Office 3.0

I put a pic of the new office on facebook a week or so ago but I thought I'd give you a little tour here on the blog. I've worked on a lot of offices in my residences in the past and sadly, most of them were short lived as I moved and moved and moved again. Hopefully that moving thing is done with.

So finally at the Washington house here in beautiful Gig Harbor, I began working on an office in our massive basement. It was going to be quite the scary place. No windows, concrete red walls with black trim and black door... A nifty place to make scary books right? Well, yeah but an upstairs room seemed a little more productive, and social. So after painting the dungeon I moved upstairs where I currently am writing this.

Here's the downstairs office before I abandoned it.

 

 Next, I got a lovely room upstairs where I could be with everyone and have some natural light. While I dig the idea of having a dungeon, I yield to the idea that I can perform better with the people I love around me.

Here's the new office! Complete with character bios (I'm putting more up today!), Asian Miyazaki posters, the original Voltron (Lionbot), Espresso-Gone Crazy calendar and of course Hellraiser's Lament Configuration. (I have to call on the Cinebites from time to time ya know...)

Here's another view desk with more Miyazaki posters and my North American map detailing all my travels.

And the back view. (Sorry about the blurry lights.) Yes, my office is covered in Miyazaki posters...

Pinterest

I was skeptical to join yet another social media/whatever you want to call it site as there's a million of them but Pinterest seemed nifty for some reason even though I had no idea what it was. I understood that you could "pin" photos and whatnot from the web and organize them into categories but couldn't you just do that on facebook?

Well, yeah you can but this is a little different. I asked around I've me insight on Pinterest and I got from some authors that the site was good for organizing inspirational pics for your books... That's good enough for me. I jumped into it, searching the web for anything that I could use as inspiration and low and behold, I started to like it! ow my Pinterest page has pics from my life, pics that inspire me for Thomas Riley 3, Jet Black and Tribes... So, if you look, you can get a secret glimpse into what might be coming next book wise. (The picture above serves as inspiration for the opening scene of Thomas Riley 3... This is the new Cynthia Basset) With any site like this, it's always a work in progress and I'll be adding things all the time.

So if you have a Pinterest account or just want to check out my pics and inspiration, check out my page here.

Ben Steed Music

You all know I like to blog about music I dig from time to time and today I have to crow about Ben Steed! He writes and produces amazing ambient soundscapes akin to Harold Budd and Bian Eno. I know those are huge names to throw around in the ambient world but Ben is equally talented in my opinion.

Think a little sad yet hopeful with quality and well balanced ethereal edge. Personally I've been plotting and editing to his music for the last several days and I have to say that it's proving to be more inspiring than other gold selling artists. This is amazing stuff! One of ,my favorite tracks right now is "The Saddest Factory". This is deep Hearts of Space quality music that undoubtedly will be in the mainstream community in no time. This is your chance to get in on it while it's still in the underground.

I can't say enough great things about Ben Steed. He's a great guy and a top notch musician and ambient songwriter. He totally captures raw emotion with his music. I love Ben's music so much, there's even talk of a book/music collaboration. *Wink

Check him out on Sound Cloud for free. I swear you won't regret it.

Ben Steed Sound Cloud

Ben Steed on Last FM

Also, check out his facebook profile here.

Thomas Riley 2 Edits Round 2 Done

Edits
I'm happy to announce a few cool things. One that the Thomas Riley 2 (Round 2) edits are done and sent off. My editor, Amanda Shults from ZOVA Books has been insanley wonderful through this whole process and has been such a huge help. She's helped me hone and shape this into a wonderfully detailed story. I'm absolutely excited for everyone to read this! The book has several big turn of events.

Thomas Riley 1 Reissue
So ZOVA Books will be rereleasing the first Thomas Riley novel. (All three will be under the same house now) I'm excited to report that the reissue will have the first chapter of book 2 at the end of the novel. This will not only answer a very important question, but it sets up book 2 quite nicely. I'm excited to see it!

In random news...
I'm working on the plotting of Thomas Riley 3 and it's looking to be even more detailed and in depth than #2. Somehow, this crazy steampunk story is going to get even crazier. In my in between time, I'm also fooling with a new book which all I will tell you right now is a horror novel called Tribes.

Elizabeth Valentino

I thought I'd take today to crow about my amazing, beautiful and extraordinarily talented wife Elizabeth. Besides being the most amazing girl in the world, she has a lot going on right now book wise and it's about to ramp even more. She has a ton of books in the works and I know her fans are going to be insanely excited.

Steamed Up
Next month Liz's second book with Harlequin, Steamed Up, hits the market under her other name, Elizabeth Darvill. It's a naughty steampunk erotica book that follows the first one, Steam Heat, which will satisfy all your desires.  Think of it this way, it makes Fifty Shades of Grey look like a first teenage kiss.
Get your copy of Steam Heat here.
Pre-order your copy of Steamed Up here.

New Website
Liz's new website is live and it looks great! Links to all her books, news and happenings are there. She's already amassed quite an impressive collection of books and stories ranging from paranormal, to erotica to YA for every reader.
Check out her brand new site here.

New Facebook Author Page
Liz's new name also prompted a new author page on Facebook where she'll keep you up to date on her latest authorly endeavours as well as a "Naughty Pic of the Day" which is always a big hit.
Check out and like her new author page here.

The State and July Blog Stats

The Steampunk world is in quite the uproar right now. I thought I'd take a break from the drama to give you...The July Blog stats! I know it's still one of your least favorite posts I make every month but I love to see it and record it for posterity. Close race last month! This month the most hits went to the ultra cute Siberian Husky, Skye, while the completion of the first round of TR2 edits got second and the last place was stage combat class. People just love their cute puppies.

In other news I have some fun info about some shorts coming up and I'm going to be knee deep in some second round edits for Thomas Riley 2 very soon. Also, I should get some info on the cover art that I'll be sure to let you in on as soon as I'm allowed to. All I can tell you now is that it's awesome. I can't say a bunch right now but I'll be sure to post everything as soon as possible. The ole' blog is always the first to know.

The Moveable Feast

This weekend was wonderfully kooky. We went to "Whaling Days" in Silverdale WA which is like thirty minutes from us. It's basically a fair with rides, food, bands etc... On Sunday we went to The Movable Feast in Tacoma.

I love food trucks and The Movable Feast featured 40 of them from all around the region in Washington. It was a free event, you just had to pay for the food you wanted and luckily there was tons of low priced samples. They literally had anything you could want, Cajun, German, Jamaican, ice cream, cupcakes, Mexican, Argentinian, Native American... to name a few.
We tried Gumbo from, "Where ya at Matt", Tacos, Native American Fry Bread from "Off The Rez", Cherry Fritters, Curried Chicken Pockets, and even a donut called the Homer which was a homemade pink frosted donut with rainbow sprinkles straight outta Springfield from "Original Sin Doughnuts".

This was the first annual movable feast so I'm already looking forward to next year! In the meantime, we'll keep looking for more awesome food trucks.
Enjoy the pics!

Lizzie getting a Mexican Coke with her taco.

  German Cherry Turnovers!

The Ultra Awesome Pig Truck!

                                                       Great Gumbo fom Where Ya At!

Bad ass logo and doughnuts!

The Homer!