Permuted Press Reveals Cover Art for BREW!

Okay, so I haven't updated in a while... but now I have big news: Permuted Press revealed the cover art for Brew!

I LOVE it!

Here it is, along with a description of Brew, which Permuted will release this August.

Ever been to a big college town on a football Saturday night? Loud drunks glut the streets, swaggering about in roaring, leering, laughing packs, like sailors on shore leave. These nights crackle with a dark energy born of incongruity; for beneath all that smiling and singing sprawls a bedrock of malice.

Erupting from this mean soil is Brew, a novel of survival horror that unfolds in a single, apocalyptic night, when hard-partying College Heights swaps beer pong and karaoke for arson, rape, murder, and cannibalism. An embattled cast of unlikely heroes, including a charismatic drug dealer, a disenfranchised army vet, and a smart, tough-as-leather girl, struggles to survive, while Herbert Weston, the brilliant sociopath who engineered the entire catastrophe, strolls the chaos, fulfilling sadistic fantasies.

One minute, everyone's having a blast, partying it up after another football victory; the next minute, all those crowded bars, balconies, and house parties look like so many acres of hell.

Writing, Writing, Writing...

That's what I'm doing. How about you?

Lucky Strikes...

Still Need to Read / Watch This...

Great TWILIGHT ZONE Episode!

The Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass...

... is worth its weight in gold. Cliche or not, I mean it.

I'm not going to go into great detail here -- why would I, when recently I've been receiving fewer than a pageview a day on this fledgling blog? -- but I will state unequivocally that Maass is my perfect teacher, and that his two Breakout books have taught me more about writing -- in the pragmatic, truly applicable sense -- than all other writing books and courses combined. It's insane the way reading or rereading his stuff helps me to shine a bright light on my own manuscripts, identifying in stark clarity problems of character and story, from stakes to pacing, from character motives to theme.

I've spent the last two days with the Workbook, holding up my protagonist to the grueling gauntlet of character questions offered by Maass... and I'm overjoyed to be finding my weaknesses on display. Fixing these issues prior to writing the real outline will allow me to activate my protagonist in the best of ways, so that his choices and actions determine the movement of the plot, thereby avoiding the old trap of having your protagonist react to the plot.

I've blabbed too much. If you're a writer who hasn't read these books, do yourself, your stories, and your audience a favor and read the Breakout books.