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Featured Creator – Clay Howard

I’ve decided that in the new year I’d like to feature a creator a week on this here blog. Basically, that’s me taking a few minutes to tell you about someone I know and whose work I enjoy. They could be artists, writers, musicians, programmers, or any number of other callings who put things they’ve made out there in the world for us all to see.

I’ve gotten to know a LOT of awesome people thanks to my community. Clay Howard – musician, father, and possessor of amazing hair – is one I met thanks (as far as I can remember) entirely to our kids being in the same school. We kept in touch off and on, trading emails about writing and projects. I knew he was a musician. I did not know he was a good musician.

When I know someone who’s a creator and they release their art into the world, I do my best to at least sample it. Once I sampled Clay’s recent album, I knew two things: he’s a good musician and he rocks my face off.

I highly recommend you listen to/watch the video above. Then you should go buy his album. You can get it from CD Baby, Amazon (where he also has books), and Google Play.

I’ve reviewed music off and on over the years. For me the truly telling thing about listening to music is, if I enjoy it I will play it on HEAVY rotation. I’ve listened to this album a dozen times or more in ten days. Every track is fun in its own way. “Bottle Down” is probably my favorite. The distortion, guitar solos, and beat are infectious. I’m not going to give you a track by track breakdown, but if you like solid rock, this is where you’ll find it.

Follow Clay on Twitter and Facebook.

Featured Creator – Paul Elard Cooley

cooley I’ve decided that in the new year I’d like to feature a creator a week on this here blog. Basically, that’s me taking a few minutes to tell you about someone I know and whose work I enjoy. They could be artists, writers, musicians, programmers, or any number of other callings who put things they’ve made out there in the world for us all to see.

I’m starting off a couple of weeks early, to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak. Who did I choose? None other than my friend, Paul Cooley. Paul and I have known each other for years. I met him through the podcasting community. He’s been a writer for decades, though like me he took a hiatus. For the last several years, he’s been releasing stories through his site Shadow Publications. He’s also a co-host on the Dead Robots’ Society, along with Terry Mixon.

What does Paul write? He’s got quite a body of work, but the tagline on all of his podcasts is “we don’t believe in happy endings”. Call it horror or thrillers or good old fashioned monster stories. His world is a terrifying place and the body counts are often quite high. Recently he’s made the leap from part-time creator to full time. He’s producing multimedia version of his work. He has a Patreon page. His “Black” series is published by Severed Press. Essentially, he’s got several irons in the fire and anyone who likes King or Barker should be checking out his work. You won’t be disappointed.

Here’s a sample of one of my favorite Cooley books:

Or click this link to read it – https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B005XCZANM

Amazon
Twitter

Merchant Adventurer – E-book Giveaway

merchant advernturer There’s a book that you need to buy. It’s not one of mine, but I think you’ll dig it. It’s The Merchant Adventurer by Patrick E. McLean. Right now it’s $.99 but you can have it for free if you do just a few things.

1) Tell me about your favorite fantasy story.

2) Tweet about this giveaway.
3) Follow us on Twitter.
4) Join our email mailing list.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Charity Anthology

Some friends of mine are selling an anthology of stories to benefit the Office of Letters and Light, a charity affiliated with NaNoWriMo. It’s called From the Dark Side and you can find a number of excerpts and all the info you could possibly want to know about it here.

They’re selling an electronic version at the moment and eventually hope to put out a paper version down the road. All proceeds go to the aforementioned charity and you get twenty stories and poems in a variety of electronic formats on Amazon.com and Smashwords.com for $4.99. That strikes me as a good deal. I know a few of the writers represented and their shouldn’t be a bad story in the bunch.

I know I’ll be buying mine very soon. In fact they’re trying to break one hundred sales by Sunday, July 11 at 11:59 p.m. ET and I want to be counted in that number. They’re about a third of the way there as of my writing this. So go get yours! (As a side note I think they get a better cut if you get it through Smashwords.)