A New Addition to the Family

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The latest addition to my little career has finally shown up in the flesh, or should I say in the pulp... as in paper... all right. Bad attempt at humor. But several copies of "Exile: The Collected Helman Graff" did show up in my mailbox yesterday...


















...and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Nate's illustrations look great, (something I was a tad worried about) and the rest of the pages are in order, so I guess the book is a win-win. I've received a lot of emails from those of you that also received your own copy, and I hope you enjoy it. This book was a bit more of a trial than the others I've written, primarily because it was completed at the same time that I was moving my entire family into a new house, (I know, I know, could I have timed it any worse!?). To add to the general ambiance of a total clusterf^*k, short stories are something that I often wrestle with. I generally like to spread my wings over big box, industrial strength-sized stories, and it feels like going against the grain when I have to contain the narrative to something smaller in stature. At any rate, I struggled with this one a bit, but I couldn't be happier with the stories, or the packaging. Yay.


I spent last week in Minneapolis with my wife and children while my wife attended a work conference. Lots of time spent at the hotel pool. We also checked out the Mall of America - a place I haven't been to in at least ten or fifteen years. On day three of our excursion I found the courage to take my three kids - (6, 4, and 1 respectively) downtown. Driving down was fairly easy, and once I neared First Ave. I sorta had my bearings. We walked through the skywalk and had root beer floats in the IDS tower. The kids got a kick out of it and so did I. There was an Uncle Hugo bookstore near our hotel and I had a brief opportunity to check it out. Their horror section was so-so but their science fiction selection was insane. I was in a hurry so I only picked up a Keene book I'd somehow missed, and a few E.R. Burroughs titles I don't already have. I'll definitely be heading back there when I have more time.

My friend Andy and his wife Megan were in town briefly on Thursday night. I enjoyed hanging out with them, and seeing some other friends I haven't had the opportunity to talk to in at least fifteen years. Good memories. Good times.

We head back to Minneapolis this coming week for a few more days, and after that we'll have some more friends coming to visit from Madtown. February is for Friends, is the new motto, I guess.

While in Minneapolis, I had the time to start outlining a new graphic novel project while the kids were in the pool. I like where it's headed already, but never having written a comic book script before, it's taking a bit of thought. The story concerns a demon from hell that's a bit peeved over the lack of respect that evil people have for the concept of 'evil' - and what he does about it isn't pretty. I've enjoyed researching and toying with the project for the last month or so, and I think I'll continue to do so until the end of February. March 1st signals Spring (in my mind anyway) and will be a perfect time to get started on Delving: Culminations. Much of the story - or practically all of it - has been sketched out in my mind for a long time now, and I'm looking forward to telling you how Marissa and Helman's story ends.

Okay. I think that's it for now. If you've purchased and received your copy of "Exile" - I hope you like it. Drop me a line and let me know whether you do or not. If you haven't gotten one yet, head on over to your local bookstore and order it. Thanks much.