I'm on the Parsec Awards Nominee List!

My short story "Stuffed Monster," that was podcasted by the fantastic Mick & Katharina Bordet over at the Every Photo Tells Podcast, has been nominated for a Parec Award! That is so cool! I really want to thank Mick and Katharina because they're the reason my story has been nominated. How do I know this? Last year I had two stories nominated, Helsa's Secret Ingredient & Fezdon's Mistake, and those were also stories that they podcasted while I had a few more of my stories available that I podcasted myself that year. So a huge thanks to the Every Photo Tells podcast crew and to all people, or the person, who voted for my story. I'm really proud of that story and they did an amazing job podcasting it. Yeah!

If you haven't heard the story check it out:

It's also available as a free eBook.

Thanks for stopping by!



Here's the photo my story was inspired from:

Celebrity Faces I Picture When I listen to Podiobooks

I may be the only one who does this but sometimes when I listen to Podiobooks I picture certain faces of celebrities or people I've known to go with the voices in my earphones. It doesn't happen with everyone and it's funny because I know what these authors look like from seeing their picture online, but these faces are what I see when I hear their voices. I can't show you who I picture when I listen to Scott Sigler or Tee Morris because one is a co-worker and another an old friend I haven't seen in years. I thought it would be fun to share with you who's face goes with what voice in my goofy head.

Nathan Lowell - Author of Trader Tales novels & More

Vincent D'Onofrio - Actor: Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Brion J. Humphrey - Author of "Sense Memory"
Adam Levine - Co-host on The Voice, Maroon 5 Singer

Alessandro Cima - Author of "Pirate Jack"

Willem Dafoe - Actor in Spider-Man, Finding Nemo, etc.

Chris Lester- Author of the "Metamor City Podcast"

Peter Sarsgaard - Actor in Garden State, Jarhead, Flightplan, etc.

Has this ever happened to you? The narration voice bringing up the image of someone you know or a celebrity, or is it just me? Thanks for stopping by!

I'm A Published Author!

Okay, so technically I've had short stories published as eBooks for quite a while now, but this is in a real paperback book put out by a real publisher! This is a dream come true! I'm so excited to hold a copy in my hands and read the other great stories inside by the other authors. Five Rivers Publishing is releasing A Method to the Madness: A Guide to the Super Evil on June 1st - the thing is it became available on Amazon early and apparently people already have copies out in the wild as proven by the video below!

And here's the beautiful cover:

Support me and the other awesome authors and get yourself a copy. You can order it for $18 on the Fiver Rivers site, or get it on Amazon for about the same price now. Thanks for stopping by! What a day this is for me. I'm so excited!!!

One last thing, if you're also an author in this book use this Avatar in your social media places if you want to:

Man of Steel Trailer 3 | An Examination of its Similarities to Jesus in the Bible

My co-worker told me I should watch the latest trailer of Superman to be blown away. I was, it is an awesome trailer! It really makes me want to see the film. I love just about any film about super heroes so no surprise there, but something really stood out to me as I watched the trailer. I kept hearing things that were extremely similar to things that were said about Jesus in the bible. It's not that hard to compare Superman to Jesus. The bible teaches that Jesus was a super man, he is the only man who lived his life without sin. No other man has or will ever be able to do this. Jesus was man and God - Superman. Even the movie poster  looks a lot like a scene from Jesus's life before he was given to the people and murdered on the cross. Bound at the hands with soldiers behind him, and a bright shining glow around his head. See for yourself:

Now take a look at these quotes and descriptions of images I pulled from the trailer. Pretty interesting similarities. The bullet points are my writing.

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A father sending his son to Earth.

• God sent Jesus to Earth to save us
• John 3:17 - For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (ESV)

The mother says "He'll be an outcast. They'll kill him."

• They did kill Jesus for being an outcast who didn't obey their laws claiming to be God.
• John 19:7 - The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” (ESV)

The father says "How? He'll be a god to them."

• Jesus was man and God.

Clark's adoptive father says "You're the answer son. You're the answer to are we alone in the universe."

• Jesus is the answer.
• John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (ESV)
• Acts 4:12 - "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (ESV)

Jesus's father Joseph was his adoptive father.

The father says "You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They'll race behind you. They will stumble. They will fall, but in time they will join you in the sun."

• This is a pretty good summary of man's history. We have stumbled, we have fallen, but one day we will get to join Jesus in heaven if we follow him.

"My father believed if the world found out who I really was, they'd reject me."

• The world did reject Jesus and continues to.

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I don't talk much about my Christianity on this site because it's about my writing, podcasting, and art, but I couldn't pass up commenting on all of the things that really stuck out to me when I watched this trailer. Maybe it's because I've been reading my bible again lately. What are your thoughts? Do things ever stick out to you that you see in the media? I just found it interesting how much of it was in there. Thanks for stopping by!

Dr. Dee Ceitful Answers the Evil Questions

The evil overlord Dr. Dee Ceitful, the man I was a ghost writer for, has answered the questions asked in this video.

Below are the questions that Dr. Dee Ceitful answers in the audio recording he made from one of his secret lairs, also found below:

1. When you go out for dinner and you order filet mignon how do you pronounce the second word. Does it sound French or could you be talking about a nicely cooked slice of one of your Henchmen?

2. If you could have an evil lair any where in the world, without worrying about those pesky super heroes, where would it be and why?

3. When building the “death traps” around your home, do you want to do be actual Death traps or just Wow that really really hurts a lot traps? Why?

4. As an evil mad scientist / ruler of… What is your biggest fear? Does it involve the laser beam wearing shark in your “fish tank?”

5. What is your favorite way to torture/torment your nemesis when you capture him/her?

6. What are the defining characteristics you look for in a minion?

7. How did you originally get into Evil Science? (for those who don’t mention it in their article)

8. Do you consider yourself to be a Super villain, Mad Scientist or something else and why?

9. What is your favorite mode of transportation?

10. Coke or Pepsi?

11 What is your favorite evil application or product?

A New Narration Recording Technique

Last night I started recording a new chapter in the audio book I'm narrating, and I went about it in a different way. This new way is going to save me a ton of time in post. I'm still not even halfway through editing the enormous first chapter of the book. I recorded the first chapter by hitting record and just going until I was done reading the chapter. I took a couple breaks to refill my water cup, but when I was done I had over two hours of audio to go through. This chapter is way longer than most clocking in at over nine thousand words. In some cases I wasn't sure about the way I read a line so I would do a few more takes. Now I'm having to go back and edit all of those out and it is taking me forever. Like, two hours gets me twenty minutes of edited audio type of forever. Yeah, that long - really!

From what I've read on the web many of the pros record audio books using a "punch and roll" technique where they stop recording on mistakes, and then punch right back in recording over the mess up. I'm using Audacity to record and it doesn't have a way to listen to a few seconds of the track and then record over the bad line, but I've found a method that works surprisingly well for me. It maybe takes me a second longer than it does for them with their expensive recording software.

Last night I spent around two hours recording. There were some interuptions, but I got almost forty minutes of recorded audio. This audio, however, is only of the good takes. No bad lines can be found, not even a couple good versions of a line. If I mess up I stop and delete the bad line, then hit record and keep going. In some cases I'll still just keep recording until I nail the line, then stop recording, review, and edit out the bad ones right then and there. I really thought this would mess with my flow of narrating, but it hasn't whatsoever. I was already stopping to take sips of water, so stopping to do a quick delete and hit the record button is no big deal - especially since I'm using hotkeys. This is going to cut down on a ton of my production time for this audio book. I'm so excited to be doing this and I can't wait to see it out in the world on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes! Thanks for stopping by.