You can check out the interview here. TBG contributor Karen Newman asked me about everything from my karate studies to my writing to collaborating with guys like Brian Keene and J.F. Gonzalez. Wonder what happened to Muy Mal with John Urbancik, Weston Ochse, and myself? We cover that, too.

The review is here. Newman did the review as well, and the short version is she dug it. Check this out:

Oliveri doesn’t utilize the supernatural as a crutch, a testament to the strength of his writing. Oliveri has made a wonderful contribution to the werewolf mythos in The Pack: Winter Kill.

Rockin’. Ready to buy your own copy of the book? Make with the clicky. You can even get a Kindle version here.

Fact is I’m a busy guy. Between the work, the family, karate classes, kids’ basketball games and concerts, trips, and other events, I have a lot going on. Every weekend this month is booked solid, and last month wasn’t a whole lot better. Cramming in an hour of writing a day is not always easy.

Instead I’ve made it a goal to create something every day.

This plan dawned on me a week ago when I grabbed my Moleskine shortly before bedtime. I had an idea rolling around in my head for a couple of days, and I didn’t get it to the computer so I decided to at least get it into the notebook. As I wrote it down, that idea led to another, and another, and yet another, all connected to the same story. In a matter of ten minutes I had four characters and a rough plot for what could easily be a novel or graphic novel.

The hard part of writing them is still ahead, but now I’ve got something to make that precious keyboard time all the more effective. I can’t afford to sit and stare at a blank page, wondering what comes next, for a half hour or so. This way if I’m working on The Pack book 2 and I’m stuck, I can shift gears to this project and bust out several pages or a few thousand words.

I’ve been working on it for the whole week, and so far it’s worked. I’ve jotted notes, I printed and edited an old short story, and I wrote responses to a couple of interviews. I’ve done some research, which in turn led to even more ideas on another project. Better yet, they were all done in short bursts. They were times I had a few minutes to kill, but not quite enough time to get lost in a page. (If I can’t get a complete thought/scene onto a page, I feel I’ve lost the thread of it when I get back to the keyboard and the narrative turns to crap.)

And I haven’t been beating myself up over note writing. I haven’t been crabby and irritable because I’m worried I’m wasting my time. It doesn’t feel like work (in either a good or bad sense), but it doesn’t feel like failure.

So if you’ll excuse me, I have a little creating to do before I crash for the night.

Here are some of the things folks have had to say about The Pack: Winter Kill outside of Amazon reviews:

“The Pack: Winter Kill is short, snappy, and about as sweet as a chewed stogie, combining elements of pulp horror, hard-boiled detective, noir, and cinematically fast-moving action.” — LJ Moore, San Francisco’s City Secrets

“Gunfire, claws, and teeth all erupt in one wild melee of mayhem.” — Sheila Merritt, Hellnotes

“The Pack: Winter Kill is a page turner with fast action, succinct dialogue and short chapters. Mike Oliveri races you through the book and you clamber to turn the pages fast enough.” – Ron Earl Phillips, 52 Books

“Winter Kill is an action film made word. Sticky blood. Smart violence. Real characters. This is the kind of book I like to read.” – Weston Ochse, author of Empire of Salt

This is the kind of thing that gets me excited to write the next book. If you’ve been thinking about buying The Pack: Winter Kill, pull the trigger! You won’t be disappointed.

$165.62 as I post this. That won’t last long, as previous auctions have seen it go as high as $700. Make with the clicky.

Also in the works is a reprint of the novella in an upcoming anthology. We’ve signed the contracts, but things are still in process so it’s still a bit early to announce any details.

Stay tuned!

The movie itself is good. It’s feel is very faithful to the original, and there’s a great gothic horror flavor to it, yet enough action and violence to satisfy modern horror fans. The plot seems a bit rushed at points, but overall, I enjoyed it. It’s tough to say, though, that it’s going to excite anyone but existing werewolf fans. There’s nothing there for broader appeal: no love story, no catchy music, no hot young actors or actresses for folks to latch on to. (Emily Blunt is no certainly no slouch, but she spends all but a few frames in a stuffy Victorian dress.) It also doesn’t help that reviews seem to go either way, with critics either loving or hating it.

It’s too bad, as I’d love to capitalize on a werewolf craze. With it’s crime/thriller edge, my book The Pack: Winter Kill has a very different feel from The Wolfman (as well as just about any other werewolf flick), but I think that can help it appeal to a broader audience than just the werewolf fans. After all, let’s be honest: werewolf fans are my bread & butter and I love ‘em, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to make the book a hit.

How about turning readers into werewolves? That do anything for ya?

The Pack: Winter Kill -- It'll put hair on your chest!

Evileye wanted to institute a recall, but I talked them out of it. I have no money to give you if you sue me, so I say get out there and tear shit up! Fight the power! Stick it to The Man! Arrrooooo!!

Meanwhile, the folks over at Comics Bulletin have interviewed the man behind Evileye Books, Mr Aaron Ommus. Shoot on over and check out his thoughts on the comics market, digital comics, Evileye’s new releases, and the upcoming Evileye Reader for webcomics. I truly believe Ommus and Evileye are going to surprise a lot of people this year, whether or not my little wedge of dead paper (or collection of bits) does anything for them.

That wedge of dead paper has been jumping up and down in the Amazon sales ranks the last few days. I haven’t decoded how the sales rank works, but I’m guessing the jumps mean at least a few more people have picked up copies. If that includes any of you reading this, thanks! I hope you dug it.

If you want to pick up the book but aren’t a fan of Amazon, we’ll have you covered soon. We’re working on getting the book into the main distribution channels so it can be ordered through Borders, Barnes & Noble, and hopefully your favorite indie shop as well. Or, if you do have a favorite indie shop, have them contact Evileye Books directly. Ommus and his team will be happy to help any independents get copies.

Now I best get back to work on Book 2.

If you need to hear it from someone else, check out the Bedlam Book Report by Ron Earl Phillips on James Melzer’s Unleashed podcast. The Bedlam Book Report starts at the eight minute mark, but give the rest of the episode a listen as there’s a good interview with The Wire’s Jermaine Crawford about his Code Blue campaign for homeless teens.

There are plenty of reviews on Amazon as well, and a solid review landed in San Francisco’s City Secrets. “Short, snappy, and about as sweet as a chewed stogie.” How do you argue with that?

Would it help if I said please?

The Pack: Winter Kill is a page turner with fast action, succinct dialogue and short chapters. Mike Oliveri races you through the book and you clamber to turn the pages fast enough.
– Ron Earl Phillips, 52 Books

Winter Kill is an action film made word. Sticky blood. Smart violence. Real characters. This is the kind of book I like to read.
– Weston Ochse, author of Empire of Salt

Why haven’t you bought your copy yet?

This year’s con was a bit bigger than last year’s, and as always the con staff and crowd was great to work with. I set up shop between Cullen Bunn and Russ Dickerson, and while we didn’t have a ton of shopping traffic, we moved some product and met a lot of people, and we generally had a blast.

I didn’t have an opportunity to take a lot of pictures this year, but Amanda from Geek Details shot me a link to her Flicker set of VisionCon photos. You’ll see many of the guests there (including my fat ass), as well as some shots of the nightlife. For example, you’ll see that old white guys like to stand and yap until you get a few drinks into them.

Saturday morning I volunteered to be a kicking dummy for Wrath’s Muay Thai demonstration. We’ve got a few pictures of that, which I’ll share separately.

The other big event on Saturday was the return of the infamous Gross-out Contest. Formerly a fixture of the World Horror Convention until it was killed a few years ago, the con staff graciously allowed to resurrect it given the attendance of former champions Cullen, Wrath, and Mark McLaughlin. Brian served as emcee and I sat in on the judges’ panel, and we had over 50 people sit in on the readings. More than a few of them almost lost their dinner as the champions and several first-time readers brought their worst to the mic, and in the end Cullen won his 5th title, Wrath came in 2nd, and S.D. Hintz took 3rd.

Unfortunately the bar couldn’t put together a decent boilermaker, but the beauty of a con like VisionCon is the people know how to put together a good room party. In addition to Cullen’s patented diet margaritas, we grabbed drinks with names like Mojo, Green Slime, Deception, and Rusty Bucket. They all go down easy, and if you’re not having fun at a con like this, you’re just not trying.

After two weekends in a row on the road, it’s good to be home. I’m still catching up on email and other writing business, but I’m feeling energized and eager to get some more writing done. Finding a new good review didn’t hurt, either. Thanks again to Dave and his staff for bringing me back this year, and thanks as well to all the folks who came to hang out with us (there are far too many of you to list!). I hope to be there again next year!

There will be a bar in there somewhere, anyway.

Wish us luck, and we’re looking forward to seeing you there. I’m off to get my stuff together and maybe squeeze in a last minute Photo Friday entry.

For now I’ll leave you with an unrelated picture from this morning:

He's coming for us all!