So, here I am in North Bay, Ontario. My home for 27 years of my life. Two of my children are downstairs right now playing while the other two are at school and will be here shortly. I can hear their voices as they interact with one another without trying to kill each other. I have had very little contact with my ex-wife so far. So, all should be right with the world.

But it's not.

I'm not here for a vacation. I'm here because of a crisis going on and I'm here to make sure my kids are okay, since it sort of involves them. I took a month off work to be here and I'm spending as much time with them as I can. I even went to church because they were there. That's how much I love my kids.

I won't go into detail about what the crisis is, since it is a bit of a personal matter, but it's not good. I heard about it on a Wednesday, booked my flight on a Thursday and was here on Friday. That's how serious i felt this was.

My wife couldn't come with me because of work obligations, so now she's alone for Christmas. I would normally miss her anyway, but the amount of support she is showing in regard to this situation makes me love her and miss her all that much more. I may not see her again until January, but I'm hoping it will be sooner than that.

It's great seeing the kids again and watching how much they've grown since I saw them last year. That's the one thing that sucks about living in Calgary. I don't get to see them nearly as much as I used to. But, unfortunately, there are no jobs in North Bay, so moving back here is not really an option at this point. I'm hoping one day the economic situation will improve enough that I will be able to.

But, anyway, I'm happy to home with my children. My being here is mostly because when I moved away I made a promise to them that if they ever needed me, I would be here for them no matter what. I am keeping that promise.

Until next time,

Cheers.

Joe

Wives, Kids and the Future

I can honestly say that the girl with whom I am currently living is the only woman I have ever truly loved (yes, that includes my ex-wife). Recently, she brought up the subject of marriage. Not bluntly, however. Her exact words were: "Do you think we'll be together forever?" Now, I'm a smart-ass, so my first thought was: "Well, probably not. One of us has to die eventually." Then my brain kicked in and I decided that might not be the best response. So I said the next best thing that came to mind: "I don't know."

I really had no idea how to answer this question. Do I love this woman? Absolutely. Can I see myself spending the rest of my life with her? Definitely. Do I want to marry her? Hell no.

I don't even really know why I don't want to except for the fact that I once promised a woman we'd be together forever. Hell, I even promised it in front of a shitload of my friends and family. Look where that ended up. Less than ten years after we made that promise to each other, she's already promised the same thing to someone else.

My point is, I don't know what the future holds. I can't say if we'll be together forever, or in a year from now, or even tomorrow. I don't know what will happen. Maybe one of my smart-ass responses will drive her off the deep end and she'll murder me later on tonight. Who knows?

The other thing that bothers me is the discussion of children came up at the same time. This is another area where we run into problems. I want kids and she doesn't. I might seem weird that I want kids, seeing as I already have four of them. So, she asked me why I was so adamant about having kids. Good enough question, as this was one of the reasons I cited for not wanting to get married. My response, as usual, was: "I don't know."

Then I got to thinking about it. Why do I want kids so much?

Okay, a bit of a history lesson about Joe: Joe got married at a very young age and had several beautiful children. Joe should have considered himself the luckiest guy in the world. Beautiful wife, beautiful kids, decent job, everything a guy could want. So what does Joe do? Joe does drugs. Joe ignores his wife and treats her like crap. He doesn't hit her, but he doesn't actually make her think he loves her (he acutally didn't but he convinced himself he did). So, anyway, Joe's wife leaves him and takes the kids with her. Joe hits rock bottom tries to kill himself, the whole bit. So when Joe finally realizes what a dipshit he is, he gets cleaned up and decides to start his life over. This includes moving to Calgary, Alberta. So now Joe is very far away from his kids.

I'm telling you all this because I think I figured out why I want kids so much. I remember back when I was still with my wife. The best part of my day was when I would come home from work and as soon as I opened the door, I could hear the pounding of feet running for the door and my kids yelling "Daddy!" Then they would hug me and not let go, even when I tried to shake them off me. Right now, as I live in a different province than my kids, I miss that more than anything. I long to hear my children run to me as I walk through the door because they missed me.

I think that is why I want kids so much.

I'd like to hear thoughts on this if anyone feels like commenting.

Writing updates: Still plugging away at Hatred and have a few more short stories in the works. Still haven't heard back about "The Demon Inside Her." I'm really anxious about that one. Oh well. I'm still hoping for the best.

That's all for now.


Cheers,

Joe

Living With Lucifer

So, we now have a new addition to our household. We bought a kitten. The little guy looks just like Puss in Boots from Shrek. It took us awhile to come up with his name. Dawnn and I thought about it and discussed options. I wanted Damien. She didn't. She thought of Spaz, which suited him and we put it on the maybe list. I came with with Furby (short for furball). She liked it but ultimately decided it didn't suit him since he's a short-haird cat. It was her sister who came up with the name. While Dawnn was talking to her on the phone, she called out to me that her sister suggested Lucifer. I burst out laughing. Dawnn said she liked it. So, Lucifer is the name of our new pet. So far that name has offended two christians. Hopefully more will be offended in the near future.

The other thing that I would like to discuss--ok, I mean rant--is my ex-wife. I'm sure if anybody is reading this, they don't really care about my ongoing feud with the ex, but I really need to vent.

At the end of the last school year, on the very last day, my 5 year old son, who has since turned six, fell of a jungle gym and broke his arm. Now it would have been nice if my ex-wife decided to pick up the phone and inform me of this, but of course she didn't. I heard it two weeks after the fact from my mother. Now, I realize that I do not live in the same city as my children, and I really hate that fact. I would live near them if I could, but right now it isn't possible. For personal reasons I had to move away. SO, now my kids live with their mother and step-father and as far as they're concerned, I am no longer the father of my children. My kids have even started calling their step-father "Dad." This irks me to no end.

So anyway, the same son who broke his arm (I have to specify this since I have enough children that some people thought I was shooting for a baseball team) is going to Barrie, ON for dental surgery. Apparently he has nine cavities and needs a tooth capped. Now, did I hear this from the considerate ex-wife who informs me of all the things happening to my children? Of course not. I heard it from my mother since my ex has her head so far up her ass that she can't be bothered to inform me of anything going on with my kids. Apparently, they're not my kids anymore even though I was there when they were born (even cut the cord of the first three), I rocked them to sleep at night, I drove them to the hospital when accidents would happen, I stayed with their selfish bitch of a mother just so I could see them everyday. I remember staying up all night in emergency when the two older ones had pneumonia. I put up with heartache of one of my kids refusing to talk to me everytime I call because he's still mad at me for leaving. But will my ex treat me like I'm their father? Of course not.

Hell, when we split up four years ago, turns out she had just gotten pregnant with our fourth child. She didn't even bother to tell me for seven months! I even overlooked that and tried to reconcile our marriage because I wanted to be with my kids. But apparently, none of that is good enough.

I call them when I get the chance, but will she actually pick up the phone and call me so I can talk to my kids? Of course not.

So, I am at a loss as to what I should do about this. I know I wasn't the greatest husband or father, but I did my best. But still, my kids are calling someone else "Dad" and that hurts me more than I can ever put into words. I feel like I've lost my kids.

I started thinking about this yesterday when Dawnn suggested that my compulsive book buying has something to do with the fact that I am trying to compensate for something that is missing in my life. She pointed out that when some people get depressed they eat, or starve themselves, or drink. Apparently I buy limited edition signed hardcovers. Speaking of which, a few more should be arriving in the mail either today or tomorrow. I am so stoked.

But anyway, I'm getting off track. If anyone has any advice on this subject, please let me know. I really don't know how to deal with this situation and it's driving me nuts.

Writing updates: Hatred really wasn't going well at all, so I scrapped what I had and started over last night. I think I started too early in the story, so I picked a later point and started there. We'll see how that works out. Still waiting to hear back on my submission "The Demon Inside Her." I'm quite proud of that one, being my first flash-fiction piece. I think I did quite well. I'm getting really impatient. It's been over a month, so I hope to hear back soon.

That's all for today.

Until next time,

Joe (aka psychomule)

Embracing My Inner Mutant

I tend to read a lot of horror authors' blogs. Brian Keene, Wrath James White, J.F.Gonzalez, Shaun Hutson, Bob Ford, Kelli Dunlap, Nate Southard. Whichever ones I find, I read on a regular basis. I do this for a few reasons. 1. It's another way that I get to play the "How to avoid writing" game. 2. I get insight into other writer's thoughts and ideas on certain issues. 3. I have no life.

A while back I was perusing J.F. Gonzalez' blog. He had an interesting one posted with the title Embrace Your Inner Mutant. The blog was about the fact that Gonzalez had noticed that when you see people reading in coffee shops, planes, restaurants, or any other public place, you never see them reading books by mid-list authors. After reading the article I noticed that it's true. Anyone I see reading in public the authors are almost always Danielle Steele, Dan Brown, Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, and so on. If anyone is reading horror or suspense, it's Stephen King or Dean Koontz. This got me to thinking about how I myself fell in love with mid-list authors.

I remember back when I was about nine or ten, I began to read Hardy Boys. My brother had a huge collection of the old blue hardcovers in his room that were given to him by our uncle. My brother never read them. So I, being both a fan of reading and mystery, took possession of them and devoured them. I read them all a minimum of three times each, while also adding to my brother's collection with those I found at garage sales and used book stores.

When I was eleven, my mother introduced me to Stephen King. I'm still not quite sure why since my mother is an avid mystery reader and hates horror or anything else that is remotely violent. She reads the nicer mysteries with cute titles like "A is for Alibi." All I remember is being at a literacy council booksale (my mother was the president of the literacy council in my hometown for quite a few years, an organization dedicated to teaching illiterate adults how to read) with her and she picked up a copy of Stephen King's "The Dead Zone" and said that she thought I would like it and bought it for me.

She was right. I loved it. I read it as fast as i could. I Then discovered that my uncle (the same one who gave my brother the Hardy Boys books) was also a fan of King. I then read The Dark-Half, The Shining, Pet Semetary, The Stand, and every other King book I found. That was when I first discovered my love for horror.

Then when I was about thirteen, I was in a used bookstore spending my hard earned money I got from mowing lawns on a huge pile of King books when the clerk looked at the pile and said "If you like Stephen King, you'll love Dean Koontz." Funny how she pointed me to Dean Koontz and not a mid-list horror author. Kind of proves exactly what Gonzalez was saying. But, I began to read Koontz' work and fell in love with that.

Then I discovered John Saul when I was about fourteen or fifteen. It was also at this time that I began to seriously write (I had attempted writing at a younger age, but everything I wrote were extremely bad rip-offs of Hardy Boy books). I turned out page after page of crap. Everything I wrote was horrible rip-offs of these three authors I was currently reading. I wrote two novels around this point in my life. One was a rip-off of the Dead Zone, and the other was a really bad, longer version of the Stephen King story "Sometimes They Come Back." But at least I was trying.

I had also never heard of the small press at this point. I had stupidly sent these novels I had written to places like Random House. I had no agent (who in their right mind would represent a fifteen year old who thought he was the next Stephen King?) so I just sent them directly to the publishers myself. And got a nice big pile of rejection slips for my trouble.

finally, at the age of eighteen, I discovered Douglas Clegg, and thus discovered Leisure's line of horror novels. And this is when my love affair with mid-list authors began. I discovered Clegg, Masterton, Lee, Hoffman, Hutson, and many others. I don't even read King anymore. I barely read Koontz and Saul these days. I've got tons of mid-list author books I've got in my "to-be-read" pile (and I mean tons....I spend a few hundred bucks a month on books). And I proudly read them in coffee shops, restaurants, planes, at work, or any other public place I happen to be in. I embrace my inner mutant, and I proudly tell everyone around me about these books to spread the word and hopefully help make my favourite authors that much more popular. And who knows? Hopefully one day, I'll be one of those mid-list authors....

Writing updates: Well, due to my recent computer crash, I have restarted "Hatred." I'm halfway through the first chapter. We'll see if it's better the second time around. I'm about ready to give up on "Terror Eyes." I think I need help to figure out exactly what is wrong with this story. And, I'm still waiting to hear back about my story "The Demon Inside Her." If it gets accepted, it will be my first published story. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Well, that's it for now.

Cheers,

Joe

Book Reviews

Okay, I don't normally do book reviews here, but I've read many books over the last few weeks (one of the joys of being a security guard, it gives me lots of time to read and write) that I felt the need to discuss them. Plus, since I've been working a hell of a lot lately, there's not much else going on in my life to talk about it...so here are the books I've read over the last two weeks.

1. Lucy's Child by Shaun Hutson: I've read many reviews that claim Shaun Hutson as the master of shock horror. I disagree with this statement because I don't find him all that shocking. I do however find that he manages to create very suspensful situations and unique story lines. I loved this book. Shaun Hutson's characterization is second only to Brian Keene.

2. The Minotauress by Edward Lee: This was a double bonus as the book included the novella The Horncranker. I enjoyed both stories very much, although throughout the Minotauress I kept wandering when the beast was finally going to show up. But I was promised lots of nastiness and this book delivered. Edward Lee never disappoints me.

3. His Pain by Wrath James White: I just started reading Wrath James White a few months ago and I am quickly becoming a big fan. His Pain isn't necessarily a horror story (in my opinion) but there are a few nasty scenes in it and it is probably the most original story I have ever read. This is definitely worth reading and I can't wait to get my hands on Wrath's latest book, Population Zero.

4. Just Like Hell by Nathan Southard: I can't remember where I first heard the name Nathan Southard, but I felt compelled to buy a copy of his novella Just Like Hell. It's very short (about 98 pages) and is a very small book (kinda cute, really). I read it in one sitting and loved it. It kick starts right into the story and doesn't quit until the last page. Nathan leaves us no room to breathe in this story. I just couldn't put it down. I believe this is his first published book, and I hope there are lots more to come. I'm definitely becoming a big fan of Nathan's.

5. Shifters by Edward Lee and John Pelan: A really cool story with good characterization. I haven't read everything by Lee, but I've read a lot of his work and I have never been disappointed by one of his books. The alien twists at the end kind of get annoying after a while, but the stories themselves are phenomenal. Ed Lee is definitely the King of Hardcore Horror.

6. Jigsaw by Gord Rollo: It's nice to see a fellow Canadian horror author doing well for himself. I enjoyed this new take on the Frankenstein theme. Even though it is a theme that's been used before, I found this one very original and the plot kept interested. This book is over 300 pages, and I read it in a day. 'nuff said.

7. The Bighead by Edward Lee: Yes, I've been reading lotrs of Lee lately. This is my second go around with The Bighead and it's as good as I remembered it. This is another one I read it a single day and it is over 300 pages. It's sick, disgusting, and funny. I highly recommend this book.

8. Ghostwalk by Brian Keene: Keene is currently my favourite author. I have yet to find an author who creates real characters as well as he does .Ghostwalk is no exception. It is kind of a sequel to Dark Hollow, but you don't need to read it to enjoy Ghostwalk. It will enhance your enjoyment of the book, so I do recommend reading Dark Hollow first. Keene has very original stories, good charaterization. The best thing about Keene is his dedication to his fans. He is offering a sequel to his novel Conquerer Worms absolutely free on his website, just to say thank you to his fans. I recommend any of Keene's work, but my personal favourite is Ghoul.

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can remember off the top of my head.

Writing updates: Since my computer crashed this week and I had nothing on back-up disk, everything I've been working on is gone, so it's back to the drawing board for my book Hatred and the story "She". I do have "Terror Eyes" printed out because it's in the editing stages, but I can't get it the way I want it. Something's not right and I can't figure out what it is.

Okay, that's everything for now.

Until next time,

Joe.

You've Been left Behind

I couldn't resist this:

I was scanning through Bob Ford's blog today. He mentioned this website that I thought I would share with you. The website is www.youvebeenleftbehind.com. This website provides the service that when the rapture happens (that's when Jesus comes back to take all the Christians to heaven and leaves the rest of us here to suffer God's holy wrath), you can have an e-mail sent to loved ones to explain where you've gone and to encourage them to accept Christ.

So, out of curiousity, I checked out the website and then proceeded to laugh my ass off. The website really is offering this service, and for the low price of $40 a year. Apparently, they already have over 1000 people taking them up on their offer.

So, being the weird person that I am, I did some math on this. If a person decides to become a Christian at age 20 and right away they discover this service and start paying for it. Now, Let's say they live to the age of eighty and the rapture doesn't happen in their lifetime (big surprise) they shelled out $2400 for nothing. That's a lot of money for an e-mail that may very well get deleted before it's even read.

Not to mention, even amongst Christians the rapture is a contraversial subject that is continually being debated. Some believe in it, some don't. I have heard valid biblical arguments for either side (assuming any argument coming from the bible can be considered valid).

So, I am bothered by this for two reasons:

1) The stupidity of the people who are actually buying into this scam; and

2) The fact that this whole system is based on the assumption everyone involved will go to heaven. This means that, the whole system is set up that several people in different areas must log in on a daily basis. If someone fails to log in for 3 days, a message is sent to everyone else telling them to log in. If they don't within 3 days, all the e-mails are sent to the designated recipients informing them that the rapture has occured and they've been left behind and if they don't accept Christ as their personal saviour now, they are fucked.

Let's pretend that the rapture actually does happen (as if!!!). Now, let's pretend that one of the people involved in this project isn't really a Christian (it's plausible, I know lots of people who pretend to be Christians). Now, let's say this guy is a real asshole and decides to keep logging in every day. None of the emails. will get sent out.

Yes, this is a long shot, but it could happen.

So, let me just say if anybody reading this thinks that I need to be sent one of these e-mails, I will warn you right now. Save your money because I will delete it without reading it, and your e-mail will get left behind. I'd rather go to hell than spend eternity in heaven with you losers.

Writing updates: My short story "The Demon Inside Her" has been sent off to a book publisher for possible inclusion in an anthology (fingers crossed). I'm still trying to edit "Terror Eyes." I just can't get it the way I want it. And I am currently working on the first draft of "She," another short story. I hope to get back to work on "Hatred" very soon.

BTW, just read "The Long Last Call" by John Skipp. I highly recommend it. Fantastic book, and if you buy the Leisure edition, it comes with a bonus novella "Conscience" which is another great read.

That's it for now.

Cheers,

Joe

God Hates the WBC

Even though at one point in my life I considered myself a christian, I have come to develop a special loathing for them. Here's another reason why:

A group known as the Westboro Baptist Church (not affiliated with any other Baptist church apparently) slipped through the borders into Canada to picket Tim McLean's funeral today. Now, I'm sure we're all aware of the tragic incident that happened to Tim McLean a few weeks ago, and my heart goes out to his friends and family. Now, if only the members of the WBC can get it through their heads to picket a funeral where such a tragedy has occured and that this young man's family already has enough on their plates with the death of this young man, and they should not have to deal with these idiots who think it's okay to go around spouting their self-righteous messages at the most inappropriate times.

Just for the record, WBC is considered a hate-group and they have put up websites such as godhatesfags.com and godhatescanada.com.

Now, I did mention earlier that because of free-speech and all that stuff, I believe that a person does have to right to be racist or anti-homosexual or anti whatever the hell you want to be against. As long as it does not infringe on the rights of other people. Now, having said that, I also hate racism in all its forms, and I believe that the WBC are a group of intolerant, ignorant fuckers. I was extremely happy when I found out that citizens of Winnipeg were going to form their own counter-protest, in order to block the WBC from the people attending the funeral. At least there are some considerate people still on the planet.

Apparently, the WBC believes that God orchestrated the attack on Tim McLean to punish Canada for accepting homosexuality. Does anyone else want to worship a god like this? I would like to hear the logic of this: God punishes a young kid because he lives in a country that allows homosexuality. If that's the case, I say: "Fuck God!" I don't even want to believe in a god like that, let alone worship one.

So, that is one of many reasons why christians piss me off.

Writing updates: "Terror Eyes" has gone through it's second draft and is about to undergo it's third. I've almost got the first chapter of "Hatred" done, but I'm having trouble getting it the way I want it. Hopefully I'll have it and Chapter 2 done sometime this week.

That's all for now.

Cheers,

Joe

Don't Wanna Be An Aryan Idiot

Yesterday morning, I decide to go across the street to Starbucks to have a coffee and read the newspaper. So, imagine my surprise when I open up the Calgary Sun to page 2 and find an article that states anyone willing to move to Calgary and join the Aryan Guard (a local neo-nazi group), the organization will pay their damage deposit for an apartment.

Okay, first of all, I want to make something clear. I am not a racist. Yes, in the past I have told and laughed at my fair share of jokes about other races. Looking back on it, I'm pretty ashamed of myself for doing it and I have resolved not to do it anymore. Having said that, I do believe that because we have freedom of speech in this country, that a person has the right to be racist if they so choose. I believe that racism comes from ignorance and stupidity, so I have absolutely no respect for the Aryan Guard or any other neo-nazi organization. However, I also believe that they have a right to do their protests and have their little group. This is not the most popular stance I've taken on an issue, but free speech is something that is very important to me, so I have to let other people have the same freedoms. It's in the charter of rights and freedoms.

What I think is appaling is the fact that the Sun printed a huge article about it on page 2. So, basically the Sun is advertising for this group of racist idiots for free. Now, every hillbilly racist moron that wasn't aware of this group before, is aware of them now, and the group can get more recruits. Which is what the world needs, more ignorant, racist fuckers running around causing trouble for people just because of the colour of their skin.

Anyway, I just thought I'd spew out about this because I really pissed off about it when I read that article and I really need to get this out of my system.

Writing updates: None really. I've been slacking a bit because I've been spending a lot of time playing Grand Theft Auto 4. I need to pull up my socks and kick my ass into gear and get some stuff done. Plus, I still need people to read "Terror Eyes" and tell me what they think. Anyone interested please leave me a contact or email me, or leave me a note on Facebook.

Ciao,

Joe

Damn Kids!

I always used to say that you've officially reached old age when you start using the phrase "Those damn kids!"

So that means I have now officially reached old age.

Two nights ago, I decided to go to Tim Horton's after work. Okay, I was locked out of the house so the decision was kind of made for me. Anyway, I buy a newspaper and a coffee, then sit down to read the paper. The first few pages are full of the usual stuff you find in the paper. Thefts, beatings, drugs. I mean, this is Calgary after all. Then I come across an article about a 12 year old girl who took her Dad to court to have her grounding overturned. And won. That's when it struck me that this is part of the reason why the first few pages is full of garbage.

A good portion of crimes today are done by teenagers. This is because we get these idiotic psychologists who tell parents that spanking is wrong. Give the kid a "time-out" instead. The time out has got to be the most ridiculous punishment I've ever heard of.

The other reason kids are running wild is because of organizations like children's aid. In my opinion, they are the most useless organization around today. People are so scared to discipline their children because of the CAS that they let their kids run free and do whatever they want. The big threat is that the kids will call children's aid. Ya, I tried that once with my mom and she drove me there.

If parents don't start to discipline their kids, they will keep running wild and causing trouble. I remember days when kids were scared to do anything wrong because of what their parents would do to them if they found out. It's no coincidence that 50 years ago there wasn't as much youth crime as there is today. This all started when they started to introduce these alternative punishments like the time-out.

I say fuck the CAS and start spanking your kids.

Writing updates: Finished the first draft of my short story "Terror Eyes." I need some people to read it and critique. If anyone's interested, let me know ASAP. Also, Hatred is still coming along. I expect to be done Chapter One soon. The secret project is still in the development stages. I hope to start writing it once I get a few more stories out of the way.

Later,

Joe

Rantings

Ok, I'm just gonna spout out about a few things here:

First of all, yes I have kids, and yes I live very far from them. I am doing my best to keep up a relationship with them at a distance, since I currently am not able to move back to where they live. The fact that I live so far away from them does not mean that I am not their father and it does not mean that it's okay for them to be taught to call someone else "Dad" and it also does not mean that it's okay for their mother to not call me and tell me things like my son broke his arm. If she actually had half a fucking brain and would stop losing my fucking phone number, maybe she would be able to call me every now and then and let me know what is going on with my fucking kids instead of me hearing it from everyone else that happens to know more about my fucking family than I do because some fucking selfish, inconsiderate bitch can't be bothered to pick up a fucking phone. Anytime something important happens in my children's lives, it would be nice to know about it. I love my kids, and I wish I could be back home to spend more time with them, however at this juncture in my life it's not gonna happen. So, if my ex-wife happens to ever read this: "PULL YOUR FUCKING HEAD OUT OF YOUR FUCKING ASS AND PICK UP THE FUCKING PHONE AND CALL ME TO TELL ME WHAT"S GOING ON WITH MY KIDS!"

Secondly, I'm getting sick and tired of hearing about religion. I don't care what religion you are. I don't want to fucking hear about it. You want to be Christian? Fine. That's your problem. Leave me the fuck out of it. I hate having to hear people tell me I need Jesus. I tried to do the whole Jesus thing and the only thing I learned was that he is not the answer. If you pray, no one hears you. Prayer is the most useless thing in the world, with the bible a close second. I would God is the most useless thing, but since he is none existent, it pretty much goes without saying. So, if you feel the need to stop me on the street, or wherever just to tell me that I need Jesus in my life, here's my answer in advance: "FUCK YOU!!"

OK...I'm done spewing, now for writing updates. Secret project is still in its development stage, but it should be ready to go shortly. All the stories I'm currently working on are coming along slowly. Some research has to be done and it's getting harder to find the time. Also, two novels in the works: A horror novel called "Hatred" and a suspense novel that is untitled at the moment.

More updates to come.

Cheers,

Joe

Hatred

Hatred is the title of the book I am writing. Well, one of them....

My other big project, besides a few stories that I'm working on (if anyone wants to read to them and critique them, let me know), is a super-secret project I've got going. The only hints I'll give about it is that it's not my usual horror stuff, it is a book, and it is inspired by and written for the four most important people in my life. That's all I'm going to say about it, but I will provide updates about it later.

"Hatred" is one that I'm really excited about. I'm getting new ideas for it all the time and I think it is shaping up nicely.

Well, that's all for now....

Ciao,

Joe