Anywhere but here

Thursday, August 25, 2011

IT'S COMING!

VLOGS! GIVEAWAYS (including gift cards to forever 21, free books, AND Anastasia products)! BLOGGING!

Yup. September 1st is my 30-day challenge. I'll be blogging EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. Sometimes it'll be a video, sometimes just a photo or two. Maybe some fashion, maybe some rants, maybe some book excerpts from my upcoming third novel. A book review? Maybe I'll just post funny cartoons. I don't know.

But September - October, there will be a whole lot of blogging going on. Hey, I wrote a book on my first 30-day challenge...this should be a piece of cake. Right? RIGHT?

Monday, August 08, 2011

Reign in Blood

Do I even need to explain these photos? Two nights of partying with Slayer and Rob Zombie. Crazy. Wonderful. Surreal. Made some new rockstar friends who are absolutely amazing. And got some of those rockstars hooked on my books. I was introduced to people like Mr. Zombie and other musicians as "a writer who is really, really cool" by one of the best drummers in the world. Really got to know people, learned a lot of stuff. Rode on the Slayer tour bus. Got drinks bought for me by legendary rock band managers. Met the hilarious Brian Pohsen. Ginger Fish. John 5. Team Slayer. Words can't really express how awesome this all was. It's been a day or two and I still can't process it. So I'll let the photos do the talking.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

The best of THIS blog

The other day I was writing a blog post for another blog...not this blog and not my other, other blog, but someone else's blog. Anyway, with all these blogs I'm writing for, no wonder this one gets sadly neglected. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH WRITING I HAVE TO DO EACH DAY?! A lot. Sorry I yelled.

There's actually SO many things I could and should blog about here. Mainly travel stuff. But that involves going through tons of photos. I just need one full day with nothing to do, but I never have a day that I shouldn't be doing something. 'Tis life.

Anyway, this took a lot of work though, so APPRECIATE IT, damn you.

I've gone back through the 5.5 years of this blog and compiled the funniest, most interesting blog posts I've ever written. Wanna step back in the WAY BACK MACHINE? READ ON:

Ghost Touring Portland - Perry Palomino Style

Speaking Of...Actual Perry Palomino Style

A List of Unintentionally Scary Movies Go ahead, judge me

My Magical Night with David Copperfield (or the post that started it all)

Why My Name Keeps Coming Up With David Copperfield When You Google Me (/facepalm)

A Typical Day In My Life

Overrated VS Underrated

Why I Should Never Travel Anywhere EVER - (note that the list has not been updated since 2006 - oh, there's more)

Why I Blog

I Like Praise. I Don't Like Bank Robberies

Interviewing Anna Paquin (phoners are hard!)

My Most EmBARRASSing Moment

Money for Nothing, Chicks for Free

My driving habits

I was a PS3 Game Tester

How I handle job interviews

The Beauty Myth

I'm Good at Procrastinating

P0rn!

Perspective

Anonymous Commentors

Digging the Grave

Ten Stupid Things Women Do

I Am SMRT

Do Opposites Attract?

People That Annoy Me

Friday, July 01, 2011

Four years ago today...

I started going out with a very lovely man.

I don't know where the hell the time has gone.

(On that note, where did JUNE just go? I mean srsly)

But I know he's still with me and just as cute, charming and funny as ever.

Happy Anniversary to us :)

(and yes, we still are very proud Canucks fans :))

Some interesting news on the book front:

My novel Darkhouse had a fantastic review from ForeverYoungAdult - I love this website and their review was spot-on and hilarious.

The second novel in the Experiment in Terror Series, Red Fox, has been released. Like Darkhouse, it is available in e-book and paperback form (see bottom).

You can vote for Darkhouse and Red Fox in the Break Out Authors List on GoodReads HERE Darkhouse is currently at #70 (though the number fluctuates daily). Your votes and support are appreciated!

The books have been getting great reviews, so if you're inclined to read a fun, creepy series with interesting and relatable characters, you can pick up the books here:

**E-book editions of Red Fox are available from:**

Smashwords (for Kindle, Nook, Archos, E-Reader, iBooks, etc - Paypal accepted)

Amazon's Kindle Store

AND HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!

Friday, June 03, 2011

Sasquatch VS Lusty - Sasquatch wins

So I went to the Sasquatch Festival at the Gorge Ampitheatre in Washington State last week. Despite its proximity to Vancouver, it was actually my first time there. And what a drive. After leaving Seattle you are whisked away through snowy Snoqualmie pass before being plunked down in the dry, rugged interior:

I went on behalf of Consequence of Sound and got to meet a bunch of my colleagues for the first time (one I've met a few times in San Francisco thanks to my frequent travel to the Bay Area - speaking of, I should probably blog about that since I went again just a few weeks ago). We manned a booth at the festival too, lots of people were apparently stopping by and asking for me (when I wasn't on duty) which is really cool, just, who were you people? Lol. Leave your names!

Anyway, we camped out in general camping which we nicknamed District 9 since it was out in the middle of nowhere and people were running amok with utter lawlessness, eating cat food out of dumpsters and gambling with Nigerian warlords.

Actually it wasn't that bad. The worst part was having the hippies next to us bust out their guitar and steal our camping chairs when we weren't looking. But once I discovered that if we hung out at the front of my car - AWAY from the hippies - we actually had a pretty sweet spot. Sweet enough to make you forget you haven't showered for days and the porta potties were a good 10 minute walk away.

Highlights of my 4 day camping/music festival adventure?

*Drinking beer at 10AM. Hey, people were drinking beer at 830AM, so I was just catching up

*Soaking up sunshine

*How every third person was a Canucks fan. Canucks jerseys, flags, towels, EVERYWHERE. Go Canucks Go chants before every show. So amazing!

*Having media and working passes which meant that we could go in-and-out to the festival (how dumb is it that regular festival goers are not allowed to leave the festival and go back to their camp? Very dumb)

*Foo Fighters, Sam Roberts Band, k-os, Biffy Clyro, Trailer Park Boys, Flaming Lips, Black Mountain, etc (see my music reviews of the festival here)

*Being able to go backstage and visit the Ice Cream Man for free Ben & Jerry's

*Hearing some pretty ridiculous stories from fellow campers such as the naked guy on one hell of an acid trip who was jumping around in the bushes on the walk to the festival, who tried to jump over a fence from TEN FEET AWAY and then was closed in on by 5 stormtrooper like cops who tazed him.
Also, our neighbours lost their fellow camper overnight. She never returned in the morning, didn't have her cell phone on her. They went to the Sherrif's office, the hospital, searched all the campsites for her (yeah that's like 40,000 people or something). She turned up later with a dude called Wild Bill and when her friends freaked on her for making them worry she said, and I quote, "But I facebooked you to let you know I was OK".

*Just hanging out and meeting fellow campers

*The chill vibe and sense of community (now I sound like a hippie)

*Running into random people I hadn't seen for years and having all of them congratulate me on my book

*Having people stop by the CoS booth and compliment us on our music site. So many people rely on our Festival Outlook page to keep ontop of lineups, it was outstanding!

Bad highlights?

*chair-stealing hippies (OK, chair borrowing without asking hippies)

*House-music parties until 2AM + 830AM wakeup calls (ie, you can't sleep in here)

*Arguing with my bf at the quesadilla hut because he forgot to get me one. Finally getting one, then walking down the hill to the mainstage to catch Flogging Molly, slipping somehow (damn you KFAD boots! Angel Dust boots you are not!)

*The fall resulted in a sprained ankle and a bunged up knee

*Missed Modest Mouse because I was in the Medical Tent

*I am sunburned. On my bunged up knee

More Good highlights

*I saw part of Modest Mouse from backstage (thanks to medic tent shuttle)

*I was the most coherent person in the Medical Tent. I had not been drugged, nor did I need to be on a stretcher with an IV hanging out of my arm like everyone else did

*Kind neighbour Dave gave me copious amounts of Wild Turkey during the Flaming Lips to help me deal with the pain. It totally worked

*Bitching with the CoS crew about commentors (we all get haters!)

*All weekend I was just...ME. No author, no music journo (though that's what I was there to do), no email, no twitter, no facebook, no blogs, no marketing, no anything. It was just me, my man, fresh air 24/7, sunshine and music. That was it. Sprained ankle and all, it was the most relaxing weekend I have had in a long, LONG time.

So Sasquatch may have won in our fight. He may have battled me and I may have walked away with a fucked up leg, but the fight was worth it.

More photos: