So for the first time, I didnt go autograph seeking at this year's Rock and Shock convention. The first thing that I noticed that was AWESOME was our booth had doubled in size, credit TJ May for that one. I went around and checked out all the kickass vendors. Everyone from Thrill Me Entertainment (rare/hard to find movies toys and memoribilia - find them at filmfurie.com ), Lightbeam3D.com (3D printing is their specialty) and of course the answer to the riddle What's black and white and red all over? The answer of course is ZombieInAPenguinSuit.com which is a short but awesome zombie film that was being marketed by people walking around hanging out small fliers and buttons. I watched it and was blown away with how well-done it was, especially the awakening scene at the beginning. Very awesome.
Know what else is awesome? The artwork of Kristilyn (kristilyn.com , zombie-romance.com , kristilynINK@gmail.com ). She did an awesome caricature of Ashleigh and me that we went crazy over! She refers to herself on her business cards as a "Supremely Skilled Southpaw" and that's an understatement! In addition to the caricatures she also does a lot of artwork depicting horror characters as well as turning well-known stories into zombie pictures. Bambi, Alice in Wonderland and Red Riding hood are zombified, but to find out how, check out her sites! That's all for now, just had to get this down before I didn't have time to do it. Check out all the stuff I listed above. You'll thank me later.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
*REVIEW* Seed by Ania Ahlborn
Okay this is my first book review since Tamworth Grice's Listening to Ian Magick came out, for which I also wrote a review. This book was suggested to me by my Kindle app on my Android phone. I had just finished reading some Lovecraft stuff, and I recognized the author name as one of the people I follow and who follows me. Here goes...
So I cannot say enough about how creepy this book really is. It takes you into the world of Jack Winter who seems to be your run of the mill Louisiana resident. His life is a typical American story - his in-laws don't like him because they feel like he isn't good enough for their daughter who is used to the best in life because she comes from money. But she marries Jack because she loves who he is. Things are tough but it's okay, because they havce everything they need, even though things get tight here and there. The story starts off with Jack bringing the family home from a Chuck E. Cheese type of place because it is his daughter Charlotte's birthday. She turned six, and the family is on their way home from the celebration. Jack is driving a beat up old saturn because, like I said, things are tough and he and his wife Aimee are saving for a new one and are almost there.
Then the headlights go out just as Jack sees something in the road - a pair of black eyes looking back at him. He flips the car in his instinctual aversion of the car - he jerks the wheel to avoid hitting whatever was in the road. Everyone is okay but Aimee is beyond upset because she thinks that Jack fell asleep. However Charlotte (who likes to go by Charlie) wanders off, eventually revealing to her father that she saw something in the woods, and that she saw the pair of eyes right before the car flipped.
I will not get into too much detail but suffice it to say that you find out who the eyes belong to as you go along. Ania does some flashing back and you learn why Jack loves Charlie more than his other daughter, Abby and maybe even more than he loves his wife. She tells the story perfectly, giving you just enough information from the past and the present that you begin to more and more be sucked into the story, praying for a happy ending.
Jack's a good guy, you can relate to him. Charlie and Abby are good kids, and their dog Nubs is even a likable character. All in all I would say that this is one of the better books I have read in a long time. Ania Ahlborn does not pull any punches, nor does she take her foot off the gas once she steps on the accelerator. She forces you to hang on and enjoy the ride, even if you begin to suspect that you may be headed for a cliff.
Ania Ahlborn can be found on Twitter - @AniaAhlborn and her website is http://www.aniaahlborn.com/ so go and sign up for her newsletter and be ready when her next work comes out this winter!
So I cannot say enough about how creepy this book really is. It takes you into the world of Jack Winter who seems to be your run of the mill Louisiana resident. His life is a typical American story - his in-laws don't like him because they feel like he isn't good enough for their daughter who is used to the best in life because she comes from money. But she marries Jack because she loves who he is. Things are tough but it's okay, because they havce everything they need, even though things get tight here and there. The story starts off with Jack bringing the family home from a Chuck E. Cheese type of place because it is his daughter Charlotte's birthday. She turned six, and the family is on their way home from the celebration. Jack is driving a beat up old saturn because, like I said, things are tough and he and his wife Aimee are saving for a new one and are almost there.
Then the headlights go out just as Jack sees something in the road - a pair of black eyes looking back at him. He flips the car in his instinctual aversion of the car - he jerks the wheel to avoid hitting whatever was in the road. Everyone is okay but Aimee is beyond upset because she thinks that Jack fell asleep. However Charlotte (who likes to go by Charlie) wanders off, eventually revealing to her father that she saw something in the woods, and that she saw the pair of eyes right before the car flipped.
I will not get into too much detail but suffice it to say that you find out who the eyes belong to as you go along. Ania does some flashing back and you learn why Jack loves Charlie more than his other daughter, Abby and maybe even more than he loves his wife. She tells the story perfectly, giving you just enough information from the past and the present that you begin to more and more be sucked into the story, praying for a happy ending.
Jack's a good guy, you can relate to him. Charlie and Abby are good kids, and their dog Nubs is even a likable character. All in all I would say that this is one of the better books I have read in a long time. Ania Ahlborn does not pull any punches, nor does she take her foot off the gas once she steps on the accelerator. She forces you to hang on and enjoy the ride, even if you begin to suspect that you may be headed for a cliff.
Ania Ahlborn can be found on Twitter - @AniaAhlborn and her website is http://www.aniaahlborn.com/ so go and sign up for her newsletter and be ready when her next work comes out this winter!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
What a shitty day...
So tonight I got a text from my mother that she is pretty sure that she is going to have to put one of our cats down. Now since Thursday of last week we have been dealing with some issues with him. His name was Harpo and we have had him for eleven years. He was born in the Cat Hospital of Auburn (MA) on February 13, 2000. He was named Harpo after the Marx brother who did not speak because instead of meowing he would just open his mouth and no sound would come out. My mother loved him more than any of the other cats she had.
Last Wednesday she noticed that he was trying to urinate but nothing was coming out. Turns out his urinary tract was blocked and he was unable to empty his bladder. This is a potentially life threatening medical issue because if the bladder keeps filling up it will burst causing the cat to die a horribal death. She made an appointment with him at the Route 20 Animal Clinic. I brought him there because she was working and I was off until the afternoon. When I got there the doctor weighed him, took his tempertature rectally and then told me that the cat needed to be unblocked immediately, and that it would be "about a ten minute procedure" and he then told me that he was short staffed and told me to go somewhere else. Of course he charged me $39 for the office visit, having done nothing but tell me he cannot help and to go somewhere else. Apparently it costs $39 for that. It wasn't as if we just dropped in on him and asked him to do something that he had no preparation for. He knew exactly why the cat was coming in and what needed to be done the ngiht before when the appointment was made. One can only assume that he also knew he would be short staffed as well, seeing as how the girl was on vacation.
The last time I had gone to this clinic was May 14 of this year. I had gone with Ashleigh and her cat for an emergency visit and was turned away because, according to the receptionist "He is only working until 1 and wants to leave early". I explained to her that it was an emergency and that my family had been coming here for about 10 years with our cats and dogs. She said she knew that, but directed us to go elsewhere. It was amazing that she knew that, because I did not tell her my name.
So I took Harpo to the Cat Hospital of Auburn where he was born. They gave me an estimate of $500-$800+ to get him all set. I said there was no way I could afford that, could they work with me/my family after 16 years and literally tens of thousands of dollars spent there.
I was told all fees had to be collected at the time of the cat's pickup from the hospital.
They would not take a postdated check.
They asked if we had anyone we could borrow the money from. I don't know about everyone else here but neither I nor my friends have $500-$800 just sitting around.
I applied for Care Credit- sort of like a credit card for vets- and was denied.
They would not take a partial payment and a check, but hold on to the check for a week until everyone got paid. They said that was illegal. Bear in mind, we had done this befofre.
I said I would have to take him home and we would explore other options. Vet told me that would be "cruel and unusual" and that if money was an issue, it would only be $75 to put him down.
After some haggling and figuring out what the bare minimum that could be done - catheterization and drainage- they got down to $179.11. And even with that, I had to ask Ashleigh for money. So they did their thing and he was taken care of. An hour later my dad called to tell me that we wouldn't need to borrow Ashleigh's money because he had won $488 on the daily lottery number.
Awesome! Things are looking up!
But Friday came and Harpo was home but still had not urinated. After calling 15 places all over Massachusetts and Rhode Island, my mother finally resigned herself to the fact that she would have to put him down. She brought him to Tufts because she was getting attitude from people demanding that if she was going to put him down, she come in and do it bt 11:30 because people wanted to go home by noon.
Tufts worked with her, allowed her to post-date checks from now until October. It cost about $1200 but everything that needed to be done for Harpo was being done.
Awesome! Things are looking up!
Then I get a text tonight from her saying that she thought she might have to finally do it. His bladder was still full and hard and felt ready to burst. We had not choice but to put him down. I met her at Tufts, Ashleigh came with me. My brother Dave drove mom and Harpo in. On a whim, I stopped at Sunoco and bought a scratch ticket, praying for a miracle. I matched both numbers on my ticket...could this be the windfall we needed to save Harpo??
Four. Fucking. Dollars.
It would have been better to not win anything because seeing that the ticket was indeed a winner only filled me with a sliver of hope. I forget who said it but the quote goes "Hope is the worst of all evils for it prolongs the torments of man". That's the fucking truth.
So we brought Harpo in, we had our time with him after mom tried anything and everything to get them to help us out -"Are there any studies going on, are there any students that can maybe work on him so we don't have to pay thousands of dollars for treatment?"
Nothing.
What was one of their solutions?
Sex reassignment surgery.
Let me repeat that.
Sex reassignment surgery. Turn him from a boy cat into a girl cat. Are you fucking serious?? That's an option? Spend thousands of dollars on a surgery that has a fucking terrible track record and has less than a 50% chance of success, requireing thousands of dollars in follow-up surgeries...or kill him? What kind of busisnesses are these fucking places? Why do they tell you your options are to ease the animal's suffering by spending everything you have on radical surgeries that most likely won't work or forcing you to end their suffering by holding them in your arms as they die because you don't have the money to save them!?! It would be one thing if there were payment plan options or something like that. But they want their money as soon as the services are rendered. It's a horrible thing, let me tell you, to have to watch a vet inject shit into the companion you have had for ELEVEN YEARS that you watched come into the world, to literally feel the animal's life drain out of him as you hold him. To feel him purring against your hand until the poison surging through his body takes his strength away from him, to look into his eye as he dies, knowing that he cannot understand why you are doing this to him. I was so angry, so angry. I hated having to put him down. It was one of the worst feelings I have ever had. My mother was beside herself.
That is why I am writing this at 315 am, why I can't sleep. I needed to get this off my chest, get this out there so that people could see the types of things that we had to deal with. Now we spent $179.11 in Auburn, and another $1200 at Tufts. Then we STILL had to bring him back and they put him down, and THEN THEY CHARGED US ANOTHER $350 FOR IT! Ashleigh was awesome though. She paid for our visit tonight, because the assholes were DEMANDING something, they couldn't just bill us for it, they couldn't just take another postdated check. They wanted at least HALF at that moment. Don't give us any time to grieve, just trot out the fucking bill.So after all they did, he was still suffering and now he's dead. When my mom wakes up (if she even sleeps tonight) she is going to bury him in the front yard. It cost us $1750 for nothing. And it broke her heart to do what she did. She blamed herself for not making enough money to save her kitty.
Even if you don't have pets, you have to be enraged with this story. If you do I hope that none of them EVER have to go through this. And I have a horrible feeling that this is just the beginning. We have two dogs, 13 and 12 years old. We have several more cats, some aged 15, 16, 13 years old. It sucks.
Look I know that this rant sort of makes me seem like less of a big scary horror writer, but when you love something and you have to choose between money you don't have, and aren't able to get and killing that thing you love, you feel depressed and angry and like a piece of shit. I feel so awful. I can't sleep. I'm venting on my blog about something that I could not control, and I am still angry. I have to go to work tomorrow, but I still cannot force myself to get back into bed, even though there is no more comfortable place than next to Ashleigh. Nothing makes me feel better than to curl up next to her. And even that right now, is not helping. I appreciate any words of encouragement, any comments you may have. Thanks for reading.
Last Wednesday she noticed that he was trying to urinate but nothing was coming out. Turns out his urinary tract was blocked and he was unable to empty his bladder. This is a potentially life threatening medical issue because if the bladder keeps filling up it will burst causing the cat to die a horribal death. She made an appointment with him at the Route 20 Animal Clinic. I brought him there because she was working and I was off until the afternoon. When I got there the doctor weighed him, took his tempertature rectally and then told me that the cat needed to be unblocked immediately, and that it would be "about a ten minute procedure" and he then told me that he was short staffed and told me to go somewhere else. Of course he charged me $39 for the office visit, having done nothing but tell me he cannot help and to go somewhere else. Apparently it costs $39 for that. It wasn't as if we just dropped in on him and asked him to do something that he had no preparation for. He knew exactly why the cat was coming in and what needed to be done the ngiht before when the appointment was made. One can only assume that he also knew he would be short staffed as well, seeing as how the girl was on vacation.
The last time I had gone to this clinic was May 14 of this year. I had gone with Ashleigh and her cat for an emergency visit and was turned away because, according to the receptionist "He is only working until 1 and wants to leave early". I explained to her that it was an emergency and that my family had been coming here for about 10 years with our cats and dogs. She said she knew that, but directed us to go elsewhere. It was amazing that she knew that, because I did not tell her my name.
So I took Harpo to the Cat Hospital of Auburn where he was born. They gave me an estimate of $500-$800+ to get him all set. I said there was no way I could afford that, could they work with me/my family after 16 years and literally tens of thousands of dollars spent there.
I was told all fees had to be collected at the time of the cat's pickup from the hospital.
They would not take a postdated check.
They asked if we had anyone we could borrow the money from. I don't know about everyone else here but neither I nor my friends have $500-$800 just sitting around.
I applied for Care Credit- sort of like a credit card for vets- and was denied.
They would not take a partial payment and a check, but hold on to the check for a week until everyone got paid. They said that was illegal. Bear in mind, we had done this befofre.
I said I would have to take him home and we would explore other options. Vet told me that would be "cruel and unusual" and that if money was an issue, it would only be $75 to put him down.
After some haggling and figuring out what the bare minimum that could be done - catheterization and drainage- they got down to $179.11. And even with that, I had to ask Ashleigh for money. So they did their thing and he was taken care of. An hour later my dad called to tell me that we wouldn't need to borrow Ashleigh's money because he had won $488 on the daily lottery number.
Awesome! Things are looking up!
But Friday came and Harpo was home but still had not urinated. After calling 15 places all over Massachusetts and Rhode Island, my mother finally resigned herself to the fact that she would have to put him down. She brought him to Tufts because she was getting attitude from people demanding that if she was going to put him down, she come in and do it bt 11:30 because people wanted to go home by noon.
Tufts worked with her, allowed her to post-date checks from now until October. It cost about $1200 but everything that needed to be done for Harpo was being done.
Awesome! Things are looking up!
Then I get a text tonight from her saying that she thought she might have to finally do it. His bladder was still full and hard and felt ready to burst. We had not choice but to put him down. I met her at Tufts, Ashleigh came with me. My brother Dave drove mom and Harpo in. On a whim, I stopped at Sunoco and bought a scratch ticket, praying for a miracle. I matched both numbers on my ticket...could this be the windfall we needed to save Harpo??
Four. Fucking. Dollars.
It would have been better to not win anything because seeing that the ticket was indeed a winner only filled me with a sliver of hope. I forget who said it but the quote goes "Hope is the worst of all evils for it prolongs the torments of man". That's the fucking truth.
So we brought Harpo in, we had our time with him after mom tried anything and everything to get them to help us out -"Are there any studies going on, are there any students that can maybe work on him so we don't have to pay thousands of dollars for treatment?"
Nothing.
What was one of their solutions?
Sex reassignment surgery.
Let me repeat that.
Sex reassignment surgery. Turn him from a boy cat into a girl cat. Are you fucking serious?? That's an option? Spend thousands of dollars on a surgery that has a fucking terrible track record and has less than a 50% chance of success, requireing thousands of dollars in follow-up surgeries...or kill him? What kind of busisnesses are these fucking places? Why do they tell you your options are to ease the animal's suffering by spending everything you have on radical surgeries that most likely won't work or forcing you to end their suffering by holding them in your arms as they die because you don't have the money to save them!?! It would be one thing if there were payment plan options or something like that. But they want their money as soon as the services are rendered. It's a horrible thing, let me tell you, to have to watch a vet inject shit into the companion you have had for ELEVEN YEARS that you watched come into the world, to literally feel the animal's life drain out of him as you hold him. To feel him purring against your hand until the poison surging through his body takes his strength away from him, to look into his eye as he dies, knowing that he cannot understand why you are doing this to him. I was so angry, so angry. I hated having to put him down. It was one of the worst feelings I have ever had. My mother was beside herself.
That is why I am writing this at 315 am, why I can't sleep. I needed to get this off my chest, get this out there so that people could see the types of things that we had to deal with. Now we spent $179.11 in Auburn, and another $1200 at Tufts. Then we STILL had to bring him back and they put him down, and THEN THEY CHARGED US ANOTHER $350 FOR IT! Ashleigh was awesome though. She paid for our visit tonight, because the assholes were DEMANDING something, they couldn't just bill us for it, they couldn't just take another postdated check. They wanted at least HALF at that moment. Don't give us any time to grieve, just trot out the fucking bill.So after all they did, he was still suffering and now he's dead. When my mom wakes up (if she even sleeps tonight) she is going to bury him in the front yard. It cost us $1750 for nothing. And it broke her heart to do what she did. She blamed herself for not making enough money to save her kitty.
Even if you don't have pets, you have to be enraged with this story. If you do I hope that none of them EVER have to go through this. And I have a horrible feeling that this is just the beginning. We have two dogs, 13 and 12 years old. We have several more cats, some aged 15, 16, 13 years old. It sucks.
Look I know that this rant sort of makes me seem like less of a big scary horror writer, but when you love something and you have to choose between money you don't have, and aren't able to get and killing that thing you love, you feel depressed and angry and like a piece of shit. I feel so awful. I can't sleep. I'm venting on my blog about something that I could not control, and I am still angry. I have to go to work tomorrow, but I still cannot force myself to get back into bed, even though there is no more comfortable place than next to Ashleigh. Nothing makes me feel better than to curl up next to her. And even that right now, is not helping. I appreciate any words of encouragement, any comments you may have. Thanks for reading.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Here I am, Rock You Like a Hurricaine!
And I'm back on the air. A lot has been going on recently, so I've been away. Good news is I am currently working on my zombie novel, the one I am writing with Alyn Day with hopes that I will have a finished product on Kindle by the end of September - I will be writing like a maniac in the meantime. I am also wracking my brain for a way to afford Bruins home opener tickets for Ashleigh's birthday. Not sure it will be happening. Preliminary prices are $265 and those are the lowest I have seen thus far. I know they aren't officially on sale yet but it isn't looking too good. Fortunately they have a home game against Montreal on October 27, and pricess seem quite good for that one!
Also trying to decide on complementary gifts for our anniversary in a few weeks (September 13). Got the big one picked, just looking for the extras. Thinking about inquiring about a car, or truck rather. I want something like a Tacoma or Ranger or F-150 but the smaller versions. I need something with 4-wheel drive. My Yaris is decent in the snow but a 4-wheel drive truck would be way better. And rear-wheel drive trucks are not so good. Had one, worst vehicle I have ever had in the snow.
Looking for a good horror movie to see? Ash and I recently watched Insidious and we liked it. Got a tad crappy towards the end but very good overall. I liked it a lot. Also Suckerpunch was quite good. Be back on over the weekend with a little exerpt from the new book as well as the new business card design!
Also trying to decide on complementary gifts for our anniversary in a few weeks (September 13). Got the big one picked, just looking for the extras. Thinking about inquiring about a car, or truck rather. I want something like a Tacoma or Ranger or F-150 but the smaller versions. I need something with 4-wheel drive. My Yaris is decent in the snow but a 4-wheel drive truck would be way better. And rear-wheel drive trucks are not so good. Had one, worst vehicle I have ever had in the snow.
Looking for a good horror movie to see? Ash and I recently watched Insidious and we liked it. Got a tad crappy towards the end but very good overall. I liked it a lot. Also Suckerpunch was quite good. Be back on over the weekend with a little exerpt from the new book as well as the new business card design!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
On a Better Note
So I got a lot of feedback on my guest post on Chris Jensen's blog Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children as well as my interview with Tamworth Grice's blog Welcome to Griceland . Rest assured I will be asking them for some guest posts when I get everything on here situated and straightened out. I will be getting a schedule up shortly. I've also been trying to budget more time for the reading of other people's blogs so I can expand my knowledge of other under the radar writers like myself, only more talented. Check out the list of blogs that I follow to see what I'm talking about. And while you're at it, check them out on Twitter.
Credit Card Companies are Fuckin' Stupid
As you can tell from the headline, I am not too fond of my credit card company right now. Just took out a debt consolidation loan recently. One of the items on my list was my American Express card I have had for 12 years, and the credit limit was quite high. I paid it off. Got a new card in the mail because it was set to expire at the end of this month. With the new card came a new credit limit - only instead of increasing it they dropped it by SIXTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS! Fuck! So after taking care of a bunch of things I have maxed out the card when I thought I still had another $1600 on it. Boy was I ever pissed!
My dad thinks it is a blessing in disguise, saying that it maight be a good thing that the limit was lowered because that means I can't get back into the same hole I was in before. I say I slightly agree, but I am still rather upset.
My dad thinks it is a blessing in disguise, saying that it maight be a good thing that the limit was lowered because that means I can't get back into the same hole I was in before. I say I slightly agree, but I am still rather upset.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Story Time!
So a couple weeks back my good friend Chris ( @hororwritindad) asked me why I hadn't written anything for his blog "Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children" ( horrorwritingdaddy.blogspot.com ) . A good question. So I threw a story I had been kicking around into existence and sent it to him, Tamworth Grice ( @TamworthGrice , TamworthGrice.blogspot.com "Welcome to Griceland"), Alyn Day ( @Z0mbiegrl , alyndayofthedead.blogspot.com ) and Jason Darrick ( @fearinwords , jasondarrickfiw.blogspot.com ) and they seemed to like it. You can find the story here, and feel free to leave comments either here or on his page. I would love to hear what you think! Good, bad or indifferent I am open to whatever. Just want to thank everyone who has already commented either here or on twitter. You can reach me there too, my username is @PatrickRahall
Look forward to hearing from you!
Look forward to hearing from you!
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