You know what i just realized I can't stand? Sumac trees. I'm not referring to poison sumac, which is unrelated, but those stupid-ass pseudo-tropical looking trees that grow literally everywhere. they ruin everything, and I just can't say why. They almost seem like they aren't real. Went to the mountains with my girl and we found a really beautiful lookout spot over the Youghiogheny river (the spellcheck for that word suggested I was trying to spell "toughener") and I swear to god the otherwise beautiful view was just about ruined by a large grove of sumac trees right in front of us. It's like, get a job, you ugly trees. Stop growing everywhere. You're dumb.

Anyway, learning the ropes with editing and whatnot. Apparently, the stories gotsta be approved by Ron before I edit. Woops, I guess that actually makes a lot of sense. Learning, dammit, learning! But anyway, still chugging along with my as yet untitled story. I realized that as a writer, I hate having to come up with proper nouns. Don't care about the story title, don't care about the name of the company or the city, don't care about the names of any of the characters. I named the dude "Keith" fer chrissakes. I really hope whoever edits it (well, fingers crossed for approval of course) can fill in the blanks with better stuff. Developing the romance angle, though. Trying to stretch my wings as a writer, which I haven't done in forever.

And of course the never-ending saga of finding new Emotobooks readers on the net. My twitter has become a beautifully bloated beast. Also, enjoy this song. The Boys are among the most underrated first wave punk bands, along with The Urinals.

okay. doing stuff. doing big things.

so right now I've devloped some kind of hodgepodge of story ideas for Grit City-  mostly romance and erotica. we shall see how my writer friends actually pan out with this task. I'm writing my own short story though; the idea is that it's 2081 and financially bankrupt cities, counties, and states are being contracted by Danicorp (I really hope an editor changes that, because I am rubbish at making up names), a giant Walmart-style corporate conglomerate that assumes all responsibility for the local governance and monopoly over local commerce. the protagonist, Keith is disillusioned with his life an a loss-prevention specialist for Danicorp, and joins an anti-corporate underground. real timely and political I guess, but so is every bit of fiction that has ever been written. anyway, talk you you all later, wish me luck with herding my writers.

Hey, blogosphere. (Welcome, Dan, nice to meet you!) Nice to meet you too, blogosphere. (Tell us about yourself!) Well I'm 21, just got outta college, and right now I'm trying to use this space as a way to advertise and talk about a burgeoning publishing company I'm starting to work with called Grit City Publishing. We do a type of Ebook called Emotobook- (What's that?) well, let me finish blogosphere, I'm about to tell you. (Okay, sorry) Well as I was trying to say, the idea is that we take genre fiction in Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy, Romance, Erotica, or anything sufficiently pulpy to get people's attention. We work with a team of committed writers, editors like me, and artists to create a community dedicated to furthering this revolutionary medium of fiction. (Artists? So, you're like comic books? I already have a lot of comic books, I don't see what the big deal is.) Blogosphere, work with me. Please. (Okay, I'm listening.) Thank you. Like I said, Emotobooks are different- instead of illustrating scenes as they take place in the story, our goal is to show expressionistic, abstract artwork that serve to convey the emotions of the story instead of portraying the narrative. Our founder Ron sums it up in the old and often hard to understand literary axiom of "don't say it, show it." (Wait, that sounds kinda cool. How do I get on board?) Well, blogosphere, check us out at our website, where you can buy our singles and serials, or send your own fiction in for approval, if it fits those genre guidelines and is 6-10,000 words per story or installment. (That sounds sweet, I'll check it out.) Well, that's why I'm here.

So happy fourth, folks. Spending the day recovering from my wisdom teeth removal yesterday, reading political screeds an pondering the nature of American existence (What to the Negro is the Fourth of July, by Frederick Douglass. Check it out.), and reading through the first installment of Swing Zone, Grit City, and Lilly Dair. Good stuff- starting out as an editor for GCP, and trying to get a swing of what Emotobooks are all about before I can collect and edit some. I'm actually excited as hell about it; I'm scouring Facebook and the Twittersphere for followers, Sci Fi readers, erotica writers, the whole gamut. In the past day among my bookish friends I've gotten a few proposals for a Sci Fi series and and Erotica story, but knowing my friends, we'll see how they follow up with that. Anyway, my main task at the moment is getting the word out about who we are and what we're doing, so the world of fiction can meet the newest advancement in storytelling. I'm excited for it and think that we can get quite a following off the ground, as long as enough people check us out.