As promised earlier, here’s a book update:

It’s almost done. Maybe even over the weekend.

Now, being done doesn’t necessarily mean being DONE, ok? The way I’ve had to write is this: write it out on paper in long-hand, then type it into the computer, editing and proofing as I go. Then, of course, comes the fun part: submissions. However, I do have a few interested parties waiting…

Anyway, for the purpose of this posting, “done” is being finished with the hardest part for me, the actual writing. On paper.

Stay tuned, folks… and thanks for your continued interest in my project. I hope it turns out good for you.

It’s definitely been quiet around here. I’ve been dealing with some personal issues regarding the writing of the book. The world continues to intrude upon the creation of “Challenger Storm: Isle of Blood”. Hopefully, these are past and the writing will continue. I’m near the end of the book, and am sure that once past the current barriers, I should be done soon. Please stand by…

In planning the second Challenger Storm novel (”Sons of Poseidon”), I devised something new for Storm and co. to utilize in the story: a mobile, seagoing base of operations, housed in a tramp-steamer (a boat inspired by the Venture in the Recent “King Kong” remake.) The Godspeed would be full of 1930’s high-tech gadgets, weaponry, a small plane that could be launched from a catapult, and a mini-submarine. In short, it was a pulp-era James Bondian thing, and I thought it was a cool invention that I came up with. Gave myself a gold star and everything.

Then last night, the roof fell on that idea.

(more…)

M.A.R.D.L. feedback scientist Gabriel has been working with an artist to bring his characters to life, and now the artist (Johan Manandin) has turned his skills toward a depiction of my character, Clifton Storm:

Kind of an anime-flavored influence here. This guy is extremely good. Check out more of his work in these posts on Gabriel’s blog:

Red Phantom rpg art?

Quick sketches by Johan

NEW SKETCHES!!!

Also, for anyone interested (and I hope SOMEBODY is), I’m still working on the book. I have the last 5 chapters to write now… essentially, the good part of the story. Then there’s the touching up, tweaking, etc. Then the art… still not sure what I’m going to do for the spot illustrations and cover. I don’t think my skills aren’t strong enough to do it on my own… we’ll see. I have a few ideas.

For now, I just want to get this current adventure done. From there, I don’t know what’s next. The first Cipher novel? Maybe. A new Challenger Storm adventure? Could be; it looks more and more appealing for me to stick with Storm and Co. for a while longer. I’m taking this in baby steps.

Thanks to the wonders of Myspace, I now find myself the proud recipient of fan-art, courtesy of Doc Ferus and the Hero Machine. Enjoy!

From the MARDL Youtube channel:

First of all: from all of us here at the MARDL compound to wherever you may be- Happy Hollidays, with warmest wishes to all.

Next order of business: A five-day weekend is coming up for yours truly. Lest you think I’ll be sitting at home, on my duff and watching “A Christmas Story”, you’ll be wrong (well, that’s my Christmas day plans, but anyway…).

No, I plan to pound out as much of “Isle Of Blood” as possible, with the promise of very little distractions and intrusions. I want to have this thing DONE, and plan to write as much as I can of the novel. Also on the agenda: more artwork. Spot illustrations and character portraits, specifically. Plus, I wanna work on the “teaser trailer” for the book, too.

I plan to be busy… and to enjoy every minute of it.

Raising a glass of egg-nog to you and yours.

Cheers to all! Wish me luck!

Using the wonderfulness found at Copper Age Comics’ miro-heroes, (plus some free-hand bitmapping) I made this neat lil’ Storm Micro-hero (with some help from the wife, who used to like paper dolls when she was a kid).

Gotta fix it in little ways we forgot, like his gloves and his left-handedness, but otherwise it’s cool, like a little Challenger Storm action figure.

Also, as an update, writing is coming along… a little slow than I’d like, but it’s chugging along nicely. I just finished the first really major action scene, and it was a blast to write. Thanks for tuning in!

I’ve been toying with the idea of some kind of MARDL poster using vintage industrial-style illustrations. Gabriel threw together this great and gritty piece showing that direction. Good on ya’, Gabe!

Note: The following is a post I wrote for a role-play by e-mail group that I (and Storm) have joined, The Liberty Brigade. For the hell of it, I decided to post this flashback, a bit of a Lovecraft / “The Thing” pastiche, here while I continue to work on “Isle Of Blood”. It’s not meant to be too detailed or long, it’s just a role-playing flashback post, but I figure I’d put it here. Enjoy.

“Storm was anxious. He had seen some remarkable things, most of which could be explained through reason or science.

“The direction that he was being led now, however, was those realms that belonged to the things he’d seen that COULDN’T have been explained away.

“He was the lone witness once to something that happened in the antarctic circle. He had been flying supplies to a research station, but upon landing he had found it completely empty. He investigated.

“In a chamber in the bowels of the station was the bodies of the research crew… they’d seemed to have been taken apart and put back together in what appeared to be an unsettling attempt to create a new creature.

“They had still been alive in that state too, crawling pitifully across the floor. They looked at Storm with pleading, agonized eyes, and their moans would reverberate in his memory for the rest of his days.

“So, too, would the tittering sound of the other thing in that room, an abomination that was wearing a skinned human face like it was a mask.

“Cliff had shot the thing with his pistol until the gun’s chamber clicked empty. After the shots’ echoes died away, however, an appalling slithering sound came from beneath the room.

“Cliff had hurried back to his plane, then returned to the room with a Tommy-gun and satchel-charges. These he set at the main support columns in the station, then hurried out to his plane. Something beneath the ground chased him, though… something huge and angry… the ice crackling and buckling behind his running feet. He managed to get the plane airborne, thankfully, and as he banked the big Ford tri-motor “tin goose”, the charges exploded, putting the tangled mass of flesh that had once been men out of their misery. His mind scrambled, trying vainly to put the panic and the crawling fear behind him. His curiosity persisted, however, and he looked down into the pit that had once been the station.

“Through the smoke and vaporized ice, he saw…

“He could never recall what he had witnessed as he looked down. The memory of what he saw refused to come back, leaving a whited-out patch in his continuity.

“He was found several days later, the plane a near-wreck where he’d managed to set it down on a small island. He had never been able to shake that tingling fear whenever he thought of that incident, and had never confided it to anyone, even those closest to him: his secretary, Marie; the former MARDL head-mechanic, Willy Avis; or even his best friend, The Red Phantom.

“The promise now, for another excursion into the unknown, had set upon him the same tingling fear somewhere in his mind, like a nest of spiders…”