"Crooked Line" Book 8 Playlist

1. Far Behind - Candlebox
2. Some Nights - Fun.
3. Bímse Féin Ag Iascaireacht - Lasairfhíona
4. Coma White - Marinlyn Manson
5. Don't Follow - Alice in Chains
6. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
7. 7 - Prince
8. Stackolee - Samuel L. Jackson
9. Wrong Way to Run - Willy Tea Taylor
10. Hemorrhage (In My Hands) - Fuel
11. It's Bad You Know - R.L. Burnside
12. Come out Ya Black and Tans - Saoirse
13. I Alone - Live
14. You Know You're Right - Nirvana
15. The Foggy Dew - The Chieftains feat. Sinéad O'Connor
16. Ireland: Of Legend and Lore - Robert W. Smith
17. Hate Me - Blue October
18. Chickamauga - Willy Tea Taylor
19. When The Music Stops - Eminem and D12
20. 5 Minutes Alone - Pantera
21.  King Nothing - Metallica
22. The Unforgiven III - Metallica
23. The Boys of Summer - Don Henley
24. Wherever You Will Go - The Calling
25. Kiss Me - Sixpence None The Richer
26. Strange Magic - ELO
27. Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield
28. Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
29. How to Save a Life - The Fray
30. If I Die Young - The Band Perry

Editing

So I've taken some time over the past week to really try to dig into the editing process for what's written. I've spent time with books 1 and 2 of the Crooked Line series. After some review I've realized that as I've been writing for twenty years my writing style has improved (at least a little). Unfortunately, that means that I'm going to have to spend some time cleaning up books 1 and 2 as the vast majority of it was written 20 years ago.  Le sigh. Mo' story mo' problems. 

I'll probably finish writing the stuff I have in the hopper right now then go back to the early books and really dig in and do some editing.

Until next time.

"Crooked Line" Book 7 Playlist

1. Santa Monica - Everclear
2. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
3. Unwell - Matchbox Twenty
4. You're A God - Vertical Horizon
5. Graduation (Friends Forever) - Vitamin C
6. Butterfly - Crazy Town
7. In This River - Black Label Society
8. Superbeast - Rob Zombie
9. Spit It Out (Hyper Version) - Slipknot
10. December - Collective Soul
11. Forty Six & 2 - Tool
12. Thunderstruck - AC/DC
13. The Speed of Pain - Marilyn Manson
14. Hero of War - Rise Against
15. Snuff - Slipknot
16. Halo - Soil
17. The Man Who Sold The World - Nirvana
18. Bawitdaba - Kid Rock
19. King Nothing - Metallica (this might need to move to book 8)
20. My hero - Foo Fighters
21. An Drúcht Geal Ceo - Grainne Holland
22. Deliver Me - Mark Collie
23. 100 Years - Five For Fighting
24. Semi-Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind
25. One Head Light - The Wall Flowers
26. Good - Better Than Ezra
27. Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
28. Body Rott - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
29. This Means War - Avenged Sevenfold

"Crooked Line" Book 6 Playlist

1. Society - Eddie Vedder
2. Misery - Soul Asylum
3. Where Has My Country Gone? - Ondar feat. Willie Nelson
4. Wait and Bleed - Slipknot
5. A Flat - Staind
6. Runaway Train - Soul Asylum
7. Somebody That I Used to Know - Gotye feat. Kimbra
8. I Am the Highway - Audioslave
9. Seven - Boondox
10. The Other Side of the Mountain - Ondar
11. Show Me How to Live - Audioslave
12. Lip Gloss and Black - Atreyu
13. Hail To the King - Avenged Sevenfold
14. My Hero -  Foo Fighters
15. Bring Me To Life - Evanescence
16. Back On Earth - Ozzy Osbourne
17. The Cave - Mumford & Sons
18. The Unforgiven II - Metallica
19. The Pot - Tool
20. Gives You Hell - The All-American Rejects
21. Hardin County Line - Mark Collie
22. Angel - Shaggy
23. Second Chance - Shinedown
24. Daughter - Pearl Jam
25. We Are Young - fun. feat. Janelle Monáe
26. Breathe It In - Schmidt

"Crooked Line" Book 5 Playlist

1. Cleopatra - Derek Fiechter & Brandon Fiechter
2. Voodoo - Godsmack
3. Enter Sandman - Metallica
4. When Worlds Collide - Powerman 5000
5. Little Yurt on the Prairie - Ondar
6. B.Y.O.B. - System Of A Down 
7. Dragula - Rob Zombie
8. Black Sunshine - White Zombie feat. Iggy Pop
9. War Pigs / Luke's Wall -  Black Sabbath
10. Disposable Teens - Marilyn Manson
11. Bodies - Drowning Pool
12. Halloween - Misfits
13. Click Click Boom - Saliva
14. Chop Suey! - System of A Down
15. The Mummer's Dance - Loreena McKennitt
16. Return To Innocence - Enigma
17. Thunderstruck - AC/DC
18. Two Lands, One Tribe - Ondar
19. American Witch - Rob Zombie
20. The Beautiful People - Marilyn Manson
21. Hells Bells - AC/DC
22. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes
23. More Human Than Human - White Zombie
24. Hero Of The Day - Metallica
25. Heart-Shaped Box - Nirvana
26. The Memory Remains - Metallica 
27. Electric Funeral - Black Sabbath
28. Home - Phillip Phillips
29. House of the Rising Sun - The Animals

Book Titles

Quick update on The "Crooked Line" series. Most of the books have titles now. Books 1 - 4 all have titles as do books 7 and  9. Books 5, 6, and 8 have working titles but not official ones.

As time draws nigh I will be posting the titles for each book as a teaser of sorts for the storyline.

"Crooked Line" Book 4 Playlist

1. How to Save a Life - The Fray
2. My Immortal - Evanescence
3. Baba O'Riley - The Who
4. Against The Wind - Bob Seger
5. Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
6. My Happy Ending - Avril Lavigne
7. Downtown Venus - P.M. Dawn
8. At My Funeral - Crash Test Dummies
9. Deadwood Mountain - Big & Rich
10. Civil War - Guns N' Roses
11. Superman's Song - Crash Test Dummies
12. Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down
13. Alone - Bee Gees
14. Kick The P.A. - Korn feat. The Dust Brothers
15. Downtown Train - Rod Stewart
16. Beg For Me - Korn
17. My Tuva - Ondar
18. Let Me Be The One - Blessid Union of Souls
19. Pieces of Me - Ashlee Simpson
20. When I'm Gone - 3 Doors Down
21. Bad Day - Daniel Powter
22. Another Old Soldier - Mark Collie
23. November Rain - Guns N' Roses
24. One Headlight - The Wallflowers
25. Hero - Chad Kroeger feat. Josey Scott
26. Ten Thousand Fists - Distrubed
27. It Can't Rain All the Time - Jan Siberry
28. The Unforgiven - Metallica
29. Hells Bells - AC/DC
30. If I Die Young - The Band Perry
31. Blinded By Rainbows - The Rolling Stones 

"Crooked Line" Book 3 Playlist

1. New Orleans - One-Eyed Doll
2. Bat Out of Hell - Meat Loaf
3. Make Me Bad - Korn
4. Bwomp - Mushroomhead
5. Kick The P.A. - Korn feat. The Dust Brothers
6. Nationwide Rip Ridaz - Crips
7. Los Angeles Is Burning - Bad Religion
8. Tres Delinquentes - Delinquent Habits
9. Sympathy For the Devil - The Rolling Stones
10. No Sex - Limp Bizkit
11. Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand - Primitive Radio Gods
12. House of the Rising Sun - The Animals 
13. Lightning Crashes - Live
14. Hit Em High (The Monstars Anthem) (From Space Jam) - B-Real, Coolio, Method Man, LL Cool J & Busta Rhymes
15. Ballroom Blitz - Tia Carrere
16. Bodies - Drowning Pool
17. St. Anger - Metallica
18. Smash - The Offspring
19. Come Out Swinging - The Offspring 
20. Kargyraa Rap - Ondar
21. Bean Pháidin - Lasairfhíona
22. Paint It, Black - The Rolling Stones
23. Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
24. Wonder - Natalie Merchant

"Crooked Line" Book 2 Playlist

1. Voodoo - Godsmack
2. Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution - The Black Crowes
3. Farmhouse - Phish
4. Run Like Hell - Pink Floyd
5. Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1 - Pink Floyd
6. The Happiest Days of Our Lives - Pink Floyd
7. Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 - Pink Floyd
8. Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 3 - Pink Floyd
9. Carol of the Bells - John Williams and Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych
10. Christmas Eve / Sarajevo 12/24 - Trans Siberian Orchestra
11. Father Christmas - The Kinks
12. Break Stuff - Limp Bizkit
13. Want You Bad - The Offspring
14. What's The Frequency, Kenneth? - R.E.M.
15. It's My Life - Bon Jovi
16. Shoots and Ladders - Korn
17. A Flat - Staind
18. Israel's Son - Silverchair
19. I'm Your Boogieman (The Crow City of Angels version) - White Zombie
20. Cocky - Kid Rock
21. Hips Don't Lie - Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean
22. Where'd You Go - Fort Minor feat. Holly Brook and Jonah Matranga

"Crooked Line" Book 1 Playlist

 As promised, I will start releasing the playlists for the Crooked Line books. Here is book one's.

1. Waking Up In Vegas - Katy Perry
2. Viva Las Vegas - Dead Kennedys
3. Be Like That (From American Pie Soundtrack) - 3 Doors Down
4. I'm Not Strong Enough to Say No - BlackHawk
5. Lips Of An Angel - Hinder
6. Welcome To the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
7. I Write Sins Not Tragedies - Panic! At the Disco
8. Closing Time - Semisonic
9. Clown - Korn
10. Kick The P.A. - Korn; The Dust Brothers
11. I Want You - Savage Garden
12. Children of the Korn - Korn feat. Ice Cube
13. Do you Sleep? - Lisa Loeb &  Nine Stories
14. The Sound Of Silence - Disturbed
15. Call of the Wild - Chris LeDoux
16. Trash - Korn
17. Undead - Hollywood Undead
18. Turn Me On "Mr. Deadman" - The Union Underground
19. Divine - Korn
20. Paint It, Black - The Rolling Stones
21. Red Right Hand - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
22. Hollow Life - Korn
23. Hive - 311
24. Tomorrow - Silverchair

A Prolonged Absence

After a prolonged absence from updating this blog I have a LOT of new updates. Over the last few years I have been writing a lot. After twenty years of writing, the "Crooked Line" series is probably 80% completed now. I also have another series of books which fall into the Dystopian genre that I have started in the last few years that you guys will receive an update on as well. I even have some small news a few other stories. Now, on to the meat and potatoes!

"Crooked Line"

The story will actually stretch out to nine books now. Long time followers will recall that the story was originally divided into two parts, each part would be four books each. As I have been stepping through the creative and writing process, doing outlines, story boarding and just plain writing, as I neared the end of books seven and eight, I realized that there were parts of the story that hadn't been told and even characters that had not been dealt with. The only way to do that was to push out to one more book.  Book Nine will wrap up the story line in, what I think is, a nice neat bow. I've even already written the Epilogue for Book Nine and have started one for Book Four which will bridge the gap between books four and five.  I also hope that it will further entice readers into the second part of the story. 

As some of you know, I am by default a pantser, a term I learned only a few short years ago after getting in with a group of writers. A pantser is someone who "writes by the seat of their pants." I will often go back after a book is nearing completion or at least after I have written out a large block of notes and build an outline in order to define chapters. It is my understanding that most writers fall into one category or another and rarely fit into both, I wouldn't be me if I didn't do things differently. This is largely why this story has taken a long time to write as I allow the story to more or less write itself and just use me as the vessel to write the story down. As a result, this story has always told itself and taken on a mind of its own. However, over the last ten years, I myself have been surprised at some of the twists and turns the story has taken. I even introduced a few characters years ago who were really just supposed to be MacGuffins or in some cases throw away characters. Before I knew it some of these characters had become central to the story and even a couple of them I had to fight them from becoming main characters. I've even had a couple characters, one in particular, who was supposed to be a recurring MacGuffin, sadly, he nearly outlived his usefulness and after the last use of him I no longer needed him, despite my original thoughts for him being used much more. 

I hope that you will find this update sufficient and even wet your appetite for the books to come to fruition. I don't have a planned date for them to be published yet as I still have another twenty percent or so to go on the story but hopefully soon I'll be able to update you with that information. 

Because I know that some of you enjoy the playlist updates for the books I'll be posting an updated version of the playlists soon.

Dystopian 

On 26 August, 2019 I began writing a story, this was probably the fifth or sixth attempt to tell this story. After spending a little time writing the other attempts, I would reject them for one reason or another. Finally, on that fateful day of 26 August, 2019, I found a version of the story I liked. This story follows a husband and wife ten years after the world went to crap. Life is hard for them and everything they do is all about survival. After meeting some unsavory characters and some unexpected allies their world gets a little bit bigger and even more dangerous. In full disclosure, this story was written when I was going through a long and rough period of depression and therefore it has some very rough story points in it. The story was originally written as a single book but as I was writing the closing chapters of the story I realized, much like the "Crooked Line" series, there was more story to tell. I have since started a second and third book. I do not plan on the story being more than the three books, however I have a collection of short stories, some where taken from rejected ideas others were just micro stories I wanted to tell that would guide the reader along what was happening when the world went to pot.  I can tell you two exciting points of news on this story. First, this story will likely be published under a pen name, one I've already decided. Second, I plan on having book one published this year with hopefully the short stories and then books two and three being subsequently published every three to six months. 

Love story

The love story book was one that I had an idea for many many years ago. I think the original idea for it dates back to some time around 2005/2006. This story always had a bit of a tie in to the "Crooked Line" series and after having written that scene from the "Crooked Line" perspective I have decided I really want to dust off the story notes and try to put it out subsequently to the release of the "Crooked Line" books. 

Gypsy

Gypsy is a code-name/working title for a story I came up with probably five years ago.  I love the idea of the character and the story but I haven't come up with any real conflict at this point. Until I have that, I won't really have any real story. But, stay tuned for more updates regarding the Gypsy story.