As Good A Time As Any...

Well. It's officially two am. I swear, I thought it was like, 11:30. That was like, two minutes ago! How is it two in the morning already? I don't know. But I do know that this happens to me way too often...

I have a lot of bad habits. You know, I'm constantly telling myself to do things better, like Oliver, don't drink soda, drink water - soda will just give you heartburn and a breakout, you know it will. Or, Ok, Ollie. Today, you need to write at least four thousand words. Walk in the park, no big deal, you just have to stay fo- wait. What are you doing? OLIVER. PUT DOWN THE CONTROLLER. OLIVER DO NOT OPEN NETFLIX YOU NEED TO WRI- well. Too late now...

I literally know that I'm going to regret doing something, but I do it anyway. I'm a lazy slug. And tomorrow, when I have to drag myself out of bed and write thousands of words, and then shower and make coffee and join the world as a functioning human being, I will regret staying up this late. As it is right now, though, I'm feeling pretty good.

Well, except for the ache in my shoulder...

I went camping this weekend. Yeah. Me: Mr, I hate the outdoors, I need wifi, I need electricity, I need constant connection for christ's sake! I honestly wasn't going to go, because I didn't have a ride...but then my friend offered me one, and I didn't want to back out, so I took her up on the offer and started packing. And you know, this funny thing happened: she told me to pack my sketchbook, so I did. She told me to pack a flashlight, so I did. She did not tell me to pack blankets or a pillow, so I didn't. Guess who ended up sleeping on the tent floor/the ground? This guy, right here:

(Camping Selfies Are Not Optional...)

So now I'm sore. I should add that this pain in my back had just gone away after sleeping on my bedroom floor so Dea (aforementioned friend) could have the bed during her like, 7 day long visit. So that's like 7 days of sleeping on a floor, and 1 night of sleeping on the ground, all in the pursuit of hanging out with Dea. But it's all good, because in the morning we went up to the cabin (where above selfies were taken over breakfast) and her mom made me fried eggs and bacon on toast, and we ate with a perfect view of the massive lake... which we spent the entire day swimming in!

There were a bunch of ducks in that lake, and although I don't trust ducks (see: Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunters Saga for a myriad of reasons to distrust ducks) we spent hours chasing them around the water and tossing them breadcrumbs. Sometime around mid-morning we walked to two separate Gas Stations in pursuit of a lighter, which was a damn hard mission.

In the city they just, y'know, sell you a lighter. In the country, they ask your age. I don't know why. When I'm in the city I've never seen a clerk ask someone's age to sell them a lighter - and I mean, why should they? It's a freaking lighter! Why would you need to be the legal drinking age (19) in order to have access to fire? People are camping out here! We need flames! This is the wilderness. But alas, although I actually am nineteen, I have no ID yet, and the woman at the first store wouldn't sell me a lighter. I guess the woman at the second one thought I actually looked my age, because she sold me the lighter. Thanks, random woman! After that we had a barbecue and I ate around like, a million burgers and hot dogs.

The sun had been baking into us for hours at that point, and eventually I decided to high-tail it home. Walking. The walk from our camp-site to my house (which are both in the middle of nowhere) was like an hour and forty minute walk, according to google. I wouldn't know since halfway through my brother passed me on the side of the road and stopped to give me a lift.

And in other outing news, I also went into the city for a day last week or so. I had some royalty money saved up and I wanted to hit up the used bookstore and grab a coffee, so I met up with Dea and our friend Mac to walk around all day. I ended up buying:

• Immortal Beloved, by Cate Tiernan (loved it so much I have the second book coming in the mail)
• Forever by Maggie Stiefvater (already read it but needed a physical copy) and
• The Reckoning by Kelly Armstrong (also already read it and needed a copy)

We got coffee, junk food, and hung out on the docks and in the park before walking around checking out stores and restaurants. And I ended the day by coming home to my mom cooking an entire Turkey Dinner in the middle of July, which was a plus.

Summer is looking good, so far... I'm really hoping for more food, more fun, and more fortune, before it ends, though!

The Journey to Journey

So... I'm going to a Journey concert!

I just found out the other day that my Dad won Journey tickets in the sand sculpture competition he won this week, so when the Journey concert in Moncton arrives, we're gonna be there! I'm really nervous, since I've never been to a concert before, but also very excited that for the rest of my life I'll be able to tell anyone who asks that I lost my concert virginity to Journey.

So, yeah. That's kind of amazing.

Lilac Reborn

So, today I have some Apollo Blake news!

What has my illustrious alter ego been up to lately, you ask? Well, he/I redesigned the covers for the Lilac Jones Adventures! The new designs show Lilac herself in all her glory, and I'm sooo in love with them! The new ebook editions will go live on Amazon in a few days, once the stories themselves get a new round of edits (mostly just corrected italics, formatting mistakes, and another round of line edits) although the omnibus cover won't be revealed until next week, and ditto for that going live itself!

I'll have some more Lilac news then, but for now, just have some beautiful covers!

AHHH! Aren't they great? I love the purple and the illustrations that accompany each story, and I'm more than excited to re-release the stories with these new designs. I'll be back tomorrow with a more regular, rant-y, in-the-life kind of post, and then I'll be posting the new omnibus cover along with a surprising bit of series news for Lilac, so check back then!

-Oliver

Gimme Them Gold Coins

Today's - post title from Off To The Races by Lana Del Rey*

So, I'm working on a bunch of new stuff right now, and I don't want to say too much about it because it's all in the early stages, but the two things I can talk about are Blood of Midnight and Shadows.

Blood of Midnight is the first novel in a duology about vampires, called the Evernight Falling Duet, and right now I'm working on the first rounds of edits. It's tough, because I have to add in not just several new scenes but several new chapters, and there's a good chunk near the end of the novel that needs to be rewritten entirely as well.

Shadows is a New Adult novella, and it's the first in a series about witches called Charmers living in Seattle. It's dark and gritty and I'm just drafting it right now, but I love it.

The problem is, my brother has been coming home a lot lately, and since his room is right below mine I can't stay up all night or I'll keep him awake, and he needs to sleep so he can get up for work. But I work best at night. So as a compromise, I've been coming down to the basement every night to work for a few hours. It's really dingy and dismal and cold down here - it's all concrete floors and walls, and a half-finished wood stove (the stove is installed and works, but the stone wall behind it isn't finished. there's a couch and three tables from my brothers old apartment, and my dad's drumset under a big clear tarp. The dogs live down here, so they're hanging out with me as well, and there's a bunch of random stuff around, along with the recycling bins and a bunch of shelves full of spray paint and tools.

Some of my favourite weird things down here include:

• A painting my uncle did years ago of an eye, which has real dragonfly corpses glued to the canvas.
• An old black and gold locker from a closed down school.
• A giant transparent drape for Halloween that has pictures of grim reapers embossed on it and takes up an entire wall.
• An antique red siren light that no longer works, and isn't (hopefully) attached to an alarm/siren system anymore.
• A porcelain statue of a female cherub with a pearl strung flower crown on, holding a bouquet.
• A cardboard cutout taller than me from when The Avengers was in theatres.
• A giant green plastic chalice that says 'lucky' in big rhinestone letters on the side.

So yeah, it's a big haven of weird mismatched things that somehow works. We've got stuff from my Grandma's apartment we took after she died, boxes of my aunts stuff that she has no room for at her place, boxes of stuff from my brother's apartment, old art my uncle left here, junk my dad has collected...

I've been writing about 2000 words a night, which isn't as much as I'd like, but I got drunk at my brother's birthday party last week, fell over, and really hurt my wrist, so that's all I can take without the pain getting too bad/annoying. And you know, I think I might quit drinking. I used to self medicate with alcohol before I was even legally old enough to drink, but it always just makes my depression worse in the days after. I  lose interest in the things I care about and get stuck in that state of pure, all-consuming apathy where you just can't bring yourself to feel anything or care about anything. I used to smoke a lot of weed too, but it actually made me feel good and relaxed, and it never affected me that way alcohol does, so yeah, I think I'll probably stop drinking.

The past few weeks have been pretty wild. My best friend and my cousin came out. My friend was here for like two weeks, and my cousin was only out for two days, but we all had fun. We walked down to the river and spent a couple hours swimming, and then we all sat down and worked on some outlining for a collaboration novel we might do. We spent days on days filling ourselves up with fried steak and rice and grilled cheese and just eating a bunch of comfort foods and coffee. We ended up watching Scooby Doo zombie island, which we all know is the best Scooby Doo film ever made...right? We also watched a lot of Bojack Horseman, which is half incredible and half heartbreaking.

Anyway, I've been spending the last week thinking about nothing but Scream the TV show and rewatching the episodes to try and figure out who the killer is, but mostly I'm just sad they killed off Riley. That said, I can see how it was necessary considering she was the only character anyone liked enough for her death to have an emotional impact. I think either Brooke or one of the guys will die next, but who knows - maybe it could be reporter chick instead.

I also just finished reading my ARC of Crystal Kingdom by Amanda Hocking, and I really can't believe the Kanin Chronicles is already over. I cried like three separate times while reading this book, guys. I feel personally victimized by Amanda Hocking.

So yeah, all in all, that's what I've been up to. Trying to enjoy my summer and getting way too caught up in pop culture. I got paid my royalties from Amazon recently, so I ordered Zoe Marriott's Name of the Blade trilogy, and I'm thinking I might go into the city tomorrow for some Chinese food and book shopping in the morning.

I'm gonna have some news about new stories and releases in the near future so keep checking back for new posts if that interests you! I have a new project coming up after Shadows that I'm really excited about, but it's still in the early stages right now so I can't say too much yet!

-Oliver

You Answer to Our Hungry Eyes

Title from the song 'God?' by the Dodos.

I can't believe it's been more than half a year without me posting on this blog. I always say I'll post more and then I never do. I'm problematic like that. I do post everyday on Tumblr though, so follow me there to keep up with me.

So much has changed in the past few months it's hard to know where to start...

Firstly, it's summer now. Summer is my least favourite season, but that isn't to say I don't love it. I miss the snow drifts and the world of green and white winter brings, ice clinging to the evergreens in a world of silence... but summer has its own magic. The stream behind the house is gurgling, rushing over the rocks, and wild flowers have sprouted everywhere. Wild strawberries are growing behind the double garage, and they're so sweet they're sour. They burst into juice on my tongue and the strength of the flavour makes me wince even as I reach to pick another. I can feel the energy of the sun baked into my skin long after I've come inside, and the browning of my arms and face hints at my Greek ancestry, making me wish I could visit my great grandfather's homeland and stand underneath the same sky he once did.

Every day, I walk down to the river, where the water is deepest underneath the bridge, and tiny, tiny fish dart between my legs as I wade out. A thick rope and buoy hang from the underside of the graffiti marked structure, and in the shade I swim for hours, water and sand soaking into me. The sun blasts me on the walk home, but it's a good sort of exhaustion. Grasshoppers and toads croak and cry from the ditches and the long grass that lines the roads here, and it's a refreshing song. It feels right.

I've started a new program with my school, where I pick up packages of assignments and do them on my own time whenever I like, at home. No more daily commute or the stress of an over-crowded classroom. I hope to graduate by the end of the upcoming semester, and then my real adventures can begin.

Anyway, I'm mostly spending my days emerged in water, the taste of bug spray and green tea on my lips. I shaved my head and I'm waiting for this scruff to grow back into actual hair. I've been reading a bunch, and I just got the good news that St. Martins Griffin is sending my an ARC of Crystal Kingdom, by Amanda Hocking, in the mail soon. Right now I'm reading The Night Itself by Zoe Marriott and loving it.

I watched Insurgent for the first time last night, and I liked it. I didn't like that they cut many of Tori's scenes from the plot and ignored Tris' trauma around guns after the first film, but hey, it is just an adaption. What I'm really excited for is Fallen based on the book by Lauren Kate. I really hated the book, but I'm excited for the film. I love the visual aspect of film, and I love paranormal romance movies so much.

Right now I'm working on an urban fantasy called Shadows, about gay witches called Charmers, set in Seattle. It's a novella, and I have it all plotted out, along with an idea for at least one sequel. It's really gritty and action-oriented, and the main character is an abuse survivor trying to reconcile himself with his past while learning about the paranormal world he's been dragged into. So there's that.

Anyway, I'll have more posts up soon and I plan on keeping this blog more active in the future, so check back soon for more rambling about pop culture and my daily life and such!

Colour Me Tired

School is already here. I don't even know what to do with myself.

I'm taking my English and Modern History courses online, while I have to go into school for everything else. It's such a hassle having to go into the city everyday, and I still miss my old school. The new one is boring.

I'm also still pumping out short stories that I publish under a pen name. I've seen sales pick up a bit this past month so I'm excited about that. I'm hoping to really start making some good money from my writing. I might submit some pieces to a local paper or something, too. I feel like I would make a good journalist.

The past few days with school starting and everything going on I haven't written much, just a few tidbits on various stories. I do like writing shorter stuff a lot, though.

I've also been stalking the tumblr tag for ladie's code. What happened to them is awful and as a kpop fan I'm shocked. I can only say that I hope EunB is at peace and that Rise's situation stabilizes quickly and she makes a recovery. Everyone send good vibes in their direction, please!

I know I'm not blogging much these days, but as I always seem to be saying, I want to start posting more.

She came to wreck the place.

I haven't blogged in months.

This is mostly because I've been procrastinating, and partially because I had nothing to say. I've been sitting around watching old movies, listening to Nicki Minaj (loving Pills N Potions, too) and I got this idea.

This magical, can't stop thinking about it idea. Fury Virus.

It all started when I was watching the masterpiece that is Kill Bill. I loved the idea of a revenge quest, and all of the forms that can take. And I loved that this was a cast of talented, driven, and twisted ladies, all fighting like there was no tomorrow for the best of reasons. I loved the exploration of their stories, and the idea of a female assassin thirsty for revenge was such an interesting character to me.

And I had a few ideas kicking around in my head; a damaged girl sitting in a stark kitchen, bleeding; a vast city with its own colourful districts, mini-kingdoms almost; the idea to explore rage and fury. All this swirled into one idea, which became Fury Virus.

Fury Virus is a story of revenge. It is also a story of fury, of rage, and hate and loss. It is bitter. It is cold. And it is a story I can not wait to share with you all.

It's still in the early stages, but I'll post more details soon!