I had a job interview yesterday morning at my wife's company for e a freelance position, which is perfectly acceptable as far as I am concerned. I'd be doing multimedia work on a project designed to educate a client company's sales staff on certain aspects of managed care in reference to PPOs and HMOs. I wouldn't have to do any of the writing, but I'd be assembling all the pieces for a CD. The interview seemed to go well, so I'm optimistic. This would represent a good three or four months' worth of work for me.
A few days ago I received a note from horror writer Jonathan Mayberry. Under his pseudonym Shane MacDougall he has written (and I have reviewed, here) The Vampire Slayers Field Guide to the Undead. To celebrate the book's release, his publishing company, Strider Nolan Press, conveniently located here in Doylestown, PA, is putting on a bash at a local art gallery, Sabine Rose, on October 22. The event promises to be quite the blowout, with live music by a couple of members of the Philadelphia Songwriter's Project, an exhibit of art from the book, a silent auction of signed prints by the book's artists, and a Q&A panel of other horror writers, including Karen Koehler, P.D. Cacek, E.F. Watkins, and of course Shane MacDougall. I sent in my R.S.V.P. at once, of course. In today's email I got a note from Jonathan asking me if I'd like to emcee the gig. As he put it, "You'd be, essentially, the Undertaker, and the staff would be mortuary attendants or pall bearers."
This is too good an opportunity for a ham like me to pass up, so I'm going to do it.
And as I was tooling around the house this morning, my daughter said, "Daddy's in a good mood today."
In other news... I revamped this site's front page to include some Flash work. Still need to add a "Loading, Please Wait" timing loop and some animation for the individual book title menu selections.
I jammed again this past week at Cafe Classics. Playing drums definitely helps me move some negative energy outinto the light and get it dissipated. I've also been working with my band on some new tunes, including Get Over It by the Eagles, How Long Has This Been Going On by Ace (not that that's the original version, by far), and Excitable Boy by the late Warren Zevon. Since everyone in my band sings, we can really do a good job on all the vocal harmonies.
I did some painting over the weekend, as well, but nothing definitive, so to speak. I did finish a nice still-life this past week, though -- I'll have to take some pictures of it and add it to my gallery. In fact, I'm about ready to add a third page to that section of this site.
I'd like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to my review page and archives over at Far Sector.com. I keep forgetting to add links here to these. I've got new reviews every month. Also, this month at Far Sector I executed a Halloween-themed cover that I rather like. (NOTE: now archived on the Far Sector site -- but the link here has been updated as of November 17, 2003.) Please take a look!
I haven't yet made up my mind about that writing project I mentioned last time. Dunno if I am ready to tackle something like that. But I am warming up a little, with a new short story that is radically different from anything I've ever attempted. At least I am shaking off the dust.