blog: things you should check out

Check out: Kate Beaton’s holiday comics

Kate Beaton’s comics are super great, and if you don’t follow her on Twitter you may have missed her holiday comics — little vignettes of quiet, funny moments spent with her family in Nova Scotia. She’s posted the whole run on her Tumblr:

Kate Beaton’s Holiday Comics 2013

I made some family comics too this Christmas, but Kate’s are the best, sweet and relatable and good-natured like a nice cup of wintertime cocoa. Check ’em out!

Check out: ‘Help Fund My Robot Army’, a fiction anthology!

Multi-award-winning anthlology editor John Joseph Adams is putting together a fiction collection on Kickstarter about Kickstarter.

It’s called HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!! & Other Improbable Kickstarters, and it’s all stories of fantastic and improbable crowdfunding projects — essentially, using the format of a Kickstarter project to create narratives, such as the short story the book is titled after: “Help Fund My Robot Army!!!”, by Keffy R.M. Kehrli (which you can read online for free):

The field of robotics is full of hacks, engineers with no creative impulse. Scientists who wouldn’t know ambition if it hit them in the face with a laser cannon. Well! I have spent the past twenty years designing my robot army—no machine out of place—to take over the world for my own nefarious purposes.

With this in mind, I am asking for $40,000,000,000 to pay for equipment, raw materials, rent for my secret lair, and a Playstation.

I have no doubt that you are wondering what I will do if—ah, though it is not “if” so much as “when”!—I surpass my initial funding goals. My stretch goals include a squad of “Steam Punk” robots, including gears, parasols, and gold inlay; a domed city to house survivors, surrounded by a moat complete with robot sharks to keep them safe; and a collection of plush versions of my most popular robot models…

The anthology is full of a great roster of talent, as well as me! I somehow snuck in there. I will be writing a story for the book! And John has posted a short interview with me today as well.

The Kickstarter campaign for the anthology ends on Thursday, so there’s a few days left if you’d like to pledge for a copy.

John’s video, I will also advise you, is full of kittens. The man knows how to get me!!

Free short story on Kindle: “The Druggist” by Todd Croak-Falen

My friend Todd Croak-Falen has written a creepy short story for Halloween! It’s called “The Druggist”:

It’s been five years since Eric Halman’s young daughter was drugged and kidnapped by a man who stalks his victims only on Halloween. Since then he’s made it his life’s mission to do what the police can’t seem to do — capture this predator.

Dark and disturbing, “The Druggist” will infect your psyche and stay with you well after you’re done reading.

The story is available right now for FREE Kindle download! It’s only free through Wednesday, October 23 — after that it goes back to the regular price of 99¢. Download it, read it, be creeped out.

BONUS LINK: Max Mitenkov did the cover art! Check out more great artwork on his site.

BONUS BONUS LINK: Longtime readers may recognize Todd’s name — he was also the co-writer and producer of my spy film Expendable. Which, if you haven’t seen it, IS RIGHT HERE:

And which is available on DVD, with bonus features, here.

We made this film…geez, almost six years ago! Before the Stallone movie(s) of the similar names. Anyway if any HOLLYWOOD BIGWIGS want to buy our feature-length screenplay version of the same concept (it’s basically a James Bond movie from the perspective of the supervillain’s anonymous henchmen)…just, y’know, email me.

Check out: Max Temkin on values

A few weeks ago I was pleased to attend XOXO in Portland, which bills itself as “an arts and technology festival celebrating independent artists using the Internet to make a living doing what they love.”

It was a really fun time, and I got to meet great people and demo the Machine of Death game and eat from some good food trucks and even have pizza too! All around I recommend it as a cool way to spend a weekend.

The first speaker (of many) at the weekend was Max Temkin, one of the creators of the game Cards Against Humanity. Among other things, he talked about the genesis of CAH, and how he and his colleagues have managed its growing complexity as a business as well as a creative endeavor.

Sometimes I feel bogged down trying to figure out what to do — how to run my business, how to be creative, how to spend my time. Max’s answer is to focus on developing and heeding your values: because having a core set of values will make your actions in a given situation clear or obvious, since you will always have a true north to align to.

The talk (as well as the other XOXO talks) is well worth watching, and it also includes a performance by The Doubleclicks, performing an absolutely gorgeous song about the Mars Curiosity rover.

Max Temkin at XOXO 2013 – YouTube

By the way, if you’re into creating custom Cards Against Humanity cards, here are some good ideas, these are free from me