What is coming in ‘08

So it’s a new year. Cari and I are getting used to living in Portland. It was nice moving here for lots of reasons. Amazing Vegan community, cheap movies, old school arcades, and best of all old friends. When we arrived at our new home we had two friends here already. Randall our buddy from back in So Cal is here, and an old friend of mine Ian (Bru-dawg) from Indiana lives here too. In a really strange world’s collide moment I helped Ian move his ridiculously huge record collection into Randall’s apartment as they are now roommates.

Pretty awesome, they are going to be roommates. Randall’s last roommate was a sell-out turd who never paid him a dime of rent. They have both been awesome friends. We also met the local horror writers at the H.P. Lovecraft film fest and it was rad to meet the bizarro writers. A month after we moved here we jumped in and helped to organize the Vegan Holiday Fest. Made lots wonderful friends there.
What is going on professionally? I admit I’ve bitten off more than I can chew with my young writing career. You know what…Hell or high water I’m going to finish these projects. Case in point.

The Vault of Punk Horror. After four years the short story collection I co-edited with Gabriel Lanas has finally been released. It is a charity project, so please buy it, read it, enjoy it. The first couple copies came off the presses with a jacked up cover and we had to make a few changes before it’s perfect but it is out now. Its a few years late but we got it done. It is pretty awesome to see it.

Next up is a trade paperback Screams from a Dying world (2nd edition). It will be twice the length of the first edition with 11 stories and a full novella. I’ve been working with a couple of editors getting it cleaned up and ready for final publication. It wont be out till march or April but we want get it done now so we can put out advance copies for review.

Punk Horror is planning our first releases by authors not in our immediate circle. Both authors were in The Vault. This is a big move for us and when it’s official we will make a big deal about it. You’ll know soon.

I’m also working on heavy editing of my first full-length novel Hunting the Moon Tribe. We have the first four sample chapters ready to go, and they look pretty good. I’m shopping the book around, as well as seeking an agent. Not just for my books but also for my screenplays. I would love to also try and get work writing media tie-ins.

Speaking of screenplays after the seven drafts we did of The Slaughter – an animal rights themed horror script we declared it done. I co-wrote the script with Eric Prescott. Eric managed to produce a movie with the title Bachelor Party Massacre. He pulled that off I’m hoping he can make The Slaughter happen.
Writing my second novel at the moment. Twelve chapters in and after a month off I’m shooting for a chapter a week until it’s done. I had to do a lot of research into coming technology and water scarcity issues for this book. I found the water research to be scarier than global warming; it has made me feel much better about all the rain in the northwest.

Not enough yet? Ok how about my first non-fiction book. I’m written lots of propaganda for various activist groups and causes, but have never written such an intense non-fiction project. The book will be called Radical Sobriety. I’m researching and writing it with my boy Randall. We felt there was a need for a well researched, articulate book about Straight Edge(drug free) politics. Randall and I are also planning a trip to Europe to promote this project and to talk about my first amendment battle in a euro- speaking tour. So if your in England, Germany, France or Spain keep an eye out in late June or early July.

Don’t hold your breath for the straight edge book, we are just getting started, we have tons of research and interviews to do yet.

Last but not least is “Try Vegan Week PDX”. This is project a few of us are working on but I think it is the biggest most comprehensive act of Vegan outreach ever launched by a single community. It is a whole week that will include Vegan outreach and mentoring events that will include individuals, restaurants, grocery stores, activist groups and more. More details as it comes together but the idea is to support anyone in the community wanting to try veganism for a week. We know many will stick it out.

Veganism saves animals lives, curbs global warming and could actually reduces the water crisis. So if you have not considered veganism before please do.
This is the plan for 2008. check back next year and see how I’ve done but the key to being an activist is being active. Alright back to work…