The first book in a new series is available on Amazon. John Stone: The Hard Kill introduces the first of four new characters in a series of books capturing the feel of our favorite action movies from various decades. My brother Allen (also the evil twin?) came up with the idea, and we just ran with it. This first book has the 80s one-man-army vibe, full of fast paced action, explosions, car chases and gun fights.

Like I said, this is the first of four, so we’ve already got drafts for the next two. Chance Hunter is a detective with the skills to handle himself in a fight, inspired by the martial arts heavy 90s. Ty Octane is our adrenaline junkie tapping the high-speed movies from the 00s. The last is Millie, who’s style is inspired by the lethal no-nonsense tactics used by the action stars of today.

Spilled Milk, book two of the Two Percent Power trilogy, is available now on Amazon! It’s currently only available for pre-order, but the book will be live (automatically downloaded to your Kindle device if you pre-order) on November 1st. You can order it here.

With the egotistical super villain, Sight, brought to justice, Patrick and the other superhero saviors get some much-needed downtime to rest and recuperate. But when a new threat, the Brotherhood of Armageddon, arrives, the team must band together again to fight for the city. Will this new menace be too much for Patrick and the other heroes to overcome?

Spilled Milk: Book 2 of the Two Percent Power trilogy.

Here’s a peek at the full-color cover (colors by the talented Thomas Mason).

Work on the final book in the trilogy has begun, and it will be available Winter of 2017.

“I just listen to my characters and write down what they do and say.”

Nonsense! I used to think when a writer said they just “listened to their characters”, it was some strange hippie stuff. Like they were just trying to say what we wanted to hear, to make them sound mystical. I started writing short stories in 2013, and most of the time it was about a single character with minimal interaction.

In 2015 I took one of the stories and expanded it into a full novel. I added a lot of characters, had a lot of witty banter, and did my best to give each a somewhat unique personality and way of speaking (I’m sure most still sound the same because it’s still coming from my head). By then I had been listening to the audiobook of Stephen King’s “On Writing”, and thought again about how authors just “listened to their characters”. Hooey! Malarkey!

That’s the catch, you’ve got to finish it, otherwise, it’s pointless. We’re too busy chasing the next wave of inspiration, not realizing that all the winners are the ones that actually finish the game. I’m not speaking from a position of success, telling you all how I “did it”. I’m equally guilty of pouncing on the next shiny new object that crosses my path as well. There has got to be a point where we all accept that leaving a bunch of tasks sitting around unfinished, only to label them as “I’ll finish that someday”, will never accomplish much. We’ve all got tasks sitting around, partially complete. Like half cleaned offices, partially built projects, unfinished manuscripts, or a half checked to-do list.

…And you’re gonna hear me roar! Yes, I did just quote Katy Perry. I’ve got no regrets about that. Speaking of regrets, something you always hear when others are doling out advice about how we should be living, is to live a life of “no regrets”. Do you want to make that decision now, or live with regret later on, always wondering “what could have been”? The problem is that most of us already have regrets in life, and hearing that type of advice always seems to stir them back up. I think making decisions to avoid any type of regret is the wrong way to go about it.