat, and corn all are big allergies for GSDs. I’m sure there are others, but for now, I’m targeting these three. I’ve had him on a diet plan for almost a week now, and here are the results of his food diary:

DayMealReaction1chicken, green beansNone2chicken, peas, parmesan cheeseNone3chicken, green beans, white pasta, parmesan cheeseLots of itching, no eye drainage4chicken, peas, quinoa, hip joint vitaminsLots of itching, no eye drainage5plain yogurt, applesauce, cinnamonNonechicken, corn, fish oilSome itching, short-lived eye drainage

Lessons Learned

First, chicken doesn’t seem to be giving him a big reaction. Otherwise, I would have noted a reaction every day. However, this doesn’t mean he isn’t having any reaction, just that it’s not big enough for me to notice. But for now, I’m not considering chicken protein reactionary.

White pasta (meaning not whole-wheat pasta) he did react to. I’m not surprised because I’ve read that many GSD’s have food allergies to wheats. The question is whether this is a gluten reaction or a reaction to the bleaching process or just wheat in general. I haven’t done the research or pulled enough data to determine which of those is causing his allergic reactions. Suffice to say, though, The Fireman doesn’t need breads in his food bowl.

Quinoa, which is a seed, Koda also reacted to. My five seconds of research showed that quinoa isn’t recommended for gluten-free diets. The reason is that quinoa is processed in the same facilities as wheat, so most quinoa has some gluten in it. I got this from glutenfreesociety.org. However, the old man also received hip joint dog supplements. When I read the ingredients, wheat is included. So maybe the hip supplement threw it off. So tonight I will probably give him more quinoa, but no hip/joint supplement to see if he reacts. Also, once I learned that the supplement contains wheat, I pulled it from the menu.

The last day I gave him corn. Corn, I’ve often read, is a main ingredient in many dog foods and is another culprit for food reactions. He definitely reacted. It reminded me of when I had my allergy grid test, and my skin bubbled up for dust mites. No corn for this dog!

The final lesson learned, and I only mention this because it means a lot to pet owners…poop hasn’t been a problem. My Koda has always had minor bowel problems. So far (fingers crossed), he hasn’t had loose bowels or anything. In fact, it may have improved, which was a big surprise. All week, I kept expecting my dog to wake me up in the middle of the night with his legs crossed, but he’s been fine. “Super easy. Barely an inconvenience.��

Where to Go From Here

I’m already honing in on a diet that works well for him, a diet that pushes chicken and veggies. The longer I do this, the more I hope to add dog-safe ingredients. I visited AKC and a couple of veterinary websites to develop a list of foods. Some of the common foods included:

Protein �� chicken, fish, beef, turkey

Veggies �� carrots, green beans, peas, celery, cucumbers, sweet potatoes

Carbs �� rice, potatoes, oatmeal

Dairy �� some mild cheeses and yogurts in moderation

It should go without saying that I’m not validating or recommending any of these for your pet. Go with caution and go with God. Results may vary, right? Do your research. For example, several websites listed corn as a good veggie, and clearly Koda is not down with corn.

Another point is, like all food plans dog or human, everything in moderation. While I like the idea of knowing that I can feed Koda green beans and chicken every day of the week and that he won’t have an allergic reaction, he needs some variety. I remember when I tried a raw food diet about six years ago, and the big mistake I was making was not varying the diet, so I stopped. That, and I didn’t trust all that raw meat in my house with my little boy.

Cost

Yes, this diet costs more. To make it easy, I’m buying canned products and focusing on NO SALT ADDED varieties. So canned chicken, canned green beans, canned peas, etc. Putting Koda on a processed food diet is probably as healthy as a human going on a processed food diet, which is to say it’s not really that good for him. So the goal is to move toward a partial non-canned diet.

Also, I’m buying the cheapest cans for my dog. So no name brand foods for the . Here in Houston, cans of brand X chicken are going for up to $2 and the canned veggies are less than a dollar at the grocery store. Using bad math, his meals are averaging me $3 a day. That almost doubles food cost. I’d like that to go down, so I will keep hunting for cheaper options/grocery stores. Once I’ve found what works, I may be able to try buying in bulk.

Results

So far, Koda’s much happier with what goes into his food bowl. He can be a picky eater, but I think the daily variation is making him happier with his food. He’s having neither weight gain nor weight loss, and his coat still looks healthy. So to Koda, this all looks like good news.

For me, this challenge has been fun. It’s a daily puzzle trying to figure out what diet works best for my dog. Making his meals has also been a fun creative outlet.

I don’t think this is for everyone. The obvious cons to natural food diets are the cost and the meal prep. I’ve chosen this diet plan because Koda is an older, single dog and I’m in a place where I can put a few extra dollars into what my dog eats. I can’t imagine using a natural food diet if I owned three to five dogs. Changing your dog’s diet may not be suitable for you.

In the coming weeks, I hope to write a follow-up about how he’s doing and what direction we’ve gone with the new diet. I hope this gives you something to think about if you are considering moving your dog(s) to a natural food diet.

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-6103fdb9124cd', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', } } }); });