http://www.magicalwords.net/really-i-mean-it/the-twist-new-spins-on-old-stories/
It’s a great writing blog with a TON of awesome articles by working authors. Go comment and book mark it. I’ll be there once a month.
Month: January 2013
ARMAND ROSAMILIA MEET THE LOYALS AND TRUE BELIEVERS: LOYALS AND TRUE BELIEVERS MEET ARMAND ROSAMILIA
Y’all know I like to bring new folks to your attention. Here’s a fella that is hella nice and writes some truly kick ass zombie fiction. I mean Armand is truly out on the edge. He’s got a new one out and here he is to let you know a bit about the flavor of the story.
And the best way to support my guests is to buy their shizzle. Go look around Armand’s website, check out his amazon page, or just click the link below to go straight to the book! If you want crazy zombie action you will not be disappointed.
Without further ado:
Miami Spy Games
Miami Becomes A Character
Armand Rosamilia
As hard as it is to believe, Miami is where Miami Spy Games is set. I know, crazy! As with most of my stories, I take great care in choosing the perfect setting for a story, whether it is horror, thriller, erotica… you get the idea.
My challenge with Miami Spy Games was being handed the location when I took the job of writing the ‘episodes’. I live in Florida, but I also live about six hours north of Miami. It wasn’t like I could take a quick drive down, scope out the area, and begin writing. But once I started putting the basic story together, I realized Miami was a huge part of the plot.
It’s where the action is, obviously, but it also sets the tone. When you talk about the seedier sections of Miami, someone living in the area needs to know it is authentic, and readers all over the world need to feel like they know Opa-Locka. When I mention South Beach, everyone immediately thinks of gorgeous sun-kissed women wearing thong bikinis. (I know I do!), but I also wanted to show other parts of the area like the hotels and restaurants, so the reader got a better feel for it.
I was also able to talk to two people who are close to me that grew up in Miami: Kim Murphy and Steven Brack. They offered ideas for locations, told me about certain buildings and streets I used, and gave me some Miami tidbits I added into the story.
Time and time again, I had to research Miami maps and photos and areas like The Setai Hotel, Miamarina, Miami Zoo, Miami International Airport, and so many other spots. It’s amazing how much these places colored the story and felt like another character as I wrote, making sure to catch all the little nuances of each location and have it play off the living characters.
I hope I’ve done justice to Miami, and hope I can continue to play in their backyard with even more Miami Spy Games stories in the future.
If you have any questions about the Miami Spy Games series, I’d love to hear them: armandrosamilia@gmail.com
Armand Rosamilia
Miami Spy Games on Amazon Kindle only $3.99!
ARMAND’S AMAZON PAGE and ARMAND’S WEBSITE
SCREW YOU TOLKIEN, ALL MY ELVES ARE POISON (or remembering Drew Hayes)
I’m feelin’ a bit under the weather today so this post may ramble a bit. Forgive me like I’m Jean Valjean and I just stole your silverware. (I saw Les Miserables’. I cried two tears. Deal with it.)
Two things happened recently that drive this post.
1) The Missus got me DEATH THREATS: The Life And Times Of A Comic Book Rock Star by Drew Hayes which collects the starting notes (an editorial rambling by author/artist) for every issue of POISON ELVES (along with selected portions of the letters column which were called Deaththreats) In these pages are the story of a man who self-published a comic book in a time when the comics industry was in a bit of turmoil, signed on with an upstart publisher, and went on to become a bit of an underground comic legend. In it you find him going through divorce, depression, childbirth, and an assortment of other bits of life.) Drew is no longer with us, having died in 2007 entirely too young.
Now POISON ELVES is a comic book series that ran from end of ’91 to 2004 which is when Drew’s health went tits up and he couldn’t do the book anymore. There were some spin off side story miniseries that had his oversight and approval that went on a bit after that. But for all intents and purposes there hasn’t been a bit of new material in 5 years.
2) I saw this: APE ENTERTAINMENT TO PUBLISH NEW POISON ELVES
Both of them made me feel……strange.
Let me explain.
I discovered Poison Elves on issue one of the “new” series when it switched from self publishing to being put out by Sirius Entertainment. My mind was BLOWN. I discovered an anachronistic fantasy world populated by humans, wizards, and elves. It was a dark, gutterpunk version of fantasy and followed the adventures of a don’t-give-a-damn, angry-at-the-world-and-sometimes-justifiably-so, homicidal, hair-trigger elf named Lusiphur who had a smart mouth and a propensity for finding trouble.
The artwork was…..raw. All swagger and substance and not so much technique. Stark black and white and full of cool touches like rock posters on the walls of alleys, t-shirts on the characters, and other assorted punk rock aesthetics.
Plus Drew didn’t give a damn about what you were supposed to do and would plop down columns of story in the form of text chunks. It let him cut through the problem of backstory and fix the issue of having one character tell another what was going on in long pages of conversation so the reader would have a clue. In other words it was pretty damn brilliant.
And to this day nobody has the balls to do it like he did.
Needless to say I fell in love with the comic, bought all of them and still have them in a long box. I got to meet the main man himself when he came to the ’94 or ’95 (hell, mighta been ’96 or 97) Atlanta Comicon. It was a shit convention but he was there so me and my good friend Kevin took off to meet him. We had comics in hand and this was our first time meeting someone who actually made the things we both loved so much. (Kevin’s just as much a fanboy as me and also loves POISON ELVES).
I wish I could say we had a crazy time with Drew. That we met and it was like the Three Amigos joined for the first time and me and him and Kevin went from the convention for a night of revelry that may or may not have included whiskey, rock n roll, and strippers with one or all of us winding up waking in jail. But this was the mid-nineties and I wasn’t cool like that. I met him, he was really nice and signed our books, including the ones we bought there. We talked about some bands and stuff, things I can’t really remember, but it was short and when it was over we moved on, happier to have met someone who MADE COMIC BOOKS WE LIKED. I know we sent him a Mike Knott cd cause Kevin loves LSU (the band dork, not the football team) and they talked about it in our five minute (if that) conversation. I never heard from him again or met him again other than every month in the pages of the funny book.
But he was an influence. Is there some of Lusiphur in Deacon? Hell yes there is. Plus, directly because of Drew Hayes and his contribution to the author DNA of yours truly, if I ever write a straight fantasy book (and there is one in there, somewhere deep down, just fermenting like a fine sword-edged bourbon) it will be a lot like POISON ELVES.
So they are making a new series. It’s written by Rob Horan, the founder of Sirius Entertainment, who is the holder of the rights to POISON ELVES and probably the man most capable of carrying the torch. The art looks good. It’s blessed by Drew’s daughter, Mary. So I’m in. I’ll buy it when it comes out and I really hope it kicks a ton of ass.
But I won’t lie. I miss Drew Hayes.
THE OBLIGATORY NEW YEAR’S POST (or rangin’ in 2013 a bit late)
Loyals and True Believers we made it another year.
2013 Hell yeah and Amen and pass the bourbon.
I’m like most of you, I try to make changes with each new year. Most of them have to do with writing but there are more so here’s some random resolutions that are bouncing around in my head.
1) 60% OF A MILLION
I did some figuring the other day. If I write 2,000 words a day, taking off one day a week and allowing for 13 sick days, at the end of 2013 I will have written 600,000 words. SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND! That’s astounding. I’m going to give it my best try, keeping track and seeing if it can be done. I’ve got about 240,000 words worth of projects laid out for the year which leaves 360,000 words to spend on new things. It’s exciting!
2) SPEAKING OF WRITING
I am making a conscious decision to quit screwing around with my wordsmithy. I am seeking out new words and new ways to use them, studying poets of the caliber of Yeats, Tennyson, and Donne. I’ll be pulling out the Ecclesiastes and the Psalms (in both King James and Douay-Rheim) and the early turn of the century (not the 21st) writers like the church fathers. Basically I want to get my Cormac McCarthy on and combine the lyrical sentence work with my pulp sensibility.
3) LOSE WEIGHT
Yep. We all say it but unlike you I stepped on a scale that informed me I was a super svelte 383 lbs. Let that sink in for a second. I am SEVENTEEN POUNDS FROM BEING 400. That is a bit ridiculous. I’ve always been a big guy. I like being a big guy but it is time to reel that shit in.
4) WORK THE TATTOO GIG LIKE A BUSINESS OWNER
I can be honest with you. This past year I really let the shop take care of itself while I chased my author dreams. I don’t regret anything and the shop did fine but I know that Family tradition needs my attention. If I just leave it be it will not thrive and I LOVE my shop, I want it to grow and be the best shop it can be. It’s a great place and even if words flow through my veins, tattooing is in my bones. It was there first and is still part of my DNA. So the ship is being tightened up, changes implemented and new things put in motion.
5) A NEW SCHEDULE
This all happens with a bit of structure on my part. Instead of willy nilly doing whatever the hell I want I have to apply this brain of mine to the situation and manufacture a workable schedule to do what I want. I am pretty sure I have it worked out and it is implemented and undergoing study to see where it needs be tweaked for efficiency.
Other than the big five it’s a bunch of little things. I plan to drink more bourbon, to meet new folks, to explore new forms of writing and new pieces of art. I’m 42 and I love my life and I plan to truly enjoy it all.
NOIR MUSINGS 