Little things worth mentioning.

Things of interest:

While away for Thanksgiving, the latest issue of CRAM Magazine went live, and my story, Jeff & the Antichrist, went right along with it. Many thanks to the editor, Tim Forden, for giving such a weird story a home. You can download the latest issue here, and you can also download the story in PDF form here.

I mentioned a little Halloween story about a month ago that I did for a contest on deviantART. Well, the results of that contest aren’t in yet, but I’m posting the story here anyway. Besides, if you’re a member of deviantART, you’ve probably read it all ready. Anyway, the story is called The Early Termination of Charles Boid, and you can get it here.

It ties in with an older story of mine that was intended to be a one-off, so imagine my surprise when snarky little Mr. Boid popped up once again. I’m still not sure how I feel about the story, even after a month away from it, but I have to admit I’m intrigued by its implications. I don’t think this will be his last appearance.

ALT received a very nice review over at Lulu last weekend from a very kind soul:

Todd’s book is an amazing piece of literature that defies all bounds of genre. It is horror, sci-fi, romance, self-help, and more all wrapped up in the covers of a psychological thriller. The characters, both good and evil, are fresh and the plot drives with such forward momentum and exacting execution that every chapter literally ended with me saying, “Wtf!?!” and then continuing. I couldn’t put it down to save my life.

Dean Koontz *wishes* he could write like this.

I said it last week, and I’ll say it again: Wow. Bless you, Mr. Blemings.

(Can you tell I’m learning how to format bloggy things?)

Right. Anyway: Erica and I stepped away from our computers this past week and took a little trip down to my home in Kentucky. Only a few people knew we were coming and, somehow, I managed to keep it a secret from just about everyone else. The look of pleasant shock on the faces of my aunts, uncles, grandparents and even my father made it all worth the secrecy. The drive down was rather uneventful and, mercifully, quicker than usual. The drive back: not so much. And to all you folks out there who crawled out of bed at the crack of dawn on Friday, I feel your pain. Erica and my mom both conspired to get me up that morning, and so around 4:58 am, the bedroom door swung open and the light flicked on.

“Get up,” Mom said. “We’re going shopping.”

“The hell I am.”

Erica sat up and chuckled, “You’re going shopping.”

“Damnit.”

An hour later I found myself wandering, sleep-deprived, among a gaggle of people who were too awake for 6 in the morning and too happy to be spending their money.

Oh, and before I forget: the night we arrived, my mom presented something to me which I thought was lost a long time ago. It was a newspaper clipping from that ancient year of 1995. I was in seventh grade. Mrs. Martin’s class. She made us writing Christmas stories which, unknown to us at the time, would be submitted to the Corbin Times-Tribune. My story made it, marking this as my third “official” appearance in the Times, even though they won’t give me the time of day now that I actually have some inkling as to what the hell I’m doing. The story itself is atrocious and, if memory serves me correctly, far shorter than what I wrote. I also distinctly remember writing “Elvin,” not “Elfin.”

All in all, though, it was a great trip. Very relaxing. It felt good to be home again. We’re going to try and make it down there for Christmas, too.

I think that’s about it for now. There are photos, but we haven’t migrated them from the cameras yet. Maybe I’ll post them next time. More tweaks are planned. Erica’s going to dig into the CSS code and play around with various things. I’m probably repeating myself, but the RSS feed has been updated, so all of you blog readers need to update your link.

And on that note, I’m off for now. That 11–hour drive really takes it out of a person, and I’m still recuperating. I’m thinking hot tea, a little Mario Galaxy play time, and early to bed. Good night, folks.

Best,

Tags: Thanksgiving, ancient+newspaper+clippings, a+life+transparent, jeff+and+the+antichrist, charles+boid, too+tired+to+think+of+anything+else